This new system would not reach the children of those who now send to private schools, any more than the present system does.

In the country towns, the great mass of the inhabitants send to the district schools; and it would be fortunate indeed, if our common schools had no greater evils to overcome, than this imaginary one, of an apprehended inequality which is to interrupt the association of school children, because there may be an inequality in the property of their parents.

In the practical operation of our system, does the evil complained of exist? The children of the rich and the poor meet at the district school upon a footing of perfect equality, and the only distinction recognized by law or custom, is, that of scholarship and good conduct. At home, the wealthy parent, who has any practical common sense, teaches his children that their future advancement and standing in society will be controlled by the same causes which influence the destinies of the children of their less wealthy neighbors, viz: by their own exertions and good conduct; and the children of the poor are taught by the precepts of their parents, as well as by the practical operations of our free institutions, that the first honors of the nation may be achieved by the persevering industry, and virtuous conduct, of a boy who commences his career in the humblest walks of life.

The children of the poor are as much attached to their homes, however humble, as are those of the rich, however splendid; and it is more common to see the children of a school awarding distinction to a good scholar whose parents are poor, than to see them paying deference to one, merely on account of the wealth of its parents.

If the attainment of a republican system of equality is the object aimed at, who that has a knowledge of our population would advise the substitution of state guardianship, even for the children of the poor, in preference to the more natural, and much more useful guardianship, of their humble parents; whose attachment to their children increases their love of country, because its institutions hold out to their offspring advantages which it is not their lot to bestow: Having sew objects on which to bestow their affections, they have a larger share for their children and their country; and if disinterested patriotism is any where to be learned, it is at the fireside of the humble, unpretending citizen. While his children are taught that they must labor for six months in the year in order to enjoy the advantages of the common school for the other six months, they are at

the same time taught to believe that they are in no respect inferior to those of their wealthy neighbors; and that meritorious conduct, and not property, is the true passport to distinction. Instead of imbibing sentiments which tend to degrade them in their own estimation, the children of the great mass of our population are taught, at home, lessons of the purest republican equality, and of the lostiest patriotism.

Our present system, except in the cities and a few villages, where special laws interfere, is admirably constructed to bring the children of the rich and the poor together, without the feelings of arrogance in one portion, or of degradation in another. The indigent receive the contributions of the wealthy in the support of the school at which the children of both are instructed, without any circumstances which give to the school the character of a pauper establishment, or which enable the children of the rich to know or feel that any of their school-fellows are placed there upon a footing different from their

own.

The operations of the system may be illustrated by taking the case of two persons in a district, each having children, the one worth 10,000 dollars, and the other limited to the property which is exempt from execution, and his family dependent for bread upon his daily labor. The first pays the town tax to make up the amount corresponding with the apportionment from the state treasury; he then pays a tax in his district for the erection of a school-house, and for furnishing it with fuel and necessary appendages: So far, the poor man in the case supposed, has not been called upon to contribute any thing, although the school-house has been erected and furnished with fuel and appendages, and one third of the money to pay the teacher has been raised. At this point in the operation of the system, the children come together at the school upon a footing of the most entire equality. How can it be otherwise, for the parents of each have complied with all the requirements of the law; and in applying the public money, the children of the rich and the poor share alike? If one is the recipient of the public bounty, and obnoxious to the imputation of being a charity scholar, he is not more so than the other.

It is susceptible of demonstration, that our system does bring the children of the rich and the poor together in the great majority of the schools. In 481 towns, there are more scholars taught than the whole number of children between 5 and 16; and in a great may jority of the 275 remaining towns, those instructed approach so near the whole number of children between 5 and 16, as clearly to show that the schools embrace the children of nearly all the inhabitants of the districts and towns.

It will be seen, also, by reference to the paper marked G, that in 52 counties, the proportion of those instructed in the common schools, is more than 1 to 31, and in the whole state, about 1 to 3%, of the whole number of souls.

With this state of facts, can any one doubt that the great mass of the children of the rich and poor mingle and are instructed together in the common schools? This system, then, secures all the advantages of the most liberal republican equality, without any of the disadvantages, and great burthens, of the state guardianship system.

If there are any scholars in the district, whose parents are in indigent circumstances, the trustees have authority to release them from the payment of any thing whatever ; and this is done at the close of the term, in such a manner as to divest the transaction of all circumstances calculated to wound the feelings of the scholars.

It is one of the most valuable features of our school system, that while its tendency is to induce those in easy circumstances to send their children to the district school, the poor are not turned away, but in truth are instructed at the same school with their more fortunate neighbors, upon a footing of the most friendly equality. To this, more than to any thing else, are we indebted for the success which has attended the school system. Establishments designed merely for the education of the poor, have such a tendeney to form a degraded class, and are so nearly associated in the public estimation with pauperism, that they will be shunned by all persons of spirit and independence of mind. A plan for the education of the poor only, so far as the country towns are concerned, would be worse than useless. The only practicable method by which a state can hope to educate the poor, in a republican government, is also to embrace, in their arrangement, those children who are not dependent upon the state for their education.

The radical difference between our school system and the provision for instruction in Pennsylvania and Virginia, is, that ours embraces the whole population, and theirs only the poor. To this,

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more than to any single cause, may be ascribed the success of our plan, and the failure of theirs.*

There is a rapid increase of the children requiring instruction, while the augmentation of the school fund is gradual. The annual apportionment from the state treasury amounts only to 20 cents to each child, between 5 and 16, in the state. The apportionment from the school fund in Connecticut, gives about 85 cents to each child within the enumerated class. If the mere distribution of money from a state fund, would produce good schools, it might be inferred that those in Connecticut were much superior to our own. But even there, with an ample fund, there is much complaint in regard to the low state of common school education.†

Our system is well calculated to awaken the attention of all the inhabitants to the concerns of the district school. The power given to district meetings to levy a tax, to a limited extent, upon the property of the district, excites a direct interest with all the taxable inhabitants to attend the district meetings, whether they have children requiring school accommodations or not. The wealthy are thus prompt

ed to act as trustees and to watch over the concerns of the district,

* The "Pennsylvania Society for the promotion of public schools," remark upon the Pennsylvania system as follows: "We have reserved, hitherto, our opinion of the great and radi. cal defect, the incurable evil which is inherent in the school system of Pennsylvania, a system which is in opposition to the most sensitive and the strongest moral feelings of our citizens. The feelings of the poorer classes will not permit them to enrol themselves as paupers, in order that their children may receive their education from the charity of the public.

Mr. Mercer, of Virginia, in his Discourse on Popular Education, delivered at Princeton, New-Jersey, states, that " Virginia and New-York, almost at the same moment, provided and set apart a permanent fund' for primary or common schools. Forty-five thousand dollars is annually apportioned in Virginia to the counties, and the portion for each county is placed at the disposal of the commissioners annually appointed by their repective courts, and charged with the obligation of applying the sum received by each, to the education, by such schools as may be found to exist, of the children of those parents who are unable to pay for their instruction. The entire number of children benefitted by the application of the fund, during certain portions of the last year, are but about ten thousand, being less than a moiety of the total number reported to be in a condition to require for their education public aid." Pages 52 and 57.

† A very intelligent citizen of Connecticut, in giving his views of the school system of that state, remarks as follows:-" Requiring of the recipients of this public bounty nothing more than that it be expended according to the provisions of the law, is an obvious defect in this system. In this point, the policy adopted in the state of New-York is deserving of imitation. A sum proportioned to the amount received from the state, ought to be advanced for the same objects, by all to whom it is distributed, excepting the indigent. Such a proposition would cause a valuable augmentation of the revenues of teachers, and in that way command services of a higher character. But I should not consider that as its highest excellence. We know, from common and universal experience, that little interest is felt in that which demands neither expense nor attention. Our country is affluent, and pecuniary means may be commanded for whatever we have the will to perform. Few, comparatively, are so indigent as to need charitable aid in the education of their children. A public fund for the instruction of youth in common schools, is of no comparative worth as a means of relieving want. An higher value would consist in its being made an instrument for exciting general exertion for the attainment of that important end. In proportion as it excites and fosters a salutary zeal, it is a public blessing. It may have, on any other principle of application. a contrary tendency and become worse than useless. It may be justly questioned whether the school fund has been of any use in Connecticut. It has furnished a supply where there was no deficiency. Content with the ancient standard of school instruction, the people have permitted the expense of sustaining it to be taken off their hands, and have aimed at nothing higher. They expended about an equal sum before the school fund existed. They would willingly pay seventy thousand dollars more, if made a condition of receiving the state bounty, and thus the amount would be doubled, for an object in which they would then feel they had some concern."

in order to see that its affairs are conducted with care and economy; and much of the intelligence of the district is put in requisition by the peculiarity of our plan, which might be wholly lost to the districts if the whole expense of the tuition was provided by a state fund.

It is perhaps not easy to form a satisfactory opinion as to the mode of providing means for the support of common schools which is the best calculated to diffuse instruction among the great mass of the people. Persons who have given much reflection to this subject are divided in their opinions, whether the greatest good is accomplished by having the state fund provide for the whole expense-by having the inhabitants taxed for the whole expense-or by having the state fund contribute a share, and the inhabitants taxed for the residue.

In Connecticut, the state provides about the amount which is expended for teachers' wages in most of the common schools. In Massachusetts, Maine, New-Hampshire and Vermont, the expense of the schools is paid by a tax upon the inhabitants. In New-York there is a combination of the two systems referred to the state pro-viding a part, and the inhabitants, by tax, another part. Under the operation of these various systems, in different states, it is believed that there is no very essential difference in the grade of the great mass of the common schools. One very competent judge, in regard to such matters, has expressed a decided opinion in favor of the system in Maine, where there is no state fund, and where each town is required to raise by tax a sum for schools equal to 40 cents for each person enumerated in the census. Another eminent individual has pronounced that system the best where a state fund is provided as an inducement to the inhabitants to organize districts, and which at the same time requires such a local tax as will command the attention of the inhabitants, and excite an interest in the district operations.*

The sums of money expended upon the common schools, and the general results, would not be essentially different under the sys