creased by interest on loans made, and sales of School and Swamp Lands, previous to the 1st of March.

V. THE UNIVERSITY FUND.

This Fund is composed of the net proceeds of the sale of University Lands, and from the 5 per cent. penalty, as forfeiture for the non-payment of interest when due upon University Land Certificates and loans from the University Fund. The transactions in this Fund during the year ending

on the 30th ultimo, are as follows, to wit:

The records of the office exhibit the present condition of the University

This Fund, except the amount above stated as being in the treasury, is drawing interest at the rate of 7 per cent., payable before the 5th day of March in each year, which interest constitutes

VI. THE UNIVERSITY FUND INCOME.

This is annually applied toward defraying the current expenses of the State University, and is drawn from the State Treasury by the Treasurer

of the Wisconsin University.

During the year the receipts on account of the Income of the

The principal of the University Fund as above shown, drawing interest

Loans and further sales will doubtless increase the Income to such an extent, that the amount to be apportioned in March next, will reach the

sum of $22,000 00.

The whole number of children in the State between the ages of four and twenty, entitled to share in the common fund is 241,647, being an increase of 27,761 over the number reported for the previous year.

The number of pupils who have attended the public schools is 153,613. The number of school districts and parts of districts reported is 4378 and the number of school-houses in the State, 2945. The average amount of monthly wages to male teachers was $24,60, and to female teachers $15,16.

The amount apportioned to schools in March, 1857, was 66 cents to each pupil. The apparent amount to be apportioned this year is about $230,000, which would be 95 cents to each pupil; but in view of the probable delay in payments to the funds, that average can not be fairly expected.-Governor's Message.

BAD SPELLING AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

SOME years ago a teacher presented himself as a candidate for the mastership of a school, of which the salary was fifteen hundred dollars. His qualifications were deemed satisfactory in all respects, except in spelling. On account of this deficiency he was rejected. See, now, what ignorance in this elementary branch cost him. In ten years his salary would have amounted to fifteen thousand dollars, throwing out of the calculation the increase which, by good investment, might have accrued from interest. Besides, the salary of the same school has since been advanced to two thousand dollars. But he might have remained in this position twice or three times ten years, as other teachers in the same place have done, and that large amount might, consequently, have been increased in proportion.

A gentleman of excellent reputation as a scholar was proposed to fill a professorship in one of our New England colleges, not many years since; but in his correspondence so much bad spelling was found, that his name was dropped, and an honorable position was lost by him. The corporation of the college concluded that, however high his qualifications as a professor might be in general literature, the orthography of his correspondence would not add much to the reputation of the institution.

A prominent manufacturer, in a neighboring town, received a business letter from an individual who had contracted to supply him with a large quantity of stock; but so badly was it spelled, and so illegible the ren

manship, that the receiver found it nearly impossible to decipher the meaning. An immediate decision must be given in reply; and yet so obscure was the expression that it was impossible to determine what should be the answer. Delay would be sure to bring loss: a wrong decision would lead to a still more serious result. Perplexed with uncertainty, throwing down the letter, he declared that this should be the last business transaction between him and the writer of such an illiterate communication; "for," said he, "I am liable to lose more in this trade alone, than I can make in a lifetime of business with him."

A gentleman wl:o had been a book-keeper some years, offered himself as a candidate for the office of secretary to an insurance company. Although a man of estimable character, possessed of many qualifications, he failed of being elected because he was in the habit of leaving words misspelled on his books. The position would require him to attend to a portion of the correspondence of the office, and it was thought incorrect spelling would not insure the company a very excellent reputation from their method of doing business, whatever amount might be transacted.

Inability to spell correctly exposes one to pecuniary loss. It is, moreover, an obstacle to an advancement to honorable station. Such instances as those recited above are satisfactory proofs; but that this defect in one's education is productive of mortification and mischief, is illustrated by the following actual occurrences:

A young teacher had received assistance from a friend in obtaining a school and wrote a letter overflowing with gratitude to his benefactor, but closed it thus: "Please except (accept?) my thanks for your kind favors in my behalf."

Another individual addressed his friend thus: "My dear cur" (sir?)

So, in the one case, the grateful emotions of a young man are nullified by a solitary perverse word; in the other, the writer unwittingly applies to his friend the epithet which the follower of Mahomet uses, when he would degrade his Christian neighbor to the lowest point his language will admit.

We were about to write a brief homily on the science of spelling as a coda to the foregoing, but for the present refrain, with the hope that a few cases like the foregoing will awaken attention to the importance of the subject, and we can expend our logic to better advantage hereafter.

In the mean time, we invite everybody to furnish facts, veritable facts, tending to the same point, the accumulation of which will carry with them a weight not easy to be resisted. -A. PARISH. - Connecticut Common School Journal.

"DON'T SPELL IT, BUT WRITE IT."

THERE is far more sense than most persons would at first suppose, in the remark of an Irish servant to her young mistress, whom she had employed to write a letter to her aunt Judy in Ireland. Matters went on very well in the preparation of the letter, until the superscription was to be put on it, when some doubts arose in the mind of the amanuensis as to the spelling of the name of the town to which it was to be sent. "Don't spell it at all, but write it, just," exclaimed Bridget.

It would be well if teachers would more frequently say to their pupils, "Don't spell it, but write it." As spelling is usually taught in schools where the oral method alone is practiced, "learning to spell" is vastly different from learning to write the words; hence it occurs that a pupil may be able to spell orally nine-tenths of the words that are pronounced to him from the ordinary lessons, yet when called upon to write those words in sentences, he will mis-spell one-half of them. If you are a teacher, and have doubts on this subject, try the experiment with your own pupils, and you may soon satisfy yourself that spelling by sound does not make good practical spellers.

We learn to spell that we may write words correctly, not to utter the letters and syllables orally; and to do this we need to train the eve more than the ear. How, then, should spelling be taught? In various ways; but chiefly by writing, as that is the manner in which spelling is used in the business of life; and thus may the eye be trained to guide the hand in the formation of words.

GRAMMAR.

SOMETIMES we are asked (and the inquiry is an interesting one) at what age children may be taught grammar. All such inquiries depend upon two other questions. First-What particular faculties of the mind does the subject appeal to? Secondly-At what age of the child do those faculties begin to develope themselves. The faculty of observation is the earliest in the order of development, and such subjects of instruction as excite and direct the power of observation, should be the first to which the attention of children should be introduced. On this account, object lessons on natural history may be given to infants even before the power of reading is attained. On this account also geography should be taught before arithmetic and grammar. To limit our observations to grammar

it should be borne in mind that it has not to do with the perceptive or observing powers so much as with the faculties of abstraction, classification and induction. It is important, therefore, to ascertain at what periods of child-life these faculties are beginning to be developed. Of course it is possible to override the question of mental science altogether, and to make lessons of grammar-what they too often are-lessons of mere memory, the understanding being left uncultivated and unfruitful. And, again, although grammar, for the right comprehension of its principles, requires the exercise of faculties higher in the order of development than perception, and so should be taught later than geography or natural history; yet there are portions of it that do not require these faculties, or at least may be simplified by a skillful use of the power of observation, and so be brought down to the level of younger children: To make our meaning clear, we may give very young children a clear notion of a noun by bidding them look about them for objects which they can see around them; and, as a reverse, a clear notion of an adjective may be mastered by pointing out the properties of that object. For example, the teacher takes a flower, which the child has named as an object he can see. The word flower is a noun. It is white, beautiful, fair, or whatever other properties the class may observe; for the co-operation of the whole class should be expected, and their attention by this means secured. White, beautiful, fair, are adjectives.

There are other particulars which the teacher should observe if he would make the subject of grammar intelligible to young children:

1. He should employ oral teaching before employing text-books. By this means he can not only dispose of difficulties which are foreseen, by simple and familiar illustrations, but also deal with others as they arise, and which books can not anticipate.

2. He should keep back every rule until its necessity has first been felt. 3. He should allow no rule to be committed to memory until it has first passed through the understanding.

4. He should use familiar metaphors where there is a difficulty in comprehending the definition of the harder parts of speech. Conjunctions may be called hooks: prepositions are pointers or finger-posts.

5. Rules and definitions should be first given which are general; the rules without the exceptions, and the definitions without the inflexions. The great, broad roads of the district are to be traversed, and the by-paths left at present for after and closer investigation. The larger and more prominent features of the edifice are to be made familiar to the mind rather than each individual stone of which the edifice is composed.

Questions to which the above remarks supply material for answers: What particular faculties of the could does the subject of grammar appeal to? Upon what previous question depends the question as to the order in which school subjects should be taken? By what method may grammar be