A monthly journal devoted to the Mechanical and Physical Sciences, Civil Engineering, &c., has been regularly published since January, 1828. The officers of the Institute are a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Recording and a Corresponding Secretary, a Treasurer, twenty-four Managers (two thirds of whom must be manufacturers or mechanics), and three Auditors, who are elected annually in the month of January. The meetings are held monthly, on the third Thursday evening, at which, after the transaction of the business of the Institute, scientific discussions are conducted, and inventions are examined and explained. The members of the Institute consist of "manufacturers, mechanics, artisans, and persons friendly to the Mechanic Arts." Each member pays an annual contribution of three dollars, or twenty-five dollars for life,—and is entitled to the use of the Library and Reading-rooms, (open every day, except Sundays, from nine o'clock, A. M., to ten o'clock, P. M.,) with the privilege of taking books out; also to season tickets to the lectures for himself and a lady, and lecture tickets for his sons, daughters, wards, and apprentices under twenty-one years of age, on paying one dollar for each minor, for the season, and additional lady's tickets at two dollars each. He has also free admission for himself during the Exhibitions of American Manufactures, and six tickets of single admission for ladies or minors. Officers for 1858:- President, John C. Cresson. Vice-Presidents, John Agnew and Matthias W. Baldwin. Recording Secretary, Isaac B. Garrigues. Corresponding Secretary, Frederick Fraley. Treasurer, John F. Frazer. Actuary, William Hamilton. PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania was established at Philadelphia in 1825, and William Rawle, LL.D. was elected the first President. For nineteen years it met in one of the rooms of the American Philosophical Society, and had the use of a small closet to contain its books. In the year 1844 the Society rented a small room for its exclusive accommodation. Its collection of books then amounted to about sixty volumes, in addition to some boxes of public documents from Washington, which had not been opened, as the Society had no place in which to place the books. Immediately after its removal, the library increased rapidly, and a still further increase followed its removal to the present location in the Athenæum building. At present the Society is in a highly flourishing condition. During the year ending February, 1857, the sum of $1,839.34 was expended for publications of an historical character. The officers for 1857-58 (chosen February 9, 1857) are as follows::- Presi dent, Hon. Thomas Sergeant. Vice-Presidents, Hon. Charles Miner of Wilkesbarre; Hon. Samuel Breck, Hon. George Chambers, of Chambersburg, and Hon. Henry D. Gilpin. Treasurer, Charles M. Morris. Corresponding Secretary, Horatio Gates Jones. Recording Secretary, Frank M. Etting. Librarian, Townsend Ward. Library Committee, Benjamin H. Coates, M.D., J. Francis Fisher, and Charles J. Biddle. Publishing Committee, Morton P. Henry, C. H. Hutchinson, and Henry Carey Baird. Finance Committee, John Jordan, Jr., Edward Armstrong, and Charles S. Keyser. THE CHESTER COUNTY CABINET OF NATURAL SCIENCE. This society was organized on the 18th of March, 1826, and incorporated in 1831. Its object is to promote a knowledge of Natural History generally, and especially of the indigenous products of Chester County. In 1837 a building was erected in West Chester, on Church Street, at a cost of $5,000, in which are placed the collections of the society. The society possesses a small but wellselected library, and a good collection of specimens in the various departments of science. Officers for 1857-58:- President, William Darlington, M.D., LL.D. Secretary and Treasurer, Washington Townsend. Curators, Wm. W. Jefferis, Wm. D. Hartman, M.D., and J. Lacey Darlington. PENNSYLVANIA STATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. Officers for 1857 (chosen December, 1856): - President, William Roberts, Philadelphia. Vice-Presidents, Albert Owen, Huntingdon; D. Heckendom, Snyder; J. J. Stine, Mifflin; Rev. J. S. Crumbaugh, Lancaster. Recording Secretaries, J. J. Stutzman, Somerset; R. McDivitt, Huntingdon. Corresponding Secretary, Joseph Fell, Bucks. Treasurer, Amos Row, Lancaster. Executive Committee, B. M. Kerr, Allegheny; J. F. Stoddard, Wayne; Isaac Black, Butler; A. D. Hawn, Mifflin; and A. K. Brown, Clinton. EDUCATIONAL PERIODICALS. THE JOURNAL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE is published on the first of each month, at $5 per annum. Edited by John F. Frazer, assisted by the Committee on Publications of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. THE PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL JOURNAL is published monthly at Lancaster. Edited by Thomas H. Burrowes. $1 per annum. X. DELAWARE. Capital, Dover. Area, 2,120 square miles. - Population, 1850, 91,532. THIS State has a school system, organized wholly upon the plan of free tuition for all the pupils, and a school within reach of every family. The territory is divided into school districts, which are regularly laid off and numbered, and incorporated. Each district is entitled to receive $ 25 from the income of the School Fund, upon raising as much more for the maintenance of its school; but authority is conferred upon every district to raise ordinarily the sum of $300 annually for its school; or, by a special vote, it may increase the amount as much as may be deemed necessary for school purposes. In like manner, also, towns or populous districts may unite, if they vote so to do, and by this method obtain one or more schools of a higher grade. The sole condition of all action touching the schools is, that the schools, supported in whole or in part by tax, shall be free to all pupils. There is a School Fund of $435,505, which yielded, in 1854, an income of $33,829.80; and this amount was increased by a tax, levied on the districts, of $24,000. Number of schools in operation (1854), 236; of pupils, 10,230. Am. Ed. Year-Book, 1857. In 1856 the number of Free Schools was 233; number of scholars (whites), 11,468; average length of schools, 7.6 months; income of the School Fund, $27,452.69; contributions, $53,057.02. The whole amount expended for the support of said schools was $ 78,253.14 ; namely, $ 47,822.15 for tuition, and $30,430.99 for contingencies. [The publishers of the American Educational Year-Book expected to have a full account of the public educational institutions of Delaware, prepared by one of the leading educators of the State. This has not, as yet, been received; but if obtained in season, it will be inserted in the Appendix.] XI. MARYLAND. Capital, Annapolis. -Area, 11,000 square miles. Population, 1850, 583,034. MARYLAND has no general school system. When the advances made by the State for the war of 1812 were repaid by the United States, the amount so received was formed into a School Fund. The avails of a tax laid by the Legislature on all incorporated banks are also added to this fund. In 1854 it amounted to $160,000. The Deposit Fund, or Surplus Revenue of the United States, is also applied in the same way. Its income is nearly $50,000. The income of both funds, amounting now to nearly $70,000 annually, is appropriated to public education, by being distributed to the several County Commissioners, who are required to disburse it for the proper object, much, however, in their own way, under the general rule of one half being distributed equally among the several counties and the city of Baltimore, and the other half among the counties according to population. It is chiefly used to assist the various academies, and only in the counties where there are no academies is it appropriated to schools of a lower grade. It is difficult, in the absence of any general plan of reporting, or of any laws which distinctly recognize public schools as a part of the proper machinery of government, to understand precisely what is done or doing in this State. In 1843, the General Assembly had before them two bills, the one from Commissioners appointed to prepare it, and the other emanating from the Maryland Institute of Education, both designed to introduce a public school system. But neither was enacted. And, at present, each county is left to do much or little, as it pleases, for its schools; and there are no reliable returns of any importance.-Am. Ed. Year-Book, 1857. This Society was founded in 1843, and incorporated in March, 1844. The library is quite large and in a flourishing condition. It contains, besides a good collection of books, many valuable newspapers and manuscripts. The State Legislature has placed under its care the journals of the old Council, and many letters to and from the Governors and Proprietors. Among the MSS. are several unpublished orders of General Washington, and some valuable letters from officers of the Maryland line, with regard to the Southern campaign. Connected with this Society is a gallery of fine arts, consisting of good copies of the best pictures of the old masters, and original pictures of native artists, together with portraits of distinguished men connected with the founding of the Colony and its early history. There is also a department designed, in particular, to illustrate the Natural History of the State. The officers for 1857-58 (chosen February 5, 1857) are as follows:- President, Gen. J. Spear Smith; Vice-President, Hon. John P. Kennedy; Corresponding Secretary, Hon. J. Morrison Harris; Recording Secretary, S. F. Streeter; Treasurer, John Hanan; Librarian, Rev. E. A. Dalrymple. THE PEABODY INSTITUTE, BALTIMORE. Mr. George Peabody, banker in London, upon his recent visit to this country, placed in the hands of trustees $300,000 (to be probably increased to half a million) for the endowment of an institution to be called the Peabody Institute; the charge and management of which, after the building shall have been completed, is assigned by him to the Historical Society. The plan contemplates a free library, a gallery of art, a lecture-room, and a regular course of lectures, a concert-room, and instruction in music, and rooms for the Society; together with a fund for prizes, to be distributed annually to the most meritorious of the male and female pupils of the public schools and the School of Design. - Hist. Mag., Vol. I. p. 77. |