had this provision been left out of the law of 1849, many of the bad effects of the free system, would have been avoided, and there would be more harmony in The our common school operations than now exists. practical effect of the provision, was to array one class against another, and create divisions, dissention and ill will in a cause which, of all others, should receive the united, hearty and cordial support of all.

Another objection, and one to which we have betore refered, is, the operation of the present law, in diminishing the length of time in which our common schools are taught. A bare reference to the petitions for the repeal of the law will abundantly show, that this objection is founded upon the truth. It is a lamentable fact, that in many, and your committee is of the opinion, that in a majority of the districts in the State, either no school has been voted, or that the trustees are tied up to a four, five or six month's school. At least it cannot be denied or disputed, that the average length of time, during which schools will be taught in 1850, will be much under the average of This fact 1849, or of any of the preceding years. should have a great influence upon our action. It is our duty, our imperative duty, to so regulate our common school system, that our schools be not diminished in usefulness, or shortened in their terms, and if our laws are such as to diminish their usefulness, in any respect, or to close them up, for a period when the interests of our children demand they should be open; then we should apply a corrective, either in the total repeal of those laws, or the enactment of such amendWe ments as will accomplish the object desired. should do something to heal this difficulty, and to bring back our schools to the situation which they occupied but a few short months ago, from which they have so suddenly, so unfortunately fallen.

a thousand other objections which we will not mention, as they are of a minor character, and should not have a controlling influence in a matter of the great importance which this possesses; and in regard to the objection which we have just specified, it will be seen, by a glance, that many are equally applicable to the old as to the new law, and indeed, if valid here, would be equally valid against any taxation for any purpose whatever.

With this view of the case, your committee are unanimously of the opinion, that something should be done to relieve those who are really suffering under the present law, to relieve the interests of our common schools from the incubus which lays upon them. Of the necessity of this, there can be no doubt; the difficulty, and it is a great one, is to apply proper and appropriate means for the accomplishment of the object so ardently desired. In common with every one, we have but one wish, one aim in the matter; and that is, to so remedy the evils under which we are now laboring, as to place our common schools on a proper, sure, and lasting basis, a basis upon which they may accomplish their mission as the mental and moral nurseries of those who are to succeed us.

(Concluded next month.)

AMERICAN LIBRARIES.

A Boston paper condenses from the Theological Review, an interesting account of the libraries in New England, from which it appears that the Harvard College library has some 56,000 volumes, and 25,000 bound pamphlets. This is rich in the transactions of learned societies, and in current English literaturein the most celebrated reviews, and magazines that have been published. It has some five hundred volumes of engravings, and a most valuable collection of coins. Brown's University, though it is not the largest, has what is called the most valuable and select library in the United States. Among its rare works, it has a complete copy of the Moniteur, from 1729 to 1826, 77 volumes, and a collection of 196 works relating to Shakspeare.

Many other objections are urged by your numerous petitioners, for which they claim that the law should be repealed. Time, however, will not permit us to do Of private libraries, Mr. George Ticknor's, of Bosfarther than to barely refer to them. It is claimed ton, is spoken of as one of the most valuable, particuthat it is not the duty of the government to support larly in all that relates to Spanish literature. The licommon schools by compulsory taxation; that it is a brary of Prescott, the historian, is also named as rich in Spanish literature. Next the libraries of Mr. law of nature that a parent should take care of the ed-Thomas Dowse and Mr. Z. Hosmer, of Cambridgeucation of his children, while the law, in effect, takes port-Dr. Sears, of Newton, rich in German history, it from him and gives it to the State; that minors are secular and church; Mr. Charles Dean, of Cambridge taxed for their property, without their consent; that containing many works on American history, and Mr. old men, who have, by their industry, accumulated Brown of Providence, whose collection of books on our history, prior to 1700, is said to be the best in the property and educated their own children in such a country; also the library of Mr. George Livermore, of manner as they thought best, are now taxed for the Cambridge, who has 3000 volumes of rare value. The education of the children of others; that the law, though Catholicon,' a huge folio, printed at Mentz, 1460 by latter collection has many curiosities; among them the intended for the benefit of the poor man, works against Guttenburg, the inventor of printing-the oldest him, as it in many instances shuts up the school against printed in the country bearing the date. A copy of his children for eight months in the year; that the the first book ever printed-the Maxarin Bible, about 1455-is in a private library in this city, and cost in old law afforded all needed help to the poor, and was London £500 or $2,500. Mr. Livermore has specia voluntary, while this is a compulsory one; that the men's of the works of the principal printers of the 17th law is unconstitutional, or if not, is unjust and cannot and 18th centuries. be sustained; that it helps the vicious and indolent only; that a tax might as well be levied and collected for the benefit of religious and charitable societies, with

In a single century, four thousand millions of human beings appear on the face of the earth, act their busy parts, and sink into its peaceful bosom.

THE DISTRICT SCHOOL JOURNAL

OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

ALBANY, JUNE, 1850.

REPORT of the Select Committee of the Assembly on the Petitions for the Amendment or Repeal of the Free School Law.

On the one hand, a majority of your committee have come to the conclusion that the law can be so amended as to remove the difficulties now in the way, and to the entire satisfaction of the people. On the other hand, the minority after giving the subject as careful and attentive a consideration as they can do, have not been able to acquiesce in this conclusion, and accordingly, must dissent therefrom. Believing as the majority does, that the law can be properly amended, they have prepared, and herewith submit, a bill for that purpose. Its provisions are brief, but such as they think calculated to remove all just grounds of complaint, and to restore our common schools to their former high standing and prosperity, and, also, open and free to all. They have thought it their duty, in view of the overwhelming majority in favor of free schools, at the last election, to amend the law, rather than repeal; to cure its infirmities rather than to take away its existence. They do not pretend or imagine that, even with these amendments, it will be a perfect law; but they cannot but think, that it will be greatly improved by them, that our people will be satisfied, and wait for time and experience, and future legislation to make such further amendments as may be found necessary.

The main features of the amendments proposed by the majority of your committee, with the reasons for them, may be here briefly stated.

Carrying out the principle laid down in the former part of this report, that the property of the State should pay for the common school education of its children, and realizing the great inequality which now exists in the necessity for raising so much from the districts, your committee have proposed to raise an additional amount by direct taxation: were it possible, under the provisions of the Constitution, they would recommend that this be a State tax; as it is not, they have adopted the next best plan, and propose to raise the additional sum by direct taxation upon the respective counties; they accordingly provide, in the second section of their bill, that there shall be levied upon the counties a sum amounting to twice that received from the State, instead of an equal sum, as now, and the same upon the towns as under the present law. They, also, provide, in section 10 of their bill, that the library money may be also applied for the support of teachers' wages, if a majority of the legal voters of the district shall so direct. By a calculation based upon the public and other moneys of the past year, and the current expenses for teachers' wages, &c., during the same time, it is found that, if the public moneys are the same this year as that, and teachers' wages, &c., also the same, the additional sum now proposed to be raised on the counties, joined to the library money, will so nearly pay all the usual common school expenses of the year, as to leave but an average sum of three dollars to be raised in each district of the State-a sum really trifling and unimportant. But your committee

are aware that, according to the present system of apportioning the public moneys among the several districts, if this additional sum which they propose, is raised, some districts will receive much more than they may need, even to keep up a school during the whole year; while the poorer districts, those which most need help, will receive but a comparatively small pittance, and will languish under the burthens of taxation, and, as a necessary consequence, will gradually become extinct, or their schools useless.

To prevent this consequence, your committee have proposed, in the fifth section of their bill, to introduce an entirely new system of apportionment, and one which they think will, at the first glance, commend itself to the approbation of every one. By its provisions, two-fifths of the public money of the town, applicable to teachers' wages, are to be equally divided among its several districts, and the remainder in proportion to the number of children in the districts attending school for four months or more during the preceding year. The advantages of this proposition are, that it will give a greater proportionate amount of money to the smaller and poorer districts, and thereby lessen their burthens, while, at the same time, by dividing a certain share of the money, in a proportion based upon the number of scholars actually attending school, it will offer to parents and others an inducement to get all their children into their schools, as the more in actual attendance, the more the district receives of the bounty of the State. By this section, then, we aim to make a more perfect distribution of our public money, and to call a greater number into attendance as pupils in our common schools; results which should be desired by every one-which no one will oppose.

Experience has shown that the present provision requiring schools to be kept only four months in each year, is much too short; and your committee have therefore, after much thought and deliberation, concluded to require that they shall be kept at least eight months in the year, or be debarred from a participation in the public moneys. As this, however, might sometimes work injustice, they have given to the town superintendent authority to lessen this time, for a proper cause to be shown him. This provision, with its guard, the majority think a good one, and one which will have a beneficial effect; they therefore most cordially recommend it for your adoption.

Another feature of their proposed bill, and one which not only the majority, but the minority of your committee also, think an important and salutary one, is, that they propose to strike out the third and fifth sections of the present free school act. We have before referred to these sections, as containing some of the most objectionable features of the present law, as they have put it in the power of a majority of each district to reduce the time their schools are kept to a very small one, and one much too limited for the best interests of their chiidren. But they have done more than this; their practical operation has sown dissension and discord in many a district, where before were peace and harmony, and inflicted a wound upon the cause of popular education by estranging those who were formerly friends, which, under the most skilful management, it will take years to heal. Your committee, thinking it better to entirely take this power from the vacillating opinions and views of a district meeting, have struck those sections from their proposed bill, and, as before remarked, fix the time by statute in which schools are to be kept, subject to necessary alteration by the town superintendent.

The majority of your committee have proposed other amendments; as, if schools are kept longer than eight months, that any sum to be raised for the increased time, shall be collected by a rate bill; that each dis

be taxed for the benefit of common schools therein, then all the property owned in the county should then be taxed, else great inequality and positive injustice must arise, in one county being deprived of its fair share of capital to the benefit of another.

There may be other objections to particular provisions in the proposed bill, but the minority, leaving them, will return to others of a more general char

acter.

Another view of this subject is, that parents, if they are directly taxed for the support of their schools, will naturally feel more interested in them, than if all the money comes from a general fund to which they have contributed, it is true, but only in an indirect Indeed, the minority of your committee think that manner. It is their school; they pay for it; they have in the absence of power to provide for the support of a direct interest in it. This view is also sustained by our common schools by a State tax, there is no system others; Chancellor Kent, (Com. vol. 2, p. 196, n. a.) of taxation that can be devised proposing to raise all speaking of this subject says, "Common school estabthe funds necessary by a direct tax aside from rate-lishments and education ought to rest in part upon lobills, that can operate otherwise than in an unequal and cal assessment, and to be sustained and enforced by unjust manner. law according to the New England policy. That which costs nothing, is lightly estimated, and people generally, will not take or feel much interest in common schools, unless they are taxed for their support." The Hon. John C. Spencer, also, in his annual report We think that, in theory at least, it is proposed to as State Superintendent in 1840, makes use of similar raise too much by general taxation. Upon this point language, which we trust we shall be pardoned for the minority would speak with great diffidence, and quoting in extenso, as it is so clear, lucid and directly all due regard for the opinions of those who think dif- to the purpose. He says, "While public beneficence ferently than we do. But this is a question of vital is bestowed in such a degree as to stimulate individual consequence, and one to which we should all earnestly enterprize, it performs its proper office; when it exlook. The State, as we have before affirmed, should ceeds that limit, it tempts to reliance upon its aid, and provide the means for the common school education necessarily relaxes the exertions of those who receive of all its children. The property of the State in ait. The spirit of our institutions is hostile to such defair, just and equal proportion" according to the dif- pendence; it requires that the citizens should exerferent interests different persons may have in the sub-cise a constant vigilance over their own institutions, ject, or the more immediate or remote benefits they may derive, should be made to support our schools founded for the general good of all our children. The difficulty is to determine what is this "fair, just and equal proportion." Upon this question the minority may well hesitate in giving an opinion, for it is one of great doubt, and, we had almost said, one impossible to answer. They however, cannot help recognizing the principle, that there are two classes of persons who are interested in our common schools: those who send to them and who are directly, and those who do not and who are but indirectly, interested in the subject. If this distinction is a correct one, then a result seems to follow, which is, that those who are directly interested should bear a greater proportion of the burthen than those who are but indirectly so, for the reason that while, like the others, as members of the State, they have an indirect interest; as patrons of the schools, as parents of the pupils there being educated, they have, in addition to that indirect interest, a direct one also.

We, therefore, come to the conclusion, that while the property of the State should bear a proportionate share of the expense of our schools, those who send to them should also do the same; though this may not be an universal principle, or always a controlling one.

This principle has been approved by others before us. In 1846, N. S. Benton, in his annual report to the Legislature as State Superintendent, uses the following language: "The State will have discharged its duty, when means sufficiently ample are provided to sustain our educational institutions, without rendering individual contributions either burdensome or vexatious." That in his opinion the State had already discharged this duty, is evident; for in a former part of the same report, after speaking of the law as it then was in this respect, and the bountiful provisions it had made, he concludes that "by these beneficent provisions, the child of penury and the destitute orphan have been provided with ample means of instruction, and it now becomes a question of grave inquiry whether this law is faithfully and benignly executed." And we may here remark that the fact that these provisions were found, in too many cases, not to be "faithfully and benignly executed," was one of the principal reasons why a resort to the free school system was first proposed and recommended to our people.

as the surest means of preserving them. A direct pecuniary contribution to the maintenance of schools identifies them with the feelings of the people, and secures their faithful and economical management. A reference to the free schools and other institutions of learning in England, which have been overloaded by endowments, will exhibit not only the jobbing peculation which has perverted them from the noble objects for which they were designed, but will show that when the government and wealthy individuals have contributed the most, the people have done the least, either in money or effort; and that, instead of being nurseries of education for the whole, they have been almost exclusively appropriated to the benefit of the few. The consequence has been, that while some most accomplished scholars have been produced, the education of the mass has been neglected. These schools were not of the people; they did not establish them, nor did they contribute to their support; and of course they regarded them as things in which they had little or no interest.

"In the State of Connecticut, the large endowment of the public schools produced lassitude and neglect, and in many instances the funds were perverted to other purposes, to such an extent, that an entire change in the system became necessary. In the cities, where there are large numbers who would not be instructed at all, if free schools were not provided, the evil must be encountered, as being less in degree than that of total ignorance. But in country districts such destitution rarely exists, and when it does, provision is made by law for gratuitous instruction in each particular case."

To this quotation it is not necessary for us to add a word; if it was true in 1840, it is equally so in 1850.

Again, another objection is, that the law is compulsory; the money is collected by a peremptory tax; no provision is made for the inhabitants of a district to exempt and pay for the education of a poor man's family, living in their midst; the strong arm of the law says they must do it. We grant, that to a certain extent, the money should be raised as is proposed by this bill; but we think that all of it should not be raised in this manner. Such is also the opinion of John A. Dix, who, in his report as State Superintendent, in 1838, used the following language: "The common school system of this State has been carried to its present