above requirements of the above fundamental ordinance, and no serious, or at least no successful attempt was ever made to inaugurate a system of public schools. In 1854 the Secretary of the State, who was ex-officio, State Commissioner of Common Schools, reported only 40 public schools, and complains of the indifference that pervades the public mind on the subject of education.' Owing to this indifference, and fraudulent and defective legislation, the munificent land grants of the general government have been squandered, and the permanent school fund from these sources in 1870 was $35,192, instead of $2,000,000 or $3,000,000, as might have been realized under honest and judicious management.

The constitution of 1868 ordains that 'the General Assembly shall establish and maintain a system of free schools for the gratuitous instruction of all persons in the State between the ages of five and twenty-one years,' and for their supervision, a superintendent and such other officers as may be necessary, shall be appointed.' A State university, with departments for instruction in teaching, in agriculture and the natural sciences shall also be established and maintained.' 'To support these institutions, the proceeds of all school lands and other property before donated, or which may be donated to the State for educational purposes, shall constitute a school fund, the annual income of which, together with one dollar per capita annually assessed on every male inhabitant over the age of 21 years, and so much more of the ordinary annual revenue of the State as shall be found necessary, shall be faithfully appropriated to the free schools and universities, and to no other purpose whatever.'

In view of these provisions, a school system was established in 1869, the authorities of which are: (1,) a State Superintendent, elected every four years; (2,) a Circuit Superintendent, appointed by the Governor for each judicial district, of which there are ten; (3,) a State Board of Education, composed of the State and Circuit Superintendents; (4,) a single trustee for each school district, and (5,) a city Superintendent for each incorporated city. The Circuit Superintendent gives his entire time to the interests of the schools, holds a Teachers' Institute in his district every year, examines all candidates for the office of public school teacher, and issues three grades of certificates-the first of which is valid in his district for 2 years, the second for 1 year, and the third for 6 months.

The report of the Superintendent to the Governor at the close of 1870, made a very fair exhibit of schools, teachers, and expenditures compared with any thing before published. In the two

years 1869 and 1879, 657 new school-houses have been built, making in all 1,289; of 182,474 children (white and colored) between the ages of 5 and 21, 107,908 have attended school of some kind; 2,537 schools had been taught by 2,302 teachers, of whom 944 attended the 41 Teachers' Institutes which had been held. The entire sum expended for the public schools was $583,844, of which $334,952 was from direct tax.

The Arkansas Journal of Education was established in 1870, and made the organ of the State Board in 1871. A State Teachers' Association was organized in 1869, and has held three annual meetings. The Peabody Fund furnished aid in 1870 to the amount of $9,450.

The national census for 1870 returns 2,969 schools of all kinds, under 3,008 teachers, of whom 992 were females. Of these schools 1,744 were public, with 1,966 teachers and 72,004 pupils. Under the head of classical, professional and technical institutions, there are 8 colleges (so-called), 46 academies, 1 school of theology, 1 of medicine, and one for the blind and deaf mutes. These statistics returned for some States would be significant, but names are not things, or at least schools, in the light which official reports throw on their actual condition in Arkansas, especially when the same census returns 111,799 persons over 10 years old who can not read, and 133,339 who can not write.

CALIFORNIA.

California was settled by the Spanish as early as 1769, and became part of the territory of the United States by treaty with Mexico in 1848, and was admitted into the Union in 1850, with a population of 92,597, which in 1870 had increased to 560,247, on an area of 198,181 square miles, and with taxable property returned at $269,644,068.

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The constitution of 1849 provides for the election by the people of a superintendent of public instruction, and enjoins on the legis lature the establishment of a system of common schools, by which a school shall be kept in each district at least three months in each year,' and deprives each district which neglects to do so, of its share in the interest of the public fund during such neglect. The proceeds of all lands donated by the United States Government for school or university purposes, including 500,000 acres donated for internal improvements, are to be set aside inviolably and without diminution for such purposes and no other. Under this injunction and wise legislative counsels, a system of

public schools was at once established, and within the last ten years has been developed into proportions and efficiency, especially in the large towns, which may challenge comparison with any in the country. Without noticing the successive enactments, many of them important, by which the system was developed, we find in the constitution, and revised school law the following features: 1. A State Superintendent, elected for a term of four years. 2. A State Board of Education, consisting of the Governor, the State Superintendent, the Principal of the State Normal School, the Superintendent of the city and county of San Francisco, and of the respective counties of Sacramento, Santa Clara and San Joaquin, and two professional teachers holding State certificates of competency and experience, nominated by the State Superintendent and elected by the Board. To this Board is assigned the duty of adopting a course of study, and rules and regulations for all public schools, to prescribe a uniform system of text-books, and a list of books suitable for school libraries, and to grant diplomas to teachers and regulate their examinations.'

3. A County Superintendent for each county, elected at the general election, to hold office for two years, who must visit all the schools in his county at least once a year, distribute and see to the enforcement of all regulations and circulars of the State Board, hold Teachers' Institutes, keep on file the State Educational Journal, and all printed reports and documents of the Superintendent, and all reports of school officers and teachers, as well as an official record of his own doings and of the county board of examination, on the penalty of a forfeiture of $100 from his official salary in case of failure.

4. Three trustees for each school district, one elected each year and holding office for three years, to whom the local management of the school, as to teachers, books and school-houses belongs, subject to the regulations of the State and county officers.

The law provides for a State Normal School, Teachers' Institutes, and State and County Boards of Examination composed of teachers, exclusively. It also deals specifically with many points which are left doubtful or discretionary in other States, such as: a gradation of schools in primary, grammar and high; a limitation of school hours for children under eight years to four hours, and for all schools to six hours, and a school month to twenty school days, or four weeks of five school days; making the parents of pupils liable for damages to school property of any kind; making profanity and vulgarity good cause for suspension, and continued

willful disobedience and open defiance of the teacher's authority, good cause for expulsion; exempting all teachers from professional employment on days as may be declared public holidays, State or national; the necessity of teachers attending the Institute for their county, and of the State Superintendent subscribing for a copy of an Educational Journal in which the official circulars, decisions and laws relating to schools are published, for cach county and city and district officer. Teachers are enjoined 'to instruct their pupils in the principles of morality, justice, and patriotism, and to train them up to a true comprehension of the rights, duties, and dignity of American citizenship.'

The State Board in 1873 adopted and prescribed, a uniform graded course of study for all the schools of the State-and this course it is the duty of county superintendents, local school trustees, and teachers to enforce. The course is based on an organization of the lower schools into three grades. The third or lowest grade has four divisions or classes, and the second and first grades have each two divisions-the eight divisions corresponding, we suppose, with the first eight school years, from six to fourteen. These three lower grades are followed by an advanced or highschool grade, with three divisions or classes.

The course for the first division includes reading, spelling, printing, arithmetic, object lessons (definitely prescribed), and language (oral). In the second division, writing is substituted for printing, and composition (sentence-making), and local or home geography are added. This course is continued to the sixth division, when grammar (oral) is added. The course for the seventh and eighth divisions includes reading, spelling, penmanship, arithmetic, physiology (oral), natural philosophy (oral), composition, grammar, geography, and the history of the United States. The advanced course includes nearly all the branches of study usually taught in high schools.

Evening schools for adults, as well as for children who have passed the ordinary limits of school attendance, and a free public library, are recognized as part of the system of public instruction.

According to the official reports, there were in 1870, 1,354 public schools, under 1,687 teachers (961 females), maintained at a total expenditure of $1,290,585, of which $847,229 was raised by tax. The productive capital of the school fund is $2,000,000.

The census of 1870 returned 24,877 persons over 10 years old who could not read, and 312,716 who could not write.

CONNECTICUT.

Connecticut on becoming a State continued the educational policy commenced in the colonial law of 1650, and much earlier in the original towns, which composed both the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven-in all of which schools were instituted within one year after the first settlements were made, viz., in Hartford in 1637, and in New Haven in 1639-the first settlers came as a community and a church, with their families, pastors, teachers, and craftsmen, and at once entered on the business of administering churches and schools, as well as of homes, farms, shops, and roads.

At the beginning of this period the system of public instruction embraced (1.) a common school in everyneighborhood where at least twelve children could be gathered for elementary instruction; (2,) an endowed grammar school, or academy, in the county town, or one or more private schools for classical instruction in all the large parishes of the State; (3.) a college for superior instruction at New Haven, with special reference to the ministry, and the learned professions' of law and medicine. The common school authorities were: (1,) a school committee (of three persons) for each school society (which corresponded to the parish-and of which there was one or more for each town), which looked after the financial affairs; (2,) a district committee, appointed by the society, for each district, to employ the teacher and look after the local matters; and (3,) school visitors, (of which the clergyman was always a member).

In 1795 school districts were authorized, by a vote of two-thirds of all the qualified voters, at a special meeting called for that purpose, to lay a tax to build a school-house and procure a site, and by subsequent acts, especially the acts of 1810, 1837, 1839, and 1853, they were clothed with corporate powers and general authority to lay taxes for all school purposes.

In 1795 the avails of the sale of lands in Northwestern Ohio, known as the Connecticut Reserve (because reserved by the State in its deed of cession to the United States in 1782), of all claims to territory beyond its own western bounds, was appropriated to the support of schools, and thus the policy of a permanent State school fund was inaugurated, which is now a part of the school policy of every State. Wisely applied, a school fund gives efficiency to the weak portion of a school system, and equalizes the burden of taxation between the rural and urban towns.

In 1799 a thorough revision of the school laws was had, on the