tures, still betrays several shortcomings. Foremost among its better features must be reckoned its system of free schools, and their princely endowments. In no other country are the public schools so handsomely endowed, or public instruction so freely and universally diffused. No sooner does a new State spring up in the wilderness than a central plot of 6 square miles is set apart in every township of 36 square miles for the school fund. Every State and every Territory, when surveyed, is parcelled out into townships of this size; and in each township, besides the above-mentioned central plot, the 36th allotment, making altogether 12 square miles, is set apart by special act of Congress for the same purpose. In this way the educational establishments of the country already possess a landed estate larger than the total area of the British Isles. This liberality of the administration rests on the principle that a Republican form of Government must find its chief mainstay in the education and enlightenment of the people.

The yearly expenditure for public instruction is said to amount to no less than £18,000,000, a portion of which is voted by the Central Government. But by far the largest part is raised by the educational tax freely imposed upon themselves by the citizens in proportion to their means, and to which every one willingly contributes his mite. Thus there was appropriated the sum of £2,301,530 for educational purposes in the year 1873. The schools of every description in the towns show, by their number, size, and excellent arrangements, how carefully the instruction of the people is attended to. In the large cities there is never wanting a public library, founded either by some private benefactor or by the corporation, but universally accessible to all.

The instruction imparted in the schools comprises all the subjects taught in the German normal and "real"

R

schools and gymnasiums. From the lowest class, where the primer is the only text-book, the pupil passes on step by step to the grammar school and the high school, in both of which the curriculum embraces the classics, history, zoology, literature, geometry, algebra, chemistry, and the physical sciences generally. In all these subjects the girls take part very frequently in common with the boys, though on this point there are no definite rules or prescriptions. Each community adopts whatever course seems best, the general tendency, however, being towards mixed education.

3. Defects of the System.

The shortcomings of the system have reference principally to the method of teaching. Until within a few years the almost universal method of teaching was by the method of "cramming," ie. learning by heart from the text-book, a method by which the mind was overloaded with undigested facts, while its development was entirely neglected. While this method is still in use largely in the sparsely settled portions of the country, it is entirely superseded in the cities by more rational methods.

4. Colleges and Universities.

The highest of the public schools, the high schools, or academies, as they are called, fit young men and women. for college.

Many of the colleges and universities are deficient in thorough scientific instruction. Until within a few years most of them had no provision for teaching these branches, while they were almost wholly devoted to languages, mathematics, theology, etc. A cause for this is the fact that very many, probably most, of the American colleges

were founded and are now maintained by religious sects, many of which are very narrow and bigoted. The larger and older of the universities, as Harvard and Yale, have long ago broken away from sectarianism, and, as one result, are now able to offer general and special instruction in science of a very high grade. Several of the youngest colleges, too, like Cornell, are entirely free from the pernicious and narrowing influence of sectarianism.

With most of the larger universities are connected professional schools, as at Harvard, where, in addition to the college proper, or "undergraduate department," there are two schools of theology, one each of medicine, of dentistry, of law, and engineering, besides the Agassiz Museum of Natural History, the Observatory, etc.

Besides the polytechnic and mining schools connected with the universities, there are several other excellent schools of these sorts. Among them may be mentioned the Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York; the Steven's Institute at Hoboken, New Jersey; and many others.

Nor is the General Government backward in recognising the claims of science. For many years it has supported a Coast Survey which, in accuracy and detail of work, has not its superior in the globe; a survey of the north-western lakes; and very extensive explorations and surveys of the territories of the West. It has liberally fostered Arctic explorations. It supports, at an an nual expense of fully half a million of dollars, a meteorological bureau. The Naval Observatory at Washington is supported by the Government, and, to further the interests of astronomical science, it has defrayed the expenses of many expeditions to observe solar eclipses and the late transit of Venus.

The Smithsonian Institution and National Museum at Washington, which is supported in part by the bequest

of Mr. Smithson, its founder, and in part by the Government, contains a very large museum, mainly illustrative of natural history and ethnology.

Congress has recently appropriated $250,000 for the erection of additional buildings for the magnificent collections of this museum.

In institutions for instruction in art this country is not as highly favoured. In this respect it is yet in its infancy. There are, however, schools for instruction in art in Boston, Massachusetts, New York, New Haven, Connecticut, in connection with Yale College, in Philadelphia, and several other places. The growth of this branch of education is very rapid at present.

The following description of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, one of the youngest of American colleges, is given as illustrating the best type of American institutions of learning.

Among the founders of chairs are represented Quakers, Methodists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, and Freethinkers of all grades and degrees, while even the Israelites have contributed £4100 to establish a professorship of Hebrew and Oriental History and Literature, showing that this institution is not affected by any sectarian prejudices.

According to the plans of Mr. Cornell and the other founders, the students are required to provide for their own support and instruction by manual labour, at least so far as they may be unable otherwise to do so out of their private resources. The students thus working simultaneously with head and hand receive an allotment of 300 acres, the produce of which goes to supply the academical refectory. Here corn, vegetables, and fruits of all sorts are grown; while the live-stock yield flesh, milk, butter, and cheese. In a factory furnished with a steam engine of 25 horse-power, the students learn to

make their own tools, and structures are now in course of erection where they will be able to learn the building trade, while, at the same time, getting an opportunity of laying out and keeping in good order highways and gardens. For their labour, which is directed by skilled trainers and professors, they are paid according to the current rate of wages.

The great aim of rendering work as attractive, instructive, and invigorating as possible, is never for a moment lost sight of. The capital invested by Mr. Cornell is amply sufficient, besides this bodily training, to procure for the students every means of the highest intellectual development.

The founder's object has been that any one earnestly desirous of securing a thorough education shall find it easy to gratify his wish in Cornell University.

5. Sectarian Spirit of the Private Scholastic Foundations.

The sectarian spirit of all churches, in dealing with their educational institutions, necessarily tends to crush. free inquiry and scientific culture. Orthodox geology must be taught, or none at all. According to the census of 1870, as many as 360 so-called universities and colleges are still under the control of these sects, many of which hold in leading-strings and enervate the most effective teaching of even really learned masters. Hence, few of these institutions take a really high place among scholastic establishments, most of them breathing a narrow sectarian spirit.