EDUCATION.

Before describing the system of schools in Cuba and presenting the results of the census as shown in the schedules of education, it has been thought advisable to give a brief history of the subject as being of much interest to Cubans. This would not have been practicable from such investigation as the Director of the Census has been able to make, but fortunately the recent report of Mr. Robert L. Packard to the Commissioner of Education of the United States (see Report of the Commissioner, vol. 1, 1897-98) on education in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines has removed all difficulty on this point, and no apology is thought necessary for the copious extracts taken from his interesting and valuable memoir.

It may be said by way of preface that before the nineteenth century, education in Spain, as elsewhere in Europe, was confined almost exclusively to the children of those who could pay for it. Public and free schools were but little known. It is hardly to be expected, therefore, that the colonies of Spain would take more advanced ground or show greater interest in education as a means of general improvement than the mother country, in which the degree of illiteracy was, until very recently, as great as in any other civilized nation.

Commenting on the state of education in the early days of Cuba, Mr. Packard remarks as follows:

Even in Habana, up to the beginning of the last century, there were no public elementary schools, and the need of them became so evident that, by the munificence of a citizen (Caraballo), the Bethlehemite fathers opened a school where reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught, which was attended by 200 pupils. In Villa Clara a school was in existence since the foundation of the town, in 1689. In 1712 the philanthropic Don Juan Congedo, of Remedios, opened a free school there, and another in 1757 at Carmen. Another was opened at Arriaga in 1759; but on the death of Congedo these schools were closed. Don Juan Felix de Moya reopened that at Carmen, and the municipality in 1775 voted $25 a year for the support of the other, but both ceased to operate definitely in 1787. In 1771 Matanzas, seventyeight years after its foundation, authorized its governor to engage a school-teacher in Habana.

Nor were secondary studies of a high character in the last century. Then, and subsequently, too, as the historian, Bachiller, quoted by Mitjans, remarks, more attention was paid to the pretentious form than the substance, and the title of academy or institute was given to institutions which were hardly more than primary schools, which held out inducements of a speedy preparation for the university. At that time, it should be remembered, the natural sciences had not reached the importance they subsequently attained, and the study of philosophy required the royal permission, so that secondary instruction was reduced to a superficial study of the humanities, especially Latin, which occupied the leading place on account of its use in fitting for the university and because teachers of Latin were easily found among the clergy, who were the principal factors of education at that period. All this may be said without detracting from the praiseworthy efforts and antiquity of some institutions like the Chapter of Habana, which in 1603, convinced of the need

of a teacher of grammar, voted a hundred ducats for the support of one who should teach Latin; but as the plan did not meet with the royal approbation they were obliged to drop the project, only to revive it afterwards with a larger salary. In the same year the municipality provided for continuing classes in grammar by a monk of the convent, which had been suspended. In 1607 Bishop Juan de las Cabezas Altamirano founded the Tridentine Seminary, the citizens offering to pay part of the expenses annually. The secular clergy also gave lessons in Latin and morals, as Conyedo did, who prepared students for the priesthood in Villa Clara, and later Fr. Antonio Perez de Corcho, who gave lectures on philosophy in the monastery of his order. By the bull of Adrian VI of April 28, 1522, the Scholatria was established at Santiago de Cuba for giving instruction in Latin, and by his will, dated May 15, 1571, Capt. Francisco de Paradas left a considerable sum for the foundation of a school in Bayamo, which in 1720 was intrusted to the charge of two monks of San Domingo, in whose hands the estate increased. In 1689 the College of San Ambrosio was established in Habana with 12 bursarships for the purpose of preparing young men for the church, but it did not fulfill its purpose, and subsequently received the severe censure of Bishop Hechavarria Yelgueza on account of its defective education, which had become reduced to Latin and singing. Fr. José María Penalver opened a chair of eloquence and literature in the convent of La Merced in 1788, which also was not a success.

After these attempts the foundation of a Jesuit college in Habana gave a new impulse to education. From the first, according to the historian Arriete, quoted by Mitjans, the priests of this order had observed the inclination of the inhabitants of Habana toward education, and Pezuela states in his history of Cuba that the municipality in 1656 wished to establish a college of the order, but the differences between the Jesuits and the prelates in the other colonies had been so frequent that the bishops and priests in Habana opposed the plan. But as the population increased the demands for the college multiplied, and in 1717 a citizen of Habana, Don Gregorio Diaz Angel, contributed $40,000 in funds for the support of the college. The necessary license was obtained in 1721; three more years were spent in selecting and purchasing the ground, when the institution was opened under the name of the College of San Ignacio. The old college of San Ambrosio, which had been under the direction of the Jesuits since its establishment in 1689, was then united with it, although the old college still retained its distinctive character as a foundation school for the church.

As early as 1688 the ayuntamiento (or city council) of Habana applied to the Royal Government to establish a university in the city in order that young men desirous of study might not be compelled to go to the mainland or Spain. This request was furthered by Bishop Valdés, and finally, by a letter of Innocent XIII of September 12, 1721, the fathers of the convent of S. Juan de Letran were authorized to found the institution desired, and after some years of preparation it was opened in 1728, but the chairs of morals, philosophy, and canon law were filled previously by the Dominicans even before the funds were available. The university, by the order received, was to have been modeled upon that of Santo Domingo, but finally the task of preparing the regulations for the new university was intrusted to the fathers above mentioned by a royal letter in 1732, and they were approved by the university authorities, the Captain-General, and in Spain by the Council of the Indies on June 27,1734. The rectors, vice-rectors, counselors, and secretaries were to be Dominicans, a condition that produced innumerable rivalries and disputes until 1842. The first professors were appointed to their positions without limit of time. Afterwards they obtained their places by competition and for a term of six years only. The first rector, Fr. Tomás de Linares, was appointed by the King in 1728, but his successors were elected by the university authorities and were renewed annually. Among the early rectors were Bishop Morell, of Santa Cruz, and the renowned Cuban orator, Rafael del Castillo. Unfortunately for a century the university was