The student, besides being subjected daily to quizzes by his instructors, is given oral and written examinations at the close of each session on all the subjects studied. A report of the standing, punctuality, and deportment of each student is made out at the close of every quarter and sent to his parents or guardian. The student's standing in his class is estimated by the instructor, and marked on a scale in which the number 7 is taken as a maximum, and stands for "very good;" 6, "good"; 5, "very respectable"; 4, "respectable"; 3, "tolerable"; 2, "bad"; 1, "very bad." Students are not advanced to a higher class until they have stood an approved examination on the studies of the preceding class.

The school is strictly military in its organization and discipline.

The annual register for 1885-86 shows four instructors, and a student attendance of one hundred and six, from four States and the District of Columbia. The principals say that "improvements will continue to be made in our accommodations, but the capacity of the school will not be enlarged. We do not desire any considerable increase in our numbers, satisfied as we are that efficiency in the management of a school is best secured with a limited number of pupils."

OTHER SCHOOLS OF MERIT.

Prominent among the schools deserving to be mentioned in this connection is the Raleigh Male Academy, at Raleigh, reopened by Professors J. J. Fray and Hugh Morson, both of the University of Virginia, in 1878, and which, since the death of Captain Fray, in December, 1884, has been under the efficient management of Professor Morson and Capt. C. B. Denson, two of the best known and most popular teachers in the State.

This school has no regular curriculum. The subjects taught may be divided into the following general classes, viz:

I. The usual English branches, with mathematics.
II. The Latin and Greek languages and their literature.

III. The French and German languages and their literature.

IV. The natural sciences.

V. Book-keeping.

Every pupil is required to take throughout his connection with the school orthography, penmanship, English composition, and declamation. The average student attendance is about one hundred.

The writer was connected with this school as an assistant teacher in 1884, and is prepared to commend it for thoroughness and substantial work.

The early history of the Raleigh Male Academy is thus given by President Kemp P. Battle, of the University of North Carolina, in a centennial address on "The Early History of the City of Raleigh," delivered in that city July 4, 1876:

"The attention of the people of Raleigh was early directed to the

subject of education. The most active man in inaugurating schools was Joseph Gales, the editor of the Register, one of the most enlightened fathers of Raleigh. The following is the list of trustees elected March 27, 1802: John Ingles, William White, Nathaniel Jones (of White Plain), Henry Seawell, Simon Turner, William Boylan, John Marshall, and Joseph Gales. Nathaniel Jones, who had donated $100, was chosen president, and Joseph Gales secretary.

"One month afterwards $800 is reported subscribed, and soon an academy is built, by permission of the General Assembly, on Burke Square, one building for the males and one for the females.

"This academy became a power in the land. It grounded the educa tion of nearly all the boys of that day in central North Carolina. It was the pride and glory of Raleigh for a third of a century.

"The academy began in grand style. In 1804 we read an advertisement which announces the teachers as follows: Rev. Marin Detargney (late of Princeton, and of the College of Maryland) as principal; Chesley Daniel, graduate of the University of North Carolina and late one of the tutors, assistant; Miss Charlotte Brodie, teacher of needlework.

"Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, mathematics, with application to the system of the world, astronomy, navigation, etc., all at $5 per quarter. A less amount might be had for $4 per quarter. The English branches were $3 per quarter, and needle-work free.

"Such array of all the sciences seems to have been above the demands of young Raleigh, and in 1810 it is announced by William White, the secretary of the board, that the trustees of the academy had engaged the Rev. William McPheeters, from Virginia, a gentleman eminently qualified for the undertaking, to become the principal of the academy and pastor of the city.

"The leaders in the great contest with the social and political evils of the day, those who must drill the young to their full powers and enable them to cope with the active, adventurous, nothing-fearing, all-daring spirit of this age, are the teachers of the land. Our people, captivated by the eloquence of the statesman, or the brilliant achievements of the warrior, do not fully appreciate the grandeur of their calling.

"Dr. William McPheeters was one of the best of his class, painstaking, conscientious, thorough, parental and kind to the dutiful, but a terror to the truant. High-minded, brave, frank, abhorring all meanness, he not only instructed the minds of his boys, but he trained their consciences to aim at his own lofty standard.

"He was, too, pastor of the city for several years. His ministrations in the Commons Hall were attended by all; and Episcopalians and Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists, in their triumphs and their sorrows, on the bed of sickness and in the hour of death, found in him a sympathizing friend, a safe counsellor, a true, tried, well-armed, GreatHeart.

"Under this remarkable man the Raleigh Academy grew and flour. ished, and the Raleigh people, insensibly looking up to him as a common guide, were a united community, unpretentious, sociable, cordial to one another, and cordial to strangers."

For a number of years this academy, previous to coming under its present management, was conducted by the Lovejoys, who during their lifetime were as noted educators as the Binghams.

Owing to the fact that Burke Square, where the school was conducted for many years from its organization, was fixed upon as the site of the new residence for the Governor, another location for the school had to be chosen. An entire square in the north-eastern part of the city was secured, on which a large, well-ventilated, and comfortable building was erected, fully adapted to the requirements of the school. This building has been occupied since September, 1883.

The DAVIS SCHOOL, a classical and military institution, established by Col. A. C. Davis, at La Grange, Lenoir County, in 1881, is rapidly gaining a wide reputation. In many respects it is modelled after the Bingham School. Its student attendance embraces a large number of States. The faculty is able and progressive and includes graduates from some of our best institutions. This school, as do the Bingham, the Horner, and other leading institutions of the State, maintains excellent literary societies in which the students are required to debate, declaim, and prepare essays. It also has a good cadet cornet band and orchestra.

Other schools for secondary instruction might be mentioned in this connection, but the above are sufficient to show the characteristic features of these institutions in North Carolina.

ANTE-BELLUM MALE SCHOOLS.

CALDWELL INSTITUTE.

This institution, named in honor of the Rev. Joseph Caldwell, D. D., first president of the State University, was instituted and managed by the Orange Presbytery. It was established at Greensborough and began the work of instruction January, 1836, the Rev. Dr. Alexander Wilson and Mr. Silas C. Lindsay being the first teachers. To these was added the Rev. John A. Gretter. Dr. Charles Phillips says: "This trio taught a school of the highest pretensions ever known in North Carolina. Its students joined the Junior class in the University."

This institute was removed to Hillsborough sometime about 1846. It succeeded the Bingham School at that place, and was in turn succeeded a few years later by the school of Mr. Ralph Graves, father of Professor Graves, of the University.

The Graves School was succeeded by the Hillsborough Military Academy.

HILLSBOROUGH MILITARY ACADEMY.

This school was founded in February, 1859, by Col. Charles C. Tew, a native of South Carolina. Colonel Tew was educated at the Citadel, the South Carolina Military Academy. Soon after being graduated he was appointed to a professorship in the Arsenal, a branch of the Military Academy, where he remained, with the exception of a year spent in study in Europe, until 1858, when he decided to establish a military academy in North Carolina. Excellent brick barracks, one mile from Hillsborough, were erected for this school.

At the outbreak of hostilities Colonel Tew entered the Confederate army and lost his life in the service. Major Gordon, one of the assistant teachers, conducted the school during the War. After the War it was attempted to revive the institution, at first under Colonel White and then under General Colston, but upon the latter's removal to Wilmington in 1868 the school was closed, until in 1874 it was revived under Messrs. Graves and Horner, who had been conducting a school at Oxford, but in a few years, for want of satisfactory patronage and other reasons, it was again closed and has not been re-opened since.

THE NORTH CAROLINA MILITARY INSTITUTE.

At one time this was one of the noted institutions in the State. It was located in the suburbs of Charlotte.

The corner-stone of the main building, an imposing brick edifice, built in the Norman castellated style of architecture, situated in a campus of twenty-seven acres well shaded by oaks, was laid in 1858; and, the building having been completed, the work of instruction was commenced the following year. It is said the building was planned by General "Stonewall" (T. J.) Jackson, who at one time contemplated opening a military academy with his brother-in-law, General D. H. Hill, in Charlotte. The school was opened with General D. H. Hill as superintendent, assisted by General Lane, Col. Charles Lee, and one or two others.

The War closed its halls. The institution was revived in 1873 by Col. John P. Thomas, of South Carolina, at one time principal of the Citadel Academy, in that State, who conducted it for several years. The building is now used by the graded school.

Other institutions could be mentioned, but the above were the moșt prominent of the schools organized before the Civil War, and which have since gone down.

A DISTINGUISHED COLORED EDUCATOR.

One of the most remarkable characters in the educational history of North Carolina was a negro. His life finds no parallel in the South, nor, so far as the writer is aware, in any part of our country. To one who

is familiar with the status of the negro in the slave-holding States in the first half of this century, the following will read stranger than fiction, but of its truth there can be no question. This man, with a history so unique, was the Rev. John Chavis, a Presbyterian clergyman and an eminent teacher. His contemporaries admired him for his noble bearing as a gentleman, revered him for his fervent piety as a Christian, and respected him for his eminent ability as a teacher and preacher.

The Rev. Charles Phillips, D. D., LL. D., of the University of North Carolina, made an effort, several years ago, to collect materials for a sketch of Mr. Chavis, and the data for this account are drawn principally from correspondence which he has kindly placed at my service. These letters are from well-known citizens who were personally acquainted with the negro divine. He is remembered by them as an old man, after he had retired from the work of teaching, and of his early life but little is known.

The birthplace of John Chavis can not be located with certainty, but it is probable that he was born near Oxford, in Granville County. The name is still common in the northern central section of the State. It is evident that he was born free. He studied at Princeton as a private pupil of Dr. Witherspoon, to whom, it is said, he was sent to see if a negro were capable of receiving a collegiate education. His career in after life leaves no doubt as to the success of the experiment. It is believed that he went from New Jersey to Virginia with the Rev. Samuel Davies, where he actively engaged in the work of the ministry. At the instance of the Rev. Henry Patillo he returned to North Carolina about 1805.

Previous to his connection with the Orange Presbytery (N. C.) in 1809, he had been connected as a licentiate with the Lexington and Hanover Presbyteries in Virginia. The records of the Hanover Presbytery show that he was "riding as a missionary under the direction of the General Assembly" in 1801. In 1805 he was granted dismission from the Hanover Presbytery to join the Orange Presbytery. He united with the latter in 1809, being received as a licentiate. He ministered to churches in Granville, Wake, and Orange Counties. The late George Wortham, a distinguished lawyer of Oxford, in a letter of May 22, 1883, writes: "I have heard him read and explain the Scriptures to my father's family and slaves repeatedly. His English was remarkably pure, contained no ‘negroisms;' his manner was impressive, his explanations clear and concise, and his views, as I then thought and still think, entirely orthodox. He was said to have been an acceptable preacher, his sermons abounding in strong common sense views and happy illustra tions without any effort at oratory or any sensational appeals to the pas sions of his hearers. He had certainly read God's Word much and meditated deeply on it. He had a small but select library of theological works, in which were to be found the works of Flavel, Buxton, Boston, and others. I have now two volumes of Dwight's Theology which were