UC-NRLF 37b sir 35 w* '"tSSi^" ' 1W r REESE LIBRARY _-n_n_iv UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Deceived ^Hz/lsLsV > ^ ( ^- ^Accessions No.G>3fo$ . Class No. SPECIAL REPORT ON THE PRESENT STATE OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES, AND ON COMPULSORY INSTRUCTION. BY VICTOR M. RICE, SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. ALBANY: VAN BENTHUYSEN & SONS, PRINTERS. 1867. y ^ /- (.tJNI-VERSITY ^L^f E F A. C E The neglect of public officers to collect and preserve books and documents relating to schools has rendered the compilation of facts and statistics, showing the provisions made in different States to educate the people, a task slow and difficult. This is especially true of our State. Until the organization of the Department of Public Instruction, not even the annual reports of the Superin- tendent were saved and kept upon the official shelves. If reports were received from other States of this Union, or from foreign countries, care was not taken to preserve them. None certainly were in the office when this Department was organized in 1854. From 1821 to 1854, the school department was merged in the office of the Secretary of State, and the decision of appeals, the replies by letter to a multi(q. bers flocked to the army, as volunteers, their places were supplied by capable women. The usual, and, in most of the States, increased appropriations, have been made for the support of the schools. There has been everywhere a disposition to improve them, to remove every obstruction which shuts out from them any child of school age, to make them free. Thus the rising genera- tion is being prepared to bear with comparative ease the burden of taxation which the war will impose upon it, and to sustain the pillars of the Republic should the attempt to overthrow them be repeated. EDUCATION IN THE LATE SLAVE STATES. Prior to the war the Slave States had made attempts to establish plans for popular education, but with results of an unsatisfactory character. In Virginia a school system was in force for the education of the children of indigent white persons. In North Carolina a large school fund, exceeding two millions of dollars, had been set apart for the maintenance of schools. In all of these States common schools had been introduced, but they did not flourish as in the North and West. There were many obstacles to encounter and surmount. The territory was not divided into townships, as in the North- ern and Western States, and the district system, therefore, could not be conveniently applied. There was not the same population of small and independent farmers, whose families could be united into a school district. The land was held in large plantations, generally, and the great proprietors did not favor schools. They could hire tutors and governesses for their children, and were slow to be persuaded that it was their duty and interest to educate the children of their poor neighbors. A more serious obstacle was the slave population, constituting one-third of the whole, and in some of the States more than half, whom it was thought dangerous to educate. In Virginia and 24 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF other States it was a criminal offense to teach the negro slaves to read and write. A system of common schools, from which one-third of the people were excluded, was an experiment never before tried in any other country. The war that was brought on by the pretence that slavery was not sufficiently protected by the Constitution and laws of the Union, has put an end to the institution, and it will never be known what might have been the result. During the war the schools in the rebellious States were nearly all suspended. It will be seen, by a reference to the Appendix, that the latest school returns from those States come down to 1860. In Maryland, which was comparatively free from the alarms and disasters of war, a new system of popular instruction was adopted in 1865, providing amply by taxation for the support of schools. A notable and fatal defect is the want of any provision for the building of school-houses. No part of the State tax is applicable to this purpose, and no power is given to the districts by the law to impose taxes for this or any other object. The negroes, who number at least 80,000 persons in the State, are totally excluded from the schools, while no provision is made for separate schools for their benefit. The very class most in need, whose ignorance and poverty should commend them to care and consideration, is utterly neglected. It is past comprehension that in this age a body of men, legislating for a State, should think the welfare of their commonwealth could be promoted by the enforced ignorance of one-fifth of its entire population: The stupid folly of such legislation is of a piece with the injustice of taxing the negroes for the benefit of the white children. In Kentucky the common schools have not been wholly discon- tinued during the war. In some parts of that State they were interrupted and disorganized. The school system is a good one, and will in time be efficient. The Legislature in 1865 passed a law setting apart all taxes assessed upon negroes, for two purposes : one-half for the support of their paupers, and the other half for the education of their children. The other States have not yet sufficiently recovered from the exhaustion of the war to do more than look after the means of subsistence. It is confidently believed that when the people of the former slave States shall have fully and decidedly accepted the new order PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 25 of things, and given up all idea of the restoration of slavery in any form, they will make provision for general education, without unjustly excluding from the schools those for whom schools are most needed ; and that, instead of denying instruction to these poor people, they will be led by the dictates of good policy _and of a prudent economy to provide the means for their education as speedily as possible. EDUCATION IN EUROPE. The German States originally included in the kingdom of Prus- sia were among those which, after the reformation, established that form of religion styled Lutheranism. They all adopted the Bible as their rule of faith ; and hence followed the necessity of teaching all classes how to read it. The clergy very naturally resorted to the only penalty which they had power to impose. The rite of confirmation was administered by them. A rule that rejected all candidates not able to read the Bible and recite the catechism had the effect to constrain parents to provide the neces- sary instruction. The clergy generally felt themselves under a moral and religious obligation to maintain schools and supply teachers, or to become themselves the instructors. The good effects of education could not escape the observation of a man like Frederick the Great. In 1763 he issued a decree which made education the duty and business of the State. Another decree imposed upon Silesia, a province which he had wrested from Austria, and which had a Roman Catholic population, his system of public schools, modified to suit their condition. But the decrees of Frederick and the laws of Prussia did not make education gratuitous. For more than one hundred years the government had proclaimed in its edicts that the first duty of every parish was to educate its young. But it left the work to the charity of individuals and the voluntary exertions of generous men. Many neglected their duty. There was a want of school- houses, a want of school teachers, a want of steady and regular support, a want of general interest, a want of supervision. After the disaster of Jena, the Prussian statesmen, Stein and Scharnhorst, undertook to resuscitate their country, and appealed to the people, proffering them freedom and free instruction. The serfs were accordingly enfranchised, and the schools became public institu. tions. Other German States followed this example. But education [Assem. No. 237.] 4 26 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF was not made gratuitous until 1848, when the republican insur- gents made the demand, which was granted, that the schools should be free to all and supported by general tax, without any charge for tuition. If we would know what education has done for Prussia and Germany, we must compare the present with the past. The peo- ple were serfs, and entirely uneducated, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The reformation did not improve their con- dition in these respects, but for more than a century it was worse, in consequence of the religious wars. Even nobles who fought for freedom of conscience did so only for themselves, and each insisted upon foisting his own creed upon his subjects. The peasant rebellion having been subdued in 1522, the victorious general, Truchsess, caused hundreds to be beheaded by his jester, and the peasant who could read his Bible, or could read and write, lost his head. But when the House of Brandenburg had established the kingdom of Prussia, the kings made a system of schools a part of their civil administration. Luther's translation of the Bible fixed the form of the German language, as that of Coverdale and Tyndale did that of the English. Even Frederick the Great, whose decrees laid the foundation of popular education, despised his native tongue, and wrote all his works in French. This fact shows how slow had been the progress of education in Germany for the preceding two hundred years. In truth, ignorance covered the whole land like a thick fog. Frederick did not foresee the result of his own acts. He wrote for a foreign, instead of a native audi- ence, and hid his light under a French bushel. The philosophers* that he invited to his court formed a part of the luminaries that surrounded the throne of Louis Fourteenth. They lighted the torches that kindled the flame of the French Eevolution. The terrible fate of the Bourbons and the French noblesse was not without its lesson to the rulers of Prussia, who immediately offered freedom and knowledge to the people. The promise, it is true, has been but partially kept. Serfdom has been abolished and schools established, but freedom is still fettered by aristocratic forms, and knowledge is conducted through royal channels. But since 1815 the progress of popular education has been wonderful. According to official returns for 1864, there were 24,763 elementary schools in Prussia. These 24,763 schools * Voltaire, writing from Potsdam to Paris, said: "We talk French here; German is for peasants and horses." PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 27 \vere directed by 33,617 male and 1,755 female teachers. While the population of the rural districts is only about double that of the towns, there were seven times as many schools in the former as in the latter. Of 18,476,000 inhabitants, 17 per cent, or 3,094,- 294, were of an age to be required to attend school. Of that number, 1,775,888 Protestants, 1,063,805 Roman Catholics,"^,- 053 Jews, and 6,090 Dissenters, attended the public establish- ments, and 84,021 were receiving instruction in private primary schools. Of the remaining 130,437, a large number attended the secondary schools. The number of children between six and fourteen years of age amounted in 1861 to rather more than three millions and a half, and of these about three millions attended the public schools. Of higher educational establish- ments, called " gymnasien," there were 149 in the year 1864, with 41,786 pupils, and 1,823 professors and teachers. The six universities of the kingdom, Berlin, Bonn, Breslau, Greifswalde, Halle and Konigsburg, together with the Roman Catholic high- school of Minister, counted 5,421 matriculated students. The example of Prussia has been followed in other German -States. In Bavaria, in 1661, there were 7,126 schools, with 8,205 teachers. Elementary schools exist in all the parishes, and all children from the age of six till the age of fourteen are required to attend. Hanover, in 1861, had 4,781 primary schools, besides numerous secondary, elementary and industrial schools. One in seven of the population attends school. This kingdom in the recent war was conquered and annexed to Prussia, but education will not suffer from the change. Public education in Saxony has reached the highest point, every competent child, without exception, partaking of its benefits. By the law of June 6, 1835, attendance at school, or under properly qualified teachers, has become obligatory for Roman Catholics, as well as Protestants. On the average, 95 of every 100 children are in attendance at school, In Baden, parents are compelled by strictly enforced penalties to send their children to school. It is prohibited, also, to employ children in factories until they have completed their eleventh year. In 1861, there was one school for every 530 of the popu- lation. In Wiirtemberg it was ascertained, from official returns in 1840, 28 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF that there was not au individual of sound mind in the kingdom, above the age of ten, unable to read and write. There are above 2,500 elementary schools, besides numerous, seminaries for impart- ing a classical education. In the smaller States of Germany, Nassau, the two Hesses, the Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Weimar-Eisenach and Altenburg, attendance is enforced by fines and penalties, and is generally obligatory from six to fourteen years of age. These States are not larger than some of the counties of New York, and it is needless to give statistics concerning them. The general results may be stated as- follovys: The people of Germany, who, three centuries ago, were serfs, and totally illiterate, are at this day the best educated people in the old world, with perhaps the exception of the people of Holland and of two or three cantons in Switzerland. The empire of Austria has a system of popular education. The schools are under the direction of the church. The number of public schools of all kinds was in 1851, 44,193, and in 1857 y 18, 615. The number of teachers in 1851, was 67,304, and in 1857, 71,730. The pupils numbered in 1851, 3,345,613, and in 1857, 3,732,862. The German population is most advanced, and the people of the provinces of Sclavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia, least advanced in education. At the conscription of 1857, it was found that, of 2,649 recruits in the Arch-Duchy of Austria, 2,323 were able to read and write; while in Bohemia there were, among 11,213 recruits, only 6,597 able to read and write; and finally in Dalmatia, among 928 conscripts, only nine were possessed of the rudiments of education. In the canton of Geneva in Switzerland, education is universal, but attendance is not compulsory. It is said that no native citizen is unable to read and write. Some years since it was proposed to test a new method of learning to read, by teaching an ignorant adult. Such a person, after diligent inquiry, was not to be found in the canton. At last, however, a man was obtained who could not read and write, but he proved to be a native of Savoy. In Holland, or the kingdom of the Netherlands, the schools are all under the care and supervision of the government. Education is generally diffused, and the standard is as high as in the most favored States of Germany. Every teacher, even of a private school, must be examined by, and obtain a certificate from a government inspector. In January, 1857, there were 2,478 public PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 29 schools, and 4,638 schoolmasters and 134 schoolmistresses. The pupils numbered 186.766 boys and 136,001 girls. Besides the public schools, there are 944 higher educational establishments, with 1,842 male, and 777 female teachers, and according to an enumeration of July 15, 1857, attended by 40,493 male, and 40,- 652 female pupils. There are also 63 Latin schools, with 1,802 pupils. In Belgium, since its separation from Holland, education has not made much progress. From the military returns, it appears that of the 4,260 National Guards in Antwerp, 1,085 were illiterate ; Brabant, 7,3292,190; Western Flanders, 5,787 1,904 ; Eastern Flanders, 7,3432,870; Hainault, 7,8173,057; Liege, 5,105 1,207; Limbourg, 1,941539; Luxembourg, 2,089133; Na- mur, 2,752 415; showing 13,400 illiterate men to 44,423 educated. If these figures correctly represented those not knowing how to read and write, the proportion would be 30 per cent. In. Sweden education is well advanced. In 1859 no less than seventy-one per cent of all the children between eight and fifteen years of age attended the public schools. There were above 3,000 teachers and professors in the country, in 1859. In Norway, in 1837, 176,733 persons, or about one-seventh part of the population were receiving public instruction. School- masters are settled in each parish, who live either in fixed resi- dences, or move at stated intervals from one place to another, and who frequently attend different schools, devoting one day only in the week to each. They are paid by a personal tax levied on householders, besides a payment from each scholar. Instruction in the primary schools is limited to reading, writing, arithmetic, and singing, with sometimes the rudiments of grammar and geogra- phy. Almost every town supports a high school ; and in thirteen of the principal towns is a " laerde skole" or college, the instruc- tion in which includes Theology, Latin, Greek, Norwegian, German, French, English, Mathematics, History and Geography. Public education in Greece is divided into four classes. The communal schools form the first class, the ancient Greek schools the second class, the gymnasia the third class, and the university the fourth class. The educational returns for 1864 give the num- ber of professors and teachers in the public and private schools, at about 500, with 64,061 pupils, 6,250 of whom are females. There are 42 superintendents, male and female, of schools on the rinciple of mutual instruction, with 2,880 punils. and 300 infant / Ss L1BR* had received in the space of twelve years but three soldiers who neither knew how to read nor write. " As to the other countries of Germany, abundant testimony proves that the system of obligatory education has been so com- pletely accepted by the people, that the custom of sending children to school has become an established usage of the land. This fact o is attested by Mr. Pattison, an Englishman, who was a commis- sioner in 1860 to make official inquiry ; and in 1865 by Gen. Marin, who has just fulfilled an important mission in Germany for the Minister of Commerce, and also by Mr. Baudouin-Bugnet, whom the Minister of Public Education had appointed to visit the schools of Belgium, Switzerland and Germany." The following are the rules in force : AUSTRIA. Since 1774, education has been obligatory under penalty of a fine throughout the empire. The rule is not, how- ever, actually in force except in the German provinces. The fine may be paid by public labor. The certificate of religious educa- tion is necessary to enter upon an apprenticeship or for marriage, the ordinance of May 16, 1807, having given the curate very extensive powers in directing education and in the application of the obligatory system. BAVARIA. The obligation of education is enforced by fines, and in case of repeated neglect by imprisonment. All children receive education. In consequence of a law voted unanimously (except two dissenting voices) in 1864 by both Chambers, the school, superintended by a commission chosen by the fathers of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 39 families, has its own resources, and does not depend either upon the church or the State. WURTEMBERG. Education is obligatory under penalty of fines and imprisonment, up to the age of fifteen; and any district em- bracing thirty families is required to sustain a school.* SAXONY. The obligation exists from six to fourteen years of age. To-day there is not to be found in all the kingdom a single child who has not attended school. The following is an extract from a note lately received from the legation of France at Dresden: " In the earlier years, when the law of June 6, 1835, was put in force, the authorities had to contend with the negligence of parents in subjecting themselves to the obligatory system of schools. But soon the benefits of a general and strict attendance at the schools, and its valuable results, convinced the most halt- ing. The present generation of parents, brought up under the new law, does not dream of withdrawing the children from the beneficent application of the law. In consequence, the execution of the penal parts of the law is very rarely called for." The minister of his majesty, the King of Saxony, confirms this information, and he adds: "It has only needed two generations of scholars to complete this revolution, for the greatest efforts have been made since the year 1848." DUCHY OF NASSAU. Education is obligatory since 1817 under penalty of fines. It is gratuitous, except the furnishing of the school room. It is thought there is not a person entirely illiterate in the duchy. * In 1861, a Frenchman from Strasburg was hunting in a rural district of Baden, and wished to obtain children to aid him in the pursuit of game, and offered to each one a florin. The parents refused their services, because they must attend school. *' The general diffusion and perfection of primary education in Wiirtemberg are most remarkable facts, and strike the attention of strangers. There is not a peasant nor a servant girl who does not know perfectly how to read, write and cipher. The laboring classes are nowhere more respectful, complaisant and polite. We are assured, besides, that social morals are much more rigid than in many other parts of Germany. And lastly, piety with the Wiirtemburgers is mild and tolerant, but sincere and universal. To attain this result the government has displayed as much energy as liberality. It is said that each teacher has a salary of not less than two hundred dollars, which allows of their being selected by the government from the most enlightened and worthy citizens. " From another point of view, education is obligatory to the age of fourteen. A select commission watches carefully over each school. For the first and second delinquency, the child alone is responsible, and punished by the teacher; but for the third, the parents themselves are called to answer for the absence of their child. At the period of conscrip- tion, inquiry is made as to the requirements of the conscript, aud the parents are made responsible in the same manner if their child does not know how to write correctly." [Extract from a work entitled De I' Agriculture Allemande, by Mr. Roger, inspector of agriculture, published in 1847, by order of the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce.] 40 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF GRAND DUCHY OF HESSE. For each day's absence of a pupil the parents are liable to a fine. Neglect to pay the fines entails the conversion of them into so many days of labor for the good of the district. With very few exceptions all children go to school, and there is hardly one voluntary absence in a year for each pupil. ELECTORAL HESSE. Education is obligatory from six to four- teen years of age. GRAND DUCHY OF MECKLENBURG. The rule is the same. Ac- cording to a recent report, not a single case has occurred of a pupil endeavoring to escape the operation of the law. GRAND DUCHY OF OLDENBURG. The same legislation exists with the same results. HANOVER. Education is obligatory from the age of six. One out of seven of the inhabitants is a pupil. GRAND DUCHY OF SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA. The law of obligation exists here as in all the Saxon States, and has been in existence for two hundred years. SAXE-MEININGEN. Education is obligatory from five to fourteen, the period of confirmation, under penalty of a fine, and even of imprisonment. Cases of opposition are rare, and in many schools they never have occurred. DUCHY OF ALTENBURG (since 1807) and the Duchy of Brunswick. The state of things is the same in these two duchies ; the occa- sions are very rare when a penalty is incurred. In conclusion, we may sum up for Germany the following as the principles by which obligatory education is governed : Lists of the children are prepared by those who keep the census of the population, and delivered to the teacher, that he may record and report the absences. The registers of absence, kept with the most scrupulous exact- ness by the teacher, are delivered to the president of the school commission, composed of fathers of families. Excuses are received for exceedingly bad weather, great distance from the school, or on account of the harvest. PENALTIES. 1. Admonition or warning, in the form of a note from the presi- dent of the school commission. 2. Citation to appear before the school commission, followed by a reprimand from the president. 3. Complaint made to the magistrate by the commission, who PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 41 generally sentences the parent to a fine of 25, 40, or 80 cents, which is doubled in case of repetition of the offense. In some cases imprisonment follows for a period of 24 hours. At the present time, all this is only a warning, and the penalties are hardly ever inflicted. But the effect is secured. SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARK. Parents who do not educate their children are all liable to fines. The ministers of religion refuse confirmation to every uneducated youth. In 1862, out of 385,000 Swedish children, there were only 9,131 who had received no education. SWITZERLAND. Education is obligatory, except in the cantons of Geneva, Schwitz, Uri and Unterwalden. In the canton of Zurich, according to the law of 1859, the school age extends from five to sixteen inclusive. Not only parents and guardians, but also masters of trades are required, under similar penalties, to place children in a position to comply with the requirements of the law. If a parent gives private instruction to his son, he still pays at the public school the cost of his schooling. In the canton of Berne, young soldiers, as in Germany, must show that they know how to read, to write a letter, to prepare a report, and to solve ordinary examples in arithmetic ; and if the examination is not satisfactory they are compelled to attend school in the barracks. Ordinarily, not more than three or five in a hun- dred are of this class. The education of females is carried to the same extent. HOLLAND. In Holland, pecuniary aid is withheld from all poor families who neglect to send their children to school. This rule is in force in many towns in France. It has also been observed even in Paris, under municipal regulations. ITALY. Education is gratuitous and obligatory, at least in prin- ciple, under the law of 1859, with penalties of warning, fines and imprisonment. The illiterate are not allowed to vote. The decrees regarding obligatory attendance cannot yet be applied. PORTUGAL. Parents neglecting the education of their children are punishable, since 1844, by fines and the deprivation of their political rights for five years. The law is, however, only partially executed, schools as yet not being sufficiently numerous. SPAIN. Education has been declared obligatory by the law of September, 1857, under penalty of reprimand and fines. [Assem. No. 237.J 6 42 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF TUKKET and the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia have proclaimed the obligation as a principle. FRANCE has established it at Tahiti, and the Minister of War acts upon the principle in the French army. SHOULD ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL BE MADE COMPULSORY IN THIS STATE? . The legislation by which is imposed on parents and guardians the obligation of sending their children and wards to the public schools, or of providing the same education which would there be given, at home or in private schools, is not peculiar to despotism, but is common to absolute, constitutional and democratic forms of government. In the United States, compulsory legislation, strictly so called, has never been adopted. The nearest approach to it has been in Massachusetts, where, by a law enacted in 1850, cities and towns were authorized to arrest and punish truants. In 1863 the law was amended and rendered more stringent. It was made the duty of officers of cities and towns to guard against truancy and vagrancy. All children between the ages of 7 and 16 convicted of a violation of the law are punishable by a fine not to exceed twenty dollars, or they may be sent to a reform school or house of correction. The adversaries of compulsory attendance represent it as an arbitrary interference with parental authority. In well-organized society the parental and filial relations are defined and regulated by law. The parent is clothed with certain powers, and charged with certain duties. The right of the parent to the guardianship of his children is founded on his desire and ability, natural or acquired, to supply their physical and mental wants. Society measures the solicitude and ability on which the right of guardianship rests, by the extent of the parent's contributions to the healthful physical and mental development of his children. If they are insignificant, if natural affection and pecuniary ability, both or either, are wanting, then the right of guardianship fails likewise, and society properly takes the place of the parent, and itself assumes the control of them. Society provides for the orphan and destitute, and for those who are deserted or cruelly abused by unnatural parents. From the habitual drunkard and the insane, it takes away both property and children. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 43 On what principle are such public laws founded? Because it is 'Written, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and, again, " As ye would that others should do unto you, do ye even so unto them,' 7 and the controlling moral sense of society, educated and exalted by conforming to these injunctions of a supreme intelli- gence, accepts them as beneficent rules of action, and requiFes" obedience to them as a public duty. Hence, the annual appropria- tion to provide for the idiotic, the blind, the insane, the deaf and dumb, the orphan asylums, the Children's Aid Society, the dispen- saries, and all appropriations in aid of the public charities. In ancient Greece and Rome, the laws gave almost unlimited authority to the father over his children. He could destroy their lives in childhood, kill them at any age, and sell them into slavery. This absolute power was modified and softened by the family affections, and by the manners and customs that among every people grow into a common law. In China the father has the same power of life and death, and the national religion seems to be an exaggerated obedience to the command: * 'Honor thy father and mother, that thy days may be long in the land." In all Christian nations, however, at the present day, the laws have modified parental authority, and, among other things, prescribed that at a certain age, not the same everywhere, it shall be termin- ated. It is as completely within the scope of legislation to require a parent to educate his children as to clothe and feed them. Com- pulsory laws have not in any country assumed to do more. School teachers and school officers report absentees and truants. If the absentees are in private schools, or are receiving at home the same instruction that would be given in the public schools, the law is satisfied. Society, whether republican or monarchical, is but an extension of the family, and the family is no more the normal rela- tion and condition of man than society, or the aggregation of families. It has the right to enact laws for its regulation ; and as it advances from the patriarchal state towards the highest degree of Christian civilization, its laws must be modified and adapted to its improved conditions. To the inquiry why the monarchical governments of Europe have taken public education in charge, and why they insist upon making it general, the answer is, that they have had the sagacity to per- ceive that the new civilization, which an overruling providence 44 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF has decreed for mankind, is distinguished by the power and diffu- sion of knowledge ; and they aim to shape and direct it to their own safety. If universal education is the means for an absolute monarchy to confirm its power, is it not still more necessary for a republic ? But it is believed that in this country education can be universal without being compulsory. In Holland every adult citizen can read and write. Attendance at school has never been enjoined by law, but supervision has been carried to an extent which would hardly be deemed legitimate in the State of New York. Even in a private school nobody is permitted to teach without having first been examined and licensed by the public authorities. The same thing is true in the canton of Geneva in Switzerland. In Iceland, where there is but one school, and no public primary school at all, everybody can read and write, instruction being given by parents to their children at home in the long winter evenings. This has been the custom for a thousand years. In Norway, a cold and rugged country, with a sparse population, and where the schools in many parishes are kept open only one or two days in a week, and even sometimes only half a day, the teacher traveling from one school to another, it is still rare to meet with an adult who cannot read and write. In China, where there are no public primary schools, and where the only governmental incentive to study is the certainty of obtaining office as the reward of success at the competitive examinations, all the male population can read and write. In New England, where there have never been com- pulsory laws, except in Massachusetts, it is seldom that a native born citizen is ignorant of the arts of reading, writing and cipher- ing. Popular opinion is a law on this subject. It is a disgrace to be ignorant. The schools are open and free to all, and the child of the poorest parent has the same pains taken with his early instruction as the child of the richest citizen. They often read and study in the same books, and always sit on the same benches and recite in the same classes. In our own State, those who cannot read, write and cipher, are comparatively few, and of these a very small proportion are native citizens. The children of the illiterate aliens very generally attend either the public or church schools. I doubt the expediency of laws compelling parents and guar- dians to send their children and wards of a proper school age to the public schools, or to provide education for them at home, or PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 45 at private schools, until the persuasive power of good teachers, commodious and comfortable scJ tool -houses, and free schools, shall have been tried, and tried in vain. In despotic and monarchical countries the rulers say to the people "Go," and fear or physical force compels obedience ; but under a government established by the people, and for the people, it is deemed wiser to use the word of invitation, "Come." THE LEGISLATION EECOMMENDED. In answer to that part of the resolution which instructs me to report "what amendments or additions, if any, may be made to our present school laws, that will more effectually secure the education of every child in the State," I would recommend the following : 1. Some change in the law by which the providing and main- tenance of school-houses, in good and comfortable condition, shall be assured. 2. An increase in the number of Normal schools, and effective provision for their support. 3. An amendment of the law of 1853, chap. 185, entitled "An Act to provide for the Instruction of Idle and Truant Children.' 11 4. The abolition of rate-bills, and the support of free schools by an increase of the State tax to 1J mills, and by district local taxation for any deficiency, for the payment of teachers 7 wages. In support of these recommendations, I beg leave to submit the following statement : The number of school houses, the material of which they are built, and the aggregate annual expenditure, covering a period of ten years, for sites and fences, for furnishing, repairing and building them and their accessories, will appear from the follow- ing table : Years. Log. Framed. Brick. Stone. Total. Cost. 1857 333 9,747 876 610 11,567 $746,092 24 1858 292 9,775 881 601 11,549 765,526 59 1859 281 9,801 903 591 11,576 724,292 47 1860 263 9,866 962 559 11,650 642,290 63 1861 240 9,918 971 562 11,697 656,177 02 1862 228 10,004 964 554 11,750 600,169 00 1863 216 9,969 995 573 11,753 429,508 93 1864 226 9,941 1,002 543 11,712 647,301 23 1865 202 9,874 1,010 532 11,618 799,160 70 1866 181 9,815 1,021 530 11,547 970,224 59 46 REPORT OP THE SUPERINTENDENT OP The expenditure for sites, fences, buildings, repairs, etc,, in the cities, comprises about two-thirds of the entire aggregate. The value of school property was reported in 1866 as follows, namely : In the cities, $6,720,535 ; in the rural districts, $5,534,422. If we deduct from the aggregate expenditure the amount appropri- ated for these purposes by the incorporated villages and other densely populated districts, it will be ascertained that the remainder expended by the rural districts proper has been inconsiderable in proportion to their number and the condition of the school-houses. In the cities, incorporated villages and districts more densely populated, the school-houses are larger and more costly, accom- modating from five hundred to fifteen hundred pupils ; while in the country districts, the number of pupils will vary from twenty to one hundred and twenty-five. The best illustration of the con- dition of school-houses in the rural districts, including those in the villages, is the fact that the average valuation of the school-houses and their sites is but $492.12. They are square boxes, built with, out taste, poorly supplied with seats, badly ventilated, too warm or too cold in winter, and insufficiently furnished. About one- half of them are on sites unfenced, leaving them open to the high- way, and one-fifth of the entire number have no accessory build- ings, demanded by modesty and decency. I regret the necessity which compels me to expose a state of facts which indicate on the part of parents little solicitude for the health, comfort and future welfare of their children. I anivby no means unmindful that the expenses of building school-houses in the more recently settled and poorer districts bear heavily upon the inhabitants ; and it is not strange that they should be reluct- ant to take up the necessary burden of taxation. Nor can I forget that in a very large number of cases a small majority vote down all propositions for building or even repairing school-houses, thus disregarding their obligations as good citizens or neighbors. As the law now stands, there is no effectual remedy for such neglect. It would be unpardonable cruelty to make attendance at school compulsory when we have no better accommodations to offer the children. In our cities, villages, and " unioa free school districts " better school-houses have been provided. Yet even in these the accom- modations do not keep pace with the increase of population. The school-houses of New York and Brooklyn, for example, are not capable of receiving all the children resorting to them for instruc- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 47 tion. The authorities have postponed the erection of a sufficient number of new buildings. NOKMAL SCHOOLS. The Normal school seems to have originated in Germany, and to have come into existence along with the primary school. The germ of it may be found in the Seminarium prceceptorum, or Teacher's Seminary, founded by Franke at Halle in 1697. One was established at Stetin, in Prussia, in 1730, and another at Pots- dam in 1748. Before the year 1800 several had been established in other German States, and during the present century the number has increased, so that the Normal schools, including the secondary seminaries on the continent, now number about 400. In all the countries of Europe, the promoters of popular educa- tion, aware of the necessity of having good teachers, established the Normal school as a part of their systems of public instruction. The training of teachers for their work, in order that the primary schools, as fast as they were organized, should be supplied with competent masters, was deemed of first importance. The following table gives the area and population of the Euro- pean and American States in which Normal schools have been established. The table of European States was made in 1851, and it is known that the number of Normal schools has increased since that date : No. of Area. Population. Normal schools. Austria 236,311 36,795,000 11 Belgium 11,313 4,894,071 2 Denmark 14,493 1,600,551 8 France _. 211,852 37,472,732 97 Bavaria 29,638 4,689,837 11 Wurtemburg .., 7,675 1,720,708 7 Hanover 14,776 1,888,070 7 Baden _ 5,851 1,369,291 4 Hesse Cassel 3,858 738,454 3 Hesse Darmstadt 3,243 856,907 2 Anhalt,. _ 869 181,824 3 Saxe-Coburg-Gotha 816 159,431 2 Saxe-Meiningen 933 172,341 1 Saxe- Weimar _. 1,421 273,252 2 Oldenburg __. 2,417 295,242 2 Holstein 3,710 594,566 1 48 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP No. of Area. Population. Normal schools. Nassau 1,802 457,571 1 Brunswick 1,526 282,400 1 Luxembourg.. _ 1,886 421,088 1 Lippe 445 108,513 1 Mecklenburg Schwerin 4,834 548,449 1 Mecklenburg Strelitz _ _ _ 997 99,060 1 Lubec _ 127 49,482 1 Bremen _. 106 98,575 1 Prussia 107,300 18,497,458 51 Saxony.. 6,777 2,225,240 10 Hamburg _.. 148 229,941 1 Frankfort _ 43 87,518 1 Holland 10,905 3,37.4,652 2 Sweden 168,042 3,917,339 1 England and Wales 57,812 20,066,224 23 Scotland 30,328 3,062,294 2 Ireland 31,874 5,798,967 1 Maine _.. 30,000 628,279 2 Massachusetts 7,800 1,231,066 4 Ehode Island 1,036 174,620 1 Pennsylvania _.. 46,000 2,906,115 3 Connecticut ._ __. 4,674 460,147 1 Michigan 56,243 749,113 1 New Jersey.. 8,320 672,035 1 Illinois 55,405 1,711,951 1 Minnesota. __ __ 83,531 172,123 1 Iowa 55,045 674,913 1 California _.. 188,982 365,439 1 Wisconsin 53,924 775,881 2 Kansas 114,798 107,206 1 Maryland _.. 9,356 687,049 1 Indiana ._ 33,809 1,350,428 1 New York 46,000 3,880,735 2 Canada East _ 205,860 1,111,566 3 Canada West 141,000 1,396,091 1 New Brunswick _ 27,704 250,000 1 NovaScotia___ 18,746 330,000 1 It will be noticed that Bavaria (with an area and population about two-thirds of that of New York) has eleven Normal schools; PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 49 that Denmark, having twice the area of Massachusetts, and less than four hundred thousand more inhabitants, has eight such schools, being twice as many as in Massachusetts. If New York had as many Normal schools in proportion, the number would be seventeen, and if in the same ratio as Massachusetts the number would be eleven. Wisconsin has established two Normal schools, and fixed the location and made provision for four more. An equally liberal policy in this State would give us thirty. Of the urgent necessity of Normal schools, as part of any system of popular education, there is no longer any question. We have only to inquire how many are needed. In this State, while the schools are in session, there are about sixteen thousand teachers employed; whereas, the number of different persons actually so engaged during each year exceeds twenty-six thou- sand. Of this number, leaving out of the count those employed in the cities and large villages, there are few that make teaching their vocation. They spend only a short time in the work, and accordingly have little interest in qualifying themselves thoroughly. The trustees of the rural school districts must employ such per- sons or none. The services of the better class of teachers are monopolized by the cities aud villages. The average period employed in teaching by the graduates of the Normal schools exceeds four years. They remain in the business for a longer time than the others, because their remuneration is more liberal, and the training which they have received renders the work more attractive. The law of 1866, creating a board of commissioners to receive and act upon proposals for the establishment of four additional Normal schools, was progress in the right direction. The public spirit and liberality displayed in various parts of the State, mani- festing an interest in the education of teachers, so impressed the commissioners, that they recommended by a unanimous vote the establishment of six more such institutions. So far, it must be acknowledged that the State of New York, considering its population and material wealth, has done very little in this direction. It has in operation at this time but two Normal and training schools. The teachers for its 11,729 districts are principally obtained from the public schools, and derive their chief instruction and training from that source, and from their own observation and experience. [Assem. No. 237.] 7 50 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF The Normal school at Albany has graduated 1,488 pupils. It# undergraduates in large numbers have left it and become teach- ers, after having but partially completed the course of instruction. The Oswego school, having been but a short time in operation, numbers but 106 graduates. Many of its undergraduates, how- ever, are already performing good service in the schools. Since 1854, the "Teachers 7 Institutes" have also rendered effective aid in the preparation of teachers. They are held in the several counties generally for a term of two weeks in each year, and are attended by a large proportion of the teachers. The number so attending in 1854 was about one thousand; in 1866 it was 8,253. Besides these, there are annually received at the academies for a period of four months an average number of 1,600, who receive instruction with a view to becoming teachers. Till the State shall have made more ample provision for the special training of such persons, this agency must be continued. Nevertheless, on the subject of connecting permanent depart- ments for the instructing of teachers with academic institutions, I concur in the following opinion expressed by Prof. Lemuel Stevens, of Girard College, in a letter from Berlin, addressed to the Superintendent of Common Schools of Pennsylvania: "It is only by the distinct division of the objects of human industry and knowledge into separate arts and sciences that their advancement can be insured. The necessity for the division of labor in the mechanic arts is well enough understood. A necessity for this division in intellectual pursuits exists in a by no means less degree. So long as the science of education depends for its developments upon the casual contributions of men of all profes- sions, without being made the business of any, it must grope its way hither and thither by the light of occasional flashes, instead of being guided on by a steady flame. "The views of certain men on education are known among us, but, so far is pedagogics from being cultivated as a science, we feel ourselves as yet hardly authorized to use the word. I am far from denying that we have many very good teachers ; but they stand separate and alone. Their influence rarely extends beyond the sphere of their own schools. Their experience has furnished them with excellent practical rules for their own procedure, but these rules have, perhaps, never been expressed in words, much less their truth demonstrated by a reduction of the same to scientific principles. They are content to be known as possessing the mys- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 51 terious talent of a skillful teacher, and their wisdom dies with them. It is owing to the isolated position in which teachers by profession find themselves that the didactic skill they may have acquired, even when it rises above the character of a blind faculty, and is founded on the enlightened conclusions of science, still remains almost without influence on the wrong ideas in education which may be in vogue around them. To quote a remark of Di. Harnisch : ' We have had, now and then, capable teachers with- out possessing seminaries, but it cannot be denied that seminaries are most effectual levers for elevating the condition of common schools, and such they have proved themselves to be in latter years.' " In the establishment of teachers' seminaries, their utility and success will depend entirely upon their appropriate and perfect organization. False economy has often attempted to provide for the education of primary teachers by making the seminary an appendage to a high school or an academy. Thirty years ago this arrangement was not uncommon in Germany; and later the exper- iment has been tried in the State of New York, * * If it were aieeded to strengthen the evidence of the inefficiency of this system, I might easily quote the testimony of the most able teachers of Germany to this effect. Perhaps no department of education requires a mere peculiar treatment, and more calls for the un- divided zeal and energy of those who have the conduct of it, than the preparation of teachers. '-Everything depends on making the seminaries for teachers separate and independent establishments, with a careful provision for a thorough theoretical and practical preparation for all the duties of the common school. " In the experiment of introducing teachers' seminaries into our country, there is a danger that we shall be too sparing in the num- ber of teachers employed in conducting them. Seminaries con- ducted by one or two teachers cannot be otherwise than imperfect ; and, while but little good would come from them, there is great danger that their failure would serve to bring the cause into dis- repute," The aggregate value of the property offered by different local- ities for the location of the four Normal schools authorized by the law of 1865 was $900,000, showing conclusively the general appreciation of the importance of these institutions. There is, indeed, a readiness on the part of the people in many of the vil- 52 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF lages and counties to unite with the State in the establishment and maintenance of as many of them as are wanted. We shall soon have six Normal schools in operation. The number of pupils in each of them at a time will hardly exceed 250; of whom not more than one hundred can be expected to graduate. The aver- age number of graduates may, therefore, be set clown at 600 annually. The number of teachers required in the State is about sixteen thousand. It would, therefore, take a period of 26 years for these schools to graduate so many. This statement would be discouraging, but for the fact that each thoroughly qualified teacher imparts his skill to many of his pupils who themselves become teachers. But we cannot afford to wait during the school-period of three generations. Our schools cannot be innocently neglected so long. Twenty Normal schools, with the aid of academies and teachers' institutes, might be adequate. I, therefore, respectfully recom- mend the passage of an act continuing in existence the commis- sion created by chapter 466 of the Laws of 1866, with power to establish, pursuant to the terms and conditions therein pre- scribed, at least ten more Normal schools. I am convinced of the vital importance of such action. If the Legislature in 1815, or even thirty years ago, had adopted this policy, it would have been an actual saving of money. The value of it would have been seen on every hand. We should have had a greater supply of trained teachers, devoted to their profession and successful; a higher grade of common schools and a larger average attendance. The consequences of our past errors are now plainly seen. But our regret is lessened by the hope that wiser counsels are about to prevail, and that this glaring omission of our school system will be supplied. JUVENILE VAGRANCY AND TBUANCY. In 1853, an act was passed to provide for the care and instruc- tion of idle and truant children. It was made applicable only to cities and incorporated villages. It authorized the arrest of all such children, between 5 and 14 years of age, and their examina- tion before a magistrate. If their parents or guardians did not give bonds to send them to school, or keep them employed, then the magistrate could issue his warrant to commit them to some place of detention the almshouse, jail or penitentiary, until they could be bound out to service. It was made the duty of the PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 53 cities and villages to provide some suitable place for the reception of such children, their employment, and their education in the elementary branches of knowledge, and for their proper support and clothing. This law is practically a dead letter. The authorities have treated it as giving them a discretionary power, which they might exercise or not as they pleased. It has pleased them to do nothing. The ordinary places of detention for all persons arrested are the police stations and the jails, and the only places for instruc- tion and support of persons convicted are the almshouses and penitentiaries. Police officers and constables do not arrest children whose only place of exercise is the public street, and whose poverty is the only reason of their absence from the public school. The children of the laborer, running about the streets, picking up sticks in a basket, or binding them into a fagot, to carry them home to their mothers, will hardly be regarded as offenders. There is no legal remedy for poverty ; nor is it the province of society to treat the poor as vagrants and criminals. If parents are unable to support their children they must be aided. It may be considered by some economists to be culpable improvidence for a common laborer to marry. His wages are not likely to increase as fast as his family, and he has the prospect before him of a hard struggle to keep the wolf from the door. But laborers will obey the instincts of nature. Prohibitory laws forbidding marriage, in some of the German States, until a man can show a magistrate his ability to support a family, have resulted only in an increase of illegitimate births. Legislation cannot change or suspend the laws of God. A laborer earning two dollars a day, when the weather admits of work, can obtain enough to support his family during the sum- mer, if he has good health. But what kind of support is two dollars a day for 250 days in a year, for a man and wife and eight or ten children ? They must live in two or three small rooms in a cellar or garret ; their food will be scanty and coarse ; their clothes will be of a poor material. A brief sickness of the father brings destitution to the house. Every city has hundreds of such families. Should the State leave the children of the poor to grow up in ignorance ? Hundreds of them are driven into the streets to breathe the air and beg for food. Does the State perform its 54 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF duty when it authorizes its police and constables to arrest them and treat them as vagrants ? The execution of a law so arbitrary in its terms is revolting to the best feelings of human nature. The children of the poor, coming out from the crowded rooms and foul atmosphere of tenant houses and cellars, for fresh air and exercise, will not be looked upon by policemen as vagrants and proper subjects for arrest. In the city of New York the evil of juvenile vagrancy and truancy is presented in its greatest magnitude. The whole num- ber of children between the ages of 5 and 21 is reported at 275,000, of whom only 197,520 have attended school during the past year. The average daily attendance has been but 80,784. The absentees were 77,480. The estimated attendance at private schools and colleges and home instruction is 25,000. The number attending no school will not fall short of 50,000. Statistics for 1865 show that the arrest and commitment of boys and girls under 20 years of age was as follows : Boys under 10 years old 1,934 Boys between 10 and 20 years old__ 2,697 Girls under 10 years old 275 Girls between 10 and 20 years old 1,726 Total ___ 6,632 Of the boys and girls under ten years of age, it may be safely said that very few could be guilty of deliberate violation of law. Their punishment, in a majority of cases, was a grievous wrong. If adequate provision had been made for them by the erection of suitable school houses and houses of detention, where they could be fed, clothed and cared for, they would have been numbered in the school returns, and not in the criminal records. Would not legislation be wisely and economically directed by compelling them to attend school : or by providing reformatory schools in cases where, by reason of neglect and early depravity, they require moral instruction and strict discipline ? Of the forty or fifty thousand children out of the schools, some are engaged in street trades, such as selling nuts, apples and oranges, or blacking boots, while a large proportion is vagrant and homeless. The Children's Aid Society, at the request of the superintendent, PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 55 has famished the following account of the numbers which, in 1865, have come under its care : Newsboys' lodging house, 128 Fulton street 7,000 Girls' lodging house, 205 Canal street 1,000 Refuge for homeless children, 193 West 24th street 600 Boys' lodging house, 276 East llth street 400 Schools of the society *, 2.000 Sent to the country 1,500 Total . 12,500 Other institutions: Five Points House of Industry (about) 2,000 New York Juvenile Asylum 1,027 House of Refuge 1,542 Home of the Friendless (about) __. 2,000 Other Mission and Industrial Schools (about) 2,000 8,569 Total : 21,069 In its 13 schools the Children's Aid Society employed 26 teachers, each at a salary of $400 a year, paid $300 rent for each school, and $200 each for furniture. Clothing cost $3,275, and food four cents a head. The total cost of the 13 schools was $16,681, or $8 a head for the 2,182 children. All these children are too poor to attend the present public schools. Every public school has rules that practically exclude them. Their unwashed faces, dirty hands, r.nkempt hair, bare feet, ragged clothes, violate every regulation as to decency and cleanliness. The Juvenile Asylum and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents receive large appropriations from the State and from the city. The inmates are generally ignorant and vicious, and are sent to these institutions by sentence of our courts for petty offences. They accomplish a good purpose, but are very expensive, needing from $50,000 to $70,000 a year each. The number of inmates in both is less than the number in the schools of the Children's Aid Society. In all our cities truancy and vagrancy are daily increasing. Some parents will not send their children to school, and furnish 56 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF no employment for them. Thousands are annually left orphans, destitute and homeless. Such children run about the streets, col- lect in vacant lots, stand on corners, and gather in groceries, beer shops and drinking saloons. They engage in all kinds of petty mischief and trespass. From small offences they advance to lar- ceny and burglary. They become the pupils and proteges of older and experienced villains, and are educated in vice and crime. These poor vagrants and street children should be collected in smaller and less costly establishments, where they may not be taken from their parents, nor be restrained of their liberty. Buildings might be rented or purchased, and a class of officers and teachers employed, whose special duty it should be to inquire into the character and condition of vagrant children, invite them into the schools, offer them shelter, warmth and clothing, bring them under wholesome influences, instruct them in the common branches of an English education, teach them some industrial employment, not by arrests, commitments and penalties, but by kind treatment, making the paths of virtue and knowledge more pleasant and attractive than the ways of idleness, ignorance and vice. It might be made the duty of the board of education to provide rooms in convenient places for the reception and instruction of those whose filth and squalor render them unfit for the ward schools. A little care, sympathy and aid, judiciously and season- ably bestowed, would soon fit many of them for the ward schools. The orphans, destitute and homeless, might be taken from the streets and apprenticed, or bound out to trades, or placed with farmers in the Western States. It is believed that our Houses of Refuge, owing to the expensive plan on which they are built and managed, fail to do the good expected from them. The inmates are employed in various handi- crafts, not with a view to teach the child a trade and fit him to support himself when discharged from confinement, but with the sole view to make the institution self-sustaining. The superintend- ent has seen a boy in the Western House of Refuge, whose only employment, out of school hours, was driving pegs into the soles of boots and shoes. Many are set to equally monotonous and soul- destroying work. What is the advantage to a boy of three years spent in this way? His mind is dwarfed and starved, and he is at last thrown out into the world unacquainted with any vocation, less able to resist its lures and fascinations, less able than before to find PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 57 useful employment, and at the very age when he is weakest to resist temptation ! I would recommend that the local authorities be required to establish reformatory schools in which vagrant and truant children may be received. They should be taught agriculture and gar don- - ing and industrial pursuits. When they leave the school and seek employment, and are asked what they can do, they should be able to answer, not "I can drive a shoe-peg" or "I can hold a pin on the grind- stone;' 7 but " I can make a shoe;" " I can hold the plow," "I can plant and sow," "I can take care of horses, sheep and cattle," "I can make a desk or table," " I can read and write and keep accounts." To become good citizens they should know something useful, and be able to do something useful. Until the common council and board of education of the city of New York, and the local authorities of other cities and villages, shall have provided room and instruction for this outcast and most wretched class, known as vagrant children, their most pressing and important duty will remain unfulfilled. THE ABOLITION OF RATE-BILLS. Lastly, the schools should be made free for obvious reasons. Indigent parents, having too much pride to ask to be exempted from paying their rates, keep their children away rather than be put down upon the list of indigents. The parsimonious keep their children at home rather than pay the amount required to defray teachers 7 wages after the public money has been applied. The law, it is true, allows trustees to exempt poor parents from the rate-bill, but the record shows that this has been generally neglected. The whole amount collected b}^ rates, during the last school year, was $709,025.36, and the sum of all the exemptions was only $48,873.56. The two sums added together show the aggregate sum on the rate-bills, viz.: $757,898.92. It appears, therefore, that the liberality of the trustees extended to the piti- ful exemption of only 6J per cent of the sum charged in the rate-bills. The number of children in the rural districts, between 5 and 21 years of age, is reported at 844,259, and the whole attendance at school at 592,511, while the average daily attendance was 263,- 401. The aggregate attendance is, therefore, 70 per cent of the entire number, and the average attendance only 31 per cent. [Assem. No. 237.] 8 58 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF If we make allowance for sickness, for distance from the school- house, for impassable roads and bad weather, for employment in various kinds of labor, on the farm, in the shop or manufactory, or in household duties, for vagrancy and truancy, the number of absentees will be still a formidable sum, to be accounted for by some reason operating generally and powerfully. In the State of Virginia, the school system was established for the indigent only, and the pride and self respect of the really poor revolted against such a discrimination. The schools were comparatively worth- less, were unattended, and the system failed. The same causes operate in this State to diminish attendance, and admonish us to abolish the rate-bill. The schools can be made free in the rural districts without materially adding to the burden of taxation, and without doing injustice, by an increase of the State tax to one mill and one- fourth of a mill upon every dollar of the assessed valuation of property. The amount raised by rate-bill during the last school year was $709,025.36. The proposed increase of the State tax would add to the sum now raised $765,614.82. A ratable proportion of this tax would be apportioned to the cities, thus lessening their local taxation. The proportion which would go to the rural dis- tricts would be nearly equal to the amount now raised by rate-bill. The local taxation in those districts for teachers' wages, to main- tain a school for 28 weeks, over and above the amount of public moneys which will be received, will be merely nominal. The proposed mode of raising the money is strictly in accord- ance with the principle which may now be deemed a settled policy of this and other States, and of the civilized world, that "the property of the State shall educate the children of the State." The practice of raising any part of the money for the schools by local taxation, can be supported only upon the assumption that, if cities and districts are compelled thus to raise a part of the money, they will be more economical in its expenditure. But as the State requires a school to be kept 28 weeks each year in every district, it is just and equitable to raise a general tax suffi- cient to defray the expense for that term. If the inhabitants desire to build school-houses that will add to their reputation as public-spirited and enlightened citizens, and to the comfort and instruction of their children, the power is PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 59 given, and its exercise is left to their discretion. If they wish to have their schools in session for ten months instead of twenty- eight weeks, they have the authority to tax themselves to pay for the additional time. If they wish to have teachers of a higher order of mind and superior acquirements, and able to awaken in their children noble and generous aspirations, and the public money be not sufficient to command their services, the privi- lege of taxing themselves for any necessary additional sum surely ought not to be withheld. The education of the people is a matter of common concern, and a State tax for the support of schools is the most equitable and just, since it distributes the burden of taxation in proportion to the ability of tax-payers. The rate-bill is a violation of equity and justice, for it imposes upon the indigent and the poor a tax, under a plausible name, not upon their property, for they have none, but upon their affection and solicitude for their children. The rate-bill, it is true, falls partly upon tax-payers and partly upon non-tax-payers, and so far as it falls upon tax-payers is sub- stantially a tax. A change of the law will merely shift the burden from a rate-bill to a tax list, and the district tax for deficiencies will not probably equal the annual tax for a fair and generous exemption. A statement of the amount raised by voluntary or local taxation for the support of schools, and that raised by the State for the same purpose, during the last school year, will show their relative proportion. The amount raised by local taxation, including board of teachers, was $4,855,013.43. The State tax was $1,148,422.22. The local taxation exceeds the State tax more than four to one. At least half the proposed addition to the State tax will be saved in local taxation. If one half the proposed addition to the State tax be added to the present tax, and the same amount be deducted from the local taxation, the latter would still be equal to three times the former. Thus, by transferring to the general State tax the burden of local taxation and rates now borne by the school districts, as has been shown, the schools of the State of New York will be made free " not nominally free, but absolutely free." VICTOR M. EICE, Superintendent of Public Instruction. APPENDIX. UNITED STATES, MAINE. There are in the State 394 towns and 90 plantations, divided into 4,127 districts, and 394 parts of districts. Every town is required by law to raise by tax annu- ally an amount of school money equal to sixty cents for each inhabitant. There is a permanent school fund, which in 1862 amounted to $160,250. It is increased annually by the moneys received from the sales of 487,567 acres of land set apart for that purpose, and by twenty per cent on the sales of all public lands owned by the State, which are estimated at two millions of acres. There is also a tax of one per cent on the capital of the banks for school purposes, which amounted in 1862 to $79,455. The number of pupils in the schools in 1862 was 241,571, and the amount raised by tax for schools was $408,272. The report of the Superintendent for 1866 gives the following statistics : Population of the State in 1860 628,300 Extent in square miles 31,766 Number of towns in the State 406 Number that have made returns, including plantations 434 Number of children between 4 and 21 years 212,834 Number registered in summer schools 114,823 Number registered in winter schools 88,743 Average attendance for winter and summer 93,285 Number of school districts in the State 3,771 Number of school-houses in the State 3,727 Number of male teachers employed in summer 78 Number of male teachers employed in winter 1,786 Number of female teachers employed in summer 3,721 Number of female teachers employed in winter 2,034 Valuation of the State in 1860 $164,714,168 00 Wages of male teachers per month, besides board . . . . 28 20 Wages of female teachers per week, besides board 2 54 School money raised by taxation 477,131 66 Excess above requirement of law 27,730 45 Average amount raised per scholar 2 01 Amount of permanent school fund 214,735 66 Income apportioned to schools 10,873 89 Bank tax apportioned to schools 7,626 38 Amount derived from local funds 13,927 35 Amount paid to private schools, academies, &c 35,368 87 Estimated amount paid for board 148,660 96 Aggregate expenditures for school purposes 592,598 23 64 REPORT OP THE SUPERINTENDENT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. The control of the schools of the State is vested in a Board of Education, com- posed of one person from each county, who appoint one of their number chairman, and another secretary. They are selected by the Governor, and hold office for one year. The towns are divided into school districts, whose inhabitants are invested with power to vote taxes for the support of schools, and to elect trustees and other local officers to manage their affairs, reporting annually to the School Superintendent. In 1862, there were 2,352 school districts, employing 4,193 teachers, 1,091 being males, and 3,102 females. The average wages of the male teachers was, including board, $24.35, and of female teachers, including board, $14.12 per month. The whole number of scholars attending during the year was 84,787, and the average attendance, 58,454, being 68 per cent of average attendance. The summer schools were kept ten weeks and a half, and the winter schools eleven weeks, being a total of twenty-one weeks and a half. The school age is between four and fourteen. Number of volumes in library in 1861, 58,745. Estimated value of school houses, $853,144. The average cost of the public schools to each inhabitant is about seventy-five cents. There are seventy-three academies in this State, with an average attendance of 2,555, and there is one college, that of Dartmouth. Besides these, there are three theological schools. The State has no school fund, but has a literature fund. The schools are sup- ported by a railroad tax, by town tax, and by district tax, and by the income from local funds. The total amount of funds given to the schools was $274,- 623.50, of which $242,000 was from local funds. VERMONT. Prior to 1845, the State had a school fund of $200,234.95. In that year the fund was abolished, and the money applied to the payment of the public debt. Since that time the schools have been supported by a State tax, and by a school district tax. The towns are divided into school districts by a vote of the inhabitants in town meeting, who have power to alter and consolidate districts. The whole control of the schools is left to the school districts, who elect their trustees, collectors and other officers, and have power to vote the taxes necessary to support a school, and decide in district meeting how long a school can be kept. The building and repair of school houses and all expenses are paid by the districts, aided by the State tax, and by the income from the United States deposit money, amounting to about $20,000. From 1851 to 1856, there was no State Superintendent of Common Schools. But in 1856, a Board of Education was established, consisting of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor ex officio, and three members appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Board appoints a secretary from year to year, who acts as State Superintendent, and receives a salary of $1,000 per year. The pay of the members of the Board is three dollars per day. In 1858, a law was passed, creating a town superintendent of schools, who receives one dollar a day for his services, has the general supervision of schools, examines and licenses teachers, and may dismiss them for sufficient cause. The trustees of schools report to him, and he to the Board of Education, who make an annual report to the Legislature. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 65 . Every district must support from its own funds a school for two months, as a condition precedent to the receipt of any of the public money. There is no provision for Normal education. There are three colleges in the State, two theological schools, and three medical institutions. There are 60 acade- mies, with 228 private and select schools. The following statistics for the years 1865 and 1866 are gathered from the report of the Secretary. The number of districts is 2,429, of which 121 had no scTiooL during the year. They employed 3,112 teachers, and instructed on an average 44,922 scholars. The total number of children between the ages of 4 and 18 is 88,- 722, shoving an average attendance of 50 per cent. Male teachers have received on an average '27 per month, and female teachers $11 for the same period. Amount of public money distributed in 1865 was $109,512, and there was raised on the grand list $240,942. The total expense of board, wages and fuel was $365,943. Every town is compelled to sustain " one or more schools provided with compe- tent teachers," etc., at least; and when more are needed it is made the duty of the town to divide its territory into districts. Each town is required to raise a tax of a certain amount, at least, for the general support of schools each year. Each district is required to sustain, at least, two months' school in each year; and beyond this, the whole matter of sustaining schools is left to the towns and dis- tricts, they having no limited and stinted, but the amplest possible power in this particular, to establish and support such schools as they may choose. Every man who resides and pays taxes in a district is a voter therein. At a school meeting legally warned and conducted the districts may, by a vote of a bare majority, determine for themselves what kind of a school-house they will have, and what the number, quality, duration and expense of their schools. They may have one simple primary district school, or they may divide and grade their schools, having two, three, or any number they please, and accommodate their schools with any number and quality of school-houses, and by thus grading they may secure instruction for their scholars in all the branches of an ordinary education, and may go even higher. The district may unite with other districts and form a union high school district, and thus secure instruction by the proper grading of the dis- trict and union schools, to every scholar in each district, in all branches, from the alphabet to the languages and higher mathematics, and prepare every boy who desires a higher culture for admission to any college in the land ; and to support the necessary expenditures, every cent of it may be raised by a general tax upon the grand list of the district. Under the Vermont law, therefore, the parents in every district have a plenary power over every acre of land, and every iota of personal property within the dis- trict, and may use it to defray all the expense of just such a degree, and just such an amount of education as they may choose to demand for their own and their neighbor's children. In order still further to assist in the encouragement of schools, the State in each year provides for the distribution, to each district that shall sustain a school for two months on its own funds, of an amount generally equal to one dollar on each scholar. To secure the enforcement of the law, the voters of each town are required at their annual March meeting to select such men as they may desire to act as Superintendents, whose business it is made to secure competent teachers, by a rigid examination in certain prescribed branches, of every one who proposes to [Assem. No. 237.] 9 66 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF teach, and grant certificates to suefo ass are found qualified; and to protect still further the districts from the irreparable injury of poor schools, no legal contract for teaching can be made with any person who fails to obtain a certificate; and it is made a penal, offence to pay to any such unqualified teacher any wages what- ever; and the selectmen of the town are required to prosecute therefor the Ver- mont law in reference to the examination of teachers, being the most stringent law now existing. MASSACHUSETTS. , { The first Englishmen; who set foot upon the shores- of New England were edu- cated men. The May Flower did not bring a passenger-list of ignorant emigrants,, whom poverty was driving from their homes. A large portion of the first settlers. of Plymouth and Massachusetts were landholders and merchants of independent fortune, gentlemen of the middle class in England. Their wives were educated women. Their children were not without instruction. The ministers who came out as pastors were generally ripe scholars, learned in all that could be taught in the Universities of Oxford a.nd Cambridge. Most of them were regularly ordained, ministers of the church of England, deprived of their rectorships for non-conformity. Some of them brought with them valuable libraries, the Greek and Roman classics,, historical and theological works. They were accompanied by servants and by some men of the humbler classes. In after years a number of speculators and adventurers came over in search of gain, so that the colonies were never without bad and troublesome men, although they bore a very small proportion to the whole number of colonists. Probably no such body of intelligent, religious, moral, and energetic men ever before left their native seats to found new colonies, since the time when the Greeks went forth to found Syracuse and Marseilles. They were the men who had been called Brownists and Puritans in the times of Elizabeth and James First, who had opposed the usurpation of his son, who had established the Commonwealth, who had aided to overthrow the prelatical church, and who left home and country because they could not live in peace under the Restoration, Knowing the value of education, and its necessity for the preservation of their religious and political principles, they made early provision for the instruction ,of their children. Although it is probable that there was not among the emigrants., for fifty years, a man of family who was not capable of instructing his own children, it soon became apparent to them that some provision must be made for instruction, in the settlements that were encroaching upon the wilderness. Accordingly, on the 14th of June, 1642, an act, or order was passed, as follows: " Forasmuch as the good education of children is of singular behoof and benefit to any commonwealth, and whereas many parents and masters are too indulgent and negligent of their duty in that kind, "It is ordered, that the selectmen of every town (in the original draft, 'ye chosen men appointed for managing the prudential affairs') in the several precincts and quarters where they dwell, shall have a vigilant eye over their neighbors, to see, first, that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, as lot to endeavor to teach, by themselves or others, their children and apprentices 30 much learning as may enable them to read perfectly the English tongue, and to get knowledge of the capital laws, upon penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect therein. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION, 67 *" Also, that all masters of families do, once a week at least, catechise their children and servants in the grounds and principles of religion." Five years later, Nav. llth, 1647, the following law was passed: " It being one chiefe project of yt ould deluder, Sathan, to keepe men from the knowledge of ye Scripture, as im former times by keeping yem in an unknown tongue, so in this latter times by .persuading from ye u(~e of tongues, yt -so at least ye true senee and meaning of ye original might be clouded by false glossas of vsaint- seeming deceivers, yt learning may not be buried in ye grave of o r fathrs in ye church and commonwealth, tke Lord assisting o r -endeavors. " It is therefore ordered yt ever} 7 " township in this jurisdiction, after ye Lord hath increased yena to ye number of 50 householders, shall then forthw th appoint one within their towne to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and reade, whose wages shall be paid either by ye parents, or masters of such children, or by ye "inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as je major part of those yt order ye prudentialls of ye te/wne .shall appoint ; provided, yt those yt send their children be not oppressed by paying much more yn they can have yem taught for in other towns ; and it is further ordered that when any towne shall increase to ye number of 100 families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, ye master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as tliey may be fitted for ye university ; provided yt if any towne neglect the performance hereof above one year, yt every such towne shall pay 5s, to ye next school-e till they shall perform this order," These laws, or orders, were continued in force, and fortified by additional enact- ments. In 1G83 towns having 500 families were required to maintain two grammar schools, and two writing schools. Towns that did not, in compliance with law, support a grammar school, were required to pay at first ten pounds, and subsequently twenty pounds, to the next school kept in obedience to the order, Plymouth colony, which was not united to Massachusetts till 1691, was not behind her neighbor in this matter, and passed similar acts or orders providing for schools and their support. Commenting upon this early legislation., the Hon. Joseph White, clerk of the Massachusetts Board of Education, says : "A careful view of these brief laws and orders, with their preambles, shows that the main features of our present statutes had their origin in this early period. For instance, the act of 1642, .starting with the assertion that ' the good educa- tion of children is of singular behoof and benefit to any Commonwealth,' asserts the right of the State to cause every child within its jurisdiction to be so far edu- cated as to be capable ofbeing a goodcitizen, and declares what that education shall be, as follows.: First, the ability 'perfectly to read the English tongue;' second, a knowledge of the 'capital laws ;' and third, an acquaintance with the 'grounds and principles of religion.' " The act of 1647 commands, with severe penalties, the erection of the school house in every town wherein the elements of a true education might be obtained/' " But it does not stop here. Every town having the requisite number of house- holders was required to ' set up ' a school of a higher order a grammar school wherein the youth might be fitted for 'ye university.' Of how high a grade this grammar school was may be learned from the following extract from ' the laws, liberties and orders of Harvard College,' which were in force all that time : " 'When any scholar is able to read Tully, or such like classical Latin author ,^ e or **^ UNIVERSITY^ 68 KEPOET OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF extempore, and make and speak true Latin in verse and prose suo (ut aiunt} Marte, and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, then may he be admitted into the college; nor shall any claim admission before such qualifications.' " In this venerable statute we find the original idea of gradation in our town schools. The grammar school of that day was at the head of the system, and so the type of the high school of the present. One, at least, of the grammar schools then ' set up,' has continued to fit youth for 'ye university' to the present day. "Moreover, in the legislation of the olden colony, which 'devoated' the public funds derived from the Cape Cod fisheries to the support of schools, we find a type of the modern legislation, which has established a school fund, and distributes its- income for the aid and encouragement of schools." During the Provincial period, beginning with 1692, and ending with the Revolu- t ionary war, the same laws were kept in force. The towns were required to build s ;hool-houses and support schoolmasters, and where they numbered two hundred families to maintain a grammar school. In erecting its townships in the new territory, the Legislature set apart, from the sixty-three equal allotments into which the land was divided, three lots, the first f jr the first settled minister, the second for the ministry, and the third for the school. This example was followed in all the grants made hi New Hampshire and Vermont. It was also the germ of the Congressional legislation, which has reserved for scho'ols and education hi all the new States large tracts of land, which have become the source of school funds and college endowments. After the Revolutionary war, and within two months after the United States government was organized by the inauguration of President Washington, the Legislature passed an act to provide for the instruction of youth, and for the pro- motion of good education. Its main features were that children could be permitted to pass from the com- mon school to the grammar school after a prescribed amount of attainment ; that two hundred families instead of one hundred formed the basis of a grammar school ; that the teacher was required to have a certificate of good moral character ; that the ministers of the gospel and the selectmen of the town, or a committee specially chosen in their stead, were constituted a school committee, charged with the duty of securing the attendance of all the youth in the town, and with the duty of visit- ing and supervising the schools ; that for the first time women were recognized as teachers ; and that the towns were divided into school districts, which were by subsequent acts erected into corporations, and authorized to sue and be sued, and to hold real and personal estate for the use of schools. The law also provided penalties for not keeping a school for six months in a year; town of fifty families W; of one hundred families ^20; of one hundred and fifty families .30; and of two hundred families ^630, for not keeping a gram- mar school. In 1824, towns having less than five thousand inhabitants were released from the obligation to maintain a grammar school, if they should elect to " be provided, instead thereof, with a teacher, or teachers, well qualified to instruct youth in orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography and good behavior, whose qualifications shall be certified in like manner as is provided by law in case of public school masters in the Latin and Greek languages." The parochial system of Scotland, which has done so much for the intellectual and material progress of the Scotch, the schools founded in Holland, Sweden, PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 69 Norway, Denmark and the Protestant States of Germany, which have grown into popular systems, and by means of which education has been diffused and has quickened the masses .of the people, were all in full operation before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth rock. But probably the obligation of the State to provide by law and by taxation for the free and gratuitous education of all children was first recognized and acted upon in Massachusetts. The object of the early colonial laws, making the establishment and support of schools obligatory on the towns, was the universal education of the people. The supplementary laws during the colonial period, and afterwards down to 1840, have the same object in view. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, the influx of emigrants from European countries, who were uneducated or totally illiterate, caused to appear upon the census tables of the State a column representing thousands of inhabitants who could not read and write. To bring the children of this illiterate population into the schools required more stringent legislation. The first law making attendance compulsory was passed in 1846. Various enactments having the same end in view have resulted in the following laws, which are at present in force : LAW REGARDING OBLIGATORY EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. SECTION 1. Every person having under his control a child between the age of eight and fourteen years, shall annually, during the continuance of his control, send such child to some public school in the city or town in which he resides, at least twelve weeks, if the public schools of such city or town so long continue, six weeks of which time shall be consecutive ; and for every neglect of such duty, the party offending shall forfeit to the use of such city or town a sum not exceed- ing twenty dollars ; but if it appears upon the inquiry of the truant officers or school committee of any city or town, or upon the trial of any prosecution, that the party so neglecting was not able, by reason of poverty, to send such child to school, or to furnish him with the means of education, or that such child has been otherwise furnished with the means of education for a like period of time, or has already acquired the branches of learning taught in the public schools, or that his bodily or mental condition has been such as to prevent his attendance at school or application to study for the period required, the penalty before mentioned shall not be incurred. SEC. 2. The truant officers and the school committees of the several cities and towns shall inquire into all cases of neglect of the duty prescribed in the preceding section, and ascertain from the persons neglecting the reasons, if any, therefor ; and shall forthwith give notice of all violations, with the reasons, to the treasurer of the city or town ; and if such treasurer willfully neglects or refuses to prosecute any person liable to the penalty provided for in the preceding section, he shall forfeit the sum of twenty dollars. General Statutes, Chap. 41. AN ACT CONCERNING TRUANT CHILDREN AND ABSENTEES FROM SCHOOL. SECTION 1 . Each city and town shall make all needful provisions and arrange- ments concerning habitual truants, and also concerning children wandering about in the streets or public places of any city or town, having no lawful occupation or business, not attending school and growing up in ignorance, between the ages of seven and sixteen years ; and shall also make such by-laws respecting such children as shall be deemed most conducive to their welfare and the good order of such city or town ; and there shall be annexed to such by-laws suitable penalties, not exceeding twenty dollars for any one breach : Provided, that said by-laws 70 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF shall be approved by the superior court sitting in any county in the common- wealth. SEC. 2. Any minor convicted of being an habitual truant, or any ciild con- victed of wandering about in the streets or public places of any city or town, having no lawful occupation or business, not attending school, and growing up in ignorance, between the ages of seven and sixteen years, may, at the discretion of the justice or court having jurisdiction of the case, instead of the fine mentioned in the first section, be committed to any such institution of instruction, house of reformation, or suitable situation provided for the purpose, under the authority of the first section, for such time, not exceeding two years, as such justice or court may determine. Chapter 207, Laws of 1862. AN ACT IN ADDITION TO AN ACT CONCERNING TRUANT CHILDREN AND ABSENTEES PROM SCHOOL. SECTION 1. Either of the justices of the police court of the city of Boston, and any judge or justice of any police court, and any trial justice in this State, shall have jurisdiction within their respective counties of the offences described in chapter two hundred and seven of the Acts of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-two. SEC. 2. Whenever it shall be made to appear to any such justice, acting within his jurisdiction, upon a hearing of the case, that there is good and sufficient reason for the discharge of any minor imprisoned for either of such offences, he may issue such discharge under his hand upon such terms as to costs as to him seem just, directed to the person having the custody of such minor, and upon the service of the same on such person and payment of costs required, said minor shall be dis- charged. General Laws, Chap. 44, 1863. The city of Boston, and other cities, and many of the towns, immediately passed by-laws in compliance with the act of 1862. In 1865, the report of the Board of Education stated that seventy-seven towns had appointed truant officers. In many of the towns there was no occasion for them. In the city of Boston, according to the statement of Mr. Philbrick, Superintendent of Schools, the number of truants recorded by one of the truant officers in his district, from 1852 to 1861, inclusive, was 2,407, and the number of non-attendants put into the schools was 407. These figures do not represent so many different individuals, for some truants are recorded for more than one year. And only about 205 were complained of for truancy, of whom 166 were sentenced. During the year 1865, in the city of Lowell, twenty-nine boys and one girl were complained of for truancy, of whom twenty-six were sentenced. The children who were classed as absentees, truants and vagrants, either from the thoughtlessness and awkwardness of youth, or the indifference and indulgence of parents, had in 1846 become alarmingly numerous. The compulsory measures not hitherto deemed necessary or expedient to secure the education of the " dan gerous or perishing classes " were, by their supporters in Massachusetts, referred for their suggestion and justification to the law of New York in 1824, incorpora- ting the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents. This was the pioneer institution of this kind in this country, and De Witt Clinton pronounced it "the best penitentiary institution ever devised by the wit or established by the benefi- cence of man." In 1826, two years following the establishment of the House of Refuge in New "York, the State of Massachusetts established a similar House of Reformation, to which were to be sent " stubborn servants or children," and " children who lead PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 71 an idle or dissolute life, whose parents neglect to provide any suitable employment for, or exercise any salutary control over them." From 1846 to the present time, successive acts of the Legislature have amended the laws respecting absenteeism and vagrancy, until they have been brought to a condition of practical and comprehensive efficienc3 r . The phraseology by which absentees and truants are made amenable to the law was devised by Hon. Caleb Gushing, who was in the Legislature of 1862. "An act to establish a State Reform School " was passed in 1847. It is situated in the town of Westborough. The government of the school is vested in seven trustees, who possess corporate powers for the purpose of holding in trust, for the benefit of the Commonwealth, any property that may be given, granted or devised for the use of the school. They have authority to establish rules of discipline for the school, appoint officers, fix their salaries, subject to the approval of the Governor and Council. They are enjoined to cause the boys under their charge to be instructed in piety and morality, and in such branches of useful knowledge as are adapted to their age and capacity. They have authority to bind out boys as apprentices, or servants, until they are twenty-one years of age, or for a less period of time ; but they are required to have scrupulous regard for the moral and religious character of those to whom the boys are entrusted. As often as once in two weeks, one at least of the trustees is required to visit the school, and make an examination of the boys in the school-room and shops, and inspect the register of their conduct. Once in three months, a thorough examination by a majority of the trustees is required, and on or before the 15th day of October in each year a full report is made of the school for the year ending on the 30th day of the pre- ceding month. In 1859, the State also established a school called the " Nautical Branch of the State Reform School," the government of which is vested in five trustees, three of whom are appointed by the Governor and Council for three years, and the Boston Board of Trade and the Boston Marine Society each appoint one trustee. The trustees have control of the School Ship and other vessels belonging to the institution, and they are required to cause the boys under their charge to be instructed in navigation and the duties of seamen. They may also send a boy to sea, and in his behalf make a contract therefor. But he is no longer a member of the institution. All boys committed to the Reform School who are between four- teen and sixteen years of age are put on board of the Nautical School ; those who are less than fourteen years of age are sent to either branch of the school as may seem to the judge expedient. If the trustees of both schools concur, boys may be transferred from one school to the other. The discharge of a boy as reformed, or a voyage at sea, under a contract made by the trustees, as well as his arrival at his majority, works a complete release from all penalties created by the sentence of commitment. The city or town in which a boy resided at the time of his arrest is required to pay to the institution the sum of fifty cents per week, during the time he remains ; but the sum so paid may be recovered by the city or town of the parent, or guardian, or kindred liable by law to maintain such boy. This provision is calculated to lead to care on the part of cities or towns, in regard 1o truancy and other kindred juvenile vices, which render reform schools necessary. The whole number of commitments up to September 30, 1865, had been 3,265. The nativity of the boys is reported as 2,637 born in the United States, and 601 in foreign countries, of whom 386 were born in Ireland. It has been ascertained that 629 of the boys who have been members of the school served in the army and navy during the late war. 72 REPORT OP THE SUPERINTENDENT OF In 1855, a State Reform School for girls was established. The town of Lan- caster was selected for this purpose. The plan devised was an improvement upon that adopted for the State Reform School for boys at Westborough. Separate houses were erected and arranged for the accommodation of thirty pupils 'each. Each house contains a family, at the head of which is a matron, who stands in the relation of mother to all the children of her household. Girls between the ages of seven and sixteen years are liable to be committed to the school by the judge of probate, or by commissioners appointed for that purpose by the Governor and Council, upon the request of the mayor and aldermen of any city, or the selectmen or overseers of the poor of any town. The term of com- mitment is until the girl arrives at the age of eighteen years. The trustees have power to bind the girls as apprentices or servants, for the term of their commit- ment to the school ; and they are also made the legal guardians of girls during the entire period of their connection with the school, and while bound or held for service. Since its establishment ten years ago, the number of girls admitted has been 464. The following is a brief abstract of the laws constituting the school system of Massachusetts, and a summary of school statistics : Organization. (1.) The State by statute imposes on all the towns certain legal obligations, contributes to the means of supporting the schools, and exercises a general supervision. (2.) The towns, according to their population, must maintain free or common schools of different grades, and for longer or shorter portions of the year ; pro- vided that every town must raise a sum equal to one dollar and fifty cents for each person between the ages of five and fifteen years, for the support of schools, includ- ing only fuel, wages and board of teacher, and in which orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and good behavior, shall be taught for at least six months in the year, and they are clothed with all the powers of taxation and supervision necessary to this object, and are subjected to a penalty for not exercising these powers. (3.) School districts or territorial subdivisions of the towns, when formed by the towns, and authorized by a vote of the town for this purpose, may elect their own local officers, raise money for building, furnishing, and repairing school houses, and providing apparatus and school libraries. (4.) Every inhabitant who has any voice in public affairs is recognized in the administration and benefits of the system. (5.) Every child, white or colored, rich or poor, is entitled as a right to all the advantages of the schools, and of the libraries of the district. Supervision. Beginning with the lowest series of officers, there is : (1.) A prudential committee, of one person, chosen in each district, who must be a resident ; who has the care of the school-house, and, if there is no school-house, may hire a place in which school may be kept ; he provides fuel and all things necessary for the comfort of the scholars, and, when the town so determines, selects and contracts with the teacher. (2.) School Committee, of the Town. Each town must choose, annually, a com- mittee of three, six, or nine members, or any number divisible by three, to have the charge and superintendence of all the schools of the town. The apportionment of school money among the schools, or districts ; the examination and licensing of teachers ; the visitation of every public school, monthly, during each season of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 73 schooling, one of which visits must be within two weeks of its opening, and another within two weeks of its close ; the regulation of text books ; and the presentation of a written report respecting their own doings, and the condition and improvement of all the public schools, annually, to the town, and to the Board of Education, are devolved on this committee. They receive such compensation as the town may vote, not less than one dollar per day for the time devoted to the duties of the office. (3.) Board of Education. The Board is composed of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and eight persons appointed by the Governor and Council, with the power of appointing their own secretary. The secretary receives a salary of $2,500, and the members of the board are allowed their expenses. The powers of the Board are simply advisory, and their action on the schools results from the sug- gestions in their annual reports and other communications on the condition and improvement of the schools, which teachers, committees, districts, towns, or the Legislature, are at liberty to adopt, or reject. These reports are printed by the Legislature, and distributed widely over the State. Teachers. No person can teach in the public schools, unless he has a certificate of qualification from the school committee of the town, in respect to moral charac- ter, literary qualifications, and capacity for the government of schools. To enable young men and young women to qualify themselves, there is, in all the large towns, a town high school, open to all of the older and more advanced scholars of such towns ; incorporated academies aided originally by the State, for the purpose of giving a better education than the ordinary public schools ; and four State Normal schools, at West Newton, Bridgewater, Westfield and Salem, open without charge for tuition, to such persons as wish to qualify themselves to teach in the schools of Massachusetts . These schools are under the direction of the Board of Education . Grades of School. The lowest grade of school which the poorest and smallest town or district in the commonwealth can keep must give instruction in ortho- graphy, reading, writing, grammar, geography, arithmetic, and good behavior, for at least six months in the year. In the larger towns, containing over five hundred families or householders, there must be a school in which the teacher, in addition to the branches above specified, must be competent to instruct in the Latin lan- guage, and in general history, book-keeping, surveying, geometry, natural philoso- phy, chemistry, botany, and the civil polity of the State and the United States ; and in every town containing four thousand inhabitants the teacher or teachers of the high schools must, in addition to the branches of instruction before required, be competent to give instruction in the Greek and French languages, astronomy, geology, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science, and political economy. Any two or more adjacent school districts may maintain a union school for the more advanced scholars in each district. District Libraries, The school districts in all the towns are supplied with libraries, open to the children of the school and the inhabitants generally of the districts, through which the work of self-education can be carried on beyond the school room by individuals who have outgrown the same. Support. The support of the common schools is derived mainly from a town tax, assessed and collected like any other tax, and consists generally of an appro- priation of a portion of the annual tax raised in the towns. The expenses of edu- cation may be apportioned thus : 1. Every parent provides books, stationery, &c. 2. Every district provides school houses and appendages, fuel, &c, 3. Every town [Asscm. No. 237.] 10 74 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF provides for the compensation of the teachers, and for this purpose must raise at least one dollar and fifty cents for each person between five and fifteen years of age in the town. 4. The State has a school fund amounting to $2,000,000. Its income has thus far been appropriated partly for the support of schools, and partly for the purchase of school libraries. This fund was at first limited to one million dollars ; was subsequently increased to one and a half million, and then to two millions, The increase for the year ending June, 1865, was $121,786.03. No dis- tribution of this income can be made to any town or city which has not raised by taxation for the support of schools, during the school year embraced in the last annual returns, including only wages and board of teachers, fuel for schools, and care of fires and school rooms, a sum not less than $1.50 for each person between the ages of five, and fifteen years belonging to said town, or city, on the first day of May of said school year, and which has not also had a school kept at least six months in the year and complied also with the provisions relating to high schools. There exist also local school funds, the income of which can be appropriated for the support of schools and academies, amounting to $1,045,764.30, and the income for 1865 was $63,275.82. The following are the leading items of statistical information for the year 1864-5, namely: The attendance of pupils, the number and compensation of teachers, the average length of schools, and the amount raised by taxation for their support : Number of public schools * , 4,74 Increase for the year, 74. Number of persons in the State between five and fifteen years of age, May 1, 1864 247,275 Increase for the year, 5,631. Number of scholars of all ages in all the public schools : In summer 223,297 Decrease for the year, 660. In winter. 229,514 452,811 Increase for the year, 3,169. Number of different persons employed as teachers in public schools during the year : Males, 1,072 ; females, 6,295 7,367 Decrease of males, 138 ; increase of females, 153; total inc. 15. Average length of public schools, 7 months 17 days. Decrease for the year to each school, 2 days. Average wages of male teachers per month $54 77 Increase for the year, $7.99. Average wages of female teachers per month 21 82 Increase for the year, $2.45. Amount raised by taxes for the support of schools, including only wages, board, fuel, care of fires and school rooms 1,782,624 62 Increase for the year, $246,310.31. Average expenditure for each person between five and fifteen years of age 7 23 Increase for the year, 85 cents. Total expenditure, exclusive of expense for repairing and erecting school-houses, and cost of school books. . . , , 1,940,596 07 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 75 The following table shows the advance of the State during the four years of the war, from 1860-1 : In number of public schools 188 In number of scholars attending school 10,008 In average attendance 8,469 In number of teachers employed. 281 In number of persons between five and fifteen 157795 In amount raised by municipal taxation for schools $304,938 53 In amount paid for supervision from town treasury 7,494 84 In amount received from income of State school fund 14,917 12 In amount of tuition paid in incorporated academies 33,097 86 In amount of tuition paid in private schools 21,532 48 In wages per month for male teachers 7 06 In wages per month for female teachers 1 87 CONNECTICUT. The early school laws of Connecticut were literal transcripts of those of Mas - sachusetts. In 1838 an act was passed constituting the Governor of the State Commissioner of the School Fund, and one person from each county of the State a Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, aiming thereby to secure a better supervision of schools, by bringing their condition in the form of annual reports first before the school societies by the local visitors, and afterwards before the Legislature and the State by the communications of the Board. To make these reports subserve the progress of the system, both the State Board and the local visitors are required to submit such plans of improvement as their observation and reflection may suggest. To enable the Board to ascertain the condition of the schools, and col- lect the material for sound legislative action, they are authorized to call for infor- mation from the proper local school authorities, and to appoint a secretary, who shall devote Ms whole time, if required, under their direction, to " ascertain the condition, increase the interest, and promote the usefulness of the common schools.'* The outline of the school system is as follows : The authorities entrusted with the administration of the system are (1.) a district committee of one or three per- sons, chosen annually by the legal voters of each district, with other district officers, such as clerk, collector and treasurer. (2.) A school committee of three in each society, who take care of the financial business, with a clerk, collector and treasurer. (3.) A board of school visitors, or overseers, of not more than nine persons, also elected annually in each society, who theoretically are intrusted with the entire management of the schools. This board must examine teachers; visit all the schools twice during each season of schooling ; annul the certificates of teachers whom they find unqualified, and make an annual report to the school society. This board may appoint "an actual school visitor" to perform all the duties of visitation, examination of teachers, and make an annual report. (4.) The Commissioner of the School Fund, who is intrusted with the management of the fund and the distribution of its income. His duties are strictly financial. (5.) A Superintendent of Common Schools, whose duty it is to collect and disseminate information, to hold teachers' institutes, and to report annually to the Legislature. The support of the common schools is derived from the following sources : 76 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF (1.) The annual income of the school fund. This amounted in 1863 to $2,049,426. (2.) One-half the income of the town deposit fund, which is $763,661. Its avails in 1863 were $45,819. (3.) The avails of the local school funds. (4.) The avails of the school society tax. (5.) The avails of the district tax. (6.) Avails- of a tax, or rate-bill, on the parents and guardians of the children who attend school. This is not levied till the close of the winter or summer school, and the amount corresponds to the excess of the expenses of the school over the avails of the several school funds and the taxes. The State is divided into school societies (215), which were formerly ecclesias- tical corporations, created without reference to the boundaries of towns, but to the convenient attendance and support of divine worship. They are mainly sub- divisions of large towns. These societies have all the powers given in the other New England States to towns in reference to schools, viz.: The power of creating school districts, establishing, supporting and regulating schools, and of appointing committees and levying taxes for this purpose. Each school society is divided into (1632) small territorial corporations called school districts, with power to build school-houses, appoint local committees, establish schools, levy taxes, and make regulations not inconsistent with those of the school society to which they belong. The report of the Superintendent for the year ending August 31, 1862, gave the following exhibit : Number of towns in the State . . . . . 162 Number of school districts m the State 1,632 Number of public or common schools 1,812 Number of children between the ages of 4 and 16 years 110,491 Increase over previous year , l-,449 Average length in weeks of winter schools 18 Average length in weeks of summer school ............ r r . .-. 18 Whole number registered in winter 74,663 Whole number registered in summer 68,543 Average attendance in winter 54,995 Average attendance in summer , 48,386 Average pay of male teachers, including board $28 19 Average pay of female teachers, including board 15 80 The town school tax levied in 1862-63 78,540 00 The school district taxes were 103,943 00 The rate-bills, still collected in some towns, amounted to . 31,339 00 The State expended for support of schools 3,239 00 There was expended for new school-houses 51,623 00 RHODE ISLAND. This State established a school fund hi 1828, and ordered that $25,000 annually should be paid from the State treasury to the school committees of the several towns for the support of schools. The school fund had increased to $397,803 in 1864, and the State tax was $50,000. The State has thirty-four towns, divided into 400 school districts, which have power to choose school committees to manage school affairs. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 77 There is also a State Commissioner of Public Schools, who has the general superintendence, to whom the school committees of the districts report, and who makes an annual report to the Legislature. The report dated January, 1864, gives the following statistics : Children under 15 years of age in the State 56,934 Number of school districts in the State 400 Number of schools 3i2~ Number of teachers : male, 230 ; females, 430 660 Number of scholars in summer schools 27,075 Number of scholars in winter schools 29,641 Average attendance * 23,256 In addition to the $50,000 from the State treasury and $13,442 from registry taxes, the towns raised $99,246 for the support of schools. In some districts, school was kept longer than the public money would pay for, and the excess was paid by rate-bills, being $4,551. NEW YORK. Schools have always been in existence in New York since its settlement by the Dutch. The founders of the colony brought with them from Holland the institu- tions of their native land ; its industry, its catholicity of spirit, its care for the religious and educational welfare of the people. At a time when persecution was the rule throughout Europe, the Low Countries formed an honorable exception. No man was persecuted for adherence to Arminianism or Catholicism, to Luther or Loyola. At the same time, they provided for the intellectual progress of the children by establishing the first system of common schools in Europe. They were adjuncts to the churches, and the consistories took great care to have the children thoroughly grounded in the Heidelberg catechism and the articles of reli- gion. This education extended to all classes of society, for the college of Franeker was founded in Friesland in the year 1585, and at the same time schools were established throughout the country. The patroons in the New Netherlands were enjoined by the Home Company to make prompt provision for the support of a minister and schoolmaster, and until the arrival of regularly created officials the cares of instruction were administered by the comforters of the sick. The first regular schoolmaster, Adam Roeland- son, arrived in 1633, and immediately set up his school. Very little attention has been paid to him or to his successors by the historians of New Amsterdam, excepting to chronicle the date of their arrival or departure. Roelandson did not stay in the colony many years, but returned home, and was succeeded by others. School seems to have been kept very irregularly, and at one time during the Dutch government there was an interregnum in New Amsterdam of three months, which, among other things, called out a remonstrance from the colonists. They demanded that a school with at least two good masters should be kept, and that children should be taught not only in reading and writing, but in the religious doctrines of the church. It was not till the next century that arithmetic, of the baldest and simplest forms, was taught to the young, and geography was intro- duced during the last eighty years. Gov. Stuyvesant, who joined to his large landed possessions a true love for his adopted country, wrote to Holland, in 1649, to have a pious, well qualified, and diligent schoolmaster sent out, as those in 78 REPOKT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP the colony were not sufficiently qualified. In reply to this, search was made in the mother country for such a man, and Gideon Schaats, schoolmaster at Beest and a candidate in theology, signified his willingness to go to America, and to pay attention to the office of instructor. Rensselaerwyck had a schoolmaster almost as early as New Amsterdam, A school was also founded at an early period by the Dutch in their South River possessions. It is difficult, at this late date, to note the records of the establishment of each school, yet, if we may trust an^early historian, at the time the Dutch were compelled to yield up the province to the English, schools were to be found in almost every village in the State. There had also been created, in 1659, a Latin school, with Dr. Alexander Carolus Curtius, of Lithuania, as chief instructor. His salary was to be five hundred guilders and some perquisites yearly, and he was allowed to practice, also, as a physician in his leisure hours. He did not give satisfaction, as his discipline was either too strict or too uncertain, angering the parents, and he also claimed exemp- tion from taxes by reason of his contract. He was succeeded by ^Egidius Luyck, who had been especially selected by Stuyvesant to educate his sons. Under his superintendence the school gained such reputation that scholars were sent to it from Fort Orange, the South River, and Virginia. The Dutch colony has no proper parallel in modern history. The people were more than a month's sail from Holland, and communication was not frequent. That part of New York above Canal street was still infested by Indians, and it was necessary, much later, to provide means of defense against them. The colo- nists subsisted principally by fisheries and the fur trade, together with a little agriculture. Their largest town was no greater than a small village of the present time, having but fifteen hundred inhabitants. Albany was not half as large, and, besides these, there were no other villages larger than a country cross-road of to- day, with ten or a dozen houses. Brooklyn, the third city of the United States in 1860, was half tilled by a few farmers, who took the best land and let the other run to waste. Yet, with this scanty population, they kept six clergymen employed and paid ; three public schools, besides the Latin one, were kept going, and there was a score of private schools, against which the Governor had endeavored to use his authority, but was not able to suppress them. No great attention was paid by the English to education. Governor Nichols granted permission to John Shute to open an English school in Albany in 1665, with the proviso that he should not ask any more for tuition than the master of the Dutch one. Lord Cornbury endeavored, during his administration, which lasted from 1702 to 1708, to put down the Dutch schools on Long Island, but was not successful. The English settlements did not extend any distance back from the river, and New York colony twenty-five years before the Revolution only numbered a hundred thousand inhabitants. Schenectady had its first school in the English tongue in 1710; Schoharie about 1750. After the middle of the last century, the Dutch went gradually out of use, and the great immigration of the English, Irish, and Scotch secured the ascendancy of the English language, but the diversity of accents and nationalities injured the schools and the common speech. There was no standard as in New England, where a constant succession of Englishmen alone secured uniformity in the schools and in conversation, and the historian of New York, Smith, says that the language was hopelessly corrupt. There were few good masters, and as few good scholars. The great names of the Revolution belong to those families whose hereditary wealth enabled them to pro- cure good instructors. Columbia College (then known as King's), was founded PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 79 in 1754, and maintained a precarious existence for its first forty years. An unsuc- cessful attempt was made to organize a college in the northern part of the State twenty years after. Great changes were made by the war, among which may be noticed the complete disuse of Dutch in the schools and churches. It is true that sermons were occasionally preached in that tongue fifty years ago, but its power had gone. It was no longer able, as a living and informing tongue, to compete with the English. The old people forgot it, and the younger never learned it. Although this may have been, in one sense, a loss, yet the advantage attained by having one complete and homogeneous speech spoken in purity through the whole State has more than counterbalanced it. With the immigration of the English and Yankees in New York schools increased in number, and improved under more competent masters. Immediately after the Revolution, public attention was called to the subject of schools. The necessity of popular education was felt and acknowledged. Legis- lative action was deferred from year to year until 1795. But prior to that date, Governor Clinton had recommended " the diffusion of knowledge," through the aid and encouragement of the State. In his annual message in 1792, he said : " As the diffusion of knowledge is essential to the promotion of virtue and the preservation of liberty, the flourishing condition of our seminaries of learning must prove highly satisfactory ; and they will, I am persuaded, be among the first objects of your care and patronage, and receive, from time to time, such further aid and encouragement as may be necessary for their increasing prosperity."* In 1795, he distinctly recommended the " establishment of common schools throughout the State," and from his language we may infer that the subject had previously been introduced into the deliberations of the Legislature. " While it is evident that the general establishment and liberal endowment of academies are highly to be commended, and are attended with the most beneficial consequences, yet it cannot be denied that they are principally confined to the children of the opulent, and that a great proportion of the community is excluded from their immediate advantages. The establishment of common schools through- out the State is happily calculated to remedy this inconvenience, and will, there- fore, re-engage your early and decided consideration."! Pursuant to this recommendation the Legislature passed, April 9th, 1795, " An act for the encouragement of schools," which appropriated $50,000 a year for five years, " for the purpose of encouraging and maintaining schools in the several cities and towns in this State, in which the children of the inhabitants residing in this State shall be instructed in the English language, or be taught English gram- mar, arithmetic, mathematics, and such other branches of knowledge as are most useful and necessary to complete a good English education." The following table will show how the money was paid out of the treasury to the treasurers of the several counties in the State, by virtue of this act : Counties. March 1, 1796. March 1, 1797. March 1, 1798. $435 00 $470 00 $470 00 435 00 1 025 00 1 025 00 ... 2 360 00 1 622 50 1 622 *ift Suffolk 2 100 00 2 017 50 2 017 50 500 00 482 50 482 50 * Governor George Clinton's Message, New York, January 5, 1792. fGovernor George Clinton's Message, January 3d, 1795, 80; REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF Counties. March I, 1796. March 1, 1797. March. 1, 1798. Richmond $435 00 $377 50 $377 50 Albany 3,975 00 4,372 50 4,372 50 Herkimer 2,325 00 3,220 00 3,220 00 Montgomery 2,980 00 2,615 00 2,615 00 Saratoga 2,730 00 2,530 00 2,530 00 Columbia 3,475 00 2,860 00 2,860 00 Washington 2,880 00 2,797 50 2,797 50 Ulster 3,600 00 3,482 50 3,043 65 Otsego 2,110 00 2,170 00 1,739 23 Westchester 2,980 00 2,507 50 2,507 50 Dutchess 5,500 00 4,652 50 4,652 50 Queens 1,860 00 1,727 50 1,727 50 New York 4,720 00 5,625 00 5,625 00 Tioga 870 00 1,022 50 1,022 50 Ontario 972 50 972 50 Delaware 869 62 Schoharie 672 50 672 50 Rensselaer 2,980 00 3,777 50 2,777 50 $49,250 00 $50,000 00 $50,000 00 There was due to Ontario county, March 1, 1796, $750. The $100,000 appro- priated for 1799 and 1800 remained unpaid February 4, 1802, according to the Comptroller's report, and was never distributed. The act of 1795 expired by its own limitation, and was not revived. The Legis- lature, however, in 1805, passed the law establishing the school fund, the growth of which will appear from the accompanying table. Attention was called to it by Gov. Tompkins, on two occasions, suggesting legislative action, but nothing was done until 1812, when the Legislature passed the first act which contemplated a permanent system of common schools. This act created the office of trustee, clerk, and collector, for school districts, which were to be formed by the division of towns into convenient districts. Each town was required to elect three commissioners of common schools, whose first business was to form the school districts. They were the financial officers of the schools, to whom was paid the public money for distribution to the districts, and to whom the trustees were required to report. In every town, also, there was to be elected from one to six inspectors of schools, who, together with the said com- missioners, had the supervision of schools, and the examination of teachers. The law imposed certain duties relating to the distribution of public money, of blanks and documents, and the making and collating of reports, upon town clerks, county clerks, and county treasurers. The office of State Superintendent of Common Schools was also created, and the council of appointment bestowed it upon Gideon Hawley, who served until 1821. Mr. Hawley prepared the forms and instructions, and set the system into prac- tical operation. He found the law defective in some particulars, and especially in its administrative features, and in 1814 he submitted the draft of a law, creating no new officers, but amending the defects which impeded its easy and effective working. Among the amendments was one requiring the boards of supervisors to levy upon each of the towns a sum of money equal to the amount distributed to it from the income of the school fund. The law of 1812 had left it discretionary PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 81 with the inhabitants of the towns to vote such sum, or not, as they pleased. The act of 1806, creating the school fund, had provided that no distribution of income should be made until it amounted to $50,000 annually. The law of 1814 made it compulsory on the boards of supervisors to levy on each town a sum equal to its distributive share of the school moneys, and also authorized the levy of a like sum, in addition thereto, if voted by the town. The trustees were required to have a school kept, for three months at least, by the original act, and by_the amended act the failure to levy such sum of money worked a forfeiture of the school money for the county. The original act was framed on % the belief that the income of tlie school fund .and the tax for the same amount would maintain a school in each district for three months, and no provision was made for raising any money by district taxation or rate-bill, to make up deficiencies, or support a school for a longer time. The amended law required the trustees to cause a school to be kept three months, to apply the school moneys to the payment of teachers' wages, and if there should be a deficiency to collect it from the patrons of the school's in proportion to the attendance of their children. The school age was between five and fifteen years. The income of the school fund amounted to $-50,000 in 1813, but no distribution was made until 1815. The first annual report was made in 1813, but the first report that contained an abstract of the reports of the trustees and commissioners was made in 1816. Mr. Hawley was superseded in 1821 by the appointment of Welcome Esleeck in his place, but the Legislature the same year abolished the office of Superintendent, and made the Secretary of State, ex qfficio? Superintend- ent of Common Schools. The most important amendment to the school law for several subsequent years "was in 1822, when the right of appeal to the Superintendent in all questions aris- ing under the school laws was given in terms not since materially changed. This provision was made on the suggestion of John V. N. Yates, and it has prevented litigation which would probably have overwhelmed the courts and destroyed the school system. The school laws were revised in 1827, and form a chapter in the Revised Statutes. They remained substantially unaltered until 1841, when an act drawn by John C. Spencer was passed, creating the office of county superintend- ent of schools, to whom all appeals were to be first made, subject to revision by the State Superintendent. In 1843, the offices of town commissioner and inspec- tor were abolished, and a single officer called a town superintendent was substi- tuted. In this year teachers' institutes, which have now become a part of the school system, were first held, although their legislative recognition was not made until 1847. The Legislature in 1847 abolished the office of county superintendent, and required appeals to be brought directly to the State Superintendent, and the returns of the town superintendents to be made to county clerks. In 1849, the Legislature passed an act establishing free schools. The main fea- ture of this act was the abolition of the rate-bill, leaving the deficiency, after applying the public money to the payment of teachers' wages, to be made up by district taxation. The act was submitted to the people and approved by a vote of 249,872 in its favor, to 91,951 against it. Its opponents procured, in 1850, the passage of a law to repeal the free school act, which, being submitted to the peo- ple, was defeated by a vote of 209,616 against repeal, and 184,308 for repeal. In 1851 the controversy was settled by a repeal of the law, and levying a State tax of $800,000, to be distributed with the school moneys in support of schools, instead of the county tax equal to the annual distribution from the school fund. [Asscm. No. 237.] 11 82 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF In 1854, the Legislature created a Department of Public Instruction, and placed at its head a Superintendent, elected by joint ballot of the Senate and Assembly. The school laws remained substantially as they were left by the revision of 1847 until 1856, when the office of school commissioner was created, the office of town superintendent was abolished, and the supervisors of the several towns were made the financial agents, to hold and pay out the school moneys apportioned by the school commissioners, to the towns and districts for the support of schools. The school commissioner districts were originally, and are now nearly the same as the Assembly districts, but since 1856 some countie& entitled to one member of the Assembly have formed two commissioner districts, and other counties have more school commissioners than Assemblymen. The number of commissioners is 112, besides the superintendents of city schools. The general revision of the school law, in 1864, was an arrangement of the vari- ious existing statutes under proper titles and chapters, with such alterations and amendments as experience and the increased demand for educational privileges seemed imperatively to require. In 1866, the Legislature passed an act authorizing the taking of land for school- houses by right of eminent domain. The same thing had been done for many years in Massachusetts and other States. In 1844, the State Normal school was established at Albany. It was organized during the summer, and opened on the 18th of December. In 1863, the Oswego Training school was taken under the patronage of the State, and has been, by the laws of 1866 and 1867, erected into a Normal school. Under chapter 466 of the laws of 1866, four Normal schools have been authorized one at Fredonia, one at Brockport, one at Cortland, and one at Potsdam, The Legislature has, also, by special acts in 1867, authorized the establishment of one at Geneseo and another at Buffalo. In 1834, an act of the Legislature required the Regents of the University to apply the surplus income of the literature fund, beyond the sum of $12,000, to the education of common school teachers, by the distribution of it to such acade- mies as should undertake their instruction. In 1838, the income of the United States deposit fund was appropriated as foj^ lows, viz.: $110,000 to the payment of teachers' wages; $55,000 to the purchase of books for district libraries ; to the literature fund $28,000, to be expended for the education of common school teachers; to colleges, $15,000. It was supposed that the income would amount to $260,000, and that the residue would be $50,000, which was directed to be annually added to the capital of the school fund. For several years the importunity of local institutions extracted from the Legislature appropriations so large, that no surplus was left to be added to the capital of the school fund. The Constitutional Convention of 1846 ordained that $25,000 annually should be set apart from the income of the United States deposit fund, and become a part of the capital of the school fund. In 1840, Governor Seward estimated that the capital would be $3,000,000 by the year 1850. But it had increased from 1840 to 1846 only from $1,932,421,99 to $2,090,632.41,, or $58,210.42. From 1846 to 1866, it increased to $2,799,630.04, or $708,997.63 in twenty years being at the rate of $35,449.88. It will be seen that the $25,000 set apart by this Constitution from the income of the United States deposit fund has been the chief accretion of the common school fund, and that without it the fund in 1866 would have reached only $2,299,630,04. The Legislature of 1856 also substituted for the $800,000 State tax a levy of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 83 three-fourths of a mill upon every dollar of the valuation of real and personal Hjstate. This law graduated the tax so that it would increase yearly with the increased valuation of. the State. It made growing wealth contribute to educate the growing population. By the law of 1812, the public money was paid to those districts only that should maintain a school for three months in the year, kept by a qualified teacher. In 1841 the time was increased to four months, in 1851 to six months, and in 1804 to twenty-eight weeks. The law of the present year, abolishing rate bills and establishing free schools, has done away with that feature in the system which has l>een most prolific of dispute and controversy ; which has imposed the heaviest and most perplexing duties upon trustees ; which has been burdensome and odious to the poor ; which has imposed an unequal and unjust tax upon the families more blessed in their children than in their basket and store ; and which has been the great cause of irregular attendance and absenteeism . The following table exhibits the sums levied annually by rate bill since the year 1828 ^ Year. Amount. 1828 .., $297,048 49 1829 346,807 20 1830 ...^ 374,001 54 1831 358,320 17 1832 , 369,696 36 1833 398,137 04 1834 419,878 69 1835 425,643 61 1836 436,346 46 1837 477,875 27 1838 521,477 49 1839 476,443 27 1840 ... 475,000 00 1841 468,688 22 1842 509,376 97 1843 447,565 97 1844 458,127 78 1845 460,764 78 1846 462,840 74 1847 466,674 85 1848 489,6% 63 1849 508,724 56 1850 136,949 59 1851 224,971 71 1852 308,851 30 1853 ...... 330,190 93 1854 382,359 08 1855 461,779 13 1856 427,956 07 1857 390,515 50 1858 (9 months; 318,353 41 1S58-59 414,062 72 1859-60 420,257 98 84 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF Year Amount. 1860-01 -#397,215 8T 1801-62 * 407,009 57 1802-63 303,741 05 1803-64 , 429,892 52: 1864-05 655,158 78 1805-00,. , 709,02536 Total $10,427,426 66 The average sum yearly collected by rate-bill for the forty years included in* the table is $410,685.66. For the fourteen years prior to 1828, it is probable that the amount collected by rate-bill was $250,000 a year ; and we may reasonably suppose that the sum. for the year ending September 30, 1867, will be $700,000, The aggregate will be,, therefore, increased to $20,627,426.66 for fifty-four years, and the yearly average- will be $381,989.38. It will be observed tEat the sum raised by rate-bill has uniformly exceeded and generally quadrupled the amount distributed from the income of the common school fund. It has as regularly exceeded the whole public money apportioned from the school fund and the United States deposit fund, and added to the county and town taxes until the imposition of the State tax in 1851. The years> to be excepted from these statements are 1850-1-2, the years of the free school controversy. The rate-bill has been the special tax upon the patrons of the com- mon schools. It may justly be styled a tax upon knowledge. The present law has merely transferred this burden from the fathers of families to the taxable pro- perty of the whole State. If the rate-bill shall be abolished, the common schools will hereafter be sup- ported from the following sources :* 1. The income of the common school fund. 2. The amount that the Legislature may annually set apart from the income of the United States deposit fund, 3. The general State tax. 4. District, village and city taxation. 5. The income of local funds. (1.) The revenue of the commqn school fund is about $170,000 a year. The distribution from it is, at present, $155,000 yearly. (2.) The appropriation from the income of the United States deposit fund is- $105,000 annually ; but it depends upon the Legislature, which may at any time divert the income to some other object. (3.) The main dependence of the schools, so far as relates to the payment of teachers' wages, must be upon the State tax, which, being fixed at one and a quarter mills upon each dollar of valuation, will probably yield about two millions of dollars a year. The income of the two funds is about one-eighth of the sum annually needed to pay teachers. (4.) District, village and city taxation is voluntary, and the amount raised annually varies with the exigencies of the year. The purchase of sites, the build- ing of school-houses, and the furnishing of them with seats, desks, chairs, stoves, fuel and apparatus are all done by local taxation. No money has ever been * Since the date of this report the rate-bill has been abolished. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 1 85 appropriated for these objects from the income of the State funds, or the avails of the State tax. (5.) The income of. local funds, chiefly gospel and school lands, was last year ),182.60. It does not vary much from year to year. Apportionment. The public moneys apportioned annually are the income of the school fund and the United States deposit fund, and the proceeds of the State tax. The Superintendent of Public Instruction, after ascertaining the amount to be apportioned, (1.) Sets apart from the income of the United States deposit fund the amount necessary to pay the salaries of the school commissioners. (2.) To each city having a superintendent of common schools, x>r clerk doing the duty of supervision, the sum of five hundred dollars for each member of Assembly to which the city is entitled. (3.) The library money appropriated by the Legislature. (4.) He then sets apart from the free school fund two thousand dollars for a contingent fund. (5.) He then sets apart for the support of Indian schools an equitable sum, the same in proportion to their numbers that is apportioned to schools for white children . (6.) He then ascertains the total of the sums so apportioned, and deducts it from the aggregate of school moneys appropriated, and divides the remainder into two parts, one equal to one-third thereof, and one to two-thirds. (7.) The one-third thereof is distributed to the districts, each district in which a school has been taught twenty L eight weeks by a qualified teacher to have one share, and an additional share for every additional qualified teacher who has taught the said term ; and the term may be completed by a succession of qualified teachers. (8.) He then apportions the remaining two-thirds, and also the library money, among the several counties according to their population, excluding Indians, as it appears from the State or United States census, last previously made ; but in coun- ties where there are cities having special school acts, separate apportionments are made, the one to the city and the other to the rest of the county. (9.) There are four separate neighborhoods to which he apportions a sum, deemed equitable, out of the contingent fund. When the apportionment is completed he certifies to the county clerk, county treasurer and to the school commissioners, and to city chamberlains or treasurers, the amount apportioned to each county and city. The apportionment is payable on the first day of February after it is made. The school commissioners of a county, having received such certificate, meet and proceed to apportion the money to the several districts. (1.) They set apart to each district the " district quotas " allowed by the State Superintendent. (2.) They set apart any sums of money assigned to any districts as equitable allowances. (3.) Deducting the above sums from the money applicable to the payment of teachers' wages, they divide the remainder into two equal parts, one of which is apportioned to the districts in proportion to the number of children residing in tlu-m between the ages of five and twenty-one years. The other half is then apportioned to the districts according to the average daily attendance of resident pupils. 86 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF (4.) They also apportion the library money according to the number of resident children between five and twenty-one years. Having then signed their apportionment in duplicate, they deliver one copy to the county treasurer, and send one to the Superintendent of Public Instruction. They also certify to the supervisor of each town the amount of school money apportioned to his town, the portions thereof to be paid by him for library money and for teachers' wages, and to each district and separate neighborhood. Organization. The school district is the smallest territorial subdivision of the State. It is formed by the school commissioner, who makes an order defining its boundaries, and files it in the office of the town clerk of the town or towns in which it is situ- ated. The commissioner may alter a district by a similar order, a copy of which must be served on the trustees of the districts affected. If they give their written assent, the order takes effect immediately, or on any day named therein, not between October 1st and April 1st, thereafter. If they withhold their assent, it may take effect on any day named therein, not less than three months from its date, but not between October 1st and April 1st, thereafter. But the trustees, on receiving notice of the order, and of a day and place when their objections may be heard, may request the supervisor and town clerk of the town or towns within which the district is situated to be present. The decision of this joint meeting is final unless appealed from, and must either confirm or vacate the commissioner's order. The decision must be filed in the town clerk's office. A joint district is one that lies partly in two or more counties. A neighborhood is a small subdivision whose inhabitants are permitted to send their children to a school in an adjoining State. Union free school districts are formed under the law that authorizes the inhabi- tants, lawfully assembled in district meeting, to organize in a district comprising more territory and inhabitants, and possessing more enlarged powers than an ordinary district. About 100 districts have been formed by acts of the Legislature, granting special powers and privileges. The inhabitants, at the annual district meeting to be held on the second Tuesday of October in each year, have power to elect a chairman, one or three trustees, a district clerk, a collector and librarian. They have the power to designate a site for a school-house, to vote taxes to pay for a site, and to build and repair school- houses, and to furnish them with fuel and appendages, and to make up deficiencies for previous taxes. They may also vote taxes not exceeding $25, for apparatus and text books, $10 for library, $25 for contingent expenses, and any sum neces- sary to insure the school-house, furniture, books and apparatus, and to pay the costs of prosecuting and defending suits in which the district is interested, and the reasonable expenses incurred therein by district officers. By chapter 406 of the laws of 1867 the money necessary to support the schools, after the public school moneys have been applied, is to be raised by district taxation. The librarian is elected for one year, and has charge of the district library. The collector serves for a year, gives a bond for the faithful discharge of his duties, which consist in collecting the moneys due on tax lists, and holding them subject to the order of the trustees. The clerk holds office for a year. It is his duty to keep a record of the district meetings ; to call annual and special meetings ; to attend the meetings of trustees, and keep a record of their proceedings ; to notify persons of their election to office ; PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 87 to report to the town clerk the names and post-office address of district officers ; to give trustees notice of every resignation accepted by the supervisor ; and to keep and preserve all the records, books and papers belonging to the office. The district may elect one or three trustees. If it decide to have but one, he is elected for one year, and thenceforth the district can elect but one trustee. If it decide to have three trustees, their term of office is three years one to be elected annually. The three trustees act as a board. The sole trustee has the same_ power as a board of three. The sole trustee, or the board, holds the property of the district as a corporation. The powers and duties of trustees are to call meetings; to make out tax lists and warrants ; to purchase sites, and build or hire school-houses ; to insure dis- trict property ; to have the custody and safe keeping of the school-house and other property ; to contract with and employ teachers, and pay them ; and generally to attend to all the business of the district. All children between the ages of five and twenty-one years residing in the dis- trict may attend school ; and non-residents, by the written consent of the trus- tees, may attend on such terms as may be prescribed by the trustees. None but a qualified teacher can receive public money in payment for his wages. A qualified teacher is one who holds a diploma from a State Normal school, a cer- tificate from the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or from a school commis- sioner, or from the city or village officer empowered to grant one. Such certifi- cates and diplomas are good for the time, and for the grade named therein, but may be canceled and annulled, and thus rendered invalid. Teachers are required to keep school lists of all pupils, showing their daily attendance in the schools. The trustees of each school district are required, between the first and fifteenth days of October, in every year, to make and send to the school commissioner a report in writing, dated on the first day of October of the year in which it is made, and to sign and certify it, and deliver it to the clerk of the town in which the school-house of the district is situate ; and every such report must certif} r : 1 . The whole time any school has been kept in their district during the year ending on the day previous to the date of such report, and distinguishing what portion of the time such school has been kept by qualified teachers, and the whole number of days, including holidays, in which the school was taught by qualified teachers. 2. The amount of their drafts upon the supervisor, for the payment of teachers' wages during such year, and the amount of their drafts upon him for the purchase of books and school apparatus during such year, and the manner in which such moneys have been expended. 3. The number of children taught in the district school or schools during such year by qualified teachers, and the sum of the days' attendance of all suph chil- dren upon the school. 4. The number of children residing in the district on the last day of September previous to the making of such report, between the ages of five and twenty-one, and the names of the parents or other persons with whom such children respec- tively reside, and the number of children residing with each. 5. The amount of money paid for teachers' wages, in addition to the public money paid therefor, the amount of taxes levied in said district for purchasing school-house sites, for building, hiring, purchasing, repairing, and insuring school- houses, for fuel, for district libraries, or for any other purposes allowed by law, 88 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP and such other information in relation to the schools and the district as the Super- intendent of Public Instruction may from time to time require. The town clerk is required to keep in his office all books, maps, papers, and records touching schools ; to record in a book the certificate of apportionment of school moneys ; to notify the trustees of the filing of such certificate ; to obtain from trustees their annual reports ; to furnish the school commissioner with the names and post-offica address of all district officers ; to distribute to trustees all books and blanks forwarded to him for their use ; to file and record the final accounts of supervisors ; to preserve the supervisor's bond ; to file and keep the description of district boundaries ; and when called upon, to take part in the erec- tion or alteration of a school district. The supervisor is vested with the powers formerly possessed by* the trustees of gospel and school lots, and with the powers imposed by the act of 1829, in relation to moneys in the hands of the overseers of the poor. The school moneys appor- tioned to the several towns are paid over by the county treasurer to the supervisor, who gives a bond, with two sureties, in the penalty of double the amount of money set apart to the town, for the safe keeping, disbursement, and accounting for of such moneys, and all other school moneys that may come into his hands. The school moneys apportioned to a county are paid by the State Treasurer on the warrant of the Superintendent of Public Instruction ; the Treasurer's check on the bank in which the money is deposited is countersigned by the Superintend- ent a-nd made payable to the order of the county treasurer. The school commissioners are elected in separate districts originally formed by the boards of supervisors, but now established by law. The number of commis- sioners is one hundred and twelve. Their term of office is three years. They have power, and it is their duty, to see that the boundaries of districts are correctly described ; to visit and examine the schools ; to advise with and counsel the trustees ; to look after the condition of the school-houses, and condemn such as are entirely unfit for use ; to recommend studies and text-books ; to examine and license teachers ; to examine charges against teachers, and, on sufficient proof, annul their certificates ; and when required by the Superintendent, to take and report testimony in cases of appeal. It is also their duty, annually, to apportion and divide among the districts the school moneys apportioned to their respective counties by the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Superintendent of Public Instruction is elected by joint ballot of Senate and Assembly. He holds office for three years; has general superintendence of the public schools, visits them, inquires into their management, and advises and directs in regard to their course of instruction and discipline. He apportions and distributes the public moneys appropriated by the State for the support of schools; examines the supple- mentary apportionments made to all the districts by the school commissioners, and sees that to each district is set apart its proportionate share, and that the same is expended by the trustees, and pard by the supervisors of towns, according to law. He gives advice and direction to school officers, teachers, and inhabitants upon all questions arising under the school laws. He establishes rules and regulations concerning appeals. He hears and decides all appeals, involving school controver- sies, that arelbrought before him, and his decision is final. He is charged with the general control and management of teachers' institutes in the several counties of the State ; is authorized to employ teachers and lecturers for the institutes, and to pay them, and to certify the accounts for expenses incurred by the commissioners in conducting the same. He is required by the law to visit the institutes, and to PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 89 advise and to direct concerning their proper management. He establishes rules and regulations concerning district school libraries ; he makes appointments of State pupils to the institutions for the instruction of the deaf and dumb and for the blind, upon the certificate of the proper local officers ; and he visits and exam- ines into the condition and management of these institutions. He is chairman of the executive committee of the State Normal school at Albany, and apportions among the counties the number of pupils to which each is entitled. He is one of the board for the selection of the places in which to establish four additional Nor- mal schools. After the schools are established, he has general supervision and direction of them ; he appoints the local board to manage them ; he approves the rules for their government ; he directs the form of their reports ; and all payments for their support are paid upon his certificate. He approves the course of study ; the number of teachers and their wages are subject to his approval ; he can cause one or more of the schools to be composed of males, and one or more of females, in his discretion; and he decides upon the manner in which pupils shall be admit- ted from the several parts of the State. He has similar poweis over the Oswego Normal school.* He has charge of all the Indian schools in the State, employs local agents to superintend them, visits them, and directs concerning the erection and repair of their school-houses, and determines the branches of instruction to be pursued in the schools He is, ex officio, a Regent of the University and chairman of the committee on teachers' classes in academies. He is also, ex officio, a mem- ber of the Board of Trustees of the Idiot Asylum, the People's College, and the Cornell University. He receives and compiles the abstracts of the reports from all the school districts in the State, setting forth their condition and proceedings, and the account of receipts and expenditures for each year. He makes annually to the Legislature a report of the condition of all the schools and institutions under his supervision, and recommends such measures as, in his judgment, will contri- bute to their welfare and efficiency. Attendance. The following table exhibits the attendance of pupils at the academies and com- mon schools since 1839. The second column shows the number of pupils pursu- ing classical studies at the several dates ; the third column shows the number instructed in the common schools : Date. 1839 Classical Pupils in Academies. 7,070 Pupils attending Common Schools. 572,995 Date. 1853 Classical Pu- pils in Acad- mies. 20,977 Pupils attend- ing Common Schools. 844,186 1840 8 842 603,583 1854 22,675 856 512 1841 10,186 598,749 1855 22,788 830,491 1842 10,560 657,782 1856 18,051 832,735 1843 11 277 709 156 1857 20,860 842 137 1844 11,699 736,045 1858 21,633 599,229 1845 184 ; >. .. 12,257 13 481 742,433 748,387 1859.... I860 20,571 21,125 851,533 867 388 1847 184S 13,998 14,262 775,723 778,309 1861.... 1862 22,335 22,685 872,854 892,550 1849 15 043 794,500 1863 21 314 886 815 1850 16 514 726,291 1864 21,548 881,184 1851 17 912 832 481 1865 21 947 916 617 1852 19 552 622,268 1866 23 035 919 309 * Since this report was written, six additional Normal schools have been authorised to be erected under the supervision of the Superintendent. [Asscm. No. 237.] 12 90 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF The whole number of pupils under instruction in the State during the year 1866 was 1,019,069, of whom 1,541 were in the colleges, 36,465 in the academies, 61,754 in private schools, and 919,309 in the common schools. The percentage which each number bears to the aggregate is as follows : In the colleges 00151 In the academies ^ 03578 In the private schools 06060 In the common schools , 90211 1.0000 Nothing could more conclusively show the paramount importance of the com- mon schools. The number of different teachers employed in 1866 was 26,494, of whom 5,062 were males, and 21,432 females. The number actually necessary to supply all the schools, if each teacher should teach throughout the year, is 15,666. The schools were in session on an average during the year, in the cities, forty- three weeks ; and in the rural districts thirty -two weeks and two days. Progress of the School System. The following table exhibits a comparative statement of the progress of the State in population, wealth, and education for the past fifty years, by decades, from 1815, when the school system went into practical operation. The population has nearly quadrupled. The assessed valuation of property is nearly seven times as great ; and doubtless the actual value of property is ten times as much. The number of school districts is five times as many ; and the whole surface of the State, with the exception of the northern wilderness, which roads and canals have not yet opened to settlement and cultivation, has been mapped into districts. The first four decades show more children taught than were enumerated. The cause of this apparent anomaly is that the school age was between four and six- teen until 1851, when it was changed from four to twenty-one. The gross expenditures for the support of common schools cannot be accurately stated for the time prior to 1854, because the trustees had not been required to make returns of the cost of sites and school-houses ; of the expense of fuel, repairs, and furniture ; of the amount of local taxation ; and of the salaries and fees of school officers. o> i o o o st^ If o g 0*0 'i ^ o s * llfl - x " g 'C 3 "S "^ ^"" .-H c3 , * CQ bC *rt ^ .^ r^ 55 c .S ft t> ^O p .2 S3 ft <*H CO O -^ C ^ "^ g 2 Be .2 *" as 4< CM > * S ^ cc S O * 1815 1,035,9'0 $292,388,827 2,631 176,449 140,106 $60,000 1825 1,614,458 299,197,721 7.642 395,586 402.940 80,000 $80,000 . 1835 2,174,517 527.531,634 10,207 538,398 541,401 100,000 100,000 $739,020 1845 2,604,495 605,646,095 11,018 703,399 742.433 110,000 193,503 1,191,697 1,203,139 1855 3,466,212 1,402,849,304 11,798 1,214,113 945,087 155,000 800,000 4,679,815 1,418,100 1865 3,831,777 1,550.879,685 11,780 1,398,757 916,617 155,000 1,148,422 7,383,606 1,181,811 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 91 An item small in each case, but large in the aggregate, does not appear. Every pupil must be supplied with text-books. The expense of supplying all the pupils in the common schools cannot fall short of one million of dollars a year. The value of the school-houses and school-house sites is reported as follows : Years. Cities. Rural Districts. Total. In 1866 86,720,535 $5,534,422 $12,254,957 In 1865 5,041,061 4,904,862 9,945,923 The difference between the valuation of 1865 and 1866 is not due to an actual increase in the number and value of the houses and sites, but to the incomplete returns of 1865. The valuation of 1866 is not quite complete. The burden of local taxation for buying sites, building houses, for repairing, furnishing, and insuring, for fencing and out-houses, will appear from the fact that in 1866 the amount expended for such purposes was $970,224.68 ; and that the amount thus expended for the last ten years was $6,980,743.40. The number of school-houses in 1866 was reported as 181 log-houses, 9,815 frame houses, 1,021 brick houses, and 530 stone houses. The value of the sites and houses was reported at $6,720,535 in the cities, and $5,534,422 in the rural districts a total of $12,254,957. 92 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF Statement of the Investment of the Capital of the School Fund at the close of each fiscal year since its establishment to Sept. 30, 18G6. YEARS. BONDS. LOANS OP For lands sold. For loans. 1786. 1792. 1808. 1840. 1805 $24,900 00 42,800 00 62,778 00 83,403 00 101,501 00 69,653 75 101,924 52 143,965 38 222,540 51 245,034 17 328,207 30 392,076 93 397,980 71 390,000 17 1806 $87,674 83 163,407 63 212,246 31 219,995 21 232,702 97 240,370 67 263,743 26 260,342 26 268,124 86 291,424 91 320,165 33 309,383 60 318,434 39 3807 1808 .... 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 $500,000 00 500,000 00 500,000 00 496,177 50 483,232 87 450,660 92 410,547 06 382,549 40 353,486 96 332,564 35 317,860 17 300,073 54 275,591 91 246,537 63 215,037 93 201,000 66 179,571 17 160,038 95 156,106 57 150,981 58 138,401 74 134,508 61 130,792 14 115,995 72 113,262 73 110,671 23 107,472 14 105,232 60 103,054 15 97,363 14 89,893 50 17,982 86 379 50 $449,076 00 449,076 00 449,076 00 449,076 00 447,495 25 443,990 50 439,372 50 434,182 50 430,121 50 426,303 54 411J352 82 393,461 53 363,985 16 332,092 75 299,453 46 285,193 04 260,120 93 242,078 44 235,917 06 232,106 06 223,065 22 222,098 22 220,346 22 221,176 95 219,174 95 214,886 26 212,214 26 208,469 84 202,613 03 198,771 03 191,588 32 21,757 81 3,643 46 946 45 679 45 299 31 299 31 299 31 1820 1821 4,554 57 1822 1823 1824 1825 23,883 39 85,749 12 100,664 46 112,751 28 186,624 59 201,611 65 212,421 98 242,613 52 335,233 22 670,009 23 651,510 80 801,646 20 1,098,577 86 1,154,869 48 1,118,098 35 1,094.221 62 1,047,055 80 1,022,200 85 1,087,554 15 1,014,305 07 1,001,542 92 975,711 18 913,361 57 887,024 23 826,149 19 744,854 97 703,438 29 710,975 40 652,435 30 584,010 87 567,829 02 540,932 91 551,458 12 535,926 19 529,697 66 515,198 78 488,146 07 459,210 53 422,575 87 412,163 73 370,388 96 335,189 17 317,168 48 290,303 17 1826 1827 $31,624 38 30,095 21 20,665 00 10,157 22 9, oil 47 9,158 59 3,394 65 2,826 87 2,815 12 2,815 12 2,815 12 2,815 12 2,815 12 2,815 12 2,815 12 1828 .... !,500 00 1,500 00 18,800 00 20,850 00 17,663 06 24,650 00 40,655 00 176,644 48 190,330 89 264,530 21 287,596 29 326,613 63 409,087 14 424,118 03 409,316 11 367,325 28 338,561 87 311,883 88 293,941 43 257,865 33 236,901 74 246,131 75 198,269 02 209,034 72 217,845 36 236,754 17 248,963 97 248,967 29 1829 1830 1831 1832 .. . 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 $1,500 00 33,200 00 33,200 00 33,200 00 8,200 00 8,200 00 8,200 00 8,200 00 8,200 00 12,200 00 41,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 310,227 29 349,193 11 381,218 09 370,253 41 408,469 71 375,747 61 339,461 05 285,028 15 254,902 83 197,388 54 1858 1859 .. 1860 1861 ... 1862 .. .. 1863 1864 1865 1866 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 49,326 00 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 93 tEARS. r^ O Q 03 M c e3 PQ M* _0 8 c3 OQ Comptroller's bonds. 9) ,a c >> JK'g II g *=> 1 II s . 35 4* W g-S'S JM .2 ra *> i 7 *20 531 17 390,637 15 180q. . 79,100 3 350 30 24,231 40 428, 177 91 1810-. 18U-. 1812- 1813-. 1814- 118,500 165,000 180,000 255,000 270,000 326 33 2-,338 37 5,345 54 35,955 43 42 548 02 28,455 87 48.831 13 43,703 89 36,830 1-9 35 750 84 483,326 29 558,464 69 636,758 07 822,064 94 861,457 89 1815- 270,000 44,482 92 934,015 13 1816- 270,000 982,242 26 i817.- 264,000 971,364 31 1818- 261,000 17- 454 53 60 000 00 1,044,889 09 1819-. 180,000 100,000 00 1,229,076 00 180,000 86 500 00 1,215,526 00 1821- 180,000 52,011 41 1,185,641 98 -1822-. 1823 180,000 180,000 $13,000 00 3,822 50 8,827 91 $6,686 85 8,853 63 20,064 55 7,620 23 1,155,827 40 1,172,913 28 1824.- 1825- 180,000 180,000 T3,000 00 168,000 00 89,025 37 9,520 56 11,781 88 27,620 23 1,290,046 14 1.319,886 46 1826.. 180,000 220,000 00 11.830 88 12., 163 58 1,353,477 64 1827-. 280,000 220,000 00 97,653 00 11,676 37 .... 1,611,097 80 1828- 280,000 320,000 00 70,446 24 23 607 81 1,684,628 80 1829.. 280,000 395.826 00 45,091 72 26.363 55 1,711,081 24 1830 . . 280,000 407,000 00 83,463 85 1,735,569 66 1831 280,000 407 000 00 61 887 64 1 754,159 40 1832.. 230,000 327,000 00 2,714 02 1,735,175 28 1833.. 230,000 330,000 00 1,754,046 84 1834. . 230,000 230,000 00 1,791,321 77 1835. 105,050 52,413 15 1 875,191 71 1836.. 103,250 64,111 29 1,917,494 17 1837.. 102,300 39,880 37 1,919,647 68 1838. . 102,300 1,720 79 55,266 05 *2,700 00 1,929,707 51 1839.. 102,300 21,755 91 67,414 57 *3,000 00 1,932,421 99 1840.. 102,300 21,755 91 117,542 10 2,033,807 95 1841.. 1842.. 102,300 102,300 23,200 96 23,200 96 12,302 06 48,797 91 2,036,625 68 1,968,290 72 1843. . 102,300 23,200 96 115,086 31 1,975,093 15 1844.. 1845.. 102,300 50,000 23,200 96 115,500 96 "$51,645 49 219,384 85 320,354 11 1,992,916 35 2,090,832 41 1846.. 1847 . . 50,000 50,000 115,500 96 115,500 96 51,645 49 51,645 49 413,928 46 555,406 32 2,133,928 46 2,170,514 47 1848.. 50,000 280,500 96 451,645 49 143,236 81 *:::::::* 2,211,475 14 1849.. 50,000 228,200 96 656,445 49 64,665 05 2,243,563 30 1850.. 50,000 213,200 96 884,981 65 152,179 53 2,290,673 23 1851 . . 50,000 213,200 96 1,034,981 65 112,548 13 2,325,449 72 1852.. 50,000 193,200 96 1,052,981 65 206,578 80 2,354,530 09 1853 . . 50,000 193,200 96 1,054,986 16 230,481 87 2,383,257 23 1854.. 50,000 193,200 96 1,043,341 33 229,147 49 2,425,211 97 1855.. 50,000 231,460 96 1,043,341 33 282,667 85 2,457,520 86 1856. . 50,000 231,460 96 1,043,341 33 347,329 30 2,491,916 14 1857.. 1858.. 50,000 50,000 231,460 96 936,502 29 1,043,341 33 356,300 00 312,339 00 294,740 34 2,526,392 24 2,551,260 52 1859.. 50,000 936,502 29 356,300 00 324,763 71 2 586,251 16 I860.. 50,000 936,502 29 366,360 00 385,444 45 2,607,036 68 1861.. 50,000 1,135,057 24 356,300 00 286,173 20 2,625,476 94 1862.. 50,000 1,135,057 24 356,300 00 279,521 84 2,658,116 42 1863.. 50,000 1,135,057 24 356,300 00 394,019 08 2,694,552 33 1864.. 50,000 1,135,057 24 356,300 00 523,312 59 2,734,213 15 1865.. 50,000 1,135,057 24 356,300 00 603,006 22 2,765,760 77 1866.. 50,000 1,165,057 24 36,000 00 1,011,555 09 2,799,630 04 Treasury notes. 94 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SUMMARY OF SCHOOL STATISTICS, The following table is a summary of the statistical and common schools for the year ending September 30, 1866 : Statistical. Cities. Number of districts 301 Number of teachers employed at the same time for twenty-eight weeks or more. . . 3,566 Number of children between five and twen- ty-one years of age 520,416 Aggregate number of weeks' sehooi by qualified teachers 19,879 Number of male teachers employed 355 Number of female teachers employed.... 3,398 Number of children attending school 326,798 Average daily attendance 143,915 Number of times schools hare been visited by commissioners Number of 'volumes in district libraries. . . 105,222 Number of log-houses.' Number of frame houses 61 Number of brick houses 236 Number of stone houses 4 Aggregate number of school-houses 301 financial reports of the Receipts. Amount on hand October 1, 1865 Apportionment of public moneys , Proceeds of gospel and school lands . . . Raised by tax Raised by rate-bill From all other sources Financial. Cities. $486,908 09 477,217 98 835 99 2,94'5,166 38 23,352 47 Rural Districts. Total. 11,428 11,729 12,100 15,666 844,259 1,364,675 349,595 369,474 4,707 5,062 18,034 21,432 592,511 919,309 263,401 407,316^ 17,327 17,327 1,076,589 1,181,811 181 181 9,754 9,815 785 1,021 526 530 11,246 11,547 Rural Districts. Total. $96,550 12 $583,458 20 929,118 24 1,406,336 22 19,182 60 20,018 59 1,131,559 14 4,076,725 52 709,025 36 709,025 3fr 564,690 38 588,042 85 Totals ......................... $3,933,48090 $3,450,12584 $7,383,60674 Expenditures : For teachers' wages .... ...... $2,093,042 90 For libraries .......... .. ............. For school apparatus ..... .*t... ...... For colored schools ...... .,.,......... Fo roo-1-houses, sites, &c ...... .... ^or all other incidental expenses ...... Forfeited, in hands of supervisors ... Amount on hand October 1, 1866 ...... 8,617 89 173,870 48 25,824 76 489,348 67 540,181 69 602, 594 51 $2,465,847 76 $4,558,890 6ft 18,882 29 27,500 18 12,823 41 186,693 95 4,872 08 30,696 84 480,875 92 970,224 59 318,421 74 858,603 43 326 29 326 29 148,076 29 750,670 80 Totals $3,933,48090 $3,450,12584 $7,383,60674 Deducting from these totals the amounts remaining on hand October 1, 1866, we find the actual expense of maintaining the schools during the year to have been : In the cities $ 3,330,886 39 In the rural districts 3,302,049 55 Total $ 6,632,935 94 Corresponding total for 1865 5,735,460 24 Showing an increase of $897,475 70- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 95 Much interesting information is furnished in the following summary : STATISTICAL AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT. (/ T or the rural districts only.) School districts having a sole trustee 5,930 School districts having two trustees 563 School districts having three or more trustees 4,549 School districts owning a school-house site 95&45- School districts not owning a school-house site 1,074 Districts having school-house separated from highway by a fence. . . 1,577 Districts having school-house not so enclosed 9,372 Districts having privy for school 8,464 Districts not having privy for school 2,305 Districts in which teachers hoarded around 7,257 Districts in which teachers did not board around 3,871 Districts having school taught five days each week 10,694 Districts having school taught alternate Saturdays 355 Amount of wages paid teachers while attending institutes $4,975 58 Number of school districts which used library money for teachers' wages 7,940 Amount of library money used for teachers' wages $16,443 75 Number of school districts in which trustees exempted indigent per- sons from payment of rate-bills 2,327 Number of school districts in which trustees did not so exempt indi- gent persons 7,764 Amount of exemptions made during the school year $47,873 56 Number of school districts in which trustees keep records in a dis- trict book 8,780 Number of school districts in which trustees do not keep records. . 2.120 Average size of school-house sites, in square rods 385 Number of districts organized under special acts 96 NEW JERSEY. New Jersey has established a school fund, the income of which is annually dis- tributed for the support of schools. The State is divided into towns and districts. The school districts elect trustees who have the charge of the district property, and employ teachers, and manage school affairs. A town superintendent is elected, who has power to form and alter districts, to call annual meetings, to examine and license teachers, to apportion the public money to the districts, to make an enumeration of all children in the town between the ages of five and eighteen, to visit the schools, and advise and consult with trustees and teachers, and to report annually to the State Superintendent. The county board of chosen freeholders are required to appoint in each county two examiners and visitors, who, in connection with the town superintendent, exam- ine and license teachers. The several townships in the State are authorized by law yearly to vote a tax for the support of schools, not exceeding three dollars for every child named in the lists transmitted the previous year by the trustees to the town superintendent. 96 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF There is a State Superintendent of Public Schools, whose duty it is to see that the laws respecting public schools are faithfully executed, the public moneys for their support fairly applied, and generally to visit the towns and advise with the superintendents, trustees and teachers, and annually to make a report of the con- dition of schools, with such recommendations and 1 suggestions as he thinks proper to the Legislature. During the last year a Board of Education was established, with power to elect the State Superintendent, who will hereafter make his report to the Board. The Board has power to direct the holding of teachers' institutes, and has also the charge of the State Normal schooL PENNSYLVANIA. By the law of 1836, every township* ward r or borough in the commonwealth., not within the city and incorporated districts of the city of Philadelphia, forms a separate school district. Each district has a board of school directors, consisting; of six members, two of whom are chosen every year. The directors are authorized, if they deem it expedient, to divide the districts into sub-districts, with power to- elect a primary committee of three in each, who act as a committee of the board to attend to the Local affairs of their respective sub-districts, subject to the orders of the board. In wards and boroughs the directors have power to appoint an inspec- tor, for the purpose of visiting, inspecting and superintending the schools. In all other cases each board of directors is required, by one or more of their number, to visit every school within their district, at least once in every month, and to cause the result of such visits to be entered on the minutes of the board. Neither the directors, their treasurer, nor the primary committees receive any compensation for their services as such. The directors have also the power to examine and appoint teachers. Each district thus constitutes a distinct and independent organization, represented by the board of directors, and having no connection with the township or county officers. There is a county superintendent of common schools (elected by the directors. in convention, and commissioned by the State Superintendent), to whom the directors make an annual report. The county superintendent makes, also, an annual report to the Superintendent of Common Schools for the State, and he makes a report to the Legislature. In 1831 provision was made for a school fund, but it has never been established. The support of the schools is derived partly from a general State tax, but chiefly from district taxation. The county superintendents have a salary the amount of which is determined by the directors in convention, and which is paid by a warrant drawn by the State Superintendent upon the State Treasurer, and in quarterly instalments if desired. The State has been divided into twelve Normal school districts, in four of which Normal schools have been established. The report of the Superintendent of Common Schools of Pennsylvania for the year ending June 4, 1866, showed that there were in the State 13,146 schools, taught by 16,141 teachers. The whole number of pupils was 725,312, and the average attendance was 478,066. The total cost of the schools for the entire year was $4,195,258.57, being an increase of $581,020.02. Some of the items of this PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 97 expenditure were as follows, viz.: For teacher's wages, $2,748,795.08; for fuel and contingent expenses, $639,385.98; for purchasing, building and repairing houses, $596,669.69. Of this large expenditure the amount contributed from the State treasury was only $354,436. The residue was raised by district tax. As a consequence the school taxes are very unequal in different parts of the State, in the rich and popu- lous counties being light, and in the poor and sparsely settled counties being heavy- In the five poor counties Cambria, Clearfield, Jefferson, McKean and Potter the average school tax was 17-41 mills, and in the five rich counties Berks, Bucks, Lebanon, Cumberland and Lancaster it was 3.75 mills, showing that the school tax was five times greater in the poor than in the rich counties. WEST VIRGINIA. Virginia had no system of public schools such as prevailed in the free States. She provided means for the tuition of the indigent only ; and many of these, rather than undergo the humiliation which attaches to such an invidious distinction, stayed away and received no school education at ajl. A remedy for so great an evil is provided in the Constitution of the new State. The Legislature is required to establish a thorough and efficient system of free schools ; a considerable portion of the income of the State is set apart for a school fund ; general taxation on per- sons and property for their support is authorized ; township taxation is required, and a general Superintendent and county superintendents are to be elected by the people. The Legislature is also commanded to foster and encourage moral, intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement, and to make suitable pro- vision for the blind, mute and insane, and for the organization of such institutions of learning as the best interests of general education in the State may demand. In pursuance of this provision of the Constitution, the Legislature in 1864-5 passed a law for the establishment of free schools. Every town is required to elect three school commissioners, whose term of office is three years, and who form a board of education for the town, and are a body corporate, with power to purchase, hold, sell and convey real and personal pro- perty, and who have the care and management of all property belonging to the public schools in the town. The clerk of the township is secretary of the board. The board makes an enumeration annually of all youth between the ages of six and twenty-one years, distinguishing male and female; divides the townJnto dis- tricts, hires teachers, and has general charge of the schools, and must visit them onee within two weeks after the opening and once within two weeks before the close of the schools. A county superintendent is elected every two years, whose duty it is to examine all candidates for the profession of teacher ; to grant certificates and revoke them ; to visit the schools, examine into their conduct and condition ; to aid and advise the teachers ; form county associations and institutes ; to secure as far as practicable uniformity of text books ; to receive and revise reports from the township boards, and compile from them a report to be sent to the State Superintendent. A State Superintendent of Common Schools is elected, to hold office for two years, by joint vote of the two branches of the Legislature. He has the general superintendence of the schools, receives reports from the county superintendents, and reports annually to the Legislature. [Assem. No. 237.] 13 98 KEPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF A school fund is established, and the Governor, Auditor, Treasurer, Secretary of State and Superintendent of Schools are constituted the " Board of the School Fund," and have the management, fontrol and investment of the fund. The schools are supported hy the distribution of the income of the fund ; by the net proceeds of all fines, confiscations and forfeitures ; by a capitation tax of one dollar on all the male inhabitants over twenty-one years of age, and by a tax of ten cents on the dollar upon one hundred dollars of the assessed valuation of the State. The townships are also permitted to levy a tax for school purposes not exceeding twenty-five cents on the dollar of valuation. School-house sites may be purchased by the township, and school-houses may be built, and the expense defrayed by a town tax. The county superintendent has power to decide upon the plan of the school-houses, and none can be built except with his approval. The tax for building must not exceed, in any one year, five cents on every hundred dollars of valuation, and the same amount may be- raised to purchase a site. If the Board cannot agree upon the purchase of a site,, provision is made to take by law so much land as- may be necessary, not exceed- ing one acre. The second annual report of the Superintendent, for the year 1866, gives the following statistics : Whole number of schools 5 high, 39 graded, 387 common 431 School-houses 133- Whole number of youth between 6 and 21 years of age 63,458 Whole number of pupils males, 8,102 ; females, 7,870 15,972 Average attendance males, 3,845 ; females, 3,916. 7,761 Number of teachers males,- 171 ; females, 216 387 Number of months taught 2.7 Value of school-houses and land $56,859 25- The reports from counties were incomplete. The whole number of persons in the State, between the ages of six and twenty-one, is 84,418, The amount of money apportioned to the counties was $66,049 .04.. OHIO. There is a State Commissioner of Common Schools, to whom is given the gene- ral supervision and regulation of public instruction. Each township in the State is declared to be a school district, and every city and incorporated village is also a district, and they have a board of education separate from the township, in which they may be included. Every township, is divided into sub-districts, each of which has power to elect annually, a director, who holds his office for three years. The directors form a board of education, with corpo- rate powers, and are invested with the title to all school property, and have the care and management of all school affairs. They employ the teachers, and make all contracts for the purchase of sites and the building of school-houses ; they make an enumeration, annually, of all the unmarried, white and colored youth in each sub-district, between the ages of five and twenty-one years, distinguishing: between male and female, and return the same to the township clerk, who makes; an abstract of it for the county auditor. The board is required each year to make a report to the county auditor of all the statistics required by the State Commis- sioner. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 99 It is the duty of the board every year to levy a tax upon the property of the district, not exceeding three mills on the dollar of valuation, and if they neglect to do it the county commissioners are authorized to order the .same to be levied. All school moneys, -from whatever source, are paid into the hands of the town- ship treasurer. The moneys derived from the State tax must be used for the pay- ment of teachers' wages, and unless a school is kept for twenty-four weeks in the .year the district forfeits its share of public money for the succeeding year. The county auditor reports yearly to the State Commissioner an abstract ofLalL the reports made to him from the townships, cities and villages. The probate judge of every county appoints three school examiners, who hold their office for two years, whose duty it is to examine and license teachers. They form a board,, appoint a clerk, hold meetings,, and make a report of their doings to the State Commissioner. The State Commissioner has supervisory authority over all school officers ; he -can require of them such information respecting official proceedings, the manage- ment of schools, school funds, &c., as he may deem important; he prescribes the forms for conducting all proceedings, and for carrying into execution all school laws ; lie is the legal adviser and instructor of all school officers, adjuster of all misunderstandings and difficulties, and executor of the school laws of the State. He makes a report annually to the Legislature, The several school funds of the State, November 15, 1864, constituted the irre- ducible school fund, paying an interest of six per 'cent per annum, on a capital of $ 3,163,578.45, made up as follows: Section sixteen school fund, $2,514,578.23; Western reserve school fund, $257,429.21; Virginia military school fund, $172,958,83; United States military school fund, $120,272.12; section twenty- nine ministerial school fund, $93,282,09; Moravian school fund, $3,160.58; and Ohio University fund, $1,897.39. The interest due on the 1st of January, 1865, was $190,526.71, A special tax is levied every year in the several counties, and is called a fund For the support of teachers' institutes. The State Commissioner gives the following summary of the school statistics for the year 1864-5 : Number of townships constituting a single district 1,347 Number of separate school districts 335 Number of boards of education . , 1,682 Number of sub-districtssingle, 10,098 ; joint, 799 ; total 10,897 Number of school-houses in the State 11,227 Number of schools 1 1,742 Average number of weeks schools were in session 25.78 Number of teachers employed male, 6,656 ; females, 13,672. 20,328 Number of white youth between 5 and 21 years of age 926,715 Number of colored youth between 5 and 21 years of age 18,137 Number of pupils enrolled in schools : Common male, 350,040 ; females, 332,713 682,753 High males, 3,722 ; females, 5,392 9,114 German males, 1,595 ; females, 1,581 3,176 Colored males, 3,764 ; females, 3,745 7,409 Average attendance 391,547 Average per cent of pupils enrolled in attendance 55.7 Value of school-houses, including grounds $7,268,695 100 REPORT OF TflE SUPERINTENDENT OF Principal of school fund November 15, 1864 , . $3,163,578 Total receipts for school purposes 4,563,265 Total expenditures , 3,298,512* Balance on hand ...... . . 1,264,753 Average wages- of male teachers per month . * 36 25 Average wages of female teachers per month .<..,.., ,....,,., 21 55 INDIANA, There is a State Board of Education, consisting of the Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer and Auditor, the Attorney General and the State Super- intendent of Public Instruction, who meet annually for conference, discussion and the determination of questions arising under the school law. The Superintendent is elected by the people for two years, and has the general oversight of the schools, and must spend at least one day a year m each county. There is in each town- ship a trustee, who has the general custody and management of the school pro- perty and lands, and a limited power to' levy taxes for building school-chouses. He also each year enumerates the children m his township between the ages of five and twenty-one. The inhabitants of each school district elect for a ye&T a school director, who takes care of the school house, provides fuel, employs the teachers, and reports to the trustee. Common schools must be organized as a State insti- tution, and, as to tuition, supported wholly by State funds- No district, no town- ship, no town, no city, iro county, can levy and collect taxes from the people for the support of schools. Townships, towns and cities may levy taxes for the con- struction and repair of school-houses, and for thfe providing of furniture and fuel therefor, and for the purchase of sites, but the State alone can levy taxes for the payment of teachers. The schools in each township are to be taught an equal length of time, without regard to the diversity in the number of pupils therein or to the wealth of the township. There is to be assessed each year the sum of ten cents on each $100 of ta'xable' property, and fifty cents on each poll (except upon the property and polls of negroes and mulattoes, who have none of the benefits of this act), for the use of common schools. The school fund is made up of all the funds heretofore appropriated to common schools, the surplus revenue, soldier, bank tax and seminary funds ; all fines, forfeitures and escheats; all grants of land not otherwise specially devoted ; the net proceeds of the swamp lands ; unclaimed fees, and of all taxes specially laid therefor. The income of the fund is apportioned to the several counties of the State according to the enumeration- of the children therein between five and twen- ty-one years of age. The report for the year 1864 gave the following statistics; Whole number of children between five and twenty-one. ...,< f . 557,092 Number of townships . , 28,509 Number of incorporated towns. .... 105 Number of cities ......... ^ .......... ^ 22 Number of school districts in the State 7,981 Number of schools within the year, 7,907 Number of pupils attending primary schools 370,964 Number of pupils in higher departments 19,804 Average daily attendance in primary department . , , 174,484 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 101 Number of male teachers employed 5,274 Number of female teachers employed. ..... 3,847 Average length of school in days 87 Total value of school-house property $3,472,612 Amount of special school tax for the year 415,887 Amount expended for tuition 808,507 Average pay of male teachers per day $1 38 Average pay of female teachers per day LO'L The school fund is estimated at $7,778,350.94, of which $4,286,110.62 is unproductive, and the residue yields seven per cent per annum. ILLINOIS. There is a State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who has the general and supervisory agency of the common school system. Each county chooses a school commissioner, whose duty it is to visit the schools, examine the teachers and grant certificates. Each town elects a trustee, who has power to create and alter districts, a collector, treasurer and librarian. Every district elects three directors, who hold office for three years, and have the sole control and management of dis- trict affairs, with power to levy taxes for building school-houses, and they are required every year to enumerate the children between the ages of five and twenty- one in their districts, and the number of persons under twenty-one. Every district is required to maintain a school six months in a year to entitle it to its share in the distribution of the public money. The Superintendent gives the following statistics for 1864 : Number of persons under 21 years 1,049,354 Number of persons between 5 and 21 years 700,458 Number of school districts 9,866 Number of schools 10,331 Number of scholars 573,976 Average number of months schools have been kept 6.6 Number of male teachers 6,533 Number of female teachers 9,539 Number of school-houses 8,921 Amount of State and county fund received $726,991 00 Amount of principal of township fund 3,732,642 00 Average monthly wages of male teachers 30 00 Average monthly wages of female teachers 19 00 Amount of interest of township fund 322,493 00 Amount of special district taxes 1,422,690 00 Total received for all school purposes 2,531,432 00 Amount paid for teachers' wages 1,611,003 00 Amount paid for building school-houses 220,036 00 Amount paid for repairs 98,403 00 Amount paid for furniture 19,976 00 Amount paid for apparatus 18,936 00 -Total amount expended for all school purposes 2,460,510 00 302 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF School Fund in 1863. School fund proper $613,362 96 Surplus revenue 335,592 32 College fund 156,613 32 Seminary fund 59,838 72 Township fund 3,515,118 00 County fund 293,317 74 Total $4,973,042 74 MICHIGAN. Every organized township must be divided into districts, but no primary dis- tricts can contain more than nine sections of land. Each district at the first meeting elects a moderator for three years, a director or two years, and an assessor for one year, and their successors are each elected for three years. Any district having more than one hundred children between five and twenty years of age may resolve itself into a union or graded school, and two or more contiguous districts, having together two hundred such children, may unite for the purpose of having graded high schools. The district is a body corporate, and has power to designate a site for a school house, and may vote taxes to pay for the same, and to build a school-house and keep it in repair, and may also vote $20 a year for the purchase of books of refer- ence, apparatus, etc. The moderator, director and assessor form a district board, that has the care and custody of the school house and property; that hires the teacher, and has immediate management and control of school affairs. Each township elects two inspectors, who, with the township clerk, form a board of inspectors, whose duty it is to divide the township into districts, to examine and license teachers, and to visit and supervise the schools. There is a State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who has general super- vision of the public schools, and he, and three other persons elected each for six years, form a State Board of Education. The director of each district, annually, makes an enumeration of all children within the district, between the ages of five and twenty years, and returns it with a report of the condition of the schools to the township clerk, who makes an abstract of the district reports for the county clerk, who makes copies of them for the State Superintendent. The schools are supported by (1) the income of the school fund; (2) by a tax of two mills on each dollar of valuation assessed annually upon the townships, to be paid to such districts as have supported a school three months in a year ; (3) by district taxation of one dollar for every scholar between four and eighteen years of age such taxation being voted, or not, as the district may determine ; (4) by rate-bill. Any district may raise taxes to purchase sites, build, hire or repair school houses, to provide fuel, apparatus, etc., and to pay the necessary expenses of any district officers. All taxes are levied by the supervisors. The income of the school fund is apportioned by the State Superintendent to the town- ships and cities in proportion to the number of persons between the ages of five and twenty years of age. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 103 The Constitution directs that all fines assessed, and collected in the townships and counties shall be applied to the establishment of a township library. A school fund is created, consisting of all lands granted by Congress or the State, or given by deed or devise for school purposes, and of all lands that escheat to the State for want of heirs. Funds are also created for the support of a university, in which tuition is free,, and for a Normal school. The educational funds of the State were reported in 1865 to be Primary school fund $2,040,085 07 University fund 535,412 14 Normal school fund 65,876 69 Total 82,641,373 90 The Superintendent's report for 1865 gives the following statistics : Number of townships 703 Number of districts 4,452 Number of children between five and twenty years of age 296,205 Number attending school 227,165 Average attendance in months 3.4 Average months of school in each district 6.2 Number of male teachers 1,317 Number of female teachers 7,427 Volumes reported in township libraries 58,653 Volumes reported in district libraries 93,712 Value of school-houses and sites $2,209,960 00 Total wages of teachers 713,621 45 Avails of the two-mill tax 277,814 83 Income of school fund 135,743 46 Kate-bills 90,232 70 District taxes to pay teachers 177,720 74 Other district taxes 292,944 22 Library moneys from fines 12,397 87 Average wages per month of male teachers 41 70 Average wages per month of female teachers 17 43 The Superintendent estimates that, adding the expense of board and school books, the total of expenditures for the support of common schools for the year 1864-5 was $1,500,000. WISCONSIN. There is a State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who has the general supervision of common schools. He is required to visit the several counties in the State, and advise with teachers and school officers; to recommend text books and advise as to the selection of books for school libraries ; to examine and determine appeals; to apportion the school moneys among the counties according to the number of children in the several towns and cities over four and under twenty- one years of age, and to report annually to the Legislature. He can appoint an assistant, and his traveling expenses and clerk hire are paid. 104 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF The board of supervisors divide the towns into districts, and can alter them at pleasure. The legal voters in a district have power to choose a director, treasurer and clerk; to designate a site; to vote taxes for the purchase of sites; for building or leasing school-houses ; for the payment of teacher's wages ; for the purchase of books for a library, and of maps, globes and apparatus, and to determine how long school shall be kept, and to what term the public money shall be applied. The director, treasurer and clerk constitute a district board, who have charge of district affairs. The clerk hires the teacher, with the approval of the director and treasurer, and draws warrants on the treasurer, countersigned by the director, for all moneys due for teacher's wages. In every district school there must be taught the English language, orthogra- phy, reading, writing, English grammar, geography and arithmetic. The district clerk every year makes a statistical report to the town clerk, who in his turn reports to the county superintendent, who compiles an abstract of the town reports for the State Superintendent. Every district is required to keep a school for three months to entitle it to any share in the distribution of the public money. i Every town is authorized in public meeting to vote such sum of money as the voters may deem necessary for the support of schools. School-house sites may be selected and title acquired by law, where an agree- ment cannot be made for purchase and sale. A county superintendent is elected, whose term of office is two years, and whose duty it is to examine and license teachers, to visit and inspect the schools, to organize and conduct teachers' institutes and associations, and to report annually to the State Superintendent. The board of supervisors of every county are required every year to cause to be collected in every town and ward, by tax, an amount of money for the support of schools not less than half the amount apportioned to such town and ward the previous year by the State Superintendent, and not exceeding three mills upon every dollar of the valuation of the taxable property therein ; and unless this is done no public money is to be apportioned to the delinquent county for the cur- rent year. The school fund on the 30th September, 1864, amounted to $2,118,423.56, drawing seven per cent, interest. The State has also established a Normal school fund, estimated at $1,128,246, of which $594,581.87 is productive. This fund and the Normal schools are placed under charge of a Board of Regents of Normal Schools. The Superintendent's report for 1865 gives the following statistics : Number of counties reported 57 Number of towns reported 771 Number of whole districts 3,806 Number of parts of districts 1,738 Whole number of children over 4 and under 21 years of age 335,582 Number of different pupils who attended the public schools 223,067 Average number of days the schools were taught 134| Number of different persons employed as teachers 7,532 Average wages of male teachers per month $36 45 Average wages of female teachers per month 22 24 State fund apportioned 151,816 34 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 105 Total amount received during the year ......................... $932,255 1 Total amount expended during the year ....................... 913,222 85 Aggregate valuation of the State. ............................. 152,652,752 00 Amount raised for school purposes ............................ 908,152 04 Amount per dollar in mills ............................... .... 6 Number of school houses ......................... f ......... . . 4,338 Cash value of school houses ................... . ............ .. $1,455,322 20 ash value of sites .......................................... 214,447 86 OP THE (UNIVERSITY) Every civil township is a school district, and is divided by the trustees into sub- districts. Each district holds an annual meeting, elects a chairman and secretary; decides by vote upon the purchase and sale of sites and school-houses, upon the branches to be taught in the schools, and upon what powers shall be delegated to the board of directors ; and may vote a tax, not exceeding five mills on a dollar of valuation, for school purposes. The sub-districts hold annual meetings and choose officers called sub-directors, wfyo constitute a board of directors for the district, with corporate powers, and who have the power to fix the sites of school-houses and to establish schools. They elect a president, secretary and treasurer. They estimate the amount of money necessary to keep school in the district for the legal term of twenty-four weeks, and certify the amount to the board of supervisors ; and they also certify such sum as the electors of any district or sub-district may have voted beyond the amount required by law. The board of supervisors cause such taxes to be levied and collected. The president of the board of directors draws orders for money on the county treasurer. The secretary makes the annual statistical report for the district to the county superintendent. Each sub-director has charge of his sub- district, hires the teacher, and makes all contracts for fuel, furniture, &c., subject to the approval of the board ; and he is required to report to the board the num- ber of persons in his sub-district between the ages of five and twenty-one years, distinguishing between males and females, and giving other information required by law. The clerk of the board of supervisors apportions the money arising from the State tax and school fund among the districts and sub-districts. There is a county superintendent, elected for two years, whose duty it is to examine and license teachers, visit and supervise schools, to receive the reports from the districts, and make and report to the Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion an abstract of them, and to act as the organ of communication between the State Superintendent and the district authorities. The school month consists of four weeks, and the school year of twenty-four weeks. The Auditor of the State apportions the income of the school fund to the coun- ties, according to the proportion of persons in each between the ages of five and twenty-one years. There is a Superintendent of Public Instruction, elected by the people for two years. He is charged with the general supervision of all the county superintend- ents and all the common schools of the State ; he decides appeals from the deci- sions of the county superintendents, and reports annually to the Legislature. [Assem. No. 237.] 14 106 BEPOET OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF All land granted by the United States for schools, the 500,000 acres granted by Congress to new States, all escheats, the percentage on sales of land in the State,, money paid for exemption from military duty, and fines for breach of penal laws,, are devoted to the support of common schools and constitute the school fund. The fund in 1857 amounted to $2,030,544, nominally, and the unsold lands to 619,94ft acres. The fund is under the control of the General Assembly. The moneys belonging to the fund are loaned at ten per cent. The Superintendent of Public Instruction gives the following summary of sta- tistics for 1865: Number of district townships . 1,171 Number of sub-districts 5,575* Number of persons between the ages of five and twenty-one: males,, 165,309 ; females, 159,029 324,238- Number of schools ...... 5,732 Number of pupils 217,593 Average attendance 119,593- Number of teachers males, 6,467; females, 2,353 8,820 s Number of school-houses * 4,635 Number of volumes in district libraries .- . 6,389 Average pay of male teachers per week $7 91 Average pay of female teachers per week 5 70 Average cost of tuition per week . 34 Average amount paid teachers 856,725 Value of school-houses 2,161,563 Amount of district tax for building and repairing ... 428,727 Amount of district tax for library and apparatus 22,174 Amount of district tax for rent of school buildings , 10,878 Amount of district tax for fuel 74,714 Amount of district tax for pay of secretary and treasurer 25,898 Amount of district tax for teachers' fund 326,467 Apportionment for county treasurers 429,068 Value of apparatus 38,658 MINNESOTA. The towns and sub-districts, as divided by the county commissioners, are de- clared to be corporate bodies, with power to elect a director, treasurer and clerk, who are the trustees of the district. The director has immediate charge of the schools. The treasurer receives and pays out all school moneys. The clerk re- cords the proceedings of district meetings and of the board, and makes annually to the county auditor a report of all persons in the district between the ages of five and twenty-one years, and other statistical information. The districts have power to vote money for the support of schools, and the clerk certifies the amount voted to the county auditor, who assesses and levies it upon the real and personal property of the district. The county commissioners appoint annually a man in each county to examine and license teachers and visit the schools. They are also required each year to levy a tax equal to one-fifth of one per cent on the dollar of valuation, to be col lected and expended for the support of schools. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 107 The several districts of the State are entitled to their share of the public money F The Board of Education appoints one or more school commissioners for eaeb county, to have charge of not less than fifteen districts, to be named by the State Superintendent. The school commissioners so appointed are vested with the title of all school property in the city or county, and they are created a body politic, capable of suing and being sued. The board appoints a president, who has the general superin- tendence of all the schools in their city or county. The board has power to pre- scribe and alter the boundaries of school districts, to select and purchase sites for school houses, and to take them by legal process where an agreement cannot be made with the owner. Each school commissioner, within his district, has power to hire teachers and have the immediate supervision of the school. He collects from the teacher, and reports to the board the condition of the schools. School is required to be kept in each district at least six months in a year, and is free to all white persons over six and under nineteen years of age. No pro- vision is made for the education of the negroes. Provision is made for one high school in each county, or for a union high school for two counties. A teacher's institute must be held once a year in each county, and every teacher is required to attend under a penalty of not less than five, nor more than twenty- five dollars, unless excused by the president of the board. A Normal school is established for the education of teachers, and seven thousand dollars annually appropriated for its support. The pupils are selected from the counties, two for each delegate and one for each senator. The number is limited to 250. They must be teachers, and must be pledged to engage in teaching within the State. To encourage the formation of district libraries, twenty dollars a year is appro- priated from the State school fund, so long as the people raise the same amount annually. For the support of schools, a State tax of fifteen cents on every dollar of valu- ation is levied annually upon the taxable property of the State, and is distributed to the several counties in proportion to their population between the ages of five and twenty years. Negroes are taxed and enumerated, but do not share hi the school money, are not admitted into the free schools, and no separate schools are provided for them. In counties where the population is half negro, the white children have the benefit of all the money apportioned to the county. No provision is made for the erection of school houses, unless it may be implied that the board of a city or the county commissioners may apply a portion of the school money to the expense of building. The first annual report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction gives the following statistics : Number of schools in operation .... 785 Number of pupils boys, 16,812 girls, 16,504 33,316 Amount paid for salaries $75,583 Amount paid for incidental expenses 8,771 The above figures are for a single term, ending November 15, 1865. There are four terms in a year. Number of white persons between five and twenty years of age. . . . 182,205 Number of colored persons between five and twenty 66,014 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 115 Total population between five and twenty r .248,219 .Assessed valuation of the State $278,512,186 School tax levied 417,798 School tax apportioned . .... 417,798 VIRGINIA. By an act of the General Assembly of Virginia, passed in 1846, 'it was made the duty of the several county courts of that State to lay out school districts in their respective counties, having regard to the territorial extent and population, snd to appoint a commissioner for each district. The board of county commis- sioners thus appointed were required annually to assemble at the November term schools in 99 counties, 3,528 ; poor children in 81 counties, 55,446 ; poor children' sent to school in 123 comities and owe town, 49,547 ; expended for tuition of poor children at the common schools, including all their school expenses, in 125 coun- ties and three towns, $136,589.50; average attendance of each poor child at school, 53 days, 10.6 weeks ; average cost per annum of each poor child sent ta school, $2.77. In addition to the above there was expended for tuition, &c., at the free schools in six counties and one town, $40,056.11. The Gorernor, Trea- surer, Auditors and Registers are, ex-ojftc.io, the Board of the Literary Fund. The available- capital of the literary fund, Oct. 1, 1857, was $1,677,651.67. NORTH CAROLINA. This State established a common school system in 1840, and prior to the war it was growing in usefulness and efficiency. The State was divided into school dis- tricts, with local committees, and the districts in each county were under the direc- tion of county superintendents, the chairman of which is the treasurer of the school fund for the couttty. This board appoints committees of examination, not more than three to a county, who examine applicants for the office of teacher, and give or refuse a license. In 1853 a general Superintendent was appointed, who has since been twice reappointed, and who is responsible to the Board of Literature' and to the Legislature. The county board report the condition of the schools to the State Superintendent. In 1860, of the 225,000 white children between the ages of six and twenty-one, 102,287 were attending school. In seventy-two coun- ties 2,199 teachers had been employed. The receipts for school purposes were' $371,320, and the expenditures $221,132. The school fund in December, 1858 r amounted to $2,181,850. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 117 SOUTH CAROLINA. The Legislature for many years appropriated $74,400 annually for free schools, and distributed it at the rate of $600 to each representative in the popular branch of the Legislature, GEORGIA. The State has a school fund of $440,900. The income, before the war, was distributed among the counties, and paid to teachers of schools and academies ratably. The Legislature in 1858 appropriated $100,000, to be distributed in the same manner as, and in addition to, the income of the school fund. This amount was increased in 1859 to $150,000, and was to be increased yearly until it reached $500,000. Provision was made for a school fund as follows : As each bond of the State debt was paid off a new one was to be issued, and held by the Secretary of State as the educational fund of Georgia. November 1, 1859, $150,000 had been issued. The bonds were for twenty years, and pay six per cent interest. The debt to be thus paid off was $3,354,750. The latest school returns relate to 1859, and were from 102 counties, Number of children between eight and eighteen, 107,825 ; whole number in the State by State census, 117,670 ; total number taught males, 45,090, females, 34,832 79,- 992; cost of tuition elementary branches, $15.50 per annum, higher branches, $26; number of school-houses, 1,775 of schools, 1,777. Of the 102 counties, 90 had appointed boards to examine teachers. KENTUCKY. There is a Board of Education composed of the Attorney-General, the Secretary of State, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which is a body politic and corporate, and can take and hold, and dispose of real and personal estate for the benefit of common schools ; has power to make rules and regulations for its government; to require all school officers to report to it, and to organize teachers' associations. There is a Superintendent of Public Instruction, who is required to visit, annually, at least one-fourth of the counties in the State ; to keep an office, and take charge of common school affairs ; report annually to the Legislature the con- dition of schools, the amount and condition of the school fund, the practical work- ing of the school system, and apportion the school moneys to the several counties. A school commissioner is elected for each county for the term of two years by the presiding judge and justices of the peace of the county. He must possess a fair English education. He must divide his county into school districts. He receives the reports of trustees, and makes an abstract for the State Superintend- ent. He receives and distributes to the districts their share of the school moneys. He may hold in trust all gifts and devises of land and property for the benefit of schools in his county. He has the general supervision of common schools. The school districts must not contain over one hundred free white children between the ages of six and twenty years, and not less than twenty. Each dis- trict annually elects three trustees. At this election the qualified voters, and also any widow having a child between six and twenty years of age, may vote. The 118 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP trustees are a body politic and corporate, and may take and hold real and personal estate for the benefit of the district. The electors of a district have power in dis- trict meeting, by a majority vote, to raise a tax in aid of the school, not to exceed in any one year five cents on a hundred dollars of the valuation of the taxable property ; and the money so raised may be expended for the purchase of sites, building and repair of school houses, and the contingent expenses of the district. The trustees report annually to the county commissioners the number of free white persons in the district, between the ages of six and twenty years ; the whole time school has been kept by a qualified teacher ; the highest, lowest and average number of children in attendance during the year ; the cost of tuition for each child ; the amount of money received from the State during the year, and any other facts required by the Board of Education. The commissioners have power to appoint one or more persons as examiners, who may examine and grant certificates which shall authorize the holder to teach for two years. The public money must be expended only for the wages of teachers of the com- mon schools, and a common school is defined to be one under the charge of the trustees, kept for three months by a qualified teacher, and to which all free white children residing in the district between the age of six and twenty years have had the privilege of attending, whether or not contributing anything to its support. After a district school has been kept as a free school for three months, it may be continued as a private school to which none but contributors shall have' the privilege of sending pupils. Separate schools for negro children are required to be kept in all districts where they are resident, and one-half of all taxes collected from negroes and mulattoes in the commonwealth is set apart for this purpose. Twenty-two days are a school month. The common schools are supported (1.) by the income of the school fund; (2.) by State taxation a general tax, a tax upon bank stock and a tax upon dogs, and the proceeds of fines and forfeitures for gambling; (3.) by district taxation. The school fund proper consists of bonds of the commonwealth, amounting in the aggregate to $1,676,174.79. The Superintendent's report for 1865 gives the following statistics: Whole number of children reported 297,772 Highest number at school 144,364 Lowest number at school 48,280 Average number at school 92,257 Money distributed $ 270,184 24 The laws authorizing district taxation and the establishment of negro schools were passed in 1865. TENNESSEE. In 1859 the common school fund consisted of $1,500,000, deposited in the Bank of Tennessee ; of property given by deed, will or otherwise for the use of common schools ; proceeds of escheated lands, and the personal estates of intestates hav- ing no kindred entitled thereto by the laws of distribution. The annual fund for distribution consists of $100,000 dividends of the Bank of Tennessee; bonuses PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 119 of banks except the Union Bank ; bonuses of other incorporated companies ; 25 cents on each $100 capital of all the banks organized under the banking laws of the State; taxes on capital employed in mineral lands; one-fourth of the annual tax on privileges ; 25 cents on each poll, and 2k cents on each $100 of all the taxable property of the State. The amount for distribution in 1858 was $224,893.25; in 1859, $230,430.27. The scholastic population, among which distribution is made at 75 cents per scholar, was, in 1858, 291,257; in 1859, 294,497. ALABAMA. A system of public instruction was established in 1854, and a Superintendent of Education was appointed. The money raised for the support of schools, and the income of educational funds, were apportioned among the several townships according to the number of children therein between six and twenty-one years of age. The report for 1858 showed that there had been taught 2,597 schools; the number of pupils registered was 98,274 ; that the average attendance was 42,- 938 ; that the average time the school was kept was six and one-eighth months ; that the amount expended for their support was $547,617. There had also been in private and other schools 6,676 pupils. Public schools were generally suspended during the war, but measures have since been taken to continue the system and increase its efficiency. The State, nominally, before the war, had a school fund of $1,425,933. MISSISSIPPI. The school system .of this State is without uniformity. Each township has a school fund arising from the lease of lands granted by Congress for common school purposes every sixteenth section in each township having been so granted. These lands are leased for various periods, but mostly for ninety-nine years. The money thence arising is loaned at not less than eight nor more than ten per cent per annum interest. This interest is the amount applied for tuition, &c., annually from the township fund. There is also a county fund, arising from fines, forfeit- ures, licenses, &c., which is distributed in those townships that are destitute, or have but a small school fund. The school sections in some townships are worth many thousands of dollars, and in others only a few hundreds. Hence, great inequality in the funds of the townships, and the necessity of the above method of distributing the county funds. In all the larger towns, public schools have been established, and there are many flourishing high schools. f OP THE (UNIVERSITY LOUISIANA. The Constitution, before the war, provided that "free public schools shall be established throughout the State. The proceeds of lands granted for the purpose, and of lands escheated to the State, shall be held as a permanent fund, on which six per cent interest shall be paid by the State for the support of these schools." The yearly sum of $250,000 was appropriated for the support of the free schools 120 REPORT OP THE SUPERINTENDENT OP of the State, derived from a mill tax on the dollar and from a poll tax of $l'on each white male inhabitant of the State. The free school fund in 1859, Nov. 1, amounted to $ 899,500. The number of school districts in the State in 1856 was 638 ; number of public schools reported, 749 ; number of white children in the State between six and sixteen, 73,322. In 1857 the educable youth in the State was 76,518, of whom only about one-third were reported by the parish treasurers as having attended school during the year. The amount of public money appor- tioned among the several parishes for the year ending March 31, 1859, was $303,- 324.34. FLORIDA. The last reports relate to 1858. In that year there were in the State 20,885 children between the ages of five and eighteen years, and $6,542.60 were appor- tioned for schools. MISSOURI. Every county in the State has a common school organization. The interest of the school fund and one-fourth of the revenue of the State was formerly appro- priated and distributed to the several counties in the State for the support of com- mon schools, in proportion to the number of children reported between the ages of five and twenty years. It was applied to the wages of teachers. The disturbed condition of the State during the war seriously damaged the sys- tem. In 1861 an ordinance was passed abolishing the oifice of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and imposing the duties of supervision on the Secretary of State. The schools have been practically discontinued since 1861, and the Audi- tor of Public Accounts in December, 1862, recommended a suspension of the usual school fund appropriation of 25 per cent from the revenue, in consequence of the impracticability of carrying on the system outside of the city of St. Louis. The school fund at that tune amounted to $687,968, invested in State bonds. The school moneys in the treasury amounted to $129,618. ARKANSAS. The Secretary of State was, prior to the war, ex-officio Commissioner of Com- mon Schools. But there was great indifference to the subject of common school education, and few schools had been established. The law provided for a large school fund. The seminary fund had distributed up to Jan. 1, 1858, the sum of $79,321, and the saline fund $7,708. The accruing annual interest on money arising from the sales of the sixteenth section of land in every township is made a perpetual fund for the support of schools. The annual State and county taxes assessed upon sixteenth sections sold, proceeds of escheated estates, fines for certain offences and crimes, are by law to be paid into the treasury of the proper county for the support of schools. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 121 TEXAS. This State has a permanent school fund, amounting in 1858 to #2,192,000, of which $150,000 is invested in six per cent bonds of railroad companies of the State, and the residue in five per cent bonds of the United States. This fund is increased each year by the addition of one-tenth of the annual revenue of the State derived from taxation. The income from this fund is annually disbursed for the support of schools. Besides this fund, each of the 116 counties in the State has four leagues, or 17,712 acres of land set apart for the support of schools. Thcne" lands amount altogether to 2,054,592 acres ; but no provision has been made for their sale, and they are not available at present. The number of scholars between the ages of six and eighteen years returned for the year 1857 was 86,782. SCHOOL FUNDS OP THE SEVERAL STATES AS LATE AS JANUARY 1, 1859. Alabama $1,425,933 Arkansas None. California 739,487 Connecticut 2,044,672 Delaware 440,506 Florida None. Georgia 440,900 Illinois 4,109,476 Indiana 4,912,012 Iowa 1,000,000 Kentucky 1,455,332 Louisiana 1,036,500 Maine 149,085 Maryland 181,167 Massachusetts 1,522,898 Michigan 1,384,288 Minnesota Lands. Mississippi Missouri 595,668 New Hampshire None. Nevada Lands. New Jersey 437,754 New York 6,775,889 North Carolina 2,181,850 Ohio 2,500,000 Oregon Lands. Pennsylvania None. Rhode Island 299,436 South Carolina None. Tennessee 584,060 Texas 2,192,000 Vermont None. Virginia 1,677,652 Wisconsin 2,358,791 [Assem. No. 237.] 16 122 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF Total. Jan. 1, 1859 $ 40,445,356- Jan. 1, 1858 , 37,752,481 Jan. 1, 1857 ., 37,700,334 Jan. l r 185G 34,385,476- Jan. 1,1855 , 29,179,871 Jan. 1, 1854 26,509,820 Jan. 1, 1853 25,669,096 Jan. 1, 1852 25,170,730 Jan. 1, 1851 20,456,605 Jan. 1, 1850 21,542,68a Jan. 1, 1849 21,420,275 Jan. 1, 1848 20j338,246- Jan. 1, 1847 17,631,553; Jan. 1, 1846 16,608,719* PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 123 SPANISH-AMERICAN STATES. MEXICO. Speaking of education in Mexico, M. Chevalier, who traveled there in 1835, ,-says : " In fact, elementary instruction has remained what it was in the time of the Spaniards. The clergy had then the exclusive management of it, and having it still show but little inclination to enable the poor to read the books published under the regime of a free press. There are even fewer schools than there were, in consequence of the diminution in the number of the clergy. Education of a superior kind is even never provided for. Under the Spaniards there existed at Mexico a school for the fine arts, richly endowed. I have been unable to discover its existence now. There is a building called a museum, where I found nothing of interest except a collection of the portraits of the viceroys since the time of Cor- tez, and a few Aztec manuscripts. Some years ago the establishment of a poly- technic school was decreed, but the decree lias yet to see the commencement of its execution. There is not even a military school, though the attention of the gov- ernment is altogether devoted to the army. There is nothing deserving the name of a school of law or medicine ; and it may well be imagined that schools of indus- try or commerce are wholly unknown." From Brantz Mayer, who was in Mexico in 1842-3, we learn that of the total population it was estimated that only 687,748 could read, including women and children. Of the male population, Mr. Mayer considers that not more than 100,- 000 can read and write, and then observes: " We shall no longer be surprised that a population of more than seven millions has hitherto been controlled by a handful of men. In addition to this you will observe how little has been done hitherto for the cause of learning by the govern- ment, when you examine a table of the expenses of the nation, by which it will be seen that in the year 1840, while $180,000 were spent for hospitals, fortresses and prisons, and $8,000,000 for the army (without a foreign war), only $110,000 were given to all the institutions of learning in Mexico." Mr. Mayer's further remarks are, however, more consolatory. He says: " I learn, however, with pleasure, that under the new scheme of national regenera- tion, which has recently been put in action, the subject of education has engaged the special attention of the existing powers, and that they design to foster it by every means in their power. " In every one of the parishes into which the city of Mexico is divided, there is established a school for boys, and another for girls, supported by the jfyuntamiento, or town council. In these establishments the pupils are taught without charge to read, write and calculate, and are, besides, instructed in religious and political catechisms. In the schools for girls, in addition to these branches, they learn .sewing, and other occupations suitable to their sex. Books and stationery are found gratis. 124 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF " There is another establishment called the Normal school, supported by the government, and devoted to the instruction of the soldiers of the army in the rudiments of learning. Advancement and improvement in this school are suitably rewarded by ranks in the army. " Besides this also, there is a Lancasterian company, which, commencing its labors in the city, is spreading its branches all over the country. It is devoted to primary instruction, and is protected by all the citizens of the Republic who are remarkable either for their wealth, education or social position. The contribution is a dollar monthly. I am glad to learn that, since I left Mexico, the usefulness of this company has become so apparent to the people that schools upon its plan have not only been established in the principal cities and towns, but that they are being founded in almost every village of importance, and even upon extensive haciendas or plantations, where the laboring population is numerous and ignorant > " In the city of Mexico, this company has formed a large number of schools for children of both sexes, upon the same footing as those established by the j4yun~ tamiejito that is to say, the pupils are taught without charge, and are furnished with the requisite stationery and books. There is a night school for adults, very fully attended by citizens whose occupation prevents their devoting themselves to study during the day. In the women's and the men's prisons, and in the house of correction for juvenile delinquents, I also learn that schools have been formed, and it is by no means a cheerless feature in this picture of dawning improvement that the ladies of Mexico most distinguished by talent, wealth and cultivation, have gladly availed themselves of the opportunity to devote a portion of their time for the purpose of instructing their unfortunate sisters in the prisons. " Besides these establishments, which are all of a free and public character, it is difficult to give any idea of the number of private schools for both sexes in the capital and departments. Many of them are conducted by foreigners as well as Mexicans, and although they generally instruct in French, English, grammar, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, the rudiments of history, bookkeeping, drawing and music, I have reason to believe that none of them are remarkable for the regularity or perfection of their system. " In the city of Mexico there are the collegiate establishments of El Seminario Concilia, San Ildefonso, San Gregorio, and San Juan Lateran. The first of these is under the immediate supervision of the Archbishop, and supported by a portion of the ecclesiastical revenues. The other three are under the care of the govern- ment. In almost all the departments of the Republic there are collegiate insti- tutes, and in some even two or three. . " The course of instruction in these establishments is alleged to be thorough and modern. The students who live within the walls are expected to contribute for their education, while others, who only attend the lectures of the professors, are exempt from all costs and charges, so that about two-thirds of the pupils of every college receive their literary education gratuitously. " The regeneration of Mexico lies in her schools. Without their success she must not expect to drive leperos from her streets, or usurping dictators from the palace of her ancient kings." Mr. Waddy Thompson, who was Minister to Mexico in 1842-3, speaks more favorably of common instruction. He says : " He had not a servant, when he was in Mexico, who could not read and write not very well, it is true." And he con- tinues : " I often observed the most ragged leperos, as they walked down the streets, read the sign-boards over the store doors. How this happens, I know not, unless it be the effect of Lancasterian schools, which are established all over the country, PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION, 125 chiefly, I think, through the instrumentality and exertions of Gen. Tornel a noble charity, which should of itself cover a multitude of sins much greater than those which some of his enemies impute to him." As the church asserts its right to have exclusive management of education, let us see what means are at its disposal to support religion, and, if the clergy were so disposed, to devote to instruction. The church is possessed of immense wealth. It has been estimated as follows : Real property in town and country $18,000,000 Churches, houses, -convents, curates' dwellings, furniture, jewels, precious vessels, &c 5.2,000,000 Floating capital, together with other funds, and the capi- tal required to produce the sum received by them annu- ally malms .20,000,000 $90,000,000 There are fifty-eight convents for nun's, which pos-sess about 1,700 estates or properties, producing an annual revenue of about $560,000. There are 3,500 secular clergymen, and 1,700 monks. The latter possess 150 conventual establishments, divided as follows : Dominicans, 25 ; Franciscans, 68 ; Augustines, 22 ; Carmelites, 16 ; Mercedarios, 19 ; total, 150, The number of nuns, 2,000; of monks, 1,700 ; of secular clergy, 3,500 ; total, 7,200. This num- ber is certainly inadequate to the wants of a population of 7,000,000, but too few to be the proprietors of estates worth $ 90,000,000. Mr. J. C. Beltrami, who traveled in Mexico soon after the separation from Spain and after the banishment of Iturbide, gives the following account of the wealth of one of the Carmelite haciendas : " To give you some idea of the way in which the Carmelite brothers observe their vows of poverty , I will give you a glimpse of one of the haciendas which they possess, I cannot possibly give you the extent of the hacienda of Peotillo ; they do not know themselves ; it is a world ; I only know that, besides all the lands which they lease to many persons, they cultivate and carry on very economically a large territory, having a hundred pairs of oxen at work at once, which are relieved at noon by an equal number for the rest of the day. It is rich in all kinds of domestic animals, having an hundred thousand horned cattle, as many horses, more than twenty thousand sheep, and goats, and other animals. Besides Peo- tillo and Ciamal the convent of St, Louis owns eleven other haciendas, of which the principal one, and the center of administration, is Pozzo. It is distant about fifteen miles from the hacienda of Peotillo. " The hacienda of Pozzo is a large collection of huts, with a convent in the cen- ter, fortified on all sides. Here resides the administrator general, with an assist- ant priest, his employees and domestics ; with his harem, of which the abbess mother, a beautiful woman of majestic and imposing presence, has charge, presid- ing with great pomp over a crowd of eunuchs, who bow at her feet, and salaam, as if they were in the presence of the Grand Sultan. The abbess wears the breeches, and the reverend father the petticoats. He is a new Hercules at the spin- ning-wheel. I have already told you that all the haciendas pertaining to the Car- melites of St. Louis are dependent upon that of Pozzo, and pour their revenues into the treasury of the very reverend administrator general. " All the hired laborers are paid in money and merchandise ; but, as the mer- chandise is never enough to support their wives and children, the latter oftentimes inconsiderately numerous, the major domo gives them credit at prices ruinously 126 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF exaggerated by his avarice and arbitrary caprice, and thus one-half the money salary is eaten up. They are under contract to buy at the store of the hacienda on which they reside all they need for shoes and clothing, and thus the other half of their money salary is absorbed before the day of payment ; and so all the money represented by their salaries circulates only on the pages of the account books, and never goes out of the treasury of the reverend fathers. The pious Carmel- ites have learned the sharp practice of the Hudson's Bay Company. All the arti- cles for shoes and dress are manufactured at the liacienda of Pozzo, and from thence are distributed to the others, and in this way they sell to their laborers, at the price of European goods, miserable trash almost worthless. "And now, how numerous is this body of Carmelites, favored so highly by a generous Providence ? How many charitable institutions have they founded ? What seminaries of learning? What schools, &c. &c? Their number is only ten in all. They never teach even A, B, C. No hospital ever receives a penny from them. Their door is shut equally against public needs and individual wants. They are very generous, but only to their own sect. What then becomes of their riches,, these reverend Cro3suses ? " The very reverend father administrator of Pozzo does not hold his place from the verj^reverend prior of St. Louis, but from the most reverend provin- cial father, residing in the city of Mexico, who is generalissimo of all the Car- melites of New Spain. Knowing so much, let us inquire where go all these enormous revenues ? " The very reverend father administrator pays to the brethren of St. Louis 8,000 pistoles annually ($28,800); and leaves them also in the enjoyment of the revenue of all the lands, houses, &c., which surround the convent, and of the im- mense garden that is a part of the grounds, an income itself sufficient to maintain a noble family. And how much does he set apart to his own use for the admin- istration of Pozzo ? It cannot be known , He does not know himself. For amidst the delights of Venus calculations are tiresome; little items are not recorded; and pleasures and wantonness drown avarice and memory. But what remains goes into the coffers of the most reverend father, the provincial gener- alissimo. And what does he do with the inconceivable sums that flow to him from all the provincial administrations of Mexico I It is said that he sends them to oil the rich jurisdictions of Jesuitism in Europe, What is done with them there, I know not. " If you are curious to know who these priests are, and from what country, I can tell you that those at St. Louis are Spaniards, and so I am told are all the priests in all the convents of Mexico ; and truly such viands are not suitable for vulgar mouths. And why are they all Spaniards, as are all the high clergy and the hierarchy ? Because it would be difficult to form a Pretorian militia of the Creoles. " I asked the reverend father if it was true that Almencas, Patriarch of An- tioch, and founder of their religious order, in the year 1121, had not prescribed to them vows, and the observance of poverty, fasting, prayer, &c. ; and if Pope Alex- ander the Third, and subsequently, Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, had not con- firmed this prescription ; and, finally, whether Gregory Ninth had not forbidden them in express terms to possess, or even to receive the rents of, any property, enjoining them to beg from door to door (as they still do in Europe), and thus obtain their subsistence ? He replied that he could not decide upon the exact truth of my history, but at all events, these rules were in force only in the Old World, and not in the New, given to the King of Spain by Alexander Sixth, and PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 127 placed at the discretion of the King. Who can be astonished that the Spaniards have made of this country a scene of massacre, pillage, usurpation and despotism ? " The city of Mexico is the holy city of America, or at least the larger number of its buildings are sacred. It has twenty-six convents of monks, and twenty convents of nuns. Many of these convents are small cities, containing within their limits other churches and confraternities. And there are also within the city more than a hundred other sacred establishments, such as parishes, Segrarios, is cultivated. Santa Anna, the sometime dic- tator and present exile,, owns all the land on both sides of the road between Vera Cruz and Jalapa, a distance of fifty-two miles, hundreds of square leagues, on which are pastured thousands of cattle, for which he receives forty dollars for a hundred head. At least four millions of the population are as miserably poor, as deplorably ignorant, as were the negro slaves of the Southern States. Of the seven millions of people, at least six millions are wholly illiterate. Of the other million, at least one-half can barely read and write. Probably less than two hundred thousand are in a liberal sense educated. All the large proprietors and all the priests are, with few exceptions, Spaniards. All the civil and military officers are Spaniards. All the soldiers and all the laborers are Indians or mixed bloods, and all the laborers are slaves. The owners of the haciendas, priests or others, have in their service laborers ignorant, destitute, half naked. Certain wages are agreed upon, which the employer pays in food, raiment, and such articles as are absolutely necessary ; an account is kept of all these things, and neither the laborer nor his family can leave the estate until all arrearages are paid. These, of course, he has no means of paying except by his labor, which the employer takes good care shall never equal the charge for subsistence. The laborer, therefore, can never be free ; is in fact a slave for life, as well as his children after him, unless the employer will release him or them from service, which he will only do when they are old, oy sick, or unfit for labor. How can such a country prosper ? How can there be primary instruction for such a people, when the only thought of the priests and rich proprietors is, how they may govern, and live in ease, indolence and luxury, and when the man who is not willing to be a dependant or a slave must be a thief or a highwayman ? KEPUBLICS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. In all the colonies of Spain on the American continent the Catholic church and the religious orders and congregations connected with it have built churches, and monasteries, and nunneries, connected with which are vast estates yielding enormous revenues. The territory not owned by the church is the property of a few persons who have inherited it from their Spanish ancestors. These great PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 129 domains cover hundreds of square miles, and sometimes whole provinces. The church does nothing for education, the rich provide only for their own families, and the poor whites, the native Indians, the negroes and mestizos are left to pov- erty and ignorance. None of these States have done so much for popular instruction as even Mexico. It is idle to look for any improvement in education until some political and social revolution shall give to these Republics a stable government, shall deprive the church of its ill-gotten and ill-used wealth, and shall secure to the people some" share in the property and the government of the States. [Assetn. No. 237,] 17 130 EEPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP BRAZIL. The Brazilian government has not permitted the church to acquire such immense wealth and overshadowing influence as in the Spanish American States. The clergy are, however, as a general rule, ignorant, corrupt and immoral, and do little for education, if we may believe the almost uniform testimony of travelers. The country was taken possession of more than three hundred years ago by the Kings of Portugal, and was governed by a Viceroy until the royal family was driven from their throne in Lisbon by the usurpation of Bonaparte, and took refuge in Brazil. The King returned to Portugal in 1821. In 1822 it became independ- ent of the mother country. Our knowledge of the system of education prevailing in the country is very limited. The government did not intervene to control or aid popular instruction, until within the last twenty years. Previously, the instruction of the people was given in the collegios, or private schools, which existed in every city and consid- erable town. The Indian inhabitants had no instruction. The slaves, who num- ber nearly a million, are wholly illiterate. Great ignorance prevails in a large portion of the population. But a beginning has been made. The government, prior to 1854, took charge of the private schools, and has established a system of common schools throughout the Empire, more or less modified by provincial legislation. In 1854-5, the government educated 65,- 413 children. It is probable that as many more were educated by private tuition, and under provincial authority. The whole population being about eight millions, it would follow that the pupils who receive some instruction number about one in seven of the population. When, therefore, we consider the number of slaves and Indians in Brazil, and also when we reflect that the common school system is in its infancy, it is an encouraging proportion. There are great defects in these elementary schools, but each year they are improving. There seems to be an inquiry among educated men and statesmen about the plan best adapted to the country. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 131 BRITISH COLONIES, AUSTRALIA. The distant island, or continent, which England first occupied and used as a place of exile and penal servitude for the criminals whose sentence of death had been commuted into transportation, has become a populous nation, which has made legal provision for the education of the people by a system of primary instruction which might serve as a model for the parent country. The system first adopted in Australia was the old English denominational system. The State gave to the ministers of the different sects subsidies to aid in supporting schools of which they retained control. The school -house was built upon the lands of the church, and the schoolmaster was employed by the pastors. The Board of Education had only the right of inspection, and of refusing its aid. This system presented in the young colony the same vices and inconveniences as in the mother country ; it was ruinously expensive, and its results were very unsatisfactory. In new and thinly peopled localities, ministers of different com- munions hastened to open schools and demand subsidies. The aid was generally granted, but the resources were insufficient. On the very locality where one good school could have been maintained, open to the children of every sect, five or six schools vegetated each in a poor hut, with an incompetent master, and a starve- ling support. The colony of Victoria voted, annually, $ 600,000 for primary instruction, a considerable sum in proportion to its wealth and population, for it was the same as if England had expended twenty-two millions of dollars for the same object, and yet all wants were not satisfied, merely on account of the ine- quality of the distribution. Convinced of the vices of the system, the Legislature, still continuing its subsidies, established an organization like that of Ireland, based upon the principle of national schools, open to all, but subject to a regular inspec- tion. The new system shows great success. Already, in 1861, the National Board expended $250,000, and the Denominational Board $525,000. Subse- quently a radical change was made. The educational act of 1862 abolished the two Boards, and created a single Board organized upon the Irish system. Four hours a day are allotted to secular instruction, and religious teaching is remitted to the minister of the sect to which each pupil belongs. The salaries of the mas- ters were raised from $500 to $1,500, and the fee of the pupils, which is from 25 to 50 cents, nearly doubles this pay. Instruction is obligatory. The system is excellent. CANADA. Canada was a French colony, conquered by the English. After the conquest the new immigrants, for nearly half a century, came from England and the United States. During the war of the Revolution many royalists took refuge in Canada, mostly in Upper Canada and in the counties bordering on Vermont. In the early 132 REPOET OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF part of the present century a great number of Scotch settled in Upper Canada. During the last fifty years a large emigration has flowed from Ireland into both provinces. The French population has generally remained on the lands originally settled by them. The Irish have mostly gathered into the cities. The Scotch and the emigrants from the United States are chiefly found in Canada West. Such was the population for which it was proposed to establish a system of pop- ular instruction. Before the organization of the public schools, the country dis- tricts were buried in complete ignorance. The two principal cities, Quebec and Montreal, had a few establishments, to which the children of the middling classes came to learn some elementary knowledge, too quickly forgotten. A traveler, Talbot, after passing through, at this epoch, all Upper Canada, declares that he had seen, during his whole sojourn of five years, only two persons holding a book in their hands, and truly, he adds, books there are as scarce as apples on the mountains of the polar regions. In Lower Canada a knowledge of reading and writing was so rare an acquisition, that more than one member of Parliament was without it. A Quebec journal proposed to found a school for adults, on purpose to instruct members of the Legislature in these indispensable arts. One of the Governors of that day, Lord Durham, was surprised, on arriving in that colony, that no provision had been made for the instruction of the lower classes. And here, again, we find one of those men, who, like Barnard and Horace Mann in the United States, devote an unconquerable energy and a high and just spirit, resting upon great administrative capacity, to the work of national education. The Rev. Dr. Ryerson, after having carefully studied the school systems of Europe and the United States, published a report upon primary instruction in Upper Canada, whose conclusions were adopted by Parliament. He borrowed from Germany its Normal schools, from Ireland its system of religious instruction, and from the United States the fertile principle that the education of the people is a public duty to be done at the public cost ; and thus he framed an organization of which the Canadians are proud, and justly so, if it is proper to judge from the progress due to its influence. Every township is divided into sections, large enough to support a school. In each section, or district, the electors choose a committee of three trustees, who are by law a civil person, who possess all the school property ana all the goods and revenues appertaining to the school. The trustees hire the teacher, supervise the instruction, levy the taxes voted for this purpose by the tax-payers, and have supreme direction of all district affairs, upon the sole condi- tion imposed by law that a school shall be kept for at least six months in a year. A fund, composed of the Parliamentary subsidy and an equal sum levied upon the taxable property of the township, is distributed, yearly, among all the districts in proportion to the number of pupils who attend the public schools. The schools are visited twice a week by inspectors named by the county board, who are also required to hold annually a public meeting in each district, so that everywhere may be thrown back a reflection of a higher intellectual life. They form a committee for the examination of the candidates for teachers, and they grant certificates. The supreme control is vested in a central authority, divided into two branches ; the executive power, committed to the Chief Superintendent of Education, and the legislative power, exercised by a Grand Council of Public Instruction. The functions of the Superintendent are very important. He pays out directly all the public money, and decides all litigious disputes arising under the school laws. To him are addressed all the reports of the local committees, or trustees, from which he makes an abstract, submitted every year to Parliament. PUBLK5 INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 133 The question of religious instruction in schools has here received a solution that Reserves our special attention, because it is a middle course between the Irish and the United States system. It is not a radical secularization, as in the United States, and yet freedom of -conscience is scrupulously respected. In no school are the children required to read, er to hear read, extracts from any religious book whatever, or t join in any act of devotion, without the consent of their parents. The teacher cannot engage in the religious instruction of the scholars who may ^desire it, except out of school hours ; he must refrain from speaking of the dogmas of any particular sect, although he is permitted to instruct his pupils in the gen- eral principles of morality and of natural religion. The feature is borrowed sub- stantially from the law of Massachusetts, and sterns to be a good one. To intrust to the lay teacher instruction ia all those moral and religious truths which man can comprehend by tlie aid only of his own reason, and to reserve for the priest and the parent the dogmas drawn from revelation, and inculcated by theologians, are the means adopted to secure on the one hand independence of the State, and on the other freedom of conscience. The Canadian Parliament and the -school -districts have not recoiled before the expenses demanded by their system of education. While in 1850 only 102,619 pounds sterling was consecrated to primary instruction, the sum expended for the same object in 1856 was 194,420 pounds sterling. In less than six years the sum was doubled. The expense was almost equal to that of any of the United States. For a population of 953,225 souls, it was almost a dollar a head. Comprehending the decisive importance of forming good teachers, the Legislature of Canada voted 25,000 pounds sterling to establish at Toronto a Normal school, which the intelligent Governor of Canada, Lord Elgin, opened with solemnity, to the general satisfaction, on the 24th of November, 1852, In 1856, the number of male teachers rose to 2,622, with an annual salary varying from about $500 to $1,600; and the female teachers to 1,067, with salaries from $250 to $ 600. The number of children attending the public schools amounted to 251,145, of whom 113,725 were girls, which gives one pupil to seven inhabitants. Since 1857 the progress has been rapid, and, above all, the quality of the teaching has notably improved under the impulse, and chiefly by the good example of the teachers trained in the Normal school of Toronto. The organization of popular instruction in Lower Canada oifers, perhaps, greater interest than that in Upper Canada, because it shows how a country, very much behindhand in this respect, can at a single bound, and in a few years, place itself almost 'on a level with the most advanced nations. We shall here see how, in the midst of a people of French origin, and of various religious sects, a problem else- where declared insoluble has been solved by having, at the same time, independ- ent local boards and a general system of instruction in successful operation that is to say, a system that decentralizes without disorganizing, The organic law for primary instruction in Lower Canada was passed in 1847. It has been amended in some particulars by subsequent acts. The following is an abstract of its principal provisions : The first Monday of July in every year, in each district, the property holders, and the inhabitants who rent houses, assemble together to choose a school com- mittee comprised of five members. This committee forms a corporation, enjoying all the rights of a civil person, has possession of all school property, and is capable of suing and being sued. Its powers are extensive. It has charge of the school- houses, hires and dismisses the teachers, levies the taxes for the support of schools, prosecutes before a justice of the peace the delinquent tax-payers, and enforces the 134 BEPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF judgment by the seizure and sale of the real and personal estate of the defendant. The trustees elected are required, under the penalty of a fine, to discharge their duties, which are considered obligatory. Such is the foundation of the system, an institution firmly seated and vigorously armed for action. It has all the rights of an individual, and has, moreover, a per- petual existence. Its great merit is that it outlives the changeable decisions of majorities, a thing essential in a democratic State, where every election is apt to work a revolution. It favors and calls out individual sacrifices for the public good. Persons of enlightened benevolence are disposed to be liberal of their gifts to the school when they know that the district will profit by them. Very few men make legacies or donations to the nation, because it seems like adding a drop of water to the ocean. More men will give to a district school, because they are acquainted with it, they appreciate its advantages, and a little money produces a large result. To do good to our fellow men is not an easy matter, when we wish not to weaken in them the healthful springs of personal responsibility ; but to give to a school presents no danger, for to educate a child is to prepare a man to take care of himself. It is true that foundations like these, as they have existed in Europe, have been dangerous, and have led to inevitable abuses. Controlled by administrators appointed by the founders once for all, or by directors who fill all vacancies in their own body, they are out of the reach of public opinion, which ought to have some influence over them ; they vegetate in routine, cease to respond to new requirements, become obstinately wedded to the traditions of the past, are transformed into centers of sluggish conservatism, opposed to all progress and to every reform. They provoke the violent and hostile animadversions of every new generation, and they deserve them. They ought to be suppressed, just as European nations have suppressed the religious corporations; or at least they should be radically modified, as England has undertaken to do with her educa- tional foundations, in which the last inquiry has discovered enormous and intole- rable abuses. In Canada, as well as in the United States, these dangers are avoided by a very simple measure. The nomination of the administrators of these foundations has been entrusted to the suffrage of the citizens. In this way the stability of the past is combined with the mobility with which transformations of modern society are made. The perpetuity of the school is secured without handing it over to the empire of a retrograde spirit, and we are assured that it will always respond to the wants of the present. But the organic law of Canada does not entrust the whole business of the schools to the district. It arms the central board against their inertia, because this is a matter of public concern. If the electors neglect to choose school trus- tees, the government appoints them on the recommendation of the Superintendent of Instruction, and such trustees have the same right to levy taxes upon the tax- payers as if they had been chosen by them. How are the necessary funds to be raised to support public instruction ? In this matter the law has made provision of much wisdom and firmness. Every year the Parliament votes for primary instruction a subsidy, which is apportioned by the Superintendent and Council among all the districts, according to their needs, and the districts are compelled to levy an equal sum upon their taxable property. The heads of families are also required to pay a monthly contribution during the eight months of the school year for every child old enough to attend school, whether he attends or not. This contribution never exceeds two shillings a month for each child. The indigent are of course exempted. Moreover, the trustees can levy a tax for such additional sum as they may deem necessary . This PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 135 wus permitted by an amendment adopted in 1856, which gives to the local trus- tees a power denied to the sovereign the power to levy taxes not voted by the Chambers ; for it was thought best to arm with a strong privilege those who have in their care the advancement of education. Another reason for the lodgment of such a power in the hands of the trustees was the consideration that it would sel- dom or never be exercised without the approval and consent of a majority of the tax-payers. A sufficient guaranty against abuses or the repetition of abuses, and excesses, is found in the frequent changes of the trustees by new elections. If _the tax-payers become discontented they can elect other trustees. But here the dis- tricts are subjected to the decisions of the central authority, because the districts where ignorance is most prevalent are precisely those which will impose upon themselves the least burdens for education. The central Board, better informed than anybody else can be of the wants of each locality, measures its appropria- tion by this scale, and thus obliges the district to do as much as the State ; but when the work is once assured, then the local trustees have unlimited power, and act on their own responsibility. They levy the taxes, and are not bound to give any account but to those who pay them. And here we see the principle of admin- istration so efficacious in the United States, namely, special commissions invested with extreme powers, but which depend directly upon the electors. The central authority marks out to the local authority the limit of its obligations, and the latter is free and sovereign in the application. To each is allotted its just part. At the center we are better situated to see how the whole system works, and in the districts they are better able to manage the details. The law does not enumerate the studies that shall be taught in the schools. This important point is left to the decision of the local committee. But, conform- ably to ancient tradition, religious instruction is given in the school, which thus becomes a confessional. The dissenters remain to be provided for, and this sug- gested a singular expedient to the legislator. Article 26, of the laws of 1846, declares that the minority has the right to signify, in writing, to the majority, that they do not approve of the instruction given, and that they have chosen the syndics or commissioners to establish another school. So soon as the minority can unite twenty children of the school age, that is, from five to fifteen years, it becomes a school district. It has a right to its proportional subsidy, and the com- missioners can levy a tax for each child and make an assessment upon the pro- perty of their electors, who are thereafter exempt from paying into the hands of the majority. This system exhibits manifest inconveniencies. It dissipates, injuriously, the resources, and it sacrifices the rights of the scattered dissenters. It resembles the system that was first adopted in Australia, and which has been renounced to the great advantage of the tax-payers and of education. In Lower Canada, as in Upper Canada, the great point, without which nothing is accomplished, is to form good teachers. Three Normal schools have been organ- ized; one at Montreal, that of McGill, English and Protestant; a second, also at Montreal, French and Catholic, bearing the name of that intrepid navigator who discovered Canada in 1534, Jacques Cartier ; and the third at Quebec, also French and Catholic, that of Laval. The formation and support of three establishments instead of one, caused a greater expense, but they offered the advantage of inviting a larger number of pupils and of spreading the best methods of instruction through- out the province. Since their opening, in 1850, and down to 1864, these schools have been attended by 1,559 pupils, of whom 575 have obtained diplomas. Under the active and enlightened influence of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Mons. 0. P. Chauveau, excellent measures have been adopted to 136 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF stimulate the zeal and to promote the education of teachers. Associations and meetings have been organized where they eome together, from time to time, to dis- cuss questions concerning the art of teaching, and new methods of instruction. Written essays are presented which are submitted to public discussion, and some of the best are then published together in the Journal of Public Instruction, edited by Mons. Chauveau, and sent gratuitously to all the schoolmasters. These meetings do great good. The teachers, withdrawn for some days from their rude and monotonous life, ga.ther new courage by contact with, their brethren and their superiors, and lay up a store of new ideas and aspirations towards progress. Rewards have also been offered to those who trained their classes best and whose pupils made most progress. The publication of the annual report, showing what has been done for the past year, forms also a stimulant for the most energetic. This interesting document, in fact, contains the individual reports of all the inspectors, who render an account of the manner in which instruction has been given in every school district, and often in each school. Laziness and negligence are denounced without pity, services rendered are mentioned with praise, and com- plete publicity is the severest punishment for some and the most efficacious reward for others. The progress made since the passage of the new law is truly remarkable, espe- cially within the last ten years. In 1853 there were 2,352 institutions of all kinds with 108,284 pupils, and the district contributions for education amounted to $593,964. To this sum we must add the State subsidy of $112,158, From an estimate made in 1863, the number of children between the ages of five and sixteen inclusive was 304,429, and as there were, in the different educational establish- ments, 193,131 pupils, it follows that 60 out of every 100 children were of the age to learn and attend school. The proportion of the number to the whole popula- tion, which was 1,156,000, would be 16 in 100, or in other words, one scholar to> six inhabitants. But when we remember the low grade from which Lower Canada has been raised, when we think of all the obstacles that the nature of the country opposes to a regular attendance, we shall be astonished at the results attained in so short a time, and shall admire the perseverance and activity by which they have been realized. Look at Lower Canada, as Voltaire said, a hundred thousand square miles of snow. Although there is little actual misery, the country is relatively poor, and capital is almost wholly wanting. The population is scattered in small groups, in families even, over a vast extent of territory. Its French inhabitants, honest and intelligent, but for a long time weighed down by feudal institutions and by a passive obedience to the clergy, are very far from possessing that elasticity which incessantly pushes on the Anglo-Saxon race. And yet in spite of all these disadvantages, Lower Canada has established a system of popular instruction whose evident superiority opulent England must envy. If the poor and rather indolent colony has achieved a work which the rich and enterprising metropolis has failed to do, the reason is that the one has rejected and the other has admitted the essential principle of State intervention ; it is because the former has estab- lished the district school supported by taxation, and an organization uniform throughout the colony, and because the latter has not, at even this late day, adopted the system. In the eighteenth century England has been outstripped in the race of popular education by Scotland, and in the nineteenth century by Aus- tralia and Canada. The number of school institutions in Lower Canada in 1855 was 2,868, the ITY ) PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 137 number of pupils was 127,058, and the money contributed to their support was 18249,136. The number of school institutions in 1865 was 3,706 ; of pupils 202,648 ; the amount of contributions $597,448. The increase of institutions in ten years was 838 ; of pupils 75,590 ; of money $348,312. Of the schools in 1865, 3,479 were primary, taught by 3,561 teachers, and attended by 172,733 pupils. Of the teachers in all the schools, 3,124 were females, and 1,562 were males. In the three Normal schools there were 219 pupils, taught by 31 teachers. The expenditure of the Jacques Carti'er school for 1865 was $13,183.57 ; for the Laval school, $15,160; and for the McGill school, $12,046.16; total, $40,389.73. Of this total the government paid $26,000, and the fees of pupils amounted to $9,972.17. The report of the Superintendent of Education of Lower Canada, dated July 10, 1866, gives the following statistical information for the year 1865 : 1853. 1865. Number of institutions 2,352 3,706 Number of pupils 108,284 202,648 Contributions $165,848 $597,448 Of the 3,706 institutions, 10 were superior schools, 210 secondary schools, 3 Normal schools, 4 special schools, and 3,479 primary schools. There were employed 1,999 teachers to take charge of 28,613 pupils in the sec- ondary schools, and 3,561 teachers for 172,733 pupils in primary schools. There were 146 Protestant dissentient schools with 4,763 pupils, and 37 Cath- olic dissentient schools with 1,320 pupils. The number of pupils in the 3 Normal schools was 219. The report of the Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, dated July 24, 1866, gives the following statistical information for 1865 : Legislative grant $165,972 Municipal assessment 308,092 Trustees' rate on property 711,197 Rate-bills on pupils 60,696 Clergy reserve fund 90,131 $1,545,000 Expended for salaries of teachers $1,041,052 Maps, apparatus, &c 22,571 School sites and building school-houses 127,672 Rents and repairs 41,534 School books, stationery, &c 123,048 $1,355,879 No. of children between five and sixteen 426,757 No. of children between five and sixteen in attendance 361,617 No. of children of other ages in attendance 22,035 No. of boys 204,320 ; No. of girls 179,332 383,652 No. not in attendance 42,141 No. of male teachers 2,930 ; female teachers 1,791 4,721 No. of school sections 4,385 [Asscm. No. 237.] 18 138 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF No. of schools 4,303 No. of free schools 3,595 No. of school-houses, 4,339 No. of school -houses, brick 594 No. of school-houses, stone 357 No. of school-houses, frame 1,719 No. of school-houses, log 1,645 Actual average time schools were kept open 10 months. Koman Catholic separate schools 152 Pupils in attendance 18,101 No. of grammar schools 104 No. of pupils in Normal school male 136, female 161 297 Receipts for grammar schools 8100,654 Expenditures 94,240 Average yearly salary of male teachers hi counties- 260 Average yearly salary of male teachers in cities 522 Average yearly salary of female teachers in counties 169 Average yearly salary of female teachers in cities 241 Of the progress of education in Upper Canada the Superintendent says: "In 1855 the school population of Upper Canada, between the ages of 5 and 16, was 297,623 ; in 1865 it was 426,757 increase 129,134. In 1855 the number of gram- mar schools and pupils were, respectively, 65 and 3,726; in 1865 the numbers were, respectively, 104 and 5,754 increase of schools 39, of pupils 2,028. The number of common schools in 1855 was 3,284 ; the number in 1865 was 4,151 increase 867. The number of common school pupils in 1855 was 1,211; the number in 1865 was 365,552 increase 142,573 ; an average increase of 14,257 pupils a year, while the average increase of school population per year was 12,913. The number of free schools in 1855 was 1,211 ; the number in 1865 was 3,595 increase 2,384, or an average increase of 238 free schools per annum. The amount provided and expended for common school purposes alone in 1855 was $899, 272 ; the amount provided and expended in 1865 was $1,355,879 increase $456,607; or an average annual increase of $45,660." NEW BRtTNSWICK. New Brurswick has a school system organized by recognizing the territorial division of the colony into parishes. Trustees are appointed for the parishes, whose duty it is to divide each parish into convenient school districts, and to call a meeting of the rate payers of the district to elect school committees. The colony is also divided into four districts, for each of which an inspector is appointed. The general supervision of the schools is devolved upon a Chief Superintendent of Education. The schools are supported by a legislative subsidy, and by subscriptions, tuition fees and local assessments and taxation, The rate-payers in each district can levy taxes for school purposes. It is proposed that parishes and counties have the same power. The schools are divided into common, superior, training, model and grammar schools. The statistical report for the year 1865 shows that there wore kept open in the PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 139 winter 763 schools, and in the summer 821. In the winter 771 teachers were employed, and 826 in the summer. Of these 598 were trained teachers. There has been neglect in the election of school committees, only 352 out of 826 schools being yet provided with them. The subsidy of the province was $91,373.92, The local expenditure was $102,944.91. The number of pupils in attendance the first term was 27,417, and the second term 29,975. The 23 superior schools were maintained at an expense of $11,562.99, and the pupils were 1,259 for the summer term and 1,044 for the winter term. There are also eleven grammar schools. The training school at St. John admitted 126 pupils in 1865, The total num- ber who have attended the training school and been licensed to teach during the eight years since it has been established is 1,267 420 males and 847 females. Their average age was 21.5 years. New Brunswick covers an area of 27,700 square miles, and has a population of about 275,000 souls.. It is divided into fourteen counties ; its principal cities are Fredericton, St, John and St. Andrews, This province, with scarcely a thousand inhabitants, was united with Nova Scotia, a much more populous and progressive colony, until 1785, when it obtained a separate government, although retaining the same constitution. The main sources of revenue are the fisheries, the timber, ship building and grain. The annual exportations amount to five million dollars. As our purpose is more particularly to speak of the state of education, we shall not allude further to its commercial or political condition. The Board of Public Instruction, which forms a section of the Provincial Secre- tary's Department, is under the immediate direction of its own Superintendent. There are four school inspectors. The local school administration is, however, in the hands of trustees, appointed for several united parishes. There are besides certain committees elected for the immediate oversight of the schools, but hitherto these committees have been appointed only in certain places, Mr, Bennet, the present Chief Superintendent of Education, in his report speaks in high terms of the advantages of these committees, and recommends their organization in every school district, in accordance with the provisions of the school law. The Council of Public Instruction is composed of the Governor, the members of the Executive Council and the Superintendent, who is also its secretary. At the head of the educational institutions is King's College, at Fredericton, founded by royal charter bearing date 18th November, 1823, It was here that many of the leading men of the colony were educated. The college receives an annual grant of 2,000 sterling from government. There are grammar schools in every county of the province, with the exceptions of the counties of York, Kings and Victoria. By preparing pupils for the study of the Greek and Latin languages, these schools serve as feeders to the college at Fredericton. They receive annual grants of 100 sterling each from government. The Baptist congregation have a seminary at Fredericton, and there is at Mount Allison an academy belonging to the Wesleyan Methodists, Government has also established a training school, with model school annexed, for the purpose of preparing teachers for their responsible duties. Of 771 masters engaged in teaching during the March term of 1865, 563 were of the trained class, an increase of 32 on the number of certificated teachers employed during the same 140 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF term of the preceding year. Of 826 teachers employed in the ensuing term, 598 held diplomas. The numbers of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses employed during the winter was 771 ; during the spring term 821. The schoolmistresses gained rapidly in numbers on teachers of the opposite sex, Of the 180 diplomas granted in 1865, 120 were given, to schoolmistresses, and only 60 to schoolmasters. Each year the examinations have become more and more severe, so mueh so, in fact, that some of the teachers holding first class certificates, obtained some years ago, are now less qualified than those who received second class certificates during, the last few years. This having created a desire to secure the renewal of the diplomas at stated intervals, a regulation similar to that which exists in Lower Canada has been demanded. The teachers are divided into three classes, and receive from the public treasury the following allowances : Masters of the third class, 22 10s. ; second class, 30 ; first class, 31 10s. 5rf. The schoolmistresses belonging to the third class receive 17 10s.; second class, 22 10s. ; first class, 27 10s. 5d. School corporations levying the assessment receive from government 25 per cent extra grant. Nevertheless, the grant accorded by the government must not exceed the average sum of 200 for each parish in any one county ; neither must it exceed the sum of 260 for any parish in particular. The number of schools in 1853 was 718, and of children attending them 23,211. The number of schools in 1852 was 588, attended by 18,591 pupils; in 1853, as- shown above, 718, attended by 23,211 pupils. In 1865, 763, attended by 24,417 pupils. It does not appear from the figures given above that the increase hi the number of schools and of children attending them has been very considerable during the past twelve years ; still the Superintendent has cause to be satisfied with the pro- gress which education has made in the province, as will be seen by the following extract from his report : " And here I may be permitted to add the testimony of many intelligent men in nearly^all parts of the province, and of all shades of political and religious opinions, that our schools have attained to a degree of efficiency and usefulness for which they have never yet received credit. It is within the memory of men still young that throughout wide tracts of country few persons could be found, except perhaps the missionary or the schoolmasters, that were able to compose a decent letter or draw out the most ordinary document in writing. Now let one go into almost any district where a school has been in operation for a few years, and it will be found that the occupation of the missionary and schoolmaster, as amanuenses, is all but gone. I make these statements as they have been made to me, not with a view indeed to disparage the past, but rather in the earnest hope that, as we have thus improved upon the past, we may likewise be able to improve no less upon the present. Instead of contenting ourselves with having got above and beyond the standard, necessarily a low one, of a past age, or with a flattering comparison, not hard to find, with neighbors no better than ourselves, let us rather set up an ideal standard of perfection, and never cease from our efforts till our achievements shall at least equal our capabilities," PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 141 NOVA SCOTIA. Nova Scotia has a system of common schools, adapted to the use of that pro- vince, of which an abstract is given. The general school law was passed on May 2, 1865, although it by no means inaugurated the plan of public instruction. The ultimate power is lodged in an executive council, composed of high officers of state, and of which the Governor is a member. Five of these officers constitute a quorum. The immediate control of the schools is lodged in a Superintendent of Education, who receives a salary of twelve hundred dollars, besides an allowance^ of four hundred dollars for traveling expenses. He has the general supervision of schools and academies, and has power to hold public meetings and institutes of teachers, to inspect county academies, to prepare printed forms, to distribute school books, maps and apparatus, to issue an educational journal at such times as he shall deem proper, forwarding it to all teachers and school officers, and to make yearly a report of the state of the academies and schools, together with an account of all moneys expended. The distribution of the library money is given to him. Boards of commissioners are created for subdivisions of the province, in whom are reposed the management of public education, subject to the revision of the Council of Public Instruction. They have power to make alterations in the boundaries of school sections, to declare school-houses unfit for tenancy, to with- hold the provincial grant from any section presenting a false return, to settle any dispute between teachers and trustees, in regard to payment of salaries, and to cancel the license of any teacher for good cause. They are empowered to hold real or personal property in trust for schools. Examiners are appointed by the commissioners, who, in conjunction with an examiner appointed by the provincial authorities, must inspect all applications for license to teach. Regulations are made of the manner in which this must be done. They receive two dollars for each day actually employed. Each of the provincial subdivisions has an inspector, who acts as clerk to the commissioners. He is made the custodian of the records of the board, and is obliged to visit and inspect, half yearly, each school and county academy within his charge, and to make a report of the same. Trustees are elected with about the same powers and duties as in the United States. Teachers are graded into three classes. They are not allowed to teach unless licensed. They must teach faithfully all the branches required to be taught in such schools, keep an accurate register of pupils, have semi-yearly examinations, give notice through the pupils of all school meetings, and remunerate the trustees for damages done by the school chargeable to the neglect of the teacher to keep proper discipline. Members of the legislature, ministers of religion, and magis- trates shall be visitors of schools, and together with teachers are exempt from militia duty, statute labor, or jury duty. They are also exempt from taxation to the extent of two thousand dollars. Halifax is governed by a special law. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars is annually appropriated for the sup- port of common schools, and thirteen thousand eight hundred dollars for the aid of academies. Additional money must be raised by subscription, and not by rate- bill. The schools are free, and must be generally kept for five months, or, if the section be poor, for three months in each year. A Normal school is provided for, and all scholars are admitted gratuitously who intend to teach. The Board of Education have published a pamphlet containing many valuable rules and suggestions, which is bound with the general school law, and in which they prescribe a uniform set of school books. 142 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF ENGLAND. The first attempt at popular education in England was in the year 1447, during the reign of Henry VI. Four clergymen, parsons of parishes in London, taking into consideration the low state of education in the city, and the want of grammar schools, petitioned Parliament for leave to them and their successors to set up grammar schools in their respective parishes of Great Allhallows ; St. Andrew, Holborn ; St. Peter's, Cornhill ; and St. Mary, Colechurch, and to appoint schoolmasters. To this petition it was answered : " The King wills it to be done as desired, so that it be done by the advice of the ordinary, and the rules of the Archbishop of Canterbury, for the time being." The success of this application led to the foundation of five more grammar schools in 1455, namely, in St. Paul's Churchyard, in St. Martin le Grand, at Bow Church, at St. Dunstan's in the east, and at the Hospital of St. Anthony. But it must not be supposed that there were no schools in the kingdom prior to this date. Even in the darkest of the middle ages there were numerous semina- ries of learning. From the time of William the Conqueror schools existed in which were sedulously taught French, which was the language of the court, and Latin, which was the language of the learned and the church. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge had been founded, and besides them a school was attached to every cathedral, called the episcopal school, and almost every convent had its school, more or less famous. The number of these religious houses had increased since the conquest, so that in 1214 there were 557. There were also schools in the nunneries, in which the nuns were taught Greek, Hebrew, physic and divinity. In the chief cities and towns there were also illustrious schools, in which youth were taught grammar, logic, and other branches of learning. William Fitz Ste- phen, who lived in the reign of Henry Second, from 1157 to 1189, says that there were three of these schools firmly established in London, besides others that were occasionally opened by masters who had obtained a high reputation for learning. The invention of paper must have greatly promoted education and science, and made the multiplication of books an easier and cheaper process. It was first made of cotton, and afterwards of linen rags. It preceded the invention of printing, and enabled scholars and controversialists to multiply and circulate their books and tracts. Before the fourteenth century books and learning were the exclusive pro- perty of the church, or the rich and great. Without the manufacture of paper and the invention of printing popular instruction would not be possible. Between the years 1200 and 1500 there was great zeal for learning. But the learning in vogue in those three centuries was not of a popular and practical kind. It was confined chiefly to the church and aristocracy. There was in England a middle class consisting of landholders, and merchants who cultivated letters. But the instruction was mostly in Latin and French. During this period there were founded in the University of Oxford University College, Baliol College, Merton ollege, Exeter College, Oriel College, Queen's College, New College, Lincoln Col- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 143 lege, All Souls' College, and Magdalen College. And during the same period the following halls and colleges were founded in Cambridge University, namely : Peter House, Michael College, University Hall, King's Hall, Clare Hall, Pembroke Hall, Corpus Chrisii 'College, Trinity Hall, Gonvil and Caius Hall, King's Col- lege, Queen's College, and Katharine Hall. Two celebrated school foundations were also established, namely : Winchester College, in 1387, for " seventy poor and indigent scholars," by William of Wick- ham ; and in 1441 Eton College, by Henry VI, for the same number of poor and indigent scholars. These colleges and halls were built and endowed by wealthy and generous persons for the gratuitous lodging of teachers and scholars, and they were also endowed with lands and revenues for the maintenance of poor scholars and their teachers . Before this period Latin had been the only language of the schools and the learned. All works on philosophy, divinity, law, history, and all statutes, were written in Latin. And this continued to be the case to a later time, down even to the Commonwealth, when Milton wrote some of his works in Latin. But it is, nevertheless, a remarkable feature of the period above named, that an increasing attention began to be paid to the language of the people. This was the Saxon, as modified by the introduction of many Latin and Norman words and forms. The common people, the laborers, the servants, the farmers and mechanics, had no education, and could not read or write, and so, perforce, the clergy, nobility and scholars were obliged to use the English language in all their intercourse with the people. Satirical songs and poems, and religious and political tracts began to be written in it, which proves that many of the middling classes could read it. Gower and Chaucer wrote their poems in it, and John Wickliffe his controversial pamphlets and his translation of the Scriptures. And yet education, even to the point of reading and writing, must have been limited to comparatively few persons, for many of the clergy and nobility, who had means and leisure for study, were still grossly ignorant. Learning was not much esteemed by any class, and was despised by those whose occupation and delight were war and its excitements. It was thought enough for noblemen's sons to wind the horn and carry their hawk fair, and leave study and learning to the children of mean people. In the church the most valuable livings were often bestowed upon the illiterate parasites of the great, or were given to foreign adven- turers by papal provisions, while the real scholar was left to languish in indigenes or driven to the necessity of begging his bread from door to door, recommended to the charitable by the chancellor of the university in which he had studied. While those of high rank and the learned professions afforded so little encour- agement to literature, it is not likely it could receive much favor from the common people. It was not until the reign of Henry the Fourth that villeins, farmers and mechanics were permitted by law to put their children to school, and long after that they dared not educate a son for the church without a license from their lord. Between, therefore, the occupation of the great in war, and the total illiteratcness of the industrial classes, there was no great section of the community to whom the merely learned could look for countenance and protection. While books existed only in manuscript, only the rich could procure them. None but kings, princes, bishops, universities and monasteries could have libraries, and their libraries were neither large nor select. At the beginning of the fourteenth century there were only four classics in the Royal Library of Paris, and these were one copy each of Ovid, Cicero, Lucan and 144 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP Boethius ; the fest consisted chiefly of books of devotion, astrology, geomancy, chiromancy and medicine, with pandects, chronicles and romances. This collec- tion was principally made by Charles V, and consisted of 900 volumes, which were kept with great care in one tower of the Louvre. In 1425 it was purchased for 1,200 livres, and was probably the foundation of the magnificent library established in the University of Oxford by the then literary Maecenas, Humphrey, Duke of Oxford. A single work was then of great importance. The prior and convent of Rochester declared that they would, every year, pronounce sentence of damnation on him who should purloin a Latin copy of Aristotle's Physics, or even obliterate the title ; and the impediments to study were so great, even in the reign of Henry VI, that by one of the statutes of St. Mary's College, Oxford, it is ordered that no student shall occupy a book in the library above one hour at the most, so that others may not be hindered from the use of the same. Even the kings of England were often obliged to supply the scantiness of their libraries by borrowing books from their subjects. Henry V, who had a taste for reading, borrowed several volumes, which were claimed by their owners, after his death, with the same anxiety as a landed estate. Even the art of printing, for a century after its discovery, did not contribute largely to the number of books or to lower their price. During the first half of the sixteenth century nothing was done to promote popular education. Three more colleges were founded at Oxford and five more at Cambridge, and the illustrious schools of Ipswich and St. Paul's were established and richly endowed. The age produced many great scholars, and Erasmus came from the continent to visit Sir Thomas More. These two great men, and some others, aided William Lyly in preparing a Greek grammar, which was published, with a preface, by Cardinal Wolsey. Lyly was the first schoolmaster who taught Greek in London. The study of this language had been introduced into Europe, chiefly by the examples of Erasmus, and it was bitterly opposed by the monks and the academicians of the university. The New Greek Testament by Erasmus was denounced as an impious and dangerous book. But Henry Eighth and Wol- sey warmly espoused the cause of Greek letters, and it soon became fashionable to study the language, and many ladies of high rank, and even Queen Elizabeth, became proficient in it. But Elizabeth herself was not a munificent patron of men of genius, and, except the establishment of Dublin University and Westminster school, contributed little to the promotion of education. Although it is fashion- able to speak of the Elizabethan age of literature, there is no doubt that education actually declined during her reign. The suppression of the monasteries and nun- neries had broken up all the schools connected with them, and no provision had been made by law to supply their place. Even Roger Ascham, the tutor of Eliza- beth, in a letter dated in 1550, laments the ruin of the grammar schools, and pre- dicts from their decline the speedy extinction of the universities. But the printing press was now fairly at work, and all the Greek and Roman classics had been printed, with elaborate commentaries, and works began to appear in English upon all subjects. From the death of Elizabeth to the accession of William Third, nearly one hundred years, little was done to improve the education of the people, or to add to the facilities of acquiring knowledge in the higher schools and universities. The long and peaceful reigns of Elizabeth and James had added enormously to the wealth of the country, which was not materially diminished by the civil wars that ended with the death of Charles First. There were in England, in 1688, at least half a million of men who were heads of families, numbering nearly three millions PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 145 of persons, whose incomes enabled them to provide for the education of their children in the schools and colleges, or by the employment of private tutors. But the rest of the population, composed of laborers and servants, cottagers and paupers, seamen and soldiers, numbering three millions, were without means or opportunities to learn, and may be regarded as wholly illiterate. In 1G98, charity schools were established for the instruction of children who could not otherwise obtain the benefits of an education. They originated in the benevolence of a few individuals in London, and speedily became great favor4tes- with the community. Besides instructing children in reading, writing and cipher- ing, they also clothed them, apprenticed the boys to trades, and prepared the girls for domestic service. The trustees of charity schools formed themselves into a voluntary association in 1700, and formed rules for their better regulation. In 1781, Robert Raikes, a printer, in conjunction with the Rev. Mr. Stock, established at Gloucester the first Sunday school in England. His aim was greatly facilitated by the institution, four years later, of the Sunday School Society, the objects of which were to promote, by correspondence and pecuniary assistance, the formation of Sunday schools ; to induce the opulent to visit and superintend them, and to suggest such improvements as might offer to their con- sideration. Next to charity schools, Sunday schools may be considered the second step in the progress of popular instruction. Before their establishment education was at a very low ebb, even among the middle classes. Another step in the same direction was taken by David Dale, of Lanark, in 1792, who reared a village at Clyde, containing a population of 2,000 souls. He erected five cotton mills, in which the people were employed. He made provision for the health and education of the children employed by him. They had some hours every day allotted to them for play and recreation in the fields, and two schoolmasters were engaged to teach them daily. In 1811, the National School Society for the education of the poor in the prin- ciples of the established church was instituted. In 1818, three systems of education were pressed upon the public attention; first, that of mutual instruction, propagated by Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster; second, the interrogative system of questions without answers ; and, third, that of M. Pestalozzi, by oral questions. It was in 1798, a century after the first charity schools were established, that Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster brought their schemes of public instruction into notice. Their plans excited much interest, and by the introduction of mutual instruction, slate writing, reading and pronouncing by syllables, and a mode of tuition adapted to juvenile minds, great improvements were effected in the practice of education. It was rendered more expeditious, less expensive, and not so irksome and unnat- ural to children. From Dr. Bell the National School Society had its origin, and from Mr. Lancaster the British and Foreign Bible Society ; the latter being patron- ized by the dissenters, and the former by the established church. Infant schools formed another useful auxiliary of popular instruction. The idea of an infant school was suggested by the asylum founded by Mr. Owen for the children of the adult population of New Lanark. The objects sought to be obtained by these establishments were threefold : First, to provide a receptacle for children whose parents are occupied during the day, or unable or unwilling to take care of them ; secondly, to instruct them in the rudiments of virtue and knowledge ; and, thirdly, to accomplish both these ends by a more natural and cheerful mode of instruction than before practiced in dame schools. The first [Assem. No. 237.] 19 146 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF infant school in the metropolis was established in 1818, under the auspices of Lords Lansdowne and Dacre, and Messrs. Brougham, Macaulay, Mill and Wilson. They are now pretty general throughout Britain and Ireland. From 1816 to 1820, Mr. Brougham was almost unceasingly occupied in sugges- tions and inquiries for the advancement of popular education, his aim was two- -fold : First, to introduce a parochial system of instruction ; secondly, to provide funds for the undertaking, either by a public provision, or by restitution to their original purposes of the misapplied endowments of charitable foundations. AB chairman of a Parliamentary committee appointed to " inquire into the education of the lower orders" he collected a mass of useful information, showing, first, the large portion of the population that were without the means of instruction ; 'and secondly, the vast funds existing in the kingdom, piously bequeathed for the pur- pose, but which had been misapplied by the fraud and negligence of trustees. The result of his powerful exertions was the appointment of a commission to inquire into the abuses of public charities; and in the first session of the Parliament in 1820, June 28, in an able speech, he brought to the attention of that body the subject of popular education. The leading feature of his project was to render national education subordinate to the established clergy. Parochial schools were to be established and partly maintained by a school rate levied on housekeepers, and partly by a trifling weekly payment by scholars. Mr. Brougham said there were 12,000 parishes in England. Of these, 3,500 had not a vestige of a school endowed, unendowed or dame. Of the remainder, 3,500 had endowed schools, and the other 5,000 relied entirely on unendowed schools, of course fleeting and casual. A bill founded on this exposition was brought in, but after a first read- ing was abandoned. The established clergy, though the new measure would have given them the control of parochial education, were not satisfied because dissenters were not excluded from its benefits. On the other hand, the sectaries were jealous of the great influence it gave to the established clergy. The Annual Register for 1820, No. 62, contains a statement of the schools in England at that time : Endowed schools, new schools, 302, children, 39,590 ; ordi- nary schools, 3,865, children, 125,843; total children, 165,433; revenue, 300,525 .pounds. Unendowed schools, new schools, 820, children, 105,582 ; dame schools, 3,102, children, 53,624 ; ordinary schools, 10,360, children, 319,643 ; total chil- dren, 478,849. Sunday schools, new schools, 404, children, 50,979; ordinary schools, 4,758, children, 401,838 ; total children, 452,817. The whole number of children in all the schools being 1,416,742, of whom nearly one-third receive instruction only one day in the week. The population of England was then 11,261,437. The number of scholars was, therefore, only one in eight of the population. In 1828, it was the opinion of Lord Brougham that there were few parishes in which the children of the working classes might not obtain an elementary educa- tion. Returns were received from a part of the country, but a comparison of them showed that in those from which returns were made the increase of pupils in the unendowed schools, from 1818 to 1828, had been 55,537. The pupils had doubled in ten years. Among the influences which have aided in the work of popular instruction, one of the most useful and powerful has been the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, established in the year 1827. The proceedings of the Society com- menced with .// Discourse of the Objects, Advantages and Pleasures of Science, ascribed to Lord Brougham. In the announcement of the Society it is stated that the obj-ect of the association is strictly limited to " the imparting of useful in for- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 147 mation to all classes of the community, particularly to such as are unable to avail themselves of experienced teachers, or may prefer learning by themselves." The ; plan proposed for the attainment of this end was the periodical publication, under the superintendence of a committee, of treatises on science, metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy, to which histories of science, of nations, and of indi- viduals were to be added. The publications of this society, put forth in periodical numbers and in cheap form, have enriched every branch of human knowledge and contributed extensively to the spread of useful and correct information among the- people. From a report of the committee appointed to inquire into the abuses of charities, made in" 1835, it appears that the whole amount of income of charitable invest- ments, or funds for educational purposes, as far as the inquiries had gone, was, for endowed schools, 180,309 pounds sterling, and for unendowed schools, 16,938 pounds, or a total of 197,24S pounds. The number of charities investigated was, in England, 20,751, and in Wales 890. If we estimate this income at the rate of' four per cent., it would represent a capital of $24,656,000. The investigation in 1835 had cost more than a million of dollars, and was far from complete. Probably not two-thirds of the charities had been investigated. England has had universities and colleges, and classical and grammar schools, for centuries, but it may be said with truth that she has done nothing for popular education until the present century. The government did not intervene in the matter of primary instruction before the year 1833, when the party of reform, under the lead of Lord Brougham and Lord John Russell, prevailed upon Parlia- ment to vote 20,000 pounds sterling to be expended in aid of the building of school- houses. In order to avoid the danger of inilaming the rivalry of religious sects, which, in England, as in all other countries, is the great obstacle to national edu- cation, the labor of distribution was divided equally between two great educational societies, the National Society and the British and Foreign Society. Since 1833 the appropriation by government has annually increased, until now it amounts to nearly five millions of dollars per year. We may judge of the results accomplished from the language of John Stuart Mill upon the condition of primary instruction. He says : "The instruction given in England for some years past, by means of voluntary subscriptions, has been so fully discussed that it is not needful to speak of it in detail. I will only say that, as to quantity, it is and will be for a long while insufficient, and, as to quality, although the tendency is towards improvement, it is never good except by accident, and is generally so bad as to be instruction only in name." The tendency towards improvement, of which Mr. Mill speaks, dates from the day when the government lent its support, and has advanced in the same proportion. The mode of state intervention has been governed by the statute of 1847, amended in 1862. And now every school connected with one of the principal communions obtains a subsidy, on condition that it shall submit to official inspection, and upon giving sufficient guarantees as to the capacity of the teacher and the morals and instruction of the pupils. The National Society, the British and Foreign Society, the Wesleyan Educational Committee, and the Catholic Society, continue to maintain most of the schools for primary instruction ; being subject to official inspection, they share in the state subsidies in the proportion of eight shillings a year for each pupil that bears a satisfactory examination, and has regularly attended the schools. The schools Sounded by individuals have the same rights upon submitting to the same obli- gations. 148 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF England, formerly, was wanting in establishments for training capable teachers^ and fitting them for their important functions. It had only two Normal schools worthy of the name, those of Battersea and of Borough Road. There are now thirty-four Normal schools in England and Wales, and it is owing to state aid that they have been founded and sustained. There is a central Privy Council of Education constituted by virtue of a royal patent in 1839. This council has no control over private schools, and contributes to the development of education only by distributing the money appropriated in aid of the building of school-houses, and for the payment and encouragement of teachers. The inspectors, who are named in concert with the ecclesiastical author- ities of the different communions, are permitted to control the government subsi- dies and to decide upon the progress of the scholars, but are not allowed to direct or to improve the course of instruction. Their sole means of restraint is the with- holding of the pecuniary subsidy. And no school is admitted to any share of it, except upon a contract whose terms are freely discussed between its founders and the council. The state acts, therefore, by way of benefits, and not by way of authority. Its intervention is like that of a philanthropist, who counsels and aids, and not like that of a sovereign, who commands and imposes. It will be seen that the English system is a transaction between that which confides primary instruction wholly to the public authorities, and that which abandons it entirely to individual effort. The Parliament has not gone farther, because it has been arrested by the jealousy of the dissenters and by the appre- hensions of the established church. For a few years past a real progress has been accomplished. In March, 1858, 1,750,000 children were estimated to attend school, which was one pupil to eleven inhabitants. The number of children between eight and fifteen being nearly 4,500,000, the other 2,500,000 were left without instruction. In 1861, according to the last inquiry, there were in England and Wales, excluding Scotland and Ireland, 58,975 educational establishments, with 2,536,462 pupils, equal to one pupil to eight inhabitants, half as many as in some of the United States, and about the same as in France. It is estimated that the prima^ instruction of a pupil costs thirty shillings ($7.50), which would make the whole expense of primary education about $19,000,000. This expense is three times as great for 2,536,462 pupils and 20,000,000 of inhabitants, as in France with thirty millions. As to practical results, if we are to judge by the number of adults able to read and write, they are quite as unsatisfactory in England as in France. Abstracts taken from the parish registers show that one-third of the couples joined in marriage are wholly illiterate, and the different inquiries have everywhere revealed a -degree of ignorance of which examples could hardly elsewhere be found. The vices of the English system are numerous, and nobody denies them since \ the inquiry of 1858-1861 has brought them into full light. The central Board of - ;% Instruction, obliged to make special contracts with and receive administrative reports from six or seven thousand separate schools, is overwhelmed with work, and cannot exert a satisfactory influence upon the progress of instruction. The Parliamentary subsidy is most unequally distributed, and in the inverse ratio of actual wants. One district has no school, and the state cannot cure the evil, for it has no power to start one ; it can aid only existing schools. It follows that the government money goes sparingly into the agricultural districts. Those localities where private effort has already done much receive a great deal, but those where nothing has been done get nothing. For instance, in the diocese of Oxford, out of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 149 339 parishes, only 24 are found whose poor schools receive any part of the state subsidy. In some other counties the proportion is as follows : In Hertfordshire and Somerset 1 in 280 ; in Devonshire 2 in 245 ; in Dorset 10 in 179 ; in Cornwall 1 in 71. In London there are four poor parishes, with a population of 138,900 souls, which receive only sixty dollars, while four rich parishes, with only 50,000 inhabitants, obtain from the state $19,540. As the schools are all directed by clergymen, and as religious instruction takes up much of the time, each sect is obliged to train its own teachers and to organize- schools after its own fashion. But it always happens that in one or another locality the number of dissenters is too few to bear any part of the expense. Their children, therefore, get a very inferior instruction, or none. England is divided into parishes, whose area and population do not differ materially from the area and population of the school districts in the United States. A majority of them contain less than two thousand acres of land and less than one thousand inhab- itants, and few of them contain more than ten thousand acres of land, the larger parishes being in the fenny and mountainous districts. An act that should estab- lish one or more schools in every parish, according to its extent and population, and which should cause to be distributed the state subsidy in proportion to the time a school should be taught, and in proportion also to the attendance of pupils, would obviate nearly all the evils of the present system. The tendency of modern civilization is to draw nearly all the population and wealth of nations into a few of the great whirlpools of commerce and business. In these there is a plethora of money and intelligence. A good school system and a reasonable school tax furnish the remote and poor districts with the means of instruction. In the economy of nature, the brooks and rivers that convey the waters into the lakes and oceans are no more necessary and useful than the rains and showers that drop fatness upon our fields. S. T. COLERIDGE ON POPULAR EDUCATION. A specimen of the arguments and objections to popular education may be seen in the following extract from the Lay Sermon of S. T. Coleridge : " And here my apprehensions point to two opposite errors, each of which deserves a separate notice. The first consists in a disposition to think that, as the peace of nations has been disturbed by a false light, it may be re-established by excluding the people from all knowledge and all prospect of amelioration. ! never, never ! Reflection and stirrings of mind, with all their restlessness, and all the errors that result from their imperfection, from the too much, because too little, are come into the world. The powers that awaken and foster the spirit of curiosity are to be found in every village; books are in every hovel. The infant's cries are hushed with picture books, and the cottager's child sheds his first bitter tears over pages which render it impossible for the man to be treated or governed as a child. Here, as in so many other cases, the inconveniences that have arisen from a thing's having become too general are best removed by making it universal. " The other and contrary mistake proceeds from the assumption that a national education will have been realized whenever the people at large have been taught to read and write. Now among the many means to the desired end, this is doubt- less one, and not the least important. But neither is it the most so. Much less can it be considered to constitute education, which consists in educing the facul- ties and forming the habits ; the means varying according to the sphere in which the individuals to be educated are likely to act and become useful. I do not hesi- tTNIVERSITY) /"> 1 1 ,r-**.t 150 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF tate to declare that, whether I consider the nature of the discipline adopted, or the plan of poisoning the children of the poor with a sort of potential infidelity under the l liberal idea ' of teaching only those points of religious faith in which all denominations agree, I cannot but denounce the so-called Lancasterian schools as pernicious beyond all power of compensation by the new acquirement of read- ing and writing. But take even Dr. Bell's original and unsophisticated plan, which I myself regard as an especial gift of Providence to the human race ; and suppose this incomparable machine, this vast moral steam-engine, to have been adopted and in free motion throughout the empire ; it would yet appear to me a most dangerous delusion to rely on it as if this in itself formed an efficient national education. We cannot, I repeat, honor the scheme too highly as a prominent and necessary part of the great process; but it will neither supersede, nor can it be substituted for sundry other measures that are at least equally important. And these are such measures, too, as unfortunately involve the necessity of sacrifices on the side of the rich and powerful, more costly and far more difficult than the yearly subscription of a few pounds ; such measures as demand more self-denial than the expenditure of time in a committee, or of eloquence in a public meeting. " Nay, let Dr. Bell's philanthropic end have been realized, and the proposed modicum of learning have become universal ; yet convinced of its insufficiency to stem the strong currents set in from an opposite point, I dare not assure myself that it may not be driven backward by them, and become confluent with the evils which it was intended to preclude." In the above extract from his " Lay Sermon, addressed to the higher classes," Coleridge touches upon the subject of popular and universal education. Like most writers upon the same topic, he speaks of the " assumption " that a na- tion must be considered educated when the people at large have been taught to read and write. So far as our reading or personal acquaintance goes, we know not of a single friend of universal education who acts or writes upon any such " assumption." Every system of popular education is based on the right of every citizen to an education, and the duty of the State to provide it. When an objector exclaims, as Mr. Coleridge does, that the people cannot be considered an educated people because all can read and write, it is only saying that no individual can be deemed educated because he can read and write. But is that a good reason why no man should be taught to read and write ? If an education is to be obtained, one of the first steps is to learn to read and write. Would you forbid the whole or any part of the people to take the first step because all cannot travel the same road, or some propose to take different routes, or go to more distant goals ? The nation where all can read and write must be acknowledged to be in advance of the nation where none can read and write. A people which has no knowledge of let- ters or books may learn much from the pulpit, from the bench, from the rostrum, from conversation and from experience. But the people that has been taught how to read and write has, in addition to all this oral instruction, access to all the knowledge treasured up in books and published in newspapers. To read and write is the beginning of instruction. Education follows, and no friend of universal education claims more. The child that has been taught to read and write craves knowledge. The mind, like the stomach, seeks its natural aliment. It is certain that learned universities, universal scholars, great astronomers, theo- logians wlfio have digested all the fathers from Tertullian to Sarpi, lawyers skilled in the civil and common law, do not make a learned nation. Italy has had a dozen universities for a thousand years ; her scholars have illustrated every cen- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 151 tury; her literature is rich in every department of knowledge. But her univer- sities have been accessible only to the aristocracy and the church ; nine out of ten of her people have never heard of one of her great scholars : and what is the value of her literature to the people who cannot read it ? A scholar who can read one hundred languages, and speak fifty fluently and intelligibly, is a marvel of memory and industry ; but a people of whom nine millions out of ten millions are groping in the thick darkness of ignorance, is a monument of the misgovernment and neg- lect of rulers and church. Why should London boast of her Herschells when under the shadow of the great observatory are living thousands who do not know whether the world is round or square, and who have never seen nor heard of the multiplication table ? It will be seen that Coleridge made his obeisance to the religious bigotry that would let the people grow up illiterate and ignorant, rather than have them taught even to read and write, unless his peculiar theological notions could also be taught. The bigots of all religions utterly ignore the fact that there is much worth know- ing in this world, not at all dependent upon any religious faith or creed. The Mohammedan insists upon the Koran as the only text-book. The Chinese teach only selections from the works of Confucius and other ancient sages. The Roman Catholic would use extracts from the prayer-book and missal, and from the fathers of the church. The Protestant would place the Bible in the hands of every scholar, and every Protestant sect would add some text-book that will inculcate its peculiar doctrines ; arid all would have their religious forms and prayers a part of school discipline. The leaders and preachers of every religion wish to be the first to write upon the impressible and unblemished page of every infant mind the dogmas of their theology. And they boldly proclaim, as Coleridge does, that it is better for the people to be unable to read and write, than to be taught even " those points of religious faith in which all denominations agree." Mr. Coleridge and the established church, regarding any education not under their sole direc- tion as " pernicious beyond all power of comprehension," have steadily opposed the establishment of public schools separate from the church, and have preferred to let one-third of the English people grovel in total ignorance. London has a thousand or more churches, and yet within the sound of their church-going bells live thousands who have never heard the name of Christ, and know no more of the Christian religion than if they lived in the heart of Africa. In countries like Italy, France, Spain and Great Britain, where nothing had been done for popular education, when it was proposed to establish such a system, the question was immediately asked by the higher classes and the church, " What do you mean to teach ?" The aristocracy were afraid that education would dis- turb political affairs, by rendering the people dissatisfied with their condition. The church could not consent to any education that did not inculcate its dogmas. The church, in fact, claimed the exclusive right of education. It had been quietly asleep for centuries, fattening on the revenues of the state, regardless of the igno- rance of the people, and suddenly awaked from its slumbers to object that educa- tion is pernicious unless the truths of religion be a part of it. If asked, what is religious truth ? they answer, What we teach. Every religion and every sect claims to be the sole depository of truth. Since Coleridge wrote his Lay Sermon, it has been discovered in Prussia that universal education is not dangerous to church nor state. It has been proved in Holland, Ireland and Canada, that children may be taught by teachers who are forbidden to dogmatize and proselyte, and that books may be used containing the 152 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP religious and moral truths common to every Christian denomination. In the United States it has become the general conviction that education is a national affair and a national duty ; but that the nation has no right to establish a religion which is an affair between man and his maker. And this conviction has spread to other countries, until it is now acknowledged that every state ought to provide for popular education, but that no state ought to compel subject or citizen to learn and conform to any particular religious formula or creed. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 153 SCO T L AND. So early as the reign of James IV, a law had been passed requiring all barons and substantial freeholders to put their eldest sons and heirs to school at the age of six, or, at the utmost, nine years, till they had " a competent foundation and" good skill of Latin." After this the pupils were required to study three years in the schools of arts and laws, that they might be qualified for the offices to which their rank entitled them. But these regulations seem to have produced little gen- eral diffusion of literary attainments among any class of the community. At the commencement of the Reformation few, even of the higher clergy, could preach, and when they attempted discussion with such antagonists as Wisheart and Knox their arguments were so absurd and so indicative of utter ignorance as to move only laughter and contempt among the auditors. The merit of having first established schools for primary instruction, to be sup- ported at the public expense by taxation, must be awarded to Scotland. And it is hardly to be doubted that the learned King James VI of Scotland and I of England was the originator, by suggestion at least, of the law that required a school to be kept in each parish, with a master capable of teaching, at the expense of the parishioners, in proportion to their number and their wealth. Miss Strickland, in her Life of Anne of Denmark, James's wife (Vol. 5, fourth ed., page 168, Queens of England), says : " The primary object of King James, in his visit to Scotland in 1617, was to oblige the privy council to establish schools in every parish, and likewise parish regis- try. We do not scruple to affirm, boldly, that a king whose heart was set on such improvements for the lower orders was not the beast and fool which it has pleased party calumniators to represent him ; three words, at least, might be uttered in reply to their railings, these being parochial schools, registers, colonies. The benefits of these establishments are felt to this hour, and the paternal wisdom of their peaceful founder ought to be better appreciated now than in his own age of blood and crime." The fundamental principle of free schools was laid in this act ; public instruc- tion was proclaimed a public duty to which every citizen was bound to contribute by tax. An act of Parliament in 1696 completed the system and regulated its application in all particulars. The school was subjected to the Presbyterian church, the state religion of Scotland. The minimum of the salary of the teacher was fixed, the proprietors were required to meet and vote the necessary funds, and if they did not the commissioners of taxes levied the needful school tax. It is not unlikely that King James would have refrained from urging popular instruction upon his privy council if he had foreseen its results. But he builded better than he knew. To judge what her parish schools have done for Scotland it will be necessary to know what was the condition of the people prior to the act in question and at the time of its passage. The following picture of the people of Scotland during the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries is drawn by a Scotch historian : " A factious and selfish aristocracy, intestine feuds, civil commotions, national poverty, a population composed of different races and generally animated by opposing interests, and above all the struggle which Scotland for centuries had [Assem. No. 237.J 20 ] 54 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF maintained with a powerful rival, had impressed certain characteristics of barbarism upon the people that could not be easily or quickly eradicated. In the country, therefore, we still discover, during at least the earlier part of this period, much of the same rudeness that had been prevalent in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies. " In England, by the beginning of the present period, the middle classes had assumed their proper position in society and imparted a healthful character to the ranks above and beneath them. But, as yet, this important portion of society was nearly wanting in Scotland. She had no preponderating middle class answer- ing either to the comfortable independent yeomanry or the wealthy merchants of England ; and the chief distinction we still find in the Scottish population is that between lord and serf, between the rich and the very poor. The Scottish farmers 5 instead of holding the land upon long leases, by which they might have risen to respectability and influence, rented their farms from year to year. Thus they had no inducement to build comfortable houses, plant trees and hedges, enrich the soil and devote themselves to agricultural experiments, when they might be ejected at the pleasure of the landlord. Any kind of hovel was sufficient for such a peasantry, and the cheapest kinds of farming were the best. Indeed the chief cultivation they studied was the cultivation of the favor of the laird ; to secure this they swelled his feudal retinue, and rode about the country at his heels, while plowing and sowing were committed to the management of hinds. It frequently happened, however, that, in spite of all his homage, the peasant was ejected from his barren acres, and the assassination of newly installed farmers, by those whom they had dispossessed, was an event of as frequent occurrence in Scotland during the six- teenth century as it has been in Ireland during the last century." To the act of 1617, completed in 169G, an act so simple in form and so moderate in its pretensions that Hume and Lingard, and other historians, do not mention it, Scotland owes its civilization and its prosperity. Nature has been chary of her favors. A rude soil, granitic and sterile, a climate so moist and so cold that fruits do not ripen, the oat being the chief cereal and the principal food of its savage inhabitants, wild clans ignorant and superstitious, constantly at war with each other, living by pillage upon the more peaceable and industrious people of the lowlands such were the Scotch up to the end of the seventeenth century. One hundred years later all is changed. Upon this ungrateful soil, fertilized by the most intelligent labor, is now settled a nation, moral, prosperous, religious, tole- rant, enlightened, in this respect far in advance of the English who, in olden times, despised their barbarous neighbors equaling them in commerce and indus- try, and surpassing them in agriculture. Wherever a Scotchman plants himself, says M. Biot, in his curious book upon primary instruction in Scotland, the training which he has received in the parish schools, gives to his mind a particular turn of observation, and enables him to take in a range of objects much beyond the circle that occupies the attention of persons of the same classes who have not been similarly taught. They used to speak in London of the Scotch of the seventeenth century as if they were Esquimaux, says Macaulay. The Scotch of the nineteenth century have been regarded, not with contempt, but with envy. Mingling with the Eng- lish or the Irish, he rises above them, they say, as oil floats over the surface of water. Whence came this prodigious transformation ? From the influence of the Presbyterian school its support is charged by law upon the property of the parish. It is beyond contradiction one of the most memorable examples of the action which the diffusion of knowledge exerts upon the morality and well-being of nations. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 1 55 RE LAND. Down to the end of the last century Ireland was immersed in complete ignorance. The chief reason of this may he found in the intense rivalry between different religions. The Protestant rulers of England strove to extinguish the Roman Catholic religion by disabling and repressive statutes, and the priests and people determined to preserve their faith at the expense of everything else. A large majority of the people were Catholic, and a statute of William Third prohibited any Catholic to teach. The priests forbade the people to attend Protestant schools, so that by religion and law they were deprived of instruction and doomed to igno- rance. In 1781 this statute was abolished, and in 1793 the Irish Parliament directly encouraged popular education by subsidies. By this means a very large number of schools was founded, in which the children of Catholics and Protestants were seated together upon the same benches, learning to read and write, while religious instruction was imparted by ministers of their respective faith. The great inquiry begun in 1806, the report of which did not appear until 1812, demon- strated that an education independent of sects, and common to all, could alone be successful. The Protestants, who possessed wealth and power, did not wish to sustain with their money Catholic schools ; and the Catholics, who were the people whom it was most desirable to educate, were unwilling to attend Protestant schools. A powerful association was formed in 1811, under the name of the Society of Kildare, on the idea of diffusing instruction apart from any sectarian feeling or spirit of propagandism. The superintending committee was composed of twenty- one Anglicans, four Quakers, two Presbyterians and two Catholics. The first principle of its action was not to be guided in the choice of teachers nor in the admission of pupils by any dogmatic consideration. During school hours the sacred Scriptures were read without comment. Every book having the least taint of religious controversy was strictly interdicted. It was an admirable example of tolerance upon the soil of Ireland, so often ravaged and reddened by the furious hatred and bloody wars of rival sects. To the Society of Kildare was entrusted the care of distributing the State subsidies. The success was at the outset very great. From 1817 to 1825 there had been organized 1,490 schools, attended by 100,000 scholars; but success could not allay the animosity of the most fanatical of the various communions. The Anglicans were not contented to see an equality established between them and the ministers of the Roman Catholic worship. The Ultramontanists were willing to destroy national education for the advantage of the religious corpora- tions ; the moderate Catholics, on the other hand, perfectly understood that, with- out the aid of the State, it was utterly impossible to pour any light into those counties which could not support teachers, of which they had such urgent need. After violent and prolonged discussions, the Catholics of both parties consented to appeal to the infallible authority to whose decisions both professed obedience. The Pope, Gregory Sixteenth, replied in 1841, by a letter addressed from the Propaganda to the Bishops of Ireland. This response deserves attention, for it 156 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF proves that Rome can compromise where it is for its interest. The Pope did not condemn laical schools, he merely exacted that no religious creed should be taught in them ; so that the modern principle of the secularization of primary education by the state, which the church denounces elsewhere as a monstrosity, the same church accepts in Ireland and Holland ; that is to say, when the state is Protestant the church gives up all hope of sovereign sway. The approval of the sovereign Pontiff assured the success of the national educa- tion. The priests allowed their parishioners to attend the mixed schools ; and many Catholic schools, of insufficient resources, were secularized, submitted to the general rules, and received the state subsidies. Soon buildings and sites were wanting, so great was the eagerness to receive instruction lately condemned from the pulpit. The progress was rapid and constant. In 1833 there were 789 schools and 107,000 scholars ; in 1843 2,912 schools and 355,000 scholars, and in January, 1863, 6,010 schools and 811,973 scholars. From January 1861 to 1863 more than 520 schools, of which 287 were Catholic, had submitted to the national Legislature. It can be safely affirmed that in Ireland the laical school supported by state subsidies is completely successful, and gives no cause for complaint on the part of parents, for their religious feelings are not wounded by instruction independent both of government and of sects. Ireland is greatly indebted to Lord Stanley, since Lord Derby, for the general- ization of a school system, which has covered the country with schools, where they were before so rare and so wretched ; and it is honorable to the chief of the conservative and ultra- Anglican party to have contributed so effectively to the spread of instruction among a Catholic population, so long devoted to hereditary misery, and to an ignorance that seemed beyond remedy. A law of 1861 confirms the act of 1845, which had incorporated the superintending committee ; this law has enacted the old regulations, determined the modes of their application, the manner of religious instruction, the selection of books and the kind of inspection . The salary of male teachers varies from $120 to $260, and of female teachers from $80 to $210. Everybody is satisfied, and light is gradually spreading. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 157 FRANCE. During the middle ages there was no attempt in France to instruct the people. In 1179, and again in 1215, the church in its councils had ordered that a school should be attached to every cathedral, and that the prebendary should employ a competent teacher, and there was also named by the church an officer whose duty it was to supervise the schools. They were, however, few in number, and their sole object was to train children to be singers in the church choirs. The Refor- mation made instruction a necessity in all the countries where it prevailed, since every one was expected to read the Bible, and give an account of his belief; and even in those nations which rejected Protestantism it began to be thought needful to draw the people out of the sloughs of secular ignorance. The States-General of Orleans, in 1560, and those of Blois, in 1576 and 1588, called the King's atten- tion to the want of schools. The nobility proposed to charge upon the ecclesias- tical benefices the expense of supporting in all the villages schoolmasters and learned men, whose duty it should be to instruct the children of the poor in the principles of the Christian religion, in good morals, and in other kinds of know- ledge. The popular assemblies insisted that the clergy should not shirk the obli- gation imposed on them, on pretence of the negligence of parents and tutors. An ordinance was issued to carry into effect the wishes of the assemblies, and it was stipulated that the schoolmaster should be named by the joint consent of the municipal and ecclesiastical authorities. In 1563 Charles IX endeavored to enforce this ordinance, but the church superintendent stoutly resisted, on the plea that it was a violation of the privileges of the church. The King, of course, yielded, and the clergy, of course, arrested the progress of instruction. The wishes of the assemblies were forgotten in respect to this as well as other matters, and the con- dition of the lower classes became worse and worse during the long wars of Louis XIV and the wretched poverty of the eighteenth century. Harassed by famine, sickness and taxation, the sad results of a detestable government, they could hardly earn a bare subsistence. How then could they dream of education ? And yet, during this epoch of hardship and poverty, one man did dream of giving bread to the famishing mind, but the church refused to bestow it. A canon of the cathedral of Rheims, Jean Baptiste La Salle, founded the Brotherhood of Christian Schools. At his death in 1719, the society had schools in eight dioceses, and in 1789 the brotherhood gave instruction to 30,000 children. The men of the revolution understood that a free democracy could not exist without general education. The three revolutionary Assemblies deliberated on this subject, and reports were successively made by three eminent men, Talley- rand, Condorcet and Daunau. Upon the report of Talleyrand, the Assembly voted to organize a system of public elementary instruction, to be gratuitous in every commune. Condorcet, aiming to transform equality of right, established by law, into equality in fact, guaranteed by national education, proposed that instruction should be gratuitous to all classes. The Convention was occupied with various plans of popular instruction. At first it was decided to have one primary school for every 1,000 inhabitants. Ignorance was punished by deprivation of political 158 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF rights. Each school was divided into two sections, one for boys with a male teacher and one for girls with an instructress, and the salary of both was not to be less than 1,200 francs, or about 240. This high figure shows how, at that period the public valued the functions of the tutor of the new sovereign, the people, Finally, however, October 25, 1795, the Convention, upon the report of Daunau, adopted a system far below the high visions of the early days of enthusiasm and faith in the future. The state, which at first undertook to bear all expenses, ended by building the school-houses. The teacher looked only to the local author- ities for his pay, and no minimum was fixed. Examined by a special committee, he was selected by the departmental authority, and overseen by the communal. All these laws, interesting as illustrating the dominant ideas of the times, did not avail to establish a single school, and the revolutionary torrent had overwhelmed all the old schools. An army of soldiers was more easily created than a corps of teachers, and the enemy from without, the foreign invaders, was more speedily driven from the soil than the enemy within, ignorance. f The empire, which organized secondary instruction, did scarcely anything for j / primary instruction. The law of 1802 gave the selection of teacher to the muni- ' V_ cipal council, under the supervision of the prefect. His pay was drawn from a rate upon each scholar, fixed by the municipal council. Only one pupil in five could be gratuitously instructed. Once only primary instruction had a subsidy from the imperial budget; it amounted to 4,250 francs. The Brothers were per- mitted to re-open their schools on taking the oath of allegiance and submitting to the supervision of the university. The only service rendered by the empire to primary instruction was the decree of March 17, 1808, authorizing the foundation of certain Normal schools. The first was created at Strasburgh, and Alsace has not forgotten its enlightened benefactor, the prefect, M. Lezay de Marnesia. The restored Bourbons did but little more than the empire. School commit- tees were formed, in which the ecclesiastical element ruled ; favors were granted to certain religious bodies that undertook instruction, and the education of the people was turned over wholly to the clergy. The ordinance of the twenty-ninth of February, 1816, besides an excellent preamble, contained an excellent provi- sion that would have produced abundant fruits if it had been carried into effect. Article fourteenth says : " Every commune shall provide for the primary instruc- tion of all the children residing therein, and indigent children shall receive gratui- tous instruction." But how were the communes to be compelled to furnish this instruction, and the funds to defray the expense ? A satisfactory answer to this question was the only way to reach a practical result. The want of some com- pulsory provisions caused the failure of the project. The condition of popular instruction* was most melancholy. A glance at the official returns will show it. A circular of M. de Guernon-Rauville to the rectors, dated January 20, 1830, says : " There are no schools, or schools falling to pieces, and the poor parents are vainly asked for books ; the teachers, poorer still, live miserably, a prey to ruder wants : such is the sad picture which for a long time our primary schools have presented." The Bourbon restoration at its fall left about 20,000 communes provided with some sort of a school, but what sort will more clearly appear from the report of the 490 inspectors sent by M. Guizot into every part of France to visit them. M. Lorain made an abstract of these reports relating to 33,456 estab- lishments inspected and described. In this book we have drawn to the life a pic- ture of these miserable schools and more miserable teachers, from which can be learned how little can be done for primary instruction by private effort unaided by the state, even when supported by a church favorable and powerful, and sec- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 150 ended by religious congregations animated by an ardent spirit of proselytism. M. de Guernon-Rauville, the last Minister of Public Instruction under the resto- ration, becoming convinced of the necessity of an energetic intervention by the state, had published, 'February 14, 1830, an ordinance containing some really effective provisions. Every commune was obliged to provide for primary instruc- tion, and to raise a salary suitable for a good teacher. The expenses were to be defrayed from the ordinary resources of the commune, or by means of an extraor- dinary tax. If the commune was too poor, the department was to come to~ its- aid, and in case of need the state would make good any deficiency. Model schools were to be established to form teachers. The general principles of this law were so well conceived, that they were adopted three years later by M. Guizot; but the government of the restoration had no time to apply them, and it would in any event doubtless have foiled in the energy, the devotion and liberal spirit neces- sary to organize a system of public education. Thus we have seen that the pJLd monarchy did nothing for the enlightenment of \ the people, no one recognizing its utility or fitness. The revolution, acknowledging ) the need of progress and the diffusion of light and knowledge, had decreed, with a generous" ardor, several laws founded on good principles, but had not time, nor money, nor men to reduce them to practice. The empire, absorbed entirely with its enemies and wars, forgot all about schools, and the Bourbon restoration turned them over to the religious congregations. After 1830 all had to be reorganized and recreated. This was undertaken by M. Guizot, assisted by a number of eminent men admirably prepared to second him, MM. Villemain, Cousin, Pois- son, Thenard, Gueneau de Mussy and Render. Of their labors was born the law of June 28 y 1833. The following are its chief provisions, which still form the base of elementary instruction : The law proclaims as a first principle, without which nothing has ever been suc- cessfully done, that every commune shall support at least one school, and that it shall be open gratuitously to all indigent children, without exception. The com- mune is only a larger family. It is the primordial, the natural, the necessary association of those who are grouped about a common center and bound by com- mon interests. If there be an enterprise whose execution is indispensable to the security, the well-being of all, and which individual effort cannot accomplish, the commune must do it. If there beany local business, such as cleaning and paving the streets, the commune must take the expense upon itself. If, moreover, there be any interest at the same time local and general, such as opening highways, and instruction, then larger jurisdictions, the department or the state, must come to the aid of the communes which are so weak or poor that, if left to themselves, they lag behind and retard the progress of the whole nation. In this spirit the law of 1833 was conceived. The expense of the communal school is in the first instance charged upon the ordinary revenues of the commune, and, in case these do not suffice, upon the product of a special tax, which is never to exceed three centimes, in addition to its direct taxes. If there is still a deficit, the department ' is called upon for a tax of two additional centimes. Finally, the state budget furnishes the sum necessary to make good all deficiencies. The obligation of the state is recognized in another provision. In case of the unwillingness of the com- mune and the department, the state will impose and collect the taxes necessary to support the school. The existence of the school is thus assured, a point of capital importance, as without it all the other provisions of law would be without effect. The authorities to whom was committed the execution of this law were two, 160 REPORT OP THE SUPERINTENDENT OP the communal committee and the committee of the arrondissement. In 1835 there was added an inspector for the department, and subsequently, upon the request of the committee of the arrondissement, an inspector for the arrondissements. Another excellent feature, borrowed from Prussia, upon the advice of M. Cousin, was the establishment of a Normal school in each department, and supported at its expense. The salary of the teacher could not be less than 200 francs. The commune was required to furnish him with a house, also, and to give him the rates collected from the pupils and prescribed by the communal council. Religious instruction was made obligatory, but the children of dissenters could take lessons from ministers of their own forms of worship. Such are the principal features of the law of 1833, which has been named from M. Guizot, and which is, beyond question, the most useful measure of the reign of Louis Phillippe. On the whole, the law of 1833 was a good law, since it has been the means of establishing numerous schools. The friends of education in France call it a timid law, because it did not make instruction obligatory, arguing that thereby a more general and energetic impulse would have been given to education. The people and the public authorities would have felt themselves under the constraint of a duty to fulfill, and progress would have been more rapid and more nearly univer- sal. They also complain that out of regard to the supposed parsimony of the communes, and their disinclination to defray expenses to which they were unac- customed, the salary of teachers was fixed at the contemptible sum of 200 francs, a figure that represents many privations and humiliations. It was certainly a fault to show so little respect for the dispensers of knowledge as to guarantee them less pay than ordinary day laborers. The moral authority of a teacher is lessened by an appearance of poverty and wretchedness. The two committees created were an excellent institution, and M. Guizot spared no labor to enlighten them and inspire them with a spark of his own zeal. His efforts seemed vain. These committees, which, in the United States, in England and the Canadas, are the soul of primary instruction, have rendered small service in France. Unfortunately, the people of this country, since the days of the old monarchy, have had no experience in self-government, and thus the rural com- munes did not have a group of persons capable of directing a school, or with a disposition to do it. The communal committee was often blundering and ignorant. The committee of the arrondissement was well composed, but was distant from the school, and was, consequently, slow in action, indifferent and inert. Both have been since abolished, a great mistake ; they were, perhaps, not very good, but as the interest for instruction increased they would have become more and more useful. A great point was gained when a certain number of men in every part of the State was compelled to concern themselves with instruction. How else could be awakened a taste and formed a habit of local administration, if not by imposing upon localities the necessity of managing their own affairs ? The law of 1833 provided a bad way of selecting a teacher. The communal council presented a list from which the committee of the arrondissement was obliged to choose. The very reverse of this would have been better. The superior authority, better instructed and with more enlarged views, would have made out a list with greater regard to qualifications and merit, and the local authority could have then been chosen according to its conveniences or sympathy. The last fault, and the one more to be regretted than all the rest, is that no provision was made for the instruc- tion of girls. M. Guizot had devoted one whole title of his law to this object, but abandoned it. There only remained for them the communal schools in which both sexes were gathered, or the schools of the Brotherhood. This was a matter PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 161 of importance, for, as woman is the center of the family and the inspiration of the fireside, little by little the Ultramontanists have insinuated their iniluence through the country, which has made dangerous progress and is daily gaining. In spite of its imperfections and omissions, the law of 1833 gave remarkable results, thanks to the impulse given to the different administrations. The number of Normal schools increased from 13 in 1830 to 76 in 1838, attended ;by 2,500 pupils. During the four years, from 1834 to 1838, 4,517 communal schools were added to the 10,316 already formed. In 1849 three and a half millions of chUn. drcn participated in primary instruction, while in 1832 the number was only 1,935,624. The progress was grand, and was due to the energetic action of the central power. It had imposed upon 20,961 communes, that is to say upon half of the whole number in the State, all the expenses necessary to support instruc- tion, so little did the country districts comprehend what was useful for them. Under the republic, in 1848, M. Carnot, understanding that democratic and free institutions must be sustained by the diffusion of knowledge, proposed a law by which primary instruction should be gratuitous, as in the United States, and obligatory, as in Switzerland and Germany. The State appropriation was imme- diately doubled. In 1847 it was 2,399,808 francs ; in 1848 it was 5,920,000 francs. For the future it was proposed, in order to increase the pay of teachers, and to make up for the tuition of scholars abolished by the gratuity, that the State con- tribution should be raised to more than forty-seven millions, a sum very honorable to him who dared to propose it, but very moderate compared to the interests at stake. The project of M. Carnot failed to become a law. The reaction triumphed, and the law of March 15, 1850, presented by M. Falloux, was adopted. This law is conceived in a spirit of distrust of the teacher, and of hostility to laical instruc- tion. It was the Congreganistes, the brothers and sisters who were to save society by instilling good doctrines into the people. An organic decree of 1852, and a law of 1853, have again modified the law of 1833, and somewhat changed the adminis- tration. The direction of instruction has been taken away from the local and elective authorities and given to authorities dependent upon the government. The prefect, the direct representative of the government, names the teacher, can reprimand, suspend and dismiss him; in short, holds him at his mercy in his strong and irresponsible hands. The supervision of the school is entrusted to the curate, often hostile, and to the mayor, named also like the prefect, by the executive power. Inspection is performed in the first instance by primary inspectors, to the number of 299, above whom are the academic inspectors, numbering 89, and at fast the general inspectors, four in number. The old committees are replaced by the cantonal delegates, who designate the departmental commission, and by this commission itself, of whom the thirteen members are named by the Minister of Public Instruction, excepting the prefect, the procurer general, the bishop, and another ecclesiastic, who form a part of it by law. The departmental commission meets twice a month ; it names the committee whose duty it is to issue certificates of qualification ; it fixes the rate to be paid by scholars ; it enacts general rules, and oversees the teachers in matters of discipline. At the top of this hierarchy sits the imperial Council of Public Instruction, a consultative body, whose advice the Minister takes in all matters concerning his department. In all that regards the expense to be defrayed by the communes, the provisions of the law of 1833 have been preserved. Such is the system of public instruction as now organized in France. Let us now examine it, and see what there is of good in it, and judge of it, above all, by [Assem. No. 237.] 21 162 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF the results it has produced. In the constitution of its school authorities, it has an excellent side and a detestable side. The good side is the system of inspec- tion, aritl the bad side is the mode of selecting the teacher and the supervision of the school. The inspection is performed by competent men, often the old teachers themselves, who render great services for very small pay. The best paid have only 2,400 francs a year, some 2,000, some 1,600, to which may be added their traveling expenses, calculated at seven francs a day. And each of them has at least 300 schools to visit. Inspection alone is not enough, for it can pay but one, or at most two visits a year to each school. In addition to this, there ought to be near each school a body of men, having the oversight of instruction, to encour- age and supervise the teacher, and impart energy and life to his work. And here the present system is wholly at fault. It would be better to restore the commit- tees of 1833. The cantonal and communal delegations are heavy coaches and move slowly. Of the 2,809 delegations, only 765 are reported as doing anything; and even these seldom meet, contenting themselves with occasional visits to the schools by one or another of their members. But the worst feature of the law is that which permits the prefect to name the teacher. It is contrary to the salutary principle that special duties should be per- formed by men specially fitted for them. The prefect has no qualifications for this duty. He knows little of the needs of a school. He is a subordinate of the Minister of the Interior, and not of Public Instruction. He is, and cannot help being, a political agent. But the school should be kept out of the whirl of politics. The rule, under the law of 1850, was better, by which the teacher was selected by the academic council, from a list furnished by the municipal council. Each authority was in its natural sphere. The communal authority could not be indif- ferent to* the school, and had not power enough to compel a bad choice. The academical council had regard to capacity, the claims of experience and services rendered, and the communal council to local preferences. The actual system is a bad example of the confusion of powers, and of injurious centralization. The report presented in 1864, by M. Duruy, Minister of Public Instruction, enables us to give from his figures the exact situation of primary instruction at that date. There can be no good organization of primary instruction without good institutions to form schoolmasters. The law of 1833, adopted under the advice of M. Cousin, had provided admirably for this necessity by declaring that each department should establish and support a Normal school. But the law of M. Falloux, conceived in a spirit ef hateful reaction against laical instruction, was designed to disorganize and diminish Normal instruction. Under the pretext that it had transformed the teachers into half-educated men, unbelievers, envious, impatient, and socialistic, the number of studies was reduced, and the level of instruction was lowered. It was argued that those who were obliged only to teach children to read and write did not need themselves to know any more. There could be no greater error, for to communicate to others the humblest know- ledge demands a clear and enlightened mind. To impart a taste for reading, the schoolmaster must be able to show the advantages of it by giving to his pupils some notions of morality, of history, of natural science, of agriculture, not in a dry, didactic manner, but by examples, by recitals, by anecdotes, and by clear and simple illustrations. It will be seen from the actual facts that the effects of the present law are bad. There are now in France only 107 establishments specially devoted to the preparation of schoolmasters for the public schools, to wit : 76 Normal schools, 7 in which there is a Normal course, and 24 in which there is par- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 163 tial instruction. They all contain 3,359 pupils. The number is too small, for not more than one thousand would be offered for examination, and the vacancies to be filled every year are not less than 1,451. The administration is thus forced to call for at least 400 candidates outside of these establishments. For the pre- paration of female teachers there are 13 Normal schools, and 53 having a Normal course, giving instruction to 1,200 girls, of whom 400 are admitted to examina- tion. The condition of teachers has been notably improved within a few years. Their pay averaged, in 1863, 798 francs. The actual pay, although augmented and combined, ordinarily, with the use of a house, is still much less than it should be. It should not be forgotten that the school teacher, in our day, fills a mission of the highest importance ; it is he who is charged with the duty of forming the mind of the modern sovereign, the people, the source of all power, and yet he is remunerated, we blush to say it, not much better than a footman, and less than a coachman, the regular servant of a good family. And these poor teachers form a body by no means wanting intelligence, and whose devotion is often remarkable, as recent circumstances have shown. In answer to a question put by the Minister of Public Instruction as to the best means of ameliorating primary instruction, six thousand memorials have been received, of which two hundred and seven were admirable. Within the last few years schools for adults have been opened, and the number has been rapidly increasing. On the first of February, 1864, there were 24,065 such schools, which proves both the need of instruction and the meritorious zeal of the teachers. At night, after a day of teaching, after five or six hours of fatiguing and ungrateful labor, when they might well be disposed to take a little repose, they renew their task, teach the rudiments to grown men, gratuitously, without the least reward ; and very often the same masters, who have no means to spare, furnish also the lamp that lights the class, and the brand that warms the room. To recompense a zeal accompanied by such heavy sacri- fices, would you know what sum the Minister of Public Instruction has at his dis- posal ? For 25,000 teachers he has 50,000 francs, or less than forty cents apiece. Onthe first day of January, 1864, there were in the 37,510 communes of France 52,435 primary schools, of which 20,703 were for boys, 17,683 for both sexes, and 14,059 for girls only. There were 818 communes without any school, and 8,198 had only schools specially for girls. Here is a broad gap, which the Minister pro- mises to fill by a new law. Of the communal schools, 11,099, or one in five, are under the direction of the congreganists. Of the whole number, the inspectors judged 18,427 to be good, and 34,029 to be more or less deficient. Two-thirds of the schools needed reforms and improvements. The public schools are attended more or less regularly by 3,413,830 children, of whom 2,053,674 are boys, and 1,360,156 are girls. Besides the public schools, there have also been opened 16,- 316 free schools, 13,208 for girls, and 3,108 for boys. The whole number of schools, then, is 68,761, with 4,336,358 pupils, an average of 63 pupils to a school. As the whole population, by the last census, was 37,382,225, there is a proportion of 10.7 children to 100 inhabitants, a public school for 712 inhabitants, and some sort of a school for 549 inhabitants. The whole expense for primary instruction amounted to 58,646,952 francs, of which 25,316,593 francs were paid by the communes, 5,203,036 francs by the state, and 4,905,814 francs by the departments ; the residue has been drawn from school foundations, and the rates collected from pupils. As the state set apart about 1,200,000 francs for the building of school-houses, the total contribution oi the state amounted to 6,464,029 francs. The public authorities, the state, the 164 KEPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF departments and the communes have paid, in the whole, the sum of 38,042,363 francs, or a little more than one franc per head. In some of the United States, and in some colonies, the expense rises to five francs per head, and the larger part is raised by a direct tax. The charge in Canada is more than three and a half francs a head, in spite of the lack of capital, and an arctic climate. How is it that France, with her rich soil, her beautiful sky, her abundant capital, her immense resources and overflowing treasury, cannot appropriate to the education of her children as much as her ancient colony ? At first sight the number of pupils attending the schools would appear very sat- isfactory. The reports of 1863 show that out of the whole number of children between the ages of seven and thirteen years, numbering about four millions, 700,000 receive no instruction at all, or about one to four and a half; but when we examine a little more closely, the result will be still less favorable. In truth, one-third of the children go to school but a few months, and 48 in 100 only attend regularly throughout the year. As to the degree of instruction attained, it corre- sponds with the attendance. Two-fifths of the children leave the school, having learned so little that they soon forget it all ; and the other three-fifths profit little by their instruction, as may be inferred from the degree of literary attainment among the militia. In 1862, one-third of the conscripts could neither read nor write. Of 100 men contracting marriage, 28 could not even sign their names, and 43 out of 100 women were completely illiterate. When we reflect, moreover, that a large proportion of the laboring classes can only painfully trace their names, we shall conclude that nearly half the population is plunged in ignorance, that is to say, their knowledge even of reading and writing is of no practical advantage to them. And this is not all. Sad as the picture is, it does not half express the real truth ; it gives no exact idea of the depth of ignorance in which the larger part of France is buried. A statistical chart recently published by M. Manier, under the auspices of the Minister of Public Instruction, gives us at once a full view of the deplorable situation. Upon this chart the several departments are tinted" with different colors after the number of illiterate conscripts furnished by them from 1857 to 1861. The white indicates those in which there were but five in a hun- dred who could not read nor write ; and the black at the other extremity of the gamut of hues, those in which the proportion was sixty-six in a hundred, or two- thirds. Of the first color are only four to be seen, viz : le Daubs, le Bos jRhin, la Meuse and la Haute Marne, while there are twenty-five of the black, which comprises all Uretagne, all the center of France, and many of the departments of the South. An orator in the Chamber of Deputies has very well said that this chart resembles a dark and gloomy sky, through which a few rays of light find their way only to make the darkness visible. In certain departments the igno- rance of the women is as general as in the kingdom of Naples, or in Spain. Thus in Ariege only 14 in 100 could sign their marriage contract ; in the eastern Pyre- nees, 17 ; in la Haute Vienne, 19 ; in Bretagne, from 22 to 24. Is it possible much longer to tolerate a condition of things so sad, so humiliating in a country of universal suffrage, where each one, man and woman, ought at least to know how to read and write ? It is frightful to think that the destinies of a country like France, and, in a measure, the destinies of all Europe, are wholly dependent upon the vote of a crowd incapable of knowing the truth, and of dis- cerning their own true interests. It is not astonishing that the Minister of Public Instruction has proposed to cure this inveterate disease, popular ignorance, by the 1TTJ PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 165 adoption of an energetic remedy, an obligation legally imposed upon all parents to send their children to school. Whether such a remedy will be efficacious must be determined by a reference to the experience of countries where it has been applied. Whether it is" necessary, must be judged by the example of nations where education is general without resort to so arbitrary an obligation. COMPULSORY EDUCATION. M. Guizot, in his " Memoirs to Illustrate the History of My Life," has the- following remarks on this subject : " The first point, and one which, not only in my estimation, but in that of many sound thinkers, still remains undecided, was, whether the elementary education of all children should be an absolute obligation by law on their parents, and supported by specific penalties in case of neglect, as adopted in Prussia and in the greater portion of the German States. I have nothing to say in respect to the countries where this rule has been long established and acknowledged by national sentiment. There it has certainly produced beneficial results. But I must observe that it is almost exclusively confined to nations hitherto exacting little on the question of liberty, and that it has originated with those with whom, through the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the civil power is also in matters of religion, or touching upon religious subjects, the sovereign authority. The proud suscepti- bilities of free peoples, and the strong mutual independence of temporal and spir- itual power, would accommodate themselves badly to this coercive action of the state on the domestic economy of families ; when not sanctioned by tradition, the laws would fail to introduce it, for either they would be confined to an empty command, or to compel obedience they would have recourse to proscriptions and inquisitorial searches, hateful to attempt, and almost impossible to execute, espe- cially in a great country. The National Convention tried, or rather decreed this, in 1793, and, amongst all its acts of tyranny, this, at least, remained without effect. " Popular instruction is at present, in England, whether on the part of national or municipal authorities, or of simple citi/ens, the object of persevering zeal and exertion. No one proposes to enforce the obligation on parents by law. The system prospers in the United States of America, where local governments and private societies make great sacrifices to increase and improve the schools ; but no efforts are attempted to intrude into the bosoms of families to recruit the scholars by compulsion. It forms a characteristic, and redounds to the honor of a free people, that they are at the same time confiding and patient ; that they rely on the empire of enlightened reason and well understood interests, and know how to wait their results. I care little for regulations that bear the impress of the con- vent or the barrack room. I therefore decidedly expunged constraint from my . bill on elementary education, and none of my fellow laborers insisted on its being retained, not even those who regretted the omission." M. Guizot was Minister of Public Instruction from 1832 to 1837. Of the results of his law in France, Mr. Arnold, in his Report on " The Popular Education of France," made to the Commissioners on the State of Popular Educa- tion in England, presents the following facts : " The results of the law of 1833 were prodigious. The thirteen Normal schools of 1836 had grown, in 1838, to seventy-six ; more than 2,500 students were, in the latter year, under training in them. In the four years from 1834 to IS.'IS, 4,557 public schools, the property of the communes, had been added to the 10,316 166 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF which existed in 1834. In 1847 the number of elementary schools for boys had risen from 33,695, which it reached in 1834, to 43,514; the number of scholars attending them from 1,654,828 to 2,176,079. In 1849 the elementary schools were giving instruction to 3,530,135 children of the two sexes. In 1851, out of the 37,000 communes of France, 2,500 only were without schools ; through the remainder there were distributed primary schools of all kinds to the number of 61,481. The charge borne by the communes in the support of their schools was nearly 300,000 in 1834, the first year after the passing of the new law. In 1849 it had risen to nearly 400,000. The charge borne by the departments was, in 1835, 111,000; in 1847 it was more than 180,000. The sum contributed by the state, only 2,000 in 1816, 4,000 in 1829, 40,000 in 1830, had risen in 1847 to 96,000. The great inspection of 1834 had been a special effort. But in 1835, primary inspectors, those * sinews of public instruction, 5 were permanently established, one for each department, by royal ordinance. In 1847 two inspec- tors-general and 153 inspectors and sub-inspectors had been already appointed. An ordinance of June the 23d, 1836, extended to girls' schools, so far as was pos- sible, the provisions of the law of 1833. Normal schools for the training of school- mistresses were at the same time formed. In 1837 a similar ordinance regulated infant schools, which had attracted attention since 1827. Classes for adults were also formed, and in 1848 they were 6,877 in number, with 115,164 pupils. Popular instruction was not only founded, but in operation." "We may infer from the example of Prussia, that education in countries subject to arbitrary sway must be imposed upon the people. In its general plan and in its details it must be the offspring of power, and must be upheld by the arm of authority. The Convention of 1793, in the written constitution, decreed for France universal education at the public expense. The plan was premature, and impracticable at the time. There were neither school-houses, nor school teachers, nor school districts, nor school laws, nor organization of any kind. The consti- tution fell, and this clause fell with it. The people of France have never been accustomed to manage local affairs. All the local magistrates are appointed by the central authority. The central power at Paris controls the minutest affairs in the remotest departments. The people have learned obedience, and cannot practice autonomy. Under the law of 1833, and its amendments, it has been found difficult in all places, and impossible in many, to find men to hold the school offices and manage school affairs. It is hard to awaken the people to action. It is strange and unusual for them to act. They are afraid of responsibility. They are infants in politics, and do not know how to help themselves. It will be many years before the indolence and indifference of such a people can be changed to an active and intelligent interest even in local affairs. A school system for France, as for Prussia, must be established and upheld by the central power. f The report of M. Duruy, Minister of Public Instruction in France, boldly and eloquently advocates a compulsory system, like that of Germany and Prussia. His recommendation has not been approved by the Emperor, but his arguments are unanswerable when applied to the state of things in France. There is no doubt that the government could easily enforce a decree requiring every child in the kingdom to attend the public schools, or that its parents or guardians should show that it was receiving instruction at home or in some private school. The schools will fit them for the intelligent use of political rights. They will ere long see that, if they are competent to elect an Emperor by universal suffrage, much more arc they competent to choose- the magistrates and officers of departments. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 167 The sneer of Guizot at the Convention of 1793, and the constitutional provision for education, was uncalled for and unjust. No man knows better than Guizot that the provisions of a constitution do not execute themselves. The legislative power must elaborate them, and put them into the form of statutes. It was not the fault of the Convention that no effort was ever made to carry the provision into effect. The people of France were not ready for education. That article of the constitution is a noble monument to the Convention, bearing testimony to their high and just sense of the duties of a state and the wants of mankind. It-is . true that the subsequent rulers of France, the Constituent Assembly, the Direc- tory, the Consulate and the Empire, and the restored Bourbons, wholly neglected popular education, and for forty years the noble words of the constitution were buried beneath anarchy, usurpation and tyranny. M. Guizot aided in the revolu- tion of 1830, the overthrow of the Bourbon restoration, and the election of Louis Phillippe under a new constitution. One of the first acts of M. Guizot, as Prime Minister of the King, was to frame a school law for the education of the people. His fame as a statesman will rest upon this law, for this alone, of all his public acts, survives the wreck of his master's fortunes. It has survived the folly of the Republic. Even a Bonaparte has had to accept it, cherish it, and improve it. It has prevailed against the reaction of the church. It is the one popular measure which, having taken root in France, cannot be uprooted. M. Guizot 's school law was but an amplification of the article in the constitution at which he casts a sneer. That article contemplated a more comprehensive system than M. Guizot's, and, so far as his plan falls short of the plain intent and meaning of that article, in just so far it is defective. M. Guizot objects to the compulsory system of Prussia and Germany, that it must be confined to "an empty command" or lead to "proscriptions and inquisitorial searches" to compel obedience, and that it " bears the impress of the convent and the barrack room." Any law that is in advance of public sentiment will meet with opposition, and will be difficult of execution. On this account the decree of the Convention of 1793, establishing primary education at the public expense, became a dead letter. The people were not prepared for it. But in 1833 they were ready for M. Guizot's school system. An attempt, in 1833, to introduce the compulsory feature, would have failed, for several reasons : (1.) The schools and school-houses were want- ing ; (2.) the people were too ignorant, and could not have understood the intent of the law, nor appreciated its value to themselves and their children ; and (3.) all the police force of France could not have enforced it in the face of the dense and inert ignorance of the masses, even if school-houses and teachers had been pro- vided. The objections to such a law, made by Guizot, appear ludicrous in a French- man who submits to the military conscription and the omnipresence of the police without a murmur of dissatisfaction. The laws that drag a man into the army, or force his children into the school, may be equally arbitrary and equally a vio- lation of personal liberty, but, if there is any choice between being educated and being shot, the preference would be given to education. The discipline of the school and the drill of the army are both necessary to the nation, promoting the national strength ; and the recent experience of the United States and Prussia proves that the discipline of the school will add to the efficiency of the soldier. The compulsory laws of Germany and Switzerland are of recent date. The high state of education is not due to their enactment. They have been passed to meet exceptional cases. When the parents of ninety-nine families in a hundred volun 168 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF tarily send their children to the public schools, or provide at home or in private schools for their education, they will not think it an inquisitorial search when public officers inquire into the matter. The inquiry, indeed, as is plain to be seen, would touch very few families. The school reports would account for the pre- sence and absence of the children, and the inquiry would concern only the ab- sentees. When education has reached a point when not more than one famity in a hundred neglects it, and not more than five children hi a hundred are absentees or truants, then it is easy to enforce attendance by a compulsory law. The com- munity will uphold it. It will be what all laws ought to be in every enlightened country the statutory expression of the public will. When it is agreed that igno- rance is apolitical and social evil, then it becomes a public duty to remove it. It will then be considered that a man has no more right to let his children grow up in ignorance than he has to train them for pickpockets and thieves. Vice has an affinity for ignorance, and clings to it as iron filings cling to a magnet. To dispel ignorance is to diminish vice. The school is a social detergent for the removal of vice. Children come out of the public schools with clean morals, or at least they are there subjected to a cleansing process which prepares them to resist and repel vice from without, and to control and subdue their own evil inclinations. For the Ignorant man is not less the dupe and prey of designing wickedness than the victim of his own blind and unbridled passions. Extract from the French constitution of 1793, referred to by M. Guizot : INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE. 296. II y a dans la Republique des ecoles primaires ou les eleves apprennent a lire, a ecrire, les elemens du calcul et ceux de la morale. La Republique pourvoit aux fraix du logement des instituteurs pre'posfs aces ecoles. 297. II y a dans les diverses parties de la Republique des ecoles superieures aux ecoles primaires, et dont le nombre sera tel, qu'il y en ait au moins une pour deux departemens. 298. II y a pour toute la Republique un institut national, charge' de recueilltr les decouvertes de perfectionner les arts et les sciences. 299. Les divers etablissemens d'instruction publique n'ont entrt eux aucun rapport de subordination, ni de correspondance administrative. 300. Les citoyens ont le droit de former e^tablissemens particuliers d'education et d'instruction, ainsi que des socie'te's libres, pour concourir aux progres des sciences, des lettres et des arts. 301. II sera etabli des fetes nationales, pour entretenir la fraternite entre les citoyens, et les attacher a la constitution a la patrie et aux lois. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 169 HOLLAND, The latest law regulating primary instruction in Holland was promulgated August 13, 1857. The primary schools are divided into public and private ; the former are those established and maintained -by the communes, the provinces and the government, severally or in common, and the latter include all other schools. The private schools may receive assistance from the state on the condition of receiving all pupils without distinction of creed. All teachers of public or .private schools must have the qualifications required by law, aad foreigners must also have -the royal permission. The principal change made by the law of 1857 is the establishment of greater liberty of instruction. The certificates of morality and capacity are still demanded of every' teacher, public or private ; but the special authorization of the munici- pality, formerly necessary for every private teacher before he could open school, and not granted, except with the district inspector's sanction, is demanded no longer. This relaxation makes the establishment of private schools more easy. Primary instruction, strictly so called., is pronounced, by the law of 1857, to 'comprehend reading, writing, arithmetic, the elements f geometry, of Dutch grammar, of geography, of history, of the natural sciences and singing. The new law expressly prescribes that primary schools in each commune shall be at the commune's charge. The schools are to be in sufficient number, and the ;s\ate deputies and the supreme government have the right of judging whether in any commune they are in sufficient number or not. School fees are to be exacted of those who can afford to pay them, but not of "children whose families are receiving public relief, or, though not receiving public relief, are unable to pay for their schooling." If the charge of its schools is too heavy- for a commune, the province and the state aid it by a grant, of which each contributes half. The exact amount of charge to be supported by a commune, before it can receive aid, is not fixed by the Dutch law; neither is a machinery established for compelling the commune and the province to raise the school funds required of them. The minimum of a schoolmaster's fixed salary, placed at '40 a year by the Belgian and the French law, the Dutch law places at nearly $170, and the salary of an undermaster is half that sum. The headmaster must also be provided with a house, rent free, with a garden, if possible, and if this is not possible he must have an equivalent in. money for house rent. Under the law of 1857, the public schoolmaster is still appointed by competitive examination. The district inspector retains his influence over this examination. After it has taken place, he and a select body of the municipality draw up a list of from three to six names, those of the candidates who have acquitted themselves best. From this list the entire body of the communal council makes its selection. The communal council may also dismiss the teacher, but it must first obtain the concurrence of the inspector. If the communal council refuse to pronounce a dis- [Asseni. No. 237.] 22 170 REPORT O'F THE SUPERINTENDENT OF missal which the inspector thinks advisable, the state deputies of the may pronounce it upon the representation of this functionary. The law fixes the legal s-taff of teachers to be allowed to public schools. When) the number of scholars exceeds 70, the master is to> have the aid, of a pupil teacher ;. when it exceeds 100, of an undermaster and pupil teacher ; for every 50 scholars- above thi last number he is allowed another pupil teacher ; for every 100, another undermaster. The headmaster receives ten dollars a year for eaeh pupil teacher. The law of 1857, like that of 1806, has abstained from making education com- pulsory. But it gives legal sanction to a practice already long followed by many municipalities > k enjoin* the municipal council t<5> "provide, ag> far as possible, for the attendance at school of all children whose parents are in the receipt of public, relief," Great efforts had been made in the debates on the clauses of the law to procure a more decided recognition by the state of the principle of compulsory education .- It was proposed, at least, to make the payment of a sshool fee obliga- tory for each child of school age, if the chamber would not go so far as to make his actual attendance at school obligatory. This obligation of payment had already, it was said, been enforced by the governments of three provinces, Groningen, Drenthe and Overyssel, with excellent effect. The usual arguments for compulsory education were adduced that other countries had successfully established it that ignorance was making rapid strides for want of it that in China, where it reigns^ all the children can read and write. It was replied that compulsory edu- cation was altogether against th habits of the Dutch people. The new legislation organized inspection somewhat differently from the law of 1806. It retained the local school commissioners and the district inspectors; but at the head of the inspection of each district it placed a salaried provincial inspec- tor. It directed that these provincial inspectors should be assembled, once a year y under the presidency of the Minister of the Home Department, to deliberate on. the general interests of primary instruction. The Minister of the Home Depart- ment, assisted by a referendary, is the supreme authority for the government of education. Between the provincial inspectors and the Minister, the law of 1857 has omitted to place inspectors-general, M, de Laveleye, in general a warm admirer of the Dutch school-legislation, eonsidcrs this omission most unfortunate. In the matter of religious instruction the 23d article says ; " The system of education in the schools, while imparting suitable and useful information, shall be made conducive to the development, of the intellectual capacities' of the children, and to their training in all Christian and social virtues. " The teacher shall abstain from teaching or permitting to be taught anything inconsistent with the respect due to the religious opinions of dissenters. Reli- gious instruction is left to the ecclesiastical communities. The school-rooms shall be at their disposal for that purpose, out of school-hours, for the benefit of chil- dren attending the school." Holland had,, in. 1858,. a population of 3,298,137 inhabitants. For her eleven, provinces she had eleven provincial inspectors and ninety-two district inspectors, In 1857 her public primary schools were 2,478 in number, with a staff of 2,409 principal masters, 1,587 undermfisters, 642 pupil-teachers, 134 schoolmistresses and assistants. In the day and evening schools there- were, on the 15th of Jan- uary, 322,767 scholars. Of these schools 197 were, in 1857, inspected three times, 618 twice, 1,053 once. In. 817 of them the instruction is reported very good; in 1,236 good;, as middling in 367; in 55 as bad. There were, besides, 944 private schools, giving instruction to 83,562 scholars. There were 784 infant schools., PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 171 receiving 49,873 young children. Boarding schools, Sunday schools and work schools, with the pupils attending them, are not included in the totals above given. The proportion of scholars to the population, not yet so satisfactory as in 1848, was, nevertheless, in' 1857, more satisfactory than in 1854, In January of the latter year, foist one in every 9.35 inhabitants was in school; in the same month of 1857, one in every 8.11 inhabitants. But, in truth, the suffering state of popular education in Holland would be a flourishing state in most other countries. In the debates of 1857, one of the speakers, who complained that popular education in Holland was going back, cited in proof of the jiistice of his complaint returns showing the state of instruction of the conscripts in South Holland in 1856. In this least favored province, out of 6,086 young men drawn for the army, 669 could not read nor write. In the neighboring -country of Belgium, in the same year, out of 6,617 conscripts in the province of Brabant, 2,254 could not read nor write ; out of 5,910 conscripts in the province of West Flanders, 2,088 were in the same con- dition ; out of 7,192 in East Flanders, 3,153. And while in East Flanders but 1,820 conscripts out of 7,192 could read, in South Holland, the worst educated of the Dutch provinces, no less than 5,268 out of 6,086 possessed this degree of acquirement. Such in Holland is the present excellent situation of primary instruction. In Prussia it may be even somewhat more widely diffused ; but nowhere, probably, has it such thorough soundness and solidity. It is impossible to regard it without admiration. 172 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF BELGIUM, In Belgium, in spite of the earnest efforts that have been made for the last few- years ; in spite of favorable legislation and a respectable expenditure of money, there is an obstinate ignorance. During the reunion of Holland and Belgium, the government of King William made great efforts to spread light and knowledge throughout the southern pro- vinces. Suffering under the depressing rule of Spain and Austria, they were very backward. The laws and methods of Holland, to which they were subjected, did much good. Unfortunately, after the revolution of 1830, the communes, left to themselves, suspended almost everywhere the work already commenced ; a new proof that to leave education entirely to the local authorities is to compromise and ruin it. The studies and the institutions destined for the preparation of good teachers disappeared. Many of the communes, that had formerly been compelled to raise certain sums of money for education, took advantage of their independence to discontinue the impost. The teachers were left to poverty and want. To the blind reaction against the Holland system, which destroyed the best of schools, succeeded an indifference not less fatal, which prevented the establishment of new schools. The active intervention of the central power only could arrest this back- ward march. The communal law of 1836, and next, in 1842, the law relating to primary instruction, started a forward movement which is still in progress. The law of 1842 is still in force, without amendment, and the following is an abstract of its provisions : In its principal features it resembles the French law of 1833. It enacts, in the first place, that each commune shall establish at least one school in some conven- ient place. But the commune is not compelled to bear all the expense of such a school, when it shall appear that the educational wants are provided for by pri- vate schools. All indigent children are to be educated gratuitously. The com- munal council employs the teacher, who must, however, be selected from among the candidates who have attended with approbation the course of study at some one of the Normal schools subject to inspection. The expenses of primary instruc- tion are charged upon the communes ; but in some cases the state and the province grant assistance. The direction of the school is left to the local authority, save that, in all that pertains to religious and moral instruction, the ministers of pub- lic worship have the sole charge. A double system of inspection is established, a lay inspection and an ecclesiastical inspection, exercised the one by cantonal and provincial inspectors, and the other by diocesan inspectors, the former named by the government, and the latter by the bishops. Such is the substance of the law of 1842. It met with a lively opposition from the liberal party, when it was discussed in Parliament, and the more zealous adherents of that party have not ceased to attack it. The main objection is that the priest comes into the school by authority of law. In Belgium, they say, church and state are completely separated ; it is, therefore, contrary to the spirit of the constitution to grant powers to the priests, who are wholly independent of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 173 the laical authority. In France, such a thing would be admissible, for there the bishops are nominated by the state. But in Belgium, where the church has no connection with the state, it is inadmissible. The episcopacy naturally wish to see the schools of the congreganists replace the communal schools ; they dislike laical schools, and every day furnishes the proof of this, for, whenever they can injure one, they fail not to use their power. There is weight in these objections. The author of the law of 1842, either from party zeal or from personal conviction, was willing to subject the schools to the preponderating influence of the clergy _ It is certain that this system has danger in store for the future in a country where the clergy constitute, not a body wholly disengaged from the squabbles of politics, and desirous only to inculcate good morals and evangelical truth, but a warlike militia, a fighting party, leading its faithful troops to the assault of the ballot. Whatever may come of this question, which is still the subject of lively debate, it is incontestable that primary instruction is making progress. The last official report states that on the first of January, 1864, there existed 5,558 primary schools, of which 3,908 were subject to inspection and 1,650 were entirely free. This gives 112 schools to 1,000 inhabitants, or one school to 854 inhabitants. This is but little more than half as great a proportion as in France. But we must not hasten to augur any inferiority of Belgium, whose population, twice as dense as in France, affords greater facilities for instruction with fewer schools. There were only 1,374 schools exclusively for girls, and the plan of separating the two sexes is slow in gaining ground, although favored by the civil and ecclesiasti- cal^authorities, because its adoption necessitates the building of new school-houses. The whole number of children attending school was 515,892, or one in nine of the inhabitants. The proportion is the same as in France, and hence it will be con- cluded that in Belgium, as in France, only one-fifth of the children receive any instruction. And the figures do not present a more satisfactory result than in France, for nearly one-third of the Belgian militia are wholly illiterate, or 31 in 100 ; while in France the proportion was, in 1861, 30 in 100, and, in 1865, it had fallen to 25.73 in 100. The degree of instruction among the soldiers does not, however, give an exact idea of the ignorance that weighs upon the lower classes of Belgium. From recent inquiries as to the intelligence of the laborers in the great centers of industry, it appears that more than half the population is entirely illiterate. The symptom most to be regretted is that during the last few years there has been no advance. There has even been a recoil. Thus, from 1857 to 1860, in three years, the number of children attending school increased only 1 in 100, while the population increased 3 in 100. In four provinces the attendance actually decreased. The inspectors attribute this unexpected fact to two principal causes ; the increase of the rate charged upon pupils and the Development of indus- try, which draws children from school to engage in labor. The public authorities, however, cannot be accused of indifference to primary instruction. If they have not done what they ought to have done, if they have not made sacrifices equal to Canada and some of the United States, it can still be said that Belgium, in comparison to most European states, since she has been governed by the representatives of liberal ideas, has not neglected popular educa- tion. In 1843 the expense for this object was 2,631,639 francs, and, in 1860, it had risen to 6,783,349 francs. Thus, in less than twenty years, it had tripled. It is now only about 25 cents a head. The minimum pay of a male teacher has been fixed at 700 francs, or about $140; and the average is 843 francs. The female teachers average about 825 francs. The erection of suitable school-houses 174 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF is of the highest importance to education, and in Belgium the government has fully comprehended this fact, and on three different occasions has appropriated a million of francs in aid of the communes. The communes, assured of the assist- ance of the state and the provinces, have earnestly set about the work, and on every side good school-houses are in process of construction. From 1858 to 1860, more than three hundred had been built, at an expense of 4,555,138 francs, or a million and a half a year. The 2,538 Belgian communes possessed, in 1860, 2,465 school-houses, of which 1,613 combined every desirable condition. Some cities, under the influence of intelligent and liberal administrators, have outstepped the requirements of the law. Thus Gand, with a population of 126,347 inhabit- ants, expends, annually, for primary instruction, 268,000 francs, or 2.12 per head, and Liege, with 103,886 inhabitants, 271,000 francs, or 2.61 per head. Besides, within ten years, Gand has applied to the construction of school-houses 514,000 francs, and Liege one million. If then, instruction has net spread more widely, it cannot be imputed as a fault to the apathy of the people, nor to the indiffer- ence of the public authorities. In Belgium, the sad effects of ignorance are deplorably and painfully manifest. The increase of various kinds of industry has given an extraordinary impulse to the mining of coal in the rich bituminous valleys of Mons, Charleroi and Liege, where a large number of laborers are constantly employed. The demand for more labor has raised the price of it, and higher wages, it would seem, ought to increase the well-being of the workmen who dig from the dark caverns of the earth the com- bustible without which industry cannot live. Not so ; if they earn more they spend more, and during two days of the week they consume in debasing expenses all the increase of wages, and much more. And so what ought to elevate them debases them, and tne augmentation of pay, that should be the means of safety, becomes a source of immorality, a cause of depravation, and to their employers a real scourge, for they cannot depend upon their labor for that constant activity that would render their mines profitable. If the workmen were better instructed they would soon learn to make a better use of their salary, and, getting a taste of nobler pleasures, would not waste their strength, their health and their happiness in the gross excitements of the groggery. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 175 PRUSSIA. In Protestant Germany, as in Scotland, in Norway, and in the United States, the primary school was born of the Reformation, because it was the condition of its success. The Reformation put into everybody's hand a book the Bible and commanded all to read it. It appealed to private judgment as applicable to the Holy Scriptures, and not to an infallible authority or to tradition. It was neces- sary for a Protestant to be able to read ; and therefore all the reformed States made immense and persevering eiforts to found schools and to Lring the children into them. Obligatory instruction goes back to the earliest years of the Reforma- tion, and was a law of the church a long time before it became a law of the state. The constraint was imposed, not by the genius of despotism, but by that of liberty. It was not enacted in the name of the state authority ; the right of the child to himself is the foundation of it ; and so obligatory instruction has never encoun- tered the hostility of public opinion. The address of Luther to the municipal cor- porations, in 1554, laid down the principle, and this great man often recurs to it in his writings. " Ah !" says he, " if a state in time of war can oblige its citizens to take up the sword and the musket, has it not still more the power, and is it not its duty, to compel them to instruct their children, since we are all engaged in a more serious warfare, waged with the spirit of evil, which rages in our midst, seeking to depopulate the state of its virtuous men ? It is my desire, above all things else, that every child should go to school, or be sent there by a magis- trate." When, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, Frederick William of Prussia published his royal ordinances for the amelioration of the schools, and obliged every child not confirmed to attend, he merely reproduced prior statutes. The strict duty of Christian parents to educate their children had already been declared by laws passed immediately after the thirty years' war. In Wurtemberg a royal ordinance, prescribing attendance upon schools, dates back to 1G49, the year after the peace of Westphalia. The Prussian law of 1763, that is generally considered as having first imposed this obligation, merely defined the school age more exactly as between five and fourteen years. The real innovation was the addition of religious instruction. Iii Prussia, as in all Germany, the primary school is supported at the expense of the commune, and is governed by it, subject to state supervision. There is, in the first instance, a local committee (schulvorstand} . This committee superin- tends the school, and the president of it is the minister of public worship. The local committees, responsible, to the communes, do their duty generally with care and devotion. Next above them is the provincial committee (achuLcotttgium)'. The members of this committee, named directly by the Minister of Public Instruc- tion, are special officers ordinarily familiar with all school questions. One of the committee (schulrath), the counsellor of schools, is invested with executive authority in the province. He is the real director of primary instruction in the province. He receives and makes an abstract of the reports of the local commit- tees, proposes administrative measures and changes; and through him the minis- 176 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF terial decisions are transmitted. He is the medium of communication between the local authorities and the central authority. He has no power of himself to make any decision. The legislative power is the schulcollegium. The duty of a schulrath is exactly like that of our commissioners. The manner in which the obligatory law is enforced is as follows : Every year at Christmas the burgomaster of the commune makes a list of the children who are entering their sixth year, and who are bound to attend school. A copy of this list is sent to the ministers of the several communions, aud the parents are advertised that they must give their children instruction. They can place them in private schools, or instruct them themselves, but they must consult beforehand with the president of the local committee, who will consider their motives. Nobody can employ a child without an agreement to send it to school. Many large estab- lishments have a school connected with their factory, where they give instruction to the children at work for them. In the school, the master every morning calls over the names, and writes the absentees upon a list which he sends each week to the president of the local committee. He causes the parents of the absentees to come before him, and inquires into the occasion of the absence, shows them the advantages of instruction, and recommends more regularity. As he is their minister, his influence is great, especially in the country, and it is very rare that he has to resort to fine and imprisonment. The total number of condemnations amounts yearly to some hundreds, and the amount of fines to between four and five hundred dollars. In a population of nineteen millions, these figures prove that the schulzwang, or obligatory instruction, has ceased to be a constraint. The children of the farmer, of the laborer, even the poorest, go to school, because there is nothing else to do ; they go every day, naturally, just as their fathers go to work. The habit being general, no one dreams of being an exception to the rule, and custom becomes more powerful than law. It is now believed that the legal obligation might be repealed, and the attendance upon schools would scarcely be diminished, at least for some time, because the poor families have seen for ; themselves the benefit of instruction. The opponents of obligatory instruction have drawn a frightful picture of it ; they point to fathers dogged by policemen, fined, imprisoned, deprived of the means of existence. Nothing could be more inexact. To educate their children is a duty so natural that it suffices barely to remind parents of it, to compel them for a single year to do it, and soon they fulfill it spontaneously, with satisfaction and pride. The example of Germany is a proof of it. In 1857 there were in Prussia 2,943,251 children of the school age, 5 to 14. Of this number 2,758,472 attended regularly the communal schools ; 70,220 went to private schools, and the remainder were in other educational establishments, or were educated at home. For 1,000 inhabitants Prussia had 157 pupils in the primary schools, while France, in 1863, had but 116. But this figure is far from showing the real superiority of Prussia in this respect ; it appears clearly in the results obtained. We have seen that in France, in consequence of irregular" attendance, one-third of the population is completely illiterate. In Prussia every soldier knows how to read and write, and the instruction of the women is in no manner inferior, for the number of girls in attendance is the same as that of the \ boys. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 177 DENMARK. Education in Denmark is almost universal. Every parish must maintain a school and a teacher, and primary instruction must be given in reading, writing and arith- metic, to which are often added geography, history and grammar. The teachers receive from $ 200 to $ 250 a year, to which may be added a dwelling-house and a few acres of land. Similar but larger schools exist in the cities. All children are instructed in the Lutheran catechism. This system was established substantially in the sixteenth century. No child could be admitted to the communion of the Lutheran church without a knowledge of reading and writing, and of the catechism. Such knowledge was also indispensable to apprenticeship and industrial employ- ments, and to marriage. The number of primary schools is nearly 5,000, with 300,000 pupils. There are also in all the cities many private schools, both for boys and girls. Secondary or high schools are maintained in the large cities. There are eight Normal schools, in which the course of instruction occupies three years, and includes Danish, mathematics, natural sciences, writing, pedagogy, his- tory, geography, gymnastics and drawing. [Assem. No. 237.] 23 178 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SWITZERLAND. In Switzerland instruction is obligatory, except in the three little cantons of Uri, Schwytz and Unterwalden, inhabited by shepherds, and in the canton of Geneva, where such an obligation seems to be unnecessary. Under pain of fine and impris- onment the parents are obliged to send their children to school, or to educate them at home, and in the latter case they are not exempt from the school tax. The school age varies ; it is from six to twelve in the canton of Basle, and from six to fifteen in most of the other cantons. The canton and the commune share in the expense of the primary schools. When the commune is too poor, the canton grants it a subsidy, and does this always when there is any extraordinary expense in building or enlarging buildings. All the cantons expend large sums for education, averaging about twenty cents a head. This sum represents the expense of the communes, and does not include the subsidies granted by the canton, as these are merely ancillary, the communes being charged with the principal expense. France, if it would occupy the same level as Switzerland, should expend thirty-eight mil- lions of francs. It expends six millions, or about one-sixth as much. The laws regulating primary instruction have been considerably modified since 1848, in a spirit quite democratic. " Instruction in the public schools," says the law of the canton of Vaud, " shall conform to the principles of Christianity and democracy." Religious instruction is given by the ministers of public worship. The lay teacher must abstain in his lessons from anything of a dogmatic character, so that there may be complete liberty of conscience. Supervision and direction are exercised by two commissions the first central, named by the cantonal govern- ment, and the second local, chosen by the communal authority. There are inspec- tors only in part of the cantons. Primary instruction in Switzerland comprehends the same studies as elsewhere ; but there is a distinction in the care that is taken to develop in the child the powers of body as well as of mind. Not content to cultivate the memory alone, an appeal is made to the reason, and especial pains are taken to give the pupils a great num- ber of practical notions upon the culture of the country, its industrial pursuits and its domestic economy. It is not thought in Switzerland, any more than in Ger- many, that a teacher, in order to teach reading and writing, needs scarcely to know anything more himself. The schoolmaster is ordinarily a well-educated man, highly respected in the village, well paid, especially in comparison to the moderate salaries of the civil list of Switzerland. He has generally learned the first elements of the natural sciences, botany, chemistry, medicine and rural economy. He has a lively impression of this knowledge, because he has obtained it from his own and other collections, and from the study of nature. This living and practical science he communicates to his pupils. In order to strengthen their bodies, recourse is had to gymnastic exercises, such as were practiced in the Grecian cities. In many schools is taught the use of arms, and in the cities the children are regimented into corps of cadets, organized on a military footing, exercised in the firing of the musket PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 179 and cannon, performing marches, and once a year going into camp. Thus are begun, perpetuated, renewed and perfected those martial habits, which, become a trait in the national character, have formed Switzerland into a permanent army and made soldiers of all its militia, so that the expense of its military establish- ment is only thirty cents a head, instead of two dollars as in other European countries. Among the cantons that have the best organized systems of public instruction may be named Zurich, Basle, Vaud, Neufchatel and Geneva. Zurich, with a popu-~ lation of 266,265 inhabitants, expends for primary instruction about $ 300,000, of which two-thirds is furnished by the communes, and the rest by the canton. This is about a dollar a head, or almost the same as in some of the United States. To put France on the same level as Zurich, the budget of public instruction should be 200,000,000 of francs. Among the districts of Zurich, some are honorably distin- guished by their sacrifices in the cause of education. Thus, the commune of Win- terthen, with 32,000 inhabitants, expends about $16,000 for instruction, without counting the cost of new school-houses. The little village of Winterthen has only 5,000 inhabitants, but its industry has enriched it, and it draws handsome revenues from its communal property. How does it expend its income ? Upon the embel- lishment of its public buildings, upon theaters and palaces ? No, but for the development of intellectual life, in building up schools ; within the last three years it has built three, situated in the midst of gardens, and at a cost of at least $100,000. In the Catholic cantons, for the most part, primary instruction had been for a long time neglected ; up to 1830, schools were very rare, and ignorance general. The law of 1830 obliged each locality to open a school, and the parents to send their children to it, from the age of six to thirteen years ; but the communes would not under- take the building of school-houses, until such time as the canton would grant them subsidies. One canton, above all, has lately made energetic efforts to rise above its inferiority. It is Tessino. It is interesting to study the progress of education in this canton, because it shows the efficacy of obligatory instruction, even amongst a Catholic population. At the center of the canton sits a superior authority, a council of public instruc- tion, composed of five members. The canton is divided into six school districts, each of which is visited by an inspector, who encourages the municipalities, and reports to the superior council. The suppressed convents of Lugano, Mendrisio, Bellinzona, Locarno, have been transformed into secondary schools. The same cities have also opened higher lay schools for the education of girls. During the school year, the number of children who were legally of the school age was 18,927, in a population of 117,750; of whom 16,703 attended the primary schools, and among them almost as many girls as boys, or 8,193 to 8,519. Of the 2,224 absentees, a certain number attended private schools, or were kept away by sickness, or by sufficient excuses. The absentees without good cause were only 774. These figures show that Tessino, which, a few years ago, was one of the least enlightened of the cantons of Switzerland, has raised herself to a very respectable level. In the cantons where primary instruction has been for some time organized, it may be said that everybody can read and write. A curious fact bearing on this subject is reported by a Genevese statistician, M. Ador, in the Journal Suisse de Statistique. Some years since, search was made at Geneva for a man entirely illiterate, in order to try a new method of teaching adults 180 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP to read and write. The search was for a long time in vain ;. at length one was found, but it was ascertained that he was born in Savoy. In 1864, all the men born in Geneva had signed their marriage contract, and it was found that but two women had been unable to do it. In the cantons of Vaud, Zurich, Neufchatel, instruction is general. The Protestant part of Switzerland is as well advanced in this respect as Northern Germany, and it is owing to the same legal causes and the same influences. EDUCATION AND LANDHOLDING IN SWITZERLAND. Condition of the People of Switzerland in 1846. The condition of the peasantry in the Protestant cantons of Berne, Argovia, Vaud, Thurgovia, Neufchatel, Geneva, Basle and Schaif hausen, and in the Catholic cantons of Soleure and Lucerne, is a very happy one. No beggars are to be seen in these cantons, and, what is still more surprising, no signs of pauperism. Their dress, though homely, is always good, free from patches, and clean. Their cottages, though, from the smoked appearance of the timber, at first sight giving an idea of great poverty, are, never- theless, very commodious, substantially built and comfortably furnished, and, what is more, they are their own. They are generally surrounded by their little gar- dens, and almost always stand on plots of land which belong to and are cultivated by the tenants, and no one, who has seen the garden-like appearance of the cantons of Berne, Vaud, Soleure, Argovia, Thurgovia and Zurich, will doubt again the high state of cultivation which may be attained by small farmers, proprietors of their own farms. The Swiss proprietor, himself a farmer, is interested in the state of his little property, and he is not a man to reject the aid of science, or to shut his ears to advice, or his eyes to observation. Their small farm-houses are pic- tures of neatness, and their little estates are tended with the care an Englishman bestows upon his flower-garden. By far the greater part of the population are them- selves proprietors, and the lands are so subdivided as to bring them within the reach of the poorest laborer. This acts as the happiest preventive check on early and improvident marriages, and as the strongest possible incentive to providence and self-denial. Owing to this cause, the earliest age at which a young man thinks of marrying, in several cantons, is twenty-five, as he spends the first part of his life, after he has begun to earn any wages, in laying by some little capital toward the purchase of a house and a piece of land. When he can offer a certain share of the purchase money, he pays it over to the vendor, and enters into possession, clearing the rest of his debt by yearly payments. It is only after he has obtained the great object of his wishes that he marries. Many, even of the laborers in the towns, own or rent their little properties outside. The happy effects of this system are manifest not only in the excellent check it affords to imprudently early mar- riages, and in the happy stimulant to prudence and sobriety, but also, and more particularly, to the interest it gives the country peasants in the maintenance of social order. The Swiss have so clearly understood that the real cause of pauperism is want of prudence and foresight among the poor, that the people themselves, in three of the most democratic of the cantons, have not only resolved that all children should be forced to attend school for a certain number of years, and that the descent of land should be so arranged as to insure a great subdivision and make the separate estates small and numerous, and have not only created by these means strong incentives to prudence among the poor, by elevating their tastes, by teaching them the great benefits to be derived by temporary self-denial, and by holding out to the PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 181 saving and self-denying laborer the prospect of becoming a proprietor, but they have also enacted laws which prohibit any man marrying until he prove to the state that he is able to support his wife. It must be remembered that these laws are put in force by the people themselves so clearly is it understood in Switzer- land that the true cause of pauperism in a well-governed state can only be ignor- ance and improvidence resulting from ignorance, or some misfortune that could not have been foreseen, and that it is only the pauperism resulting from this latter cause for which a well-organized community ought to be called upon to provider - {Sir Joseph Kay.) 182 EEPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP SWEDEN. Very soon after the Lutheran religion was made the religion of the state, a law was passed requiring every person, before being admitted to the rite of confirma- tion, which was necessary before marriage, to be able to read, of which the curate was to be satisfied. The Swedish peasantry, by virtue of this law, became the best educated population in Europe. But in 1825 education languished, and in 1842 a law was passed requiring every parish to erect a school, and employ a teacher. Every parish is divided into districts, and whenever a district does not contain population or wealth enough to maintain a permanent teacher it is visited by an itinerating teacher, who is permanently employed by the school board of the parish to teach at different times in the year in different localities in the parish. The school board consists of a chairman and committee elected by the district, whose duty it is to provide a school-house and elect and employ teachers. Each teacher is entitled to a minimum salary, consisting of sixteen barrels of corn, lodg- ing, firewood, pasture, food for one cow, and a small piece of land to cultivate for a garden. If the district cannot furnish this, the government makes a grant in aid. The course of instruction comprises religion, geography, Swedish and universal history, mathematics, geometry, natural history, music and gymnastics. All chil- dren between the ages of nine and fifteen must attend school, unless it can be shown that they receive instruction at home. The inspection of all schools belongs to the bishop and chapter of the cathedral. The school board of each district makes an annual report of the state of the schools to the cathedral chapter of the diocese, by which body a report is made every three years to the government. In 1850 the report of the chapters to the government showed that 458,105 chil- dren had been in attendance upon some school, or about one to seven of the whole population. In 1862, out of 385,000 children of the school age, only 9,131 had received no instruction. By an act of 1842, a Normal school, or seminary for the training of teachers, was instituted. The pupils receive a fixed salary for their support from the gov- ernment, in consideration of which they contract to teach for at least three years in the primary schools. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 183 NORWAY. Schoolmasters are settled in each parish, .who live either in fixed residences or move at stated intervals from one place to another, and who frequently attend ifferent schools, devoting one day only in the week to each. They are paid by a small tax levied on householders, besides a personal payment from each scholar, amounting in the case of agricultural servants to about half a day's wages in a year. Instruction in the primary schools is limited to reading, writing, arithmetic and singing, with sometimes the rudiments of grammar and geography. Almost every town supports a superior school, and in thirteen of the principal towns is a college, the instruction in which includes theology, Latin, Greek, Norwegian, Ger- man, French, English, mathematics, history and geography. Sunday schools also exist in all the principal towns. Ability to read the Bible, and a certain amount of religious knowledge, are prerequisites to confirmation. The law, moreover, as in Prussia, enforces attendance upon school at a certain period. In 1837, 176,733 persons, or one-seventh of the population were receiving public instruction. The Society of Public Good maintains a library in most parishes in the kingdom . The press, too, in Norway, is entirely free, and no tax is imposed on newspapers. More than twenty papers are published in the kingdom, besides several scientific journals. f*& OF THE \ MOTNIVERSITY) 184 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP ICELAND. Madame Ida Pfeiffer visited Iceland in the spring and summer of 1845. Of the education of the people, she says : " I was much surprised to find that nearly all the Icelanders can read and write. The latter quality, only, was somewhat rarer with the women. Youths and men often wrote a firm, good hand. I also found books in every cottage, the Bible always, and, frequently, poems and stories, some- times even in the Danish language. " They also comprehend very quickly ; when I opened my map before them, they soon understood its use and application. Their quickness is doubly surprising, if we consider that every father instructs his own children, and sometimes the neighboring orphans. This is of course only done in the winter; but, as the win- ter lasts eight months in Iceland, it is long enough. " There is only one school in the whole island, which originally was at Bessestadt, but has been removed to Reikjavik since 1846. In this school, only youths who can read and write are received, and they are either educated for priests, and may complete their studies here, or for doctors, apothecaries or judges, when they must complete their studies in Copenhagen. " Besides theology, geometry, geography, history and several languages, such as Latin, Danish, and, since 1846, German and French are taught in the school at Reikjavik." She says the people are not hospitable, but very shrewd and selfish. They are greatly given to drunkenness. Not only on week days, but even on Sundays, she saw peasants who were so intoxicated that she wondered how they could keep their saddles. " I think, indeed, that the Icelanders are second to no nation in uncleanness ; not even to the Greenlanders, Esquimaux or Laplanders. If I were to describe a portion only of what I experienced, my readers would think me guilty of gross exaggeration ; I prefer, therefore, to leave it to their imagination, merely saying, that they cannot conceive anything too dirty for Iceland delicacy. " Besides this very estimable quality, they are also insuperably lazy. Not far from the coast are immense meadows, so marshy that it is dangerous to cross them. The fault lies less in the soil than in the people. If they would only make ditches, and thus dry the ground, they would have the most splendid grass. That this would grow abundantly is proved by the little elevations which rise above the marshes, and which are thickly covered with grass, herbage and large clover. I also passed large districts covered with good soil, and some where the soil was mixed with sand. I frequently debated with Herr Boge, who has lived in Iceland for forty years, and is well versed in farming matters, whether it would not be possible to produce important pasture grounds and hay fields, with industry and perseve- rance. He agreed with me, and thought that even potato fields might be reclaimed, if only the people were not so lazy, preferring to suffer hunger, and resign all the comforts of cleanliness, rather than to work. What nature voluntarily gives they are satisfied with, and it never occurs to them to force more from her." PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 185 PORTUGAL. In Portugal, as in Naples, the church was formerly charged exclusively with the education of the people. But in the eighteenth century, when the minister Pombal, who comprehended the needs of the new civilization, examined into the state of popular instruction, he discovered an ignorance general and profound. In 1772 he formed the project of establishing a school in every commune ; he at once opened four hundred, and levied upon vine and brandy an impost that he called the lite- rary tax ; thus by a just and original compensation making the consumers of spirits contribute to the diffusion of knowledge, so that vice itself should produce a remedy for its own extirpation. The tax remains, as always and everywhere happens, but the schools opened by Pombal disappeared after his fall. In 1807 there were in the primary schools only 24,000 pupils ; after the disas- trous wars of the empire, and the absolutist and clerical reaction that followed, the number was reduced to 8,000, or only three pupils for 1,000 inhabitants ; that is, pri- mary education was reduced to nothing. After the triumph of individual ideas in 1834, and the establishment of constitutional government, the Portuguese Legislature applied itself to the work of popular instruction. A law was passed in 1836, and amended and completed by statutes of September 20, 1844, December 20, 1850, and January 1, 1851. By a reaction, of which past abuses furnish the explana- tion, the school is removed entirely from the influence of the church. The secular- ization has been radical. The priest cannot enter the school as an inspector, nor even as a religious instructor. The new laws have borne plentiful fruits; the number of pupils has rapidly increased. In 1855 the number of schools was 1,319, of which 1,189 were supported by the state, 33 by the communes, and the rest by in- dividuals, or by charitable associations. The number of pupils was 36,465, of whom 1,906 were girls, in a population of 3,844,000 souls. This is, it must be confessed, a sorrowful result, for it gives but one school for three parishes with an area of fifty square miles, and for 3,000 inhabitants, or one scholar to eighty-five people. This situation is truly deplorable, and is due to various causes, of which the three principal are the hereditary apathy of the people, the small freedom given to local administration, and the opposition of the clergy to any organization from which they are excluded. [Assem. No. 237.] 24 186 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF NAPLES. In the kingdom of Naples the government has all along submitted every kind of instruction to the sovereign control of the clergy. The members of the highest department of instruction have always been dignitaries of the church, or persons affiliated with some religious congregation. Secondary instruction was in the hands of the Jesuits, and the monastic orders supplied nearly all the teachers for the pri- mary schools. If we examine the report of the Minister of the Kingdom of Italy for the fruits yielded by the labors and efforts of the religious corporations, we shall find the following results : In the Two Sicilies the proportion of persons who could read and write was not quite one in ten. In the Basilicata, of 1,000 inhab- itants, 912 were wholly illiterate. In the other provinces, the Calabrias, the Abruzzi, Sicily, the proportion was 900 to 1,000. Among the women ignorance was the general rule ; hardly two in a hundred could read and write, and indeed how could they learn ? These figures are frightful, when we also take into the account that the women of the middle classes are included in the calculation, and hence we have a right to infer that in the agricultural districts scarcely a woman is to be met with who has learned even the rudiments of an elementary education. Having thus sounded the depths of this opaque ignorance, pur astonishment is increased by the knowledge that these very provinces are favored by nature with a fertile soil and a delicious climate, are inhabited by an intelligent race, who are, nevertheless, miserably poor, the only industry that prospers being brigandage. An uneducated man is a powerful agent of disorder, a detestable instrument of production. Improvident, incapable of earning a subsistence by well-conducted labor, he is always ready to forsake his plow and spade for the musket, and to quit the farm for the highway. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 187 TJ R E E C E . The common schools of Greece are regulated by a law published by the Regency, February, 1833. This law has, however, been modified in many particulars by more recent ordinances. It makes school attendance obligatory upon all children of both sexes, between the ages of five and twelve years, and parents or guardians are required under penalty to send their children and wards regularly to the com- mon schools, unless they can show that the same amount of instruction is provided in other ways. This requirement has not hitherto been strictly enforced, and its observance is in fact impossible in districts where the villages are far apart, and a scanty population is scattered over a wide territory. The monitorial system is pursued in all the common schools. There is required to be in each parish at least one such school, to be sustained from the income of the parish property, or by indirect or direct taxation. When the resources of the parish are evidently not sufficient to support the school, the government gives its assistance. There are, besides these, a number of common schools that are sustained by endowments, or the revenues of certain churches or convents. The number of children admitted to a school is limited only by the dimensions of the building ; the largest school edifice accommodates five hundred pupils. When, therefore, the number of children exceeds this limit, it is required that additional schools be provided, to be sustained in the same manner at the expense of the parish, with, in exceptional cases, the aid of the government. The educational department has adopted the rule, though without the authority of any law upon the subject, that there shall be one or two assistant teachers in every school when the number of scholars exceeds the maxi- mum of one hundred and fifty. This rule has hitherto been followed in but very few schools, owing to the difficulty of meeting the increased expense. The schools at the chief towns, only, of all the provinces and districts, are provided with assist- ant teachers. Elementary schools may also be established by private individuals upon their own account no doubt existing respecting their capacity and moral character under authority from the state department, in which, however, instruc- tion can be given only by regularly examined school candidates. These private schools are also subject to the oversight of the different boards of inspectors, and to the superintendence of government . Besides these " regular " common schools, which are all conducted monitorially, there still exist many "irregular" schools, where the old system of individual instruction is still followed. These irregular or " hedge " schools are tolerated only in villages, where no regular school exists within a con- venient distance, and means are wanting for the establishment of one. They are sustained only by tuition fees, and for the opening of them the consent of the department is necessary. Separate schools for girls are found only in cities ; in the villages, the schools are attended by children of both sexes. As almost the entire population of the kingdom is of the Greek religion, with the exception of the islands of Syra, Tino, Naxia and Santorini, whose inhabitants are Roman Catholic, the state has made no provision for denominational schools, and the mixed population of these islands send their children, without prejudice, to the 188 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF same schools. The Catholic clergy have established there a few schools, supported by private means, for the education of children of that faith. In the year 1830 there existed in the entire kingdom only seventy-one common schools, with an attendance of 6,721 scholars, male and female. Since that time the number of schools and of children instructed has so increased that the statis- tics of the public schools in 1858, according to the official report of the department, show the following figures : Regular public common schools for boys and girls 360 Regular public common schools for girls alone 52 Regular private schools for boys and girls 30 Regular private schools for girls alone 12 Irregular private schools for both sexes (aggregate) 300 Total number of schools 754 Scholars in the regular parish schools, boys 30,520 Scholars in the regular parish schools, girls 4,753 Scholars in the regular private schools, boys 4,580 Scholars in the regular private schools, girls 1,743 Scholars in the irregular schools, boys and girls, about 10,000 Total number of scholars 51,596 In the regular parish schools there were engaged in 1858, 454 male and 79 female teachers; in the regular private schools, 42 teachers, male and female. To these add the 300 teachers, male and female, of the irregular schools, and the total number of instructors amounts to 875. The salaries of individuals connected with common schools required, in the year 1858, an expenditure of 440,631 drachmas (about $76,250 1 drachma^lOO lepta= $0,17.3), of which sum 324,829 drachmas were derived from the parish revenues, and the remaining 115,802 drachmas from the government. It is to be understood that the expense of the regular and irregular private schools is not included in the above amount. The minimum monthly salary is, for the teachers at the prov'nc-ial capital, 100 drachmas ; for the teachers at the chief towns of the districts, 90 drachmas ; for the second class of teachers and the assistants in the city schools, 80 drachmas ; and for teachers in the third class, 50 drachmas. The salaries of the teachers at the provincial and district capitals are increased ten drachmas every five years, but may not exceed the maximum of 140 drachmas. Besides the salaries, the teachers of all classes are provided with lodging, free of expense, and receive from the parish treasury a monthly apportionment of 22 lepta (^$0,03.8) for each child of school age. The whole amount paid is apportioned by the parish council among the parents in such a manner that the poor are left entirely exempt ; but the citizens in easy circumstances pay from ten to fifty lepta monthly, in proportion to the amount of their direct taxes. For the support of the aged and sick teachers, and for the widows and orphans of those that have deceased, there has been for some years a fund established, for which two-hundredths of the salary and some small school fees are set apart. Though the system of common schools in Greece has, since its independence, made great advancement, yet there still remains much to be desired. Neither the PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 189 number of schools in the parishes, nor of properly educated school candidates, equals the actual want, and hence there yet exist many hedge schools. Many chil- dren remain entirely without education, especially in those parishes which contain several widely scattered villages. Other children leave the schools too early, and the law respecting school attendance cannot be everywhere strictly enforced. Prior to the Greek revolution there were few common schools in Greece, and nothing that could be called popular instruction. Only in the cities and market towns, and a few of the more densely populated districts were even elementary schools to be found, where a teacher, who was usually the priest of the place, instructed a few children in reading, and, rarely, in writing sometimes follow- ing the " individual," and sometimes the " simultaneous " method of teaching. Scarcely a hundredth part of the male population of the territory forming the pre- sent kingdom of Greece could read or write ; while the female portion remained so entirely without education that, except in the large cities, one that was but poorly skilled in reading and writing was looked upon as a prodigy of learning. 190 KEPOET OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP RUSSIA. The Emperor of Russia, as a supplement to his ordinance for the liberation of the serfs, appointed a special commission to digest a system of national education, with special reference to the poor, and the newly liberated peasantry, but embracing in its full development every grade of instruction, and all classes of that vast empire. We give a brief outline of the new system, reported by the commission in 1861, from the " Educational Times." The scheme proposed by the special commission, embraces: 1. Common or national schools for the poor male and female. 2. Progymnasiums and female schools of the second degree. 3. Gymnasiums and female schools of the first or highest class. 4. Private educational establishments and private teaching. 5. Uni- versities. For the general regulations of these institutions, the empire is divided into " Educational Circles," each of which embraces the educational establishments of several provinces, and is placed under the authority of a curator, subordinate to the Minister of Public Instruction. Under the immediate authority of the curator of the educational circle are placed in each province a director of national schools, a director of gymnasiums, an inspector of progymnasiums, and directors of the female schools of the first and second categories. Under the authority of the director of the national schools in each province are placed all the national schools in his district, male as well as female the Normal or training schools, all the pri- vate schools, and all the private tutors, governesses, masters and mistresses in any way employed in education. Lastly, in order to maintain the connection and unity of 'these various educational establishments, and for the development and dissemination of sound principles and methods of instruction, deliberative boards are established in each province, under the designation of the " School Council of the Province," in which all these func- tionaries meet, and which are in direct communication with the Minister of Public Instruction. NATIONAL SCHOOLS. The national schools have a course of education determined by the Ministry of Public Instruction, such as is best calculated to secure the object aimed at in their establishment, which is described to be " the moral and intellectual education of the nation, to such a degree that every one shall be able to understand his rights, and to fulfill his duties reasonably, as every man ought to do." The course of instruction begins with object lessons, which are to be followed by: 1. Religious knowledge. 2. The vernacular language; reading and writing. 3. Arithmetic. 4. Singing. The principles which have guided the commissioners in their selection of these subjects, are thus explained : " The object lessons are intended to serve as a transition from the natural method of education, which commences from the very birth of the child, to the artificial instruction which begins at school. The chief aim of these object lessons is to teach the child, under the guidance of the master, to examine from every point of view, PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 191 and with exactness and attention, those objects upon which he previous^ looked alone, and saw superficially ; to point out the relations between these objects and others, and define their immediate use, and thus to develop in the pupil the power of distinguishing in such objects all their various characteristics, and, consequently, to accustom him to form well grounded conceptions on every subject. The instruction in religion is intended to develop in the children the sentiment of piety, to root firmly in their hearts love of God and love of their neighbor, and to elevate their minds to everything that is good and noble. With this intention, explanations will be given in the national schools of the principal prayers and the Shorter Catechism, and a short Bible history is explained. To this course will be added the reading of the Gospels and the Epistles in the Russian language, and the explanation of the liturgy, and the signification of the most important festivals. During the reading of the gospel, the attention of the pupils will be principally directed to the most important features of the earthly career of the Savior. The immediate aim which must absolutely be attained in the teaching of the vernacular language in the national schools, consists : (aj In the current reading of written and printed matter, with appropriate expression, the correct accentuation of the words, and a pure pronunciation free from local and provincial peculiarities ; and (b) in the acquisition by the pupils of the habit of correct oral and written expression of their thoughts, without gross orthographical errors. Pupils belong- ing to the orthodox persuasion are bound also to undergo instruction in the reading of books printed in the Slavonic character. The phonetic mode of teaching reading, as possessing an indisputable superiority in an educational point of view, is consid- ered preferable to the syllabic method. In order to habituate the children to understand what they read, they are exercised, under the guidance of the master, in the explanation of a particular book containing, among other things, the most indispensable information respecting natural objects and phenomena, and the prin- cipal facts of the history and geography of their country. With this reading must be constantly combined, as far as circumstances will allow, a detailed but elemen- tary commentary, familiarizing the pupils with the local situation of their native region, with its natural productions and phenomena, and in general with the mode of life existing there, and tending to clear their minds of prejudice and superstition. In writing, the pupils are practiced till they attain a clear, legible, regular and rapid hand, in doing which, independently of the due gradation and regularity in the lessons, particular attention must be paid to the attitude of the writer and the proper mode of holding the pen or slate pencil. Together with the writing lessons are carried on exercises in orthography, and instruction in the most indispensable portions of grammar. Arithmetic commences with numeration, the first exercises in which should be made by means of tangible objects perceptible to the bodily senses, and also by means of the abacus ; and not until these have become familiar to him will the pupil make acquaintance with the signs of numbers, i. e., with ciphers and calcula- tions by figures. The instruction in arithmetic, properly so called, will be confined to the four rules, as applied to simple numbers, denominations and fractions. The method of instruction to be employed is strictly practical, and the pupils must be accustomed, from particular examples, to deduce such general applications as may afterwards, when adapted to any similar case, serve them as a universal rule. Instruction in church chanting, while contributing to the formation of a musical ear in children, will become, on the one hand, a means of exciting feelings of reli- gion and piety, and, on the other, will give the possibility of forming, from among 192 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF the pupils, good singers for the services of the church. In order to develop the children's taste, and to accustom them to an intellectual and elegant mode of pass- ing their leisure time, they may be exercised in the singing of secular music, such songs being selected as by their subjects and sentiments correspond with the edu- cational aims of the school. In the national schools for girls, the same subjects are to be gone through, and to the same extent, as in the schools for boys ; and in addition to the former, sew- ing will also be taught, and such kinds of needlework as are most indispensable in domestic life. In schools for both sexes, girls may receive instruction till they attain the age of thirteen years ; after which they must be removed to a separate school. The number of schools in each province of the empire is fixed by the mutual consent of the provincial director of schools and the community of the dis- trict ; but in so doing, it must be kept in view that for every 1,000 males there should not be less than one national school. Private individuals or associations may establish national schools, which must, however, be subject to the control of the Minister of Public Instruction ; or they may add, at their own expense, complementary courses of instruction in schools already existing, in such branches, of education as may be considered to correspond with the local wants and requirements of the population. Schools for the poor are to be maintained by a tax on the population of the district, and each school must be provided with a teacher of religion from the local clergy, and a teacher for secular subjects, who must have completed a course of training in a Normal school or teachers' institute. The salary of such teachers must be guaranteed by the community, and must not be under 250 rubles per annum in towns, 200 rubles in villages for secular teachers, and 80 rubles in towns, and 50 rubles in villages for religious teachers. TEACHERS' INSTITUTES. Normal schools, or teachers' institutes, are established at the expense of the state for the training and instruction of teachers for the national schools. The course of education extends over three sessions of six months each. The subjects of instruction are : Religion, pedagogy, the vernacular language, history, geography combined with statics, physics and natural history, arithmetic and geometry, writing and geometrical drawing, singing, gymnastics, and agriculture and horti- culture. PROGYMNASIUMS. These institutions, to which there are no precise equivalents in this country repre- senting the second degree in the system of general education, are designed to afford a more complete and varied course of instruction than the national schools, and at the same time to serve as institutions forming a transition between them and the gymnasiums. In each progymnasium there must be seven teachers, exclusive of the masters for singing and gymnastics. The subjects of instruction comprise religion, the Russian language, mathematics, the natural sciences, geography, his- tory, the German language, the French language, writing, geometrical and other drawing, and singing. The subjects of study are obligatory on all the pupils, excepting the foreign languages, which are learned by such only as desire to do so. GYMNASIUMS. The gymnasiums, the third and highest grade of schools, and serving, like our grammar and foundation schools, mainly as preparatory institutions to the univer- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 193 sities, are divided into two classes, philological and real. In addition to the sub- jects common to both classes and to the progymnasiums, there is given in the latter a more complete and detailed course of natural science and mathematics ; and in the former, the Greek language and a more detailed course in Latin. Supplemen- tary courses may be opened in the gymnasiums and progymnasiums, according to local requirements, in any of the following subjects : Law, technology, agricultural economy, the art of construction, the method of distinguishing the quality of goods, book-keeping, hygiene, foreign languages other than those taught in the regular course, and, in general, all applications of science to manufactures, trade and com- merce. Both the gymnasiums and progymnasiums are supported by the state, but the education is not gratuitous each pupil paying a fixed fee, according to a regu- lated scale of payment approved by the Minister of Public Instruction. FEMALE SCHOOLS. Female schools are divided into three categories: (1.) National schools. (2.) Schools of the second category, corresponding to the progymnasium for boys; and (3.) schools of the first category, corresponding to the gymnasium. Differing from each other only in the extent of the course of instruction given in them, all these schools have, nevertheless, one and the same object that of " communicating to their pupils such a religious, moral and intellectual education, as may be required from any woman, and especially from one destined to become a wife and a mother.'* Female national schools are founded and directed on precisely similar principles with national schools, destined for the education of children of the male sex. Schools of the second and first category are placed under the supreme authority of the curators of the educational circles, and are established in such towns and places only where there may be a reasonable probability of guaranteeing their existence, by means of the sums paid for tuition only. PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND PRIVATE TEACHING. The right of opening a private day or boarding school is open to all subjects of the Russian empire enjoying the confidence of the community, and holding a cer- tificate entitling them at least to the designation of domestic tutors or governesses. All such schools are, however, to be subject to the supervision of the directors of schools for each province. Persons opening private boarding or day schools without the permission of the school authorities, or teaching in them without the proper certificates giving them the right to do so, are liable, for the first offense, to a pecuniary fine in the former case of 150 rubles, and in the latter of 75 rubles the amount to go to a fund in aid of domestic tutors and governesses. The directors of schools in the respective provinces are bound, so far as circumstances will permit, to visit all private schools within their district, and report upon their management. The right of giving instruction in private houses is open to all persons, without distinction, who possess the confidence of parents. The designation of domestic tutor, and the privileges attaching thereto, are exclusively reserved to those persons who possess a testimonial certifying that they have completed the course of a recognized university Russian or foreign. The designation of domestic teacher is given to such persons only as have com- pleted the full course of instruction in a gymnasium, or who have undergone in a gymnasium the examination corresponding to that course. [Asscm. 237. J 25 194 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF UNIVERSITIES. The universities embrace the usual course of studies in institutions of a similar character in this country, with some additional chairs for special subjects among which may be mentioned pedagogy, or the theory and practice of education, and archaeology, and the history of the arts. The teachers are divided on the plan of the German universities, into professors ordinary and extraordinary ; docents senior and junior ; lectures ; private docents ; and teachers of the arts. The degrees conferred are those of candidate, master and doctor. RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OP TEACHERS. All persons serving in national schools, teachers' institutes and gymnasiums, and all persons holding a diploma entitling them to the designation of domestic tutor or teacher of either sex are considered in the service of the state. They have a right to a pension after serving a certain period, and may receive medals, pecuniary rewards, and orders for distinguished services, in conformity with the regulations laid down for the government of the civil service generally. Directors of gymnasiums and inspectors of boarding houses in gymnasiums, of separate progymnasiums and teachers' institutes, as well as all the teachers of these scholastic institutions, including among them, also, the religious instructor, and the teacher of ordinary and geometrical drawing and writing, and all the ushers and inspectors of day schools, likewise directors and inspectors of national schools, are rewarded, on their retirement from their functions, after twenty years of irre- proachable service, with pensions amounting to one-half; and after twenty-five years, amounting to the whole salary received by them. The teachers and religious instructors of national schools, after completing twenty-five years' service, receive, in the form of pension, two-thirds of the annual amount of their salaries ; and this pension is paid them independent of their salary, if they continue in the service. The families of deceased teachers, entitled to a pension by right of service, receive the full pension, one-half going to the widow as long as she remains unmarried, and the other half to the children. Domestic tutors, governesses, and private teachers of both sexes are entitled to pensions after twenty -five years of service, the amount of which is fixed by the Minister of Public Instruction. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 195 TURKEY. Public schools are established in the most considerable Turkish towns; and medresses, or colleges, with public libraries, are attached to the greater number of the principal mosques. But owing to the total want of efficient masters and of good elementary books, the instruction afforded by these establishments is of com- paratively little value. In schools the pupils are taught to read and write the first elements of the Turkish language, the class-book being the Koran and some com- mentaries upon it. In the medresses, which are the colleges, or schools, of the ulemas, the pupils are instructed in Arabic and Persian, and learn to decipher and write the different sorts of Turkish characters. Instruction is also given in a species of philosophy, logic, rhetoric, and morals founded on the Koran, and these, with theology, Turkish law, and a few notions on history and geography, complete the course of study. " If," says Mr. Thornton, " we call the Turks an illiterate people, it is not because learning is universally neglected by individuals ; for, on the contrary, the ulemas, or theological lawyers, undergo a long and laborious course of study ; the Turkish gentlemen are all taught certain necessary, and even ornamental parts of learning; and few children, at least in the capital, are left without some tincture of education. It must be acknowledged, however, that the objects of Turkish study, the rhetoric and logic, the philosophy and metaphysics of the dark ages, do in reality only remove men further from real knowledge." This was written more than half a century ago, and very little progress has since been made. The useful sciences are almost entirely unknown. The great defi- ciency is said to be the want of good elementary books, but the greater and the almost insurmountable obstacle, doubtless, is the bad government, which makes life and property unsafe ; which retards and represses every kind of improvement ; which exposes every one who may acquire wealth to the rapacity of the governors, and to confiscation and death. It must also be borne in mind that the Turkish schools are attended by boys only. Education is not considered necessary for a girl, so that by far the greater number of women, knowing nothing themselves, can communicate nothing to others. The studies of the Turks in the modern medresses, or public colleges, are con- ducted with much order and method. They are divided into ten classes, under the common denomination of Urn, which signifies knowledge or science, viz : 1. llm- sarf, or grammar ; 2, ilm-nahhto, or syntax ; 3, ilm-manntik, or logic ; 4, ilm-adab, or ethics; 5, ilm-meany, or the science of allegories, which is substituted for rhetoric ; 6, ilm-kUani, or ilm-illahy, that is, theology ; 7, i'm-hikmat, or philo- sophy ; 8, ilm-fikih, or jurisprudence; 9, ilm-tefsir, or the Koran, and the com- mentators thereon ; and 10, ilm-hadiss, or the oral laws of the prophet. Most of the works in which these sciences are studied are written in the Arabic language, the knowledge of which is indispensably necessary, and which can be acquired only by a constant application of many years. The private studies of the children of the ulemas, or theological lawyers, are conducted on the same plan as in the col- leges; those of the nobility, and of such as apply themselves to politics, are con fined to oriental history and philosophy. 196 EEPOKT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP PERSIA AND EGYPT. Persia and Egypt are Mohammedan countries, and the government of each has been for more than a thousand years a religious despotism. The Shahs of Persia and the Caliphs who ruled Arabia and Egypt have sometimes been able and liberal princes, and have encouraged and patronized learning and learned men But edu- cation and literature were confined to the chief cities and the courts of the princes. There never has been, and is not now, any general and permanent provision by government for the education of the people. In Turkey there is a school connected with every mosque, just as in Catholic countries every cathedral has its school. But the teaching in these schools is voluntary, the attendance is irregular, and the instruction given is limited to the simplest elements of knowledge ; and but a small percentage of the people ever learn to read and write. The nobility and the rich merchants and public officers, however, can maintain private teachers in their families, and many of them are highly educated. They have in all ages produced scholars, and poets, and lawyers, statesmen and generals equal to their contemporaries in Christian countries. The Arabic language is espe- cially rich in history, poetry and jurisprudence. The number of authors in these departments is very large, but their writings are mostly in manuscript. In all Mohammedan countries there are certain obstacles to a widespread educa- tion that are wholly insurmountable. There is a religious prejudice against print- ing the Koran, and priests and people are so fanatical and superstitious, that the prejudice has been hitherto ineradicable. The form of the Arabic letter, too, is such as to look very beautiful in manuscript, while in type it loses all its grace and symmetry. For many years there was a law in Turkey forbidding the use of any printing press. It is only within a few years that books and newspapers have been allowed to be printed and issued in Mohammedan countries. But the greatest and most formidable obstacle to popular instruction is the social degradation of the women. It is not thought necessary to teach them anything. They are the slaves and drudges of the poor, and the playthings of the rich. When- ever religion and law and custom condemn one-half of the human race to slavery, drudgery and ignorance, progress and improvement cannot be expected. And when that half is the woman, who, by nature's irreversible law, is the mother, nurse and instructor of infancy, what can be looked for but deterioration and decay ? The condition of all Mohammedan countries is proof positive that where women are enslaved and ignorant, there can be no popular instruction, no perma- nent advancement in civilization. Mr. E. W. Lane, who lived many years in Egypt, and who. has made the only complete translation of the " Arabian Nights," gives the following account of pri- mary instruction in that country : " The parents seldom devote much time or attention to the intellectual educa- tion of their children ; generally contenting themselves with instilling into their minds a few principles of religion, and then submitting them, if they can afford to do so, to the instruction of a schoolmaster. As early as possible the child is PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 197 taught to say, * I testify that there is no deity but God ; and I testify that Mohammed is God's apostle.' He receives, also, lessons of religious pride, and learns to hate the Christians, and al\ other sects but his own, as thoroughly as does the Muslim in advanced age. Most of the children of the advanced and middle classes, and some of those of the lower orders, are taught by the schoolmaster to read, and to recite and chant the whole or certain portions of the Kuran by memory. They afterwards learn the most common rules of arithmetic. " Schools are very numerous, not only in the metropolis, but in every large town ; and there is one at least in every considerable village. Almost every mosque, ' sebeel ' (or public fountain) and ' hod ' (or drinking-place for cattle) in the metro- polis has a ' kuttab' (or school) attached to it, in which children are instructed for a very trifling expense ; the ' sheykh,' or ' fikee ' (the master of the school), receiv- ing from the parent of each pupil about half a piaster (about five shillings of our money), or something more or less, every Thursday. The master of every school attached to a mosque, or other public building in Cairo, also generally receives yearly a tarboosh, a piece of white muslin for a turban, a piece of linen, and a pair of shoes; and each boy receives at the same time a linen skull cap, four or five cubits (a cubit is 22 2-3 inches) of cotton cloth, and perhaps half a piece (ten or twelve cubits) of linen, and a pair of shoes, and in some cases half a piaster, or a piaster. These presents are supplied by funds bequeathed to the school, and are given in the month of Ramadan. The boys attend only during the hours of instruction, and then return to their homes. The lessons are generally written upon tablets of wood painted white ; and when one lesson is learned the tablet is washed and another is written. They also practice writing upon the same tablet. The schoolmaster and his pupils sit upon the ground, and each boy has his tablet in his hands, or a copy of the Kuran, or of one of its thirty sections, on a little kind of desk of palm sticks. All who are learning to read, recite or chant their lessons aloud, at the same time rocking their heads and bodies incessantly forwards and backwards ; which practice is observed by almost all persons in reciting the Kuran, being thought to assist the memory. The noise may be imagined. " The boys first learn the letters of the alphabet ; next the vowel points and other orthographical marks ; and then the numerical value of each letter of the alphabet. Previously to this third stage of the pupil's progress, it is customary for the master to ornament the tablet with black and red ink and green paint, and to write upon it the letters of the alphabet in the order of their respective numer- ical values, and convey it to the father, who returns it with a piaster or two placed upon it. The like is also done at several subsequent stages of the boy's progress, as when he begins to learn the Kuran, and six or seven times as he pro- ceeds in learning the sacred book ; each time the next lesson being written on the tablet. When he has become acquainted with the numerical value of the letters, the master writes for him some simple words, as the names of men ; then the ninety-nine names or epithets of God ; next the Fathah, or opening chapter of the Kuran, is written upon his tablet, and he reads it repeatedly, until he has perfectly committed it to memory. He then proceeds to learn the other chapters of the Kuran ; after the first chapter he learns the last ; then the last but one ; next the last but two ; and so on in inverted order, ending with the second, as the chapters in general successively decrease in length from the second to the last inclusively. It is seldom that the master of a school teaches writing ; and few boys learn to write unless destined for some employment which absolutely requires that they should do so ; in which latter case they are generally taught the art of writing, 198 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF and likewise arithmetic, by a 'kabanee,' who is a person employed to weigh goods in a market or bazar with a steelyard. Those who are to devote themselves to religion, or to any of the learned professions, mostly pursue a regular course of study in the great Mosque El-Azhar. " The schoolmasters of Egypt are mostly persons of very little learning; few of them are acquainted with any writings except the Kuran, and certain prayers, which, as well as the contents of the sacred volume, they are hired to recite on particular occasions. " Some parents employ a sheykh, or fikee, to teach their boys at home. The father usually teaches his son the 'wudoo'and other ablutions, and to say his prayers, and instructs him in other religious and moral duties to the best of his ability. The prophet directed his followers to order their children to say their prayers when seven years of age, and to beat them if they did not do so when ten years old; and at the latter age to make them sleep in separate beds. In Egypt, however, very few persons pray before they have attained to manhood. " The female children are very seldom taught to read and write ; and not many of them, even among the higher orders, learn to say their prayers. Some of the rich engage a c sheykhah' (or learned woman) to visit the hareem daily ; to teach their daughters and female slaves to say their prayers, and to recite a few chapters in the Kuran ; and sometimes to instruct them in reading and writing ; but these are very rare accomplishments for females even of the highest class in Egypt. The young daughters of persons of the middle classes are sometimes instructed with the boys in a public school ; but they are usually veiled, and hold no intercourse with the boys. " There are many schools in which girls are taught plain needle-work, embroid- ery, &c. In families in easy circumstances, a ' m'allimeh,' or female teacher of such kinds of work is often engaged to attend the girls at their own home." PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 199 ARABIA. The sacred books attributed to Moses contain the first historic notices of Arabia and the Arabs. The book of Job is an Arabic poem, and whether we regard it as the authentic biography of a patriarch anterior or subsequent to the time of Abra- ham, or an allegory conveying moral and religious truth, its antiquity is acknow- ledged to be higher than any other human writing, and attests the existence of a language highly cultivated and rich in poetical expression, long before Homer sang the siege of Troy, or Herodotus read history to the assemblies of Greece. The Arabian people, the Arabian character, the Arabian language, have continued substantially the same from the days of Job to the present time. The country is in the form of a triangle, its base resting on the Indian Ocean, its eastern side separated from Persia and India by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Ormus, and its western side lying on the Red Sea. The apex of the triangle is at Thapsacus, where Xenophon forded the Euphrates, six hundred miles from its mouth, and began the retreat of the ten thousand. Its area is nearly one million square miles. No conquering nation has ever overrun, subdued and occupied Arabia. The blood, the language and manners of the people have never been corrupted by inter- mixture with intruding races. They still live in tents, their wealth is in cattle and flocks and camels, whom they subsist by wandering from one oasis to another ; their social and political organization is still in families and tribes ; and frankin- cense, spices, dates and pearls, which were sold to Solomon, are the productions that now draw foreign ships to their seaports. On three occasions the Arabs have issued from their deserts as conquerors. The first time was between the age of Joseph and Moses, when the shepherd kings subdued Egypt. They were again united under Ariaeas, or Haleph, and shared with Ninus the conquest of the Eastern world. Their triumphs were transient in duration, and left no impression on the countries subdued. The conquerors were absorbed by the people among whom they lived, without leaving a trace of their presence. The next appearance of the Arabs on the world's stage was as disciples of Mohammed, carrying the Koran and the sword, and creating, by their military successes and religious fanaticism, a new era for the world. In less than one hun- dred years from the flight of Mohammed from Mecca, his followers had conquered Persia, had penetrated Asia as far as Samarcand, and India as far as Calcutta, had wrestecl Asia Minor from the Greek emperor, had occupied Egypt, and reduced all Northern Africa as far as Morocco, had crossed into Spain and deprived its Gothic kings of the southern half of the peninsula. In process of time the Arab prophet and his proselytes spread their dominion and their religion over territory a third larger than the Roman empire under Trajan, were masters of all the ancient seats of learning and civilization in Africa, Asia and Europe, except Italy, struggled with Christianity at Poictiers and at the gates of Vienna, and disputed with Buddhism on the plains of Hindustan. A glance at the map of the world will show any one 200 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF that a very small part of the Mohammedan conquests have given place to any other form of religion. The philosopher can at least console himself with the reflection that the Koran and the Moslem worship of one God are an improvement upon paganism, idolatry and fetichism. It is said that Mohammed, at least in his youth, could not read nor write. He was called illiterate. And yet he was the only founder of a new religion who, prior to his contemptible imitator, Joe Smith, ever reduced his doctrines and pre- cepts to a formula of words. Jesus Christ and Sackya Mounhi left that work to their disciples. Zoroaster and Confucius were mere philosophers, like Aristotle and Bacon. But Mohammed gave the Koran to his followers, and told them that it contained all truth, everything essential to a holy life on earth, and salvation after death. The Koran was dictated by Mohammed, and written down by amanuenses, at intervals during twenty-three years, as he alleged, by the inspiration of God, to meet the conjunctures and exigencies of his mission. The Arabs thought that they saw the hand of the Almighty in this work of Mohammed. No uninspired mortal, they affirmed, is capable of wielding the vast fabric of their language. And the prophet boldly exhibited the Koran as a clear and perpetually existing proof of the divinity of his mission. This evidence, always open to examination, was the strongest, he maintained, that could be brought ; it was a standing miracle totally superseding the necessity of any other. The Koran is the oldest book extant written in the Arabic language. It has been doubted by some whether the art of writing was known to the Arabs before his time. But there is no room for such a doubt. It would not have been deemed a reproach to Mohammed that he was illiterate, if the rest of his countrymen were also generally illiterate. The reproach thus cast upon Mohammed is rather to be taken as a proof that the art of reading and writing was so common that to be ignorant of it was an exception to the general rule. It is quite probable that the Arabic was one of the languages first reduced to writing. The twenty-third verse of the nineteenth chapter of Job is a proof that writing was known to its author; and if to him, so also to other men of his race and age. The Hebrew was a written language long before the age of David and Solomon, and the Jews had commercial intercourse with the Arabs by the fleets that were sent from the Jewish ports on the Red Sea to trade on its shores, and with the unknown lands of Ophir and Tarshish. Wherever these places may have been situated, it is certain that the ships which sailed down the Sea of Edom, which we now call the Red Sea, must have coasted along its shores and past the port of Aden, and then along the coast of Yemen and Oman, through the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman (all three of which were anciently known as the Red Sea), for ships were not then built whose size and strength would enable them to go far from the sight of land. On the Euphrates and Persian Gulf, too, the Arabs were in contact and daily intercourse with the Persians and Chaldeans, whose language, like the Hebrew, was but a dialect of their own. It is well known that the Persians and the Babylonians had a written language, and books and registers in which all the actions of their kings and the histories of their reigns were carefully recorded, for Ctesias the historian says that his account of Assyrian and Persian affairs, in twenty-three books, was extracted by him out of those very books and registers. It was the custom of the Arabs to hold great fairs, at the cities held sacred by them, which would last two months, and at which, besides the sports and ceremo- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. nies, there were competitions in poetry and excellence between rival candidates for popular favor, as at the Olympic games in Greece. None of the books and registers of the Assyrian and Persian kings have escaped destruction, and no writing of their age has been preserved. It is not strange that the Arabic writings have been lost or destroyed, and the fact of their non-existence does not outweigh the probabilities which we have stated as going to prove that the Arabic was a written language from the time of Job. An anecdote told of one of the Khalifs, of the house of Ummaiya, will show that the language was cultivated long before the Mohammedan era. Hammad was the most conversant of men in the history, the poetry, the gene- alogy and the language of the Arabs ; for which reason the princes of the Ummaiya family invited him to their society, honored him with their esteem, and loaded him with their favors. One day the Khalif Alwalid, son of Yazid, in his assembly of learned men, such as Arabian princes gloried to collect and retain around them, said to Hammad, " How do you substantiate your right to the name of Arrawiyah (the narrator) which is usually given you ?" He replied : " Because I can relate, commander of the faithful, the works of every poet with which you are acquainted or have heard of. I can, moreover, relate the works of those poets with which you are not acquainted and have not heard of; and no one can repeat to me a poem, whether ancient or modern, but I can tell to which of the two classes it belongs." The Khalif then asked : "What number of poems do you retain in mind?" He said : " A great many ; but I will undertake to repeat to you, for every letter of the alphabet, one hundred poems of the larger description, besides small pieces, all made before the introduction of Mohammedanism, independent of such poetry as has been formed since that era." The Khalif said : " I will prove you in this matter." Hammad then related till the Khalif, being tired, appointed some others to hear him ; and, when Alwalid was informed that he had actually repeated two thousand nine hundred odes of the poetry anterior to Mohammedanism, he ordered one hundred thousand dirhems to be given to him. It would be impossible -for any man to collect from oral recital or tradition such a number of poems. They must have existed in manuscript, and been collected by this lover of the muses. Mohammed was driven from Mecca in 622. He wrote the Koran mostly after the Hegira. In point of style no Arabic writer has since excelled him. But in the course of one hundred years from that date, the literature of the Arabs had reached its perfection. It had numerous writers, poets, historians, philosophers, grammarians, lexicographers, jurisconsults, who speedily translated from all other languages of the people with whom they came in contact every work upon philo- sophy and science. Indeed, they overran the departments of science with the same facility that they had conquered the provinces of the East. It is true that the first Khalifs, intent only upon the spread of the true faith by the sword, paid no attention to learning, and it seems now to be admitted, on the authority of Arabian historians, that the famous Alexandrian library was burned by order of Omar. But his successor, Ali, and the Khalifs of the Ummaiya family had a taste for learning, and encouraged literature. But the golden age of Arabian literature commenced in the East in the Khalifat of Abn Jaafar, surnamed Al Mansur. He founded Bagdad, which became a metro- polis unequaled for magnificence and population. His grandson (A. D. 786-809), the Khalif Harim Arrashid, who was dreaded for his skill, courage and cruelty in war, is better known and more deservedly celebrated in Europe for the promotion [Assem. No. 237.] 26 202 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF of the pacific arts, for his love of science, and for his encouragement of learning. The historian, El Macin, assures us that he never traveled without a retinue of one hundred learned men. To his munificence the Arabians were indebted for the rapid progress which they made in literature and the sciences ; for Harun issued a law that no mosque should ever be erected without attaching a school to it. It is probable that this law and the Moslem practice were imitated by the Christians, who subsequently attached schools to their cathedrals and other churches. In this wise measure he was followed by his successors, and in a short time the sci- ences that were cultivated in the capital were diffused over the whole dominions of the Khalifat. In the early part of his reign Harun was not disposed to encourage the learned Christians, but their superior skill in medicine having introduced them to his notice and favor, he rose superior to the bigotry which had distinguished the early commanders of the faithful ; and conferred the general superintendence of the schools and studies prosecuted in his empire on John Ibn Mesue, a Nestorian Christian, of Damascus, who was deeply skilled in Greek literature. But his honors and the glories of his race were eclipsed by his second son, the Khalif Al Mamun, who, during a prosperous reign of twenty years (A. D. 813- 833), was the Augustus of his age and country. Previously to his ascending the throne he selected for his companions the most eminent scholars among the Greeks, Persians and Chaldeans ; and after his accession to the sovereign power his court became the resort of poets, philosophers and mathematicians. He collected around him the literati of every country; and Bagdad became the center of the sciences. The first dignities in the state were held by men distinguished for their literary acquirements ; who were also dispatched into the various provinces of the Empire into Syria, Armenia and Egypt and were commissioned to collect ancient manu- scripts and books in various languages ; and those which were deemed proper to augment the public instruction were translated into Arabic, copied and dispersed among all classes of people. Rightly judging that the best treasures of Constanti- nople were deposited in its libraries, it is recorded to his honor that in concluding a treaty of peace with the Greek Emperor, Michael III, he stipulated, as one of the conditions, that a numerous collection of rare and valuable books should be given up to him. Under the fostering care of this Khalif, medicine, jurisprudence and the mathe- matics took a new flight ; astronomy and the abstruser mathematics were the favorite studies of Al Mamun. But with all the commendations which are due to the memory of this Khalif, it must be mentioned with regret that, through an ill- judged partiality for his native tongue, he gave orders that after the Arabic ver- sions were finished the original Greek manuscripts should be burned. The dis- grace, however, consequent on this measure, is in some degree canceled by the diligence with which Al Mamun cultivated literature and encouraged its progress and establishment in all the provinces of his extensive empire. Alexandria could boast her twenty schools ; in later times Cairo possessed numerous colleges ; and the majesty of these edifices indicated the importance that was attached to the cul- tivation of letters. Fez and Morocco possessed similar establishments for public instruction, where the study of literature was prosecuted with equal ardor. It was in Spain, however, that the Arabian genius shone with the brightest splendor and gained its highest achievements. The Moslem invaders first landed about A. D. 710, and in less than ten years had subdued the whole peninsula. They spared the Christians from political motives, treating them as subjects and not slaves, to cultivate the soil and to carry on commerce. They also intro- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 203 troduced into the country great numbers of Syrians, and more than fifty thousand Jews. As soon as time and policy had cemented their conquests and confirmed their power, the Arab monarchs applied themselves to the cultivation and diffusion of letters and the sciences ; and while the Khalifs of Bagdad instructed the east the Khalifs of Cordova enlightened the west. The .golden age of Arabian litera- ture in Spain commenced in the reigns of the Abdurrahmans, the first of whom founded the kingdom of Cordova ; and the study of the sciences, with the good taste consequent on such pursuits, continued to flourish to a later period in Spain than in the east. The Arab monarchs not only founded splendid libraries for their own use, but also founded and endowed them in all the principal cities of their respective king- doms. Among the royal libraries, that of Alhakam, one of the most liberal en- couragers of literature in Spain, is peculiarly distinguished ; it comprised four hun- - dred thousand volumes, kept not for the purpose of ostentation ; and every volume of which had been carefully examined by the Khalif, who, with his own hand, wrote in each the genealogies, births and deaths of their respective authors. Almutawakil-al-Allah, who reigned at Granada in the twelfth century, possessed a magnificent library, and very many of the manuscripts which originally formed a part of it are now preserved in the library of the Escurial. In the different cities of Spain seventy libraries were open to the public ; but Cordova, Granada, Seville and Toledo were pre-eminent among the cities of the peninsula for the magnificence of their libraries, colleges, academies and schools. M. Middeldorpf has enumerated not fewer than seventeen distinguished colleges, academies and schools that flourished under the dominion of the Arabs in Spain, and of which some accounts are still to be obtained ; and has given lists of the emi- nent professors who taught in them, as well as the theologians, poets, rhetoricians and other illustrious writers who lived there. From the scattered notices which still remain concerning their internal government and course of study the follow- ing facts have been derived. Every institution for the education of youth, strictly, was connected with reli- gion; hence public establishments for this purpose were always found in conjunc- tion with the mosques. Of these foundations there were two classes one was composed of inferior schools, where children of the lower order, principally, were instructed in the elements of reading, writing and religion ; many of these students were supported at the public expense. The usual course of instruction was thus : First, the youth were taught the Arabic alphabet, then the differences between each letter according to the pointing, next the composition or formation of the letters, vowels, &c. At length they were instructed in pronunciation, and finally in the Koran, for the correct pronunciation of which particular rules were pre- scribed. It seems, indeed, that in ancient times, as well as at present, the studies of the inhabitants of the east were almost exclusively confined to grammar and the Koran ; and this conjecture is confirmed both by the private histories of learned men, as well as by the general history of their literature. The second description of colleges, which is known by the appellation of medress, although connected with the mosques like the preceding class of schools, yet some- times were independent establishments. These academies, indeed, at their first institution were designed for the exclusive study of jurisprudence and theology, and those pupils only were admitted to the benefit of them who devoted them- selves to letters for life. Students of this description were considered as enrolled among the priests ; they were therefore employed as public scribes, in drawing up 204 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF wills for the dying, and to them was committed the task of instructing youth. Afterwards, however, as the Arabians proceeded to the cultivation of literature, private studies, in the first instance, and then the course pursued in these academies, took a wider range, so that much more was taught than could be comprehended or remembered. And many of these colleges were so constructed as frequently to con- tain thirty apartments, each of which was occupied by three or four students. The government of every academy was confided to a rector, who was chosen from the most eminent of the literati. When the narrow principles of Islamism are considered, the liberality of the Arabians towards the professors of literature justly demands our admiration. The eastern Khalifs employed many Christians in the superintendence of their schools, and in Spain we find that even Jews were ap- pointed to superintend the academy or college at Cordova. Real learning was, in their estimation, of greater value than the religious opinions of the literati. That academical examinations took place among the students, there is every reason to believe. With respect to the medical students the fact is certain ; and it is probable that they followed the practice of the schools of Cairo, where it was the custom for those students to undergo a very strict investigation with respect to their literary acquirements. In that city it was the province of the Achimbasi, or chief physician, most rigidly to examine those who were to exercise the healing art, relative to their medical knowledge ; and after they had passed such an exam- ination they received testimonials authorizing them to practice in that country. A similar course of examination prevailed in Spain, and a certain physician of Cor- dova published a treatise containing seventy-seven questions to be propounded to medical candidates. The academies of the Spanish Arabs, indeed, have been considered as the abode of universal literature ; for whatever tended to promote its study was commanded to be taught in them. No nation, perhaps, ever existed that felt and expressed a deeper reverence than the Arabians did for the cause of learning. " No sooner," says the poet, " do I see a learned man, than I long to prostrate myself before him and kiss the dust of his feet." Both the written and traditional law came in aid of this laudable sen- timent. " Equally valuable are the ink of the doctor and the blood of the martyr." " To him Paradise is open, who leaves behind him his pens and his ink ;" or in other words, who by his example commends his learning to his descendants. " The world is supported by four things only; the learning of the wise, and the justice of the great, the prayers of the good, and the valor of the brave." Their practice held a conformity to these ideas ; and we have already seen with what zeal and perseverance the Khalifs encouraged and propagated learning, when the first ebullitions of their zeal for their faith of Islam subsided, and their empire was established. Even when the Khalifat was dismembered by rival claimants, no difference of sentiment or conduct prevailed in this respect ; and Bagdad, Cordova, Cairo and Kairuan were equally the seats of royalty and learning. The indepen- dent emirs, scattered over the oriental provinces, were animated with the same dis- position ; even those disorderly bands, whose trade was pillage and devastation, no sooner established themselves on the coasts of an enemy than they strove with all their power to co-extend the influence of learning by opening academies and diffusing knowledge. Nor let it be forgotten that the once celebrated medical school of Salerno owed its foundation to the love of science that animated the breast of rovers and freebooters. A people proverbially savage, the piratical hordes PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 205 Algiers and Morocco, were softened by the address of these mighty masters of civ- ilization into a reverence and love for learning. The Arabians boasted highly of the antiquity of their language, which is unques- tionable ; its copiousness, alike incontestible, was the object of their pride ; and, according to their elevated ideas, no uninspired mortal was ever complete master of Arabic. The dialect of the Koreish is usually styled the pure Arabic, or, as it is termed by the Koran, which is written in it, the perspicuous and clear Arabic. Its politeness and elegance are attributed to the tribe of the Koreish, having the cus- tody of the Caaba, and residing in Mecca, the center of Arabia, where foreigners seldom appear, but where the chief men and most learned of the Arabians come from all parts of the country, not only for the sake of religion, but to settle their differences, from whose discourse and verses they adopted such words and phrases as they judged to be more pure and elegant, and thus the beauties of the whole tongue became incorporated into this dialect. The independence of the Arabian tribes is a further cause of the improvement of this language ; for although the Romans, Persians and Ethiopians made impressions at different times upon par- ticular districts, yet they were all too slight and of too short continuance to make any material alteration in their government, manners or language. To this must be added the care of the ancient Arabs (with whom the improvement of their idiom seems to have been a national concern) to polish their language by the institution of solemn assemblies, for the purpose of displaying their poetical talents, and by holding it a duty to exercise their children in getting by heart the most approved compositions. From this uncommon attention to promote emulation and to refine their lan- guage, the dialect of the Koreish became the purest, the richest, and the most polite of all the Arabian idioms. It was, therefore, studied in preference to all the rest, and about the beginning of the seventh century became the general language of Arabia ; the other dialects being either incorporated with it, or gradually falling into disuse. By this singular idiomatic union, like the confluence of many streams into one large river, the Arabic has acquired an uncommon fullness ; while the luxuriance of its synonyms, and the equivocal or opposite senses of the same or simi- lar words, have furnished their writers with a wonderful power of indulging, in the fullest range, their favorite passion for antithesis and quaint allusion. Of the copiousness of this language some idea may be formed, when it is known that the Arabians have eighty synonyms for honey, two hundred for a serpent, and one thousand for a sword. The Koran is the first Arabic composition in prose which we have, and it is con- fessedly the standard of the Arabic language. Though written in prose, yet the sentences generally conclude in a long-continued rhyme, for the sake of which the sense is often interrupted, and unnecessary repetitions are too frequently made, which appear still more ridiculous in a translation, where the ornament, such as it is, for whose sake they were made, cannot be perceived. The style of the Koran is generally beautiful and fluent, especially when it imitates the prophetic manner and scriptural phrases. It is concise, but often obscure, adorned with bold figures according to the Eastern taste, and in many places, especially where the majesty and attributes of God are described, sublime and magnificent. Yet as the histo- rian of the Roman Empire has observed : " The harmony and copiousness of its style will not reach the European infidel ; he will peruse with impatience the end- less incoherent rhapsody of fable and precept and declamation, which seldom ex- cites a sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in the dust, and is sometimes 205 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP lost in the clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian mis- sionary ; but his loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country and in the same language.' The Arabians have cultivated every branch of literature and every department of science. In eloquence and oratory they have had men who have rivaled Demos- thenes and Cicero, and their preachers have equaled the most celebrated pulpit orators of modern times. Their didactic writers are numerous, especially those on rhetoric. Their poets and poetry belong to every age. No language is richer in amatory and didactic poetry. An abridgment of the lives of their poets contains notices of one hundred and thirty-one. In the library of the Escurial is a collection consist- ing of idyls, elegies, epigrams, odes, satires, and almost every species of poetry. But didactic poetry was the most fashionable. They wrote treatises in verse on grammar, theology, rhetoric, and even on the abstruse sciences. But they have not produced any epic or dramatic poems. All their poetry is in rhyme. Although the Arabians possess neither epic nor dramatic poetry, strictly so called, the absence of these is abundantly compensated by their invention of a kind of composition which partakes of the nature of epic poesy, and is with them a substitute for theatrical representations. To their creative fancy, to their brilliant and rich imagination, we owe those beautiful tales which charm our juvenile minds, and which we reperuse with equal delight in our riper years. With the " jtflif Sila Fa Lilin," or "Arabian Nights' Entertainments," who is not acquainted ? It is, however, a subject of regret that we possess only a comparatively small part of these truly interesting fictions ; which are further valuable, not only as exhibiting a faithful picture of oriental manners during the splendor of the Khalifat, but also for the useful and instructive moral which they frequently inculcate. This immense collection of tales is not only committed to writing, but also consti- tutes the sole riches of a very great number of story-tellers, of both sexes, who, wherever Islamism holds its sway, gain their livelihood by relating these tales to public auditories that willingly bury their present cares in the pleasing dreams of the imagination. In Asia, as in Africa, in the midst of their deserts, they assem- ble nightly among their tents, around the cheerful fire, listening to these sto- ries with such attention and pleasure as totally to forget the fatigues and hard- ships with which, an instant before, they had been almost entirely overcome. In the coffee-houses of the Levant a story-teller will, to this day, convene a silent and deeply attentive auditory. Sometimes he excites terror or pity ; more frequently he excites his hearers with brilliant fantastic visions ; sometimes he even provokes laughter ; and it is only on these occasions that the foreheads of the Moslems relax a little from their unbending gravity. The relation of tales constitutes the only public amusement of the Levant, and the story-tellers universally supply the place of our comedians. But they are not confined to places of public resort; female narrators beguile the tedious leisure of the seraglios ; physicians not unfrequently direct their patients to send for story-tellers to allay pain, to calm the agitated spirits, and to produce sleep after long watchfulness ; and so well are these per- sons accustomed to the task, that they can modulate their voice by lowering its tone and gently suspending it, until at length they cause the patient to fall fast asleep. Allied to these interesting tales are the fables of Lokman, an Arabian sage, who is supposed to have been contemporary with David and Solomon. His wisdom, together witli the good sense and striking morality of his fables, bear so great a PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 207 resemblance to those of >ZEsop, that it is to this day a question whether the latter did not derive his fables from an oriental source, if, indeed, ^Esop and Lokman be not the same identical personages, which is highly probable. However this point may hereafter be determined, Lokman has ever been regarded in the East as an extraordinary character ; and in the thirty-first chapter of the Koran, which bears his name, Mohammed has represented the Almighty as saying, " We heretofore bestowed wisdom on Lokman." Many are the marvelous tales recorded of this philosopher, whose figure is said to have been exceedingly deformed, and who is further reported to have been in the very humble condition of a slave. Every branch of history was cultivated with avidity by the Arabians ; each Khalif had his respective historiographer ; and there is extant an immense number of universal histories, annals and chronicles, besides histories of particular king- doms, provinces and towns. Memoirs and biographies and genealogies are nu- merous. They have even written genealogies and histories of celebrated horses and illustrious camels. The language is enriched with historical, biographical, geographical and biblio- graphical dictionaries. Numismatics and chronology were not neglected, and every art and every science had its historian. One of their authors prepared a dictionary in which, like Richardson's English dictionary, the meaning of every word was supported by numerous examples drawn from the rhetoricians and poets. Another dictionary is said to have con- sisted of sixty volumes. They had also lexicons of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Spanish languages, and Leo, the African, composed one in three languages. One of the first of the warriors who conquered and ruled Spain composed what might be styled a census, or statistical account of that country, the result of an actual survey, for the information of the Khalif Omar. In this work he described not only the different provinces and cities, together with their respective rivers, ports and harbors, but also examined and stated the climate of Spain, the various nature of its soils, its mountains, plants and minerals, and the manner in which the various productions they afforded might be reared and extracted, and applied to the greatest advantage. A friend also to the fine arts, he embellished Cordova, the seat of his government, and invited learned men to his court. This consum- mate general and politician, Assamh-bu Malik Alkhaulany, perished in Gaul, in a battle in which he was opposed by Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, A, D. 720 or 721. Although the Arabians cultivated -polite literature with the greatest attention, they were not the less ardent in the study of philosophy, the mathematics and the exact sciences. These, indeed, they derived chiefly from the Greeks, and by the aid of translations from the Greek writers they made no inconsiderable progress in the study of philosophy. Among the most eminent of its professors, the fol- lowing are particularly distinguished : Averrocs, of Cordova, who died A. D. 1198, the great commentator on Aristotle; Avicenna (Ebn Sina), who died A. D. 1037, and was equally celebrated as a profound philosopher and skillful physician ; Al Farabi, who died A. D. 950; he spoke seventy languages, wrote on all sciences, and collected them into an encyclopedia ; Al Gazali, who applied philosophy to the study of theology, and died in 1343 ; Ebn Tufail, the author of the celebrated moral fiction of Hai Ebn Yokdhan, or the self-taught philosopher, who being sup- posed to have been cast on a desert island while an infant, is made by various incidents (some possible, but all ingenious), to ascend gradually, as he grew up in solitude, to the sublime of all philosophy, natural, moral and divine ; and Al Kindi, who flourished in the Kalifat of Al Mamun, in the beginning of the ninth century. 208 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF He studied philosophy at Bassora, his native city, and acquired so much celebrity, both among his contemporaries, and in subsequent ages, that the loftiest titles were bestowed upon him. He was called the phoenix of his age, the philosopher of the Arabians, the great astrologer, the learned physician, the root and foundation of the Arabic sciences in his time, and Cardan ranks him among the first twelve sublime spirits of the world. Though some at least of these encomiastic appel- lations are extravagant, Al Kindi was endowed with rare talents, and the catalogue of his works, not less than two hundred in number, shows that he was versed in all the learning of the Greeks, Persians and Indians, in all the branches of philos- ophy and the mathematics. In philosophy he was a follower of Aristotle, andjn the schools interpreted and illustrated his writings. The Arabians also studied with zeal and success the natural sciences. They wrote histories of animals. They applied themselves to the useful and elegant science of botany. In medicine and pharmacy they made great progress. They have the credit of first preparing and publishing pharmacopoeas, or regular dispen- satories containing collections of authorized formulae. Many of the pharmaceuti- cal terms still employed are of Arabian origin, as naptha, camphor, syrup, julep, &c., &c. They were the first who made chemistry a regular study. They were dil- igent experimentalists, and skillful analyists. They discovered the mineral acids, and distinguished the mineral and vegetable alkalis ; the preparation of alcohol was made known, and distillation reduced to an art. If they derived from the east the knowledge of gunpowder, they improved its preparation, and first found out different ways of using it in war. They invented and used ordnance in their Spanish wars. The early nomenclature of chemistry demonstrates how much it owes to the Arabians ; the words alcohol, alembic, alchemy, alkali, aludel, and others, require no comment, and it should not be forgotten that the characters of drugs, essences, extracts, and medicines, frequently found in the apothecaries' shops, and which to vulgar eyes appear vested with occult powers of healing, are all derived from the Arabians. Europe owes to them the introduction and use of the ciphers or numeral figures, which had been employed by the wise men of India. We still call them Arabic figures. They have given the name of Algebra to a science which was known to the Greeks, but made theirs by their improvements. They also made great pro- gress in geometry, trigonometry and astronomy, and the belfry of the cathedral of Seville was originally an observatory attached to a mosque by the astronomer Geber, in A. D. 1196. That they had some knowledge of hydrostatics is proved by the costly aque- ducts which supplied Cordova and Seville with water, by the hundreds of mills with water wheels for motive power* by the use of leaden pipes to bring water into all the houses, gardens and streets of Cordova and Granada, and to supply hundreds of public baths and fountains. Agriculture was studied by the Spanish Arabs, with that perfect knowledge of climate, soil, and the rearing of plants and animals, which could alone enable them to embody in a scientific form the results of a long and extensive practice. No civilized nation of Europe, Asia and Africa, ancient or modern, ever possessed a code of rural laws more wise, more just or more perfect, than the Spanish Arabs ; nor has any country ever been raised to a higher degree of agricultural prosperity than Moorish Spain, from the wisdom of its laws and the intelligence and activity of its inhabitants. The art of irrigation, which had been practiced in the east, was PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 209 brought by the Arabs to Spain, and ditches, conduits and reservoirs which they built are still in use in Valencia and other places. They were skillful in mining and metallurgy, and in the manufacture of iron and steel and other metals. They also introduced into Spain the manufacture of silk and 'cotton. They had potteries for moulding earthen ware and porcelain. They were pre-eminently skilled in the tanning, currying and dyeing of leather, and hides prepared after their manner are still known as Morocco and Cordovan. Besides gunpowder and sugar, the Arabs have also the honor of introducing into Europe the manufacture of paper. It had been made in China at a very remote period from the refuse of silk, and its manufacture was established at Samarcand, in 649 A. D., from whence, after its capture by the Arabs in A. D. 704, the pro- cess of making it was conveyed to Mecca, when the material used was cotton. The art spread rapidly through all the Arabian states, and particularly in Spain, where the town of Xativa, the modern San Phillippo, in the kingdom of Valencia, was celebrated for its beautiful fabrics as early as the twelfth century. It appears that at this period the Spaniards had substituted flax, which they grew in consid- erable quantities, for cotton, which was more scarce, as well as dearer; nor were paper manufactories established in the Christian states of Spain until the close of the thirteenth century, when they were introduced through the care of Alphonsus X, King of Castile. From thence they passed successively into France, Germany and England. Italy was the last of the European States that received the manu- facture of linen paper ; the first manufactories established in that country were those of Padua and Treviso, about the middle of the fourteenth century. Among the arts the Arabs excelled in calligraphy or ornamental writing. Thev were indebted to the Chinese and Persians for their method of imparting a peculiar neatness and purity to their paper, but they soon excelled their masters, both in the manufacture of that article and in the execution of the writing. In order to render this more fair and delightful to the eye, they employed inks of admirable luster, and studied to adorn their manuscripts with beautiful and vivid colors, and in addition to these devices for embellishing their paper, and giving to the productions of their pen the most agreeable appearance, Casiri relates that they possessed one process which was peculiarly their own. This was a method of dressing and tinging skins, either of a red or of a black color, and of such a remarkable luster that he has oftener than once befteld himself in them as in a mirror. It is to be regretted that the learned librarian of the Escurial did not more particularly describe these chefs-d'oeuvres of the calligraphic art ; his brief notice, however, implies a very high degree of refinement, not inferior, perhaps, to the finest specimens of modern typography. The Arabs also excelled all the people of their time in architecture, as the remains of their aqueducts, palaces and buildings amply testify, even if the accounts of their size, cost and magnificence were not well attested in history. It is also highly probable that the style of architecture called Gothic is really Arabian. They were also great admirers of music, and attained extraordinaiy proficiency in the art. They invented the lute, and made use of the organ, the ilute, harp, tabor and mandolin, a small species of guitar. Their written music bears so strong a resemblance to the Italian gamut that it is very probable that the old method of teaching music by what is called sol-faing is borrowed from the Arabs or Moors of Spain. Their copious and harmonious language is also admirably suited to the composition of songs and their adaptation to music. It will be observed that the age in which the Moorish empire flourished and [Assciu. No. 237.] 27 210 REPORT OP THE SUPERINTENDENT OF shone brightest in genius, knowledge, literature and the arts, was the very period called the dark ages in Europe. The Arabs preserved for the world the knowledge of the Greeks, and added to its stores. European scholars derived from the Arabs all their knowledge of mathematics, and it is certain that the doctrine of attraction had been divined by an Arabian long before its discovery by Newton. The first school of medicine was established by the Arabs at Salerno. Roger Bacon drew all his learning from Arabic manuscripts. We are indebted to them for the revival of all the exact and natural sciences. The scholastic theology and logic had their origin in the study of Aristotle, whose writings were translated and diffused by Arab commentators. To them also we owe the use of rhyme in poetry. We are also indebted to them for the old mode of teaching music, for the invention of tales and fables, for some musical implements, for the philosophy and medicine of the Greeks, for chemistry and pharmacy, for the arithmetic of the Indians, for various improvements in pure and mixed mathematics, for paper making, for gunpowder, and for the magnetic needle and mariner's compass. Their communication of these branches of knowledge, and the inventions above named, have produced a mighty change in the aspect of modern Europe. But long before Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1498, conquered Granada, the last of the Moorish kingdoms in Spain, the Arabian khalifs of Bagdad and Egypt had fallen before the Mongol hordes of Asia ; the splendor and light of their learning had been obscured by the darkness of superstition and bigotry, and their civiliza- tion had been trodden under the hoofs of Timour's cavalry, and the heavy tread of the Turkish janissaries. The Arabian dynasties became extinct, the Arab race mingled with the people among whom they lived, and Arabia itself returned to its ancient and normal condition. Travelers of a recent date agree in saying that edu- cation is not widely diffused, nor very good. Niebuhr says that the Arab princes by no means encourage science, and throughout the east you meet few who merit the title of learned. Public provision is, however, made for the education of youth, and a teacher for children and young slaves is no uncommon part of the domestic establishments of distinguished families, so that in the cities the greater part of the population can read and write attainments which are also found commonly enough among the sheikhs of tribes in the neighborhood of settled districts. To almost every mosque there is attached a school, where the poorer children may be taught gratuitously, besides which there are in every great town more or fewer private establishments, where the children of the middle classes are received. The education is of a limited kind, comprising little more than reading, writing, the simpler rules of arithmetic, and the doctrines of the Mohammedan religion. School-houses, like the shops, are open to the streets, so that the whole process of instruction is conducted in public ; and to prevent the distraction incident to such a situation, the readers and the repeaters speak in the highest possible key and accompany their delivery with violent gesticulations. Besides, there are in many of the larger towns schools of a higher character, colleges in fact, in which the higher sciences, mathematics, astronomy, astrology and medicine are taught. In the Imanat of Yemen (which is but a small part of the district of that name) there are two of these colleges. One of the chief studies in them is the ancient Arabic, now a dead language ; for their learned men are expected to understand clearly, not only the Koran in its original tongue, but also all the ancient commentators, the number of whom is considerable. Candidates for office, civil or ecclesiastical, are said to undergo a very rigorous public examination PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 211 as to their literary and scientific attainments, but this is a mere pretence, the most illiterate persons being appointed to the highest posts, while the best instructed get a precarious living as scribes, teachers, public reciters and poets. Hence the wish to acquire a high degree of scholastic knowledge is very weak in the majority of Arabs, and the profession of teacher is far from respectable or lucrative. There is no public provision whatever made for the education of women, and among the Bedouins whole tribes can neither read nor write. A very great obstacle to the advancement of education in Arabia is the prejudice against printing. From the nature of the Arabic characters, interlacing each other, and frequently jplaced vertically, they appear handsomer when well written than when printed. There was not, a few years ago, and there is not now, probably, a single printing press in the country. Probably the Turkish law against printing had its cause in the prejudice which the Arabs and all Mohammedans had against printing the Koran in the coarse and untasteful letters of the press. They have rejected printing in order not to see the sacred book sink from a highly ornamental manuscript to a commonplace and unsightly volume. 212 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP JAPAN. The islands known as the empire of Japan, although discovered and visited soon after the Portuguese sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, are yet to Europeans a sealed book. This is chiefly owing to the hatred and jealousy caused by the attempts of the Jesuits to introduce among the people what they called Christianity. Between the years 1585 and 1600, the government, after banishing all the Roman Catholic priests and all foreigners from the country, prohibited the Christian reli- gion, and by fire, sword and dungeon exterminated it as completely as the Duke of Alva and the Spaniards did, by similar means, extirpate the reformed religion from the Netherlands about the same time. Since the year 1600 the Japanese have closed their ports against the trade and commerce of all European nations, except the Dutch, who were allowed to maintain a single trading post at Naga- saki, which was open to them in common with the Chinese and Coreans. Since the expedition under Commodore Wilkes, treaties have been made with the United States, the English and French. But Mr. Wilkes and Bayard Taylor, and others who have written accounts of their visits to Japan, have added nothing to our previous knowledge of the interior life, morals, manners, education and religion of the people. Our principal authorities are still Kempfer, Meylan, Thurnberg and Golownin. From them we learn that the Japanese are and have been for at least a thousand years an educated people. It is supposed, with what probability we cannot decide, that they borrowed learn- ing from the Chinese ; but this is rendered at least doubtful by the fact that their language is not derived from nor in any way akin to the Chinese. They have an alphabet of their own, consisting of forty-seven letters or syllables, although they print books, also, in the Chinese characters, and have adopted many Chinese words. No author has yet been able to tell us what their system of education is, whether the government has any control over it, or gives any aid or encouragement, or whether it is wholly private and voluntary. But whatever it is, the foundation is said to be gentleness, and an early initiation into the principles of honor and honesty, by means of the constant exercise of the reasoning faculties. This foun- dation being laid, the plan is to commence the study of the language native only, as foreign ones would be useless combining the points of reading well, forming their characters with neatness, or writing well, and speaking with elegance and precision. All this is considered by the Japanese as a serious study ; to which they add instruction in religion, teaching their children at the same time how to discern truth and to reason justly. To these are added lessons on eloquence, morals, poetry and painting. The Jesuits say that, as far as the Japanese can convey knowledge, they neglect no means of cultivating the mind of youth, and that no difference whatever is made between the sexes. In consequence of this the women are, comparatively speak- ing, very well informed, inasmuch as they are allowed all the means and all the time necessary for completing their education the fair sex being excluded from all interference with business. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 213 Thurnbcrg says they are well skilled in the art of education. During his whole intercourse with them he observed everywhere that the chastisement of children was very moderate. He seldom heard them rebuked or scolded, and hardly ever saw them flogged or beaten in private families, or on board their vessels. Their scholastic modes, he says, seem, if not an improvement, at least an exaggeration of our new mode of discipline ; for in passing the schools the children might be heard to read all at once, and so loud as almost to deafen the auditor. Besides reading, writing and ciphering, they are taught geography, the history of their own country, and, when they are old enough, the art of war. And what is of equal importance, their teachers understand how to inspire them with patience, modesty and politeness, virtues which the Japanese possess in so remarkable a degree that in self-possession, firmness under the greatest reverses of fortune, for- titude and patience in all trials, they excel the boasted stoicism of the ancients. Golownin says that in respect to the degree of knowledge to be found among the people, comparing one nation with another, the Japanese are the most enlight- ened people in the world. Every Japanese is able to read and write, and knows the laws of his country, which are seldom changed, and the most important of which are publicly exposed on large tables in the towns and villages, in the public squares and other places. In agriculture, horticulture, the chase, the manufacture of silk and woollen stuffs, of porcelain and varnished goods, and in the polishing of metals, they are not at all inferior to the Europeans; they are well acquainted with the art of mining, and understand how to make several works in metal. In the art of cabinet-making and turning they are perfect masters ; they are, besides, admirably skilled in the manufacture of all articles belonging to domestic economy. What knowledge can be more useful to the common people ? The arts and sciences, indeed, have attained a higher degree of elevation in Europe, which has many men who can measure the orbits of the heavenly bodies. Such men cannot be found in Japan. But on the other hand, for one such in Europe, there are thousands even in Trance and England, who are unacquainted with every element of knowledge. Great mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, physicians, &c., do not make a nation, and their greatness in Europe is in marked and disgraceful contrast to the general ignorance. Golownin asserts that the Japanese, generally, have more correct ideas than the lower classes in Europe. He gives an example. A common soldier, one of the guard over his party, one day took a tea-cup, pointed to it, and asked him if he knew that the earth was round, and that Europe and Japan lay in such and such a situation in respect to each other, pointing out at the same time the respective situation of the two countries on the cup. Several other soldiers showed him geometrical figures, and inquired if such methods of measuring and dividing the earth were familiar to him. We regret that the travelers, who have so minutely described the scenes and incidents which come under the most superficial observation, and which form the staple of most books of travel, have made so little inquiry and given such meager information concerning a system of primary and public instruction which has dif- fused knowledge throughout this great empire, and entitled it to the credit of being- called the most enlightened people in the world. 214 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF CHINA. PRIMARY SCHOOLS AND GOVERNMENT COLLEGES. There are numerous primary schools in China, supported by the people of a neighborhood who choose to send their children. There are no school-houses, schools being commonly held in a spare hall or room belonging to a private family, or hi a part of the village temple. There is no village tax nor any aid from gov- ernment received for the support of schools. Each parent must pay the teacher for the instruction of his children. Besides these, there are private or family schools, the pupils being few and select, belonging to rich families. In Fuhchau there are no free schools where the pupils can attend without expense for tuition. In former years there were some such schools, sustained principally at the charge of a very wealthy bank. But this bank failed six or eight years ago, at the time of a general panic among banks, and its suspension of business was the signal for the suspension of the various charitable works which it supported. Girls are seldom sent to school or taught to read at home. Education is not regarded as fitting them to fill in a better manner the stations they are expected to occupy. Pupils do not study, in school, books on mathematics, geography, and the natural sciences, but the writings of Confucius and Mencius. These they are required to commit to memory, and recite with their backs toward the book. This is called " backing the book." They are not taught in classes, but each stu- dies the book he pleases, taking a longer or shorter lesson according to his ability. They all study out loud, oftentimes screaming at the top of their voices. They first learn the sounds of the characters, so as to recite them memoriter. After years of study they acquire an insight into their meaning and use. They com- mence to write when they begin going to school, tracing the characters given them as patterns on paper by means of a hair pencil and China ink. It requires an immense amount of practice to write the language correctly and rapidly. There are three collegiate institutions at this city which are connected with the government. The studies pursued in them are the same in kind as are pursued by advanced scholars in village or family schools, viz., the "five classics" and the " four books," being a part of the thirteen works which collectively are often called the " Chinese classics." Compositions in prose and verse on themes selected from these books are regularly required. These books are the main subject of thought and research not that they are recited there, or that the teachers require certain parts to be studied in their presence. The teachers once or twice per month expound certain parts, or deliver lectures on the subjects discussed, or the senti- ments advanced in these books. They pay no attention to any historical, mathe- matical, or philosophical books or subjects. These things are considered as not worthy of research at the colleges. If a student wishes to pursue any literary studies different from the classics, he must do it at his leisure, without expecting to receive any particular aid from his teachers. The study of mathematics and philosophy, or the sciences generally, is regarded as of exceedingly small impor- tance compared with the study of the classics. The latter are of use in the com- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 215 position of essays and poems, required at the regular examination as trial pieces competitory for the literary degrees, which are so highly prized by ambitious men in China ; but attainments in the natural sciences afford no special aid in writing these essays and poem's, or of advancing one to a higher rank as a literary man or as an officer. The design of establishing the colleges was to encourage and stimulate the stu- dents to write essays and poems of a high order. They have not failed of produc- ing the effect designed, judging from the interest manifested by graduates of~the~ first degree, as well as undergraduates, to become connected with them. The small monthly stipend given to a part of the successful candidates for admission doubtless has some influence in leading scholars who are not possessed of ample means to desire to enter them. But probably the benefit to be derived from attend- ance, and the honor of being connected with them have, in the case of the majority of the students, a greater influence than the pecuniary reward in causing such a general interest to become members of the colleges. Two of the colleges are under the supervision of the provincial governor. He appoints the teachers. The salary of the teacher of one is eight hundred taels; the salary of the teacher of the other six hundred taels per annum, which is paid out of the imperial treasury. The customary presents made to them by the pupils under their care probably amounts to at least one or two thousand dollars more during the course of the year. These teachers are men of high literary ability very frequently, being members of the Imperial or Hanlin college at Peking. The high provincial officers must treat them with great deference when they meet. The teachers expect to be regarded as guests in the presence of the high mandarins that is, the seat of honor is accorded to them. Those of the students who choose are permitted to live in the colleges, but few do live there. Each college has a large number of rooms, which may be used by the pupils free of rent. The janitor, however, expects a present from resident stu- dents. Those who reside there make a more valuable present to the teacher than those who live elsewhere. Those who pay the most money stand the chance of receiving the most attentions. The resident students are also expected to make presents to their teacher on the occurrence of his birthday, and that of his wife, and of his parents, if living, as well as at the time of the national festivals in the fifth, eighth and eleventh months, and at New Year's. These presents consist of curiosities, articles of food, or money. At the appointed day, early in the morning, usually some time during the second month, the provincial governor, with a proper staff of assisting officials, meets those students, whether graduates or undergraduates, who wish to compete for entrance to the highest college at the provincial examination hall. He gives out one set of themes for the undergraduates, and another set of themes for the gradu- ates of the first degree. The compositions are finished some time during the same day, when they are handed over to the governor for his inspection. After making a selection of those which he regards as the best, he passes them into the hands of the teacher of the college for his examination. In this way, two hundred and forty students are selected as pupils out of the thousands who present themselves, one hundred and twenty of the graduates, and one hundred and twenty of the under- graduates. Unjust and unlawful methods are often resorted to by some candidates for membership of the colleges. Some students are successful by bribing the high officials, and others by their favor. On the following day the scholars of the first degree, and of the class of under- 216 REPORT OP THE SUPERINTENDENT OF graduates who desire to compete for the privilege of entering the other college under the control of the governor, meet him ^,t the same hall, where they write prose and poetical compositions as usual on themes which he announces. He selects two hundred and forty of the compositions which he regards as most worthy, one hundred and twenty whose writers are graduates, and one hundred and twenty whose writers are undergraduates. Sixty of the accepted graduates for each of these colleges usually receive one and a half taels per month ; the remaining sixty receive only one tael. Of the one hundred and twenty undergraduates, only one-half receive any stipend at all, which is one tael per month. The remaining sixty undergraduates are kept as a kind of reserve to fill up any deficiencies which may occur during the year in the number of those who receive a monthly allowance. The reserve of sixty are allowed all the privileges of the institution equally with those who are allowed a stipend. The rule is that, should any student who receives an allowance be absent from three successive examinations, his name would be erased from the list, and some one of the sixty undergraduates be put in its place. Usually, however, should a student be prevented from attending at the regular times, he employs some friend to appear in his stead. The monthly stipends paid these students are received from the treasurer of the province. There are three days during the month when themes are given out and compositions prepared at each of these colleges i. e., the sixth, sixteenth and twenty-sixth days. The teacher usually presides at two of these competitory examinations. The students who reside at the colleges are entitled to have their compositions criticised by their respective teachers. The teachers discourse on the classics to their resident pupils twice per month. It is the duty of the viceroy, the governor, the treasurer, the judge, and the commissioners of the salt and provision departments, each to attend in turn at one of the regular monthly examinations of each of the colleges. In this way, accord- ing to theory, each of the six officials attends twice during the year. It is the privilege and the duty of each of these mandarins to preside when he is present, giving out the themes and first looking over the compositions, after which he passes them into the hands of the teacher of the college for his inspection. It is custom- ary for each of the high officials to make a small present of money to every one of the ten first best competitors, both of the graduates and of the undergraduates who are present at the session over which he presides. A list of the comparative merits of the compositions made by the students is in due time posted up in public. It has become a custom for the best students, both graduates and undergraduates, to send in their cards to the viceroy, or the Tartar general, or the treasurer, etc., as the case may be, a few days after he has pre- sided at the examination in the college. This is understood to be an expression of their thanks to him for his attention. The literary chancellor is expected to attend and preside once per annum at the competitory examinations held monthly in each of the colleges. He gives out the themes, and decides himself in regard to the comparative merit of the compositions, not handing them over to the teacher as if for his corroborative opinion, as is the case with the six officials mentioned above. Most of the high officials who play the mandarin at this city have for many years had the reputation of being poor scholars, having obtained their offices by purchase or by bribery. Such great men must often make ludicrous blunders when they attempt to perpetrate literary feats on their own responsibility. Hence the manifest propriety of the custom which requires them to associate with them, as it were, the accomplished teacher of the PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 217 college at whose competitive examinations they preside. But the literary chan- cellor, being always a man selected for his position on account of his literary attainments, is competent to decide on the relative merits of the compositions which are made at the session over which he presides. There is another collegiate institution in this city, but inferior in rank and im- portance to the two which have been mentioned. The chief director of this college is the prefect. His associates are the marine inspector and the two district magis- trates whose yamuns are located in the city. The examination of the students who wish to compete for its privileges is held at the prefect's yamun. He gives out the themes, and selects two hundred and forty men, half graduates and half undergraduates. The teacher's salary is only about three hundred taels per annum. He provides his own house, and the students live where they choose, meeting their teacher at the college at the regular days of examination or lecture. They are expected to make him a present of more or less value, according to their circum- stances, or according as they desire to obtain his especial aid in criticising their productions. The directing officials are expected to be present in regular turn, and preside once a month at the competitive examinations held at the college. Should one fail in attending, the teacher presides in his place. The teacher conducts the other two monthly examinations. The expenses of this institution, viz., the salary of the teacher and the stipends to a part of the pupils, are provided by the officials who are at its head. This accounts for the fact that the stipends are not promptly paid. The sum given professedly every month is only about half as great as the sum given at the other colleges. The competitors for admittance to the collegiate institutions under the control of the governor need not necessarily be residents of this prefecture. They may belong to any part of the province. Those who come from a distance must be supplied with the necessary credentials of their literary character from their lite- rary chiefs or their principal teachers, or they would not be allowed to engage in the preparatory competitive examinations before the governor for admittance to the college which they desired to enter. Those who become members of the third college mentioned, that of which the prefect is chief, may belong to the different districts which compose the prefecture. The establishment of it seems to have been designed to benefit only the graduates and the undergraduates belonging to this prefecture, not those who belong to other prefectures in the province. EXAMINATION OF UNDERGRADUATES BEFORE THE DISTRICT MAGISTRATE AND BEFORE THE PREFECT. To give an intelligible account of the world-renowned competitory examinations of the Chinese, and to detail some of the unlawful expedients which are often resorted to in order to gain a literary degree, will require several chapters. It will be shown that, where they are impartially and faithfully conducted, the grad- uates must be scholars of more than ordinary memory and ability, and that as they really are often conducted, the attainment of a degree is no sure proof of the possession of any more than ordinary capacity, and not necessarily even that. There are four classes who, themselves or their posterity for three generations, according to law are not permitted to engage in the literary examinations. 1. The public prostitutes. Among the descendants of these creatures there are sometimes honorable and talented individuals ; but, on account of the sins of their [Asseni. 237. J 28 218 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF ancestors, these are excluded from the greatest privileges of citizenship, that of competition for literary honor. 2. The public play-actors. This includes those who have earned a living as actors, whether chiefs or subordinates those who have made play-acting their profession. 3. The executioners, lictors, and the menial servants connected with the manda- rinates. These include those who precede high mandarins when they appear in public, and who are supposed to be ready to do any bloody or cruel act if com- manded by their masters, whether according to law or opposed to it. 4. The jailers and keepers of the prisons connected with yamuns. The first two classes are believed to be entirely destitute of shame, else they would not degrade their persons for vicious or unworthy purposes for the sake of gain. The last two classes are believed to have very hard and depraved hearts, else they would never consent to engage in the business of their respective positions. The descendants of these classes, if more virtuous, respectable and humane than their ancestors, and if they are really desirous of changing their professions, and retrieving or rather gaining a good character, usually remove to a distant place, where their lineage and their antecedents are unknown. Their ancestry is a dis- grace to them, and constitutes an obstacle in the way of their rising in society. Some three years since the report was current at this place that an actor had been admitted to the third literary degree at Peking, when a censor informed the emperor. As the result, he and about thirty high officers suffered the penalty of death for being privy to the fact that he had been an actor, and yet allowing him to compete at the examinations, whereas they ought to have prevented him from doing so. Among these officers of state was one who was at the time, or who had been a chancellor, and the adopted father of the graduate was one of the presiding examiners at the time of his graduation. The reporj; may not have been entirely true in all of the details given. According to law, any literary man, without regard to age or condition, except- ing the four classes which have been mentioned, may compete in the examination at which he is entitled by his attainments to compete, provided it be not within three years after the death of either parent. Should any bachelor of arts, disre- garding the law forbidding competition for a literary degree during the period allotted to mourning for the death of father or mother, be allowed to present him- self at an examination for the second degree, and it became known to the examining official, he w'ould be degraded from his rank, and the literary chancellor would in all likelihood be degraded or punished heavily by fines, unless he bribed to silence those who were privy to it. If only an undergraduate, his principal security would be degraded or disgraced. Literary competition is deemed incompatible with sincere mourning for a parent. It would be construed into a kind of filial ingratitude, or want of filial love and respect, punishable by process of law. A high officer, commonly styled the literary chancellor, is the presiding man- darin at the last examination which decides who are the fortunate candidates that attain the lowest literary degree. The chancellor is usually a member of the Imperial Academy at Peking, or is connected with one of the six boards. He is often spoken of as imperial commissioner. His term of office is three years. Only one is appointed for each province. His official residence is at the capital of the province. His duties call him to travel to each of the prefectural cities of the pro- vince twice during his term of office, for the purpose of examining the candidates for the first degree and the graduates of the first degree. He admits to the first PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 2l9 degree those of the candidates he judges are entitled to it to the extent allowed by law, and he exercises the graduates on themes preparatory to their competition for the second degree at the provincial city, under the jurisdiction of two examiners sent from Peking for the purpose. The literary chancellor sends notice to the different prefects in his province of the time when he will examine the literary undergraduates of the prefecture. Each prefect sends a messenger to each of the district magistrates of his prefecture com- municating the notice from the literary chancellor. Each district magistrate issues a proclamation giving the undergraduates in his district notice of the time when they will be expected to meet him for examination at his yamun. In accordance with this notification from the district magistrate, all of the under- graduates in his jurisdiction who wish to compete before him, preparatory to com- petition before the prefect, make arrangements in accordance with established and well-known regulations. At least three days before the time appointed, each can- didate must present himself at the proper office belonging to his yamun, and receive from the clerk, on paying eighty or a hundred cash, a blank schedule. This paper, already stamped with the district magistrate's seal, he takes away and fills out with the requisite particulars respecting himself, as the name of his grandfather, his father, his principal teacher, and his neighbors on the right and left hand. He states also his own name and age, whether of large or small stature, his complex- ion, and whether he has mustaches or not, and the place of his residence. It states also that he does not desire to go into the examination in behalf of another man, using another's name ; that he does not go for the purpose of acting as teacher or aid to another ; and that he does not not go into an examination to which he has no right, really belonging to another district, etc. The candidate must take the paper thus filled out to some one of the graduates of the first degree who are appointed to act as securities to undergraduates. Any one of this class, without regard to order, may, if he is satisfied that the statements of the paper are correct, become his "principal security" by signing the document and stamping it with his seal. Some other one of the same class of men, whose turn in regular order it is, must act as "secondary security" by signing and stamping it, for w r hich he receives about a hundred cash. This paper is now carried to the chief of the grad- uates for the district, who stamps it with his red stamp, for doing which he also receives a small fee. After having obtained all these securities, the undergraduate returns the document to the clerk from whom he received the schedule. He care- fully keeps it for reference should occasion require. He gives in exchange for it another paper, stating the name of the candidate, and the number of his applica- tion. The latter keeps this for use on the morning of the commencement of the examination, presenting the clerk with about a hundred cash. The clerk now prepares a small roll of ruled paper, consisting of six or eight sheets, to the outside of which is attached a slip of paper, stamped with the seal of the district magis- trate, and stating the name of the candidate and the number of his application, corresponding to the minutes which the candidate took away with him. Very early in the morning, usually before daylight of the appointed day, all of the competitors assemble at the proper place, where some one reads slowly, and in a loud voice, their names according to a list prepared by the clerk. As the name and the number of each are pronounced, he must respond, advance, and deliver up the last paper he received from the clerk. In return for this he receives the roll of ruled paper, having the slip with his name and number attached to it, which the clerk has prepared for him. He enters the place prepared for writing his 220 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF essays, and seats himself at a table. After all the candidates have entered the hall, they are shut in, and the doors are fastened and sealed, allowing no ingress or egress until the compositions are finished, or until a part of them are finished, and the writers wish to return to their homes. The district magistrate, who, with enough of his underlings and literary assistants to keep order, have been also shut in with the candidates, now gives out the themes for two prose essays and one poem, which each competitor is expected to prepare. These themes are taken from the four classics. The candidates now apply themselves to their tasks. Each prose essay must contain some six or seven hundred characters, and the poem about sixty characters. The writers are not allowed any communication with outside friends, nor are they allowed to refer to any books. Each one is expected to rely upon himself solely. It is supposed that every one is familiar with the theme, inasmuch as it is contained in the Chinese classics. No inter- course with each other, no walking about from place to place, and no question about the sense is permitted. Each one of the company, whether consisting of one or two hundred or one or two thousand, according as the district has many or few scholars, busies himself with the mental composition of his poem and his essays, and the writing of them out on the ruled paper provided. The food of which each partakes is carried in at the time of his entering the arena. Toward night, the essays and poems of some of the candidates are completed, and delivered to the proper officer or clerk, who delivers them over to the district magistrate, and their writers are allowed to go out of the premises. In a short time another company have completed their work, and are ready to depart. The candidates must all complete what they do before dark. It happens at every examination that more or less are unable to complete their tasks in time, or make some blunder in copying upon the ruled paper, or some may be taken sick. Before delivering his roll of essays and poem over to the clerk, each candidate removes the slip of paper containing his name and number from the roll. He also writes his name and number on the corner of the back leaf of the roll, which he then turns over and pastes down in such a manner that the name and number can not be seen without tearing open the part sealed up. This is done in order to con- ceal the name of the writer from the knowledge of the examining officer until after the merits of the essays and the poetry have been decided upon. When the rela- tive merits of the contents of each roll have been fixed by the district magistrate, the seal is broken, and the name and number of the writer becomes known for the first time. As soon as possible, the numbers are written in the form of a large circle in order upon sheets of paper pasted together, which are then posted up for the inspection of the public on the wall which is always to be found directly in front of the yamun. The candidates, by a comparison of the numbers on the paper they removed from the roll of ruled paper with the position of the same number on the placarded list, learn their relative standing. The higher each stands on the list, the greater the probability that he will succeed. It is an object of ambition to stand at the head of the list ; for if the same person can continue to stand No. 1 at the close of each examination held by the district magistrate, he is almost sure to be one of the successful candidates when he competes before the literary chan- cellor. It has amounted to almost a fixed rule, that the one who heads the list at the last examination before the district magistrate will be successful before the literary chancellor, as an act of courtesy to the wishes of the former, unless he should happen to become sick, or make some unpardonable blunder. The district magistrate repeats his examination from two to three or four times. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 221 The candidates need not procure any security for the second or following examina- tions before this officer for the current year. The clerk furnishes him a pamper con- taining his number, and prepares another roll of ruled paper as before, on his pay- ing the usual sum for second or succeeding examinations. It is said the sum demanded by the clerk is greater the nearer one's number comes to the head of the list. At each of the examinations the candidates become less and less. It is not necessary, unless the candidate chooses to do so, to appear at any but the_first examination before the district magistrate. He may pass over the other examina- tions, if he pleases, until the first one before the prefect. At the close of the last examination, a list is made out of the candidates, whom the district magistrate recommends for further examination by the literary chancellor. For the examination before the prefect at the prefectural city, all of the candi- dates who belong to the several districts which make up and constitute the pre- fecture must assemble at the appointed time, provided with the document, without which they will not be permitted to enter the arena. To get this document, each must apply at the proper office connected with the yamun of the prefect, and receive a blank schedule, which he must fill up in much the same way he did a similar schedule for the use of the clerk of the district magistrate's yamun. He must have the same principal security as before, but it may be a different secondary security. On returning the schedule, filled out and stamped, and secured according to custom, to the clerk, he gets the necessary document, containing his name and the number of his application. The money he disburses to the clerk and his secu- rities is about the same in amount as he disbursed previously on the occasion of his competing before the district magistrate. In like manner, he receives the roll of ruled paper on which he is to write his essays and poem on the morning of the examination before the prefect, on delivering up the document containing his name and number. The prefect examines the candidates by their districts, having the men from two or three districts come in at the same time. When the numbers of the candidates are paraded in public, in the form of a large circle, those belonging to the same district are placed together, the best scholar according to the judgment of the pre- fect being placed first, the second best in the second place, and so on. The gen- eral rules of the examination, and the giving out of them, are the same as the rules relating to the examination held before the district magistrates. It is the custom for the prefect to expect that the head man on the list at his last examina- tion of the undergraduates, for each of the districts, will be adjudged worthy of a degree by the literary chancellor. If there are ten districts in his department, there are ten lists made out by the prefect for recommendation to the literary chancellor, and the head man on each of these lists is almost sure that he will be declared a successful competitor. It requires a considerably longer time for the prefect to complete the examina- tions under his care than for the district magistrate to complete his examinations. He generally examines them all two or three times, each time several districts being represented. Usually at each session of the candidates from the same dis- tricts their number becomes less than the former, owing to want of ability to complete their essays and poetry in time, or to sickness. Unless one wishes, he need attend only the first examination before the prefect, but he must attend that, or he will not be allowed to compete before the literary chancellor, unless he be a descendant of some ancient worthy, as will be mentioned hereafter. Here let it be observed, once for all, that on the coming out of the arena of the 222 KEPORT OP THE SUPERINTENDENT OF first company of competitors before any of the examining officers at any of their competitory sessions, it becomes the duty of the chief clerk belonging to the proper office connected with the examination, to send, on a large red sheet of paper, the themes on which the candidates have been exercised, to all the high officers resident in the city where the examinations have been held. It is important that this should be done as soon as possible after the doors of the hall are opened, as then, according to theory, the themes become first known to outsiders. It is believed the high mandarins will take an interest in knowing the themes which have been discussed in the competitory arenas. EXAMINATION OF UNDERGRADUATES BEFORE THE LITERARY CHANCELLOR FOR THE FIRST DEGREE, AND ALSO OF GRADUATES OF THE FIRST DEGREE BEFORE HIM, PREPARATORY TO COMPETITION FOR THE SECOND DEGREE. The rule is that competitors of all classes of society must attend at the exami- nations before the district magistrate, prefect and literary chancellor in regular order. The exception is in the case of descendants of certain ancient worthies, as Confucius and Mencius. These constitute a privileged class, and are not obliged to appear before the district magistrate and the prefect. They may commence their literary competition before the chancellor, if they choose to do so. The preliminaries to enter the examination before the literary chancellor are essentially the same as those before the district magistrate and the prefect. The "principal security " of each candidate must be present on the morning of enter- ing the arena, so as to aver in public that he secures him as his name is called out by the clerk. Unless he should be there and announce that he stands his security, the candidate would not be allowed to enter the hall. On the roll of ruled paper is a slip of paper containing his name, and the number of the range in which the seat allotted to him is situated, and the number of the seat which he must occupy. This he removes and preserves for reference. He writes his name and the descrip- tion of the location of his seat on the last leaf of his ruled paper, and then turns it down and pastes it in a position so that the items can not be read without tearing it open. The candidate proceeds to write his essays and poem on themes given out after the doors have been shut and sealed up for the day. Its comparative merit having been decided by the literary chancellor, the name and the seat of its writer are ascertained by tearing open the portion pasted down. As soon as practicable, its relative value is indicated by its position in the list of names and seats of candi- dates belonging to the district of the writer, as placarded on the wall in front of the hall. As in the case of the prefect, the literary chancellor usually examines the scholars from two or three of the smaller districts at one session. Generally the literary chancellor requires the candidates to appear before him to prepare compositions in prose and poetry only twice. The best on the second list of names and seats of candidates are the fortunate ones who are adjudged to be worthy of the first degree in the scale of literary rank, or bachelors of arts. The number of candidates who can graduate at every term of examination held by the literary chancellor is not the same for every district in the prefecture, nor does it have any proportion to the number of candidates furnished by the district, nor to the extent of its territory. The original standard was one graduate for a certain amount of taxes paid into the imperial treasury. The number who could graduate became fixed in this way at a certain time, and remained the same from year to year, unless an extra number should, by the grace of the emperor, be added on special occasions of state, as the accession of a new emperor to the throne, the PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 223 birth of a first male child to the emperor, etc. Large contributions of money for the aid of the government in cases of special need, by men living in the various districts, are also rewarded and encouraged by the addition of one or more to the number which is usually the quota of graduates for these districts. The number allowed by law to attain the honors of a bachelor of arts, belonging to each of the districts in the prefecture, having been selected, there remains still a number of candidates who may attain the degree on account of the prefecture, and are ranked as belonging to the prefecture at large. The persons who shall constitute this class are also determined by the literary chancellor. One or more from the various districts are selected to belong to the class of the prefectural grad- uates in the established manner. The literary chancellor requires those who stand very high on the list at his second examination to appear before him at a supplementary examination, not on themes selected from the classics, but to exercise them on rewriting from memory the whole of the " Sacred Edict." The Sacred Edict is the name of a treatise which was prepared by the Emperor Kanghi, of the present dynasty, for the instruction of his subjects on matters relating to moral and relative duties. The copying of this treatise with absolute correctness is regarded an essential part of the preparatory examination for the first degree. Much deception is practiced, when the rules are not strictly enforced, by the candidates taking into the arena with them manuscript or printed copies of the Sacred Edict, made on very thin paper and in very small characters a course which is forbidden by law, and which is not con- nived at by the high examining officers. Should one fail at this exercise, he would certainly not attain the degree which his own compositions might entitle him to receive. But as this is a fixed exercise, students who are expecting to succeed generally make themselves very familiar with the authorized text of the Sacred Edict. If they fail here, they have only their own slothfulness to blame. The successful competitors for the first degree, as soon as it is determined who they are, must call upon the master of the graduates belonging to their own dis- tricts, or upon the master of the graduates belonging to the prefectural class, as the case may be. The object of their calling is to hand in their names to be entered on the list of graduates in the proper place. It is the custom for the graduates to make their chief at this time a present of money, according to their standing in society and their pecuniary ability. The chief sometimes demands a large sum of money before he will enter the name of the new graduate, especially if he is very wealthy, and if he has attained to the rank of a graduate by the use of unfair and unlawful means. The chief is usually able to judge pretty nearly the truth if he has employed improper means. If he does not accede to the demands of the chief, or if the parties do not compromise the matter, the chief may represent the man in a very unfavorable light to the literary chancellor, who may cause the man to lose his place as a graduate, to which some other more pliable one will succeed. The names of several promising competitors are kept in reserve until the quota for each of the districts and for the prefecture is filled up definitely. The entering of one's name at the office of the chief of the district graduates, or of the prefectural gradu- ates, is called "entering upon learning," or to "become a sewtsai" or a "bachelor of arts," as the phrase may be rendered. From this time the successful scholar comes under the jurisdiction of his literary chief. He may not be arrested in the summary manner that undergraduates and the common people are arrested by the civil magistrate if he is charged with any crime. He must be prosecuted before the literary chief of the graduates of his dis- 224 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP trict, or the chief of the prefectural class, if he should belong to the latter. He is allowed to wear a button on his cap, which indicates that he is a graduate. He becomes at once a man of influence and of honor in his own neighborhood, and especially among his relatives, who are usually proud of numbering as one of their own kindred the man who has distinguished himself among his fellow-competitors by carrying off the prize. He has ready access to the presence of the lower class of magistrates. His literary rank gives him a great opportunity to play the vil- lain among the common people, if he wishes to do so ; and, if such be his character, he is always on good terms with the underlings in the mandarin's office which he most patronizes. Such graduates are not few in this part of China, and they soon become hated and feared by shopkeepers and the common people generally. Those of the rank of kujin, or master of arts, the second degree, who use their rank and power to oppress the people, are fewer in number perhaps, but more hated and feared. Their higher literary rank gives them greater opportunity to browbeat and injure without redress their victims, unless they comply with the demands of these pests to society. The Chinese speak of this class of graduates of the second degree with abhorrence and anger. When their chief becomes aware of their char- acter and has proof of their misdemeanors, he usually at once degrades them from their literary rank, but woe betide those who have furnished the evidence which caused their degradation, if their names become known to those who have been degraded. The above description relates to the established manner of competing for literary rank by participating in the regular examination before literary officers. But there is another way of attaining the same rank, much shorter, surer, and less fatiguing, for those who have the necessary means, and are willing to use them to attain the coveted rank. Those who have more money than brains, by a kind artifice of the government, are permitted to purchase the privilege of wearing a button on their caps, and of being exempted from arrest and punishment by the civil mandarins. Until a few years ago, the sum which would, if paid into the treasurer's office with that design, buy of the emperor the rank and title of sewtsai, bachelor, was one hundred and eighty-three taels. Nowadays, in consequence of the low state of the emperor's funds, it is asserted that twenty-five taels will suffice. The treasurer receives the necessary sum, whatever it is, and reports the name of the applicant to the proper tribunal at Peking, from which, in due lime, he receives the certificate which guarantees certain privileges to the individual, who has money to spare, but not enough literary ability to enable him to gain the bachelorship. The possession of this diploma entitles him to compete for the second literary degree along with those who have attained the bachelorship by the exer- cise of their literary qualifications in the regular and honorable manner. Those who buy their degrees are looked down upon by others. Their number is becom- ing year by year more numerous, on account of the great cheapness at which it is offered to aspiring men, and the extreme facility which attends an attempt to obtain it by those who have the money. Several of the competitors before the literary chancellor, whose essays and poems would have entitled them to graduation, if the quota of graduates allowed for their districts had been larger, form a class by themselves. These are a kind of half graduates. They are not obliged to enter the examinations before the district magistrate and the prefect on the succeeding year, in order to sustain their standing. They may wait until the time for competing before the literary chancellor arrives, enter into the arena under his jurisdiction, and if their essays and poems are not PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 225 of a very decidedly inferior character, they are almost sure of becoming bachelors at the next examination for candidates of the first degree. At the regular vernal and autumnal sacrifices to Confucius in his temple, these half graduates have a certain part allotted them to perform. Poor candidates are not desirous of sus- taining the character before the public of undergraduates of this class, on account of the largely increased expense it involves, without any corresponding substantial advantages. The rolls of ruled paper which they must procure from the clerk of the office of the literary chancellor, on which to write their essays and poems on the occasion of the next competitive examination, will not be prepared for them without the payment of a much larger sum of money than is demanded of the other candidates. The privileges which scholars of this class have are mainly the exemption from the necessity of going into the regular examinations before the dis- trict magistrate and the prefect. But these examinations are rarely dreaded by true scholars, and besides, a strict and faithful attendance on all the examinations in course is a much surer method of succeeding than the neglect of them and reli- ance upon already acquired rank and possessed talent. The class of graduates of the first degree, to whom reference has been made as those who must be the securities of undergraduates, consists of a certain number of the scholars belonging to their districts. Their number is not the same for every district, being greater or smaller according to circumstances. There are twenty in each of the two districts of which this city forms a part. The same men continue for twelve years in the office or station of acting as securities, unless they die or are degraded, or, as is more commonly the case, unless they become graduates of the second rank, masters of arts. In such a case, the deficiency is made up at the close of the next following examination of the graduates of the prefecture by the literary chancellor. Should one remain in this class at the end of twelve years in good standing, he, without any examination, passes at once into an advanced class of graduates. Those undergraduates who are successful, and become bachelors, are required by custom to make a handsome present in money to those who acted as their principal and their secondary securities. The second- ary security is said to be paid the larger sum. Every twelve years the literary chancellor holds an extra examination at the prefectural city for the benefit of two or three classes of the best scholars of the graduates of the lowest rank. At this examination, one from each of the districts, and one from the prefectural class of graduates, may be selected to form another order or class, the members of which are only a little below the graduates of the second degree, and may be appointed to the office of a district magistrate by the emperor, should they have influence enough at court to get an appointment. The masters or chiefs of the graduates of the first rank, to whom several allu- sions have been made, usually receive their appointment from Peking. They may be natives of the province, but not of the prefecture, where they are appointed to act. In case of a deficiency under certain circumstances, the governor of the prov- ince may appoint some one to the vacant office out of the number of best scholars of the rank of sewtsai. They are all subject to the literary chancellor, and receive a certain stipend from the imperial coffers, which, however, is not sufficient for their maintenance. They look to presents and bribes from the scholars under their jurisdiction for the balance of their livelihood. Each district has one such chief to superintend the affairs of its graduates, and there is also one in each pre- fecture who presides over those graduates who form the prefectural class, being selected, as has been explained, from the graduates living in the different districts. [Assem. No. 237.] 29 226 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF The chief of the prefectural class resides in the prefectural city, and has the care of the large Confucian temple always to be found located there. The chief of the graduates belonging to the various districts has, by virtue of his office, the charge of the temple to Confucius found in the capital of his district. These chiefs may compete for the second or third degree at the regular examinations, according to their attained literary rank. The graduates of the first degree living over the whole province come, in the manner now described, under the jurisdiction of the literary chancellor, through the chiefs or governors of the graduates living at the various prefectural and dis- trict capitals. Affairs of moment relating to the graduates in the various districts and prefectures which make up the province are required to be referred by the chief immediately concerned to the decision of the literary chancellor. But, gen- erally speaking, matters of no special importance are decided upon by the chief to whose supervision they belong subject, of course, to a revision by the chancellor. It is the duty of those who have attained to a bachelorship to attend the regu- lar examinations held by the literary chancellor in their' prefecture. Should any absent himself from these examinations for three successive years without being excused, or without reporting himself to his literary chief, he would become liable to be deprived by the literary chancellor of his rank and its privileges. Should he become blind, or be enfeebled by old age or by disease, so as to be unable to endure the fatigues and excitements of competing at the regular periods with his fellows, he may petition the chancellor, stating his case. If the latter has no rea- son for believing the applicant to be trying to impose upon him, he may grant him a document allowing him to retain his rank and privileges, without being obliged to present himself at the regular examinations. Of course, if he remains away hereafter, he forfeits all prospects of obtaining the second degree, or of being employed as an officer of government, unless he should purchase office, which is seldom done by those who voluntarily retire from the literary arena. On the other hand, should an undergraduate be unable to attend the examina- tions regularly until he becomes eighty years old without attaining the coveted rank of bachelorship, the emperor, on being informed of the honorable fact by the provincial governor, confers upon the aged competitor the title and privileges of a graduate. It becomes the duty of the governor to report such cases, and to ask for them the customary token of approval on the part of the emperor. On the receipt of the title, the old man procures the golden button, which he wears as a badge of imperial respect. The bestowal of the title on the octogenarian is designed as a testimony of the approbation of the emperor, who would encourage the pursuit of letters even to extreme old age. It is the duty of the literary chancellor, at each visit during his term of office, after examining the undergraduates at the capitals of the different prefectures in the province, to proceed to examine the old bachelors and the new bachelors, that is, those scholars whom he has just adjudged to be worthy of the first degree. He usually has only one examination, not several sessions, at each visit. The object of this examination at the time of his first visit is principally to exercise them, and to prepare them for the next competitive examination for the second degree at the capital of the province. It has no direct influence upon their pros- pects of success other than the benefit which practice produces. All of the grad- uates are expected to enter the lists and compete. The roll of ruled paper on which they must write their essays and poem must be obtained of the clerk of the proper office of their respective literary chiefs. The fee demanded for the roll of paper is about a thousand cash, PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 227 The examination of the graduates, on his second visit to the prefectural cities, te an important one. At the close of this examination, the literary chancellor divides the competitors into several classes. Those who belong to the first class are arranged in order of their excellence by their seats. The number of their seats is placarded on the wall in front of the place of examination. The seats of those who constitute the second and the third class are in like manner made known to the public. All those who are in the first and second classes, and the first ten of the third class, are permitted, without any farther examination, to compete for the second degree at the proper time. But all those below the tenth name of the third class of the graduates in all the prefectures of the province, and all those who have bought the bachelorship, unless they are in the first class, all those who were absent from the prefectural examinations on account of sickness, or for any other reason, if they wish to compete for the second degree, are required to assemble at the capital of the province several weeks before the set time for the beginning of examinations for the second degree, and enter a supplementary examination before the literary chancellor. There are usually several hundred or a thousand who come up in order to take part in this supplementary examination. All those the number of whose seats in the hall during examination is paraded on the public wall are entitled to enter the examination for the second degree. There are always some who fail of the coveted privilege, because of sudden illness, or because some blunder has been made in copying, or because some rule has been violated. The names or the seats of these unfortunate scholars do not appear on the placarded list, and, of course, they are debarred from entering the examination for the degree of master of arts. The names of all those graduates of the first degree who are entitled to enter the list and compete for the second degree are recorded in a document, those belonging to the same prefecture being placed together. This document is trans- mitted by the literary chancellor to the governor of the province, who sends it down to the provincial judge, who hands it over to the proper clerk in his yamun, who prepares the requisite number of rolls of ruled paper for use at the approach- ing examination. The candidates must settle with the clerk for the rolls, seldom paying less than one dollar. Three sets of rolls are made out for each competitor, as there are three separate sessions when essays and poems are required to be written. It sometimes occurs that the would-be competitors are not able to be present at the supplementary examination above referred to. In such a case, on proper representations being made to the literary chancellor, he appoints a second supple- mentary examination for the delinquents or absentees at the preceding one. In like manner, the names of those the number of whose seats appear in public are sent to the clerk, who prepares the required number of rolls of ruled paper. The first three companies of candidates who come out from the hall of the literary chancellor, where they have been engaged the whole day in writing their essays and poems, are specially honored as they come out. The large middle doors are opened by the breaking of the paper seals and by removing the padlock, and they are saluted by the discharge of three cannon, and by music. The cannon and the music are designed to honor them, because they have finished their essays and poems so early. After each of the first three companies have come out, the doors are shut, sealed, and locked up, as before the first company appeared. On the appearance of another company, one of the side doors is opened no cannon or 228 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF music salutes them. After this the door is left open, and each candidate for literary fame comes out singly. About the time when the doors are expected to be opened, and the imprisoned scholars to appear, the public arena in front of the yamun of the literary chancellor is crowded by the friends and servants of the candidates. The friends come to congratulate the candidates, and the servants to take the wallet or bag which contained the remnants of the luncheon they took in, their pipes, tobacco, inkstand, fan, etc. Advantage is often taken of the crowd of strangers from distant parts of the province or of the prefecture by Chinese, who have books or tracts for distribution, to scatter them among the candidates as they come out, or their friends, who meet and salute them with their congratulations. EXAMINATION OF GKADUATES OP THE FIRST DEGREE BEFORE THE IMPERIAL COMMISSIONERS FOR THE SECOND DEGREE. The provincial examination hall, where the graduates of the first degree who desire to compete for the second degree assemble once in every three years, is located in the northeastern quarter of the city. It is surrounded by a wall, having back doors or gates, and two very large and high doors on the south side. In the centre, running from north to south, is a wide paved passage. On the east and west sides of this passage there are, in the aggregate, nearly ten thousand apartments, or rather cells, for the accommodation of the competitors. These are arranged in rows in a straight line, beginning on the passage, and extending back to the walls on the east and west. Each row is covered with a tiled roof, slanting oneway. Each cell is a little higher than a man's head, three feet wide, and three and a half deep feet deep, having no door and no window. An alley about three or four feet wide extends along in front of the row of apartments. The cells on the side of the alley are open from top to bottom, letting in all the light and air that are needed, and more rain and wind in wet and stormy weather than are required by the occupant. The two sides and the back of the cells are made of brick, plastered over with white lime. The furniture of each cell consists simply of three or four pieces of wide boards, which may be fitted into two rows of creases made in the two sides of the cell at the pleasure of the occupant, making a seat and a table, or a platform on which he may curl up and sleep, if he pleases to do so. One or two of the boards slipped into the lower creases, and pushed to the back side, forms the seat. One or two boards, slipped into the front part of the higher creases, forms the table, on which paper, ink or food may be arranged. The candidate for literary honor usually sits on the lower boards, with his back against the wall, placing his writing materials in front of him on the higher and outer tier of boards. Each row of these apartments is numbered by one of the characters of which the Thousand Character Classic is composed, and each of the apartments in each row is numbered so that any particular one can be readily found. Such is a brief description of the miserable quarters where the educated talent of the province is expected to congregate and spend several days. Small, uncom- fortable, and exposed to . the weather, they seem to the foreign visitor but poorly qualified to be the residence of those who would court the Muses, or who would attempt elegant and elaborated prose compositions on a variety of impromptu sub- jects. They suggest to some foreigners the idea of calf stalls, and probably many a Western humane farmer would think his cattle but poorly cared for if they had not better protection from the weather than do the cells or apartments above des- cribed afford the candidate for literary rank. The most wealthy as well as the oorest sewtsai in the province, the man of seventy and the stripling of twenty PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 229 years, must occupy one of them while competing for the second degree. There is no choice between them ; all are made in the same way, and all of the same size, and all front to the south. The precise seat of each one is fixed before he enters the arena ; so, if there were a choice, there would be no way to make the choice available. The presiding examiners are two special commissioners of high rank and distin- guished literary ability, sent down from Peking for the purpose of presiding at the examination in the provincial city for the second degree. They are called " master examiner" and "assistant examiner." It is supposed that if there are two com- missioners one will be a watch upon the other, and that there will be much less bribery and injustice in the discharge of their official functions than though there were only one. Nearly in the center of the premises, where the cells have been pre- pared for the use of the competitors, there is a two-storied building, in which the two examiners, before the work begins, vow most solemnly, and call upon Heaven to hear their vows, that they will deal honestly in the discharge of their official acts and awards. This is called " the temple of perfect justice ." Their vowing to deal justly is called, in the graphic language of the people, " washing their hearts." On the north side of these premises are spacious grounds devoted to the accom- modation of the examiners, and the various assistant officers they have, together with their retinue of servants. Here are large and comfortable quarters for all these parties. Around the premises there are two walls, distant from each other about twenty feet. During the examination of candidates this space is patroled night and day by a large number of soldiers, in order to prevent any communication between the competitors inside and their friends outside. Just before the time for the assembling of the candidates and their examiners, the premises where the former are to be confined, and where the latter are to live while they discharge the duties of their mission, are swept, and cleared of the filth and the rubbish which have accumulated since their last occupation. Repairs, if any are needed, are made, and everything is prepared for the approaching exami- nation. As the time approaches, the city and suburbs present an unusually animated and busy appearance. Probably twenty or thirty thousand strangers from all parts of the province seek for temporary quarters either at the homes of their per- sonal friends and acquaintances, or at the houses which they can rent. There are generally from six to eight thousand graduates who assemble at the hall ; most of them are from abroad, who come with their sedans, coolies, and servants, and some are accompanied by friends, who embrace the occasion to visit the provincial city. The imperial commissioners make arrangements to arrive here from Peking a few days previous to the commencement of the examination. They go to s'ome palace outside of the examination hall, provided for their temporary accommodation. The doors are shut and sealed, so as to prevent their having company. It is intended that they shall be watched and guarded, so that they shall not have any opportunity to be bribed, or to make friends, or even to become acquainted with those who are to compete at the examinations, or with their representatives. Everything is conducted seemingly on fair and just principles, though, if common fame speaks the truth, there is much that is unfair and unjust done behind the curtain, or secretly. Anything like open bribery and public corruption would not be tolerated by the customs of the country, or allowed by law, in regard to the approaching examination. 230 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP The imperial commissioners generally enter into their yamuns, located on the premises adjoining the grounds filled up with the cells for the competitors, some time during the seventh day of the eighth month. Each goes to his respective yamun, and, as soon as they have entered, the large double doors are closed and sealed, to remain shut for several days, or until the termination of the examina- tion. The governor of the province also takes possession of the yamun provided for him on the same day. The general supervision of the affairs of the premises belongs to him during the time allotted for the preparation and examination of the essays and poems required from the competitors. The prefect of the prefecture in which the provincial city is located also enters and takes possession of the quar- ters prepared for him. It is his business to wait upon the commissioners, or rather to carry out their wishes, and have the charge of the red gate between the premises occupied by the candidates and the premises occupied by the examining commissioners and assisting bodies of officers. He acts the part of a chief servant to the literary examiners. The competitors are required to go into the hall and find their appointed seats, known by a slip attached to their roll of ruled paper, usually some time during the night of the seventh, at the latest about the third watch of the morning of the eighth. Each one takes in with him the rice, and coal to cook it, meats, or what- ever condiments he pleases, cakes, candles, bedding, etc., whatever he desires, if according to law, to use for two or three days during the first session of the exam- ination. According to law, his box of provisions and his person are searched, in order to discover whether he is trying to smuggle into the premises anything pro- hibited. Not a single line of printed or written matter is he allowed to carry in, lest it should be used as a help in the preparation of his tasks. In fact, parts of the classics or other works, written in very small letters, are sometimes taken into the premises unknown to the officials. If any such thing is found upon the person of a candidate or among his provisions, he would sometimes be allowed to remain by giving it up, though oftener he would be expelled from the hall, and punished according to the circumstances of the case. According to law, one measure of rice and half a pound of meat per day are furnished each competitor at the expense of the government ; but, in fact, this rice is often of such a poor quality, and cooked so badly, and the meat furnished is so small in quantity, that the candidates generally prefer not to depend upon the food provided by law, but to carry their own provisions, and a portable furnace and coal. In this way each can have his hot tea and his meals whenever he pleases. Water is brought at public expense to the outside of the hall, where it is turned into troughs, which convey it to different parts of the inside. Six or eight hundred men are provided by the government to wait upon the competitors, bringing water to them and cooking for them. No one is allowed to bring his own servant into the hall. It is the custom for candidates for the second degree to receive from friends and relatives, when about to enter the hall, a present of something to eat, or to use inside, the first time they compete for the second degree after they have attained the first. If given the first time, it need not be given the second year. Sometimes money is presented, or a goose is given, or a duck, or a number of bunches of cooked rice, tied up in a three-cornered shape, with certain leaves about each, or a pig's foot and leg, or some sandwiches, together with pencils and ink of the finest quality. The rice balls, and goose or duck, are used as omens of a particularly flattering import, referring to the future literary successes of the competitor. These PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 231 are understood as expressions of the desires of their givers that their friend or relation may attain the degree for which he proposes to strive. It is estimated by Chinese that as many as three or four thousand men are required to assist in the management of the affairs of the examination, besides the students themselves. This estimate includes the servants waiting upon the can- didates, watchmen by night and by day, the menial servants and the respectable attendants of the various high officers engaged, and the several classes of literary men and writers who are employed to aid in various ways. The number of can- didates usually is from six to eight thousand, who, with the three or four thousand other men necessarily employed, make up the aggregate of the occupants of the two premises, which are separated only by a wall, to some ten or twelve thousand men ; enough to constitute a formidable army or a respectable city. Some estimate them to be much more numerous. Besides the classes which have been mentioned, there are some eight other classes of men, ranging from twelve up to two or three hundred each, who go into the premises, and establish themselves in the houses or sheds provided for them, on or before the seventh of the eighth month. A few of the classes and their particular duties will be mentioned hereafter. The great outside doors of the premises occu- pied by the officers, as well as the doors of the premises occupied by the students, are shut, locked and sealed up in a very formal manner as soon as all who are to take any part in the examination exercises have entered. Both egress and ingress at these doors are equally forbidden. Early on the morning of the eighth, usually before daylight, the calling of the roll is commenced, or the reading over of the names of all the candidates who are entitled to be present at the examination. Each one present is required to take the cell which is appointed for him. During the morning a side door is occasion- ally opened to allow the bringing in of vegetables and the entrance of men, should there be any who have been detained until that time. No one is allowed to go out. When the side doors have been shut for the last time, and the competitors have found their seats, four themes for the essays and the poem are given out, and the students know for the first time what are the subjects on which they are to try their talent at composition. These are selected from the four volumes of the Chi- nese classic called the "Four Books," by the joint action of the first and second examiners, three being themes for a prose composition and one for a poem. The eager competitors at once begin to ponder the subjects selected and arrange their thoughts. Each alley or row of cells is under the constant watch of men who profess to be anxious to detect any violation of established rules. 1 . As soon as any of the essays are finished, they are taken by the proper offi- cer to a body of talented literary men, whose number is said to amount to several tens, and whose business it is to examine each essay or poem as soon as offered, to see if it is composed and written out in accordance with the well-understood rules. If there is any violation of these rules, it is at once stuck by means of paste upon the wall in a public place. The luckless writer may not enter the arena and com- pete at either of the succeeding sessions for that year. 2. The essays and poem which are correctly done, as regards form and appear- ance, are then delivered over into the hands of a body of copyists, numbering perhaps two or three hundred men, whose duty it is to transcribe them with neat- ness upon other paper, using red ink. The original manuscripts are kept from the inspection of the examining commissioners, in order to prevent, or avoid as much as possible, all chance of their knowing to whom the composition belongs. The 232 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF writer might otherwise, by means of blots or marks, or some private sign made on the paper, intimate to the commissioners who was its owner, provided there had been any previous understanding to that effect as the result of bribery. These copyists are employed by government. 3. These essays and the poems having been transcribed, both the copy and the original manuscript are delivered to a class of scholars, who number one or two hundred men, and whose duty it is to compare copy and original together, to see that there have been no additions or omissions of characters, and no secret marks made on the copy. They work by twos, one looking at the copy while the other reads the original, comparing them character by character. The characters of the copy must be the same as in the original manuscript, and must be well written. 4. These, if found to correspond with each other, are delivered to a certain officer, who is aided by several assistants. The original, written in black ink, is delivered over to the governor to be kept, not for his inspection. The copy on paper written with red ink is passed along to a class consisting of twelve men of acknowledged literary talent. Each man reads his share. If he considers it well done, he sig- nifies his approbation by putting upon the top or front part of the roll a small red circle. If he considers its literary ability as decidedly inferior, he lays the roll of essays and poems aside. Those marked with a red circle are put into the posses- sion of the prefect, who beats a drum suspended at his office on the premises. This drum is called the "recommending drum," which indicates that an essay and its accompanying poem are recommended to the examining commissioners for their inspection. They divide equally between themselves the essays and poems thus recommended. They have twelve scholars of established literary attainments to assist them in their respective yamuns. Each one may decide in regard to forty- three or forty-four candidates. The head one of the list is determined by the master examiner. Out of the mass of recommended essays and poems at the first session, each examiner selects as most worthy quite a number more than the quota which falls to him for future reference and comparison ; for the successful com- petitors must write compositions which receive the approval of the commissioner into whose hands they come at eaeh of the three sessions. It therefore is neces- sary or prudent to lay aside as the best quite a number more than would be suffi- cient to fill the quota allowed by law, if only one session's compositions were to be consulted and approved. It often happens that the writer who does well at the first session does quite poorly, or is sick or absent on the next two sessions, when his manuscripts, however well written, must be disregarded in making up the final estimate of the merits of the compositions at the close of the third session. The compositions are supposed to be examined, weighed, and approved or rejected on their merits alone. When their respective merits have been decided upon, the orig- inal paper in the hands of the governor is torn open, and the name of the writer becomes for the first time known to the commissioners at least such is the theory. Those whose essays and poems are finished, are allowed to come out in companies, commencing about the third watch in the morning of the tenth of the month, having spent two days in the examining hall. The doors are unlocked and the seals are broken under a salute of three cannons, the beating of drums and the playing of instrumental music, all designed to honor those who come out. The doors are then shut, and locked and sealed, until about daylight, when another company is ready to come out of the arena, and similar tokens of honor attend their exit. About ten o'clock A. M. another company come forth, saluted in like manner. After this time, when any one is ready, he comes out. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 233 Of all the officers and assistants who have been imprisoned inside, only the gov- ernor is permitted to come out on the morning of the tenth, after the students have left. He must return in the afternoon or evening, having visited his yamun and attended to his business. All the rest of the officers and the assistants employed inside remain busily engaged in the discharge of their duty. All those whose essays have not been posted up in public on the wall during the first session, because of some violation of the rules, may enter the premises again some time during the night of the tenth. The calling of the roll and the seating of the competitors commence about the third watch of the eleventh of the eighth month, less than a whole day being allowed for the recess. Doors are sealed, themes are given out, and everything is carried forward very much as at the first session. There are five subjects given out instead of four. The five are taken from five volumes of the Chinese classics, known as the " Five, Classics," not from the "Four Hooks," four being themes for prose compositions, and one for a poem. The competitors come out, as from the first session, in companies, under the regular salutes of guns, drums and music, commencing before daylight on the morning of the thirteenth, and finishing some time in the forenoon. They return to the hall late in the evening of the same day, or exceedingly early in the morning of the next. The names of the competitors, who are much less numerous than at the first session, are called over on the morning of the fourteenth, seats taken, the doors being locked and sealed up as usual. There are five themes on miscellaneous sub- jects, and one theme for poetry. The candidates usually are all done with their tasks and are out of the hall some time during the afternoon of the sixteenth of the eighth month, having commenced to make their last exit some time in the morning. As has been intimated, the examining commissioners select three rolls of essays and poems, one from each of the sessions, which must all belong to the same scholar. They decide upon the literary abilities of as many sets of three rolls as the law will allow them to decide upon as worthy of procuring their authors the coveted rank of master of arts a la Chinois. At the proper time a list of the suc- cessful candidates is made out, the names and surnames being written in very large characters. This list is posted upon the south side of the Drum Tower in the city, thirty or forty feet high from the ground, where it is left for a certain time for the inspection of the public. It is regarded as a very high honor to head this list, or to be one of the three highest names. The posting up of this list is usually followed by considerable excitement all over the city and suburbs. The original compositions of the successful competitors are collected together, and prepared for transmission to Peking, professedly for the personal inspection of the emperor. A copy would not be sent, as the manuscript must have the seal upon it which was there when the unwritten roll was received from the clerk of the treasurer's office. All the tolerable blunders, blots, etc., which did not prevent the success of the manuscript in the provincial hall of examination, would become intolerable when transmitted to Peking for reference and preservation ; hence they must be all erased or mended, so that the document will present a fair and neat appearance. The singular nature of Chinese writing-paper, and their practice of writing on one side only, make this " washing and repairing " possible, and com- paratively an easy task, which would be impracticable if the essays and poems were written on foreign paper, even if written on only one side of the paper employed. Sometimes, even on Chinese paper, the writing is blotted so badly, or [Assem. No. 237.] 30 234 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF so many mistakes are perpetrated, that it requires an immense amount of skill and patience to repair the manuscript and make it look neat. Unless this repairing and washing is done properly, the imperial commissioners would be liable to be severely reprimanded, and perhaps punished by being degraded from their rank. It will not answer for the essay to be left behind at the provincial city, nor will it do to present one at Peking not having a neat and clean appearance. It often occurs that during the three sessions some persons are taken suddenly ill, and die before the doors are allowed to be opened. In such a case it is contrary to law and custom for the body of the deceased to be carried out of the arena through the large front gates. It must be taken to the back side, or to one of the east or west sides, and passed over the wall. This is not done to dishonor the memory of the dead, but to prevent the front gates from being defiled by the passage of the corpse. It would be considered a very bad omen for a corpse to be taken out through the front gates. Should any of the mandarins suddenly become ill and die during any of the sessions, the corpse might be carried out, after the session is ended, through a small door on the back side of the premises. The presence of a corpse, or passage of it through certain places, is regarded by the Chinese as defiling, and ominous of evil. Graduates of the second degree are obliged to go to Peking if they wish to compete for the third literary degree (doctor of laws), or chin-tsz. The regular examinations of masters of arts for the doctorship is held once every three years. The competitors who wish to go to Peking on this errand, on presenting them- selves for the first trip at the provincial treasurer's yaimm with the proper vouchers, formerly received forty-eight taels for the purpose of defraying, in part, the expenses of the journey. This is designed to encourage the poor scholar who has not funds enough of his own a present from the emperor. Of late years only half of the sum is received here before starting; the balance is drawn at s*ome place about half way, or after return home, having attended the examination at Peking. REJOICINGS, FESTIVITIES, AND HONORS IN VIEW OF' SUCCESSFUL COMPETITION. The deficiency in means for giving the news by daily .papers in China is obviated, in part, by some enterprising individuals having the names of the highest of the list of candidates before the district magistrate and the prefect engraved and pub- lished on slips of paper, which are hawked about the streets for sale. As the competitors before the literary chancellor are first known only by their seats, the would-be news-vendor comes to an understanding with the head clerk at the office, who furnishes the real names of the favored ones before they are generally known in public. By having these engraved and struck off, the news is made known a considerable time before it would transpire in the usual course of events i. e., by report from one to another. The sale of the list of the successful competitors at the examination for the second degree, obtained by bribery of the clerk of the treasurer's office some time in advance of the placarding in public of the sheets which contain them unless published as a speculation by*the clerk himself oftentimes is very great. When first out, it frequently brings as high as twenty or thirty cash ; but after the list has been exposed on the Drum Tower, the price falls to one or two cash. The clerks and underlings at the various offices connected with the district magistrate, the prefect, the literary chancellor, and the treasurer, make haste to write out the names and the seats, or the numbers of those who stand toward the PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 235 highest on the lists of the respective examinations, each on a large sheet of red paper. This they carry or send, at as early a period as possible, if not too distant, to the family to which each belongs, with their congratulations. This is styled " carrying the information." It is done for the purpose of obtaining a present from the family. The first one who reaches the family with the news receives, according to established custom, comparatively a large sum ; the next bringer of the news a smaller sum, and the third comer with the red paper a still smaller sum. The reward is usually given with pleasure and with satisfaction, as it is con- sidered a mark of honor and quite reputable to have such messengers arrive with the good tidings. In the course of a few days after the names of the successful competitors have become known, the family to which each belongs gives a feast to celebrate the event. Two or three days before the feast, a large card of light red paper, inclosed in a deep red envelope, is sent around to each one of the family relatives, or inti- mate friends or respected neighbors, whom his family have decided to invite to the festive occasion, requesting them to "shed their light" on the entertainment. In due time the invited guests make their appearance with their present of money called " congratulating politeness." At the appropriate time during the festivities, the successful competitor must worship " Heaven and Earth" as an indication of his thanks for the honor put upon his family. Afterward he must, for a similar reason, worship the ancestral tablets of his family, and then he must kneel down before his parents, if both are living, and bow his head down toward the ground three times. Should one be deceased, his or her tablet occupies the chair which he or she would have taken if alive. In case he has no mother-in-law living, and if he is not engaged to be mar- ried, his own mother, if living, proceeds to invest hitn with the red silk scarf, in the established manner for graduates of the first or second degree. This is a long strip of red silk, which is placed over one shoulder and under the other, crossing twice on his breast and on his back, in the form of the letter X, if he is a graduate of the second degree, and finally tied around his waist as a belt. If a graduate of the first degree, the strip does not cross twice on his breast, but is simply put over one shoulder and under the opposite arm, and is then tied around his waist, having gone only once over his breast. In case he is engaged to be married, it falls to the privilege of the mother of his affianced bride to put upon him this badge of joy for the first time in the established fashion, which is done at her own house before a long interval has elapsed. If he has a mother-in-law, it becomes her happy lot to put upon him the scarf of joy and of honor. On the day appointed for the graduates of the first degree to appear before the literary chancellor to pay him their respects, they all rise very early in the morn- ing, in order to make the customary sacrifice to heaven and earth. When this has been properly done, each must go and call upon his mother-in-law, or the mother of his affianced bride, for the purpose of having her own hands place around his shoulders the red scarf, unless, in view of distance or some other circumstance, she has been called upon to perform the act one or two days previous. He now sets off in his sedan for the yamun of the literary chancellor, so as to be ready to go in with his felh)w graduates at the hour appointed. Each of the graduates on this imposing occasion is dressed in an outer long dress of light blue silk. His boots are square-toed, and usually made of satin. His cap is not the little skull-cap usually worn, but the larger cap of ceremony, on two sides of which (those which come by his ears) has been fastened a kind of artifi- 236 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF cial flower, professedly made of gold leaf, but really of brass foil, fastened to a wire. These project up several inches above the cap perpendicularly. When the time has arrived, all the graduates of the first degree enter the pre- sence of the literary chancellor, and arrange themselves in order before him. As soon as the master of ceremonies gives the word of command, they kneel simulta- neously before him, and proceed to bow their heads down to the ground three times in unison. After this important ceremony, which is intended to express their profound obligations to their "venerable teacher," they rise to their feet and disperse. Sometimes the officer before whom this ceremony is performed rises to his feet, and, grasping his own hands, inclines his body forward slightly, moves his hands gently up and down, and, as it were, toward the body of graduates before him, repeatedly utters his " thanks" in a low tone of voice while they are on their knees and making their bows before him. Such an act on the part of the literary chancellor is believed to be a mark of his humility, and to indicate his un worthiness to receive such honor. After they have left the yamun of the literary chancellor, they proceed singly or in small companies, as they please, to call upon the prefect, and pay him their respects in a similar manner, upon their knees. They then make similar calls upon their respective literary officers, which are subordinate to the literary chan- cellor, and upon the district magistrates of their respective districts. In case of those graduates who live out of the district in which the prefectural city is located where they have obtained their degree, they must, of course, return to their own districts, in order to pay their respects to their respective district magistrates. They must in like manner pay a visit to their principal teachers that is, those who have in former years taught them the classics, and how to write prose compo- sitions and poems. After this, they call upon their parents-in-law, their relatives on their father and their mother's side, upon their personal and intimate friends, and their respectable neighbors and acquaintances whom they wish to honor. The graduates of the second literary degree, instead of first calling upon the lit- erary chancellor, as do the graduates of the first degree, are invited to a feast at the yamun of the governor of the province. They have on their shoulders a thick cape. They have the red scarf, the square-toed boots, and the golden flowers, like those of the first degree. After worshiping heaven and earth on the morning of the feast, they proceed to the yamun, and at the proper moment present themselves before the tables professedly laden with rich provisions, of which they may partake, but which are principally quite unfit to eat. According to the popular represent- ation of this feast, it is a ridiculous farce. The treasurer should furnish money to set the tables with a variety of palatable viands, one table for each graduate. In fact, the food provided is miserable in quality and of few kinds, and small in quan- tity. A table is professedly spread for each, some of the dishes on it being partly filled with food. The rest are filled with sawdust, or something which will fill up, the top being covered with paper. Every table is provided with a small plate, wine- cup and tea-cup, made out of real silver. Each graduate takes his position before a table. At the proper moment, during the time allotted for the feast, the gradu- ates arrange themselves in order before the provincial governor, who may sit or stand as he pleases. At the command of the master of ceremonies, they must all kneel down and bow their heads three times. After this they disperse, to call upon .the literary chancellor and the other officers, their teachers, etc., in regard to whom law or custom makes it their duty to call upon for the purpose of pre- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 237 scnting their respects. After a little time has elapsed, the master of ceremonies calls upon servants to clear the tables, and, accordingly, men appear and carry the contents to the homes of the graduates, or to the place where they are temporarily living, if not resident at the capital of the province, for which a present of several hundred cash is expected on delivery. If these articles reach their homes, they are taken and placed before the ancestral tablets of their family, to show the departed how their descendants have been honored. In the case of those who live at a great distance, doubtless the provisions furnished by the bounty of the emperor are not taken home. The difference between the real cost of the feast, and the sum charged or allotted according to law, of course is pocketed by the high officers and their subordinates, who have the handling of the money and the getting up of the feast. It is affirmed by literary men that every graduate of the second degree costs the emperor about one thousand taels, but that of this sum the high mandarins and subordinate officers manage to pockej; all but the few taels which are really spent at various times on his behalf. A few days before the newly-made masters of arts go to the feast at the gov- ernor's yamun, they are honored by the reception of a black silk outer dress or coat, a cape, a court cap, and a pair of square-toed boots, sent from the treasurer, but in the name of the emperor. All of these are paid for by the emperor, and designed to be a token of his regard for the literary abilities of the graduates. They, therefore, ought to be of good material and well made, but the fact is they are entirely worthless and useless. The treasurer has had them made up of the very poorest kind of material, and in the cheapest manner possible, so that they are not fit to be worn on any public occasion. They are received with thanks only for the sake of form and name, not because they are worth anything. The treasurer and his underlings have the reputation of pocketing the difference between the cost of the articles as actually provided, and what articles suitable for use made of good materials and in a proper style would have cost ! The empe- ror is charged full price for the trumpery presented in his name. The graduates or their relatives are obliged to be at the expense of getting good articles of the kinds mentioned for them to wear at the feast in their honor, and in the procession in public soon to take place. It is only the very poorest of the poor graduates who wear the articles provided at government expense. Whatever may be the law, or the ancient custom, or the true theory in regard to the boots, cap, coat and scarf actually worn by the guest at this feast, they are now provided usually by the family of his father-in-law. This custom is known as that of "presenting the boots and caps." In calling upon their personal teachers, relatives, friends and neighbors, the graduate, whether of the first or the second literary rank, goes in as good a sedan as his circumstances will allow, dressed in his suit of ceremony, with cap, flowers and scarf. Two men always precede his sedan, carrying each a bamboo twelve or fifteen feet in length, having toward the smallest end several yards of red silk entwined in the green branches. These banners have been presented by friends or relations as an expression of their joy There is also a band of eight musicians who precede his sedan. Close by his sedan follows a servant or two, who are pro- vided with a large number of cards. In many of these joyous processions there will be seen a red screen, some five or six feet square, borne along by two men. It is made out of red camlet or red broadcloth, fastened into a wooden frame. On the two sides are several lucky characters, made of gilt paper, and of a very large size. This screen is a token that the graduate has a father-in-law or a mother-in- 238 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP law living. It is always furnished by the family to which his wife, if already married, or his affianced wife, if only engaged, belongs. The main streets of the prefectural city, on the days when graduates pay their visits of ceremony, present an animated appearance. Generally there are three days spent at the provincial city in making these formal calls. These processions may be seen going back and forth in the streets, accompanied with music and wav- ing of banners. The graduates seldom sit down at these calls, but pay their respects, and then depart to find other relatives or friends. Sometimes they do not kneel down, but only make the customary salutation of raising and lowering their clasped hands, while they bend their bodies very low, as if bowing toward their friends. On arrival at the house occupied by his parents-in-law, he is expected to kneel down and bow three times before the ancestral tablets of the family, as well as perform the same marks of respect before the parents of his wife, or the parents of his affianced bride, if not already married. At some convenient time, the graduate, whether of the first or the second degree, is invited to a feast given in his honor at the house of his parents-in-law and at their expense, provided he is married or engaged. They invite such rela- tives and friends as they please. The honored one, immediately after his arrival, is led to the place where the ancestral tablets of their family are to be found, before which he kneels and bows three times. He then performs the same act of homage or respect before the persons of his father-in-law and mother-in-law, who sit side by side. After this he sits down to the feast and drinks three cups of wine, and pretends to eat a little from dishes containing three kinds of vegetables or three kinds of meats. He then refuses or declines to eat any more, soon rises up, and takes his departure, as though he were in great haste and had no time to spare. All these things are done in accordance with established usage on such occasions. Drinking three cups of wine and partaking of three kinds of food are good omens, and refer to the three grades of literary rank A. B., A. M., and LL. D.; or Sewtsai, Kujin and Chin-tsz, to all of which the happy and ambitious son-in-law would have his admiring and loving parents-in-law understand he is making haste to attain in regular order and without interruption, as men count one, two^ three one, two, three. Graduates of the second and the higher literary degrees are entitled to erect an honorary tablet, which is usually suspended over the principal outer door of their residence ; another is put in the ancestral hall. The one who heads the list of successful competitors for the second degree has a tablet which contains two characters, which to the initiated intimate that honorable fact. These characters are often gilded, and are of a large form, between one and two feet square, occupying the center of the tablet. The whole tablet is six or eight feet in length, and of a proportionate width. The graduates from the second to the fifth name inclusive on the list have certain characters which indicate the fact to those who understand their application and meaning. Those from the sixth to the twelfth, inclusive, have other characters to denote their relative standing in the class. All who come below the twelfth are included under certain two characters, which are usually black and highly varnished. Besides these letters, which occupy the central portion of the tablet, there is an inscription in much smaller characters, stating the name or title of the emperor, the year of his reign, the surname and title of the literary chancellor, and the number and the name of the scholar on the list of graduates. The near family relatives having the same surname, as paternal uncles, own brothers, etc., are permitted to erect a duplicate of this honorary PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 239 tablet over their doors. Some houses have several of these tablets, erected in honor of different members of their family relatives, over their front doors. Those who, at the literary examinations of Peking, are graduated of the third rank of scholarship, have terms applied to them when speaking of them, and put on their honorary tablets, which indicate their relative position on the list of the successful competitors. Besides, there is an inscription which denotes the title of the emperor, date of year, title of viceroy, etc. Family relatives on the father's side are also permitted to make duplicates of the tablets, and suspend them as badges of honor, or as ornaments to their home. When a graduate of the first degree has kept up his regular attendance at the examination for the second until he has arrived at about the age of eighty years without being able to attain the much- coveted literary rank, it becomes the duty of the governor to report his case to the emperor. His majesty presents the aged scholar with the title of Kujin, in honor of his long literary struggles. On the tablet which the old gentleman is authorized to place over the door to his residence he must put two words, which indicate that the honor was conferred by especial favor of the emperor /himself. After the reception of this title, he may, if he pleases, and has the strength to endure the fatigues of the trip, and the money to pay its expenses, go up to the capital and compete for the third degree, which, however, is very seldom done. There is a still higher literary degree, obtained after an examination before the emperor, of the best scholars of the doctors of laws. But it is not worth while to speak at length of this and other literary examinations of students at the capital. It is enough for our purpose to see them begin to climb the ladder of honor, wealth, and fame. The successful competitors on these occasions are sure of immediate, honorable, and lucrative positions as mandarins in the provinces, as members of the Hanlin College, or as members of some of the Six Boards. A feast at the expense of the emperor is given at Peking in honor of the graduate of the third degree who has lived to the sixtieth year after he became chin-tsz, or LL. D. Such a man has lived through one complete cycle since his graduation. He may erect an honorary tablet over his door, which shall contain the four Chinese letters which denote the feast in his honor to which he has been invited by the emperor. Such a tablet is but rarely found, and is a token of great longevity. In the same manner, a feast is given to the graduates of the second degree who have lived sixty years after their graduation, if they have not attained to the third degree. The literary graduate has four characters indicating the fact put upon his tablet, and the military graduate has four other words indicating the same honor- able fact. In these various ways does the emperor honor those who devote themselves to a literary life. JUST AND LEGAL MEASURES USED TO PREVENT DECEPTION. The following are some of the just and legal measures which are sometimes resorted to by the presiding officers at the different literary examinations previous to examination of competitors for the second degree, to prevent or expose attempts to deceive on the part of the competitors. Enough assistants and servants are employed in connection with these examina- tions to prevent fraud, provided the principals and the subordinates were to be trusted, and were sincere 'y desirous of carrying out the laws and regulations. But the fact seems to be that the district magistrate, and the prefect, and the literary chancel- 240 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF lor, or the imperial commissioners appointed to preside over examinations of can- didates for the second degree, are oftentimes anxious to bestow favors contrary to law and justice, as well as their subordinates to receive bribes for violations of the rules on the part of competing candidates. The officers feel they cannot trust their assistants, and the assistants are on the alert for ways and means to deceive the officers, or to wink at the violation of rules in order to benefit certain scholars, whose personal friends they are, or who have bought their aid or silence. Allusions have been made to certain well understood regulations, which it is the duty of the door-keepers, servants and assistants of the officers to see carried out faithfully. If one of the competitors is found whispering with another, if he is detected in copying from or consulting any printed or manuscript volume or sheet which he has taken into the arena with him, or if any such helps are found on his person or in his possession, or if he is seen passing along to another person any written scroll, or if he is seen to use paper different from that provided by the clerk, or if it becomes manifest that he is writing for another to copy, that he is acting an assumed part, etc., it is the duty of some one of the assistants of the pre- siding officer to seize a certain stamp and proceed to impress it upon the roll of ruled paper with which the student competitor was provided on entering the arena. This stamping means that the individual in question has " violated the rules," and after his roll has been stamped it will not be read and examined, no matter how good it may be. Nor will the violator of the regulations be allowed to enter any subse- quent examination for that year. Doubtless many violations of the regulations are connived at by the clerks and assistants if done by a personal friend, or by one whom it will be profitable to allow to cheat, especially if a bonus should have been previously slipped intojjthe hands of any principal clerk as a proviso lest some- thing should unfortunately occur. In such cases the culprit is screened, if possi- ble. Of course, if the violation is noticed by the presiding officer, the roll of the violator of the rules must be promptly stamped, to save the honor and the reputa- tion of the examiner. Some time after the doors have been "sealed and locked up for the day, and the students have taken their seats, the following device is resorted to in order to pre- vent a certain kind of deception on the part of the competitors. About an hour or two after themes have been made known, and the students have had time to arrange their thoughts, and have commenced the copying off of their essays or poem, a man goes round to each competitor's seat with a stamp, and stamps the paper at the precise place where the last character has been written, as at the mid- dle of the eighth line, or the end of the fifth, as the case may be. If no beginning has been made on the roll of ruled paper, the scroll is simply stamped on the out- side. After this stamp has been impressed upon his scroll at the place where he had arrived in writing off his prose composition or his poem, the presiding exam- iner is pretty sure that no deception will be practiced upon him unless aid be received from some sheet or book which has been smuggled in and con- sulted; for at that stage of the proceedings it is usually too early to receive essays or poems written by confederates within the arena or without it. And unless a beginning has been already made, and should the roll be stamped on the outside, an essay or poem thereafter written out in it will not receive any attention from the examiner and judge. Suppose that a beginning has been already made on the first theme in anticipation of this stamping of the roll, and an essay which had been composed by an accomplice, who could not know, of course, how the commenced essay began, should afterward be received in time to be copied PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 241 off on the ruled paper, the two parts would be very unlikely to match each other. The style of the part which was furnished by a confederate would be apt to differ very much from the style of the part at the beginning, written by the competitor at his seat in the hall. Unless the parts should be so composed as to match each other very well, the examining officer can readily detect any attempt at deception, so far as regards the splicing on to the part above the stamp enough to complete the essay from a composition made outside of the premises, or by an accomplice within. It is barely possible that the competitor may have genius enough so to alter and modify the beginning of an essay prepared by a confederate as to have it properly match, or splice on the few lines he may have been able to compose before the paper was stamped. But it is not often that one who is not able to prepare his own essay so as to have it accepted has genius enough to modify and change that of another man so as to join it on to a fragment of his own composi- tion in such a manner that both parts shall seem to the practiced eye and judgment of those who are .on the look-out for discrepancies to have been composed by one person. It has been already explained that the candidates before the literary chancellor have their seats fixed upon before they enter his yamun to compete for the first degree. The seats are arranged in rows, the rows being numbered with some character in the millenary character classic in regular order. The seats in each row are numbered regularly one, two, three, etc. A slip of paper attached to his roll of ruled paper has the character indicating the row of seats and the number of his allotted seat in that row written or stamped upon it. He must, according to the regulations, occupy this particular seat during all the time that he is in the hall writing his essays and poem. During the session at any time, the examining officer may send around one or more clerks or assistants to examine the slip on the roll and the seat occupied by the competitor to whom the roll belongs, or is supposed to belong from the fact of its being in his possession, and from the cir- cumstance of his being engaged in writing upon its pages. If the memoranda on the slip correspond with the row and the seat occupied by the candidate, it is taken for granted that everything is right. Should, however, there be any discre- pancy in regard to either row or number compared with the items of the slip at any time during the period allotted to the composition of the essays and the poem, it is taken for proof that there is an attempt at deception being practiced, and the paper of the student is summarily stamped with the stamp indicating that the rules have been violated. Any excuse or explanation which may be attempted is re- garded only as corroborative evidence that the person faulted is not honest. Should he say, "I mistook the range of seats," laying the blame upon poor eyesight, or haste, or want of attention, he would be answered, " Are you not a scholar, and are you really as stupid as you pretend ? If so, there would be no use in trying to com- pete." This comparing the slips and seats to see if they correspond is called " examination of the marks." Of course, it is dreaded only by the competitors who are conscious of endeavoring to succeed by unjust and deceptive measures ; an honest student has no reason to fear the result of this examination. Notwith- standing all the vigilance of the examiner and his assistants, even if these officials are desirous of doing honestly their duties, students sometimes devise means to accomplish their ends by changing their seats without detection, and, of course, without exposure and dishonor, as will be explained below. It sometimes occurs that the literary chancellor orders the clerk at the proper office connected with his yamun to have fifty or sixty of the best scholars, accord- [Assem. No. 237.] 31 242 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF ing to the lists recommended by the district magistrate and the prefect, to sit in a certain part of the hall during the sessions of his examinations, near which he himself is to be engaged. The others are distributed over the east and west sides of the hall, some of them at a considerable distance from his tribunal. The prin- cipal object of this arrangement, while it is professedly intended to honor these men by having them occupy seats near the person of the literary chancellor, is to have them under his personal supervision. In this way he can the more readily detect any attempt at deception on their part, either by consulting sheets of printed or manuscript papers, or by receiving aid in any form from people con- nected with the yamun directly or indirectly. When these competitors are thus seated under the immediate and watchful eye of the chief, his servants or his lite- rary assistants find it usually extremely difficult to pass to any. of their number a scroll received from persons outside of the arena or composed within the pre- mises. Notwithstanding the honor of being thus seated, even honest students generally prefer to be seated in some other part of the arena, as it affords no advan- tages, and they feel they are under the constant personal espionage of their lite- rary judge. Of course, students who desire to make use of unfair and unlawful means to attain success, dislike extremely to be obliged to take their seats at the upper end of the arena, and within speaking distance of the literary chancellor. But what he wishes must be done with apparent pleasure. A sullen and dissat- isfied appearance would militate against them. As these honored competitors are few in number, and as they may not at pleasure vacate their seats and ramble over the premises, but must remain at their posts, it is competent for the literary chancellor to prevent their communicating with any of the servants or the assist- ants more than he is pleased to permit, and he may personally inspect all that is done to them or for them, and prevent, if he is sincerely desirous of preventing, the use of unlawful means. The preceding account or description of the lawful expedients employed to pre- vent the use of any unfair and unlawful methods to insure success on the part of the competitors, relates to those examinations which result in the graduation of bachelors, not masters of arts. In regard to the measures resorted to in exami- nations before the imperial commissioners, for the second degree, something has already been said. It is difficult to attain to'very clear views in detail concerning the methods employed to prevent fraud and deception at the examinations before these commissioners. Enough was said to show that abundant measures are em- ployed to prevent the use of unfair means, provided the servants and literary assistants connected with the premises are faithful and strict in the discharge of the duties of their stations. It must be sufficiently evident, from what has been explained and suggested, that when the presiding examiners, and their assistants and underlings in the examination of undergraduates or graduates, are truly anxious to detect imposi- tion, and prevent the employment of unjust and unlawful helps in the composition of the essays and poems, it is impossible for the competitors to succeed in duping them. It is affirmed that very often the literary chancellor and the imperial commis- sioners are bribed to confer degrees upon certain competitors. Sometimes large sums are given in order to corrupt these officials. It is an easy task to arrange such matters with the literary chancellor, if he is willing to be persuaded, for he dwells at the provincial capital for three years, and respectable men may readily gain access to his person. In regard to the imperial commissioners, it is more PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 243 difficult to gain access to them after their arrival at the capital of the province; for, as has been remarked, they are shut up inside of sealed doors in their tempo- rary residences, before they enter upon the discharge of their official duties, in the premises allotted for their use during the preparation and examination of essays at the hall. It is the design of the emperor that they shall have no intercourse with the people of the province, lest they should be tempted to do unlawful things. This practical difficulty is often remedied by those who wish to bribe them^ as well as by those who wish to prefer some claim for their favor, by sending on mes.xjii- gers with letters and proposals to meet them while several days' journey distant from the provincial city. In this way everything may be arranged to the satis- faction of the competitors before the commissioners reach the city where they expect to exercise their official functions. The stanza or clause of the poem, or the characters which are to be inserted at specified places in the compositions to be made, are fixed upon, and it only remains to be seen whether the commissioner interested in the individual will succeed in getting possession of these composi- tions, which cannot always be affirmed with certainty. Sometimes the district magistrate or the prefect, as a matter of favor to a rela- tive or for friendship's sake, will consent to place at the head of the lists of the candidates they recommend to the literary chancellor names of certain candidates, and frequently they are induced to make certain individuals head their lists, in view of the sum of money which is secured to them in case these individuals actually come out of the arena before the literary chancellor accepted "bachelors." Sometimes, it is affirmed, they dare even to intimate to the literary chancellor the pleasure it would give them, and the obligations under which they would be laid, if certain persons on their list could be deemed worthy of a degree. In such cases, their intimations are understood by the chancellor ; and if he is friendly with them, and cannot advance his own interests in a better way, these persons are almost sure to become successful competitors. In like manner, occasionally the high officers found at the provincial city use their influence with the literary chan- cellor privately., but in such a manner that he can not misunderstand their meaning. He is generally believed to have no personal objection to making friends among high mandarins, by doing little favors for them which come in his line of business, or to replenishing his purse with the voluntary presents of his affectionate and obliged pupils. Stories are current relating to literary chancellors who were very strict, and to others who were very remiss. Of a certain literary chancellor it is related that he was so strict that he would allow no one but himself in the hall after the themes had been given out. He actually turned all his assistants and servants out of the premises, shutting and fastening the inner doors with his own hands ; but one of his chief clerks managed to speak with him during the session, and to fasten upon his garments a paper which had been prepared on the themes given out by an accomplice, in accordance with a previous understanding. This paper the literary chancellor unwittingly took back into the arena, where it was dexterously removed from his clothing by one of the competitors. UNJUST AND UNLAWFUL EXPEDIENTS USED BY EXAMINERS. Generally speaking, the examining officers are not averse to receiving bribes to give the preference to certain individuals, and sometimes they are themselves desirous to confer favors upon certain candidates to requite an act of kindness received on a former occasion, or to oblige a friend or relative. For instance, the 244 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF literary chancellor or the imperial commissioners sent to preside at the examina- tions may have relatives or friends living in the province, who have sons who would like to become "bachelors" or "masters;" or they may have friends in other provinces to whom they feel under obligations, who have friends or relatives living in this, who would not object to having some of their children, or brothers, or uncles graduate. As soon as the name of a new literary chancellor, or the names of new imperial examining commissioners transpire, plans are often laid in this and other provinces which it is designed shall lead to the graduation of various com- petitors, as a matter of favor to some personal friend or family relative. If the literary chancellor wishes to bestow a bachelorship upon any one, it is the simplest and easiest thing imaginable. He may become personally acquainted with the individual, and give him a private signal or mark to be made upon a particular part of his essay; or the whole matter may be arranged by a confidential friend of the aspiring scholar; or he may have him seated near him in the last examina- tion preceding the making out of the list of successful candidates, and so make sure of obtaining his manuscript. He need only mark it as accepted, and the thing is accomplished. Should either of the commissioners presiding over the examination of candidates for the second degree wish to confer a degree upon a certain individual, he has only to give him two or three characters to insert in a specified part of the essay, and the essay will then be easily recognized. Should the composition be posted upon the wall for violation of the rules, the individual would be rejected, and there would be no resource ; or should it fall into the hands of the other commissioners, the individual might not be successful. It would depend more on its merits. Should the composition not be " recommended " by the subordinate literary assist- ants who examine the essays and poems before they go before the commissioners themselves, but rejected because of decidedly inferior worth, in case the commis- sioner should be determined to try and find them, he would only have to report to the subordinate assistants that there were not enough good ones recommended and sent up to him, when they would be obliged to recommend some more which they deemed the next best. In such cases, these assistants usually suspect that there is favoritism or bribery at the bottom of the desire for more essays and poems. The commissioner may or may not find the particular essays and poem. Should he find one set at any of the examinations, as first, second or third, there are means by which he can obtain the other two to make up the three sets. What is meant by saying he may give the candidate certain characters to insert at certain places in his essay, may be illustrated by the following supposition : He instructs him to use the word " heaven " on the second page, sixth column, and fourteenth space, and the word " earth " on the fourth page, third column and fourth space, or near the beginning of the line. As it would be a very rare chance if any essay should have these two characters so placed except it was planned for a purpose, the examining commissioner, as soon as he comes across these words, understands who the writer is. It will be remembered that the original manuscripts in black ink are not seen by the commissioner, but a faithful copy, minus marks and blots, etc., written out in red ink. Nowadays it has become more customary for the commissioners to give the favored one a line or two of poetry to use at the end, or the beginning, or the middle of his poem, than to give certain characters to be used according to a pri- vate understanding. A few years since, a very large proportion of the graduates of the first degree were very young, arid it was said, in explanation, that the lite- PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 245 rary chancellor who presided at the examination when they graduated loved to graduate young candidates. Others, it is said, sometimes carry out the contrary caprice of graduating old men. In all such cases, it is not probable that the selec- tion of the fortunate ones was made according to the merit of their compositions. It occurs not unfrequently that the chief clerk, in connection with the yamun of the literary chancellor, or some of the high literary assistants who are employed in connection with the examination of candidates for the second degree, become interested in the success of certain candidates, either because they are relative.", or personal friends, or because they have been bribed to forward their interests. In such cases they take occasion to recommend strongly certain manuscripts, which they are able to distinguish from all others by private marks. If the examining judge should seem disposed to pass them by as unworthy, they sometimes presume to recommend again and again with great persistence, yet with the exhibition of great humility and respect, the same manuscripts to the favorable judgment of their respected and venerable teacher. At- such times he generally at once suspects that there is some private influence being brought to bear ; and provided the manuscripts are not decidedly inferior, and provided the reception of them into the number of approved manuscripts will not interfere with his own private plans and interests in regard to the list of successful competitors, he often consents to look over the roll of compositions again, and concludes to agree that they are worthy. Sometimes a repeated recommendation of the high merits of certain manuscripts, contrary to the manifest judgment of the chief examiner, on the part of his subordinate, would but decide their fate unfavorably, as he might be indisposed to be a party to the success of any secret intrigue in regard to the probable pecuniary profits of which he was not sure of being a partaker. He might also feel that, for the sake of his reputation, he must at once oppose the success of any competitor who, as he believed, had interested one or more of his assistants in a conspiracy in his favor. He must show himself just and impartial in his judgments. UNJUST AND UNLAWFUL EXPEDIENTS TO SUCCEED USED BY COMPETITORS. It is a common practice for a student who resides in a country place, and who has money to spare for the purpose, to hire a good scholar who lives in the city, and who has the reputation of being a quick and accurate composer of literary essays and poems, to go into the proper examinations in his name and in his behalf. Country students are not usually as talented and as skillful in literary composi- tions as are scholars bred in the city. By hiring a city man, if of good natural and acquired parts, the countryman is supposed to stand a better chance of success than though he trusted to his own abilities. This course is manifestly unfair and unjust to the other candidates of his district; for by as much as this hiring a stran- ger, who is a better scholar than himself, increases his prospects of success, by so much does it diminish the chance of the graduation of some one of the v est. They generally resist any such attempts to acquire a bachelorship by personal violence, if threats do not intimidate the hired man, or by revealing his true character after assembling in the examination hall. They prefer, however, to prevent his actually getting into the arena devoted to the composition of their tasks, if possible. Those candidates for the first degree who for any reason are detained from meeting with the rest of their fellows, and competing before the district magistrate or the prefect, and yet are in reason for competing at the regular examination before the literary chancellor, when they have money which they are willing to spend in this way, resort sometimes to the following expedient in order to be able 246 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP to enter that examination. They go to the proper clerks connected with the yamuns of the district magistrate and the prefect, and bribe them to supply them with the necessary sets of rolls of ruled paper, on which they proceed to write essays and poems on the themes which have already been discussed at the exam- inations which he missed. These essays and poems are then handed to the clerks, who take them and mix them up with the essays and poems prepared by the other competitors in the usual manner and at the proper time, but which were not regarded very worthy. The clerks are also bribed to annex the names of those absentees on the list of those who really entered the examinations. In this way these real delinquents have their names recorded on the list of candidates recom- mended to the literary chancellor, and have also rolls of essays and poems, which may be referred to by the literary chancellor, should they, while competing in the examination presided over by him, write essays and poems which rank high. It may be deemed desirable by him to compare the essays which they wrote at the other examinations, as regards style and handwriting, in order to detect attempts at deception. Sometimes, in case an undergraduate knows he cannot be present for some rea- son at the lower examination, he engages a personal literary friend to go into the arena and compete in his name, doing as well as he can ; or he hires some scholar to go in and write essays in his behalf. On his arrival, his friend or the hired scholar retires, allowing him to take his proper place, under his own name, at the future examinations. He need not pursue the course described in the preceding paragraph, but simply " exchan e rolls " that is, he bribes the clerk or clerks to furnish him the number of rolls of ruled paper required, and to lend the rolls which contain the essays and poems composed in his behalf by his friend or the hired scholar. He keeps these borrowed rolls of manuscript only long enough to copy off the compositions made by his proxy, which he hands into the possession of the clerk or clerks. The copies are mixed up with the other manuscripts, and the original rolls are destroyed or put out of the way. Should he, at a future examination, write approved essays and poems, and should the literary chancellor like to compare those made at the lower and previous examinations, the copies, which of course are in his own handwriting, would be produced for comparison. Sometimes two students wish to sit very near each other at the examinations, not for the purpose of mutually aiding each other, but that one of them may be of service to the other. In such cases, one is hired to aid the other because of his ability to compose with celerity and correctness. It is his object to compose the essays and poem for his employer to copy. The nearer they can sit to each other the less probability will there be of being detected and exposed in any attempts to pass manuscripts back and forth. For example, A and B wish to sit near each other, but they find that their scrolls of paper indicate widety distant seats. One "s marked for the eleventh seat of the first row on the east side of the main pas- ;age-way in the centre of the hall, and the other is marked for the fourth seat of the fifteenth row on the west side of the passage-way. A tries to make an arrangement with some one whose seat is near the appointed seat of his friend B, so that he may use that seat instead of his own. At the same time, B tries to make arrangements to sit by his employer or friend A. If either can find any one who will accommodate him for friendship or for money, he exchanges his ticket for the ticket of the other ; for, as it has been observed above, should an " exam- ination of marks " be made, the scroll must be found at the place where it is appointed to be, or it is summarily stamped. The men, in effect, simply change PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 247 seats, the one using the scroll prepared for the other. It is said that sometimes comparatively a large sum of money is paid for the privilege of occupying some conveniently-located seat. The arrangement must be concluded, and the exchange of tickets corresponding to the rolls of ruled paper must be made, before the names of the candidates are called over, and the men are obliged to take their places on the morning of the examination day. It would not be possible to make an arrange- ment subsequent to that time, as the competitors are required to take their seats as soon as they receive their rolls of ruled paper in exchange for their tickets. According to law, a man ought to compete only in the district to which he belongs ; but oftentimes, in the case of two very populous districts adjoining each other, as at this city, the eastern part of the city belonging to one district and the western part belonging to another district, students manage to compete in two districts, all in order to increase the chance of success. If the examinations fall on the same day in both districts, a student cannot, of course, be present at both. The course he takes is to have his patronymic, or family name, recorded in the proper offices of the two districts, but with different given or personal names, one of which is his true, and the other an assumed name. In case the examination falls on the same day in both districts, he makes use of only one of his names, of course, going into the examination which he thinks affords the surest prospect of. success, hiring some one to go into the other examination for him, or selling out the opportunity to the highest bidder, or allowing a personal friend to take advan- tage of the opening for his own benefit. Sometimes an enterprising man, a little before the time when an examination of candidates for the first degree is to commence, prepares a room or building near the arena, and invites a number of talented men to come there and hire out their services to rich candidates who wish to obtain secret aid. The premises are called a " horse-shed" or a "horse-stable," and the men who come there to write essays for their employers are called " horses." Their employers are said to " ride horses." The " horses " are necessarily men of superior gifts at literary composition, and are often graduates of the first or the second degree, who are needy, and willing to do an unjust and unlawful action for a pecuniary consideration. The head man of the horse-shed employs men to act the part of go-betweens, who go around secretly to the rich candidates and try and find out who are willing to pay liber- ally for literary help. These candidates are brought to the rendezvous for con- sultation and decision in regard to price for the aid to be rendered, and the partic- ular " horses " they are to ride. The man whose service is engaged then lays his plans, whether to go into the examination in person, or remain outside and prepare the essay and the poem. He sometimes tries to get into the arena by hiring a stu- dent to stay out, taking his ticket, and assuming his name for the time being, or, by finding out a competitor who has his name recorded in two districts, and pur- chasing from him the privilege of using his name in one. All this is contrary to law, and the guilty parties are liable to be punished with severity in case of detec- tion. The head man always receives a certain percentage, usually about ten per cent, on the sums agreed upon between the horses and their riders. The horses, if detected, are sometimes put in the cangue for a certain number of days, or, if graduates, they may be degraded from their literary rank. Notwithstanding the risk, there are plenty who are willing to engage in the business, provided the pay offered is ample. If the examining officer is very strict, the " horse " usually concludes to write his composition outside, and send it into the place of examination for his rider to copy. 248 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF In accordance with established custom, the one who acted as go-between between the rich candidate and his literary " horse," in case the former should succeed at the examination, will expect to receive a certain percentage on the sum agreed upon as pay for the services which he negotiated, over and above what he received at the time of making the contract, if he received any. If the sum is two hundred thousand cash, he would expect forty thousand cash as his share of the spoils, the usual proportion being twenty per cent., unless some other percent- age is fixed upon at the time of making the bargain. This is called " turning- around-the-head cash," referring to cash which is paid after some understood event has transpired, and which requires one to turn around, go back, and receive it. The custom of paying " turning-around-the-head cash" extends to many other subjects besides those which relate to literary matters. It is a kind of bonus or present given, in case some very desirable event takes place, to those who have acted the part of middle-men in negotiations relating to it. Sometimes these men who sell their services are called by other names than horses, and their services are frequently engaged for examinations before the district magistrate, prefect, and the literary chancellor. It is always understood that if successful in obtaining a de- gree by the aid of another, the competitor must pay the one who was his horse ten times as much as he agreed to pay him, whether successful or not. If he agrees to pay him one hundred taels, whether he succeeds or not, he is bound to pay him one thousand taels in the event of his graduation by his help. The man gives his note of hand, with the signature of some relative or friend as security, to be paid after the close of the examinations. The sum paid for aid at the first examination before the examiners, as district magistrate and prefect, is oftentimes quite small. The nearer the examination for which aid is purchased is to the last one before the literary chancellor, which is generally the decisive one, the higher the sum demanded and promised. Sometimes a particular sum is fixed upon, provided the competitor's name should head the list before the lowest two examining officers at their last sessions, as such a person is almost sure of attaining the degree, in accordance with the established custom. In examinations of candidates before the imperial commissioners for the second degree, sometimes aid is only procured for the composition of the poetry, or for the third or fourth prose essay, the competitor himself having succeeded in pre- paring the other essays to his liking. Such help is usually hired of those who happen to occupy adjoining cells or apartments, and who have already finished their own tasks, and have time and strength to spare before the doors open and the session closes. Such a man generally is willing to sell his services cheaply, sometimes receiving not more than five or ten thousand cash for literary labor performed after his own compositions are completed. It is reported to be seldom practicable for horses outside of the hall to prepare and send in essays and poems to their riders inside to copy. Strange stories, however, are told of compositions made in very fine characters, and written on very thin paper, being smuggled into the hall by being incased in a coating of wax, and put into the water-buckets, which are turned into the troughs or reservoirs which connect with the inside of the hall. These are picked out of the water by accomplices, who act as servants or watchmen inside, and conveyed to the owners, whose names or whose seats are known at once to those who understand the private marks on the surface of the wax balls. Of course, the marks being unintelligible to the uninitiated, if these balls should happen to fall into the hands of those officers or servants who are not in the secret, the circumstance would not implicate any assistant, and could not be PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 249 used as proof against any particular competitor. He would only lose the benefit he might have derived from the use of the contents of his ball. It is also related that outside accomplices formerly used to contrive to get manuscript essays and poems conveyed to their friends inside the arena by using underground communications, and by sliding the manuscripts up the hollow legs of tables or hollow posts, which connected with a cellar or tunnel, the cellar or tunnel, of course, connecting with some adjacent building outside the premises. It was necessary, in such cases, that some person inside the hall should be on tho the look-out for the appearance of the manuscript, who would convey it to the competitor for whom it was designed. This expedient only avoided the danger and difficulty of employing a person connected with the hall to carry the manu- script through the door and deliver it to the owner who is inside, which, when the examining officer is not strict, is an easy thing to do. Bribery must be resorted to in every case. It sometimes occurs that the competitor at the first and second examinations before the district magistrate and the prefect manages to slip undetected or unchal- lenged out of the premises after his name has been called, and after he has obtained his roll of ruled paper in exchange for his ticket obtained from the proper clerk, but before the doors are shut and sealed, usually with the connivance of the door- keeper. In such a case, he goes to a convenient place, and prepares his essays and poem on the themes given out, either alone or with the help of friends, using all the helps he pleases to use. The themes are often made known to accomplices or friends outside by servants or literary assistants connected with the premises, who write them on a piece of tile, or on a piece of paper tied to a stone, which is then thrown over the outside wall at a particular place, or the paper is thrust through a crevice in an outside door or a hole in the wall. By preconcerted arrangement, the themes are taken by a confederate and distributed to those who have bribed the clerks to procure them. Or sometimes the roll of paper is taken outside after the doors are sealed and locked, the competitor to whom it belongs remaining inside, and an accomplice writes the essays and poems, and then delivers the roll, after the doors have been opened and a part of the competitors have come out, to the proper clerk or underling, who takes it inside the hall, and hands it, as though prepared in the hall, to the proper literary assistant of the examiner, who deposits it among other unexamined manuscripts, where it is found in due time by the chief. The particular kind of deception now described is said to be very unpopular and disgraceful, even the candidates being the judges, though it is occasionally practiced when detection is not probable by those who have money to spare for bribing the servants and assistants connected with the premises where the sessions are held. Frequent allusion has been made to the assistants, clerks, and servants, who allow themselves to be bribed to aid the competitors by carrying in to them, to copy, sheets of manuscript received from outside accomplices, or scrolls already written out on the appointed roll of ruled paper, or by communicating information in regard to the themes given out by the examiner. There is so much of this kind of deception done that there is a regular scale of charges for services in ordinary cases rendered to competitors by these men. For example, the regular bribe for carrying in a paper containing essays and poems written outside for a candidate within, at the first examination before the district magistrate, is said to be four hundred cash ; at the second examination, eight hundred cash ; at the third, one thousand six hundred cash ; and at the fifth, six thousand four hundred, doubling the rate at each higher session. Sometimes the magistrate suspects that deception [Assem. No. 237.] 32 250 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OP is being carried on in regard to certain persons or a certain class of competitors. He therefore requires them to sit in a more retired part of the premises, or nearer him. In such cases, the difficulty of conveying secret dispatches to them is greatly increased. The assistant or clerk who conveys manuscripts to such students expects to receive at least twice as much as though they occupied the seats that would naturally fall to their lot. For example, in another case, where he would expect to receive for the sixth session only twelve thousand eight hun- dred cash for services, he would now demand twenty-five thousand six hundred cash, which the person would be required, by the rules of honor in force here, to pay him with promptness, should the manuscript reach him safely and without detection. When the standard of the amount of the bribe for the first examina- tion before any examiner becomes fixed or settled upon for any given year, the charge for any subsequent examination can be readily figured up by doubling that sum for each intervening examination until the number in question is reached. Of course, extraordinary services are paid for at extraordinary prices, such as are agreed upon; for these there is no general rule or regular sum. It must be evident that the lists of successful candidates at examinations for the first and the second literary degree furnish no positive proof that the individuals concerned succeeded by their own merit. MILITARY COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS. There are regular competitory examinations of candidates for military honors in China, conducted much after the same manner as the examinations for literary rank are conducted. Competitors for the first military degree, a military bachelorship, are examined by the same officials as are literary competitors, but candidates for the second military degree are examined by the provincial governor instead of spe- cial commissioners from Peking. It seems strange to those who are accustomed to Western ideas that common ?ivil officers, who know nothing about the practice of arms, should be deemed entirely competent in China to superintend military examinations, and decide in regard to the relative merits and attainments of the competitors. It seems also very strange that, in a land where the use of gunpowder has been known for cen- turies, no skill in the employment of guns and cannon should be required in can- didates for military rank. Skill in archery and great physical strength are deemed of more importance than any other attainment relating to war. Those who desire to compete for the first military degree are required to present themselves before the district magistrate of the district where they properly belong at the time he appoints. They must first have their names entered on the list of competitors by the clerk of a certain office connected with his yamun, in order to which they are required to furnish the clerk a document stating various particulars relating to himself, which must be certified to by some one of the class of literary graduates of the first degree, who are appointed to act as " securities " for candidates for the first literary degree. Without this security to their docu- ment their names would not be recorded on the list of candidates, and they would not be allowed to enter the arena. At the first examination before the district magistrate, they are exercised in the practice of archery, standing ; they are examined in regard to their proficiency in shooting at a mark, each one shooting three arrows. At the second examination before this official they are exercised in the practice of archery on horseback. In like manner they are required to shoot three arrows at a mark, but while the PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 251 horse is running. At the third examination they are all exercised with large swords, and with heavy stones, and with stiff bows. There are three kinds of swords which they are required to brandish ; one, it is said, weighs 100 pounds, the second 120 pounds, and the other 180 pounds. The stones are also of three different sizes ; one weighs 100 pounds, another 120 pounds, and the other 160 pounds. These they are required to handle according to a certain rule. The bows they are exercised in bending are also of three different degrees of stiffness. It requires the expenditure of 100 pounds of strength to bend the smallest, 120 pounds of strength to bend the second size, and 160 pounds of strength to bend the third size. It is probable that, in fact, the strength necessary to bend the bows, to handle the stones, and to brandish the swords, is considerably less than is indicated by the above figures, illustrating the difference between theory and practice, or between law and custom. No archery is exacted at the third session, but simply bending the bows, and manoeuvering and practicing with the swords and stones, each man by himself, and each man for himself. The names of the competitors who do not fail entirely, or come below the lowest standard of merit allowable, or violate some of the well understood rules of the examination, are paraded in public on large sheets of paper, according to their rel- ative attainments and worth, soon after the close of each session. The one who heads the list at the end of the third examination it is customary for the literary chancellor to graduate. A list of competitors is made out by the district magis- trate at the close of his sessions, for the literary chancellor to examine. At the proper time, these military champions meet together at the rendezvous appointed by the prefect for the candidates of the different districts in his pre- fecture, where they pass through three sessions of examinations before him, in much the same order, and with the same kind of weapons or instruments, as they have already passed through before their respective district magistrates. In like manner the prefect causes a list to be made out of the candidates who have been examined before him, which he sends up to the literary chancellor. The head man on the list at the third examination before the prefect, is also sure of graduation, provided he does only tolerably well before the chancellor. The literary chancellor has also three sessions before him, which are usually held at his yamun, or he may have them appointed on the parade ground south of the city, as he pleases. The mode he employs to ascertain the merit of the candidates is similar to the course pursued by the two lower examiners. At the close of the third session, a list of those who are regarded as the most proficient and dextrous, and, therefore, the most worthy, is prepared. These competitors are required to come into the yamun for a fourth exercise of a literary kind. They are required to copy from memory a certain short military treatise. The literary chancellor can graduate as many men of the first military degree for each prefecture as he can graduate of the first literary degree. The military bachelors, with artificial flowers in their caps, and with silk scarfs around their shoulders, parade the streets, with banners and with a band of music, in very much the same manner as do the literary bachelors after their graduation. A noticeable difference in the dress of the two classes is that the former always have round-toed boots, while the latter have square-toed boots. They are permitted to wear the button denoting their rank on their caps, but they have no pay and no employment as soldiers unless they enter the ranks of the soldiers. In such a case they have rations, and have the advantage over the common soldier of being able to compete for military employ- 252 REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF ment as officers. Few of the graduates, however, enter the ranks as common sol- diers. The examination fcr the second degree, or master of arts, of the military bach- elors of all the province, takes place at the provincial capital, under the supervision of the provincial governor as chief. He usually has four sessions. The first con- sists of shooting at a target with three arrows while standing on the ground. The second consists of shooting at a target with the same number of arrows from horse- back while the horse is running. The third consists of archery on horseback. The target is three-sided, placed on the ground, and is called "the earth," or the " earthly ball." It is made out of leather, and measures about a foot across each of its sides. The fourth consists of an exercise with the three large swords, the three large stones, and the three large bows, much as in the lower examinations before they attained their bachelorships. \ The number of successful competitors for the second military degree for all the province is only about sixty. These men engage with great show and pomp, having banners and music, in the custom of calling upon their friends, to honor them or to receive their congratulations, after they have paid their respects to the higher mandarins, whom law or custom makes it their duty to call upon soon after they have obtained their degree. There is doubtless considerable bribery employed by the richer class of these military candidates in order to secure a degree, and considerable favor shown at times by the examiners, but not nearly as much as in the case of literary competi- tors. The trials are more openly conducted than are the trials for literary degrees, and success depends very much on personal skill and physical strength, which are tangible and visible in their developments at the examinations. There is not much room for successful bribery unless there be also a tolerable degree of attainment in the use of the weapons employed. Those in the different provinces who have attained to the second military degree must go to Peking in order to compete for the third degree. The successful com- petitors there are always sure of finding immediate employment in the army or navy somewhere in the empire. The unsuccessful competitors, on their return to their own provinces, may, if they please, connect themselves with the body-guard of the provincial governor, and become a kind of personal attendants upon him. They have no regular salary while in this position. After following the governor for three years, they are entitled, according to law, to employment by the govern- ment as military officers of the rank and title of a chiliarch or colonel. In fact, however, it is affirmed generally only those who are special favorites of the gover- nor, or who have money to spend in the shape of presents alias bribes, succeed, even after the expiration of three year's attendance upon him, in becoming colonels. Those who use money enough in the proper, or, rather, improper way, need not wait three years before they are appointed to a command. In a country where the roses have no fragrance, and the women no petticoats ; where the laborer has no Sabbath and the magistrate no sense of honor ; where the roads bear no vehicles and the ships no keels ; where old men fly kites ; where the needle points to the south and the sign of being puzzled is to scratch the antipodes of the head ; where the place of honor is on the left hand, and the seat of intellect is in the stomach ; where to take off your hat is an insolent gesture, and to wear white garments is to put yourself in mourning we ought not to be PUBLIC INSTRUCTION ON EDUCATION. 253 astonished to find a literature without an alphabet, and a language without a grammar. If we add that for countless centuries the government has been in the hands of state philosophers, and the vernacular dialects have been abandoned to the laboring classes (I am about in the next few words to call forth the execration of every sinologue in Europe and Asia), we must not be startled to find that this Chinese language is the most intricate, cumbrous and unwieldy vehicle of thought that ever obtained among any people. There are eighteen distinct languages in China, besides the court dialect ; and although, by a beautiful invention deserving of all imitation, the written language is so contrived as to denote by the same character the sounds of each of the nine- teen different words, all of. which it equally represents, this is of no great use among the multitude who cannot read. There is not a man among our Chinese scholars who can speak three of these languages with fluency, and there is not one who can safely either write or interpret an important state paper without the assistance of a teacher. (George Wingrove Cook, Times Correspondent in China. London, 1858. I am aware that the character of the people, not only of Shanghai, but of all China, has been sadly depreciated by some, who, I believe, if they had not given so much bridle to their pens, would have secured more confidence in their accounts, and a better name for fairness and moderation. Some American, of the name of Bayard Taylor, after a flying visit to Shanghai (where I acted as his cicerone for half a day) and perhaps to one or two other ports in China, records his estimate of Chinese morality thus, in one of his last works : " It is my deliberate opinion that the Chinese are morally the most debased people on the face of the earth. Forms of vice, which in other countries are barely named, are in China so common that they excite no comment among the natives. They constitute the surface level, and below them there are deeps on deeps of depravity so shocking and horrible that their character cannot even be hinted. There are some dark shadows in human nature which we naturally shrink from penetrating, and I made no attempt to collect information of this kind ; but there was enough in the things that I could not avoid seeing and hearing which are brought almost daily to the notice of every foreign resident to inspire me with a powerful aversion to the Chinese race. Their touch is pollution, and, harsh as the opinion may seem, justice to our own race demands that they should not be allowed to settle on our soil. Science may have lost something, but mankind has gained by the exclusive policy which has governed China during the past centuries." I know this shallow observer of human nature has been skim- ming nearly over every part of the globe ; but, with all deference to him, I only enter a flat contradiction, that it " is my deliberate opinion that the Chinese are morally not the most debased people on the face of the earth." (Life in China. Ify t Wm. C. Milne, long a resident missionary among the Chinese. London, 1857. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are * r * Tn immndiitr recall. LD QEC 1 1956 REC'D LD MAR 7 1957 FEB14196859 LD 21-100m-6,'56 (B9311slO)476 eneral Library University of California Berkeley YC 54288 #,10