be applied to form a permanent fund for the support
of common schools. In the same year, three thou-
sand shares of bank stock were ordered to be sub-
scribed by the state, and to belong to the school
fund. No part of this fund was to be applied to its
ultimate object, until the interest should amount to
fifty thousand dollars annually.

In 1811, measures were taken to organize and es-
tablish, in active force, a system of schools; such a
system was reported in 1812, and the first distribu-
tion of money under the provisions of 1805, and in
accordance with this system, were made in the year
1816. Besides the avails of the lands, and of the
bank stock, above mentioned, the legislature enacted,
in 1819, that one half the amount to be received from
quit rents; the loans of 1790, and of 1808; the shares
of the capital stock of the Merchant's Bank, held by
the state; the nett proceeds of lands escheating to
the state, in the military tract; and the nett proceeds
of the fees of the clerks of the supreme court, should
all be assigned to this fund. In 1824, a reservation
in certain grants for lotteries, amounting to forty
thousand dollars, was added to the fund. In 1826,
it was enacted, that one hundred thousand dollars
should be annually distributed, by the state, for the
support of common schools; but, as the fund then
produced but eighty-five thousand dollars, the remain-
ing fifteen thousand dollars were paid trom the gene-
ral funds of the state. In 1827, further appropria-
tions, to make up the full amount of one hundred
thousand dollars, were made from the state loans of
1786, and from the bank stock still held by the state.
These two items amounted to one hundred and
thirty-three thousand six hundred and sixteen dollars.

In the same year, the credit of the state was
pledged, in certificates of stock, to a canal company,
(the Hudson and Delaware,) which certificates were
to be sold, and the premiums obtained added to the
school fund; this transaction produced fifty thousand