The number of teachers employed for the year ending September 30, 1866, was 121-male, 13; female, 108. The amount paid for salaries of teachers was $37,267 52, giving to each teacher, as an average, a salary of $308, very nearly. For school-houses and repairs, &c., $13.213 91 were expended, and the total expenditures were $48,268 24, making the average expense per scholar, for all the schools, $14 70. The number of children in private, parochial, charitable, and incorporated schools was 3,278. The whole number between the ages of 5 and 21 was 13,683.

For the year ending February 28, 1866, the cost for instruction per pupil in average attendance in the high school was $32 08; grammar schools, $17 83; intermediate schools, $11; primary schools, $6 72; colored school, $26 34.

The special supervision of the schools is given to the superintendent, who is also clerk of the board of education.

The school library contains 1,741 volumes, valued at $1,200.

WASHINGTON, District of Columbia.

Condensed statement of the present population and condition of public schools in the District of Columbia in 1867.

In Washington there are 4 male and 4 female grammar schools, 4 male and 7 female intermediate schools, 14 male and 15 female secondary schools, 20 male and 20 female primary schools. The city is divided into four districts, with three trustees to each district, making twelve in all, who are nominated by the mayor and confirmed by the board of aldermen.

There are also 49 colored schools, of which 10 are grammar schools, 8 intermediate, 9 secondary, 20 primary, and 2 mixed schools.

In Georgetown there is 1 male and 1 female grammar school, and 3 male and 3 female primary schools, which are controlled by 7 guardians appointed by the councils. Here there are also 1 grammar, 2 intermediate, 2 secondary, and 3 primary schools for colored children. The colored schools of Washington and Georgetown are under the direction of three trustees, appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, and 31 of these schools are supported now by funds

provided by the two cities, and 26 are supported chiefly by charitable associa tions at the north; but they are all under the special superintendence of Mr. A. E. Newton.

In the county there are 8 ungraded and mixed white schools, and 7 similar colored schools, under the control of 7 commissioners who are appointed by the levy court.

WHEELING, Virginia.

The population of Wheeling in 1860 was 14,083. The number of children between six and twenty-one years of age is, males, 2,882; females, 3,091; total, 5,973.

The board of education is established in accordance with an act of the State legislature.

The schools are divided into grammar and primary, with such grades in each as may be necessary; 6 grammar and 10 primary.

The number of pupils belonging was: m les, 1,089; females, 1,003; total, 2,092. The average daily attendance was: males, 973; females, 871; total, 1,844. The number of teachers employed was 45; males 7 and females 38. The amount paid for salaries was $20.824. City superintendent, $1,350, and secretary of the board, $435; incidentals, $3,637; and for buildings, &c., $6,945, making the total expenses $33,191.

The whole value of school property is, for school-houses, $54,000; furniture, $6,225; apparatus, $525; land, $12,700; total, $73,450.

WILMINGTON, Delaware.

The population of Wilmington in 1860 was 21,508.

The board of public education consists of three members from each war elected by the ballots of a majority of the legal voters annually. The term office is three years, one going out each year.

There are ten grades of schools, and the first eight grades have studies similar to those usually in the primary, secondary and intermediate, and the ninth and tenth grades have studies similar to the usual grammar schools. The studies in the tenth grade include, besides the common studies, algebra, natural philosophy, astronomy, anatomy, and physiology, designed for girls.

There are fifty teachers, all females. One female teacher gets $1,000 per annum, and the others vary from $465 to $320 each. There are school accommodations for about 3,000 pupils, and the attendance is very regular, so that the average attendance is about 3,000.

WORCESTER, Massachusetts.

The population of the city of Worcester in 1867 was 36,000. The whole number of pupils registered in the schools during the year 1867 was 7,725. The average number for the whole year was 5,496.

The school committee consists of twenty four members, and is presided over by the mayor of the city, and has a clerk and a superintendent. The board holds regular meetings monthly and special meetings at the call of the mayor. For the transaction of ordinary business seven members constitute a quorum; for the election of a superintendent and secretary, the election and dismissal of teachers, and the appropriation of money the quorum is thirteen. The superintendent is elected annually in October by ballot He is the executive officer of the board, and has the supervision of all the schools, reporting quarterly to the board in writing as to the condition of the schools and any plans for their improvement which he may have to communicate, and also preparing the annual report of the school committee.

The schools under the care of the board are suburban, ungraled, sub-primary, primary, intermediate-primary, secondary, grammar schools of the third, second, and first grade, and a high school, classical and English. There is also what is called a young men's school. There are three grammar schools of the first grade with male' principals, four of the second grade having female principals, and ten of the third grade having female principals. In the high school, besides the principal, there are five female assistants. The whole number of teachers aside from the teachers of the young men's school is 97, 4 males and 93 females. In 1867 it was 115, 7 males and 108 females. The amount paid for salaries of teachers in 1867 was $61,711 44, or an average for each teacher of $536 62. The average cost of tuition only per scholar was $11 23. The total ordinary expenses for the year were $88,970, and the average cost per scholar was $11 55. The whole taxable property of the city is valued at $23,936,900. The whole number of seats in all schools of all kinds is 5,960.

In passing in review this summary of the condition of the public schools in the capitals and chief cities of the several States, it will appear that these cities, in respect to the efficiency of their schools and school systems, may be grouped into three classes:

First. Those which have no system, or schools which can be regarded in any light as public; and if schools exist under that name, they are either avowedly or practically for the poor.

Second. Those cities which have nominally a system of public schools, but the schools are so imperfectly organized, so limited in their range, and so inefficiently administered, that they possess few of the conditions of success, and fail to realize even the first purpose for which public schools are instituted-the elementary education of children of all classes of the community.

Third. Those cities which have a broad and liberal system of public instruction, with all the conditions of success, and all the agencies of progress, although none of them yet realize fully the ideal of American public instruction—that is, instruction free, or so cheap as to be within the reach of the poor, and at the same time good enough to meet the wants of the rich and the educated, and practically shared by all the children of the recognized school age. I. Those of the first class are generally found in cities in which there is no State system of public instruction, and in which the reliance of parents is mainly upon incorporated or denominational institutions, and private schools and tutors, for the education of their children. Some of these institutions have been and are highly useful, and meet the wants of the rich in certain localities passably well; but the great majority in such communities is scarcely touched, either directly or indirectly, by their influence. And in these cities are found large numbers of absolutely illiterate persons, and no encouraging manifestation of public interest in the subject of popular education. To this class belong more than two-thirds of all the cities and large boroughs and villages of the country, which, from the number and concentration of the inhabitants, have all the conditions of a graded system of public schools.

II. In the second class will be found cities where the system, so far as it extends, is good, but which is deficient in the conditions of uniformity, and provision for inspection and progress, and in that extension of the means of education which meet, on the one hand, the wants of the poor, and on the other the larger demands of the wealthy and educated; and thus fails to interest all classes of the community in its administration and success. To this class belongs the system of the District of Columbia.

III. In the third class will be found cities where the best features of the American system exist, in which public schools are regarded with the same favor and are fostered with the same liberality that is manifested in supplying! the city with water, light, and well-paved streets, and in which all the conditions of success-the houses, teachers, books, and supervision-are regarded, while, at the same time, the direct interest of parents in the work of instruction is secured. In none of these cities can the system be said to have reached its fullest development, either in the quality or universality of the instruction imparted; but in all, the most encouraging results have been attained, and every year chronicles additional progress in securing the general, continuous, and punctual attendance, and in extending and perfecting the subjects and details of instruction.

These cities are not always found in States where a State system is in vigorous operation. As good public schools are to be found in Charleston, New Orleans, St. Louis, or Louisville, as in any other cities of the country, simply because they possess those conditions of success without which public schools in cities cannot be made good. Neither are these cities confined to States where the system itself, either of the city or State, has been long in operation, although in this class come the older cities of Boston, New Haven, etc. In nearly all of them the excellences of the system have been attained within the last quarter of a century, and in most the systems themselves have been originated within that period. Looking to the history of the schools in the great cities of Chicago, San Francisco, and many of the smaller cities, and even villages of the Western States, it would seem as if any city in the land might, in five years, place its schools in a condition of vigorous prosperitythat is, it could have schools good enough for the rich, cheap enough for the poor, and numerous enough for all, maintained at less cost per scholar than is now paid in the best private schools.

Comparing the system of public schools in the District of Columbia with the systems just named, we find here a lack of simplicity in organization, uniform vigor, and efficiency of administration and instruction; there is one system for Georgetown, another for Washington, and another for the county; and still different arrangements in all for the colored population. A child moving from one portion of the District to another, either could not at once find admission into the public school, or fall readily into that grade or class of school which he had left; and in some he might find no convenient public school, or any public school open to him, all the places in existing schools being full.

From the want of an intelligent, vigilant, and omnipresent administration and inspection, the schools in different localities are unequally developed, the system is administered with unequal efficiency, and some of the schools suffer in respect to houses, equipment, instruction, and discipline; the degree of intelligence, school interest, and fidelity in different members of the School Board manifesting itself in these results.

Judged by the standard of spacious, attractive, convenient, and healthy school houses, every part of the District, with two exceptions, will suffer in comparison with every other great city in the country. But such as they are, there are not enough, and the District is paying a large tax for the rent of houses, in every way inadequate and insufficient for the children of the District. A million dollars might be wisely and judiciously expended in this direction and still leave the District behind a majority of cities of the same population in other parts of the country.

In the vital point of attendance in public schools, or other institutions (adventure and denominational) which is attracting the attention of those who are entrusted with the affairs of public instruction in our cities, the City of Washington, as well as the whole District, ranks exceedingly low, both in respect

to public schools, or schools of any kind. Out of a school population of 33,115, between the ages of six and eighteen, but 8,422 are returned as in average daily attendance in all the public schools of the District. And if to these be added the number of 5.584 (many of whom are under six) in attendance on incorporated asylums and private schools of all kinds, it will still give only a little more than one-third of the children of the teachable age in attendance in any school, public or private.

The most remarkable fact in connection with the public schools, as compared with the extended course of instruction in the other large cities of the country, is the limitation of the pupils to the merest elementary branchesspelling, reading, writing, mental and written arithmetic, and rudimentary geography-there being, in all the public schools in the District, only fortytwo pupils returned in algebra, nineteen in astronomy, eighteen in botany, and two hundred and seventy-two in the Constitution of the United States. Although, if properly mastered, the subjects actually pursued lie at the foun dation of all sound instruction; yet parents who wish to secure thorough and liberal culture to their children, will not be content with schools in which these branches only are taught. While there is some ground of apprehension that the range of subjects is two extended in elementary schools in some of our cities, there can be no question that a limitation of public school instruction, to these few studies, now included in the schools of this District, will inevitably be to exclude, not simply the children of the educated and wealthy, but those of all parents who desire to give a thorough' education to their children. Hence it is that we find so many private schools and denominational institutions of every grade in the District, attended by nearly as many scholars, and maintained at the same annual expense as the public schools.

In respect to teachers, the number and compensation of male teachers, and the compensation of female teachers, Washington compares favorably with other cities; but the absence of schools of the highest order necessarily implies the absence of a class of teachers which such schools always require. As compared with the very best systems there is an absence of special institutions and agencies for the training of pupils of the right character for the work of instruction. And no continuous, efficient agency is at work, in monthly or quarterly meetings, for the professional improvement of the whole corps of teachers.

In respect to supervision, the best indication of the real vitality of a school system, the District is behind almost all the large cities of the country. Out of forty of the largest cities, in respect to population and pecuniary resources, Washington, and the whole District considered as a single city, is one of the few which has not one or more persons whose whole time is devoted to the work of administration and supervision. The success of this branch of the system will depend, however, on the intelligence, fidelity, and discretion of the officer, and on such a specification of duties as will relieve the faithful and intelligent teacher from untimely and vexatious interference.

In the support of schools, with the limited range of instruction given, the amount appropriated is large, being at the rate of twenty dollars ($20) per pupil, and yet, by a small addition to the cost of education per child, instruction equal to that given in the best academic and collegiate institutions in the country could have been secured in a public high school.

As a source of all improvement, and an indication of the successful working of the public schools, there is not to be found in the District, as compared with the principal cities of the country, a lively parental and public interest; at least such an interest is not manifested in frequent visits to schools, in the respect paid to teachers, and in the frequent public and home discussion of