school lands are, "for pine timber lands the whole amount; for other timber lands, which are chiefly valuable for the timber thereon, seventy-five per cent., to be paid at the time of sale, and all other lands fifteen per cent., to be paid at the time of sale, and the balance of the purchase-money at any time thereafter, from time to time, within twenty years, at the option of the purchaser, with interest annually in advance, at the rate of seven per cent. per annum on the unpaid balance, payable on the first day of June, or within six days thereafter, in each and every year." The purchase-money received "may be invested in Minnesota bonds (railroad bonds always excepted) or in United States bonds bearing not less than six per cent. interest."

The first sales of school lands occurred in the autumn of 1862, at a most unpropitious period, many able-bodied citizens having volunteered as soldiers in defence of the nation's honor, and hundreds having abandoned their farms in the frontier counties to escape the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage Sioux, while those who expected to settle in the State halted in regions supposed to be more secure. The results of the sales in the face of all these discouragements surprised the most sanguine, and created a fresh interest in popular education. More than thirty-eight thousand acres were disposed of, at a little more than 6 dollars per acre, as will be seen by examining the following Statement of annual sales of school lands.

Acres of school land unsold June 1, 1867, 2,775,898. The total permanent school fund of the State, arising from the land grant, on November 30, 1866, was $1,333,161 60.

The current school fund distributed in 1866 amounted to $78,519 60, and the number of persons between five and twenty-one, 87,244, making an apportionment of ninety cents for each person.

The interest on school fund for the year 1867, according to estimate of the Hon. Mark H. Dunnell, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, will amount to $117,435.

LAND GRANT for TERRITORIAL UNIVERSITY.

In February, 1851, the Territorial legislature memorialized for a grant of lands for a Territorial University. On the 19th of February of the same year it was enacted by Congress, says a report of the Regents

"That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he hereby is, authorized and directed to set apart and reserve from sale out of the public lands within the Territory of Minnesota, to which the Indian title has been or may be extinguished, and not otherwise appropriated, a quantity of land not exceeding two entire townships, for the use and support of a University in said Territory, and for no other use and purpose whatever, to be located in legal subdivisions of not less than one entire section."

Shortly after this congressional enactment the Regents of the Territorial University organized, obtained a site, erected a building thereon, and commenced instruction therein—the first instance on record of a Territorial University going into operation at so early a period in the history of a Territory.

The Regents also, with the approbation of the Secretary of the Interior, proceeded to select a large portion of the lands granted for the Territorial institution. Subsequently they erected a costly edifice and mortgaged it, by virtue of a power granted by the Territorial Legislature of 1856, for $15,000, to secure the payment of certain bonds, and by another act passed in 1858, on the eighth day of March, before the admission of Minnesota into the Union, mortgaged lands that had been selected by the Regents, to secure the payment of a further sum of $40,000 borrowed by the Regents for the Territorial institution.

The whole number of acres obtained by act of 1851 is 46,080, of which there has been sold 10,750 for the sum of $52,412. Acres unsold of the Territorial grant are 35,530.

STATE UNIVERSITY LAND GRANT.

Governor Marshall, in his last message to the Legislature, alludes to a claim of the State for a land grant for a State University not yet perfected. This claim was first made by the Regents to the Governor, April 5, 1860, in this language:

Heretofore Congress has made grants to Territories not having organized any Universities, and the lands being free from all prospective incumbrances, the Enabling Acts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa have used the following similar phraseology:

"Seventy-two sections of land set apart and reserved for the use and support of a university, by an act of Congress approved on day of, are hereby granted and conveyed to the State, to be appropriated solely to the use and support of such university in such manner as the legislature may prescribe." The condition of Minnesota being different, so far as a territorial university was concerned, we expect and find different language in the enabling act. There is no reference, as in acts alluded to, to previous reserves, but it is prospective. It says, if certain provisions are accepted:

"That seventy-two sections of land shall be set apart and reserved for the use and support of a State university to be selected by the governor of said State, subject to the approval of the Commissioner of the General Land Office."

Although a territorial university had been in existence for years, and the regents had selected lands, there is no reference thereto, but the language prescribes selections for a future State university.

Certainly it was not the intention of Congress to turn over the debts and prospectively encumbered lands of an old and badly managed territorial institution, but to give the State that was to be, a grant for a State university, free from all connections with territorial organizations.

Will you, therefore, take the steps indicated in the enabling act, and appoint, at an early day, some one to select two townships of land for the State university, incorporated by the last legislature?

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE LAND GRANT.

Under "An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts," approved July 2, 1862, Minnesota is entitled to 120,000 acres, of which none has been sold.

THE FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND ACRES DUE THE STATE.

The five hundred thousand acres due the State by the provisions of an act of Congress entitled "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands," etc., approved the fourth day of September, one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, which, by provisions of the Constitutions of Wisconsin, Iowa, Oregon, Kansas, California, and Nevada, are appropriated to educational purposes, do not appear as yet to have been set apart by Minnesota.

SIR MATTHEW HALE.

PLAN OF EDUCATION FOR HIS GRANDCHILDREN.

Written in 1678.

IN

a "Letter of Advice to his Grandchildren," written when he was "threescore and four years," and published after his death, Sir Matthew Hale-one of the most resplendent names in the annals of jurisprudence, for mental ability, general learning, purity of life, and impartiality as judge-gives the following plan for their education, in which he differs " upon great reason and observation" "from the ordinary method of tutors," not only in his day, but for two centuries afterwards in England:

PLAN OF EDUCATION FOR BOYS BETWEEN THE AGES OF EIGHT AND TWENTY

As to you, my grandsons, you must know, that till you come to be about eighteen or twenty years old, you are but in preparation to a settled estate of life; as there is no certain conjecture to be made before that age what you will be fit for, so till that age you are under the hammer and the file, to fit, dispose, and prepare you for your future condition of life, if God be pleased to lend it you; and about that time it will probably appear, both what you will be fit for, and whether you are like to make a prosperous voyage in the world or not.

1. Until you come to eight years old, I expect no more of you than to be good English scholars, to read perfectly and distinctly any part of the Bible, or any other English book, and to carry yourselves respectfully and dutifully to those that are set over you.

2. About eight years old, you are to be put or sent to a grammar school, where I expect you should make a good progress in the Latin tongue, in oratory and poetry; but above all to be good proficients in the Latin tongue, that you may be able to read, understand and construe any Latin author, and to make true and handsome Latin; and though I would have you learn somewhat of Greek, yet the Latin tongue is that which I most value, because almost all learning is now under that language. And the time for your abode at the grammar school is till you are about sixteen years old.

3. After that age, I shall either remove you to some university, or to some tutor that may instruct you in university learning, thus to be educated till you are about twenty years old; and herein I shall alter the ordinary method of tutors, upon great reason and observation.

I therefore will have you employed from sixteen to seventeen in reading some Latin authors to keep your Latin tongue; but principally and chiefly in arithmetic and geometry, and geodesy or measuring of heights, distances, and superficies and solids, for this will habituate and enlarge your understanding,

and will furnish you with a knowledge which will be both delightful and useful all the days of your life; and will give you a pleasant and innocent diversion and entertainment when you are weary and tired with any other business. From seventeen years old till nineteen or twenty, you may principally intend logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, according to the ordinary discipline of the university; but after you have read some systems or late topical or phi losophical tracts that may give you some taste of the nature of those sciences, I shall advise your tutor to exercise you in Aristotle, for there is more sound learning of this kind to be found in him, touching these sciences, than in a cartload of modern authors; only tutors scarce take the pains to understand him themselves, much less to instruct their scholars and pupils in them, insomuch, that there are few that have read his books.

And under the title of philosophy, I do not only intend his eight books of physics, but his books de Natura et Generatione Animalium, his books de Incestu Animalium, de Anima, de Meteoriis, de Somno et Vigilia, de Morte, de Plantis, de Mundo, and his Mechanics, if you join thereunto Archimedes'.

These are part of real philosophy, and excellently handled by him, and have more of use and improvement of the mind than other notional speculations in logic or philosophy delivered by others; and the rather, because bare speculations and notions have little experience and external observation to confirm them, and they rarely fix the minds, especially of young men. But that part of philosophy that is real, may be improved and confirmed by daily observation; and is more stable, and yet more certain and delightful, and goes along with a man all his life, whatever employment or profession he undertakes.

4. When you come to above twenty years old, you are come to the critical age of your life; you are in that state of choice that the ancients tell us was offered to Hercules; on the left hand, a way of pleasure, of luxury, of idleness, intemperance, wantonness, which though it first be tempting and flattering, yet it ends in dishonor, in shame, in infamy, in poverty; such a way as the wise man spoke of, "There is a way that is pleasant and delightful, but the end of that way is death;" and that which the same wise man speaks of, (Eccles. xi. 9,) "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart. But know for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment." Again, on the right hand, there is a way of honesty and sobriety, of piety and the fear of God, of virtue and industry; and though this way may seem at first painful and rugged, yet it ends in peace and favor with God, and commonly in honor and reputation, in wealth and contentation even in this life. For although Almighty God hath reserved greater rewards for virtue and goodness than this life affords, yet he loves and delights to behold good and comely order among the children of men; and therefore a wise father will draw on his children to goodness, and learning, and obedience to him, with handsome rewards and encouragements, suitable to the age and disposition of his children. So the great Master and Father of the children of men, and of the great family of heaven and earth, doth commonly invite and draw men to ways of piety, virtue and goodness, by the encouragements of reputation, honor, esteem, wealth and other outward advantages, and thereby in great measure governs the children of men, and maintains that order that is necessary and convenient for the world of mankind.

And although this is neither the only nor chief reward of goodness and virtue yet till men are grown to that ripeness of understanding to look after re