for admission was held. Mr. Sherwin presided over the examination and superintended it with his usual energy, fidelity, and diligence; and thus his work for the year as head master was fully and thoroughly done; and on the afternoon of the next day, Friday, July 23d, he was suddenly summoned without a moment's warning, or a moment's suffering probably, to the reward of his labors in another world. Immediately on receiving intelligence of this sad event, a meeting of the committee on the English High School was called, at which, after voting to attend the funeral in a body, the following Preamble and Resolutions were approved, and on being submitted to the Board of School Committee, at a special meeting held in August, were unanimously adopted.

It having pleased Almighty God to remove, by sudden death, THOMAS SHERWIN, for many years Principal and Head Master of the English High School, the Committee on that School feel it due to his memory and to the emotions of their own hearts, and as an expression of their appreciation of his character and services, and of his great loss to the interests of education, to submit to the School Committee the following Resolutions, and ask their adoption.

1. Resolved, That the sudden death of Mr. Thomas Sherwin, in the full vigor and maturity of his powers, and of his most active and beneficent usefulness as a teacher, at a time when, uniting the wisdom and experience of age with the ardor and enthusiasm of youth, he seemed best fitted to do great good, to inform the minds, enlarge the hearts, and mould to a noble, moral manliness the characters of the youth under his instruction and influence, is a great public bereavement and loss.

2. Resolved, That the character and services of Mr. Sherwin, his simplicity, purity, integrity, and conscientiousness as a man, his wisdom, fidelity, devotedness, and enthusiasm as a teacher, the immeasurable influence for good which he has exerted upon many hundreds of young men who have passed under his instruction and care, entitle him to rank as a public benefactor, and claim for his memory the high respect and gratitude of this community.

3. Resolved, That, while we bow in profound submission to this appointment of Providence, and express our sincere sympathy with his bereaved family, we rejoice that all—relatives, kindred, and friends may find rich consolation in the memory of a character so pure, a life so noble in its aims and wide and lasting in its usefulness, and gather admonition and incentive from a death so sudden yet so thoroughly prepared for.

4. Resolved, That these resolutions be published, and a copy sent to the family of the deceased.

In these resolutions it is believed there is no exaggeration. They may be but a feeble and inadequate expression of the feelings of some who have known him long, and loved and honored him much; they are certainly nothing more than a just tribute to the many virtues, to the noble character, to the long and eminently faithful and successful services of the late Head Master of the English High School, whose name will long be fragrant in the hearts of all connected with or interested in that school, and in the memory of all the friends of good learning, thorough scholarship, and popular education everywhere. Mr. Sherwin was remarkable for his intellectual and moral growth, his progress in influence and power to the very last days of his life. He never did more or better or greater work than in this his last year as head of this school. His record in the hearts and

characters of his pupils is as honorable to him and of more value to them and to the community than his discipline of their intellects, and the thorough and accurate instruction he imparted. He sent out year by year from the English High School, young men with not only the intellectual culture, but the moral principle and moral tone of character needed for the promotion and preservation of the best interests of the community; and the best, the most eminent and the most successful of these will be the most ready to acknowledge their obligations to his influence as an incentive and defence to them amid the temptations that assailed them in the early paths of life. His reputation was not confined to the English High School, nor will it soon die; long and widely will he be remembered and honored as a good and noble man, a scholar of large and varied acquisitions, a teacher, superior to the influences of habit and routine, ever wise, fresh and progressive in his methods, ever doing his work with greater fidelity and success. "God buries his workmen but carries on his work." And the loss of Mr. Sherwin as a noble "workman" at the head of the English High School is great and will be long felt, yet we may hope that the work will be carried on, and that some one competent and worthy to do it will be found.

The committee, constituted by the Rules of the Board, and authorized to nominate candidates to fill vacancies in the masterships of the High Schools, held several meetings during the vacation, and in the expectation of being prepared to proceed to an election,

at their request a special meeting of the School Committee was called by the President on the 28th of August. But one or two persons, whom it was supposed had allowed their names to be presented as candidates, withdrew them, and it was thought that the rule requiring an advertisement of the vacancy and a thorough examination of candidates had not been so fully regarded as it ought to be, and that consequently the number of candidates presented was too limited to justify the Board in proceeding to an election, which was accordingly postponed till November, and the Committee on Nomination were ordered to comply most thoroughly with the rules requiring an advertisement of the vacancy and a thorough examination of the candidates.

Meantime the committee having special charge of the school, have appointed Mr. C. M. Cumston, senior master, to discharge for the present the duties of head master, and the school has opened for the term under his management.

At the annual examination in July, and the second examination, held on the second Monday in September, two hundred and sixty-one candidates were examined for admission. Of these thirty-eight were rejected, and two hundred and twenty-three admitted; one hundred and seventy-nine without conditions, forty-six with conditions; and of those admitted with or without conditions, twenty-six have not presented themselves at the school, leaving the actual number of new scholars one hundred and eighty-seven. The

school opens therefore for the year with three hundred and eighty-one pupils, viz. seventy in the first class, one hundred and twenty-five in the second class, and one hundred and eighty-seven in the third class. This large increase in the number of pupils requires and authorizes an additional sub-master, and Mr. John P. Brown has been temporarily appointed. The Committee have also employed as a substitute for Mr. Cumston, while engaged in the duties of head-master, Mr. C. B. Travis, usher in the Mayhew School, the committee of that school relieving him temporarily for this purpose.

The High School edifice in Bedford street was enlarged a few years ago by the addition of another story; but it is now too small to meet the wants of the school. Last year we had to put two teachers and seventy pupils in the ward room in Harrison avenue, where they were very poorly accommodated. This year we shall require to have more of the wardroom building assigned to us, and then we shall not be well accommodated. The school suffers from being thus divided. The attention of the Committee on school-houses is respectfully called to the subject of more ample accommodations for the English High School.

The English High School was instituted for a specific purpose. That purpose is distinct and important, and the school has been and is successfully accomplishing it. Instruction in the ancient classics and literature was no part of that purpose; and the committee are not prepared at present to recommend