Apportionment to Academies from the Literature and Other Funds. Grants to Academies to aid them in Purchasing Books and Apparatus. Expenditures by the State for the Maintenance of Teachers' Classes in the Academies under Summary of Expenditures by the State for Educational Purposes. THE STATE LIBRARY OF NEW YORK. State libraries have become in many States valuable aids to higher education. Though this branch of the subject has not been exhaustively treated, a short sketch of the State Library at Albany, kindly furnished by Hon. David Murray, of that city, will be sufficient to illustrate what may be done toward advanced learning by this means. The State Library of New York was established by an act1 of the Legislature passed in 1818. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, the Chancellor of the Court of Chancery, and the Chief Justice of the Su Chap. 45, Laws of 1818, 1 preme Court were constituted a board of trustees. The Secretary of State, the Attorney-General, and the Comptroller were added to the board of trustees 1 in 1824. By an act 2 passed in 1844 the regents of the university were created the trustees of the library, and since that time it has remained in their charge. It was at first kept in rooms in the old capitol building, but in 1854 it was transferred to a building erected for it at a cost of $94,900. This building was required to be taken down to make way for the new capitol. The library has been finally, in 1889, removed to its permanent and beautiful quarters on the western front of the capitol. At first the library was mainly a collection of law books. In 1844, when it was transferred to the care of the regents, it was estimated to contain ten thousand volumes, of which three hundred are reported as missing. The Warden collection, containing two thousand two hundred volumes of miscellaneous works, was purchased in 1846 for four thousand dollars. The two largest collections which have been given to the library are the publications.of the commissioner of British patents, amounting now (1889) to more than 4,340 volumes, and the library of the late Hon. Harmanus Bleecker, of Albany, numbering about two thousand volumes. According to the report of the library, September 30, 1888, it contained 138,191 volumes, of which 41,231 volumes belonged to the law department and 96,960 volumes to the department of miscellaneous literature. We give below the amounts appropriated by the State for the purchase of books and the maintenance of the library from its origin to the present time, arranged in periods of ten years: During the occupation of Pennsylvania by the Swedes, and subsequently by the Dutch, until the English occupation, there was but little exercise of the duties of a State, owing to the diffusion of the small number of settlers. Yet from the condition of affairs in the mother 1 Chap. 239, Laws of 1824. 2 Chap. 255, Laws of 1844. countries, Sweden and Holland, and from the instructions and privileges contained in the first charters, we may determine the attitude of these colonists toward education, and may infer what would have been the result had they remained in power. EDUCATION AMONG THE SWEDES. In Sweden the church was a state institution, and the state had intrusted to its care the education of youth, and, through the agency of the church, free schools were established throughout the kingdom. That such a policy was to be continued to the colonists is indicated by the privileges granted to the new colony by the Queen in 1640. Among other things concerning social improvement it is enjoined that "The patrons of this colony shall be obliged to support at all times as many ministers and school-masters as the number of inhabitants shall seem to require, and to choose, moreover, for this purpose persons who have at heart the conversion of the pagan inhabitants to Christianity."1 EDUCATION AMONG THE DUTCH. The Dutch colonists in Pennsylvania, as in New York, were tireless in their efforts to establish schools for their children, yet the means for accomplishing the desired end were meagre, indeed. The duties of minister and school-master were often combined, and churches were frequently used in place of school-houses. In all probability there was not a school-house with a regularly organized school in existence among the Pennsylvania colonists until after the territory passed into the hands of the English. Nevertheless, all available means were used to promote education, and the sentiments were there, awaiting more favorable circumstances for their full expression. In the Charter of Privileges granted to the "lords and patroons" of New Netherlands in 1630 to 1635, it is provided in section 28 that "the patroons shall also particularly exert themselves to find speedy means to maintain a clergyman and schoolmaster, etc.," and in the articles and conditions to emigrants published by the Chamber at Amsterdam, section 8 says that "each householder and inhabitant shall bear such tax and public charge as shall hereafter be considered proper for the maintenance of comforters of the sick, schoolmasters, and such like necessary officers." 193 Later than this, in the conditions offered to the settlers in the colony of New Castle on the Delaware in 1656, a "house for a school" was authorized, and they obligated to "pay the salary of a minister and schoolmaster." 4 Hazard: Annals of Pennsylvania, 53. Quoted by Wickersham, Education in Pennsylvania, 8. Ibid., 9. J These citations are sufficient to show the importance attached to education at this early period, and to indicate that the church and education were considered together. The Dutch and Swedes continued their private schools long after the accession of the English to the province. PENN'S CHARTER. The Charter and Frame of Government. granted by William Penn seemed to promise more vigorous measures in regard to education; especially as it was placed under the control of the Assembly. Yet the Assembly was slow to give any direct support to education. The twelfth article of the Frame of Government grants: "That the governor and provincial council shall erect and order all public schools and encourage and reward the authors of useful sciences and laudable inventions in the said province."1 Although there is much in this for the encouragement of public edu cation, there is no provision for its support. The General Assembly interpreted it accordingly, and in the second General Assembly, convened in 1683, a general law was passed making it obligatory for parents and guardians to educate the children in their charge. But the first school established by the Provincial Council was opened in the same year by Mr. Enoch Flower as a legally established private school. The act passed on the 26th of October, 1683, is as follows: "The Governor and Provincial Council having taken into their serious consideration the great necessity there is of a School Master for ye instruction & Sober Education of youth in the towne of Philadelphia, sent for Enoch Flower an inhabitant of the said town who for twenty year past hath been exercised in that care and employment in England, to whom having communicated their minds, he embraced it upon the following terms: to learn to read English 4s by the Quarter, to learn to read and write 6s by the Quarter; to learn to read & write and cast accounts 8s by the Quarter; for boarding a scholar that is to say diet, washing, lodging and schooling ten pounds for one whole year."3 By William Penn's instruction a public grammar school was opened in 1689, and formally chartered in 1697.4 This was a school of high order, in which the classical languages were taught, and corresponded to the New England grammar school of the early period. It was not "free" in the modern sense, but open to all persons, and granted special privileges to the poor. This is said to be the origin of the famous "Friends' Public School," which was chartered in 1697, rechartered in 1701, and again in 1711. In the petition for this school, directed to the Governor and Council, 1 Colonial Records, I, 26, introduction. Chap. 112, Duke of York's Laws, p. 142. 3 Col. Rec. I, 36. 4 * Ibid., 499. countries, Sweden and Holland, and from the instructions and privileges contained in the first charters, we may determine the attitude of these colonists toward education, and may infer what would have been the result had they remained in power. EDUCATION AMONG THE SWEDES. In Sweden the church was a state institution, and the state had intrusted to its care the education of youth, and, through the agency of the church, free schools were established throughout the kingdom. That such a policy was to be continued to the colonists is indicated by the privileges granted to the new colony by the Queen in 1640. Among other things concerning social improvement it is enjoined that "The patrons of this colony shall be obliged to support at all times as many ministers and school-masters as the number of inhabitants shall seem to require, and to choose, moreover, for this purpose persons who have at heart the conversion of the pagan inhabitants to Christianity."" EDUCATION AMONG THE DUTCH. The Dutch colonists in Pennsylvania, as in New York, were tireless in their efforts to establish schools for their children, yet the means for accomplishing the desired end were meagre, indeed. The duties of minister and school-master were often combined, and churches were frequently used in place of school-houses. In all probability there was not a school-house with a regularly organized school in existence among the Pennsylvania colonists until after the territory passed into the hands of the English. Nevertheless, all available means were used to promote education, and the sentiments were there, awaiting more favorable circumstances for their full expression. In the Charter of Privileges granted to the "lords and patroons" of New Netherlands in 1630 to 1635, it is provided in section 28 that "the patroons shall also particularly exert themselves to find speedy means to maintain a clergyman and schoolmaster, etc.,"2 and in the articles and conditions to emigrants published by the Chamber at Amsterdam, section 8 says that "each householder and inhabitant shall bear such tax and public charge as shall hereafter be considered proper for the maintenance of comforters of the sick, schoolmasters, and such like necessary officers."3 Later than this, in the conditions offered to the settlers in the colony of New Castle on the Delaware in 1656, a "house for a school" was authorized, and they obligated to "pay the salary of a minister and schoolmaster."4 Hazard: Anuals of Pennsylvania, 53. Quoted by Wickersham, Education in Pennsylvania, 8. Ibid. |