this respect they have been eminently useful. But instead of being incited to such efforts, they are rather restrained by the regulations adopted by the Regents of the University for the distribution of the literary fund placed at their disposal. The income of that fund is divided among the academies in proportion to the number of classical students in each, without reference to those who are pursuing the highest and most useful branches of an English course. With such encouragement, how could it be expected of truetees of academies that they should prefer a pupil disposed to study the Elements of Euclid, surveying, or Belles-lettres, to a boy who would commit the Latin grammar, while the latter would entitle them to a bounty which was refused to the former? The committee are not disposed to censure the Regents; they have merely followed the fashion of the times; and it is believed that they are themselves alive to the importance of extending the usefulness of the institutions under their care, by adapting them more to the wants of the country and the spirit of the age. But if they should not be willing to extend the benefits of the fund under their control beyond classical students, still it will be in the power of the legislature, and within the means of the state, to appropriate a capital sum that will yield a sufficient income to compensate for this inequality, and to place the English student on the same footing with the others, and thus make it the interest of the academies to instruct them. And if this bounty be distributed in reference to the number of persons instructed at an academy who shall have been licensed as teachers of common schools by the proper board, it is believed the object of obtaining able instructors will soon be accomplished.

"The committee have not been able to discover why, upon every principle of justice and of public policy, seminaries for the education of females in the higher branches of knowledge should not participate equally with those for the instruction of males, in the public bounty.

"In connection with these, the committee admit that the establishment of a separate institution for the sole purpose of preparing teachers, would be a most valuable auxiliary, especially if they were to be prepared to teach on the monitorial plan. They hesitate to recommend its adoption now, chiefly because the other measures which they intend to submit, and which they conceive to be more immediately necessary, will involve as much expense as ought now to be incurred. But they fondly anticipate the time when the means of the state will be commensurate with the public spirit of its legislature, and when such an institution will be founded on a scale equal to our wants and our resources."

The committee, after adverting to the embarrassments caused by the prevalent diversity of text books in the several schools of the state, recommend an appropriation for "the printing of large editions of such elementary works as the spelling book, an English dictionary, a grammar, a system of arithmetic, American history and biogrophy, to be used in schools, and to be distributed gratuitously, or sold at cost." "There can be no doubt," says the committee, "that a selection of such works as have been enumerated could be made by a competent board, excluding all sectarian views and tenets, as would be entirely satisfactory to the citizens of this state."

On the 14th of February, 1826, AZARIAH C. FLAGG, of the county of Clinton, was appointed secretary of state; and the administration of the common school system consequently devolved upon him. The interests of public instruction had been ably and faithfully guarded by Mr. YATES, who seems to have united to eminent talents as an executive and administrative officer, a lively zeal for the promotion of education and the diffusion of knowledge among the great body of the people. His various reports exhibit an accurate practical knowledge of the working of the common school system, in all its departments; his decisions on the numerous appeals which were from time to time brought before him, were characterized by a sound discrimination; and his efforts for the improvement and advancement of the schools were earnest and indefatigable.

The first annual report of Mr. Flagg as Superintendent of Common Schools was transmitted to the legislature on the 13th of March, 1826, from which it appeared that 425,350 children had been taught in the common schools during the year; being 22,410 more than were taught the preceding year, and exceeding by 29,764 the number between the ages of five and fifteen residing in the state. The whole number of organized school districts in the state was 7,773. The Superintendent alludes to the necessity of "some provision which should have a tendency to increase the number of qualified instructors," and adds:

It might be beneficial to offer facilities for the special education of common school teachers; and as the districts progress in wealth, and the donation of the state is increased, inducements will be furnished for a greater number of persons of competent talents, to engage in the business of teaching, as a profession."

At the opening of the session of 1827, Gov. CLINTON thus eloquently alluded to the subject of popular education:

"The great bulwark of republican government is the cultivation of education; for the right of suffrage cannot be exercised in a salutary manner without intelligence. It is gratifying to find that education continues to flourish. We may safely estimate the number of our common schools at 8,000; the number of children taught during the last year, on an average of eight months, at 430,000; and the sum expended in education at 200,000 dollars. It is, however, too palpable that our system is surrounded by imperfections which demand the wise consideration and improving interposition of the legislature. In the first place, there is no provision made for the education of competent instructors. Of the eight thousand now employed in this state, too many are destitute of the requisite qualifications, and perhaps no considerable number are able to teach beyond rudimental instruction. Ten years of a child's life, from five to fifteen, may be spent in a common school; and ought this immense portion of time to be absorbed in learning what can be acquired in a short period? Perhaps one-fourth of our population is annually instructed in our common schools; and ought the minds and the morals of the rising, and perhaps the destinies of all future generations, to be entrusted to the guardianship of incompetence? The scale of instruction must be elevated; the standard of education ought to be raised, and a central school on the monitorial plan ought to be established in each county for the education of teachers, and as exemplars for other momentous purposes connected with the improvement of the human mind. * * Small and suitable collections of books and maps, attached to our common schools, and periodical examinations to test the proficiency of the scholars and the merits of the teachers, are worthy of attention. When it is understood that objects of this description enter into the very formation of our characters, control our destinies through life, protect the freedom and advance the glory of our country, and when it is considered that seminaries for general education are either not provided in the old world, or but imperfectly supplied by charity and Sunday schools, and that this is the appropriate soil of liberty and education, let it be our pride, as it is our duty, to spare no exertion and to shrink from no expense in the promotion of a cause consecrated by religion and enjoined by patriotism; nor let us be regardless of ample encouragement of the higher institutions devoted to literature and science. Independently of their intrinsic merits and their diffusive and enduring benefits, in reference to their appropriate objects, they have in a special manner, a most auspicious iufluence on all subordinate institutions.

* *

"They give to society men of improved and enlarged minds, who, feeling the importance of information in their own experience, will naturally cherish an ardent desire to extend its blessings. Science delights in expansion, as well as in concentration; and after having flourished within the precincts of academies and universities, will spread itself over the land, enlightening society and ameliorating the condition of man. The more elevated the tree

of knowledge, and the more expanded its branches, the greater will be its trunk and the deeper its root."

On the 21st of February, MR. SPENCER, from the literature committee of the senate, to which had been referred that portion of the message of the governor relating to common schools and the providing of competent teachers, brought in a bill, entitled, "An act to provide permanent funds for the annual appropriation to common schools, to increase the literature fund, and to promote the education of teachers," which, with some slight amendments, became a law on the 18th of April following. This bill transferred to the common school fund the balance due on the loan of 1786, together with $100,000 of bank stock owned by the state: and to the literature fund, from the canal fund, the sum of $150,000; the income of which, together with that of the $95,000 formerly belonging to the fund, was required to be annually distributed by the Regents of the University "among the incorporated academies and seminaries of this state, other than colleges, which are subject to the visitation of the said Regents, &c., in proportion to the number of pupils instructed in each academy or seminary for six months during the preceding year, who shall have pursued classical studies, or the higher branches of English education, or both." From the report accompanying the bill the following extracts are taken, with the view of showing the design of the legislature in thus increasing the literature fund.

"Another object of still greater importance is the furnishing of competent teachers for the instruction of common schools. In vain will you have established a system of instruction, in vain will you appropriate money to educate the children of the poor, if you do not provide persons competent to execute your system, and to teach the pupils collected in the schools. The message of the governor and the report of the Superintendent concur in pressing this subject upon our attention with the most anxious solicitude; and every citizen who has paid attention to it, and become acquainted practically with the situation of our schools, knows that the incompetency of the great mass of teachers is a radical defect, which impedes the whole system, frustrates the benevolent designs of the legislature, and defeats the hopes and wishes of all who feel an interest in disseminating the blessings of education. There are 8,114 organized school districts in this state; and if there be added the schools in the city of New-York, in Albany, Troy and Hudson, not included in the returns, and the private schools which are established in almost every county, we shall be justified in estimating the number of teachers required to carry on the business of instruction, at not far from ten thousand. This result places in a strong view the vast importance of the subject. From what sources can this supply of teachers be obtained? And how can the great body of this multitude be rendered competent to their stations? In a free government resting upon the intelligence of its citizens, these questions are of vital importance.

"The governor has recommended the establishment of central schools upon the monitorial plan for the instruction of teachers. From the best consideration which the committee have been able to bestow upon the subject, and from all the information which they can collect, a doubt is entertained whether the monitorial plan is adapted to small schools in the country, or to the higher branches of education. The means of instruction in the ordinary mode must be provided. The colleges and academies ought to furnish competent instructors, and indeed to them we are indebted, but chiefly to the academies, for the qualified instructors now employed. While academies are instituted, and by proper encouragement may supply our wants, the committee would doubt the policy of establishing central schools in their vicinity, which would necessarily divert from them much of their present support." After referring to the location of the several academies in different parts of the state, with the view of showing that in this respect they were capable of meeting the wants of the community, and that but few portions of the state were not adequately supplied with these institutions, provided they were suitably encouraged, the report proceeds to recommend a different standard of apportionment than the

one in operation, and an increase of the fund, specifically for the purpose of encouraging the preparation of a class of students, who might serve as teachers of the common schools. "The income derived from the literature fund, they propose in the bill herewith reported, shall be distributed among the academies in proportion to the number of students pursuing the classical studies and the higher branches of an English education; and their object is to promote the education of young men in those studies which will prepare them for the business of instruction, which it is hoped may be accomplished to some extent, by offering inducements to the trustees of academies to educate pupils of that description." "These are the considerations which have guided the committee in preparing the bill now presented. They have only further to say, that if any confidence can be reposed in the official communications of those officers of the government whose duty it is to give the legislature information on this subject, if the concurring testimony of all who have spoken or written concerning it can be relied upon, there is a radical, deep, and extensive defect in our common school system, which deprives it of much of its value; and that defect consists in the want of competent instructors. From six to ten years of the most valuable portion of human life-of that very period when instruction is most easily imparted and most firmly retained, is absolutely wasted and thrown away. Every one in the least acquainted with the subject knows that a boy, under proper instruction, can, and ought to know as much at seven or eight years old, as he acquires under the present system at fourteen or sixteen. Having undertaken a system of public instruction, it is the solemn duty of the legislature to make that system as perfect as possible. We have no right to trifle with the funds of our constituents by applying them in a mode which fails to attain the intended object. Competent teachers of common schools must be provided: the academies of the state furnish the means of making that provision. There are funds which may be safely and properly applied to that object; and if there were none, a more just, patriotic, and in its true sense, popular, reason for taxation cannot be urged. Let us aid the efforts of meritorious citizens, who have devoted large portions of their means to the rearing of academies; let us reward them by giving success to their efforts; let us sustain seminaries that are falling into decay; let us revive the drooping and animate the prosperous by the cheering rays of public beneficence; and thus let us provide nurseries for the education of our children, and for the instruction of teachers who will expand, and widen, and deepen the great stream of education, until it shall reach our remotest borders, and prepare our posterity for the maintenance of the glory and prosperity of their country."

From the annual report of the Superintendent for this year, it appeared that there were 8,114 organized school districts in the state--341 new districts having been formed during the preceding year; that returns had been received from 7,544 of these districts, in which 431,601 children had been taught during the year reported, being an increase over the number so taught the preceding year, of 13,864; the whole number of children residing in the state, between the ages of five and fifteen, was 411,256.

Speaking in reference to the practical operation of the existing system of visitation and inspection of the common schools, the Superintendent holds the following language: "The system of inspection might be improved, by the appointment of competent persons to visit the schools of a county, or larger district; to investigate the mode of instruction, the qualifications of teachers, the application of the public money, and to inquire into all the operations of the school system. Such inspectors would aid the schools by their advice, and add to the stock of intelligence on the subject of education, by collecting information in relation to the condition of the schools, and the manner in which they are conducted; and these inspections would be the means of more effectually ascertaining what the common schools now effect, and what they may be made to accomplish." The results of the subsequent adoption of this plan, in substance, has effectually vindicated the prescience of the Superintendent, in this respect. The report goes on to re

commend, first, "the establishment of schools in the several counties for the education of teachers" and second, "the gradual introduction of the system of mutual instruction." The improvement of the system of female education is also adverted to, as well as the propriety of furnishing the schools with a judicious selection of text books. "The course of instruction in the common schools ought to be adapted to the business of life, and to the aotual duties which may devolve upon the person instructed. In a government where every citizen has a voice in deciding the most important questions, it is not only necessary that every person should be able to read and write, but that he should be well instructed in the rights, privileges and duties of a citizen. Instruction should be co-extensive with universal suffrage."

The sum of $100,000 was this year apportioned by the Superintendent among the several school districts, in pursuance of the provisions of an aot passed the preceding year, authorizing the annual distribution of this amount from the common school fund. The several laws relating to common schools were also revised by the legislature and republished, with the necessary expositions and instructions from the department.

Gov. Clinton, in his message at the opening of the session of 1828, again adverts to the subject of common school education, in the following terms: "That part of the revised laws relative to common schools is operative on this day, and presents the system in an intelligible shape, but without those improvements which are requisite to raise the standard of instruction, to enlarge its objects, and to elevate the talents and qualifications of the teachers. It is understood that Massachusetts has provided for these important cases; but whether the experiment has, as. yet, been attended with promising results, is not distinctly known. It may, however, be taken for granted, that the education of the body of the people can never attain the requisite perfection without competent instructors, well acquainted with the outlines of literature and the elements of science. And after the scale of education is elevated in common schools, more exalted improvements ought to be engrafted into academical studies, and proceed in a correspondent and progressive ascent to our colleges.

"In the meantime I consider it my duty to recommend a law authorizing the supervisors of each county to raise a sum, not exceeding two thousand dollars, provided the same sum is subscribed by individuals, for the ereotion of a suitable edifice for a monitorial high school in the county town. I can conceive of no reasonable objection to the adoption of a measure so well calculated to raise the character of our schoolmasters, and to double the powers of our artizans, by giving them a scientific education.”

From the annual report of the Superintendent, it appeared that the number of school districts had increased to 8,298, from 7,806 of which returns had been received, showing that the whole number of children between the ages of five and fifteen, in the districts, was 419,216; and that the whole number taught in the common schools during the year reported, was 441,856; being an increase of 10,225 since the preceding year, and of 301,750 since 1816. The aggregate amount of public money received and expended by the several districts, in the payment of the wages of duly qualified teachers, was $222,995.77; of which $100,000 was paid from the state treasury, $110,542.32 raised by tax upon the several towns and counties, and $12,463.45 derived from local funds.

The productive capital of the school fund was increased during the year reported, $256,121.50, by the transfer of $33,616.19, the balance due on the loan of 1786 to this fund; and of $100,000 of bank stock owned by the state; by the avails of the premiums received on the sale of the stock of the Hudson and Delaware canal company, amounting to $31,156.50; and by the sale of lands owned by the state at Oswego, by which $91,349 were realized for the benefit of the fund.

The Superintendent recommends the affording additional facilities for common school instruction to children engaged in manufacturing establishments; and suggests the appropriation by the commissioners of common