GENERAL VIEW OF THE SYSTEM. While the State of Maryland, after a long-continued indifference on the subiect of public education, began, at length, developing a system under great obstacles, the city of Baltimore was simply perfecting a system which had been in operation forty-one years. This system consists of three grades, primary, grammar, and high schools, combining the most simple and successful arrangement. Grammar schools were established in 1829, and for many years embraced primary instruction in the lower classes. In 1848 primary schools were organized, and high schools were established a few years previous. The studies of the grammar and primary schools have been carefully graded and present the most satisfactory evidences of the usefulness of the graded system. The report of the committee on accounts shows that there were, on the 31st of December, 1869, 102 day schools for white children, of which 3 are high schools, 37 grammar schools, and 62 primary schools, with 503 teachers and 21,538 scholars, and that in addition there were 4 evening schools for white children with 18 teachers and 754 scholars, and 13 colored schools with 34 teachers and 1,621 scholars, giving a total of 119 schools, conducted by 588 teachers, with 23,913 scholars enrolled. BALTIMORE CITY COLLEGE. Every annual report for ten years has urged the necessity of a new building for the Baltimore City College, but without success, because approval of a location for the building is reserved by the city council. The total number of pupils on the roll January 1, 1870, was 298. FEMALE HIGH SCHOOLS. This popular department of the public schools secures to girls the same chances of scholastic attainment as are offered to boys. Not only are those studies pursued which form the basis of the practical duties of life, but facilities are offered for acquiring those accomplishments which refine the manners and cultivate the sense of the beautiful. EASTERN FEMALE HIGH SCHOOL. This school has been embarrassed in its operations by the limited accommodations of the building in which it has been held. This inconvenience was greatly aggravated the past year by the large accession of members in September last, after the examination of the grammar schools. It is a source of gratification that an act was approved July 31, 1868, authorizing the erection of a new building and appropriating $40,000 for the purpose. The building was commenced and carried nearly to completion when the work was discontinued by the exhaustion of the funds. A second appropriation having been agreed upon, it is hoped that the building will be ready for occupation April 1, 1870. WESTERN FEMALE HIGH SCHOOL. This school continues to deserve its high reputation and has a larger number of pupils than ever before in its history. It is desirable that the course of study should be reduced and that more attention should be given to studies immediately connected with teaching, as the school is expected to furnish a proportion of teachers. Two additional class rooms are needed in the building. PRIZES. The memory of George Peabody will ever be revered by the Baltimore City College and the Female High School, as he was the founder of the prizes annually distributed to the most successful pupils. STANDARD OF ADMISSION. Too many pupils are admitted to these institutions on well-known insufficient scholarship. This is frequently done to please the pupils, their parents, or friends, and in some cases simply to fill up vacancies. The effect is injurious upon the pupils, who are too immature to bear the increased strain of an advanced course, upon the high schools, and especially upon the grammar schools which furnish candidates to the high schools. GRAMMAR AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS. As it is in the grammar and primary schools that the majority of the children receive all their instruction, these schools demand and have received the most careful examination and the special interest of the board. The superintendent devotes to them the largest portion of his time, and the teachers are in general most earnest and 6cient in the discharge of their duties. GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. The majority of public school children complete their studies in the grammar schools; hence these schools should furnish a basis, at least, from which a fair and reasonable mental development can be derived. That this is not done by the Baltimore grammar schools is owing, in large measure, to the fact that the teachers of these schools are estimated in proportion to the number of scholars they transfer annually to the high schools, which reduces them to the necessity of driving, drilling, and forcing their pupils to such preparation as shall enable them to pass the examination, to the utter neglect of thorough mental discipline. During the past year pupils in several of these schools have been taught sewing, knitting, and other industrial arts, but it can hardly be determined as yet whether this is an advantageous feature. PRIMARY SCHOOLS. The condition of the primary schools is peculiarly satisfactory. Order, system, and wholesome progress have characterized the great majority of them for the last year, and the material sent to the grammar schools is so greatly in advance of what it formerly was as to compel the favorable comments of the grammar school principals. To maintain this state of things it is necessary that teachers should be especially trained for this work and that good teachers should be carefully cherished and supported. EVENING SCHOOLS. The experience of twenty-eight years seems to indicate that the young men of Baltimore are unwilling to avail themselves of the advantages of evening schools. But four have been opened during the past year, being about one-half the number of the previous year, the city council having failed to make an appropriation for their support. The number of scholars has been nearly equal to that of all the schools for the previous year, indicating an improved condition. COLORED SCHOOLS. The number attending these schools is not as large as the school-going population of this class would warrant, but there has been an increase of 309 pupils over last year. A notion exists, and is fostered by designing persons, that these schools are not in the hands of those who will do the best for them. The teachers, in respect to qualifications and salaries, are placed upon the same standard as those of the white schools; the schools are furnished with the same appliances as the best schools in the city, and since September 1, 1869, have been raised to the rank of grammar schools. The pupils have made creditable progress, especially in orthography, geography, and reading. One of the greatest evils encountered is the irregular attendance of the children, and this, on account of the pursuits of the parents, it is difficult to correct. LOWER STUDIES. Lower studies are too lightly esteemed. Parents demand advanced courses for their children before they are sufficiently drilled in the elements. As one cause of this is undoubtedly the miserable manner in which primary studies have been taught, it is hoped that improvement in the theory and practice of teaching may correct the evil. PUNISHMENTS. In all the schools corporal punishment is left to the discretion of the principals. SCHOOL-HOUSES AND SALARIES, Many of the schools are still held in dark, crowded and ill-ventilated apartments, and though several new buildings have been erected during the year there is a general demand for improvement in this respect. By a comparison of the salaries paid in the chief cities of the United States, it is seen that the average of salaries is lower in Baltimore than in any northern or western cities, a circumstance to be deeply regretted, which does great injustice to the teacher, and which, it is hoped, may be speedily remedied. SUPERVISION. Intelligent supervision is the life-giving principle of the whole educational system. The duties of a superintendent of public education are most arduous and important. The success that has attended the efforts of the superintendent for the city of Baltimore, during the past year, has been greatly owing to the active co-operation of the teachers. Table showing the number of schools in Baltimore City, number of pupils on roll, free and paying, and number of teachers employed, January 1, 1870. Several grades. Receipts from pupils, cost of books and stationery, and amount paid for salaries from Janu ary 1, to December 31, 1869. Baltimore City College.. Music teachers... General account Total Appropriations, expenditures, and receipts for public schools. schools.... For salaries of officers, teachers, &c., including evening For books and stationery. For school furniture.. 25,000 30,901 40 For rents and ground rents.. 30,000 19, 192 96 For cleaning and repairs.. 16,000 17,820 78 For fuel..... For incidentals.. Table of statistical details of schools in Maryland, by counties, for 1869. Hon. M. A. NEWELL, principal of Maryland State Normal School, Baltimore. Dorchester Howard Worcester.. No detail of the number of pupils or scholars in each county are given in the State report; but the whole number of schools is given as 1,347, and the number of scholars enrolled as 75,402. The number of colored schools is estimated at 123, with 5,448 pupils COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. MASSACHUSETTS. Authorities differ in regard to the area of the State, the extremes being 7,500 square miles and 8,000. In June 1st last, she had a population of 1,457,385. Of the expenditure of the State government for the fiscal year of 1868-69, $4,419,200 62 was for schools. The area of the State is divided territorially into 335 towns and cities, each being a body politic and corporate, required by law to provide one or more schools for the free education of all its children. Every town must maintain at least one school six months in every year; every town of 500 families must maintain a high school thirty-six weeks; two adjacent towns having less than 500 families, may establish a high school; and every town having 4,000 inhabitants must maintain a high school, in which Greek, Latin, and French are taught, in addition to the usual higher branches prescribed; and any town refusing or neglecting " to raise money for the support of schools" forfeits "a sum equal to twice the highest sum ever before voted for the support of schools therein." It is generally known that Massachusetts "lives by her public free schools," as one of her eminent citizens has recently expressed it; or, as the superintendent of the Charlestown schools, in his last report, says: "Educated brain is the only commodity in which Massachusetts can compete with other States." Notwithstanding her sterile soil, cold climate, and rock-bound coast, having neither mines nor precious metals, she supports a population greater in proportion to her size than any other State. It is supposed that some brief account of the origin and progress of the free school system of Massachusetts will be of special interest to the nation, since here was planted the germ of that system which has since spread itself throughout New England and the northern States, making them all that they are in wealth, influence, intelligence, and moral power. The origin of the public school system of this State may be traced back as far as the year 1636, when £50 was subscribed by the richer inhabitants of Boston "toward the maintenance of a free schoolmaster for the youth with us, Mr. Daniel Mand being now chosen thereunto." Previously, on the 13th of April, 1635, their appreciation of the need of a school was expressed by a vote of the townsmen, entreating Mr. Philemon Permont to become schoolmaster. This school was afterward taught for a period of thirty-eight years by Ezekiel Cheever, under whose efforts it became the most celebrated classical school in the country, its special design being to fit young men for college. In the same year (1636) the general court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, which met at Boston, passed an act appropriating £400 toward the establishment of a college. This sum was more than the whole yearly tax levied on the colony at that time. The population, scattered through ten or twelve villages, did not exceed 5,000 persons. Two years after this, John Harvard left the college, by will, the sum of £779, and a library of over 300 books. In 1642 the general court of the colony enacted a law providing: "That the selectmen of every town in the several precincts and quarters where they dwell shall have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors, to see, first, that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families as not to endeavor to teach, by themselves or others, their children and apprentices so much learning as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, and knowledge of the capital laws, upon penalty of twenty shillings therein." In the year following it was ordered by the general court that every township, "after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general;" also, "that towns numbering 100 families shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the university; and if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year, then every such town shall pay £5 per annum to the next such school till they shall perform this order." In 1832 an effort was made to ascertain the amount raised for the support of schools, but returns were received from only 99 towns. These showed an annual average expenditure of $1 98 for each pupil. The returns received in 1834 from 214 towns showed that about one-sixth of the children of the State were educated in academies and private schools, at a cost equal to about six-sevenths of the amount paid for the education of the remaining five-sixths, who attended the public schools. In 1834 an act was passed by the legislature establishing a permanent fund for the aid and encouragement of common schools, said fund not to exceed $1,000,000, and the income only to be appropriated to the object in view, and a greater sum was never to be paid to any city or town than was raised therein for the support of common schools. The report of the committee to whose consideration the bill was referred previous to its passage, stated that "it is not intended, in establishing a school fund, to relieve towns and parents from the principal expense of education, but to manifest our inter |