rents, masters, or guardians of a majority of the children so already provided for, under the term of two years froin the passing of this act, unless such books become so worn as to be unfit for use: Provided also, that said committee shall never direct any school books to be purchased or used in any of the schools under their superintendence, which are calculated to favor any particular religious sect or tenet.

SEC. 8. Be it further enacted, That the School Committee, in the city of Boston, and in the several towns in this Commonwealth, be, and they hereby are, required to make and return a report to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, on or before the first Monday of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and on the first Monday of June of every year thereafter, of the amount of money paid by such city or town during the year ending on the first day of May preceding the time of making said report, for the instruction of the schools kept by said city or town; the number of school districts into which said city or town is divided, the aggregate number of months that the several schools were kept by such city or town in said year, and what portion thereof was kept by male and what by female teachers; the whole number of pupils who have attended and of the schools kept by such city or town during said year; the number of academies and private schools; the number of pupils in the academies and private schools. who have not attended any school kept by such city or town during said year; the estimated amount of the compensation paid to the instructers of academies and private schools during said year; and whether there are any, and what number of persons, over fourteen and under twenty-one years of age, who are unable to read and write.

[SEC. 9 prescribes a blank form of return to be furnished to each city or town by the Secretary of the Commonwealth.SEC. 10 authorises the several towns or school districts to raise money for erecting school houses, &c. &c.-SEC. 11 prescribes the method of assessing taxes for the purposes aforesaid.-SECTIONS 12 and 13 contain some farther provisions connected with the same subject.-SEC. 14 prescribes the mode of calling meetings of the inhabitants of a school district.]

SEC. 15. Be it further enacted, That if the inhabitants of any school district cannot agree where to erect or place a school house for the accommodation of the same, the selectmen of the town to which such district belongs, upon application made to

them by the committee of the district for building or placing a school house, are hereby authorised and empowered to determine the place where a school house for the accommodation of the district shall be placed or erected.

SEC. 16. Be it further enacted, That wherever a meeting of the inhabitants of any school district, within this Commonwealth, shall be called for the purpose of raising money as aforesaid, and a majority of the voters present are opposed to the raising of money for any of the purposes contemplated in the warrant for calling such meeting, it shall be lawful for any five or more of the freeholders, who are inhabitants of said school district, or if there be not so many freeholders resident in such district, then any five of the inhabitants thereof, who pay taxes,to make application in writing to the selectmen of the town in which such school district is situated, requesting them to insert in their warrant for calling the next town meeting, an article requiring the opinion of the town relative to the expediency of raising such monies, as are proposed in the warrant for said district meeting; and if the majority of the voters present in said town meeting, shall think the raising of any of the sums of money proposed in said warrant to be necessary and expedient, they shall grant such sum or sums as they shall think necessary for the purposes contemplated, and the same shall be assessed on the polls and estates of the inhabitants of said district, and collected and paid over in the manner herein provided.

[SEC. 17 vests school districts with the powers of a body corporate for the purposes therein specified.-SEc. 18 contains a provision relating to the same subject.]

SEC. 19. Be it further enacted, That any town in this commonwealth, which shall refuse or neglect, at their annual meeting for the choice of town officers, to vote and raise money for the support of schools, as provided for in this act, and to choose a school commttee to superintend said schools, or, if said town is divided into school districts, prudential committees in the several districts in said town, for the purpose herein before mentioned, every such town shall forfeit and pay for refusing or neglecting to vote and raise money as aforesaid, upon conviction thereof, a equal to twice the highest sum which such town had ever voted to raise for the support of schools therein; and for refusing or neglecting to choose either of the committees aforesaid, on conviction thereof, a sum of not more than two hundred dollars,

sum

nor less than one hundred dollars, to be recovered by informa tion, or indictment, in the Supreme Judicial Court, or Court of Common Pleas, when holden in and for the county within which such town is situated; and the money so recovered shall be paid into the treasury of said county, one fourth thereof for the use of said county, and three fourths thereof shall be paid by the said treasurer to the school committee of such town, if any such committee exist, if not, to the selectmen of such town, for the support of schools therein; and every such school committee, or board of selectmen, who shall receive notice from the treasurer of the county in which they reside, of any money being holden by him for the purpose aforesaid, shall forthwith receive, apportion, and appropriate the same to the support of schools in such town, in the same way and manner it should have been appropriated, if it had been raised by such town, pursuant to the provisions of this act.

[SEC. 20 requires that every school district be furnished with a printed copy of this act-SEC. 21 and last repeals all other laws on the subject of public schools-except so far as they or either of them may relate to any suit or suits, or any thing done, in virtue of said acts, or either of them.]

Schools in Boston.-The annual visitation of the City Schools of a higher grade, took place Aug. 22. The Latin High School, the English High School for Boys, and the nine Grammar and Writing Schools, (including one for Africans,) were examined. There were a few exercises in declamation; in the Latin School, ten or twelve, of which four were in Latin, and one in Greek. We had the pleasure of attending in two schools; and participated in the satisfaction which we understand the committee and visiters generally felt, in perceiving the great improvements made.

In the Boston Public Schools, exclusive of the Primary, there are near 5,000 pupils. There are about 55 Public Primary Schools, for children under 7 years, containing about 3000 pupils. There are also about 140 Private Schools. The expense is estimated at $54,500 for the Public, and $79,000 for the Private Schools per annum. Recorder & Telegraph

ERRATA-Page 280, line 26, for varying read raising, Page 282. line 10 from the bottom, for lead read leave. Page 285, The article entitled "The Sabbath School Teacher," was copied from the Family Visitor. Page 238, line 16, insert by before line.

PORTLAND: A. SHIRLEY, Printer-J. L. PARKHURST, Editor.

FIRST LESSONS IN READING AND SPELLING. In our last, we gave some account of Mr. Edgeworth's method of teaching children to read previously to their learning the names of the letters. We have been prevented from making a trial of his method, by the want of a suitable book; nor do we know that it has been practised or tried in any instance on this side the Atlantic. A modification of the method recommended by him, has recently occurred to us; which is more simple, appears to be more easy, and will, we trust, from a little opportunity which we have had to make trial of it, be found still better adapted to aid the progress and improvement of the learner. Our method is, to teach, in the first place, all or most of the regular sounds of the vowels and consonants, in the various combinations of two and three letters; and then let the child commence reading easy sentences, in which the irregularities are gradually introduced. By "regular" sounds, we mean those which occur the most frequently, and which form the basis of our pronunciation. These there is no occasion to distinguish either by dots or any other marks. And when irregularities and silent letters occur, the child, if they are introduced one at a time, will be assisted in finding out the words by the other words in the sentence, and by understanding the sense of what he reads; and when necessary, a difficult word can be pronounced to him without naming the letters of which it is composed. It is not essential at what stage in his progress, the names of the letters are learned. It ought not, however, to be done, till he has become able to read easy lessons with a good degree of fluency.

The following sketch may enable our readers to understand and to try the method of teaching which we propose.

First, have all the Roman letters put on blocks or pasteboard as mentioned on p. 231; and provide a smooth board, of, convenient dimensions, say a foot square, or 16 inches by 10;—a common slate may answer the purpose. Those who cannot otherwise obtain letters printed in a large type, may cut them out of something which is thus printed; or they may teach, in part, according to our method, by using select parts of the tables of abs in common Spelling Books and Primers. We shall first give directions for teaching a single child: the manner of teaching several children in a class,may be considered afterwards. The reader will be able to understand these directions more readily and perfectly, and to see their propriety more fully, if he will be at the pains to cut out letters, however small, and arrange and move them as he proceeds, according to the directions given.

1. Place the letters o and b side by side, and say to the child, "See these black marks: when you see these together, you must say ob. Now say it." Then, having removed them from sight a moment, place them on the board again, and if the child does not say ob of his own accord, ask him, "What is that ?" or, "What are you to say when you see these marks together?" This may be repeated as many times, and with such intervals, as the instructer may think expedient. It will be the safest, especially with a very young or a dull child, to show him this combination several times in the course of the lesson, and not show him a new one till the next morning.

2. Then, if he tells ob without hesitation, you may place an a under the o, with a little space between, and moving the b to the right of the a, say, "That is ab." As soon as the child has said ab, move the b back to the right of the o, for him to say ob again. Thus move the b back and forth several times, so that the child may utter each sound, without hestitation, the moment the letters come together. He should learn to utter the sounds without your speaking, in order to keep his attention fixed on the motion, situation, and forms of the letters.

We would just pause here to inquire, what difficulty there is, so far, in learning to read without knowing the names of the letters? The process is short and simple: the child learns the forms of the letters, notices their situation, and remembers what sound is represented by each pair when placed side by side. Not knowing the names of the letters o and a, he is under no temptation to fall into the common mistake of saying obe and abe.