each being placed under the direction of its separate committee; or when all the Romanist schools can be put under the direction of one committee, and all the Protestant schools under the direction of another. For, in these cases, instead of creating a great number of small schools in different parts of the town, each containing only one or two classes, in which children of very different ages and very different degrees of proficiency must be necessarily mingled and taught together, to the manifest retarding of the progress of the more forward as well as of the more backward, several schools are generally combined, so as to form one large one, containing five boys' classes and five girls' classes. In these classes, the teachers are able to classify the children in such a manner, that one teacher may take the youngest and most deficient, another the more advanced, and so on. In this manner, as each teacher has a class of children, who have made about the same progress in their studies, he is enabled to concentrate his whole energies upon the instruction and education of all his scholars at the same time, and for the whole time they are in school, instead of being obliged to neglect one part of his class whilst he attends to another, which is necessarily the case, where children of different degrees of proficiency are assembled in one class-room, and which is always necessarily the cause of considerable noise and confusion, tending to distract the attention of both teachers and children.

But, besides the good classification, a further advantage, which results from this combination of schools, is the greater economy of the plan. When each school contains only two class-rooms, four times as many schools are required, as when each school contains eight rooms. And it is by no means true, that a schoolbuilding containing eight class-rooms costs as much as four school-buildings, each of which contains two class-rooms. Not only is a great expenditure saved, in the mere erection of the exterior walls and roofs of the buildings themselves, but a still greater saving is effected, in the purchase of land, as, instead of increasing the area on which the school is erected, it is always possible to increase its height. Nothing can be more liberal, than the manner in which the Prussian towns have provided for their educational wants. The buildings are excellent, and are kept in most admirable order.

The town authorities are held responsible for all this; and, wherever I went, I found large, commodious, and beautifully clean school-rooms, furnished with all that the teachers could possibly require. Along the length of the rooms, parallel desks are ranged, facing the teacher's desk, which is raised on a small platform, so that he may see all his scholars. On either side of him are large blackboards, on which he illustrates the subjects of his lessons. On his right hand, there is generally a cabinet, for the reception of all the books and objects of instruction which belongs to the school; and all around, on the walls of the room, hang maps of different countries, and, generally, several of Germany, delineating, in a strong and clear manner, all the physical features of the different provinces and kingdoms which compose the "Fatherland."

The school-rooms are continually whitewashed; and should there be any neglect on the part of the town or village authorities to keep the school-buildings in proper order, or to provide all the necessary apparatus, the teachers have always the power of complaining to the inspectors, or to the country magistrates, who immediately compel the authorities to attend to these important duties.

Besides the schools, which are managed by school committees in the villages and towns, and which might be denominated public schools, there is another class, which would fall more properly under the designation of private schools.

If a private individual is desirous of establishing a school, as a means of earning his livelihood, or from a desire to offer to the poor of his neighborhood a better education, than they could obtain in the public schools, he is at liberty to do so, on the following conditions:

1st, That the school be opened to public inspection, on the ground, that as the nation is directly interested in the moral education of its citizens, so it ought to be assured, that none of the children are subjected to immoral and corrupting influences, during the time when their minds are most susceptible of impressions of any kind, and most tenacious of them when received.

2dly, That no person be employed as teacher in such school, who has not ob

tained a teacher's diploma, certifying his character and attainments to be such, as to fit him for the office of teacher.

3dly, That the school be supplied with a play-ground, and that the children be allowed to take exercise there in the middle of the morning and afternoon school hours.

4thly, That at least a certain fixed amount of instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, singing, and science be given in the school. 5thly, That a sufficient number of teachers be provided for the children; and, 6thly, That the rooms are kept clean, well warmed, lighted and ventilated. The profuse expenditure on all the material of education in the Prussian towns astonished me greatly, accustomed as I had been to the dame schools of England, and to the empty and repulsive interiors of many of our national schoolrooms, with their bare floors and uncovered walls.

I took the greatest pains not to be deceived on this point; and hearing that, owing to some municipal disputes, education had made less progress in Berlin than elsewhere, I requested Professor Hintze of Berlin, to direct me to the worst school in the city, and, having visited several of the more perfect ones, I started one morning to see what was considered a poor school in Prussia.

It was managed by a teacher, who had established a school for the poor at his own expense, as a private speculation, and unconnected with the town

committees.

I found a good house containing four class-rooms, each of which was fitted up with parallel desks, and was under the direction of a teacher, who had been carefully educated, and had obtained his diploma.

I found a good, dry, and roomy play-ground attached to the school, a very agreeable and seemingly intelligent head master, who was owner of the school, and manager of one of the classes; and the only cause of complaint I could discover, were, that the rooms were lower than the generality of school-rooms in Prussia, not measuring more than nine feet in height; that there was a paucity of maps, blackboards, &c.; that the desks were placed too closely together; and that the walls were not so white and clean as in the town schools. But I could not help thinking, while walking through the rooms of this building, if these people could only see some of our dame, and some of our dirty and unfurnished national schools, what a palace would they not consider this to be!

The regulations which I have been describing, by means of which the enormous expenses of such a vast educational scheme are divided between all the different districts of the kingdom, and by means of which each parish is held responsible for the education of its children, have been followed by this splendid result-that, notwithstanding that most of their town schools contain five or six times as many class-rooms as those of our country, the Prussian people have established 23,646 schools, which, in 1844, were attended daily by 2,328,146 children, and were directed by 29,639 highly educated teachers, of whom nearly 28,000 were young professors, who had obtained diplomas and certificates of character at the normal colleges! Now, could this magnificent result have been attained if the people, the clergy, and the government had not been at unity on this great question? Could it have been attained, if there had been no organization of the parishes and towns, by which the duties of the different educational authorities were clearly and distinctly defined? Could the government alone have borne the enormous expenses of establishing such a system? Could the government have even afforded to carry it on? And, above all, could private charity alone have effected so vast and splendid a result? These are questions for my readers to answer for them

selves.

The central committees of each town are required by law to establish, in addition to the primary institutions, which I have described, one or more superior primary schools, the number of which varies according to the population of the town. The education given in them is superior to that given in the primary schools themselves, but is inferior to that given in the gymnasia. It is of a more prac tical character than the latter, and is quite as good as the education of the children of our middle classes. These superior primary institutions are intended for all those children, who have passed through the primary schools, and whose parents wish them to receive a better education than that given in the latter

establishments, without their having to go through the classical course of the gymnasia.

The education given in these superior schools, as in all the public schools of Prussia, is gratuitous, and open to all classes of society. All the children of the small shopkeepers and artizans, many of the boys, who afterward enter the teachers' colleges, as well as many others, whose parents are to be found in the very humblest walks of life, and even children of the nobles, and of the richest classes of society, are to be found pursuing their studies there together, in the same class-rooms, and on the same benches. I have myself seen sons of counts, physicians, clergymen, merchants, shopkeepers, and poor laborers working together in one of these classes in Berlin.

Above these superior schools are the real schools and gymnasia, or colleges, where a classical and very superior course of education is pursued, and where the children of the more wealthy classes are instructed. They are under an entirely different direction; and all I have to do with them here, is to mention. that even these institutions are open gratuitously to all, who wish to avail themselves of the education which they offer. Even in these classical colleges children of poor laborers are sometimes to be found studying on the same benches on which sit the sons of the rich. It is very instructive to observe, that in Prussia, where one would imagine, according to the doctrines preached in England, that the government should, until the late revolution, have feared to advance the intelligence of the people, no one has seemed to have an idea, that too much instruction could be imparted to the children of the poor. On the contrary, every one has acted as if the public order and public morality depended entirely upon the people being able to think. A theoretically arbitrary government has been doing every thing in its power to stimulate and enable the people to educate their children as highly as possible, and has been for years telling them, that the prosperity and happiness of the country depend greatly on the training of the children; while here, in our free country, we still find people speaking and acting, as if they feared, that education was the inevitable harbinger of immorality and disaffection.

There are also in Prussia a great number of endowed schools, which derive their incomes from the rents of lands, or from the interest of money bequeathed to them by charitable individuals, or which have been founded and endowed at different times by the government. For each of these cases, there is an exception made in the operation of the municipal regulations, which I have described: neither of these classes of schools are directed by Schulvorstände, or by the town committees. The teachers for the former class are chosen by the trustees, appointed by the will of the devisor; the county courts being enabled to annul the elections, if a bad selection is made. The trustees, however, are unable to appoint any person, as teacher, who has not obtained a diploma of competency from the provincial committee, appointed to examine all candidates for the teachers' profession. In fact, no person can officiate as teacher, in any Prussian school, unless he has obtained such a diploma. This is the parents' guarantee, that he is a person, to whom they may safely intrust their children. The teachers of the class of schools, which have been founded and endowed by government, are appointed by the county courts. The town committees have, however, the surveillance and inspection of all these schools, and are obliged by law to assist them from the town funds, if their own do not suffice for their efficient maintainance. The municipal authorities are also obliged to assist all the parents, who are too poor to do it themselves, to purchase the books, slates, pencils, &c., required for the class instruction; and they are also obliged to provide decent clothing for such children, as are too poor, to obtain a dress sufficiently respectable for school attendance. And here, I can not help remarking, on the general appearance of the children throughout the provinces of Prussia, which I have visited. They were generally very clean, well dressed, polite, and easy in their manners, and very healthy and active in their appearance. In whatever town of Prussia the traveler finds himself, he may always satisfy himself on this point, if he will take the trouble to walk out into the streets, between twelve and two o'clock in the morn

ing, i. e., between the hours of the morning and afternoon classes. In some towns, a stranger would imagine, either that the poor had no children, or that they never let them go out of doors. All the children he would see in the streets would appear to him to be those of respectable shopkeepers. This is a very satisfactory proof of the good effects of the school system, as cleanliness and neatness among the poor are invariable symptoms of a satisfactory moral and physical condition.

The law requires that every school, both in town and country, shall have an open space of ground adjacent to it, where the children may take a little exercise in the mornings and afternoons. This is a very important regulation, and is well worthy our imitation. The children, in Germany, are never detained more than an hour and a half in the school-room at one time, except when the weather is too bad, to allow of their taking exercise in the open air. Every hour and a half, throughout the day, they are taken into the play-ground for ten minutes' exercise by one of the teachers; the air of the school-room is then changed, and the children return refreshed to their work. In the towns this regulation insures other and greater advantages, as it keeps the children out of the filth and immorality of the streets. In most cases, our town-schools have no yard attached to them, so that, if the children do change the bad and noxious air of the school-room, it is only for the dirt and depravity of the streets, where they are brought under evil influences, much more powerful for injury, than those of the schools are for good. In some provinces of Prussia, there are still some few of the old class of great landowners, between whom, in former days, the whole of Prussia was divided, until Stein and Hardenburg put the laws in force, which destroyed the old feudal system, and gave the peasants an interest in the soil. It is, therefore, an interesting question to examine, what the law requires these landlords to do for the edu cation of the people on their estates. I have already mentioned, that the selection of the teacher is left to them, but that the government reserves the right of a veto upon their choice, in all cases where an injudicious election is made. The landlords are required to keep in good repair the schools upon their estates, and to pay the school-fees for the children of all the poor laborers living upon them, and not able to pay it themselves. They are also obliged to furnish the materials, required for the erection or repair of all necessary school-buildings; the fuel required for the school-rooms and teachers' houses through the winter; and, where the school is not endowed, the sum which is necessary for the teachers' salaries. The children of the landed proprietors themselves, often attend the village schools, and work at the same desks, with the sons and daughters of the poorest peasants-a proof of the excellent character of the education given in the primary schools, and of the high estimation, in which the teachers are generally held by all classes of society.

About eight or ten years since all the German schools were conducted on the Bell and Lancasterian methods, the children being left almost entirely in the hands of young and half-educated monitors, as in our own parochial schools at the present day. The results of this system were so unsatisfactory that they soon occasioned a powerful reaction in the contrary direction. The German governments, perceiving how grievously the mental education and mental development of the children were retarded by subjecting them to the imperfect care of halfeducated monitors, prohibited all employment of monitors in the parochial schools. Hence, it became necessary to considerably increase the staff of teachers, as well as the expenditure required for their support. In the towns this has been productive of beneficial results, as the towns can always raise sufficient funds for the support of a sufficient number of teachers. I generally found that each of these schools throughout Germany had a staff of from six to twelve teachers attached to it, each of whom had attained the age of twenty years, had been specially educated in the classes of the primary, secondary, and normal schools, from his sixth to his twentieth year, and had obtained a diploma certifying his fitness for the profession to which he had devoted himself.

But in the village schools the results of this rejection of all monitorial assistance has been less satisfactory. The villages are not generally rich enough to support more than two teachers, and often not more than one, and this, too, in many cases, where there are 150 children who attend the school. In these cases,

therefore, monitors are greatly needed to assist in maintaining order among one part of the children, while the teacher is instructing another part, and to relieve the teacher from the more mechanical part of class instruction, so that he may apply his undivided attention to those branches of instructions, in which his superior skill, knowledge, and experience are most needed.

But the prejudices which the Germans have imbibed against the monotorial system, are, as yet, too strong to allow them to perceive the necessity of employing monitors in the village schools. Whenever I addressed a German teacher on this subject, he immediately answered, "Oh! we have had enough of your Lancasterian methods; depend upon it, we shall never try them again." It was very surprising to me to see, how universal and how strong this antipathy to monitors was throughout Germany; but it served to show me, how deep an interest all classes took in the prosperity of the schools, as it was evident that they only rejected this means of lessening the parochial outlay in the support of teachers, because they believed it to be essentially injurious to the sound mental progress of the children. No doubt that the old monitorial system was deserving of all their maledictions; but it would well become the Prussian educational authorities to consider, whether the means between the old system and the present, such, viz., as the monotorial system pursued in Holland and France, is not the true state of things to which they ought to aspire. In these countries, the teachers train the most promising of their oldest and most advanced scholars as monitors. They give them instruction in the evenings when the day's work in the school-room is over. These monitors are paid by the parochial authorities just enough, to make it worth their while to remain at their posts as assistants to the schoolmasters until about seventeen years of age, after which time they are removed to the normal colleges to be trained as teachers, whilst other children take their places in the village schools. To these trained and paid monitors nothing is intrusted, but the mere mechanical parts of school teaching, such as the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. All the higher and more intellectual parts of school education, such as religious instruction, history, geography, and mental arithmetic, are conducted by the schoolmaster himself. But the principal service which the monitors render to the teachers is, in preserving order and silence in the school, and in watching over those classes, which are not for the time being receiving instruction from the schoolmaster. By this means, one able master, with the aid of two intelligent monitors, may conduct a school of 100 children; whenever the number, however, exceeds 100, there should in all cases be, at the least, two superior teachers. As I have already said, the want of monitors is felt most in the village schools; for the town schools are conducted in a totally different manner. In a town a greater number of children are found assembled together, and greater funds are always found at the disposal of the school authorities, who, it will be remembered, are elected by the people. In each of the Prussian towns, several great school-houses are generally built, each containing from four to sixteen class-rooms. The number does not, I believe, generally exceed eight in one school-house, and some have not more, but hardly any fewer than four. In Germany, except in the poorest villages, different classes are never instructed in the same room. Even in the villages, there are generally two or three class-rooms in the village school-house, for each of which a separate teacher is maintained. This plan of teaching the different classes in different rooms, adds incalculably to the efficiency of the education given. In each room, only one voice is heard at a time--the voice of the teacher or one of the children. The attention of the children is not disturbed or diverted from the teacher by what is going on in another class. Each room is perfectly quie The teacher can be heard distinctly, and can hear every noise in his class. Besides all this, for equal numbers of children four or five times as many teachers are employed in Germany as in England. Each child receives, therefore, four or five times as much assistance and attention from a learned man as a child does in England. The individual progress, therefore, of the children in the German schools (and the same may be said of the Swiss schools,) is very much greater than that of the English children. Over each school-house one head teacher is appointed, who is an elderly and experienced man, and who himself takes the management of the highest class. Under him are appointed a number of younger teachers, corresponding to the number of class-rooms in the school