ences and usages. In 1810 the school administration was committed to the "school college," consisting of sixteen members, (the syndics, the president of the council, the protonotary, ecclesiastical and civil deputies of the parish, and the director of the Catharineum,) who made report to the senate every 2-3 years. At the same time the immediate oversight of the several schools was with the clergy, and the care of their external affairs with the burgher inspectors. But this ordinance fails of enforcement, inasmuch as the preparatory city school is under the provincial court, the poor school under the Institution for the Poor, the Society for the promotion of Popular Enterprise has the charge of its own schools, some endowed schools have their special superintendents, and some private schools are directly under the senate. Of the 469 teachers reported in 1845 as giving instruction to the 4,500 school children of Lübeck, no less than 116 are represented as holding "independent positions," a fact which alone sufficiently shows the great disintegration which exists in the school system. The poor school is the only one that is wholly sustained by the city.

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN GERMANY.

GENERAL SUMMARY AND STATISTICS.

ORGANIZATION OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

In every German State, the supervision, and in most States the direction of all institutions of an educational character, is exercised by the Government, generally through a responsible Minister-acting with the cooperation of a central council, and a provincial corps of inspectors. In every State there are, at least, three degrees of instruction, provided for by special legislation and aided by governmental appropriations.

I. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION.

THE system of public elementary instruction in Germany did not originate in any one State, and is not the growth of any one period. In its primitive form, it is as old as the Christian Church, whose officers are still recognized in the administration of the public school in nearly every German State, although the present movement everywhere is to separate the school from all ex-officio ecclesiastical authority. The cardinal features of the system are:

First. The right and duty of the State, through municipal and parental coöperation, to establish at least one elementary school within walking distance of every child of the legal school age, and to authorize and aid educational institutions of a higher and special character, adapted to the wishes and wants of different localities.

Second. The recognition and enforcement of the obligation, on the part of parents, to secure the regular elementary instruction of every child between the ages of 6 and 14 years, in some school, public or private.

Third. The special preparation of teachers, as far as practicable, for each grade of school, with opportunities for professional improvement and promotion, and the guaranty of a living salary, including pecuniary aid when sick, infirm, or aged, and for their families in case of death.

Fourth. Subjects of instruction, selected in reference to their being immediately and permanently useful as knowledge, and so arranged as to aid the natural development of the faculties.

Fifth. A system of inspection, variously organized, but intelligent, frequent, constant and responsible, reaching every school and every teacher, and pervading the whole system, by which parents and the government are assured that the aim of the law is realized in respect to the qualifications of teachers, and the health and profitable labor of the pupils. With this system of universal, scientific and thorough elementary instruction, carried on sufficiently long to have molded the habits of families and communities, the following statistics, studied in connection with the subjects and methods of education, are significant.

1. Anhalt.

4. Badeu...

5. Bavaria

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN GERMANY.

TABLE I.-Elementary Schools in Germany as constituted in 1865.

Country.

2. Austria, (German Provinces).

3. Austria, (nou-German Provinces)

V. SUBJECTS AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

IN

THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF PRUSSIA.

BEFORE presenting an outline of the course of instruction pursued in the common schools of Prussia, gathered from the observations of distinguished educators in their visits to a large number of schools of different grades, as well as from published accounts of the organization and studies of particular schools, we will introduce a brief view* of the general objects and different degrees of primary education, and of the manner in which the schools are established and conducted.

Two degrees of primary instruction are distinguished by the law; the elementary schools and the burgher schools. The elementary schools propose the development of the human faculties, through an instruction in those common branches of knowledge which are indispensable to every person, both of town and country. The burgher schools (Beurgerschulen Stadtschulen†) carry on the child until he is capable of manifesting his inclination for a classical education, or for this or that particular profession. The gymnasia continue this education until the youth is prepared, either to commence his practical studies in common life, or his higher and special scientific studies in the university.

These different gradations coincide in forming, so to speak, a great establishment of national education, one in system, and of which the parts, though each accomplishing a special end, are all mutually correlative. The primary education of which we speak, though divided into two degrees, has its peculiar unity and general laws; it admits of accommodation, however, to the sex, language, religion, and future destination of the pupils. 1. Separate establishments for girls should be formed, wherever possible, corresponding to the elementary and larger schools for boys. 2. In those provinces of the monarchy (as the Polish) where a foreign language is spoken, besides lessons in the native idiom, the children shall receive complete instruction in German, which is also to be employed as the ordinary language of the school. 3. Difference of religion in Christian schools necessarily determines differences in religious instruction. This instruction shall always be accommodated to the spirit and doctrines of the persuasion to which the school belongs. But, as in every school of a christian state, the dominant spirit (common to all creeds) should be piety, and a profound reverence of the Deity, every Christian school may receive the children of every sect. The

Mainly in the language of the law and ordinance, as translated and condensed by Sir William Hamilton, in an article in the Edinburgh Review.

↑ Called likewise Mittelschulen, middle schools, and Realschulen, real schools; the last, because they are less occupied with the study of language (Verbalia) than with the knowledge of things, (Realia.)