by the Assembly, to be paid the next year from money to be realized from Massachusetts's payment for her encroachment on the boundaries of Connecticut. Three years later the sum of three hundred pounds was granted from the sale of lands, to be paid in annual installments of forty pounds each, for seven years.2 Lands in the town of Stafford were ordered to be sold by a committee appointed for that purpose, and the proceeds paid to Yale. By an act of October, 1721, it was "provided also that what shall be gained by the impost on rum for two years next coming shall be applied to building of a rector's house at Yale." The duty was fixed by this act at four pence per gallon on all imports of rum. In October, 1727, the income on rum for one year was to be given to Yale. Two years later a grant of eighty pounds annually for two years, 1729-30, was made to Yale in addition to the usual allowance. In 1730 this special annual allowance was increased to one hundred pounds, and this was continued by separate acts of the Assembly until 1741.* In 1732 the largest grant of land for the benefit of Yale was given in the following act: "This Assembly do grant and order that in each of the five new townships lately laid out east of the Ousatunnuck River there shall be laid out in one entire piece, three hundred acres of land * granted and confirmed to the trustees of said college."5 PECULIAR LEGISLATION. As an illustration of the peculiar sense of justice concerning the duties of the State to the college and the towns, the payment of damages by the State for the removal of a rector from a parish stands pre-eminent. Mr. Williams, rector of Newington, was invited in 1726 to become rector at Yale. He accepted the invitation, and the injured people of Newington applied to the trustees of Yale for damages, and these in turn applied to the Legislature. The Legislature granted the sum of one hundred pounds to the people of Newington to reimburse them "for the sum spent in settling him among them." Again, in May, 1740, Yale College was without a rector, and a suitable one was found in Mr. Thomas Clapp, rector of Windham. After his election. the Windham people sent in a plea for three hundred and ten pounds for alleged damages sustained by them in the removal. The matter being referred by the trustees to the General Court, the full amount was ordered paid out of the public treasury." In the October session of 1741 thirty pounds were ordered to be paid annually for three years for the new "tenour" at Yale. A bill for repairs on the rector's house was ordered to be paid out of the public treasury; and it is noticeable that nearly every one of these "acts" in favor of Yale was the result of a memorial of the trustees stating the needy condition of the college and asking for aid. It seems that a grant had been made in 1745 of which no record is to be found at hand, but it was paid in 1751 and 1752 as follows: £116 30s. 6d. were ordered paid in 1751 in lieu of the grant of 1745, and £114 6s. in 1752 in lieu of the same grant, making in all a sum of £231 16s. 6d. The college was further aided in 1751 by the grant of certain bills of credit, amounting to £7,764 17s. 3d., of sundry persons to the president and trustees of Yale for building the "college house." In the following year (1752-53) the usual grant of £100 was increased to £228 10s. THE COLONY'S GENEROSITY TO YALE. Thus, says Palfrey, "the colony continued to be generous to Yale College. The accustomed annual gift of a hundred pounds to that institution was first doubled (October 8, 1735), then tripled (October 8, 1741), then further increased." No change of any importance could be introduced without the formal sanction of the General Court. The time having arrived when a chair in theology became a necessity, the Assembly ordained as follows: "Whereas one principal end proposed in erecting and supporting Yale College, in New Haven, was to supply the churches of this colony with a learned, pious, and orthodox ministry, etc.," they recommend a "subscription for founding a professor of divinity at Yale College." This liberality of the State of Connecticut toward Yale College has extended down to the present century, and is realized at the present time. In 1792, and by supplementary act in 1796, the Assembly granted the sum of forty thousand dollars,' which was followed in 1814 by a grant of twenty thousand dollars, and subsequently, in 1831, by another of seven thousand dollars.3 2 It would be difficult to estimate the amount of assistance thus given by the State of Connecticut to Yale College in money value; nor is it possible to determine the value of the gift of even a small sum at the right time to relieve an institution from embarrassment. But when we consider the great benefit which the other institutions of Connecticut have received from Yale, it is so far in excess of the investments made that these sink into comparative insignificance. SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL. The Sheffield Scientific School was begun in 1847. In the previous year (1846) the corporation of Yale College made provision for instruction in agricultural chemistry and chemistry applied to the arts, and in 1852 a professor of engineering was appointed. These chairs were 2 Ibid., 51. 3 Ibid.,60. 'Dexter: History of Yale, 53. without endowment, and yet the number of students increased, until there were, in 1856, over three hundred and fifty in these departments. A proposed plan for a complete school of science was published in 1856, and this plan was adopted.1 2 In 1860 a convenient building was given by Joseph E. Sheffield, and to this he added a considerable endowment. In recognition of these generous gifts the school was named after Mr. Sheffield, who afterward made still other donations. In 1864 the Connecticut Legislature gave this school the proceeds of the United States land grant of 1862. This grant consisted of one hundred and eighty thousand acres of land scrip, which was sold at seventyfive cents per acre, yielding about $135,000. The interest received in 1874 from invested funds amounted to $6,386.24. This sum was wholly given to scholarships, thus enabling a body of poor young men throughout the State to obtain a scientific education. The State aid was in this instance well applied to a growing institu tion, which by its endowment, government, and achievement ranks high as a scientific school. It was a very wise measure to place the State funds in the form of scholarships, for the tuition is so high as to bar out many who but for this assistance would be deprived of the power to make themselves useful to the State and society at large. Tuition fees are one hundred and fifty dollars, with an additional fee of seventy dollars to special students in chemistry, while a charge of five dollars is made for permission to use the college reading room and gymnasium.3 At the legislative session of 1887, an annual grant of eight thousand dollars was made to the Agricultural Experiment Station åt New Haven.* Twenty-five thousand dollars had been previously spent in fitting up the station. STORRS AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. This institution was founded with a gift of one hundred and seventy acres of land from Mr. Augustus Storrs, and to this donation Mr. Charles Storrs added six thousand dollars. This together with the State bounty has stocked the farm and equipped the school. Only boys whose parents are natives of the State of Connecticut are eligible to membership in the institution. The General Assembly established the school by an act of 1881, and provided for six trustees, who were to have entire control. It was also provided by section five of this act that five thousand dollars should be paid annually for three years toward the support of the school. 1 Plan for Scientific School, 1856, 1. 2 Programme of the Sheffield Scientific School, 1873-74, 15. Charles D. Hine, Secretary State Board of Education. Letter of July 30, 1888. At the session of the Legislature in 1887 an appropriation of eight thousand dollars per annum was granted the Storrs Agricultural School.1 SUMMARY OF GRANTS. Harvard Scholarship, £20 per annum, (to Harvard) 1653–1700 Grant by the town of New Haven, 1718.. Tax on rum, one penny per gallon. Grant of £80 per annum for two years, 1729-30 £2, 160 £2,300 £700 £750 £500 £160 £1,100 £410 £90 Appropriation Sheffield Scientific School, (U. S. giant) 1862 ...... $135,000 $8,000 In its settlement and early history Rhode Island differs in many respects from the other New England Colonies, and these differences are observed in the development of the principal institutions of the State. The Massachusetts Colonies were composed of a homogeneous people, with definite religious beliefs and definite civil organizations. There was a positive belief in religion and politics, and men were forced to conform to established tenets and laws or their presence was not welcomed at the colonies. The Connecticut colonies were direct off 1 Charles D. Hine, Secretary State Board of Education. Letter of July 30, 1888. 2 One pound of lawful money currency of the colonies averaged about three and one-third dollars in money of the present denomination, although its purchasing power was much greater than this amount in present currency. shoots of the Massachusetts colonies, and adopted similar policies in all matters pertaining to the control of the social organism. But Rhode Island, founded by a dissenter from these views, adopted a liberal policy in religion and government. All persons, of whatsover creed, were welcomed to the new colony, and there sprang up, as a consequence, various beliefs in regard to government and religion. Whatever may be said about the motives entertained by the colonists of New England for settling in this new land, it must ever be held as a first principle that religion was the great organizer; and wherever it was strongest the government was soonest organized and most exact in its execution. As compared with Massachusetts, the institutions of Rhode Island were slow in developing. Nowhere is the contrast more observable than in the matter of public education. The schools of Rhode Island fell almost a hundred years behind the progress of those of the adjacent colonies. THE COLONIAL SCHOOLS OF RHODE ISLAND. The colonial schools of Rhode Island were supported entirely by towns or by private enterprise. The central government considered it no part of its legitimate function to look after the general education. The first school was held at Newport in 1640, by Rev. Robert Lenthal, who had left Massachusetts on account of certain ecclesiastical troubles, “and August 20, Mr. Lenthal was, by vote, called to keep a public school for the learning of youth; and for his encouragement there was granted to him and his heirs one hundred acres of land, and four more for an house lot; it was also voted 'that one hundred acres should be laid forth and appropriated for a school, for encouragement of the poorer sort to train up their youth in learning, and Mr. Robert Lenthal, while he continues to teach school, is to have the benefit thereof.' But this gentleman did not tarry very long; I find him gone to England the next year but one." 1 This school was maintained from year to year at Newport by various teachers, who were paid a salary by the town. At one time the salary was fixed at two pounds; but as all the school lands were rented for the small sum of eight pounds, or less than one shilling an acre,' the salary is larger than would at first be supposed, though small enough at its highest estimate. The first step toward higher education was taken on October 4, 1710. As quoted by Mr. Stockwell, the record reads as follows: "The petition of Mr. Gallaway, for the liberty of teaching of a latin school in the two little rooms in the school-house of this town, is hereby granted." In 1763 the town voted to sell a portion of its school lands, and 1 Stockwell: History of Public Education in Rhode Island, 5. Quoted from Callender's Discourse, Elton's edition, 116. * Stockwell, 6. |