All these can be obtained at small expense, and they would prove invaluable memorials of the heroic ages of literature and art.

3. Copies from some of the best paintings, to illustrate composition in painting, to illustrate the principles in coloring, and light and shade; good engravings from celebrated paintings. These will constitute a collection permanently belonging to the University. To this collection might be added such portraits of the professors, chancellors, and other distinguished persons who have been connected with the institution, as might be induced by invitation, or otherwise, to leave them. Art preserves a memory of the past and is conservative.

4. Students who wish can take lessons in drawing, in perspective, in coloring, in composition. This department will thus have a direct, practical bearing on the acquirements of the students, aside from the refined taste its teachings will inculeate. The services of the professor might be made useful to the medical department. The study of the natural sciences will be greatly facilitated by drawings, diagrams, and transparencies. It cannot be doubted that art will foster an attachment to the University.

5. It is believed that in all the German Universities the fine arts are represented by a professor. Lectures prevail there as a mode of teaching, more than in the English. The German is far more liberal. A well educated German is thoroughly acquainted with music, with the theory of the arts, and often with the principles of each.

6. We have already some examples-Columbia College, New York, has a professor of fine arts, a young man of that city. West Point has a professor of fine arts. Cambridge has a collection of pictures, and inculcates the fine arts as a branch of her teachings. New Haven College has erected a separate building for the reception of Col. Trumbull's pictures, and has thus an admirable series of works to illustrate art. It is there lessons of patriotism may be first imbibed; it is there the student will first contemplate the noble designs of the "Battle of Bunker Hill," "signing the Declaration of Independence," "Washington's resignation of his commission to Congress," with many others of a National interest.

The Smithsonian Institute has already purchased one valuable work of art, and is in treaty for Power's Greek Slave; showing that

the arts will be included in the legitimate objects of an institution that proposes to diffuse knowledge among mankind. This does not proprobably name all the institutions in our country that have provided for the teachings of art in the course of their studies. Several societies and institutions in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Albany, Cin cinnatti, established expressly to encourage a taste for art, and cordially sustained by the public, are not mentioned.

7. Every step taken in this country to sustain art, by whatever method, whether by societies, State legislatures, or Congress, has been promptly met by the public, showing that the public sentiment is quite ready to sanction the boldness or liberality of those whose province it is to take initiatory steps in such encouragement. Very many instances of this can be adduced.

8. Michigan has taken the lead in the liberal basis on which her educational system is founded. Is not this fact a strong reason that now, while the course of instruction is falling into permanent methods, that

department so important, so essential to the best and the most liberal culture as that comprehending the fine arts, should not be omit ted or postponed, but immediately and with confidence incorporated with her more obviously practical branches.

Without venturing to extend the argument embodied in this paper, the whole subject is respectfully submitted to the wisdom and consideration of your honorable body.

ALVAH BRADISH

PART II.

THE PRIMARY SCHOOL LAW OF MICHIGAN,

WITH

NOTES, FORMS, AND INSTRUCTIONS

FOR CONDUCTING PROCEEDINGS.

The law does not impose upon the Superintendent the duty of deciding questions arising under the operation of the school laws. It is, however, a matter of necessity that it should be done the interest of the schools requires it, and the school officers seek for and demand such decisions. The consideration of all the questions which arise in the townships and districts, which are submitted to the office for its advice and decision, involves an amount of labor which is not generally conceived. Many of these questions are the more important, because they are intricate. They require examination, reflection, a knowledge of the general principles of law, and also a practical acquaintance and familiarity with the operation of the system. Great pains, thought, and labor have been bestowed upon this part of the subject, and it is believed the notes will be found to meet all, or nearly all, of the questions that are generally raised in the districts. The decisions given have been based upon queries of officers, embraced in their correspondence. Should this document not be swelled to a size which forbids it, abstracts of this correspondence will be presented, showing for themselves the difficulties which surround and embarrass school officers in the discharge of their duties, and in relation to which they require the advice of the Superintendent.

The law embraces all amendments made up to 1852. Those portions which are in brackets are amendments. The number of sec

tions are the same as in the revised statutes of 1846. The decisions here made are not intended to infringe upon the province of any legal department or tribunal of the State. They are confined to questions arising under the operation and in the administration of the school law. In cases where the district stands in the light of a contracting party, or where the school officers have subjected themselves or the district to a controversy in a court of law, it is neither the duty or the province of the Superintendent to determine what are, or what are not, the legal rights of the parties. Provisions exist in the State of New York, and in some other States, conferring a more extended jurisdiction in cases arising under the school laws; and the decisions being made final, have saved a vast amount of litigation, expense and difficulty. A provision to this effect has been recommended in Michigan by each successive Superintendent. In his remarks upon the school law of Rhode Island, Mr. Barnard recommended it as leading to a cheap, speedy and amicable settlement of numerous controversies which unavoidably spring up in the local administration of the system, which were previously carried into the courts, or the Legislature, involving much expense, much delay, and not unfre quently bitter, wide spread and lasting dissatisfaction.

The laws of the State of New York authorize any person feeling himself aggrieved in consequence of any decision made by a school district meeting, or by the town superintendent, in forming, or altering, or in refusing to form or alter a school district, or in refusing to pay any school moneys to any such district, or by the trustees in paying any teacher, or refusing to pay him, or in refusing to admit any scholar gratuitously, or concerning any other matter under the law relating to schools, to appeal to the superintendent, who is required and authorized to examine and decide the same, and the decision is final and conclusive.

OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

DISTRICTS.

SECTION 1. Whenever the board of school inspectors of any township aball form a school district therein, it shall be the duty of the clerk of such board to deliver to a taxable inhabitant of such district, a notice in writing, of the formation of such district, describing its boundaries, and specifying the time and place of the first meeting; which notice, with the fact of such delivery, shall be entered upon record by the clerk.

1. The power to form school districts is vested in the board of school inspectors by section 71. In proceeding to divide the township, as this is the first step to be taken, a full record should be kept, showing not only the number of each district, but accurately describing the boundaries of each, in order that the clerk of the board, under this section, may be accurate in his description to be delivered to a taxable inhabitant. The following form of the notice required, is prescribed:

To A. B.- —, a taxable inhabitant of school district No.-: SIR-You are hereby notified that the school inspectors of the township of on the day of, 185, formed a school district in said township, which they numbered school district No. and which is bounded as follows: [Insert the boundary as copied from the record.] The first meeting of said district will be held at on the day of, 185, at — o'clock in the noon: You are hereby directed to notify every qualified voter of said district, either personally or by leaving a written notice at his place of residence, of the time and place of said meeting, at least five days before the time appointed therefor, as above; and after so notifying every qualified voter within the boundaries above described, you will endorse on this notice a return, showing such notification, with the date or dates thereof, and deliver the same to the chairman of the meeting, to be held at the time and place above mentioned.

Given under my hand, this (Signed,)

day of

A. D. 185.

Clerk of the Board of School Inspectors. For form of endorsement upon this notice, see note to section 3. 2. A taxable inhabitant receiving the notice mentioned in this and the following section, who neglects or refuses duly to serve and return the notice required, is liable, by the provisions of section 129, to forfeit a penalty of five dollars.

3. The time and place of meeting is to be fixed by the inhabitant who is served with the notice.

SEC. 2. The said notice shall also direct such inhabitant to notify every qualified voter of such district, either personally or by leaving a written notice at his place of residence, of the time and place of said meeting, at least five days before the time appointed therefor; and it shall be the duty of such inhabitant to notify the qualified voters of said district accordingly.

1. To save question as to the sufficiency of time in giving the notice, five full days, without any fraction of a day, should be given before the day of meeting.