Although frontier conditions obtained, there were evidences of their gradual amelioration. A law of 1823 provided that counterfeiting, which, in the territorial period, had been punishable by death, should be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, whipping with not fewer than one hundred nor more than two hundred lashes, imprisonment for not more than twelve months, and being rendered forever infamous.(380) The state established a system of common schools to be supported, in part, by the state, in 1825; but in 1829 the sections of the act which provided that two per cent of all money received into the state treasury, and five-sixths of the interest of the school fund, should be for the support of public schools, were repealed,(381) taxation for such a purpose not being then in accord with public sentiment. A mechanic’s lien law, passed in 1825, provided that in case of a contract between a landowner and a mechanic, the mechanic should have a lien upon the product of his labor for three months, after which the lien lapsed unless suit had been commenced. Three years later an unsuccessful attempt to secure such a law was made in New York.(382) Two accounts on the records of the state are of sufficient interest to give at length. The first gives the amount of money received into the treasury during the two years ending December 27, 1822: “The amount paid into the treasury by the different sheriffs within the two years ending as aforesaid, is $ 7,121.09 The amount of a judgment obtained against the former sheriff of Randolph [County] for non-resident tax of 1818, is 147.14 The amount from non-residents for the two preceding years, including back taxes, redemptions, interest, &c., is 38,437.75 The amount from non-residents’ bank stock, is 97.77 The amount from the Saline on the Ohio, is 10,563.09 The amount from the Saline on Muddy river, is 200.00 The amount from the sale of Lots in the town of Vandalia, is 5659.86 Total amount of money paid at the Treasury between the 1st of January, 1821, and the 27th of December, 1822, $62,226.70” The balance in the treasury was $33,661.11, but Governor Edwards, in his message of December 2, 1828, reported a state indebtedness of $44,140.03 and taxes in Illinois as precisely eight times as high as those in Kentucky which were payable in the same kind of currency.(383) The rage for internal improvements was partly responsible, and for this in turn the wide dispersion of the settlements in Illinois, caused by the fact that all public lands were offered at the same minimum price and that the prairies were in large measure shunned, furnishes a partial explanation.