tion, universal education, the complete and thorough education of every child born or living in the State-shall be realized. Let the problem be solved-how much waste by vice and crime can be prevented, how much the productive power of the State can be augmented, how far happy homes can be multiplied, by the right cultivation of the moral nature, and the proportionate development of the intellectual faculties of every child;-how much more, and now much better, the hand can work when directed by an intelligent mind; how inventions for abridging labor can be multiplied by cultivated and active thought; in fine, how a State of one hundred and fifty thousand people can be made equal to a State of ten times that number-can be made truly an Empire State, ruling by the supremacy of mind and the moral sentiments. All this can be accomplished by filling the State with educated mothers, well qualified teachers, and good books, and bringing these mighty agencies to bear directly and under the most favorable circumstances, upon every child and every adult.

As fellow-laborers in a common field, he would say, to all, teachers, school officers, and citizens, persevere in the measures which have thus far been adopted, and adopt others more efficient. Act directly, and by all available means on the public mind; quicken, enlighten, and direct aright the popular intelligence, as the source of all practical legislation, and judicious action on the subject of schools. Secure every advance in popular intelligence and feeling by judicious legal enactment-for public sentiment and action will not long remain in advance of the law. See to it, that the children of the State, and especially those who live in the lanes and alleys of your city, or labor in your mills and shops, are gathered regularly, during their school years, into good schools. Establish institutions of industry, and reformation, for vagrant children, and juvenile criminals. Educate well, if you can educate only one sex, the female children, so that every home shall have an educated mother. Bring the mighty stimulus of the living voice, and well matured thought on great moral, scientific, literary and practical topics, to bear on the whole community so far as it can be gathered together to listen to popular lectures. Introduce into every town, and every family, the great and the good of all past time, of this and other countries, by means of public libraries of well selected books. And above all, provide for the professional training, the permanent employment and reasonable compensation of teachers-and especially, of female teachers, for upon their agency in popular education must we rely for a higher style of manners, morals, and intellectual culture.

It was a sore trial for Mr. Barnard to resign before he had fully consummated his plans and agencies for the improvement of public education in Rhode Island,-efficient regulations to secure the punctual and regular attendance of all children of a suitable age, in some school, public or private ;-a library of books of reference for the teacher and older scholars in every school, and of circulation in every village;—a course of popular lectures adapted to the condition of education and employment of each section of the State, as supplementary to the instruction of the schools ;-a public high school in every town, for girls as well as boys, with a course of study preparatory on the one hand, for admission to college, and on the other, to the pursuit of navigation, agriculture, manufactures, or the mechanic arts;-State scholarships, to entitle deserving young men from any town, to the privileges of a literary, or scientific course in the university, or in county seminaries to be established for this purpose ;-a series of educational and charitable associations

to be aided by the State to meet special wants, viz., an orphan agency, to seek out the right sort of families in which to place fatherless and motherless children, for a good industrial and domestic training; a school of industry for truant, idle, and neglected children before they have become tainted or convicted of crime ;a reform school for young criminals, distributed in small rural colonies, or families, where they can be subjected to restraint and supervision, and at the same time to the humanizing influences of domestic life e; a house of refuge for adult criminals to pass a period of severe but voluntary probation, and support themselves for a time, until they could again enter society with confirmed habits of temperance, industry, and self-control, and a reasonable hope of escaping or withstanding the temptations by which they originally fell;-and training institutions, or classes of special study and practice, not only for teachers of public schools, but for conductors of the several special schools above enumerated. Mr. Barnard, however, was not permitted to prosecute his undertaking any further. He had succeeded in supplanting an inefficient and imperfect system of public schools by one which possessed great capabilities of adaptation to the differing circumstances of city and country, and had gathered about its administration, public confidence. The state of his health precluded his discharging any longer satisfactorily to himself the labors he had before performed. He was urged on every hand to diminish the sphere of his activity and still retain the general direction of the educational movement, so happily begun under his auspices. But with a feverish anxiety to work out to the full circumference of his duty in any official position, he knew there would be no rest to body, or mind, until he was out of officeand he therefore tendered his resignation. He did not write out his final report, as he had contemplated doing, but was invited by the Legislature to make an oral communication to the two Houses in Joint Convention, on the condition and improvement of the public schools. His address on this occasion is characterized by the Providence Journal "as most eloquent and impressive, and was listened to for nearly two hours, with almost breathless attention." The following resolution was adopted by the unanimous vote of the Senate and House of Representatives, and the Governor was instructed to communicate the same to Mr. Barnard :

Resolved, unanimously, that the thanks of this General Assembly be given to the Hon. Henry Barnard, for the able, faithful, and judicious manner in which he has for the last five years fulfilled the duties of Commissioner of Public Schools in the State of Rhode Island.

"There are few spectacles," says a writer in the North American Review, on the recent school movement in Rhode Island, "more worthy to excite an ardent yet rational enthusiasm, than the movement of a commonwealth, in a united purpose, and with resolute will, toward the accomplishment of any important end touching the moral or intellectual welfare of its citizens. When the value of the object is perceived by the mass of the people, and accepted by them as an interest for which they care and are ready to labor, our hopes for the progress of the race are confirmed and elevated. But when a people are seen to recognize a great deficiency in the means of education, and with one mind to take vigorous and rapid measures for its removal, they deserve indeed the highest praise. The efforts of the people of Rhode Island for their schools have been peculiar, in respect to the work which they had to accomplish, to the rapidity of the reform, to the unanimity and zeal with which it has been executed, to the permanent results which have been attained and to the still higher promise for the future, of which these results give the assurance."

As soon as it was known that Mr. Barnard had determined to retire from the office of School Commissioner, the teachers of the State, through a committee appointed at the several Institutes held in the autumn of 1849, presented him a silver pitcher, as a testimonial of their respect and friendship, and of their appreciation of his services in the cause of education, and of the interest which he had ever had taken in their professional improvement and individual welfare. The following correspondence took place on the occasion:

To Hon. Henry Barnard, Commissioner of Public Schools.

DEAR SIR,-The teachers assembled at the several Institutes which were held in the State during the past year, on learning your intention of closing your official connection with the schools of Rhode Island, appointed the undersigned a committee to express their regret at your departure, and to present you some token of their appreciation of your services in the cause of education, and of the interest which you have always manifested in their professional improvement and individual welfare.

Of the extent of your labors in preparing the way for the thorough re-organization of our system of public schools, and in encountering successfully the many difficulties incident to the working of a new system, few of us can, probably, be aware.

But we can speak from personal knowledge of the value of the Teachers' Institutes which have from time to time been held by your appointment, and provided (too often, we fear, at your expense) with skillful and experienced instructors and practical lecturers; and of the many books and pamphlets on education and teaching, which you have scattered, broadcast over the State.

We can speak, too, of what the teachers of the State know from daily observation—many of them from happy experience—of the great change—nay, revolution, which you have wrought in our school architecture, by which old, dilapidated and unsightly district school-houses have given way for the many new, attractive, commodious, and healthy edifices which now adorn our hills and valleys.

We have seen, too, and felt the benefits of the more numerous and regular attendance of scholars, of the uniformity of text-books, the more vigilant supervision of school committees, and the more lively and intelligent interest and co-operation of parents in our labors, which have been brought about mainly by your efforts.

The fruits of your labors may also be seen in the courses of popular lectures which are now being held, and in the well-selected town, village and district libraries, which you have assisted in establishing, and which are already scattering their life-giving influence through our beloved State.

In the consciousness of having been the main instrumentality in affecting these changes, for which the generations yet unborn will bless your memory, you have your own best reward. But, in behalf of the members of the Institutes, we ask you to accept the accompanying gift, as a small token of gratitude for these your labors, of their personal regard and friendship, and of their appreciation of your services in the cause of education in general, and to our profession in particular. We only wish, it were more worthy of your accept

ance.

Receive it, Sir, with our best wishes for your welfare. May your future course be as honorable to yourself, as the past has been useful to the children and youth of Rhode Island.

And believe us, Sir, in behalf of the teachers of the State, your sincere and obedient servants,

ROBERT ALLYN, JENCKS MOWRY, SOLOMON P. WELLS, FANNY J. BURGE, JANE FIFIELD, SYLVESTER PATTERSON, GEORGE W. Dodge.

PROVIDENCE, January 30, 1849.

To Messrs. Allyn, &c.

PROVIDENCE, January 31, 1849.

I feel deeply impressed by the honor you have done me in your communication of the 30th instant, and by the elegant and valuable present which accompanied the same, in the name of a large number of the teachers of Rhode Island. I shall ever bear in grateful remembrance the numberless acts of personal kindness and willing co-operation in my official labors which I have received from teachers both of public and private schools since my first connection with the cause of education in this State, and I accept this parting testimonial of their friendship, and too partial appreciation of my labors, as Commissioner of Public Schools, with a sense of obligation greater than I can express. If, during the past five years, anything has been done to increase the facilities for individual and professional improvement enjoyed by teachers, and to raise the social and pecuniary estimation in which their services are held and rewarded; if any advance has been made toward the better organization and administration of a system of public schools, and the more thorough, complete, and practical education of the whole people, these results are the sum total of innumerable contributions, all of them as meritorious, and many of them, I doubt not, more important than my own. Every teacher who has, with or without the help of books, institutes, and sympathizing friends, made his school better than he found it; every school officer who has aimed faithfully to understand and execute all the details in the local administration of the new system; every person who, by his voice, his pen, his vote, his pecuniary aid, or his personal influence, has contributed to the earnest awakening of the Legislature and the people to the importance of this much-neglected public interest, and in favor of liberal and efficient measures of educational reform, has labored with me in a common field of usefulness, and is entitled to whatever of credit may be attached to a successful beginning of the enterprise.

Such is the nature of the ever-extending results of educational labor, that if a successful beginning has been made in any departmeut of this field, no matter how small may be the measure of success, we should feel amply rewarded for our exertions, and, with love, hope, and patience in our hearts, we should hold on and hold out to the end. Whoever else may fail or falter, may every teacher in the State persevere until Rhode Island stands acknowledged before the world the model State, for her wise system of popular education. Then will her workshops be filled with intelligent, inventive, and contented laborers; her cities and villages be crowned with institutions of religion, benevolence and

charity, and every home throughout her borders be made a circle of unfading smiles.

The cause of true education, of the complete education of every human being, without regard to the accidents of birth or fortune, is worthy of the concentration of all our powers, and, if need be, of any sacrifice of time, money, and labor, we may be called upon to make in its behalf. Ever since the Great Teacher condescended to dwell among men, the progress of this cause has been upward and onward, and its final triumph has been longed for, and prayed for, and believed in, by every lover of his race. And, although there is much that is dark and despairing in the past and present condition of society, yet, when we study the nature of education, and the necessity and capabilities of improvement all around us, with the sure word of prophecy in our hands, and with the evidence of what has already been accomplished, the future rises bright and glorious before us, and on its forehead is the morning star, the herald of a better day than has yet dawned on our world. In this. sublime possibility,-nay, in the sure word of God-let us in our hours of doubt and despondency, reassure our hope, strengthen our faith, and confirm the unconquerable will. The cause of education can not fail, unless all the laws which have heretofore governed the progress of society shall cease to operate, and Christianity shall prove to be a fable and liberty a dream. May we all hasten on its final triumph by following the example of the Great Teacher, in doing good according to our means and opportunity, and may each strive to deserve at the end of life, the epitaph of one, in whose death mankind lost a friend, and no man got rid of an enemy.'

With renewed assurance of my gratitude for the kindness expressed in your communication, and for the honor of this present, and with my best wishes for the individual welfare of every teacher in the State, I remain

Your friend and obedient servant,

HENRY BARNARD.

Early in 1849, Mr. Barnard returned to Connecticut, and to his old home, "where he had garnered up his heart's best treasures of an earthly sort," and where he had apparently every facility for recovering his health in the occupations of the farm and garden, and the recreating studies of a well selected library. But he had become too intimately blended with the general educational movement of the country to be permitted to divert his mind, pen or voice, to other pursuits. He was constantly urged to attend Teachers' Institutes, and other educational meetings, to assist by conference or correspondence, in framing school laws and regulations, or devising plans of school-houses, libraries, and courses of study for schools of every grade. In less than three months after he resigned his office in Rhode Island, he was invited to a professorship of History and English Literature in one college, and of the Latin and Greek Languages in another, and to the superintendence of public schools in three different cities. He was about the same time urged by friends of educational improvement, to take up his residence in two other States-in one to become a candidate for the office of State superintendent, and in the other, to take the direction of a voluntary association for the improvement of common schools; but he was constrained to decline them all, so long as there was any prospect of his being useful to the cause in his native State. He had not been