oe dismissed with a pension; or, whether the committee shall engage an assistant teacher, to aid him in the school-room. The widows and children of deceased teachers are pensioned off in Saxony, in the same manner as in Prussia, and the funds for this purpose are raised by the same means.

Another most important regulation is, that no person or persons in immediate personal connection with a teacher, shall have the power of dismissing him, after he is once elected. It must be evident to all, how much this is tending to lower the independence and respectability of the teachers of England. A private patron, a clergyman, or a committee of parishioners has the power in almost every case, in our country, of dismissing a teacher. How often this has been done merely on account of some personal pique, or because the teacher would not submit to their crude notions of how a school ought to be managed; or from misrepresentation; or from mere village squabbles, I have no need to remind any of my readers. That such a dismissal is possible, every one will admit. How such a possibility must often damp a good and earnest teacher's energy, or undermine his honesty and destroy his usefulness, or at least lower his profession in the eyes of the people around him, is but too evident. But in Germany, no person in immediate connection with the teacher can dismiss him on any pretext whatsoever. His judges are distant, unprejudiced, and impartial persons. In Saxony, after the parish has elected its teacher, it loses all direct power over him. The parochial minister or committee can inspect the school, when he or they please. Indeed, it is their duty to do so at stated times. They can advise the teacher and counsel him, but they can not directly interfere with him. He is supposed to understand, how to manage his school, better than any other person in his parish. If he did not, his long preparatory training would have been of little avail.

If the clergyman, or any of the parishioners, have any cause of complaint to find with the teacher, and desire to have either dismissed or reprimanded, and obliged to change his plans of proceeding, a complaint must be made to the county educational magistrate, and by him, to the minister of education in Dresden, who, in Saxony, is the only person, who can dismiss a teacher. The county magistrate, on receiving the complaint, immediately sends an inspector to the spot, to inquire into the ground of complaint or dispute; and after having received his report, the complaint of the parish, and the defense of the teacher, sends them to the minister of education in Dresden. It remains with the minister alone to pronounce the final judgment. This impartial mode of proceeding tends to raise the teachers' profession in the eyes of the people. They see that the teachers are men, who are considered worthy of the protection and support of the government. But above all, it enables the teachers to act honestly and fearlessly, to follow out the plaus they know to be the best, and to devote their whole energies and minds to their duties, without any embarrassing fears of offending employers or patrons, or of endangering their continuance in office.

There are 2,925 teachers in Saxony, or one teacher to every 588 inhabitants; which is not large enough for the wants of the country. In Saxony, as throughout Germany, they will not make any use of monitors. As they will not avail themselves of the assistance of educated monitors in the more mechanical parts of school teaching, they have therefore been obliged to adopt the following expedient. The law ordains, that when there are more than sixty children in any parochial school, and the parish can not afford to support more than one teacher, the children shall be divided into two classes, when there are not more than 100, and into three classes, when not more than 150 in number; that when there are two classes, the teacher shall instruct one in the morning, and the other in the afternoon; that when there are three classes, he shall instruct each class for three hours daily at separate times; and that all the children not under instruction shall not attend the school, while either of the other classes is there.

. From inquiries made by Dr. Otto, of Dresden, it appears that 2,119 of the primary schools of Saxony receive the following salaries, independently of the lodgings, fuel, and garden, &c.: 607 receive not more than £30; 531 not more than £50; 543 not more than £71; 206 not more than £90; 78 not more than £95; 25 not more than £105; 12 not more than £120; 9 not more than £130; 7 not more than £138; 1 not more than £150.

THE Normal School for the state of New York, was established by an act of the Legislature in 1844, "for the instruction and practice of Teachers of Common Schools, in the science of Education and the art of Teaching." It was first established for five years, as an experiment, and went into operation on the 18th of December, 1844, in a building provided gratuitously by the city of Albany, and temporarily fitted up for that purpose. In 1848, an act was passed by the Legislature "for the permanent establishment of the State Normal School," appropriating $15,000 toward the erection of a suitable building. The following year an additional appropriation of $10,000 was made for its completion. A large and commodious edifice, (See Fig. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,) containing a dwelling-house for the Principal, has accordingly been erected on the corner of Lodge and Howard streets, adjoining the State Geological and Agricultural Rooms. To this building the school was removed on the 31st of July, 1849. At the expiration of the term of five years for which this institution was originally established, and in connection with the closing exercises of the Summer

Session ending September 27, 1849, Samuel S. Randall, Esq., Deputy Superintendent of Common Schools, pronounced an address in which the origin and progress of the Normal School is thus graphically set forth:

For several years prior to 1844, the attention of the friends of Common School education in this state had been strongly directed to the inadequacy of the existing agencies for the preparation of duly qualified teachers for our elementary institutions of learning. Liberal endowments had, from time to time, during a long series of years,been bestowed upon the academies in different sections of the state, with a view to the attainment of this object; but the practical inability of these institutions to supply the demand thus made upon them with all the resources at their command, soon became obvious and undeniable. The establishment of Normal Schools for this special and exclusive purpose in various portions of Europe, where popular education was most flourishing, and in the adjoining state of Massachusetts, long and honorably distinguished for her superior public and private schools, and the manifest tendency of these institutions to elevate and improve the qualifications and character of teachers, had begun to attract the regard of many of our most distinguished statesmen.

On a winter's afternoon, early in the year 1844, in a retired apartment of one of the public buildings in this city, might have been seen, in earnest and prolonged consultation, several eminent individuals whose names and services in the cause of education are now universally acknowledged. The elder of them was a man of striking and venerable appearance-of commanding intellect and benignant mien. By his side sat one in the prime and vigor of manhood, whose mental faculties had long been disciplined in the school of virtuous activity, and in every lineament of whose countenance appeared that resolute determination and moral power, which seldom fails to exert a wide influence upon the opinions and actions of men. The third in the group was a young man of slight frame and pale, thoughtful visage; upon whose delicate and slender form premature debility had palpably set its seal; yet whose opinions seemed to be listened to by his associates with the utmost deference and regard. The remaining figure was that of a well-known scholar and divine, whose potent and beneficial influence had long been felt in every department of the cause of popular education, and whose energy, activity and zeal had already accomplished many salutary and much needed reforms in our system of public instruction.

The subject of their consultation was the expediency and practicability of incorporating upon the Common School system of this state an efficient instrumentality for the education of teachers. The utility of such a measure, and its importance to the present and prospective interests of education, admitted, in the minds of these distinguished men, of no doubt. The sole question was whether the public mind was sufficiently prepared for its reception and adoption: whether an innovation so great and striking, and involving as it necessarily must a heavy and continued expenditure of the public money, might not be strenuously and successfully resisted: and whether a premature and unsuccessful attempt then to carry into execution a measure of such vital importance, might not be attended with a disastrous influence upon the future prospects of the cause of education. These considerations after being duly weighed, were unanimously set aside by the intrepid spirits then in council; and it was determined that, backed by the strong and decided recommendation of the head of the Common School Department, immediate measures should be forthwith adopted for the establishment of a STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. The men who thus gave the first decided impetus to the great enterprise, whose gratifying results are now before us, were SAMUEL YOUNG, CALVIN T. HULBURD, FRANCIS DWIGHT, and ALONZO POTTER.

Mr. Hulburd, the able and enlightened Chairman of the Committee on Colleges, Academies and Common Schools, of the Assembly, visited the Normal Schools of Massachusetts, and after a thorough examination of their merits and practical operations, submitted an elaborate and eloquent report to the House, in favor of the immediate adoption of this principle in our system of public instruction. The bill introduced by him, and sustained in all its stages by his powerful influence and indefatigable exertions, and the cooperation of the most zealous friends of education throughout the state, became a law, and appropriated the sum of $10,000 annually for five successive years, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a State Normal School in this city. The general control of the Institution was committed to the Regents of the University, by whom an Executive Committee, consisting of five persons, one of whom was to be the Superintendent of Common Schools, was to be appointed, upon whom the direct management, discipline and course of instruction should devolve. In pursuance of this provision, the Board of Regents, in June, 1844, appointed a Committee comprising the Hon. SAMUEL YOUNG, then Superintendent of Common Schools, the Rev. ALONZO POTTER, Rev. Wм. H. CAMPBELL, Hon. GIDEON HAWLEY, and FRANCIS DWIGHT, Esq. This committee forthwith entered upon the execution of their responsible duties; procured on very liberal and favorable terms from the city of Albany the lease for five years of the spacious building in State street, recently occupied by the Institution; prescribed the necessary rules and regulations for the instruction, government and discipline of the school, the course of study to be pursued, the appointment and selection of the pupils, &c., and procured the services of the late lamented and distinguished Principal, then of Newburyport, Massachusetts, together with his colleague, Prof. Perkins, of Utica, the present Principal, as teachers. On the 18th day of December, 1844, the school was opened in the presence of a large concourse of citizens and strangers, by an eloquent address from Col. YOUNG, and by other appropriate and suitable exercises. Twenty-nine pupils, thirteen males and sixteen females, representing fourteen counties only, of both sexes were in attendance, who, after listening to a brief but clear and explicit declaration from Mr. PAGE, of his objects, views and wishes in the management and direction of the high duties devolved upon him, entered at once upon the course of studies prescribed for the school. Before the close of the first term on the 11th of March, 1845, the number of pupils had increased to ninety-eight, comprising about an equal number of each sex, and representing forty of the fifty-nine counties of the state. During this term the musical department of the school was placed under the charge of Prof. ILSLEY, of this city, and instruction in drawing was imparted by Prof. J. B. HOWARD, of Rensselaer.

On the commencement of the second term, on the 9th of April. 1845, 170 pupils were in attendance, comprising a nearly equal proportion of males and females, and representing every county in the state, with a single exception. Of these pupils about nine-tenths had been previously engaged in teaching during a longer or shorter period. The term closed on the 28th of August, with a public examination and other suitable exercises, and thirty-four of the students received the certificate of the Executive Committee and Board of Instruction, as in their judgment well qualified in all essential respects, to teach any of the Common Schools of

the state.

On the 15th of October succeeding, the school re-opened with 180 pupils, which was increased during the progress of the term to 198 from every county in the state but one. The death of Mr. DWIGHT, which took place on the 15th of December, and the transfer of the Rev. Dr. POTTER to the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, created vacancies in