ny, but with the Church. By the side of almost every Quaker meeting-house is a school-house. It was a part of his ecclesiastical policy to provide schools, and it was the intention of Penn, as a wise legislator, and statesman, to provide for education, but by the religious, and not the political element. People of other denominations who came there grew up without any system of public schools. We had the operations of Joseph Lancaster for a few years. His was a monitorial system; but the first idea was that it was not only a monitorial, but a pauper system. The same principle that led them to provide poor-houses, led them to provide schools for the poor. These schools were limited by law to the poor. Of course this system failed, as all such systems must fail. These schools went on struggling for existence many years, until several gentlemen came to the conclusion that this distinction must be obliterated. The poor washerwoman would not send her child to the pauper school. She had not come to that!

The only thing that brought the people of Philadelphia into organizing the public schools was the establishment of the high school. The influence of this immediately took effect on the public schools, because none could enter it without having attended the other public schools at least a year. When that school was established, the public schools had only about seven thousand scholars; and now they have sixty or seventy thousand. The rich attacked the high school because they were taxed to sustain it; and some opposed it because they argued that they were not bound to furnish anything more than good common English education: other arguments were also used against the school.

But the controllers of the school took the ground, that its indirect benefits on the lower schools were worth more than all it cost. Everything connected with examinations for admission to the high school from the lower schools was con

ducted with great particularity. In consequence of this stimulus upon the teachers of the lower schools, the teaching was much more thorough in them than it had been in the high school. The competition to enter the high school, which received only five hundred pupils, was very great.

Prof. Greene, of Rhode Island, referring to the remarks of President Haven with regard to union schools at the West, said they are doing a great work. The question will naturally come up, Why not adopt the same plan in New England? Our schools in New England grew up under the district system. We must abolish the system before we can have union schools. Many towns would be benefited by doing so.

Hon. Joseph White. If I have said one word which should lead my friend Mr. Hammond, or any one on whom I rely so much, to think that I am opposed to any school standing between the high school and college a few good ones- such

as we have in Massachusetts and Connecticut, then I have left a false impression. But the high school has come to be a necessity to the college. Blot out the high-school system, and you put back the colleges half a century. The whole community is looking to the college through the high school.

As to the district system, there is nothing but the old hunkerism which exists in Massachusetts that keeps it up. As a result of this pestiferous system, we have such schools that I have read a report from a committee where there was a school of four scholars, two of them learning to read! And the school was commended as a good one!

On motion of Mr. Sawyer, of Connecticut, the question under discussion was laid upon the table. Mr. William E. Sheldon, of Boston, then read the report on finances, which showed a balance in the treasury of nearly $200.

After a recess of ten minutes, the audience listened to a lecture by William P. Atkinson, of Cambridge, Mass., on "Dynamic and Mechanical Teaching."

At the close of the lecture, the Institute adjourned till two P. M.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

At two o'clock the Institute met pursuant to adjournment. The committee on the nomination of officers for the ensuing year consisting of Stone, of Maine; Sheldon and Allen, of Massachusetts; Valentine, of New Jersey; Hedges, of New York; Haven, of Michigan; Phelps and Allen, of Connecticut; and Professor Greene, of Rhode Island-then presented the following report, which was accepted, and, on ballot, unanimously elected:

President B. G. Northrop, Saxonville, Mass.

Vice-Presidents - Barnas Sears, Providence, R. I.; William Russell, Lancaster, Mass.; Henry Barnard, Hartford, Conn.; Samuel S. Greene, Providence, R. I.; Ariel Parish, Springfield, Mass.; George B. Emerson, Boston, Mass.; Nathan Hedges, Newark, N. J.; Zalmon Richards, Washington, D. C.; John W. Bulkley, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Thomas Sherwin, Boston, Mass.; David N. Camp, New Britain, Conn.; John D. Philbrick, Boston, Mass.; Joshua Bates, Boston, Mass.; Alpheus Crosby, Salem, Mass.; Ebenezer Hervey, New Bedford, Mass.; Lucius A. Thomas, New Haven, Conn.; H. E. Sawyer, Middletown, Conn.; E. P. Weston, Farmington, Me. ; E. F. Strong, Bridgeport, Conn.; D. B. Hagar, Salem, Mass. ; A. P. Stone, Portland, Me.; Charles Northend, New Britain, Conn.; John Kneeland, Roxbury, Mass.; Daniel Mansfield, Cambridge, Mass.; T. W. Valentine, Brooklyn, N. Y.; J. E.

Littlefield, Bangor, Me.; Joseph White, Williamstown, Mass.; Charles Hammond, Monson, Mass.; Abner J. Phipps, Lowell, Mass.; John W. Dickinson, Westfield, Mass.; Merrick Lyon, Providence, R. I.; Elbridge Smith, Norwich, Conn.; Samuel M. Perkins, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Samuel W. Mason, Boston, Mass.; Ebenezer Wentworth, Portland, Me.; Daniel C. Gilman, New Haven, Conn.

Recording Secretary—J. P. Averill, Boston, Mass.

Assistant Recording Secretary — Charles A. Morrill, Boston, Mass.

Corresponding Secretaries — T. D. Adams, Newton, Mass.; Granville B. Putnam, Boston, Mass.

Treasurer

William E. Sheldon, Boston, Mass.

Curators—J. E. Horr, Brookline, Mass.; Samuel Swan, Boston, Mass.; George F. Phelps, New Haven, Conn.

Censors― James A. Page, Boston, Mass.; C. Goodwin Clark, Boston, Mass.; Martin L. Stevens, Portland, Me.

Counsellors Charles Hutchins, Boston, Mass.; J. W. Allen, Norwich, Conn.; George N. Bigelow, Framingham, Mass.; W. T. Adams, Boston, Mass.; A. G. Boyden, Bridgewater, Mass.; W. A. Mowry, Providence, R. I.; N. A. Calkins, New-York City; J. W. Webster, Boston, Mass.; D. W. Jones, Roxbury, Mass.; J. A. Bartlett, New Britain, Conn.; *J. S. Eaton, Andover, Mass.; A. S. Higgins, Portland, Me.

President Northrop thanked the Institute for the honor of reëlection, and expressed himself proud to preside over an institution which has done so much for the cause of popular education in the country during the last thirty-five years.

*Deceased.

LETTER FROM MAJOR-GENERAL HOWARD.

The following letter was read from Major-General Howard, Chief of Freedmen's Bureau:

AUGUSTA, ME., August 5th, 1865.

REV. B. G. NORTHROP,- My Dear Sir:-I have just received your very flattering invitation to be present at the anniversary of the American Institute at New Haven, and I feel the force of the reasons you present, but when I tell you that I have just joined my family, and that it is the first time since the war, and further that I have over-worked in order to get a little respite and much-needed relief from the care and responsibilities devolved on me, and further that I wish to recuperate my strength in order to resume my duties with increased vigor, you will see the propriety of my declining your invitation, and committing to yourself, and the able men who will meet with you, the interests so near my heart.

I am particularly rejoiced at the proposed discussion of the subject relating to the education of the American freedmen. My purpose is to aid the work of education by every means of encouragement that is or may come within my power as commissioner of freedmen or refugees. I will take the general superintendence of the work in States where I have assistant commissioners, and have already so provided. When possible, the teachers shall have quarters and fuel. They are permitted to have the army ration by purchase, which lessens the cost of board one-half. Whenever the blacks have received money or wages sufficient, they will feed as many teachers as benevolent agencies will send them; so they promise. Then send the teachers and organize just as many schools as possible!

The difficulties will be from the opposition of blind prejudice and real ignorance. Some men will shut their plantations as far as they can against loyal teachers, and we must meet them in the spirit of true missionaries. My agents, who will be within easy reach, will be instructed to give full protection to schools. They will always have the power to call for military aid, but I am much inclined to exercise every other method before calling for military force. We must do what we can to overcome prejudice and opposition by carrying with us the spirit of Christ into every nook and corner of the