that of Greece or Rome, which engage the student for one term. At the great universities and better colleges only is there anything approaching a course in American History and Economics. The poorer colleges are providing little more than the city high schools in American History, and almost nothing in political economy. RUTGERS COLLEGE. Prof. Austin Scott, at Rutgers College, provides in the junior year a course in American history three hours a week on the American Constitution. In the senior year political economy, with special reference to American questions, is taken five hours a week for one term. At the same time constitutional law is given two hours a week. The method employed is that of the Historical Seminary. An entrance examination in American History is required. Rutgers has one of the very best college courses in history that this country affords.1 SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY. At Syracuse University the sophomores are required to take American History two hours a week for one term; the seniors have American constitutional law three hours a week for one term, and in addition are given a course of twelve lectures on the American Revolution. There is also a special post-graduate course in American History, which requires two years, and which is partially outlined in a printed circular. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. At the University of Pennsylvania the sophomore class devotes two hours a week for one year to Pennsylvania history; colonial and State, political and economic. Intercolonial affairs are investigated. The Wharton School of Finance and Economy provides special courses in American history and economics. The course in American History, in this college of the University, covers two years, and is in charge of the historian, John Bach McMaster. The Wharton School aims to give a thorough general and professional training to young men who intend to engage in business, or upon whom will devolve the management of property, or to persons who are preparing for the legal profession, for journalism, for an academic career, or for the public service. The course in American History in this school covers two years, the junior and the senior-three hours each week for the former and four each week for the latter during the entire academic year. In the junior year the first few weeks are spent in a cursory review of colonial history (Schouler's His 1 Many superior colleges and institutions, not mentioned by Doctor Thorpe, or described in this report, have excellent courses in American history; for example, Princeton, Amherst, Brown University, the University of Rochester, and some of the State universities and better colleges of the West and South. The statistical tables at the end of this report show clearly the standing of History in all the institutions of collegiate grade whose returns were received by the Bureau of Education.-H. B. A. 757 ED, NO. 2--16 tory), in the study of colonial charters, and such documents as Coxe, or Franklin's plan of union, the stamp act, declaration of rights, non-importation agreement, &c. Three historical maps are required, viz, maps in color, showing the changes in colonial boundaries in 1700, 1750, and 1763. Essays are read by the students on such subjects as the French settlement in America, the discovery and exploration of the Mississippi, the French and Indian war, the navigation act, &c. About the first of December the class is divided into a number of committees, corresponding to the division into committees in Congress-such as Foreign Affairs, Indian Affairs, Commerce and Trade, Finance, Territories, Interstate Commerce, Army and Navy, Banks and Banking, &c., and each member of the class is put on several committees. This done, Johnston's American Politics is made the text-book, and the work of lecturing begins. On certain days, in lieu of a lecture, the committees are called upon to present reports on the subjects already discussed. If the matter of " assumption" were the subject of the lecture, the Finance Committee would be called on to read a detailed report, which is discussed and cyclostyled, after which a copy is given to each member of the class. If the ordinance of 1787, or the land cessions were to be discussed, the Committee on Territories would report. These reports become matter of recitation. On the morning after each lecture the students hand in a synopsis of it, and once a week their note-books for examination. Ten maps, one for each census year, are required. These are water-color maps made by the students, and they show changes in population, disputed boundaries, acquired territories, immigrant routes and settlements, early railways, canals, and public highways, &c. They are his torical maps of an economic character. With the seniors the course opens with a review of all State constitutions from 1776 to 1787. Recitations are held in Bancroft's History of the Constitution. Each member of the class makes a digest of the report of the constitutional convention of 1787 and of the Federalist. There are two lectures and two recitations a week. Digests are also required of the following: Letters of Pacificus, Letters of Helvidius, Jay's Treaty, the Defence of Camillus, the House Debate on Jay's Treaty, Blount's Impeachment, Nullification, 1798-'99, 1832, the Hartford Convention, the Constitutionality of National Banks, of Internal Improvement, of Protective Tariffs, of the Missouri Compromise, &c. (Course given by Professor J. B. McMaster). The chief work of this class is the preparation of papers from time to time from original authorities on the leading questions that have come before the American people. The post-graduate courses cover two years, with no limit of hours, in American History, and, in 1885, the University founded six fellowships, known as the Wharton fellowships, in American History and Economics. As at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, courses of lectures in American constitutional law are open in the law department to special and graduate students in American History. The feature of the work at Pennsylvania is the high place given to the study of original authorities over formal histories; these latter are considered at their true value, but students are required to consult original papers when possible rather than these histories. By original documents are meant the annals, debates, records, journals, reports, and publications of Congress; judicial reports, both State and Federal; pamphlets, newspapers, executive documents, and texts of treaties. More time is given to the study of American History and Economics at Pennsylvania than at any other university in this country. Besides the work above indicated there are courses in American Institutional History, in American Financial History, and in American Economics through the year. The various courses illustrative of American affairs are arranged so as to supplement each the other without duplication of work. All the work in American History and Economics, exclusive of the post-graduate courses and the lectures in American constitutional law in the law department, covers twenty-one hours per week for one year. At Pennsylvania American History and Economics are required studies, but the results both at Harvard and at Pennsylvania show that the courses in the two universities proceed according to principles common to both. The methods of procedure and the canons of historial criticism and interpretation are the same. In the Wharton School is a course given by Professor Robert Ellis Thompson in economic science, equal to a course of three hours a week for one year, but distributed over two years. Lectures and the text-book method are combined. The topics considered are, inter alia, the theory of the state, socialism, communism, charity, considered specially in their economic aspect and as touching upon American affairs. The work of the second year is confined to the senior class in the Wharton School, and is a combination of lectures, discussions, and original investigations under the direction of the professor. It is especially occupied with American topics, such as the industrial history of the country from its first settlement, its land system and its administration of the public domain, the influence of economic causes in producing the War of Independence, the fiscal and financial policy that grew out of that war, and the change of policy in the subsequent century. Each of our great industries is taken separately and traced historically and statistically, not less the agricultural than the commercial and manufacturing. The problems of economic policy presented by our Treasury, money, and banking systems, by the creation of an artisan class since the war of 1812, by the growth of a public debt, by the relation of local government to general government, by immigration and the growth of cities, and by the formation of great routes of transportation, are treated. Three essays a week are required from the class on topics assigned, and discussion follows the reading of the essay. When the subjects are assigned the essayists are referred to the best books in the valuable libra ries of economic literature given the university by Stephen Colwell and by Henry C. Carey, and to more recent collections in the Wharton School library. Also, they are referred, if this be possible, to some local representative of the industry or interest treated in the essay, or are required to put themselves in communication by letter with such as are at a distance. The purpose is to train men who shall be "in touch" with the actual life of the industrial community in which we live, and who shall know their own country in its past and present with as much thoroughness as the limitation of a college course permits. The instruction given by other professors in the Wharton School in special courses enables the students to enter upon the courses in economic science with adequate preliminary knowledge for the understanding and appreciation of the course. The course by Professor E. J. James on civil government in the United States given at the University of Pennsylvania runs through two years, and is the equivalent of four exercises per week for one year. It is divided into two parts, the first treating of the organs and the second of the functions of government. In the first part is given a somewhat detailed description of the organs (1) of the Federal Government; (2) of the State governments; (3) of the county, town, and other forms of local government. It treats of the President, Senate, House, judiciary, departments, bureaus, commissions which constitute the central government; of the governor, assembly, courts, commissions, sheriffs, councils, boards of directors, &c., which make up the State, county, town, and city governments. The second part begins with a classification of the functions of government in general, and then discusses the distribution of these functions among the different branches of our form of government. The relation of the Government (a) to the personal relations of the people, such as marriage, migration, citizenship, poor laws, &c.; (b) to the intellectual and moral relations, such as education in all its branches, elementary, secondary, higher, profes sional, technical; (c) to the economic relations, such as transportation, exchange, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, &c., is treated as fully as time and opportunity will permit. The method is comparative, historical, critical. The actual form of the government is first described, then its origin and development are traced. Our present systems are compared with previous systems in our own and in other countries. The whole is concluded with some attempt to estimate the comparative excellence of our system, pointing out its obvious advantages and its defects, with suggestions as to how the former may be increased and the latter remedied. The lecture system is combined with text-book and recitation system, supplemented by the application of the seminary method in the case of the older and more advanced students. The object is to become fully acquainted with our American system of gov ernment in its actual workings, to learn the facts connected with its origin and development, and to grasp the spirit and genius of our insti |