192

France-Pennsylvania

Ohio.

[April,

not increased its schools in proportion to its population. Are not these facts a warning to us to lose no time in completing a system, which shall reach every child in our country, and extend as our numbers increase? In Manchester, only 3,000 out of 250,000 children receive daily instruction. The Reviewer strongly urges the adoption of the principles of the Prussian system, and especially the foundation of schools for teachers. In proof of the necessity of something more than Sunday School instruction, he quotes the remarkable declaration of the committee of the General Assembly of the Scottish church that, in their Highland schools, while they have taught Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, Mathematics and Latin, "they have impressed a religious character on every school;" and that if they were to specify such as in that respect have been found most distinguished, they could not hesitate to name those schools in which the greatest variety of secular instruction is imparted.'

INSTRUCTION IN LOUISIANA.

We learn from the Superintendent of Schools in this State, that there are no less than 12,000 children, between the ages of 5 and 15, who are utterly shut out from the benefits of instruction, by the supineness of the parish authorities, in carrying into execution the liberal legislative enactments upon this subject. The whole number at public schools the past year was only 1500; and yet the sum drawn from the treasury, during the same period, in support of public schools only, (to say nothing of near $25,000 to the two colleges of Louisiana and Jefferson) was over $30,000.

SCHOOLS OF FRANCE.

N. O. Bee.

The French government have directed that the New Testament be placed in the hands of every child in the public schools.

SCHOOL SYSTEM IN PENNSYLVANIA.

We are gratified to learn by a letter just received from the Hon. Samuel Breck, the author of the bill for the public schools in Pennsylvania, that it has passed both branches of the legislature, with only one nay, in the house of Representatives, and three in the Senate, making a very extraordinary degree of unanimity.' The bill as passed, directs an appropriation out of the public treasury of $75,000 per annum, until 1840, when it will be increased to $100,000,' which is used as a stimulus to raise funds by voluntary taxation among the people, and will enable them to instruct 512,000 children.'

We are indebted to Mr Breck for the entire report; but must defer our notice of it to a future number.

SCHOOL FUND IN OHIO.

A correspondent of the New York Observer states, that the quantity of land given by the General Government, to the State of Ohio, for school purposes, has been in all, 678,576 acres, valued at $1,200,000. About half of these lands are sold, and the amount received in part payment is already $400,000. This constitutes a school fund; and is annually increasing. The legislature have not, however, relied on this fund.' Within five years they have commenced a school system, 'which requires a tax of three-fourths of a mill on the dollar of taxable property, to be applied under certain regulations, in each township, to support schools.' The wisdom of this measure is seen in the results. 'School districts are formed, school houses erected, committees annually appointed in each township, to visit the

When the plan for establishing a Journal of Education, was first proposed in this city, a gentleman of great intelligence and cultivation remarked to the proprietors-Why, gentlemen, you may publish a few pamphlets on education; but as to a periodical on the subject, you can never find materials!' Eight volumes of this work have now been published, and materials are still abundant substantial, important materials. Our library is crowded with materials; but, unfortunately, too substantial and important for the present state of the subject in our country; and we are compelled to seek from other sources, articles adapted to the public demand. Even the materials of the day, however, are superabundant; and we can only give a passing notice to several valuable addresses, recently received. Those of President Woods, before the Alabamian Institute - of Joseph Hall, Esq. before the North Carolina Institute of Education - of D. D. Barnard, Esq. before the Young Men's Association, Albany - and of the Rev. Dr Dana, in the Ipswich Female Seminary all abound with interesting and important views of various topics, in reference to education. We have marked passages from all of them; but must omit them, to make room for articles unpublished, which our plan requires.

The address of Dr Dana is devoted particularly to the subject of reading. The opinion of Dugald Stewart is quoted and maintained, that 'Nothing has such a tendency to weaken, not only the powers of invention. but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extensive reading without reflection;' mere reading, it is added, loads, oppresses, enfeebles, and with many is a mere substitute for thinking. Valuable directions are then given for the selection of authors; and we could wish they might be addressed to every seminary in our land.

BRISTOL COLLEGE.

The Episcopal School at Bristol, Pennsylvania, under the direction of the Rev. Chauncey Colton, has received a charter as a college. It contains between 80 and 90 students. The course of studies is stated to be as extensive as in most of our colleges. Manual labor, as a specific requisition' fills up a part of the intervals of study, and is found to be highly useful as well as economical.

DONALDSON MANUAL LABOR ACADEMY.

A Manual Labor School has been recently founded in Fayetteville, N. Carolina, under the name of the Donaldson Academy. It has two departments, the preparatory and classical; and it is proposed to add a teachers' department. Manual labor is to be voluntary. The pupils are required to attend religious services, selecting such as they prefer.

EPISCOPAL SCHOOL OF NORTH CAROLINA.

An Episcopal School will be opened on the first of April, near Raleigh. in North Carolina. It is to be superintended by Mr Cogswell, recently of the Round Hill School at Northampton, assisted by a chaplain and teacher. The prospectus treats instruction as only a part of education, and presents physical education and the discipline of the mind, the formation of the character and of religious principles, as essential objects in such an institution. The pupils are to constitute one family, and the whole will be

194

Extract of a Letter

[April,

under the entire control of the principal and rector. No honors or distinctions will be conferred; the spirit of emulation being considered only a temporary excitement, and are inconsistent with Christian principles. Systematic instruction is to be given in the Bible and in Religion, as regularly as in the Classics and Mathematics. Parental supervision and training is intended to supply the place of premiums and severity.

ASSASSINATION OF CASPAR HAUSER.

The assassination of Caspar Hauser could only be noticed in our last number The following are the particulars of this melancholy catastrophe, which took place at Anspach, from the Algemeine Zeitung.

'Hauser was invited, at 9 o'clock in the morning, by a stranger, who said he had something important to communicate to him, to meet him in the Palace Garden in the afternoon, and inconsiderately complied with the invitation, without communicating it to any body. At half past three, Hauser, breathless and confounded, rushed into the room of his tutor, and dragged him, with unconnected expressions, towards the garden, but fell down exhausted on the way. The tutor then first perceived that Caspar was wounded, conveyed him home, and sent a police officer to the garden, who found a small purse of violet silk containing a scrap of paper, on which was written in a disguised hand, "Hauser can tell you well enough why I appear here, and who I am; to save Hauser the trouble, I will tell you myself whence I come; I come from the Bavarian frontier, on the river. I will will also give you the name of M. L. o." We since learn that Caspar died of his wounds on the 17th. The wound was inflicted with a two-edged instrument, three-fourths of an inch broad, and was only three-fourths of an inch below

the heart.

The following, says the Berlin State Gazette, is a letter from Anspach, dated the 18th. Caspar Hauser was not able to speak much during the last hours of his life, and only in broken sentences, yet he gave utterance to the gratitude he felt towards his benefactor, Lord Stanhope, and his worthy tutor, Mr Meyer. A deputation from the Court of Justice was present until the moment of his decease, and took notes of all he said. Four days have elapsed, yet no traces of the assassin have been obtained.'

CORRESPONDENCE.

Extract of a letter from a Teacher in the Southern States. DEAR SIR, - In addition to a wish to speak to you a word of encouragement, in the great work in which you are engaged, I avail myself of an opportunity to meet your request, that practical teachers would convey to you, the results of their experience in training the mind and morals of youth. A teacher for many years, I have myself felt the want of that interchange of opinions, and communication of modes of instruction, which you design to employ.

Nowhere is such information more wanting, than in the South and West. A lamentable ignorance of the science of education prevails, in all the schools with which I am acquainted. When this shall be better understood, the respectability it will confer on the profession of teaching, will do much to enlist and secure for education, those talents which seek more conspicuous fields for exhibition. A teacher from inclination, I have sought to employ every means within my reach, for elevating this profession to greater usefulness, and higher respectability. I have discouraged its pursuit for temporary purposes; and have declined ever offering a situation to any individual, who has not determined to devote to it all his energies and find his principal reward in its exercise. Believing, myself, that the office of the faithful educator far transcends every human pursuit, in responsibility, dignity and importance, I have accustomed myself to con

1834.]

From a Teacher at the South.

195

sider it as the great field in which all my energies are to be expended, and all my pecuniary means bestowed. In furtherance of its great objects; I have erected a large and beautiful building, furnished with apparatus, engravings, a library, and all the aids that experience has taught me to facilitate the development of the powers of the immortal beings, subject to my control.

The influence of this recent establishment is as yet scarcely perceptible; it will require much time to rouse the intelligence of the country from a shameful lethargy to its highest interests; to divert the forecast of prudence from the absorbing pursuits of business, in which all the nobler feelings are repressed, to those more pressing wants of the rising generation, which are now sacrificed to Mammon.

It is really terrifying to the philanthropist to look over the southern and western States, and see the moral and intellectual degradation which every where prevails to enter the wretched hovel where the tyrant of childhood holds his imperial sway, and reflect that here is the guide of a future people to intelligence and happiness! To learn the general sense of the community - thus practically displayed of the little importance of the example and precepts of the teachers of youth. The system of common school instruction is here worse than useless; so little benefit is esteemed by all to arise from it, and consequently such the indifference with which it is received, that a majority of parents, even though no fee is required, neglect to avail themselves of it. Still these free schools prevent the rise of others, that would be comparatively useful. I say, comparatively useful-for, indeed, many of our private schools are schools of vice, and tend to degrade the cause of education by their almost utter insufficiency.

To establish my authority, a thing before unheard of in a teacher in this country, I am at first obliged to contend with the parent and the child alike. No parental coöperation was given no precept at the fireside aided in repressing that spirit of uncontrol which so strongly marked every condition of this people. In my instructions, I now appeal to no slavish motive-I excite no emulation I promise no rewards, and present no punishments. You may conclude from the state of things around me that. my exertions are inefficient. Not so. I have appealed to the results of experience I have shown the necessity of uniform rule in the family and school-room- I have succeeded to some extent in rooting up vicious habits, and planting the seeds of virtue and I have pointed to the change in the intellectual and moral character of youth around me. I have thus touched the chord of interest as well as reason of the parent. The youth, I endeavor to allure to intellectual effort, and I lend an encouraging hand. If a rugged ascent is to be surmounted, I seek to crown it with a wreath of flowers; and I retain none who cannot find in knowledge the reward of their exertions.

The Annals' is a perpetual remembrancer to me of my duty — an encourager in the laborious task of public instruction- a guide and monitor to unwearied exertion, in the best and noblest cause to which man can consecrate his energies. That it will be sustained I have little fear; and with the spirit which is evinced in sending forth the message of philanthropy to an intelligent people, that intelligence must be recreant to itself if it suffer it to sink.

We are much indebted to our correspondent at St Petersburg for the account of the state of instruction in Russia, which will appear in our next.

We have also to acknowledge the receipt of documents from M. Fellenbeg, which indicate the progress of Hofwyl. They reached us after this number was ready for press.

196

Notices.

NOTICES.

[April, 1834.

The Introductory Discourse and the Lectures delivered before the American Institute of Instruction, in Boston, August, 1833, including a list of Officers and Members. Published under the direction of the Board of Censors. Boston: Carter, Hendee, & Co. 1834. 8vo. pp. 318.

We announced the publication of this volume in our last number; and our expectation, that it would be one of the most interesting which has appeared, are not disappointed. There is little of the fine writing' objected to by the London Reviewer. There is a great deal of sound, practical instruction, founded upon the experience of careful observers. We were interested particularly, with the views of Mr Perry in this respect, as applicable to common education, and those of Professors Packard and Hale, and Mr Greene, in reference to higher schools. We have spoken of other lectures before; and we know not where to stop if we attempt to describe them more fully. The whole volume is replete with interest to those who mean to make teaching a profession instead of a trade; and we think might satisfy those who would take the trouble to examine it, of the value of associations for the improvement of education.

The Constitutional Class Book, being a brief exposition of the Constitution of the United States, designed for the use of the Higher Classes of Common Schools. By Joseph Story, L.L. D. Boston, Hilliard, Gray & Co. 12mo. pp. 166.

The appearance of a second Class Book on this subject, is gratifying evidence of an increasing demand for instruction of the highest importance to Americans. We wish that every citizen of the next generation, may be able to decide on the character of a work, of which we do not feel ourselves capable of giving an opinion.

Angell's Union Series of Common School Classics.

1. Child's First Book. 2. Child's Second Book. 3. Child's Third Book. 18mo.

Lessons for Reading and Spelling, Arithmetical Tables and Exercises, Mental Arithmetic, Orthography, &c. 12mo. pp. 252.

Lessons for Reading and Spelling, with Exercises in Mental Arithmetic, Abbreviations, Definitions, &c. 12mo. pp. 296.

The Select Reader, designed for the Higher Classes in Academies and Schools. 12mo. pp. 504.

This is a series of six books, prepared by a practical teacher, under the quaint title of Union No. 1- Union No. 2, &c. In the early stages, Spelling Lessons are given, which are immediately followed by Reading Lessons, containing the same words; and a set of simple questions are added to each lesson of the first five books. The plan we think good; the selections, so far as we have been able to examine them, are interesting and well graduated; but we could not venture to give any opinion of the whole series - so extensive and composed of so various materials — without an examination which our duties, render impracticable. We observe that several instructors who have introduced them, have found them very useful. We can discern no sufficient reason for connecting one part of the plan, we mean the Arithmetic, with the lessons of a reading book; unless it be intended to excite attention to the subject in those parts of the country where mental arithmetic is still unknown.