how near the brink of a final overthrow our country may have come, for the lack of that military knowledge which a long peace had taught us to hold in too light esteem? It is obvious that one of the first and highest duties we now owe to our country and to our children is to introduce everywhere into our institutions of learning for young men, some adequate instruction in military science and art. Especially ought our State University, in which such an army of students is annually assembled, to provide this instruction. No educated young man should henceforth be dismissed from its halls who cannot, if need be, teach his neighbors the military drill, and lead them, if required, to the battle-field to defend their country's cause.

It would have been well if the Legislature had wisely apportioned to the University some part of the large grant of lands given to the State for agricultural and military education; but with or without further aid, we may justly call upon the Regents at once to inaugurate this work. "No measure can be more popular in our State," as said the late President, in his annual report in 1862, and just because the great popular heart is right in this matter. The popular mind clearly discerns the vital necessity and use of such instruction for our youth.

It ought in justice to be stated that the present Board of Regents have been anxious to establish the military department, and some steps have been taken to accomplish this purpose. It is to be hoped that the new Board will be able to give effect to the plans proposed.

The second department referred to is that of the Science of Education. Since the University sends forth so many of its students to become teachers, it ought to instruct them in the art of teaching. Since its graduates are sought often for school officers, it ought to give them a knowledge of the theory of schools. The rapid rise into importance and power, of the modern systems of public instruction, the change of the common schools from mere neighborhood affairs to matters of grave governmental concern, and the recognition of them as among

the mightiest bulwarks of public liberty and order, and as potential agencies of national prosperity and progress, have created a new science on earth, and opened a new field of art and enterprise to mankind.

The birth of a profounder philosophy of education has led to the organization of a more philosophical system of graded schools, and to the introduction of more natural and rational methods of instruction. New sciences have been added to the fields of common learning, and the aid of education has been invoked to fit men for new arts and a more scientific industry. A large and fresh field of thought and work is here opened to our educated men, and the old courses of study are no longer adequate to prepare them for their duties to society and the State. Especially ought they, who, as legislators, school officers or teachers, will be called upon to take part in moulding. or managing our school system, to be instructed in the fundamental truths and main principles of educational science.

The University owes it to the great school system which it so worthily crowns, to teach educational art and philosophy to its students; and the officers of our public schools may reasonably call upon the Regents to provide for a proper course of instruction in this department.

Nor need the work of such a department stop with the instruction of the proper students of the University classes. It may and should invite others to its course of pedagogic lectures and drills. There is a class of educated men seeking service in the schools and colleges, who will be more naturally attracted to the University than to any other place, to gain the professional instruction needed to fit them for their work.

It is obvious to all who have reflected profoundly upon the subject, that our agencies for the preparation of teachers ought to be greatly increased. The yearly augmentation of the number, and elevation of the character, of our schools render it more and more difficult to supply the large host of educated teachers needed by them. The State Normal School is working up to its full capacity of space and power, and with unsurpassed

energy and success. Why should not the State University lend its aid and do some part of this work, thus linking itself more closely to the mighty machinery of public instruction, and stretching forth its helping hand to the grand task of the universal education of the people? Other colleges yielding to the popular demand and need, have organized their classes for the instruction of teachers. Why should not the State University also extend its broad mantle and embrace the honorable profession of teachers, among the fraternities of learned men to whom it grants the benefits of its instruction, and whom it endows with the renown of its great name?

During the last two years, the Superintendent, to supply in part the lack of such instruction, gratuitously delivered short courses of lectures to the senior classes, and is under engagement to perform a like service for the present senior class. But a labor of so much public importance should not be left to the poor chances of some volunteer efforts.

THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

The annual report of the State Board of Education, which will be found in the appendix, affords a full and detailed statement of the condition of the Normal School. It is but just that I should here bear testimony to the energy and fidelity with which the Principal, and his coadjutors in the Board of Instruction, have done their work. Not content to repeat the past, and to tread again the round of former achievements, they have pressed forward with an intelligent zeal into new fields of effort and truth, and have thus made the Normal School the most progressive, as it was already the most perfect school in the State. Not forgetting to maintain its old character for sound and thorough scholarship, it has pushed its teachings into new and profounder realms of educational philosophy, and has added to its course, drills in the newer and more natural methods of instruction.

A special training course has been organized for such as are already familiar with the several branches of study, and desire only the professional education; and the model school has been

changed into a regular graded school, in which the theory of this great natural system of schools is fully illustrated. Besides the valuable aid which several of the Professors rendered in the State Teachers Institutes, they held at the Normal School building, without extra expense to the State, a Pestalozzian Institute through a session of five weeks, in which instruction was afforded to a large number of teachers for the winter schools.

The whole number of students in attendance at the School the last year was 506, of whom 100 were in the Model School, and 406 in the Normal School proper. The number graduated was 8 gentlemen, and 12 ladies.

THE COLLEGES.

In accordance with the provisions of law, I appointed during the past year, State visitors to the several incorporated Colleges and other institutions of learning, and the reports of such visitors, as far as received, will be found in the Appendix. At the present writing, none of the annual reports required by law from the Trustees of these Institutions, have been received. Should they appear in time, they will be published in their appropriate place in the Appendix.

The pressure of other duties has permitted me to visit officially, only two of these Institutions during the past year; but information derived directly from members of the several Faculties, represent them as enjoying a high degree of prosperity. For at least three of the Colleges, special and well planned efforts are in progress to secure a more ample endowment. Every lover of learning must wish these efforts success, and it is to be hoped that our men of wealth will duly appreciate the golden opportunities here afforded, to do deeds of the most enduring and splendid beneficence-deeds whose far-reaching influences shall linger to bless the generations yet unborn. What a world of good has flowed from the noble benefactions of John Harvard and Elihu Yale, whose moderate, but timely gifts, nourished the infancy of the great and powerful institutions

that now bear their names-of Nicholas Brown and James Bowdoin, whose munificent donations lifted into permanent power, the else feeble Colleges that now preserve their memories. How wise-hearted the glorious liberality of Smithson, and Lawrence, and Peabody, who, recognizing the beneficent might which dwelt in their wealth, poured it out into institutions of charity and learning which shall continue to bless humanity till the very sunset of time. Shall not Michigan, too, have her Harvards, and Yales, and Browns, who shall embalm their names in her infant colleges, and leave behind them, on her soil, perennial fountains of good, to glorify and bless our race? Shall there not be found among her sons, men of liberal soul and of far-seeing wisdom, who will help to plant in her young history, institutions which shall shape her to a grander growth and fill her distant future with the light of a pure and Christian learning?

In former reports I have frankly indicated my own belief that the existence of these Colleges is not an evil, but a good in our State. I am aware that there are those who count them as anomalous and supernumerary in our system of Public Instruction;-as in some sort rivals to our State Institutions, set up by over-zealous sectaries whose efforts we are obliged to tolerate, but ought by no means to assist. It is doubtless true that such a rivalry may have been aimed at by some unwise partisans of these schools, who have not discerned the essential unity and mutual dependence of all true educational enterprizes. And it is also true that the rivalry of such institutions might have harmed the State University, in its earlier and feebler days; but those days are past, and the University having now nothing to fear from a rivalry so unnatural and needless, we may discuss calmly the real and public value of these Colleges, and seek to determine the line of a wise and just policy towards them. Certainly it is time that the public mind should settle down to some definite understanding of the question at issue. Passing as we are by giant strides towards a future of magnificent growth-a future when millions shall