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the acquirement of knowledge which are in common use: reading and writing. To these are added arithmetic, and, occasionally, perhaps, some imperfect lessons in the simpler sciences. But, I would ask, supposing these institutions should even be made to embrace all the branches of intellectual knowledge, and thus, science offered gratis to all the children of the land, how are the children of the very class, for whom we suppose the schools instituted, to be supplied with food and raiment, or instructed in the trade necessary to their future subsistence, while they are following these studies? How are they, I ask, to be fed and clothed, when, as all facts show, the labour of the parents is often insufficient for their own suste nance, and, almost universally, inadequate to the provision of the family without the united efforts of all its members? In your manufacturing districts you have children worked for twelve hours a day; and, in the rapid and certain progress of the existing system, you will soon have them, as in England, worked to death, and yet unable, through the period of their miserable existence, to earn a pittance sufficient to satisfy the cravings of hunger. At this present time, what leisure or what spirit, think you, have the children of the miserable widows of Philadelphia, realizing, according to the most favourable estimate of your city and county committee, sixteen dollars per annum, for food and clothing? What leisure or what spirit may their children find for visiting a school, although the same should be open to them from sunrise to sunset? Or what leisure have usually the children of your most thriving mechanics, after their strength is sufficiently developed to spin, sew, weave, vor wield a tool? It seems to me, my friends, that to build school houses now-a-days is something like building churches. When you have them, you need some measure to ensure their being occupied.

I hasten to the rapid developement of the system of instruction and protection which has occurred to me as capable, and alone capable, of opening the door to universal reform.

In lieu of common schools, high schools, colleges, seminaries, houses of refuge, or any other juvenile institution, instructional or protective, let the state legislatures be directed (after laying off the whole in townships or hundreds) to organize, at suitable distances, and in convenient and healthy situations, establishments for the general reception of all the children resident within the said school district. These establishments to be devoted, severally, to children between a certain age. Say, the first to infants between two and four, or two and six, according

to the density of the population, and such other local circumstances as might render a greater or less number of establishments necessary or practicable. The next to receive children from four to eight, or six to twelve years. The next from twelve to sixteen, or to an older age if found desirable. Each establishment to be furnished with instructors in every branch of knowledge, intellectual and operative, with all the apparata, land, and conveniences necessary for the best developement of all knowledge; the same, whether operative or intellectual, being always calculated to the age and strength of the pupils.

To obviate, in the commencement, every evil result possible from the first mixture of a young population, so variously raised in error or neglect, a due separation should be made in each establishment; by which means those entering with bad habits would be kept apart from the others until corrected. How rapidly reform may be effected on the plastic disposition of childhood, has been sufficiently proved in your houses of refuge, more especially when such establishments have been under liberal superintendance, as was formerly the case in New-York. Under their orthodox directors, those asylums of youth have been converted into jails.

It will be understood, that, in the proposed establishments, the children would pass from one to the other in regular succession, and that the parents, who would necessarily be resident in their close neighbourhood, could visit the children at suitable hours, but, in no case, interfere with or interrupt the rules of the institution.

In the older establishments, the well directed and well protected labour of the pupil would, in time, suffice for, and then exceed, their own support; when the surplus might be devoted to the maintenance of the infant establishments.

In the beginning, and until all debt was cleared off, and so long as the same should be found favourable to the promotion of these best palladiums of a nation's happiness, a double tax might be at once expedient and politic.

First, a moderate tax per head for every child, to be laid upon its parents conjointly, or divided between them, due attention being always paid to the varying strength of the two sexes, and to the undue depreciation which now rests on female labour. The more effectually to correct the latter injustice, as well as to consult the convenience of the industrious classes generally, this parental tax might be rendered payable either in money, or in labour, produce, or domestic manufactures, and should be continued for each child until the age when juvenile abour should be found, on the average, equivalent to the educa

tional expences, which, I have reason, to believe, would be at twelve years.

The first tax on parents to embrace equally the whole population; as, however moderate, it would inculcate a certain forethought in all the human family; more especially where it is most wanted-in young persons, who before they assumed the responsibility of parents, would estimate their fitness to meet it.

The second tax to be on property, increasing in per centage with the wealth of the individual. In this manner I conceive the rich would contribute, according to their riches, to the relief of the poor, and to the support of the state, by raising up its best bulwark-an enlightened and united generation.

Preparatory to, or connected with, such measures, a registry should be opened by the state, with offices through all the townships, where on the birth of every child, or within a certain time appointed, the same should be entered, together with the names of its parents. When two years old, the parental tax should be payable, and the juvenile institution open for the child's reception; from which time forward it would be under the protective care and guardianship of the state, while it need never be removed from the daily, weekly, or frequent inspection of the parents.

If

Orphans of course, would find here an open asylum. possessed of property, a contribution would be paid from its revenue to the common educational fund; if unprovided, they would be sustained out of the same.

In these nurseries of a free nation, no inequality must be allowed to enter. Fed at a common board; clothed in a common garb, uniting neatness with simplicity and convenience; raised in the exercise of common duties, in the acquirement of the same knowledge and practise of the same industry, varied only according to individual taste and capabilities; in the exercise of the same virtues, in the enjoyment of the same pleasures; in the study of the same nature; in pursuit of the same object-their own and each other's happiness-say! would not such a race, when arrived at manhood and womanhood work out the reform of society-perfect the free institutions of America?

FRANCES WRIGHT.

THE system of universal education has now, therefore, become, to a remarable degree, the basis of the popular character which marks the two millions of people in New England. The laws, indeed, differ in the six states, and have been altered in each, from time to time, since their first enactment; but all the states have laws on the subject; the leading principles are the same in all of them; and the modes of applying them, and the results obtained, are not materially different. Indeed, in almost every part of these six states, whatever may be the injunctions of the law, the popular demand for education is so much greater, that the legal requisitions are generally or constantly exceeded. The most striking instance of this is, perhaps to be found in the city of Boston, where the requisitions of the law could be fulfilled by an expenditure of three thousand dollars annually, but where from sixty to seventy thousand are every year applied to the purpose. And yet multitudes of the poor and small towns in the interior show no less zeal on the subject, and, in proportion to their means, make no less exertion. The mode in which this system of popular education is carried into effect is perfectly simple, and is one principal cause of its practical efficiency. The New England states are all divided into territorial communities called towns, which have corporate privileges and duties, and whose affairs are managed by a sort of committee annually chosen by the inhabitants called selectmen. These towns are of unequal size; but in the agricultural portions of the country, which contain four-fifths of the people, they are generally five or six square miles; and upon them, in their corporate capacity, rests the duty of making provision for the support of free schools. This duty is fulfilled by them, in the first place, by voting, at a meeting of all the taxable male inhabitants over twenty one years old, a tax on property of all kinds to support schools for the current year, always as large as the law requires, and often larger; or, if this is neglected by any town, it is so surely complained of to the grand jury by those dissatisfied inhabitants, who want education for their children, that instances of such neglect are almost unknown. The next thing is to spend wisely and effectually the money thus raised. In all but the smallest towns, one school, at least, is kept

through the whole year, in which Latin, Greek, the lower branches of mathematics, and whatever goes to constitute a common English education in reading, writing, geography, history, &c. are taught under the immediate superintendence of the selectmen, or of a special committee appointed for the purpose. This, however, would not be carrying education hear enough to the doors of the people, in agricultural districts, to enable them fully to avail themselves of it, especially the poorer classes and the younger children. To meet this difficulty, all the towns are divided into districts, varying in number, in each town, from four to twelve, or even more, according to its necessities and convenience. Each district has its district school committee, and receives a part of the tax imposed for education; sometimes in proportion to the population of the district, but oftener to the number of children to be educated. The Committee of the district determine where the school shall be kept, select its teacher, choose the books that shall be used, or delegate that power to the instructor, and, in short, are responsible in all particulars, for the faithful fulfillment of the trust committed to them; the general system being that a school is kept in each district during the long winter months, when the children of the farmers are unoccupied, by a male teacher, capable of instructing in reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, and history; while in the same schoolhouse, during the summer months, schools are kept by women, to instruct the smaller children in knowledge even more elementary. In this way, for the population of New England, consisting of two millions of souls, not less than from ten to twelve thousand free schools are open every year, or, on an average, yone school to every two hundred souls a proportion undoubtedly quite sufficient, and larger than would be necessary, if the population were not in many parts very much dispersed.*

* On this point no one has spoken with more power than Mr. Webster, who, alluding, in public debate, to the free schools, where he himself received his earliest training, said."In this particular, New England may be allowed to claim, I think, a merit of a peculiar character. She early adopted, and has constantly maintained the principle, that it is the undoubted right, and the bounden duty of government, to provide for the instruction of all youth. That which is elsewhere left to chance, or to charity, we secure by law. For the purpose of public instruction, we hold every man subject to taxation in proportion