EDUCATION, The present public school system of Virginia was inaugurated in 1870, and as a re sult the school attendance, which had been very low in the preceding years, rapidly increased. In 1S70 the attendance was 59,000, while in 1871, after the new law went into operation, it reached 158,000. The system is under the control of Superintendent of Public Instruction, elected for four years by a joint ballot of the Central Assembly, :old a Board of Education, composed of the Governor, Superintendent of Public In struction, and Attorney-General. This board has general supervision of the State school fund and with the consent of the State Senate ean re move county and city superintendents. The school fund is augmented by a tax of not less than 1 and not more than 5 mills on the dollar, ap portioned among the various school districts ac cording to the number of chihlren of school age. All schools, excepting primary, must be in ses sion at least five months, fifteen pupils being the minimum number required to constitute a school. Both white and colored pupils hate equal educa tional privileges, although separate schools are umintainod. The total imputation of school age in the census year 1900 was 704,771, consisting of 4:15,612 whites and 268,962 colored. Of the total number 301,330, or 42.2 per cent., were in attendance. Of the whites of school age 48.1 per cent. were in attendance, as against 32.6 per cent. of the colored of school age. Of the popula tion ten years of age and upward, 22.9 per cent. were illiterate. The white illiterates formed 11.1 per cent. of the total white population, and the coloml illiterates 44.6 of the total colored popu lation.
The leading educational institutions are the College of William and Mary (q.v.), at Williams burg; the University of Virginia (q.v.), at Char lottesville; Washington and Lee University (q.v.), at Lexington; Richmond College, at Rich mond; Randolph-Macon College, at Ashland: Roanoke College, at Salem; Virginia Union Uni versity, at Richmond ; Emory and 'Henry College, at Emory; Bridgewater College, at Bridgewater; Ilampden-Sidney College, at Hampden-Sidney; and Fredericksburg College, at Fredericksburg. Normal courses are given at the College of and Mary, the Hampton Normal and Agri cultural Institute, the Virginia Normal and Col legiate Institute, at Petersburg, and the State Female Normal School, at Farmville.
ClIARITABLE AND PENAL INSTITUTIONS. There is an asylum for the deaf, dumb, and blind at Staunton, and an industrial reform school for white boys at Laurel. There are insane asylums for whites at Staunton, Williamsburg, and Mar ion, the number of inmates in September, 1900, aggregating 1918. An insane asylum for negroes at Petersburg had 868 inmates at the same date. There is a soldiers' home near Richmond. The State penitentiary, at Richmond, on October 1, 1899, had 224 white and 1039 colored convicts. There were also 56 white and 197 colored con vict: on the State farm. The expene on account of the convicts is more than balanced by their ea Things.
HisTonv. The name Virginia was given by Queen Elizabeth to the country explored by the expedition nailer Armadas and Barlow, sent out by Sir Walter Ralcoh in 1584 (See NORTH .