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an act of the Corporation entitled to receive, the following day, the degree of Bachelor of Arts. All who have received this degree, and have not disgraced themselves by any improper conduct, are, upon application entitled, at the end of three years, to receive that of Master of Arts.

On the Friday preceding the Commencement, the Senior class, who are regu larly permitted to return home after the examination, reassemble at the College. The following Sabbath, a sermon is addressed to them by the Professor of Divinity.

The Commencement is holden on the succeeding Wednesday in the church belonging to the First Congregation in this city. A very numerous and brilliant assembly is always collected upon this occasion, consisting of gentlemen and ladies of the first respectability in this and other States of the Union. The exhibitions begin, however, on the preceding evening; when speeches, selected by the students of the three younger classes from ancient or modern orators and poets, and approved by the Faculty of the College are declaimed. The number of exhibitors is usually not far from twenty. Honorary premiums are given to three in each class, who by judges appointed for the purpose, are declared to have declaimed best.

On the morning of the commencement day, at 9 o'clock, a procession is formed at the Chapel door by the students, candidates for the Master's degree, the Faculty, the Corporation, and a numerous train of the clergy and other gentlemen, under the conduct of the Sheriff of the county, and proceeds circuitously to the church. The exercises commence with a prayer by the President, and a piece of sacred music. Such candidates for the first degree as have been previously selected by the Faculty for this purpose, then pronounce a series of orations, disputes, colloquies, &c., written by themselves. Another piece of sacred music concludes the exercises of the morning. The exercises of the afternoon differ little from those of the morning; except that orations are spoken by the candidates for the second degree, and that the degrees are conferred. The decorum observed on this occasion is entire, honorable to those who assemble, and strongly indicative of a refined state of society. At the same time, the respect manifested to learning and science by the annual assembling of such a multitude of gentlemen and ladies, of the first consideration in the country, has the happiest influence, especially on the youth, who are taught in this manner, more effectually than they could be in any other, the high importance of their own pursuits in the view of those, whose opinions they of course regard with the utmost confidence and veneration.

I ought before to have observed, that all the students in the Seminary are publicly examined twice every year in their several studies, and if found seriously deficient, are liable to degradation. In this exercise a fortnight each year is very laboriously employed.

The expense of tuition is thirty-three dollars a year, or seven pounds eight shillings and sixpence, sterling. This sum, which is paid by every student, entitles each one to the instruction given by the Professors, as well as to that of the ordinary course.

The government of Yale College is in the hands of the President and eighteen Fellows, who have power "to make, repeal and alter, all such wholesome and reasonable laws, rules and ordinances, not repugnant to the laws of the State, as they shall think fit and proper for the instruction and education of the Stu

dents, and to order, govern, rule and manage the said College, and all matters, affairs and things thereunto belonging." Their acts, however, are to be laid before the Legislature as often as required, and may be repealed and disallowed by the Legislature whenever it shall think proper. The President, also, with the consent of the Fellows, has power "to give and confer all such honors, degrees and licenses, as are usually given in colleges or universities, upon such as they shall think worthy thereof."

The executive government is entirely in the hands of the Faculty, but with a right of appeal to the Corporation in cases of expulsion, dismission for fault, and rustication for any term longer than nine months. A new trial must first be requested within thirty days after the sentence, and had before the Faculty. If at this trial the former judgment is confirmed, the parent or guardian of the student must lodge a petition to the Corporation with the President within thirty days after the new trial, and the President is required to lay it before the Corporation at their next meeting. There has been one instance of such an appeal within my knowledge. Formerly the system of government was by trials, fines and other public punishments. This system has for some time been chiefly disused. At present the administration is almost entirely of what may be called a parental character. Whenever the Faculty are satisfied that any student is guilty of those inferior trespasses against the laws of the College, or of morality, which in their consequences involve desertion of study, and disorderly, or dissolute conduct, the student, after proper attempts have been made to reform him by private remonstrance, is solemnly admonished that he is in danger. If he continues unreformed, he is admonished a second time, and his conduct made known to his parent or guardian, that he may unite his efforts with those of the Faculty for the reformation of the youth. If the youth still persists in his vicious courses, he is sent home, and can not be readmitted without a vote of the Faculty.

This scheme of government has been found to unite in it every advantage. It is more efficacious than the former, more acceptable to the students, and more approved by the public. So far as I know, it is, however, singular.

The immediate direction of the financial and economical concerns of the Institution is in the hands of a committee, consisting indifferently of three or four members of the Corporation, chosen annually by ballot, and styled the Prudential Committee of Yale College. The President ex-officio, is always one. This committee meets regularly, four times in a year, and usually oftener; has the superintendence of the collegiate buildings, lands, and other property; examines all accounts with the College, audits the accounts of the Treasurer, directs the payment of all bills against the College, commences and manages suits; and generally, transacts the whole of that complicated routine of business, which grows, of course, out of the concerns of every such institution. It also prepares and arranges business for the Corporation, and is, in a word, the spring of most of its transactions.

The number of students is ordinarily about two hundred and sixty. The whole number graduated to the year 1814, was three thousand four hundred and ten. Of these, two hundred and seven have filled the high offices of magistracy, nine hundred and forty-one have been ministers of the Gospel, one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight have died, and one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two were still living.

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EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS OF CENSUS OF 1840.

BY PROFESSOR GEORGE TUCKER.

University of Virginia.

THE census of 1840 embraced the statistics of education, under the following heads, viz.: 1. Universities or colleges. 2. Academies and grammar schools. 3. Primary schools; and the number of each description, together with the number of scholars attending each, in the several States, were given. It also enumerated the scholars educated at the public, charge in each State, and the number of white persons over 20 years of age who could not read and write. Colleges, Academies, and Primary Schools in 1840.

STATES AND TERRITORIES.

Maine......
New Hampshire..
Vermont...

4234 ✪ →

86 8,477 3.385 164,477
68 5,799 2,127

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83,632

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4,113

2,402

82,817

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52 3,664 127 4,865

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New England States

19 2,857

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Ratio of Population to Institutions-Per Cent. of Attendance.

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The preceding table shows that the number of college students amounts to somewhat more than a nine-hundredth part of the white population; that the scholars of the academies and grammar schools are ten times as numerous as the college students; that the scholars of the primary schools are near twelve times as numerous as the last; and that the scholars of every description are equal to just one-seventh of the white population. The relative numbers, distributed in centesimal proportions, are for students of colleges, 0.8; grammar schools, 8.1; primary schools, 91.1.

If the free colored be added to the white population, in consideration of that class furnishing a proportion of the scholars in the primary schools, the proportion which each description of scholars bears to the free population would be thus reduced, viz.: college students, as 1 to 8.90; scholars in grammar schools, as 1 to 887; scholars in primary schools, as 1 to 7.1%; and the scholars of every description, as 1 to 7..

The diversity among the States, as to the proportion of scholars, is principally in those of the primary schools. In the number of college students, no division of the States has greatly above or below the average of 1 to 874 of the white population; and in the scholars of the grammar schools, the Northwestern States differ widely from

the other divisions. But in the primary, or elementary schools, the proportion in New England is nearly double that of the Middle States, nearly three times that of the Northwestern States, and between six and seven times as great as those of the Southern and Southwestern States. The difference, as to the number of illiterate, is yet greater. If the other divisions be compared with New England, the number who can not read and write, is, in the last, three and a half times as great in the Middle States; seven times as great in the Northwestern States; twelve times in the Southwestern States, and nearly fifteen times in the Southern States.

These diversities are attributable to several causes, but principally to the difference in density of numbers, and in the proportion of town population. In a thinly-peopled country, it is very difficult for a poor man to obtain schooling for his children, either by his own means, or by any means that the State is likely to provide; but where the population is dense, and especially in towns, it is quite practicable to give to every child the rudiments of education, without onerously taxing the community. This is almost literally true in all the New England States and New York, and is said to be the case in the kingdom of Prussia. It is true that, in the Northwestern States, and particularly those which are exempt from slaves, the number of their elementary schools is much greater than that of the Southern or Southwestern States, although their population is not much more dense; but, besides that, the settlers of those States, who were mostly from New England or New York, brought with them a deep sense of the value and importance of the schools for the people, they were better able to provide such schools, in consequence of their making their settlements, as had been done in their parent States, in townships and villages. We thus see that Michigan, which has but a thin population even in the settled parts of the State, has schools for nearly one-seventh of its population. The wise policy pursued, first in New England, and since by the States settled principally by their emigrants, of laying off their territory into townships, and of selling all the lands of a portion before those of other townships are brought into market, has afforded their first settlers the benefits of social intercourse and of co-operation. In this way, they were at once provided with places of worship and with schools adapted to their circumstances.

The census also shows a great difference among the States, as to the number of scholars at public charge; but this difference is owing principally to the different modes in which they have severally provided for popular instruction. In some, the primary schools are

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