We presume this report will be generally read, and we hope its wise suggestions will be heeded.

NORTH CAROLINA. The report of S. S. ASHLEY, Superintendent of Public Instruction, indicates that this State is moving in the right direction. The public school fund is in gross $2,065,342.43; but unfortunately, of this sum $1,047,100 is worthless bank stock. There are in the State 330,581 persons between 6 and 21 years of age. The number of schools is 1,906, and the apportionment of school money was $155,290.50.

GEORGIA. A committee, appointed by the Georgia State Teachers' Association, has reported a system of public instruction for that State which in the main the legislature would do wisely to adopt. But is it necessary for the State to provide for separate classes of schools, white and colored?

MISSOURI. The report of T. A. PARKER, Superintendent of Public Schools, with its statistical tables and reports of the heads of public educational institutions, and of county superintendents, makes a very valuable document. Number of children in the State between 5 and 21 years of age, 584,026; number of children in public schools, 249,729; number of teachers, 7,146; number of public schools, 5,307; value of school-houses, $3,087,682; paid for teachers' wages, $864,672,

PERSONAL.

REV. J. W. TWOMBLEY, of Charlestown, has resigned the office of Superintendent of Public Schools.

PROF. B. F. TWEED, of St. Louis, formerly a professor in Tufts College, has been elected to fill the above vacancy, and has entered upon the duties of his office.

A. H. WENZEL, who has been principal of the high school in Marlboro' for the last four years, bids adieu to the profession, and enters upon the practice of law. He was very kindly remembered by his scholars at the close of his term.

WM. H. CROCKER has been appointed master of the West Randolph Grammar School in place of Chas. R. Coffin, resigned.

MISS CLARA BARTLEY has been appointed assistant in the Thorndike School, East Cambridge. Salary, $550.

MISS NELLIE M. GIFFORD has taken charge of the Intermediate School, Newton Lower Falls. Salary, $550.

CHARLES A. BARRY, late one of the principals of the Boston Academy of Art, has received an appointment as instructor in drawing in the pub

lic schools of Boston. Mr. Barry has been identified with the fine arts and their associations for a period of twenty-five years, and has practised his profession as an artist and teacher in drawing in many of the largest cities of the Union. He visited Europe in 1867, and established his theories and practice as a teacher, after studying the methods in use there. His duty for the present will be to visit all the city grammar and primary schools, and make himself acquainted with the teachers, and their wants, as instructors of the pupils under their charge.

ITEMS.

-Jay Cooke has given $10,000 to establish a fellowship in mathematics at Princeton College.

The Board of Education of Indianapolis, Indiana, has declined to introduce the study of Greek into the regular high school course.

— Professor Lowell's new word " undisprivacied "is called " a four-story polysyllable with a French roof."

Mus. Doc. being rather an awkward degree, Fiddle D. D. is recommended as the proper thing for musicians.

The young ladies of the Rochester Free Academy write their lessons on the "broad hem of their white aprons, which they refer to during recitations with admirable success."

Burleigh Pease is a most efficient and popular teacher. A youth named Bean, who attends his school, was reciting his lesson one day and hesitated a moment, when the teacher remarked, "It takes beans a long time to sprout." "No longer than peas, sir," replied the boy.

- An Ohio teacher, lately on examination, being asked, "What would you do to a pupil who whispered?" replied, "I would first use moral suasion, and if that failed, would resort to capital punishment." She was excused.

- A Spaniard, in the first pages of his English grammar, desiring one evening at table to be helped to some boiled tongue, said: "I will thank you, Miss, to pass me the language."

Sergeant Talfourd, one of the most accomplished men of his time, could not spell. Having occasion to write the word hear three or four times in a page, in one place he would write it "heer," in another, "here," and again, “heir."

"S," in the "Boston Transcript," tells of one Mr. John Hart, who was a bassoon player, and one of the ushers in the Hawkins street school. He had seen him fall asleep at his desk, after being up all night at a party or musical performance. That was fifty years ago. Who of the present generation ever saw a Boston teacher asleep?

The Editor's Drawer, in "Harpers'," has something in the educational line. A practical parent objects to the silliness of our nursery rhymes. So the Drawer gives out the following as improvements,-How beautifully science, Latin, and philosophy are thus infused into the infant

mind!

Wrinkles, Wrinkles, solar star,

I obtain of what you are,
When unto the noonday sky

I the spectroscope apply;
For the spectrum renders clear
Gaps within your photosphere,
Also sodium in the bar

Which your rays yield, solar star.

Studious John Horner,

Of Latin no scorner,

In the second declension did spy
How nouns there are some
Which ending in um,

Do not make their plural in i.

Jack and Jill

Have studied MILL,

And all that sage has taught too,

Now both promote

Jill's claim to vote

As every good girl ought to.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN CAMBRIDGE.

AT the late meeting of the School Committee of Cambridge, the superintendent of schools reported, according to instructions, that there had been twenty-six cases in the Grammar schools and forty-five cases in the primary schools within the year, of the punishment of scholars by shaking them, but he was unable to decide whether it amounted to a violation of the existing rule respecting corporal punishment.

On motion of Rev. Kinsley Twining, the clause prohibiting corporal punishment was stricken from the rules and regulations by a vote of nine to four. The following was substituted for the section stricken out:

"No scholar on entering the schools of the city shall be subject to corporal punishment in any form; but if such scholar prove to be disorderly and refractory, on due notice to parent or guardian and to the committeeman having charge of the school, such scholar shall be liable to corporal punishment during the remainder of the term; but no such punishment shall be inflicted during the session in which the offence occurred. All cases of corporal punishment shall be reported to the full board.”

Mr. Twining took the ground that the teachers were now seeking to

preserve discipline without having the sanction of the law in so doing. Pupils are aware of this, and consequently in frequent instances defy the teachers. He named an instance of this occurring a few days since in the presence of the superintendent of the schools, the superintendent of the training school, and two teachers, beside the speaker.

There proved to be no method of reducing the turbulent lad except by the threat made jointly by those present that he should be given into the hands of the police. Other objections urged by the speaker were, that the effort to maintain discipline under the present system exhausted the vitality and health of the teachers; that persons of sufficient force of will to get along without an ulterior resource, a reserve of authority, were very rare, and could not be secured for the service of the primary schools at less than $1000 per year for each teacher; and that the time of the members of the Committee was now largely taken up in the personal investigation of instances of turbulence, a duty which did not legitimately pertain to the office of the School Committee. The discipline of the schools devolved on the teachers, and the Committee should not take away the power of the teachers to secure discipline.

Messrs. Mason and Williston spoke in favor of some modification of the rule.

Mr. J. H. Tyler related an instance of a teacher whose health had been broken down by her efforts to maintain discipline under the present system.

Mr. Sawyer thought that the committee had no legal authority to legislate on the question of corporal punishment as they had, by substituting therefor expulsion of pupils as a penalty for disorderly conduct. A suit was pending in Essex county at present, wherein a parent had brought an action for damages against a School Committee for expulsion of his child, and the speaker's opinion as a lawyer was, that the parent could recover; and he thought if any parents in Cambridge similarly aggrieved should bring a suit, the committee would find themselves with no legal ground to stand on.

BOOK NOTICES.

ENGLISH LITERATURE. SHELDON & COMPANY, New York, gave to the American public a few years ago Shaw's Complete Manual of English Literature. This has been extensively used, and is, as far as we know, the best text-book upon that subject. They now publish a Smaller History of English and American Literature, edited by Dr. William Smith and H. T. Tuckerman, for more general school use. It has the excellences of the larger work, and its size and plan render it more convenient, and better adapt it to the wants of many of our schools.

They have just issued from the press, also, Shaw's Choice Specimens of English Literature, edited by Dr. Smith, and adapted to the use of Ameri

can students by Prof. Benjamin N. Martin, of the New York University. This is arranged as a companion-book for the Manual. It is, however, just the book needed in all schools where attention is given to English literature. Its selections not only show the spirit and style of the different writers, but elevate the taste. Many of these fine passages stored in the memory would prove a blessing in after life. We know of no better reading-book for advanced classes.

HARPER & BROTHERS. From A. Williams & Co., corner of Washington and School streets, we have received the publications of this wellknown firm.

SKETCHES OF CREATION; with numerous illustrations. By Alexander Winchell, LL. D., professor in the university of Michigan, and director of the State Geological Survey. The wonderful revelations of the natural world to the scientific explorer are here unfolded in popular form. Sometimes it may seem that the author's imagination runs a little ahead of science; but he is a good instructor, and excites the greatest interest in his readers. The wonders of geology, zoölogy, and astronomy form the basis of the work.

JOURNAL OF A VISIT TO EGYPT. Hon. Mrs. William Grey accompanied the Prince and Princess of Wales on their visit to Egypt, Constantinople, the Crimea, and Greece. Here is the record of her journey. It has no interest beyond that centering in the persons composing the party.

THE UNKIND WORD and other stories. By the author of " John Halifax." Good reading, as are all the stories of this writer. Some of them are reprints, some original; all are interesting.

SO RUNS THE WORLD AWAY, by Mrs. A. C. Steele: UNDER FOOT, by Alton Clyde: and THE RULE OF THE MONK, by Gen. Garibaldi, are in paper covers, and seem to be good stories.

LEE & SHEPARD have published some good books for the young, and one upon a question which must be pondered by those older.

THE BIBLE AND THE SCHOOL FUND. - The Question of the Hour. By Rufus W. Clark, D. D. The main arguments in this work were first presented in a series of discourses preached by the author in the First Reformed Church of Albany, N. Y. They are strongly put, and plainly show the necessity of retaining the Bible in the common schools, and allowing no division of the school fund.

BREAK UP, or the Young Peacemakers. The Lake Shore Series. By Oliver Optic. Those who have read this story in Oliver Optic's Magazine, will like to have it in book form; and those who have not will of course want it.

THE TONE MASTERS. Mozart and Mendelssohn. By the author of "The Soprano." We are very sure the young people will improve this