THE early Dutch settlers of Manhattan were educated in the first common schools known in Europe, and have the immortal honor of establishing the first on this continent, for the education of all classes of society, at the public expense.

The Dutch government bound the company to support ministers and schoolmasters, and the company imposed the same obligation on the patrons, in their respective agricultural colonies. Here, as in the mother-country, the schools were under the direction of the established church; the importance of a secular education for all, controlled by the state, and untrammelled by denominationalism, was not yet understood. The offices of minister and schoolmaster appear to have been united in one person, during the reign of Peter Minuits, the first governor, but were divided at the advent of his successor, in 1633. During the first forty years, the schools were held in such premises as could be obtained. An effort indeed appears to have been made to erect a school-house in 1642, but the funds raised for this purpose were again and again diverted for the common defence against the Indians, who roamed over nearly the whole island, so that no building for school purposes was probably erected until after the English occupation. Peter Stuyvesant evidently took considerable interest in education, for at his surrender of the colony to the English, there were in New Amsterdam, a town of fifteen hundred inhabitants, twelve or fifteen private, and three public schools, besides a Latin school established in 1659, whose reputation had attracted students from various parts of the continent. With the transfer of the government from the Dutch to the English, the public support of the schools (save to the Latin, which continued but a few years) was withdrawn. The sturdy Dutch, however, kept on the even tenor of their way for many years, both in church and school. The "School of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, " now conducted at No. 160 West Twenty-ninth street, dates back in its origin to the Dutch dynasty, and is probably the oldest educational institution in the country, its managers having, however, imbibed the enlightened sentiments of their cotemporaries. Early in the eighteenth century, English schools became somewhat common in New York, and on Long Island. In 1710, the school still existing and known as "Trinity School," was established by William Huddlestone, under the direction of a society connected with the English church, and in 1754, King's College (now Columbia) was established. The Dutch struggled long and zealously against the extinction of the language and customs of their country, and as late as 1755 imported a zealous Holland schoolmaster, who served them with great acceptability for eighteen years, but was mournfully compelled ere his death to introduce English studies in the school, and to listen to preaching in the English language in the church. The capture of New York by the British, in 1776, was the signal for closing the schools, which continued until the evacuation, seven years after.