THOMAS BRAY, D.D.

THOMAS BRAY, D.D., founder of the earliest Parochial Libraries in America, was born in the year 1656, at Marton, Shropshire, England, and educated at the Grammar school at Oswestry, and at Hart Hall, Oxford, where he took his master's degree in 1693. Immediately after he commenced bachelor, he entered into holy orders, officiated as chaplain in the family of Sir Thomas Price, and became vicar of Over-Whitacre in Warwickshire.

A publication of his, in 1693, entitled 'Catechetical Lectures,' attracted the attention of Dr. Compton, then Bishop of London, who at once solicited the author to undertake an important mission to Maryland. Before entering on his work, for which he was clothed with the judicial functions of Commissary for Maryland, he projected a system of Parochial Libraries, to be established in each parish, as a means of further culture for those who should go out as missionaries to the intellectually destitute portions of his field.

The Annapolitan Library.

Before leaving for Maryland, Mr. Bray, in company with the Secretary of the Colony, waited on the then Princess Anne, with the dutiful respects of the Governor and people, who had recently named the capital of the Province after her, Annapolis. She testified her grateful sense of this compliment by presenting Mr. Bray with a liberal contribution in aid of his library project. This timely help was memorialized by him by establishing his first library in Annapolis, with a choice collection of books which bore the name of the 'Annapolitan Library.'

Lending Libraries.

Meeting with repulses, in his application for aid for the poor parishes in Maryland, on the ground that similar help was needed by the poor rural clergy of England, Mr. Bray at once solicited and received subscriptions from those who declined the first, to establish Lending Libraries in every deanery in the kingdom. In this connection he published, in 1696, Bibliotheca Parochialis, a scheme of theological reading, with a list of books, which might be profitably read by the reverend clergy, on the most important points of Christian doctrine and duty.

Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge.

In 1697, he proffered to the House of Commons a petition which he had secured to be numerously signed, to appropriate a portion of the lands alienated on account of alledged superstitious uses, for the propagation of religion in the plantations. Failing in this, he

went over to Holland to solicit from King William his consent to a grant of some arrears of taxes due to the crown, for the same purpose. Not successful in this scheme, he drew up a plan of a voluntary Society for the Propagation of Religious Knowledge, as well at home as in the plantations, and securing the coöperation of the Bishop of London, this Society was actually formed in 1697.

These labors, so widely beneficent, had been performed by Dr. Bray, while his salary as Commissary was in abeyance, and could not be enjoyed until he was actually on duty in Maryland; and when he was offered preferment at home, he still labored on to procure libraries and missionaries for his province. He sailed for America in 1699, but returned, in 1701, to England to secure the Royal sanction to a measure, passed by the Assembly, for establishing the Church of England and securing the legal maintenance in the province.

Dr. Bray did not return to America, but continued to labor in behalf of the missionary operations of his church. He published, in 1701, a Memorial representing the state of Religion and Learning in the Foreign Plantations, and advocated the selection, preparation, and employment of suitable persons to be missionaries in the colonies-young men, of a true missionary spirit, with strength and will to endure labor and fatigue, of exemplary lives and conversation, and well-read in theological learning, to meet at once the endless variety of objections and fancies to which ignorance and isolation had given birth in the colonies. His plans for meeting these wants, although not specifically carried out, resulted in the organizing of a society for the same general purpose on his return from America.

Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

In May, 1701, on the petition of Dr. Bray, letters patent, under the great seal, were issued for creating another corporation by the name of 'The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts'—an institution to which the Episcopal church, all over the world, owes a debt of grateful affection.

In 1706, he accepted the donative of of St. Botolph without Aldgate, worth £150 per annum, having been for some time enabled to continue in his benevolent work only by a gift of Lord Weymouth. In 1727, he made a casual visit to White Chapel prison, and was so much affected by the miserable condition of the prisoners, that he at once solicited benefactions for their relief, which led to a more extended effort for the improvement of British prisons generally. Dr. Bray died on the 15th of January, 1730.

FRENCH VIEW OF GERMAN EDUCATION.

THE UNIVERSITIES.

M. GEORGE POUCHET, in the Revue des Deux Mondes, in 1869, published a paper on the German Universities, founded on his own observation and studies, as a student in Berlin, and on the reports of Jaccoud and Lorain. This paper was translated, and appeared in the Living Age for January, 1870, and a portion of this we transfer to our pages as a contribution to our International Estimate of National Systems of Public Instruction:

UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION.

Each University is commonly designated by the name of the town in which it is placed, but it takes also a title in memory of the sovereign who founded or restored it. Thus Berlin contains the Frederick William University, and Freiburg the Albertine. All the Universities regard themselves as members of one family, whether in Prussia, Austria, Switzerland, or Bohemia. This fraternity extends without limit. The Universities of Russia and Holland borrow professors from Germany. A great step in civilization will be made when our institutions are so modified as to permit a similar exchange of scientific men with neighboring nations. The German Universities, in other respects absolutely independent of one another, are established on the same plan, and submitted to the same régime.

The Universities are corporate bodies, with certain privileges, but receiving subsidies and professors from the State. The funds of the University, when there are any, are the property of the corporation and cannot be alienated by the State. If they are large enough, the University is not under the power of the administration, which cannot even move it from one town to another. At Freiburg, the principal resource of the University is a municipal grant which would be annulled in case of transplantation. These are exceptional conditions; most of the Universities receive subsidies from the State, which are very considerable in comparison with the budgets of the little countries which vote them. The University of Leipsic has a yearly revenue of 120,000 thalers; Saxony adds to this sum 53,500 thalers. The University of Berlin has a revenue of only 72 thalers, and receives 180,000 thalers from the government. During the year 1861, Prussia expended for its seven Universities the sum of 530,860 thalers, or in round numbers 400,000 dollars in gold, to which were added the private revenues of the Universities themselves.

According to the terms of the Prussian law, "the Universities are privileged corporations composed of the whole body of the professors and matriculated students, and of the employés and their inferiors in its administration," that is to say, all the persons attached to the Universities enjoy the academic privileges. The very fencing, swimming and riding masters, the beadle, the janitor, the jailor, and the lamplighter enjoy these advantages, and see their names after those of the professors on the official list of the members of the corporation. As for the students, the mere entering of their names confers upon them citizenship in the University. They are subject from that moment, like the employés and assistants, to a special jurisdiction, the representative of which, in Prussia at least, is styled the University Judge. Generally he is a magistrate of the town. He has the rank of professor, and has a position on the left of the rector. He takes cognizance of all offences against discipline and misdemeanors committed by the students and minor officials, even

outside of the limits of the University, and can condemn them to confinement in the academic prison.

As to the Professors, they govern themselves, decide all questions relating to instruction, and maintain their privileges scrupulously intact. Doubtless these are less than they formerly were, having been diminished by the successive expansions of the common law, but as they are still a guarantee of the independence of the governing board, that is enough to make them precious. The Professors are only subject to themselves and to the heads whom they elect. Each year the Faculty appoints its Dean, and the four Faculties, in assembly, proceed to the election of a Rector and Senate. This last body consists of the Rector, his predecessor, the four Deans and six members chosen among the Professors. It represents the highest expression of academic power, and its judgment is final. It is charged with administering the affairs of the corporation, and defending it, when necessary, against the invasion of power. It is still a prerogative of the University that every public document published by the Senate and bearing the signature of the Rector is exempt from the censorship in the countries where that exists.

CORPS OF INSTRUCTION.

The corps of instruction of a German University consists of four classes of teachers having very distinct rights, namely, ordinary professors, professors extraordinary, privat-docenten, who may be compared to tutors, and finally, decidedly below the others, the teachers of languages and polite accomplishments. These last have not the degree of doctor, and are hardly distinguishable from the employés of the faculty. They teach all the modern languages, sometimes even those of the East, music, singing, riding, dancing, fencing, swimming, gymnastics, stenography, and writing. These teachers are not merely under the patronage of the University. Their teaching is supervised by the senate; and their prices are sometimes fixed by a tariff, some even receiving a slight salary.

The ordinary professors form the faculty. The Dean as well as the Rector are always chosen from among them, and they alone are members of the Senate. They are never numerous. The largest faculties of philosophy, as those of Berlin, Vienna, and Breslau, have not more than from twenty-five to twenty-eight of them; a small number, when one considers that in the faculties of philosophy, instruction is given in all the subjects of human knowledge, excepting theology, law, and medicine. Their number depends upon the wealth and popularity of the University, and in the small faculties is so insignificant as to be insufficient and indeed almost absurd. At Jena, the medical faculty contains only five professors; the law faculty at Giessen only four. These professors represent as it were the instruction of the faculty reduced to its meagrest limits, and scarcely sufficing for the academic demands; but they are always supported by larger numbers of extraordinary professors and of privat-docenten who enlarge and complete the scheme of studies.

The ordinary professors are appointed by the sovereign from a list presented by the faculty. The formalities are nearly the same in all the German States. The vacancy of the chair is publicly announced through the newspapers, and any one who has received the degree of doctor can become a candidate by presenting an application to the faculty. The latter in its turn is not obliged to choose from among these candidates; it makes out its own list in perfect freedom at a special meeting in which only the ordinary professors take part. This list contains generally three names; but when the faculty deems proper, when it wishes to bestow an especial mark of esteem on any candidate, he is nominated alone. This honor is customary when the candidate is already ordinary professor in another faculty. The Rector trans

mits the list to the minister, and he presents it to the sovereign, without being at liberty to make any alteration in it. This privilege which the University has of communicating to the ruler of the State the expres-ion of its choice, without limitation from any intermediate authority, is one of its oldest prerogatives, and one of those which it guards with the greatest jealousy. There is no example, even in Austria, of an appointment made by the sovereign outside of the list of the faculty. There have been certain cases of the refusal of the appointment for political reasons, and under such circumstances the place has remained vacant until matters were reconciled. In such cases the government imposes a sort of veto; but it would never occur to it to substitute its own candidate for that of the corporation. It sometimes happens also that it complies with the public sentiment, which has been disregarded by the professors but affirmed by the students. The latter being themselves members of the corporation, can in fact under certain circumstances interfere directly. When they think they have a serious reason for not approving the choice which has been made, they have the right to make known to the sovereign their unheeded desires. One of the best known professors of the Vienna medical faculty owes his chair solely to a demonstration of this sort.

SALARIES AND COMPENSATION OF PROFESSORS.

The regular salary of the ordinary professors varies in the different Universities and even with different professors in the same University. Every ten years it is increased. Moreover the academic faculty in order to attract to itself some famous professor has sometimes been obliged to offer him extraordinary advantages. At every vacancy a curious sort of appraisal of the value of the professor takes place between the Universities. It is all done discreetly, but the bidding is none the less genuine. It is thus that a professor according to his merit as a savant, or his success in his instruction -the two advantages are equally sought for-is able to advance from the smaller to the more important Universities; and if he has a place at Vienna or Berlin he is obliged to maintain it by unceasing efforts. The professor's chair in Germany is never a place of repose, or the reward of a completed career. There is never-ending toil and contest. Self-interest forbids sloth.

In fact the professor does not receive all his emolument from the State, as is the case in France. A part of it is paid him directly by the students The French system may have its merits, but it certainly has one disadvantage. The least is that it becomes customary for this fixed salary to be regarded as the recompense for a life consecrated to toil, and not as the remuneration for the work of instruction. The consequence is, that the professor occupies himself but very little with his pupils. Our men of science rarely have about them students from whom they receive fees. They entrench themselves in this matter behind a certain dignity which in Germany is judged very severely. The Germans say to us: "that your instruction is gratuitous, appears to be advantageous to the students, but it is rather more so to the professor, by freeing him from the duty of instruction at hours for which he has the right to maintain that he is not paid." It is doubtful indeed whether this system be of advantage to the student. All those who have frequented or had the direction of laboratories know that those alone work who pay. We are so constituted. Gratuitous higher instruction is a generous dream, but it is a dream, and moreover is it quite just that those studies which lead to honor, to great industries, to brilliant and lucrative positions, should be gratuitous, when no one thinks of demanding the same privilege for that secondary instruction, which now a days is indispensable for entrance into the most modest career? There is a certain inconsequence in this.