88 



suchungen iiber die Sprache," &c, in 3 vols., published under 

 its auspices. 



This letter gives an interesting account of the extent to 

 which the system of public instruction obtains in Russia. Re- 

 ferring to the work, entitled " Enumeration of Schools," &c, 

 which was transmitted with it, the writer says: — 



It gives me pleasure to offer you this work as an official document, 

 containing statistical details that are sufficiently curious, and the re- 

 sult of which may appear to you surprising. 



Foreign statisticians, reckoning only those establishments which 

 are under the direction of the Ministry of Public Instruction, had esti- 

 mated the number of scholars in Russia, compared to that of the po- 

 pulation, as 1 to 700. It is evident that this estimate must be funda- 

 mentally wrong, since no place in the calculation is given to the 

 schools, and other establishments, under different control from that of 

 the Ministry of Public Instruction. Government having caused an 

 inquiry to be instituted on this subject, the result was, that, not count- 

 ing the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Finland, the 

 number of scholars in 1834, compared with that of the inhabitants, 

 was as 1 to 210. But in this calculation were still not comprised the 

 schools founded at the churches and convents of the Grseco-Russian 

 confession, the peasant schools in the Baltic Governments, the youth 

 who enjoy domestic education, the individuals to whom the priest- 

 hood teaches writing and the catechism, besides 3668 Jewish and 

 398 Mahometan schools. When in addition to this it is considered, 

 that since the year 1834 many new schools, especially primary 

 schools, have been established, and that the number of scholars in 

 the inferior classes of all the schools has so increased that it has be- 

 come necessary to divide the classes into sections, we may with suffi- 

 cient certainty estimate that there is now in Russia a scholar for 

 45 individuals, at Moscow 1 for 35, and at St. Petersburgh 1 for 

 every 19. 



Letters were also received and read — 



From Mr. Du Ponceau, dated August 20, 1S41, communi- 

 cating the letter of M. de Gotz: — 



From Mr. D. B. Warden, dated Paris, June 18, 1841, in re- 

 lation to the history of certain gentlemen, formerly members 

 of this Society: — 



From Dr. William B. Stevens, of Savannah, to Dr. Dungli- 



