Number. Whilst the proposition for a special school tax was before the Corporation, two of the trustees were employed by their committee to take a census of the whole number of schools of every description in the city, their general character, number of scholars, &c. Much valuable information was thus collected, and a correct and very interesting view of the state of education in New York was obtained, and embodied in their report. From this document it appears that, about the 1st of February, the whole number of schools, of every class and quality (other than Sabbath), from Columbia College down to the most indifferent, was 463, under the charge of 484 principals and 311 assistant teachers, and containing 24,952 pupils. Of which numbers, our institution, in 11 buildings, counted 21 schools, with 21 principals and 24 assistant teachers (or monitors), and 6,007 children. Of the pupils in the private schools, about 11,000, or two thirds of their entire number, are of nearly an equal grade as to advancement with those in the public schools. The cost of educating the children in our schools may be estimated at $2.75 each per annum, exclusive of interest on the buildings; and including the latter, it does not exceed $4, or $1 per quarter, which is less than is charged in the worst description of schools in the city, and is only about one third or one quarter of the price paid in a great many others, in which the course of instruction and branches taught are much the same as in the public schools. The system adopted and pursued in the latter is excellently adapted to promote habits of order, and to advance the children in their studies; and the trustees have no hesitation in asserting their belief that the pupils are better and more efficiently taught than in the great majority of the minor schools, and even in very many which are considered of a better class. The annexed schedule presents the condition of the schools of the city in a condensed form : 463 Total...... 7.922 7,398 15.320 |484|311| 1,243| 22,943 766 9,435 15,564 9.490 2,154556 491 995 12,972 11,980 24,952 Notwithstanding the very considerable provision made by the various establishments for the education of the youth of the city, an incontrovertible fact still remained to embarrass the Females. Whole Number of Pupils. friends of the system with the solution of the question of vagrancy. The report thus alludes to the facts: The committee of the Common Council, from the result of the census of the schools and the estimated population of the city, draw the appalling inference that there are 20,000 children between the ages of 5 and 15 who attend no schools whatever; and if one third be deducted from this number, as having probably left school previous to the age of 15, and 3,000 more for any possible error in the data on which the calculation is founded, we have still the enormous number of 10,000 who are growing up in entire ignorance. The year 1829 passed without any marked event other than the efforts made to develop the efficiency of the system of instruction, and the removal of all impediments to its greatest usefulness. The principal topics of inquiry were in relation to the infant schools, the system of rewards for the pupils, the practical results of the pay system of tuition, the manual for the schools, and a thorough revision of the by-laws. These several topics are treated under their appropriate scctions, to which the reader is referred. In February, 1830, a communication was received by the board from a committee appointed by a meeting of the residents in the vicinity of Eighth avenue and Twenty-first street, asking for the organization of a school in that part of the city. Hon. Gideon Lee presided at that meeting, and he addressed a letter to the Society, which accompanied the application, in which he offered a donation of $500 toward the erection of the building when contracted for. He also named a location near the Third avenue and Twenty-eighth street, to which he would contribute another sum of $500. The subject was referred to Messrs. Charles Oakley, James N. Wells, Robert C. Cornell, and Samuel F. Mott, as a committee to report upon the necessity for a school in those locations. The committee promptly reported in favor of a school in the first-named vicinity, and another between No. 2 (in Henry street) and No. 4 (in Rivington street). The first of these schools was built as No. 12 and the second as No. 13, and located in Madison street. Four lots were selected in Seventeenth street, near the Eighth avenue, and the Property Committee were directed to proceed with the erection of a building thereon. During the year, a neat building for No. 9, at Bloomingdale, was also constructed, and the school opened in August. The new building for School No. 12, in Seventeenth street, was opened on the 17th of January, 1831, under very flattering auspices; but the expectations of the board, and of the citizens, were very soon changed into feelings of regret and disappointment. The house had been occupied only five days, when, on the 22d of the same month, it was destroyed by fire. The report of the committee, which submitted the facts relative to the building, the opening exercises, &c., also gave official information of the loss. The building had been nearly covered by insurance, so that a loss of only about $3,000 was borne by the treasury. The Building Committee were directed to proceed immediately to rebuild the house, which was completed and opened on the 29th of August. The necessity for an increase of funds for the use of the Society was pressing with greater urgency than ever upon the board, and measures were taken to call the attention of the Corporation to the wants of the Society. The Executive Committee appointed a sub-committee to draft a memorial to the Corporation, and that body approved the measure, but introduced a section into the law lodging the control of the additional tax of three eightieths of one per cent. exclusively in the hands of the Common Council. To this objection was made, and the Society remonstrated against the section, as being calculated to lead to pernicious results. The law was passed in accordance with their views, and the Society thereby placed in possession of a material increase to their resources. The controversy respecting the distribution of the school fund was revived during this year (1831), by the applications from the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum and the Methodist Charity School, the discussion of which made a special event in the labors of the year. CHAPTER VI. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM AND METHODIST CHARITY SCHOOL. Application from the Asylum for a Portion of the School Moneys-Memorial and Remonstrance of the Society-Proceedings of the Common Council-Address of the Trustees, and Reasons for their Remonstrance-The Methodist Charity Free School-Report of the Law Committee-A Proposition-Report of the Com. mittee on Arts and Sciences of the Board of Assistants, on the Application of the Trustees of the Methodist School-Memorial of the Public School SocietyReport of the Committee on Arts, Sciences, and Schools, of the Board of Aldermen-Decision Thereon. THE law of 1824 relative to the distribution of the school fund, entrusted to the Common Council the duty of apportioning and distributing the school moneys of the city. Ten years had elapsed since the enactment of the law granting to the trustees of the Bethel Church the special privileges which gave rise to the spirited controversy which was terminated at the close of the year 1824 by the passage of the law, at the extra session of the Legislature, annulling these privileges, and restricting the trustees of the Bethel schools to the use of the public fund for the payment of teachers' salaries. The interval of seven years had witnessed the extinction of these schools, and the harmonious development of the public school system on a broad basis of liberality and union. The directors and friends of the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, in Prince street, feeling the want of means to meet the large demands upon their resources by the increasing number of their pupils, and the accommodations requisite for their comfortable residence and instruction, determined to make application to the Common Council for a pro rata in the distribution of the school moneys, in order to test the liberality of the public authorities, as well as the sentiment of the community. Accordingly, on the 7th of March, 1831, an application was submitted to the Common Council, and referred to the Committee on Common Schools. The trustees of the Methodist Charity School, under the conviction that they had at least an equal right to the public fund, prepared and presented a petition, which was submitted to the Common Council on the 21st of the same month, and referred to the same committee. The report was submitted on May 2, with the memorial and remonstrance of the Public School Society, which were laid on the table and ordered to be printed. The Executive Committee of the Society had taken the subject into consideration, and prepared a remonstrance, which was adopted at a meeting held on May 2, and ordered to be presented to the Common Council at the meeting to be held the same evening. The committee of the Society had already been heard in opposition to the proposed apportionment before the committee of the Corporation, which committee had concluded to report in favor of the Orphan Asylum. Alderman Lee, chairman of the committee, strongly urged that the trustees of the Society should withdraw their opposition, as they had resolved to report adverse to the Methodist, and all other church schools. The following is the memorial: To the Common Council of the City of New York: The memorial and remonstrance of the Trustees of the Public School Society of New York respectfully represents: That the applications now before the Common Council from the Catholic Orphan Asylum and the Methodist Charity School, for a portion of the common school fund, are opposed to what your memorialists understand and believe to be a sound and well-settled principle in the distribution of this fund, as well as of all other moneys raised by general tax for the exclusive purpose of promoting literary education. That moneys so raised cannot constitutionally, consistently with the spirit of our free institutions, nor in accordance with good policy, be appropriated to the support of church schools, has, after mature deliberation, been so fully acknowledged by our city government, and the reverse now finds so few advocates in any quarter, that your memorialists refrain from remarks on that subject; and it is with no little regret they find themselves called upon, by the relation in which they stand to the deeply interesting subject of public education, to oppose the application from the Catholic Asylum. To the merits of this institution your memorialists willingly award the praise due to its object and mode of management; but believing, as they confidently do, that said application is liable to the objections heretofore successfully used against church schools, they feel bound to call the attention of the Common Council to the facts, that none but Catholics are permitted to participate in the manage |