of improvement for a whole people round them, and for generations after them, where a mistake would bring calamity to the most precious and enduring interests of mankind, and where wisdom and genius would throw forward their light and happiness into coming centuries; and I know I shall have their assent when I s..y that no position in human life could impose more anxiety and solicitude and toil upon its po-se-sor, than the perilous position t! ey have oc cupied. Without guide, without precedent, without counsel, they have had no helpers but in their own forethought, fidelity, and devotion. How cheering and sustaining to them, must be such opportunities as the present, where the errors of others may become admonitions to them, and the successes of others may be used for their guidance.

Still better is it, when the teachers of schools and the superintendents of schools can meet together, as on the present occasion, and render reciprocal aid in the discharge of their respective duties. At meetings like this, whatever wisdom the country poss.sses on the subject of education, may be brought into common stock, and by a self-multiplying process, the whole of it may be carried away by each individual. At least, so much of the whole may be carried away by each, as he has capacity to receive.

By a national organization of teachers, great and comprehensive plans may be devised. to whose stand..rd each State may be gradually brought into conformity for in-tance, such as relate to the organization of territory into school districts; to the proper age at which children should go to school; or, as the Germans so beautifully express it, when a child is due to the s hool;' to the gradation of schools, &c., &c. There are not more than two States in this Union where the census of the school-going children is taken alike;-where those between the same ages are considered as belonging to the school. When, therefore, one State repo ts a certain number of children, and another State another number, we can not compare them for they have not taken children between the same ages; the result is the same, when they report the number of children who are out of school. Now we want uniformity in these matters, so that we may speak a common language; so that the same terms shall express the same ideas all over the country.

Let me give an illustration of what I mean. Three or four days ago, I was consulted with by a distinguished gentleman connected with the administration of schools, in regard to a School Register for the schools of a State. One column of the proposed Register was to be appropriated to a classification of the scholars, according to their conduct. It was proposed to enter three degrees of merit or demerit upon the roll. As I came through New York yesterday, I visited that est. blishment, so honorable to the city, the Free Academy. I there saw a merit-roll consisting of ten degrees. Now, measures and plans, differing from each other like these, exist all over the country, and are found on all subjects, in the different States, and in the different towns and schools in the same State. Now some of these must be better than others. A national association can select the best, and discard the others. Thus we shall have a common language, and not be compelled, as at present, to translate one State dialect into another State dialect, all over the Union. On all school subjects we want: first, the best way; and second, the universal adoption of the best way. This broad principle, however, does not exclude variations to suit the different circumstances of different communities.

These advantages pertain to the head, to our ability to conduct the great work of education, in the wisest manner and to the most beneficial results. But the heart may be as much warmed as the head is instructed. By the communion and the sympathy of assemblies like this, we can not only enlighten the guiding forces of the mind, but we can generate the impulsive forces of the heart. We can not only diffuse new intelligence, but we can excite new enthusiasm. Throughout the whole country, the machinery of education needs to be increased in strength, and worked by a mightier power. In all material interests, we are proverbial as a people for our enterprise. Let us seek for our country the higher honor of becoming proverbial in our regard for moral and spiritual interests. Let us devise systems of education that shall reach every child that is born in the land; and wherever political privileges exist, let the intelligence be imparted and the virtues inculcated, which alone can make those privileges a blessing.

It is but a few weeks since we witnessed the spectacle of three great kingdoms, or countries, vibrating as with one simultaneous thrill, in reference to the fate of a single individual. Four years ago, there went forth from England an adventurous navigator, to make discoveries along the northern shores of this continent, and he went merely to gratify curiosity, and his voyage, however successful, could have conferred no substantial benefit upon the world. The government of Great Britain fitted him out with expensive equipments. He departed under the highest auspices that could be invoked for his success. Thousands cheered him, and sympathized with him, and prayed for him, at his departure. He has gone. He has not returned. Fears are entertained that he never will return, and those fears are fast verging to despair An appeal was lately made to our government in his behalf, and one of our highest functionaries answered that appeal with sympathizing words and with encour agements of assistance. Had it not been for the lateness of the season, at the time when our aid was invoked, American vessels would now be on their way to the Arctic Ocean, in search of the lost adventurer.

The Russian government, too, which spreads itself around the globe, promised the aid of its ships and its resources, to rescue this mariner from the perils of a polar region, and the terrors of an icy death.

Thus the three most powerful governments in Christendom express their regret and proffer their assistance for the recovery of a single man-Sir John Franklin. And yet, my friends, you can not pass through one of the great streets of this or any other of the cities of this country; you can not go through the most secluded town or village in all this broad land, without meeting some juvenile Sir John Franklin, some great man in embryo, more valuable, and of more consequence to futurity, than the one who we fear now lies buried beneath the icebergs of the Arctic Ocean.

All these Sir John Franklins, aye, and Dr. Franklins too, and other names of potential and prospective greatness, who have within them the latent powers, which, in their full development, might bless and regenerate the world, are scattered all over this country; but none of the three great nations of Christendom offers its sympathy or succor, or extends an arm for their deliverance from a fate which is as much worse than to be buried beneath the snows of the Arctic, as moral perdition is more terrible than physical.

Look too, at the condition of our country, and see what need there is of com

prehensiveness in our plans, and of energy in their administration. We have a higher object than to prepare a system of education for any one locality, or for any one party. To the West, a region spreads out almost interminably—a region to be soon filled, not with savages, but either with Christians, or with men as much worse than savages as christians are better. On the East, there comes pouring in upon us a new population, not of our own production, not of American parentage nor the growth of American institutions. Owing to the marvelous improvements in the art of transportation, the Atlantic ocean has been narrowed almost to a river's breadth. The western and the eastern continent, by the power of these improvements lie side by side of each other. Their shores, for thousands of miles, lie like two ships, broadside and broadside, and from stem to stern, the emigrant population of Europe is boarding us, tens of thousands in a day. We must provide for them, or we will all sink together.

And what are we doing to prepare for the great exigencies of the future, which the Providence of God seems to have placed in our hands; and, I speak it with reverence, to have left to our disposal? A responsibility is upon us that we can not shake off. We can not escape with the lying plea of Cain, 'Am I my brother's keeper? Let us then be aroused by every consideration that can act upon the mind of a patriot, a philanthropist, or a Christian; and let us give our hands, our heads, and our hearts to the great work of human improvement, through the instrumentality of free, common schools. As far as in us lies, let us save from ruin, physical, intellectual, and moral, the thousands and hundreds of thousands, aye, the millions and hundreds of millions of the human race, to whom we are bound by the ties of a common nature and of kindred blood, and who, without our assistance, will miserably perish, but with our assistance, may be saved to usefulness and honor, and immortal glory.

The discussions of the convention were confined closely to the following topics, relating to the organization and administration of a system of public instruction adapted to the different sections of the United States, introduced by the business committee, of which Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, was chairman.

1. TERRITORIAL, OR CIVIL SUBDIVISION OF THE STATE-Involving the extent to which the district system should be carried, and the modifications of which the same is susceptible; and the official superintendence required for each subdivision, State, county, town, and neighborhood.

2. SCHOOL ARCH TECTURE-Including the location, size, modes of ventilation, warming. seating &c,, of buildings intended for educational purpo-es.

3. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE-Including the school age of children, and the best modes of securing the regular and punctual attendance of children at school. 4. GRADES OF SCHOOLS-The number and character of each grade.

5. COURSE OF INSTRUCTION-Physical, intellectual, moral, and religious; esthetical; indu trial. Studies.-Books, apparatus, methods,

6 TEACHERS Their qualifications; their examination and compensation; normal schools, teachers' institutes, books on the theory and practice of teaching. 7. SUPPORT Tax on property, tax on parents, school funds-local and State. 8. PARENTAL AND PUBLIC INTEREST.

9. SUPPLEMENTARY MEANS-Library, Lyceum, Lectures.

CLOSING ADDRESS.

In rising to adjourn the Convention, as the clock struck ten, the hour fixed on for closing its proceedings, the President (Mr. Mann), remarked as follows:

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: The clock is now striking the hour-the air in now waving with its vibrations-at which it has been decided to bring the labors of this (onvention to a close. We have been looking for the last three days upon the bright side of the tapestry; the dark side is now turned toward us. The pleasing acquaintances which have been formed, and which can have been to none more pleasing than to myself, must be broken, and we must go away, carrying such good as we can, from the deliberations of this assembly. In parting from you, I can not forbear to express my warmest acknowledgments for the continual kindness with which you have been pleased to regard the performance of the duties of the chair. You have made all its labors light, and all its difficulties nominal. In parting from you, gentlemen, it is impossible for me to express the feelings of hope, mingled with anxiety, with which I look forward to the consequences of this meeting. We shall separate. We shall go away to move in different and distant spheres. From these narrow walls which now inclose us, we shall find ourselves, at the end of a week, in a dozen different states, east, west, north, and south. Shall the influences which have been here concentrated and brought to a focus, be dissipated and lost, when our local proximity to each other is gone; or shall the moral influences which have been here generated, expand themselves over the vast spaces where we shall soon be found, keep themselves vivid and animate, and make the common air electric with their fullness of life? I trust the latter, and our zeal will not be of the flashy kind, that will evaporate as soon as the exciting cause is withdrawn, but that it will be like the heat of the sun, which, being once kindled. glows on forever. Gentlemen, this occasion has brought together two classes of men, sufficiently distinguished from each other to be the subjects of a division. May I be permitted to address a few words to each? We have before us the practical teachers; men who have devoted themselves to the business of the schoolroom, who do not exercise a very diffusive influence in a broad sphere, but an intense influence in a narrow sphere-points of strong light thrown upon a small space, rather than wider radiations of a flame that is weakened by its expansion. What are the duties of the school teacher? I have not time to enumerate or define them. I can not even mention the names of the long catalogue; but I will call your attention to one which comes very near to embracing all. By this one I mean thoroughness in every thing you teach. Thoroughness thoroughness-and again I say THOROUGHNESS is the secret of sucYou heard some admirable remarks this morning from a gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Sears), in which he told us that a child, in learning a single lesson, might get not only an idea of the subject matter of that lesson, but an idea how all lessons should be learned; a general idea, not only how that subject should be studied, but how all subjects should be studied. A child in compassing the simple subject, may get an idea of perfectness, which is the type, or archetype of all excellence, and this idea may modify the action of his mind through his whole course of life.

cess.

Be thorough, therefore, be complete in every thing you do; leave no enemy in ambush behind you as you march on, to rise up in your rear to assail you. Leave no broken link in the chain you are daily forging. Perfect your work so that when it is subjected to the trials and experiences of life, it will not be found wanting. It was within the past year that I saw an account in the public papers of a terrible gale in one of the harbors of the Chinese seas. It was one

of those typhoons, as they are called, which lay prostrate not only the productions of nature, but the structures of man. In this harbor were lying at anchor the vessels of all nations, and among them the United States sloop of war Plymouth, Every vessel broke its cable but one. The tornado tossed them about, and dashed them against each other, and broke them like egg-shells. But amidst this terrific scene of destruction, our government vessel held fast to its inoorings, and escaped unharmed. Who made the links of that cable, that the strength of the tempest could not rend? Yes! Who made the links of that cable, that the tempest could not rend? Who was the workman that worked under oath, and whose work saved property and human life from ruin, otherwise inevitable? Could that workman have beheld the spectacle, and heard the raging of the elements, and seen the other vessels as they were dashed to pieces and scattered abroad, while the violence of the tempest wre..ked itself upon its own work in vain, would he not have had the amplest and purest reward for the fidelity of his labor?

So, in the after periods of your existence, whether it be in this world, or from another world which you may be permitted to look back, you may see the consequences of your instruction upon the children whom you have trained. In the crises of business life, where intellectual accuracy leads to immense good, and intellectual mistakes to immense loss, you may see your pupils distinguishing between error and truth, between false reasoning and sound reasoning, leading all who may rely upon them to correct results, establishing the highest reputation for themselves, and for you as well as for themselves, and conferring incalculable good upon the community.

So, if you have been wise and successful in your moral training, you will have prepared them to stand unshaken and unseduced amid t temptations, firm when others are swept away, uncorrupt where others are depraved, unconsumed where others are blasted and perish. You may be able to say that, by the blessing of God, you have helped to do this thing. And will not such a day be a day of more exalted and sublime joy than if you could have looked upon the storm in the eastern seas, and known that it was your handiwork that saved the vessel unharmed amid the wrecks that floated around it? Would not such a sight be a reward great and grand enough to satisfy and fill up any heart, mortal or immortal?

There is another class of men in this meeting-those who hold important official situations under the State governments, and who are charged with the superintendence of public instruction. Peculiar duties devolve upon them. They, in common with the teachers, have taken upon themselves a great responsibility. When in the course of yesterday's proceedings, a resolution was introduced, proposing to make this a National Convention, with a permanent organization, I confess that as I sat here in my chair, I felt my joints trembling with emotion, at the idea of the responsibility you were about to assume. Shall this body establish itself as a National Convention? Shall we hold ourselves out to this great country as a source of information and a centre of influence, on one of the most important subjects that can be submitted to the human faculties? Shall we hold ourselves up here in full sunlight, and virtually say to the whole country, come here and fill your urns from our fountains of wisdom? Those views came over me with such force, as almost to make me forget where I was, and the duties I had to discharge; for experience has led me to know