general conformity to that of the university.* The same is true in regard to the instruction, with this difference, that as all the courses tend towards the preparation for university degrees and university honours, there is a general conformity in the several colleges in the subjects taught and methods of teaching. The instruction given by the tutors in the colleges is upon the same general plan, a mixture of lecture and recitation, and, as the attendance upon the lectures of the university professors is not obligatory, forms the real basis of the intellectual part of the university education. The inducements held out to exertion in these schools by the rewards which the fellowships and the stations to which they may lead hold forth, and which bring into them the greater part of the best talent of England, produce results which are of the highest order, but which cannot fairly be considered as depending mainly upon the system of instruction and discipline. It must require a very accurate knowledge of facts, with an entire absence of prejudice, to reason as to the general results of the various parts of the complex system, which has grown with the growth of these institutions themselves, and is, therefore, now very deeply rooted. "I consider the opportunity which I enjoyed of witnessing some of the written examinations at Cambridge as of the highest value, and am no longer surprised at the attachment to this method which is there felt. It is accurate and expeditious in its results, removes all possibility of, or temptation to, show, and even the suspicion of partiality, in the distribution of important places. While I am not yet persuaded that it can supersede the viva voce method, or be employed to such an extent as to sink the use of the latter into comparative insignificance, yet, if the choice lay between the use of the one or other method extensively, I should now prefer the former. "At the university of Dublin (Trinity College,) the advantages of the tutorial system are combined with that of the lectures by professors, which the students are enjoined to attend, and the same is the case at the recently erected university of Durham. This university has set the example of adding instruction in civil engineering to its literary courses, and has admitted the modern languages into the latter. King's College and London University College have hardly yet taken the form which time must impress upon them in their new connexion with the London University; the enactments of this recent corporation, in regard to the requirements for degrees, must ultimately regulate the higher studies of these and other institutions, presenting candidates for them. This bare enumeration will serve to show, that to give any thing like an idea of institutions so various in their character, would require much time and more space than could properly be bestowed in a report, to the purpose of which the greater part of the particulars would be found inappropriate. No doubt useful hints might be gathered, but by far the greater part of the matter would be entirely inapplicable to our purpose. For example, the system of university degrees, by which encouragement is given to general effort, and of the privilege to teach, or of stations without actual duty, by which, in many establishments, individual exertion is stimulated and rewarded, are entirely inapplicable to the circumstances of our institution. Again; the tone and modes of discipline, both in those institutions where the pupils reside and in those where they merely come at stated times to receive instruction, are inapplicable to our case, and the general organization and government are not less so. Fur * A very accurate account of the universities of Cambridge and Oxford is to be found in the report to the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, by Philip H. Nicklin, Esq., one of its members. ther, the instruction, as far as it is of a special character, qualifying for admission to the learned professions, as in the continental system, has, of course, no bearing upon our arrangements, and leaves for profitable study the subjects of at most two faculties. In these the titles of the branches themselves would be all that could serve us; for the mode of lecturing being universally adopted, the treatment of the subject depends upon the individual professor." We hope that the author may be induced, at some future time, to furnish, either in a supplementary report, or in some other form, the result of his visits to the universities. A detail of their organizations, various and dissimilar as they are, and complicated as some of them, by long usage, have become, would be highly interesting to the scholars of this country. However disposed some of the readers of this volume may be to complain of repetition in the statistical accounts of institutions, similar in their objects, we do not see how the reporter could have omitted any of his tabular illustrations, or individual statements, without furnishing grounds of complaint to those who will look to his volume for a specific statement of each, or any, of the prominent institutions relative to which they may wish information. It is by a minute comparison of means and results that we arrive at the most valuable truths in practical science; and certain it is that in the great science of education there is still much to be learnt, and to no people is this knowledge more important than to the inhabitants of our republic. The state of popular education in the different parts of our extended territory is perhaps as various as in the different countries of Europe visited by Dr. Bache. However we may be disposed to congratulate ourselves on the provision made in most of the States for supporting schools, a strict examination would, we fear, demonstrate in many parts of our country, as great a destitution of all literary instruction as could be found in almost any part of Europe. In particular sections of the United States the most laudable efforts are unquestionably in operation to elevate the standard of common schools and academies to the highest point of philanthropic ambition; but whoever reads attentively the volume before us must make the acknowledgment, however painful to his amor patriæ, that in no part of our favoured land is the science of education fully understood, and its precepts carried into practical operation. The main reason is that little or nothing has been done to educate those who are to become the educators of the people. The means have not been provided for opening the arena of competition for the display of genius and talent in the highest of all practical arts-the discovery of the most efficient means of evolving the powers of the mind in connexion with the virtuous energies of the heart and affections. Until the business of the educator is raised to a rank correspondent in respectability with any other professional pursuit, it is not to be imagined that skill will be shown in the management of schools to a degree which the wants and faculties of the man, while "yet in the gristle," absolutely require. This subject we know is beginning to claim attention in several of the States, and we regard it as the earnest of a spirit of higher importance to the welfare of the country, than any thing within the whole range of politics, trade, or other matters relating to mere physical improvement. It is in this point of view especially, that we could wish the Report of President Bache placed in the hands of every teacher and manager of schools throughout the country. It will show them at what an unimagined distance we are still behind, in spirit and advancement, the educational institutions of some parts of Europe; and yet with what an accelerated motion, with the means and appliances in our possession, we may follow on in the track of a noble rivalship, and the acquirement of a distinction as flattering to the moral strength of the nation as its ships, factories, and rail roads are to its intellectual and physical energies. As an example, appropriate to the pages of our journal, of the style and descriptive talent of the Reporter, so long an efficient colaborateur in the concerns of the Franklin Institute, we quote his account of the "School of Arts of Berlin." Institute of Arts of Berlin.* "This institution is intended to impart the theoretical knowledge essential to improvement in the arts, and such practical knowledge as can be acquired to advantage in a school. It is supported by the government, and has also a legacy, to be expended in bursaries at the school, from Baron Von Seydlitz. The institution is under the charge of a director, who has the entire control of the funds, of the admissions and dismissions, and the superintendence of the instruction. The professors and pupils do not reside in the establishment, so that the superintendence is confined to study-hours. There are assistant professors, who prepare the lectures, and conduct a part of the exercises, in some cases reviewing the lessons of the professors with the pupils. Besides these officers there are others, who have charge of the admirable collections of the institution, and of the work-shops, offices, &c. The number of professors is eight, and of repeaters, two. The discipline is of the most simple character, for no pupil is allowed to remain in connexion with the institution unless his conduct and progress are satisfactory. There is but one punishment recognised, namely, dismission; and even a want of punctuality is visited thus severely. "In the spring of every year the regencies advertise that applications will be received for admission into the institute, and the testimonials of the candidates who present the best claims are forwarded to the director at Berlin, who decides finally upon the several nominations. The pupils from the provincial schools have, in general, the preference over other applicants. At the same time notice is given by the president of the Society for the Promotion of National Industry, in relation to the bursaries vacant upon the Seydlitz foundation. The qualifications essential to admission are to read and write the German language with correctness and facility, and to be thoroughly acquainted with arithmetic in all its branches. The candidate must, besides, be at least seventeen years of age. Certain of the pupils, as will be hereafter more fully stated, require to have served an apprenticeship to a trade. The Seydlitz bursars must, in addition, show-1st. That their parents were not artizans, relatives of the founder having the pre * Gewerbinstitut, literally, trade institute. I am indebted to the director, privy counsellor Beuth, for a lithographic outline and programme of this institution, and to the Hon. Henry Wheaton, minister of the United States at Berlin, for an account of the industrial schools of Prussia, by Captain Beaulieu, Belgian chargé d'affaires at Berlin. M. Beuth gave me every facility ility in visiting the institution. † The director, M. Beuth, is also president of the Royal Technical Commission of Prussia, and has the distribution of the funds for the encouragement of industry, amounting to about seventy-five thousand dollars annually. M. Beuth is also a privy counsellor, and is president of the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry in Prussia. The object of M. Von Seydlitz appears to have been to counteract, to the extent of his power, the tendency to the increase of the learned professions, at the expense of the mechanic arts, by an inducement to a course exactly contrary to the usual one. ference over other applicants. 2d. That they have been apprenticed to a trade, if they intend to follow one not taught in the institution. 3d. They must enter into an engagement that if they leave the mechanical career they will pay back the amount of their bursaries. There are sixty or seventy gratuitous pupils in the school, of whom eighteen are upon the Seydlitz foundation. Forty are admitted annually, this number having been adopted because it is found that, in the course of the first month, about a fourth of the newly admitted pupils fall away from the institution. Each bursar receives two hundred and twenty-five dollars per annum for maintenance. The education is gratuitous. The regular pupils enter on the first of Oсtober; but the director is authorized to admit, at his pleasure, applicants who do not desire to become bursars, but who support themselves, receiving gratuitously, however, the instruction afforded by the institution. "The education of the pupils is either solely theoretical, or combines theory and practice, according to the calling which they intend to follow. The first division is composed of students, who receive theoretical instruction only, and who are preparing to become masons, carpenters, and joiners. They are supposed to have become acquainted with the practice of their trade before entering the institution, being required to have served, previously, a part of their apprenticeship. An excellent reason is assigned for this rule, namely, that on leaving the school such pupils are too old to begin their apprenticeship to these callings, and would, if they attempted to do so, find the first beginnings so irksome as to induce them to seek other employments, and thus their special education would be lost, and the object of the school defeated. The second division embraces both theoretical and practical instruction, and consists of three classes. First, the stone-cutters, engravers, lapidaries, glass-cutters, carvers in wood and ivory, and brassfounders. Second, dyers and manufacturers of chemical products. Third, machine-makers and mechanicians. The practical instruction is different for each of these three classes. "The general course of studies lasts two years, and the pupils are divided into two corresponding classes. The first class is, besides, subdivided into two sections. The lower, or second, class is taught first; mechanical drawing, subdivided into decorative drawing, including designs for architectural ornaments, utensils, vases, patterns for weaving, &c., and linear drawing, applied to civil works, to handicrafts, and to machines. Second, modeling in clay, plaster, and wax. Third, practical arithmetic. Fourth, geometry. Fifth, natural philosophy. Sixth, chemistry. Seventh, technology, or a knowledge of the materials, processes, and products of the arts. The studies of the lower section of the first class are general, while those of the first section turn more particularly upon the applications of science to the arts. In the lower section, the drawing, modeling, natural philosophy, and chemistry, of the first year, are continued; and, in addition, descriptive geometry, trigonometry, stereometry, mixed mathematics, mineralogy, and the art of construction, are studied. In the upper or first section, perspective, stone-cutting, carpentry, and mechanics applied to the arts, are taught, and the making of plans and estimates for buildings, work-shops, manufactories, machines, &c. These courses are common to all pupils, whatever may be their future destination; but beside them, the machinists study, during the latter part of their stay at the institution, a continuation of the course of mechanics and mathematical analysis. The examples accompanying the instruction in regard to plans and estimates are adapted to the intended pursuits of the pupils, There "The courses of practice are begun by the pupils already enumerated as taking part in them, at different periods of their stay in the institution. The future chemists and mechanics must have completed the whole range of studies above mentioned, as common to all the pupils, while the others begin their practice after having completed the first year's course. are work-shops for each class of pupils, where they are taught the practice of their proposed calling, under competent workmen. There are two foundries for bronze castings, one for small, the other for large castings, and the work turned out of both bears a high character. A specimen of this work is retained by the institution in a beautiful fountain, which ornaments one of the courts of the building. The models for castings are made in the establishment. In the first division of pupils, in reference to their callings, there are usually some whose art is connected with the fine arts in some of its branches, and these have an opportunity during part of the week to attend the courses of the Berlin Academy. The future chemists work for half the year in the laboratory. They are chiefly employed in chemical analysis, being furnished with the requisite materials for practice by the institution. In the shops for the instruction of mechanics are machines, for working in wood and the metals, a steam-engine of four horses' power, a forge, tools in great variety, lathes, &c. The pupils have the use of all necessary implements, according to their progress, and are gradually taught as if serving a regular apprenticeship. When capable, they are enabled to construct machines which may be useful to them subsequently, as a lathe, or machine for cutting screws, or the teeth of wheels, &c., and are furnished with all the materials for the purpose, the machine becoming their own property. In these work-shops, also, the models for the cabinet of the school are made. This is by far the most complete establishment for practice which I met with in any institution, and I believe the practice is both real and effectual. It involves, however, an expenditure which in other cases it has not been practicable to command. The scale of the whole institution is, in the particular of expenditure, most generous. "This is one specimen of the various plans which have been devised to give practical knowledge of an art in connexion with theory in a school. It is first most judiciously laid down that certain trades cannot be taught to advantage in a similar connexion, but that the practical knowledge must be acquired by an apprenticeship antecedent to the theoretical studies. There are besides, however, a large number of trades, the practice of which is to be taught in the institution, and requiring a very considerable expenditure to carry out the design properly. This could not be attempted in a school less munificently endowed, and requires very strict regulations to carry it through even here. The habits of a school work-shop are, in general, not those of a real manufactory, where the same articles are made to be sold as a source of profit; hence, though the practical knowledge may be acquired, the habits of work are not, and the mechanic may be well taught but not well trained. At the private school of Charonne, work-shops were established, giving a variety of occupation to the pupils; but the disposition to play rather than to work, rendered these establishments too costly to be supported by a private institution, and the plan adopted instead of this, was to make the pupils enter a regular work-shop for a stated number of hours, to work for the proprietor or lessee. This plan remedies one evil, but introduces another, that as the machinist takes orders, with a view to profit, the work may have so little variety as only to benefit a small class of the pupils. The pupils at Charonne are, however, under different circum |