The nett revenue derived from salt duties by the state, from 1817 to 1831 inclusive, is about $1,400, 000. other muriates. According to Dr. Salisbury, the lower spring, the first discovered, yielded to a pint of water, sulphurated hydrogen, 3 cubic inches, carbonate of lime 1 grain, sulphate of lime For a particular account of these springs, and 16 grs, muriate of magnesia, 5.8 grs, sulphate of those of Cayuga county, see our article SALT, Vol. magnesia, 1.75 grs, muriate of soda, 3.28 grs. A XVI. p. 556-558. recent minute analysis of both these waters lately instituted by Professor J. W. Francis of New York, has not evinced that either contains iodine in combination. Their low temperature also deserves to be noticed. The value of these waters has within the past two or three years induced many visitors to partake of them. They may be ranked among the most powerful and remedial waters yet made known; but like all other medicinal agents of a similar character, they are capable of abuse, and in certain states of the system, may prove injurious. Possessing active emetic and cathartic properties, particularly the waters of the spring last discovered, it is requisite that caution be exercised, not to indulge in them too freely at first; and as they are more or less exciting, they also demand that previous to beginning their use, the system should, in many cases at least, be first relieved by the employment of some efficient cathartic. In disorders of the digestive organs, arising from torpor of the prime vitæ, hepatic obstructions and affections of the glandular system, in rheumatism and gout, and in many of the most formidable of cutaneous affections, these waters have secured the confidence of those who had previously suffered to the severest degree from those maladies. In pulmonary disorders, their administration is to be regulated by the nicest precepts of the healing art, inasmuch as these waters are eminently calculated to produce powerful changes on the system, by their active operation. According to Professor Francis, who has for several years recommended these wa ters, they have proved available in several of the severest cases of rheumatic gout, and in some affections of the urinary organs. After the use of these waters for but a few days, the appetite is greatly improved, and the general health, now invigorated, receives the impress and partakes of all the advantages of increased physical energy and mental vigour. When internally taken, these waters prove cathartic, diuretic, diaphoretic and tonic. When used for bathing, at the temperature of 95° or 98°, they act as a most salutary detersive in cutaneous complaints. Onondaga Salt Springs. These springs are situated in the town of Salina, Onondaga county, and are the property of the state. The salt is manufactured at four different villages viz: Salina, Syracuse, Geddes and Liverpool, but much the larger quantity is made at Salina; the state receives from the manufacturers a duty of 12 cents per bushel for the benefit of the canal fund. Quantity inspected in 1826, 827,508 bushels. EDUCATION.-Though not the first among the states of the confederacy to introduce the system of universal education, New York may, with some truth, be said to have surpassed all the other states, in the liberality, as well as the sound policy of her provisions for its maintenance. She has happily taken the due mean between relying wholly upon taxation on the one hand, and upon accumulated funds on the other, for the support of schools throughout her community. She has avoided the error of applying all her legislation to a single class of institu tions; thus showing a spirit above the petty jealousy that would annihilate the higher, and a sense and patriotism that imperatively forbade her to neglect the lower seminaries of learning. We do not find colleges and universities multiplied till one actually devours another, while the mass of the community is without even the ordinary rudiments of knowledge; nor do we perceive, on the contrary, the avenues to classical attainments so hedged about by the expensiveness, the useless requisitions and the forbidding ceremonials which might appal the youth whose treasures were only of the mind, from attempting to gain the station in society for which his natural endowments had qualified him. There does not appear any ostentatious display of extravagance in her expenditures for education,nor any of that niggardly parsimony which would compel the people to buy a cheap commodity of learning, sure at the same time that it must be a poor one. She has not hesitated, while prosecuting the most magnificent schemes for improving the value of her physical resources, to devise and execute plans far more magnificent for the development of her intellectual treasures. It has not been the spirit of her measures to consign a whole generation now existing to brutish ignorance, in order that the next might riot on its earnings, and sink in the same manner into oblivion, without having been provided with means of any rational enlargement of the most ennobling faculties. She has not been terrified by the fear that the coming age, which is to be the heir of her noble heritage of knowledge, freedom and moral power, should be compelled to pay out of its immense resources, a few of the millions by which that heritage was originally obtained. She has perceived it to be sound policy to incur a debt, when the transaction is sure to multiply a hundred fold the power of repaying it. The system of internal improvements, instead of absorbing and annihilating those very resources which are wanted to sustain public spirit and intelligence, by means of education, is, in New York, made to minister directly and effectually to that object, and thus to react in producing again the foresight and discernment which were alone requisite to understand the utility of those improvements, even before they had an exis tence. Origin of the System. The foundation of a system of common schools was laid in this state nearly forty years ago. The first act to that effect was passed April 9, 1795, appropriating out of the annual revenues of the state, twenty thousand pounds annually for five years, for the purpose of encouraging and maintaining schools in the several cities and towns in the state. The several counties were required to raise a sum equal to one half of that appropriated to each by the state. At the expiration of this law in 1800, the legislature refused to renew it; but in 1805, impelled, probably, by a sense of the deprivation under which the state laboured, in being again thrown back upon voluntary individual or local efforts, the legislature passed an act, providing that the nett proceeds of five hundred thousand acres of vacant and unappropriated public lands should be applied to form a permanent fund for the support of common schools. In the same year, three thousand shares of bank stock were ordered to be subscribed 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 establish in active force a system of schools; such a system was reported in 1812, and the first distribution 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 remaining fifteen thousand dollars were paid from the general funds of the state. In 1827 further appropriations, to make up the full amount of one hundred thousand dollars, were made from the state loan 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 dollars; and finally, a large number of town lots at Oswego, amounting to ninety-one thousand three hundred and forty-nine dollars, were sold in the same year, and the proceeds, together with all the sums obtained from the above-mentioned sources, swelled the productive capital at the beginning of 1828 to one million six hundred and thirty thouVOL. XVIII.-PART II. sand eight hundred and ninety-five dollars. The constitution of the state provides that the proceeds of all lands which shall be hereafter sold or disposed of shall belong to the fund for the support of common schools. In 1830 these lands consisted of eight hundred and sixty-nine thousand, one hundred and seventy-eight acres, estimated at half a million of dollars, which, added to the productive capital, makes two millions one hundred and thirty thousand, eight hundred and twenty-five dollars. Besides the general fund of the state, there are likewise several local funds arising out of certain reserved lands in the respective counties. More than eighty towns are stated to parti cipate in the benefit of these funds, amounting to the sum of about seventeen thousand dollars annually. But Progress of the System. The first distribution of public moneys out of the fund was made, as we have said, in 1816, and not till then can the system be said to have gone into actual operation. An estimate may be formed of the influence of this system by comparing the state of things before the funds became available with that which has existed since. In sixteen counties in which the state of schools was reported in 1798, the number of schools was then one thousand three hundred and fifty-two, and of scholars fifty-nine thousand six hundred and sixty. In the same counties, in 1828, the number of school districts established was two thousand five hundred and eighty-six, and of scholars attending them, one hundred and forty-two thousand three hundred and seventy-two. Even this comparison falls far short of exhibiting the actual increase of schools and of pupils throughout the state, for in 1798 there were in all but twenty-three counties organized, and therefore only seven which did not report. in 1828, there were fifty-five counties, divided into seven hundred and forty-two towns and wards, and eight thousand two hundred and ninety-eight school districts, containing four hundred and forty-one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six children. It is true, there are other causes besides the inherent efficacy of the system, which should be regarded in accounting for the rapid increase of schools and pupils. The new counties formed subsequently to 1798, were settled chiefly by emigrants from NewEngland, who brought with them, as an essential part of their existence, a habit of regarding universal education in common public schools, as among the primary objects for which laws are to be enacted. And when the system had been once established, it is easy to see that its operation upon the minds of new companies of such emigrants, must be to determine them to select the state which had made this munificent provision for that, which they consider as one of the first wants of their nature, to be their permanent abode; in preference to another, where no such allurement was held out, whatever might otherwise be the physical superiority of the latter. Thus we see, that the system of common schools has reacted, in turn, in favour of popula tion, and consequently in favour of wealth and of power, physical, moral and political. 4 T A Comparative View of the Returns of Common to be one million and eighty thousand dollars, and Schools, from 1816 to 1832, inclusive. 1816 338 2755 2631 $55,720 98 140106 176449 4 to 15 1817 355 3713 2873 64,834 88 170385 198440 6 to 7 1818 374 32643228 73,235 42 183253 218969 5 to 6 1819 402 4614 3844 93,010 54 210316 235871 8 to 9 1820 515 5763 5118 117,151 07 271877 302703 9 to 10 1821 545 6332 5489 146,418 08 304559 317633 24 to 25 1822 611 6659 5382 157,195 04 332977 339258 42 to 43 1823 649 7051 6255 173,420 60 351173 357029 44 to 45 1824 6567382 6705 182,820 25 377034 373208 94 to 93 1825 6987642 6876 182,741 61 402940 383500|101 to 96| 1826 700 7773 7117 182,790 09 425586395586|100 to 93) 1827 721 81147550 185,720 46431601411256 21 to 20 1828 742 8298 7806 222,995 77 441856419216 96 to 91 1829 757 8609 8164 232,343 21 468205 449113 47 to 45 1830 773 8872 8292 214,840 14 480041 468257 48 to 47 1831 785 9063 8631 238,641 36 499424497503 50 to 49 1832 793 9339 8841 244,998 85 507105 509967 1 to 1 The above table exhibits only the amount of money paid out of the funds, and so much as the authority of the state imposes on the towns, to be raised by them, in consideration of their receiving those funds, which is an equal sum. The several school districts have besides the authority to levy a certain proportional sum, about double, it is believed, of that derived from the fund. But this, which makes in all four times the amount distributed from the fund, does not show the total expenditure on this noble object of legislative provision. proving that the application of one hundred thousand dollars out of the fund, induces them to raise voluntarily more than nine times the same amount for the same object. Police of the System. This exists in the hands of one superintendent of common schools, who is likewise the secretary of the commonwealth; fiftyfive clerks of counties; the commissioners of about seven hundred and ninety towns, and the trustees of nine thousand school districts. These several agents are in regular subordination to each other, and, in succession, receive and distribute the funds appropriated by the state for the support of schools. The highest officer, the superintendent, is made directly amenable to public opinion, as well as to the law, in being required to present to the legislature annually, in the month of January, a report containing: "1. A statement of the condition of the common schools of the state. "2. Estimates and accounts of expenditures of the school moneys. 3. Plans for the improvement and management of the common school fund, and for the better organization of the common schools. 4. All such matters relating to his office, and to the common schools, as he shall deem expedient to communicate." The collection of documents already issued under this requisition, contains a most useful and instructive mass of facts, which ought to be in the hands of every state legislator in the union. It may be observed, that the police of the general system is not applied in the city of New York, where, instead of commissioners of towns and trustees of the schools, chosen by the people, the disbursement of the public money is entrusted to a company, called the "Public School Society." The reason or necessity of this difference of organization has never, to our knowledge, been made evident. Under article "Education in the United States," will be found a view of the colleges and a statement of the number of academies in New York, to which the reader is referred. It was estimated at the beginning of the present year (1832), that in the nine thousand and fifty-four districts where schools are supported, that two hundred dollars each are invested, on an average, in school-houses. This gives a total of one million eight In 1832 the number of academies had risen to hundred and ten thousand eight hundred dollars, fifty-nine, and the number of pupils was four thouwhich, together with one hundred and seventy thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, or seventysand dollars invested in the same way in the city of New York, gives a total of one million nine hundred and eighty thousand dollars, vested in school houses, which, at an interest of six per cent per annum, would be $118,848 Annual expense of books for 506,887, at 50 cents each, Fuel for 9054 schools, at $10 each Amount of public money for teachers' wages, Amount paid for teachers' wages, besides public money, 253,443 90,540 one to each academy. In addition to the means for supporting common schools, the state has another extensive fund, called the literature fund, under the management of the "Regents of the University," to which one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was added in 1827, the income of which was required to be distributed to the several incorporated academies and seminaries in proportion to their numbers of pupils. It is gratifying to observe, that a liberal 244,886 spirit has been manifested in furnishing to these institutions various means and implements for cultivating the natural sciences, and that some of them have already become useful to science by their application of these means. We may refer particularly to the numerous sets of meteorological observations occasionally published by the Regents," 372,692 1,080,409 showing the present annual expenditure of the citizens of this state, for the support of common schools, 66 * The returns of the last three years embrace the number of children over five and under sixteen years of age. and which are all made at the academies under their charge. The money appropriated to these institutions, has been thus applied with a view of converting them into nurseries of teachers for the common schools. As the latter are generally taught but a part of the year, that is, on an average, not more than eight months, and as the teachers will generally be otherwise engaged for a portion of their time, and will not be permanently devoted to the business, it is highly important that the greatest possible number of intelligent men should be found in every precinct, capable of understanding the duties, if not of performing the labours, of teachers. In a community thus fully supplied with intelligent members, and impressed with the value of thorough instruction, dulness and mediocrity will seldom find encourage. ment to usurp the office and responsibility of guiding the intellectual pursuits of the young; while the agents entrusted with the execution of the laws on education will hesitate before they "lay careless hands on skulls that cannot teach, and will not learn." CANALS.-In our article NAVIGATION INLAND, Vol. XIV. p. 345 to 373, we have given a full account of the commencement and progress of those great state works, the Erie and Champlain canals: since the publication of that article, these canals have been completed, and are now in successful operation, realizing all the advantages which were anticipated by their projectors; 280 miles of the Erie canal were completed, and the first boat entered the Hudson at Albany, from the north and west, through this canal, on the 8th of October 1823, and the whole line was completed in October 1825. The length from Lake Erie to the Hudson river is 363 miles, viz. Rise and fall 186 ft. 21 locks. The cost of this canal was $1,179,871 95, and the tolls in 1830, $78,148 63; in 1831, $102,896 23. The Oswego canal connects Lake Ontario with the Erie canal; the length from Salina to Oswego is thirty-eight miles. One half the distance is canal, and one-half slack water, or river navigation, with a towing path on the bank; the descent from Salina to Lake Ontario is 123 feet, and has 14 locks. The cost of this canal was $525,115 37. Tolls in 1830, $12,335 18, in 1831, 16,271 10. The Cayuga and Seneca canal from Geneva on the Seneca lake, to Montezuma on the Erie canal, is twenty miles and forty-four chains. One-half canal and one-half slack water navigation; there are eleven locks, and the descent is 734 feet. Whole cost $214,000 31. Tolls in 1830, $11, 987 81. In 1831, $12,920 39. For a more detailed account of these and other canals of this state, we refer to our article UNITED STATES, pp. 275 and 276 of this volume, and for a comparative monthly statement of tolls, see page 280. See also tables XIV. and XVI. pp. 270, 271, for ascents and descents. LAKES AND RIVERS. The principal lakes of New York are Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Champlain, and Lake George. The three first of these lakes have been all described under CANADA, Vol. V. p. 233, 234. Lake George, connected with Lake Champlain, is wholly within this state. It is about thirty-five miles long, and from one to three broad, and is deep and transparent, abounding with fish. Its outlet into Lake Champlain is only three miles, with a descent of 100 feet. The principal rivers are the Mohawk, the Saranac, the Oswegatche, the Racket, the St. Regis, the Black River, Genesee River, and Onondaga River. The last of these rivers, and the streams connected with it, present a curious combination of lakes and rivers. The lakes which it forms are Oneida, 22 miles long and 5 or 6 broad. Canandaigua, 16 miles long and 1 broad. Crooked Lake, 20 miles long and 1 broad. Cayuga Lake, 36 miles long and 2 broad, and Owasco Lake, 11 miles long and 1 broad. These lakes, except Oneida, lie in a north and south direction. They are very picturesque, and, from being navigable and well stored with fish, are of great importance. MANUFACTURES.-The manufactures of this state are numerous and flourishing; they include a large portion of all the necessaries, and many of the luxu ries of civilized life. But of all subjects of statistical inquiry, this is the most difficult to arrive at any thing like a correct estimate, the elements being so widely scattered. By the state census of 1825, the number of manufactories were as follows:Woollen manufactures Cotton Cotton and Woollen factories Fulling Mills Grist Mills Oil Mills Iron Works Trip Hammers Distilleries Asheries 189 76 28 1584 1222 2264 5195 121 170 164 1129 2105 $2,918,233 and there had been manufactured in private families the preceding year 2,918,233 yards fulled cloth, valued at $1 per yard 3,468,001 yards flannel and other woollen cloths not fulled at 20 cts. per yd. 8,079,992 yards linen, cotton and other cloths, at 15 cents per yard 693,600 1,211,998 $4,823,831 Hats do. do. do. Boots and shoes, deducting leather Value of articles manufactured in families, as before stated, but no doubt greatly increased in amount since 1825 3,458,650 3,500,000 4,823,831 Total $24,950,121 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.-It has been observed, that the City of New York has, for above a century and a-half, maintained its relative population with that of the state, at about one-tenth. I have heard the posi tion contended for, that as the widely spread and abundant interior resources were developed, that comparatively, the city must decline; and similar calculations have been made in regard to Philadelphia. In both cases events have disproved such estimates; and when the true causes of progressive increase of population are examined, we are fully justified in predicting, that the inhabitants of these two emporia will continue to rather exceed than fall short of one-tenth of their respective states. The state of New York contains above twentynine million statute acres, and at this time (August By an examination of this table, it will be found, that in the decimal period between 1820 and 1830, the state of New York gained upwards of 39 per cent, and that during the same period the city has increased a small fraction more than 634 per cent. No human mind would have dared a prediction of such increments in either case, and yet in all human probability the now passing period will more than realize an equal increase. If, however, we adopt twenty-five years as necessary to double the population of New York, setting out from 1830, the result will be, In 1845 2,937,216 inhabitants 1895 11,748,864 66 The actual ratio from 1790 to 1830, or during 40 years, was 5.64, which, if continued to 1870, or through the next forty years, would give the state 10,820,949. This latter estimate is far most probable to be realized, and before a century closes on the history of the American revolution, there is little doubt but that New York will sustain a population exceeding ten millions. [In preparing this Article, we have been indebted for the account of Mineral Springs to Professor J. W. Francis, of New York; and for the article on Education, to Professor W. R. Johnson, of Philadelphia. W. Darby has, as usual, furnished the Geographical matter.-For much valuable statistical information relative to this important state, see Williams's New York Annual Register, a work eminently deserving of encouragement.-EDITOR.] CITY OF NEW YORK. YORK, NEW, the chief city of the state of New York, and the most populous and commercial town in the United States. It is situate on York Island, at the confluence of Hudson and East rivers, in Lat. 40° 42′ 45" N. and 74° 4' W. Long. from Greenwich: or 3° 14' 15" E. from the city of Washington. The island is essentially primitive, and consists mainly of one formation, gneis. It is about fourteen and a-half miles long from N. to S., and varying in breadth from half a mile to nearly two miles, comprehending about twenty-one and a-half square miles. The limits of the city and county are the same, and the only legal sub-divisions are the wards, at present fifteen in number. It is se parated on the north from the continental part of the state by Hærlaem river; from New Jersey on the west by the river Hudson; from Staten Island on the south by the bay or harbour; and by the East river from Long Island. The city of New York was originally settled by the Dutch, in 1614, and its progress has been, since the revolutionary war, rapid beyond precedent, in numbers, wealth, commerce and improvements. According to the researches of a writert on American antiquities, Henry Hudson arrived at the Island of Manhatten (York Island), called by the natives Manhadoes on the 4th of September 1609, then occupied by a ferocious tribe of Indians; he There are a large number of small establishments, employed in custom work, not included in the above estimate. John Pintard, L.L.D. |