pupils, is borne by the State. As to the board of the pupils, it is paid for by far the greatest proportion of them, and provided for all by the State. There is only a small part of the pupils for whom the magistrates of the places of their nativity and residence, or their relatives, make a small annual payment to the treasurer of the seminary.

Those pupils which receive their education and support wholly from the State are legally bound to fill, during a certain number of years, the situations of schoolmasters to which they are elected, receiving always the annual salary attached to each of these situations. The length of time during which they have to fill, in this way, some place of schoolmaster offered to them, is three years. Should they not choose to accept such an appointment when offered to them, they have to pay to the treasurer of the seminary where they were educated, for each year of instruction, $14 and the whole amount of their board.

Of the forty-two seminaries existing first of January, 1833, twenty-eight were large, with 25 to 100 pupils. The law, which from unavoidable circumstances, has not always been observed, prescribed never to have more than sixty or seventy pupils in a seminary. These seminaries were entirely supported by the State or from their own funds. The remaining fourteen seminaries, which may be called branch seminaries, count each of them six to eighteen pupils, some times under the superintendence of an experienced clergyman or rector, and in these the State contributes only a part of their income.

In some of the larger seminaries the State gives, besides board, a small gratuity to some of the best and most informed pupils, who act as assistant teachers of their younger fellow students.

The number of pupils in these forty-two institutions amounted, at the abovementioned period, to more than two thousand, the number of situations for schoolmasters to about twenty-two thousand, and the number of pupils formed for these situations, annually leaving the seminaries, to about eight or nine hun-' dred. The annual vacancies in the situations of'schoolmasters amount to about three or four per cent., so that, with due allowance for pupils selecting other situations, or retained by bodily infirmities there, there still remains a sufficient number of candidates for such appointments, and the possibility of making their examinations as rigorous as they ought to be.

The expenditure of the State for the seminaries amounts annually to a little more than $80,000.

3. What is the term or duration of the course in the Seminaries?

The usual length of the course of education in the seminaries is three years, each year having two terms. In the smaller or branch seminaries forming schoolmasters for the poorest and most thinly inhabited villages, the course is limited to two years.

The schoolmasters which have an appointment are sometimes (perhaps every year) assembled at the nearest seminary for the purpose of receiving there, during three or four weeks, a term of instruction on methods newly invented in the progress of the art of teaching.

Besides this, the most distinguished or most active schoolmasters receive from the consistory of the province small premiums in money, or books. The schoolmasters of the circles (nearly equal to one or two townships) have, under the protection of the government, weekly conferences, where they discuss the different methods of instruction, comment on new works on education, keep exact minutes of these transactions, and read their own observations or papers on these subjects.

4. What are the subjects of study in the Seminaries?

The age of entering into the seminaries is between sixteen or eighteen years, and the pupils are free from any service in the army or in the militia during times of peace.

The seminaries wherein no pupil can be received who has not gone through the elementary instruction, or whose morality is subjected to the least doubt, are destined to form teachers for the elementary or primary schools as well as for the middle or citizens' schools, where no instruction in the classical languages is given.

The parts which constitute the course of instruction for such teachers are

diffusion of knowledge in regard to education; and, especially, to endeavor to render the system of common schools throughout the State as perfect as possible." Its first officers were-Hon. Cyrus Edwards, Pres. Col. Thos. Mather, Hon. William Thomas, Hon. S. H. Treat, Dr. W. B. Eagan, and Onslow Peters, Vice-Pres. Pres. J. W. Merril, Prof. Newman, Peter Acres, D. D., J. W. Jenks, and Hon. W. Brown, Directors. A. T. Bledsoe and C. R. Welles, Sec.; and P. C. Canedy, Treas. A memorial was prepared and presented to the Legislature then in session, urging the appointment of a State School Superintendent, and other amendments to the school system. A new school law was passed, which, however, embraced but few of the desired improvements. The publication of a school journal was again attempted under the auspices of this Society, called the "Illinois Common School Advocate," Edmund R. Wiley, publisher. It was continued from May to September, Among the measures advocated by it was the formation of "Teachers' Associations."

1841.

Another effort was made by the friends of popular education to secure, through the Legislature of 1843, the establishment of the office of Superintendent of Schools, which had become now to be regarded as essential to a comprehensive system of public instruction. Petitions in this behalf were widely circulated for signatures, but it was found that the people generally were themselves opposed to the change, chiefly on the ground of supposed expense, and consequently nothing was done by the Legislature, though Pres. Sturtevant delivered several lectures at the capital upon the need and practicability of more efficient supervision. Notwithstanding this ill success, it was believed by many that the time was ripe for the proposed measure, and that a general convention should be called together of the right men, not for investigation and discussion merely, but to devise a system of common schools that might be recommended with confidence to the succeeding Legislature. Such a suggestion was made in May, 1844, by J. S. Wright, editor of the "Prairie Farmer," in which able and widely circulated agricultural paper an Education Department" had been commenced in March, 1843, for correspondence and interchange of views upon educational topics. The proposition was very favorably received and an appointment was made for a convention of delegates, teachers, and friends of education to meet at Peoria, Oct. 9th, 1844.

The Convention was not largely attended, but was unanimous in favor of a State superintendency and taxation for the support of schools. A plan of a school system was drawn up, and a long and

able memorial to the Legislature prepared by a committee consisting of Messrs. J. S. Wright, Secretary of the Convention, Rev. Mr. Pinckney, and H. M. Wead. The proposed bill was explained and sustained by J. S. Wright before the legislative committees. The result was a general revision of the School Laws, and the passage of an Act making the Secretary of State ex-officio Superintendent of Schools, authorizing special taxation for school purposes, and introducing other decided improvements upon the former system. Committees were also appointed by the Convention to make arrangements for a "Teachers' Convention" at Jacksonville, June 26th, 1845, and to there report a series of text-books for common schools and academies. A call was afterwards issued for a Common School Convention of teachers and others, to meet at Springfield on the 9th of January, 1845, "for the purpose of organizing a State Education Society, and for adopting such other measures as may seem best calculated to increase the interest in common schools and give efficiency to the laws respecting them." Both of these meetings were held, but we have no report of their proceedings.

In accordance with an appointment made by the Convention which met at Jacksonville in June, 1845, a committee, consisting of Messrs. G. M. Meeker, William Jones, and W. H. Brown, issued a circular calling a General Common School Convention, to meet at Chicago, Oct. 8th, 1846. The invitation was extended to the friends of education generally throughout the West, and the programme of exercises included addresses from Henry Barnard, and other educators from the East, and essays from J. M. Sturtevant, W. H. Williams, Francis Springer, Prof. J. B. Turner, A. W. Henderson, Rev. C. E. Blood, J. S. Wright, William Brown, and T. M. Post. One of the most important results was the formation of the "North-Western Educational Society" contemplating a union in the efforts of the friends of education in all the Western States for mutual benefit and improvement, and which subsequently held annual meetings at Milwaukee and Detroit. At the close of the Convention, a "Teachers' Institute," the first in the State, was organized and continued in session several days.

The earliest Teachers' Association of which we find mention was the "Franklin Association of Common School Teachers," for the counties of Greene, Jersey, Macoupin, and Madison, organized Oct. 2d, 1845, with the following officers:-Rev. L. S. Williams, Pres. Rev. H. Loomis, William Tryon, L. S. Norton, and Rev. O. Cooley, Vice-Pres.; and C. L. Bacon, Treas. The Kane County Educational Association was formed in January, 1847,-the Du Page

County Educational Society, and Circulating School Library, in June, 1847. The next recorded are the Teachers' Associations of Ogle and Kane counties, formed in 1850. The earliest County "Teachers' Institute" that appears on record is that of Ottawa county, in October, 1849.

An Educational Convention met "according to appointment" in Springfield, Dec. 16th, 17th, 19th, and 23d, 1846, with delegates from twenty-eight counties. Hon. John Dougherty was President; J. B. Watson and D. M. Kelsey, Secretaries. Various topics of educational interest were discussed and a committee instructed to memorialize the Legislature for amendments to the School Law, and especially for making the School Superintendency a distinct office, to be filled by the Legislature. A resolution was also adopted favoring the organization of a State Education Society, but no steps seem to have been taken towards effecting it, nor any other convention held until 1849. A convention then met at Springfield, January 15th to 18th, during the session of the Legislature; Hon. J. B. Thomas, President, and William Bross, Secretary. A committee was appointed to prepare a memorial to the Legislature and draft a bill for a school law that should embrace the following principles :That the property of the State should be taxed to educate the children of the State; that the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction should be separate and distinct from every other office; that the County Commissioners should receive a reasonable compensation for their services as ex-officio County Superintendents of Schools; and that a portion of the College and Seminary Funds should be devoted to aid in the education of common school teachers. These several principles were now for the first time pressed upon the attention of the Legislature, but though the School Law was revised at this session, the system was left essentially as before.

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION CONVENTIONS.

In 1851 commenced a series of conventions in behalf of industrial institutions, which excited much attention, originated the movement which resulted in the subsequent donation of lands by Congress to the several States for the benefit of Agricultural Colleges, and prepared the way for the formation of the State Teachers' Association and the establishment of the Normal University. The first of these conventions was held at Granville, Nov. 8th, 1851, and was composed of members of the industrial classes of the State, actively and personally engaged in agricultural and mechanical pursuits. The principal subject of consideration was the want of industrial schools,

and instances are known, of persons of tolerable qualifications as teachers, declining to quit, for a season, some of the least gainful of the trades, on the ground of the lowness of the teachers' pay.

We merely state these facts, without enlarging upon them, as they have already too great and melancholy a notoriety. We but add our voice to the deep tone of grief and complaint which sounds from every part of the State.

We are not surprised at this condition of the teachers. We should be surprised if it were much otherwise.

Most of the winter schools are taught for about three months in the year; the summer not far beyond four. They are, therefore, of necessity, taught, and must continue to be taught, by persons who, for two-thirds or three-fourths of the year, have other pursuits, in qualifying themselves for which they have spent the usual period, and which, of course, they look upon as the main business of their lives. They cannot be expected to make great exertions and expensive preparation for the work of teaching, in which the standard is so low, and for which they are so poorly paid.

Whatever desire they might have, it would be almost in vain. There are now no places suited to give them the instruction they need.

For every other profession requiring a knowledge of the principles of science and the conclusions of experience, there are special schools and colleges, with learned and able professors, and ample apparatus. For the preparation of the teachers, there is almost none. In every other art ministering to the wants and conveniences of men, masters may be found ready to impart whatsoever of skill they have to the willing apprentice; and the usage of society justly requires that years should be spent under the eye of an adept, to gain the requisite ability. An apprentice to a schoolmaster is known only in tradition.

We respectfully maintain that it ought not so to be: so much of the intelligence and character, the welfare and inmediate and future happiness of all the citizens, now and hereafter, depends on the condition of the common schools, that it is of necessity a matter of the dearest interest to all of the present generation; that the common education is to such a degree the palladium of our liberties, and the good condition of the common schools, in which that education is chiefly obtained, so vitally important to the stability of our State, to our very existence as a free State, that it is the most proper subject for legislation, and calls loudly for legislative provision and protection. The common schools ought to be raised to their proper place; and this can only be done by the better education of the teachers.

We maintain that provision ought to be made by the State for the education of teachers; because, while their education is so important to the State, their condition generally is such as to put a suitable education entirely beyond their reach; because, by no other means is it likely that a system shall be introduced, which shall prevent the immense annual loss of time to the schools, from a change of teachers; and because, the qualifications of a first-rate teacher are such as cannot be gained but by giving a considerable time wholly to the work of preparation.

In his calling, there is a peculiar difficulty in the fact, that whereas, in other callings and professions, duties and difficulties come on gradually, and one by one, giving ample time, in the intervals, for special preparation, in his they all come at once. On the first day on which he enters the school, his difficulties meet him with a single, unbroken, serried front, as numerously as they ever will; and they refuse to be separated. He cannot divide and overcome them singly, putting off the more formidable to wrestle with at a future time; he could only have met them with complete success, by long forecast, by months and years of preparation.

The qualifications requisite in a good teacher, of which many have so low and inadequate an idea, as to think them almost the instinctive attributes of every man and every woman, we maintain to be excellent qualities, rarely united in a high degree in the same individual, and to obtain which one must give, and may well give, much time and study.

We begin with the lowest. He must have a thorough knowledge of whatever he undertakes to teach. If it were not so common, how absurd would it seem, that one should undertake to communicate to another fluency and grace in the