In 1846, Teachers' Institutes, which had been held by Mr. Mann for the first time in 1845, by aid of $1,000 given by Hon. Edmund Dwight, were provided for by an appropriation of $2,000 from the school fund, since increased to $3,600.

In 1847, cities and towns were authorized to appropriate money for the support of schools for the instruction of adults in reading, writing, English grammar, arithmetic, and geography; and in the same year the offer of Theodore Lyman to aid in the establishment of an institution for the instruction, employment, and reformation of juvenile offenders, was accepted, and the State Reform School at Westborough was begun; and an annual appropriation made to furnish books to the inmates of the State Prison, which was afterwards extended so as to secure instruction in reading and writing to all prisons and houses of correction.

In 1848, wherever a suitable site for a school-house can not be secured by voluntary purchase, the same may be condemned for public uses, and the owner properly indemnified. In the same year an appropriation was made for training and teaching idiotic children of indigent parents for three years, which resulted in the establishment of the institution for that class at South Boston in 1851. In the same year, any county association of teachers holding any annual meeting of not less than two days, for the express purpose of promoting the interest of public schools, was entitled to twenty-five dollars from the State. Two or more towns were authorized to unite in the establishment of a high school.

In 1849, all willful interruptions and disturbances of schools were punishable by fine and imprisonment, and provision was made for the preservation of all school reports and other documents in the school libraries; and the State Library was made the office of the Board of Education, and the secretary made librarian, with instructions to provide for the display of apparatus, &c. A copy of Barnard's School Architecture was furnished to each town, and an annual appropriation of $150 was made to the State Teachers' Association. In 1850, the Board of Education was authorized to receive donations and bequests for educational purposes, and did receive a bequest of $10,000 from Henry.Todd, for the State Normal Schools.

In 1850, physiology and hygiene were added to the branches to be taught, and teachers were required to be examined into their abilities to teach the same. Towns were authorized to abolish school districts, and take possession of the property of the same, and provide for the erection of school-houses at the common expense

of the town. In the same year, cities and towns were authorized 'to make all needful provision and arrangements concerning habitual truants, and children not attending school, without any regular lawful occupation, growing up in ignorance, between the ages of 6 and 15 years.' The Board of Education was authorized to furnish a copy of either Webster's or Worcester's large Dictionary of the English Language to every school district, and every school, except primary. In the same year, provision was made for an Agricultural College, which did not take form and location till Congress made, in 1862, the Agricultural and Mechanical College land grant.

In 1851, the Board of Education was authorized to employ two or more suitable persons to visit the towns and school districts, for giving and receiving information in the manner of the secretary of the Board; and to publish for general distribution selections from the reports of the Board.

In 1853, the legislature established a system of State scholarship to aid in qualifying principal teachers for high schools,' by assisting to educate and train forty-eight young men, of irreproachable moral character, free from any considerable defect of sight and hearing, and of good health and constitution,' in the different colleges of the State. Before the details of the system could be perfected by actual experience, particularly in the direction of practical training, and in the final step of inducting these teachergraduates into the schools, first as assistants, and afterwards as principals, the law was repealed, and this most beneficent measure for the higher education and professional training of this highest class of teachers was lost, for a quarter of a century, at least.

In 1855, in consequence of the establishment of separate schools for children of African parentage, it was directed that no person should be excluded from a public school on account of race, color, or religious opinion of the applicant or scholar.

In 1857, towns were authorized to establish and maintain day or evening schools for the education of persons over fifteen years of age-and thus the practice of evening schools already introduced in several cities (in Boston in 1836, in New Bedford in 1848, in Lowell in 1853) was legalized.

In 1858, one half of the annua. income of the Massachusetts school fund was set apart to meet the money appropriations for educational purposes other than for town schools.

In 1859, vocal music, drawing, physiology, and hygiene were made regular studies, at the discretion of the school committee. Textbooks could not be changed except by the unanimous vote of the

whole committee, and when made, the substituted books must be furnished to the school at the expense of the town. This requirement has been modified so as to admit of change by a vote of twothirds.

In 1862, the daily reading of some portion of the Bible without written note or oral comment was enjoined on all public schools, but no scholar could be required to read from any particular version objected to by his parents or guardians; and the school committee shall not direct the purchase or use of any school book calculated to favor the tenets of any particular sect of christians. Agriculture could be made a branch of instruction at the discretion of the committee.

In 1865, no town can receive any portion of the annual income of the State School Fund, which has not made the returns required by law, and raised by taxation for the support of schools during the school year, a sum not less than $3 for each person between the ages of 5 and 15 years.

In 1866, cities and towns were authorized to provide for children under sixteen years of age, who by reason of the neglect, crime, drunkenness, or other vices of parents, or from orphanage, are suffered to be growing up without salutary parental control and education, or in circumstances exposing them to lead idle and dissolute lives,' such ordinances being approved by the Superior Court.

In 1867, the trustees of all institutions of learning, incorporated, supported, or aided by the State, of all reform schools, and of all private educational institutions, shall make a report in writing to the Board of Education of such statistics as to pupils and instructors, studies, tuition, and general condition, as said board may prescribe.

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In 1870, after nearly fifty years of suggestion, discussion, and isolated experiments, drawing was included by act of the legis lature (May 16) among the branches required to be taught in the public schools,' and any city and town having more than ten thousand inhabitants were required to make provision for free instruction in industrial or mechanical drawing to persons over fifteen years of age, in day or evening schools, under the direction of the school committee.' Thus was consuminated one of the suggestions of the commissioners appointed by the legislature in 1825, that drawing should be made part of the curriculum of their proposed State institution for instruction in the practical arts and sciences; and of the slate and blackboard exercises presented by Josiah Holbrook and William A. Alcott from 1830 to 1842, and of Mary T.

Peabody (Mrs. Horace Mann) in her Primer of Drawing, and of Mr. Barnard in his Manual of Methods for Common School Teachers in 1839-41; and of Mrs. William Minot in her first instructions to a class in the Franklin school in 1839, and to all the teachers of the primary schools of Boston in 1841-42.

In 1871, the legislature appropriated $10,000 out of the income of the school fund for the salaries and expenses of special agents of the Board of Education, the object being, first, to secure the services of a competent agent to give aid and direction to a more systematic and thorough course of instruction in drawing in the Normal Schools; to visit the cities and towns required by the law of 1870 to maintain schools or classes for instruction in mechanical drawing; to give information and assist school committees in the formation of such classes, and in the management of suitable courses of instruction in them; and to advise and aid a practical method for the education of teachers in drawing for special schools and for the common schools in this branch.' The second object was the employment of competent persons to act as special agents of certain designated districts in coöperation with the labors of the general agent, with the view of reaching all the towns in the commonwealth, annually, by a direct and thorough system of inspection, and independent of, and at the same time in coöperation with, that of the town committees. It was to do, in part, in Massachusetts, the work of county superintendents in the system of Pennsylvania, Illinois, and several other States. This feature was part of the original draft of a school law prepared by Mr. Barnard in 1844 for Rhode Island.

The first object was secured by the employment of Mr. Walter Smith, art master in one of the prominent schools (at Leeds) in connection with the English department of art and science, as professional adviser and lecturer in art education, with the title of State Director of Art Education.

In 1872, the fifth State Normal School was located at Worcester, and $60,000 appropriated for a building on a site appropriated for its use, a sum which measures the progress of public opinion towards these institutions, the first institution, in 1838, not receiving a dollar towards such expenditure, and the three only $5,000, after an experience of four years of their utility. They are now regarded as indispensable in any system of public instruction.

The statistics of public schools and State expenditures for educational purposes in 1871 were as follows: total amount of taxes paid to maintain public schools, $5,462,852; and total expense,.

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exclusive of collegiate and professional education $6,297,010; $22.63 for cach person between the ages of 5 and 15 years. Among the items are $3,272,335 for the wages of teachers; $122,086 for town and city supervision and printing reports; number of public schools 5,076 (including 181 high schools), with 273,661 pupils; number of normal schools (State and city) 6, with 1,100 pupils; teachers' institutes held, 7, with an attendance of 908 teachers. Among the charges on the income of the State School Fund were $3,400 for secretary; $4,224 for agents; $10,627 for printing report and expenses of board; $41,427, State Normal Schools; $3,000, Institutes; $800, State Teachers' Association; $225, County Associations; $500, American Institute of Instruction.

The 36th Report of the Board of Education (Jan., 1873,) presents highly satisfactory results of the working of all parts of the system. In addition to the usual items of schools, attendance, and sums raised by taxation (in all of which there is an increase over the same items for the year preceding), there is a report from the State Director of Art Education (Walter Smith), which exhibits great progress, in procuring a traveling museum of copies, casts, and models, for exhibition in the twenty-three cities, where a drawing schools is made obligatory, and where the director attends for holding conferences and giving lectures and address as illustrative of the exhibition, and describing the manner in which art teaching may be introduced into the common schools and night classes. A State Normal School of Art is proposed, and a City School of Art is in progress in South Boston. There is also a report from the General Agent (Abner J. Phipps), on the condition of the public schoolhouses, with plans and descriptions of structures suitable for country towns and villages. The Special Agent (George A. Walton) mentions visiting a school which had never had a blackboard, or a teacher who had asked for one,' and reports out of 368 schools in 73 towns visited, 'a large number are kept in houses badly lighted, incommodious, poorly furnished, and without proper means of ventilation; they are without clock, a thermometer, without globe or numerical frame, without suitable blackboard, chalk, erasers, or indexes.' The processes of teaching are limited to a routine of questions read by the teacher from the book, and answers committed to memory.' In the smaller ungraded schools, spelling occupies about one-fifth of the time, and is chiefly oral; reading in the lower classes is but little more than an exercise in spelling, and occupies full one-third of the time; but little attention is given to penmanship, or to slate exercises in script hand.'

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