agriculture, providing that the
Bible shall be read and singing taught, especially 'divine psalmody,'
one eighth part, or twelve and a half per cent of the whole revenue of
the general estate, to be paid until it shall amount to three millions
of dollars, when it shall cease. This sum, too, as it accrues, is to be
invested in real estate, until the whole amount of three millions is
received. One sixth of the rents from this investment is to be applied
to the purchase of the School-Farm, the other five sixths to be invested
in lots in Baltimore, which shall be leased out and the rents applied to
the support of the farm.
The modes in which these various institutions are to be governed and
directed are then set forth in tedious detail, interlarded with many
rather trite and moralizing reflections on the importance of having the
young reared up in habits of virtue and industry. A complex system of
government is arranged, and great care taken that the funds thus
bequeathed to charitable institutions shall never be controlled by the
corporations of the two cities. It is also provided, that
'No compromise shall ever take place between the Mayor, Aldermen,
and inhabitants of the city of Baltimore, in Maryland, and the
Mayor, Aldermen, and inhabitants of the city of New-Orleans, nor
shall any agreements be made between these two cities contrary to
the directions of the will. If such compromise or agreement be
made, these legacies shall be void, and the States of Maryland and
Louisiana shall receive the general estate half and half, for the
purpose of educating the poor of said States, and in case of any
lapse of the legacies to the cities, the States shall inherit the
general estate.'
After these dispositions and directions, the testator proceeds:
'Now, with the view of setting forth and explaining more fully and
particularly (if it is possible) my desires and intentions as
expressed in the foregoing dispositions of this my last will and
testament, in relation to my general estate, I will add, that the
first, principal, and chief object I have at heart, (the object
which has actuated and filled my soul from early boyhood with a
desire to acquire fortune,) is the education of the poor (without
the cost of a cent to them) in the cities of New-Orleans and
Baltimore, and their respective suburbs, in such a manner that
every po
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