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school, after various vicissitudes, was destroyed by an act of
gross insubordination and outrage on the part of the pupils.
Dr. Spencer died in Jackson, Mississippi, during our late
national troubles, while in the discharge of duty as a pas-
tor and teacher.

Feeling the need of an Academic Institution of a higher
grade than any that had hitherto existed in this county, a
number of the most public spirited of our citizens, headed
by General Tench Tilghman, a gentleman who has always
been foremost in every enterprise which promised ad-
vantage to this County, and who, to native energy of char-
acter, and hereditary courtliness of manners, has added
scholarly culture, united in subscribing the necessary funds
for the erection, in the town of Oxford, of buildings suitable
for a school of the best class. In the year 1848, the " Mary-
land Military Academy" was organized, and a short time
thereafter went into operation, with an able and efficient
staff of instructors, and with a goodly number of pupils,
drawn from all parts of the country. The school was under
the superintendence of Mr. John Howard Alien, an eleve of
West Point. The course of study embraced the ancient and
modern languages, the mathematics and the natural sciences.
To these was added military tactics. This school, too, as
did the others which have been mentioned, for a number of
years, performed its work of education successfully and well,
and not the least valuable part of this work was that
achieved beyond its own bounds in fostering among the peo-
ple at large, an estimation of intellectual pursuits and ac-
quirements, as opposed to mere material aims and gains.
Owing to some accident, the large building used for school
purposes was destroyed by fire, leaving the residence of the
superintendent only. The school, after this disaster, could
not be continued, and became extinct.

It will appear from this that Talbot County has long en-
joyed the advantages of schools. This has rendered our
people familiar with the teacher, accustomed to the burdens
and appreciation of the value of schools. When by act of
Assembly, 1825, and other supplementary acts our local
system was instituted, it found nouses, teachers, books, and
a community acquainted with school work It is doubtful
whether the schools were improved by the change. A gene-
ral interest in the school was exchanged for the indifference,
and negligence of three trustees, and a clerk elected, ac-
cording to a legal fiction, by the tax payers of the School
District, but really chosen by the; few friends of the teacher,
whom he could persuade to attend at the school house, in
order that he might secure the form of a re-election. These
trustees and their clerk were the nominal visitors of the
school, who, beside electing the teacher, provided for the
comfort of the pupils by purchasing fuel, and attending to