ommended that there be four classes in the university with a professor at the head of each, who shall be assisted with such adjunct professors or teachers, as the state of the institution may require.

"THE COURSE OF STUDIES.

"1st. In the primary schools should be taught reading, writing and arithmetic. A judicious selection of books should from time to time be made by the board of public instruction for the use of small children: Books which will excite their curiosity and improve their moral dispositions. And the board should be empowered to compile and have printed for the use of primary schools, such books as they may think will best subserve the purposes of intellectual and moral instruction. In these books should be contained many of the historical parts of the old and new testament, that children may early be made acquainted with the book which contains the word of truth, and the doctrines of eternal life.

"2d. In the academies should be taught the Latin, Greek, French and English languages, the higher rules of arithmetic, the six first books of Euclid's elements. Algebra, Geography, the elements of Astronomy, taught with the use of the Globes, ancient and modern history. The basis of a good education is classical and mathematical knowledge; and no young man ought to be admitted into the university without such knowledge.

d. In the university the course of education should occupy four years; and there should be four classes, to be designated.

"1st. The class of languages-In this class should be studied, 1st. the more difficult Latin, Greek and French classes: 2d. Ancient and modern history: 3d. Belles letters: 4th. Rhetoric.

2d. The class of mathematics-In this class should be studied, 1st. Pure mathematics: 2d. Their application to the purposes of physical science.

3d. The class of physical sciences.-In this class should be taught, 1st. Physics: 2d. Chemistry: 3d. The philosophy of natural history: 4th. Mineralogy: 5th. Botany: 6th. Zoology.

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4th. The class of moral and political science. In this class should be taugh 1st. The philosophy of the human mind: 2d. morals: 3d. The law of nature and of nations: 4th. Government and legislation: 5th. Political economy.

"THE MODES OF INSTRUCTION.

"The great object of education is intellectual and moral improvement; and that the mode of instruction is to be preferred which best serves to effect this object. That mode is to be found only in a correct knowledge of the human mind, its habits, passions, and manner of operation. The philosophy of the mind, which in ages preceding had been cultivated only in its detached branches, has of late years received form and system in the schools of Scotland. This new science promises the happiest results. It has sapped the foundation of scepticism by establishing the authority of those primitive truths and intuitive principles, which form the basis of all demonstration; it has taught to man the extent of his intellectual powers, and marking the line which separates truth from hypothetical conjecture, has pointed out to his view the boundaries which Providence has prescribed to his enquiries. It has determined the laws of the various faculties of the mind. and furnished a system of philosophic logic for conducting our enquiries in every branch of knowledge.

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This new science has given birth to new methods of instruction; methods, which being founded upon a correct knowledge of the faculties of the mind, have eminently facilitated their development. Pestalozzi in Switzerland and Joseph Lancaster in England, seem to have been most successful in the application of new methods to the instruction of children. Their methods are different, but each is founded upon a profound knowledge of the human mind. The basis of each method is, the excitement of the curiosity of children; thereby awakening their minds and preparing them to receive instruction. The success which has attended the application of their methods, particularly that of Lancaster, has been astonishing. Although but few years have elapsed since Lancastrian schools were first established, they have spread over the British empire, extended into the continent of Europe, the Island of St. Domingo, and the United States. Various improvements in the details of his plan have been suggested by experience and adopted; and it is probable that in time, his will become the universal mode of instruction for children. The Lancastrian plan is equally distinguished by its simplicity, its facility of application, the rapid intellectual improvement which it gives, and the exact discipline which it enforces. The moral effects of the plan

are also astonishing; exact and correct habits are the surest safeguards of morals; and it has been often remarked, that out of the immense number of children and grown persons instructed in Lancaster's schools, few, very few, have ever been prosecuted in a court of justice for any offence. Your committee do therefore recommend that whenever it be practicable, the Lancastrian mode of instruction be introduced into the primary schools. The general principles of this method may be successfully introduced into the academies and university: And your committee indulge the hope, that the board of public instruction, and the professors and teachers in these respective institutions, will use their best endeavors to adopt and enforce the best methods of instruction which the present state of knowledge will enable them to devise.

THE DISCIPLINE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE SCHOOLS.

"In a republic, the first duty of a citizen is obedience to the law. We acknowledge no sovereign but the law, and from infancy to manhood our children should be taught to bow with reverence to its majesty. In childhood, parental authority enforces the first lessons of obedience; in youth, this authority is aided by the municipal law which in manhood wields the entire supremacy. As the political power and the social happiness of a state depend upon the obedience of its citias, it becomes an object of the first importance to teach youth to reverence the aw, and cherish habits of implicit obedience to its authority. Such obedience Lot only contributes to the strength and tranquility of the state, but also constitutes the basis of good manners, of deference and respect in social intercourse. Bat in our country, youth generally become acquainted with the freedom of our political institutions, much sooner than with the principles upon which that freedom is bottomed, and by which it is to be preserved; and few learn, until experience teaches them in the school of practical life, that true liberty consists not in doing what they please, but in doing that which the law permits. The consequence has been, that riot and disorder have dishonored almost all the colleges and Universities of the Union.

· The temples of science have been converted into theatres for acting disgraceful scenes of licentiousness and rebellion. How often has the generous patriot shed tears of regret for such criminal follies of youth? Follies which cast reproach upon learning, and bring scandal upon the state. This evil can only be corrected by the moral effects of early education; by instilling into children upon the first dawnings of reason, the principles of duty, and by nurturing those principles as reason advances, until obedience to authority shall become a habit of their nature. When this course shall be found ineffectual the arm of the civil power must be stretched forth to its aid.

The discipline of a University may be much aided by the arrangement of the buildings, and the location of the different classes. Each class should live together in separate buildings, and each be under the special care of its own professors and teachers. A regular system of subordination may in this way be established; each class would have its own character to maintain, and the Esprit de Corps of the classes would influence all their actions. Similar arrangements may, in part, be made in the several academies, and the like good effect expected from thein.

The amusements of youth may also be made auxiliary to the exactness of discipline. The late president of the United States, Mr. Jefferson, has recommended upon this part of the subject, that through the whole course of instruction at a college or university, at the hours of recreation on certain days, all the students should be taught the manual exercise, military evolutions and manoeuvers, should be under a standing organization as a military corps, and with proper officers to train and command them. There can be no doubt that much may be done in this way towards enforcing habits of subordination and strict discipline--is will be the province of the board of public instruction, who have the general superintending care of all the literary institutions of the state, to devise for them systems of discipline and government; and your committee hope they will discharge their duty with fidelity.

"THE EDUCATION OF POOR CHILDREN AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE.

"One of the strongest reasons which we can have for establishing a general plan of public instruction, is the condition of the poor children of our country. Such always has been, and probably always will be the allotments of human life, that the poor will form a large portion of every community; and it is the duty of those who manage the affairs of a State, to extend relief to this unfortunate part of our species in every way in their power.

"Providence, in the impartial distribution of its favors, whilst it has denied to the poor many of the comforts of life, has generally bestowed upon them the blessing of intelligent children. Poverty is the school of genius; it is a school in which the active powers of man are developed and disciplined, and in which that moral courage is acquired, which enables him to toil with difficulties, privations and want. From this school generally come forth those men who act the principal parts upon the theatre of life; men who impress a character upon the age in which they live. But it is a school which if left to itself runs wild; vice in all its depraved forms grows up in it. The State should take this school under her special care, and nurturing the genius which there grows in rich luxuriance, give to it an honorable and profitable direction. Poor children are the peculiar property of the State, and by proper cultivation they will constitute a fund of intellectual and moral worth, which will greatly subserve the public interest. Your committee have therefore endeavored to provide for the education of all poor children in the primary schools: they have also provided for the advancement into the academies and university, of such of those children as are most distinguished for genius and give the best assurance of future usefulness. For three years they are to be educated in the primary schools free of charge; the portion of them who shall be selected for further advancement, shall, during the whole course of their future education, be clothed, fed and taught at the public expense. The number of children who are to be thus advanced, will depend upon the state of the fund set apart for public instruction, and your committee think it will be most advisable to leave the number to the discretion of the board, who shall have charge of the fund; and also to leave to thei the providing of some just and particular mode of advancing this number from the primary schools to the academies, and from the academies to the university.

"AN ASYLUM FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

"If there be any of our species who are entitled to the public consideration of the government, it is surely the deaf and dumb. Since the method of instructing them in language and science has been discovered, numerous asylums in different countries have been established for their instruction. While we are engaged in making provision for others, humanity demands that we should make a suitable provision for them. Your committee do therefore recommend that as soon as the state of the fund for public instruction will admit, the board who have charge of that fund, be directed to establish at some suitable place in the State, an asylum for the instruction of the deaf and dumb.

"Your committee have now submitted to the two houses their general views upon the subject referred to them. They have proposed the creation of a fund for public instruction, the appointment of a board to manage this fund, and to carry into effect the plan of education which they have recommended. This plan embraces a gradation of schools from the lowest to the highest, and contains a provision for the education of poor children—and of the deaf and dumb.

"When this or some other more judicious plan of public education, when light and knowledge shall be shed upon all, may we not indulge the hope, that men will be convinced that wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are paths of peace; and be induced by such conviction to regulate their conduct by the rule of christian morality, of doing unto others as they wish they would do unto them; and that they will learn to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly before their God.

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Your committee will forthwith report bills to carry into effect the several measures recommended in this report. “Respectfully submitted,

"A. D. MURPHEY, Chairman.”

This elaborate report was ordered to be printed, and a bill was prepared by the committee to carry into effect the several measures recommended. The bill even passed its first reading in both houses. It would have been difficult at that day to prepare a better, more compact, or more connected scheme for the organization of a State system, but it undertook too much; it proposed not only to educate, but also to maintain the children of the poor. This was quite beyond the power of the State to perform, for it was but sparsely settled and was still burdened with the debt of recent wars. The friends of the measure declined to eliminate this espe

1 Senate Journal, pp. 87, 88; House Journal, p. 63.

cially impracticable feature of the bill. They desired its passage as a whole; support fell from it and it failed.

There was some desultory discussion on the question of public schools during the next eight years. Governor Holmes mentions agricultural education in 1822 and complains of the "crowds of drones that hang upon the rear of the learned professions." In 1824 a committee was appointed "to digest and report to the present session a plan of primary schools," and a bill was introduced for the education of the poor. Governor Burton renewed the question in 1825.

VI. THE LITERARY BOARD AND ITS WORK, 1825-1840.

With the act for the creation of a literary fund ends what may be called the period of the private schools. From this time the common schools begin to come to the front, although it was more than a quarter of a century before this movement became important. Now for the first time did the State begin to provide for the "school or schools" which the constitution of 1776 had instructed her to establish. The report of Judge Murphey had been presented to the general assembly in 1817. The initial act relating to schools came in 1825, when the State began to accumulate a fund for the public schools, the theory being that it would not be well to depend on current taxation for two reasons then prevalent. One was that taxes were to be levied only for the support of the machinery of government, of which the common schools were not a part; the second was because these schools were looked on as of the nature of a public benevolence or charity.

The sources of the literary fund were fixed by chapter 1 of the laws of 1825. This act was drawn by Bartlett Yancey,' then speaker of the senate, who had been in earlier years a law student in Murphey's office and was now his able and faithful coadjutor in the cause of the common schools. The fund was vested in a corporate body known legally as "the president and directors of the literary fund," but in popular parlance as "the literary board." It consisted of the governor of the State, the chief justice of the supreme court, the speaker of the senate, the speaker of the house of commons, and the treasurer, for the time being, and their successors in office. They were given corporate powers and invested with control of the literary fund. This fund, "the parings of the treasury," as Yancey himself styled it, was to be applied to the instruction of such children as it may hereafter be deemed expedient by the legislature to instruct in the common principles of reading, writing, and arithmetic," and was defined by the same act as consisting of—

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"The dividends arising from the stock now held and which may hereafter be acquired by the State in the banks of Newbern and Cape Fear, and which have not heretofore been pledged and set apart for internal improvement; the dividends arising from stock which is owned by the State in the Cape Fear Navigation Company, the Roanoke Navigation Company, and the Clubfoot and Harlow Creek Canal Company; the tax imposed by law on licenses to the retailers of spirituous liquors and auctioneers; the unexpended balance of the agricultural fund, which, by the act of the legislature, is directed to be paid into the public treasury; all moneys paid to the State for entries of vacant lands (excepting the Cherokee lands): the sum of $21,090, which was paid by this State to certain Cherokee Indians for reservations to land secured to them by treaty, when the said sum shall be received from the United States by this State, and of all the vacant and unappropriated swamp lands in this State, together with such sums of money as the legislature may hereafter find it convenient to appropriate from time to time."

JOSEPH CALDWELL AND HIS MONITORIAL SYSTEM.

After the creation of the literary fund there was another pause of seven years. Then came the Letters on Popular Education, by Rev. Joseph Caldwell, president

See article on his work, probably by Wiley, in North Carolina Reader, revised edition, pp.

of the university. These letters were eleven in number and grew out of the work of a standing committee appointed by the legislature from the community at large to report on the subject of general education. The committee never met. A report was prepared by the chairman, accepted by the other members, and sent in, but it called for the creation of funds so vast as to preclude its practicality. Dr. Caldwell was a member of this committee. The substance of the letters brought together in pamphlet form in 18322 had been commenced more than two years before in the Raleigh Register, under the signature of "Cleveland." The central idea in these letters was to encourage the organization of the monitorial system in the State. Dr. Caldwell begins his argument by noticing some of the obstructions in the way to the advance of education. He says:

"Another obstruction meets us in our aversion to taxation beyond the bare necessities of government and the public tranquillity. . . . A still further difficulty is felt in the indifference unhappily prevalent in many of our people on the subject of education. . . . I might mention further, as one of the greatest obstructions the scattered condition of our population. A most serious impediment is felt in our want of commercial opportunities by which, though we may possess ample means of subsistence to our families, money is difficult of attainment to build schoolhouses and support teachers. . . .

As to the relative significance of these various obstructions, he says:

· With respect to the difficulty arising from our aversion to taxation, I am ready to admit-nay, conclusively to affirm-that it must and will be fatal to every scheme of popular education to which it is made necessary. As to a spirit of hostility against knowledge and a determination upon principle to sustain the cause of ignorance and to exclude all education as a foe to human happiness and to true republicanism, the portion of our people who hold such opinions is too small to contend with the great body of our citizens, who for the honor of our State, it is verily believed, are of entirely different sentiments. Our resources doubtless fail for want of commercial privileges. But this obstacle, too, ceases if some plan for the diffusion of education can be effected by means already at our command.

It will be forever vain to meditate plans of legislative action if we persist in looking to means which the people have given prescriptive evidence that they will never adopt. Why continue to press schemes from year to year, involving the necessity of taxation? . . Thousands of parents are ready to second any practicable system by which education may be accessible to their children. . . ."

He then discusses the methods that were ordinarily followed to provide for popular education. One was voluntary, where the matter is left entirely to the people; a second was by the intervention of the legislature; a third was a combination of the other two. The first had been followed in North Carolina. This had disadvantages:

"The evil which is really the greatest of all is the want of qualified masters. It may be difficult to obtain a teacher at all, but it is pretty certain in the present state of the country not one is properly fitted for the occupation. Do we think that of all the professions in the world that of a schoolmaster requires the least preparatory formation? If we do, there can not be a more egregious mistake. For if any man arrived at years of maturity, who can read, write, and cipher. were taken up to be trained to the true methods of instructing and managing an elementary school by a master teacher who understood them well, he could scarcely comprehend them and establish them in his habits in less than two years.

In the present condition of society and of public opinion the occupation of a schoolmaster, in comparison with others, is regarded with contempt. It would be wonderful were it otherwise, when we look at the manner in which it is very often, if not most usually filled. Is a man constitutionally and habitually indolent a burden upon all from whom he can extract a support? Then there is one

1 According to Governor Holden this committee consisted of Duncan Cameron, Peter Browne, and Joseph Caldwell. The date of its appointment is uncertain.

2 Letters on popular education, | addressed to the people of North Carolina | [7 lines quotation] Hillsborough: | printed by Dennis Heartt | 1832.

8vo, pp. iv+54, with an appendix of "explanatory and documentary papers on education," pp. 1-48+folding table.