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Life of Thomas Eddy

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dent, is made directly amenable to public opinion,as well as to the law, in being required to presentto the legislature annually, in the month of January,a report containing:— A statement of the condition of the commonschools in the state. Estimates and accounts of expenditures of theschool moneys. Plans for the improvement and managementof the common school fund, and for the better organi-zation of the common schools. All such matters relating to his office, and tothe common schools, as he shall deem expedient to communicate. The collection of documents already issued underthis requisition, contains a most useful and instruc-tive mass of facts, which ought to be in the handsof every state legislator in the union. It may beobserved, that the police of the general system is notapplied in the city of New-York, where, instead ofcommissioners of towns and trustees of the schools,chosen by the people, the disbursements of the publicmoney is entrusted to a company, called the PublicSchool Society. The reason or necessity of this dif-ference of organization has never, to our knowledge,been made evident. In 1832, the number of academies had risen tofifty-nine, and the number of pupils was four thou-sand eight hundred and eighty-eight, or seventy-one toeach academy. In addition to the means for support-ing common schools, the state has another extensivefund, called the literature fund, under the manage-ment of the Regents of the University, to whichone hundred and fifty thousand dollars was addedin 1827, the income of which was required to be dis-tributed to the several incorporated academies and seminaries, in proportion to their numbers of pupils.It is gratifying to observe, that a liberal spirit hasbeen manifested in furnishing to these institutions