And the following in October, 1742:

AN ACT relating to and for the better regulating schools of learning. Whereas by sundry acts and laws of this assembly they have founded, erected, endowed, and provided for the maintenance of a college at New Haven, and inferior schools of learning in every town or parish for the education and instruction of the youth of this colony, which have (by the blessing of God) been very serviceable to promote useful learning and Christian knowledge, and more especially to train up a learned orthodox ministry for the supply of our churches, and inasmuch as the wellordering of such public schools is of great importance to the public weal, this assembly, by one act entitled "An act for the encouragement and better improvement of town schools," did order and provide that the civil authority and selectmen in every town should be visitors to inspect the state of such schools, and to inquire into the qualifications of the masters of them, and the proficiency of the children, to give such directions as they shall think needful to render such schools more serviceable to increase that knowledge, civility, and religion which is designed in the erecting of them. And in case those visitors shall apprehend that any such schools are so ordered as not to be likely to attain those good ends proposed, they shall lay the state thereof before this assembly, who shall give such orders thereupon as they shall think proper, as by the said act may more fully appear; and whereas the erecting of any other schools which are not under the establishment and inspection aforesaid may tend to train up youth in ill principles and practices, and introduce such disorders as may be of fatal consequences to the public peace and weal of this colony; which to prevent,

Be it enacted, That no particular persons whatsoever shall presume of themselves to erect, establish, set up, keep, or maintain any college, seminary of learning, or any public school whatsoever, for the instruction of young persons, other than such as are erected and established, or allowed by the laws of this colony, without special license or liberty first had and obtained of this assembly. And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person shall presume to act as master, tutor, teacher, or instructor in any unlawful school or seminary of learning, erected as aforesaid, he shall suffer the penalty of £5, lawful money, per month, for every month he shall continue to act as aforesaid, and every grand jury within any county where such school or seminary of learning is erected shall make presentment of all breaches of this act to the next assistant justice of the peace or county court. And be it further enacted, &c., That the civil authority and selectmen in each town, or the major part of them, shall inspect and visit all such unlawful schools or seminaries of learning erected as aforesaid, and shall proceed with all such scholars, students, or residents in such school, and all such as harbor, board, or entertain them, ccording to the laws of this colony respecting transient persons or inmates resiu.ng in any town without the approbation of the selectmen. And be it further enacted, &c., That if any student or resident in such school shall pretend that he is bound as by indenture an apprentice to learn any manual art or trade, and the said civil authority or selectmen shall suspect that such indenture was given only as a color to reside in said town contrary to law, that then it shall be in the power of the said civil authority or selectmen to examine all such parties to such indenture under oath, in all such questions which they shall think proper, relating to the true intention of such indenture and their practice thereon; and if it shall appear to the said authority or selectmen, or the major part of them, that such indenture was given upon a fraudulent design, as aforesaid, that then such authority shall proceed as if no such indenture had been made. And be it further enacted, &c., That no person that has not been educated or graduated in Yale College, or Harvard College in Cambridge, or some other allowed foreign Protestant college or university, shall take the benefit of the laws of this government respecting the settlement and support of ministers. Always provided, That nothing in this act be construed to forbid or prevent any society, allowed by law in this colony, to keep a school, by a major

vote in such society, to order more parish schools than one to be kept therein, and appoint the school or schools to be kept in more places than one in such society. This act to continue in force for four years.

The Revised Statutes of 1750 contained an act relative to schools which Dr. Barnard thus summarizes:

1. Every town where there is but 1 ecclesiastical society, and having 70 householders and upward, and every ecclesiastical society having that number of families, shall maintain at least 1 good school for eleven months in the year, by a master sufficiently and suitably qualified.

2. Every town and society with less than 70 families shall maintain a school and schoolmaster for one-half of each year.

3. Every head county town shall maintain a grammar school, to be steadily kept by "some discreet person of good conversation, well skilled in and acquainted with the learned languages, especially Greek and Latin."

4. In the encouragement and maintenance of these schools the treasurer of the colony shall deliver annually the sum of 40s. upon every £1,000 in the lists of each town, or the same shall be paid into the treasury to the school committee of the town or parish, or for want of such committee to the selectmen, to be by them applied for the benefit of schools in the said town or parish; provided the schools have been kept for the year previous according to law.

5. The local school funds created out of the avails of the sale of the 7 western townships, according to the act of 1733, and distributed among the several towns and societies, are to remain a perpetual fund for the support of schools, and for any application of the interest to other purposes the principal was to be paid back into the treasury of the colony, and the town was to lose the benefit thereof afterwards.

6. In the case of any deficiency in the means of supporting a school according to law, derived from the general tax or local funds, the sum required shall be made up, one-half by a tax on the property of the town or society, and the other half by a tuition or rate bill, to be paid by the parents or guardians of the children at school, unless the town or society agree on some other mode.

7. The majority of the legal voters of every town and society are clothed with full power to lay taxes and make all lawful agreements for the support and management of the school.

8. The civil authority and selectmen are constituted inspectors or visitors, and directed to visit and inspect all schools established under this act at least once a quarter, and inquire particularly into the quali fications of the masters, the proficiency of the pupils, and give such directions as they judge needful to render such schools most serviceable for the increase of knowledge, religion, and good manners. They were also instructed to report to the general assembly any disorders or misapplication of public moneys.

9. The selectmen of each town, when there was but one ecclesiastical society, and a committee for each society when there were more than

one, are empowered to manage all lands and funds belonging to the town or society for the benefit of schools.

Interest in the cause of education embraced the poor Indian. The earliest legislation in the colony respecting the subject is the following, found in the Connecticut code of 1650:

This court, judging it necessary that some means should be used to convey the light and knowledge of God and of His word to the Indians and natives among us, do order that one of the teaching elders of the churches in this jurisdiction, with the help of Thomas Stanton, shall be desired, twice at least in every year, to go amongst the neighboring Indians and endeavor to make known to them the counsels of the Lord, and thereby to draw and stir them up to direct and order all their ways and conversations according to the rule of His word; and Mr. Governor and Mr. Deputy, and the other magistrates are desired to take care to see the thing attended, and with their own presence, so far as may be convenient, encourage the same. In 1654 the court

being earnestly desirous to promote and further, what lies in them, a work of that nature, wherein the glory of God and the everlasting wellfare of those poor, lost, naked sons of Adam is so deeply concerned, do order, that Thomas Mynor, of Pequot, shall be wrote unto from this court and desired that he would forthwith send his son, John Mynor, to Hartford, where this court will provide for his maintenance and schooling, to the end he may be for the present assistant to such elders or others as this court shall appoint to interpret the things of God to them as he shall be directed, and in the mean time fit himself to be instrumental in that way, as God shall fit and incline him thereto for the future.

In 1727 all masters and mistresses of Indian children were ordered to teach them to read English, and also to instruct them in the principles of the Christian faith. Numerous voluntary efforts to educate and convert the savages are on record. The most notable of these was the effort inaugurated by Rev. Mr. Wheelock at Lebanon, in 1764, to educate native teachers and preachers. This school, removed to Hanover, N. H., 1770, became Dartmouth College.

Many other documents of a similar character could be transcribed. These, however, will amply suffice to show the extraordinary amount of educational activity that there was in the commonwealth within the period covered, at least so far as such activity can be measured by legislative records. However, a change for the worse came in with the second half of the eighteenth century.

Originally in Connecticut, as in the other New England States, the town and the parish or church society were coextensive. The town was the civil side and the church the ecclesiastical side of the same community. The town was incorporated and was the ultimate unit of political organization. But some of the towns were so large that, as the outer parts became occupied and population increased in numbers, many people found themselves at an inconvenient distance from the place of worship. To meet this emergency towns were sometimes divided, but more commonly new church societies or parishes, for religious purposes only, were established within the limits of the old incorporated towns. In a State where religion and education were so closely

drawn together, the creation of new churches involved the establishment of new schools supported by the public funds. In 1766 towns and societies were authorized—

To divide themselves into proper and necessary districts for keeping their schools, and to alter and regulate the same, from time to time, as they shall have occasion; which districts shall draw their equal proportion of all public monies belonging to such towns and societies according to the list of each respective district therein.

"By the practical operation of this act," says Dr. Barnard, "the school system of Connecticut, instead of embracing schools of different grades, was gradually narrowed down to a single district school, taught by one teacher in the summer and a different teacher in the winter, for children of all ages and in every variety of study residing within certain territorial limits."

In 1794 school districts were authorized, by a vote of two-thirds of all qualified voters, passed at a meeting called for that purpose, to lay a tax to build a schoolhouse, and to locate the same, and to choose a collector. An act passed in 1795 authorized "all the inhabitants living within the limits of the located societies, who by law have or may have a right to vote in town meetings," to meet in the month of October annually and organize themselves into societies conformably to law, "and transact any other business on the subject of schooling in general, and touching the moneys hereby appropriated to their use in particular according to law."

An act passed in 1798 substituted for the town-"the old recognized agency, through which the regularly settled and approved inhabitants first commenced the system of common schools and had for a century and a half maintained a teacher for a period in each year in no case less than six months, and in a majority of instances for eleven months”—a new corporate body, first provided for in 1795, and known after 1798 as a school society, "with territorial limits sometimes coextensive with a town, in some cases embracing part of a town, and in other parts of two or more towns." "For a time," says Dr. Barnard, "the effect of this change was not apparent, but coupled with a change in the mode of supporting schools, provided for about this time by public funds, and dispensing with the obligation of raising money by tax, the results were disastrous." Virtually it was the substitution of what is now known as the district system for the town system, or the township system, as would be said in the West. Each society appointed a suitable number of persons, not exceeding 9, to be overseers or visitors of schools, with power to examine and certificate teachers, and in general to manage the schools.

The Latin or Grammar schools now ceased to be obligatory, but every school society might, by a vote of two-thirds of the inhabitants present in any legally held meeting, establish a high school for the common benefit of all the inhabitants, "the object of which shall be to perfect the youth admitted therein in reading and penmanship, to

instruct them in the rudiments of English grammar, in composition, in arithmetic and geography, or, on particular desire, in the Latin and Greek languages, also in the first principles of religion and morality, and in general to form them for usefulness and happiness in the various relations of social life."

In 1799 the powers of the school districts were more clearly defined, and at the same time the school societies were given larger powers over them. The character of the school society is more closely indicated by the following code and regulations for the schools in Farmington, adopted in 1796. It now appears that the society was neither a town nor a parish, but an independent political unit existing for an educational purpose.

Voted the following regulations for schools in the first society of Farmington:

1. There shall be appointed in the meeting of the school society a suitable number, not exceeding nine, of discrete persons of competent skill in letters and science, to the overseers of all the schools in said society, during the pleasure of the society, and to exercise the powers and perform the duties hereinafter described, which overseers shall meet the first Monday of October, November, and December annually, and oftener if they think proper.

2. The district committee in the several school districts shall in no case contract with any person to keep a school within any such district without the consent and approbation of the overseers, or a major part of them, in a regular meeting of the said overseers first had or obtained.

3. The overseers will take care that no persons be employed as schoolmasters in the society except such as have a thorough acquaintance with the best mode of instructing children in spelling and reading the English language, in the principles of English grammar, and in a good handwriting, and who are persons of reputation and good moral character.

4. It is expected that the overseers will introduce into schools, besides Webster's Institute in all its parts, as great a variety of reading, both in prose and verse, as the circumstances of the people will admit; among these Dwight's Geography, by question and answer, for its cheapness and simplicity, would be highly proper as an easy introduction to that branch of science; and common newspapers would be of great use; also see that the Bible is statedly read by those forms who are capable of it, at least as the closing exercise in the afternoon, and with marks of reverence and respect as the word of God, and that the master of the respective schools close the whole at night with prayer.

5. It shall be the duty of the overseers, at least two of them together, to visit all the schools in the society quarterly or oftener, if they think proper, to take notice of the proficiency of the scholars, and to excite in them a laudable emulation; and they will from time to time give such general or special rules or directions, not inconsistent with these regulations, as they shall think proper, with regard to the mode of instructing and governing the schools, so as best to improve the children in letters, in morals, and in manners; and if they judge fit they may, at the expense of the society, distribute small premiums of trifling value to such as they shall find, by their own observations or by information of the masters, to excel in either of the aforesaid respects, or to enable the master himself to do it, as they shall think best; and the said overseers will, at their discretion, from time to time, appoint public exercises for such of the children in the several schools as may have made the best proficiency either in reading, spelling, speaking, rehearsing, composing, or such like exercises, either in the schools separately or in a general meeting, and confer on such as most deserve it some honorary mark of distinction.