Every male person of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, residing in any school district, (including aliens entitled by law to hold real estate) who owns or hires real property in such district subject to taxation for school puposes, or who is a legal voter at town meetings, and is the owner of personal property liable to taxation in the district for school purposes, exceeding fifty dollars in value, beyond such as is exempt from execution, is entitled to vote at any school district meeting held in such district.

An annual meeting of the inhabitants of each district entitled to vote therein, is to be held, after the first organization of the district, at the time and place designated at the first and at each subsequent meeting; and special meetings are to be held whenever called by the trustees.

When legally assembled in any district meeting, the inhabitants of each district, so entitled to vote, are authorized by a majority of the votes of those present, either by ballot or otherwise as they may determine, to choose three trustees, a district clerk, collector, and librarian. The trustees chosenat the first legal meeting of the district, are to be divided by lot into three classes, and the term of office of the first is to be one year; of the second, two, and of the third, three years; and one trustee, only is thereafter annually to be elected, who holds his office for three years. The clerk, collector and librararian are annually elected. In the event of a vacancy happening in the office of trustee, by death, refusal to serve, removal out of the district, or incapacity to act, such vacancy may be supplied by the district, and if more than a month is permitted to elapse, without filling it, the town Superintendent is authorized to appoint; and the person so chosen or appointed holds only for the unexpired term of the office whose place he fills. A similar vacancy in the offices of clerk, collector, or librarian, is to be supplied by appointment of the trustees or a majority of them. The town Superintendent, on good cause shown, is authorized to accept the resignation of any district officer.

The inhabitants of the several districts, in district meeting assembled are also authorized to designate a site for a schoolhouse,or(with the consent of the town superintendent)for two or more school houses for the district,and to vote. such an amount as they may deem sufficient to purchase or lease such a site or sites and to build hire or purchase a school house or houses, keep the same in suitable repair,and furnish them with the necessary fuel and appendages; and may, in their discretion vote a tax not exceeding twenty dollars in any one year for the purchase of maps, globes, black-boards and other school apparatus. No tax, however, for building, hiring or purchasing a school house can exceed the sum of $400, unless the town Superintendent of the town in which such house is to be situated, shall certify that a larger sum, specifying the same, ought to be raised; and when the site for the school house has once been fixed, it cannot be change, while the district remains unaltered, but by the written consent of the town Superintendent, and by the vote ayes and noes of a majority of the inhabitants of the district, at a special meeting called for that purpose. In this case the inhabitants may direct the sale of the former site or lot, together with the buildings and appertenances on such terms as they may deem most advantageous to the district, and the trustees, or a majority of them are empowered to effect such sale and to execute the necessary conveyances. The proceeds are to be applied to the purchase of a new site, and to the removal, erection or purchase of new houses.

The general administration of the affairs of the several districts, devolves principally upon the trustees, who have the custody of all the district property; contract with, employ and pay the teachers; assess all district taxes, following the valuations of the town assessor, so far as they afford a guide, and make out the necessary tax lists and warrants for their co lection; call the annual and special meetings of the inhabitants; purchase or lease sites for the school house, as previously designated by the district, and build, hire or purchase, keep in repair and furnish such school house with necessary fuel and appendages, out of the funds provided by the district for that purpose;

purchase suitable books for the district library, which is specially committed to their care, and procure all such school apparatus as the district may di rect; and on the first of January in each year make their report of the condition of the district, in the form prescribed by law, to the Town Superintendent.

The productive capital of the Common School Fund is at this time,

The capital of that portion of the U. S. Deposite Fund, the interest of which is annually appropriated to the support of Common Schools, is

To which may be added a sum that will annually produce an income of $25.000, reserved by the constitution to be added to the capital of the school fund, viz:.

$2,243,563 30

2,750,000 00

416,666 67

$5,400,230 03

The annual interest on this sum, at 6 per cent., is $324,000.00; of which $300,000 is annually appropriated to the support of Common Schools, inclu ding $55,000 for the purchase of District Libraries and school appar

atus.

The sum of eight hundred thousand dollars is annually required to be levied on the real and personal property of the State, and when collected to be paid over to the several County Treasurers, subject to the order of the State Superintendent of Common Schools, who is to ascertain the propor tion of such sum to be assessed and collected in each county, according to the valuation of real and personal estate therein, and to certify the same to the several County Clerks, to be laid before the boards of Supervisors, whose duty it is to levy such amount upon the County. On or before the first day of January in each year, the State Superintendent is required to apportion two-thirds of the amount so raised, together with all other monies appro priated to the support of Common Schools among the several counties, cities and towns of the State, according to the population of such counties, cities and towns, and to divide the remaining third equally among the several districts.

Under these provisions, the aggregate amount of public money annually apportioned by the State Superintendent, and raised upon the taxable prop erty of the several counties, is $1,100,000.00; of which, $1.045,000 is appli cable exclusively to the payment of teachers' wages, and the support of the school, and the remaining $55,000 to the purchase of school libraries and apparatus.

In addition to this, the inhabitants of each town of the State are authorized to raise an additional amount, equal to their share of the state fund, to be appropriated exclusively to the support of schools; and many of the towns are in possession of local funds applicable to this object, derived from the sale of lands originally set apart in each township, by the State, for this purpose.

Town superintendents are biennially elected by the inhabitants and legal voters of the several towns, at their annual meetings in March and April of each alternate year, and enter upon the execution of the duties devolved upon them, on the first Monday of November succeeding their election, holding for the term of two years thereafter. They are required to execute to the supervisor of their town a bond with sufficient sureties, with a penalty in double the amount of all the school money received by the town. conditioned for the faithful application and legal disbursement of all the school money which may come into their hand during their term of office, and for the faithful discharge of all their duties. They are authorized to form, regulate and alter the boundaries of school districts, when applied to for that purpose, or when in their judgment necessary and expedient, associat ing with them the supervisor and town clerk of their town, whenever re quested by the trustees of any district interested in any proposed alteration,

and it is their duty to apply for and receive from the county treasurer and town collector respectively,all school money apportioned or belonging to their town; and on or before the first Tuesday in April of each year to apportion the same among the several districts of their town, according to the number of children between the ages of four and twenty-one, residing in each, as reported to them by the trustees, provided such districts have in all respects complied with the directions of law during the preceding year, and made the annual report required of them.

No district, without the special permission of the state superintendent can participate in such apportionment, which has not had a school taught within it for at least six months during the year reported, by a duly qualified teacher; which has not faithfully expended all its public money in the mode prescribed by law; or in which a school has been taught for a period exceeding one month by an unqualified teacher.

In making such apportionment, the town Superintendents designate the respective sums applicable to the payment of teachers, and to the purchase of libraries and school apparatus; and hold the former subject to the order of the trustees, or of a majority of them, in favor of the teachers employed by them and duly qualified according to law; paying over the library money directly to the trustees. They are also to examine candidates for teachers and to grant certificates of qualification, which are valid for one year only, and may at any time be annulled by them, on notice to the teacher holding such certificate; and to visit and inspect the several schools of their town at least twice in each year, and oftener if they deem it necessary. On the first day of July of each year, they are to make and file with the county clerk, a report in the form prescribed by the State Superintendent and containing such information in reference to the condition of the schools in their town, as he may from time to time direct. At the expiration of their term of office they are to account to their successors for all the school moneys received and disbursed by them, and to pay over any balance remaining in their hands. For their services they are entitled to receive $1,25 per day for every day actually devoted by them to the discharge of their official duties.

At the seat of government, the STATE NORMAL SCHOOL semi-annually receives under its instruction from two hundred to two hundred and fifty pupils of both sexes, selected by the Board of Town Superintendents of the respective counties, each county being entitled to two pupils for each member of Assembly. After spending from two to three years in the institution, the graduates return to their respective counties, and enter upon the active discharge of their duties as teachers; communicating, as often as may be practicable, through the agency of the TEACHERS INSTITUTES, in the spring and fall of each year, a general knowledge of the modes of teaching, government and discipline attained by them in the Normal School. These INSTITUTES, under the supervision and general direction of the most experienced guides, enable every teacher to acquaint himself practically and familiarly with the duties devolving upon him, and secure to each one of the eleven thousand districts of our State, a faithful and efficient teacher. At the head of the whole system-controlling, regulating, and giving life and efficiency to all its parts is the state uperintendent. He apportions the state tax of $800,000, and the public money among the several Counties and towns,-distributes the laws, instructions, decisions, forms &c., through the agency of the town Superintendents to the several districts -has final jurisdiction on appeal, from all the acts and proceedings of the inhabitants of the several districts and their officers, as well as of Town Superintendents, keeps up a constant correspondence with the several officers Connected with the administration of the system in all its parts, as well as with the inhabitants of districts seeking aid, counsel or advice; exercises a liberal discretionary power, on equitable principles, in all cases of inadvertent, unintentional, or accidental omissions to comply with the strict requisitions of the law; grants state certificates of qualification to

such teachers as he deems worthy reports annually to the legislature respecting the condition. prospects and resources of the Common Schools, and the management of the School fund, together with such suggestions for the improvement of the system as may occur to him; and vigilantly watches over, encourages, sustains, and expands to its utmost practicable limit, the vast system of common school education throughout the state.

Such is a condensed view of our present system of COMMON SCHOOL EDUCATION; a system elaborated and matured to its present state, by the exertions of the highest minds among us, during a period of forty years; a system comprehending the best and dearest interests present and prospective of an enlightened and free people-full of promise for the future, and containing within itself, the germs of the most extended individual, social and national prosperity; a system identified with the highest hopes and interests of all classes of the community, and from which are destined to flow those streams of intelligence and of public and private virtue which alone can enable us worthily to fulfil the noble destinies involved in our free institutions.

But in this country, no systems, however perfect, no enactments, however enlightened, and no authority, however constituted, can attain to the full accomplishment of their object, however praiseworthy and laudable, without the hearty and efficient co-operation of public sentiment. Aided by this co-operation, the most important results may be anticipated from the most simple organization. The repeated and solemn recognition by the representatives of the people, of the interests of popular education and public instruction; the nearly unanimous adoption of a system, commended to the public favor as well by practical experience, as by the concurring testimony of the most enlightened minds of our own and other countries; and the simplification of much of the complicated machinery which served only to encumber and impede the operation of that system; these indications afford the most conclusive evidence not only of the importance which the great mass of our fellow citizens attach to the promotion of sound intellectual and moral instruction, but of their determination to place our common schools, where this instruction is chiefly dispensed to the children of the state, upon a footing which shall enable them most effectually to accomplish the great objects of their institution.

It is upon the extent and permanency of this feeling, that the friends of education rely; and this spirit to which they appeal, in looking forward to the just appreciation and judicious improvement of those means of moral and mental enlightenment which the beneficent policy of the state has placed at the disposal of the inhabitants of the several districts. The renovation of our common schools, distributed as they are, over every section of our entire territory, their elevation and expansion to meet the constantly increasing requirements of science and mental progress, and their capability of laying broad and deep the foundations of character and usefulness, must depend upon the intelligent and fostering culture which they shall receive at the hands of those to whose immediate charge they are committed. There is no institution within the range of civilization, upon which so much, for good or for evil depends-upon which hang so many and such important issues to the future well being of individuals and communities, as the common district school. It is through that alembic that the lessons of the nursery and the family fire-side, the earliest instructions in pure morality, and the precepts and examples of the social circle are distilled; and from it those lessons are destined to assume that tinge and hue which are permanently to be incorporated into the character and the life. Is it too much then, to ask or to expect of parents, that laying aside all minor considerations, abandoning all controversies and dissentions among themselves in reference to local, partisan and purely selfish objects, or postponing them at least, until the interests of their children are placed beyond the influence of these irritating topics, they will consecrate their undivided energies to the advancement and improvement of these beneficent institutions. Resting as

it does upon their support, indebted to them for all its means of usefulness, and dependent for its continued existence upon their discriminating favor and efficient sanction, the practical superiority of the existing system of public instruction, its comprehensiveness and simplicity-its abundant and unfailing resources-and its adaptation to the educational wants of every class of community, will prove of little avail without the invigorating influences of a sound and enlightened public sentiment, emanating from, and pervading the entire social system. The district school must become the central interest of the citizen and the parent, the clergyman, the lawyer, the physician, the merchant, the manufacturer and the agriculturist. Each must realise that there, under more or less favoring auspices, as they them selves shall determine, developments are in progress which are destined, at no distant day to exert a controlling influence over the institutions, habits, modes of thought and action of society in all its complicated phases; and that the primary responsibility for the results which may be thus worked out, for good or for evil, rests with them. By the removal of every obstacle to the progressive and harmonious action of the system of popular education, so carefully organized and amply endowed by the state, by a constant, and methodical and intelligent co-operation with its authorized agents, in the elevation and advancement of that system in all its parts, and especially by an infusion into its entire course of discipline and instruction of that high moral culture which can alone adequately realize the idea of sound educa tion, results of inconceivable magnitude and importance to individual, social, and moral well being may confidently be anticipated. These results can only be attained by an enlightened appreciation and judicious cultivation of the means of elementary instruction. They demand and will amply repay the consecration of the highest intellectual and moral energies, the most comprehensive benevolence, ani the best affections of our common nature.