282 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS. 



latter, Colonel F. J. Salazar was appointed in 

 his place. A new presidential election was 

 ordered to take place on the 15th of December, 

 and an extraordinary session of Congress called 

 for the 6th of January, for a scrutin-y of the 

 vote. 



Congress, at its last session, also revoked the 

 extraordinary powers given to the President, 

 by which he was at liberty to confine any per- 

 son or persons considered dangerous to public 

 order; consequently all those who were in con- 

 finement were set at liberty, and those who 

 had been expatriated were permitted to return 

 to the country. Recruiting was prohibited ; in 

 future soldiers are to be drawn for, and every- 

 body drawn must serve or find a substitute. 

 Peruvians, Chilians, Bolivians, Colombians, and 

 Venezuelans are enabled, by a decree of the 

 25th October, to obtain the rights of citizenship 

 without being, as heretofore, subject to a pre- 

 vious term of residence. A commission was 

 appointed for the codification of the laws. 

 Caraques and Esmeraldas are now ports of 

 entry. 



EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL PRO- 

 GRESS. At no period of the national history 

 has the advance in education been so marked 

 and rapid as within the past five years. It is a 

 singular fact, but one demonstrated by numer- 

 ous examples both in Europe and the United 

 States, that a condition of war gives an im- 

 pulse to education. The three period of our 

 own history most prolific in the establishment 

 of colleges and schools of high grade were 

 1775-1787, 1812-1817, and 1861-1867. But 

 it has not been, during the past five years, 

 solely a period for the founding of new col- 

 leges ; the debts which had well-nigh crushed 

 some of the institutions already established 

 have been liquidated, and new and ample en- 

 dowments raised, new departments of instruc- 

 tion, agricultural, scientific, military, or profes- 

 sional, have been added, and facilities given for 

 a more thorough and extensive course of in- 

 struction, while the standard for admission has 

 been raised in many of our colleges. Female 

 education has been greatly advanced, and the 

 subject of the co-education of the sexes in the 

 branches of higher learning, already successfully 

 prosecuted in a number of Western colleges, 

 is attracting the attention of educators in all 

 parts of the country. During the war, the 

 Southern colleges and schools of high grade 

 did not reap much of the benefit of this benevo- 

 lent overflow. Such of them as were in or 

 near the path of the contending armies were 

 generally closed, and in some instances plun- 

 dered or destroyed by fire. Since the close of 

 the conflict some of them have received aid and 

 partial endowment, and others will undoubt- 

 edly be assisted before long. Some of the en- 

 dowments, made by single individuals to the 

 cause of education and to institutions of learn- 

 ing, are so vast as to be without parallel in 

 ancient or modern times. Among these we 

 may record the gift of $2,100,000 by George 



Peabody, for the promotion of education in the 

 South; of $1,000,000, by the same gentleman, 

 for a scientific and art institution in Baltimore, 

 and of $150,000 to Harvard University, and the 

 same amount to Yale College, for the founding 

 and outfit of professorships in these seats of 

 learning ; the gift, by Ezra Cornell, of $760,- 

 000 for the founding of the Cornell University at 

 Ithaca, New York, and $25,000 additional to 

 Genesee College at Lima, New York ; the gift, 

 by Asa Packer, of $500,000 to found Lehigh 

 College at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania ; the gift, 

 by Matthew Vassar, of about half a million for 

 founding Vassar College at Poughkeepsie, for 

 the education of young women in the higher 

 studies; the gift, by Daniel Drew, of nearly 

 $600,000 for founding and endowing a theo- 

 logical seminary at Madison, N. J. ; of $150,- 

 000 by the same gentleman, for the endowment 

 of Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., 

 and of a further large sum, of which we have 

 not seen a definite statement, for a female semi- 

 nary at Carmel.. N. Y. ; the gift of $460,000 by 

 the heirs of John P. Crozer, for the founding 

 of a theological seminary at Upland, Pa. ; the 

 endowment of a new female seminary in Cen- 

 tral New York, by Henry Wells, with $100,- 

 000 or more ; and the bequest of Dr. Walker, of 

 Boston, of $300,000, one-half to the Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology, the other to the 

 Boston Society of Natural History. 



These are only the great donations, amount- 

 ing to very nearly seven millions of dollars; but 

 a continuous stream of smaller sums has 

 poured into the colleges of the North, produ- 

 cing an aggregate of full five millions more. 



Indeed, so liberal have been the endowments 

 and so numerous the new institutions and new 

 professorships created, that there has been a 

 serious difficulty in finding men fully compe- 

 tent to fill some of the chairs recently established, 

 or the presidency or leading professors! lips in 

 older institutions, from which scholars of known 

 ability have been called to the new institutions. 

 The advance has been so rapid, that it has been 

 difficult for the best scholarship of the nation 

 to keep pace with it. 



A very able and thoughtful pamphlet, with 

 the modest title of "Notes on Polytechnic 

 Schools," by S. Edwards Warren, published 

 near the close of 1867, enumerates eighteen 

 polytechnic schools or scientific schools in the 

 United States, of which, however, three were 

 not yet in operation, viz., the "Worcester 

 County Free Industrial Institute," the Scientific 

 Department of Cornell University, and the five 

 scientific schools of the projected University of 

 the South. The two former will probably be 

 organized in 1868. Of these, six are indepen- 

 dent of any connection with other colleges or 

 universities. In these eighteen are not included 

 the three Government Polytechnic Schools, 

 viz., the Military Academy at West Point, the 

 Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the School 

 of Artillery at Fortress Monroe. The last of 

 these was founded in 1867, and eight of the 



