that purpose; and the principle of a graded school by the employment of a master and assistants in the same district was recognized. After much discussion in local and State conventions, and in the legislature from 1838 to 1846, in the year last named, a State Board of Education was instituted; and in 1847 the teachers were required to keep a register, and return the same at the close of the school to the town school committee, who were required henceforth to make the statistical return to the Board of Education.

In 1835 the first educational association was formed, and in 1838 the State Teachers' Association was organized. In 1846 the first Teachers' Institute was held; in 1863 a State Normal School was opened at Farmington, and a second at Castine in 1865; and in 1869 the office of County Supervisors was established, and $16,000 appropriated for their salaries.

According to the revision of 1871, the administration and supervision of common schools is committed to: (1,) State Superintendent, appointed by the Governor and council, for three years or during the pleasure of the executive, to exercise general supervision, advise and direct town committees, obtain and disseminate information respecting the schools of the State and other States and countries, awaken and sustain a popular interest in school matters, hold annually a State educational convention, and an institute of teachers in each county, prescribe the studies that shall be taught (reserving to town committees the right to prescribe additional studies), act as superintendent of the State Normal School, and report annually to the legislature. (2,) County Supervisors, appointed by the Governor, on the recommendation of State Superintendent, for each county, for three years, an assistant of the State Superintendent, and together with him constituting a State Board, to meet at least once a year during the session of the legislature for the purpose of conferring with the educational committee of that body, and maturing plans. for the following year to promote and elevate the public schools. (3,) Town Superintending School Committee, of three members, elected one each year for a term of three years, who examine, after public notice of time and place, all candidates for teaching

In 1784 the legislature of Massachusetts directed the committee charged with the sale of eastern lands to reserve, in each township conveyed, 200 acres for the use of the ministry, 280 for the first settled minister, 280 for the grammar school, and 200 for the future appropriation of the General Court. This resolve was modified in 1785 so as to require a reservation of five lots of 320 acres each, in every township six miles square, one for each of the purposes above specified. This resolve in the articles of separation in 1818, became applicable to all grants and sales of land made by Massachusetts or Maine. The present practice in Maine is to reserve in each township 1.000 acres for the use of schools, which, after the township is settled, form a school fund for the town. Down to 1834 more than half a million acres of land had been donated by the State to incorporated academies, and nine townships of land to two colleges.

in reading, spelling, writing, English grammar, geography, history, arithmetic, and other studies usually taught in public schools, and particularly in the school for which he is examined, and also his capacity for the government thereof; and employ teachers for the several districts, prescribe regulations for the studies, books, discipline, and returns of all the public schools. (4,) District Agents, one for each, where the town is divided into districts.

The support of public schools is derived from (1,) State School Fund, the income of which, and all money received by the State from the tax on banks, together with a mill tax for the support of common schools, assessed and collected as other State taxes, and paid out according to the number of scholars in each;' (2,) Town Tax, not less than eighty cents for each inhabitant, exclusive of the income of corporate school funds, or revenue from the State, or devise, bequest or forfeiture to the use of schools; (3,) District Tax, for site, construction, and equipment of school-houses, and for graded schools, not exceeding the sum received from the town. There are two State Normal Schools, to which the State appropriates $8,000; and normal departments in Maine Central Seminary at Pittsfield, and in Oak Grove Seminary at Vassalborough. Institutes were held at eighteen different localities.

In 1872 the total cost of 4,000 common schools was $1,307,592, to which the towns voted by tax $717,719, and the State distributed from the permanent fund ($317,902), $18,788, the sayings banks tax, $120,000, school mill tax, $224,530, a total from the State treasury of $363,350; districts to build school-houses, $131,799, continue schools, $13,154; balance by the State.

According to the census of 1870 the whole number of schools of all kinds was 4,723, with 6,986 teachers (2,320 males, 4,556 females), and 162,636 pupils, out of a school population (5 to 18 years) of 175,488; 13,486 persons over 10 years of not read, and 19,052 could not write.

age could

Since the above summary was prepared, the office of county supervisor has been abolished, but the superintendent in his report for 1872 advocates its restoration in the form of a State Board, . made up of two commissioners from each congressional districteach commissioner doing the usual duties of county school officers, and together constituting a board, of which the State superintendent should be ex-officio the secretary. Without some intermediate authority for examining teachers, and inspecting schools, independent of the towns, and subordinate to the State superintendent, the system will lack efficiency.

MARYLAND.

Maryland was first settled in 1634, had in 1790 a total population of 319,728, which had increased in 1870 to 780,894, on an area of 11,124 sq. m., and with $423,834,919 of taxable property.

The constitutions of 1776 and 1851 are silent respecting education; that of 1864 prescribed even the details of organization and the amount of taxation (not less than ten cents on each hundred dollars of taxable property, until the existing School Fund has been increased to $6,000,000 by the accumulating avails of an annual tax of five cents on the taxable property, when the annual State tax for school purposes shall be reduced to five cents'). These provisions in the revision of 1868 gave way to three brief articles, by which it is made the duty of the first General Assembly to establish by law a thorough and efficient system of free public schools, and to provide by taxation or otherwise for its support,' and to continue the system of public schools established by and under the constitution of 1864, until the end of the first session of the General Assembly held after 1868.

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In 1671, an act passed the upper house of the assembly 'to found and erect a school or college in the province of Maryland, for the education of youth in learning and virtue,' which in the lower house was returned with a message asking that the place for the college might be named, and that the schoolmasters of such school or college should be qualified according to the Reformed Church of England, or that there be two schoolmasters, one for the Catholic and one for the Protestant children, and the Protestants shall have leave to choose their schoolmaster;' and 'the Lord Proprietor be pleased to set out his declaration as to what privileges and immunities shall be enjoyed by scholars brought up or taught at such schools.'

In 1694, and again in 1696, a 'petitionary act for free schools' was addressed to his Most Excellent Majesty, asking for His Majesty's princely royal benediction and aid in the establishment of schools and colleges of universal study; and for the propagation of the gospel and education of youth within the province in good manners and letters,' especially for 'free school or schools or places for the study of Latin, Greek, writing, and the like,' with 'one master, one usher, and one writing master or scribe to a school of one hundred scholars, more or less, according to the ability of said free school,' and that the Most Reverend Father in God, Thomas, by the grace of God, Archbishop of Canterbury, and

Metropolitan of all England, may be chancellor, and to perpetuate the memory of your Majesty, the first, at Anne Arundel town, be called King Williams school or college, and be managed by certain trustees nominated and appointed by your Sacred Majesty,' and so on until each county of the province shall have one free school, and apply so much of the revenues to each school as they shall deem most expedient, not exceeding 120 pounds per annum.' Under this and subsequent acts in 1715, 1717, 1723, and especially of the last, a 'free school,' inadequately endowed, was established in each county, 'the trustees were to have perpetual succession, the schoolmasters were to be members of the Church of England, of pious, exemplary lives, and capable of teaching well, grammar, good writing, and mathematics; for which they were to be allowed the use of the 100 acres of land attached to the school, and £20 per annum, paid out of the county allowance.'

From an advertisement in the Gazette, February, 1774, it would appear that families were supplied with private teachers after a peculiar fashion. To be sold, a schoolmaster, an indented servant that has got two years to serve.' John Hammond, near Annapolis. N. B. He is sold for no fault, any more than we are done with him. He can learn book-keeping, and is an excellent scholar.'

The Revolution freed nearly all the clergymen of the English Church, who had attached themselves to the side of the mother country, from their clerical services, and most of them eked out a precarious support for many years by receiving pupils into their families, and setting up private schools.

The earliest law for general education was the act of 1825, 'to provide for the public instruction of youth in primary schools,' by which a State Superintendent was appointed to digest and report a system; and County Commissioners, to divide up the counties into school districts, for which three trustees were to be elected by the qualified voters; and Inspectors for the visitation of the schools and examination of teachers. Two reports were made by the superintendent, which were occupied with the details of the monitorial system and the plan of a central school for teachers, which at that date was attracting much attention, and had been officially noticed and commended by Governor Clinton to the legislature of New York. The office was abolished in 1828, and not revived till 1865, in pursuance of a provision of the constitution of the year previous.

*

*Littleton Dennis Tenckle, the original mover in the legislature of the resolution, on the 28th of Dec., 1825, to appoint a committee to procure the necessary information, and devise a plan of public instruction for all the youth of the State, on which the stability of the government, and the wealth and happiness of the people mainly depend.'

The avails of the school fund continued to be distributed through the County Commissioners, and the capital was increased by the amount of the U. S. Surplus Revenue Fund. The great result of the movement of 1825 was the permanent establishment of public schools in the city of Baltimore, which in 1870 included 102 day schools (1 college for boys, 2 high schools for girls, 37 grammar, 60 primary, and 2 unclassified schools), with 21,795 pupils, under 511 teachers, besides 6 evening schools, and 13 schools for colored children—a total of 121 schools, 571 teachers, and 24,673 scholars.

The act to establish a uniform system of public instruction' of 1865, vested its supervision and control in a State Board of Education, and in a board of school commissioners for the city of Baltimore and each county, embraced a series of schools from the neighborhood or primary, and township grammar, to a county high school and a State normal school, and directed that 'every child in the State between the ages of 8 and 14 years, without fixed employment, shall attend school at least six months in each year, and that no child under the age of 14 years shall be employed in any business, unless such child has attended some school six months of the year preceding.'

In 1868 the impulse which had been given to school agencies was arrested, and a reaction, both in legislative and administrative activity, followed, from which the State has not yet recovered. Under the judicious management of the president (Prof. Newell, principal of the State Normal School) of the Board of State School Commissioners, which took the place of the State Board of Education in the law of 1865, further reaction has ceased. According to the report of 1871, there were 1,390 schools, with 80,829 (including scholars in Baltimore city, 115,683) pupils, under 1691 (2,269, including Baltimore) teachers, at a total expenditure for school purposes of $727,111, and including the sum expended in the city of Baltimore, of $1,079,295.

By the census of 1870, out of a school population of 244,454, there was a school attendance of 105,435, and 114,100 persons over 10 years of age who could not read, and 135,499 who could not write. Of the whole number of schools (1,779) returned, there were: 1,487 public (3 normal, 10 high, 49 grammar, 159 graded, and 1,266 ungraded); 53 classical academies and colleges, including two universities; 19 professional and special schools (1 law, 2 medicine, 4 theology, 1 agricultural, 3 commercial, 1 blind, 1 deaf mutes, 6 art and music); and 220 private schools.