eads the pupil to the correct
pronunciation of every word. That it will present to the missionary a
superior alphabet for the representation of hitherto unwritten
languages," &c. A similar committee, to whom the question was referred
by the House of Representatives in 1852, state that during the past year
the system had been tried in twelve public schools, and that, according
to the testimony of the teachers, children evinced greater attachment to
their books, and learnt to read with comparative ease; and they conclude
their report in these words:--"Impressed with the importance of the
phonetic system, which, if primarily learnt, according to the testimony
presented, would save two years of time to each of the two hundred
thousand children in the State, the committee would recommend to school
committees and teachers, the introduction of the phonetic system of
instruction into all the primary schools of the State, for the purpose
of teaching the reading and spelling of the common orthography, with an
enunciation which can rarely be secured by the usual method, and with a
saving of time and labour to both teachers and pupils, which will enable
the latter to advance in physical and moral education alone until they
are six years of age, without any permanent loss in the information they
will ultimately obtain."

One gentleman of the minority of the committee sent in a very strong
report condemning the system. He declares "the system is nothing but an
absurd attempt to mystify and perplex a subject, which ought to be left
plain and clear to the common apprehensions of common men." Further on
he states, "No human ingenuity can show a reason for believing that the
way to learn the true alphabet, is first to study a false alphabet; that
the way to speak words rightly, is to begin by spelling them wrong; that
the way to teach the right use of a letter, is to begin by giving a
false account of a letter. Yet the phonetic system, so far as it is
anything, is precisely this." Then, again, with reference to the eight
specimen scholars, taken from a school of fifty, and who were exhibited,
he observes, "they were the same as those who were examined a year ago;
nothing is said of the other forty-two. It is not necessary to say
anything more of the character of such evidence as this;" and he winds
up by observing: "Such a mode of instruction would, in his opinion,
waste both the time and the labour employed upon it, and complicate and
e