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.

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The rights and privileges of the Society had been clearly defined, as was supposed, by the amendments of 1843 and 1844; but, notwithstanding the special provisions of "the declaratory act," much importance was attached to the issue raised, that the Society had no right to open new schools and erect new buildings the expansive power of the school administration being deemed to lie only in the Central Board, which had the power to grant or refuse the application of the boards of school officers of the several wards of the city.

The ample means placed by law at the disposal of the board were partially expended in the erection of substantial schoolhouses, the first of which were somewhat similar to those of the Society, with the difference that the basement-story, instead of being sunk four or five feet below the level of the street, was built above ground, thus giving improved light and ventilation. A competition, however, soon arose between the wards in regard to the size, character, and appointments of the school edifices, until the whole system of large and noble buildings became discussed both as an economical and educational necessity and advantage. The contrast thus drawn between the imposing structures of the ward schools and those of the Society was more marked every year. The transfer of pupils from the old to the new schools was constant, and yet the Society was steadily increasing the number of its pupils from the thousands of residents who were annually swelling the mighty tide of population at a rate scarcely known in the history of the world. These and other causes had at last evidently fixed the limits of the sphere of usefulness in which the Society should labor. Its long-urged purpose of establishing daily normal schools of a high and commanding character, and a high school or academy for collegiate education, were placed altogether beyond its grasp. In ten years, the schools of the new system had already outnumbered those of the Society. A noble institution had been founded, and a building erected, at a cost of about $50,000, for the "Free Academy," and the financial power, very far exceeding in amount the fondest hopes of the Society, had been exercised in the rapid development and execution of plans which they had cherished for a quarter of a century.

An objection had long been urged against the Society. By its charter, it was an "association" of voluntary members. The

trustees and Executive, elected by the body itself, were responsible to the Society, and the elections were therefore only calculated to make the governing power perpetuate itself. The popular sympathies in favor of an unrestricted system, as opposed to a "close corporation," were easily excited, and the advocates of change, innovation, or of denominational pretensions, were loud and persistent in their condemnation of this feature in the constitution of the Society. On a number of occasions, from the time of the controversy with the Baptists, in 1822, down to the successful contest maintained against it, from 1840 to 1842, the climax which gave the highest force to argument, statistics, and appeals, was the fact that the Society was a "close corporation." Neither the labors, the discipline, the system, nor the character of the Society could be impeached, except upon sectarian appeals for a portion of the school fund, or by men who were willing to make it subserve a temporary purpose for political exaltation and preferment. The character of its officers and members, their positions in business and social circles, their integrity and conscientiousness, their prudence and economy, exercised even to the disadvantage of the schools from necessity, were beyond reproach or attack. Never, probably, in the history of the world, has an institution of such extent, and authorized to expend so much public money annually, been conducted with such scrupulous care in regard to its expenditures; and none has ever surpassed it in the results of its labors with the same amount of

meaus.

The most liberal and enlightened friends of education in the city could not remain insensible to the fact, that the prejudices which had been aroused could not soon be overcome, and that, however perfect a corporate system of public instruction might . be made, were its resources sufficient, the day had passed for a full development of the scheme of the Public School Society. It became apparent that the interests of public education in the city demanded a uniform system, under the care of one Central Board, which should combine, if possible, a conservative character with that of the popular prestige. The decision of this proposition left no alternative-the Public School Society must become a part of the new system, and surrender its independent trust. How far these considerations may have induced members of the Board of Education to restrict the revenue of the Society