CHAP. XL] PAY OF TEACHERS. 149 



schools, or 260,000 dollars (55,000/.). If we were to enforce a 

 school-rate in Great Britain, bearing the same proportion to our 

 population of twenty-eight millions, the tax would amount annu 

 ally to more than seven millions sterling, and would then be far 

 less effective, owing to the higher cost of living, and the com 

 parative average standard of incomes among professional and 

 official men. 



In Boston the master of the Latin School, where boys are fitted 

 for college, and the master of the High School, where they are 

 taught French, mathematics, and other branches preparatory to 

 a mercantile career, receive each 2400 dollars (500/.), the gov 

 ernor of the state having only 2500 dollars. Their assistants 

 are paid from 1800 to 700 dollars (37 Ql. to 150Z.). The 

 masters of the grammar schools, where boys and girls are taught 

 in separate school-houses English literature, general history, and 

 algebra, have salaries of 1500 dollars (315/.), their male assist 

 ants 600 (1251.), and their female 300 (651.). The mistresses 

 of schools, where children from four to seven years old are taught 

 to read, receive 325 dollars (70/.). In Salem, Roxbury, Lowell, 

 and other large towns, where living is more moderate, the salaries 

 are about one-third less ; and in rural districts, where the schools 

 are not kept open for the whole year, the wages of the teachers 

 are still smaller. 



The county of Worcester, Massachusetts, for example, has a 

 population of about 100,000, and the number of schools in it is 

 about 543, the schools being kept open some four, others twelve 

 months, and on an average six months in the year. The male 

 teachers, of whom there are about 500, receive 30 dollars (61. 

 6s.) a month ; the women teachers, of whom there are 700, 

 about 13 dollars a month (21. 15s.). 



Among other changes, we are told, in the State Reports, that 

 the number of female teachers has been augmented more rapidly 

 than that of the males, especially in schools where the youngest 

 pupils are taught, because the services of women cost less, and 

 are found to be equally, if not more, efficient. But my inform 

 ants in general were desirous that I should understand that the 

 success of their plan of national education does not depend so much 



