support of an average of four hundred criminals as for the training and culture of thirty thousand children.

To make the point more forcible, the figures show that she has expended $1,885 on every criminal, and $9 on every child!

He recommended that districts should be required to maintain a school six months, instead of three, to entitle them to apportionment; that the authority of examining teachers should be transferred from Trustees to a County Board; that the maximum county tax should be raised to twenty cents on a hundred dollars; that County Treasurers should not be allowed a percentage for disbursing State school moneys; that County Superintendents, Marshals, and Trustees, should be paid out of the County General Fund; and that Negroes, Mongolians, and Indians, should not be allowed to attend the schools for white children, under penalty of the forfeiture of the public school money by districts admitting such children into school.

He reported that he had prepared a volume of "Commentaries on the School Law," containing suggestions on school architecture and extracts from the best authors on education. He argued at length the policy of consolidating the proceeds of the sales of the 16th and 36th sections into a State Fund.

This report closed by urging a Military Institute, and attached to the tabular statements, which were better arranged than those of any preceding report, were the reports of County Superintendents.

20. NINTH ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, 1859.

In this report Mr. Moulder renewed several of the recommendations of his previous report; recommended the establish......... ment of a State Normal School; the organization of State and County Boards for examining teachers; the increase of the maximum county school tax to twenty-five cents on a hundred dollars; an appropriation for paying the expenses of State Institutes; an appropriation for traveling expenses to enable the State Superintendent to deliver lectures and visit schools throughout the State; that the Township School Funds should be consolidated into one common fund, which question he argued conclusively, supporting his position by letters from Land Commissioners at Washington, and from various State Superintendents, and concluded by an elaborate argument in favor of a Military Institute to be established at Monterey.

21. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1860.

Several important amendments were made to the school law by the Legislature of 1860. The maximum rate of county school tax was raised from ten cents to twenty-five cents on a hundred dollars; the State Superintendent was authorized to hold a State Teachers' Institute annually, and an appropriation of $3000 was -made for payment of expenses; the State Superintendent was authorized to appoint a State Board of Examination, with power to grant State teachers' certificates, valid for two years, and the School Funds of any one year were required to be used exclusively for that year; County Superintendents were authorized to appoint County Boards of Examination, consisting exclusively of teachers, with power to grant teachers' certificates, valid for one year; the State Board of Education was authorized to adopt a State series of text-books, and to compel their adoption, under penalty of forfeiting the public school moneys, to go into effect in November, 1861; and an appropriation of $30,000 made for building a State Reform School at Marysville.

22. TENTH ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT, 1860.

This report opened as follows:

It is apparent, from an inspection of these statistics, that the amount contributed by the State to the cause of education is wretchedly insufficient. It is a pittance almost beneath contempt. It amounts to about one dollar and forty cents per annum for the education of each schoolable child in the State.

With all the aid derived from local taxes, rate bills, and private subscription, it pays only an average of sixty-six dollars and seventytwo cents per month to each teacher in the State.

A first-class bootblack obtains almost as much.

I am almost disposed to believe that no teacher at all is better than an ignorant or unlettered one; but how can we expect to secure the services of highly educated and accomplished teachers for the pittance of sixty-six dollars and seventy-two cents per month?

He further urged a State Normal School, and a direct State appropriation for common schools; again argued in favor of consolidating Township Funds, and closed by stating that he had already exhausted argument in favor of a Military Institute.

23. SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1861.

Early in the session of 1861, Hon. John Conness introduced a bill in the House, which was passed, providing for the sale of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of school lands, and that the proceeds should be paid into the State School Fund. Thus, after many years of impracticable legislation, in which each successive Legislature tinkered on a township land bill, a plain and practicable law was passed, under the provisions of which, in less than a year, nearly 200,000 acres were sold, and the proceeds applied to the State School Fund.

DIVISION OF THE SCHOOL MONEYS..

During this session Mr. Montgomery introduced a bill providing―

That every school numbering thirty pupils, established by the parents or guardians of such pupils, should have the right on application to be enrolled as a public school; that the common school branches should be taught five hours a day, with religious instructions and catechism as an extra, at the will of the parents; that the parents or guardians should elect the trustees of such school, with full powers to control; and that the State Fund should be apportioned according to the number of children attending school.

This bill was accompanied by a petition extensively signed; and, at one time, there was some danger of its passage. Hon. John Conness defended secular public schools, and the following extracts from his speech are worthy of a place in school history:

A quarter of a century ago I landed from the deck of an emigrant ship, upon the shores of America. I was deposited there as a single grain of sand upon the sea shore by a wave of the ocean. Soon after my arrival I found my way to a free school, where I soon learned that my anticipations and fears were not realized. I found there, in lieu of intercourse with strangers, the greatest friendship that I have ever yet experienced at the hands of mankind. I was received into an institution established by the intelligence, the wisdom, the patriotism, and at the expense of a great and free people. I soon learned to appreciate the advantages that were placed before me. During the short period of seven months, being the interim between my arrival and my being placed, from the necessities that surrounded me, as an apprentice to a mechanic's trade, I enjoyed the opportunities for the acquirement of information and knowledge that was furnished by that common free school. Day by day, for I never missed a single day, nor fractional part of a day in my attendance, I experienced at the hands of the teachers

appointed over me by the people, the most marked consideration and kindness. The very fact that I was a stranger seemed but to invite the attention and even the caresses of the noble man who stood at the head of that school. More than once and I shall remember it to the last hour of my existence I was desired to remain after the other children were dismissed from the school, to be spoken to, to be encouraged, to be led onward in the paths of education by my teacher. More than once he has placed his hand kindly upon my head, and familiarly, because not in the presence of other children, addressed me, saying, 'John, you must make effort in this and in that particular direction-you are wanting in these particular parts-if you will only bring yourself up in these, you will occupy a foremost position in this school.' He marked my attempts at progress, and to me as well as to others he always reached out the encouraging hand of kindness, and spoke the word that led to emulation and ambition in the acquirement of knowledge. For me to have found an institution like that was a great acquisition and a great wonder. I could scarcely understand it then, although I believe I fully appreciated it, as I do to-day. Up to the period of my advent into that school I had not been favored with great or any considerable advantages in the way of education. I had never attended other than the village schoolhouse, where the commonest branches of education were taught, perhaps in the commonest way; and for the two years preceding my arrival I had been deprived of even these poor advantages by circumstances that I will not undertake to detail here. And to have found not only the means so abundant placed before me, but agents so kind and at the same time so able in administering the benefits and advantages of that institution, sustained and supported at the public expense, commanded then, as I repeat will always command, my profoundest admiration and regard. To that school, and to the beneficent people who established it, am I indebted, in great part, to say the least, for all that I am, be it little or much, to-day. Hence, sir, when the question of public schools--of free schools-in which the children of all may be educated without price, without distinction of class, of wealth, or of politics or religious opinions, is involved, it is no wonder that I should feel a deep interest in that question. Next to the unity and the continued and happy prosperity of this glorious country that we live in and are all common citizens of-next to its continued and prosperous existence, I owe all allegiance, all love, all admiration, and all effort, to the public schools of our country.

I am aware that those who advocate this measure profess that they have no purpose in view but the perfection, completeness and extension of educational conditions and advantages; but I would recommend those persons to begin in another way. I object to the manner in which they propose to begin to carry out such an end. Some of them say that the schools of California, or those of a portion of the State, are dens of infamy, are pestiferous in their character, are but sowing the seeds of immorality and death where they exist. But, as a remedy for these great abuses, for this great curse in our land, if it exists, do they propose to renew their efforts

to obtain the passage of such laws or enforce such restrictions as will bring about a better condition of things? I think not. What, then, do they propose? If I understand them, and I think I do, they propose to withdraw a portion of the children of the State from what are now known as the common schools of the State. The proposition or purpose in view is better stated to me outside of this hall by citizens of distinction, who are interested in passing this act which we are now discussing, than by the gentlemen who have discussed it here. Their proposition to me is plainly stated-so plainly that he who runs may read and understand it. They say, first, that the schools are now unfit for the reception of their children, or the children of their people. They say they are common contributors to the funds that are consumed in the support of the schools, and that as the schools are unfit for their children, therefore they have a right to withdraw their children from those schools. That part of the proposition I admit, but I deny that it follows as a necessity, in common honesty and fairness, that they should also be entitled to receive a pro rata proportion of the common school moneys of the State, to be used under their direction for the support of such schools as they may establish. They say that this right exists in nature. Who, they ask, is so well entitled to the care, custody and training of a child as its natural parent? They invoke the social faculties of mankind to aid them in this argument, because they draw a contrast between the system they propose and the one that now exists, by showing you that on the one hand the government of the State claims the control and jurisdiction of the children of the State, for the purpose of public education, while on the other hand they assert that no such relation should be permitted or authorized while the parent lives who gave existence to his offspring, and whose greatest care is for his advancement and happiness.

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We are here with common objects, and the only question that is presented in connection with this bill now before us is plainly this: Shall we continue, by and through the agency of the State to support and carry out a system of public education in the State, or shall we not? For one, I am in favor of the affirmative of this proposition; I am in favor of renewing effort; of bringing up the standard of education, and the moral condition of our schools, until they shall not only be fit for the reception of the children of our people, but shall also by their superior excellence attract to our State parents and children from other lands. Adopt the proposition that is made in this bill; let every private school that may be established by the parents of children or by their religious teachers, or for profit by teachers, have a pro rata share of the school money, and what will be the result? In a very short time the State of California will be engaged in the interesting business of collecting moneys from various sources for the purpose of education, and disbursing and distributing those moneys amongst private parties, to be by them applied in such a way as they see fit for the purposes of education. Inaugurate this system, drive home this wedge that pointed at your common school system, and you will have

is now