same high duty with more economy, and more in conformity with the public wants. The passage of the act of 1844 is no reflection upon the intelligence, patriotism, or fidelity of their officers. The public sense of the value of their services is evinced by the provision, which supplies ample means to continue their established schools with success and efficiency.

It is not unnatural that the people should desire the election by themselves of officers who have the power of subjecting them to taxation, and the expenditure of their money for public purposes. It would seem all fit and proper that it should be so. Public attention is evidently sufficiently observing of the action of the school officers to indicate that, if they fail to meet public expectation, successors will be elected to fill their places, who will bring to the discharge of their duties increased intelligence and efficiency.

The possession of power by the Public School Society, equal to that of the ward officers, to organize new schools, can only be desired for the patriotic purpose of proving the Society to be a better public agent than the officers elected under the act of 1844. Two agents equally good, when either one can do the whole duty, would seem to be unnecessary. Unless the Public School Society can serve the public better than their officers, the exercise of the same powers concurrently by both would not promise any practical utility. As the law now is, I am forced to the conclusion that the Society has not the power which it claims, and which, for the purpose of removing doubts, it generously invites this board to unite with it in an application to the Legislature to grant to it. That is a matter which, I think, properly belongs to the people, by whom the members of this board were elected. The application, when made, should be made by them, and not by their officers, who were elected to execute the law as it is.

The board cannot properly devote itself officially to any thing else than a full and efficient discharge of the trust confided to it, and to an impartial and firm execution of the law which defines its powers and prescribes the rule of its action. I think that the Board of Education is expressly prohibited by that law from authorizing the payment to the Public School Society of any greater amount of the school moneys than shall be sufficient to defray the necessary and legal expenses of "the schools" established and within its jurisdiction at the time that act was passed.

At the close of Mr. Bosworth's remarks, the question was taken on the adoption of Mr. Mason's amendment, and it was decided in the affirmative.

When the resolution was reported to the trustees of the Society, the subject was referred to the Executive Committee, with directions to memorialize the Legislature for a declaratory act, defining the powers of the Society. This course was accordingly taken, and on the 4th of March, 1848, the following bill was passed, and became a law :

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SEC. 1. Any schools which have been established by the Public School Society of the city of New York, since the passage of the act entitled “An Act more Effectually to Provide for Common School Education in the City of New York," passed May 7, 1844, may be continued and supported, and may be allowed to participate in the public money apportioned to said Society, in the same manner as if they had been established before the passage of said act; but the said Public School Society shall not establish any new school without the consent of the Board of Education.

SEC. 2. The said Public School Society have power to purchase, erect, or hire other buildings in place of those now occupied by their schools, whenever it shall become necessary for the purpose of said schools now existing. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

This definition of the powers of the Society set the question at rest, and the trustees saw that they had reached the limits of their sphere of labor, and that thenceforth their energies were to be employed in imparting the highest efficiency to the schools then under their care.

The annual meeting of the board was held on the 11th of January, 1847, at which time GEORGE T. TRIMBLE was elected President, which office he held up to the day on which the Society terminated its existence.

LINDLEY MURRAY, the late President, was, at the time, on a visit to the island of Madeira, whither he had sailed in the pursuit of health. But the long life of usefulness which he had spent was drawing to its close, and, on his return voyage, he was called to sleep in peace, in the hope of a glorious immortality.

In May, 1849, A. P. HALSEY, the Treasurer, tendered his resignation, and JOSHUA S. UNDERHILL was elected as his suc

cessor.

It being deemed expedient to close the primary school in Oak street, and dispose of the property, an opportunity was presented of selling it at the price of $8,000, which the Society accepted, and it was transferred to its new owners.

The demands made upon the treasury became so much greater than its resources, that the trustees found themselves obliged to appeal to the Board of Education for special appropriations to meet deficiencies. These deficiencies were usually provided for, in whole or in part, until 1850, when an application was made for $50,140.10, the deficit existing at that time. The Board of

Education granted $35,000, leaving $15,000 unprovided for, as liable to objection under the provisions of the law relative to expenditures for property, the title of which had not been vested in the city. In 1851, the application was urged anew, and referred to the Finance Committee of the Board of Education, who submitted a report adverse to the appropriation. When the result was communicated to the trustees of the Society, a resolution was immediately presented, in the following form:

Resolved, That, in the opinion of the Board of Trustees of the Public School Society, it is expedient to repeat a tender of the transfer of the property held by the Society to the Common Council of New York, in accordance with the sanction of the final clause of the act of January 28, 1826, relating thereto.

The resolution was laid on the table, and the committee having charge of the matter were directed to visit Albany, to take such steps as might be found necessary to protect the rights and privileges of the Society, a bill being then under consideration relative to the school systems of the city. The committee discharged the duty assigned them, and reported that a section had been introduced into the bill, which had become a law, which contained the following proviso:

But nothing in this act shall take away from the Public School Society any right which they have heretofore enjoyed; and the Board of Education are authorized to provide the Public School Society with all necessary moneys to make all proper repairs, alterations, and improvements in the various school-premises occupied by them.

The year 1852 brought, at its commencement, a formal communication from the Board of Education relative to an event which had already been freely discussed as impending, and likely to be consummated at a not distant period-the union of the two systems, and the harmonizing of the whole scheme of common schools in the city under one Central Board. At the meeting of the trustees, January 26th, a communication was laid before them, in which it was stated that the Board of Education had appointed a committee to confer with a committee on behalf of the Society relative to a plan of union. Messrs. George T. Trimble, Peter Cooper, and Joseph B. Collins were named as the Committee of Conference, to which Messrs. Charles E. Pierson and James F. Depeyster were subsequently added.

In May, the board decided to borrow $40,000 on bond and mortgage of their property, that amount being necessary to meet the expenses of the schools, and the Treasurer and Finance Committee were directed to take the usual course for obtaining that

amount.

In November, the trustees resolved to sell the primary school in Twenty-fifth street, between Madison and Fourth avenues; and in January, 1853, information being given that Duane street would be widened by the addition of twenty-five feet from the north side of the street, and that the property known as No. 10 could be sold for a considerable sum, Messrs. Linus W. Stevens, William H. Neilson, James F. Depeyster, and George T. Trimble were appointed to report on the expediency of the sale. This measure became more necessary from the fact that the building would be reduced to so small a size as to be practically valueless, and also that a large ward school, under the care of the Board of Education, had been erected in the vicinity, at the corner of North Moore and Varick streets. The committee were directed to take only preliminary steps toward the sale of the property, so that the decision of the Legislature upon the bill for the consolidation of the two systems should be known. In the event of the failure of the bill, the property should be sold. The bill failed at the regular session, and the property was sold to Thomas Hope, for $39,900. The proceeds were to be appropriated to the payment of the floating debt of the Society. In accordance with the terms of the sale, the school was closed on the 30th of June, and the premises which had so long been occupied for the education of youth in the paths of knowledge, virtue, and religion (the building was long occupied for a Sunday school), was diverted to very different purposes.

CHAPTER XV.

UNION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY AND THE BOARD OF

EDUCATION.—1853.

Corporate and Popular Boards of School Officers-Resources-Importance of a Uniform System-Proceedings of the Board of Education-Committee of Conference Appointed-Basis of Union Adopted-Proposed School Bill-Proceedings of the Society-Legislative Compromises-Extra Session-Bill Passed-Commissioners and Trustees Appointed by the Society-Transfer of Property to the Corporation -Report of the Committee-Address of Peter Cooper-Meeting of the Board of Education-Reception of the Members appointed by the Society-Resolutions of Hon. Erastus C. Benedict, President of the Board-Remarks of William D. Murphy, Esq.

THE influence of the popular sentiment, combined with the embarrassments growing out of the dissimilarities of the system of the Public School Society and that established by the law of 1842, became more apparent every year. How far the educational scheme of a great metropolis is likely to be affected, in its partisan relations, where the school officers are chosen at a general election, longer experience in the city of New York will probably demonstrate. But the Board of Education having been in existence about ten years, and being composed of members chosen by the popular suffrage, it was calculated to attract the sympathies of the majority of the population. The Board of Education exercised a control over the common school moneys, which were, in the early years of the board, carefully guarded. The revenue of the Public School Society was found to be insufficient for its expenditures, and a more frequent and urgent resort was had to obtaining moneys either by the sale of property, or on bond and mortgage. The applications made on several occasions to the Board of Education for the amount of certain deficiencies, were always warmly contested in that body, and, on several occasions, were granted only in part, and even in opposition to the recommendations of the Finance Committee, who reported adversely on the question of the appropriations.