their responsibilities as rational, immortal beings, cannot under any circumstances be indifferent to the intellectual and moral training of the young. Ignorance, moral depravity, and blind selfishness in the man, alone can render him uninterested in a work so important, so essential to the prosperity of our country and the good of our race. Find a community where no interest in education is felt, and a corresponding indifference will be found to all subjects which rise above mere physical considerations. If such a community is furnished with an educational fund, and there is not found moral sense enough to make any good use of it, what tendency would the withdrawal of it have to awaken an interest? If these things are done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

On the other hand, the citizens of a community where exists a high moral tone, where the newspaper of established character is found in almost every house, and the claims of a Supreme Being are recognized, will not fail to educate their youth, with the same or a higher standard of excellence in view, though they enjoy the aid of no public funds. This is illustrated in no small degree, in the State of Michigan at the present time, in the fact that during the past year, with a public fund of about one hundred thousand dollars, the people have taxed themselves over five hundred thousand dollars more! The same spirit, amounting almost to enthusiasm, is shown in the regard felt by the people for all our institutions of learning-in the numerous private schools and seminaries, the Normal School, the State University, the Agricultural College, as well as the Asylums for the Deaf and Dumb, and the Blind, and the Insane, and that no less noble Asylum, the House of Correction for Juvenile Offenders. To build up these institutions, the people are liberally taxing themselves to a large amonnt-regarding them, both as the loftiest monuments they can erect of commendable State pride, and as

the highest demands of an enlightened humanity, true patriotism and social good.

Our School Fund should be prized as a rich inheritance to ourselves and our posterity; but still more ought we to appreciate and rejoice in that high-toned public sentiment which determines that Education shall be universal-that this Fund shall never be perverted from its original design and greatest possible influence, and that the noble sentiment of our fathers, whose hands gave form to our institutions, that "Religion, Morality, and Knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, SCHOOLS and the means of EDUCATION shall forever be encouraged," shall never be repealed or disregarded.

THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL,

AND ITS FUNDS.

All the legislation of our State, from the commencement, upon educational affairs, seems to have contemplated, not only the necessary pecuniary aid for Primary Schools, but the highest grade of talent and aptitude in their vocation, that could be secured in teachers. This in our legislation was but the reflection of sentiment manifested by the active friends of Popular Education, among whom the teachers themselves stood foremost. Instead of leaving the district officers, who are usually elected more with reference to their business activity and financial skill, than to their education, to judge of the qualifications of the teachers they employ, as has been, and perhaps still is done in some States, our State has made provision for the election of officers who are expected to be chosen for their ability to judge of a teacher's qualifications, to examine every person proposing to teach a Primary School, and without whose certificate of fitness, no teacher can be employed, on pain of the district's being deprived of its proportion of the pub-lic funds.

This was well calculated to stimulate teachers to a desire to excel, and Associations and Institutes were organized in many places by them, for the purpose of improvement in their profession. With these organizations the Superintendent of Public Instruction gave a hearty cooperation, and recommended legislative aid in their behalf; which, however, was not granted until a recent date. These Associations were, perhaps, more than any other

the

cause, the means of concentrating public opinion upon subject of a State Normal School; showing as they did, the necessity of such an institution, and to some extent, what might be expected from it.

The State Normal School was established by the Legislature in 1849; and its main design is to be a School for Teachers; where they may receive instruction peculiarly adapted to their profession; though the law contains some rhetorical flourishes about giving "instruction in the mechanic arts, and in the arts of husbandry, and agricultural chemistry, in the fundamental laws of the United States, and in what regards the rights and duties of citizens." The Normal School is to the Primary Schools, what Theological Seminaries are to the Churches-it is simply the Teacher's College, and a school for professional training.

The law creating the Normal School of Michigan placed it under the direction of a Board of Education, consisting of three persons, to be appointed by the Governor, and approved by the Senate; one of which was to retire from office each year, by one new appointment being made in each year. The Legislature of 1850, made the Lieutenant Governor, the State Treasurer, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, ex-officio members of the Board. The Superintendent was made the Secretary of the Board, the Treasurer its Treasurer, and it was to elect its own President.

All this, however, was changed by the Constitution of the same year, which provides for a Board of three members, elected by the people, to hold their office for six years-one being elected at each biennial election. The Superintendent is ex-officio a member, and Secretary of the Board.

Ten sections of Salt Spring lands were appropriated to meet the expense of buildings, apparatus, &c., to be denominated the "Normal School Building Fund."

The Salt Spring lands consisted of seventy-two sections,