deemed necessary for their respective districts,-the aggregate of these suns is made the basis of the superintending committee's report to the town, and this report, in like manner, has been uniformly accepted. In some other towns, the committee expend whatever sum they deem necessary for the support of the schools:-at the close of the year, they report the amount expended, and this amount is at once covered by an appropriation in gross. These are specimens of the liberal spirit which already prevails in a considerable number of towns.

Liberal expenditure for public schools reduces the expense of of private schools.

Here it might be demonstrated that where the appropriations for Public Schools are liberal, and the interest in them strong, the education of the whole people is improved in quality and increased in quantity, while the aggregate of expense is diminished. In the adjoining counties of Middiesex and Essex, for instance, the amount expended in each, for education, in schools below the grade of academies, was last year as follows:

In Middlesex, In Essex,

Difference,

$102,376 34 101,132 51

$1,243 83

The grant of the city of Lowell for Public Schools, last year. was between $16,000 and $17 000, or almost a dollar for every inhabitant belonging to the city,-the consequence of which was that the whole expense of private schools was reduced to $1.500 In Northampton, the grant for the Public Schools was $4.000, or considerably more than one dollar for each inhabitant in the town, while the whole expense for private schools was but $100. Contrasts to these cases, where small grants for Public Schools have drawn after them the consequences of great expense for private, are so numerous, that a selection from among them would be invidious.

experiment. It has been successfully tried elsewhere, and attended with the happiest effects.

Appointment of a Secretary or Superintendent.

The Trustees are of the opinion that they should be anthorized to employ a competent individual to act as their stated secretary, who could be consulted by the trustees of the districts and school committees, in reference to many questions which arise in carrying the law into effect, who could command time to awaken and excite public attention on the subject of popular instruction, to preside over the interests of education generally, and make annual reports to the legislature. Such an officer is very much needed and would essentially aid in securing the success of the system.

Common Education the highest duty and interest of the State.

If virtue and intelligence are of the first importance in a popular government; if they constitute the only security for a continuance of free institutions, then it follows that it is no less the highest interest than the duty of the legisla ture to provide and maintain, within reach of every child, the means of such an education as will qualify him to dis charge the duties of a citizen of this state and the republic.

MICHIGAN.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SUFERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, January 1842, p. 200.

The greatest part of this valuable school document is taken up with an exposition of the common school system of the State under the following heads, viz: Parents and Teachers-Duties of Inspectors-Teachers-Government of the School-Character of Instruction-Uniformity of School Books-School houses-Libraries-Working of the System. We can only give a few extracts.

Parents and Teachers.

While the reports show that in many districts sufficient interest is manifested by parents to keep the schools in vigor, they also demontsrate in language not to be misunderstood, the general indifference which prevails on this subject in other districts. Parents obnoxious to this charge are divisible into three classes. The first class, by far the most culpable but fortunately the least numerons, exhibits an utter disregard for education in any of its forms, and under all circumstances. To the honor of our State, they are rare in Michigan.

Parents of the second class profess great regard for edu cation, contribute with some liberality to the means of upholding it, send their children to school, and perhaps betray little curiosity to know how things progress, but never visit the school.

4

The third class of parents is found in most districts. They really take an active part in advancing the cause of education. They keep their children punctually at school, They even visit the school occasionally. But they do not regard the teacher's position. They do not attach to his calling that degree of importance which belongs to it. They deem it an avocation of necessity, and therefore one of servility. Its dignity as a profession, they do not recognize. While the mere spiritnal teacher is treated with the high respect due to his holy office, and the village attorney, the physician, the merchant, the mechanic, the farmer, with all those nameless acts of civility which common politeness and common sense require between neighbors, the school master is looked upon, in too many instances, with disdain and contempt. He is seldom taken by the hand in the friendly grasp of equality, seldom permitted to participate in the social intercourse of his district, seldom visited in school with any other feeling than merely to see that the amoun of labor exacted is accomplished, and never at his boarding house, where his heart, by unburthening itself of its long pent up griefs, might find the sympathies so essential to its assuagement. In the street, his presence only evokes ideas associated with ferrules, raw-hides and other instruments of torture for unruly boys, his mode of government as master and not of discipline as teacher being uppermost in the mind. In short, the parents referred to, regard the school teacher as a mere servant, hired to do a job that nobody else can do, and fit for nothing else, morally, intellectually or socially; and when the two or three months for which he was employed expires, he is at liberty to "quit" as soon as he please.

Female Teachers.

An elementary school, where the rudiments of an English education only are taught, such as reading, spelling, writing and the outlines barely of geography, arithmetic and grammar, requires a female of practical common sense, with amiable and winning manners, a patient spirit, and a tolerable knowledge of the springs of human action. A female thus qualified, carrying with her into the school room the gentle influences of her sex, will do more to inculcate right morals and prepare the youthful intellect for the severer discipline of its after years, than the most accomplished and learned male teacher. The heathen notion, that females have no souls, was exploded with the occasions that gave it birth among the wrangling schoolmen of antiquity. It is now generally admitted that they not only have souls, but souls capable of a high order of intellectual development; while, in the matter of heart and all those holier emotions which give to humanity its crowning glory, they leave the "lords of creation" far in the rear.

The New York Plan of County Superintendents recommended. Within the past year, the State of New York has adopted a plan of superintendence for her thousands of common schools which commends itself to our attentive consideration. It is the appointment for each county of a deputy superintendent, whose duties of supervision shall be co-extensive with the schools of his circuit. To his care are committed the educational interests of the county. He examines all the teachers, visits all the schools, collects all the statistics, sees that the laws are efficiently executed, ascertains their defects and suggests improvements, and otherwise promotes sound education.

The board of supervisors are required to appoint the deputy superintendent. He holds his office two years, subject to removal by the board for canses stated. He receives two dollars for each day necessarily spent in the discharge of his duties, but the whole amount in any one year is not to exceed five hundred dollars One half is paid by the county, the other half out of the school fund.

Such is the New York plan. It is worthy of the "Empire State." It is for the Legislature to say whether Michigan will do well to adopt a similar plan or rely yet longer upon the present defective means of supervision. It is believed that the change suggested will insure greater efficiency in the execution of our school laws, better teachers, better schools, higher interest and more harmonious action among parents, and greater economy.

School Government.

The reports show that the old fashioned mode of beating knowledge into the brain is yet kept up to an alarming extent. The usual appliances are piuching, cuffing, pulling hair and noses, throwing books and rulers at the heads of unruly urchins, compelling them to stand until fatigued into submission, locking up in dark places to scare away the evil genius that possesses them, shaming and other varieties of torture. Nothing so truly indicates a teacher's unfitness for duty as a disposition to be thus tampering with a child's capabilities of physical suffering; nothing so completely unnerves the energies of his school as this invariable resort, on the most trifling occasions, to instruments of torture as the only means of enforcing his rules.

The Nature of Common School Education.

Its true office is to discipline the mind; to call into active and unremitted exercise the affections of the heart; and to develope and invigorate the physical powers. Of what use is the most gifted intellect, if the heart, which gives it direction, be wrong? How much good would that intellect confer upon mankind, if its bodily frame-work were inadequate to sustain the tremendous pressure from within? Education, like nature, has a taste for the beautiful and consults proportion and harmony in all its operations. Its first great principle then is, so to proportion and harmonize the intellectual, physical and moral powers as to make them cooperate equally toward the designed end. If you educate the mind and body; but neglect the heart, you may raise up a giant frame and a giant intellect, but you do it at the peril of all that's most holy and attractive in spiritualized human nature, and run the risk of elevating to a most dangerous position some moral monster whose sphere of mischief shall only be limited by his aptitude for it. Then again, if you educate only the mind and heart, you do the grossest injustice both to man and his Creator; because, by such an act, you virtually question the necessity of physical organiza

tion.

Uniformity of School Books.

The want of uniformity in the books used, is the burthen of complaint through all the reports. By reference to the list, the variety of books can be seen. Many of them are good, many indifferent, and many positively bad. Even if they were all good books, and either author could be recommended, the endless variety of them would puzzle any teacher. The books used in one school not only differ from those used in another, but they differ throughout the same school.

School Houses.

If we would educate healthy children and consequently make valuable citizens, the school house, where much of their time is spent, should be built in a pure atmosphere; large enough to accommodate all comfortably, capable of being well ventilated, and so arranged within and without as to make each scholar happy and not feel like a criminal under confinement.

School Libraries.

The vast importance of judiciously selected libraries, as a means of perfecting or rather of advancing towards perfec tion common school education, is too universally admitted to render valid any excuse, but that of stern necessity, for not introducing them into our districts.

School System of Massachusetts, commended;

In October last, the Superintendent had occasiou to visit Massachusetts. The result of his observations, hurried as they were, was a renewed conviction that the Massachusetts school system, as tested by the universality and elevated character of the schools, stands preeminently above that of any other State. With only a nominal public fund, her plan of education embraces every child within her limits. Her direct taxes for support of schools are enormous, and yet they are paid with perfect good will. The aggrerate school taxes for the last year were about half a million of dollars. These taxes are paid by the property of the people; and, as a general thing, the wealthiest individuals, those who pay the most, are the warmest advocates of the system, even where they have no children of their own to share its benefits.

OHIO.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE ON THE CONDITION OF COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE STATE OF OHIO, TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, January 1842.

How to secure the accountability and services of School Officers.

The remedy which has suggested itself as the most easy, and at the same time, the most effectual, is so to amend the law as, that whenever the officer or officers charged with the ́execution of the school law in any district, township, or county, shall entirely fail to perform his or their duty, in the manner prescribed by law, such district, township, oi conty, as the case may be, shall, for the current year, be depriv ed of its proportion of the school fund; and that the same shall, by the proper officer, be reserved from distribution until such delinquency shall be remedied. Should a provision of this kind be adopted, it would at once appeal to the great body of the people. and, therefore, in all elees tions for such officers, both their capacity and dispositions to regard a due execution of the school law, as a matter of primary importance, would become prominent points in the discussion of fitness for office. Every man would then look upon himself as in some measure a minister of the law in his own defence, against the negligence and incompetency of unworthy officers.

In matters pertaining to public service, as well as in every thing else, experience is always found to be of consequence, and it is no less true in regard to officers of an humble grade, than to those of greater importance. If, then, it is desirable to insure the services of experienced men, the most certain means for the attainment of that object is to lengthen the period of service. It is alleged that much of the inefficiency of our school system may be traced to the want of experience in the directors of districts. As at pres ent organized, the whole system depends upon those offi cers. If they can be made to discharge their duties correct. ly, all is safe. Would it not then be well to change the pe riod of their services, from one, to three years, and by such a process that one will be elected every year. By adopting this mode, there will always be two in office, who will have at least an opportunity of learning something of the nature of the services to be rendered.

SECT. 7. The president and directors of all factories, which are now, or hereafter shall be, legally incorporated, and the proprietor or proprietors of all other manufacturing establishments in this State, shall cause that the children employed in such factory or establishment, whether bound by indenture, by parol agreement, or in any other manner, be taught to read and write, and also that they be instructed in the four first rules of arithmetic (provided the term of their service shall be of so long duration that such instruction can be given,) and that due attention be paid to the preservation of their morals; and that they be required by their masters or employers, regularly to attend public worship.

SECT. 8. The civil authority and selectmen for and within such towns in which such factories or manufacturing establishments, do or may exist, or a committee by them appointed, shall be, and they are hereby constituted a board of visiters; and it shall be the duty of such board of visiters, in the month of January, annually, or at such other time or times as they shall appoint, carefully to examine, and to ascertain whether the requisitions of this act, which relate to the instruction and the preservation of the morals of the children employed as aforesaid, be duly observed: and if, on such examination, such board of visiters shall discover, that the president and directors of any incorporated factory, or the proprietor or proprietors of any manufacturing establishment, have neglected to perform the duties enjoined upon them by this act, such board of visiters shall report such neglect to the next county court within the county within which the same shall have occurred; and thereupon, such county court shall cause the president and directors of such incorporated factory, or the proprietor or proprietors of such manufacturing establishment, to appear before such court, to answer in the premises; and if, on due inquiry, it shall be found, that such president and directors, or the proprietor or proprietors of such establishment, do not duly attend to the education of children by them respectively employed, as is by this act required; or that due attention is not paid to preserve the morals of such children; it shall be the duty of

such court, and they are hereby authorized, at their

discretion, either to discharge the indentures or conmay be bound to render services in such establishtracts relating to such minors, and by which they ments, or they may impose such fine or forfeiture on the proprietor or proprietors of such establishment as they may consider just and reasonable: Provided the same shall not exceed the sum of $100.

See the Report of the Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, on the School Law, May, 1841.

The attention of the Legislature has been called to the necessity of making further pro vision on this subject, in the annual reports of the Secretary of the Board of Commissioners. of Common Schools, and in the late message of Governor Cleveland. The following act was passed at the session which has just closed.

Sec. 1. Be it enacted, &c, that no child under the age of fifteen years, shall be employed to labor in any manufacturing establishment, or in any other business in this State, unless such child shall have attended some public or private day school where instruction is given by a teacher qualified to instruct in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, and arithmetic, at least three months of the twelve months next preceding any and every year in which such child shall be so employed. And the owner, agent, or superintendent, of any manufacturing establishment who shall employ any child in such establishment, contrary to the provisions of this section of this act, shall forfeit and pay for each offence, a penalty of twenty-five dollars to the Treasurer of the State.

Sec. 2. A certificate, signed and sworn to by the instructor of the school where any child may have attended, that such child has received the instruction herein intended to be secured, shall be deemed and taken to be sufficient evidence of that fact in all cases arising under this act. It shall be the duty of the school visiters of the several school societies, person. ally, or by a committee by them appointed, annulling, and as often as they shall think proper, to examine into the situation of the children employed in the several manufacturing establishments in their respective societies, and to ascertain whether the requisitions of this act are duly observed, and to report all violations thereof to some informing officer, to the intent that prosecutions may be had thereforand it is hereby made the duty of all informing officers to prosecute for all violations of any and all the provisions of this act.

Sec. 3 No proprietor or proprietors of any cotton or woollen manufacturing establishment in this State, or person or persons carrying on the business of

inanufacturing in any such establishment, as lessees, or in any other manner, or person of persons having charge of the affairs of any such establishment or business, shall employ, or suffer to be employed, or aid or assist in employing, in such establishment, any child under fourteen years of age, a greater length of time than ten hours in any one day. And every person who shall violate any of the provisions of this section of this act. shall forfeit and pay for each offence a penalty of seven dollars.

Sec. 4. All acts, and parts of acts, inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed. Approved, June 10, 1942.

II. MASSACHUSETTS.

I. An Act to provide for the better instruction of youth employed in Manufacturing Establishments. Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

SECT. 1. From and after the first day of April in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-seven, no child under the age of fifteen years shall be employed to labor in any manufacturing establishment, unless such child shall have attended some public or private day-school where instruction is given by a teacher, qualified [i. e. qualified to instruct in "orthography, reading, writing, English graminar, geography, arithmetic, and good behavior," according to the first section of the twenty-third chapter of the Revised Statutes, at least three months of the twelve months next preceding any and every year in which such child shall be so employed.

SECT. 2. The owner, agent, or superintendent of any manufacturing establishment, who shall employ any child in such establishment contrary to the provisions of this Act, shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars for each offence, to be recovered by indictment, to the use of common schools in the towns respectively where said establishment may be situated.

[Approved by the Governor, April 16, 1836.] II. An Act in addition to an Act to provide for the better Instruction of Youth employed in Manufacturing Establishments.

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

pre

No person shall be liable to the penalty provided in the Act passed the sixteenth day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, entitled 'An Act to provide for the better Instruction of Youth employed in Manufacturing Establishments,' who shall in each year, before employing any child under the age of fifteen years, as in said Act mentioned, obtain and preserve a certificate, signed by the instructor of the school where such child attended at least three months out of the twelve months' ceding, as in said Act is provided, that such child has received the instruction in said Act intended to be secured, the truth of which certificate shall be sworn to by the said instructor before some justice of the peace for the county where such instructor resides, and upon said certificate shall also be certified the fact of such oath or affirmation by such justice. [Approved by the Governor, April 13, 1838.] An Act concerning the Employment of Children in Manufacturing Establishments.

Be it enacted, &c., as follows:

SECT. 1. It is hereby made the duty of the School Committee, in the several towns and cities of this Commonwealth, to prosecute all breaches of an act entitled "An act to provide for the better instruction of youth employed in manufacturing establishments," passed on the 16th day of April, in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-six.

SECT. 2. The penalty imposed in the second section of said act. shall be given to the person prosecuting for the offence described in said act, any thing in said et to the contrary notwithstanding.

SECT. 3. From and after the passage of this act, no child, under the age of twelve years, shall be em

ployed in laboring in any manufacturing establish ment more than ten hours in any one day.

SECT. 4. The owner, agent, or superintendent, of any manufacturing establishment, who shall knowingly employ any such child, under the age of twelve years, in such establishment, contrary to the provisions of the third section of this act, shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars for each offence, to be recovered in any court of this Commonwealth competent to try the same, to the use of the person prosecuting. [Approved by the Governor, March 3, 1842.]

III. RHODE ISLAND.

An act to provide for the better instruction of children employed in manufacturing establishments. Passed January 25, 1840.

Be it encc'ed &c., as follows:

SECT. 1. No child under the age of twelve years shall be employed to work in any manufacturing es tablishment in this state, unless such child shall have attended, at least three months of the twelve months next preceding such employment, some public or private day school, where instruction is given in orthography, reading, writing, and arithmetic.

SECT. 2. If the owner or owners, agent, or superintendent of any manufacturing establishment shall employ any child in such establishment, contrary to the provisions of this act, he, she, or they shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars for each offence; to be recovered by indictment, to the use of the public schools in the town or city where said establishment may be situated.

SECT. 3. A certificate signed and sworn to by the instructor of the school where any child may have attended, that such child has received the instruction herein intended to be secured, shall be deemed and taken to be sufficient evidence of that fact, in all cases arising under this act.

SECT. 4. This act shall take effect from and after the first day of January, A. D. 1841.

IV. ENGLAND.

The use of machinery in the manufactures of England about 1769, changed the entire condition of the manufacturing population. The work people who were before scattered through the cottages and farmhouses, were, by the new arrangement, collected into large buildings, called mills or factories, which were at first erected on the borders of streams, where the waterfall supp ied the requisite power, and subsequently in the most densely peopled districts, where the steam engine was used for the same purpose. The water-wheel and the steam-engine dispensed with the strong arm of the full grown man, and created a demand for the more nimble and cheaper labor of females and children. As this change took place with out any precautionary measures to guard against the evils of crowding together so many people in the same work-room, and boarding houses, and the exacting demands of self-interest on the part of employers and parents, it was followed with the most disastrous results. The earliest language of remonstrance was heard in 1784. In 1795, Dr. Aiken and in 1796, Dr. Percival, Dr. Hunter, and other eminent physicians, denounced the system of factory labor as then existing, as effecting unfavor ably the health, morals, and intellectual character of the work-people, and especially of the females and children. Their representations,

and the humanity of the mill owners, led to the institution of a board of health at Manchester, who made a report in 1796, which concluded as follows:

1st. It appears that the children and others who work in the large cotton factories are peculiarly disposed to be affected by the contagion of fever; and that when such infection is received it is rapidly propagated, not only amongst those who are crowded together in the same apartment, but in the families and neighborhoods to which they belong, 2d. The large factories are generally injurious to the constitution of those employed in them, even when no particular diseases prevail, from the close confinement which is enjoined, from the debilitating effects of hot or impure air, and from want of the active exercises which nature points out as essential in childhood and youth, to invigorate the system and to fit our species for the employments and duties of manhood. 3d. The untimely labor of the night, and the protracted labor of the day, with respect to children, not only tends to diminish the general sum of life and industry, by impairing the strength and destroying the vital stamina of the rising generation, but it too often gives encouragement to idleness, extravagance, and profligacy in parents, who, contrary to the order of nature, subsist by the oppression of their offspring. It appears that children employed in factories are generally debarred from all opportunities of education, and from moral or religious instruction.

These representations attracted general attention, and the demand for legislative interference became at last so loud, that in the year 1802, the late Sir Robert Peel, (father of the present Premier,) himself a great manufacturer, brought in and carried An Act for the preservation of the health and morals of apprentices and others employed in cotton and other mills, and cotton and other factories." (42 Geo. III. Chap. 73.)

This act extended to all mills where three or more apprentices were employed, and it provided

1st. For the due ventilation and washing of the factories.

2d. The proper clothing of the apprentices. 3d. Limiting their labor to twelve hours daily, and not permitting it at night.

4th. Requiring each apprentice to be instructed, in some part of every working day during the first four years of his apprenticeship, in reading writing, and arithmetic.

5th. The separation of the sexes.

6th. Sunday instruction, and the attendance of the apprentices at divine service, and occasional examination by the rector, vicar, or curate of the parish.

7th. Authorizing the justices at quarter-sessions to appoint visitors of such factories with requisite powers.

This act did not rapidly come into practical observance, but wherever it prevailed, a visible improvement in the health and general appearance of the children became evident, and the

In the early history of the factory system, children between the ages of seven and fourteen, were brought from the different parish work-houses, in London and other large towns, and apprenticed to the manufacturers for a term of years. These children were clothed, fed and lodged by the master, in an Apprentice house," near the factory, and worked under the direction of overseers, who were paid according to the quantity of work they could exact from them. Cruelties the most heart-rending were practiced on these unoffending and friendless beings; and, in some cases, a lot of them were put up to sale, and advertised publicly as part of the property of a bankrupt's effects.

apprentice system itself was in a measure discontinued. To avoid the operation of the act, the mill owners, instead of employing the children from district work-houses as apprentices, preferred the children of the poor families in their neighborhood. This class of children not coming within the limitation of the act, were engaged very young, and were worked thirteen and fourteen hours a day on week days, and from six on Sunday morning till twelve, in cleaning machinery. Their services were dignified by the style of "free labor." To meet these new circumstances, Sir Robert Peel, in 1815, presented a second bill, extending protection to young persons between the ages of ten and eighteen, whether apprenticed or not, and limiting the period of toil to ten hours and a half, a day. This bill was not passed. In 1816, on his motion, a committee was raised to investigate the condition of children in factorics, who made a report of evidence to the house, but no legislative action followed. In 1818, Sir Robert again prepared a bill, limiting the number of hours to eleven, of actual labor, for all persons between the ages of nine and sixteen, and carried it through the House of Commons. It was delayed in the House of Lords by the appointment of a committee of inquiry, and finally lost by the prorogation of Parliament. In 1819 another committee was raised in the Lords, and an extensive investigation followed. The following is a summary

of the evidence:

It appeared that the labor, in nearly all the cottonmills of Lancashire and its neighborhood, was, excepting Saturday, from thirteen to sixteen hours a day, inclusive of one hour, or less, nominally allowed for dinner. Many of those subjected to such labor were children of nine, eight, seven, and six years of age, and previously to the stirring of the investigation, under six, and, in some instances, under five. The children continued constantly at work so long as the machinery was in motion, during which time they were not permitted to sit down or to leave the factory. They often complained (naturally enough, our readers will think) of fatigue, and aching limbs; in this state of exhaustion, towards the close of the day, they were beaten by the spinners, or overlookers, or even by their own parents, that blows might supply the deficiency of strength. In most cottonfactories, during the greater part, and often the whole of the nominally allotted time for dinner, the children were occupied in cleaning the machinery; no time was allowed for the breakfast or afternoon meals, which were snatched in mouthfuls during the progress of uninterrupted labor; the refreshment not unfrequently remaining untouched till it became cold, and covered with dust and dirt from the cottonflyings. It appeared, morcover, that the temperature in many cotton-mills was from 75° to 80°, in others from 80° to 85°, and occasionally as high as 90°. The medical gentlemen satisfactorily proved the children in cotton-mills to be in general unhealthy; that the protracted toil they underwent had a tendency to create debility, sickness, loss of appetite, distortions, swelled knees, and consumption. They generally expressed their opinion that the mode of conducting these establishments was highly injurious to young persons; that where it did not cut life short in the bud-its sure tendency was to bring on premature old age.

On the basis of this evidence the act of 1819