The practical examinations are conducted by experienced captains of vessels, and embrace the rigging of ships; maneuvering of sail-vessels and steamships; knowledge of coasts, currents, tides, and gunnery.

If successful in passing this ordeal, the candidate receives a certificate of aptitude, and may then present himself for examination on the theoretical courses taught in the school.

These schools of navigation (Ecoles d'hydrographie, as they are somewhat inappropriately called) were attended in 1867 by a total of 1,500 pupils the number graduated being, of masters, 301; of captains, 219. Of the schools of lower rank, including schools of apprenticeship, shipschools, &c., I do not deem it necessary to speak except to say that, with the reorganizations and changes lately effected, and the increased attention to instruction in the construction and management of steamengines, &c., they promise greater usefulness than heretofore.

ENGLAND.

In England the reorganization of schools of navigation began in 1853 by the transfer of their supervision from the mercantile marine department of the Board of Trade to the newly-created department of science and art. Instruction in navigation had long been given by private teachers in the seaport towns to a comparatively small number of those whose responsible duties demanded the most thorough preparation. Realizing the necessity for the improvement of this condition of things, the marine department of the Board of Trade had already created two schools, one at London and one at Liverpool, making an arrangement with the admiralty to permit the special fitting of graduates from the Royal Naval School for the position of masters in these schools and in others that might be established. Subsequently, under the administration of the department of science and arts, seconded by boards of trade in the cities, the number of those established by joint efforts of government and municipal boards was increased to eighteen; their location being in all the most important seaport towns.

The age at which pupils may be admitted varies considerably, though not designed to fall below twelve years. The minimum age at which boys are received upon merchant ships being fifteen, it is deemed important to enlist them as pupils in the navigation schools before they become inclined to some other profession. Competent teachers, subject to visitation and supervision from the appointees of the department, are employed by it at a fixed amount; the remainder being made up by aid from the municipal boards and by fees from the pupils. The amount paid by government is determined by the character of the certificate held by the master; the amount paid for superior proficiency in certain groups of subjects being greater than that paid for proficiency in certain other groups. For example: proficiency in mathematics, chemistry, natural history, drawing, and the adjustment and skillful handling of instruments, entitles the master to £5 for each of those branches; while

success in physical geography, in physics, mechanics, marine steamengine, to £10; and in general navigation and nautical astronomy, to £15.

The fees paid by pupils differ somewhat for the different schools, and, in any given school, vary with the grade and studies of the pupil. In the London school, boys intending to be seamen, but not navigators, pay 6d. per week; boys studying navigation, 1s.; seamen not studying navigation, 18.; apprentices on ships not studying navigation, 18.; apprentices studying navigation, and all others above their grade, 68. Every school is divided into an upper and a lower section, each with at least one master.

The lower section is principally composed of apprentices and seamen who are employed during the day at their ships in the docks, and who have acquired the rudiments of an English education before entering the service. However short their stay in port, they are encouraged to attend the school, between six and nine o'clock in the evening, to acquire a knowledge of the principles of ship-sailing, the use of nautical instruments, &c. Instruction is also given during the day to regular pupils. The course of instruction in this section comprises: reading and writing; correspondence; arithmetic; geography; the sailings; use of the sextant; and method of keeping ship's books.

The upper section is for the instruction of masters and mates in the science of navigation. The course of instruction in the best of the schools includes: algebra to quadratics with application; geometry, (I, II, III, Euclid;) plane and spherical trigonometry; navigation; nautical astronomy; practical use of the instruments used at sea; physical and descriptive geography; chart-drawing and free-hand drawing; surveying; history, especially Scripture and English history; letter-writing and book-keeping; mechanics and steam-engine; magnetism and electricity as related to ships; laws of storms and tides; study of the code of signals; mercantile laws and usages, (so far as demanded by the masters of ships;) gymnastics.

The government provides the several schools with the necessary instruments, and disburses aid according to a plan carefully prepared. The number of pupils of every class attending these schools at present is between three and four thousand.

In my visits to various schools not alone in England and France, but also in other countries less maritime than they, I have been deeply impressed with the office they are fulfilling, not only in the way of insuring to commerce a larger proportion of skilled and trustworthy mariners for the growing commerce of the nations; but, also, with the moral influence they are calculated to exert upon a large class of persons always heretofore neglected as being incorrigibly depraved-I mean sailors generally-who, though not one in a thousand may actually attend the schools, will nevertheless derive indirect advantage from association with, or subordination to, the few who do attend them.

Why may we not establish one such school of navigation in each of our large commercial towns, giving thorough and free instruction to such of our actual and prospective navigators and seamen as by means of valuable day teaching and evening lectures may be induced to attend? Surrounded, almost, by great oceans, gulfs, and inland seas; with greater total length of navigable rivers than all the countries of Western Europe put together; and having a foreign commerce whose aggregate value already equals $852,072,156; a domestic, lake and river commerce vastly superior to that of any nation in the world, and a future only limited by the wisdom with which we provide for it, we can hardly be too prompt, or too liberal and thorough, in making such provision in this department of education as shall insure to the country, in every branch of the commercial service, a class of navigators fully worthy of their important duties.

CHAPTER VIII.

COMMERCIAL, NAVAL, AND MILITARY SCHOOLS.

I. COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE-II. NAVAL AND MILITARY SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES, ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND OTHER COUNTRIES.

I.-SCHOOLS OF COMMERCE.

UNITED STATES.

If schools of agriculture and the mechanic arts are essential to the advancement of those productive industries, it is no less demonstrable that schools are also important to commerce, which, by reason of its power to awaken and stimulate enterprise, multiply inventions, cheapen production, and establish relations of amity and intercourse among communities and nations, is thus really and directly a great civilizer of mankind.

At the late Exposition several of the great powers were represented by exhibits from their commercial schools-all of comparatively recent origin, and among the many hopeful signs of the times.

If, as is claimed by statisticians, a very small percentage of all who engage in commerce make it a permanently successful business-the vast majority either voluntarily escaping from it, or being drawn into the maelstrom of bankruptcy-is it because failure is absolutely unavoidable, or rather because it is an exceedingly difficult science, demanding, in addition to that ordinary discipline, culture, and information which every man ought to possess, a thorough acquaintance with countries, populations, and histories; familiarity with the conditions and processes of production; the nature and quality of materials and manufactures; knowledge of commercial law and international usage; and, more than all, a mastery of economical science in all its branches, and ability to cope with profound problems in social philosophy? Men of ordinary intellectual endowment, if thus qualified for commerce, would rarely fail except by reason of unavoidable disaster. That so large a proportion of those who engage in it do fail, is because so large a majority are totally ignorant of the first principles of the business.

I am aware that the attention of the American public has been more or less drawn to this subject during the past twenty years, and that within that period there have sprung up many schools intended to supply this great lack of the means of professional education. And yet it is a fact that cannot be disguised, that, while they do undoubtedly accomplish much good in the way of adding somewhat to the qualifications of hundreds of our young men who would otherwise enter into mercantile pursuits without any special qualifications whatever, very

many of the hundred and fifty "commercial colleges," whose names are emblazoned on the fronts of magnificent buildings in an equal number of our great cities, to say the very least, wear larger titles than the amount and quality of instruction they give fairly warrant.

One of the most remarkable of the commercial-school enterprises of this country is the organization, by several enterprising individuals associated as an unincorporated firm, of what is styled the "Chain of international commercial colleges." This chain comprises in all forty-two schools, forty of which are located in the chief cities of the Union, from Portland to New Orleans, and the other two in Canada, at Montreal and Toronto. Being under the general direction of the proprietary company, they are severally managed in detail by local superintendents. By virtue of this association of schools under one head, the regulation is such that a student, after completing the course of studies in one, may again take them up and pursue them at another school of the chain without additional expense.

These several schools advertise to give thorough instruction in bookkeeping, including merchandising, jobbing, banking, &c.; commercial law, commercial arithmetic, penmanship, and business correspondence, and some of them also furnish occasional lectures on economical science. But the course of study necessary to a diploma (and in this respect I believe there is no difference between the chain and the other private and incorporated colleges of the country) embraces but four and a half months; which, in view of the fact that nothing more in the way of preparation for admission is required than a fair knowledge of the ordi nary English branches, is certainly a very brief period for the study of so important and difficult a profession.

In none of our public schools are the foundation principles of commerce taught; and, so far as I am aware, none of our scientific and polytechnic schools provide so much as a brief or partial course preparatory to this profession. And yet, by geographical position and by the tastes of our people, we seem destined to a commercial career such as no nation of the world has ever had.

But the history of foreign countries in this particular gives warrant for the hope that this department of professional instruction will not always be neglected by us as now, since it is only lately that even the most forward of them have taken decisive steps in this direction.

FRANCE.

France has the honor of taking the initiative, and that at a period in the history of the country when the old prejudices against trade had just been strengthened by many years of war, and the whole people had been filled with ideas of the glory which comes of achievements in arms, to the exclusion, almost, of all just estimates of the honor as well as necessity of industry as the only sure basis of national prosperity and greatness; at a period, in truth, when commerce was despised and