ART. II. PRIMARY EDUCATION IN PRUSSIA.

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WE scarcely think of the subject announced in our title, without a painful emotion. We look beyond the Atlantic, at a kingdom, where early associations lead us to think of one great man, surrounded by millions of neglected and oppressed poor; and we see ample means of instruction, provided in the most careful manner, superintended by a large body of the ablest men, at the expense of the government. We find every child of proper age, among twelve millions of people, at school; and we find him learning branches which none but the wealthy in our own country can acquire. We look with admiration and delight; but our heart sinks within us, when we are drawn back to our own happy' - ' favored' — 'enlighted' country, with an equal number of inhabitants-all of whom are to have a share in its government- and all admitted to be free and equal,' and find more than one million of our free children without any means of instruction, and more than a million of adults for whom no institutions are provided, except schools, which would not be accepted for the peasant's children of Prussia! 'Enlightened' country! -surely we boast ourselves too much. But we will not indulge our feelings we will endeavor to excite something corresponding in the minds of our readers; and we cannot do it better, than by presenting a full account of the schools of Prussia.

The French government in their recent attempt at reform, have laid aside all national jealousy, and false sense of dignity. They despised that spirit, which among us even, will not look at the account of an improved institution or system because it is 'foreign' — (a word that is repeated sometimes with the same emphasis as barbarian' seems to have been of old); and have sent deputations of distinguished men, to examine the moral and social institutions of other countries, in order to improve their own. Our own penitentiaries are believed to be superior to any in the world; and they sent commissioners hither to examine, and publish the results of their inquiries. In improving their schools, they employed one of the most distinguished literary men of France, Cousin, to visit the country, admitted by all who know it, to be superior to any other in the organization of its schools. The Edinburgh Review describes him as 'a profound and original thinker a lucid and eloquent writer- a scholar equally at home in ancient and modern learning—a philosopher superior to all the prejudices of age or country, party or profession.' While the reviewers do not admit his religious opinions, they add'This work indeed recommends itself as one of the most unbiassed wisdom. Once persecuted by the priests, M. Cousin now fearlessly encounters the derision of another party, as the advocate of reli

gious education; nor does the memory of national calamity or of personal wrong withhold him from pronouncing the Prussian government the most enlightened in Europe. He makes no attempt to soothe the vanity of his countrymen at the expense of truth; and his work is, throughout, a disinterested sacrifice of self to the importance of its subject. His ingenuity never tempts him into unnecessary speculation; practice already approved by its result is alone anxiously proposed for imitation, - relative and gradual.'

We have been almost ashamed to ask the question; and yet the cry sometimes raised, against foreign schools' and 'foreign articles,' by men whose expansion of mind ought to make them on such points, citizens of the world has obliged us to ask ourselves— Will our countrymen hear and attend to the testimony of such a man about foreign institutions'? We hoped they would, and selected large portions from the report of Cousin for translation. Before the work was far advanced, we found ourselves anticipated by the Edinburgh Review, and therefore adopt the following account from that able advocate of general education. It will gladden the heart of the philanthropist it must tinge the cheek of the American patriot.

Organization of Schools in Prussia.

The following is, in few words, the mechanism of the administration of popular education:

'If the universities belong exclusively to the state, and the schools of secondary instruction to the province, those of primary instruction pertain principally to the department and to the commune.*

Every commune ought to have a school, even by the law of the state; the pastor of the place is the natural inspector of this school, along with a communal school committee of administration and superintendence of school committee - called Schulvorstand. 'In urban communes, where there are several schools, and establishments for primary education of a higher pitch than the common country schools, the magistrates constitute, over the particular committees of the several schools, a superior committee, which superintends all these, and forms them into a harmonic system. This committee is named the School Commission.

'There is, moreover, at the principal place of the circle (Kreis) another inspector, whose sphere comprehends all the schools of the circle, and who corresponds with the local inspectors and committees. This new inspector, whose jurisdiction is more extensive, is likewise almost always an ecclesiastic. Among the Catholics, it is the dean. He has the title of School-Inspector of the Circle.

* Prussia is divided into circles, departments and communes, corresponding nearly to the large districts, counties, and towns of one of the United States.

Thus the two first degrees of authority in the oganization of primary instruction are, in Prussia, as in the whole of Germany, ecclesiastical; but with these degrees, the ecclesiastical influence wholly terminates, and the political commences. The inspector of each circle corresponds with the council of each department, through its president. This regency, or council of department, has within it a number of departinental-councillors (Regie rungs rathe) charged with different functions, and among others a special councillor for the primary schools, styled School councillor. The officer is paid like the rest of his colleagues, and thus unites public instruction, with the ordinary departmental administration. For on the one side, he is nominated on the presentation of the Minister of Public Instruction, and on the other, immediately on his appointment, he becomes, in his quality of School councillor, part of the departmental council, and thereby comes into connection with the Minister of the Interior. The School councillor reports to the council, which decides by a majority. He also inspects the schools, animates and maintains the zeal of the School inspectors, of the committee and of the schoolmasters, The whole correspondence of the communal inspectors, and of the superior inspectors is addressed to him; and it is he who conducts all correspondence relative to the schools, in name of the council and through the president, with the provincial consistories and the school-board, as well as with the Minister of Public Instruction. In a word, the School councillor is the real director of primary education in each department.

'I do not here descend into any detail; I am only desirous of making you aware of the general mechanism of public instruction in Prussia. To recapitulate. - Primary instruction is communal and departmental, and, at the same time, is directed by the Minister of Public Instruction; a double character, derived, in my opinion, from the very nature of things, which requires equally the intervention of local authorities, and that of a higher hand, to vivify and animate the whole. This double character is represented in the School councillor, who makes part of the Council of Department, and belongs at once to the Ministry of the Interior, and to that of Public Instruction. Viewed on another side, all secondary instruction is dependent on the School Board, which makes part of the Provincial Consistory, and is nominated by the Minister of Public Instruction. All higher education, that of the universities, depends on the Royal Commissioner, who acts under the immediate authority of the minister. Nothing thus escapes the ministerial agency; and at the same time, every sphere of public instruction has in itself, a sufficient liberty of operation. The universities elect their authorities. The School Board proposes and superintends the pro

fessors of the gymnasia, and is informed on all the matters of any consequence regarding primary instruction. The School councillor, with the council of regency, or rather the council of regency, on the report of the School councillor, and after considering the correspondence of the inspectors and the committees, decides the greater part of the affairs of the inferior instruction. The Minister, without involving himself in the endless details of popular education, makes himself master of the results, directs the whole by instructions emanating from the centre, and extending to every quarter the national unity. He does not continually intermeddle with the concerns of secondary instruction; but nothing is done without his confirmation, and he proceeds always on accurate and complete reports. It is the same with the universities; they govern themselves, but according to the laws which they receive. The professors elect their Deans and their Rectors; but they themselves are appointed by the Minister. In the last analysis, the aim of the whole organization of public instruction in Prussia is to leave details to the local authorities, and to reserve to the Minister and his council the direction and impulsion of the whole.'

The more interesting provisions of the law in reference to primary education are given at large; the others are abbreviated or omitted.

I. Duty of Parents to send their Children to School.

'In Prussia, as in the other states of Germany, this duty has been long enforced by law. The only title of exemption is the proof that a competent education is furnished to the child in private. The obligation commences at the end of the fifth (though not strictly enforced till the beginning of the seventh,) and terminates at the conclusion of the fourteenth year. None are admitted or dismissed from school before these ages, unless on examination and by special permission of the committee of superintendence. During this interval, no child can remain away from school unless for sufficient reasons, and by permission of the civil and ecclesiastical authority; and a regular census, at Easter and Michaelmas, is taken by the committees and municipal authorities, of all the children competent to school. Parents, tutors, and masters of apprentices, are bound to see that due attendance is given by the children under their care; and the schoolmasters must, in a prescribed form, keep lists of attendance, to be delivered every fortnight to the committees of superintendence. Not wholly to deprive parents, &c, of the labors of their children, the school hours are so arranged that a certain time each day is left free for their employment at home. Do parents, &c, neglect their responsibility in sending their children punctually to school?-counsel, remonstrance, punishments, always rising in severity, are applied; and if every means be ineffectual,

a special tutor or co-tutor is assigned to watch over the education of the children. Jewish parents who thus offend, are deprived of their civil privileges. To the same end the clergy, Protestant and Catholic, are enjoined to use their influence, to the extent and in the manner they may judge expedient. Their sermons on the opening of the schools, ought to inculcate the duty of parents to afford their children education, and to watch over their regular attendance, and may even contain allusion to the most flagrant examples of these obligations neglected; and they shall not admit any child to the conferences previous to confirmation and communion, without production of the certificates of education.'

In the case of necessitous parents, means are to be taken to enable them to send their children to school, by supplying them with clothing, books, and other materials of instruction.'

II. Duty of each Commune (Gemeinde) to maintain, at its expense, a primary school.

Every commune, however small, must maintain an elementary school, complete or incomplete; that is to say, either fulfilling the whole complement of instruction prescribed by law, or its most essential parts. Every town must support burgher schools, one or more, according to its population. Petty towns of less than fifteen hundred inhabitants, and inadequate to the expense of a burgher school, are bound to have at least complete elementary schools. — In case a town cannot maintain separately, and in different tenements, an elementary and burgher school, it is permitted to employ the lower classes of the burgher as an elementary school; in like manner, but only in case of manifest necessity, it is allowed to use, as a burgher school, the lower classes of the gymnasium. In towns, the Jews may establish schools at their own expense, if organized, superintended, and administered by them in conformity to the legal provisions; they are likewise permitted to send their children to the Christian schools, but can have no share in their administration.

The first concern is to provide the elementary schools required in the country. When possible, incomplete schools are everywhere to be changed into complete; and this is imperative where two masters are required. To this end, the inhabitants of every rural commune are, under the direction of the public authorities, constituted into a Country-school-union (Landschulverein). This union is composed of all landed proprietors with or without children, and of all fathers of families domiciled within the territory of the commune with or without local property. Every village, with the adjacent farms, should have its school-union and its school; but in exception to this rule, but only as a temporary arrangement, two or more villages may unite: if, firstly, one commune be too poor to provide a school; if, secondly, none of the