GALESVILLE, (Trempealeau Co.)-Says the Transcript of the Teacher here:"Miss Bunn well deserves the reputation of being a first class teacher. She appears to comprehend the magnitude of her avocation-the moulding of the common mind; for it is the common school that shapes the destiny of our nation."

HUDSON.-Says the Times: "Miss Charlotte Mann, who for the past year has been engaged in one of the Second Ward schools as teacher, and for the term just closed as Principal of all the schools, is really a model teacher. She not only teaches her scholars, but she educates them. Her teaching comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to correct the temper and form in youth the manners and habits of well-bred men and women."

DELAVAN SEMINARY.-We have the First Annual Catalogue and Circular of this School under Rev. Albert S. Nicholson. It is open to both sexes, and during its first year has been quite prosperous.

MINNESOTA.-The Second Annual Meeting of the State Teachers' Association was to convene at St. Paul, on the 27th of August. The State Superintendency, the School Law, Normal Schools and Teachers' Institutes will receive attention. The State Superintendency is suspended, but an effort is on foot to have the office restored, as the Executive head of the State Board of Education. That we think is the true plan. The Minnesota Central University has decided to establish a Normal Department in connection with that Institution. The Normal School at Winona, is still in operation we believe.

ILLINOIS.-The Third Annual Examination for State Teachers' Certificates took place August 6. About forty in all have now received the Diploma. To complete our own system, we need to follow the example of Illinois—the first State we believe, to make provision for such a certificate, based on a thorough, bona fide examination.

INDIANA NORMAL SCHOOL.-The Second Year begins Sept. 1, in a new fine building, capable of accommodating six hundred pupils, under J. Baldwin, Principal at Kokoma. Indiana is progressing.

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PENNSYLVANIA.-The State Superintendent, Hon. T. H. Burrows, states iu the Pennsylvania School Journal, that returns already made for the year ending June 1, indicate a slight "increase in the term of instruction," some decrease in the salaries of teachers," and an "increase in the proportion of female teachers employed." These results are better than were expected a year ago.

TO SUBSCRIBERS.

A larger number of our subscribers have paid in advance for the current volume, than on former volumes-for which we are thankful. We gave notice at the close of the last volume-in the June number-that we would, according to custom, continue to send the Journal to such of our subscribers as did not order it discontinued. On looking over the result of this course in the past however, we find that it "does not pay." So many teachers are migratory, and so many

post-masters are careless about giving the notice required by law, that we have in several instances continued to send the Journal for months, or an entire year, to persons who had gone to parts unknown. In this number we send bills to such old subscribers as have not forwarded their subscriptions for Vol. VII, and to some who are indebted for Vol. VI also; and if by the close of the present month-September-we do not hear from them, we shall probably deem it prudent to drop some names from the list. It is useless to pay the printer for copies to send to non-paying subscribers, of whom we may learn, now of one, that "he has gone to the war;" and now of another, that "she is married and gone away." Our remarks do not apply at all to new subscribers, whose names have been taken by County Superintendents, and who are to pay them, on getting their wages for the summer term.

THE ROLL OF HONOR.

It has been intimated that the teachers of the State have been backward in volunteering. We do not believe there is ground for any such imputation; but to set the matter at rest, we will publish, if the County Superintendents will furnish us the means, a Roll of Honor—that is the names of all teachers belonging to the State who have enlisted in each county.

FEMALE TEACHERS FOR THE WINTER SCHOOLS.

So many of our young men, who would otherwise have engaged in teaching next winter, have gone into the army, that their places must be supplied in many instances by Female Teachers. Let both school-boards and teachers prepare for this change; the former, by looking out for the best female teachers, and resolving to pay them fair wages; the latter by improving their fitness to teach, through attendance upon a Teachers' School or Class.

NEW TESTIMONIALS.

Mr. Supt. Pickard, who does not give recommendations hastily, speaks very highly of the new PRIMARY GEOGRAPHY, published by Lippincott and Co. See their advertisement.

Mr. Sharpstein, the Supt. of Schools in Milwaukee, adds his commendation to those of Messrs. Pickard and Allen, of Chapman's Map of Wisconsin See Ad vertisement.

LIPPINCOTT'S GAZETTEER.

We have neglected to notice this work, a copy of which the enterprising pubItshers have placed on our table. However, we scarcely need say more than that every teacher and student wants it, if he can get it. As a book of reference in the school-room and on the scholar's table, it is second in importance only to a Webster or Worcester. With the other works of the series, it is offered at a reduced rate.

THE

Wisconsin Journal of Education.

VOL. VII.

OCTOBER, 1862.

NO. 4.

AMERICA AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS UPHELD IN ENGLAND.

[Some of our readers, who are also readers of the Wisconsin Farmer, will remember that the Editor, Dr. J. W. HoYT, in one of his letters written from England, while there the past summer as Commissioner to the Great International Exhibition, expressed his conviction, based on frequent conversation with people of all classes, that the sentiment of that country is generally in favor of the South, in the contest now raging in our own unhappy land. This only adds to the proofs which we already possessed, that we must rely upon ourselves, under God, to work out our destiny and our national salvation.

But we take pleasure in transferring to our pages, a speech of Dr. Hoyt, at a celebration of the Fourth of July in Londen, by a large number of Americans resident or visiting in England. The speech is contained in the Report of the Celebration, published in the London American, of July 9th, and was in response to a toast of our American “Free School System." Among the many things in this country in regard to which Englishmen are generally ignorant, is our magnificent provision for Common Schools and general education; may they learn a new lesson from this timely speech, in regard to one of the causes of the past growth and prosperity of our free States, and of the delusion of the people of the Southern States in being led into this fearful rebellion :]

"The next regular toast, "Our Free School System the Republic's necessity, guide and protection," called up Professor J. W. Hoyt, Secretary of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society and editor of the Madison Farmer, to reply.

The Professor said-Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen: While I regret my inability, on the present occasion, to do justice to the great

theme involved in the sentiment to which I have the honor to respond, I cannot but admire that sense of fitness which dictated so prominent a recognition of the noble system of free and universal education which so peculiarly and proudly distinguishes the land whose first national glory we commemorate this day. For, as I understand the free institutions of which we boast, and the elements of their perpetuity, they are all primarily and chiefly dependent upon the intelligence and virtue of the people. In a country whose Government is either purely monarchical or aristocratic-in which case the people have but little or nothing to do with the Government, whose character and perpetuity may be quite independent of any intelligence or ignorance of theirs-it is not so imperative, in order to the judicious and beneficent administration of public affairs and to the stability of the Government, that the whole people be intelligent. But in a Republic like ours, where every man is, in theory, an embryo statesman, actual sovereign, and possible ruler, the Government can only be wise, beneficent, and stable in proportion as it rests upon the intelligence and virtue of the whole body of the people.

Education, then, intellectual and moral, must constitute the only sure foundation of every Republic. But there are additional and special reasons why some general plan for the education of the people should have been adopted by the American Republic. In the first place, no other nation in all history has had such a material endowment. Its territory comprises a portion of the earth abounding more than any other in all the natural sources of wealth and power, while its climate is at once the most congenial to human life, and the most productive of all that is materially essential to human happiness. It came to us, moreover, an inheritance unincumbered-a gift of virgin soil and primeval forest, fresh from the hand of God, prepared as if especially for the unembarrassed trial of new and better institutions than the old and fettered world would have been able to secure. All this natural wealth indicates clearly that America is destined to lead in the civilization of the world, and, hence, demands a corresponding superiority of intelligence on the part of the people. Nor is the peculiarity of our position and character, as a nation and government, confined to this wonderful material endowment: the character of our people is, and, of necessity, must be peculiar. With a predominance of the Anglo-Saxon, there is a mingling of all other races, constituting us by far the most composite people on the earth-a most remarkable mosaic of all peoples and kindreds, destined, under the influence of the attritional forces of active business and social intercourse, to be ground and cemented together into one homogeneous, and, as I think, complete ideal race. This may justly be deemed the most significant fact of American civilization. But this process

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of blending is not without its dangers to the Government. The multitudes of people who come to us every year from other shores, bring with them old prejudices and habits of thought, and a total ignorance, often, of the first principles of the Republic, under which they are soon to be clothed with the immunities and powers of equal citizens, and it is therefore of the most vital importance that there be some available and all potent safeguard for the conservation of this Republic in all its original freedom and purity. To this end, nothing will answer but the liberal education of all who are destined to exert an influence-as every individual in society must-upon the character of the Government. The immense tide of ignorance and prejudice to which I have referred can be successfully met and controlled in no other way. Happily for our country, this great truth was well appreciated by the earlier statesmen of of America, who, in providing for the disposition of the vast public domain, with a wise forecast which alike challenges our admiration and gratitude, inaugurated the policy of setting apart a portion of the unoccupied lands for the equal and impartial education of every child, whether native or emigrant, that might choose to avail itself of this rich legacy. And in that portion of the United States where the theory of universal education has been approved and practically regarded as compatible with other cherished institutions, the free common school, the free academy, and even the free college, have become the all-common and most cherished institutions of the country; so that to-day there is scarcely a child in the whole North, no matter what its origin, sex, color, or condition, that may not enjoy the blessings of a liberal education. This is one of the noblest of the many admirable features which so distinctively characterize the better portion of the American nation; and that we may know how high an appreciation to put upon it, we have only to contrast the history and present position of the two sections of the country where educational institutions have and where they have not been established and cherished, as essential to the well-being of society and the security of the Government. In the free Northern States it has been the policy, without an exception, to provide every neighborhood with the best possible educational facilities; and it is in those States that the arts and sciences have flourished-that have originated those wonderful inventions and discoveries which have given lustre to the American name and helped the world forward in the grand march of civilization—that religion has flourished and made most progress in ridding itself of the deep prejudices and absurd dogmas which characterized its history in earlier and ruder times--that literature has established itself--and there, and there alone, that freedom of speech and of the press have been secure, and that order and loyalty have always prevailed. While in the