contested during a period of several months. The schools being then in their infancy, and the storm breaking upon them before they were fairly rooted, involved them in a peril from which it seemed at one time almost impossible successfully to extricate them. The religious feeling of the citizens was thoroughly aroused in reference to the matter, and the lines openly drawn between Protestants and Catholics. Petitions with innumerable names poured in upon the board, some asking positively for the introduction of the Bible as a text book in the schools, and others soliciting the very contrary, and insisting upon its total exclusion. So high did the excitement rise that many citizens on both sides of the question did not hesitate openly to declare, that unless their particular views were carried out in this matter, they would gladly see the entire school system broken up and swept away from our city. After this intemperate zeal of many had in a measure abated, the board proceeded to the discharge of their duty by calmly acting on the question; and about the third of February, 1845, peacably settled the whole difficulty, by the adoption of the two following resolutions, viz:

"Resolved, That it is the opinion of this board that there is nothing in their rules and bye-laws at all conflicting with the right of any teacher in the employment of this board, to open his or her school by reading without note or comment, from any version of the Bible they may choose, either Catholic or Protestant.

"Resolved, That any teacher who shall in any way note, comment or remark in his or her school, upon passages of Scripture, shall be removed from his or her school, upon the proof thereof being made to the committee of his or her school-the decision of said committee being subject, however, to review by the board."

Thus was this threatening peril avoided, the influence of the Bible fully preserved in the schools, and the school system itself saved from the ruin which seemed at first impending over it. From that time to the present, the policy set forth in the resolutions has been adhered to by the board, and all parties seem to have acquiesced in it as the most prudent, judicious and impartial mode of adjusting the difficulty. Nor are those now wanting among such as at first occupied respectively both extremes in the controversy, who have since come frankly forward and vindicated the course pursued

by the members of the board at that time, as the wise and proper one; although, while standing in the breach, these gentlemen were exposed to shafts from both sides, and were sustained only by the consciousness of having rightly discharged their duty, and leaving the future to confirm the wisdom of their judgment. That future is already here, and their judgment stands approved by all who have traced the history of the schools from that day forward.

The twenty-two schools now in operation under the charge of the board, and already referred to, may be thus classified, viz: two Union sehools, (the plan of which will be presently alluded to,) one in four, and the other in three separate departments; four middle schools, under male teachers, for scholars between the ages of five and eighteen years; eleven primary schools, under female teachers, for scholars between the ages of five and ten years, and one school for colored persons.

Our system of organization and discipline has grown up as it were under our own hands, and been adapted rather to our own peculiar circumstances and exigencies, than modeled upon any preconceived plan of those who confine themselves to one particular mode of conducting a school, and who regard it as the one only method, rejecting every thing else. We have preferred rather to be eclectic in our various organizations, and having first fully satisfied ourselves as to the character of our material, have then proceeded to adapt all that we found excellent and suitable in the numerous and varied systems that prevail throughout the country.

We are, however, exceedingly desirous of perfecting throughout our city, what we style the Union School, and which we find to be not only the most beneficial in all respects, but the most economical

Our poverty as a board, and consequently our inability to erect suitable school buildings, delayed us a long time, before we were enabled to take the first step towards establishing such a school. Our city, (unlike the two on either side of us, Cleveland and Chicago, and mainly for the reasons already stated,) has never erected a uniform set of school buildings in the different wards of the city, and the only way in which we have to possess ourselves of buildings at all, is by taking advantage of the extra tax occasionally, of $1,500, and adding to it whatever we can manage, by the severest economy,

to save from our annual receipts, and which you will readily see, from what has been stated, as to the amount of our receipts and expenditures, must be necessarily small.

Fortunately, however, for the cause of education among us, the large and commodious building formerly occupied as the State Capitol, in this city, upon the removal of the seat of government to Lansing, fell into the hands of the board of education and we were thus favored with an opportunity of establishing a Union school on a large scale, which was speedily done. This building now receives and shelters over five hundred children every day, and affords more comfortable school privileges than can be found in any other building dedicated to such purposes in the Union. Although now appropriated to much more humble pursuits than formerly, when its halls were used as the theatre of State legislation, yet we confidently hope that the State is deriving much more good from the work now accomplishing within its walls, than from that which was wont to be enacted there in earlier days. If no laws are now formally framed there, the future law-makers of the State are being made there daily, and it is hoped they will be fully qualified for their work when the time of their labor arrives.

The plan of the Union school, as adopted by the board of education, is briefly as follows: in the basement of the building is an infant school, where the children are familiarized with their alphabet and taught to spell. They are then elevated to the primary department, where they are still further instructed in the same studies, and also in the multiplication table, and somewhat in geography. They next pass into the lower or middle department, where the circle of study is enlarged, and they commence their work upon the text books, and are taught especially in Colburn's mental arithmetic, which has long been regarded with us as a sine qua non in our schools. The drill in this work is made very complete and thorough, and the pupil is not permitted to abandon it until he has mastered it all, from cover to cover. Having here qualified themselves for the upper or higher department, they are then transferred to the care of teachers, who conduct them through all the higher branches of study, and with whom they complete their course. These studies embrace the most finished style of reading and writing, grammar, geography,

history, both ancient and modern, higher arithmetic, algebra, geometry, natural and mental philosophy, astronomy, composition, elocution, book keeping, surveying, music, &c. &c. The very highest attainment in all these studies is here reached, and the most difficult and abstruse mathematical and geometrical problems, as also the working out of eclipses may be seen in diagrams, as the work of the scholars, at every public examination.

The admission of scholars into these various departments is sought to be regulated, as far as possible, by age, although it is found that their respective attainments in a knowledge of the studies prescribed, is the safer and perhaps the better rule by which to advance them in their course,

The primary departments are under the care of female teachers exclusively, and the middle and upper departments are under the conjoint care of both a male and female teacher. Both sexes attend to the same studies, and are instructed in the classes, except as portions of them are occasionally withdrawn under the charge of the female teacher into the recitation rooms attached to the middle and upper departments; and in all matters of discipline, the male teacher of the upper department excrcises full jurisdiction, not only over his own, but likewise over all the inferior schools in his building.

In this progressive method under competent teachers, we find our scholars strengthen with every onward step, and by the time they have completed the whole course of the upper and final department, they are generally abundantly qualified for any responsible position in life, either as machinists, surveyors, or mercantile clerks, according as their tastes may have most inclined or regulated their studies. “Fesina lente!” has been the principle upon which we have sought to proceed in carrying out our system, and by thorough drill in each particular study, from the commencement, (although attended at first with some delay,) we find the scholar advances much more rapidly and intelligently in the higher branches, than where he is hurried along superficially, and with much more apparent rapidity through his preliminary studies. The latter course never can make a good scholar, the former invariably will.

At present we have but two large Union schools conducted on this plan; but we hope before three years have elapsed to add at least

two more of this kind to our present number, and so go on increasing them until we finally absorb all of the primary and middle

schools now scattered abroad through the city into Union schools, which result we regard as necessary to the perfection of such a system as our city needs, and as will prove most advantageous to its youth.

The study of the classics has not yet been introduced into these schools, not from any lack of a due appreciation of their importance by the board, but mainly because of our limited means, the present want of legal authority so to expend any portion of our moneys, and the overflowing numbers of those who demand, as of the first importance, a thorough education in the English branches. Were it within the range of their power and means, I doubt not the board would be glad to engraft upon their system the grand peculiarity of the Parish schools in Scotland, where the teachers employed are good classical scholars, and impart instruction in the languages to their pupils, who often time pass from the parish school to the University. It is in fact, to this, more than any other one cause, that Scotland owes her great superiority over England, and almost all other countries, in the great number of her highly educated sons. When, however, our means shall have increased so that we may expand as we ought, and we are enabled to secure competent teachers in these studies also, our common school system at home in Detroit, we hesitate not in saying, will not fall behind that of any other in the nation. We hope for the early arrival of this day, and at present can do nothing more than faithfully and fully prepare the way for its coming.

Our school year is divided into three terms; the first commencing on the second Monday after the third Saturday in April, and closes the fourth Saturday in July. The second term commences the fifth Monday after the fourth Saturday in July, and closes the Saturday next preceding Christmas. The third term commences on the first Monday after the first day of January, and closes the third Saturday in April. By this it will be seen that we have but one long vacation, which is generally the entire month of August, and a week's vaca tion at the end of both the other two terms.

It is somewhat difficult to arrive at the precise number of scholars in daily attendance upon our public schools in the course of the