UNION.-Dec. 16, five days; 84 members enrolled, | Tod Ford, Wallace Bruce, Rev. Dr. Warren, Eliza83 per cent. Instructors: Prof. J. Johonnot, J. V. beth Cady Stanton and Daniel Dougherty. Topics: Montgomery, Wm. Noetling, D. J. Waller, jr., and School Discipline, methods of instruction, mental Col. Sanford. Topics: Language, arithmetic, read- philosophy, metric system, drawing, etymology, reading, drawing, penmanship, speliing, and science and ing, arithmetic and history. Lectures: Force in a art of teaching. Lectures: Our Public Schools, Sunbeam, Landmarks of Scott, "Go West, Young Forces of Society, and Old Times and New. Ex-Man," Our Girls, and The Stage. Expenses, $652. penses, $181. VENANGO.Oct. 14, five days; 242 members enrolled, or 63 per cent. Instructors: Prof. S. R. Thompson, H. S. Jones, Geo. P. Hays and Frank Beard. Topics: Reading, language lessons, geogra phy, arithmetic and school organization. Lectures: The Beautiful, The Queer Teacher, Character and Manners. Expenses, $459. WARREN.-Sept. 2, five days; 235 teachers enrolled, 94 per cent. Instructors: Dr. John H. French and Prof. J. A. Cooper. Topics: Mental philosophy, school government and management, and "business day" in school, which included methods of conduct ing recitations in each of the common English branches. Lecture: Educational Forces and Capacities, Wonders of the Living World, and The Past and Present of Our Schools. Expenses, $185. A series of local institutes is being held in different parts of the county, with much benefit to those attending and to the schools under their charge. IT OVER THE SEA. LETTERS FROM THE EDITOR.-NO. VIIL IN BELGIUM. T was growing dark when we left London, on the 9th of July, so that our ride in the cars along the banks of the Thames was of little interest. It was 10 p. m. when we went on board the steamer, at Harwich, which was to carry us across the North Sea. We had engaged, or thought we had engaged, staterooms some days in advance; but when we came to inquire into the matter we found that like promises had been made to about five times as many as could be accommodated. The boat was greatly overcrowded. Seeing our disappointment at the prospect of losing a night's rest, a friend who had traveled on this line before, whispered: "Find an empty berth and take possession of it. The whole WAYNE.-Nov. 19, five days; 255 members, 84 per thing is a grab game." We followed his adcent. Instructors: H. R. Sanford, W. C. Tilden, D. vice and had a comfortable night's rest; but Copeland, O. E. French, D. N. Lathrop, B. B. Smith many other passengers to whom rooms had and Wallace Bruce. Topics: Primary reading, lan- been promised were compelled to spend the guage, arithmetic, geography, history, theory of teach-night with scarcely a seat upon which to sit, ing, school management. Lectures: Integrity, Culture, The Forces that Win, and Washington Irving. much less a bed to lie down upon. Expenses, $253. WASHINGTON.-Dec. 30, five days; 205 members, 67 per cent. Instructors: Prof. J. H. Shoemaker, Maria L. Sanford, Wallace Bruce, and Geo. P. Beard. Topics: Arithmetic, grammar, reading, school government, English literature, geography, history, and methods of teaching. Lectures: The Labor Question, Landmarks of Scott, Womanhood in Shakspeare, and Invisible Forces. Expenses, $452. It was light when we went on deck and the WESTMORELAND.-Dec. 23, twenty-second session, low coast of Holland was visible a short disfive days; of 374 teachers in the county 342 were pres-tance away, and we soon entered the mouth ent. Instructors: Profs. J. A. Brush, Geo. T. McCord, of the Scheldt and landed at Flushing, or as Dr. Jno. H. French, Dr. Watkins, Prof. Harkey, Wal- the Dutch call it, Vlissingen. The surface of lace Bruce, W. C. Moreland, Esq., Dr. R. W. Pearson, Hon Edgar Cowan and Hon. Jos. A. Hunter. the country here is sixteen or eighteen feet Topics: Geography, language lessons, grammar, below the level of the sea at high tide, and methods of instruction and school management. Lec- the land is protected from overflow by imtures: Cries from the Cradle, Education as it Ought mense dykes, over which from the deck of to be; Heat, Its Sources and Effects; The Wonders the steamer we could just see the spires of the of the Living World, Washington Irving, Peculiarities of American Speech, Macaulay, Our Home Speech churches and the tops of the houses. and Education. Expenses, $384. WYOMING.-Dec. 23, six days; 148 teachers en rolled, 74 per cent. Instructors: Prof. Geo. L. Maris, J. H. Harris, John M. Gannan, Mrs. M. E. Weston and C. W. Bushnell. Topics: School management and government, English grammar, arithmetic, ety. mology and geography. The instruction in these branches embraced not only the branches themselves, but how to teach them, especially to beginners. Lectures: The State and the Public Schools, Education and the Republic, and the Teacher. Expenses, $126. YORK.-Dec. 23, twenty-fourth session, five days; 369 members enrolled, 90 per cent. Instructors: Profs. A. N. Raub, S. B. Heiges, S. S. Haldeman, R. H. Carothers, J. V. Montgomery, Hon. H. Houck, We made only a short stop at Flushing, going directly from the quay to the cars in waiting to convey us to Antwerp. Our course the island of Walcherin and Zuid Beveland, was along the little peninsula consisting of until turning to the right we crossed the boundary line between Holland and Belgium, and reached Antwerp in time for a late breakfast. Early in the morning as it was when we left Flushing the country people were all astir. Great numbers of woman were on their way to market, some with donkey carts and dog teams; but more with baskets and vessels containing marketing on their heads | pleted. The tower is four hundred and two feet high. The exterior view of the church is marred by mean surroundings, but the principal façade is very fine. Upon entering It was the height of hay harvest, and barley was ripe in the fields. Vegetables, too, of the Cathedral the effect is grand and impresswhich a large acreage is grown in this coun- | try, seemed to need some special attention. So on this pleasant July morning, at the rising of the sun, the whole population, men, women and children, seemed to be at work out of doors. The men wore straw hats and blouses like the French, and the women looked quite picturesque in their white caps and blue gowns. The Hollanders are a very industrious people, and what a fine country they have! and how they have battled for it against the sea! But we shall have occasion to see more of them and it before we reach our journey's end, so now we are at Antwerp. ive. It was the first of the great church edifices of the Continent that we had seen, and we stood in wonder, almost in awe, as we took in the dimensions and grandeur of the great structure. The length is 384 feet, width 171 feet, with transepts, and height 130 feet. There are six aisles, and the vaulting is supported by 125 pillars. Then, there are rich wood carvings, beautiful stained glass windows, fine mural decorations and bas reliefs, splendid marble busts, monuments and altar-pieces, and a number of celebrated pictures. Among the latter are the Descent from the Cross, the Elevation of the Cross; and the Assumption, by Rubens. These are Antwerp, or Anvers in French, is pleas- among the best paintings of the famous antly situated on the Scheldt, which is here Dutch master, and to us, seen in the light at high tide thirty feet deep, and was in its and with the surroundings of the grand old best days one of the most important and Cathedral, they seemed like the creation of a wealthy cities in Europe. Few places have genius more than human. Of course, we did experienced greater vicissitudes of fortune. not leave the Cathedral without a look at the Founded as early as the seventh century, it | old Well, opposite the entrance to the tower, became in the sixteenth the leading commer which is protected by an iron canopy and cial city on the continent, its trade extending surmounted by the statue of the mythical to all parts of the world. Under Spanish hero Salvius Brabo, the work of Quentin rule it languished. Thousands of the most Massys, first blacksmith and then painter, enterprising citizens were banished by the changing the anvil for the palette to propi terrors of the Inquisition; and. defeated in antiate the father of a lady with whom he was effort to regain its liberties, it was subjected to the merciless cruelty of the Duke of Parma. It suffered also from the jealousy of its Dutch neighbors, who succeeded in closing the Scheldt for many years against its commerce. While in possession of the French, from 1794 to 1814, its trade revived, but it was again totally ruined by the revolution of 1830. Since 1863, a new tide of prosperity has set in, and Antwerp seems likely to as sume once more a high rank among European cities. The population of the city is now 150,000, and its system of quays and docks is probably superior to that of any other continental city. Lines of steamers run direct between Antwerp and New York. After securing rooms and eating our breakfast at the hotel, we directed our steps to the Cathedral, passing on our way, in the Place Verte, the statue of Rubens, the great painter, who lived in Antwerp, and whose house still stands in the Place de Meir, although built in 1611. The Cathedral is the largest and most beautiful Gothic church in the Netherlands. It was begun in 1322, but more than two hundred years elapsed before it was com in love. The Church of St. Paul contains a number of fine pictures, and is noted for its elaborate wood carvings. The wainscoting, pulpits, confessionals, altars, choir-stalls, etc., are all of finely-cut wood. An adjoining court con tains what purports to be a representation of Mount Calvary, an artificial mound made of earth and rock, with statues of saints, angels, prophets, patriarchs, etc., the whole crowned with a crucifix. A grotto near by is intended to represent the Holy Sepulchre, with the dead body of the Saviour. The effect of the whole is to promote neither the cause of religion or art. St. Jacques is an old and very rich church. It was begun in 1491. Where wood is used in St. Paul's, St. Jacques' has marble. In its stained glass windows, its costly monuments, its relics, and decorations, it far exceeds in sumptuousness the cathedral itself. Back of the high altar is the chapel of Rubens, where the great painter is buried. From the churches to the Museum. Passing through a gate and a garden, we ascend to the Entrance Hall, and our attention is at caps. The donkey carts and dog teams in which they have brought the fruit, vegetables, etc., they are offering for sale are resting patiently around the outer edges of the square, and around the pavements. To an American the sight is novel and exceedingly picturesque. Away to Brussels. The country through which we pass is rich and well cultivated. The farm houses and barns are better than in England. There are no fences, except here and there a hedge but the fields are frequently separated by trees. The houses are mostly white, with red tile roofs. The typical village house is built of stone, has a low, narrow door. small windows without shutters, a steep roof with little dormer windows. Brussels is a city of 130,000 inhabitants, and in its general appearance it is more modern than Antwerp. It has clean streets, fine stores, handsome buildings, beautiful parks and boulevards. Its shops, cafes, public amusements and general life are so much like those of the French capital that it has been called "Paris in Miniature." once arrested by the beautiful frescoes repre- | of worsted or calico, and long-eared white senting the history of the Antwerp School of art. The Museum consists of a series of fine saloons opening into one another, constituting a single gallery, lighted from the top, which can be viewed as a whole or in its several parts. The arrangement is admirable, the pictures being shown to the very best advantage. Of the six or seven hundred pictures in the Museum, there are but few that do not belong to the Flemish School-in other words, it is a museum of home productions. The most celebrated artists represented are John Van Eyck, Roger Vander Weyden, Quentin Massys, Anthony Van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens, and Rembrandt Harmentz van Rijn. The pictures that impressed me most were "Christ Crucified between the two Thieves," by Rubens; the "Dead Saviour," by Massys; a portrait of his wife, by Rembrandt; the Crucifixion, by Van Dyck. Mental copies of these, very imperfect doubtless, I tried to carry away with me. The two or three hours spent in the Museum were exceedingly pleasant; but directly after the visit the ideal world into which my imagination had carried me was rather suddenly changed to a real one by a walk about the city. Of this walk I find the following notes in my note book: The city has a large trade. Many ships from all countries are lying along the quays and in the docks. There are fine streets and large stores, but many of the houses are old and built in the regular Dutch style with gables towards the street, and the upper stories projecting over it. The streets in the older parts of the city, are crooked, narrow and quaint. The people are of mixed nationalities; you hear spoken on the streets Dutch, French, German and English; and at the hotels and in the large warehouses and stores all these languages are used. Antwerp must be a religious place, judging from the num-istic of point-lace, the figured portions being ber of churches, and more particularly from worked out by crossing the threads. The the hundreds of images of the Virgin and the process of weaving is very slow and requires saints that are erected at the corners of the great patience and skill. The most artistic streets, and attached to the houses in all parts part of the work, however, consists in making of the city, Lamps are kept burning near the patterns. In the salesroom attached to them, and devout Catholics cross themselves the manufactory, we were shown many artiand seem to utter a prayer in passing. Young cles of lace of great beauty but at fabulous and old of both sexes, among the lower prices. Our purchases were few and modest. classes, wear heavy wooden shoes, or clogs. A ride about the city enabled us to see the They are exceedingly clumsy, and when used Boulevards, new and old, the Park, the Palais in walking make a dreadful clatter on floors du Roi, the Palais Ducal, the Palais de la Naand pavements. The markets are a curiosity. tion, the Colonne du Congress, the Hotel de Hundreds of women-few men attend mar-Ville, the statues of Counts Egmont and Horn, ket-have their marketing on tables or in baskets in a public square. Nearly all of them are dressed alike, in blue short gowns We visited the cathedral, an old Gothic structure, commenced in the 12th century. Our attention was particularly attracted to its stained glass windows, the finest we had seen. Then, curious to see the process of lace making, we directed our steps to one of the many manufactories in the city. In the rooms we visited a large number of women were employed in weaving lace. Each had a cushion to which the patterns to be worked are attached. Pins are stuck in at regular intervals in the lines or at the angles of the patterns. The threads are in bobbins; and the process of weaving consists in twisting or plaiting them around the pins in such a way as to form the net-work arrangement, which is character two of the cruel Duke of Alva's victims, the statue of Godfrey de Bouillon and other sights of interest; but to me the feature of my stay in Brussels was my visit to the battle-field of the south-east, a mile away. Beyond it, perhaps another mile, is the village of Plancenoit, where the terrible struggle took place at night fall, between the freshly-arrived Prussians under Blucher, and the French forces detached to oppose them. Between the two lines of battle, a half mile to the south-east of the Mound from which I was gazing, is the old Chateau Hougomont; to the east of the chateau, and much nearer where I stood is the farm La Haye Sainte, and still farther to the east, from a half a mile to a mile, are the farms Papelotte, La Haye and Smouhen. No one who has ever read an account of the battle need be told how important were the parts these several places were made to play in deciding the issues of the dreadful day. Never, perhaps, in the history of human warfare was there a struggle more fierce or more bloody than that made by different divisions of the French army to take possession of this chateau and the houses on these farms. At last, when almost night, La Haye Sainte, Papelotte, La Haye and Smouhen yielded, but Hougomont held out to the last, and won the day for Wellington. The other places named seem to have recovered from the shock-show none of the scars of battle; but Hougomont remains as it was left, a mass of shattered ruins. The wall around the garden still presents the loop-holes, through which the English poured their deadly fire into the faces of the French, and it and all the remaining buildings are battered by bullets and torn by cannon balls. Facing north, the first line of the Allied forces stretches away, along the crests of a ridge of low hills, directly east and west. Behind this line in the hollows between the hills were stationed the reserves and the cavalry. Back a few hundred yards along the highway is the village of St. Jean, immediately south of it the plain of St. Jean, and farther back a mile and a half from where I stood I could see It is well known that Napoleon attempted the village of Waterloo, the headquarters of at the last moment to retrieve the fortunes of Wellington before and after the battle, and the day by ordering a desperate charge of the the skirtings of the Bois de Soigne-Byron's Imperial Guards. They were led by Ney. Ardennes. A quarter of a mile to my right, Standing there in the centre of the field, in along the line of battle, is an obelisk erected full view of the ground occupied by both to the memory of the Hanoverian officers of armies, it was easy to see them form, start the German Legion who fell in the battle, and across the plain, dash up and over the hills, just opposite to it across the road is a monu- and charge like a hurricane upon the Allied ment to Col. Gordon. Forty or fifty feet forces. Then up, from their sheltered posidirectly north from this monument, on the tions behind the ridges and in the hollows other side of a by-road that crosses the main between the hills, rise the solid squares of road at this point, there once stood an elm English infantry, and with lines of steel and tree under which Wellington is said to have thundering gusts of fire and tempests of lead remained during a considerable time while the bid defiance to the Old Guard. Ney is there, battle was raging most fiercely. The tree" the bravest of the brave," four horses shot itself has been cut down and carried away by relic hunters. Turning around and facing south, I had in fair view the whole line of rising ground occupied by the French army. Belle Alliance, a one-storied white house by the roadside, Napoleon's headquarters during the greater part of the battle, is plainly seen to under him; but what can heroism avail to arrest a hurricane of shot that sweeps away at each furious gust whole masses of his command, rider and horse. I turn away from the dreadful strife. The Old Guard is annihilated, but what a wreck they have left behind! Apart from the battle, the view from the Mound of the Lion is magnificent. There is no fairer or more peaceful looking country in the world than that to-day surrounding the field of Waterloo. The whole appears like a great garden. As I looked around, the rich crops of barley and rye seemed ready for the sickle, a perfect sea of tall, heavily-headed wheat waved gently in the summer breeze, and here and there, in all directions, men and women were cheerily engaged in cutting and making hay. Great rows of trees stretched away between the growing crops and along the public highways, giving relief to the white houses that in ones and twos, and clusters forming villages, dotted every where the green landscape. It is rare indeed that so much rural beauty can be found linked with so much of historic interest. Coming down from the Mound, I made a hasty visit to a few points of special interest on the field, plucked some flowers and a head of wheat from the very spot where the Old Guard made their last charge, and rode back to Brussels, to dream all night of lines of battle, bloody assaults, cavalry charges, squares of infantry, La Belle Alliance, Hougomont, Napoleon, Wellington, Ney, Blucher, Grouchy, defeat, victory. Next morning we left for Cologne and the Rhine, by way of Liege and Aix-la-Chapelle. IN OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, Instruction. N the case of City and Borough Superintendents, as well as in that of County Superintendents, when the person receiving the highest number of votes is Dear Sir: It is my opinion that you have no power proven to be ineligible to the office, the commission to appoint and commission a Superintendent of Pubmust be given to the person receiving the next highest lic Schools for the county of Lackawanna during the and no proceedings pending in the Supreme Court on term of the present incumbent of that office in Lua mandamus affecting the case can be à supersedeas.-zerne county, who was elected by a convention of Attorney General Lear in Letters to the Superintendent of Public Instruction dated September 27th and November 22d, 1878. THE word "sureties," in the Act of May 1854, relating to the bond of the Treasurer of a school district, does not necessarily imply that there must be more than one surety if that one is approved by the board, nor can it be used to relieve a person who has placed his name on the bond of a Treasurer from any responsibility that may attach to that act. If only one name is on the treasurer's bond that name is responsible, if more than one all are responsible conjointly.— Judge Wickes, York County Court. A CITY treasurer under the Act of May 23, 1874, and its several supplements, cannot receive any addition to his stipulated salary from the school board or town council for acting in an ex-officio capacity as the treasurer of a school board. "Any duties which devolve upon an officer ex-officio he must perform as such officer without any compensation other than the salary attached to his office unless some additional compensation is provided by law." As the salary of a city treasurer is fixed by ordinance, it is to be presumed that it is made to cover all ex-officio as well as regular duties.-Attorney General Lear in a letter to Deputy Superintendent Lindsay, dated July 17th, 1878. School Directors last May. He was employed for the term of three years to perform the duty of County Superintendent for the county of Luzerne, at a salary graduated by the number of schools, and fixed by law. That salary cannot be increased or diminished during his term, according to the thirteenth section of the third article of the Constitution. He must be paid even if the work be done by another. He has the right to perform the work required by his appointment to the office. But while he has the right to perform the duties, have you a right to relieve him of a portion of his duties by the appointment of another for a portion of the territory included in his district for which he was commissioned, even with his consent? His election for the term of three years, although by a convention interest of the common schools of the county of Luof school directors, selected him to serve them in the zerne, limited and bounded as it was at the time of his election. Can they be deprived of their choice without direct legislation on the subject, but by the mere accident that the county has been divided during his term? Whether under the present Constitution it can be done by a direct provision in the act for the division of counties it is unnecessary to inquire, tion, therefore, arises: Does the necessity to appoint for no such attempt was made by that act. The quesin the new county, during the term of the present incumbent, result as an accident of the erection of the county with a force which carries with it the right to make the appointment? The act for the erection of new counties authorizes In next column will be found the opinion of the Governor to appoint county officers for any new the Attorney General in full in the case of the ap-county, who "shall continue in office until the next pointment of a County Superintendent in the new county of Lackawanna: general election and until their successors shall be duly elected and qualified." But this power to ap |