the public welfare be regarded as the test of public spirit, and the just measure of popular favor.

If it be not true that the political power of the people is generally employed for what seems to them their own good, we must abandon all the theories of a republican government. If this power be thus employed, we need only enlighten the mind which directs it, and it is our fault if it be not found on the side of virtue and patriotism. Let it not be supposed that we would separate the power of knowledge from that of morals and religion. The remarks we have made we wish to be understood as applied to the people in their civil relations. But if we go further, and regard religion and morals as the highest objects of education, as they truly are, it certainly will not be denied that education furnishes the principal, and almost the sole means, of their diffusion.

On the other hand, let it be remembered that the uneducated and unenlightened must necessarily be the mere playthings and tools of political ambition. Those base men who pervert their station, or abuse the public confidence for private purposes, have nothing to fear but from just sentiment and enlightened opinion. Prejudice and ignorance are the very elements from which proceed all popular error, confusion, and violence. It is the business of education to purify this atmosphere and to drive out the pestilence. The hand which perchance may wield the public destinies, is nothing in itself; it is the terrible engine which it puts in motion which alone is to be dreaded.

It may not be without just cause that, in some other countries, it is considered a dangerous thing to enlighten the people. But with us, the question of their political power is settled-and, if they are true to themselves, it is settled forever. We wish to keep that power in their hands, and to enable them to exercise it with wisdom. The laboring classes have been justly called the backbone and sinews of the republic. It is not enough . that they know how to read, write, and cast accounts. We wish to provide for them better excitements than they now have. We wish them to enjoy the pleasures, as well as other advantages, of intellectual occupation. We wish them to be able to understand and admire the beneficence of the Creator in the works of His hands. We wish them to feel that virtue is the first distinction among men, and knowledge the second, and to be themselves the great exemplar of these truths.

Entertaining these views, we hold that there is no object of greater magnitude within the whole range of legislation, no more imperative demand for public revenue, than the establishment of competent schools and seminaries of learning. We hold that, in the nature of things, nothing can be better entitled to a share of the public revenue than that from which private and public wealth derive all their value and security. In short, our schools are the very foundation upon which rest the peace, good order, and properity of society.

It is time to pass from this general view to a more particular consideration of the necessity and nature of the reform which is called for. We con

ceive that our present establishments are altogether inadequate to the wants of the community.

The money expended upon public schools in Boston, in the year 1826, amounted to upwards of $54,000, exclusive of all expenses of building. From the best information we can obtain, the expenditures of that city for the same object, during the past year, amounted to $70,000.

The whole revenue of the Public School Society of New York, exclusive of about $4,400 received from pay scholars, for the year ending on the 1st of May last, was less than $20,000. This sum includes all the public moneys expended upon common schools, except $2,155.50 distributed to the Mechanics', the Orphan Asylum, and the Manumission Societies. It would be a waste of time to attempt to strengthen this statement by any comments we could make. We shall hereafter point out those particulars in which we conceive that our plan of public education needs to be enlarged.

We have already stated that our present system does not harmonize with the spirit of our political institutions. It is well known that the schools of the Society were formerly exclusively "free schools." It was thought that a reluctance naturally arising from a general spirit of independence to receive even instruction as a charity, would exclude many from the benefits of education.

The removal of this impediment, by receiving compensation from such as choose to make it, has doubtless been attended with very beneficial consequences. Public instruction has been, to a considerable extent, freed from its degrading associations with poverty and charity.

Still, these consequences have not been so extensive as was hoped. About two thirds only of the whole number admitted into our schools are pay scholars. It is not certain what portion of these would have been excluded if the old system had continued.

It is now in the power of the public to remedy this evil entirely, and to introduce a corresponding benefit, which the pay system was never competent, nor even designed, to produce.

We desire to see our public schools so endowed and provided, that they shall be equally desirable for all classes of society. To effect this, the means of instruction which are offered to the poor should be the very best which can be provided. They may not all be able to proceed so far in the path of learning as others in happier circumstances. But to the extent of their progress let them have all the helps which the present state of knowledge affords. This is no mere fanciful theory. The advantages of a free intercourse and competition between persons of all ranks and conditions in life, as exhibited in the Edinburgh High School, have been admirably illustrated by one of the first British orators of the age. He regarded such an institution as invaluable in a free State; because, to use his own language, men of the highest and lowest rank in the community sent their children there, to be educated together. The practical beneficence of this system is attested by the noble institutions of a sister city. It is by such an union and intercourse that the real worth of outward distinctions is perceived that the highest rewards of merit are felt to be equally offered to all-that the jeal

ousies which are too apt to arise from difference of condition are melted away, and that the relations which subsist between the different classes of society are felt to be the relations of mutual advantage and dependence, and not those of hostility.

We are aware that it will be regarded by many as impracticable, that these advantages should ever be realized to the full extent we have contemplated, under the peculiar local circumstances of this city. This objection is not without foundation; but we are satisfied that it will be found to grow less and less the more our system of education is improved, and that it will be principally confined to the lower schools. But if it be admitted that an equal distribution of the blessings of education to all classes of society can never be realized, this surely does not lessen its importance to those who cannot receive it without our aid.

If we would make our schools what, they ought to be, we must offer higher rewards for the qualifications of teachers. The dignity of the office of teacher has been too often measured by the subjects of instruction. It has been thought that those pursuits which are level to the capacities of boys do not require the talents which are called forth by the active competition of men. This estimate proceeds, in part, from the idea that education consists in teaching certain truths, as it were, by rote; whereas its highest office is to instil principles and call forth the powers-to instruct us how to think-to teach its pupils how to make that which they derive from other sources their own, not by the mere tenure of memory, but by incorporating it with the very substance and strength of their faculties.

We hasten to present to the public some changes in our system which we think necessary, and others which we hope to see adopted, sooner or later.

It is obvious, from what we have already said, that these schools should be supported from the public revenue, should be public property, and should be open to all, not as a charity, but as a matter of common right.

We propose that infant schools should be established throughout the city, to receive children from three to six years of age. The separation of these from older children is necessary, to prevent disorder, and to economize time and labor. The instruction of these children is peculiar; its expense is very trifling, and is much more than repaid by the great domestic economy which results from it. We need not enlarge upon its benefits. It is obvious that the receptacles of these children must be numerous, and be dispersed throughout the city, and that they should be under the charge of females.

The difficulty of sending very young children to places of instruction is among the principal obstacles which debar them from its benefits. The most important consideration respecting these schools is, that they appeal to parents before they have any apology, or even motive, for keeping their children at home, and that, when these children are once in the way of instruction, they are likely to be kept there.

In the next place, we would greatly enlarge the number of schools in which a common English education is taught. A very great majority of