the masters. The observations and reports are turned to account in subsequent meetings with his class.

The pupils do not board together in the normal school, but are distributed through the town, in certain families selected by the director. They form a part of these families during their residence with them, being responsible to the head for the time of their absence from the house, their hours, and conduct. They take their meals with the families, and are furnished with a study and sleeping-room, fire, lights, &c. The director pays the moderate sum required for this accommodation from the annual stipend allowed by government. The efficiency of such a system depends, of course, upon the habits of family life of the country, and upon the locality where the school is established. In Holland and Haarlem the plan succeeds well, and has the advantage that the pupils are constantly, in a degree, their own masters, and must control themselves, and that they are never placed in an artificial state of society or kind of life, which is the case when they are collected in one establishment. The director makes frequent visits to these families, and is informed of the home character of his pupils. The discipline of a normal school is, of course, one of the easiest tasks connected with it, for improprieties or levities of conduct are inconsistent with the future calling of the youth. Admonition by the assistant and by the director are the only coercive means resorted to, previous to dismission. The director has authority to dismiss a student without consulting the minister, merely reporting the fact and case to him. Though this power may be important in increasing his influence, yet it has been necessary to exercise it but three times in twenty years. There are two vacations of from four to six weeks each, during which the pupils, in general, return to their friends. The school has a lending-library of books relating to teaching, and of miscellaneous works. This useful institution supplies for the primary schools, every year, from eight to twelve well-prepared masters, who propagate throughout the country the excellent methods and principles of teaching here inculcated.

This annual stipend is ninety dollars. Supposing that a student has an entire bursary, he will require some additional funds to support him while at the school; for his board, lodging, &c., cost two dollars per week, which, for the forty-two weeks of term-time, amounts to eightyfour dollars, leaving him but six dollars for incidental expenses.

DENMARK.

PUBLIC Instruction has long received much attention in Denmark. It is necessary to be able to read respectably, and to have received some religious instruction, in order to be admitted to the communion of the Lutheran church; and such admission is substantially indispensable to apprenticeship, or other industrial employment, and to marriage, so that the people are better instructed than those of most countries in Europe. At the time of the reformation, there existed in every town, and in connection with the religious houses, a large number of Latin schools, containing in some cases from 700 to 900 pupils, in which also were classes for elementary instruction. Various royal ordinances were promulgated, from 1539 down to the present day, extending or modifying the provisions for public education which existed prior to that date. The present school system, however, dates from 1814, at which time an ordinance was published, reorganizing the system of primary and secondary instruction.

1. Each parish must furnish and maintain sufficient schools and teachers for the primary instruction of all children within it, in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the Lutheran catechism, to which are often added grammar, history, and geography. The emoluments of the teachers, although small, support them comfortably, as living is cheap. They commonly receive from $200 to $250, a small part of it in money, and the rest in provisions, besides the occupancy of a house and several acres of land. Similar but larger schools exist in the cities. There are 4,700 primary or parochial schools with about 300,000 pupils.

2. The secondary schools are the high or grammar schools, about 30 in number, in the cities and large towns. Of these the most eminent is the academy at Soro, established in 1536, from the funds of a Cistercian monastery, founded about 1150 by Archbishop Absalon. In these schools are taught Latin and Greek, French and German, mathematics, natural sciences, geography, history, and all the branches of a thorough high school education. There are also about 30 real schools of a similar grade, but giving instruction more adapted to commercial pursuits. Here may also be classed the higher burgher schools of the cities. Female schools of this grade exist, but they are mostly private; indeed, there are many private schools, both for boys and girls.

3. Above these schools are the two universities, for Danish students, at Copenhagen, founded in 1479, and for German students, at Kiel founded in 1665. The university of Copenhagen contained, in 1841, about 1,260 students, and 40 professors and instructors. Its revenue is about $72,000 a year, and its library contains about 110,000 volumes. There is annexed to it a polytechnic institute, or school of arts, in which instruction is given in the application of science to industrial occupations. The university of Kiel contained at the same time about 390 students, and about fifty professors and teachers. It receives a revenue from the State of about $30,000 a year, and has a library of 70,000 volumes. Besides the above-mentioned university revenues, the students at both pay fees to the professors, whose lectures they attend at Copenhagen, after the rate of from two to four dollars for a course of lectures, (one a week for six months,) and at Kiel, about a dollar for the same.

4. There are eight normal schools, in which the course of instruction occupies three years, and includes Danish, mathematics, natural sciences, writing, pedagogy, history, geography, gymnastics, and drawing.

The Lancasterian system of instruction, which was very generally tried and rejected in Germany, succeeded much better in Denmark. It was permissively introduced in 1822, and actively advocated by M. D'Abrahanson, aid-de-camp to the king, and by others, and spread with so much rapidity that in three years it was used in 1,707 schools, and in 1830 in 2,673, of all grades. It has, however, been considerably modified, and as now used is called the reciprocal or Danish system, to dis tinguish it from the original mutual, or Lancasterian.

The royal chancery is the highest board of educational inspection The baliff and provosts of each town inspects its schools, and the pastor and "school patroons" those of each parish. The school patroons are all having a revenue, estimated, to equal or exceed 32 tuns, or 1,520 bushels of corn.

The institutions of special instruction, besides those already mentioned, are a medical school, a pharmaceutical school, a foresters' school, a military high school, a land-cadets' academy, a sea-cadets' academy, (lower schools for sea and land military service,) an academy of fine arts, a school for the blind, and one for deaf mutes.

Considerable funds are used in paying pensions to teachers' widows, and to retired or invalid teachers.

Iceland, an appendage of the Danish crown, with a population of 70,500, is remarkable for the universality with which elementary instruction is diffused, not by schools, but by the family. The only school on the island is a gymnasium for the higher studies at Bessestad, which was endowed in 1530.

SWEDEN.

THE system of Public Instruction in Sweden, consists of-I. Two Universities; II. Secondary Schools, Grammar Schools, and Practical Schools; III. Primary Schools, or schools for the people.

I. There are two universities, Upsula, with an average attendance of 1000 students, and Lund, with about 450 students. At the head of each university is the Chancellor, who is always a person of rank, elected by the professors and confirmed by the king. The present Crown Prince holds this office in both institutions. The professors embrace the four faculties-theology, law, medicine, and philosophy. To each faculty belong a number of stipendiary professors and assistant Lecturers. Attendance on the lectures is not compulsory on the students. nor are they required to remain for any specified time. Every candidate for any degree conferred by the university, must pass a satisfactory examination.

II. Secondary instruction is given in "Schools of Learning" (Lardams Skola) and Gymnasia. The former, is a lower grade of Gymnasium. Both are classical schools; and in the two, the pupils are instructed in religion, geography, history, writing, mathematics, Latin and Greek, the German and French languages, and the elements of natural history. Besides these, there is a class of schools, called Apologist Schools, in which the course of instruction is as thorough as in the Gymnasium, except in the classics. According to an official report in 1843, there were twelve Gymnasia, forty-one Schools of Learning, forty Apologist Schools, and two Cathedral Schools, connected with the universities. All these institutions are almost entirely supported by the State; the government appropriating nearly $100,000 a year for salaries of teachers. In these schools the children of the gentry, governmental officials, and professional families, are educated, but are not closed to any child qualified to enter.

III. The government as early as 1684, in order to make the lowest form of instruction universal, ordered that before any person could be admitted to the rite of confirmation, (which was necessary to marriage,) the curate should be satisfied of his or her ability to read; and up to 1822, the peasantry of Sweden was thought to be the most inteligent in Europe. But in consequence of inquiries instituted about that time by a voluntary association, it was found that home and parochial school

education had been for a quarter of a century neglected, and in 1825 a a general system was introduced; but up to 1842, the establishment of schools had gone forward so slowly, that it became necessary to pass a law making it compulsory for every district to erect at least one school with an approved teacher.

Every parish is divided into districts, and whenever a districts does not contain population or wealth enough to maintain a permanent teacher, it is visited by an itinerating teacher, who is permanently employed by the school board of the parish, to teach at different periods of the year in different localities of the parish.

The school board consists of a chairman and committee elected by the district, whose duty it is to provide a school-house, and elect and employ teachers. Each teacher is entitled to a minimum salary, consisting of sixteen barrels of corn, lodging, firewood, pasture, food for one cow, and small piece of land to cultivate for a garden. can not furnish this, the government makes a grant in aid.

If the district

The course of instruction comprises religion, geography, Swedish and universal history, mathematics, geometry, natural history, music, and gymnastics. All children between the ages of nine and fifteen must attend school, unless it can be shown that they receive instruction at home. The Lancasterian, or mutual method of instruction, is very widely adopted.

The inspection of all the schools, belongs to the bishop and the chapter of the Cathedral. The school board of each district, makes an annual report of the state of the schools to the cathedral chapter of the diocese, by which body a report is forwarded every three years to the government. According to the last triennial report, (July, 1850,) the population of Sweden was 3,358,867; and of this number, the following children of the legal school age (over nine and under fifteen years) were receiving instruction as follows:

1. In Primary Schools-stationary,.

boys,.

81,422

boys,

6,223

The number of masters employed by the school board in stationary schools, was 2,107; and in ambulatory schools 1,351, of whom 218 were clergymen, and 690 church organists.

By the act of 1842, a Normal Scnool or Seminary for the training of teachers was instituted. The pupils receive a fixed salary for their support from the government, in consideration of which, they obligate themselves to teach for at least three years in the primary schools.