And it is hoped that this precaution, aided by that desire which generally prevails, of employing good men only, will render it unnecessary to resort to any other measure.

"The commissioners, at the same time that they feel impressed with the importance of employing teachers of the character above described, cannot refrain from expressing their solicitude, as to the introduction of proper books into the contemplated schools. This is a subject so intimately connected with a good education, that it merits the serious consideration of all who are concerned in the establishment and management of schools. Much good is to be derived from a judicious selec tion of books, calculated to enlighten the understanding, not only, but to improve the heart. And as it is of incalculable consequence to guard the young and tender mind from receiv ing fallacious impressions, the commissioners cannot omit mentioning this subject as a part of the weighty trust reposed in them. Connected with the introduction of suitable books, the commissioners take the liberty of suggesting that some observations and advice touching the reading of the BIBLE in the schools might be salutary. In order to render the sacred volume productive of the greatest advantage, it should be held in a very different light from that of a common school book. It should be regarded as a book intended for literary improvement, not merely, but as inculcating great and indispensable moral truths also. With these impressions, the commissioners are induced to recommend the practice introduced into the NewYork Free School, of having select chapters read at the opening of the school in the morning, and the like at the close in the afternoon. This is deemed the best mode of preserving the religious regard which is due to the sacred writings."

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"The commissioners cannot conclude this report without expressing once more their deep sense of the momentous subject committed to them. If we regard it as connected with the cause of religion and morality merely, its aspect is awfully solemn. But the other view of it already alluded to, is sufficient to excite the keenest solicitude in the legislative body. It is a subject, let it be repeated, intimately connected with the per manent prosperity of our political institutions. The American empire is founded on the virtue and intelligence of the people. But it were irrational to conceive that any form of government can long exist without virtue in the people. Where the largest portion of a nation is vicious, the government must cease to exist as it loses its functions. The laws cannot be executed where every man has a personal interest in screening and protecting the profligate and abandoned. When these are unrestrained by the wholesome coercion of authority, they give way to every species of excess and crime. One enormity brings on another,

until the whole community, becoming corrupt, bursts forth into some nighty change, or sinks at once into annihilation. Can it be,' said WASHINGTON, 'that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue.' The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature.

"And the commissioners cannot but hope that that Being who rules the universe in justice and in mercy, who rewards virtue and punishes vice, will most graciously deign to smile benignly on the humble efforts of a people, in a cause purely his own; and that He will manifest this pleasure in the lasting prosperity of our country."

We cannot deem any apology necessary for the space occupied by these extracts from this admirable report: shadowing forth as it does the great features of that system of public instruction subsequently adopted, and successfully carried into execution; and laying down in language at once eloquent and impressive, those fundamental principles upon which alone any system of popular education, in a republic like ours, must be based. The leading features of the system proposed by the commissioners, were adopted and passed into a law by the legislature, during the session of 1812, with the exception of leav ing it discretionary with the electors of the several towns after the first distribution of public money, to receive their share and to raise an equal amount by tax, or to dispense alike with the burden and the benefits of the legal provisions, by vote at their annual town meetings.

On the organization of the system, GIDEON HAWLEY, Esq., then of the county of Saratoga, was appointed by the Council of Appointment, Superintendent of Common Schools.

On the fourth day of February, 1814, the first annual report of Mr. Hawley, as Superintendent of Common Schools, was transmitted to the legislature; in which he informs that body that in pursuance of the act for the establishment of common schools, passed on the 19th of June, 1812, he had at the commencement of the preceding year given due notice of an intended distribution of the interest of the school fund, and that by means of such notice, that act had been carried into operation so far as depended upon him; that although no official returns had been received from which an estimate might be formed of the beneficial operation of the act, yet that satisfactory evidence had been obtained, that in many cases its operation had been prevented by the refusal or neglect of towns to comply with its provisions; and that in other cases where such compliance had been made, and the act thereby carried into effect, its operation had been much embarrassed by difficulties, arising, as was believed, from the imperfection of its provisions; that notwithstanding these obstacles and embarrassments, its influence had

already proved very salutary, and that with the aid of legislative amendment, it promised to yield all that encouragement to common schools which it was designed to give. "It was not to be expected," continues the Superintendent, "that any system for the establishment of common schools could be devised, which in its first form should be wholly free from imperfections; and accordingly it has been found that the existing law for the establishment of such a system is, in some respects, defective in its provisions, and obscure and doubtful in its meaning." The report goes on to suggest such amendments as were deemed requisite in various particulars, not necessary to enumerate here. The operation, however, of that portion of the law which left it optional with the several towns to comply with its conditions and participate in its benefits, or not, as the inhabitants at their annual town meeting might determine, is worthy of special notice. We quote from that portion of the report which examines this feature of the system.

"The fifth section of the act provides that such towns in every county as shall have complied with the law, by directing their supervisors to levy on them the sum required by the act to entitle them to their proportion of the public money, shall receive by apportionment, from the board of supervisors, the whole dividend of the county, according to their respective population, to the exclusion of such towns as shall not have complied with the law. By a subsequent part of the same section, it is further provided that the sum required to be raised on each town, to entitle it to a share of the public money, must be equal to the sum apportioned to such town by the board of supervisors. By the operation of these several provisions in the act, the case may be that a single town in a county shall be entitled to receive the whole dividend for such county; and although this sum shall be more than sufficient, (as in ordinary cases it will be,) to support all its schools, it must nevertheless be subjected by tax to the payment of an additional sum equal in amount to the sum it is entitled to receive; and this additional sum must, in law, be applied to the support of its schools, which may have had (and in ordinary cases will have had) an excess of support already. Although the case here supposed has not yet occurred, to the knowledge of the Superintendent, there is nevertheless good reason to believe it will occur; satisfactory evidence having been obtained, that in some counties but few towns have complied with the law, or shown any disposition to comply therewith. The mischief herein complained of, may be remedied by providing that the board of supervisors shall not, in any case, raise by tax on any town, a sum exceeding the sum which such town shall be entitled to receive out of the county dividend, if all the towns in the county had complied with the law."

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"It will be found by inspection of the act, that one of its principal features is the provision which gives every town an election, either to comply with the act and receive its benefits, and bear its burdens, or to refuse such compliance, and thereby forego its benefits, and avoid its burdens. In the exercise of this choice, it has already been observed that many towns have refused to comply with the act, and it is believed they will generally persist in such refusal, and that some other towns which have already complied with the law, will endeavor to retract their compliance. By allowing such an option to every town, the operation of the act depending on the pleasure, and not unfrequently the caprice of a few individuals, will be always partial and fluctuating; it will, moreover, be embarrassed by all the difficulties which are naturally connected with instability of system and intricacy of form. It is therefore submitted whether this provision in the act may not be so amended as to make it obligatory on towns to comply with the act, and also on the board of supervisors of the several counties to levy on their respective towns, a sum equal to the sum which shall be apportioned to such towns out of the public money to be distributed." This suggestion was adopted by the legislature, and the act amended in this and various other respects, in conformity to the recommendation of the Superintendent.

On the 11th of February, 1815, Mr. Hawley transmitted to the legislature his second annual report as Superintendent. The returns which had been made to him from the several counties were, however, so few in number, and in general so extremely defective in substance, and inartificial in form, that he did not deem it advisable to communicate them to the legislature, preferring to defer the performance of the duty required of him in this respect, until more perfect returns, in accordance with forms and instructions to be prepared by him, should enable him to discharge it more beneficially to the public. "The neglect of many of the commissioners of common schools, and other subordinate officers under the act," says the Superintendent, "in not making the returns required of them by law, and the manner in which others who have undertaken to make the necessary returns have discharged their duty, betray in some cases, a want of care and interest in the concerns of common schools, and generally a very great degree of embarrassment in conducting their operations. The Superintendent has also learnt from other sources, and especially from the frequent application to him for advice, that a very great degree of embarrassment has been felt by most persons who have any charge under the act for the establishment of schools. He has also observed that there has not as yet been excited that general interest in behalf of the establishment of common schools by law, which the importance of it might seem calculated to inspire.

It ought not, however, to be inferred from these or any other facts which have come to his knowledge, that the system of common schools established by law will not fulfil the beneficial ends of its institution, or that the reasonable expectations of its founders have yet been disappointed. It was not a reasonable expectation that the prejudices of the community would immediately subside, and their feelings fall in with a system which, being altogether new in its provisions, was untried in its operations. Nor was it reasonable to expect of such a system, that it would immediately fulfil all the beneficial ends of its institution. The system of common schools, like every other system which arrives to perfection, must be gradual in its growth; in its infancy it should be cherished with tenderness and care, and it ought not to be lightly discarded because it wants maturity, before it has had time to attain it. It is well known that most of the difficulties which now embarrass the concerns of common schools, and which, in the opinion of some, preclude the expectation of any beneficial result, do not arise so much from any defect in the system established by law, as from an ignorance of the duties required under that system, and the unaccustomed nature of its operations. But when time shall have removed the cause of this difficulty, as by the aid of occasional instructions it most infallibly will do, and shall have given to this system what constitutes the perfection of almost every other a long establishment-there is a moral certainty that the beneficial ends of its institution will be fulfilled, and the expectations of its founders fully realized." The Superintendent proceeds to suggest a few additional amendmerts to the act concerning common schools, and concludes with some observations in reference to the investment of the school fund.

On the first day of April, 1816, the Superintendent transmitted his third annual report, from which it appeared that returns relative to the condition of the schools had been made to him from 338 towns in thirty-six of the forty-six counties then in the state; that the whole number of districts from which reports had been received by the commissioners, in conformity to law, was 2,631; that the whole number of children between the ages of five and fifteen in said districts, was 176,449; and that 140,106 had been under instruction during a portion of the year reported in the common schools. The Superintendent, however, observes: "The returns not being complete, and many of them being defective in some one or more of their necessary requisites, it is difficult to form any certain estimate from them. Taking, however, the most correct and full returns for a criterion, it would appear that there are within the state, about five thousand districts in which common schools are established; that the number of children taught in them is at least two hundred thousand; and that the number of children between the ages of