The failure to levy a tax by any county indicates a great indifference to the spirit of the law. The interest on the school fund, apportioned to the counties, forms a basis upon which the counties may build a liberal system of free instruction. But it should be supplemented by a county tax sufficient to continue the operation of the schools not less than five months; otherwise it may be characterized as almost a waste of the fund, unless, as in some instances, the schools are prolonged by generous private subscriptions. But these subscriptions are not reliable for a definite period, and the County Courts would, in every case, consult the true interest of the people by levying such a tax as will make the schools vital and efficient. The immediate benefit of the schools, without reference to their influence upon the coming generation, will be the improved value of farms and town lots, and the securing a greater abundance and consequent cheapness of labor. Immigration of the best character will be attracted to counties which provide good free schools, and will be instantly repelled by the ignorance which attends their absence. Nothing is better established, in the history of new settlements, than this fact, and I commend its consideration to the County Courts.

NORMAL SCHOOLS.

Under the provisions of an Act passed by the General Assembly March 23, 1875, entitled "An act to provide for the establishment, and to prescribe rules for the government, of a Normal School or Schools in the State of Tennessee, in connection with the Public School system

thereof," the Board of Education created thereby was organized by the Governor, by the appointment of Hon. E. H. Ewing, of Rutherford; Hon. S. Watson, Dr. J. B. Lindsley and Mr. L. G. Tarbox, of Davidson; Dr. R. W. Mitchell, of Shelby; and J. J. Reese, Esq., of Knox, as members. Soon after its organization the Board accepted a proposition from the Trustees of the University of Nashville, tendering the use of their college buildings, grounds, etc., for two years, and also the income arising from their permanent fund and that of the Montgomery Bell Academy, amounting together to $6,000 per annum, on the condition that the Montgomery Bell Academy be kept in operation as heretofore, and as a model training school to the Normal University proposed to be established. At the same time, Dr. B. Sears, the General Agent of the Peabody Education Fund, modified the proposition formerly made by him to the State, so that the sum of $6,000, which he proposed to appropriate for the establishment of a State Normal School, on condition that the State would appropriate a like sum, was absolutely tendered by him for two years, by accepting the loan of the University in lieu thereof. These two donations, amounting to $12,000 per annum, together with the use of the buildings, grounds, library, etc., with the conditions annexed, were accepted by the State Board of Education, and Mr. Eben S. Stearns was elected President of the Normal University, and subsequently by the Trustrees, Chancellor of the University of Nashville. Soon afterwards a corps of professors, of the highest qualifications, were appointed for the Normal University and for

the Montgomery Bell Academy, composed of the following gentlemen and ladies: Eben S. Stearns, Chancellor and Principal; Miss Julia A. Sears, Miss Emma M. Cutter, J..W. Yeatman, S. M. D. Clark, Wm. R. Garrett.

On Wednesday the 1st day of December, 1875, the formal opening of the University was had in the Hall of the House of Representatives, at the Capitol, by the State Board of Education. The proceedings of this inauguration of a University, whose object is to supply trained teachers for our free schools, will be found in the appendix to this report,

The provisional establishment of this University, under such favorable auspices, and with a beginning which assures that it is appreciated by our citizens, should be a subject of earnest congratulation by all friends of popular education. Elementary education of the people is now "a public institution and an acquired fact" in our State, upon the foundation of the law. As wisely remarked by M. Guizot, sometime Minister of Public Instruction in France, "elementary instruction is not a sovereign panacea, capable of curing every moral disease of a nation, nor all-sufficient for intellectual health. It is a salutary or pernicious ingredient, according as it is ill or well directed; restrained within due bounds, or carried beyond its proper scope. When a new or influential force, physical or moral, steam or intelligence, once enters the world, it can never be expelled; we must learn how to turn it to profitable If we fail to do this, it disseminates, pell mell, and in all directions, fertility or destruction. In our degree and present state of civilization, the education of the

account.

people has become an absolute necessity, a fact equally indispensable and inevitable."

The public school system of Tennessee was established upon this idea, that as civilization is, in its present progressive stage, "the education of the people has become an absolute necessity, a fact equally indispensable and inevitable." Without it, Tennessee must fall back from the ranks of an enlightened State, and the very foundation of her political system-universal suffrage-must rot and decay, and its superstructure, therefore, totter to its fall.

Nor is it less true that it is incumbent upon our statesmen to see to it that this "new and influential force," which, having "entered the world," "can never be expelled," should receive the assistance of the most broad and generous training, that it may be well and not ill directed. That it may be "turned to profitable account," the force should be directed and engineered by skilled hands, and the whole system should be elevated, so as to command the confidence and receive the support of the most intelligent and leading minds in our State. This can only be done by preparing the teachers systematically, and by the highest methods known to educators, for their grand and beneficent work. In this manner, and in this alone, can we make the free educational force a blessing to the children of the State, beyond any that could be conferred upon them, and a bulwark of the State itself, of more strength and durability than any other which human hands can construct or human brains conceive.

I do not hesitate to invoke, through your Excellency, the favorable and fostering care of the General Assembly to