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The catalogue for the spring term of 1873 contains the names of 700 matriculated students (including one female, Maria Tshetschulin, entered as born in 1852) present, and excluding over 100 students matriculated but not in residence. To be matriculated in any faculty, the aspirant must pass an examination on all subjects required for graduation in the classical lyceums, and if in the faculty of medicine, he must have graduated in the philosophical faculty.

The lectures in any faculty can be attended by persons not matriculated, and many of them are largely attended by ladies.

There is no enforced curriculum, or residence required for an examination for a degree, after matriculation. The examination for degrees varies according to the faculty and the degree.

In the philosophical faculty there are two degrees-that of Master, and that of Doctor. To obtain the first, the candidates must pass satisfactorily in five subjects, in one of which he must rank in the highest out of three grades of merit. The time usually required to master these subjects is from 4 to 6 years, but these need not have been spent in continuous residence. To obtain the degree of Doctor, the aspirants must be Master, and pass in three subjects, and then write and print a thesis, and publicly defend the same in one of the halls of the university, before the professors of the faculty.

In the other faculties there are two degrees, that of Candidate and that of Doctor. To obtain the latter, the aspirant must have the diploma of Master of Philosophy and of Candidate, and write and defend a thesis; and to become Doctor of Medicine, he must, in addition, have practiced two years in the hospitals.

Every three years there is a Commencement or Promotion Day, of all candidates for any degree in the philosophical faculty. Each young master is then crowned with laurel and awarded his diploma in the presence of all the jubel magistrar (graduates of fifty years ago), and the young doctors receive each a doctor's hat. These festivities are quite popular, and attended by the older graduates, and the relations and friends of all the young, enlivened with spirited addresses, and closed with a grand ball in the evening to the special gratification of the ladies.

Besides these learned degrees, there are examinations for special professions, for ministers, lawyers, teachers, etc., which are required for obtaining any offi cial appointment. The aspirants for these are not obliged to take any philosophical degree before entering their respective faculties.

Postscript.

DR. FELIX HEIKEL, who is now in this country, on one of the stipendiums mentioned at the close of page 221, and to whom the undersigned is indebted for the information embodied in the foregoing article, will be greatly obliged to any school officer or teacher for any communication he may choose to make to the accompanying circular, addressed to him. Care of HENRY BARNARD,

P. O. Box U,

HARTFORD, CONN.

COMMON SCHOOLS AND PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

DEVELOPMENT FROM 1800 To 1870.

INTRODUCTION.

By common or public schools in this chapter is understood that class of educational institutions which the State provides or secures for all its children, in the rural districts as well as in the crowded city, wherever a human being is to be found on its territory capable of receiving that formal instruction, which it is the avowed purpose of these schools to impart, as essential to the healthy, physical, moral, and intellectual growth of each individual, and to the performance of every day business and the universal duties of citizenship. It is common, because it is the instruction, which the community owes to all its citizens for their good and its security. It is public, because the school is established by the State through agencies of its providing, conducted according to the rules of its authorization, supported by funds protected or furnished by its legislation, accessible to the children of all citizens upon terms of equality, and subject to such inspection as the law may institute. Though common it is not necessarily gratuitous; it may be free or cheap-but it can not be common if the cost is beyond the reach of the poorest, or the quality is below the acceptance of those who know what good instruction is. Although public, it is not beyond legal control. It is everywhere subject to such limitations as to age, attendance, studies, books, and teachers as the State may prescribe; but it must exist by force of law, general or special, and be managed by agents who have their authority direct or indirect from legal provisions, and its privileges must be open to all children on equal terms. It is no longer limited in its range of instruction to the few elementary studies, or to mere children. Studies which formerly belonged to the academy or college are now parts of the curriculum in the higher classes or grades of the common school, especially in cities and large villages.

Although originating at different times, and projected after different models, and modified by differing conditions of nationality, occupation, and religious opinions or practices, the American Common, or Public School, however widely separated in territory,

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is now subjected to the same social and political influences, and is fast approximating to a common organization, and to similar, and almost identical systems of administration, instruction and discipline. It is doubtful if the institution attains its highest efficiency and broadest usefulness, by this legal uniformity. Large bodies of children will be thrown out of its influence altogether; bitter antagonisms between bodies of citizens will be engendered; and the teaching profession will not find that field and stimulus for individual expansion and original methods and special adaptations, which greater liberty of instruction, and more diversified preparation and administration would create. It is not impossible that the recent rapid approach to uniformity in organization, administration, instruction and discipline, will be arrested and modified by the independent action of State and city systems, as soon as each becomes again more subject to peculiar local influences.

The constitutional provision of any State is indicative only of the views of a comparatively few men on the subject of schools and education at the time of its adoption, and is mainly serviceable in protecting funds specially appropriated to these purposes from being devoted to other objects, and in giving the friends of these interests a firm ground to stand on in their advocacy of the same. The constitutions and school acts since 1865 in the States recently engaged in the rebellion, and prostrated in its suppression, have been adopted for the protection of the enfranchised colored population, and are not in harmony with the former habits and present convictions of a large majority of the old voters. It will take years before this great interest of schools and education is adjusted to the new relations of parties, and firmly established in the habits of society.

We shall now proceed to give a comprehensive survey of the progressive development of common or public schools in each State, and at the same time indicate at least statistically, the condition of the State in respect to other educational institutions and agencies. For convenience of reference we shall present the States in their alphabetical order and not in the more logical order of the chronological establishment and development of schools in the same. To appreciate the greater or less rapidity and efficiency of the movement in different parts of the country, we shall indicate the date of settlement, the organization of the government, the growth of population, and the taxable property of each State. The latest statistical results will be given in the tables appended from the last report of the United States Commissioner of Education.

ALABAMA.

Alabama belonged to the State of Georgia till 1802, when by cession it became part of the Territory of Mississippi until 1817, when it was organized as an independent Territory, and admitted a State in 1819, with a population in 1820 of 127,901 which had increased in 1870 to 996,992 (475,510 colored), on an area of 50,722 square miles and taxable property returned of $157,770,387. The earliest constitution of Alabama (1819) ordains that 'schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged,' and the General Assembly is directed to protect (1,) the land grants of the United States for the use of schools within each township; and (2) the Seminary lands for a State university for the promotion of the arts, literature, and science.'

The constitution of 1867 ordains the appointment of a Superintendent of Public Instruction,-elected at the same time and in the same manner as the governor, and of a Board of Education, consisting of the Superintendent and the governor ex-officio, and two members elected for a term of four years, for each congressional district. The Board of Education is declared a body corporate and politic, with full legislative powers in reference to the public educational institutions of the State, and its acts when approved by the Governor, or when reenacted by two-thirds of the Board in case of his disapproval, shall have the effect of law, unless repealed by the General Assembly.' This Board of Education is constituted a Board of Regents for the State University, and when sitting as such, has power to appoint the president and faculty. Of the Board of Regents, the president of the University is, ex officio, a member for consultation. To the support of public schools the constitution continues the appropriation of all lands and other property donated to the State by the United States and individuals for educational purposes, and 'one-fifth of the aggregate annual revenue of the State, and of any specific tax which the General Assembly may levy upon all railroad, navigation, banking and insurance companies, foreign or domestic, doing business in the State.' The peculiar legislative and administrative school authorities provided by the State in the constitution of 1867, has not had thus far, a favorable field, or sufficient time to develop its legitimate results.

The attempts to establish an efficient system of public schools, based on the original U. S. township land grants (16th section), by ordinary legislation, from the first State law of 1823 down to 1854, entirely failed, except in Mobile and a few other cities which

followed the example of New Orleans. In the year last named, to give efficiency to previous laws, a State Superintendent was appointed, additional resources were provided by setting aside the income of the U. S. Surplus Revenue fund deposited with the State, and the avails of certain swamp lands, and a direct appropriation of $100,000 out of the aggregate annual State tax. Under the active labors and législative reports of the Superintendent, the holding of Teachers' Institutes, the meetings of a State Educational Association, the circulation of monthly issues of an Educational Journal, an intelligent public opinion was being created, and school officers were being educated to their work, when the war of Secession arrested the work of peace. The annihilation of all personal property, and the revolution of the old social and industrial system of the South which followed, has left a debris to be cleared away before any general system of education adapted to the new order of society can be organized and put in efficient operation.

Under the legislative authority vested by the constitution in the Board of Education, and under the administration of a Superintendent of Public Schools, elected by the people for four years, a system has been instituted which in most of its features corresponds to that which was growing up out of the legislation of 1854, and for its support the superintendent in his report for 1871 estimates that the sum of $700,000 will be available in 1872.

The census of 1870 returned 77,139 in school attendance, out of 342,976 of the school age (5 to 18 years); and 349,771 persons over 10 years who could not read, and 383,012 who could not write. Out of 2,969 schools of all kinds, with 75,866 pupils, 57 are returned as classical colleges and academies, with 3,218 pupils, and 2,812 public schools, with 67,000 pupils.

ARKANSAS.

Arkansas was organized a Territory in March, 1819, and admitted a State in 1836, with a population in 1840 of 97,574, which had increased in 1870 to 484,471 (122,169 colored), on an area of 52,198 square miles, with taxable property returned at $94,168,843. The constitution of 1836 ordains that the General Assembly, in consideration that knowledge and learning generally diffused throughout a community are essential to the preservation of a free government,' shall provide by law for the school lands, and encour age intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvements.' The State received 886,460 acres of land for common schools, and 46,080 for a university, but the legislature did not come up to the

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