pread of education among the American people.
In Denmark attendance upon school for seven years by every child of
school age is compulsory. The number of children of school age for 1876
was 200,761, while the number in attendance upon the public schools was
194,198, the attendance being 96 per cent. of the whole number of
children of school age. In addition to the attendance upon the public
schools, there were 13,994 in attendance upon private schools: some of
these evidently were above or below school age. We thus see how
efficiently the compulsory system is enforced. This system is not new to
that country, but has been in existence for many years, and the results
seem to justify the statement in the _Report of the Commissioner of
Education for 1871_, that "even among the lower classes a remarkable
knowledge of general history and geography, but more especially of
Scandinavian literature and history," is found.

In Norway, as in Denmark, from the eighth to the fifteenth year
attendance upon school is obligatory. In 1866, of a total of 212,137
country children of school age, 206,623, or more than 97 per cent. of
the whole, were in attendance at school. In the towns and cities less
than 1 per cent. failed to attend school. In Sweden compulsory
attendance upon school is the rule. In 1868, of the whole number of
children of school age, the average attendance amounted to 97 per cent.

There is no general or national system of common-school instruction in
Switzerland. Each canton regulates its own schools. There, as in
Denmark, Norway and Sweden, attendance upon schools is made compulsory.
In 1870 the attendance of children between six and thirteen years of age
was between 95 and 96 per cent. of the whole school population.

Now, what kind of a school system have we in the United States? Here, as
in Switzerland, there is no general or national system of school
instruction. Each State regulates its own schools in all details. In
1870 the total school population, excluding the Territories, in the
United States was 14,093,778; the number actually enrolled in the public
schools was 8,881,848, or 63 per cent. of the whole; and the average
daily attendance upon the public schools was 4,886,289, or a little over
34-1/2 per cent. of the school population. An inclusion of the
Territories in the computation does not vary the percentage in any
appreciable degree. In the Northern States only, excluding the
Territories, and excluding a