re criticism, should be qualified
and relieved by the statement that our teachers are as well educated as
any in the country, and that they are yearly making progress in their
profession. Indeed, I am encouraged to suggest that better things are
possible, by the consideration that many instances of distinguished
success in teaching the alphabet, reading and grammar, are known to me;
and that teachers are themselves aware that the work is, upon the whole,
inadequately performed. If, as is generally conceded, the highest order
of teaching talent is required in the primary schools, then that talent
should be sought out by committees; the persons possessing it should
enjoy the best means of preparation; they should receive the highest
rewards, both in money and public consideration, and they should be
induced to labor, without change or interruption, in the same schools
and the same people.

THE RELATIVE MERITS OF PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS AND ENDOWED ACADEMIES.

[Remarks before the American Institute of Instruction, at Manchester, N.
H.]

Indebted to my friend on the other side, and to you, sir, and this
audience, for inviting me to take a position on this floor, I am still
without any special preparation to discuss the subject. I have thought
upon it, because any one, however humbly connected with free schools in
this country, must have done so. And especially just now, when, in the
educational journal of Massachusetts, a discussion has been conducted
between one of its editors and Mr. Gulliver, the able originator of a
school in Norwich, Ct., and the advocate of the system of school
government established there. And, therefore, every one who has had his
eyes open must have seen that here is a great contest, and that
underlying it is a principle which is important to society.

The distinguishing difference between the advocates of endowed schools
and of free schools is this: those who advocate the system of endowed
academies go back in their arguments to one foundation, which is, that
in education of the higher grades the great mass of the people are not
to be trusted. And those who advocate a system of free education in high
schools put the matter where we have put the rights of property and
liberty, where we put the institutions of law and religion--upon the
public judgment. And we will stand there. If the public will not
maintain institutions of learning, then, I say, let institutions of
learning go down. If I be