The Legislature has done all that can be accomplished by legis lation to promote the cause of common school education, excepting by a resort to compulsory enactments. The spirit of our institutions is adverse to measures of this description. The success of the common school system has been mainly accomplished by arguments addressed to the reason and the interests of the people. Without a radical change of policy, the improvements, of which it is susceptible, can only be introduced through the influence of the same motives. The Superintendent has heretofore expressed the belief, that nothing was wanting but a full view of the subject on the part of the inhabitants of school districts to bring into the schools a better grade of teachers. He has seen nothing to shake his confidence in this opinion, although it must be admitted that the change for the better on which it is founded, proceeds by very slow degrees. When the measures adopted by the Regents of the University shall have been carried into full effect, a more rapid and general improvement may reasonably be anticipated. These measures will now be briefly considered. Education of Common School Teachers. In pursuance of the provisions of the act before referred to bearing date the 2d May, 1834, and authorizing the Regents of the University to apply a part of the income of the Literature Fund to the education of common school teachers, a plan was reported to the Regents for the purpose of carrying into effect the intention of the act on the 8th of January, 1835, and adopted at a subsequent meeting of the board. The outlines of the plan are briefly as follows. An academy was selected in each of the eight Senate districts, and a department engrafted upon it for the education of teachers. To support these departments, each academy received from the Literature Fund a sufficient sum to procure the following articles of apparatus, &c.: An Orrery. A Numeral Frame, and Geometrical Solids. A moveable Planisphere. A Tide Dial. An Optical apparatus. The Mechanical Powers. [Assem. No. 6.] 6 A Hydrostatic apparatus. A Pneumatic apparatus. A Chemical apparatus. One hundred specimens of Mineralogy. Instruments to teach Surveying. A Map of the United States. A Map of the State of New-York. An Atlas. A Telescope. A Quadrant. In addition to this provision, the sum of $191 was appropriated to enlarge the library of each of the academies in which a department was established. These expenditures were intended merely to put the departments in operation. For their support, each department is to receive annually to pay the salary of a tutor, the further sum of $400, from the Literature Fund, which, in addition to the means of the academies, was deemed adequate to the object. The students in the departments are required to be thoroughly instructed in the following branches or subjects: 1. The English language. 2. Writing and Drawing. 3. Arithmetic, mental and written, and Book-keeping. 4. Geography and General History combined. 5 The History of the United States. 6. Geometry, Trigonometry, Mensuration, and Surveying. 7. Natural Philosophy, and the elements of Astronomy. 8. Chemistry and Mineralogy. 9. The Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of New-York. 10. Select parts of the Revised Statutes, and the Duties of Public Officers. 11. Moral and Intellectual Philosophy. 12. The Principles of Teaching. To these subjects it is understood to be in contemplation of the Regents to add Algebra. The term of study is three years, but only eight months in each year are devoted to instruction. There is a vacation of four months in winter, to enable the students, many of whom will, it is supposed, need such a resource, to teach a district school, and thus earn something to support them in completing their course of preparation. At the end of the term, each student is to be examined publicly, and if he passes a satisfactory examination in all the prescribed subjects of study, he is to receive a diploma under the seal of the academy. The departments were organized in the summer of 1835, and in several of the academies they are already in successful operation. For the purpose of securing entire uniformity in the course of study and the results, the principals of the academies were invited to meet a committee of the Regents of the University in the city of Albany, on the 1st of September last, and settle some preliminary arrangements. The meeting was attended by seven of the eight gentlemen, who were several days in session, the extent to which instruction in each subject of study should be carried was agreed on, and a comparison of opinions was made on every question connected with the management of the departments under their direction. The course has commenced on a uniform plan in all, and it will be carried out in such a manner as to secure uniform results. The influence of a large number of individuals thoroughly trained to the business of teaching cannot, if they find employment, be otherwise than beneficial, and it may do more than all other causes combined to bring about a salutary reform in the only particular in which the common school system can be considered materially defective. If the liberal provisions of the Legislature are not met with a corresponding liberality on the part of the people of the State, the measure adopted by the Regents of the University will be fruitless. The individuals who shall have prepared themselves for the business of teaching, must abandon it unless it yields them a fair remuneration for their services. But on the other hand, if sounder views on this subject shall be found to prevail; if the inhabitants of school districts will but see their true interest in employing well trained teachers, our common schools will soon bear, in their intellectual condition, an honorable relation to the other parts of the system, and exhibit in all its internal details the same order and perfection, which prevail in its organization. The provisions of the law have been ample, and it remains only to give an impulse to that effective public opinion which when once moved, is sure to bring about the results, to which it is directed. To this end the attention of all the friends of education should be turned. The people have the principal control of the system, and their opinions must be influenced. Discussion in almost any shape may promote the object. It attracts the attention of individuals and the public; and even though it may not always point to the true remedy, when it has exposed a defect, it can hardly fail to draw out the views of others and shed light on the subject. In passing the law, under which departments for the education of teachers have been established, the Legislature has merely provided for the more complete execution of a design long entertained, so far as respects the employment of the academies for the purpose. The propriety of founding separate institutions upon the model of the seminaries for teachers in Prussia, was for several years a subject of public discussion in this State. It was contended on the one hand, that such institutions would be more likely to secure the object in view; and on the cther, that it might be as effectually and more readily accomplished through the organized academies. By the act of 13th April, 1827, the avowed object of which was "to promote the education of teachers," the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was added to the capital of the Literature Fund, the income of which is appropriated to the support of the academies subject to the visitation of the Regents of the University. Thus, although the plan of engrafting upon the academies departments for the preparation of teachers may not have been contemplated at that time, yet this measure is to be regarded only as a more complete development of the design of the Legislature in passing the act referred to. School District Libraries. By an act passed at the last session of the Legislature, the inhabitants of school districts were authorized to vote a tax, not exceeding twenty dollars, to purchase a library for their common use, and such additional sum as should be deemed necessary to procure a book case. They were also authorized to vote a further tax, not exceeding ten dollars in any one year, to make additions to the library. As has been already stated, they were empowered by the same act to choose at the annual meeting of the district, a librarian, whose duty it should be to take charge of the library, and have the care and custody of it under such regulations as the inhabitants of the district should prescribe. The object of this provision has not been in all cases distinctly understood. It was not so much for the benefit of children attending school, as for those who have completed their common school education. Its main design was to throw into school districts and place within the reach of all their inhabitants, a collection of good works on subjects calculated to enlarge their understandings and store their minds with useful knowledge. It was believed that such a measure would come strongly in aid of other provisons, adopted with a view to the intellectual improvement of the great body of the people, and to point them to the true sources of their respectability and power. Works of a juvenile character would not, therefore, as a general rule, be suited to the purposes of the law. For a more full understanding of the subject, the following extract from the report of the Superintendent for the year 1834, in introducing it to the attention of the Legislature, is subjoined. "If the inhabitants of school districts were authorized to lay a tax upon their property for the purpose of purchasing libraries for the use of the district, such a power might, with proper restrictions, become a most efficient instrument in diffusing useful knowledge, and in elevating the intellectual character of the people. A vast amount of useful information might in this manner be collected where it would be easily accessible, and its influence could hardly fail to be in the highest degree salutary, by furnishing the means of improvement to those who have finished their common school education, as well as to those who have not. The demand for books would ensure extensive editions of works containing matter judiciously selected at prices which competition would soon reduce to the lowest rate at which they could be furnished. By making the imposition of the tax wholly discretionary with the inhabitants of each district, and leaving the selection of the works under their entire control, the danger of rendering such a provision subservient to the propagation of particular doctrines or opinions would be effectually guarded against by their watchfulness and intelligence. The power of the inhabitants to lay taxes, is restricted to specific objects, and a legislative act would be necessary to enlarge it." The law has already been carried into effect in numerous instances, and all that is necessary to ensure a much more extensive ap |