as it did the intense earnestness of that government for the education and elevation of the whole people, has been an important school. Our friend has said that it was never designed for money-making, and only some frivolous and superficial newspaper-writers represented the Vienna Exposition as a financial failure. As if the great Austrian government entered upon that magnificent enterprise for money-making! So our International Exposition will be a financial failure if we enter upon it for money-making. And yet I am confident that it was of immense benefit in Austria. That Exposition in its influence effected precisely what Austria needed: a school in the promotion of unification. And, in my judgment, that is the great demand of the United States to-day, if the problem of reconstruction is to have a final and happy solution. Certainly this will tend in that direction. And if we can, in the educational departments, create co-operation and sympathy, and the educators of all the States of America will come forward with their full zeal in this work, it will greatly promote what we most need in America-unitication and reconstructiou. [Applause.]

Mr. PHILBRICK, of Boston. My judgment entirely approves the suggestions contained in the excellent paper read by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and my heart is thoroughly enlisted in the project of making a complete exhibition of the education of the country at the approaching Centennial in Philadelphia. I earnestly hope the friends of education in every part of the country will make the efforts necessary to give success to this important department. I do not propose to discuss the resolution now before the meeting, providing for the raising of a committee to confer with the managers of the Exposition in regard to the best plan for accomplishing the object in view. The proposition seems to me practical and reasonable, and I shall cheerfully vote for it. But I want to indorse emphatically the ground taken in the paper in favor of placing the general direction of this department in the hands of the National Commissioner of Education. What is wanted is a complete and systematic presentation of the objects and materials which will best illustrate the condition and progress of education in all its kinds and grades throughout the country, and not a miscellaneous mass of matter, piled up without order or system. To secure the requisite unity in design and discrimination in selection, an authoritative head is indispensable, and it seems to me eminently fit that the Chief of the Bureau of Education should act in that capacity if he is willing to accept it. Austria has furnished the best model for a national exhibition of education, at the Exposition in Vienna, and the remarkable success of that educational exhibition was doubtless largely due to the fact that it had an intelligent supervisor, not only to lay out the plan, but to attend to carrying it out in all its details. Co-operation, advice, and assistance will be needed, of course, but the responsibility should be left in the hands of the Commissioner.

Mr. President, for one, I feel extremely obliged to his excellency

the Austrian minister, for his very interesting and instructive remarks on the uses of universal expositions in general and for his wise and encouraging words respecting that to be held in Philadelphia. It is quite certain that nobody is a better authority on this subject. He rightly regards a universal exposition as a universal school. It is for the diffusion of knowledge, and not for mere amusement. It is a new instrumentality for disseminating practical information by means of object-teaching on the largest possible scale. It is an epitome of the civilization of the world, and enables one to see much of the world at little cost of time and money. When his excellency spoke of the use of expositions in helping us to self-knowledge and a true knowledge of our country, which is the most valuable kind of knowledge, I was reminded of some of my own experience at the Vienna Exposition in this branch of learning. I found there was some difference between comparing our productions with those of our next neighbor and comparing them with those of the whole world. I was particularly interested in making comparisons in educational matters, and it was gratifying to find that, in some of these matters, America could stand the test of comparison very well-in school-furniture, for example. In this particular thing what I had supposed to be true was simply confirmed. I was not surprised. But not so in respect to school-architecture. Mr. Mann had told us that there were no school-houses in Germany to compare with even our second-rate ones. That was some time ago; and, taking it for granted that we Yankees had in the mean time been moving faster than the Germans and Austrians, I rather expected that the photographs of our best school-edifices would produce something of a sensation among Teutonic educators. Well, great pains were taken to display our pictures and plans to the best advantage in their gilt-frames, and when the show was ready I looked for the sensation; I failed to discover it. But when I got time to examine the objects in the German and Austrian courts, I saw why. There I found a plenty of illustrations of school-architecture quite superior to any I had to show. Then there was the lesson of the Swedish school-house. I made some effort to take out with me an edifice to illustrate our idea of a model school-room with its fittings. I felt pretty sure that nothing but money was wanted to make this project a complete success; but when I entered the beautiful Swedish school house and took my seat on the master's platform, and surveyed the spectacle presented by the school-room, with its apparatus and fittings, I felt glad that my attempt to bring over a school-room had failed, for I could not have matched what I saw before me. I reckon that the State of Massachusetts will get paid for the cost of sending me to Vienna a hundred times over by the benefit derived from the knowl edge of the German idea of a school-room which I brought home with

me.

I will mention only one more particular among the many in which I got a dose of self-knowledge at Vienna, and that is drawing. I knew

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we were only beginners in this important branch of education, but I was not prepared to find so great a disparity between our productions in this line and those of France, Germany, and Austria. In our exhibitions there were collections of drawings sent from the public schools of the principal cities and from one of the oldest schools devoted especially to drawing. But the drawings from one elementary school in Vienna surpassed all these, both in quantity and quality. On visiting that school I found that other branches of technical education were well taught, and yet there was time for what are called the ordinary branches. Here was a lesson of great import. I mention this personal experience to illustrate the way in which an exhibition teaches. Everybody that goes into an exhibition is compelled to measure himself in some way, and so he gets a better knowledge of his strong points and his weak points. If every adult American citizen could be shown the Swedish school-house to which I have referred, I believe the benefit of its stimulating and enlightening effect in promoting popular education would be sufficient to off-set a large part, if not the whole, of the expense of the approaching Centennial Exposition. And the Austrians built a school-house which was not finished until quite late, but when ready for inspection it turned out to be even superior to the Swedish one in many respects. It seems to me that if the Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 does not result in giving a new and powerful impulse to the cause of education, the fault will be with the educators of the country in not doing their duty in regard to it. I hope and trust the opportunity will be improved to the fullest extent.

REMARKS OF REV. DR. HAROLD.

Rev. Dr. Harold, of Washington, D. C., said:

I understood from the courteous remarks of the Chief of the Bureau of Education yesterday, when stating the cordiality with which all friends of education were welcomed to these meetings, that any gentleman who felt an interest on the subject of education, might be allowed to submit his views on any topic that came up for discussion.

After remarking at some length upon the appointment of the proposed committee and suggesting the expediency of separate action, Dr. Harold concluded as follows:

And now, I wish to say, in conclusion, that I am very glad we have had the distinguished honor of listening to the representative of the Exposition at Vienna, to hear his wise words adapted from his experience to our needs.

I hope his remarks will go over this whole country and will be duly heeded. And, if they have the weight which they ought to have, and which I believe they will have, in their dissemination through the country, I am positive that all who can contribute to such an end will do their utmost to make this Exposition the crowning success of the age in its feelings and characteristics.

REMARKS OF BARON VON SCHWARZ-SENBORN.

I feel compelled to say a few words about the suggestion which was made by the honorable gentleman who has just spoken in regard to the Vienna Exposition being a financial failure.

We

I am not of the same opinion. It is true that both our houses of parliament granted only $3,000,000 appropriation for the Exposition. And it is also true that the cost reached more than double that amount. From the sum expended must, however, be deducted the total amount of the receipts. The accounts of the revenues and expenditures have not yet been closed. Besides, all the exhibition-buildings, built of stone, brick, and iron, and representing many millions, are still standing. I think that not a cent has been lost or was uselessly spent in the Exposition; and when you come to strike a balance and consider the value of the buildings, I reckon the balance which remains against us will be very small. I will now prove that even that cost will be covered. The account is very simple. Supposing that we had even expended more than the twelve million florins, or $6,000,000, which is not the case, we must remember that the total number of our visitors at Vienna reached nearly six millions. Well, if every person who visited the Exposition gained an intellectual benefit of only two dollars in value, there was made an actual gain over the money that really was spent by the government, besides the cost of the permanent improvements. I must confess, for my part, that I gained more—much more. I would not even give the experiences, knowledge, and instruction which I got at that Exposition for many thousands of dollars. I am advanced in years; I cannot make materially profitable the knowledge which I gained in the Exposition; but I am sure that a great majority of the younger portion of the people who visited there will use that knowledge to their future advantage. If you will allow me, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I wish to say one thing more, and that is, that in Austria we attach the highest importance to a certain system of education which we call object-teaching. May I at first make some remarks upon public instruction as it now exists in Austria? The condition of the school-masters there has been greatly improved. Their position once was a very bad one. have now made great advances in our system of instruction and in our regard for the teachers. They did not formerly get as much money for their time as was necessary for a common livelihood; but in the last ten years we have realized some of the great improvements of teaching for our children and appreciate the teachers more than ever before; and we are improving every day as much as we can. Our children have better instruction than ever and our teachers are better off. I think the time is not far distant when every child in Austria will not only be compelled to learn reading and writing in the primary schools, but also, at the same time, drawing. Thus have we provided for the youth; but what must be done for those grown children, the adults, in Austria, who have learned little or nothing? They did not have such large opportunities of schooling as their children now enjoy. A man thirty or forty years of age cannot go to school; but he can be instructed by eyesightor object-teaching, such as is afforded by the exhibitors and other similar means. One of those means I first referred to is traveling. What is travel? Travel is edueation. You learn many things in traveling, by observation. You are taught in that way. Therefore, this is object-teaching. A great German savant, Professor Virchow, made a very interesting and a very accurate remark which applies here. He said that "nothing which comes through your eyes into your head ever goes out." And so say I. The impressions which we obtain by the sense of sight affect the brain and change our views in the most favorable manner. That was the meaning; and the man who has seen many things, who has traveled a great deal, will have bis intellectual faculties greatly improved. We observed in Austria, as well as in other parts of Europe, another striking effect of these exhibitions. They improve in a remarkable way the public taste. The taste in former times in Austria was a bad one. The people had not seen examples of tasteful and beautiful productions. They had, therefore, no artistic judgment. They had no museums and schools for applying fine arts to industry, for improving and correcting their taste, and for thus giving them the right ideas of the beautiful. The consequence was that, in their buildings, furniture, and other things of common life, no taste was shown. But now, within a few years, and especially since the Universal Exposition and the establishment of museums and schools, there has been a remarkable improvement in this respect. The same may be said of

England. Every one who visited England on the occasion of the London Exhibition, in 1851, will remember that, although the English manufactured articles were very cheap, useful, and of the best quality, yet the taste displayed therein was awful. And now the English have, as a consequence of that exhibition, immensely improved in their tastes; and in the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 we saw new evidence of this fact. Allow me to say, gentlemen, that a sincere friend should speak the truth; and that, as a sincere friend of America, who has the greatest sympathy for its people, in whose country I have learned since my short stay of six months a great deal, and where I hope to learn much more, it is my duty to say to them, in all truth and candor, that their public taste is in the same awful condition as was the public taste in England before their great exhibition of 1851. [Applause.]

I am sure that the public taste in America can be improved to as great a degree within as short a time after the Exposition of 1876 as that of England was improved after the London Exhibition of 1851. I attach, therefore, immense importance to the cultivation of the fine arts as the means of refining the feelings of every man, and thereby improving the public taste. And I think this most desirable result will be attained among other valuable ones by the approaching International Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. These, Mr. President, are the few remarks which I wished to make. Baron von Schwarz Senborn took his seat amid great applause. Mr. NORTHROP. For myself-and I think I speak for all present-I am truly thankful for the remarks which his excellency the minister from Austria has given us. I fear that, perhaps, my remark in regard to the financial failure, so called, of the Austrian Exposition may have been misunderstood by his excellency. I meant to say that the common rumor to that effect, spread abroad by newspaper-reporters, was a superficial and erroneous statement. I intended to say that the Austrian government appropriated six million florins at the outset, and, as I understood, was ready to foot the bills which might be brought in on account of the Exposition in the end; but there was no idea of going into the enterprise as a money-making speculation. I wanted to set aside that sordid idea for ourselves. Austria, realizing the grand benefits of such an Exhibition, stood ready to pay its cost. The Austrian government heartily approved the project and expected the benefits which would indirectly flow from the Exposition would more than compensate the government for any outlay that might occur. And I will say here that there has been a marked progress in that country of late. During the past eight years no country in Europe has made a greater progress in education and general enlightenment than the empire of Austria-Hungary.

Mr. Z. RICHARDS, of Washington, D. C., remarked that he was not a member of the association, but would like to say a word as to the suggestion made by Dr. Harold. He wished to speak as a friend of the organization-one who had been present at its first meeting. He thought it important that the sympathy of the whole people was necessary to secure success, and suggested that the proposed committee should co-operate with other educational organizations, as well as with the Centennial authorities at Philadelphia; that there might be prejudice against this committee if the impression prevailed that it was undertaking to monopolize the care of educational interests at the Centennial, and that this