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STATE OR MUNICIPAL SUPERVISION OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS. 189 
State were abolished, and Congress was petitioned by the State to make 
national laws to regulate all pilotage. Failing in this direction, in 1846, 
the merchants and underwriters of New York, under the pressure of loss 
of life and money, by voluntary codperation organized a Board of Commis- 
sioners of Pilots—composed of five members, two of whom were elected by 
the Chamber of Commerce and two by the Board of Underwriters, and 
one appointed by the Secretary of the Navy—whose duty it was to 
examine and issue certificates to as many persons to act as pilots for the 
port of New York as they may deem the navigation of the port requires.” 
This purely voluntary board gradually built up an efficient pilotage service 
whose benefits every transatlantic traveler still enjoys. And now follows 
the instructive paragraph in this incident in the legal history of New 
York. 
In 1853, when it was proposed to deal with the subject by legislation, 
the Chamber of Commerce and the leading marine underwriters dreaded 
a return to the old monopoly, and remonstrated against any legislative 
nterference. But when the legislature’s bill was matured, and when in 
June, 1854, the act was passed, in onc of those lucid intervals that come 
even to politicians and State legislators, ¢ adopted the system devised by 
the merchants and underwriters, and created o board of five commais- 
stoners, to be elected, three by the Chamber of Commerce and two by the 
Board of Underwriters, identical with the then existing board, save as to a 
representative of the Navy Department. The commissioners of the volun- 
tary board were at once elected as members of the State board, and every 
one of them served in it until the day of his death. 
In this way, by adopting and legalizing the action of the merchants and 
inderwriters, the legislature of 1853 well and wisely divorced the Sandy 
Hook pilotage service from politics and partisanship, and delegated to the 
:wo commercial bodies in the great metropolis best qualified for the trust, 
she selection of the State officers who should administer the system. The 
compulsory features of the law excited opposition, and it was denounced 
anconstitutional by reason of the method it provided for the election of 
the commissioners ; but the Court of Appeals held that it was a valid and 
constitutional act. 
I have dwelt at length upon this pilotage system of New York, because 
[ believe it shows clearly a safe and efficient solution of precisely such a 
sroblem as we have before us, and because it illustrates once more our 
American ingenuity in making the government our servant rather than 
in appointing it as our master. A commission of six members in each 
State could be named by the two or three leading colleges or universities. 
This commission could be legally approved by the legislature to pass upon 
che qualifications of all teachers in our private schools, and to examine 
these schools at stated times, as is the practice in France. Such visita- 
tion by college professors and distinguished citizens would be primarily