TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OP MARYLAND.

THE following Code of By Laws prepared by the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction and issued by authority
of the State Board of Education sets forth in detail the
methods according to which the School System is to be put
into harmonious and efficient operation.

The By-Laws are designed as the Complement to the Act
providing a Uniform System of Public Schools for the State.
Taken together with the Law, the Rules for the Government
of teachers and pupils and the various forms contained in the
Appendix, you have not only the theory but the complete
working plan of the School System.

It is expected that Commissioners and teachers will make
themselves thoroughly acquainted not only with the spirit
but the letter of the law, and the regulations which are is-
sued under its precepts. It is a system of Free Public In-
struction. It recognizes the duty of Universal Education
without distinction of caste, or class, or social position. It
recognizes the great truth that all men are born free and
equal, all have an interest in the public weal. All can be-
come valuable citizens of the State, all can be enlightened
and thereby made the contributors to wealth and progress.—
Hence it passes by none, however humble. It opens a foun-
tain of knowledge to which the multitudes may come and
drink refreshing and invigorating draughts which make glad
the heart, and stimulate those longings which encourage the
development of a perfect humanity. It reveals a source of
light, that will not only cheer but make safe the path of all
who walk amid life'e perplexities.

The work that opens before the School Commissioner thus
becomes most eminently a missionary work, and appeals to
him as a patriot and philanthropist to enter upon it with pure,
disinterested and earnest motives.

To the Superintendent it is a cause not only of joy, but of
devout thankfulness to the great Disposer of events, that the
lot has fallen upon such highly qualified and sincerely de-