population, but not a single school, and not more than one or two private tutors. "In Cimarronez," says the report, with expressive brevity, "there is a large number of rich (pingües) sugar plantations,-great misery among the surrounding inhabitants, and not a single school."

"After this somewhat painful review of the present state of education," says the Report, "it would be idle to compare the trifling improvements which we have already effected, encouraging as they are, with the stupendous (estupendo) results, that have been obtained in the United States, in Prussia, and in Bengal. In this last country, according to an article by Professor Adair, inserted in Woodbridge's valuable ‘Annals of Education,' there is a school for every thirty-one boys. On the other hand, we may feel some pride in comparing our situation with that of Russia, Portugal, and the south of France. The startling fact, however, remains, that in a population, estimated by the census of 1827 at about half a million free persons of all colors, we have more than a hundred thousand children growing up without any instruction. This state of things calls loudly for the attention of prudent and thoughtful men in the metropolis, and throughout the island. A wise government will see in this immense multitude of uneducated children an equal number of future enemies of the public tranquility, and if it really desire the welfare of the people, will endeavor to remedy the evil,by diffusing far and wide the means of instruction, as has recently been done by the most enlightened governments of the continent of Europe. In this way, it will place upon an immoveable foundation the peace, the solid wealth, and the future morality of this noble and beautiful island."

The schools in Cuba, are under the superintendence and direction of the Patriotic Society, which contains a section expressly devoted to the subject of education. In order to be admitted to open a school, the candidate must pass an examination, conducted in presence of the president and secretary of this section, by three schoolmasters. If the report be favorable, he is then examined by the ecclesiastical authorities, and having obtained their permission to teach the principles of christianity, and paid eight dollars to the church, he is furnished with his licence, by the captain general. In the six years, from 1830 to 1835, inclusive, a hundred and forty of these licences were taken out. This fact indicates a rapid advancement in the means of instruction, although the number of the schools does not correspond exactly with the number of licences, some of the persons, who are licensed as masters, being employed as as

sistants in the schools already established. The number of persons employed as masters and assistants in the primary schools, is estimated by Don Domingo at two hundred and ninety-four for the department of the Havana, and four hundred and seventeen for the whole island. The schools are visited by inspectors, appointed by the Patriotic Society, from among its members, at least once in every month. The inspectors have no authority over the masters, but merely report to the society the state of the school, excepting in some cases, where funds have been furnished by the society itself. In the country, the inspection is performed by committees, constituted by the society, under the name of Rural Committees of primary instruction: but the operation of this system does not seem to have answered the expectations of its enlightened and patriotic authors. The Education Section of the society, in their annual report of 1833, remark, that it had been attended with injurious, rather than beneficial effects.

The general views upon which the society proceeds, in exercising its superintendence over the schools, are concisely stated, by Don Domingo, as follows:

"1. In private establishments, the society never interferes with the master, in regard to his method of instruction, but perinits every one to take his own course.

"2. The practical results of different methods are published as extensively as possible, for the information of the community.

"3. A kind and paternal treatment of the pupils, is strongly recommended, in schools of all kinds.

"4. Care is taken to notice, in a proper manner, in the public journals, the services of individuals in promoting the cause of education. "5. The influence of the society is employed in giving to education a practical direction, so as to make it immediately applicable to the business of life.

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6. Every effort is made to elevate the employment of instructor in the public estimation, and raise it to its proper dignity and importance."

The instruction given in the schools varies a good deal in different parts of the island. In the Havana, great improvements have been made of late years, and the schools are now in a satisfactory state. In most of them, the branches taught are merely elementary, such as reading, writing, the rudiments of arithmetic, and Spanish grammar. There are four

teen or fifteen of a higher class, in which the pupils are instructed in the English, French and Latin Languages, the higher branches of mathematics, and some of the ornamental arts. The methods employed in the schools of the metropolis, are described by Don Domingo as being now very good. He notices particularly, the favorable change that has taken place in the manner of reading:

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"The more advanced boys," he says, at present, seldom fall into the drawling, snuffling, stuttering habits, which were formerly so general. They now read with a clear and distinct pronunciation. Particular care is taken to prevent them from adopting the faulty provincial methods of sounding certain letters, such as the c, the z, and the v; and to induce them to employ the proper inflexions of the voice, and observe the proper pauses, so as to show that they enter into the spirit of their author, and understand his meaning."

"In regard to mathematics," says the Report, "it is, of course, not to be expected, that all the higher branches should be taught, even in the ten highest schools. Arithmetic is taught in almost all the schools, and with more success than almost any other branch. Its immediate application to practical business, especially in a commercial city, makes this necessary. It has, accordingly, assumed a practical character, and this circumstance, in connection with the largeness of the classes in which it is taught, renders it easy, and even amusing to the boys. In these classes, they are instructed in all the common commercial opera tions, such as simple and compound interest, discount, insurance, bookkeeping, and so forth, so that when they leave school they are prepared to enter on the duties of a counting room. Instruction is given in all the ten higher schools in the elements of algebra and geometry, in five or six of them in trigonometry and conic sections, and in one or two in practical geometry and surveying. Drawing is taught in some of the schools. Music and dancing are attended to chiefly by the girls. In music there are excellent masters, but we cannot help remarking the slowness and difficulty with which the pupils, even with the best dispositions, learn to read music. We incline to think that this result, which is universal throughout all the schools, must proceed from some essential defect in the method of teaching.. How otherwise could it happen, that young persons of both sexes, with the finest organization and the best disposition, after several years' constant study, under able professors, are unable, not merely to compose music, but to read it correctly, and without assistance from the teacher."

Great credit is given, in the report, to Don José de la Luz, as one of the principal promoters of the recent improvements in the schools at the Havana.

"In specifying the improvements, that have been made in the schools at the Havana," says the author, "we should not do justice to the subject, if we did not particularly mention the important services that have been rendered to the cause of education by Don José de la Luz. In regard to this point we cannot do better than to copy the remarks contained in the annual Exposition of the Education Section of the Patriotic Society for the year 1832."

"Heretofore," says the Exposition," the masters, in all the schools, paid little or no attention to the developement of the understanding of the pupils, and accustomed them to trust entirely to their memory. The principles of religion even were learned by rote, and the only exercise of the so called 'classes of christian doctrine,' was the recitation, word for word, of certain articles of faith, from the catechism. No attempt was made to imbue their tender minds and pure hearts with the principles of toleration, charity and justice, which form the basis of true christian morality. What was still worse, the uneducated part of the people, seeing this mode of instruction employed in the schools, really believed that a person, who could repeat the catechism by rote, was equal to a doctor of divinity. Nearly the same method was observed in teaching grammar. The pupil learned by heart certain abstract definitions, but if required to go a step out of the track, he made no answer whatever. In order to get him to say anything, it was necessary to put him on familiar ground, by calling for one of these definitions, which he would immediately repeat, word for word, to the great astonishment and admiration of the mass, who supposed that he had struck it out of his own brain, on the spur of the occasion. Such being the previous state of things, it is easy to imagine with what pleasure the society witnessed, in November last, the experiments made, by one of its members, upon what may be called the explanatory method. A large number of the most respectable inhabitants of the city, including the governor, General Ricaforte, were present on the occasion, and his excellency personally expressed, to the enlightened inventor of the new method, Don José de la Luz, in the warmest terms, the great satisfaction which was felt by himself and the public at the results which they had seen. The minds of our Havana children appeared, as it were, to be restored to liberty, by the exertions of one of our countrymen, as those of our more advanced students had already been emancipated by the excellent lessons in philosophy, which they had recently received from one of our enlightened professors."

The state of the schools' in the rural districts of the province of Havana, is far from being equally satisfactory, Almost all the reports, whether from the masters or the inspectors, consist of complaints of the wretchedness, by

which they are surrounded, and of the impossibility of giving instruction, with any order or method, when it is uncertain, whether the schools will be continued another day..

In the other provinces, the state of things is nearly the same as in the Havana: the cities are comparatively well supplied with the means of education; the country almost wholly deficient. In Trinidad, Puerto Principe, Sagua, S. Juan de Remedios, and Villa Clara, the principal schools have adopted the improved method, employed at the HaAt Trinidad, a school of a higher order was opened in 1832, under the name of a college, in which were to be taught, beside the common branches, the higher mathematics and philosophy. The director acquitted himself of his duties in a very able manner, and obtained, at one time, fifty seven students, but the resources applicable to the object proved deficient, and, after an experiment of four years,

vana.

the school was closed.

In the same city, the work of giving instruction in the elements of learning is, it seems, combined, to some extent, with the practice of the mechanical trades. "There are,

scattered about the city," says the report from that place, "various barbers,' tailors,' and shoemakers' shops, in which boys, for the most part of color, are received as pupils, and taught, in a rude manner (bruscamente), to read, and to repeat the catechism and a few prayers." There are, also, a few infant schools for children of both sexes, kept by poor women of both colors, nearly in the same way. In the country around Trinidad, there is not a single school, that deserves the name. The proprietors generally employ a private tutor, of very ordinary qualifications, to teach their children to read, and repeat the catechism. The Patriotic

Society of the place are well aware of these deficiences, and have sought to provide a remedy, but, thus far, without effect. They thought, at one time, of endeavoring to communicate some instruction to the mistresses of the infant schools just alluded to, and to introduce something like order and regularity into their methods; but they found so little encouragement in any quarter, that they gave up the plan. At another time, they attempted to transfer the pupils from these infant schools into others of a higher kind; but here, they were met by various obstacles, arising partly