before presenting himself for examination. He was found totally unfit, and was discharged. Subsequently, a qualified instructer was employed in that district. The teacher of the school in the seventh district, as respects his literary attainments, was well qualified; but, wanting skill in the management of the school, he was unable to complete the term for which he was engaged.

The teacher in the first district failed to give satisfaction, though he was sustained in a manner highly creditable to the inhabitants of that district. At his first examination, the committee were not satisfied. In some branches required by law, he appeared to be deficient; but, as he was highly recommended by gentlemen who ought not to lend the influence of their names to impose incompetent teachers on the public, and as he attributed his errors to "embarrassment," the committee delayed making a decision, and agreed to grant him another hearing. Subsequently there was a re-examination. He answered the questions propounded to him more readily, and made but few mistakes, and the committee concluded he would "just pass," though we are now satisfied it is injudicious in such cases to grant a certificate. But difficulties soon arose in the school, more in consequence of his want of skill in management, than from deficiency in his literary qualifications. Some of the older boys decided that he should not keep, and they would have effected their purpose, had not the parents turned out in mass, and resolved at a public meeting that the boys should not govern. The measures adopted were efficient. The master's authority was sustained; but the school money was nearly lost to the district. Very little improvement was made by the scholars, yet it was better to sustain the teacher than to allow the boys to be masters.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.—AMOS OTIS, DAVID R. AKIN.

DUKE'S COUNTY.

CHILMARK,

.

{

(1) Population, 702. Valuation, $296,123 00. Number of Public Schools, 5.

(2) No. of Scholars of all ages in all the Schools-In Summer, 23-In Winter, 180. (3) Average attendance in the Schools-In Summer, 19—In Winter, 137.

(4) No. of persons between 4 and 16 years of age in the town, 135.-No. of persons under 4 years of age who attend School, 4-No. over 16 years of age who attend School, 15. (5) Aggregate length of the Schools, 15 mths. 14 days.-In Summer, 3-In Winter, 12 14. (6) No. of Teachers in Summer-M. -F. 1.-No. of Teachers in Winter-M. 5-F. (7) Average wages paid per month, including board-To Males, $28 00--To Females, $14 00. (8) Average value of board per month-Of Males, $7 80-Of Females, $6 00.

(9) Average wages per month, exclusive of board-Of Males, $20 20-Of Females, $8 00. (10) Amount of money raised by taxes for the support of Schools, including only the wages of Teachers, board and fuel, $400 00.

(13) No. of unincorporated Academies, Private Schools, and Schools kept to prolong Common Schools, 3.-Aggregate of months kept, 9.-Average No. of Scholars, 46.-Aggregate paid for tuition, $70 50.

BOOKS USED.- -Spelling-National. Reading-Worcester's Series, Testament, National, and American First Class Book. Grammar-Smith's. Geography-Parley's, Woodbridge's and Olney's. Arithmetic-Smith's and Emerson's.

NO REPORT from School Committee.

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-SAMUEL T. HANCOCK, DAVID L. ADAMS.

(2) No. of Scholars of all ages in all the Schools-In Summer, 222—In Winter, 222. (3) Average attendance in the Schools-In Summer, 177-In Winter, 179.

(4) No. of persons between 4 and 16 years of age in the town, 470.-No. of persons under 4 years of age who attend School, 30.-No. over 16 years of age who attend School, 50. (5) Aggregate length of the Schools, 38 mths. 21 days.-In Summer, 21 21-In Winter, 17. (6) No. of Teachers in Summer-M. 1—F. 5.-No. of Teachers in Winter-M. 2—F. 4. (7) Average wages paid per month, including board-To Males, $30 00-To Females, $13 25. (8) Average value of board per month-Of Males, $10 00-Of Females, $4 83.

(9) Average wages per month, exclusive of board-Of Males, $20 00-Of Females, $8 42. (10) Amount of money raised by taxes for the support of Schools, including only the wages of Teachers, board and fuel, $1,000 00.

(12) No. of incorporated Academies, 1.-Aggregate of months kept, 12.-Average number of Scholars, 40.-Aggregate paid for tuition, $720 00.

(13) No. of unincorporated Academies, Private Schools, and Schools kept to prolong Common Schools, 5.-Aggregate of months kept, 45.-Average No. of Scholars, 138.-Aggregate paid for tuition, $480 00.

BOOKS USED.-Spelling-Emerson's. Reading-Worcester's Series, Testament, National and Introduction. Grammar-Smith's. Geography-Parley's, Olney's and Malte-Brun's. Arithmetic Smith's and Walsh's. All others-Webster's Dictionary, Watts on the Mind, Comstock's and Swift's Philosophies, Bailey's Algebra, Scripture Geography.

SELECTION FROM Report. * * To secure any valuable improvement, the pupils must respect their teacher. They must view him, not in the light of a tyrant, whose object is to oppress and injure them, but in that of a friend, whose object and study it is to do them good. They must yield a ready and an implicit obedience to good and wholesome rules. And, by the way, it must not be expected that all teachers should employ precisely the same mode of government, or the same methods of teaching, in their schools. This is no more to be expected, nor is it any more necessary, than that all ship-masters should employ precisely the same rules and orders on board of their respective ships. Two masters may differ somewhat in their modes of government, and yet those modes may be equally judicious and equally salutary. *

* *

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.—HEBRON VINCENT, Daniel FELLOWS, ELIHU P. Norton.

TISBURY,

(1) Population, 1,520. Valuation, $330,613 00. Number of Public Schools, 5.

(2) No. of Scholars of all ages in all the Schools-In Summer, 38-In Winter, 300.

(3) Average attendance in the Schools-In Summer, 28-In Winter, 247.

(4) No. of persons between 4 and 16 years of age in the town, 410.-No. of persons under 4 years of age who attend School, 10.-No. over 16 years of age who attend School, 9.

(5) Aggregate length of the Schools, 21 mths.-In Summer, 3-In Winter, 18.

(6) No. of Teachers in Summer-M. -F. 1.-No. of Teachers in Winter-M. 5—F. 3. (7) Average wages paid per month, including board--To Males, $31 20-To Females, $15 00. (8) Average value of board per month-Of Males, $9 20—Of Females, $500.

(9) Average wages per month, exclusive of board-Of Males, $22 00-Of Females, $10 00. (10) Amount of money raised by taxes for the support of Schools, including only the wages of Teachers, board and fuel, $400 00.

(11) Amount of board and fuel, if any, contributed for Public Schools, $200.

(12) No. of incorporated Academies, 1.-Aggregate of months kept, 9.-Average number of Scholars, 60.-Aggregate paid for tuition, $580 00.

(13) No. of unincorporated Academies, Private Schools, and Schools kept to prolong Common Schools, 5.-Aggregate of months kept, 15.-Average No. of Scholars, 175.-Aggregate paid for tuition, $275 00.

(15) Income of Surplus Revenue appropriated to Schools, $143 47.

BOOKS USED.- -Spelling-National, Worcester's and Emerson's, Webster's and Walker's Dictionaries. Reading-Bible, National, American First Class and Young Ladies' Class Books, Worcester's 4th and Angell's 4th and 5th. Grammar-Smith's. Geography-Smith's, Parley's and Olney's. Arithmetic-Smith's, Emerson's 2d Part and Colburn's. All others-Comstock's Philosophy, Bailey's Algebra, Blake's and Wilkins' Astronomies, Goodrich's History of the U. S. and Parley's First Book of Nature.

SELECTION FROM REPORT. * * We, [the committee,] would further recommend, that the teacher's bills should not be approved until their registers are completely made out and delivered to the chairman of the board.

* * *

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.—IRA DEXTER, WM. S. VINCENT, GEO. D. COTTLE.

NANTUCKET COUNTY..

NANTUCKET,

{

(1) Population, 9,051. Valuation, $6,074,374 00. Number of Public Schools, 12.

(2) No. of Scholars of all ages in all the Schools-In Summer, 1,105—In Winter, 1,090. (3) Average attendance in the Schools-In Summer, 1,026—In Winter, 971.

(4) No. of persons between 4 and 16 years of age in the town, 1,931.—No. of persons under 4 years of age who attend School, .-No. over 16 years of age who attend School, 17. (5) Aggregate length of the Schools, 144 mths.-In Summer, 72-In Winter, 72. (6) No. of Teachers in Summer-M. 5—F. 22.—No. of Teachers in Winter-M. 5-F. 22. (7) Average wages paid per month, including board-To Males, $86 00-To Females, $16 00. (8) Average value of board per month-Of Males, $16 00-Of Females, $10 00.

(9) Average wages per month, exclusive of board-Of Males, $70 00-Of Females, $6 00. (10) Amount of money raised by taxes for the support of Schools, including only the wages of Teachers, board and fuel, $7,500 00.

(12) No. of incorporated Academies, 1.-Aggregate of months kept, 11.-Average number of Scholars, 50.-Aggregate paid for tuition, $500 00.

(13) No. of unincorporated Academies, Private Schools, and Schools kept to prolong Common Schools, 20.-Aggregate of months kept, 240.-Average No. of Scholars, 500.-Aggregate paid for tuition, $6,200 00.

Books USED.- -Spelling-Walker's Dictionary, National Spelling Book. Reading-Pierpont's First Class and Young Ladies' Class Books, National, Young and Mt. Vernon, Worcester's 2d Book and Primer. Grammar-Brown's. Geography-Woodbridge's, Olney's and Parley's, Boston School Atlas. Arithmetic-Colburn's and North American. All others—The House I Live In, Goodrich's History of the U. S., Comstock's Philosophy, First Book of History, Colburn's Álgebra, Playfair's Euclid, Smellie's Natural History, Abercrombie's Intellectual owers, Hedge's Logic, Gould's Latin Grammar, Jacob's Latin and Greek Readers, Cicero's Orations, Greek Testament, &c.

SELECTIONS FROM REPORT. * *They, [the committee,] believe the Public Schools will require $9000 for their maintenance the coming year.

The amount is large; but when the number of scholars who have had the benefit is considered, who will hesitate for a moment to say that it is by far the most economical manner in which our children can be instructed?

By this estimate, the tuition of each scholar is $6 50 per year. In these schools, instruction is provided for all our children over four years of age; and they are so organized, that the gradation from one to the other is not only natural, but is calculated to give a constant impetus to the progress of the scholar.Having passed through the Introductory Schools, he is advanced to the Grammar, and thence to the High School, by an access available to every scholar who has ability and perseverance. Hence the utility, and harmony, and beauty of the system; and hence, its adaptation to the wants of the whole people, without any invidious discrimination. Here is established a principle, long since recognized in reference to our public schools:-"the object was not to give education to the poor; it was not designed as a pecuniary relief, but to provide a common fountain of knowledge from which all should draw freely. Any other principle would have been exclusive or invidious, would have been inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions, unjust and impolitic."

It is this democratic feature of our schools which endears them to the hearts of the whole people, and which inspires them with a deep interest in their pros

perity; inasmuch as they are an earnest to all that though, in the revolution of time and the changeableness of circumstance, every thing may be reversed to them, as regards their outward condition, yet they behold in the perpetuity of these institutions, at least with reference to their posterity, a transmission of that, in comparison with which, property sinks into perfect insignificance. * * The committee would also recommend to their successors in office the establishment of some plan whereby the higher branches of education may be communicated to the children of the colored population as fully and as satisfactorily as to those of the white citizens.

The committee regard the subject of education as the highest interest which can claim the consideration of the town, inasmuch as it involves the intellectual and moral condition of the succeeding generation; and when it is considered that crime and poverty are the legitimate results of ignorance, and that to these may be traced, in a great measure, the large items in the town's accounts which tell of the inmates in our asylum at Quaise, it behoves the town, by a liberal expenditure, to provide for the diffusion of principles whose direct tendency will be to lessen this amount. Should a demand, then, be made for retrenchments in our expenditure, the committee would say,-Let the knife of excision be stayed when it would sever the appropriation for the support of public instruction!

SCHOOL COMMITTEE.-JOHN H. SHAW, WM. R. EASTON, SAMUEL H. JENKS, OBED BARNEY, ALEXANDER MACY, NATHANIEL BARNEY, D. JONES, JR., ANDREW M. MACY, EBEN COLEMAN, HENRY F. EDES, C. W. WINSLOW, WM. GURRELL, CHARLES WOOD, NATHANIEL RUGGLES.

37