91

Academy Funds."* It provided for the districting of the
County; the examinations and qualification of teachers; the
election of Trustees for the employment of the teachers, aad
the general management and supervision of the schools; they
were also empowered to levy Tuition Fees—if they deemed
necessary. The teacher was required to keep a diary of the
attendance of pupils, upon the presentation of which to the
Orphans' Court, (who were still left custodians of the school
funds) endorsed by the Trustees, to the effect that the 'diary
was correct, and that the school had been in operation under
the charge of a duly qualified teacher, for the previous six
months; the school was entitled to draw its annual donation
of $200—or, if the attendance was large,—of $300, such is a
meagre outline of a law under which the chaotic condition
of onr schools was reduced to some degree of uniformity and
order. This system was in 1860, superseded by one estab-
lishing 'Free Schools,' and recognizing the principle, since
adopted by the State, and engrafted on our own, that " the
privileges of the schools are alike the property of all the citi-
zens, and that the property of all is equally bound for their sup-
port ;" in accordance with which it abolished Tuition Fees,
and resorted—when the State funds failed—to general County
taxation. These were its distinctive features; in minor
details it resembled its predecessor,—a resemblance rendered
still closer by the subsequent amendment of 1862,—which,
by requiring the exaction of Tuition Fees, and abolishing
the power of general taxation, remanded the Schools to the
system of 1854. Both systems 1854 and 1860,) were, it is
but just to say, far in advance of all that had preceded them,
and either, notwithstanding their theoretical difference,
might, in the hands of agents as intelligent and zealous as
their framers, have secured for our.schools a higher degree of
efficiency than they actually attained—a failure fairly attri-
butable to defects for which no mere statutory provisions can
provide an adequate remedy, viz : the indifference, or incom-
petence of those to whom the immediate supervision of the
Schools was too often entrusted. Nevertheless the origina-
tors of both systems have the proud consciousness of having
' done the State some service in laying the foundations of
our educational edifice so broad and deep, that after-builders
may modify, but cannot wholly efface the impress of their
labors. To have done this is enough to satisfy the most am-
bitious, for 'quid munus Republicae majus, meliusve afferre
possumus, quam si juventum docemus, et tene erudimus ?"

Having thus endeavored to trace the rise and progress of
our schools, from the earliest period, to the adoption of the

* Commonly called from its originator (J«s. A. Bond, Esq.,) 'Bond's Law

* Called from its framer (James T. Briscoe, Esq.,) ' Briscoe's Law.'
Amended bf B. D. Bond, Esq.