in The Forum. We much regret not having been able to visit its magnificent High School and that of St. Paul. We were, however, able to gain some information in Chicago from persons who had lived in Minnesota, more particularly the Professor of History at the University, and the Superintendent of the State Exhibit at the Exhibition. Through their kindness we obtained a complete set of the State publications on education, and carefully examined the work sent to Chicago by the schools.

The State possesses a unique feature in its organization in what is known as the High School Board. Its objects are to bridge over the gulf which too often exists in America between the Universities and the public High Schools, and to encourage the poorer districts to provide for secondary education. This Board consists of three members, the Governor of the State, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the President of the State University.

The law, which dates from 1881, may be summarized as follows:-The Board receives applications for aid from any properly organized free public school in the State, admitting students of either sex; and, after being satisfied that the school is working properly, grants a sum of $400 (£80) annually from the State treasury. The conditions which the Board by law requires are, first, that there shall be in the school regular courses of study in preparation for the University of Minnesota, and, second, that the school shall be inspected and approved periodically by members of the Board, or by its agents.

The Board classifies the High Schools into three divisions, according to their excellence, not as measured by the examination results of their pupils, but by their arrangements for complete courses of study, provisions for laboratory work, and for libraries. According to recent statistics, there are 19 in the first class, 30 in the second, and 20 in the third; total, 69 schools, containing 4,290 pupils. This Board has already, according to the testimony of persons of experience, worked wonders. The classification of the schools appeals to that local feeling and rivalry between one city and another, which are so strong in America. Further, pupils who have satisfactorily passed through the course of study of schools of the First Class, are admitted to the State University without further examination. It should be noted that, in accordance with the law quoted above, an inspector appointed by the Board, who is always a practical teacher, visits the High Schools every year, and makes an elaborate report upon them.

There is also a system of State local examinations for pupils in High Schools who may enter for a few subjects each year, and receive a diploma under the seal of the State, after passing a certain number of subjects. These students must go through four years' regular work in an approved High School in order to obtain the diploma.

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction declares that "no department of the public school system is better supported by public sentiment, and

none is rendering more appreciable results in education than the State High Schools."1

One interesting result of the system is that many boys from the High Schools enter the University, take the course in Liberal Arts, and then go into business. A large number of the teachers in these schools are also graduates of the State University, the High School Board having power to insist upon teachers being properly qualified according to their requirements.

D.-The Universities.

In America these institutions stand apart from the State system of public education. They do not have, as in England, a wide influence on secondary education by any general system of local examinations. (We shall explain later the modifications necessary to make these statements absolutely correct.) They have, however, an indefinite influence on education in the public schools, through the personal prestige of their great men, such as the present head of Harvard, President Eliot, whose opinions carry weight everywhere among teachers. They also affect the curricula of the secondary schools by the requirements of the matriculation examinations.

But they do not seem to be as closely connected with secondary education as in England; the ten

1 Report of Superintendent for 1891-2.

2 W. T. Harris, in The Place of University Extension in American Education, says: "Secondary education developed not on the basis of the university but on that of the elementary school. The course of study in these institutions

dency, however, is to bring the Universities into closer relation with education in general. According to President Gilman, of Johns Hopkins, there are four kinds of Universities in the United States.1 The first is the College University, of which Harvard is a type; this is often of colonial foundation, and may have received State aid in the past. Many of these were founded by ecclesiastical bodies, and some are still more or less denominational.

of the greater ones are as yet open to women.

None

The second is the privately endowed University, such as Cornell, Ithaca, N.Y.; Johns Hopkins, Baltimore; and the new University of Chicago. Some of these have been founded by one individual whose name they perpetuate; they comprise some of the wealthiest, best equipped, and most efficient institutions. Some are open to women, some are not; the best women's colleges might be included in this class. They resemble the first class in their legal status as independent corporations, governed by their own Boards, and generally chartered under the laws of the State in which they are situated.

The third class consists of the State Universities; these have been founded by the States' Legislatures,

has been under the control of men educated only on elementary methods. . . Arrested development is the result and mechanical device. It produces a flippant, self

conceited frame of mind. Only one in 500 of the population is now enrolled in schools for higher instruction." -P. 8.

1 Cyclopædia of Folitical Science. Article, "Universities." 2 Harvard, 1637. Yale, 1701. Columbia, N.Y., 1754.

are governed by Regents elected by the people, or nominated by the Legislature or Governor, and are supported partly by a State tax, and partly by the funds arising from appropriations of lands to educational purposes by the Federal Government, when the States were themselves created. None of the original thirteen States have State Universities; these occur in all the Western and in some of the Southern States. They are open to women, and are, as State institutions, wholly undenominational, and, in accordance with the Constitution, secular. The most important of these, on which indeed many of the others appear to have been modelled, is the University of Michigan. As this has many features of interest in connection with the present inquiry, and as it is not well known in England, we shall devote a separate chapter to some account of it. Its organization will be there described. The fourth class has but one representative, the University of the State of New York. Its chief work is examination; it is not a teaching university at all. It has, however, special relations with secondary education; a further account of it is therefore given.

E.-The University of the State of New York. This body is an interesting example of an attempt to unify the various institutions for higher education, in the great and populous State of New York, and to raise the standard of such education by the controlling influence of a centralized organization. It consists nominally of all colleges and academies having State charters: these have, however, no