The Fernale and Male Departments, fitted up in the same manner, with the exception of the N. W. class-rooms, which have desks to accommodate an advanced class.

The Free Academy of the city of New York was established by the Board of Education, in 1847, in pursuance of authority granted by the Legislature on the memorial of the Board, and on condition that the question of its establishment should be submitted to the people of the city, and a majority of the votes given should be in favor of the proposition. The question was so submitted on the first Monday of June, 1847, and 19,904 votes were given in favor of the same to 3,409 against. The act of the Legislature authorized the Board to erect a building at an expense of $50,000, and to raise by tax annually for its support, the sum of $20,000, exclusive of a proportion of the State Literature Fund, and any other means from other sources than those of taxation. Admission into the Academy is confined to those who have been pupils in the public schools of the city. The character and design of this institution may be gathered from the following extracts from the Memorial of the Board:

"It cannot be denied that the unavoidable expense of a regular course of education at this time, is greater than can be borne by the heads of families in this city pursuing the various trades and occupations, whose business occupies the great mass of the people.

"If the number of highly educated men can, with a trivial addition to the public expense, be greatly multiplied; if these benefits can be rendered accessible to the great mass of young men who cannot now indulge the hope of enjoying them at all, if pecuniary inability to defray the present expenses of a collegiate education can cease to be a barrier to the acquisition of it, it is but reasonable to expect that in a brief period the number liberally educated in this city will be increased at least four-fold.

"One of the important objects designed to be secured by establishing a Free Academy, is to bring the advantages of the best education that any school in our country can give, within the reach of all the children of the city whose genius, capacity, and desire of attainment are such as to render it reasonably certain that they may be made, and by such means would become, eminently useful to society.

"The permanency of our free institutions, the future state of society, the extent to which the laws of the country will be regarded, and social quiet and order preserved, depend essentially upon the virtue and intelligence of the people. "It is believed that a liberal education of the largest practicable number of the young men who may propose to seek the means of subsistence in agriculture, mechanical, or other productive occupations, would exercise a genial influence upon all the varied relations of social and political life: and that such an education would not tend to dissatisfy them with such pursuits.

"One object of the proposed Free Institution is, to create an additional interest in, and more completely popularize the Common Schools. It is believed that they will be regarded with additional favor, and attended with increased satisfaction, when the pupils and their parents feel that the children who have received their primary education in these schools, can be admitted to all the benefits and advantages furnished by the best endowed college in the state, without any expense whatever. It is believed that such an institution as the proposed Free Academy is designed to be, in addition to the great benefits it will confer by annually graduating a large number of highly educated young men, destined to pursue some of all the various pursuits of life, would stimulate tens of thousands, who might never enter this academy, to additional industry and greater advances while in the common schools. The certainty to a young man of good abilities, and desirous of making large acquisitions in knowledge, of having the opportunity of gaining as extensive an education as can be acquired in any institution in the State, if his parents can only furnish him the means to subsist at home, is in the highest degree cheering, while the certainty that the limited earnings of his parents will preclude him, in the existing state of things, from having any such advantages, tends to repress all such generous aspirations, paralyze effort, and prevent the full development of his ability to become extensively useful to the class in which his lot may be cast, or to society at large."

PLAN AND DESCRIPTION OF THE FREE ACADEMY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

The Free Academy is situated on the S. E. corner of Twenty-third street and Lexington avenue, in the upper part of the city, being convenient of access from all the great thoroughfares. The style of architecture, in which the building is erected, is the same as that of the town halls and colleges of the 14th century, in Europe. This style attained its greatest perfection in the Low Countries, and especially in Belgium, which at that period was the great seat of learning, science and the arts, as well as the great centre of the commercial enterprise of Europe. It was the opinion of the architect, therefore, apart from the economy in construction, of the Gothic style, when properly managed, that this style would be peculiarly appropriate for the High School of the city of New York, and was also well adapted to the materials of which it was proposed to construct the building, many of the old halls and colleges being built of brick. The architect, Mr. Renwick, of New York, in a letter to the President of the Board of Education, remarks,

"I am confident that the style I have adopted is, at the same time the strongest, the cheapest, and the one best adapted to the purposes of heat and ventilation, being the only one, except the Norman, in which chimneys and flues become ornamental, and a roof of high pitch, necessary for external beauty, and capable of being intersected by dormer windows, which latter will add to the beauty of the building and to the convenience of lighting and ventilating the great hall, in the roof.

"As you (the Board) have proposed, with perfect correctness, to make the great hall in the Gothic style, for it can be in no other order, placed in such a position immediately beneath the roof, and is capable of being made highly ornamental in such a place, I was of opinion that the exterior of the whole building should accord with it, as, if it were planned in any other style, it would appear inharmonious, and therefore produce an unpleasant effect on the mind by its incongruity. The height of the building, too, the great pitch of the roof, and the numerous chimneys and ventilating flues necessary to render the arrangement perfect, would entirely preclude the adoption of the Grecian, Roman, or modern Italian styles, with any good effect, apart from their being much more expensive, and less beautiful.

"I have entered at length into the reasons which guided me in the adoption of a style for the building, because it might at first sight appear expensive, and therefore improper for such an institution. You will at once perceive the great strength which the buttresses impart to the building, and the consequent reduction in the thickness of the walls. These buttresses will also serve for ventilating flues, which in such a building should be of large size, in order to prevent, as far as possible, any friction from interfering with the passage of the currents of air, an end which can only be attained by large and smooth flues."

The dimensions of the building are as follows: The length of the building, exclusive of all projections, is 125 feet, and the breadth 80 feet. The height, to the eaves, 65 feet, and to the top of the gable, 100 feet. The height of the towers, 110 feet

The building is divided into a basement, three stories, and a great hall under the roof. The basement is nine feet in height, and is arched to afford ground for exercise in bad weather. In it, also, are the janitors' lodgings, the chemical laboratory, and the closets for the hats and clothes of the students. The first, second and third stories are divided into four great rooms by two wide, spacious halls, which are carried through the centre of the building longitudinally and transversely. Two of these rooms, on each floor, are again divided, affording smaller rooms for recitation, &c. Above these stories is the great hall, 125 feet long by 60 feet in breadth, divided by the king and queen posts of the roof, which are made ornamental, into three aisles, the centre one of which is 40 feet in height, and the two side aisles each 20 feet in height. The ceiling of this room is of wood immediately under the roof, of which it forms part, and it is ornamented with carved ribs of wood, in the manner of the old college halls at Oxford and Cambridge. It is lighted by windows at the ends and by dormers in the roof, and when finished, will probably be the largest and finest collegiate hal. In this country.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN BOSTON.

The system of public schools in Boston originated in a vote of the town, in 1642, by which "Brother Philemon Purmont was entreated to become school-master for the teaching and nurturing of children with us," and the first records of the town contain a sum voted for the "maintenance of a free school-master." By the Act of the General Court passed 1647, "to the end that learning should not be buried in the graves of our forefathers," every town having one hundred householders was required to maintain a "free grammar school; the master whereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university." In that year the present Latin School was founded, but was known as the Grammar School till 1713, when it took the name of the South Latin School,-a new Grammar school having been established in that year, called the North Latin School, and now known as the Eliot school.

In 1684, a class of free schools called writing schools were founded, to teach children to "read and write." Of this class there were four in 1785. In 1789, the schools were remodeled. One (the North) of the Latin Schools were discontinued, and "reading schools" (now known as departments under the Grammar master) were established in separate departments from the "writing schools;" and the whole placed under the direction of a School Committee chosen annually by the town. Previous to this, the schools were under the inspection of the Selectmen, "and of such gentlemen of liberal education, together with the reverend ministers" as should be appointed for the purpose.

In 1812, a separate school for colored children was established, and called the Smith School.

In 1818, the School Committee were instructed by a vote of the town to appoint three persons from each ward, whose duty it was made collectively, to provide instruction for children between the ages of four and seven years, out of the sum of $5000, appropriated for the purpose for that year. This was the origin of the Primary Schools of Boston, and of this class of schools in this country. Previous to this date, no child could be sent to the Grammar schools, until he could read the English language. In 1821 the English High School for boys was begun, and its success was such, as to lead to the establishment in 1825 of the High School for girls. This last school was discontinued in a few years. Its place is in part supplied by allowing the girls to remain two years longer than the boys in the Grammar school. But the fact that near two-thirds of all the scholars in the private schools are females, shows that there is a deficiency in the system of public schools in reference to female education.

In 1828 ten schools, one in each primary district, were designated to receive children who were over seven years, and were not prepared for the Grammar schools.

In 1851, after repeated recommendations of the School Commitee, the City Council authorized that body to elect a Superintendent of Public Schools, whose duty it is made,-" to study the school system, and the condition of the schools;" "to keep himself acquainted with the progess of instruction and discipline in other places. in order to suggest appropriate means for the advancement of Public Schools in this city;""to examine the schools semi-annually, and report to the Board respecting them;" "to consult with the different bodies, who have control of the building and altering school-houses, and with all those through whom, either directly or indirectly, the school money is expended, that there may result more uniformity in their plans, and more economy in their expenditures." To this office Nathan Bishop, Esq., was elected in May, 1851, and has already signalized his administration by suggesting many practical improvements which have been adopted by the committee.