outset of an undertaking so important; but we rejoice that the means and the disposition exist to furnish a better course of instruction, as we learn from the following paragraph of Mr Fellenberg's letter.

'I have wished very much that you could be present at the normal course of instruction which I am about to open, for one hundred teachers, from all parts of Switzerland. They will be instructed and provided for gratuitously, and entirely at my own expense. I have not asked for aid, that we might not be embarrassed, as we were during the last year. If you know any American, interested in education, who can pass some time with us to witness this course, in his tour through Europe, it would gratify us, and might be useful to your own country.'

BERNE ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS.

The same documents from Hofwyl also contain an account of an Association of Teachers at Berne, which promises great usefulness, but of which our limits do not allow us to say more at present.

SCHOOL OF ARTS AT LYONS.

A school is established at Lyons in France, for the express purpose of developing and cultivating a taste in the Fine Arts. It is supported principally out of the funds of the city, assisted by an annual grant from the government. The students are instructed gratuitously. Any youth who shows the least aptitude for drawing, or any other pursuit which may tend to improve the manufacture for which the institution is principally designed, is gladly admitted into this establishment. From 150 to 180, and sometimes 200 at a time, receive the benefit of instruction here given in every branch pertaining to the Fine Arts. Five or six professors are attached to this school.

The professor of painting is a man highly distinguished in the world of art. A number of the pupils are engaged in the study of anatomy. Many students are engaged in the delineation of the human form. I found' says Dr Bowring, 'a very beautiful child of three or four years old, with 30 or 40 students sitting round it.' In another department, the professor of architecture directs the studies of some of the pupils; he makes them intimately acquainted with every variation of the different styles; and it is his principal aim to prevent their confusing these, one with the other. A botanical professor has 30 or 40 boys under him, engaged in copying the most beautiful flowers. A botanical garden is attached to the school. The most tasteful grouping of flowers is made an object of attention. A general professor of drawing gives instruction in landscape, and in fact, in all the departments of art, which can in any way be made available to the production of tasteful things. The object of another professor is to show the young men how their productions may be rendered applicable to the manufactures; that is, how, by machinery, they can produce, on a piece of silk cloth, that which they have drawn on a piece of paper. The students receive a course of five years' instruction in this school; they are supplied with everything but the materials on which they work, and their productions are regarded as their own property. - Penny Magazine.

SCHOOL FOR BUILDERS IN BAVARIA.

A school for builders has been in existence at Munich nine years. It has educated 1035 pupils, among whom 401 have been from other coun

tries. Without considerable funds the director of the Institution has collected more than 100 works on design and building, and a number of elevations, sections, models, &c. The Board of Buildings and National embellishments have granted premiums to 92 of the most distinguished pupils; and sixteen have been furnished with the means of visiting the other countries of Europe. Instruction is given gratuitously; and principally during the winter months. During the remaining two thirds of the year, the pupils are employed in manual labor, by which means they enjoy the opportunity of reducing theory to practice.

The object of the institution is to prevent the minds of young mechanics from acquiring a dislike to such habits and studies as would best prepare them for their future calling. Great care has also been taken to avoid the introduction of such branches of tuition as might inspire them with contempt for their destined avocation.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN LOMBARDY.

There is a custom prevalent throughout the plains of Lombardy, which sensibly accelerates the growth of the child's physical powers, and produces an extremely beneficial influence on its health. When the parents leave home to work in the fields, (for the women labor in the field, as well as the men) they do not leave their child behind them, to wallow in the filth of a narrow, unwholesome room, but carry it with them in a cradle, and deposit it in some corner of the field, under the shade of the vine, which throws its tendrils round the trees; or they protect it from the scorching rays of the sun behind the tall stems of some thick patch of maize. While the rest of the family are hard at work, a stripling brother or sister, who is of too tender an age to lend any help abroad, mounts guard, over the infant's slumbers; and at certain intervals its mother finds her way back, to the infantile bivouac, and gives her child its meal, or provides for any other of its wants. The boy is accustomed at a very early age, to assist his parents at their work; but as soon as the girl begins to outgrow the precincts of the nursery, she is removed from her parents' roof and placed for education in some one of the numerous primary schools in the neighborhood. These primary schools abound in all the Lombardy towns; and for children of both sexes.- Lon. Quart. Journ. of Education.

MILITARY COLLEGE for Orphans, at Milan.

One of the best institutions in Lombardy is the Military College at Milan, which is appropriated to the education of children from the eight Italian regiments employed in the Austrian service. It contains 300 young persons, the greater part of whom are the orphans of soldiers, who have died on the field of battle, or been severely wounded. In addition to these, the college receives 50 sons of persons in the middle ranks of life; who pay a stipulated sum for their education.

NATIONAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY.

In Saxony, every parent is compelled to send his children to school from the age of six to fourteen. The superintendent of each village school takes an account of every child, once in three months, who has neglected to attend it, or who has been remiss in attendance; and if no legitimate

reason can be given for neglect, he transmits a reprimand to the parent. If that is disregarded by the parent, the magistrates commit him to prison. The statute of Saxe Weimar is little less severe. Every head of a family is compelled under a heavy penalty, to send his children to school at six years of age, or prove that they receive adequate instruction under his own roof. The result of these measures, arbitrary as they are, is to establish a schoolmaster in every village and hamlet throughout the country. There is not so much as a secluded corner with a dozen houses in it, without its schoolmaster; and measures are taken to provide for the support at school of the children of those parents who are indigent. The tax on each pupil is small, however, often not more than 34 cents a year.

EDUCATION IN NAPLES.

Normal Schools, as they are called, that is, schools for the formation of teachers, are just beginning to take root in Naples. The state of primary education, in this country, is indeed wretched, and we are sorry to say that the Catholic clergy, in whose hands the department of education is, have not exerted themselves in favor of improvement. Nor are the higher institutions in much better condition than the primary schools.

INSTRUCTION AT FREETOWN, AFRICA.

In Freetown, Sierra Leone, there are two government schools on Bell's system, for the education of black children, of every race, Maroons, settlers, and liberated Africans. In the male school there are, at present, 385 pupils, divided into ten classes; in the female school 264, into eight classes. The boys are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, only; the girls are also instructed in needle-work. Every attention seems to be paid to their instruction; and besides being remarkably clean, neatly dressed, and well behaved, the progress they have made in these branches of education deserves the highest praise. I examined several classes in each school and studiously compared the acquirements of the liberated African with other children. The lights and shades of intellect seemed to bear much the same proportion among them, as among the children of our own laboring classes at home. Leonard's Voyage to the Western Coast of Africa.

NEW PUBLICATIONS IN CHINA.

We have been much interested in looking over the first nine numbers of the Chinese Repository, with which we have been favored by a friend recently arrived from China, edited by the American Missionary, Mr Bridgman, and published in very handsome style at Canton. It contains many valuable articles upon the Geography, History, Customs and Manners of China and the adjacent countries, notices of new publications, and a journal of occurrences in the celestial Empire, and thus introduces us to a familiar acquaintance with this almost unknown region.

In the second number we find a notice of two juvenile works in Chinese. One is entitled 'Scripture Lessons for Schools,' 3 vols. octavo, about 200 pages each, which is stated to be an 'excellent compendium of sacred Scripture.' The blocks were cut at the expense of several English and American residents the last year. A second edition is published at the expense of the British Foreign School Society. The other is enti

tled A Three-character Classic for Girls,' by Miss Martin. It is the first book, we are told, ever written by a christian lady in the Chinese character, and is intended, by precept and example, to counteract the Chinese maxim, that Virtue or vice cannot belong to woman.'

It is deeply interesting to see the mighty wall which prejudice and power had erected to exclude every ray of light from this empire, gradually crumbling, and to find so many enterprising men ready to enter at every breach. The Chinese Repository will be an interesting record of their progress, and of the condition of China. It is published in monthly numbers of 32 pages each, at $6 a year.

EDUCATION IN MALACCA.

In the third number of the Chinese Repository, we find that there are connected with the mission at Malacca, three schools for the Malays, which contain 107 children, 60 of whom are girls; Indo-Portuguese schools, containing 100 pupils; and Chinese schools for the emigrants from China, 200 pupils.

The Anglo-Chinese college established by the same mission in 1818, is the only Protestant college beyond the Ganges. Its object is to open the Chinese language and literature to Europeans, and on the other hand to render the English language and literature accessible to all the nations beyond the Ganges who read Chinese, including, not only China and its colonies in the Eastern Archipelago, but also Loo-Choo, Corea, Japan and Cochin-China. The English and Chinese languages are taught in the institution, with the assistance of European and Chinese professors, and an extensive library of Chinese, Malay, and European books. To native students, a course of literary and scientific instruction is also given. Students are admitted from every nation of Europe or America, and from any christian communion, for the study of Chinese, on giving proper testimonials of their moral character, and of their object. And also native youths from China or any of the surrounding countries.

This college now has a fund sufficient to support twentyfour pupils, and has gained no inconsiderable influence over the Chinese and Malays.

STATE OF EDUCATION IN DOVER, N. H.

The following facts in regard to common education in Dover, N. H. are chiefly collected from the Report of the Superintending School Committee of that town, as published in the Dover Gazette for April 9th.

The money expended during the past year in that town for the support of schools amounts to $2,303. This sum, though considerable for a population of only 5,449 inhabitants, does not appear from the report to have produced results so desirable as might have been anticipated. They speak well of the teachers generally, and only complain of the difficulty of procuring reports of the condition of their schools; but they complain bitterly of irregularity of attendance among the pupils, and of entire neg. lect in some cases to attend at all. This ought not so to be, in a town which is the second in the State both in wealth and population. The report says:

In one school, of 193 scholars, only 29 have attended so much as half the time; the time of the remainder varying from a few weeks to six months. It must be apparent to every one, that while such a state of things continues, very little benefit can be expected to result to the scholars, however perfect may be the system of instruction and discipline

in the schools. It is impossible for a child who goes to school one day and stays away the two next, to make any improvement, or form any habits of mental exertion. This evil can only be remedied by the efficient aid of the parents of the children.'

'It is believed that there are children now growing up in this village, between the ages of six and sixteen years, who scarcely see the inside of a school house from one year's end to another.'

Again they say; 'Another reason why so much is not realized from our schools, is, that the standard of education is not high enough. Hitherto a smattering of grammar and geography with a knowledge of arithmetic, as far as the "Rule of Three," has been nearly all that was considered as embraced in a common school education. Perhaps in small districts, where there are but few inhabitants, and little money raised, much more cannot be expected. But in this town, it is believed the standard can be raised considerably higher.'

We are glad to see such sentiments prevail among those who have the oversight of institutions where not only the majority of the whole community, but often the majority of those who legislate for them, — receive, and must for some time continue to receive, the principal part of their instruction. - The Report concludes with the following paragraph which indicates an energy that does not generally tire till something is accomplished.

That the superintending school committee may hereafter be enabled to lay before the town an account of the state of the schools, so that the manner in which our money is expended and the effects produced may be known, your committee would recommend that the selectmen do not pay any teacher until satisfactory evidence is produced to them that this requisition of making a report of the state of their schools to the superintending school committee has been complied with.'

ESSEX COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

We learn from the Essex Register that a semi-annual meeting of this association was held at Topsfield, Mass. on the 25th and 26th of May, on which occasion lectures were given by Messrs C. P. Grosvenor of Salem, S. Lamson of Andover, D. P. Page of Newburyport, O. Carlton of Marblehead, and L. Mason of Boston. All or nearly all the lectures, which were generally extemporaneous and highly practical in their character, were followed by discussions.

The subjects of the lectures and discussions were as follows:-Correct principles of teaching, as applied to Reading, Spelling, Arithmetic, and the ancient and modern Languages; School Examinations; Suggestions to teachers on school discipline and instruction, the arrangement of studies and the cooperation of parents; English Grammar; and the Pestalozzian system of teaching music to children. The audience consisted of about three hundred persons; and were from nearly all the towns in the county. Mr Mason's lecture, in particular, appeared to be highly gratifying. A select juvenile choir had accompanied him from Boston, by means of which he was enabled to illustrate his system more perfectly. Mr F. Vose, of Topsfield, presented a valuable report on the state of the schools within the limits of the association.

SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

Our readers are well acquainted with the important results, both intellectual and moral, of our Sunday Schools. Especially are they impor

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