ality of their attendance, their age, their progress, the studies they pursue, the books they use, their health, the kind of buildings they occupy, the mode of teaching adopted, the character of the discipline employed to enforce order and secure proper attention,-is indispensable in any well regulated system of schools established on the popular plan; and yet the reports annually made to our Southern Legislatures of the condition of the schools, are any thing but satisfactory, being evidences rather of the sad indifference which prevails among all classes of citizens, even among those who occupy a peculiarly responsible position in this respect, than of that providential care and untiring vigilance, which should be exercised in reference to a matter of such vital interest, as the proper education of the rising race. District libraries are nowhere thought of as a suitable adjunct to schools, and a necessary instrumentality to be employed in communicating such an amount of popular and useful information, as to fit the pupil for the various relations which he must sustain in after life to society and the world. The idea of so important an auxiliary to the full and healthy development of the mind, and the propriety of resorting to it in an age of civilization and improvement, when much is expected from men, and when, accordingly, the standard of education for all classes, even the humblest, should be higher than at any former period, seems never to have crossed the imaginations of those to whom the duty of originating a new plan or system of common education, or of reforming the errors of an old one, has been entrusted by our Legislatures. They to whom this responsible trust is committed, are no doubt generally respectable and worthy persons, members of the bar probably, possessed of acute and discriminating minds, well informed on most subjects, particularly those which relate to the ordinary duties of legislation, but who yet have not made the subject of education, which presents so wide, diversified and interesting a field for inquiry, a matter of particular, thorough, personal investigation. They have heard of many expedients for shortening and facilitating the toils of the mind in its incipient upward struggles towards the rich treasures of learning, which they have regarded as visionary as they have been ephemeral; but here they have shut up their ears to the voice of the reformer, and, satisfied with old maxims and old paths, have borrowed no lessons from the severe experience of other States or of foreign

nations, have not kept pace with the numerous and decided improvements to which the inquisitive, philosophic and practical spirit of the age has given birth,-and, though animated by the best intentions and the most sincere desire to carry out successfully the patriotic wishes of our Legislatures, and promote the true interests of the rising generation, the honor of our country and the glory of the age in which we live, they have come up to the discharge of the greatest duty that can engage the attention of the patriot and philanthropist, without that thorough preparation and fulness of information, which its exceeding importance demands at their hands.

With such numerous causes operating to produce disappointment, distrust, dissatisfaction, and even disgust, toward our Common or Public schools, what other result was to have been expected, save the prostration, and, in the end, inevitable failure of the entire system? And to this result we, in the Southern States, wherever the system has been introduced at all, have almost, if not altogether, come. Public opinion, which, in every community, is created for the masses by the predominant influence of those who move in the higher walks of society,-the opulent, the fashionable, the educated, the powerful,-is arrayed against the system, if such it may be called, with a force sufficient to break down any organization, however perfect and however useful. What sympathy can be felt by the great popular heart for those institutions called common schools, but more frequently stigmatized as poor schools and charity schools, which have other and more indefeasible titles to be considered "poor," than what results from the indigent circumstances of their inmates, to which it would be poor "charity" to send even the orphan for instruction, and which are so exceedingly "common" in the kind of light they shed, that not even the shadow of superiority, in any form, ever passes near them, to excite the hope or awaken the ambition of the youthful spirit. But this plan, or rather no-plan, of operations, which is dignified by the name of a system, has acquired, from its designation, a degree of respect, which there is nothing in the thing itself to justify. A system for the cultivation of the human intellect, and which is itself a noble kind of creation out of the rude materials which Nature • furnishes to the human architect, pre-supposes, like the creation of the globe in which we live, an originating or designing mind or minds, endowed with extraordinary wisdom,—

but what evidences of remarkable powers of invention, what wit, what skill, what adaptation of parts to parts and of parts to the whole, what pervading harmony, what beautiful and powerful operation attended with noble results, have ever distinguished this famous plan or system, devised by our master spirits for rearing up a useful and intelligent generation of freemen? Admit that the system is as good as it can be, and quite practical in its design and all its details, of what use, we may ask, is it, when we never see its practical working, or behold it only to condemn the inefficiency of those who attempt to bring its power to bear on objects of general utility? Such a system is like the model of a steam engine on paper, unpropelled by the life-imparting element, or like the engine itself, which has lost its propelling power by the bursting of its boiler.

We have, then, in our country, a democratic theory of government, and aristocratical institutions for the education of our children, while we insist, if the government is to be sustained in a healthy condition, that information should be spread abroad every where, and active measures taken for the substantial mental training of all classes of people, without distinction of rank or condition. And here there is surely no slight inconsistency between our democratic creed and professions, and those practical manifestations of them, which are to convince mankind of their value and of our sincerity. We declare, that the interests of the individual should yield to those of the mass; that the people ought to have power in order to accomplish important objects; that the more power they have, if properly directed, the better for themselves, for the country, for the age, and for the perpetuity of the great principles of American liberty ;—we insist, that no unenlightened people can ever be a powerful people; we employ the maxim of Lord Bacon, that "knowledge is power," as a kind of watchword; we maintain, that public virtue is the offspring of salutary instructions impressed upon the mind in the opening period of life; and if told that corruption, proceeding by stealthy footsteps, and through various secret avenues, is sapping the springs of the body politic, and that the "devil is actually unchained" and in the midst of us, we exclaim with another noble Lord, to whom the cause of popular education in the present age owes much, that the schoolmaster should be abroad to meet and grapple with him.

The project of Common Schools is doubtless, in theory, a great democratic measure, against which no candidate for office speaks openly. On the contrary, it has long been a subject of wordy and boastful declamation addressed to the popular ear. Patriots have demonstrated to the satisfaction of all concerned, that no movement is more intimately connected with the honor of our native land; and philanthropists, with hearts overflowing with benevolence, and deeply moved, as it would seem, by the vast importance of the subject, have looked beyond the country to the race, beyond the present to future times, and have indicated the lofty duties devolving on the age, resulting from such considerations. The chief executive officers of the Southern States, in their annual missives to their respective Legislatures, have dwelt upon the topic with much force of argument and splendor of eloquence, recommending enlightened and practical legislation, adapted to our circumstances; the matter has been referred to intelligent committees, who, promptly responding to the patriotic views proceeding from such distinguished sources, have suggested valuable changes and reforms in the system; but, beyond making, in a spirit of praiseworthy liberality, the usual annual appropriations for the support of the schools, we do not see that any real changes, effecting radical improvements, have been actually brought about, or that democracy has gathered many new laurels, in the South, from the triumph of our State systems of popular instruction.

In order to render such a system fully successful, it ought to be a uniform one. The popular voice, embodying the favorable judgment, not only of the humbler and poorer, but of the middle and higher classes of society, should be so generally enlisted in its support, as to entitle it to be regarded as the peculiar system of education for an entire State. Its adoption and practical working in a community where private schools and academies have been already established and are in a prosperous condition, necessarily involves a gradual revolution in the entire system of education, and this supplanting of an old system, already held, perhaps, in high estimation, by a new one, which has nothing in particular to recommend it, save that it is more popular in its plan and more congenial with the spirit and principles of our democratic institutions, constitutes the great difficulty to be overcome by our Legislatures. The patriot, who would enter

upon this labor, must dive boldly into the troubled waters of reform, and sustain himself above the hostile waves with sturdy efforts and a manly spirit. In a free country, penalties to enforce legislation, aimed at such changes, may not answer, but public opinion, the great power by means of which revolutions of any kind are effected in our day, may be directed into the right channel by appeals addressed to the reason, the patriotism and sober sense of justice of all classes. Common education, we need not say, lies at the foundation of every thing great and glorious in art, in science and in literature. The scholar, who passes to the heights of eminence, must plant his feet firmly, at first, on the bottom rounds of the ladder. Convince the people, that Common Schools are not only best adapted to the character of our government, and also the most economical, but satisfy them, also, that the instruction given, and the discipline employed in them, are as good or better than are to be found in private and select schools of the highest order,—place their claims to patronage conspicuously before the public, and employ the press and pulpit to enforce them on suitable occasions, until the subject has awakened that deep and pervading interest in the breasts of all classes which its importance demands, and much will have been accomplished to secure the establishment and ultimate triumph of the system. Not suddenly, creating a violent shock, but gradually and easily, will it work its way into public favor, and private institutions, as far as it is necessary or desirable that they should do so, will gradually give way before it, until only one comprehensive and popular State system obtains the ascendancy. Such has been the result wherever the common school system has been introduced, provided it has been what such a system ought to be. In Massachusetts, in the year 1826, of the 142,269 children attending school, 117,186 were dependent on the common schools for instruction, and of pupils attending the private schools and academies, there were 25,083; and in two hundred and fourteen towns which made returns, there were $226,219.90 expended for instruction. In 1843, of 184,896 children returned as between the ages of four and sixteen, it appears that while 172,896 were dependent for instruction on the common or public schools, only twelve thousand were in attendance on private schools and academies, showing a falling off, in the lapse of eighteen years, of upwards of twelve thousand pu