Are we so unreflecting that we cannot here see the natural result of leaving freemen entirely beyond the influence of educational and religious institutions?

Restore to us the sabbath as a means of popular improvement, or give us the iron hand of a Prussian despotism, which though it may hold us with a tight rein, will at least cultivate our minds and our morals, and protect our lives and property.

2. A vast number of children among us grow up in ignorance, disorder and wickedness, without the restraints of religious institutions, schools, or family government.

This is true to an extent exceedingly alarming to one who looks at the facts as they really exist, and does not allow himself to be dazzled by the habits of self-applause to which we are so much addicted. As to the first point mentioned, it is making liberal allowance to admit that one third of the inhabitants of the United States are regular attendants on any species of public worship, or come at all under the direct influence of our religious institutions. The population of the United States must be now nearly 16,000,000. From statistics furnished by the American Almanac for 1838, (p. 172,) I estimate the whole number of communicants belonging to all the different religious. denominations at 2,045,129. Reckoning the communicants to comprise only one third of all the different religious societies, there will be 6,135,387 persons connected with the different religious societies. This number subtracted from 16,000,000 leaves 9,864,613 not connected with any religious society whatever. With every allowance, therefore, the regular attendants on public worship, of every description, cannot exceed one third of the whole population.

In regard to schools, though schools generally are much more popular than churches, the state of things is but little better. On this subject I am satisfied there have been many flattering estimates, which a minute and impartial examination would prove to be entirely groundless. The estimates for the State of New York, for example, would show a very thorough extension of the benefits of the common school system. But the extent to which these estimates may be relied upon as an accurate representation of the facts, may be seen by the following paragraph from the First Annual Report of the superintendent of common schools for the State of Ohio, (p. 13.) "The returns from the counties in New York would, if taken in the aggregate, show a general attendance thus: there are 538,396 chil

dren in the State, and 532,167 are reported as in the schools. The schools are taught seven months, on an average, in the year. The whole amount expended for tuition, was $738,937,67, or a fraction less than $1,40 per scholar. Of course it will pay for teaching the whole number less than three months in the year; but some have attended nine months, and the average is seven months, so that either they all had less than three months' schooling, or something less than half attended seven months, and the others did not attend at all. To prove still further that this review is fair, one county has 10,799 children, and the same tables show 11,931, or 1,132 more than the whole number, have attended school in the same year, an average of seven months, for $14,257,21, or for $1,20 per scholar. The true average for the whole number is about three months, if they all attended; and that the school was an average of seven months for that number proves that all did not attend steadily. Their statistics do not pretend to furnish the time that each scholar attended; all are numbered that attend, however short the period. Add to this the fact that of those reported as at school, a large number are either over or under the ages included in the reported whole number; and a greater deficiency will be found than appears at first view."

Of the system generally, Judge Duer, of New York city, says, "It is, in fact, so imperfect and scanty, as hardly to deserve the name of elementary. It is unconnected with anything resembling moral discipline, or the formation of character, the teachers inexperienced and transitory, snatched up for the occasion; are paid by salaries which hardly exceed the wages of a menial servant; and as a necessary consequence, ignorant and disqualified, they are perhaps over-paid by the pittance they receive." (Same Report, p. 13.)

I believe it will be admitted that Ohio is as intelligent and as well provided with educational institutions as any other State south and west of New York; and that taking the whole United States into the account, where there is one in a better condition, in this respect, than Ohio, there are at least three in a worse. What then is the result of the laborious investigations of our single-hearted and truth-telling superintendent? From an examination of the large statistical table, and the synopsis given on page 49 of his First Annual Report, I obtain the following results.

Whole number of persons between the ages of four and twenty-one,

Males, 254,530

Females, 238,309

Total, 492,839

Number reported as in a public or private school more than two and

less than four months,

Number reported as in School more than four months,

Males, 45,311
Females, 38,985

Males, 31,664

Making every requisite allowance, and comparing the above numbers with the results of my own observations, so far as I have had opportunity to observe, I am persuaded that scarcely one half of the children of Ohio between six and eighteen years of age were, in 1837, in attendance on any school whatever, either public or private, for even the short period of two months.

From this, making what I consider a fair estimate for the whole United States, I am persuaded that not more than one third of the whole number of children of proper school age attend school at all, either public or private; and I will be entirely silent as to the real value of about one half of the schools that actually exist. Certainly keeping school is a more common employment among us than teaching children.

Let it not be supposed that two thirds of our population are provided for, one third by religious institutions, and another third by schools; for it is a notorious fact, that those who neglect religious institutions usually neglect schools also, and that it is the same families who attend our churches, that attend our schools.

But is not the deficiency in church and school made up by family government and family instruction? In some few instances it may be; but as a general fact, alas! alas! for family discipline and family teaching! If this be the only substitute, it is much like another substitute not unfrequently met with in the western country, namely, wading through the mud with a rail on one's back as a substitute for riding in the stage-coach.

Let me not be misapprehended. I am neither croaking nor lugubriating; but simply stating plain facts in the plainest language.

The crowds of idle, profane and vicious boys which infest our large cities and swarm on our great thoroughfares, afford painful proof of the sad deficiency in school and parental instruction. The following paragraph, which has appeared in our newspapers during the present month, (July, 1838), is a vivid illustration of the same point. "Irresponsible Boys.-Several lads of from seventeen to twenty years, have been taken up in Baltimore on suspicion of being concerned in the late house-burnings. There is a class of youth growing up in our large towns, free from the restraints of a proper guardianship, of whom society has much to fear. Hundreds come in from the country in pursuit of trades and employment, who are thrown into promiscuous association in boarding-houses, over whom there is no sort of supervision whatever, except during the working hours of the day. Thus left to themselves without instruction, or the attractions of domestic society, they naturally seek excitement in the streets, or elsewhere. Something, we are persuaded, might be done by masters and parents to remedy this defect in our apprenticeship system. And until something is done, we must expect to be cursed with intemperance, street brawls, and incendiarism of every sort."*

If it be the indispensable condition of a republic, that a majority of its citizens be intelligent and virtuous, our prospects for the future, without greatly increased exertions, are none of the brightest.

In England, the education of the lower orders, as they are called, has always been grossly neglected; and what is the consequence? Every nook of the kingdom swarms with mischievous boys and boyish men; every work of art, every beautiful object, every pleasure ground, every garden, every cluster of flowers, every fruit tree, must be fenced in and guarded, to preserve it from wanton injury. The same propensity to wanton destruction and mutilation of everything that is unguarded is notorious among ourselves, and it is owing to the same cause, neglect of early education; shall I not rather say, want of civilization? Who, in any of our large cities, that has a choice flower garden, a gallery of paintings, a saloon of statues, would ven

Newark Sentinel.

1839.]

ture to throw them open, unguarded, to the promiscuous concourse of the public? It would be nearly as unsafe here as in England itself. Flowers would be plucked and trampled upon, pictures soiled with handling, statues would be mutilated, and in a few years the whole collection would be rendered almost worthless. It has fallen to my lot to act as librarian to three different public institutions in parts of the United States remote from each other. Each of these institutions had collections of rare books and expensive plates, which were open to the inspection of visitors who were respectably introduced, and to them only; and yet I must testify with shame and indignation that in every institution, notwithstanding the utmost vigilance on my part, plates have been torn and soiled by careless handling, and rare copies of valuable works have been dog's-eared and pencil-marked.

Where children are properly educated, this species of Vandalism does not exist. In Bavaria, in Saxony, in Wurtemburg, in Prussia, the public walks and private gardens, the collections of statues, paintings and other works of art, the great libraries, are freely open to all observers, and thronged, particularly on holidays, with men, women, and children, from every class in society; but not a flower is broken, no picture is soiled, no statue bruised, no book mishandled, unless it be by some Vandal foreigner.

By order of government the roads in Prussia are lined on each side with fruit trees. Riding once early in September from Berlin to Halle, I noticed that some of the trees had a wisp of straw attached to them. I inquired of the coachman what it meant. He replied, that those trees bore choice fruit, and the straw was a notice to the public not to take fruit from those trees without special permission. "I fear," said I, “that such a notice in my country, would be but an invitation to roguish boys to attack these very trees." "Haben sie keine Schules?" (Have you no schools?) was his significant rejoinder.

It is a fact that the children of the convicts in the Prussian prison have, through the assiduous care of their government, better advantages of early education, than many of our wealthy It is true, and citizens are willing to afford to their own sons.

I thank God for it, that the spirit of the people is now to some extent aroused, and much is done; but by how few, how very few, in comparison with the whole number who ought to be at work, is it all done!