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teachers, whose contracts are all made for the year. This
idea was so monstrous that he should not say another
word on it. If this matter was left to the Legislature, the
old county system, which had prevailed for thirty years,
and which was a dead failure everywhere, might again
be restored.
Mr. Maulsby asked where was the proof of its failure ?
Mr. Brown said no system could succeed over which
there was no supervision. The old county system had
been in operation for thirty years, and under it children
had been educated and gone out in the world to perform
their parts. Were they well educated; were they as well
educated as the children of the Northern and Western
States? They were not, and why? Because the North-
ern and Western States have a system of general instruc-
tion, while in Maryland and the Southern States the local
system had always been in practice. There could be no
efficient system which was not general. In reference to
the city of Baltimore, the system was a good one, and
was much endeared to the people, but it was not a perfect
system. If it was, the school commissioners and the
members of the city council would not have to go to other
cities at the public expense for the purpose of seeing the
workings of the systems there. There should be a State
officer to have the supervision of the school fund, not only
in the city of Baltimore, but throughout the counties.
Mr. McKaig said it was impossible to frame a system
here which would be unexceptionable. Either leave this
matter to the Legislature, or if they thought they had
more wisdom than ten generations that had gone before
them, let them make it themselves; but either do one
thing or the other. He had, some years ago, reviewed the
public school systems of the different States and of Eu-
rope, and he had come to the conclusion that public schools
were humbugs, but as the people seemed to think there
was something in them, therefore he was content to admit
that there was something in them. There was no use of
a general superintendent; the man with a hard name,
which it would take a Dutch tongue and a Yankee accent
to pronounce, had never done anything. He had patronized
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad by riding up to Allegany
two or three times, but he had done nothing else; he was
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