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ing school-houses; and other matters in reference to the operations and effects of the common school system; and where there is no other officer whose duty it is, the superintendent also distributes the money arising from the state funds among the several counties, apportioning it according to the number of inhabitants, or the number of children in each. He reports annually to the legislature the information he has collected, and suggests such improvements as he thinks ought to be made.

§ 10. There is in each county an officer who receives from the state superintendent the money apportioned to his county, and apportions the same among the several towns of the county. He also reports to the state superintendent the number of children in the county; and performs such other duties as the law requires. In some states there is no connty school officer. Returns are made from the town officers directly to the state officers, from whom moneys are drawn by the town officers.

§ 11. In the towns there are officers to visit schools, examine teachers, apportion money among the districts, &c., and to take lists of the number of children in each district, and report the same to the county officer. In some states there is a county board of examiners.

EXERCISES.

§ 1. What are the general advantages of education 2. What provision ought to be made for educational purposes? Is such provision made in the states generally? §3. To what extent? Define fund. Define revenue. § 4. How are school funds constituted? How are they disposed of or invested? Are they sufficient to support the schools? What provision is made in this state for this

pose?

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§ 5. How have schools in certain new states been provided for?

§ 6. From what particular source were the means of education increased in 1837? Can you tell from what source, chiefly, the general government derived this surplus revenue?

§ 7. According to what rule is the public money appor

tioned ?

§ 8. Into what divisions is a town made? Why are schools usually called common schools? What officers are elected in districts? Are they the same in this state?

§ 9. What is the highest school officer of the state called? Mention his general duties? Is there a state superintendent in this state?

§ 10. Are there in this state any county school officers? § 11. What duties relating to schools are performed by officers in towns?

CHAPTER XXII.

Support of the Poor; Idiots and Lunatics, &c.

§ 1. It is the duty of every government to provide for the support of persons who, by misfortune or otherwise, have been reduced to a state of poverty, and who are unable to support themselves. Such provision has been made in this country, and to such extent, that poor persons are not compelled to beg for the means of support.

§ 2. There are in every town one or more overseers of the poor, whose special duty it is, when applied to for the relief of poor and indigent persons, to provide for their support. If such persons have a legal settlement in the town, they are supported at the expense of the town. In some states, the poor are removed from the towns in which they belong, to the poor house, in such counties as have a poor house, to be there supported; the expense of their support being charged to the towns from which they were received. Persons who are properly county paupers, are supported at the expense of the county.

§ 3. Not every person who is unable to maintain himself is supported at the public expense. If a poor person has near relatives, they must support him. In the state of New York, such person must be supported by his father, if he has a father who is able; if not, his children must support

him; and if he has no children, or none who are able, then the mother. If neither of such relatives alone is able to support the poor person, such relative must pay a part of the expense; or any two or more of them may be made to pay the whole or a part of the expense of maintaing such poor person, according to their ability. Such, it is presumed, is substantially the law in other states.

§ 4. When relatives neglect or refuse to relieve and maintain their poor friends as required by law, the overseers of the poor may apply to the judges of the county court, or to such other officers as the law may designate, for an order to compel such relief.

§ 5. Provision has also been made for that most unfortunate class of persons, idiots and lunatics. An idiot is one that is born destitute of common sense, usually called a natural fool. Idiots who are poor, may be provided for as other paupers are. A lunatic, or an insane person, is one who has possessed his reason, but has been suddenly deprived of it. It was formerly supposed that this disease was produced by the influence of the moon. Hence it is called lunacy, from luna, the Latin word for moon.

§ 6. Persons, lunatic or insane, are, or may be, removed to a Lunatic Asylum, where they are to receive medical and other treatment for their disease. If a person is found to be incurable, he is discharged and otherwise provided for. If he is not a pauper, his property may be placed in the care of a guardian, who is to see that it is properly applied to the. maintenance of the person and his family. If he recovers his reason, his property is restored to him. If he is a pauper, the expense of his support at the Asylum is paid by the town or county to which he belongs.

§ 7. Institutions of this kind have been established in many of the states. Their establishment has been dictated by genuine, enlightened philanthropy. From the published reports of these institutions, it appears that they have been eminently useful. A large proportion of those who have been received into them have been either entirely cured or greatly benefited. The Asylum buildings are erected at the expense of the state; and the affairs of the institution are managed by persons appointed for that purpose.

§ 8. Another class of unfortunate persons for whose benefit the public bounty has been bestowed, are the deaf and dumb and the blind. Institutions for the instruction of such persons have been established in some states, and are sustained in part, at least, by appropriations from the state treasury. Among the most celebrated institutions of this kind in the United States, are those in the city of Hartford in the state of Connecticut, and in the city of New York. Many persons of both the descriptions above mentioned, have come from these institutions with high attainments in some of the more useful branches of education.

EXERCISES.

§ 1. What are the principal causes of poverty? Is poverty more frequently caused by misfortune? or by idleness and and vice?

§ 2. By whom, and how, are poor persons provided for? § 3. Mention the order in which the relatives of a poor person become liable for his support.

§ 4. How may relief be compelled?

§ 5. Who are idiots? How are they provided for? § 6. Who are lunatics? How are they treated?

§ 7. Is there such an institution in this state?

8. Are deaf and dumb persons capable of learning? Do you know any thing of the manner in which they are taught? Can you imagine how a blind pupil learns to read?

CHAPTER XXIII.

Highways and Bridges; Fences; Strays; Pounds, &c.

§ 1. Highways and bridges are under the care and supervision of town officers, whose powers and duties relating to laying out and repairing highways have been described in a preceding chapter. (See Town Officers.) When money is wanted to build a bridge, the expense of which is too g:cat

to be borne by the inhabitants of the road district in which such bridge is to be built, the inhabitants of the town assembled in town-meeting, may order the money to be raised by a tax upon the taxable inhabitants of the town.

§ 2. If damage is sustained by any person, his team, or his carriage, in consequence of any material deficiency in a highway or bridge, either the town, or the officers of the town who have the care of highways and bridges, are liable for damage to the person injured. If the defective road or bridge is owned by an incorporated company, the company is liable.

§3. Fences. The laws of each state determine what shall be deemed a good and sufficient fence, and prescribe such other rules and regulations concerning fences as may be necessary, except so far as the inhabitants of the several towns are authorized by law to make their own regulations. The laws of the different states are not uniform on this subject. The provisions contained in the following sections, however, will, it is believed, be found to exist in the states generally.

§ 4. Each owner of adjoining lands must make and maintain a just proportion of the division-fence between them, unless one of them shall choose to let his land lie open or unoccupied; but if he shall afterwards enclose and occupy it, he must refund to the other a just proportion of the value of the fence, or build his proportion. Either party wishing to remove his part of a division-fence, and lay his fields open to common, must give to the other notice, a specified time previous to the removal, that he intends to remove such fence.

§ 5. If a person does not keep a lawful fence, he cannot recover payment for damages done by beasts lawfully running in the adjoining field. If either party neglects to keep his part of a division-fence in good repair, he is liable to pay for the damage the other shall sustain in consequence of such neglect. If a person has land adjoining a highway, he can not recover damage done by cattle lawfully running on such highway, unless his fence be a good and sufficient fence. But where there is no positive law on the subject, the owner of land is not obliged to fence against cattle in the highways;

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