Well, suppose the decision to be affirmed, though contrary to the uniform decision of the courts, what will be the probable consequence? Teachers of weak conscientiousness will evade the law by substituting other inflictions more objectionable, but which can not, by any legal ingenuity, be construed into a violation of the letter of the law? Other teachers of higher principle, but lacking that rare "faculty" of command, which is a natural gift, will, when disarmed of the rod, find themselves unable to withstand the inroads of disorder into their schools. No one can have a greater hatred of surgical operations, in general, and of these in particular, when they can be done without; but is the right time yet come for proclaiming all over the land that the rod shall never more be used under any circumstances whatever? I gladly allow that greater gentleness and forbearance in the treatment of children is the tendency of the age; that if, in other countries, corporal punishment has been safely abandoned, our American youths are surely not so much worse than others as still to require this exceptional mode of treatment. But the difficulty must be traced farther back than the school; it lies at home. When parents shall cease to deal out angry scoldings and slaps right and left to their children, whenever they feel incommoded by their noise, or for slight delinquencies unintelligible to the offenders themselves, whilst real transgressions pass unrebuked; when they shall cease to punish at one moment what they winked or laughed at before; when a uniform, kind, but firm treatment at home shall be the rule, not the exception,—then, indeed, may law step forward in her potency, and stretch her protecting wand over the school-boy's head.

As it is, children who are used to see every thoughtless act that displeases the home authorities, resented by a blow, must feel puzzled by an opposite regime. They will mistake for good-natured imbecility, or for cowardice, a mode of discipline which is really the result of self-control and high-mindedness in the teacher. Between the fist-arguments at home and the appeals to his higher nature in the school, he will feel bewildered, now ready to despise his teacher for his unaccountable forbearance, now rebelling against what he calls his parents' tyranny. This reform must begin at home; when well established there, it will not be long kept out of the school.

While, however, we reluctantly and sorrowfully concede the inexpediency of at once pronouncing corporal punishment unlawful, we do hope that the general interest which this case has excited, will have the effect of making parents and teachers, and all who, in any capacity, have assumed the responsibility of watching over the welfare of the young, take this subject deeply at heart. They can not but admit that appeals to a child's instinctive dread of pain is, at best, but a necessary evil, redolent of a coarse and ignorant stage of society. Let them, by a reverent study of human nature as we see it budding forth in children, learn the laws of true moral discipline, and thus hasten the happy day when, in both family and school government, love shall take the place of brute force, and conscience become more potent than fear.

TO THE person sending us the largest list of subscribers in the months of March and April, we will present a copy of Webster's New Dictionary—retail price, $12.

MISCELLANY.

MIAMI UNIVERSITY.-The Board of Trustees of this University, at their annual meeting in June last, proposed to the several religious bodies of the state, to aid in the further endowment of the institution; these bodies retaining the principal in their own hands, and paying the interest, annually, to the Board. Three of these bodies have responded favorably, viz: The Old School Presbyterian Synods of Ohio and Cincinnati and the New School Synod of Cincinnati-the Old School Synod of Cincinnati agreeing to endow two additional professorships, and the other two, one professorship each. This will make four chairs beyond those now filled, and will thus extend the course and departments of the institution considerably. The particular branches of instruction to be embraced in these chairs, are to be determined by an agreement between the Board and the Synods; and the chairs are to be filled by the Board (the only body legally authorized), the Synods being permitted to suggest the names of candidates. This preserves the present character of the University as a State Institution, and yet encourages the various religious denominations of the state to come to its aid and help to increase its usefulness, without compromising either it or them. They hold the funds, continuing their support as long as they see fit; and as this is opened to all, the proposition places all religious bodies upon an equality in regard to any advantages which may accrue from it, as far as they may choose to avail themselves of it. Some $10,000 have just been spent in improvements, and the Board contemplate putting up a new main building (removing the present one), in the spring, at a considerable cost, not yet estimated. We hope to see this institution become a University in fact as well as in name. It has done in times past a good collegiate work; there is a demand for a real University.

WARREN COUNTY.-A teachers' institute was held January 19, 1867. The meeting was very profitably entertained by an address from Prof. A. Holbrook, on "Common Sense" as a very desirable qualification for teachers—a qualification, by the way, the possession of which is not quite co-extensive with the necessity for it. Various other exercises occupied the morning and afternoon session. The next meeting was to be held at Waynesville on the fourth Saturday in February. "No other county in Ohio," boasts the editor of the Western Star, " can beat our own in live, earnest, successful, and really progressive teachers. Their monthly meetings have not only increased each one's stock of practical and valuable ideas, created a salutary professional feeling and social bond, but, in some degree, directed public attention to the vast importance of the work in which they are engaged." This is all excellent, and we can only say to the teachers of other counties in the state, Go ye and do likewise.

WEST VIRGINIA.-We are cheered by the doings of this spirited new state in the cause of education. Not only have they started at Buckhannon a semi-monthly sheet devoted to temperance and education, but some of the leading political papers have educational articles. These are valuable indications of the current of popular feeling. In a brotherly spirit of earnest sympathy, we bid them God-speed.

IN the number for January 24, of that admirable weekly paper, The Nation, we see a notice of four valuable articles on the "Instruction of the People in the 19th Century," which appeared in recent numbers of the Revue des deux Mondes. The editor of the Nation thinks that their translation and republication in this country would be of great service to the cause of education. If we can procure those numbers, we will undertake the work, so as to lay, at least, the substance of them before our readers.

FISK SCHOOL-We have, in one of our exchanges, an interesting report of the cfored school at Nashville, Tenn., under John Ogden's superintendence. We select the following items: Pupils enrolled, 850; daily average only about 500. This is owing to the unsettled condition of the colored people, and the necessity imposed upon them in their new relations of earning a subsistence by daily labor, causing the older members to be absent two or three days each week. The schools have been thoroughly graded as follows: Three Primary schools, three Intermediate, one Adult Primary of high grade, one Secondary, a Grammar school, and a High school. The instruction is directed with a view to thorough preparation for teaching. Quite a large proportion of the pupils are preparing themselves for that profession, and it is hoped that soon, from this school and others of similar character and design, many intelligent and well-trained teachers will go forth to aid in the work of elevating their people. Which of us, six years ago, would have dered to dream of such a revolution? Truly, the world is marching on!

PUBLIC LIBKARTES.--Petitions have been presented to the General Assembly by the boards of education of Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Dayton, that these cities be authorized to levy a tax not exceeding one-tenth of a mill for the establishment and maintenance of public libraries free to all citizens. A bill has been introduced to that effect, and we hope that, when it is passed, and its benefits to the community shall have shown themselves, as under prudent and liberal management they can hardly fail to do, the boon' will be extended to other cities and to our villages, until, în all parts of the state, the adult and rising generations shall enjoy free access to books of an improving and interesting character.

PRESENTATION TO THE REV. PROE. THOME.-On the eve of his proposed tour in Europe, the students of the Cleveland Institute, toward whom, in addition to his clerical duties, Mr. Thome had discharged with great acceptance the duties of professor of clocution, presented him with Carpenter's picture, engraved by Ritchie, of the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln to his Cabinet-a most fit offering to one whose life and labors have been devoted to the consummation of freedom and equality for all men, physically, socially, intellectually, and morally.

THE EDUCATIONAL TIMES.This is the title of a very neat magazine published by Nelson & Faber, Cincinnati, as successor to The News and Educator. Its specialty, or as Bro. Hancock would say, its hobby, is "Object Teaching," subject on which American teachers need light. Considerable space is devoted to articles translated from pedagogical journals in Europe. It also contains a juvenile and a literary department. The February number, the first issued under the new editorial management, is decidedly good.

GEN. GARFIELD will please accept our thanks for a copy of his excellent speech on the National Bureau of Education. All true lovers of their country owe him and the other members of the Select Committee, a debt of gratitude for a measure of such vital importance to the best interests of the people.

ERASABLE TABLETS.-These are an imitation of ivory tablets, which they far surpass in cheapness and equal in the facility with which they are writter upon and erased by a wet cloth or sponge. They are manufactured by the American Tablet Company, Boston, for use in the school-room.

MR. A. R. MCINTYRE succeeds Mr. Seavy as Principal of the State Street Grammar School of this city; and Mr. C. E. Burr, of Worthington, O., is assistant teacher in the High School.

MCCONNELSVILLE.The inhabitants of this enterprising village have lately voted a tax of $12,000 for a new school-house.

BOOK NOTICES.

A PLEA FOR THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH. Stray Notes on Speaking and Spelling. By HENRY ALFORD, D.D., Dean of Canterbury. Second Edition. Tenth Thousand. Alexander Strahan, Publisher, London and New York. 1865.

THE DEAN'S ENGLISH: A Criticism on the Dean of Canterbury's Essays on the Queen's English. By G. WASHINGTON MOON, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Fourth Edition. Alexander Strahan & Co., Publishers, 139 Grand street, New York.

Alford's Plea for the Queen's English is a duodecimo of 300 pages, and Moon's Dean's English, one of 226 pages. Every one who is interested in the discussion of grammatical points, should read these little volumes. Although the Dean is disposed in some cases to defend his questionable English, yet his remarks are, in general, correct and worthy of attention. Mr. Moon's criticisms are generally confined to the Dean's language, and seldom to the positions originally taken by the Dean in Good Words, in which his " stray notes first appeared. The following is a specimen of Alford's style:

"71. Another word also brings into question the 'coo' and 'cow,' but without any such chance of a settlement. It is the agreeable but somewhat indigestible gourd spelt c-u-c-u-m-b-e-r. Is it to be coo-cumber? cow-cumber? or kew-cumber? The point is warmly debated: so warmly in certain circles, that when I had a house full of pupils, we were driven to legislation on it, merely to keep the peace of the household. Whenever the unfortunate word occurred at table, which was almost every day during the summer months, a fierce fray invariably set in. At last we abated the nuisance by enacting that in future the first syllable should be dropped, and the article should be called under the undebateable [sic] name of 'cumber.' Perhaps, of the three, the strongest claim might be set up for kew, or Q-cumber; seeing that the Latin name, cucumis, can hardly by English lips be otherwise pronounced."

The following is a specimen of Mr. Moon's style:

The

"I will briefly notice a few of your numerous errors of syntax, etc., and then pass on to weightier matters. You speak of a possibility being precluded in' the mind. You tell us of a more neat way of expressing what would be Mr. Moon's Sentence.' We express a meaning, or we write a sentence; but we do not express a sentence. word seems to be rather a pet of yours; you speak on page 198, of expressing a woman! * Queer English' would not have been an inappropriate title to your essays. Then we have in respect of,' for 'with respect to'; and an exception, which I can not well treat,' instead of, 'of which I can not well treat;" for it is evident from the context, that you were not speaking of treating an exception, but of treating of an exception.” In Mr. Moon's book, there are extracts from Reviews, Magazines, and Newspapers to the number thirty-four, referring to the controversy, in nearly all of which Mr. Moon's style is considered as much superior to that of the Dean's. These extracts Occupy sixty pages of the book, the longest being that from The English Churchman, occupying twelve pages.

D. W. H.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. By D. F. ANSTED. J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. 1867. 16mo. pp. xxxiv, 443, with Index.

This reprint is exceedingly valuable for teachers of Physical Geography, and possesses the great merit of embracing in a compact form most of the recent deductions in that science. We regret to say that the language employed is not always as clear and concise as it might have been. As might have been expected, more abundant details have been given regarding the Old than the New World. England alone occupies many times the space devoted to the United States. Professor Ansted has apparently adopted all the recent theories in science, the Correlation of Forces, the Nebular Hypothesis, Tyndall's theories of Heat and of Glaciers, and Darwin's doctrine of the Unity of Species; but no live teacher will be the worse for being drawn out of

the old ruts of thought. Those who have no Physical Atlas will not excuse the author for omitting illustrative maps. Even Berghaus and Johnston are becoming somewhat antiquated.

On the whole, we welcome the book as a desirable addition to our resources, and hope that this field, which has been so long unoccupied by English investigators, will receive fresh attention from these efforts of Prof. Ansted, and his immediate predecessor, Sir John Herschel. We hope to see, at no distant day, a Physical Geography which will amply supply the knowledge we need respecting our own country, and believe that enough materials have been collected to render such a work possible. OUTLINE OF THE ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. By N. G. CLARK, Professor of Rhetoric, etc., in Union College. Scribner & Co., New York.

This work is conceived in a philosophical spirit. It exhibits English literature in its relation to the physical and intellectual elements of the English character. It traces those ever-varying influences from the dawn of English history to our own day, showing the phases of the literature of each epoch as brought on by the revolutions of English thought and feeling at that time, thus raising the study of literature to its appropriate rank in the science of Ethnography. He discusses in concise but pithy language the influences of the Celtic, Roman, and Danish or Norman elements; of Italian literature in the Elizabethan age, in furnishing models of composition and improving the literary taste; of the Early Dramatists, the most powerful instruments of literary discipline in the 15th Century; of French literature, from the time of Charles I. to the close of the 18th Century-too justly accused of pandering to the corruption of the age, but the better portion of which had, at least, the merit of "teaching neatness in the dressing of the thought." On German literature, so noble, so congenial to the genius of the Anglo-Saxon race, the author is far too brief. He does not do justice to its powerful influence in reforming the literary taste vitiated by a servile imitation of French models. The work concludes with a copious selection of specimens illustrative of the different epochs. We could only wish that so excellent a work were fuller in some of the details; but it is wonderful how much suggestive information the author has condensed into so small a compass.

SCHOOL DIALOGUES. Compiled by ALEX. CLARK, A.M. Philadelphia: Daughaday & Co.

This very spicy collection is intended for exercises in declamation. The compiler very truly says that, in a dialogue, a youngster needs no stilts to stalk forward on the dead level of language above his years. Here, he feels his words and enjoys their utterance as his own. Here, he naturally uses the proper tone, inflection, and modulation. There is, perhaps, in a few of the dialogues, a little smack of vulgarity or caricature. But these can easily be laid aside. The variety of subjects is such that no teacher can be at a loss to select one suited to the taste and capacity of the scholars, or bearing on some circumstance, teaching some useful lesson which he may wish to impress on their minds. These dialogues have our hearty commendation.

SITUATION WANTED.

A graduate of an English Normal College, who is thoroughly versed in the theory and practice of teaching, having undergone a special training of six and a half years for that purpose, besides acting as Principal of a large Government School for six years, is open to an engagement as Principal of a District School or Mathematical Tutor in a College. No objection would be made, in the latter case, to taking the higher branches of the English Language. First-class Testimonials and Government Reports. Copy of a report by J. Bowstead, Esq., M.A., one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools for South Wales: "Mr. W. J. has good personal qualifications for the office of teacher, is a sensible and efficient disciplinarian, and teaches with energy, skill, and decided success." Address W. J., Ludlow P.0., Hamilton Co., O.