the United States. Under its provisions lands were offered to the several States in the ratio of thirty thousand acres for each representative and senator to which the States were entitled under the apportionment of 1860, for the purpose of providing institutions whose "leading object should be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life."

Any State having no public lands within its limits subject to settlement, or having an amount insufficient to satisfy its quota, is entitled to receive its distributive share in land scrip at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. The States desiring to participate in this generous grant must signify their acceptance of it on the conditions imposed, by legislative enactment within two years from the passage of the act of Congress, approved July 2d, in the year aforesaid.

We are informed by the Hon. Isaac Newton, Commissioner of Agriculture, that the following States have accepted the grant, and have received the scrip representing their distributive shares respectively: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois. and Kentucky. The States that

resent a capital of $5, of which is to be devot tion, to the special edu trial classes in the " Agriculture and the M

This act, in effect, scheme of national po For, although the inst lished in accordance wi called Agricultural Coll fest, from a perusal of of the act, that the in parted is by no means cial branch. The app to the various arts and required to be taught, classical and other scie

The disposition whic this magnificent endow States accepting it, is greatest importance, a that the designs of the will be defeated in man rection of the means t the grant. We doubt y of the act will be best s nection of these agric with our colleges as th act of Congress manifes ganization of schools fo the mechanic arts, and alone. The objects of seem scarcely to be in h proposed by the scheme tion in agriculture, and of science to the arts is aims of the American exists, are general. T

Fo are, therefore, incongruous. An ornization which would befit the one ould not be adapted to the other. But there is one feature of the Congresonal act which is very significant, and ich we hope will not be ignored by those no have the direction of these matters. at feature is most distinctly and emphatally expressed in the words, "to promote e liberal and practical education of the dustrial classes in the several pursuits d professions of life." Whatever method 11 best subserve this prime object of eeting the wants of the "industrial classes" the best. If the toiling millions, the ne and sinew of the republic, are expectin the future to matriculate at the colges, and if they cannot be gathered into stitutions more congenial to their needs d tastes, then we say let the glittering ize go to those venerable institutions of arning, and let us make a virtue of necesy.

But it seems scarcely possible that the ler of things is to be reversed in this rticular. The masses of the people, the dustrial classes, will continue as heretore to receive their only education in the mmon schools. Nineteen-twentieths of people of this country are thus educa1, and unless the coveted instruction proled for by this grant can be diverted in rt, at least, into this channel, it will fail accomplish its legitimate purpose as exessed in the act. We need not so much highly educated few, who will never ngle in the daily toil of the workshop or e farm, but rather the intelligent, thinkg many, with minds stored with the eleents of that knowledge which is to "fit em for the various pursuits and profesons of life." These suggestions are fered in the kindest spirit, and with the cere desire that a movement so impornt in its aims should not be diverted into wrong channel. The questions involved mand, and we trust they will receive,

THE DEARTH OF QUALIFIED TEACHERS.

OME of the causes of the deficiency in

heretofore been alluded to. Among them we have specified, first, the stinted and inadequate compensation paid to this class of public servants; and, secondly, the gradual elevation of the standard of qualification among them, with the consequent retirement from the service of many heretofore regarded as being fitted for its duties.

In specifying still further the causes which have contributed to this state of things, we must not omit to say, that a want of the agencies adequate to the special training of teachers is one of the most potent of all. Teaching is one of the most difficult of arts. It is a profession, in fact as well as in name. Its true practice is based upon the profoundest principles of human nature, and upon the ripest fruits of human experience. These principles must be mastered as a condition precedent to all really successful performance of the teacher's work. The skill which study and experience alone can give must be acquired, or, at least, provided for, by previous preparation. To this end Normal Schools or Teachers' Seminaries are indispensable.

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These institutions are quite new in our country, and their number is extremely limited. Compared with the army of teachers required to carry forward the stupendous work of public instruction, they are but as 'a drop in the bucket." Only eleven States have established them, and of these only three-Maine, Massachusetts, and New Jersey-have more than one. The number of teachers employed in the common schools of New York is not far from 25,000. The number in attendance at its single State Normal School does not exceed 250 persons. This gives a ratio of 1 normal student to 100 teachers in the common schools. Pennsylvania employs

mal School which is recognized by the State; so that she would present about the same ratio of Normal students to actual teachers. In New Jersey the ratio of "Normals" to the common-school teachers is about one to twenty.

If Teachers' seminaries possess the potency which is claimed for them, and on this point there is no longer any room for doubt, it will appear evident that their absence in so many States, and their limited number in others, will go far toward accounting for the deficiency in the supply of competent instructors required for the schools of the country; for it is undeniable that these Normal Schools, as small as their number may be, have been the principal means by which the standard of qualification has been raised.

And again. If the foregoing exhibition of causes be just, it will at once suggest the needed remedies, and prepare the way for a consideration of the means whereby a pressing public want may be supplied.

Every public economist knows that money will command talent. He knows that by the same law the highest prices will secure the service of the highest attainments. Nothing is more certain either, than that men ought to be compensated according to the value of the services rendered. In this view, a faithful, successful teacher is " a pearl of great price," and ought to be so regarded by the community. He will be so regarded when society rises to a true appreciation of those influences which most redound to its prosperity and happiness. The day is coming when the true teacher will be second to no other functionary in the estimation of the thoughtful, the just, and the good everywhere. Let the public, let school-officers, let all who have in their keeping the training and education of children, bear in mind that henceforth they are not to estimate the value of a good teacher by the price paid, unless it be a high one. Let them remember that so long as they ease their consciences by employing incompetence at starvation prices to keep school, just so long

must they make up th their children, with dw souls, coming upon the to blight their expectation row and anguish to the tree can not bring forth a good tree produce corr people give palpable e value the character and children above the palt love of lucre; and let the ers upon a scale somew to the standard of thei worth, and the time of I ceeded by an era of Pler

The remedy to be furt be found considered else cussion upon the subject

NORMAL SC

HESE institutions

to which their great in them. Only eleven Stat nized them as a necessar school systems, and ev have scarcely passed stage.

The Normal Schools a are distributed as follows vided for two, which are tion; Massachusetts has one; Rhode Island one New Jersey two; Pennsy igan one; Illinois one; Iowa one. The numbe these States is yet by far ply the public demand f sional teachers. A Stat ought to have at least te Albany, to meet her hom petent instructors. Penr many more, and other S portion. In the twent States no provision has these teachers' seminari South Carolina. In that before the advent of the

institution at Charleston