made by the Impera Parliament to the Lord-Lieutenant, but WY Sny made direct to the Board of Commisshapes Ir 18 and again in 1861, Royal Charters were granted to the Commissioners, it being provided that the Rand should consist of ten Protestants and ten Catholics. In 1888 the number of scholars under the Government gystem was 186 92% and in 1586-7 it was 1,071,797, despite the fact that during that period the population had fallen. from right to five millions. The vote for Irish education in 1888 7 was £38.500, while in 1886-7 it was £852,0001.

ahe the State * New

The early history of education in the colonies has an important bearing on the general history of eduestion in England, and in the term colonies we should include those original colonies which altimately became the United States of America. It is not proposed here to investigate the founding of the earliest schools in New England; it will be sufficient to refer to the extraordinary early date at which both the local authority and the English Crown intervened in American education As early as September 8th, 1636, the General Court of the settlement voted £400 towards the building of a school or college, and on the death of John Harvard (16071688), who bequeathed an endowment of books and money, the building began, and within a short time the great University of the New World was a fact. Among the English State Papers there exists a catalogue of Harvard University graduates from 1642 to 1674. The catalogue mentions 201 graduates, including two from Oxford, four from Cambridge, one from 1 Elementary Education Commission, 1888. Evidence of Sir Patrick Keenan, Q. 53, 132–9.

* The assertion made in London in 1623 that the children of the colonists were not catechized nor taught to read,' was rebutted at the time. But there was no public school at that date. (History of New England, by J. M. Palfrey, vol. 1. pp. 45—9.) In the New Haven Colony as early as 1641 it was ordered by the General Court that a free school should be set up and £20 a year allowed to Mr Ezekiell Cheevers, the schoolmaster. In August, 1644, this was increased to £30 a year. (Records of the Colony and Plantations of New Haven, vol. 1. pp. 62, 210.)

INCORPORATION OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

131

Aberdeen, one from Dublin, and one from Lyons. Among the graduates was an Indian named Caleb Cheesechaumuck. Appended to this interesting document was a copy of Latin verses addressed to the King, the English Universities and the members of Harvard'. The Charter for Harvard College in Cambridge, Middlesex, in New England, for the education of English and Indian youth was granted on May 31, 1650. The Council was to consist of a President, five Fellows and a treasurer. The Charter was endorsed: "No power given in this Charter to confer degrees unless under the name of By laws." The Crown to some extent watched over higher education in New England, for we find in the instructions (dated April 23, 1664) to the Crown Commissioners appointed to visit Massachusetts an enquiry as to what had been done towards the foundation and maintenance of any college or schools3.

Edward Randolph in his answer (October 12, 1676) to several heads of enquiry concerning the state of New England reported that there were three colleges at Cambridge, seven miles from Boston, one of timber covered with shingles of cedar at the charge of Mr Harvard and bearing his name, one a small brick building called the Indian College, where some few Indians did study, but then converted to a printinghouse. New College, built at the public charge and covered with tiles, was not quite finished by reason of the late Indian war, but contained 20 chambers for students, two studies in a chamber, a hall for chapel, a convenient library with books of the Fathers and school divines, and many English books of Nonconformist writers, especially Mr Baxter and Dr Owen; there they taught

Harvard

University.

1 Calendar of State Papers-Colonial Series, America and West Indies (1669-1674), p. 576.

2 Calendar of State Papers-Colonial (1574-1660), p. 340.

3 Calendar of State Papers-Colonial Series, America and West Indies (1661-1668), p. 200.

4 Selden's opinion (p. 76 supra) as to the school divinity was held, we thus see, in the first University in the New World.

132

HARVARD UNIVERSITY IN 1676.

Hebrew before they well understood Latin; there were no formalities or distinctions of habits or other decencies as in England, much less exhibitions and supports for scholars; they took no degree above Master of Arts; their Commencement was kept yearly on August 2nd in the meeting-house at Cambridge, where the Governor and magistrates were present, attended with throngs of illiterate elders and members who were entertained with English speeches and verses; most of the students had come from England, and there was at that time no settled President, but Mr Oakes, a rigid Independent, supplied his place; the President's allowance was £100 a year and a good house; there were but four fellowships, the two senior were worth £30 per annum, the two junior £15, but no diet allowed, and the holders of them were the tutors. Mr Thomas Graves, an ingenious and worthy person, had been removed from his fellowship by the late President, Dr Hoare, for refusing to renounce the Church of England. The government of the colleges was in the hands of the Governor and magistrates'.

This rather acrid account of the early days of Harvard suggests a fairly flourishing community. The presence of Urian Oakes2, who, though of English birth, was educated in New England, and graduated at Harvard before returning to England, was a guarantee of sound scholarship. The certainty of Government control placed the college in a position of security. The question of education in New England indeed occupied the attention of both the home and the colonial Governments.

A remarkable Act, passed by the Commonwealth Parliament 1 Calendar of State Papers-Colonial Series, America and West Indies (1675-1676), p. 467.

2 Urian Oakes (1631 ?-1681) was born in England and was Vicar of Titchfield during the Commonwealth. He was ejected in 1662. In 1671 he was chosen minister of Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a deputation sent to England. He became a Governor of Harvard and, in 1675, provisional President. In 1679 he accepted the full presidency. He was a prose writer of distinction and an elegant Latinist."

SCHOOLS FOR COLONIAL ABORIGINES.

133

Commonwealth Colo

Act, 1649.

in 1649', for the purpose of "promoting and propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New-England," dealt with the question of educating the natives. The Act recited that "the Commons of England nial Education assembled in Parliament" had received certain intelligence that much good had been done by "some godly English of this Nation" through the preaching of the Gospel in the Indian language, and that many of the natives taught "their Children what they are instructed in themselves, being careful to place their said Children in godly English Families, and to put them to English Schools." The Act went on to recite that the work could not be prosecuted with expedition and further success unless there were, among other things, "Universities, Schools, and Nurseries of Literature setled for further instructing and civilizing them." The English in New England were, however, too poor to undertake this work, and therefore by this Act the English Parliament founded a Corporation of sixteen persons-a President, a treasurer and fourteen assistants-to be called "The President and Society for propagation of the Gospel in New-England," and with power to hold land in England of the value of £2,000 without license in mortmain. "The Commissioners of the United Colonies of New-England" were given power to receive and dispose of moneys and commodities acquired by the corporation and to dispose of such moneys "in such maner as shall best and principally conduce to the preaching and propagating of the Gospel of Jesus Christ amongst the Natives, and also for maintaining of Schools and Nurseries of Learning, for the better education of the children of the Natives." In order to provide the necessary money Parliament ordered a general collection to be made "in and through all the Counties, Cities, Towns and Parishes of England and Wales." The ministers throughout the country were required to read out the Act to their congregations on the next Lord's Day after receiving it, "and 1 Chapter 45. Scobell's Acts of Parliament.

134 THE PRIVY COUNCIL AND COLONIAL EDUCATION.

to exhort the people to a chearful and liberal contribution." The collection was not to be made in church. The minister and churchwardens or overseers of the poor and other well affected persons nominated by the minister were authorised after the reading of the Act "to go with all convenient speed from house to house, to every of the Inhabitants of the said Parishes and places respectively, and to take the subscription of every such person in a schedule to be presented by them for that purpose, and accordingly at the same time to collect and gather the same." A duplicate of the schedule with the money was within ten days to be paid into the hands of county treasurers, "persons of quality resident in each County," and the receipt for such payment was a sufficient discharge to the various collectors.

This voluntary rate was actually levied throughout the country, and the money received by the Society was devoted to the purchase of land in order to secure a permanent income for the carrying on of the work of the Corporation. But the collectors do not appear to have been in all cases reliable, for we find an Order of the Council of State, dated July 17th, 1655, dealing with the question of moneys collected and not paid over. The President and Society were directed by this Order to take the most effectual means for getting in the sums so collected, and to certify the reason of the delay. The Society was also required to make a return of all the money collected, how it had been disposed of, and how the growing revenues were employed'. From a petition presented to the Crown and read July 2nd, 1662, we learn that the King confirmed the existence of this Society under the name, seemingly, of "The Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and parts adjacent of America." The petition recited that many natives had been converted and that the New Testament and a good part of the Old ("whereof the rest is making ready for the press ") had been printed in

1 Calendar of State Papers-Colonial (1574—1660), p. 426.