In all the territories of the Northwest as they were successively carved out of the old Northwest Territory, provisions were made in their organic acts for universities, to be endowed by grants of land from the general government. That universities could not in fact appear and exist until after the development of fitting schools did not trouble the pioneers, intent chiefly on getting the lands. The reliance of American colleges generally for the preparation of their students had been upon the excellent academies, controlled or countenanced by Christian denominations, which were the ornaments of so many eastern villages. The academy did not multiply nor flourish in the West. Ambitious cities existing on highly colored lithographic maps could tolerate nothing less than a college or university. A score of them were chartered in Minnesota in the fifties. All the western colleges were obliged to open preparatory departments, and it may be said that they have never done more useful service than in thus setting patterns for the secondary education of the future. When the University of Minnesota began college work in 1869 there were practically no efficient preparatory schools in the state. After a study of the situation the president of the university formed the opinion that it was to the budding high schools of the state that the university must look for its supply of students prepared for college work. At the state teachers’ convention of 1872 that body was asked by a committee from the board of regents to join in an endeavor to bring about a vital organic connection between the high schools and the university. It was not proposed that these schools should be made over into mere “fitting schools,” but that, while performing their great function as “people’s colleges,” they should accommodate those worthy, and ambitious youth desirous to carry their school and professional educations still farther. The idea was not unwelcome, but it was not easy to work out a plan of vital, organic connection. Yet one was worked out, embodied in a bill drawn by the head of the university, and laid before the legislature of 1878. The law enacted provided for a money payment out of the state treasury to any high school which, having the proper faculty and equipment, would maintain preparatory courses of study, and admit thereto pupils of both sexes from any part of the state, free of tuition. The schools were obliged to submit to inspection and make reports to the “high school board.” The high schools of cities and villages were thus employed as the state’s agencies for extending free secondary education to all the youth of the state. A beginning was made under the law in the year of its passage, but owing to an omission in an appropriation bill it was not put into full and effective operation till 1881. The results have fully equaled all reasonable expectations. The university, the high schools, and the common schools of Minnesota