a successful worker in that craft. In 1798 he brought the subject of the dearth of suitable opportunities for education before this association. When it was determined to move, there was a hesitation concerning the preparation of a suitable memorial to the legislature, and the suggestions of Mr. Howland were adopted. With characteristic moderation the legislature reported a provisional act which was submitted to the towns for examination. It was not till 1800, after Providence and Newport had approved, that an act was passed appropriating 20 per cent of the State taxation to education on condition that the towns would support schools under certain limitations proposed by the State. At once Providence, stirred up by Mr. Howland, availed herself of the law. Several private schoolhouses were bought by the city for $6,000 and a system of public education was at once inaugurated. But the inevitable reaction came in 1803 when the law was repealed, no town save Providence having taken advantage of its provisions. Mr. Howland declared that "while the wealthy and educated people of the State did not oppose, the class for whose benefit the law was specially intended was largely indifferent or hostile." An arrangement by which the small rural districts have always retained a greatly disproportioned representation in the legislature, then, as afterwards, bore its legitimate fruits. The voice of the two cities, in which three-fourths of the population, wealth, and personal influence of the State were concentrated, was suppressed by this disposition of political power conferred upon the least prosperous, intelligent, and progressive portion of the State.

During the following eighteen years the people of Rhode Island were not disturbed even by any "revisiting the glimpses of the moon" by the "perturbed spirit" of the dead and buried common school. In 1821 the legislature appointed a committee of inquiry" into the condition of public education. But this report, if indeed written, was not considered, and for six years more things went on as before. But in 1827, the year that Dr. Francis Wayland put his hand on the helm of the storm-beaten craft of Brown University, there came in a responsive wave of educational revival. Newport, in 1825, voted to raise a tax for the support of a free school. In 1827, after an agitation of a generation, the legislature set apart, from the income of a tax on lotteries and other assessments, the sum of $10,000 annually for public schools.

Every town was empowered to collect a tax, not exceeding twice the amount received from the State, to supplement the appropriation. This preliminary legislation was followed by other acts for the building of schoolhouses. In 1836 the city of Providence finally "got itself together," established a system of graded schools similar to those of other New England cities of its importance, and appointed Nathan Bishop superintendent. It is claimed that in the matter of city supervision of schools Providence led the Union. From that day the schools of Providence have been generously and successfully supported. In 1839 the State raised its annual appropriation to $25,000, aided by the reception of the United States surplus revenue. But still the good work dragged on; the situation more discouraging to the educational public from the poor pretense of doing what was in no large sense well conceived or executed.

In 1843 the first correct revelation of the educational condition of the State was made to the legislature. The retribution of long years of neglect of the people's fundamental right and necessity had come at last. The combination that had held the State in the grip of the original charter, granted to the colony by King Charles II of England, for more than half a century of the national life was confronted by an uprising of the people that, for a time, threatened to reach the dire extremity of a civil war. In the emergency both political parties in the legislature turned to the people's common school as a reconciling agency. The revelations of the report, presented by a committee of inquiry, were a surprise and humiliation to a people who had lived all their lives alongside a state of affairs of which they seemed to have no real conception. It was found that 1,600 in 108,000 of the people of Rhode Island were wholly illiterate, while the neighboring State of Connecticut, although in the bonds of its inefficient school system, could boast that only 526 in 309,000

were in utter ignorance. Outside the two chief cities and a few large towns, the schools were in a disgraceful condition; schoolhouses dilapidated, teachers meanly paid, probably at their full worth, and the schools practically useless.

The new constitution, born amid the throes of a popular revolution, contains this decisive and comprehensive clause:

ARTICLE XII.-Of education.

SEC. 1. The diffusion of knowledge, as well as of virtue, among the people, being essential to the preservation of their rights and liberties, it shall be the duty of the general assembly to promote public schools and to adopt all means which they may deem necessary and proper to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities

of education.

SEC. 2. The money which now is, or which may hereafter be appropriated by law for the establishment of a permanent fund for the support of public schools, shall be securely invested, and remain a perpetual fund for that purpose.

SEC. 3. All donations for the support of public schools or for other purposes of education, which may be received by the general assembly, shall be applied according to the terms prescribed by the donors.

SEC. 4. The general assembly shall make all necessary provisions by law for carrying this article into effect. They shall not divert said money or fund from the aforesaid uses, nor borrow, appropriate, or use the same, or any part thereof, for any other purpose, under any pretense whatsoever.

The time was now ripe for such a thoroughgoing reformation in popular education as has seldom been witnessed in any state in Christendom. With the new constitutional provision as a corner stone, with the example of Massachusetts already for ten years awakened from the lethargy of half a century by the thunderstorm of Horace Mann's cyclonic proclamation of his modest office of "secretary of the board of education," with Connecticut thoroughly aroused on the hither side, and, last of all, with the revelation of her own condition before the whole country, and with the leading educators in all the high places of university and academic life urging on, matters came to a head. Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, was invited to look over the field and suggest a plan of operation by which the good work could be well begun. He came, and, after due investigation from a tour of observation through the whole country, made a statement before the legislature and prominent citizens so convincing and reasonable that his hearers were not only "fully persuaded," but "showed their faith by their works," and offered him at once the laborious and difficult position of first superintendent of common schools of the State of Rhode Island. The story of how he accepted the offer, and how, through four memorable years, he wrought in his place, until he was recalled in 1850 to his own State for a second time to serve as the guide of its common school system, remains to be told as one of the most inspiring chapters of the record of the "great revival of education in the United States," midway of the nineteenth century.

If we have seemed to linger too long on the story of the common school in New England during this critical period of the first half century of the national life, it is because in what did not happen then and there and in what was made to happen by the great outbreak of enthusiasm and energy at the close of these years, this little northeastern corner of the Union stood conspicuous among all the States of the North and in sharp educational contrast to the Southern section of the Republic. For still another thirty years was New England to retain her leadership in this great national enterprise, the training of Young America, under the auspices of the State, for good American citizenship.

Of the numerous services rendered to the national life by New England this is by all odds the most conspicuous and permanent. That in due time this leadership, like her eminence in material prosperity, industrial genius, literary and artistic production, and the initiative in social, political, and moral reform, will pass onward into the charge of the great central realm of the West, from the valley of the Hudson to the Rocky Mountains, so largely settled by her own progressive sons and daughters, is neither to be denied nor regretted. For to every section of this Republic comes in

its own good time the opportunity to make a prominent and characteristic impression upon the nation. New England has done this, her best work, for all time. But such work leaves no individual or State exhausted and obsolete. Rather is it a perpetual inspiration at home, ever burning like a quenchless flame on the altar; inspiring to a more profound and broader conception of education itself; demanding of every new generation that intense and vital interest on the one theme whose faithful and persistent working out through the passing years will alone insure the perpetuity of that type of American society which shall become the normal school of freedom for all men in all lands around the world.

[Errata. Page 1542, paragraph 2, last sentence, should show that Ninian Edwards was Territorial governor of Illinois (1809-1818) and third governor of the State (18261830); also that his son Ninian W. Edwards was first State superintendent of instruction, 1854. Ninian Edwards died in 1833.]

CHAPTER XL.

PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS.1

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Parochial schools, called also parish schools, have not been separately shown in previous reports of the Bureau of Education. It is therefore fitting to explain conditions relating to these schools with a fullness that would not otherwise be desirable. It will be the effort to make an unbiased statement of historical accuracy. As far as it can be conveniently done, the views of authorities cited will be given in their own language.

There is some difficulty in clearly defining parochial schools, owing to variation in the use of the term. For example, a number of denominations maintain schools for their children which some might consider parochial, with no violence to the general definition, and yet it might be very difficult to separate some of these maintained by congregations from kindred schools maintained by the denomination. It has been found more convenient to treat the schools of the Friends, for example, as private denominational schools, although their elementary departments and some elementary schools may closely correspond to the parochial schools of some other denominations.

Moravian parochial school.—A peculiar case is that of the Moravians at Bethlehem, Pa. Besides a theological seminary and a seminary for young ladies, there is a school, established in 1742, still known as the Moravian parochial school. It is maintained by the congregation. Religious instruction is regularly given. The pupils from Moravian families observe the holidays of the church. The school has expanded within a few years so that it embraces a full set of departments from kindergarten to classes fitting for college. The advanced classes are partly made up of tuition pupils without regard to residence or religious profession. The elementary departments correspond to what are popularly called parochial schools, while the advanced departments correspond somewhat to an academy or other preparatory school. This school is remarkable for the long record it has as a school of elementary religious instruction and for the steadiness with which it has been quietly held to its original purpose.

Some similar combinations of elementary and advanced religious instruction in care of congregations might be found in other denominations. Some denominations have devoted great attention to education without establishing distinctively elementary congregational schools for the inculcation of their tenets.

Parochial schools defined.—The term parochial or parish school as here used applies to elementary schools maintained by congregations for their children with particular reference to their religious instruction. Such schools are to be distinguished from institutions maintained by groups of churches, such as dioceses, presbyteries, synods, assemblies, conferences, associations, or denominations, or supported as missions.

THE GENERAL DEMAND FOR RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

Over all the world, wherever civilization has advanced to the establishment of schools of any sort, in any age, the prevailing religious system makes the study of truth as shown in the books deemed sacred the fundamental idea in education, if not directly, yet as the ultimate foundation.