on property, and managed by committees chosen by the people, no central directing or supervising power has existed. Every district has been permitted, to a great extent, to follow its own perceptions of utility in the management of its schools. It was assumed by the legislature, that the dictates of self-interest would prompt the inhabitants to nominate the best qualified individuals as members of the school and prudential committees; and that feelings of public duty and responsibility would induce the committees to execute their functions in the best manner. The law gave the committees ample authority over the schools, and power to enforce the prac tical adoption of every measure which they conceived calculated to promote their efficiency; yet under this system, as we shall presently see, education declined, and remedial measures were loudly called for by the public.

6

The first improvement adopted by the legislature was the formation of a public school fund. It was enacted that, on the 1st of January 1835, a sum not exceeding one million of dollars (L.200,000) should be permanently invested by the state, under the name of the Common School Fund.' It was derived from the sale of lands in the state of Maine belonging to Massachusetts, and from certain claims for military services on the government of the United States. The statute ordained that the income of this fund should be paid over annually to the towns,' in proportion to the number of children, between the ages of four and sixteen years, within the territory of each; but on the condition always, that the towns should, by taxes imposed on themselves, raise a sum annually, equal to one dollar and twenty-five cents (5s. 3d.) for every child between those ages comprised in their population. If any town fail to levy this amount, it receives no share of the fund. The analogy between this regulation and that adopted by our own government, of bestowing a certain amount of public aid in favour of schools, on condition that the inhabitants who apply for it shall contribute an equal sum themselves, for the same purpose, will be at once recognised.

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An act was passed in 1836, chap. 245, which provided, that children under fifteen years of age should not be employed in FACTORIES, unless they had attended school for at least three months of the twelve months next preceding any and every year in which such child shall be so employed;' under a penalty of fifty dollars for each offence, to be levied on the employer, to the use of the common schools in the town.

The legislature, by an act passed in 1837, chap. 147, authorized school districts to establish and maintain LIBRARIES AND APPARATUS for the use of the common schools; and to raise

money from the inhabitants by taxation for that purpose, to an extent not exceeding thirty dollars the first year, and ten dollars in any subsequent year. This provision might, with great advantage, be imitated in Britain.

The next step which followed, was the appointment, in April 1837, of a Board of Education, with a secretary. The statute of that year, chap. 241, establishes a board of education' for the state. The governor, with the advice of his council, was authorized to appoint eight persons, who, together with the governor and lieutenant-governor, ex officiis constitute the Board: The persons appointed hold their office for eight years, but one retires every year, commencing with the person first on the list. The governor and council fill up vacancies occurring by death, resignation, or other causes.

Governor Everett exercised the power of making the first nomination. We are informed by the Common School Journal, that although himself a Unitarian and a Whig, he selected from both political parties, (Whigs and Democrats,) and from all the leading religious denominations in the state, men of talents, literary reputation, and philanthropy, residing in different sections of the country, and representing as nearly as possible equal portions of territory and population. They receive no remuneration for their labours; but their incidental expenses, and all charges incurred in the execution of their office, are defrayed by the state. The and duties of the Board are thus defined :powers The Board of Education shall prepare and lay before the Legislature in a printed form, on or before the second Wednesday of January annually, an abstract of the school returns received by the secretary of the Commonwealth; and the said Board of Education may appoint THEIR OWN SECRETARY, who shall receive a reasonable compensation for his services, not exceeding one thousand dollars per annum, and who shall, under the direction of the Board, collect information of the actual condition and efficiency of the Common Schools, and other means of popular education, and diffuse as widely as possible, throughout every part Commonwealth, information of the most approved and successful methods of arranging the studies and conducting the education of the young; to the end that all children in this Commonwealth, who depend upon Common Schools for instruction, may have the best education which those schools can be made to impart.

The Board of Education, annually, shall make a detailed report to the Legislature of all its doings, with such observations as their experience and reflection may suggest, upon the condition and efficiency of our system of popular education, and the most practicable means of improving and extending it.'

The act of 21st April 1838, prescribes the DUTIES and fixes the COMPENSATION of the SECRETARY of the BOARD OF EDUCATION as follows :

The secretary of the Board of Education, in addition to the duties required of him by the act establishing the Board of Education, shall, once in each year, at such times as the Board of Education may appoint, attend in each county of the Commonwealth a meeting of all such teachers of public schools, members of the school committees of the several towns, and friends of education generally in the county, as may voluntarily assemble at the time and place, in the county, designated by the Board of Education, of which sufficient notice shall by him be given; and shall then and there diligently apply himself to the object of collecting information of the condition of the public schools of such county, of the fulfilment of the duties of their office by all members of the school. committees of all the towns, and the circumstances of the several school districts in regard to all the subjects of teachers, pupils, books, apparatus, and methods of education; with the intent of furnishing all requisite materials for the report by law required by the Board of Education.

§ 2. The compensation of the secretary of the Board of Education shall be one thousand five hundred dollars per annum, to be made in equal quarterly payments.'

The Board of Education, at its first meeting, appointed the Hon. Horace Mann, then president of the Senate of Massachusetts, to the office of secretary; a choice which, judging from the Reports named at the head of this article, appears to have been highly advantageous to the state. In these Reports, he exposes defects, urges their removal, and recommends improvements with earnestness, persuasiveness, and sagacity. He describes the condition of education in the State, at the time of his appointment, in the following words: The Common 'School system of Massachusetts,' says he, has fallen into a 'state of general unsoundness and debility; a great majority of the school-houses are not only ill adapted to encourage 'mental effort, but, in many cases, are absolutely perilous to 'the health and symmetrical growth of the children; the schools ' are under a sleepy supervision; many of the most intelligent ' and wealthy of our citizens have become estranged from their 'welfare; and the teachers of the schools, although, with very few exceptions, persons of estimable character and of great private 'worth, yet in the absence of all opportunities to qualify them'selves for the performance of the most difficult and delicate task .... which, in the arrangements of Providence, is committed to 'human hands, are necessarily, and therefore without fault of t their own, deeply and widely deficient in the two indispensable... 'pre-requisites for their office-viz. a knowledge of the human.........mind as the subject of improvement; and a knowledge of the means best adapted wisely to unfold and direct its growing 'faculties.'

This representation of the results of the administration, for

two centuries, of the common schools by the people themselves, without the aid of any controlling, advising, or enlightening central power, is highly instructive. It shows, that in conducting education, as in executing every other difficult and complicated process, the blind are not adequate successfully to lead the blind.

The example of Massachusetts is calculated to prove instructive to Great Britain equally in those points in which her machinery for education has failed, and in those in which it has proved successful. The evidence afforded by the Reports,' that the schools had degenerated, and that public education was rapidly declining under the management of mere local committees, is overwhelming aud irresistible. We shall now notice the effect of the remedial measures adopted by the legislature. Although it instituted the Board of Education, and prescribed certain duties to be performed by them, it conferred on them no compulsory powers. Neither the Board nor the secretary can direct the school committees and prudential committees, who retain the entire management of the schools, otherwise than by the influence of reason and persuasion. The law provides, that if the towns do not raise the statutory sums for education, they shall be subject to a fine, and receive no share of the common school fund; but the execution of these provisions is committed, not to the board and secretary, but to the civil officers of the state. Machinery of a somewhat similar kind would be better adapted to Great Britain than the Prussian system; for the various sects into which this country is divided, would probably resist, as the people in America have done, the application of any compulsory measures to enforce public instruction. Let us trace, then, the measures adopted by the Board, and the success which has attended them.

To rouse public attention to the actual condition of the schools, and to the means of improving them, the secretary summoned conventions of the friends of education in every county of the state, excepting Suffolk. By way of preparation for these county conventions, he drew up and circulated throughout the commonwealth a series of questions, addressed to the school committees, for the purpose of drawing forth and concentrating information on the most important points connected with education. Written answers were received from the school committees of nearly half the towns in the state; and at the conventions, the secretary delivered a lecture to the assembled citizens on the general subject of education and the schools, and afterwards the various topics suggested by the queries were publicly discussed. Massachusetts is rent by powerful and bitter political parties; yet, to the credit of the people, the secretary reports that

neither at the conventions which have been held in the several 'counties, nor in the intercourse or correspondence with any one, has there been infused into this cause the slightest ingre'dient of partisan politics. In regard to this great subject, all have reverted to their natural relations as fellow-men, discarding strifes about objects which are temporary for interests which are enduring.' This affords a valuable example to the opponents of national education in the United Kingdom.

The law requires that the Board of Education and its secretary shall present to the legislature an annual report of their proceedings, accompanied by such suggestions for the improvement of the whole educational system as may appear to them important. The first annual reports were prepared from the materials obtained from the answers to the queries, and the experience and observation of the secretary and members of the Board at the conventions. They are minute and instructive, and unsparingly expose defects. The general results arrived at are-apathy in the people, incapacity in the teachers, dilapidation in the schoolhouses, irregular attendance of the children, the absence of all system in the modes of teaching, and of uniformity in the books used; with the desertion of the common schools by the rich, in order to avoid that deterioration of manners and morals by which too many of them are characterized. The Board recommended an increase of the salaries of teachers, (who then received less than the wages of common labourers,) accompanied by the exaction of higher qualifications. They insisted largely on the improvement of school-houses; on the establishment of schools for training teachers; on the introduction of improved books; on the state allowing a pecuniary recompense to the individuals composing the school committees, for the time they should bestow in the discharge of their duties; and on the exaction of more efficient supervision of the schools. The legislature granted to every member of the school committees a compensation of a dollar for each day he should be engaged in the discharge of his public duties; and it ordered the Reports to be printed and circulated widely throughout the state.

In the second and subsequent years, the secretary addressed to the school committees certain queries prescribed by statute; and required from them written answers. He reduced these answers into a connected form, and presented them to the legislature. He also attended conventions in every county, and addressed the meetings. The Board and secretary presented the second, third, and fourth annual reports to the legislature; which, with the annual abstracts of the school returns, were printed each year, and widely circulated in terms of the statute.