for their transfer was reported upon favorably by the Committee of Conference; but an impediment being discovered which made the authority of the Legislature necessary to secure the title to the property when transferred, further action was postponed.

In October, Samuel F. Mott, the Treasurer, tendered his resignation. The resignation was accepted, and George T. Trimble was elected as his successor.

An application for a school from a number of respectable citizens in that portion of the city near the Third avenue, between Fourteenth and Twenty-eighth streets, was presented to the board. The Mayor, Gideon Lee, united in the request, and a Committee on Locations was appointed to report thereon. Messrs. Charles Oakley, J. Heard, B. S. Collins, Benjamin L. Swan, and J. N. Wells, were selected for this purpose. The committee were directed to select a location in the vicinity of Avenue C and Seventh street.

On the 8th of November, School No. 14, in Houston street, was opened, on which occasion Peter A. Jay, the President of the Society, and Hon. Gideon Lee, the Mayor, delivered appropriate addresses. The school, at the following examination, met the expectations of the trustees-283 boys, 256 girls, and 261 in the primary department being present.

The report of the Committee on Locations was submitted at the meeting of the board in February, 1834, at which time they reported the purchase of four lots in Twenty-seventh street, between Second and Third avenues, at $800 per lot; and the committee were authorized to select and purchase locations for six primary schools.

Communications were received at the same meeting from a committee, of which Gideon Lee was chairman, and T. Dwight, Jr., secretary, appointed by a public meeting of citizens to promote the formation of a school for the special instruction of common school teachers; and from a joint meeting of conference of that committee, and a committee of the council of the University, of which Rev. Archibald Maclay, D.D., was chairman, inviting the appointment of a committee on behalf of the board to confer with them on the subject. A committee was accordingly appointed, consisting of Robert C. Cornell, Gulian C. Verplanck, and J. I. Roosevelt, Jr.

The board were enabled in their annual report, published in

May, 1834, to state that the number of pupils in the schools was 11,265; the receipts, including a balance of $15,000, were $100,056.31, and the expenditures were $91,656.10. The debt of the Society, amounted to $40,000, due to the Bank for Savings, and secured by bond and mortgage on the property of the Society.

The salaries of the teachers had been raised during the year, so as to give the principals of the male departments $1,000, to principals of female departments, $400, and to assistant teachers in the female and primary departments, $160 to $250. The salary of monitors ranged from $25 to $200. There were then employed forty-nine teachers, twenty-eight assistant teachers, and seventy-five monitors, to whom $35,600 were annually paid for their services.

The experiment of evening schools for apprentices had been made during the winter of 1833-'34, four schools having been kept open for six months, from October to March. The result was satisfactory, although some difficulties had arisen which served to impair their usefulness.

The close of the twenty-ninth year of the existence of the Society, in view of the extent of the system which had been developed by its labors and the good which had been done, was an occasion of pleasure and congratulation. The promising condition of the schools, the practical value of the new measures, which had been fairly tried and found eminently useful, the liberal endowment from the public treasury, and the evidences of growing interest with which the institution was regarded by many of the prominent men of the city, as well as by distinguished strangers, were at once rewards and incentives of no small magnitude, and the board addressed itself to the labors of the future with confidence and hope.

CHAPTER VIII.

BISHOP DUBOIS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL No. 5.-1834.

Application of Bishop Dubois to the Trustees-Action of the Board-Committee Appointed-Report of the Committee-Expurgation of School-Books.

THE reader will recollect that, in the year 1821, previous to the controversy with the Trustees of the Bethel schools, the Board of Trustees of the Public School Society had resolved to occupy the ground below Bleecker street, and between Broadway and Bowery, by the erection of a commodious school-building. The location was chosen in Mott street, not far from St. Patrick's Cathedral, on the spot which it still occupies. The condition of the children attracted the attention of Rev. Dr. Dubois, then Roman Catholic bishop of the diocese of New York, and he was earnestly solicitous to improve the social and moral condition of the multitudes of young persons of both sexes who inhabited that portion of the city. No man professing the Christian faith, and a witness of the destitution, moral and intellectual, of hundreds who were either nominally or really professors of the faith which he taught, could fail to be profoundly concerned at the spectacle. The benevolent bishop, moved as well by his philanthropy as by his zeal to have the young instructed in the doctrines of his Church, devised a plan for making available all the agencies and facilities which could be used in this benevolent object. He therefore made an application to the Board of Trustees in the following form, which was laid before that body at a meeting held on the 1st of August, 1834:

The Roman Catholic Bishop, anxious to promote the education of the children belonging to his persuasion around St. Patrick's, begs leave to submit to the Board of Managers of the Public Schools the following requests, which he considers as sufficient to ensure the confidence of Catholic parents, and remove the false excuses of those who cover their neglect under the false pretext of religion, which they do not practice. He assures the

board that he is influenced by no sectarian motive, no views of proselytism, and that he is as much averse to encroach upon the conscience of others, as to see others encroach upon his. As his demands are grounded upon a long experience of the evils produced by the want of those regulations—abuses which it would require a long time to explain-he hopes the board will rely upon his candor in this case.

1st. That the board would permit him to present a Catholic teacher for that school, subject, of course, to the examination and approbation of the board, and also to the removal by the board, whenever they think it fit, according to the rules admitted for the other schools.

2d. That the use of the school shall be admitted to the Bishop, or clergyman appointed by him, with a society of young men employed by him, on Sundays, for the purpose of giving to the Roman Catholic children instructions in their religion; and of keeping a Sunday school in the evening for poor apprentices and servants, who have no other time to devote to their education.

3d. That no books shall be received in the school but such as will have been submitted to the Bishop, as free from sectarian principles, or calumnies against his religion. And as many otherwise good books may require only that such passages should be expunged, or left out in binding, that on the recommendation of the Bishop, the board will order it to be done.

4th. That the bishop will be permitted to visit the school every now and then, and submit such observations to the board as he may think calculated to improve the system of education, but so that their final adoption may be left entirely to the judgment of the board.

5th. The bishop, moreover, begs leave to have evening instruction on religion given only to the Roman Catholic children by a clergyman appointed ad hoc by him after the school is broken up, any time between five and

seven.

6th. As the School of the Sisters has been burnt in the late conflagration in Mulberry street, by which accident more than two hundred girls have been thrown out of education, if the upper part of the school could be conceded to them, with a different passage from that of the boys, until, at least, another school-house could be built on their own premises, this new favor would add to the gratitude of the bishop; but, if found impracticable, may be dispensed with by the bishop having that school in the very inconvenient, unwholesome, and dark school-room under St. Patrick's.

Should the above requests be objectionable, could not one of the schoolhouses, which the bishop heard was for sale for want of sufficient scholars, be obtained on easy terms, and bought by the Trustees of St. Patrick's?

The proposition was considered, and, after mature discussion, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted:

Whereas, The Constitution of the Public School Society offers and ensures to all classes and denominations of our fellow-citizens a free and equal participation in the advantages which it affords; and, whereas, the religious

and moral instruction is given in the public schools entirely free from sectarianism, and it always has been and is now the design and endeavor of the trustees so to conduct them as that all sects may have their children educated therein, without fear of their peculiar religious views being interfered with; and, whereas, the propositions made by the Catholic bishop contain requirements of privileges from this Society, which have never been asked by, or granted to, any other, and which would be incompatible with the constitutiton: therefore,

Resolved, That it is both unconstitutional and inexpedient to accede to said propositions, but that it is deemed by the trustees highly desirable that the Catholic children generally should attend the public schools, and that the interest and coöperation of the bishop be requested in promoting this object.

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to wait on the bishop, furnish him with a copy of the preceding preamble and resolution, and give him such verbal explanations as may be proper; and particularly, that they inform him that the use of one of the rooms in each of the public school buildings is freely granted to any denomination of Christians for Sabbathschool instruction; and that, if there be in any of the school-books used in the schools, matter which can fairly be considered objectionable by any sect, the trustees would deem it a duty to have such matters erased, or the use of the book discontinued.

The committee to confer with Bishop Dubois was appointed, in accordance with the resolution to that effect, and consisted of Messrs. Lindley Murray, Charles Oakley, and James F. Depeyster. They discharged the duties assigned to them, and had an interesting and amicable interview with the venerable prelate. At the meeting of the board held on the 7th of November following, they submitted a report, which reads as follows:

The committee appointed to confer with the Roman Catholic bishop respectfully report:

That they have had a satisfactory interview with Bishop Dubois, furnished him with a copy of the resolutions adopted by the board, and gave such verbal explanations as appeared proper. The committee propose that a letter of the following import be addressed by the board to the bishop and trustees of the Catholic schools, viz:

To Bishop Dubois and the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Schools:

GENTLEMEN: The attention of the Trustees of the Public School Society having been recently called to the consideration of the expediency of some means being adopted to induce a more general attendance of the children of Catholics at the public schools, and Bishop Dubois having submitted several propositions which were deemed by the board inconsistent with the constitution of the Society, on account of their requiring certain privileges