letters of introduction as gave him admission into the most cultivated society, and enriched his mind with the conversation of such men as Tazewell, Marshall, Madison, Poinsett, Legare, Preston, Clay, Webster, and other statesmen and public characters, whose names are historic and representative of the mental and moral greatness of our country. Few men have gone abroad, having enjoyed larger opportunities of observing American society and scenery in every state, and better prepared by study and natural taste, to profit by foreign travel. His original plan was to spend some time in Germany in the study of the civil law, but the failing health of his father induced him to shorten his period of absence from home, and devote himself to the general objects connected with residence and travel in the principal cities of the old world.

He interested himself not only in the beautiful scenery, the galleries of art, the libraries, the historic monuments, and similar objects of interest, but in everything connected with the social condition of the people their homes, schools, and places and modes of daily occupation and recreation, as well as institutions of public charity. That he might the better accomplish his own plans, large portions of England, Scotland, and Switzerland, were traveled on foot. His letters of introduction secured to him the personal acquaintance of Wordsworth, Lockhart, De Quincey, Carlyle, and other distinguished characters.

Mr. Barnard returned from Europe with his mind enriched by valuable observation, and his horizon both of knowledge and duty, greatly enlarged. He was more than ever attached to the institutions of his own country, and more deeply impressed with the necessity on every citizen, of cultivating and practicing a large public spirit, and of basing all our hopes of permanent prosperity, on universal education. "Here at least, no man can live for himself alone. Individual happiness is here bound up with the greatest good of the greatest number. Every man must at once make himself as good and as useful as he can, and help at the same time to make everybody about him, and all whom he can reach, better and happier." These were the sentiments expressed in the first public address he had occasion to make after his return, and in the spirit of these sentiments he has continued to live and act. For six months after his return he was confined with other members of his bed of his only remaining parent. portion of every night and every

family, to attendance at the sick For many months he watched a day, and during this period he

employed such leisure as he could command, in reading about the countries he had visited.

In 1837, he was nominated, without any knowledge on his part of the intention of his friends, and elected by a large majority of the votes cast, to represent his native town in the Legislature of the state, the first instance of a young man's being elected to that post from Hartford.

He served as a member of the House of Representatives with great acceptance for three successive years, and then retired from all active participation in political affairs, to devote himself to the promotion of measures of educational reform and improvement. From this determination he has never swerved, although he has been repeatedly consulted to allow his name to be used in primary meetings and nominating conventions, for offices of the highest political trust, at times when the party with whose opinions and measures he most sympathized, was in the ascendant, and he had every reasonable assurance of being successful in the canvass. During his connection with the Legislature, he took an active interest in securing appropriations for the education of the deaf and dumb, and the blind, for the completion of the geological survey of the state, and in the passage of acts for the incorporation of public libraries, for the improvement and reorganization of the county jails, for the support of the insane poor at the Connecticut Retreat, and for the amelioration of the condition of the town poor. But the most signal service rendered by him to the state, was in originating and carrying through both Houses of the Legislature in 1838, with unprecedented unanimity, an "Act to provide for the better supervision of Common Schools," the commencement of a new era in our school history. In the session of 1837, he gave his vote and influence to secure the passage of a resolution calling on the school visitors to furnish a particular statement of the condition of each school to the next General Assembly. In the interval he made personal inquiries on the subject, and addressed a circular to every member elected in 1838. inviting their attention to the condition of the schools. As soon as the session opened he conferred with the prominent members of every shade of political opinion, and secured their favorable reception to the bill for the act referred to. The bill was recommended by a joint select committee on education, to whom it had been referred, and advocated by Mr. Barnard in a speech, which was so favorably received by the House, that on motion of the Hon. Roger Minot Sherman, the rules were suspended and the bill passed to its third reading without one dissentng voice. It subsequ ently passed the Senate by a unanimous vote.

MR. BARNARD'S LABORS IN CONNECTICUT.

FROM 1838 to 1842

The Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, as constituted by the "Act to provide for the better supervision of Common Schools, passed May session, 1839, consisted of the following persons: His Excellency, Gov. Ellsworth; Hon. Seth P. Beers; Wilbur Fisk, President of Wesleyan University; Henry Barnard 2d, of Hartford; John Hall, Esq., of Ellington; Hon. Andrew T. Judson. of Canterbury; Charles W. Rockwell, of Norwich; Rev. Leland Howard, of Meriden; Hawley Olmsted, of Wilton; William P. Burrall, of Canaan.

The Board held its first meeting in Hartford, on the 15th and 16th of June. The Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet was appointed Secretary, and in the event of his declining, (which he afterwards did,) Henry Barnard 2d was offered the appointment, and subsequently accepted it.*

* Mr. Barnard at first declined the appointment of Secretary of the Board, because he had qualified himself for the practice of law, at a great expenditure of time and money, and had then the offer of a very desirable partnership with one of the oldest practitioners in the State-an offer which was shortly afterwards repeated by his former instructor in law, Hon. Wyllis Hall, then Attorney General for the State of New York. He was also reluctant to take the office, even temporarily, because ne had been active in the Legislature in obtaining the passage of the Act of 1839, creating the office. Mr. Barnard thus alludes to his connection with the Board, in a letter addressed to a friend, the editor of the Norwich Aurora, in 1850, who had defended him from an assault made on him in a public meeting, held for the consideration of some of his plans of educational improvement in the city of Norwich.

"It may justify at least your good opinion of me to know a little of my personal connection with the efforts which were put forth in this State, from 1838 to 1842, in favor of liberal and efficient measures of educational reform. So far back as I have any recollection, the cause of true education-of the complete education of every human being, without regard to the accidents of birth or fortune-seemed most worthy of the concentration of all my powers, and, if need be, of any sacrifice of time, money, and labor, which I might be called upon to make in its behalf. The wishes of friends and accidental circumstances seemed to destine me to the legal profession and public life, and for this I gave a most costly and assiduous preparation. But when I found myself in a position to act, my early predilections led me to entertain measures of educational policy. And for so doing, it seems, I can only be supposed to have acted from a desire to create for myself an office,-to bring myself before the public, and to receive a salary. Now it is due to myself to say, that, in framing the bill of 1838, I had not the most distant thought of filling the only salaried office created by it. It is known to many men, whose names I could give, that I had special reference to the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, whom I then thought, and still think, the soundest practical educator in the whole country, and whose confidence, friendship, and co-operation, it is among the treasured memories of my life to have enjoyed from the first hour I entered this field of labor. After the Board was created, on my motion, Mr. Gallaudet was appointed Secretary; and on his declining, at first, mainly on the ground that the salary was not adequate to the labor and outlay of the office, I pledged myself to raise by my own and others' subscription as much more as the State had appropriated, and to continue the same for three years, even though the office should be abolished. On his continued refusal to accept, at his suggestion, and the earnest solicitation of every member of the

The plan of operations determined on by the Board, is set forth in the following:

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF CONNECTICUT

Fellow Citizens:

The undersigned were constituted by the Legislature at its last session, the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, and the duties were pointed out which they would be required to perform. In entering upon the discharge of these duties, they feel deeply their responsibility, and must rely on the cordial support and co-operation of the public, to carry into effect the gr at object of their appointment. Without this, they can do nothing to any good purpose. With it, under the blessing of Providence, they look forward to the most cheering results. It is made the duty of the Board, to "submit to the General Assembly an annual report, containing, together with an account of their own doings,-First, a statement, as far as may be practicable, of the condition of every Common School in the State, and of the means of popular education generally; Secondly, such plans for the improvement and better organization of the common schools, and all such matters relating to popular education, as they may deem expedient to communicate."

The board are, also, authorized, if they see fit to do it, to "require of the school visiters of the several school societies, semi-annual returns of the condition of each common school within their limits. And they shall prescribe the form of all such returns, and the time when the same shall be completed, and transmit blank copies of the same to the clerk of each school society: And said board may appoint their own secretary, who shall devote his whole time, if required, under the direcJon of the board, to ascertain the condition, increase the interest, and promote the usefulness of Common Schools."

You will see from this, that the duties imposed upon the board, are of no comBoard, I was appointed, and consented to act for six months without compensation, until a plan of operations could be matured, and a person appointed in my place. At the end of six months, the Board refused to go into an election, and insisted on my receiving the compensation allowed by law, to meet the extra expenses which I had incurred in organizing the operations of the Board. At the end of the first, and again at the end of the second year, I resigned, and asked for a successor-but in both instances was overruled. At the end of the third year, Mr. Waldo was appointed on my nomination. This I did, because I thought he was eminently qualified for the place; and because his relations to parties in the State would, as I thought, rescue the action of the Board from all suspicions of a political character. He declined, and urged me by letter, which I have now before me, to continue in the work, and that every good man in the State will sustain you. If you fail, no man can succeed.' I failed-or, at least, the standard of reform which I had borne aloft was stricken down, and nobody came to, the rescue. But I retired from the field full of hope and manly trust' that a brighter day would yet dawn upon the cause, and that other and abler bands would be found to bear aloft the spotless ensign of a free people. I have lived long enough to see nearly every measure which I advocated twelve years ago recognized as at once sound and practical in the school laws and school reports of more than half of the States of this Union, and many of them among the established agencies by which the people of this State are now aiming to secure and extend the blessings of common school education; and I now find myself again employed in the service of my native State, with impaired health and diminished resources, but not 'bating one jot of heart or hope.' And if I should be dismissed to-morrow from her service, I shall not love my. State the less, for that love is twined with every fibre of my being, or cease to labor in such ways as I can, to improve the condition of her common schools. As for office, I have yet to learn the satisfaction of holding any office in Connecticut on the score of emolument or real distinction. The only real satisfaction of being in office, is the opportunity it gives of carrying out more effectually, than can otherwise be done, views of public policy and social improvement. I have no desire to hold any office in the gift of the people, or of the State, beyond the one I hold, and that I shall be obliged to resign soon from failing health; and I am ready to resign it on the first indication that my services are either not acceptable or not useful. As a native-born citizen of Connecticut-as one whose roots are in her soil-I am ambitions of being remembered among those of her sons whose names the State will not willingly let die, because of some service, however small, done to the cause of humanity in my day and generation; but I am more desirous to deserve, at the end of life, the nameless epitaph of one in whom mankind lost a friend, aud no man got rid of an enemy."

mon magnitude. It is true, they are clothed with no official authority, to make the least alteration in the system of common schools now in existence, or to add to it, in its various modes of action, any thing, in the way of law or regulation, of their own devising. Wherever it is found expedient to attempt this, the people alone will do it, through the constitutional organ of their power, the Legislature which they themselves create. The powers, if they may be so called, of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, are simply, to ascertain, for the information of the Legislature, at its annual sessions, and of the citizens generally, what has been done, and is now doing, in the common schools, and in the whole department of popular education throughout the State, and to suggest any improvements which, from their own inquiries and reflections, aided by the experience of the community around them, may appear to be safe and practicable.

For these important purposes, such a board as that which is now constituted, with an intelligent and efficient secretary, was indispensably necessary. Our sister states, both in our immediate neighborhood and in the remoter sections of the union, are waking up to the consideration of their vital interests in the still more general diffusion of useful knowledge, and of the principles of sound morality and patriotism, among the great mass of the people. One after another, they are constituting, for the accomplishment of this object,' distinct bodies of men, and appointing the proper individual, as an official organ and agent, to devote to these mighty concerns his entire time and talents. Surely, then, Connecticut, whose very name calls up before the mind the whole subject of common school instruction, and popular intelligence, will, at least, be anxious to know where she stands in this onward march of intellect; whether she is fully keeping pace with it, and whether she is sustaining the elevated rank, in this respect, which she has for a long time past, felt herself authorized to claim, and which has not been denied her. She ought to know, and that speedily, the actual condition of her common schools. It is due to her dignity and her welfare to know it. If her schools are in a sound and flourishing condition; if the system she has established is wisely adapted to this end; if, while all the world around her, (the States of our own country, and the very monarchies of Europe,) are claiming to make great and important improvements in the department of popular education, these improvements are not equal, or at any rate, super or, to her old and long used processes; then she ought to know it, that she may justify herself to the world and to her own citizens, for adhering to these processes, and that she may push them forward with still greater pertinacity and vigor. But she cannot know this, without a faithful inquiry into the state of the schools. No such inquiry has, as yet, been thoroughly and satisfactorily made. There has been no efficient instrumentality for making it. The investigations at various times attempted, have been very incomplete. And no organization other than such an one as will result in having an appropriate individual devoted to this inquiry, acting under the direction of the State, and, as is now our case, by the late act of the Legislature, under a board of education, will ever effect this important object.

But if, on the other hand, the result of such an inquiry should be, that, with all the acknowledged and numerous benefits resulting from it, our system of common schools is susceptible of some modifications and improvements,--that there are some evils in its practical operations to be remedied,—and that now is the propitious time to attend to the subject, no good citizen, we think, will regret that such an inquiry has been made. We shall, then, be sure of arriving at the knowledge of the facts in the case. This will lead to harmony of opinion, whatever may be the issue of the investigation. If a few have decried our schools too much, it will show them their error; and if some have regarded our system as a perfect one, it may lead them to see that every thing that is human has its defects, and that it is the part of true wisdom, as well in States as in individuals, to ascertain their defects, and apply the safe and judicious remedies. Facts are what we want, and the sooner we can procure them, the sooner we shall be able to carry forward, with efficiency and increased success, our system of common school instruction, whether it remains in its present form, or receives some partial modification.

Impressed with these truths, and believing that they will be fully appreciated by the people at large, the board of commissioners of common schools are anxious to take such prompt and efficient measures for the fulfilment of the trust reposed in