inhabitants of the parish or town who desire to be present; and after the examination, the school committee proceed to elect the candidates whom they consider the best qualified to fill the vacant situation. But even after this examination before the parochial or municipal school authorities, the successful candidate is generally obliged to present himself to another committee in Dresden, called the Landconsistorium, for examination, before he can finally be inducted into his hard-won office. Such is the great the seemingly exaggerated precautions, which are taken by the Saxon people to secure good and efficient teachers for the schools. If, at any of these different examinations, any thing is discovered against the moral or religious character of the candidate, he is immediately rejected. His moral as well as his religious character is carefully scrutinized before his reception into the Training College, and by each of the different bodies of examiners, before whom he is obliged afterward to appear. If his previous life can not bear this scrutiny, or if the principal or professors of his college can not bear testimony to his morality and to his religious demeanor during his residence, he is rejected, and is not permitted to enter the profession.

It is easy to perceive how high a teacher, who has passed all these examinations and scrutinies, must stand in the estimation of his country and of those who surround him more immediately. As Dr. Otto said to me, "The great number of examinations, that a young man must pass through, before he can become a teacher, is important, not only in preventing any unworthy person ever being admitted into the teachers' profession, but also, and more especially, in raising the profession in the estimation of the public. The people have a great respect for men, who have, as they know, passed so many and such severe examinations. They attend with more attention and respect to their counsels and instruction." And certainly, until the teacher is respected by the people, his teaching will be productive of but little profit. To be a teacher in Germany is necessarily to be a man of learning and probity. None but such a person can be a teacher. Can we say the saine in England? How many of our teachers are only uninstructed women, or poor uneducated artizans; or rude and unlettered pedagogues; or even immoral and low-minded men? How many have never been educated in any thing more than reading, writing, and a little ciphering? How many have never been into a teacher's college? How many have only been instructed in such a college for the ridiculously short period of six months? How many have never been educated at all? And yet over Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, and France, every teacher has been carefully trained for some twelve or fourteen years, in preparation for his duties; has passed at least two, generally three, and often four years, in a teachers' college, under the instruction of learned and high-minded men, conscious of the importance of their work; has passed with credit several severe examinations, and has only finally been received into the teachers' profession, after a most careful scrutiny into his character and accomplishments has given an assurance to his country of his fitness for the important duties of his profession.

But strange and humiliating as is the contrast between the care, that is taken in Saxony and in England to prepare and elect efficient teachers for the village schools, the contrast between the situations of the teachers in the two countries, after election, is no less sad. In Saxony, as indeed throughout Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, and France, great pains are taken to make the teacher's rank in society, and his situation, worthy the acceptance of an educated man. The teacher is never left dependent upon uncertain charity. If his salary is sometimes small, it is at least fixed and certain. The minimum is fixed by goverment, and no parish or town-committee may offer less than this salary to its teacher. Moreover, the teacher is never degraded into being his own tax-gatherer. The parish or town is obliged to arrange with the teacher, before his appointment, how much he shall receive, when he shall receive it, and how he shall receive it. The committee is obliged to collect the funds necessary for cleansing, warming, repairing, and furnishing the school-buildings, and for paying the teachers. If they neglect to pay the teacher regularly, he can always appeal to the county magistrates, who oblige the parochial or town-committee to perform its duty.

When a teacher has become too old, or too weak to perform all his accustomed duties in the school-room, the inspector of the district decides, whether he shall

be dismissed with a pension; or, whether the committee shall engage an assistant teacher, to aid him in the school-room. The widows and children of deceased teachers are pensioned off in Saxony, in the same manner as in Prussia, and the funds for this purpose are raised by the same means.

Another most important regulation is, that no person or persons in immediate personal connection with a teacher, shall have the power of dismissing him, after he is once elected. It must be evident to all, how much this is tending to lower the independence and respectability of the teachers of England. A private patron, a clergyman, or a committee of parishioners has the power in almost every case, in our country, of dismissing a teacher. How often this has been done merely on account of some personal pique, or because the teacher would not submit to their crude notions of how a school ought to be managed; or from misrepresentation; or from mere village squabbles, I have no need to remind any of my readers. That such a dismissal is possible, every one will admit. How such a possibility must often damp a good and earnest teacher's energy, or undermine his honesty and destroy his usefulness, or at least lower his profession in the eyes of the people around him, is but too evident. But in Germany, no person in immed ate connection with the teacher can dismiss him on any pretext whatsoever. His judges are distant, unprejudiced, and impartial persons. In Saxony, after the parish has elected its teacher, it loses all direct power over him. The parochial minister or committee can inspect the school, when he or they please. Indeed, it is their duty to do so at stated times. They can advise the teacher and counsel him, but they can not directly interfere with him. He is supposed to understand, how to manage his school, better than any other person in his parish. If he did not, his long preparatory training would have been of little avail.

If the clergyman, or any of the parishioners, have any cause of complaint to find with the teacher, and desire to have either dismissed or reprimanded, and obliged to change his plans of proceeding, a complaint must be made to the county educational magistrate, and by him, to the minister of education in Dresden, who, in Saxony, is the only person, who can dismiss a teacher. The county magistrate, on receiving the complaint, immediately sends an inspector to the spot, to inquire into the ground of complaint or dispute; and after having received his report, the complaint of the parish, and the defense of the teacher, sends them to the minister of education in Dresden. It remains with the minister alone to pronounce the final judgment. This impartial mode of proceeding tends to raise the teachers' profession in the eyes of the people. They see that the teachers are men, who are considered worthy of the protection and support of the government. But above all, it enables the teachers to act honestly and fearlessly, to follow out the plans they know to be the best, and to devote their whole energies and minds to their duties, without any embarrassing fears of offending employers or patrons, or of endangering their continuance in office.

There are 2,925 teachers in Saxony, or one teacher to every 588 inhabitants; which is not large enough for the wants of the country. In Saxony, as throughout Germany, they will not make any use of monitors. As they will not avail themselves of the assistance of educated monitors in the more mechanical parts of school teaching, they have therefore been obliged to adopt the following expedient. The law ordains, that when there are more than sixty children in any parochial school, and the parish can not afford to support more than one teacher, the children shall be divided into two classes, when there are not more than 100, and into three classes, when not more than 150 in number: that when there are two classes, the teacher shall instruct one in the morning, and the other in the afternoon; that when there are three classes, he shall instruct each class for three hours daily at separate times; and that all the children not under instruction shall not attend the school, while either of the other classes is there.

From inquiries made by Dr.. Otto, of Dresden, it appears that 2,119 of the primary schools of Saxony receive the following salaries, independently of the lodgings, fuel, and garden, &c.: 607 receive not more than £30; 531 not more than £50; 543 not more than £71; 206 not more than £90; 78 not more than £95; 25 not more than £105; 12 not more than £120; 9 not more than £130; 7 not more than £138; 1 not more than £150.

Mr. Kay makes the following observation on the public schools of Saxony:

Each parent is obliged to begin to educate his children at home or to send them to some school at the commencement of their sixth year, unless the child is sickly and unfit to bear any mental exertion. After a child has once commenced attending a school, it must continue such attendance regularly, summer and winter, for eight years; and even on the attainment of its fourteenth year, it may not discontinue such attendance, unless it has obtained a certificate, stating that it can read, write, and cipher, and that it is well acquainted with the doctrines of its religion and with the truths of the Scripture history. The examinations for these certificates are conducted by the religious ministers, in conjunction with the teachers. In some few cases, however, where the parents are very poor, the school committees are empowered to permit the parents to remove their children from school at the end of their tenth year, if they can read, write, and cipher, and know the leading facts and doctrines of the Scriptures. But before they have attained this age, they can not be taken from school, except when they are too sickly or too weak to attend the classes.

No child may be employed in any manufactory, or in any manual labor, before it has attained the age of TEN years. The Saxons consider the education of young children as a matter of primary importance, to which all else must be made to give way. The morality and the liberty, as well as the social and physical condition, of the people are all considered to be dependent on the early and full development of their moral and intellectual faculties. To the attainment of this end, therefore, every other consideration is made to yield. The Saxons are, as is well known, a commercial people. But still commercial requirements have not outweighed moral considerations. From the age of six to the age of fourteen, every child must receive a sound, efficient, and religious education. Those children, however, who are wanted to work in the manufactories, and who have attained a tolerable proficiency in Scripture history, reading, writing, and arithmetic, are permitted to discontinue their attendance on the daily classes, at the age of ten; but are required to attend afternoon classes, two or three times a week, during the next four years. Thus, even the factory children receive regular periodical instruction from highly educated teachers, until they attain the age of fourteen.*

The most minute and particular regulations are in force in Saxony respecting the school buildings. The law prescribes that they shall be situated as nearly as

ance.

The following section, (143) of the School Law, relates to the neglect of school attend

1. In every parish where there is a school union, there shall be a school messenger. In large parishes which are divided into many school districts, every school shall have a particular messenger, besides one for every school district.

2. Excepting on the common vacations, and on those weeks and days when there is no school, the school messenger must ask the teacher, on every school day, after the school hours, what children have been absent without an adequate excuse.

3. In places where there is but one school, the school messenger must ask this question at least twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and require an account of the last three days.

4. The next morning, not later than an hour before the beginning of the morning school, the school messenger of every place must go to the parents of the absent and unexcused child, and demand him for the school, or else the reason for his absence. For every such visit the parent must give the messenger six pfennings.

5. If a child does not come after this demand, but remains away unexcused for two days, the school messenger must take him on the third day and conduct him to the school. The fee from the parents shall be one groschen.

6 A child of a place where there is but one school, who does not come on the Monday or Thursday after the visit of the school messenger, and remains unexcused; also if he stays away six days without adequate excuse, must be taken by the messenger and carried to the school, and the fee from the parents shall be two groschen.

7. If the child stays from the school with the knowledge of its parents after being thus car. ried to it by the messenger, measures for punishment must be taken.

8 If the messenger can not collect his fees, he must apply to the magistrates, whose duty it is to coerce the payment.

9. If the parents are actually too poor to pay the same, the magistrates must demand pay. ment quarterly from the school chest.

10. The magistracy must lend their assistance to the messenger if, without good reason, he is prevented from taking the child to school; or, if he is improperly treated while executing

the duties of his office.

possible in the center of the parish, and that a quiet and perfectly healthy site shall be selected. To use the words of one of the regulations of the Saxon Chambers on this subject: "If there is any building which deserves the careful consideration of the architect, it is that which is intended for the village school." The government has prepared several plans, with specifications of the cost, &c., for the guidance of the county authorities and village committees.

To follow the words of the regulations themselves: "Every school-room must be sufficiently roomy, lofty, well lighted, perfectly dry, and free from damp, of a convenient and suitable form for the management of the school-classes, and in a healthy, open, and quiet situation."

On each of these several heads, a great number of minute and most carefully digested regulations have been made, for the purpose of insuring the attainment of these ends. The minimum of the size and of the height of the school-room has been laid down, and very particular regulations have been made relative to the warming, cleansing, and ventilating of the school-rooms; to the proper draining of the land upon which the school is to be built and upon which the play-grounds are to be aid out; to the lighting of the class-rooms; to the disposition of the desks; and even to the position and construction of the doors. Nothing which regards the school-rooms or school apparatus has been deemed too unimportant, to deserve the most careful consideration, or too insignificant to require the most minute and scientific regulations. The school-rooms in Saxony, as indeed throughout Germany, are well supplied with parallel desks, forms, maps, illustration boards, and all the apparatus necessary to enable the teacher to instruct his children in an effective manner. In the towns the schools generally contain eight or nine classes. A separate room is provided for each class. A learned teacher, who has received fourteen years' preparatory education, presides over each separate class. One of these teachers is the general director and superintendent of the whole school.

Each of the class-rooms contains about sixty children. The law forbids any teacher to allow more than sixty to be instructed in the same class-room. Each of these rooms is fitted up along its length with parallel desks and forms, facing the teacher's desk, which is raised on a platform about a foot high at one end of the room. They are continually whitewashed and scoured, and are well ventilated. They are lofty, and always well lighted. The children are never kept in the rooms more than about two hours at one time. They are all taken down into the play-grounds at the end of every hour and a half, for ten minutes' exercise, and during this time the windows of the class-rooms are all opened and the air purified.

The law requires every school committee in Saxony to furnish their school rooms with at least the following apparatus:

1. A supply of school-books, slates, slate-pencils, lead-pencils, pens, paper, &c. for the use of those scholars, whose parents are too poor to buy these things for their children.

2. Some black painted, smooth, wooden boards, on which the teacher may assist his class-lessons by delineations or writing.

3. A moveable easel on which to raise the blackboards.

4. Some maps, and among these one of the Holy Land; also some large copies for drawing and writing.

5. A reading machine, like those now used in some of the best of our infant schools; and

6. The school committees are advised to furnish, whenever they can afford to do so, a collection of objects for the illustration of the lessons in natural history and physical geography.

Besides this apparatus, many village schools are supplied with a library of reading books, from which any villager can take books home, on payment of about a halfpenny a week.

To give a general idea of the subjects of instruction in the schools, where the children of the people are brought up, I subjoin a table, which will show what is taught in the primary schools of the city of Dresden, and how the hours of the day are apportioned to the various subjects of instruction.

The following Time Table in the Dresden Primary Schools, shows the number of hours devoted each week to the different branches of instruction.

To explain this table it is necessary to remark, that in the town schools, there are generally eight classes instructed in eight separate class-rooms, four for boys and four for girls; that the fourth class contains the least and the first class the most advanced of the children; that each class is under the charge of a separate teacher; and that the girls generally remain in the afternoons for an hour and a half after the boys have left, in order to be instructed in sewing, knitting, &c., by a woman who is paid to conduct this necessary branch of feminine instruction.

Since the revolution of 1848, the education in all the primary schools has been made perfectly gratuitous, so that every parent can send his children to any school free of all expense; except that, which is incurred by providing them with respectable clothing.

Besides the day schools, there is still another class of schools, which merits our attention. These are the Saxon Sunday schools. They are to be found in all the towns, in the great parishes, and in the manufacturing districts. They are opened on the Sunday mornings or Sunday evenings, and are intended for the instruction of all persons of whatever age they may be, who desire to continue their education, and who are prevented, by their week-day duties, from attending any of the primary or superior schools. They are frequented principally by adults, or by young people above the age of fifteen, who have left the primary schools. These classes are opened every Sunday for about three or four hours, and are conducted by some of the district teachers, who are paid for this extra labor by the county authorities. The education given in them is not confined to religious teaching. It comprehends besides this, instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography, the physical sciences, drawing, and the new inventions of the age. These classes generally assemble on the Sunday evenings, in one of the dayschools of the town or district. The incidental expenses necessary for warming and lighting the room, and for the purchase of the necessary books, &c., are generally defrayed by the voluntary contributions of the students, who attend the classes, and by the benevolence of rich people, who are interested in promoting these useful institutions. When the funds derived from these sources do not suffice, the minister of public instruction is empowered to assist the town or other locality, in perfecting and supporting these schools. In many towns and parishes, however, they are entirely maintained by public subscriptions, and in these cases the students do not pay any thing for their education.