school. This practice has been sanctioned by general and immemorial usage among the schools, and by the authority and consent of school boards, expressed or implied, and has been found useful in its influence and results. There is no law defining precisely the school hours, as they are termed, or the hours within which the schools are to be kept. This is regulated by usage, or by the directions of the school boards, varying in different localities, and also in different seasons of the year. The practice under consideration, of occasionally detaining pupils after the regular school hours for objects connected with the school arrangements, rests precisely upon the same authority. The same superintending power that regulates and controls in the one case, does the same thing in the other; yet, the right in question should always be exercised by teachers with proper caution, and a due regard to the wishes and convenience of parents. It may be urged by way of objection to the practice in question, that if a teacher can detain a pupil a quarter of an hour, he can an hour or two hours, and indeed to any extent whatever without limitation. The answer to this is obvious-that the abuse of a practice is no argument against its general propriety and expediency; that teachers are supposed, like other agents, to be governed by reason and sound judgment in the performance of their duties, and if, in any case, they should grossly pervert the confidence and authority reposed in them in respect to this matter, they would, as in other like cases, be held responsible for the perversion.

TAXATION OF DOGS.

The law by which dogs were taxed one dollar per annum for the benefit of schools, was repealed at the last session of the Legislature, and an act passed requiring the owner of every dog to procure a license for keeping the same, for which he is to pay, for every male dog one dollar, and for every female dog three dollars per annum, under a penalty of ten dollars. The money thus obtained is to constitute a fund in the several townships and cities for the payment for sheep killed therein by dogs; the surplus to be apportioned upon the scholar to the school districts.

If this law is enforced, it cannot fail to bring a handsome revenue to the schools in the cities, where no sheep are kept, and more or less to the schools in the townships. Every taxpayer, therefore, is interested in having the law enforced.

UNIVERSITY AND SCHOOL LANDS.

At the last session of the Legislature, the law relative to the terms of payment for University and school lands was amended, whereby one-half, instead of one-fourth, of the purchase money must be paid down. The two amended sections are as follows:

(3818.) SEC. 2. The terms of payment on the sale of University and school lands, shall be fifty per centum of the purchase money to be paid at the time of the purchase, the balance of the principal at any time thereafter at the option of the purchaser, with interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum on the unpaid balance payable on the first day of March, or within sixty days thereafter, in each and every year, at such place or places as shall be specified in the certificate of purchase: Provided, That before any of said lands shall be sold, the Commissioner of the State Land Office shall require the affidavit of at least two persons (accompanied by the certificate of the supervisor of the township in which such lands are situated, as to the credibility of such persons), that such lands are not valuable chiefly by or on account of timber

thereon.

(3823.) SEC. 7. The said commissioner shall, whenever it satisfactorily appears that the chief value of any parcel of land consists of pine or other timber, and that in his opinion the interest of the State will not be secured by a compliance with the terms of payment prescribed in the second section of this act, require full payment for the same.

ABSTRACTS OF DECISIONS UPON THE SCHOOL LAWS, BY THE SUPREME COURT OF MICHIGAN.

I.-DISTRICTS CREATED BY THE LEGISLATURE.

School inspectors can make no changes to affect the boundaries of a district established by a special act of the Legislature.-17th Michigan, page 223.

The Legislature, by a special act in 1867, organized a school district out of territory taken from three other districts in the township of Oshtemo, Kalamazoo county. The school inspectors of the township assumed that this did not affect their power under section 71 of the school laws, to "regulate and alter the boundaries" of districts; and they proceeded to set the territory back to the original districts, and destroy the district organized by the Legislature.

A bill was filed in the circuit court to restrain the inspectors from interference with the rights of the new district.

"The material facts were admitted by stipulation, and it was agreed that the only question of law to be submitted was, whether upon the facts, the board of school inspectors had any power to re-district the township in such manner as to destroy the new district. The court decided that the district was legally constituted; that the action of the inspectors complained of was unauthorized and void, and perpetually enjoined the inspectors and their successors from making any change

in the boundaries of the district, as established by the Legislature."

Appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, which confirmed the decision.

Judge Graves said: "It is very clear that the power claimed for the inspectors did not exist to the extent insisted on."

"The act itself did not purport to vest any authority in the inspectors to dispense with the law, and as the statute was the superior authority, it was beyond the power of the inspectors to destroy or invalidate its operation."

On the question whether the inspectors could ever exercise jurisdiction over the boundaries of the district, the court said: "As a corporation, it would stand by itself as an independent corporate existence, and deriving no vital support from the law under which inspectors form districts. The Legislature have not declared by this act, nor can it be implied from any other, when this period of exemption should terminate. It is a fair inference, then, that it was meant to be perpetual."

II.-PROPERTY OF A DISTRICT, AS AFFECTED BY THE INCORPORATION OF A CITY EMBRACING PART OF ITS TERRITORY. Township of Saginaw vs. School District No. 1 of the City of Saginaw.-9th Michigan, page 541.

MANNING, JUDGE.-" School district No. 1 of the township of Saginaw, was incorporated in 1837. In 1857 the city of Saginaw was incorporated, the city limits being wholly within the school district, and comprising about one-fourth of the district. A mill tax for schools had been levied and collected in the district the preceding year, and paid over to the township treasurer, which the present action was brought to recover by the defendant in error, who was plaintiff in the court below. After the incorporation of the city, the officers