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propriation to fifteen thousand dollars. It also provided for the publication of scientific papers, and the remaining unpublished volumes of the Natural History of the State, directing funds to be appropriated annually for five years to these purposes. The removal of the Museum to the State Hall has only been partly effected. The delay in the completion of the new capitol has interfered with the removal of the State officers, and the additions to the number of officers and boards begin to make it doubtful if the State Hall can ever be vacated.

An institution like the State Museum furnishes a strong support for higher scientific education.

ACADEMIES.

The acadamies of New York, although now properly classified as institutions of secondary instruction, have borne such intimate relations to higher education in the past that they should not be passed by unnoticed. Here, as elsewhere, we are confronted with the indefinite terms of "academies" and "seminaries of learning," embracing, as they do, historically all grades of instruction from that of an ordinary grammar school to that of a moderate collegiate course. But as the appropriations have largely been made on the returns of classical education the system of academic education is entitled to our attention to that extent.

After the reorganization of the school laws, at the close of the Rev. olutionary War, the newly constituted board of regents, in 1787, provided for the establishment of two academies, those of Clinton at East Hampton and Erasmus Hall at Flatbush. These were reported in 1788 as being in a flourishing condition. Subsequently others were added to the list of newly incorporated academies, until in 1792 there were ten of these academies. They had received but meagre support from their land endowments, and it was not until 1792 that the first direct appropriation of moneys was made by the Legislature for the support of academies, and a provision made for its distribution among the academies of the State by the board of regents.

The act of April 11, 1792, that provided for a donation to Columbia College, also appropriated the sum of one thousand five hundred pounds ($3,750) annually for a term of five years, to be distributed at the discretion of the regents among the several academies of the State."

These funds were appropriated at first according to the number of pupils in attendance at the respective schools. Finally in 1818 a rule was adopted distributing the funds according to the number of students studying the classics or the higher branches of learning, reserving onefifth of the entire amount for special distribution to over-needy institutions according as the regents might deem proper. This policy was pursued until the revised statutes of 1829 provided that the money should

1 Hist. Rec., 444.

2 Chapter 79, Laws of 1782.

be equally divided among the eight senatorial districts of the State, and distributed as before. This remained a law until the adoption of the new Constitution in 1846, which provided for a return to the old method.

There was no well-organized plan for determining the basis of apportionment until 1866, when examinations were instituted, certificates issued, and reports to the regents made accordingly. In 1870 the answer papers of these examinations were made returnable at the office of the regents, and were there subject to review and revision. The law of 1873 provides, among other things, that "no money shall be paid to any school under the control of a religious or denominational sect or society."1

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The academies, under the protection of wise laws, increased rapidly in number and efficiency. In 1820 there were forty-eight academies to which charters had been granted, although only thirty reported for the apportionment. Besides the regular distribution of funds by the regents, amounting in the aggregate to about two millions of dollars, the Legislature has made at least sixty special grants of land and money for the benefit of academies. It is impossible within the scope of this work to give the specific grants of land or enter into the details of the separate acts of the Legislature. At least fifty thousand dollars have been granted from time to time to academies in need of immediate assistance, while it is difficult to estimate the money value of the numerous special land grants that have been made by the Legislature.

The amount of appropriation varied from year to year until 1830; then it was uniform till 1834, being ten thousand dollars annually. From 1835 to 1838 it was twelve thousand dollars per annum, and from 1839 to 1887 it has been forty thousand dollars per annum. By an act passed in 1887 the sum of sixty thousand dollars was added to the annual appropriation to academies, making the total appropriation from that time at the rate of one hundred thousand dollars annually. Of this amount twelve thousand dollars is taken from the income of the Literature Fund and twenty-eight thousand dollars from the United States Deposit Fund, and sixty thousand dollars from the General Fund.

The State also has appropriated three thousand dollars annually from 1835 to 1883, and six thousand dollars annually since 1884 to be granted by the regents to the academies under their visi tation for the purchase of books and apparatus, on the condition that the academies should raise an equal sum from sources independent of their school property. From the excess of applications over the sum appropriated the regents have limited the applications to one hundred and fifty dollars each, and restricted them to alternate years.

The regents also have promoted the maintenance of classes in the academies under their visitation for instruction of common school

1Laws of 1873, sec. 7, p. 997.

teachers. This system was begun in 1834, and the appropriations sustaining it were derived from the United States Deposit Fund. The sum now appropriated is thirty thousand dollars annually, but the part of this sum actually paid out by the regents depends on the amount of service rendered. The academies are paid one dollar for the instruction of each scholar for each week. The classes are limited to twentyfive members, and continue from ten to thirteen weeks. An inspector is employed, who spends his whole time in visiting and caring for these classes. He is paid from the fund appropriated by the Legislature for the support of these classes.

The total amount of money distributed by the board of regents for academies from 1793 to 1884, inclusive, has been $1,996,738.18, and to 1888 at least $2,156,738.18.

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

The act of the Legislature of 1787 created a board of regents, whose specific duties were to care for Columbia College, and to incorporate and supervise such other colleges and academies as they might think proper. However, they were soon at the head of the entire educational department, and were advocating the establishment of a system of common schools, academies, and colleges. It was finally considered that the regents had to supervise only higher education, and to support literary and scientific institutions.

The University of the State of New York is far from being a fiction, although the regents have not chartered all of the educational institutions of the State or entered into the internal supervision of the colleges and academies belonging to the University; nevertheless, by general superintendence and especially by the control of incorporation they have added unity and strength to the schools of the State. Perhaps their greatest service has been in fixing the standard of requirements for incorporating colleges and academies, and bringing academies to a higher grade, by making the appropriations depend either upon the number of pupils, or the number of students pursuing classical studies and the higher branches of learning, and determining the latter by an examination test.

Early in the history of the board of regents, academies and colleges were not granted charters unless a certain amount of property had been secured and there were good indications that the proposed institutions would receive sufficient support.

RULES FOR INCORPORATION.

"It was resolved on March 23, 1801, that in future no academy ought to be incorporated unless it appeared to the satisfaction of the regents that a proper building for the purpose had been erected, finished, and 880-No. 1-10

paid for, and that funds had been obtained and well secured, producing an annual net income of one hundred dollars." By a resolution of March 15, 1815, the sum required for investment was raised so as to yield two hundred and fifty dollars per annum. On March 25, 1834, the regents ordered that a building and lot free of any incumbrance and an established school after an approved method be added to the requirements for a charter. By an act of April 17, 1838,2 it was provided that any academy owning a building, library, and apparatus worth two thousand five hundred dollars, might be subject to the visitation of the regents.

The settled policy of the regents in regard to the incorporation of colleges was published in a report of a committee in 1811, which affirmed "that no college ought to be established until suitable buildings have been provided and a fund created consisting of a capital of at least fifty thousand dollars, yielding an income of three thousand five hundred dollars." 2

In 1836 the amount of the required endowment was increased to one hundred thousand dollars, with buildings, grounds, etc., worth thirty thousand dollars, the endowment to be made previous to the granting of the charter, and the whole sum of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars secured before the regents would appoint a president. The above restrictions, though seemingly arbitrary, have doubtless raised the character of institutions, while they have suppressed many attempts to found colleges and academies which must have eventually ended in disaster if not thus early thwarted by the law. When we consider the great number of educational institutions that have been called into existence in the United States without proper means of support, that eke out a miserable existence and finally perish for want of proper direction and support, it will be at once seen that the board of regents of New York have rendered a service to the State in these wise provisions.

The legislature by special acts could modify the rulings of the board of regents, as in the case of the granting of the charter to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City with a required endow ment of fifty thousand dollars.

The great work of the University of the State of New York has been enlarged until the regents have under visitation (1889) 301 academies.* There are also under inspection twenty-seven colleges of arts and sciences for men (or men and women), five colleges of arts for women, eighteen medical colleges, and six law schools, making the immense system subject to State control, although the majority of colleges and universities have been granted such extended powers as to be practically independent in their government.

'Hist. Rec., 409.

2 Statutes of 1838, 226.

3 Hist. Rec., 94.

4102d Annual Report of the Regents of the University, 1889.

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University of the City of New York: Grants in money, 1838-43.

Elmira Female College: Grants in money, 1867 and 1886...

Fairfield Medical College:

Grant from land sales, 1812..

Grants in money, 1820-25...

Ingham University: Grant in money, 1861...
University of Rochester: Grant in money, 1857..
College of Physicians and Surgeons: By lotteries..
Albany Medical College..

Genesee College: Grants in May, 1854-56

Cornell University.

Total appropriations to colleges....

Academies:

Amount to academies by the Regents, 1793-1884
Amount by special acts of Legislature, about..
Amount from special grants....

25, 250

358, 111

50,000

40,000

30,000

120,000

63,000

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Total appropriations to academies....

Total appropriations to State Museum, over.

2,046, 738. 18 225,000.00

The report of 18862 shows the following appropriations of the State for

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'Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1886.

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