fund equal to $700 per annum. In October of this year Mr. Spencer was transferred to a seat in the Cabinet, as Secretary of War; and by a provision in the act of 1841, above referred to, the duties of Superintendent of Common Schools devolved upon his general deputy, until the vacancy was filled by the legislature in the month of February ensuing.

Of the energy, ability and transcendent success with which the brief administration of Mr. SPENCER was conducted, it would be superfluous here to speak. The value and importance of the reform effected under his auspices, and chiefly through his indefatigable exertions, in the system of common schools, by the adoption of the plan of local supervision through the agency of County Superintendents, will be best appreciated by the fact that every successive legislature since convened, through every mutation of party, has, with unexampled unanimity, sanctioned and sustained the system so devised and matured: that the practical operation of that system has immeasurably elevated the condition of the common schools throughout the state, advanced the standard of popular educatiou, enlisted the efficient co-operation of an enlightened public sentiment, and laid the foundations for that universal diffusion of knowledge, which under the guidance of sound moral and religious principles, is destined to sustain, and we would fain hope, to perpetuate, the fabric of our free institutions.

On the 5th of January, 1842, the acting Superintendent, (S. S. RANDALL) transmitted to the legislature the annual report required from the department, from which it appeared that the whole number of school districts in the state was 10,886; the number of children between the ages of five and sixteen, residing in the several districts from which reports had been received (exclusive of the city of New York,) 583,347, and the number of children under instruction 603,583, being an increase of 30,588 over that of the preceding year.

Administration of SAMUEL YOUNG-Town Superintendents, Normal School and Teachers' Institutes-1842 to 1846.

On the 7th of February succeeding, the Hon. SAMUEL YOUNG, of Saratoga, wa s appointed Secretary of State and Superintendent of Common Schools; and in May following he met the several county superintendents in convention at Utica, and possessed himself of a thorough acquaintance with the details and practical operations of the system whch he had been called upon to supervise. In his first annual report, (Jan 12, 1843) he recommended the reduction of the academical departments for the education of teachers of common schools to four, and the appropriation of a sufficient sum to establish and maintain a normal school at the seat of government, where it might be subjected to the immediate supervision as well of the department as of the representativesof the people during the sessions of the legislature; the abolition of the offices of commissioner and inspector of common schools, and the substitution of a town superintendent; the extension of the official term of trustees of school districts to three years, one to be elected annually; the vesting of appellate powers in the first instance in the several county superintendents; the perpetuation of the district library system, with suitable modifications and restrictions, and various other incidental and minor reforms of the system: most of which, with the exception of that portion relating to a normal school, in pursuance of his suggestions, and on an able and argumentative report from Mr. HULBURD, of St. Lawrence, chairman of the committee on colleges, academies and common schools, of the assembly, were incorporated by the legislature in the act of April 16, 1843. At this period the number of school districts had attained the number of 10,893; the number of children between 5 and 16, residing in the several reporting districts, was 601,765, and the whole number under instruction 598,749. The Su

perintendent acknowledges a "decided predisposition on his accession to office, to exercise whatever influence he might possess for the abolition of the system of county supervision. But after attending the convention of county superintendents, and possessing himself of a thorough acquaintance with the previous defects and present advantages of that system, he thus sums up the Conclusions to which he had arrived:

"Deputy Superintendents properly qualified for the discharge of their functions, possessing a competent knowledge of the moral, intellectual, and physical sciences, familiar with all the modern improvements in elementary instruction, and earnestly intent on elevating the condition of our common schools, can do much more to accomplish this desirable result, than all the other officers connected with the system. Acting on a broader theatre, they can perform more efficiently all that supervision which has heretofore been so deplorably neglected, or badly executed. The system of deputy superintendents is capable of securing, and can be made to secure, the following objects:

"It can produce a complete and efficient supervision of all the schools of the state, in reference as well as to their internal management, as to their external details :

"It can be made to unite all the schools of the state into one great system; making the advancement of each the ambition of all; furnishing each with the means of attaining the highest standard of practical excellence, by communicating to it every improvement discovered or suggested in every or any of the others:

"It can do much towards dissipating the stolid indifference which paralyses many portions of the community, and towards arousing, enlightening and enlisting public sentiment, in the great work of elementary instruction, by systematic and periodical appeals to the inhabitants of each school district, in the form of lectures, addresses, &c.

"It can be made to dismiss from our schools all immoral and incompetent teachers, and to secure the services of such only as are qualified and efficient, thereby elevating the grade of the schoolmaster, and infusing new vitality into the school.

"An attentive examination of the interesting reports of the deputy superintendents will clearly show that the accomplishment of several of the most important of these objects is already in a state of encouraging progression.

"In these times of commercial paralysis, monetary pressure and impending taxation, superinduced by causes which were clearly foreseen, and might easily have been obviated, it is very far from the intention of the Superintendent to advocate any system which shall add weight to the existing burdens of the community. Instead of this, it will be manifest that the system of deputy superintendents can be made to supersede official duty heretofore badly performed, and taxation heretofore imposed with little resulting utility, to an amount greatly exceeding the expenses of this system."

Gov. BOUCK, in his annual message to the legislature of 1844, thus alludes to the condition and prospects of the common schools:

"No interest of the State is entitled to a more favorable regard, or a greater share of attention at the hands of the legislature, than that of public instruction. The intellectual and moral culture of the six or seven hundred thousand children who are speedily to succeed the generation now on the stage of active life, and to assume the duties and responsibilities, as well of government as of society, in all its departments, involves, in its consequences, the existence and destinies of the Republic itself, and cannot be neglected without danger to the vital interests of free institutions. The elementary education of the youth of the state has attracted the attention, and occupied a prominent position in the policy of, the executive and legislative departments, from a very early period of our existence as a state. A perpetual fund, the revenue of which, for several years past, has secured an annual apportionment from the the treasury, for the benefit of the common schools, of $110,000, has been specifically appropriated, by a provision of the constitution, to this object; and since the year 1839, the additional amount of $165,000 has annually been appropriated, by the liberal and enlightened policy of the state, from the revenue of the United States Deposite Fund, to the same object, and to the procurement of common school libraries in the several school districts of the state. An amount in the aggregate equal to these two sums ($275,000) is required to be annually raised upon the taxable property in the several towns; and the proceeds of this fund, augmented by nearly an equal amount, contribu

ted by the inhabitants of the several districts, on rate bills, by various local funds, and by sums voluntarily raised for this purpose by the inhabitants of the towns, are applied exclusively to the payment of the wages of competent and approved teachers, and to the purchase of suitable books for the school district libraries.

"The substitution of a single officer, charged with the supervision of the common schools of each town, for the Board of Commissioners and inspectors formerly existing, in connection with the supervisory and appellate powers of the several county Superintendents, as defined by the law of the last session, seems to have met with the general approbation and concurrence of the people. Conventions and associations of the friends of education have, during the past year, been held in almost every section of the state, indicating a concentration of interest, and a direction of effort to this great subject, which cannot fail of producing the most salutary results. The standard of qualification of teachers has been materially advanced; parents and the people generally manifest an increased interest in the welfare and prosperity of these elementary institutions of learning; and there are the most abundant reasons for anticipating a steady and continued improvement in all the elements of our extended system of common school education."

There were in the state, as appears by the annual report of the Superintendent, (Jan. 13, 1844) 10,875 organized school districts, 670,995 children between the ages of five and sixteen, exclusive of those residing in the city of New York; and 657,782 children taught during the year. "We may reasonably," observes the Superinteodent, "congratulate ourselves upon the accession of a new order of things, in relation to the practical workings of our system. Through the medium of an efficient county and town supervision, we have succeeded not only in preparing the way for a corps of teachers thoroughly competent to communicate physical, intellectual and moral instruction-themselves enlightened and capable of enlightening their pupils but also in demolishing the numerous barriers which have hitherto prevented all intercommunication between the several districts. An extended feeling of interest in the condition and progress of the school has been awakened; and in addition to the periodical inspection of the county and town superintendendents, the trustees and inhabitants are now, in many portions of the state, beginning to visit the schools of their districts; striving to ascertain their advancement; to encourage the exertions of teachers and pupils, and to remove every obstacle resulting from their previous indifference. Incompetent teachers are beginning to find the avenues to the common school closed against them; and the demand on the part of the districts for a higher grade of instructors, is creating a supply of enlightened educators, adequate to the task of advancing the youthful mind in its incipient efforts to acquire knowledge. The impetus thus communicated to the schools of one town and county, is speedily diffused to those of others. Through frequent and periodical meetings of town and county associations of teachers and friends of education, the improvements adopted in any one district are made known to all; and the experience, observations and suggestions of each county Superintendent, annually communicated through their reports, to all. By these means the stream of popular education, purified at its source and relieved from many of its former obstructions, is dispensing its invigorating waters over a very considerable portion of the state.

"The reports of the several county Superintendents exhibit unequivocal evidence of effiicent exertions on their part, in the performance of the responsible duties assigned them by law and by the instructions of this department. To their efforts is to be attributed, to a very great extent, the revolution in public sentiment, by which the district school from being the object of general aversion and reproach, begins to attract the attention and regard of all. To their enlightened labors for the elevation and advancement of these elementary institutions, we owe it in a great measure, that new and improved modes of teaching, of government and of discipline have

succeeded in a very large proportion of the districts, to those which have hitherto prevailed; that a higher grade of qualifications for teachers has been almost universally required; that parents have been induced to visit and take an interest in the schools; that private and select schools have been to a considerable extent discountenanced, and the entire energies of the inhabitants of districts concentrated on the district school; and that the importance, the capabilities and extended means of usefulness of these nurseries of knowledge and virtue, are beginning to be adequately appreciated in nearly every section of the state. Collectively considered, these officers have well vindicated the confidence reposed in them by the legislature and the people. and justified the anticipation of the friends of edution."

The attention of the friends of Common School Education was now powerfully and systematically directed to the subject of a State Normal School for the proper instruction and preparation of teachers. To this end, Mr. HULBURD, of St. Lawrence, who was again at the head of the Assembly Committee on Colleges, Academies and common schools, visited, during the early part of the session, the several Normal Schools of Massachusetts, observed their parctical working, made himself thoroughly acquainted with the principles upon which they were founded, and collected a valuable body of information in regard to the general history and specific operations of similar institutions in Europe.

On the 22d of March, he submitted an elaborate and eloquent report, embracing the entire subject, reviewing the legislation of the State in reference to the various appropriations made from the literature fund, to the several Academies, for the purpose of organizing and establishing Teachers Departments; showing that these institutions were wholly incomptent to supply the demand for competent teachers, throughout the state; giving a concise history of the origin and progress of Normal Schools in Europe and America, with a detailed account of their operations in Massachusetts; and strongly recommending the appropriation from the income of the literature fund of $9,600 for the establishment, and $10,000 annually thereafter for the support and maintenance of a State Normal School, to be located in the city of Albany, for the education and proper preparation of teachers of common schools, of both sexes, and to be composed of pupils selected from the several counties of the state in proportion to the representation of such counties in the popular branch of the Legislature.

After a full recapitulation of the previous legislation of the state, in reference to Academical Departments for the instruction of teachers the committee observe:

"It will appear that the principal reliance of the friends and supporters of the common schools for an adequate supply of teachers has, from a very early period, been upon the academies-that the inability of the latter to supply this demand, induced, in 1827 an increase of $150,000 of the fund applicable to their support, and this for the express purpose of enabling them to accomplish this object: that the Regents of the University, the guardians of these institutions, characterized this increase of the fund as an unwonted and extraordinary act of liberality on the part of the state towards themexplicitly recognized the condition, or rather the avowed expectations on which it was granted-accepted the trust, and undertook to perform those conditions and to fulfil those expectations: that, to use the language of one of the Superintendents, "the design of the law was not sustained by the measures necessary to give it the form and effect of a system;" that to remedy this evil, one academy was specially designated in each Senate district, with an endowment of $500 to provide the necessary means and facilities of instruction, and an annual appropriation of $400 for the maintenance of a department for the education of teachers, and soon afterwards the sum of $28,000 added to the literature fund from the avails of the U. S. Deposit fund while eight additional academies were required to organize and maintain similar departments: that finally the number of these depart

ments was augmented to twenty-three, and every exertion put forth to secure the great results originally contemplated in their establishment; and that in the judgment of successive Superintendents of common schools, the Regents of the University, and the most eminent and practical friends of education throughout the state, these institutions, whether considered in the aggregate or with reference to those specially designated from time to time, for the performance of this important duty of supplying the common schools with competent teachers, have not succeeded in the accomplishment of that object. Having, therefore, to revert again to the language of the Superintendent before referred to, "proved inadequate to the ends proposed; may not now a change of plan be insisted on, without being open to the objection of abandoning a system which has not been fairly tested?" And have the academies any just reason to complain if they are not longer permitted to enjoy undiminished the liberal appropriation conferred upon them by the state for a specific object—an object which they have not been able satisfactorily to accomplish?"

The committee then proceed minutely to trace the origin, progress and practical operation of Normal Schools in Europe and in this country, and after a general discussion of their applicability and expediency under the peculiar circumstances which exist in our own state, and the recommendation of an appropriation for the organization and support of a Normal School at the seat of government, for the education and training of teachers, observe:

"It will be noticed that the committee speak of the establishment of one Normal School: Did our present means seem to warrant it, the committee would, with confidence, recommend the immediate establishment of at least one in each of the eight Senatorial districts. If one is now established, and that is properly endowed and organized, there cannot be a doubt that not only one will be called for in each of the eight Senatorial districts, but in a brief period very many of the large counties will insist upon having one established within their limits. The establishment of one is but an experiment-if that can be called an experiment, which for more than a century has been in operation, without a known failure-which, if successful, will lead the way for several others. It is believed that several of the Academies now in operation can and will be converted into Normal Seminaries, when the period arrives for the rapid improvement of education; in this way there will be no loss of academic investment, and the great interest of the public will be as well or better subserved than they are at present.

"The committee believe the experiment should be tried at the Capital; if it cannot be tested in the presence of all the people, it should be before all the representatives of the people. As a government measure, it is untried in this state; the result, therefore, will be of deep interest. Here at each annual session of the legislature, can be seen for what and how the public money is expended; here can be seen the exhibition of the pupils of the Seminary and of the Model School; here, if unsuccessful no report of interested officials can cover up its failure, or prevent the abandonment of the experiment; here citizens from all parts of the state, who resort to the Capital during the session of the legislature, the terms of the courts, &c., can have an opportunity of examining the workings of the Normal school system, of learning the best method of teaching, and all the improvements in the science and practice of the art; those who in the spring and autumn, pass through the city, and to and from the Great Metropolis, and those who from all parts of the union make their annual pilgrimage to the Fountain of Health, will pause here to see what the Empire State is doing to promote the education of her people."

On the seventh of May, succeeding, the bill reported by the Committee was passed into a law, by which the sum of $9,600 was appropriated for the first year, and $10,000 annually for five years thereafter and until otherwise directed by law, for the establishment and support of a Normal school to be located at Albany, and to be under the supervision, management and