maximum, without reaching the corresponding stage of promotion, should be removed from the school. A relaxation of this rule, to a certain extent, might be allowed in cases where it clearly appeared that the boy's failure to obtain promotion was due to his deficiency in one particular subject, whilst his marks in other subjects would heve counterbalanced that deficiency had the system of promotion permitted it.

XXVI. The charges made to parents and the stipends and emoluments of the masters should be revised, with a view to put both on a more simple and equitable footing.

XXVII. The charges for instruction should be treated as distinct from the charges for boarding and for domestic superintendence. It should cover instruction in every subject which forms part of the regular course of study, and tutorial instruction, where all the boys receive it alike, as well as instruction in school. This charge should be uniform for all boys who are not on the foundation. For the instruction of every boy on the foundation a sum should be paid out of the revenues of the foundation when they admit of it, and this payment should supersede all statutory or customary stipends and other emoluments now received by any of the masters from that source.

XXVIII. The aggregate amount of the charges and payments for instruction should be considered as forming a fund which should be at the disposal of the Governing Body, and out of which stipends should be assigned to the Head Master and other masters, according to a scheme to be framed by the Governing Body. These stipends might be fixed, or fluctuating with the numbers of the school, or with the number of each tutor's pupils, as to the Governing Body might seem best in each case; and in fixing them, the profits to be derived from boarding should be taken into account, in the case of masters having boarding-houses. A small graduated payment or tax might also be imposed upon masters having boarding-houses, should this appear just and expedient to the Governing Body. Permission to keep a boarding-house should in future be given to masters only. Leaving fees should be abolished. Entrance fees, if retained, should be added to the instruction fund. It appears desirable that a reserve fund for building, for the establishment of prizes or exhibitions, and for other objects useful to the school, should be formed wherever this may conveniently be done in the judgment of the Governing Body. In introducing this system the Governing Body would, of course, have due regard to vested interests, and would have regard also to such considerations of convenience as might properly modify or defer the application of it to any particular school.

XXIX. The working of the monitorial system, where it exists, should be watched, and boys who may deem themselves wronged by any abuse of it should be able at all times to appeal to the Head Master. The power of punishment, when intrusted to boys, should be carefully guarded.

XXX. The system of fagging should be likewise watched. Fags should be relieved from all services which may be more properly performed by servants; and care should be taken that neither the time which a little boy has for preparing his lessons, nor the time which he has for play, should be encroached upon unduly.

XXXI. It is desirable that the Governing Bodies should, after communication with each other, endeavor to make the holiday times of their respective schools coincide as far as possible, so as to enable school-boys who are members of the same family, but at different schools, to be at home for their holidays together.

XXXII. The Head Master should be required to make an annual report to the governors on the state of the school, and this report should be printed. It is desirable that tabular returns for the year, substantially resembling those with which we have been furnished by the schools, should accompany or form part of the report.

Concluding Remarks.-We have considered, in the preceding remarks, the external government of these schools; their internal government; their course of study, which appears sound and valuable in its main elements, but wanting in breadth and flexibility-defects which destroy in many cases, and impair in all, its value as an education of the mind, and

which are made more prominent at the present time by the extension of knowledge in various directions, and by the multiplied requirements of modern life; their organization and teaching, regarded not as to its range, but as to its force and efficiency—and we have been unable to resist the conclusion, that these schools, in very different degrees, are too indulgent to idleness or struggle ineffectually with it, and that they consequently send out a large proportion of men of idle habits and empty and uncultivated minds; and their discipline and moral training, of which we have been able to speak in terms of high praise.

It remains for us to discharge the pleasantest part of our task, by recapitulating in a few words the advances which these schools have made during the last quarter of a century, and by noticing briefly the obligations which England owes to them-obligations which, were their defects far greater than they are, would entitle them to be treated with the utmost tenderness and respect.

It is evident that important progress has been made even in those particulars in which the schools are most deficient. The course of study has been enlarged; the methods of teaching have been improved; the proportion of masters to boys has been increased; the quantity of work exacted is greater than it was, though still in too many cases less than it ought to be. At the same time the advance in moral and religious training has more than kept pace with that which has been made in intellectual discipline. The old roughness of manners has in a great measure disappeared, and with it the petty tyranny and thoughtless cruelty which were formerly too common, and which used indeed to be thought inseparable from the life of a public school. The boys are better lodged and cared for, and more attention is paid to their health and comfort.

Among the services which they have rendered is undoubtedly to be reckoned the maintenance of classical literature as the staple of English education, a service which far outweighs the error of having clung to these studies too exclusively. A second, and a greater still, is the creation of a system of government and discipline for boys, the excellence of which has been universally recognized, and which is admitted to have been most important in its effects on national character and social life. It is not easy to estimate the degree in which the English people are indebted to these schools for the qualities on which they pique themselves most-for their capacity to govern others and control themselves, their aptitude for combining freedom with order, their public spirit, their vigor and manliness of character, their strong but not slavish respect for public opinion, their love of healthy sports and exercise. These schools have been the chief nurseries of our statesmen; in them, and in schools molded after them, men of all the various classes that make up English society, destined for every profession and career, have been brought up on a footing of social equality, and have contracted the most enduring friendships, and some of the ruling habits, of their lives; and they have had perhaps the largest share in molding the character of an English

gentleman. The system, like other systems, has its blots and imperfections; there have been times when it was at once too lax and too severe -severe in its punishments, but lax in superintendence and prevention; it has permitted, if it has not encouraged, some roughness, tyranny, and license; but these defects have not seriously marred its wholesome operation, and it appears to have gradually purged itself from them in a remarkable degree. Its growth, no doubt, is largely due to those very qualities in our national character which it has itself contributed to form; but justice bids us add that it is due likewise to the wise munificence which founded the institutions, under whose shelter it has been enabled to take root, and to the good sense, temper, and ability of the men by whom, during successive generations, they have been governed.

VII. THE AMERICAN SCHOOL SOCIETY.

THE AMERICAN SCHOOL SOCIETY deserves a name and a place in the history of public-school education in this country. No society was more needed at the time of its formation; and it helped to indicate the paths and the methods of school improvement.

Though founded at Boston in 1834, it may properly be said to have had its origin at Andover nearly two years earlier. At that time Rev. S. R. Hall, the author of "Lectures on School-Keeping," had the charge of a school in Andover which he called a "Teachers' Seminary." Some of the friends of Mr. Hall and of the seminarymoved, no doubt, by Mr. Hall's representations of its necessitymet on the 13th of July, 1832, and formed what they termed a "School Agents' Society," whose object was to promote the cause of education, especially in common schools, by school agencies and circuit teachers. Of this Society Samuel Farrar, Esq., was president; S. R. Hall, vice-president; W. P. Jewett, recording secretary; and Josiah Holbrook, treasurer-with a board of seven directors, embracing Prof. Emerson and W. C. Woodbridge, and corresponding secretaries in nearly every State in the Union. A second meeting was held in Andover on the 6th of August, when a full report was made of the plans, objects, and advantages of the Society. That report says:-"Our desire is to excite public attention to the importance of practical education-to lead the young to appreciate their ability to educate themselves to carry the benefits of Infant School instruction to every child and bear the key of knowledge among teachers, inducing them to regard their vocation as one of the liberal professions, and securing among them union of object and effort to encourage young men of promise to become teachers and agents, and to procure funds for the purpose of aiding such to educate themselves, especially if they intend to exercise their profession in the valley of the Mississippi-these all are objects of permanent importance in the opinion of the Board. * In short, this Association may act as a Lay Education Society, a Foreign and Home School Society, which shall supply destitute portions

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of our own and other countries with the blessings that follow in the train of our Free Schools. * Of the means to be employed in effecting our object, the press will be the most powerful instrument we can employ. Associations auxiliary to our own-the coöperation of instructors—the establishment of seminaries for teachers-the formation of circuit schools where a course of uninterrupted instruction can not be given-the employment of traveling agents. and lecturers, will all be put in requisition."

A third meeting, as a "Convention of Teachers," was held at Andover, Apr 10th, 1833, and continued in session nine days. Three lectures were usually given each day, and two meetings held for discussion. Lectures were delivered by S. R. Hall, chairman of the Convention, upon "The qualifications of teachers;" "The objects for which a teacher should labor;" "The responsibility of teachers;" "The best method of commencing a school;" "School Discipline;" "Arithmetic;" "Natural Philosophy;" and "Electricity;"-by Mr. Adams, former principal of the Andover Latin School, three lectures on "The art of teaching ;"-by J. Holbrook, on "The use of School Apparatus," and on "The wants of the West;"-by Mr. Z. Tenney, of the Teachers' Seminary, on "Teaching Arithmetic ;"-by Mr. Loomis, on " The absurdities of the English Alphabet," and on "The general management of schools ;"-by Mr. Hibbert, on " Geology ;"-by F. A. Barton, of the Teachers' Seminary, on "Circuit Schools, and the best method of conducting them;"-by Mr. Taylor, of the Theological Seminary, on "Natural History;"-by Mr. Foster, on "The condition and prospect of schools in the Southern States;"-by Mr. De Witt, on "Improving the memory;"-by Mr. Richmond, on "Education in Greece;"— and by Mr. Smith, on "The Carstairian system of penmanship." Among the topics discussed were the following:-"Defects of common schools and the best means for remedying them;”—“ Evils resulting from the neglect of moral instruction in common schools;". "Best methods of communicating moral instruction in schools;""Introduction of Moral Philosophy and other new branches into schools;"-" Mode of teaching the alphabet, and spelling, and reading ;"-"Impropriety of attempting to teach too many things at once ;"—" Character and comparative merits of school-books ;”"Unpardonable neglect of ventilation in school-rooms;"-"Methods of securing the influence of females in the cause of education ;""Importance of cultivating early habits of systematic benevolence in school children;"-"Mutual coöperation of schools, even in distant States, and facilities for producing it;"—" Utility of town and