2. The working of the burgh and grammar schools, and the best means of making them contribute to the diffusion of a higher elementary education in the primary school on the one hand; and on the other, to the more efficient supply of students for the University.

3. The best means of adjusting the relation between the Normal Training Colleges and the University, so as to secure for the teacher a liberal education in literature and philosophy, and the most effective practical training to a knowledge of school methods and manage

ment.

And whether the uniformity in the working of our Normal Colleges does not facilitate legislation, whether there might not be one college instead of two in Edinburgh and in Glasgow, another in Aberdeen, and a fourth in Inverness, and how far professorships in the University might be so arranged as to make the Normal Colleges really institutions for training only in the practice of school work.

To this I attach great importance, because in the last measure introduced by the Lord Advocate there was no provision of any kind for the training of the teacher, nor the remotest allusion even to the existence of those Normal Institutions which have cost us so much money, and been long fostered with so much anxiety and

care.

4. Whether the educational interests of the country would not be promoted by making the sub-inspectorships obtainable only through successful competition in literature and physical science, in mental philosophy in its relation to education, and in knowledge of the best methods of moral training, and of the best means of organising and conducting various kinds of schools.

And 5. What means should be adopted to reach those masses whose children are not, and cannot be, reached by any of the agencies now working; who would not be drawn into classes although schools were laid in a thick network over the whole country; and how far it might be advisable to have either direct or indirect compulsory attendance? I am persuaded that there is a very general concurrence among Scottish educationists as to the absolute necessity for direct compulsory legislation, and as to its practicability. These and kindred questions require a thorough sifting and settlement before further legislation should be attempted.

The opportunity is now favourable. The Revised Code is itself a plea for a Commission of Inquiry. It may be adjusted again or withdrawn. No one can tell how soon the Committee of Privy Council may ask Parliament to unhinge and overturn all that has been already established. We should escape from this perpetual insecurity. It is not seemly that our whole educational machinery should be, at any time, reversed or upset because of difficulties in England. Let us press for a Commission of Inquiry, with a view to a broad basis being laid down for an educational measure, liberal, comprehensive, and truly national, sending its blessing down to the poorest and lowest, and yet carrying its higher impulses within the

threshold of the Universities. Let us take heart from the fact that we have at this moment lying around us ready for combination, all the necessary sections of a noble, complete, and most compact national organisation; and that we have really rare facilities, in the uniformity of our ecclesiastical arrangements, the unity of our doctrinal beliefs, and the educational spirit of the people, for working a national system with energy and success. This Association will achieve a great public good if, by bringing us face to face, we know each other better, cease to tear away fragments of the old national system that we may build up our separate denominational influence, and bringing all our educational possessions together, cast them into the national treasury for the common good; and heartily co-operate in that noblest enterprise to which Christian communions can lend their united energies-the securing, through a sound and universally diffused education, the intellectual, social, and moral advancement of the people.

FOREIGN EDUCATION.

An Historical and Statistical Outline of the Past and Present Position of Education in the United States of America. By CORNELIUS WALFORD, Barrister-at-Law.

PART I.-HISTORICAL.

COLONIAL PERIOD.-Education in the United States is not, nor

ever has been, a governmental institution. It arose out of, and has since been maintained and developed by, the strong instinctive desire of the people. The first settlers were as urgent in its behoof as are the most ardent enthusiasts of the present day. The Pilgrim Fathers generally receive much credit for their efforts in this direction, and they deserve it, but they do not deserve all the credit. It was natural for people who founded colonies with the view of securing religious and political freedom to take fast hold of education as a means to their end. But the earliest colonists to the North American Continent were not all of this class the very first went in search of gold, and the precious metals; the next for purposes of agriculture and commerce; and then followed the Pilgrims.

The first English colony planted on the American shores was that of Jamestown in Virginia. This was founded in 1607, under a charter granted in the previous year by King James I., of Scottish memory, to a London Company to "Deduce a colony into Virginia.' The King himself drew the laws for its government, and then took the first step in the history of education on that vast Continent.. The colony was not firmly established until 1613, and in 1618 the King wrote an autograph letter to the Archbishops of England,

authorising them to invite the members of the Church throughout the kingdom to contribute funds for the erection of churches and schools in the colony. The sum of £1,500 was raised for these purposes, and licence was given to the company to set apart 10,000 acres of land for the support of a college. Subsequently other donations were set apart for the same good object.

In the following year (1619), the governor of the "plantation of Virginia" was instructed to see that "each town, borough, and hundred, procured by just means a certain number of their children to be brought up in the first elements of literature, that the most towardly of them should be fitted for college in the building, which they proposed to proceed with as soon as any profit arose from the estate appropriated to that use; and they earnestly require their help in that pious and important work."

In the 10,000 acres of land, first set apart for this now forgotten educational institution, may be traced the germ of the millions of acres with which the schools of the United States have since been donated; and in the ordinance that each town, borough, and hundred, procure by just means the first elements of literature, lies the educational grain of mustard seed which has since grown into a mighty tree, covering that vast Continent with its branches, and offering intellectual shelter to all who gather under its luxuriant foliage.

Between 1620 and 1630, the first New England Colonies in Massachusetts Bay were planted; and in 1636, the General Court of these colonies met in Boston, and passed an Act appropriating £400 to the establishment of a college. The college founded on this grant is the now famous Harvard University, the mother seat of learning in the Western Hemisphere. In 1642, the governor, with the magistrates, teachers, and elders, was empowered to establish statutes and constitutions for the regulation of the same; and in 1650 the charter was granted under which it is now governed. The entire population of the colony at the time this college was founded, could not have been more than four or five thousand, scattered through ten or twelve villages; and it is a recorded fact that the sum appropriated to its use was more than the whole tax at that time levied upon the colony in a single year. The income from the Charlestown ferry was voted to the college in 1640, and still belongs

to it.

The General Court met in accordance with their powers granted in 1642, and thus enacted :

"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 this kind, -it is therefore ordered by the court and the authority thereof, that the selectmen* of every town, in the several precincts and

* Selectmen were those who, under the votes and direction of the people in town meeting assembled, managed all the details of municipal affairs. The office is continued at the present day.

:

quarters where they dwell, shall have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbours, to see first that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families as not to endeavour to teach by themselves or others their children and apprentices so much learning as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, and have knowledge of the capital laws, upon penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect therein also that all masters of families do, once a week at least, catechise their children and servants in the grounds and principles of religion, and if unable to do so much, that then at least they procure such children or apprentices to learn some short orthodox catechism without book, that they may be able to answer to the questions that shall be propounded to them out of such catechism, by their parents or masters or any of the selectmen, when they shall call them to a trial of what they have learned in this kind; and further that all parents and masters do breed and bring up their children and apprentices in some honest lawful calling, labour or employment, either in husbandry, or in some other trade profitable for themselves and the commonwealth, if they will not nor cannot train them up in learning, to fit them for higher employments; and if any of the selectmen, after admonition by them given to such masters and families, shall find them still neglectful of their duty in the particulars aforementioned, where children or servants become rude, stubborn, and unruly, the said selectmen-with the help of two magistrates shall take such children or apprentices from them and place them with some master for years; boys till they come to twentyone, and girls eighteen years of age complete, which will more strictly look into, and force them to submit unto government according to the rules of this order, if by fair means and former instruction they will not be drawn into it."

This was the first legislative attempt; it did not, however, reach the point aimed at; and five years later, or in 1647, the following General School Law was passed by the same General Court :—

"Scholes.-Sec. 1. It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues so that at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of deceivers; and to the end that learning may not be buried in the griave of our forefathers in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavours:

"It is therefore ordered by this Court and the authority thereof, that every township within this jurisdiction after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read; whose wages shall be paid, either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of those who order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; provided that those who send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other towns."

"Sec. 2. And it is further ordered, that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the masters thereof being able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the University; and if any other town neglect the performance hereof above one year, then every such town shall pay five pounds per annum to the next such school till they shall perform this order."

In the colony of Connecticut, founded about 1633, a code of regulations for the family instruction of children and the maintenance of schools was adopted, in 1650, precisely analogous to that of Massachusetts.

In 1672, however, some extensions were considered necessary, and it was ordered by the General Court, that "in every county there shall be set up a grammar school for the use of the county, the master thereof being able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for college ;" and to aid the county towns in maintaining their schools, six hundred acres of land were appropriated to each, "to be improved in the best manner that may be for the benefit of a grammar school in said towns, and to no other use or end whatever." In 1677, a fine of £10 annually was imposed on any county town neglecting to keep a Latin school.

In 1700, Yale College, which has now become one of the most popular educational establishments in the States, was founded; and at that date the system of public instruction prevailing in that plantation embraced the following requirements :-(1) An obligation on every parent and guardian of children "not to suffer so much barbarism in any of their families as to have a single child or apprentice unable to read the Holy Word of God, and the good laws of the colony" and also "to bring them up to some lawful calling or employment, under a penalty for each offence." (2) A tax of forty shillings on every thousand pounds of the lists of estates was collected in every town with the annual State tax, and payable proportionably to those towns only, which should keep their schools according to law. (3) A common school in every town having over seventy families, kept for at least six months in the year. (4) A grammar school in each of the four head county towns to fit youth for college, two of which grammar schools were free or endowed. (5) A collegiate school toward which the General Court made an annual appropriation of £120 6s. provision for the religious instruction of the Indians. "The system (says Dr. Barnard), therefore, embraced every family and town, all classes of children and youth, and all the then recognised grades of schools."

In the colony of Plymouth, 1662, the profits of the cod-fishery were appropriated to the maintenance of grammar schools in such towns as would make arrangements for the same; and, in 1669, towns having fifty families were authorised to raise by rate on all the inhabitants the sum of twelve pounds for this class of schools "forasmuch as the maintenance of good literature doth much tend to the advancement of the weal and flourishing state of societies and republics."