place, a building being granted for the purpose. The school was kept open from the 27th of July to the 31st of August, two sessions daily, seven days in the week, making a term of seven weeks of five days each, with an average of 104 pupils.

The epidemic passed away, and the schools resumed their sessions in the fall, at such times as were deemed expedient by the respective sections having them in charge.

The committee having in charge the recommendation to reorganize the system, made a partial report in November, specially with reference to evening schools. The committee reported a resolution declaring it inexpedient to establish evening schools, and a second resolution, offering accommodations to such persons or associations as would take the care of such schools under their own charge. The first resolution was laid on the table, and the second, after having been negatived, was reconsidered, and referred to James I. Roosevelt, Jr., to report upon the legal right of the Society to appropriate moneys to schools not under the charge of the board. The report was adverse to the appropriation, and the opinion was adopted in the form of a resolution, declaring it inexpedient to make a distribution of its funds to schools not under the management of the Society.

The Committee on Primary Schools reported that locations for five schools had been selected, these being the initiative of that branch of the system.

In November, the board received a communication from the Trustees of the African Free Schools, stating that they had appointed a committee to confer with a similar committee of the Society, relative to a union of the schools and a transfer of the colored schools to the Society. Messrs. Samuel Demilt, George T. Trimble, J. R. Hurd, S. F. Mott, and Lindley Murray, were selected for the purpose.

The committee on the improvement of the system, having been interrupted in their plans by the prevailing epidemic of the summer months, renewed their labors with increased zeal and earnestness in the fall, and, at the meeting in December, submitted a report, accompanied with a revised code of the bylaws, which formed the subject of protracted discussion, until they were finally adopted, after a long and careful examination. The general principles and measures recommended by the committee were the following.

The extension of the system of primary schools, so as to embrace every portion of the city where the younger children were unable to attend the larger schools, as already contemplated and partially introduced.

The consequent improved classification of pupils in the upper schools.

The extension and advance of the grade of studies pursued in the public schools.

The establishing of a high school, or academy, where the higher branches should be taught.

The appointment of a larger number of qualified teachers, retaining, however, the monitorial system, which would be improved by this measure.

To accept the aid of gentlemen not connected with the board, in the care of the primary schools, the large number of which would call for the services of more committees, or "sections," than could be constituted from the board at that time.

To discontinue the system of rewards.

The appointment of a superintendent, or agent, in place of the "visitor," whose special attention should be given to the primary schools.

To regulate the depository and mode of distributing supplies. The year being now at its close, the maturing of these plans became the prominent measure for 1833, during which year the system, materially improved and expanded, was placed in a position of increased strength and importance.

The operations of the year 1833 were opened in the board by the presentation of a memorial from the Trustees of the Manhattanville Free School, asking the Society to adopt it as a part of their system. The trustees had prepared a bill for enactment by the Legislature authorizing the transfer, which was afterward presented to that body; but, after some discussion, it failed to meet approval, and was lost. The transfer was, accordingly, not made at that time, although it was subsequently consummated under the authority of the Board of Education.

Pending the discussion of the new code of by-laws, the committee submitted a new chapter relative to evening schools, and a resolution was adopted declaring it to be expedient to establish evening schools under the care of the board.

The proposition from the Trustees of the African Free Schools

for their transfer was reported upon favorably by the Committee of Conference; but an impediment being discovered which made the authority of the Legislature necessary to secure the title to the property when transferred, further action was postponed.

In October, Samuel F. Mott, the Treasurer, tendered his resignation. The resignation was accepted, and George T. Trimble was elected as his successor.

An application for a school from a number of respectable citizens in that portion of the city near the Third avenue, between Fourteenth and Twenty-eighth streets, was presented to the board. The Mayor, Gideon Lee, united in the request, and a Committee on Locations was appointed to report thereon. Messrs. Charles Oakley, J. Heard, B. S. Collins, Benjamin L. Swan, and J. N. Wells, were selected for this purpose. The committee were directed to select a location in the vicinity of Avenue C and Seventh street.

On the 8th of November, School No. 14, in Houston street, was opened, on which occasion Peter A. Jay, the President of the Society, and Hon. Gideon Lee, the Mayor, delivered appropriate addresses. The school, at the following examination, met the expectations of the trustees-283 boys, 256 girls, and 261 in the primary department being present.

The report of the Committee on Locations was submitted at the meeting of the board in February, 1834, at which time they reported the purchase of four lots in Twenty-seventh street, between Second and Third avenues, at $800 per lot; and the committee were authorized to select and purchase locations for six primary schools.

Communications were received at the same meeting from a committee, of which Gideon Lee was chairman, and T. Dwight, Jr., secretary, appointed by a public meeting of citizens to promote the formation of a school for the special instruction of common school teachers; and from a joint meeting of conference of that committee, and a committee of the council of the University, of which Rev. Archibald Maclay, D.D., was chairman, inviting the appointment of a committee on behalf of the board to confer with them on the subject. A committee was accordingly appointed, consisting of Robert C. Cornell, Gulian C. Verplanck, and J. I. Roosevelt, Jr.

The board were enabled in their annual report, published in

May, 1834, to state that the number of pupils in the schools was 11,265; the receipts, including a balance of $15,000, were $100,056.31, and the expenditures were $91,656.10. The debt of the Society amounted to $40,000, due to the Bank for Savings, and secured by bond and mortgage on the property of the Society.

The salaries of the teachers had been raised during the year, so as to give the principals of the male departments $1,000, to principals of female departments, $400, and to assistant teachers in the female and primary departments, $160 to $250. The salary of monitors ranged from $25 to $200. There were then employed forty-nine teachers, twenty-eight assistant teachers, and seventy-five monitors, to whom $35,600 were annually paid for their services.

The experiment of evening schools for apprentices had been made during the winter of 1833-'34, four schools having been kept open for six months, from October to March. The result was satisfactory, although some difficulties had arisen which served to impair their usefulness.

The close of the twenty-ninth year of the existence of the Society, in view of the extent of the system which had been developed by its labors and the good which had been done, was an occasion of pleasure and congratulation. The promising condition of the schools, the practical value of the new measures, which had been fairly tried and found eminently useful, the liberal endowment from the public treasury, and the evidences of growing interest with which the institution was regarded by many of the prominent men of the city, as well as by distinguished strangers, were at once rewards and incentives of no small magnitude, and the board addressed itself to the labors of the future with confidence and hope.

CHAPTER VIII.

BISHOP DUBOIS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL No. 5.-1834.

Application of Bishop Dubois to the Trustees-Action of the Board-Committee Appointed-Report of the Committee-Expurgation of School-Books.

THE reader will recollect that, in the year 1821, previous to the controversy with the Trustees of the Bethel schools, the Board of Trustees of the Public School Society had resolved to occupy the ground below Bleecker street, and between Broadway and Bowery, by the erection of a commodious school-building. The location was chosen in Mott street, not far from St. Patrick's Cathedral, on the spot which it still occupies. The condition of the children attracted the attention of Rev. Dr. Dubois, then Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese of New York, and he was earnestly solicitous to improve the social and moral condition of the multitudes of young persons of both sexes who inhabited that portion of the city. No man professing the Christian faith, and a witness of the destitution, moral and intellectual, of hundreds who were either nominally or really professors of the faith which he taught, could fail to be profoundly concerned at the spectacle. The benevolent bishop, moved as well . by his philanthropy as by his zeal to have the young instructed in the doctrines of his Church, devised a plan for making available all the agencies and facilities which could be used in this benevolent object. He therefore made an application to the Board of Trustees in the following form, which was laid before that body at a meeting held on the 1st of August, 1834:

The Roman Catholic Bishop, anxious to promote the education of the children belonging to his persuasion around St. Patrick's, begs leave to submit to the Board of Managers of the Public Schools the following requests, which he considers as sufficient to ensure the confidence of Catholic parents, and remove the false excuses of those who cover their neglect under the false pretext of religion, which they do not practice. He assures the