EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS. 



185 



,., of Massachusetts, with- 

 out oilier restriction than that it ami its income 



should i>e applied to the promotion of oommoa- 



sehool education in tin- South, and that its linu- 

 ;,,uld li.' extended to all class,.,. \\ithollt, 



distil* olor. The trustees met in New 



in January, Cur preliminary organization, 



ami a_:ain in t ho same city ou the 19th to tbo22d 



ivli. lsr.7, when the funds were trans- 



tn tin-in, and n general agent, Rev. !)r. 



Hamas Scars, then president of Iro\vn Uni- 



\, appointed to manage and superintend 



the distribution of the moneys, Tinder the direc- 



i the Kxeeutivo Committee of tho Trus- 



. .C the "Peabody Educational Fund," as 

 the donation was appropriately named. After 

 the close of this meeting of the Board of Trus- 



a letter was received from Messrs. D. Ap- 

 pleton & Co., offering to the trustees of the fund 

 one hundred thousand volumes of educational 

 works, viz., 25,000 copies each of Webster's 

 Elementary Speller, Webster's Elementary 

 Header, and Cornell's First Steps in Geogra- 

 phy ; 20,000 Quackenbos's Primary Arithmetic ; 

 and 5,000 copies of Quackenbos's First Book in 

 <i ram mar, to be distributed by them, among 

 the schools to which they should render assist- 

 This liberal offer was accepted with 

 hearty thanks by the chairman of the Execu- 

 tive Committee. Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co. 

 soon after offered a donation of about the same 

 value, of their books, embracing some suitable 

 for the instruction and improvement of teachers, 

 it being understood that a part of the income 

 of the fund was to be devoted to aiding in the 

 education of teachers. Messrs. Charles Scrib- 

 ner & Co. also made a donation of books for 

 the fund. 



The regulations adopted by Rev. Dr. Sears, 

 Cor the disbursement of the income of the fund, 

 were announced in the principal papers of the 

 South. They were as follows : 



1. The direct aim of the agent will be to encourage 

 and aid common schools in the South ; that is, schools 

 established, supported, and superintended by the 

 Southern people themselves. Apart from this lead- 

 ing object, the founding and maintenance of schools 

 will nut come within his plan. 



2. Usually, appropriations in moderate amounts 

 will be made where such schools are languishing, or 

 are liable to be suspended, for want of the means of 

 support. Similar aid, if necessary, will be given in 

 phu-i-s misupplii'tl with schools, whenever the citizens 

 shall introduce them, and undertake their support. All 

 such aid, however, is to be regarded as temporary. 



3. In selecting schools to bC aided, or places to be 

 supplied with them, those will be preferred in which 

 the destitution is greatest and the number to be bene- 

 fited largest. 



4. Normal schools, or schools having normal de- 

 partments, will receive particular attention. A small 

 number of these, furnishing the most perfect models 

 of instruction, will be considered as more important 

 than a larger number of on inferior character. Here, 

 also, it is the purpose of the agent to aid others in 

 their work, and not to assume the support of such 

 schools. 



.">. Funds will not be paid in advance. Appropria- 

 tions will be made only on the fulfilment of the con- 

 ditions stipulated between the individual or corpora- 

 tion and general agent. 



it. Funds will not bo given to literary or to profe*. 

 sional schools as such. Special arrangement* nimy 

 sometimes be made with these, fur the purpOM of 



i 'P-..III .rj.n.' tin- industrial arts, or for the education 



7. The agent will not identify his efforts with those 

 of liny other organization, by placing funds at the 

 disposal of its- managers; but in any connection be 

 may hold with benevolent or religious societies, he 

 will pursue his own specific object by such means 

 and appliances as he shall select. 



8. At present no agencies will be authorized, ex- 

 cept a few, in which the services rendered will be 

 gratuitous. 



I. The agent will not, except in a few special, ex- 

 ceptional cases, have occasion to employ teachers. 

 He can therefore aid such in obtaining places only by 

 giving their names to school committees. 



10. Applicants will make an estimate of what is 

 actually necessary to meet their wants, and state 

 concisely in what way and to what extent aid ia 

 desired. 



II. Each application must be accompanied with 

 recommendations from responsible persons. 



12. Communications which require response by 

 mail must be accompanied with postage. This rule 

 is adopted because a perfect inundation of corre- 

 spondence has been thrown on my hands by appli- 

 cants, who seem not to have thought of the propriety 

 of forwarding postage. 



13. Correspondence with gentlemen, giving infor- 

 mation as to points where me fund may be properly 

 appropriated, or suggestions that will facilitate its 

 proper disbursement, is desired, and will be duly 

 appreciated. 



The good results which will flow from this 

 noble act of beneficence are almost beyond our 

 power to estimate. If, now, as there is reason 

 to hope, the Department of Education shall 

 cooperate in this good work, and the masses of 

 the South be elevated in the scale of intelligence 

 and intellectual culture, they will have occasion 

 to be thankful that such changes have been 

 wrought in their section, even though it has 

 been by the rough hand of war. 



The rapid increase in the educational funds 

 of the Western States, and their energy and 

 activity in educational progress, bid fair to make 

 them, within the next few years, as truly the 

 controlling power of the Union in intelligence, 

 as they will be in numbers arid enterprise. 

 Michigan has already a school system organ- 

 ized and in successful operation, which, begin- 

 ning with the primary school, leads the pupil 

 by regular gradation, and without any thing 

 more than nominal cost for instruction, through 

 the collegiate and professional schools of its 

 grand university. Illinois is accomplishing the 

 same result by a somewhat different but equally 

 liberal plan, and has recently established, as the 

 highest institution of learning in the State, her 

 Industrial University, in Champaign County. 

 endowed with $400,000 in lands, buildings, and 

 bonds, and besides these, with 480,000 acres of 

 Government lands from the Agricultural Col- 

 lege grant. The courses of instruction in this 

 university will embrace a course in Agricul- 

 ture, a course in Horticulture, a course in .Me- 

 chanical Science and Art, a course in Military 

 Tactics and Engineering, a course in Mining and 

 Metallurgy, a course in Civil Engineering, a 

 course in Applied Chemistry and in Natural 



