cause. the force of that blow seems to have been expended. In 1843, the cause rallied,-the increase of appropriations, in that year, above those of the preceding, being about $22,000. In 1844, the gain was $28,000. In 1845, it was $35,000. And in 1846,-the last year for which returns have been made,-it was more than $50,000. All late demonstrations of hostility against the Board or its measures, have redounded to the advancement of the Friends have been incited to greater activity; candid opponents have been disabused of prejudices; and that pretty large class of men, whose interest in a subject is most readily excited through combativeness, have been led to make examinations, and, having examined, have approved. It is a gratifying circumstance that many of our sister States, convinced by our success, have followed our example; and, at the present time, in the rich and populous county of Lancashire, in England, a movement is on foot, led on by some of the best men in the United Kingdom, whose object is to petition Parliament for a charter, empowering that county to establish a system of Free Schools, on a basis similar to ours. FEMALE TEACHERS. The progressive and systematic transference of the education of the young from male to female hands, is a most interesting fact. The following table will show the extraordinary change which has taken place, within the last ten years, in regard to the relative number of male and female teachers: It will, of course, be understood that the above numbers are made up, by including the teachers both of summer and winter schools. The whole number of Public Schools in the State, last year, was 3,538. In the great majority of the schools, there were two different teachers for each school, one for the summer and one for the winter term. There were probably not less than five hundred assistant teachers. As the latter serve for a comparatively low compensation, they cause the average rate of wages paid to the principal teachers to appear lower than it really is. We learn, from the above table, that while, in 1837, the male teachers constituted about forty, and the female about sixty per cent. of the whole number of Public School teachers; in 1846-7, the former were less than thirty-two per cent. of the whole number, and the latter more than sixty-eight. Though the relative number of male teachers has been diminishing, yet the absolute number continued to increase until 1845, when it reached its maximum. The next year, it fell from 2,595 to 2,585; and, last year, to 2,437. It is doubtful whether it ever regains so high a point as it reached in 1844-5. It appears, then, that while the number of male teachers has increased but 67, in nine years, the number of female teachers has increased 1,647 in the same time; or, at an average rate of more than 180 in a year,-(it being remembered, throughout these computations, that one teacher is allowed for each term.) A moment's reflection will show these results to be very remarkable. There were in the State, last year, 3,538 Public Schools. Three thousand, at least, of these schools belong to school districts, which are corporate bodies, and as independent of each other as England is of France, or as the United States are of either England or France. Yet, in these separate and independent bodies, acting with entire freedom from each other, and wholly exempt, on this point, from all legislative control or interference, a change is going forward, which, in the uniformity and steadiness of its action, resembles a law of nature. The expediency of employing a larger portion of female teachers was first urged upon the consideration of the towns. and districts, in 1837. The suggestion commended itself to their judgment by its reasonableness. Under certain limita tions, the experiment proved eminently successful. The light emanating from each year's experience showed the grounds of a safe extension. The greater demand has led to a greater supply, that is, to those increased qualifications which enable female teachers to keep schools for which they were before incompetent; and the remarkable result is, that the present number of female teachers is much more than double that of males. Let this change be regarded, for a moment, in an economical point of view. If, in 1846-7, the relative proportion of male and female teachers had been the same as it was in 1837, then, instead of having 2,437 male teachers, we should have had 3,051; and instead of having 5,238 female teachers, we should have had but 4,624;-that is, we should have had 614 more male teachers, and the same number of female teachers less. Now, the average wages of male teachers, last year, inclusive of their board, was $32 46, and the average wages of female teachers, also inclusive of board, was $13 60, and the average length of the summer and winter terms varied but a small fraction from four months each. The cost of 614 male teachers, at $32 46 a month, would be $19,930 44; and the cost of the same number of female teachers for the same term of time, at $13 60 a month, would be $8,350 40. The difference in expense, therefore, for a single year, is $11,580 04,—or, about double the expense of the three State Normal Schools, for the same length of time. Such is the economy of employing female teachers, whom the Normal Schools have done so much, and are capable of doing so much more, to qualify. But I am satisfied that the educational gain, the gain to the minds and manners of the children,has been in a far higher ratio than the pecuniary. -- I cannot leave this topic without adverting to the grossly inadequate compensation made to female teachers. It was more last year than ever before; and yet, exclusive of board, it was, on an average for the State, only $8 07 a month. For the very large proportion of females who are employed but four months in the year, this amounts to but $32 28. Many female operatives in factories obtain six or seven times as much as this for their year's work. What inducement, then, has a young woman who has a prospect of obtaining only $33 a year,—or even twice that sum, if she keeps both a summer and a winter school, to spend either much time or money in preparing herself for the employment? How can she purchase the books that belong to her profession, or command such other means as are indispensable for the general culture of her mind? How can she afford to attend Teachers' Institutes, or those other meetings of the learned and the experienced, where the principles belonging to the science, and the processes pertaining to the art of education, are expounded and exemplified? Take an example. The late meeting of the American Institute of Instruction was held at Concord, in the State of New Hampshire. I was credibly informed that at least twenty female teachers from a single town in Massachusetts, were anxious to attend the session of the Institute; but, on inquiry, they found it would cost them, in money, besides their time, at least two thirds of a whole month's salary. The sum was a small one, it is true, but the proportion it bore to their whole income was large; and, hence, they felt debarred from attending. Let any agent for the noblest charity, or the most useful society, that ever blessed mankind by its beneficence, go through State Street or Court Street, in Boston; through Wall Street, in New York, or through corresponding streets in other cities, and solicit from merchants and professional men, two or three times each year, a sum equal to two thirds of a whole month's income; and, if I do not greatly mistake, his recollections of these streets will very much resemble those which a British sailor has of the gauntlet. Many a lady, in what is called fashionable life, expends as much, oftentimes far more, on a single article of dress, or a single entertainment, on a piece of porcelain, of ivory or of alabaster, than a devoted female teacher receives for a whole year of laborious service. Why should not something be drawn from those overflowing funds which incite to useless and often pernicious luxuries, or which minister to pride and vanity, that we may requite, more adequately, a class of services as meritorious as are ever rendered to mankind? The public does great injustice to female teachers by the inequitable recompense it makes them; but, flagrant as is the injustice which it does to them, it would be easy to show that it commits, by the same act, a still greater injustice against the rising generation. I regret exceedingly that I have not kept an account of the · number of applications which I have received for the last ten years from the Southern and South-western States, for talented and highly-qualified females, to take charge of select schools, or to become governesses in the families of the wealthy. I hardly dare to give an estimate made from the data of recollection, lest it should seem extravagant; but at times, certainly, they have been as frequent as once a week, for a considerable period. Of course not all, perhaps not half, of the applications of this kind which come into the State are addressed to me. The compensation offered varies from $400 to $600 a year, sometimes, also, including the expenses of the journey to the place of employment. The average may be set down at $500. Many of the most highly educated young women of New England yield to these inducements ;-the families of some of them needing the avails, and some of them leaving a home of competency, and the society of kindred and friends, through the impulses of a high missionary spirit. Now, why should Massachusetts send her most accomplished teachers to the South and South-west; or rather, in the broader spirit of wisdom and philanthropy, why should she not prepare a sufficient number to supply both the foreign and domestic demand? The females whom we send abroad, and such as they, are the very ones whom we ought to employ in our own schools; and the State possesses an abundance of the dormant talent from which such teachers can be developed, and it has pecuniary means no less abundant for the cultivation of that talent. I am aware that the remark I am about to make may seem, to some, to be extravagant; but, trusting to time and to experience to ratify its correctness, I do not hesitate to express the opinion, that our children, while under ten years of age, might acquire ten times more of valuable knowledge than they now |