Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/651

 densely-populated island, with small rivers, forests that are the objects of jealous care, with cheap labor, and high-priced land; contrasting strongly with the extent of this country—its enormous streams, sparse population, cheap lands, imperfect roads, and timber so abundant that it was an impediment to improvement. These differences necessitated marked modifications in American law to adapt it to the physical and geographical peculiarities of the country. Many changes of jurisprudence, of course, grew out of the adoption of a new form of government embodied in a new constitution, which gave a distinctive character, in many features, to the system of American law. It is maintained, also, that general intellectual influences have wrought an advance in American jurisprudence, which is seen in the amelioration of criminal legislation, and in legislation establishing public or state education. It is, moreover, contended that the adoption of written constitutions is an important step of progress which the world owes to the United States; another American step being the codification and simplification of municipal law. The writer finally concludes that "the law in this country has, in the progress of its hundred years of life, become (1) more simple, (2) more humane, and (3) more adaptive; "and he thinks that "the pathway it has pursued is one upon which we can turn our eyes with feelings of no little pride."

Prof. D. C. Gilman sketches the history of American education, regarding it "in the three stages which are commonly known as 'primary,' 'secondary,' and 'superior' instruction." A large amount of historical information is digested, relating to the rise and progress of the primary-school system, the course of legislation upon the subject, the controversies it has involved, and the difficulties that have arisen by the extension of it to the freedmen of the South. The weakest portion of the American system is stated to be that of "secondary" instruction, which is intermediate between the elementary and collegiate schools. The maxim that "our public schools must be cheap enough for the poorest; good enough for the best," indicates an obstacle that has long stood in the way of the organization of higher schools; but within the last twenty years, especially within the cities and large towns, many of these have arisen, and in the West have become the favorite means of securing higher instruction. As regards the "superior" education, it is stated that, at the commencement of the Revolution, there were nine colleges in eight of the thirteen colonies. These establishments have multiplied, until in 1875 the Commissioner of Education reported the names of 374 institutions, mostly called universities and colleges, which are legally entitled to confer academic degrees, besides independent schools of law, medicine, and theology, of which there are 106, and colleges for women, of which there are 65; so that there are known and recorded 545 degree-giving institutions within the United States.

The general scope of our "superior" education is thus indicated:

Various questions regarding our collegiate system are ably discussed by Prof. Gilman, but he hardly touches the important topic of scientific education. Perhaps this was from lack of space, but, as he is engaged in the organization of a university to be devoted to the higher studies, this subject must have engaged his very serious consideration, and we hope he will favor the public with his views upon it at some suitable time.