Another interesting and valuable report is that on the "Training by universities of the public servants of the state," published in the proceedings of the Educational Conference held in London in 1884. The Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, to which reference is made in this report, is a model civil academy, devoted to the preparation of young men for the service of the French Republic. Instruction in the art of administration, in finance, diplomacy, public law, and history is given by government officials, senators, retired ministers, professors, and men of the highest repute as practical economists and politicians. So excellent is the work of this French school that the University of Virginia and the School of Political Science, Columbia College, have sent thither graduate students for the study of administration and political science. Two graduates from the Johns Hopkins University are proposing to spend the coming year in the same civil academy. If this country fails to provide the proper means for teaching what is most needed in America our young Americans will find means abroad, and, when they return, they will be likely to institute suggestive comparisons for the information of their countrymen. There is crying need of schools of administration in this country. Dorman B. Eaton, the recent head of the Civil-Service Commission, said to the graduate students in Baltimore that he did not know of a single place in the whole country where men could study what the country wants to know about methods of administration. The case is not quite so grievous as that, for a beginning has already been made in this kind of work in Columbia College, in the University of Pennsylvania, in Baltimore, and perhaps elsewhere.

A third source of light and information is Dr. Engel's descriptive pamphlet on the Seminary of the Prussian Statistical Bureau, published in German, Berlin, 1864. This institution is a training school for university graduates of the highest ability in the art of administration, and in the conduct of statistical and other economic inquiries that are of interest and importance to the government. The practical work is done in connection with government offices, among which advanced students are distributed with specific tasks. Systematic instruction is given by lectures, and by the seminary or laboratory method, under a general director. Government officials and university professors are engaged to give regular courses to these advanced students. It is considered one of the greatest student honors in Berlin for a university graduate to be admitted to the Statistical Seminary It is easier for foreigners to secure this privilege than for Germans. One graduate of the Johns Hopkins University (a doctor of philosophy) has enjoyed instruction in that Prussian laboratory of political science. If one would see what good work comes forth from that Berlin civil academy he should examine the catalogue of the periodicals and other publications which have been issued by the Statistical Bureaus and commission his Berlin bookseller to send him a few specimen monographs. Through this bureau the University of Berlin and the Prussian administration are brought into closest rapport. The work of taking the census of Prussian population and resources is intrusted to educated men, trained to scientific accuracy by long discipline and practical experience. The work of the Prussian census in 1875 was so well arranged that all the results were delivered at noon on the day promised, and the entire cost was kept within the original estimate.

CENTENARY OF the inauguration of the CONSTITUTION, 1889.

In December, 1886, there met in the city of Philadelphia delegates from the various States and Territories to devise plans for the celebration, September 17, 1887, of the centenary of the signing of our present national Constitution. Among the measures proposed and agreed upon by the conference was "the creation of a suitable memorial in the city of Philadelphia commemorative of the signing and adoption of the Constitution."3

On January 10, 1887, a select committee of the Senate reported the following resolutions; which were considered by unanimous consent, and agreed to:

"Resolved, That it is expedient that order be taken by Congress for the due celebration at the city of Washington, on or about the 30th of April, 1889, of the centennial of the inauguration of the Constitution of the United States.

"Resolved further, That the Select Committee on the Centennial of the Constitntion and the Discovery of America be directed to consider and propose the best mode of carrying out the foregoing resolution."

Undoubtedly the idea of a permanent memorial of the Constitution in the city of Washington will find its way into Congress through the influence of the Select Committee on the Centennial. Whatever shape the celebration may take, there will naturally be a desire to establish some centennial landmark. The times are therefore ripe for suggestion.

International Conference on Education, Vol. III, p. 191. London: William Clowes and Sons. 1884. For a more detailed account of the Prussian Statistical Seminary, see the Johns Hopkins University Studies. Vol. II, 79-81. For the catalogue of the publications of the Statistical Bureau, address Verlag des Königlichen Statistischen Bureaus, Berlin, S. W., Lindenstrasse, 28.

p. 17.

Proceedings of the Constitutional Centennial Commission, held December 2-3, 1886, at Philadelphia, 4 Congressional Record, January 11, 1887, p. 510.

It will be remembered by every student of American constitutional history that, when the original convention of State delegates met in the city of Philadelphia in 1787, various plans were suggested for the reformation of that defective system of government under which the United States had suffered since the first institution of the Articles of Confederation in 1777. Among the plans was one suggested by Governor Randolph, representing the Virginia delegation of seven men. He proposed, in a series of resolutions, the great idea "that a national government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme legislative, executive, and judiciary." The Virginia proposition, in the process of debate, evolved into the present Constitution of the United States Randolph's resolutions were known as the "Virginia plan."

There could hardly be a more appropriate mode of creating a perpetual memorial of our Federal Constitution than by nationalizing at Washington, and everywhere promoting throughout the individual States that system of education in good citizenship which made the Virginia plan a possibility, which trained up such public men as George Washington, Edmund Randolph, John Blair, George Mason, Professor George Wythe, Professor James McClurg, and James Madison, the seven members of the Virginia delegation, of whom at least six were in some way, as alumnus, professor, or overseer, connected with the old College of William and Mary, that school of Jefferson and of American statesmen. A permanent memorial of our Federal Constitution should revive and perpetuate the higher education in history and politics, which was well represented by the Fathers of the Republic, notably by James Madison and George Washington in their historical study of federal government, from the time of the Grecian Leagues down to the Swiss Cantons, the United Netherlands, and the old German Confederation. Equally remarkable evidence of the fact that our Constitution was founded and maintained by the aid of political science and of historical politics is seen in the Federalist and in John Adams's Defence of the Constitution. If we would commemorate the patriotic work of the framers of our Constitution, we should promote in every possible way throughout this country, and at the nation's capital, that political wisdom upon which the Union was established.

Institutions of learning are, after all, nobler monuments to great men and great events than are obelisks or statues of marble. The national endowment or permanent support of the higher political education "within the limits of the District of Columbia, under the auspices of the General Government," would realize the highest ideal of the Father of his Country. This ideal was Washington's last will and testament to the American people.

1 Madison's Notes on Ancient and Modern Confederacies, preparatory to the Federal Convention of 1787 (see his Writings, i, 293-315), afford very conclusive evidence as to the historical and political studies which were cultivated by the anthors of the "Virginia plan." Washington copied out Madison's Notes in the most painstaking manner for his own practical guidance (see the Writings of Washington, edited by Jared Sparks, vol. Ix, pp. 521-528). Mr. Sparks says in a foot note: "I can give no other account of the manuscript than that it exists among his papers. It could hardly have been drawn up originally by him, as several works are cited which were written in languages that he did not understand." Comparison shows that the original work was Madison's. James Madison was a graduate of Princeton, but he became one of the visitors of William and Mar

UNIVERSITY EXTENSION IN ENGLAND.

BY HERBERT B. ADAMS,

Ph. D. Heidelberg, Associate Professor of History in the Johns Hopkins University.

There is a remarkable movement in England towards the higher education of the people. Education, like government, is broadening its foundations. Common schools have long been recognized as pillars of free government; but the extension of higher education by the upper classes to the masses is a striking phenomenon in aristocratic England. It is like the extension of the franchise. The old-time exclusiveness of English universities is breaking down. From classic shades, from quadrangles shut in by ivy-mantled walls, vigorous young Englishmen have sallied forth to meet the world, manfully recognizing its need of higher education, and carrying the banners of science into the great towns and into the manufacturing and mining districts of England. This novel movement is called university extension. It has been in progress for more than ten years, and there is now no question as to its popularity or success. The university at Cambridge has supplied lecturers for six hundred extension courses, which have reached sixty thousand hearers, more than one-half of whom have shown themselves earnest students by attending class exercises in addition to the lectures. Not only Cambridge, but the University of Oxford, Owen's College, and the local colleges at Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham, Cardiff, and Bangor are all engaged in this democratic educational mission. The idea is taking hold of conservative Scotland, and it has already been put in practice by the universities of Australia. Sooner or later we shall see the movement sweeping America.

To a practical mind the most interesting feature of this university extension is its economic character. It is not altogether a missionary undertaking or an educational crusade. It has its business side. It is primarily a case of demand and supply. Representatives of labor and capital in England have awakened to the fact that universities are in the possession of a useful commodity called higher education. Men begin to realize that a good knowledge of English history, political economy, social science, literature, and the arts makes for the general improvement of society and the development of a better state of feeling among its members. The demand is not for common schools. These exist already. The cry is "Higher education!" for adult voters and persons past the school age too busily engaged, perhaps, in other pursuits to permit of much continuous study, and yet able to give some of their time to intellectual improvement. Grasping the situation and its possibilities, public-spirited individuals have formed educational societies or associations in towns and parishes. They have affiliated with existing local institutions of an educational or social character, such as local colleges, institutes, literary and philosophical societies, church institutes, mechanics' institutes, night schools, &c. They have appointed active secretaries, with subcommittees, representing the ladies, young people (to sell tickets), teachers, artisans. Without sectarian or political entanglements, they have united the best forces of the community, with the mayor or some public man at the head. They have taken subscription shares of $5-some persons taking several shares, others clubbing together for one share, but all having representation in the society. Upon such a sound economic basis these educational associations have made their demands upon the universities for local instruction by lectures in systematic courses, costing from three to five shillings for a course-ticket

The universities meet this demand by a supply of well-trained, enthusiastic young lecturers, who, for a reasonable compensation, are willing to give public courses in the towns and districts of England. Lord Bacon long ago said, "Learning for man's self is in many branches thereof a depraved thing.' The university men of Cambridge in their turn said, "Culture must not be permitted to be selfish." The new political economy, which has struck deep root in the English universities, asserts the same of all capital and of all labor. Individualism the world needs, but selfishness is odions. The Cambridge men go out from their comfortable cloisters to lecture to the people for a variety of individual considerations-good-will, ambition for distinction, public spirit, scientific propaganda, and a fee of $225 for a weekly course of twelve lectures. They agree also to conduct a class each week for review or discussion of the previous lecture, and to correct voluntary exercises written at the student's own home upon set questions, requiring private reading. This involves

laborious, painstaking work on the part of both instructor and student. The university appoints an examiner upon the term's work as marked out in the lecturer's printed syllabus of topics, which, by reason of its careful analysis, saves much labor in note-taking. The examination fee is $10. Two sorts of certificates are givenpass" and "with distinction." There is no further gradation of rank, unless the local authorities offer prizes.

A term's work of twelve lectures and twelve class exercises is the unit of the university-extension system. It costs altogether about $325, including the lecturer's fee, advertising, and other incidentals. Enterprising towns quickly multiply their courses until they have a regular curriculum éxtending through three years in various groups, such as (1) literature and history; (2) natural science; (3) the fine arts. The courses. in English history and political economy are very attractive. Persons who follow a three years' course in one of the above groups, embracing six courses of twelve weeks, and two courses in one other group besides the chosen specialty, are allowed to be enrolled as "students affiliated to the university," provided they will pass an examination in the elements of the higher mathematics, in Latin, and in one other foreign language. Such persons may count their three years of university-extension study as the equivalent of one year's residence at the university, and may complete there the course for the bachelor's degree in two years. Thus, without lowering academic standards, English universities are extending their privileges to the English people. This liberal policy has led to the establishment of student associations throughout England, and to the most hearty support of the higher education and of educational institutions by the workingmen. The English universities are doing more than any other one force in England towards breaking down the antagonism between the rich and the poor. Arnold Toynbee, a martyr to his cause, and other Oxford graduates have carried this new gospel into the heart of East London, where Toynbee Hall, with its lecture-courses, class-rooms, and industrial training, was the forerunner of the People's Palace, recently opened by the Queen of England. A society for the extension of university training has been formed in London, and is associated with the universities of London, Oxford, and Cambridge. Besides Toynbee Hall, at Whitechapel, East Londou, it has thirty or more local centres of educational operations in and about London. Each centre has its own secretary, organization, and economy. If the local subscriptions and local sale of tickets are not adequate to meet expenses the central society aids largely in meeting the deficit.

University extension in England will continue its noble work with increasing energy and success. Its advantages are too great to be abandoned. First, it is revolutionizing popular lectures. Instead of the old system of lyceum courses, which was nothing but a cheap variety-show for an evening's entertainment, there is now continuity of interest and specialization upon a particular subject until the audience really knows something about it. Second, university extension brings the higher education into provincial towns without the necessity of endowing colleges or multiplying universities. For a few hundred dollars each year every town and district union in England can have the university system at its very doors. Third, this system strengthens all local appliances for education, whether schools, colleges, institates, libraries, museums, ar galleries, or literary societies. It combines with everything and interferes with nothing.

SCHOOLS IN ALASKA.

The following report of the general agent of education in Alaska is inserted as a part of this report, in order that the latest information about this interesting subject may be promptly communicated to the friends of education:

Hon. N. H. R. DAWSON,

GENERAL AGENT OF EDUCATION IN ALASKA,

United States Commissioner of Education.

Sitka, Alaska, May 2, 1887.

SIR: The work of education in Alaska for 1886-'87 was greatly hindered by the delay of Congress in making the appropriation. Until it was definitely known how much would be appropriated for education no plan of work could be arranged. Until the appropriation was actually made the Office was left in doubt whether it would be able to enlarge the work, or merely continue existing schools, or disband them. The appropriation was not made until August, 1886. In the mean time the trading vessels that sail from San Francisco to Behring's Sea in the spring and return in the fall had all sailed, and with them the only regular opportunity of sending teachers and school supplies to Western Alaska. To wait until the following spring would involve the delay of another year in establishing the schools. Under the circumstances there was no alternative but to charter a vessel for the work of the Bureau. This, in addition to meeting a necessity, enabled the Commissioner to secure reliable information concerning the educational needs of the principal centres of population among the civilized Russians, Aleuts, and Eskimo of Southern and Southwestern

Alaska.

With the commencement of the public agitation, which resulted in securing schools for Alaska, the Commissioner had sought diligently for reliable and explicit information concerning that unknown region. When, in 1885, the responsibility of establishing schools in that section was placed upon him he more than ever felt the need of the information that was necessary for intelligent action in the school work. An application was then made to the honorable the Secretary of the Navy, and he issued instructions to the commanding officer of the United States steamship Pinta, then in Alaskan waters, to take the general agent of education in Alaska on a tour of inspection along the coast. A combination of circumstances prevented the ship from making the trip.

The necessity which arose in the fall of 1886 of sending the teachers furnished the long-desired opportunity of securing the needed information.

The schooner Leo, of Sitka, was chartered, because the terms were lowest, and because the vessel had auxiliary steam-power, which enabled it to get in and out of harbors and through the narrow channels between the islands, where, without this auxiliary power, we would have been delayed weeks.

The cruise proved a stormy one, consuming 104 days. Passing through the equinoctial storms, we encountered the early winter gales of that high latitude. 'We lost two sails, were stranded on a reef of rocks, nearly lost a sailor overboard, while repeatedly great seas washed completely over us.

Laying our course for Atkha, one of the Aleutian group of islands, the storms finally landed us, September 21, at Kadiak, 900 miles to the eastward of our destination. Kadiak Island is the western limit of forests along the southern coast of Alaska. It is also near the eastern limit of the Innuit, or civilized Eskimo population.

The first European or Russian settlement on this island was made by Gregory Shelikoff in 1784; and soon after a school (the first in Alaska) was organized for the children of the Russians. Also the first church building in Alaska was erected on this island. For a long time it was the Russian capital and the chief seat of their operations in America. A tombstone in the Russian cemetery bears the date 1791. The village has a pleasant look, and consists of 43 log houses, 23 rough-board houses, and 12 painted ones. It has a Russian creole population of 303, of whom 143 are children. There are 20 white men in the settlement The Russian school has been extinct for more than a quarter of a century, and for years the people had been looking for another. It was a great satisfaction to be permitted to give them a good school. Prof. W. E. Roscoe, an experienced teacher from California, with his wife and baby, was stationed at this place, and received from the people a very warm welcome. He had been landed but a few hours when a delegation of adults waited upon him and asked that a night school for instruction in English might be established for the married people.