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THE FIRST FREE UNIVERSITY-A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR UPPER CANADA.

Among the many noble and sublime conceptions, the origin of which may be traced to France, is the grand idea of making University Education free-of opening to all members of the State, qualified and disposed to enter, the halls of a University amply endowed out of the resources of the State. This conception, which involves the germ of the world's universal and highest civilizationis ascribed to the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. M. KILIAN, in his Tableau Historique de L'Instruction Secondaire en France, depuis les Temps les plus reculés jusqu'a nos jours, states this eventful fact in the following words:

"Ce fut aussi le duc d'Orléans qui proposa d'établir dans tous les colléges de Paris l'instruction gratuite. Eu arret du conseil du 1er Avril 1719 affecta à cet effet, à la Faculté des arts, le vingt-huitiéme effectif du produit des postes et messageries, évalué alors à environ 140,000 livres, [afterwards much increased] á la condition que les régents desdits colléges n'exigeraient aucuns honoraires de leurs écoliers."

ROLLIN, in a digression from his account of the establishment of Posts and Couriers by the ancient Persians, under CYRUS, in mentioning the introduction of the same system into France, gives the following interesting account of the establishment of FREE INSTRUCTION in the several Colleges of the University of Paris :

"France is indebted for it to the University of Paris, which I cannot forbear observing here: I hope the reader will excuse the digression. The University of Paris, being formerly the only one in the kingdom, and having great numbers of scholars resorting to her from all the provinces, and even from the neighbouring kingdoms, did, for their sakes and conveniency, establish messengers, whose business was, not only to bring clothes, silver, and gold for the students, but likewise to carry bags of law-proceedings, informations, and inquests; to conduct all sorts of persons, indifierently, to or from Paris, finding them both horse and diet: as also to carry letters, parcels, and packets for the public, as well as the University.

"In the University registers of the Four Nations, as they are called, of the faculty of arts, these messengers are often styled Nuntii rolantes, to signify the great speed and despatch they were obliged to make.

operations of the University in the highest state of efficiency, without her resorting, as the historian expresses it, to "the unhappy and shameful necessity of receiving wages for her labours ?" — University Education in Upper Canada has been liberally provided for by public endowment; ought not each individual of the public to have free and unrestricted access to its priceless advantages without money and without price other than intellectual and moral qualifications?

In Paris, though the examinations on the subjects of the lectures are private, and unrestricted to matriculated students, the lectures themselves are open to the public; and many a literary travelier, on visiting Paris, has been equally surprised and delighted to find there what is not to be found in any other country, free access to any of the lectures in each of the Faculties of the University, whether of the Sciences or Letters, or Law or Medicine. These lectures are the resort, not merely of University students. but of Scholars, of practical men, of men of leisure, of seekers after knowledge of all ranks and countries, of all professions and employments. Men who have taken the most conspicuous part in public affairs, have first distinguished themselves as Professors in the University; such as GUIZOT, THIERS, ARAGO, COUSIN, Rossi, &c. &c.

In the Faculty of the Sciences, there are Professors of physical astronomy, differential and integral calculus, algebra, mechanics, descriptive geometry, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and comparative physiology. In the Faculty of Letters, there are Professors of Greek literature, Latin eloquence, Latin poetry, French eloquence, French literature and poetry, philosophy, history of ancient philosophy, history of modern philosophy, ancient history, modern history, and foreign literature. There are seventeen professors in the Faculty of the Law, who lecture on the civil code, civil and criminal procedure and criminal legislation, commercial code, administrative law, French constitutional law, law of nations, Roman law, Pandects, and history of law. The Faculty of Medicine comprises professors of anatomy, pathological anatomy, physiology, medical chemistry, medical physics, pharmarcy and organic chemistry, hygeian, medical natural history, operations and bandages, external pathology, internal pathology, general pathology therapeutics and materia medica, legal medicine, obstetrics and female diseases, dinical medicine at the hospitals, clinical surgery at the hospitals, and clinical obstetrics.

The state, then, is indebted to the University of Paris for the invention and establishment of these messengers and letter carriers. And it was at her own charge and expense that she erected these offices; to the satisfaction both of our kings and the public. She has moreover maintained and supported them since the year 1576, against all the various attempts of the farmers, which has cost her immense sums. For there never were any ordinary royal messengers, till Henry III first established them in the yearing 1576, by his edict of November, appointing them in the same cities as the University had theirs in, and granting them the same rights and privileges as the kings, his predecessors, had granted the messengers of the University. "The University never had any other fund or support than the profits arising from the post-office. And it is upon the foundation of the same revenue, that king Louis XV, by his decree of council of state, of the 14th of April, 1719, and by his letters patent, bearing the same date, registered in parliament, and in the chamber of accompts, has ordained, that in all the Colleges of the said University the students shall be taught gratis; and has, to that end, for the time to come, appropriated to the University an eightand-twentieth part of the revenue arising from the general lease or farm of the posts and messengers of France; which eight-and-twentieth part amounted that year to the sum of 184,000 livres, or thereabouts. (About £9,450.)

"It is not therefore without reason, that the University, to whom this regulation has restored a part of her ancient lustre, reckons Louis XV as a kind of new founder, whose bounty has at length delivered her from the unhappy and shameful necessity of receiving wages for her labours; which in some measure dishonoured the dignity of her profession, as it was contrary to that noble, disinterested spirit which becomes it. And, indeed, the labours of masters and professors, who instruct others, ought not to be given for nothing: but neither ought it to be sold. Nec venire hac beneficium oportet, nec perire."

The spirit of this University provision, and the sentiments embodied in the statement of it, would do honour to any age, or any country. Why may it not obtain in Upper Canada? There can be no more real difficulty in establishing an University, than a Normal School system, to which no class in the community could reasonbly object. And is not the endowment ample to maintain the

In addition to these Faculties, there are twenty-seven professors of the Collège de France, who give public and gratuitous lectures on the followsubjects: astronomy, mathematics, experimental philosophy; medicine; chemistry; natural history; natural law; history and ethics; the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac. Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Chinese, Manchou-Tartar, and Sanscrit languages; Greek literature; Greek and Latin Philosophy: Latin eloquence (prose writers); Latin poetry: French literature; political economy; archæology; the Sclavonic languages and literature. The salaries of the professors are paid by the state, and vary from 2,000 to 8,000 francs per annum-that is from £80 to £320 Sterling. The professors include the most distinguished literati in France; and the larger portion of them are engaged in their own professional or literary pursuits,-delivering two or three lectures, and conducting the required examinations of students each week in the University. An hour and a half is prescribed by law for each lecture and examination.

Such is the magnificent provision made by (at least the late) government of France in Paris alone for gratuitous or free instruction in the higher departments of science and literature. It is submitted to the serious consideration of those competent to decide and act, how far corresponding facilities may be provided for Upper Canada by means of our splendid University endowment? In the French University in which the Faculties referred to are established, no part of the endowment or appropriation is expended in providing residences for professors or boarding halls for the students. The buildings erected are designed for purposes of instruction. We cannot but think that the economical and judicious management and expenditure of our University endowment may provide for Upper Canada the most comprehensive and the freest systems of collegiate education on the continent of America.

THE GREAT ECONOMY AND ADVANTAGES OF FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION.

Extract from the Address of Robert Kelly, Esquire, on his re-election as President of the Board of Education for the City of New-York-1849.

Although expenditures for public education in this city amount in the aggregate to a large sum, it may be said, with the strictest regard to truth, that the tax is moderate in proportion to the value of the property. The Secretary of State, in his report to the Legislature as, Superintendent of Common Schools, dated January 2nd, 1849, has introduced a table, showing the ratio of taxation upon property, for educational purposes, in the various towns in the State where a free school system is established. This table is based upon the exact returns of the previous year, and exhibits a fact which will appear surprising to many of our tax-payers, that the citizens of New York are really lightly taxed for the purpose of education. The Report of this Board furnished to the Secretary shows the amount of the expenditure for this city. It is the entire aggregate for all objects that have been taken into the account. The table shows the following results:

RATE OF TAX UPON $100 VALUATION.

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The rate of taxation for this city is somewhat larger for the year just closed, but I have not the means of showing how it compares with that of the other towns.

The Secretary of State makes the following remarks in relation to the expenditure for the city of New-York:

"With this table, any one can tell what would be his tax for the support of schools in either of the places named.

"If he is a resident of New York, and is assessed $4,000, he pays a tax of $4 16. If assessed for $100,000, he pays $104. The sum raised in New-York for school purposes appears to be very large, but when it is proportioned among the tax payers, according to their property, it is a very light tax. And it would be light even if it were doubled. If the common schools were what they should be, and a system of high schools were engrafted among them, every child could be educated, the poor gratuitously, and the rich at a less expense than at private schools."

Here is indicted the true solution of the question of economy. This is the consummation aimed at by the ardent friends of popular education throughout the land, to make the free schools and academies so elevated in their character, so complete in their procesacs, so perfect in all their arrangements, and so replete with all good influences, that they shall become the pure, the chosen, and the common fountains of knowledge for the whole people.

All citizens whether they have children or not, are immediately interested in the support of a proper educational system. Those who have children to educate, and do not choose to avail themselves of the advantages provided in the public system, voluntarily impose upon themselves the additional burden of paying for their instruction in private institutions. It is not merely the right of citizens to send their children to the common school, but they deserve commendation who do so, however able they may be to pay the most expensive charges of private school education. They are probably doing the greatest service they can render to their own children. They are lending their influence to dissipate prejudices, and are setting an example to those who are disposed to neglect and despise the privilege of a free education for their children.

The expediency of a common education is not yet universally recognized. It is, perhaps, natural, that doubts should exist in the minds of parents anxious for the safe passage of their children through the training period of life, and ignorant of the condition of our common schools and the character of the children who attend them. They must be satisfied as to the value of the education dispensed, its effects upon the character, and its moral influences. They must be convinced that there are no evils, no disadvantages, no dangers peculiar to the common schools, from which private schools are free. An intimate examination of the subjects would probably dispel any doubts that may exist upon these points.

There are dangers to which a child is exposed, whether he be educated at home or abroad, in common schools or in private schools, in society or in solitude, for there is no escape from that constant probation which is the condition of human existence. The danger of evil communications is, I suppose, the prominent one in every parent's mind .It appears to m, that there, is no more risk of immoral associations to a child, in attending a well disciplined common school, than in attending one frequented only by the children of the wealthy. The great danger to which the boy is exposed, who has been nurtured in a home of affluence, is his being contaminated by intimacy, with the spoiled children of indulgence. He will not be likely to seek the companionship of the children of neglect and vicious poverty, if such there should be in the schools; and it is to be hope that they will always be found there, if they are in the community, for they need above all others, for their own good and that of society, the elevating and reforming influences of education. In the large numbers and miscellaneous composition of the common school, there is much less inducement to indiscriminate social intimacies, than in the closer intercourse of the private schools.

The common school appears to offer peculiar advantages, in some particulars. The independent position of the teacher removes all temptation to a relaxation. of discipline, and he cannot conduct his school at all except by maintaining rigid order, and pursuing a uniform system, that can admit no irregularities and show no respect to persons. This is the sort of restraint that is of special value to a youth. The habit of obedience and self-control, acquired in his subjection, in the society of his fellows, to an inexorable rule of order, or to some reasonable requisition of duty, is an important process in his preparation for self-denials, the disapointments, and the labors of life. There is something, too, of a training for the intercourse of the world, in the attendance upon a common school, made up of children from the whole people. It is a little world in itself, and its daily lessons," to use a happy expression of Horace Mann, are the preludes and recitals of the great duties of life." It promotes a spirit of self-relying independence, which is the great principle of a manly character. The child soon apprehends that talent, energy, and virtue, are distinctions of real value, more lasting than the gifts of fortune, and, in no way connected with them, and that they constitute the true dignity of man. sees that the heritage of wealth is of no avail in securing the honours of the school, and learns the lesson that merit and industry are the elements of success in every situation. It is a peculiarly valuable discipline to our children, in view of the extraordinary changes that occur in society with us, where every day the last in the social scale is becoming first and the first becoming last.

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The habit of general intercourse and sympathy in the youth of the people, will be productive of a generous mutual confidence and harmony of all classes of society. The prevalence of this sentiment seems to be essential to the permanence of our institutions, and the security of society as here constituted. The absence of it is, in other countries, the great obstacle to the realization of the schemes of patriotic minds, in the visions they form of a golden age of “liberty, equality and fraternity."

There are so many considerations of advantage connected with the subject of a common education for the whole people, both as to the community and as to the schools, that every effort should be made to bring about so desirable a result. Public sentiment is rapidly tending toward it. The attendance in our common schools is much more general from all classes of the community than it was a few years ago. A rapid advance in the right direction is now going on, and the advantages of higher education, recently opened in connection with the common school system, will give an important stimulus to the movement. We may all, by our influence, do something towards it-spread information as to the character of the schools--persuade parents to make the experiment of sending their children there-induce others to visit them, examine the arrangements, and condition of the buildings, observe the appearance and behaviour of the children attending, and judge for themselves as to the manner in which the schools are conducted, the progress made in knowledge, and the ability of the teachers. If the schools are not yet conducted in a way to satisfy such inquiries, they ought to be made so. This is the point towards which the strenuous efforts

of the friends of education, of all teachers and school officers, should be directed. Let us do our part. Let us exert such powers as we

have, and the whole influence of this Board, to improve the character of the schools while increasing their number, and drawing within them, more and more the children of the city. Let us not be satisfied with the results shown in the statistical returns of the numbers instructed, but strive to enhance, in a still more rapid progression, the actual fruits-the amount and accuracy of the knowledge communicated, the habits of discipline, love of order and industry imparted, and the moral influence which constitutes the accompaniment and vital principle of education in its true acceptation, its crown of honor and its abiding blessing.

It will be a grand era in the history of public education in our city, when our free schools and academies shall become an object of universal favor, when every father shall feel a warm interest in them because his children are educated there, and the whole intelligence of the community shall be enlisted in the cause.-There will be no deficiency then in the care and vigilance exercised in their management, and the best citizens will be anxious to perform public duty as school officers.

The success and growth of our common school system, looking at the effect it must be exerting upon our youthful population, is a most cheering indication to every one that feels an interest in the character that shall attach to the city of New-York hereafter. Its position in reference to the Union, as the point towards which so much of its business and intercourse converges, a radiating centre of influence for good or for evil, that extends over the whole land, the mighty heart, whose pulsations are felt in the very extremity of the republic, and its destiny to become one of the great capitals of the world, while they increase our responsibilities, increase our gratification at all the evidences we can perceive leading us to hope that its greatness shall not be merely the greatness of power, and extent, and riches, and splendor, but a moral and intellectual greatness.

IMPORTANCE OF THE TEACHER'S CALLING. The importance of any man's work is to be determined by the value of the materials on which he works. Judged by this standard, let us compare the calling of the teacher with some of the other avocations or professions among men.

To ascertain the infinite difference which exists between different created substances, we must classify and compare them. First, there is the unorganized and insentient. Rising in the scale, we come to the organized and animate, but unconscious. Higher still, we find the conscious, but irrational and ephemeral. Last, and unsurpassable, there is the animate, sentient, conscious, rational and immortal.

And yet we affirm, there is not one of the subordinate department of nature, whether the conscious but irrational, the organic but unconscious, or even the inorganic and insensate, for whose study and mastership greater emoluments are not paid, more social consideration awarded, and a higher grade of dignity universally conceded, than to that Art of Arts and Sciences of Sciences, by which the youthful mind is fashioned and trained for life and for futurity. Our colleges have professorships for teaching all the sciences that relate to animals, to metals and to minerals, but no professorship for expounding the science of education. All Christendom cannot show a school where the plants of immortal growth are as carefully tended, where the times and seasons for supplying nourishment and protection are as heedfully observed, where weeds and noxious influences are as industriously extirpated, as from those botanical gardens where no conscious life exists. Would that there were, somewhere upon the earth, one conservatory of children, as interesting to the possessors of wealth and the lovers of beauty, as a conservatory of flowers.

Scientific men devote themselves to studying the instincts and habits of the winged tribes. When will they deem it as honorable to devote themselves to the education of a race of beings, who will soon unfold a wing by which they will sweep through the upper or nether worlds? To show how much more precious is a bug than a child, let us advert to a fact which has recently happened within the knowledge of the whole scientific community. Doubtless our readers generally know, that an entomological survey of the State of New-York was made a few years ago by order of its Legislature. Whether represented at the seat of government or not, a law provided that all the tribes of insects should be recorded as carefully as the twelve tribes of Israel. But it sometimes happened that the scientific insect-commissioner, in turning up a

stone, or stripping a piece of bark from a decayed tree, or examining a weasel's back, found a living polypod, which he did not know whether to class with fleas, in the order Suctoria, or with musquitoes in the order Diptera, or in some other. In all such trying emergencies, it is said that the insect was carefully "done up in lavender," encased in a box, sent several hundred miles to an officer in one of our colleges, to have its legs scientifically counted, its mandibles and bronchiæ examined, its capability or incapability of metamorphosis determined and its name, its species, and its order ascertained; and then to be returned, as carefully as were the remains of Napoleon from St. Helena; and, at last, to be pinned up, in a cabinet immortality, at the capitol of the state. For examining these specimens, naming them, and assigning them a place among their kindred, it is said that a dollar was paid for each decision, not by the bug, but by the State of New York.

But, in the meantime, what measures are taken, what eminent professional talent is employed, what generous emoluments are bestowed, for investigating and expounding the laws of growth and influence, by which thousands of children are developed into the order, Beelzebub; into the genus, atheist or bigot; and into the species drunkard, thief, robber, murderer, lyncher. In our streets, in our bar-rooms, at some of our firesides, and in some of our schools, there are metamorphoses going on every day, by which innocent and guileless children are turned into Ishmaelites, and Cains, and Judases. Is a guat, or grub, or larva, worth more than a human soul? Are bugs the principals, and sons and daughters incidents! Shall the resources of science be exhausted upon the former, while chance and accident, darkness and chaos, reign over the latter? And yet throughout the scientific world, does not Ehrenberg stand higher than Fellenberg; and while in the great wars of Europe, the merest bloodhound courage made its possessors the envy of mankind, was not Pestalozzi repaid with poverty, and persecution, and obloquy, for all his knowledge, and his devotion, and his divine spirit of love?

Would it then, be any mistake; would it be a degradation of talent from noble to ignoble uses, to employ some of the mighty minds that adorn the profession of law, or some of the men who fill the chairs of our colleges, or are gathered among statesmen at the capitol of the nation, to invest the laws and devise the means, by which mankind can be saved from poverty and wretchedness and crime, and made inherritors of the blessings which God bestows upen all who love and obey Him?-Horace Mann-Boston Common School Journal.

DUTIES OF THE INHABITANTS IN CITIES AND TOWNS IN RESPECT TO COMMON SCHOOLS.

The following extract from an address of the Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, to the City Council, contains remarks worthy of consideration, and presents an example worthy of imitation by Mayors of Cities and Towns in Canada:

"It is with feelings of pride und satisfaction that I refer your attention to our system of Common Schools, and the gratifying progress they have made during the past year. Much credit is

due the acting manager and his associates for the able manner and faithful zeal with which they have discharged the duties incumbent upon them. It would be desirable that they should be seconded in their efforts by the more frequent and familiar visits to the schools, of parents and friends interested, stimulating both teacher and pupil to increased exertion. I need not urge upon you the wisdom of pursuing a liberal policy towards these institutions. The best houses and neatest accomodations are invariably accompanied by a corresponding elevation of character, increase of application, and improved habits on the part of the pupils. A knowledge, too, that a city possesses liberal facilities for education would contribute largely to its growth and increase, for, attracted by its delightful situation and healthy climate, many would be enduced to settle in order to avail themselves of the advantages thus afforded to their children. Society for its own benefit, owes to every child a good education free of charge; with that for his portion he may take ha fortune in his hands, and going forth into the world, aspire to and reach the highest station in the land-for the experience of our country demonstrates that wealth is oftener an obstacle than an aid in the path of ambition and progress. Then cherish and foster well our common schools, for upon their success depends the further hope of safety for our free Government."

THE GREAT ECONOMY AND ADVANTAGES OF FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION.

Extract from the Address of Robert Kelly, Esquire, on his re-election as President of the Board of Education for the City of New-York-1849.

Although expenditures for public education in this city amount in the aggregate to a large sum, it may be said, with the strictest regard to truth, that the tax is moderate in proportion to the value of the property. The Secretary of State, in his report to the Legislature as, Superintendent of Common Schools, dated January 2nd, 1849, has introduced a table, showing the ratio of taxation upon property, for educational purposes, in the various towns in the State where a free school system is established. This table is based upon the exact returns of the previous year, and exhibits a fact which will appear surprising to many of our tax-payers, that the citizens of New York are really lightly taxed for the purpose of education. The Report of this Board furnished to the Secretary shows the amount of the expenditure for this city. It is the entire aggregate for all objects that have been taken into the account. The table shows the following results:

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The rate of taxation for this city is somewhat larger for the year just closed, but I have not the means of showing how it compares with that of the other towns.

The Secretary of State makes the following remarks in relation to the expenditure for the city of New-York:

"With this table, any one can tell what would be his tax for the support of schools in either of the places named.

"If he is a resident of New York, and is assessed $4,000, he pays a tax of $4 16. If assessed for $100,000, he pays $104. The sum raised in New-York for school purposes appears to be very large, but when it is proportioned among the tax payers, according to their property, it is a very light tax. And it would be light even if it were doubled. If the common schools were what they should be, and a system of high schools were engrafted among them, every child could be educated, the poor gratuitously, and the rich at a less expense than at private schools."

Here is indicted the true solution of the question of economy. This is the consummation aimed at by the ardent friends of popular education throughout the land, to make the free schools and academies so elevated in their character, so complete in their processes, so perfect in all their arrangements, and so replete with all good influences, that they shall become the pure, the chosen, and the common fountains of knowledge for the whole people.

Those

All citizens whether they have children or not, are immediately interested in the support of a proper educational system. who have children to educate, and do not choose to avail themselves of the advantages provided in the public system, voluntarily impose upon themselves the additional burden of paying for their instruction in private institutions. It is not merely the right of citizens to send their children to the common school, but they deserve commendation who do so, however able they may be to pay the most expensive charges of private school education. They are probably doing the greatest service they can render to their own children. They are lending their influence to dissipate prejudices, and are setting an example to those who are disposed to neglect and despise the privilege of a free education for their children.

The expediency of a common education is not yet universally recognized. It is, perhaps, natural, that doubts should exist in the minds of parents anxious for the safe passage of their children through the training period of life, and ignorant of the condition of our common schools and the character of the children who attend them. They must be satisfied as to the value of the education dispensed, its effects upon the character, and its moral influences. They must be convinced that there are no evils, no disadvantages, no dangers peculiar to the common schools, from which private schools are free. An intimate examination of the subjects would probably dispel any doubts that may exist upon these points.

There are dangers to which a child is exposed, whether he be educated at home or abroad, in common schools or in private schools, in society or in solitude, for there is no escape from that constant probation which is the condition of human existence. The danger of evil communications is, I suppose, the prominent one in every parent's mind .It appears to me, that there, is no more risk of immoral associations to a child, in attending a well disciplined common school, than in attending one frequented only by the children of the wealthy. The great danger to which the boy is exposed, who has been nurtured in a home of affluence, is his being contaminated by intimacy, with the spoiled children of indulgence. He will not be likely to seek the companionship of the children of neglect and vicious poverty, if such there should be in the schools; and it is to be hoped that they will always be found there, if they are in the community, for they need above all others, for their own good and that of society, the elevating and reforming influences of education. In the large numbers and miscellaneous composition of the common school, there is much less inducement to indiscriminate social intimacies, than in the closer intercourse of the private schools.

The common school appears to offer peculiar advantages, in some particulars. The independent position of the teacher removes all temptation to a relaxation. of discipline, and he cannot conduct his school at all except by maintaining rigid order, and pursuing a uniform system, that can admit no irregularities and show no respect to persons. This is the sort of restraint that is of special value to a youth. The habit of obedience and self-control, acquired in his subjection, in the society of his fellows, to an inexorable rule of order, or to some reasonable requisition of duty, is an important process in his preparation for self-denials, the disapointments, and the labors of life. There is something, too, of a training for the intercourse of the world, in the attendance upon a common school, made up of children from the whole people. It is a little world in itself, and its daily lessons," to use a happy expression of Horace Mann, are the preludes and recitals of the great duties of life." It promotes a spirit of self-relying independence, which is the great principle of a manly character. The child soon apprehends that talent, energy, and virtue, are distinctions of real value, more lasting than the gifts of fortune, and, in no way connected with them, and that they constitute the true dignity of man. sees that the heritage of wealth is of no avail in securing the honours of the school, and learns the lesson that merit and industry are the elements of success in every situation. It is a peculiarly valuable discipline to our children, in view of the extraordinary changes that occur in society with us, where every day the last in the social scale is becoming first and the first becoming last.

He

The habit of general intercourse and sympathy in the youth of the people, will be productive of a generous mutual confidence and harmony of all classes of society. The prevalence of this sentiment seems to be essential to the permanence of our institutions, and the security of society as here constituted. The absence of it is, in other countries, the great obstacle to the realization of the schemes of patriotic minds, in the visions they form of a golden age of "liberty, equality and fraternity."

There are so many considerations of advantage connected with the subject of a common education for the whole people, both as to the community and as to the schools, that every effort should be made to bring about so desirable a result. Public sentiment is rapidly tending toward it. The attendance in our common schools is much more general from all classes of the community than it was a few years ago. A rapid advance in the right direction is now going on, and the advantages of higher education, recently opened in connection with the common school system, will give an important stimulus to the movement. We may all, by our influence, do something towards it-spread information as to the character of the schools--persuade parents to make the experiment of sending their children there-induce others to visit them, examine the arrangements, and condition of the buildings, observe the appearance and behaviour of the children attending, and judge for themselves as to the manner in which the schools are conducted, the progress made in knowledge, and the ability of the teachers. If the schools are not yet conducted in a way to satisfy such inquiries, they ought to be made so. This is the point towards which the strenuous efforts of the friends of education, of all teachers and school officers, should be directed. Let us do our part. Let us exert such powers as we

have, and the whole influence of this Board, to improve the character of the schools while increasing their number, and drawing within them, more and more the children of the city. Let us not be satisfied with the results shown in the statistical returns of the numbers instructed, but strive to enhance, in a still more rapid progression, the actual fruits-the amount and accuracy of the knowledge communicated, the habits of discipline, love of order and industry imparted, and the moral influence which constitutes the accompaniment and vital principle of education in its true acceptation, its crown of honor and its abiding blessing.

It will be a grand era in the history of public education in our city, when our free schools and academies shall become an object of universal favor, when every father shall feel a warm interest in them because his children are educated there, and the whole intelligence of the community shall be enlisted in the cause.-There will be no deficiency then in the care and vigilance exercised in their management, and the best citizens will be anxious to perform public duty as school officers.

The success and growth of our common school system, looking at the effect it must be exerting upon our youthful population, is a most cheering indication to every one that feels an interest in the character that shall attach to the city of New-York hereafter. Its position in reference to the Union, as the point towards which so much of its business and intercourse converges, a radiating centre of influence for good or for evil, that extends over the whole land, the mighty heart, whose pulsations are felt in the very extremity of the republic, and its destiny to become one of the great capitals of the world, while they increase our responsibilities, increase our gratification at all the evidences we can perceive leading us to hope that its greatness shall not be merely the greatness of power, and extent, and riches, and splendor, but a moral and intellectual greatness.

IMPORTANCE OF THE TEACHER'S CALLING. The importance of any man's work is to be determined by the value of the materials on which he works. Judged by this standard, let us compare the calling of the teacher with some of the other avocations or professions among men.

To ascertain the infinite difference which exists between different I created substances, we must classify and compare them. First, there is the unorganized and insentient. Rising in the scale, we come to the organized and animate, but unconscious. Higher still, we find the conscious, but irrational and ephemeral. Last, and unsurpassable, there is the animate, sentient, conscious, rational and immortal.

And yet we affirm, there is not one of the subordinate department of nature, whether the conscious but irrational, the organic but unconscious, or even the inorganic and insensate, for whose study and mastership greater emoluments are not paid, more social consideration awarded, and a higher grade of dignity universally conceded, than to that Art of Arts and Sciences of Sciences, by which the youthful mind is fashioned and trained for life and for futurity. Our colleges have professorships for teaching all the sciences that relate to animals, to metals and to minerals, but no professorship for expounding the science of education. All Christendom cannot show a school where the plants of immortal growth are as carefully tended, where the times and seasons for supplying nourishment and protection are as heedfully observed, where weeds and noxious influences are as industriously extirpated, as from those botanical gardens where no conscious life exists. Would that there were, somewhere upon the earth, one conservatory of children, as interesting to the possessors of wealth and the lovers of beauty, as a conservatory of flowers.

Scientific men devote themselves to studying the instincts and habits of the winged tribes. When will they deem it as honorable to devote themselves to the education of a race of beings, who will soon unfold a wing by which they will sweep through the upper or nether worlds? To show how much more precious is a bug than a child, let us advert to a fact which has recently happened within the knowledge of the whole scientific community. Doubtless our readers generally know, that an entomological survey of the State of New-York was made a few years ago by order of its Legislature. Whether represented at the seat of government or not, a law provided that all the tribes of insects should be recorded as carefully as the twelve tribes of Israel. But it sometimes happened that the scientific insect-commissioner, in turning up a

stone, or stripping a piece of bark from a decayed tree, or examining a weasel's back, found a living polypod, which he did not know whether to class with fleas, in the order Suctoria, or with musquitoes in the order Diptera, or in some other. In all such trying emergencies, it is said that the insect was carefully "done up in lavender," encased in a box, sent several hundred miles to an officer in one of our colleges, to have its legs scientifically counted, its mandibles and bronchiæ examined, its capability or incapability of metamorphosis determined and its name, its species, and its order ascertained; and then to be returned, as carefully as were the remains of Napoleon from St. Helena; and, at last, to be pinned up, in a cabinet immortality, at the capitol of the state. For examining these specimens, naming them, and assigning them a place among their kindred, it is said that a dollar was paid for each decision, not by the bug, but by the State of New York.

But, in the meantime, what measures are taken, what eminent professional talent is employed, what generous emoluments are bestowed, for investigating and expounding the laws of growth and influence, by which thousands of children are developed into the order, Beelzebub; into the genus, atheist or bigot; and into the species drunkard, thief, robber, murderer, lyncher. In our streets, in our bar-rooms, at some of our firesides, and in some of our schools, there are metamorphoses going on every day, by which innocent and guileless children are turned into Ishmaelites, and Cains, and Judases. Is a guat, or grub, or larva, worth more than a human soul? Are bugs the principals, and sons and daughters incidents! Shall the resources of science be exhausted upon the former, while chance and accident, darkness and chaos, reign over the latter? And yet throughout the scientific world, does not Ehrenberg stand higher than Feilenberg; and while in the great wars of Europe, the merest bloodhound courage made its possessors the envy of mankind, was not Pestalozzi repaid with poverty, and persecution, and obloquy, for all his knowledge, and his devotion, and his divine spirit of love?

Would it then, be any mistake; would it be a degradation of talent from noble to ignoble uses, to employ some of the mighty minds that adorn the profession of law, or some of the men who fill the chairs of our colleges, or are gathered among statesmen at the capitol of the nation, to invest the laws and devise the means, by which mankind can be saved from poverty and wretchedness and crime, and made inherritors of the blessings which God bestows upen all who love and obey Him?-Horace Mann-Boston Commun School Journal.

DUTIES OF THE INHABITANTS IN CITIES AND TOWNS IN RESPECT TO COMMON SCHOOLS.

The following extract from an address of the Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, to the City Council, contains remarks worthy of consideration, and presents an example worthy of imitation by Mayors of Cities and Towns in Canada :

"It is with feelings of pride und satisfaction that I refer your attention to our system of Common Schools, and the gratifying progress they have made during the past year. Much credit is due the acting manager and his associates for the able manner and faithful zeal with which they have discharged the duties incumbent upon them. It would be desirable that they should be seconded in their efforts by the more frequent and familiar visits to the schools, of parents and friends interested, stimulating both teacher and pupil to increased exertion. I need not urge upon you the wisdom of pursuing a liberal policy towards these institutions. The best houses and neatest accomodations are invariably accompanied by a corresponding elevation of character, increase of application, and improved habits on the part of the pupils. A knowledge, too, that a city possesses liberal facilities for education would contribute largely to its growth and increase, for, attracted by its delightful situation and healthy climate, many would be enduced to settle in order to avail themselves of the advantages thus afforded to their children. Society for its own benefit, owes to every child a good education free of charge; with that for his portion he may take his fortune in his hands, and going forth into the world, aspire to and reach the highest station in the land-for the experience of our country demonstrates that wealth is oftener an obstacle than an aid in the path of ambition and progress. Then cherish and foster well our common schools, for upon their success depends the further hope of safety for our free Government."

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