A copious index, arranged in alphabetical order, is added, which gives both the section and the page where the law may be found.

The Appendix, to which a reference is invited, contains suggestions at length in regard to the mode of procedure at district meetings; duties and powers of the district board; examination of teachers; engagement of teachers; endorsement of teachers' certificates; teachers' authority with respect to time and place; and the important opinions and decisions on the school laws rendered by the courts of Michigan. In this compilation of the laws it is thought advisable to include the acts [as amended from time to time] establishing the various educational institutions of the State.

In the preparation of this volume, it has been the aim throughout to make it a plain and reliable guide to the army of school officers in the State. If the effort to anticipate and prevent occasions of difficulty in the management of school affairs has given rise to explanations and instructions, seemingly too minute, or perhaps unnecessary, it must be considered that they are intended for the practical wants of men who may be unaccustomed to the ordinary forms of business, and often deprived of facilities for securing legal advice.

No law or set of laws can anticipate and provide against every contingency. But if our school officers would study the law to understand it as it is,-if they would supplement its defects by giving to its provisions a common sense interpretation, we should not be long in reaching a uniform practice in the application of its main provisions, or in giving unity and strength to our whole school system.

DANIEL B. BRIGGS, Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Lansing, May, 1873.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.

ARTICLE THIRTEEN.

EDUCATION.

SECTION 1. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall have the general supervision of public instruction, and his duties shall be prescribed by law.

SEC. 2. The proceeds from the sales of all lands that have been or hereafter may be granted by the United States to the State for educational purposes, and the proceeds of all lands or other property given by individuals, or appropriated by the State for like purposes, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest and income of which, together with the rents of all such lands as may remain unsold, shall be inviolably appropriated and annually applied to the specific objects of the original gift, grant or appropriation.

SEC. 3. All lands, the titles to which shall fail from a defect of heirs, shall escheat to the State; and the interest on the clear proceeds from the sales thereof, shall be appropriated exclusively to the support of primary schools.

SEC. 4. The Legislature shall, within five years from the adoption of this Constitution, provide for and establish a system of primary schools, whereby a school shall be kept without charge for tuition, at least three months in each year, in every school district in the State; and all instruction in said schools shall be conducted in the English language.

(Section 4.) The statute-sections 24 and 107—goes still further requiring districts with less than thirty children to have three months free school; with from thirty to eight hundred children, five months; and with over eight hundred children, nine months.

SEC. 5. A school shall be maintained in each school district at least three months in each year. Any school district neglecting to maintain such school, shall be deprived for the ensuing year of its proportion of the income of the primary school fund, and of all funds arising from taxes for the support of schools.

SEC. 6. There shall be elected in each judicial circuit, at the time of the election of the judge of such circuit, a Regent of the University, whose term of office shall be the same as that of such judge. The Regents thus elected shall constitute the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan.

SEC. 7. The Regents of the University, and their successors in office, shall continue to constitute the body corporate, known by the name and title of "The Regents of the University of Michigan.

SEC. 8. The Regents of the University shall, at their first annual meeting, or as soon thereafter as may be, elect a President of the University, who shall be ex officio a member of their board, with the privilege of speaking, but not of voting. He shall preside at the meetings of the Regents, and be the principal executive officer of the University. The Board of Regents shall have the general supervision of the University, and the direction and control of all expenditures from the University Interest Fund.

SEC. 9. There shall be elected at the general election in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, three members of a State Board of Education-one for two years, one for four years, and one for six years; and at each succeeding biennial

The restriction in regard to language cannot be held to prevent the study of another language as a study, while it prohibits the use of a foreign language in the ordinary instruction of the school.

(Section 5.) "Taxes for the support of schools." This can only be construed to mean all taxes raised for the payment of teachers-including the two-mill tax, and district taxes for teachers' wages; but not taxes for building purposes, and the like.

election there shall be elected one member of such Board, who shall hold his office for six years. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall be ex officio a member and secretary of such board. The board shall have the general supervision of the State Normal School, and their duties shall be prescribed by law.

SEC. 10. Institutions for the benefit of those inhabitants who e deaf, dumb, blind, or insane, shall always be fostered and supported.

SEC. 11. The Legislature shall encourage the promotion of intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and shall, as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment of an agricultural school. The Legislature may appropriate the twenty-two sections of salt spring lands now unappropriated, or the money arising from the sale of the same, where such lands have been already sold, and any land which may hereafter be granted or appropriated for such purpose, for the support and maintenance of such school, and may make the same a branch of the University, for instruction in agriculture and the natural sciences connected therewith, and place the same under the supervision of the Regents of the University.

SEC. 12. The Legislature shall also provide for the establishment of at least one library in each township; and all fines assessed and collected in the several counties and townships for any breach of the penal laws, shall be exclusively applied to the support of such libraries.

(Section 12.) If the provisions of this section were complied with, every town or district in the State might have a flourishing library.

STATUTORY PROVISIONS.

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

Chapter 181, Compiled Laws.

(3468.) SECTION 1. The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall have general supervision of Public Instruction and of the State Reform School, and it shall be his duty, among other things to prepare annually, and transmit to the Governor, to be by him transmitted to the Legislature at each biennial session thereof, a report containing:

1, A statement of the condition of the University, and its branches, of all incorporate Literary Institutions, and of the Primary Schools;

2, Estimates and amounts of expenditures of the school money;

3, Plans for the improvement and management of all educational funds, and for the better organization of the educational system, if in his opinion the same be required;

4. The condition of the Normal School;

5, The annual report and accompanying documents as far as he shall deem the same of sufficient public interest, of the Board of Control of the State Reform School;

6, All such other matters relating to his office, and the subject of education generally, as he shall deem expedient to communicate.

(3469.) SEC. 2. He shall make all necessary abstracts of the reports of School Inspectors, transmitted to him by the clerks, and embody so much of the same in his report as may be necessary.

(3470.) SEC. 3. He shall prepare and cause to be printed,