organization of the State councils, in 1808, the chief school-college was dissolved, and the administration of public instruction was attached to the Ministry of the Interior, under the name of "Third Section, for Worship and Public Instruction," and placed under the immediate direction of a privy State counselor and section chief. The king appointed as minister the count of Dohna, and as chief of the third section, William von Humboldt, who united in the rarest manner all the qualities of a statesman and a scholar, and who, free from all selfish motives, was best calculated to fulfill the high charge intrusted to him, viz., the regeneration of Prussia. An educational system was the regeneration the Prussian monarchy aimed at, but the limited financial means of the State set obstacles to the plans the great Humboldt had conceived, and the latter, discouraged by continual pecuniary impediments, resigned, June 23, 1810, the position he had entered upon December 17, 1808.

Nicolovius and Suvern had been elected with him as technical counselors, to take charge of the section of instruction. Nicolovius had previously been secular consistorial counselor, and member of the East Prussian consistories, then representative counselor in the university affairs at Königsberg, and finally member of the department of ecclesiastical affairs and those concerning the schools and the poor, and had in the latter time been in constant intercourse with the most distinguished men of the State. His fine and gentle appearance, the close intimacy in which he had stood for a long time with Goethe, Jacobi, and other superior and congenial minds, his firm faith in the progressive and magnificent devclopment of our time, rendered him a worthy co-laborer of Humboldt. He remained through many changes in the clerical ministry until May 22, 1839. Suvern brought into his new position, beside his vast scientific acquirements, a great experience in the profession of teaching, which he had obtained in the discharge of the duties of two directorships, at Thorn and Elbing, and during his academical career at Königsberg. He drafted the most important regulations and instructions, which the reorganization of the higher school-system required; for example, the subject of the examination of the candidates for the higher school office, of July 12, 1810, the examination of abiturientes, of June 25, 1812, and an essay on general instruction, in 1816, of which all was not published, but whose leading principles dictated the regulations of the administration. He submitted to the consideration of the State's ministry, a general plan for the form of government of the school system in Prussia, according to the cabinet order of November 3, 1817, in which it was said, "that the success of all that the State aimed at by its constitution, legislation and administration, depended on the foundations laid in the minds of the young," but the diverging and conflicting opinions, on the time and mode of putting portions of the plan into effect, prevented its execution. Subsequent to 1818, he confined himself almost entirely to the reports of the Academy of Sciences and to the sphere of activity of the co-directors in the department of instruction; he died October 2, 1829.

Humbold's place, at the head of the third section of public worship, was filled by the privy State counselor Von Schuckmann; and Nicolovius was appointed director for the specialities of the same; even when Schuckmann was elected Minister of the Interior, in 1814, the administration of public culture and instruction remained for some time within his jurisdiction. On the 3d of November, 1817, a cabinet order declared that "the Minister of the Interior should resign the office of culture and public instruction, as well as that of the department of medicine, connected with it," inasmuch as "the dignity and importance of the ecclesiastical and educational affairs demand a special minister," and Baron von Altenstein was selected for that office.

The energetic and effectual activity which, since 1814, the government displayed in the transformation and reconstruction of the higher institutions of learning, gained an intelligent and well-informed guide in Altenstein, and after him in Dr. Johannes Schulze, (1st August, 1818,) a new life-giving power, that made itself felt throughout the whole field of the sciences. About the same time, Hegel was appointed professor of philosophy in the University of Berlin, where, particularly favored by the educational system, he exercised a mighty influence upon the mental development of his cotemporaries, opening on all sides new avenues to science, and working out through a well-sustained method the taming curb that was to lead thought to the recognition of truth.

A glowing testimony of the organizing, regulating, and all-pervading spirit of the administration, is the large number of special and general amendments that appear in the higher school-system, which, during the Altenstein administration, (from 1817 till the death of the minister, May 14, 1840,) amounted, including those of the University concerning the last examination, June 4, 1834, to 738, all of which, special as well as general, contain much that is awakening and fertilizing to the mind, and in many instances, far outreach their immediate circle of action. That regulation formed an important clause in the reorganization system of the higher court. It was the result of years of experience, and of the mature consideration of circumstances. There would necessarily follow from it a better and greater unanimity in systems of instruction, and in the classifications of the various gymnasiums. In subsequent times, and till Altenstein's death, there were 438 more amendments made, among which the ministerial regulation of Oct. 24, 1837, is accounted the most important for its laying down the fundamental conditions by which gymnasial instruction was to be governed. It was the first time that a general Normal School system was devised for all gymnasiums. Its principles were adopted and followed until 1856.

The political changes, whose causes and reasons are sufficiently known, made in 1819 a painful break in the promising condition of the higher school instruction, and called forth the circular of the minister of Altenstein, which, addressed to the various presidents of educational institutions, ran as follows, in its introductory pages: "Recent events, and

especially the late reports in the 35th session of the German League, in Frankfort on the Main, concerning the abuses and the degeneracy which have been discovered in the German school and university affairs, oblige me to make an earnest appeal to all principals of schools and heads of gymnasiums and universities, to give particular and renewed attention to the abuses and errors which have been found in the school administration, and to exert all their power to oppose their influence, and prevent their further development." The object of the new measures was to inspire the young with an active love for their king and their country, and to enforce a severe discipline which, whilst its ruling motive was to treat the young with mildness and kindness, would also command obedience, industry and good morals, and make the strict observance of the existing laws their most sacred duty." A few years previous, the whole Prussian nation, and particularly the higher schools, had given to the world a glowing testimony of their love of king and country. The extraordinary events of that time, the great deeds, in which partly teachers and pupils participated, or which they encouraged by the vivid interest and the self-sacrificing spirit they manifested, could not help exercising a wonderful influence, and kindling a noble enthusiasm, that tended naturally to raise the intellect and sentiments of the younger generation, and leave, even in the subsequent years of peace, a lasting impression on their minds. We can not deny that war engendered among the school-going population a certain roughness, sturdiness and stubbornness, but the noble virtues of which they gave such ample proofs, and which filled their cotemporaries and posterity with admiration, should have protected them from suspicion, and from the severe measures that originated with the above-mentioned mandate. One of its most painful regulations was that which put the higher school direction under the supervision of the police, by limiting, on May 21, 1824, and without the knowledge of the ministry of Altenstein, the kind and benevolent Nicolovius to his clerical department, and appointing the director of the police ministry, Von Kamptz, in connection with his official duties, director of the educational department. In 1825, Von Kamptz was released from his duties in the Ministry of the Interior and Police administration, and appointed director of the Law department, but he preserved his position in the educational department until February 9, 1832. A cabinet order of the 4th of March of the same year, reinvested Nicolovius, to the great joy of Altenstein, with the direction of the educational department, which position he was still filling in the last weeks of the year 1830.

Although Von Kamptz had, by his friendly and polite manners, considerably tempered the feeling of fear and humility which had come over the educational world at his appointment as their chief, yet nothing could obliterate the painful impression which the mandate of the Ministry of the Interior and of the Police, addressed to the various administrations, made on the school-people, May 25, 1824, and which commences as follows: "The irrefutable proofs we have that the rules and measures

recommended and prescribed till now, have not been able to suppress the injurious and erroneous sentiments, and false opinions still existing here and there amidst the higher and lower educational establishments, have determined his Majesty to issue still more positive commands on this subject." These commands concerned particularly the universities; and from that time the teacher became also subject to the strictest watchfulness of the government, the royal administrations being particularly requested to see that the younger public officers, whether in the service of the administration proper, or in that of any other public office, did not carry into their profession the injurious principles of the student life and its associations. During the following years there appeared, first, the cabinet order of August 16, 1826, in regard to the proceedings against faulty service and moral trespasses, in the question of pensions; second, that of September 24, 1827, in regard to the propriety of an inquest, in an administrative sense, into the case of civil officers who had come under judicial examination, but had not been dismissed from service; third, that of March 27, 1831, in regard to the application of the two preceding resolutions to teachers of high-schools and universities; fourth, that of June 20, 1833, in the form of a royal circular to all the school-boards of the provinces, concerning the political opinions of teachers and pupils, wherein the various administrations were again admonished to have an eye upon the teachers in this respect, and on the responsibility of the boards and their several members to report to the ministry all traces of antagonistic feelings and opinions.

The real consequences of such measures, called forth, in other countries, by ever recurring attempts at revolution, were not by any means as great as the anxiety that had dictated them. There was no occasion to apply them, and the administration of the educational bureau was too generous to spy out delinquencies of that kind. There existed also among the teachers of Prussian high-schools, the good, old Prussian principle, not to separate the love of country from the obedience due to the king, and the men who had actively lived through the troubles and the rise of Prussia, or had grown up under the burden of its misfortunes and had finally shared in its glory, offered to the educational administration, by their noble self-sacrifice, and their higher ideal of the profession of teacher, material for the culture of the people, such as few administrations had yet had at their command.

One of the most important changes in the administration was that decreed by the royal cabinet order, December 31, 1825, by which the school council (collegium) of the provinces were separated from the consistories; the first were clothed with their own independent supervision over the higher school-establishments; the second retained the right and duty to take part in the inspection of religious instruction. The higher private-schools came generally under the control of the government. Amongst the most important measures which originated principally under the influence of John Schulze, may be named that which laid aside the

parallel and section system, and introduced, in 1820, the general class system, appointing a regular professor for every class. Further are to be mentioned among the number of resolutions, the instruction for gymnasium directors, who, with the exception of those of the Rhine countries, (1839,) belong to the years 1823 to 1828; the ministerial resolution of September 24, 1826, respecting the pedagogic proof-year of the candidates for teaching, the regulation of April 20, 1831, for the examination of the candidates for higher teaching, wherein also the general school affairs are duly considered.

The harmony in which the regulations and promoting measures of the school-administration stood with the all-pervading enthusiasm of those who had made it their duty to carry them out, brought the school affairs, under the Altenstein administration, to such a flourishing condition, that their renown spread not only over the whole of Europe, but reached the furthermost shores of the oceans, and attracted from all sides zealous disciples of the profession of teaching, and ambassadors from foreign governments, who came to examine for themselves in Prussia, what could and should be done for schools. The best testimony of this is Cousin's own words, in his Report entitled, "Etat de l'instruction secondaire dans le royaume de Prusse pendant 1831," (Paris, 1834,) wherein, for a complete organization of public instruction, he states the four following points: 1, that boys and girls without exception should attend the elementary schools; 2, the middle class of the city population to have its schools; 3, a sufficient number of young men of the middle and higher ranks should attend the lower classes of the gymnasiums together; 4, a good number of these, according to their industry and capacity, should attend the higher classes, and thence proceed to the university; adding, "Cet idéal est à peu près réalisé en Prusse." Friedrich Thiersch expressed himself in the same way in his Report on the reorganization of secondary schools in Bavaria, on "The Present Condition of Public Instruction in the Western States of Germany: Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1838.) "I found myself there," he says, "(Coblenz, September, 1834,) in a land which, for an observer in public instruction, is of much importance, and which, by its institutions of learning, its spirit of order, its administration, and the results obtained, had attracted the attention, yea even the admiration of foreign countries."

After the death of Altenstein, King Frederic William IV. appointed Dr. Eichhorn as minister of ecclesiastical affairs. He had been one of the most active supporters of the aggrandizement of Prussia against French supremacy. In 1817 he was called by the special confidence of the king, into the newly organized State councils, and since 1831, he filled, amidst general appreciation and esteem, the position of director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His continued and lively intercourse with the most distinguished scholars of Berlin, his friendly intimacy with Schleiermacher and many other men of distinction in science and theology, his whole past life, devoted to the interest of Prussia and in support of its noble