truth, more enlightened and comprehensive than those which had been adopted in Europe at the era of the Reformation. In the latter, religious culture seems to have been almost the only object; in the former, it was also an object to make enlightened citizens capable of self-government, and trained to habits of regular industry.

Not satisfied, however, with these provisions for domestic education, the inhabitants soon proceeded to lay the foundation of that Common School system which has been so long the pride and strength of New-England. As early as 1647, only twenty-seven years after the landing of the Mayflower at Plymouth, it was enacted in Massachusetts, in order that "learning," to use the language of the statute, "might not be buried in the graves of their forefathers both in church and commonwealth-that (the Lord assisting their endeavours) in every township containing fifty householders or more, one should forthwith be appointed to teach such children as should resort to him to read and write; and that, in any township containing one hundred householders, they should set up a grammar-school to fit youth for the University. This law, planting elementary schools at the door of every family, was the first, it is presumed, adopted by any Christian state, and may claim to be the parent of much

*

* It is somewhat humiliating to reflect, that the earliest law on record, providing for the universal diffusion of school education, was the work of a people whom we are pleased to style barbarians (the Chinese), and was in existence two thousand years ago. According to a late writer (Davis), it required that every town and village, down even to a few families, should have a Common School. He also states that one of their works, of a date anterior to the Christian era, speaks of the "ancient system of instruction." It is proper, however, to add, that it does not seem to have been the object of the Chinese, as of the New-England system, to favour a free and full development of man's nature. The studies are confined by authority to one unvarying routine; science, properly so called, is excluded; the spirit of spontaneous inquiry is repressed, and the whole aim

of the legislation on the subject of Popular Instruction which has distinguished the last half century.*

To maintain and perpetuate religious knowledge among the people was evidently the chief object with the framers of these early school-laws, both in the Old World and in the New. With some notion of the importance, as well to the state as to the individual, of a comprehensive and generous culture, which should awaken and train all the powers of the soul, it is still clear that they failed to recognise all its value in these respects. In Europe it is now admitted that the elementary education given in obedience to these regulations contributed but little to raise the character of the

is to make an orderly and industrious servant of the state as now constituted. To use the language of another, "the whole channel of thought and feeling for each generation is scooped out by that which preceded it, and the stream always fills, but rarely overflows its embankments." It is also questionable whether the Chinese schools succeed in making the whole population capable, as is sometimes said, of reading. According to some missionaries, many of the inhabitants are unable to read at all, and others do it mechanically, and without any perception of the meaning of the author.

* The system of parochial schools in Scotland is sometimes appealed to, as the earliest example of a legal provision for universal education. The law, however, establishing these schools, was not passed till 1696, nearly 50 years after the enactment of the one in Massachusetts; and the preamble of that law clearly shows that the previous efforts of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, and of the civil government in behalf of Education, had failed to make it general. This preamble states that "Our Sovereign Lord, considering how prejudicial the want of schools in many places had been, and how beneficial the establishing and settling thereof will be to this church and kingdom, therefore his majesty, with advice and consent," &c., and then the act proceeds to order that a school be established and a schoolmaster appointed in every parish, and that the landlords be obliged to build a schoolhouse and a dwelling-house for the use of the master, and that they pay him a certain salary, exclusive of the fees of the scholars.

mass of the people. In New-England, much was probably ascribed to schools which resulted from other causes, such as the animating influence of a New World, with all its tempting prizes, its numberless incentives to enterprise and forecast, and the opportunities which it afforded, in its political and ecclesiastical institutions, for the cultivation and gradual development of knowledge and power."

That these schools have exercised a vast and most happy influence, not only over New-England, but over all parts of our country, is unquestionable; yet it is evident that even in Massachusetts itself, the very cradle of the system, their unspeakable importance has not been duly appreciated. While wealth and population were increasing, and education, of course, was growing more and more necessary, the statute-books of that state show for a long period only a declining interest in schools. The salutary rigour of the primitive laws was gradually relaxed, till in 1789 it was ordained that common schools need be maintained but six months in the year, and grammar-schools only when there were two hundred householders in a town; and in 1824 it was declared, that in towns having less than FIVE thousand inhabitants, none but a teacher of English need be provided.† It is grateful to add, however, that during the last five years this downward course of legislation has been arrested,‡ and

* The influence which our institutions exert (especially as they unfold themselves in New-England) in developing intelligence, selfcontrol, and activity, has been explained with great clearness and accuracy by De Tocqueville. See his Democracy in America.

+ There was also a provision in the colony charter of Massachusetts, that towns of more than 500 families should support ttoo grammar-schools and two writing-schools. This provision disappeared in the later, commonly called the province, charter.

The testimony of the present enlightened secretary of the Board of Education (in Massachusetts) indicates how much the schools had failed to accomplish their ends. Speaking of their state at the time of his appointment (1837), he says, "The Common School system

that the most enlightened and liberal efforts are now making to raise the standard of public instruction in that ancient and honoured commonwealth.

In our own state, the Common School-as part of a system of public instruction, maintained and encouraged by law-is of recent origin. The act establishing the Common School Fund, which has formed the basis of the system, was passed in 1805;* but no revenue was distributed,

of Massachusetts has fallen into a state of general unsoundness and debility; a great majority of the schoolhouses are not only ill adapted to encourage mental effort, but in many cases are absolutely perilous to the health and symmetrical growth of the children; the schools are under a sleepy supervision; many of the most intelligent and wealthy of our citizens have become estranged from their welfare; and the teachers of the schools, although, with very few exceptions, persons of estimable character and of great private worth, yet, in the absence of all opportunities to qualify themselves for the performance of the most delicate and difficult task which, in the arrangements of Providence, is committed to human hands, are necessarily, and therefore without fault of their own, deeply and widely deficient in the two indispensable prerequisites for their office, viz., a knowledge of the human mind as the subject of improvement, and a knowledge of the means best adapted wisely to unfold and direct its growing faculties."

* Ten years earlier, a temporary appropriation ($50,000 annually for five years) was made "for the encouragement of schools." Owing to the state of the treasury, but about $150,000 of this appropriation was realized. The statute was in many respects imperfect, and was suffered to expire; but it contained one important principle, which was afterward incorporated with the Common School system of the state. This was, that the supervisors of the counties should distribute the amount of the grant among the several towns, and that these towns should raise equal amounts by tax. By the existing law, however, the money is apportioned according to the whole population; by the law of 1795 it was distributed according to the number of taxable inhabitants. The former is evidently the more equitable and benevolent provision; and it may be doubted whether the principle of it ought not to be extended. The moneys granted from the state treasury are intended both to encourage and to assist

nor was any system organized, till ten years later. But twenty-seven years have now elapsed since the organization was completed, and it is most cheering to consider, that within that brief space, ten thousand and five hundred schools have been established and supplied with schoolhouses; that nearly three millions of dollars are now annually expended in their support; and that more than five hundred thousand children are reported as being under instruction.

A fund, amounting in all to more than five millions of dollars, is held sacred by the state for their use, and the annual revenue of this fund, together with an equal sum raised by taxation, is dispensed each year among all the School Districts of the state, in proportion to the number of children within the bounds of each, and on condition, that the school is kept open four months in the year, by a teacher who has been duly examined and licensed. That these schools have exerted a great and beneficial influence can hardly be doubted. In 1816,* when the first returns were

the people in educating their children. In both respects, it is often more needed, and would prove more useful, in sparsely settled districts, where the inhabitants are generally poor, than in districts which are rich and populous. It may be doubted, too, whether the distribution should not be so regulated as to stimulate improvement, both in the attendance of scholars and in the qualifications of teachers. By the present law, the amount apportioned to a town depends on the whole population; the amount apportioned to a district depends on the number of children in said district over five and under sixteen years of age. Would it not be an improvement if, leaving the apportionment to the towns as it is, the amount allowed to the districts were according to the actual attendance at school for any given period?

* The present Common School system owes its organization to a law passed in 1811, authorizing the governor to appoint five commissioners, to report to the next Legislature a system for the establishment of Common Schools, and the distribution of the interest of the School Fund. These commissioners reported on the 4th of