When the real estate, or all the defendants, or all the parties interested, are in the county, the jurisdiction of the County Courts extends to actions of debt, assumpsit and covenant, when the debt or damage claimed are not above $2,000; to actions for injury to the person or trespass upon property where the damages are not above $500; and in replevin suits where the property claimed is not above $1,000. They have equity jurisdiction for the foreclosure of mortgages; for the sale of the real estate of infants; for partition of lands; for admeasurement of dower; for the satisfaction of judgments where above $75 is due on an unsatisfied execution; and for the care and custody of lunatics and habitual drunkards. The Surrogates' Courts have the ordinary jurisdiction of Courts of Probate.

5. Criminal Courts.

These are the Courts of Oyer and Terminer and the Court of Sessions. The Courts of Oyer and Terminer, in each county, except in the city and county of New York, are composed of a justice of the Supreme Court, who presides, the county judge, and the two justices of the peace, chosen members of the Court of Sessions. The presiding justice and any two of the others form a quorum. In the city and county of New York, they are composed of a justice of the Supreme Court, who presides, and any two of the following officers; judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the city and county; the mayor, recorder, and aldermen of said city. These courts are all held at the same time and place at which the Circuit Courts are held. Courts of Sessions are composed of the county judge and the two justices of the peace, designated as members of the Court of Sessions, and are held at the same time and place as the County Courts.

Debt of the State. The total canal debt, on the 30th of September, 1847, was $16,944,815.57; and the annual interest on this debt was $938,001.32. $11,515,897.57 of this debt is at five per cent. interest; $1,781,782, at six per cent.; and $3,647,136, at seven per cent.

There are, besides, the general fund and railroad debts amounting to $5,992,840.82, on which the annual interest is $331,738.09. The state is liable also for $1,713,000 of stock issued on the faith of the state, and lent to railroad corporations. The aggregate debt is $24,734,080.95.

The following is the estimate, made by the comptroller, of the operation of the sinking fund, provided by the new constitution for paying the state debt. See abstract of the constitution, ante, page 244.

[From the Report of the Comptroller of New York, Jan. 9, 1847.]

1. Table showing the Amount required in each year to pay the Principal and Current Interest of the Canal Debt.

2. Table showing the Annual Demands for the discharge of the General Fund

If the canal sinking fund, provided by the constitution, starts with the debt as it stood at the commencement of the fiscal year, on the first of October, 1846, it will pay the canal debt in eighteen years and a quarter, leaving a surplus of $95,000 on the first of January, 1865. But if the debt, which was cancelled on the first of July, is taken into the account, and the interest on the excess, beyond the sinking fund, is computed for the whole period, it will extend the time of paying the canal debt to the 30th of September, 1865, according to the computations which have been made. In 1865, the payment of the canal debt being completed in January of that year, the annual sum of $1,500,000 will be realized for the payment of the general fund debt, and will fully cancel the debt in 1869.

The above is the debt as it stood on the first of June: at the close of the fiscal year it was ascertained that the debt had increased $107,000; this is to to be added, with interest on it, for twenty-two years and a half.

In consequence of the failure of the Hudson railroad company to pay the interest due on $150,000 of state stock lent to that corporation, $150,000 of principal and $135,000 of interest, in all $285,000, above the sinking fund of the company, must be added to the direct debt of the state.

In constructing the preceding tables, it is assumed that the principal of the debt will be paid as it falls due. The sinking funds provided by the constitution, however, are not sufficient to do this; and hence there will be a large accumulation of the aggregate sum required to pay the whole debt, being interest on the deficiency of means to pay the principal as it falls due. The interest on deficiencies in paying the canal debt amounts to the

sum of $2,397,893.50; that of the general fund debt to $2,900,250.40; making the total cost of deferring the debt, $5,298,143.90. During the next twenty-two years and a half, the state must pay, on account of interest for money borrowed, the sum of $17,221,892.93

There has been paid for interest on the canal debt, from 1817, to September 30th, 1846, twenty-nine years,

Add payments of interest on railroad stocks, from 1842

to September 30, 1846,

13,833,566.90

929,770.61

And it makes a total paid and to be paid for interest, of $31,985,230.44

General Fund in 1846.

The whole sum charged for the support of government dur

ing the year ending Sept. 30th, 1846, is Receipts in this year, including the mill tax, and excluding temporary loans, were

Deficit in ordinary receipts to pay expenses,

$1,223,816.90

1,123,341.82

$100,475.08

The gross amount of the sixteenths of a mill tax is $361,309.62. Expenses of collection, $12,007.47; making the net proceeds of the tax, $349,302.15. There has been paid during the fiscal year, for aid to the sheriffs in enforcing the laws in Columbia and Delaware counties, the sum of $109,904.62.

Temporary loans,
Canal fund,

Canals. The annual interest on the cost of the canals ($30,987,335.94) at

Other temporary

expenses,

241,727.87

.

5 per cent., the average paid on the present debt, is

The tolls from the canals for the fiscal year are

$1,704,298.48

2,764,121.10

The net revenue from all the state canals, after deducting

the expenses of collection and superintendence, is

Excess of revenue beyond 5 per cent.,

The canal system has for the last year yielded a net revenue nearly equal

to seven per cent. on the capital expended. For railroads, see ante, page 194.

2,156,496.75

Resources and Liabilities of all the Banks of the State on the 1st day of

*Including seventy free banks, with an aggregate capital of $12,783,198.

Education. The amount of capital and the annual revenue of the several funds appropriated to the purposes of education, are as follows, viz. :

There has also been paid directly from the treasury for the deaf and dumb, $25,192.99; for the blind, $17,575.48; making the whole amount paid in 1846, for purposes of education, $453,970.66.

Property and Taxation.· In the year 1846, 28,126,245 acres of land were taxed. The assessed value of the real estate was $496,483,411, and of the personal estate, $119,880,236, making an aggregate of $616,824,955. The amount of state, county, and town taxes was $3,574,922. Total taxation, $4,647,461.88. The average rate of state, county, and town taxes throughout the state, on $1 valuation, was 7 and 53-100 mills.

VIII. NEW JERSEY.

The territory comprised in this state was included in the patent for large tracts in America, which was granted by Charles II. to his brother, the Duke of York, in 1664; and in the same year the duke conveyed this territory to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret; and it then received the name of New Jersey. In 1665, Philip Carteret was appointed the first governor of the province, which then contained only a few families.