The returns received furnish a series of interesting facts for the year 1826. There were one thousand seven hundred and twenty-six district schools, supported at an expense of two hundred and twenty-six thousand two hundred and nineteen dollars and ninety cents ($226,219.90), while there were nine hundred and fifty-three academies and private schools maintained at a cost of $192,455.10. The whole number of children attending public schools was 117,186, and the number educated in private schools and academies was 25,083. The expense, therefore, was $7.67 per pupil in the private schools, and only $1.93 each in the public schools. These facts are indicative of the condition of public sentiment. About one-sixth of the children of the state were educated in academies and private schools, at a cost equal to about six-sevenths of the amount paid for the education of the remaining five-sixths, who attended the public schools. The returns also showed that there were 2,974 children between the ages of seven and fourteen years who did not attend school, and 530 persons over fourteen years of age who were unable to read and write. The incompleteness of these returns detracts from their value; but, as those towns where the greatest interest existed were more likely to respond to the call of the Legislature, it is probable that the actual condition of the whole state was below that of the two hundred and eighty-eight towns. The interest which the law of 1826 had called forth was temporary; and in March, 1832, the Committee on Education, to whom was referred an order with instructions to inquire into the expediency of providing a fund to furnish, in certain cases, common schools with apparatus, books, and such other aid as may be necessary to raise the standard of common school education, say that they desire more accurate knowledge than could then be obtained. The returns required by law were in many cases wholly neglected, and in others they were inaccurately made. In the year 1831 returns were received from only eighty-six towns. In order to obtain the desired information, a special movement was made by the Legislature. The report of the committee was printed in all the newspapers that published the laws of the commonwealth, and the Secretary was directed to prepare and present to the Legislature an abstract of the returns which should be received from the several towns for the year 1832. The result of this extraordinary effort was seen in returns from only ninety-nine of three hundred and five towns, and even a large part of these were confessedly inaccurate or incomplete. They present, however, some remarkable facts.

The following table, prepared from the returns of 1832, shows the relative standing and cost of public and private schools in a part of the principal towns. It appears that the towns named in the table were educating rather more than two-thirds of their children in the public schools, at an expense of $2.88 each, and nearly one-third in private schools, at a cost of $12.70 each, and that the total expenditure for public instruction was about thirty-six per cent. of the outlay for educational purposes.

TOWNSABCDE
Beverly,$1,800 0058028490$2,365 33
Bradford,750 0060091771,725 00
Danvers,2,000 0087361501,500 00
Marblehead,2,200 00650316503,800 00
Cambridge,8,600 00970164415,782 00
Medford,1,200 0028461512,372 00
Newton,1,600 0054231002,975 00
Amherst,850 0055622704,600 00
Springfield,3,600 001,95748002,500 00
Greenfield,633 752162651,400 00
Dorchester,2,599 00613151241,800 00
Quincy,1,800 0046571062,741 50
Roxbury,4,450 00836123138,218 00
New Bedford,4,000 001,268155376,300 00
Hingham,2,144 0070381802,625 00
Provincetown,584 324504140800 00
Edgartown,450 00350101002,700 00
Nantucket,2,633 40882501,08410,795 00
18 Towns,$36,894 4712,7952285,378$64,948 83

Key to Column Headings:

A - Amount paid for public instruction during the year.
B - Whole No. of Pupils in the Public Schools in the course of the yr.
C - Number of Academies and Private Schools.
D - Number of Pupils in Academies and Private Schools and not attending Public Schools.
E - Estimated amount of compensation of Instructors of Academies and Private Schools.

The evidence is sufficient that the public schools were in a deplorable and apparently hopeless condition.

The change that has been effected in the eighteen towns named may be seen by comparing the following table with the one already given. In 1832, 64 per cent. of the amount paid for education was expended in academies and private schools, while in 1858 only 24 per cent. was so expended. In the same period the amount raised for public schools increased from less than thirty-seven thousand dollars to more than two hundred and fifty-nine thousand dollars. At the first period, the attendance of pupils upon academies and private schools was nearly 30 per cent. of the whole number, while in 1858 it was only 8 per cent. The private schools of some of these towns were established recently, and are sustained in a degree by pupils who are not inhabitants of the state, but who have come among us for the purpose of enjoying the culture which our teachers and schools, private as well as public, are able to furnish. If, as seems probable, the number of foreign pupils was less in 1832 than in 1858, the decrease of pupils in private schools would be greater than is indicated by the tables. The cost of education, as it appears by this table, is rather more than thirty dollars per pupil in the private schools, and only eight dollars and forty-nine cents in the public schools. In the following table, Bradford includes Groveland, Danvers includes South Danvers, Springfield includes Chicopee, and Roxbury includes West Roxbury. This is rendered necessary for the purposes of comparison, as Groveland, South Danvers, Chicopee, and West Roxbury, have been incorporated since 1832.

TOWNSABCDE
Beverly,$5,748 201,114110$100 00
Bradford,2,416 475132841,720 00
Danvers,14,829 522,066140360 00
Marblehead,7,311 101,18861601,390 00
Cambridge,37,420 864,7101440015,000 00
Medford,7,794 4483751303,800 00
Newton,12,263 501,138830822,800 00
Amherst,2,142 8053651213,934 00
Springfield,27,324 843,8646——
Greenfield,2,627 505892251,800 00
Dorchester,22,338 511,795131600 00
Quincy,8,861 461,260220225 00
Roxbury,50,000 004,4002556110,600 00
New Bedford,36,074 253,5482043415,074 00
Hingham,4,904 137282711,717 56
Provincetown,3,147 26689———
Edgartown,2,578 63380896200 00
Nantucket,11,596 271,1980132593,466 23
Totals,$259,379 7430,5531212,750$82,786 79