houses of New England, there may be undisturbed sleep, within unbarred doors. And knowing that our government rests directly on the public will, that we may preserve it, we endeavor to give a safe and proper direction to that public will. We do not, indeed, expect all men to be philosophers, or statesmen ; but we confidently trust, and our expectation of the duration of our system of government rests on that trust, that by the diffusion of general knowledge, and good and virtuous sentiments, the political fabric may be secure, as well against open violence and overthrow, as against the slow but sure undermining of licentiousness.

"I rejoice, that every man in this community may call all property his own, so far as he has occasion for it, to furnish for himself and his children the blessings of religious instruction and the elements of knowledge. This celestial, and this earthly light, he is entitled to, by the fundamental laws. It is every poor man's undoubted birthright, it is the great blessing, which this constitution has secured to him, it is his solace in life, and it may well be his consolation in death, that his country stands pledged, by the faith, which it has plighted to all its citizens, to protect his children from ignorance, barbarism, and vice."" pp. 48-50.

The remainder of Mr Carter's pamphlet is devoted to the inquiry, how the public free schools can be improved and made more useful. This, he thinks, can be done by selecting the teachers from among persons whose success in life shall be identified with their success in this occupation, which is now rarely the case; and by introducing the principles of inductive logic into all the different branches of education. This last point he illustrates much at large by examples of inductive teaching in the languages, in geography, and in arithmetic; the last, as exhibited in Mr Colburn's recent valuable publications, which are there very thoroughly analysed and examined.

We do not propose to follow Mr Carter into this portion of his inquiries. He has managed it as he has the whole, with much ability and a thorough knowledge of the ground he occupies, and of the objects he wishes to attain; and we commend it, as we do the entire pamphlet, to the careful attention of all who are interested in the vast subject of free schools, for Mr Carter is evidently a person whose inquiries, experience, and reflections give him a claim to be heard with respect and confidence.

We wish, however, to offer a few hints, chiefly taken from Mr Carter's pamphlet, on the course of legislation in Massa

chusetts concerning Free Schools, and its probable effects, thinking the present an important crisis in the history of popular education throughout the country.

The earliest trace of a free school, intended for universal education, has escaped Mr Carter's diligence; but it is so honorable a testimony to the character of our ancestors, that we must be permitted to produce it. It is found in the Records of the Town of Boston, vol. 1. p. 3, under date of the thirteenth of the second month, 1635, and provides, that our brother Philemon Pormont shall be entreated to become schoolmaster for the teaching and nurturing of youth among us.' That he served only a short time, if at all, is probable, because at the end of the same volume of Records, with the date of August 1636, is a curious memorandum of subscriptions towards the maintenance of a free schoolmaster, for Mr Daniel Maude being now also chosen thereto.' So that within five years from the first peopling of the peninsula of Boston, when the rudest wants of its inhabitants were yet very imperfectly satisfied, a school was established among them, apparently under the auspices of John Winthrop, the first governor of the colony, for the purpose of promoting universal instruction. And this is the foundation of the free schools and the popular education of New England.

In 1647, free schools became a matter of legislation in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and by a law then passed, 'to the end' as its preamble sets forth that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers' it is ordered that every township with fifty families shall provide a school, where children may be taught to read and write; and that every township of one hundred families shall provide a grammar school, where youth can be fitted for the university; to which another law was added in 1683, providing that every township with more than five hundred families should maintain two grammar schools and two writing schools; a burthen, which, considering the feeble means of the colony, and the dark period when it was assumed, was no doubt vastly greater, than any similar burthen that has been borne since; and, when compared with the present wealth of the state, greater than any one of its civil expenses.

It is a singular fact, too, that no legal requisitions made! since have, even in name and form, come up to this noble

standard established by our poor and suffering forefathers in the middle of the seventeenth century. The charter of William and Mary having rendered a new law expedient, an act was passed by the Province in 1692, containing provisions similar to that of 1647; but omitting the requisition made in 1683 on towns of five hundred families to maintain two grammar schools and two writing schools. A still greater falling off followed the settlement of the constitution of 1780, though that constitution solemnly recognised the duty of cherishing the grammar schools, for by the act of 1789, towns of fifty families are required to support a reading and writing school only six months in the year instead of twelve as before, and towns of two hundred families are required to have a grammar school, instead of towns of one hundred as before. finally, by the act of February 18, 1824, any town may refuse to have a grammar school, whose inhabitants fall short of five thousand; or, in other words, no town in Massachusetts, except five or six, is now required to furnish the higher branches of a common education to all its children.

And

We confess that we regard this course of legislation on the subject of free schools with much regret. The laws have been continually diminishing their requisitions, until, at last, these requisitions are altogether nominal; until in fact they are made where they are not wanted, and omitted where they are. A moment's consideration will render this statement plain. All the towns of Massachusetts, except Boston, Salem, Newburyport, and two or three others, can exempt themselves from having schools for any other purposes, than to teach 'orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, and good behavior.' Now both the compulsory provisions of this law are useless. There was no need of requiring the towns of Massachusetts to preserve their English schools, for as Mr Carter happily observes, the laws for the support of the primary free schools, have never been executed upon a niggardly and parsimonious construction. The public mind upon this subject has gone much before the laws. They have followed at a large distance rather than stimulated and controlled any interest. The towns have, in many instances, made appropriations for the primary schools of twice the sums of money necessary to answer the letter of the law.' In the case of the large towns the requi

sition is yet less needed. They already do ten and twenty times more than is asked of them. Boston, for instance could fairly fulfil the requisitions of this law by a tax of three thousand dollars; but, Boston actually spent seventyfour thousand dollars last year on its free schools, and will spend seventyeight this year. But, while its requisitions are thus idle, the effect of the law in reducing the tone of education, by allowing grammar schools to be generally abolished, is apparent. The smaller towns have no longer any motive to employ well taught instructers; legislative authority in no way supports education, because the people do more already than is now required of them; and the consequence, that the schools must fall off, seems inevitable.

The reason why the legislature of Massachusetts has thus discouraged the increase and improvement of the grammar schools is, we apprehend, to be found in a general impression, that the grammar schools are a burthen imposed on the poor for the benefit of the rich. This impression is altogether false. The free schools of Massachusetts are supported substantially by a tax on property. In most of our towns one fifth of the inhabitants pays more than half of the taxes, and this fifth, as Mr Carter well observes, instead of sending half the scholars of the free schools will rarely send one sixth of them. Two thirds, therefore, of what the rich pay towards these schools is, on a very moderate computation, paid for the education of the children of the poor.

For the rich, indeed, the character and condition of the free schools is, comparatively, a thing of small moment. If the means of teaching, which they want, are not to be found near their own doors, they can easily send their children to another village or to an academy. But the poor man must educate his child at home or nowhere. He cannot afford to pay tuition fees and board; he can hardly, perhaps, be warranted in giving up the labor of the child, which, as it grows older, becomes a part of the subsistence of his family. The law, therefore, which takes away the town's grammar school, stops the poor man's child at the threshold. He can get the first rudiments of knowledge at the reading school; but the next step is gone, and therefore an impassable gulf is left between his present condition, and that to which he could before have so easily attained, and to which, if he loved knowledge, he was in fact directly and strongly solicited.

In providing means for the gradual advancement of all, from the humblest rudiments of knowledge, to some of its best attainments, the city of Boston offers an honorable example, which is the more striking, as it is conducted on so large a scale. The first step there is taken in the primary schools, where twentysix hundred children, from the age of four to seven are constantly instructed, by female teachers, in spelling and reading. The next step is in the reading schools, where about twentyeight hundred boys and girls, from seven to fourteen, are taught reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, and geography. About one hundred and fifty, from twelve years old and upwards, pursue natural philosophy, geometry, mathematics, French, history, &c. at the High School. And about two hundred and thirty, in the ancient grammar school, are thoroughly carried through the principal Latin and Greek authors, entering at nine or ten and remaining five years. The whole of this arrangement is at once beautiful and practical. No step, no facility is wanting. The poorest boy of the six thousand, who are thus taught by the city, can, without the expense of a dollar, except in books, obtain a thorough education; and no further comment on the practical influence and operation of this system is necessary, than the simple fact, that the children of the rich are found in these free schools, no less than the children of the poor; or, in other words, that wealth, in the city of Boston, cannot buy a better education, than is freely given to the poor; a most honorable example, not only worthy of all imitation throughout a free state, but deserving every form of legislative countenance and support.

But the laws of Massachusetts now do nothing in this great work. On the contrary, by the very humble standard of popular education, which they assume, the people of large towns are invited, and the people of the smaller towns are encouraged, to reduce its tone throughout the commonwealth. The best of what is done, therefore, is done by the people against the spirit of the laws or above their spirit. The community, in fact, insists upon having better means of general instruction than the legislature will even ask. This ought not so to be. The legislature should go before the people, and excite, encourage, and require them gradually, but constantly, to raise the tone of education, to provide more learned