BRYANT, STRATTON & Co.'s COMMERCIAL COLLEGE, PROVIDENCE, R. I.- We are proud to say that we have in our midst an Institution worthy of the name assumed by the above gentlemen. There is hardly a city or town in the land that has not one or more institutions for aiding young men in gaining a knowledge of business duties, and yet we fear that few of these "Colleges" are successtul in preparing pupils for the actual business of life. We have examined the workings of the above named College, and have seen the results of the instruction given there, and we are entirely satisfied that the institution is doing its work in a manner unsurpassed. We do not think best to praise any man by words, but judging the Principal, Mr. S. Grant, by what we have seen of him in his school-room, we should say he is just the man to have the care of such an institution.

THE following are the ages of prominent English writers.-Wilkie Collins, 42; John Rankin, 47; Charles Kingsley, 47; Tom Taylor, 49; W. H. Russell, 50; Anthony Trollope, 51; Charles Reade, 52; Robert Browning, 54; Charles Dickens, 54; Alfred Tennyson, 57; Archibald Alison, 66; Mark Lemour, 57; W. E. Gladstone, 56; Charles Lever, 59; Bulwer, 61; B. D'Israeli, 61; Barry Cornwall, 78; T. Carlyle, 70; Lord Brougham, 86.- Illinois Teacher.

VERMONT. Of the 85,795 children between 4 and 18 years of age in the State, 73,259 have actually attended the schools. Less than one tenth of the pupils of the State have attended any other than the public school. The number of teachers was 4,841 and the average wages of males was $20.48 and of females $8.16-the teachers all "board round" we suppose.

MASSACHUSETTS.-The schools were open 7 months and 19 days the past year. The average wages of male teachers was $46.73 per month, and of females $19.37. The whole cost of the system was $1,679,700. There were 561 students in the normal schools, of whom 155 graduated.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.-Of the States that have maintained for any considerable length of time, all but three have one or more normal schools established under State authority. The three exceptions are New Hamphshire, Vermont, and Ohio. We regret to add Rhode Island to this list.

The monthly wages

THE following we take from the Pennsylvania School Journal:-' of male teachers in California is $73 88, and of females $64. The subscription price of the Teacher has been raised to $2 00 a year in legal tender notes, or $1 50 in gold.

OXFORD University, in England, has at last fallen a victim to modern innovation. A ladies' class has, amid much opposition, been established.

"TEACHER'S READING ROOM."-We are happy to learn that Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co., 111 and 113 William Street, New York, have fitted up a room in their publishing house for the special purpose of giving to Teachers throughout the country an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with whatever appertains to educational interest in this and other countries. Teachers will find all the educational journals published, at their service, and also the publications of that extensive establishment which has, for so many years, stood in the front rank in educational books, and done so much for the advancement of literature in our nation. Teachers, when you visit the metropolis don't fail to call at the " Teachers' Reading Room," Nos. 111 and 113 William street.

THE ideal of education is to tame men without lessening their vivacity, their gayety, their heartiness; to unite in them the freedom, the dignity, the prowess of a Tecumseh, with the serviceable qualities of the civilized man. This happy union is said to be sometimes produced in the pupils of the great public schools of England, who are savages on the play-ground and gentlemen in the school-room.-North American Review.

SAMUEL P. BATES, LL. D., is to write a complete history of the Pennsylvania regiments in the service of the United States during the rebellion, having been appointed to the position of State historian by Gov. Curtin. Mr. Bates is a graduate of Brown Uuiversity.

MR. Isaac N. Carleton has withdrawn from Dr. Dio Lewis's school at Lexington, and for the present, by invitation of the Connecticut Board of Educatiou, will take charge of the State Normal School at New Britain.

ST. LOUIS.-The Missouri Legislature has empowered the Board of Education of St. Louis to levy a tax not exceeding one-half of one per cent. on the taxable property of the city each year.

GEORGIA. Free schools for all classes are being opened in Georgia, all the teachers of which are required to take the oath of allegiance. They meet with the greatest favor.

THE Public Schools of the United States number about 60,000, of which more than one-sixth are in the State of New York.

THE SCHOOLMASTER for August and September will be published in one

number.

Petition of the Teachers of the Public Schools to the Honorable School Committee of the City of Providence, for an Increase of Salaries.

[The following petition, in which the reasons for an increase of compensation are clearly set forth, was presented to the School Committee at a special meeting held February 16th, and by them referred to the Committee on Qualifications. The recommendation of this latter committee in favor of an increase of the salaries of our teachers, was unanimously adopted at a regular meeting of the School Committee held May 11th, FORTY-SIX MEMBERS being present.]

To the Honorable Board of the School Committee of the City of Providence : GENTLEMEN: At a meeting of the male teachers of this city, with reference to their present salaries, it was unanimously voted, that a committee be appointed to present before the School Board at its next quarterly meeting, some of the more urgent reasons for an increase of the teachers' salaries at the present time.

In accordance with their expressed wishes, we return to the Committee the thanks of the teachers for the consideration given by them to their previous request, and for the corresponding action of the Committee in recommending to the Common Council and Board of Aldermen, an increase of salary at that time.

But we wish to assure the Committee that that increase does not in any adequate manner meet the increased cost of living, or the just reward of our labors. We cannot believe that so wealthy a corporation as the city of Providence would be willing, were it known, to allow its teachers to labor for wages merely sufficient to meet their current expenses.

The testimony, however, of most of the teachers in the city is, that, both during and since the war, it has required a close and sometimes pinching economy to make the quarter's salary cover the quarter's expenses.

By carefully drawn statistics, it may be seen that the prices of the most common articles of daily life were at one time during the war, on an average, nearly three hundred per cent. of the prices of the same articles previous to the war, and the average price of those articles of the greatest need at the present time, are from two-hundred and twenty-five to two hundred and fifty per cent. of the old prices. To meet this enormous advance in prices, the teachers have had, on an average, for that time, only nine per cent. advance upon the salary given prior to 1863. A salary of $1,600 to-day is actually worth only $800 according to the old basis, while, to place it on a basis of $1,200 of 1863, we find it would require $2,800 at the present time.

Many of our large cities have acted most generously in adjusting this great inequality in the compensation and expenses of teachers. Cambridge and Boston have just raised the salaries of the teachers from twenty-five to sixty per cent., in either of which cities neither the responsbilities and the labors of the teachers nor the cost of living are any greater than in Providence. The Superintendent of the Boston public schools now receives $4,000; the Latin and High School teachers receive $3,500 each; the Grammar Masters $2,500 each; and the first female assistants each $800.

This needed increase in the payment of labor is recognized in all the varied industries of this city. Mechanics and laborers find it necessary to add seventy-five to one hundred per cent. to their ordinary wages before the war. Lawyers' and doctors' fees have been doubled. The clergy are, in various ways, receiving a more ample remuneration, and the salaries of the Judges of the Supreme Court of this State have just been raised from $1,500 to $3,500.

Allow us to suggest, in this connection, that we have not forgotten the claims of patriotism, during these five years of terrible conflict, but have done what we could to sustain and cheer our soldiers fighting for the maintenance of our government. Our sacrifices are more than repaid in the glorious triumph. We only mention this as an additional call upon our otherwise straightened means.

Our necessities and our duties to ourselves and families urge us to make these statements to the Honorable School Board, with the con

viction that the interests of the schools as well as our own personal interests would be promoted by an act so clearly and justly demanded as an increase of our pay.

We would, therefore, most respectfully petition the School Committee to take such action with regard to the above statements as will tend to an increase of the salaries of the Superintendent and Teachers of the public schools of this city.

(Signed,)

PROVIDENCE, FEB. 16, 1866.

ALBERT A. GAMWELL,

Principal Fountain Street Grammar School.

EDWARD HUTCHINS CUTLER,

High School.

THOMAS W. BICKNELL,

Principal Arnold Street Grammar School.

By the Committee in behalf of the Teachers of the public schools of this city.

MAY 12th, 1866.

REUBEN A. GUILD,

Secretary School Committee.

Petition of the Teachers of the Public Schools to the Hon. Common Council and
Board of Aldermen of the City of Providence, for an Increase of Salaries.
To the Hon. Common Council and Board of Aldermen of Providence :

GENTLEMEN: We beg leave to present to you, with the above Petition and Recommendation thereon offered by the School Committee, a more detailed statement of the reasons which compel us, as Teachers of the Public Schools of this city, to ask of your Honorable Bodies an increase to our present salaries.

The unusual urgency of our claims, leads us to address you, as well as the School Committee, directly, with the assurance that a candid presentation of facts and reasons on our part, will lead to a generous and just response on yours.

It is wholly unnecessary for us to speak of the advanced cost of living during the last six months and its prospective continuance, except to show that our increased salaries of 1863 were but a small fraction, compared with the increase of our daily expenses. You are well aware that it requires from two to three times as much money to purchase the family stores to-day as it did in 1860. As a natural consequence, incomes and salaries have been materially increased; the latter, however, in no proportionate ratio to the former; and while it is a fact that Providence is richer to-day than ever before, and relatively the second city in wealth on the globe, the salaried men and women are poorer than during the crisis of 1857.