from tears. But the tide, (which stays for no man,) calling them away that were thus loth to depart, their reverend pastor falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with most fervent prayers unto the Lord, and his blessing; and then, with mutual embraces, and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them."

Such being the elements which tended to organize the cities of the New World, little need we wonder to find that, it was in 1647, regulated in general court, in Massachusets, "to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers in Church and State, that every township of fifty householders, should appoint a public school for the instruction of children in reading and writing, and that every town of one hundred householders, should set up a grammar school, in which the master should be able to fit scholars for the University." This law, the eloquent Judge Story states "has in substance continued down to the present times, and it has contributed more than any other circumstance to give that peculiar character to the inhabitants and institutions of Massachusetts, for which she, in common with the New England States, indulges an honest and not unreasonable pride."

Contrast this law with a dictum of subsequent date, (1671) of Sir William Berkeley, whose reply to the Lords Commissioners respecting religious and other instructions in Virginia, fully bears out what I have already alleged as to the different primary constitutions of the American Colonies. "I thank God there are no free schools, nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels upon the best government. The Lord keep us from both.* This misogrammatist should have been a Spanish colonist, and

* Poor Sir William Berkeley, (if ghosts revisit earth,) must now have the uncomfortable reflection that Virginia, like the Northern States, has adopted a school system, and expends large sums in education.

would, even at a later date, have luxuriated in the edicts against learning, which distinguished the Spanish scheme of government. Hear Sir H. G. Ward on the matter, in his well-known work on Mexico.-" Liberty to found a school of any kind, was (latterly) almost invariably refused. The municipality of Buenos Ayres was told, in answer to a petition in favour of an establishment, in which nothing but mathematics was to be taught, that learning did not become Colonies. The Padre Mier (author of a very curious work on the Mexican Revolution,) enumerates various instances of a similar kind. In Bogota, the study of chemistry was prohibited, though permitted in Mexico; and in New Grenada, the works of the celebrated Mutis, though purely botanical, were not allowed to be published. Permission to visit foreign countries, or even the Peninsula, was very rarely granted, and that only for a very limited time. A printing press was conceded as a special privilege by the Council of the Indies, and that only to the three Viceroyalties-Mexico, Buenos Ayres, and Peru; to Caracas, and many other considerable towns, it was denied altogether. To guard against the importation of books, was, as I before observed, the special province of the Inquisition; and the whole ingenuity of this odious tribunal, was exerted, in order to check it. Not only were vessels subjected to a rigorous examination upon their arrival in port, but the captains were rendered. personally responsible, for the correctness of the list of books on board, which they were compelled to give in. In the interior, domiciliary visits were resorted to, and denunciations encouraged amongst members of the same family; with what success, may be inferred, from the fact that, as late as 1807, a Mexican called Don Jose Rosas, was denounced by his own mother, for having a volume of Rousseau in his possession, and confined for several years in the dungeons of the Holy Office. He was fortunate enough to effect his escape, but died in 1811, at New Orleans. These instances of ex

treme severity, however, were rare, and were less felt, because, in theory at least, the jurisdiction of the Inquisition was as extensive in the mother country as in the colonies. In practice its prohibitions were disregarded in both by the higher classes, who were in general acquainted with all the most violent publications of the earlier days of the French Revolution, to the study of which, the very anxiety that was shewn to exclude them, gave an additional zest.”

By their fruits ye shall know them :-the peace and greatness of America are in no jeopardy from her civilized sons of the North; but in spite of the introduction of the arts which Sir William Berkeley despised, the dissolute ferocity of the South and West, have often brought the whole government into connection with shame; and Spain, once a power, but now a bye-word among nations, has begotten colonies, whose only hope of regeneration is in measures, which a precocity of rottenness renders feasible;-had they not, politically speaking, so early perished, their political regeneration would have become day by day more impracticable. "Dans les monarchies," says Montesquieu, "les lois de l' Education auront pour objêt l'honneur: dans les republiques, la vertu: dans le despotisme, la crainte ;"—and, it is to be feared that the last proposition, though inapplicable to the Northern States, has been made true in more American Colonies than those which were so long misgoverned by Spain.

The subject of education is not under the same laws in each, even of the Northern States of America, but there are certain broad principles which assimilate the course of education throughout New England.

By the federal government,* in the disposition of public lands, it is ordered that one section of each township, shall be reserved for common schools, in addition to provision for

* See Ordinance of Congress, 13th July, 1787, the third fundamental article of which makes provision respecting education.

colleges. In the Western States, one thirty-sixth of the public lands, is devoted to school endowments. But these regulations are clearly inapplicable to the older States of the Union, where the public lands had passed into private possession before the American constitution was framed. The requirements of the State are, however, usually exceeded by the zeal of citizens:-in Boston, when the expenditure on free schools, legally required, was three thousand dollars, the actual expenditure was sixty thousand; and by it there were supported eighty schools, comprising 7430 pupils; besides which there were 155 private schools in the city, with 4018 pupils, giving a total of 11,448 pupils, in a population of less than 62,000 souls.

In Connecticut we find, (vide Mr Mackay's Western World: 1846-47,)—"The State is divided into upwards of 1660 school districts, in all of which schools are in operation. In 1847, upwards of 80,000 were instructed in all the elements of a good ordinary education at these schools; the rate per child at which they were taught for a year, being one dollar and forty-five cents, or about six shillings sterling. In addition to this, there are in the State several colleges, and upwards of 130 academies and grammar schools, the State confining its operations, to the bringing home to every citizen a good elementary education. And it is only when the State, as a State, undertakes the work, that it can be done in the effectual manner in which it has been achieved in Connecticut."

In explaining how it is that there are differences in degree of education in the several states, it may be necessary to remark, that the control of the subject has not been vested in the federal government: it has been reserved as one of the most appropriate topics on which the ancient British municipal principle could be exercised, and the interest which this self-governing principle has engendered, bears ample testimony to the wisdom of the course

which was originally adopted; the State certainly requires that there shall be a school in each place which comprises a certain number of inhabitants; the details of the school regulations are managed locally; the select-men, who are annually elected, are bound to take order for convening the electors on occasions of magnitude; the electors decide as to some principal points, vote the requisite rate, and confide to the select-men the execution of the project. In this way schools are built, and by this system of local management, there is kept up a spirit of watchfulness, and a readiness of energy, which not only satisfy the mere requirements of the law in regard to school expenditure, but usually go far beyond, as I have already cited the case of Boston to prove.

In order to prevent schools from degenerating into the tools of sects, it has, in more than one instance, been provided, (I quote now a law of New York,) "that no school shall be entitled to a portion of the school moneys in which the religious sectarian doctrine or tenet of any particular Christians, or other religious doctrine shall be taught, inculcated, or practised."*

I know not the causes of mistrust which may have seemed to make such a law necessary, but whatever they were they did not militate against the attendance at the generality of the schools, for in New York, as in the New England States, nearly every child that is able to attend school is sent thither. Latterly the particular attention of the United States Government has been attracted to the consideration of public schools, and the talented and diligent Horace Mann,

* The Trustees of the Public School Society remark on this point, "that, indepen dent of the difficulties arising from a variety of religious views, there are but thirty of the one hundred and forty-eight hours of the week, (six hours of five days only,) occupied in our schools; that during those thirty hours, the pupils are to be taught reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, geography, astronomy, history, drawing, mapping, the elements of natural science, and what is called knowledge of common things; and that this short period is liable to be interrupted by the time requisite for those changes of position, and those seasons of recess and relaxation which are indispensable to the health and happiness of the children."