voice in its government; the University is really a State Bureau of Administration, governed by a Board, known as "the Regents." They are twentythree in number:-the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, and Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of New York (ex officio), with nineteen elective Regents who are chosen by the Legislature as the Senators for the National Congress are. This body is really, in fact, the University. The nineteen chairs have been occupied by some of the most eminent citizens of New York. The University dates from the period of the Revolution, 1787; it was formed largely under French influence, but it had very little effect or influence until the last few years.

Its powers are as follows:-The Regents have power to incorporate, and to alter or repeal the Charters of Colleges, Academies, Libraries, Museums, or other educational institutions belonging to the University; to distribute to them all funds granted by the State for their use, to inspect their workings, and to require annual reports under oath of their presiding officers; to establish examinations as to attainments in learning, and to confer on successful candidates suitable certificates and degrees. They thus have power to do what the University of London does, but as yet they only exercise this power to grant Medical Degrees; the institutions themselves grant their own degrees in their own

1 Among the Regents are Chauncey M. Depew and Whitelaw Reid; George Wm. Curtis was Chancellor up to his death.

fashion. The Regents have, however, established local examinations in the secondary schools, the certificate of which is recognised for admission to the College, and is required from all law and medical students. These examinations cover 68 subjects, and necessitate more than 500,000 examination papers yearly; there are 390 secondary schools taking these examinations. The 86 Colleges included in the University do not, of course, enter for them. The Regents apportion annually an Academic fund of $106,000 (£21,200); part for buying books and apparatus for Academies and High Schools, and the balance on the basis of attendance and the Regents' examinations. They are also trustees of the State Library and State Museum, and have a special organization for assisting cities and villages to obtain free libraries. Furthermore they have taken up the work of University Extension.

The University holds a yearly Convocation at Albany, when the teachers and officers of the Colleges and Academies meet to confer on questions of secondary and higher education. The Regents have also established a property qualification for new institutions desiring charters of incorporation; they thus hope to check the multiplication of poor and insufficiently equipped colleges and academies. The work of the University will doubtless extend and become more important as years go on; it is an interesting example of the necessity for those central controlling and supervising bodies in the public education system, which are a marked feature of the most progressive States of America.

IN

HIGH SCHOOLS.

N what follows we refer to the public High Schools, although the private schools resemble these to a much greater extent than might be expected. The general age of entrance is 15 to 16 for pupils entering from the grammar schools of the city; some come at an earlier age, but few, if any, later. The certificate from the grammar school, or an equivalent entrance examination, is required before admission. This simplifies the work of the High School, for some subjects can be omitted from its curriculum as having been sufficiently studied in the lower school. Arithmetic, grammar, geography, and United States history in its elementary parts, are the chief of these. This stratification of subjects is one of the greatest advantages of the public school system; it enables the High School to devote considerable time to advanced work, and thus to avoid the waste of energy caused by studying many things at once.

The organization of American High Schools is also much simpler than that customary in England. The pupils are arranged in years, the year beginning in September; admissions at other times are only allowed if the applicant can produce evidence,

by examination or certificate, of being fit to take up the class work at the proper point. As a rule the pupils go regularly together to the next year's work; the backward ones either lose a year, and go over the course again, or leave school. We imagine the latter is the more usual alternative. On completion of the prescribed course-in general one of three or four years a diploma of graduation is given. The occasion for this is often one of some ceremony, girls wearing a special dress, the best pupils of the year reciting addresses, etc.; it takes, indeed, the place of the English distribution of prizes.

Most High Schools have several courses of study, one of which must be chosen when the student enters. There seems to be little provision for change, probably because there is little demand for it. We give in the Appendix details of the courses in some typical schools. One is generally a commercial course, which takes two years; the course preparing for College takes four years. Many girls choose an English course. Boys in some cities take a course of three years for engineering. As stated above, some cities have separate schools for the various courses. The Manual Training High Schools for boys in Philadelphia and Cambridge, Mass., seemed to the writer worthy of special study, but as they do not concern girls, they are beyond the limits of the present inquiry. The school committee of Boston has decided to open a Mechanic Arts High School for Boys, the land to cost £10,000 and the building £24,000. Their report states: "For the first time in Boston, the boy who wishes to enter

the industrial world will have the same opportunities given him for preparation, at the public expense, as have been given so long to those who wish to prepare for a business or professional life.”

Many pupils leave before graduation, boys especially. This is due to the attraction of practical life. In a mixed school the excess of the number of girls over that of boys is very striking, in what an Englishman would call the "higher forms." The word form is, however, not used; the year is spoken of as a class. The class divides for lessons, according to the subjects taken by the individual members.

When a school is very large the class for one year may contain 200 or more. It follows, then, that all who learn the same subject cannot be taught together; they are therefore divided into sections, and the teacher repeats her lesson. Each teacher takes but one or two subjects. All the pupils are, however, kept parallel in their work. In an English school the differences between pupils would soon be noticed by the teacher, and, after a few lessons, the class would be re-arranged into different sections, the brighter pupils pushed on faster, while the duller ones would receive more explanation of difficulties. We found no trace of such a gradation in even the best public High Schools; the whole year went on at the same pace, even when the numbers were so large as to require teaching in sections. We were informed by the superintendent of one city that to go further with one set of pupils than with another, if they were both doing the same course and belonged to the same year, would be considered