without fortifying and enforcing them by the authority of those whom they thought as wise or wiser than themselves.

Besides, Grotius, in particular, did not intend to publish a speculative work. His great Treatise is, on the contrary, wholly practical. The pressing circumstances of his times, and the wars in which his country was engaged, made him think of the necessity of establishing rules to mitigate their evils, or to ascerHe tain, at least, the rights and duties arising out of them. trod in the steps of Albericus Gentilis, who had been induced to discuss maritime law, in consequence of the war between England and Spain. The war of independence of Holland led, thus, some other jurists, as Ayala and Arias, to write on public law. But it was reserved to Grotius to become an universal, though unauthorized lawgiver.

We could easily be betrayed into an attempt to compare Grotius with those who have undertaken to improve upon him; but we resist this temptation for the present.

ART. VIII.-1. An Address pronounced at the opening of the NewYork High School, with Notes and Illustrations. By JOHN GRISCOM. New-York. 1825.

2. Third Annual Report of the Trustees of the High School Society of New-York, made November 12. 1827.

3. Tenth Annual Report of the Comptrollers of the Public Schools of the First School District of the State of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia. 1828.

4. Address of the Trustees of the Public School Society in the city of New-York, to their Fellow-Citizens, respecting the extension of their Public Schools. 1828.

5. Report of a Sub-Committee of the School Committee, recommending various improvements in the System of Instruction in the Grammar and Writing Schools of the city of Boston. Boston. February 8, 1828.

6. Prospectus of the Livingston County High School for Boys on Temple Hill, Genesee, N. Y. Genesee. August, 1827. 7. Annual Report of the Superintendant of Common Schools to the Legislature of New-York. Svo. Albany. 1828.

THE subject of practical education is now claiming the serious and devoted attention of all classes of citizens in the

the sage.

United States. It occupies the reflections of the prudent and the benevolent, it awakens the exertions of the statesman and It is becoming more and more in our country a measure of national concern. It constitutes one of the topics embraced of late years in the annual communications of the Governors of States to their respective Legislatures; and in many of the States, there are statutory provisions for extending the benefits of education to the children of the poor, and for the erection and support of schools in every district. In no one, has the design of the Legislature been more successfully executed than in the State of New-York; in no one, perhaps, is the system more wise and liberal. In that State, as soon as the inhabitants of a neighbourhood can agree to erect a school-house, and furnish a certain sum for the payment of a teacher, they have a right, by law, to draw upon the public school fund for a sum equal to their own contribution. The effect of such a provision is not in the least problematical. The last report of the superintendant of common schools, made to the Legislature of New-York, shews, that there is within the various school districts of that State, the astonishing aggregate of 441,856 children, between the ages of five and fifteen, at school during eight months of the year, and that this number exceeds by 17,804, the whole number of children between five and fifteen years of age, within the districts, according to the last census. This statement, we think, may challenge a comparison with any part of the world. The superintendant, Mr. Flagg, whose diligence and discretion in collecting and collating his materials, are entitled to the highest praise, has, in fact, in one of his reports, given a tabular view of the relative extension of the benefits of education in different countries of Europe. This statement is given on the authority of Baron Ferussac, whose monthly bulletin of knowledge, collected with Herculean labour, from every source within the reach of the indefatigable savans of Paris, is, probably, as worthy of confidence in all statistical matters, as any thing that issues from the press. thus appears, that while in the State of New-York, the number of children at school, is to to the whole population of the State, as 1 to 3 in the most favoured countries of Europe, viz. in Scotland, and in the circle of Gratz, in Germany, the pro

9 10

It

*It is required by the school law of that State, that a sum shall be assessed upon the taxable inhabitants, equalling that which is apportioned to each township; and by a vote at town-meeting, double the amount may be raised. In the course of the last year, the towns raised by tax $10,542 32, more than were required to entitle them to the public appropriation.-Report of Superintendant, January 29,

1828.

portion is as 1 to 9 or 10. But we doubt not that our readers will be gratified with the table itself.*

It is probable that the New-England States, and many parts of New-Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio, might furnish statements nearly as favourable to the extension of common school learning as New-York; for we find, by Mr. Flagg's Report, that it is by no means in the most populous and wealthy counties of that State that the number of the educated bears the highest ratio to the population. Indeed, we are somewhat surprised to find that the reverse is strikingly true. In the county of Albany, the number of children at school is to the whole population as 1 to 5.8, and in the county of Kings, a very small district, including the populous and wealthy commercial town of Brooklyn, the ratio is as 1 to 16! but we presume that this proportion cannot include the number of scholars that frequent the private schools of that thriving and rapidly increasing village. With respect to the great commercial emporium itself, it is evident, not only from the remarks of the superintendant, but from a late Address of the trustees of the public schools at the head of this article, that notwithstanding the exertions of the public-school society, together with those of the numerous charitable and religious associations concerned in education, there is, in all probability, an amount of at least twelve thousand children within the limits of the city, on whom the light of instruction never falls, with the exception of a small portion who attend the Sunday schools. This is a melancholy disclosure; more especially when contrasted with the statement from the counties of Chenango, Otsego, Madison and others, in the interior of the State, which exhibit a ratio of 1 to 2.8. We have no means of determining whether the city of NewYork contains a greater or less relative number of untaught children than the populous cities and towns of other States; but the facts sufficiently prove that the concentration of vast numbers of people within narrow limits is exceedingly unfavourable

to the general diffusion of knowledge. In this respect at least, "great cities are great sores;" and as it requires no great extent of observation to prove that ignorance is the parent of irreligion, indolence, improvidence and crime, it cannot be doubted that unless some remedy can be found for this alarming evil, it must, in time, arrive at a height, which, taken in connexion with the republican principles of universal suffrage, will greatly endanger the liberties of the country, and destroy the tranquil operation of that admirable system of government under which we are so rapidly advancing, as a nation, in prosperity and power. This subject is adverted to with becoming feeling in the Address of the New-York Public School Society :

"It appears to the trustees, that the due order of things has been inverted; that our common schools are not the proper objects of a parsimonious policy, but are entitled to an endowment not less munificent than the best of our institutions. Neither the sick nor the destitute have higher claims upon us than the ignorant. The want of knowledge is the most imperative of all wants; for it brings all others in its train. If education be regarded as a charity, it is the only one whose blessings are without alloy. It demands no jealous scrutiny as to the claims of its applicants, nor does it require to be so stinted as not to multiply their number. The obligations which rest upon us, in regard to this great interest, both as men and Christians, are sufficiently obvious and imposing. To these are to be added, the peculiar claims which are addressed to us as the citizens of a free country. If we would preserve our free institutions, the means of education must be co-extensive with the right of suffrage.

"Although the knowledge of an individual may not always be accompanied with corresponding virtue, yet we hold it to be certain, that politically considered, the community will always be more or less virtuous as they are more or less enlightened. All private interests harmonize in the public good, and the more clearly this is perceived, the more will a single view to the public welfare be regarded as the test of public spirit, and the just measure of popular favour.

"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 farther, 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 play-things and tools of VOL. I.—NO. 2. 61

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 destines, 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 labouring classes have been justly called the back-bone 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.

66

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 prosperity of society."

These are certainly demonstrable propositions. There may be found in different sections of our own country, and even in different neighbourhoods and communities within the same district, practical evidences of the power which education confers upon the general mass, in advancing the interests and prosperity of the people, both physical and intellectual. But in other countries the contrast is more impressive. The traveller, who passes from Scotland to Ireland, from Sardinia to Switzerland, or from France through Belgium to Holland, will be amazed at the disparity in industry, comfort and elegance. which arrests his attention. If he inquire minutely into the various causes of this discrepance, he will find nothing more obviously correspondent with it, than the condition of the common schools, and the various opportunities of instruction afforded the mass of the children of those countries respectively. There has been, most clearly, a progress in the opinions of men, within the last thirty years, with respect to the causes of national wealth, or, of what is of