tion, defining the conditions of Membership, shall be so construed as to include any person who, having acknowledged and practised teaching as the great avocation of his life for, at least, five consecutive years,-has retired only in consequence of age, infirmity, or like necessity, and has entered upon no business, except one having direct connection with the advancement of the cause of popular education in the Teacher's special charge. The subject of Phonetics was taken from the table on motion. of Dr. Stone of Boston, and the meeting was addressed thereon by Messrs. Smolley, Stone, Thayer, Hammond, Cobb, Philbrick and Vail. The subject was then laid on the table. On motion of Mr. Pennell, the Essay of Miss Bliss, of Springfield, was read by Mr. Sherwin, Chairman of the Committee on Prize Essays. After which, Mr. J. G, Hoyt, of Exeter, [N. H.,] delivered a lecture on "The Indications of Progress in Popular Education," and the Association adjourned to meet at half past 6 o'clock. EVENING SESSION. The President read letters from Dr. Lord, of Columbus, Ohio, and Mr. Tice, of St. Louis, giving information in regard to the progress of education in the West. Voted, That a copy of the "Transactions" be sent to each of those gentlemen, with the thanks of the Association. Voted, That the Board of Editors be instructed to continue the publication of the "Transactions," if it be considered expedient. The two Reports on Phonetics were referred to the Board of Editors for 1853. The Board of Directors were instructed to petition the next Legislature for further pecuniary aid, and for an act of incorporation; also to provide a seal for the Association, and furnish certificates of membership; also, if they shall deem it expedient, to offer, during the ensuing year, prizes for Essays, and make all arrangements for the same. The Committee appointed to publish the proceedings and Lectures of the Association, were instructed to report to the Board of Directors. It was Voted, That a copy of the "Transactions" be presented to each of the gentlemen whose lectures were therein contained, and also that one be presented to the State Library. Voted, That the next meeting of the Association commence at 2 o'clock P. M., on the Monday next preceding the annual Thanksgiving, with the view of prolonging the time of the ses sion. The following gentlemen were chosen as officers for the ensu ing year: William H. Wells, of Newburyport, President. Benjamin Greenleaf, of Bradford; Rufus Putnam, of Salem; D. S. Rowe, of Westfield; Geo. A. Walton, of Lawrence; Geo. Newcomb, of Quincy; Caleb Emery, of Boston; Eben S. Stearns, of West Newton; C. C. Chase, of Lowell; Samuel W. King, of Lynn; D. B. Hagar, of West Roxbury; F. N. Blake, of West Tisbury; N. Tillinghast, of Bridgewater; Jonathan Tenney, of Pittsfield; John F. Emerson, of New Bedford, Vice Presidents. Elbridge Smith, of Cambridge, Corresponding Secretary. Charles Northend, of Salem; Daniel Mansfield, of Cambridge; J. P. Cowles, of Ipswich; Calvin S. Pennell, of Lawrence; John Batchelder, of Lynn; Ebenezer Hervey, of New Bedford; Levi Reed, of Roxbury; George Allen, Jr., of Boston; James M. Lassell, of Cambridge; J. D. Philbrick, of Boston; A. M. Gay, of Charlestown; John Kneeland, of Dorchester, Counsellors. The subject of Phonetics was then taken from the table, and the discussion was continued by Messrs Sherwin, of Boston, and Rowe, of Westfield, and concluded by passing the Resolution of fered by the Committee. Professor Felton, of Harvard University, then delivered a Lecture upon "The English Language as a Branch of Study in our Common Schools." Mr Gardner, of Nantucket, after a grateful acknowledgment for the appropriate and beautiful tribute paid by the lecturer to the memory of Webster, spoke eloquently upon the feelings and impulses which the death of the great statesman had excited. Mr. Stearns, of Boston, followed with appropriate remarks on the same subject. The whole subject of printing the lectures was referred, after some discussion, to the Board of Directors. Mr. Pennell, of Lawrence, offered the following Resolution of thanks, which was adopted: Resolved, That the thanks of this Association be presented to those gentlemen and ladies who have acted as a Committee of Reception, for their prompt and assiduous attentions; to the citizens of New Bedford for their very generous hospitalities to female teachers and others, whom they have welcomed to their homes; to the City Authorities, for the use of the City Hall; to those editors of newspapers, who have gratuitously advertised our meetings; to the superintendents of the several railroads, for the extra facilities which they have extended to us; to the Lecturers, for the rich gratification and instruction they have afforded us; to the Editors of the "Teacher," for their successful labors; to the Committee, who have superintended the publication of the first volume of the Transactions of the Association, for the care and labor they have bestowed upon it; and our thanks and congratulations to all the competitors for the "Essay Prizes," for their successful efforts, for successful we are assured by the Committee they have been in producing good essays, though, of prizes, all could not be partakers. After eloquent remarks by Messrs. Thayer of Boston, and Dellingham of Sandwich, the Association adjourned. The next meeting will be held in Boston. The Prize Essay, by Mr. M. P. Case of Newburyport, will be found on the third page of this number of the "Teacher." The Prize Essay, by Miss Margaret Bliss of Springfield, will appear in the February number. The Essays will be returned to the Authors with the envelopes unopened, on application to Mr. Samuel Coolidge, at the office of the "Massachusetts Teacher." CHARLES J. CAPEN, Secretary. BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. THE Board met at the Latin School, Boston, Dec. 12th ult. The Secretary was instructed to present a copy of the volume of "Transactions," lately published by the Association, to each of the Normal Schools in the State; to the Chairman of the Legis lative Committee on Education, and to each of the members of said Committee; to Mr. J. D. Philbrick, for the Normal School in Connecticut; and was further instructed to forward those copies already voted by the Association. Messrs. Reed, Stearns, and Capen were appointed a Committee to proceed to the publication of another volume of the Transactions. Messrs. Kneeland, Smith, and Gay were appointed to procure a seal and blanks for Certificates of Membership. A Committee of five, consisting of the President, with Messrs. Reed, Smith, Allen and Kneeland, was appointed to petition the next Legislature for an Act of Incorporation, and for pecuniary aid. The sum of thirty dollars was appropriated for the Prize Es says for 1853, and the President of the Association was requested to make arrangements for the same, in accordance with the plan adopted at the last award. The thanks of the Board were presented to Mr. J. D. Philbrick for his constant, able, and energetic services in behalf of the interests of the Association; and especially for his valuable services in sustaining and improving the "Massachusetts Teacher." The Committee on the "Massachusetts Teacher" reported the following gentlemen as constituting the Board of Editors for 1853: [THE following Report was made at the last Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Teachers' Association.] THE Committee, to whom the Phonetic system of instruction was referred at the last meeting of the Massachusetts Teachers' Association, have examined the subject, and would report as follows: Phonography was invented by Isaac Pitman, of Bath, England, in the year 1837. It is a system of short-hand writing, based upon a philosophical representation of the forty sounds of the language; the spoken consonants being represented by heavy marks, and the whispered consonants by light marks; the long vowels being represented by heavy dots and dashes, the short vowels by light dots and dashes. There is a primary style in which the words are generally written without contraction for beginners; a secondary style for correspondence, in which some of the most common words of the language are represented by a portion of the sounds contained in them, in which, while principles of abbreviation, applicable to large classes of sounds, are introduced, each word in the language is still kept distinct from every other word, and a sentence of which, when seen for the first time by one familiar with the art, can be read at the rate of two hundred words per minute; and finally, a third style for reporting, in which there is more contraction, and more abbreviation, and which can be read and written at rates varying from one hundred to two hundred words per minute, according to the skill of the reporter. About five years after the invention of Phonography, Mr. Pitman, with the aid of Alexander John Ellis, B. A., of Bristol, England, invented a system called Phonotopy, or printing by sound, having printed letters in place of the Phonographic, or writing-by-sound characters, which had been previously used, and soon after attached to this a system of longhand Phonography, in which the written letters corresponded to the printed letters in the same way as the common or Romanic writing corresponds to the Romanic printing. In Phonotopy all the letters of the Romanic alphabet were preserved which could be used to advantage. It was found that the three letters k, q and x, were duplicates of other letters, and therefore useless, the sound of the letter k, when not mute, being accurately represented by c, that of q, with the letter u added, either by c, or cw, and x, by c, z, cs, or gz; in all these cases, c and g having their hard or guttural sounds. The remaining letters of the Romanic alphabet are made in the Phonetic print, uniformly to represent those sounds for which they most frequently stand in the usual print. The seventeen. new letters, which it was necessary to introduce for those sounds of the English which were generally designated by combina ions of letters in the Romanic print, were made so much in harmony with the remainder of the alphabet, that a person previously unacquainted with the Phonetic print can read the most of the words without assistance. It is thought that the principal object in securing this resem blance of the Phonetic print to the Romanic, was originally to induce the public to adopt the former as a substitute for the latter. But it has been found, without taking a radical step, that a wonderful gain may be made in teaching the reading, spelling, and enunciation of the common orthography, by the primary use of the Phonetic alphabet, and the Phonetic books. Not only should the child be taught to read by the means of the sounds of the language, which has been a favorite idea of many prominent friends of education, but he should have a fixed character for every sound, or else, in the outset, he will be likely to have a natural tendency to dislike his book; a |