together with those who were afterward added to the school, were under the direction of one teacher, the "monitors" rendering all the assistance in their power.

The Lancasterian system of instruction was, by the organization of this school, transplanted to the Western world, and for many years was almost universally adopted in large schools of even the higher classes of pay schools. The New York High School, which for a number of years held the first rank, under Daniel H. Barnes, Shepherd Johnson, John Griscom, and others, was conducted on the Lancasterian, or monitorial, system.

One clause in the act of incorporation, which regulated the meetings of the trustees, being productive of inconvenience, an act was passed by the Legislature on the 2d of April, 1806, providing that the trustees might hold their monthly meetings on any day of the week they might deem convenient. It was therefore immediately resolved, that their regular meetings should in future be held on the first Friday in every month.

In the same month, Col. Henry Rutgers, with characteristic liberality, presented to the Society a lot of ground in Henry street, for the purpose of erecting thereon a school-house, to meet the wants of the indigent in that populous part of the city. He afterward added an adjoining lot to this generous donation; the estimated value of the whole being $2,500.

The labors of the instructor are either very much embarrassed or aided by the social condition of the pupils. The struggle for bread, and the physical necessities of children who suffer from cold, hunger, and wretchedness, are not only, from the very nature of the case, impediments to progress in education, but they serve to blunt the sensibilities, and make intellectual effort a toilsome and unwelcome task. Hunger and cold make their appeals very bitterly oftentimes, and efforts for selfpreservation, or struggles against suffering, absorb the thoughts and energies, and become the chief care of beings thus situated. The moral, the intellectual, and the spiritual wants are far less keenly felt, or even perceived; and the condition of dependence thus imposed upon thousands becomes a bequest in perpetuity, from which few rise to a higher level except by accident, or a native force of character which overcomes all obstacles by a resolute purpose to triumph. It was among this class that the Society laid its foundation; and the trustees found, at the ap

proach of the winter of 1806-7, that their labor of benevolence would fail very materially were they to neglect some of those humane offices which poverty demands at the hand of the philanthropist and the Christian. They therefore determined to examine into the personal wants of their beneficiaries, and they were not long in becoming convinced that clothing of every description would be required for their use. Efforts were accordingly made to supply these wants, and the trustees were gratified by the receipt of liberal donations of clothing, shoes, and hats, which, being distributed among the children, were sufficient to make them all comfortable for the winter. This continued to be the case for some years, but was finally abandoned when the schools increased in number and were more numerously attended.

In January, 1807, the trustees, not only encouraged with their success, but anxious to extend their labors, presented a memorial to the Legislature, containing a statement of what they had done, and soliciting pecuniary assistance to enable them to extend the operations of the association. The memorial met with a very favorable reception, and soon afterward the trustees were able to congratulate the friends of the institution on the passage of an act appropriating four thousand dollars toward building a house, and one thousand to be paid annually toward defraying the expenses of the school. These moneys were paid out of the moneys appropriated by the act entitled "An Act to lay a duty on strong liquors, and for regulating inns and taverns," to the payment of the contingent charges of the city of New York, the annuity to continue during the pleasure of the Legislature. The act was passed on the 27th of February, 1807, and was deemed of higher interest from the fact that this liberal appropriation received the unanimous consent of both branches of the Legislature.

While these proceedings were transpiring at the Capitol, the trustees made an application to the Corporation of the city for their assistance in promoting an enterprise which promised to be of incalculable benefit to the public. A committee from that body was accordingly appointed, who visited the institution, and soon afterward a building adjacent to the Almshouse was appropriated for the temporary accommodation of the school, with an additional appropriation of five hundred dollars to assist in patting it into a suitable condition for school purposes. As a con

sideration for these advantages, the Society agreed, on their part, to receive and educate fifty children belonging to the Almshouse. To this building the school was removed on the 28th of April, 1807, and before the close of the year it numbered one hundred and fifty pupils.

In the year 1808, the trustees had the pleasure of witnessing the growing utility of the institution, and the union of public and private exertions in their favor. The charter of the Society was deemed not to be sufficiently comprehensive, as it did not embrace all classes of poor children; and, desirous that the benefits of the establishment should not be restricted, they solicited and obtained from the Legislature an act, which was passed on the 1st of April, 1808, ordaining that the corporation should in future be denominated "The Free School Society of New York," and that its powers should extend to all children who should be the proper objects of a gratuitous education.

In order to provide effectually for the future wants of the school, on an enlarged plan, the trustees petitioned the Legislature, at the same session, for a liberal portion of the school fund of the State, whenever it should be deemed advisable to make a distribution. The preamble to the bill, by which the name of the Society was changed, recites, that, "Whereas, the trustees of the Society for establishing a free school in the city of New York, for the education of such poor children as do not belong to, or are not provided for by, any religious society, have, by their petition, represented to the Legislature, that the act incorporating that Society restrains them unnecessarily in the communication of the advantages of their establishment, by confining them to a certain description of poor children; and have also petitioned for a competent portion of the school fund applicable to the city of New York, in order to be the better enabled to proceed in the execution of their important duties; and, whereas, the said fund does not as yet amount to a sum sufficiently large to render an immediate distribution advisable, but as the Legislature are desirous of encouraging an institution so laudable and useful, by granting the petition of the said trustees in other respects," it was enacted that the name of the Society be changed to that of the "FREE-SCHOOL SOCIETY." This measure, although unaccompanied with any provision of moneys, was

valuable in extending the sphere of the institution and increasing its claims upon the liberality of the public.

The tenement adjacent to the Almshouse in which the school was kept, could not accommodate more than two hundred and fifty children. This number was soon reached, and numerous demands for admission continued to be made far beyond the capacity of the house. The Almshouse was a long building of two stories in height, with a basement, and occupied the north end of the Park, parallel with Chambers street, extending from Broadway nearly to the line of what is now Centre street.

The demand for more ample accommodation pressed urgently upon the trustees, and as the most direct and certain source of aid, a further application for assistance was made to the Corporation in the autumn of 1808, and that body presented to the Society an extensive lot of ground in Chatham street, on which stood the State arsenal. This donation was made on condition. that the Society should receive and educate gratuitously the children of the Almshouse, in the performance of which task it was eminently fulfilling both the letter and spirit of the design of its founders and friends. The value of the ground and the building upon it was estimated at ten thousand dollars. To this important donation the Corporation afterward added the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, to aid in preparing a new building for the reception of the school.

These handsome appropriations enabled the trustees to prosecute their work with a more hopeful confidence than they had yet entertained, and during the year 1809 they were principally occupied in the completion of the new building. A brick edifice was erected, one hundred and twenty feet in length and fifty feet in width, capable of accommodating in one room five hundred children. In the lower story there were apartments for the family of the teacher, for the meeting of the trustees, and for another school, which would accommodate one hundred and fifty pupils. In the adoption of their plan, the trustees had economy constantly in view; but, at the same time, they were desirous that the style of architecture, and the external appearance of the building, should comport with the liberal patronage which the institution had received, and with the resources of a great and flourishing metropolis. Among the means of lessening the expenses of the establishment, they solicited and obtained, from

several benevolent individuals, contributions of timber and other materials to the amount of one thousand dollars. They also negotiated with a master-mason and two master-carpenters, who generously superintended the work, and paid the laborers, without any pecuniary advantage to themselves. In the erection and completion of this extensive building, the Society expended more than thirteen thousand dollars.

The gentlemen to whose benevolence the Society was indebted for their contributions of building materials, and the superintendence of the construction of the edifice, are worthy of an honorable place among the early friends of the enterprise, and are as follows:

Abraham Russell,
William Tilton,

J. G. Pierson & Brothers,

Whitehead Hicks,

M. M. Titus,

Richard Titus,

Joseph Watkins,

B. W. Rogers & Co.,
Richard Speaight,
Abraham Bussing,
Daniel Beach,

P. Schermerhorn, Jr.,
Thomas Stevenson,

Thomas Smyth,

John McKie,

Wm. Wickham,

Isaac Sharples,

Jones & Clinch,
George Youle,

John Youle,

Forman Cheesman,

John Rooke,

George Lindsay,

Jonathan Dixon,

J. Sherred,

Alexander Campbell,

Wm. & G. Post,

Joel Davis,

Henry Hillman,
Ebenezer Basset,

Peter Fenton,
Wm. McKenny.

Liberal donations were also received from the public, amounting to about ten thousand dollars.

The building being completed, it was opened for school purposes, and dedicated by public exercises of an interesting character, on the 11th of December, 1809. The president, DE WITT CLINTON, delivered the following address:

DE WITT CLINTON'S ADDRESS.

On an occasion so interesting to this institution, when it is about to assume a more reputable shape, and to acquire a spacious and permanent habitation, it is no more than a becoming mark of attention to its patrons,