Hurd, Samuel F. Mott, and Lindley Murray were accordingly named for the conference.

On the 14th of December the committee reported progress; the report was referred back, and Hiram Ketchum was added to the number.

The committee met repeatedly, and, on February 1, 1833, a report was laid before the trustees, stating that the proposition was to transfer the schools of the Manumission Society to the Public School Society, on condition that the latter purchase the properties at a fair valuation. The real estate consisted of a house and lots in Mulberry street, near Grand, a house in William street, near Duane, on ground held by a perpetual lease from the city for school purposes, and the furniture and fixtures of the schools.

Beside these there were four smaller schools, kept in hired. apartments. The whole number of scholars on register was 1,400, with an average attendance of fifty per cent.

The committee, on a full review of the circumstances, although persuaded that a separate organization was most expedient if it could be maintained without a diversion of the school fund from its special purpose by the Manumission Society, recommended the transfer. The same committee was continued to complete the arrangements, William W. Fox being substituted for John R. Hurd, who resigned.

On the 2d of August, the committee reported that an impediment had been discovered, by which the Manumission Society was incapable of conferring a title to its property until an act to authorize such transfer should be passed by the Legislature, and recommending that the measure be suspended. The report was adopted by the board.

The application of the Manumission Society was laid before the Legislature at the ensuing session, and the act was passed authorizing the transfer of the real and personal property to the Public School Society. On the 2d of May, 1834, the facts were reported to the board, and also that the Common Council had consented to the transfer of the lease for the William street property. Copies of the law, the resolution of the Common Council, and of the agreement between the two Societies were submitted with the report. The committee were directed to proceed and complete the duty assigned them.

On the 1st of August, the committee made a final report. The property had been examined by appraisers chosen by the joint conference committees, and the value fixed at $12,130.32, which had been paid by the Treasurer of the Public School Society.

The Mulberry street property, two lots, 50 by 100 feet, with a two-story brick house thereon, 35 by 75 feet, was valued at $9.500.

The William street school-house, one story high, 35 by 59 feet, $1,000.

The fixtures, apparatus, cabinets of specimens, books, &c., in these houses, and in seven hired rooms, $1,630.22.

The transfer was not actually completed in all its forms until some time in July, but as it had been determined in the early part of the year by the act of the Legislature, the schools were deemed to be under the care of the Public School Society from the 1st of May. The salaries of the teachers, and other expenses, were all commenced, on the part of the Society, at that time, and the teachers' reports for the quarter made to conform to the transfer.

The names of the teachers then on duty are as follows: No. 1, Ransom F. Wake, of No. 2 (temporary teacher). No. 2, male, Abel Libolt, teacher; Ransom F. Wake and Charles Reason, assistants.

No. 2, female, Catharine Roe, teacher; Mary Roe and Maria M. De Grass, assistants.

No. 3, male, John Brown, teacher.

No. 3, female, Sarah M. Douglass.

No. 5,

Fanny Tompkins.

No. 6,

66 John Peterson, teacher; Rebecca Peterson, as

sistant.

Levi Folsom, teacher; Sarah Freeman, and Sarah
M. Freeman, assistants.

(branch) William Hamilton, teacher; Elizabeth
Brady, assistant.

At the meeting of the Manumission Society, held on January 13, 1835, the trustees of the schools presented their final report, asking to be discharged from their duties. The report was ac

cepted, and the labors of the Society in its educational department were terminated.

At the time of sale the Treasurer of the Manumission Society had in his hands an unexpended balance, from the school moneys of 1833, of $1,063.43, to which was added the whole of the apportionment for 1834, amounting to $8,241.21, making a total of $9,304.64, which was paid to the Treasurer of the Public School Society.

The committee submitted several recommendations in regard to the reorganization of the colored schools. They were to be subject to the same by-laws, and conducted on the same system. as the other schools. No. 2, in Mulberry street, was to take rank as No. 1, while the original No. 1, in William street, was to be called Primary No. 1, and the other primary schools numbered consecutively.

A special committee was also recommended to examine the schools, and report on such changes in the system of conducting them as might be expedient and proper.

The report was adopted by the board. The following gentlemen, members of the Manumission Society, were balloted for and elected members of the board: Israel Corse, Thomas Bussing, Edmund Willetts, Henry Hinsdale, Charles Walker, Edmund Haviland, Thomas L. Jewett, William L. Stone, and Ira B. Underhill. These gentlemen, together with Samuel Wood and Mahlon Day, were appointed the section for the colored schools.

Messrs. Samuel W. Seton, George T. Trimble, Samuel Demilt, Ira B. Underhill, and Thomas Bussing were appointed a committee on the course of studies and examination.

On the first of May, the number of scholars on register was 1,608, with an average attendance the previous quarter of 757.

On the 7th of November, the Committee on Examination and Change of System laid a report before the board, recommending that the school in William street be reorganized as Primary No. 1, and placed under the care of a female teacher, and made to conform to the other primary schools. The report was adopted.

At the time of the transfer there were five primary schools; No. 2, had been suspended, and No. 1, in William street, had been known as African School No. 1. The others were the following: No. 3, in Amity street; No. 4, at 199 East Broadway;

No. 5, 161 Duane street; No. 6, 108 Columbia street; and No. 7, 38 White and 24 Laurens streets.

On the 6th of February, 1835, the committee submitted a long report in which many recommendations were made, relating to the system of instruction, transfer of schools, and salaries, with other plans, all of which were referred to the Executive Committee, with power.

One of the most important measures recommended was the erection of a new school-house, west of Broadway, for a large school, to which the pupils of No. 7 should be transferred.

On the 7th of August following, the Committee on Locations reported the purchase of lots in Laurens street, near Broome, for the new school-house. The price, $5,250, had been paid for the property. At the same meeting, the Property Committee was empowered to procure plans for the building, subject to the approval of the Executive Committee, and erect the house as soon as possible.

On the 5th of February, 1836, a proposition for a school for colored monitors was made to the board, which, with other measures relative to these schools, was referred to a special committee, consisting of Samuel F. Mott, Lindley Murray, James F. Depeyster, Joseph B. Collins, and Robert Pardow. These gentlemen were to act in connection with the section on African schools.

One of the most important matters taken into consideration by the committee was the great decline in the attendance, and the deterioration in the grade of the schools. They were accounted for, in part, by the fact that the transfer was unpopular among the colored people, who had always regarded the Manumission Society with a grateful esteem, and the members of which they had always loved as their devoted friends. In addition to this, the riots and disorders of the year 1834, by men who had been prompted by violent leaders to attack prominent friends of the emancipation movement, had made the parents very timid about trusting their children at long distances from their homes. The course of studies and books were also novel, and the children were not easily trained to the new discipline. Public meetings were held in order to interest the colored people in their schools, and Prince Leveridge, a colored agent, was employed to visit the families throughout the city, in order to

press the importance of education upon their attention personally.

These impediments to the successful operation of the schools gradually wore away, and they have since that time been conducted with the average success of the white schools of the same grade.

At the meeting of the board, held May 4, 1838, a petition from the teachers of these schools was presented, asking that the name be changed. After some discussion on the matter, the petition was responded to affirmatively, and the title of the schools was changed to "Colored," in place of "African."

A proposition was made to the Board of Trustees to open one or more new schools for colored children, but a report on the proposition, on the 1st of March, 1839, determined the board not to entertain it. The Manumission Society, by its committee, offered to contribute $2,500 toward the cost of a new school, but the board felt it necessary to decline the liberal donation.

Soon after this period the Manumission Society, feeling that a new class of agencies, far more extensive than their own, and adapted to a different and vastly larger population, had been called into existence, believing that its work had been practically accomplished, adopted a resolution to terminate its existence. It had nobly filled its place as an agent in protecting the helpless, rescuing such as were unjustly held in bondage, restoring free persons to the liberty of which they had been deprived by kidnappers, or otherwise, and in educating the children of the colored people in the city of New York. It had also witnessed the grand event of emancipation in New York and New Jersey, and the institution whose sorrows and evils had called it into existence had migrated far beyond its sphere of action. In a consciousness of pure and exalted motives, selfsacrificing and laborious action, and hallowed in the sacred memories of lofty philanthropy and Christian benevolence, it ceased its labors, to be remembered as one of the noblest and earliest of American institutions devoted especially to the cause of humanity and freedom.