management of the village almshouse and confer with other towns
upon such questions as often arise concerning the settlement and
maintenance of homeless paupers.

[Sidenote: Public schools.]
Every town has its school committee. In 1647 the legislature of
Massachusetts enacted a law with the following preamble: "It being
one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the
knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an
unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of
tongues, that so at least the true sense and meaning of the original
might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of deceivers; to the
end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers,
in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavours;" it was
therefore ordered that every township containing fifty families or
householders should forthwith set up a school in which children might
be taught to read and write, and that every township containing one
hundred families or householders should set up a school in which
boys might be fitted for entering Harvard College. Even before this
statute, several towns, as for instance Roxbury and Dedham, had begun
to appropriate money for free schools; and these were the beginnings
of a system of public education which has come to be adopted
throughout the United States.

[Sidenote: School committees.]
The school committee exercises powers of such a character as to make
it a body of great importance. The term of service of the members is
three years, one third being chosen annually. The number of members
must therefore be some multiple of three. The slow change in the
membership of the board insures that a large proportion of the members