An exhibit of the number of divisions in each grade shows the tendency to organize with the smaller divisions in the upper and the larger ones in the lower grades, an unreasonable inequality it is believed.

A considerable space is devoted to what is styled "enrichment" of the grammarschool course by the introduction therein of Latin, French, algebra, geometry, and physics, according to recomendations of the superintendent, and good results are confidently expected from what, it is hoped, will be voluntary action in its behalf on the part of masters. In this connection further remarks are made against strict uniformity, and the necessity of greater individuality in work according to varying degrees of health and mental ability.

Praise is bestowed upon the working of the evening high school, attendance in which during the last year was 73.5 per cent, a little less in the Charlestown and East Boston branches.

For the normal school an annex of a "practice school" is warmly pressed, a matter easily done in a city numbering 55 grammar schools. Considerable space is given to discussion of the parental school under the control of the school committee, and against certain ideas concerning which, being a penal institution, remonstrance is solemnly urged, the intent herein being not punishment for crimes but reformation of the wayward by inculcating intelligent self-control.

The report is supplemented by other reports from the several supervisors.

1895-96.

Number of day pupils, 69,315.

Excellent work has been done in manual training, including kindergartens and the primary schools, and recommendation is offered for courses in clay modeling for both the grammar grades and for high schools. Remarks are made upon the extension of mechanical drawing, wood working, and while paste-board construction within moderate limits is commended, it is complained that in some schools it has been carried to needless excess. Some space is devoted to work done in the mechanic arts high school, the free evening drawing schools, and to the cooking now taught in fifteen public school kitchens.

In accordance with the recommendations of the committee of ten, the course of study of some of the grammar schools has been "enriched," and it is debated whether or not foreign languages and other high-school subjects should be introduced into the schools below. The matter is made voluntary with grammar-school masters, who will be guided by their own judgments as to its practicability in individual cases. This will need some modifications of existing courses.

The superintendent recommends changes in the suburban high schools by which also students, both boys and girls, could be prepared for college.

Regarding the introduction of advanced industrial instruction in existing high schools for girls, as many persons advocate, the report, apprehending this to be inexpedient, suggests creation of another institution specially for that purpose.

MICHIGAN.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-QUARTER-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY OF JAMES BURRILL ANGELL, LL. D., JUNE 24, 1896.

Regent Cocker's Address.

While the university is greatly indebted to the State for its generons aid and support, the State is indebted to the university for its direct and wholesome influence on the educational system of the State, and for the able men it has trained to promote the varied interests of the Commonwealth and to honor its name in State and national affairs. It is, therefore, fitting, on this the twenty-fifth anniversary of Dr. Angell's inauguration as president, that grateful acknowledgment should be made in behalf of the State of its indebtedness to the distinguished teacher who for so many years has devoted himself to its educational interests.

It is greatly to the credit of the early settlers of Michigan that they took care that "good learning should not perish among us." They were brave enough to face every danger and wise enough to found a university. While Michigan was still a Territory, and its population numbered only 6,000 or 7,000 persons, an act was passed creating a university. Our first lawgivers were not willing that knowledge should be dependent on the chance charity of generous men of wealth. They established for all time, as far as this State is concerned, the great principle that "the education of the people is a public duty," and that the appropriation of public money for this end is a legitimate public expenditure. They did not propose that learning should be buried in the graves of their forefathers.

The relation between the State and the university is so close, and the influence of the university on the general welfare of the State is so great, that to shape and give proper direction to the work of the university is a grave responsibility. Few can appreciate the difficulties that the president of a State university has to meet. There are so many and so conflicting views as to the relation of the State to higher education, so many changes in the governing board, so many local prejudices, and so much ur certainty regarding State appropriations, that an institution like our own encounters greater dangers and requires greater wisdom in administration than do other institutions of learning whose policy is largely fixed by tradition, and whose interests are conserved by a rich and powerful body of alumni. To place the university in the front rank of the great schools of learning with their rich endowments, to make the State known and respected abroad through its university, and in spite of opposing influences to make it the crowning glory of the State, require the highest wisdom and the rarest skill. All friends of the university gratefully recognize the indebtedness of this institution of learning to the distinguished scholar and teacher who now presides so ably over its interests.

Not alone as a college president has Dr. Angell won distinction. He is a recognized authority on international law, and his writings and public addresses on the important questions of the hour have justly commanded general attention. The National Government, recognizing his exceptional fitness, sent him as minister plenipotentiary to China to negotiate a revision of an important treaty, and twice he has been selected by the Government of the United States to serve on important commissions. Whether as a representative of the university or of the State or of the National Government, he has worthily performed the duties intrusted to his care. The university rejoices in his well-earned distinctions and the State is justly proud of his achievements.

Some one has said that "the worth of a college, whether Eastern or Western, of the Old World or the New, consists not in its history or its material equipment, but in the men who compose its teaching force." This is especially true of this university. Its buildings are unpretentious, its endowments meager, its gifts few in number, and its life free from imposing ceremonies or impressive distinctions. From humble beginnings and without the associations of a venerable past it has rapidly grown and developed. Men of broad views and rich scholarship have served in its faculties and given breadth and character to learning. The university has been richly endowed with great teachers, if not with ample revenues. Its presidents have been gifted and scholarly men, who with rare skill have shaped its policy. During the twenty-five years of Dr. Angell's administration the university has grown wonderfully in the number of its students and in the breadth and character of its work. While it has carefully preserved what is of value in the methods and traditions of the older schools of learning, it has kept pace with the pressing demands of modern life. The fact has been duly recognized that a systematic and thorough training in the practical problems of the times in which we live is the prime function of a university. The idea has been rapidly gaining ground that the universities throughout the land should be the great centers for the solution of the increasing number of economic questions that are crowding upon the attention of the people. Unless proper direction is given to the discussion of these perplexing questions there is danger of rash and hasty conclusions that may involve the country in needless embarrassments or in hopeless confusion. While the study of the classics will always be sought for special lines of work and for the broad and generous culture which they bring, it is becoming more and more apparent that the student must also be made familiar with those practical problems that enter into the general life and future welfare of the nation. Modern research has revealed so many new and unexpected sources of knowledge and suggested so many different lines of investigation that the character and whole plan of college training has been undergoing a change. President Elliot in a recent address eloquently said that universities are no longer "merely students of the past, meditative observers of the present, or critics at a safe distance of the actual struggles and strifes of the working world; they are active participants in all the fundamental, progressive work of modern society."

But it is not for me to describe the changes that have taken place in the courses of study or to enumerate the additions that have been made to the departments of the university during the administration of Dr. Angell. His associates in the university senate will fittingly refer to these.

To me, Dr. Angell, has been given the pleasant duty of offering the congratulations of the board of regents to you, its presiding officer, and of bearing willing testimony to the respect and esteem in which you are held by the several members of the board. Of your loyal affection for the university and of your zeal in promoting its varied interests we have had repeated and abundant proofs. To you the university is largely indebted for its present efficiency and for the honorable position it now maintains among the great schools of learning. I know of no greater distinction than wisely to have shaped the destinies of a young and vigorous insti

tution of learning, and of no greater honor than worthily to have earned the confidence of a great body of students. I can wish nothing better for the university than that you, its honored president, may long be spared to direct its affairs and to honor the State with your public services.

Address of the university senate.

Mr. PRESIDENT: The senate of the university brings to you on this auspicions day, which commemorates the completion of your quarter centennial of service, its tribute of grateful recognition and personal esteem.

We congratulate you and the university on the brilliant record of the past, and express to you our heartiest and best wishes for the future. As we turn back to the day of your inauguration we recall with deep emotion the glowing words of welcome spoken to you by Dr. Frieze when you were inducted into the presidency. "To this work of high promise," said he, "we have called you; leader in this grand educational enterprise we have made you. We sought one to take the helm who possessed at once the vigor and enthusiasm of youth and the calm prudence and patient waiting of riper years. We sought one of kindly heart and resolute will, of disciplined mind and cultured taste, equally at home in the seclusion of the study and in the public assembly, familiar with the institutions of foreign lands as well as our own, holding loyally to all that is good in the past, yet generously accepting all that is good in the present, and crowning all these gifts and attainments with the faith and the life of an earnest Christian. We pledge you our fraternal sympathy, our devoted friendship, and our unwavering support.'

Looking back over the years that have since intervened, we mark these words as a prophecy of what we believe has been proved true, and we rejoice to-day at the fulfillment of these bright hopes.

You came to the university at a critical time, when she stood at the parting of the ways. The days of her infancy were ended. The plans of her great founder, Fresident Tappan, were waiting for more complete development. President Haven and President Frieze had guarded well the traditions already established, and sought to incorporate new ideas with her life. But the true university ideal was still but little more than an ideal, toward the realization of which we have been working all these years under your wise and inspiring leadership.

During this period of twenty-five years the growth of the university has been truly remarkable. Its resources have been trebled; its students have increased from 1,200 to 3,000; its staff of instruction has grown more than four times as large, while the scope of its work has been extended by the addition of four new departmentsthe schools of dentistry, of pharmacy, of homeopathy, and of engineering. Within the department of literature, science, and the arts have been created several important chairs, while numerous facilities in the way of laboratories and seminaries and lectureships and apparatus have given added strength and value to all courses of instruction. But, as you have often taken occasion to remark, Mr. President, bigness is not greatness, and we find the most satisfactory and convincing proofs of the success of your administration in those less palpable but more valuable improvements and advances that are more spiritual than material, and that constitute most clearly the essential elements of a true university. As such elements we would name, first, the closer articulation of the university with the organic system of State education, of which it is the head. Under your fostering care this relation, which was instituted just before you came to us, has been made more vital, and has become increasingly fruitful of good both to secondary education and to the university.

Another element of university progress is the development of the elective system, and the opportunity it affords for advanced work and scientific investigation. Of the beneficial results of this system, in the way of promoting scholarship and of giving to the life of the university a more mature and earnest spirit, there cau be no doubt.

This catholicity of purpose, this breaking down of the traditional class distinctions, and this wide Lehrfreiheit have not been purchased at the price of solidity and discipline; and this happy result we owe in no small degree to your wise conservatism and broad outlook over the whole field of education. Closely related to this movement for wider choice of studies and greater independence of a routine curriculum is the effort to foster graduate study, and to build up that higher side of the university that in the end must measure its real character and influence.

Twenty-five years ago no graduate work, properly so called, was attempted. At present we have graduate courses of study in all departments of the university. To no one subject have your reports called more urgent attention than to the importance of building up the most distinctive part of a true university.

Closely allied to this forward movement is the constant advance made by our professional schools in their methods and standards of instruction. In looking over the record of these past years the conviction is gained that the university has in no

other direction made greater strides than in this. Twenty-five years ago there was no examination for admission to any one of our professional schools; to-day preliminary training that covers the equivalent of a good high-school course is required by all our professional departments.

Then the term of both the law and the medical schools was six months for two years, and the instruction was given chiefly by lectures. Now our medical schools require a registration of four terms of nine months each, and set a standard for graduation that is as high as that of any medical school in this country, while the law school has lengthened its course to three years of nine months each, and has signally raised its standard of graduation. In all these departments the.old style of instruction has been materially modified or superseded by modern methods, in which laboratory practice and scientific research hold the most prominent place." The year before your induction into the presidency the doors of the university were first thrown open to the admission of women. What was for a time a bold experiment has become an established success, and hundreds of young women who have worthily enjoyed the full privileges and advantages of the university on absolutely equal terms with young men are glad to bring you their tribute of gratitude for your just and wise administration, by which the interests of women in this university have been made secure.

The entire life and spirit of the university during this period which we pass in review have been marked by a steady growth in good order and decorum, in friendly relations between pupils and teachers, and in all that makes for a wholesome intellectual and moral atmosphere.

That amid much and necessary diversity of interest there has been so much harmony and unity in our councils as a senate and in the different faculties is due in no small measure to your impartial conduct of affairs, your broad and generous views, your charitable spirit, and your gracious courtesy. That the university has safely passed through many crises, has gained respect and influence throughout our State and the entire land, is to be attributed in large degree to your skillful management, your experience in educational work, and to your high character as a citizen and as

a man.

We congratulate the university, Mr. President, upon the reputation you have justly earned for her-a reputation not bounded by the seas, but cherished also in the fair Orient and in the centers of European learning as well as at home. We recall with feelings of highest pride how our own National Government has thrice summoned you to high service in diplomacy and council. We are glad also to remember that in the discussion of the great educational problems of our day your words are ever welcomed as those of one who has authority to speak.

But most of all, we who have been associated with you these many years admire and esteem you for what you have been to us and to this beloved university. The cheerful and serene temper in which you have borne the heavy burden of your duties, the kind and gracious manner in which you have helped us to fulfill our tasks, the spirit of hopefulness for the future of this institution with which you have inspired us, the numberless tokens of personal kindness you have shown to us all-it is these daily ministrations of your life-if you will pardon what Plato would call too much downrightness of speech-that endear you to us all. Our memories thrill to-day with sacred recollections of the past, and we fancy we hear mingling with our words of greeting voices from the silent land of those beloved colleagues who twenty-five years ago stood here to bid you welcome to this post of honor, but who are with us now only in memory and in spirit, to join with us in these expressions of our esteem and praise.

In closing these congratulations, Mr. President, the members of the senate are cheered by the hope that the same bond which has united us all these many years in common work and interest may be cemented still more firmly by future years of companionship in the great work in which we are engaged. May that divine Providence that has blessed you so abundantly in the past still attend you and prolong your days of fruitful service to this university, to which so much of your life has been given, and may the blessing of heaven be vouchsafed to her who during all this time has devontly stood at your side to aid you, and who by her deeds of kindness and helpfulness has made herself the friend of all our university community.

Whatever be the future of this university, your work in its behalf shall be an abiding possession of good influence and power, and shall constitute one of the chief elements of its greatness and renown for all time.

Resolutions of the State Teachers' Association.

Whereas this year completes the twenty-fifth anniversary of President Angell's connection with the University of Michigan;

Whereas during that time the growth of the university has been marked not only by a large increase in the number of its students, but by the wisdom and enlightenment of a most liberal educational policy;

Whereas the high schools of the State, and through them the common schools, have felt the inspiration and uplift of a close connection with the university, hundreds of young men and women of but moderate means having thus been led to set their faces ambitiously in the direction of university life and culture; and

Whereas in this respect no university in the country can be said to have exerted so widespread and salutary an influence upon popular education-an influence due in no small degree to the ripe scholar and able executive who has the management of the university in charge:

Resolved, That we, the teachers of Michigan, do hereby most gratefully express our appreciation of his eminent services to the cause of popular education in our Commonwealth;

Resolved, That while we congratulate him upon the distinguished success of his administration in the past, we do also express the hope that his genial presence may be spared to the State yet many a year to carry forward the interests so dear to his heart.

President Angell's response.

Gentlemen of the Board of Regents, of the University Senate, and of the State Teachers' Association: I beg to return my sincere thanks to you for the kind words with which you greet me on this the twenty-fifth anniversary of my inauguration. But my gratitude is mingled with a sense of humility as I consider how far, in my opinion, your estimate of the value of my services exceeds their real worth. The partiality of your friendship has ascribed to me merit far beyond my deserts. But the friendship is most dear to me, and this touching manifestation of it from those with whom it has been my rare good fortune to labor for so many years almost obliterates from my memory for the moment my failures and shortcomings and disappointments, which have sometimes oppressed me in my work. Your words embolden me to believe that those who know me best are persuaded that however I may have fallen below their ideals and below my own, yet with devotion to the interests of the university and of the State, and with the consecration of whatever powers God has bestowed on me, I have striven to do my whole duty. No higher reward could I hope or wish in return for my years of toil, with all their fatigues and anxieties, than the assurance from you, who best of all men know the difficulties that have been encountered and the results that have been accomplished, that my work has not been altogether fruitless.

But I should fail to do justice at once to the truth and to my own feelings if I did not hasten to say that all my efforts would have been in vain if I had not been counseled and assisted by so true and faithful men on the board of regents and in the faculties. The fidelity with which regents who had large business interests or engrossing professional duties have given time and thought and labor to the university has been an indispensable element in its success. I know of no university which has been better cared for by its official guardians. I am glad of this opportunity to thank the present members of the board and their predecessors for their unvarying kindness and helpfulness to me. I remember with tender interest that nine who have served on the board with me have died.

What university has had a more choice collection of men in its faculties during the last quarter of a century than this? It is they who preeminently have made the university what it is. In my service and companionship with them is found one of the dearest memories of my life. Alas! that in so many cases the companionship has already been severed by death. Out of the one hundred and seventy teachers now here, only seven were here when I came. You have quoted from the hearty greeting which my old teacher and life-long friend, Dr. Frieze, gave me on the day of my inauguration. How valuable were his counsels; how dear was his friendship to me to the day of his death; how in our long walks we used to dream dreams of the coming greatness and power and beneficence of this university. Many of these dreams, thanks in large part to his labors and influence, have already been realized in fact. Besides him death has snatched away how many noble and distinguished men, who had long served the university: Williams-good old Dr. Williams, as we always love to call him-Douglas, Sager, Cocker, Morris, Olney, Winchell, Campbell, Walker, Wells, Watson, Palmer, Crosby, Lyster, Ford, Dunster, the brothers Cheever, Elisha Jones, and, last of all, the venerable Felch. One has only to call this roll of illustrious names to understand why students from all parts of the Union and from the nations beyond the seas have flocked to these halls. They have been drawn hither to sit at the feet of these great teachers, and of others like them, who, thank God, are still spared to us.

I can claim no merit save that of having heartily cooperated with these learned and wise instructors. Large as is our body of teachers, we have habitually followed one rule, which, in my opinion, has been of inestimable service, both in promoting the proverbial harmony and friendliness among us and in securing wise legislation