"Public schools are the basis of popular instruction in Prussia. The government of that country takes good care not to leave to chance or private speculation the noble task of the training of youth, nor does primary instruction depend at all upon private schools." But, notwithstanding the paramount importance conceded to the public institution, private establishments are permitted, though not without license, and liability to an inspection of the local school commission, which may inform the higher authority of any great defect or breach of regularity in such schools, and they may be suppressed when it is clear that they are not in accordance with the general system. The particular plan of tuition, the choice of books, of methods, and discipline are left entirely with the proprietors of the schools, and they are in fact benefited by the superintendence they are under, being commended and encouraged by those who regard the welfare and virtue of all persons, without exclusion of any useful enterprise, or private service to society.

Thus Cousin's division of his subject has been followed, through the rules of the Prussian system, the most prominent of which have been indicated; and it is hoped that their wisdom commends them so far to those who are now just introduced to the knowledge of this system, that they will possess themselves of the excellent document which is a full exposition of it, and satisfy themselves of the great capability of public instruction to exalt a nation, and to make any people under its best and completest influences, "holy, happy, rich”– rich, it is meant, according to the best sense --rich towards God-rich in good works -rich in an inheritance that fadeth not away.

The facts which illustrate the present applications of the Prussian system remain to be stated. "According to the latest census, the population of Prussia is 12,726,823. Out of this population it is computed that the children from seven * to fourteen, in at

* The statute makes five years the legal period to commence school attendance-but usage does not enforce the law till the age of seven.

tendance at these schools, is 2,043,030,being thirteen fifteenths of all the children of the age mentioned.

The number of elementary schools in 1833 was 22,612, of the monarchy, and these employed 27,749 masters and mistresses. "We may be certain" says Cousin, "that there does not exist a single human being throughout that monarchy who does not receive an education sufficient for his moral and intellectual wants so far as school education is sufficient. This result, glorious and admirable as it is, is an incontestable fact." This was written with the school reports before his eyes. A respectable Prussian gentleman now in this country, told the writer that such was rather the aim and tendency of the Prussian system of education than its positive result. Cousin himself states that some of the provinces are more advanced than others, and that "Berlin shares the fate of all great cities, where a thoroughly exact control is peculi

*

* Dr. Julius.

arly difficult, and where the law cannot be rigidly enforced." But in Saxony and Brandenburg, "the taste for instruction is so generally diffused that parents anticipate the age fixed by law for sending their children to school;" therefore in those highly civilised provinces, the compulsory law of school-obligation is no compulsion at all, but is regarded as a general blessing, as education is in this country with some exceptions that might easily be overruled. There is a sufficient number of normal schools in the kingdom to supply almost all the masters of the public schools, elementary and intermediate, so that there is no remote place, nor any prejudice, nor mercenary exclusion, nor local poverty, nor deficiency of superintendence, nor lack of labourers, that can leave human beings to grow up in heathenism and sin, unpitied and untaught-without care of the state, or beyond reach of the ennobling and renewing influences of rational and Christian education.

The present occasion does not, perhaps, permit a more ample representation of the

rules and facts, which illustrate the Prussian system of education. It only remains to consider its spirit, and its possible application to the American people. For its spirit, what can be more worthy of a paternal government, what more salutary for the formation of national character, what more preventive of the deterioration and corruption to which uninstructed and unregenerate man tends?-M. Cousin truly says,

the whole fabric rests on the firm basis of Christian love." The principles which enter into the institution are strictly in accord with the universality and beneficence of Christianity, and the system has the beautiful character of truth stamped upon it.-It is an experiment not a speculation-it is education "actually given and actually received." And then how admirable are its extensiveness and thoroughness.-It is not the manna of the seventh day, the provision of emergency, but the bread of every day-it is not generosity, it is justice -it is not a gift, but the payment of a debt

-it is not a charity that celebrates the giver,