and back to Boston by the way of Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Schenectady, Utica, Troy, and Albany; a journey more than 5000 miles, was every where signalized by the same enthusiastic attentions and congratulations. By the revolution in his native country, La Fayette had become comparatively poor; and his visit to the scene of his youthful exploits in the service of the struggling Americans, enabled congress to display the nation's gratitude to their benefactor, by granting him 200,000 dollars in money; besides a township of six miles square, of any of the unappropriated lands which the president should select.

1825. March 4th, John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, became president of the United States, and John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, vice-president. December 25th, a convention of peace, amity, commerce, and navigation, was signed at Washington, between the United States and the Federation of Central America, finally called Guatimala; negotiators being Henry Clay, on the part of the United States, and Antonio Jose Canas on the part of Central America.

1826. April 26th, treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation, signed at Washington, between the United States and Denmark; negotiators on the part of the United States, Henry Clay, and on that of Denmark, Peter Pederson. Ratified August 10th.

July 13th, convention of London between Great Britain and the United States, by which the former engaged to pay to the latter $1,204,960, for property carried away contrary to the first article of the treaty of Ghent; negotiators, on the part of the United States, Albert Gallatin; on the part of Great Britain, William Huskisson and Henry U. Adding

ton.

July 4th, having completed fifty years since the declaration of independence, the day was celebrated as a national jubilee. The retrospect was truly The retrospect was truly cheering and delightful. The annals of the world exhibit no previous example of so rapid a progress in agriculture and commerce, the arts, manufactures, and population. From weakness the states had advanced to strength; from infancy to manhood; from thirteen they had increased in number to twenty-four; from a population of three millions, thinly scattered along the borders of the Atlantic, they had increased to ten millions, spread beyond the banks of the Mississippi to the base of the Rocky Mountains; and, as if to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the nation's birth by events of signal and unprecedented coincidence, Adams and Jefferson, two of the signers of the declaration of independence of the three who were yet permitted to witness their country's happiness and glory, beheld the sun of that joyous day rise, and beheld it for the last time. Mr. Jefferson died at his seat at Monticello, Virginia, at one o'clock in the afternoon of the 4th of July, in his eighty-fourth year; Mr. Adams died at Quincy, Massachusetts, in his ninety-first. They were the only surviving

members of the committee appointed to draft the declaration; Mr. Jefferson was himself the composer of that celebrated instrument; they had both been presidents of the United States; they were the most distinguished leaders of their respective political parties; Mr. Jefferson had expressed a strong desire to see the jubilee of American independence; Mr. Adams expressed his patriotic feelings in a sentiment to be used that day at the festive board. The nation mourned their loss. By an order of the president, appropriate funeral honours were rendered at all the military and naval stations, and the officers directed to wear badges of mourning for six months; and in the principal cities and towns, days were set apart for the same purpose, and funeral processions and eulogiums manifested a universal sentiment of national sorrow.

1827. July 4th, treaty of Stockholm, between the United States and Sweden and Norway.

August 6th, the convention of London of the 20th of October 1818, between Great Britain and the United States, then limited to ten years, now continued indefinitely.

December 20th, treaty of Washington, of commerce and navigation, between the United States and the German Hanseatic cities of Luben, Bremen, and Hamburg.

1828. May 1st, treaty of Washington, between the United States and Prussia.

December 12th, treaty of Rio de Janeiro, between the United States and Brazil.

March 4th, Andrew Jackson became president of the United States, and John C. Calhoun continued vice-president.

1829. August 27th, treaty of Washington, between the United States and Austria.

1830. March 28th, treaty of Copenhagen, between the United States and Denmark, providing for the payment by the latter to the former of $650,000, as indemnification for commercial spoliation.

May 7th, treaty of Constantinople, between the United States and Turkey, securing to the former the free navigation of the Black Sea.

1831. April 5th, treaty of commerce between the United States and Mexico, ratified by the Mexican government.

July 4th, convention between the United States and France, providing for indemnification to the citizens of the former government for spoliations committed by the latter during the wars of the French revolution.

1832. Treaty of Constantinople of the 7th of May 1830, between the United States and Turkey, ratified by the president, January 4th.

April 5th, the ratification of the treaty of commerce and navigation, and of limits, between the United States and the republic of Mexico, exchanged by the secretary of state of the former and the charge des affaires of the Mexican United States.

The boundary between the United States and British provinces of New Brunswick and Lower Canada remains unsettled. W. DARBY.*

EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Among the various topics of interest connected with the history, progress and actual condition of the United States, none deserves a more attentive consideration than that of the means by which the public mind is developed and matured.

Whatever peculiar interest may be attached to the United States as a nation, must obviously be attributable to other causes than mere local and physical advantages. Whatever hopes may be entertained in regard to the amelioration of man's social condition and political relations, as developed in the western hemisphere, must be founded on the presence and action of causes not operative in the despotic nations of Europe. The acknowledgement, both theoretical and practical, of a few important maxims in politics, and the wide and general diffusion of intelligence by all the appropriate means, constitute the main differences between the population of this country and that of several nations in the eastern hemishere. The original individual dispositions of men here are probably much the same as in Europe; and it would be vain to expect, from the mere advantage of local situation, an exemption from the evils which beset the race, whether in their individual or their social capacity, so long as the intelligent principle of the mass of society lies dormant, and those moral energies which prove conservative in all times of difficulty and danger, are permitted to receive but a partial development, or a meager aliment, when brought into action.

It is proposed in the following sketch, after a brief account of the early efforts which were made to promote the cause of intelligence among the first colonists, and a concise statement of the results of those attempts previous to the revolution, to consider the means and the authority by which public provision for general education has been made.

Referring next to the different classes of seminaries and institutions by which education is promoted, we may consider in particular the number and character of each class with its influence on the state of general intelligence.

We shall then present some statements respect ing institutions peculiarly appropriated to certain classes or professions of the community; and finally, note the influence of voluntary associations, having for their avowed object the advancement of learning or the promotion of education.

Education, regarded as a great public interest, is necessarily considered in close connexion with the means provided, and the institutions established for the purposes of public instruction. Though some affect to draw a broad distinction between these two things, they are in fact so intimately connected, that any reference to a system of public education, of which instruction is not the predominant and most important feature, becomes almost ridiculous. It may be added that much of what is called teaching is neither instruction nor education, as it neither conveys knowledge nor developes the understanding. Such is all that species of dogmatising which consists in forcing upon the mind general truths without the concomitant, or rather the ante

cedent examination of the facts on which they are established.

The amount of public patronage to seminaries of learning, must not be assumed as the absolute measure of education in any part of the country, and least of all in those states where public schools, academies, and colleges have been longest established. The amount of money paid and the quantity of instruction given in private schools and families, is, in all the states, very considerable; and, though it does not effect all the objects of education, and though it confines the views of youth and limits the number of those parents who take a deep interest in public instruction, yet it serves to bound, in some degree, the inroads of ignorance and error, vice and superstition.

The early colonists of the eastern portion of the Union brought from the parent country some just and admirable ideas of the true basis of liberty,. which they endeavoured to establish on the foundation of universal intelligence. One of the first acts of legislation of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, which received its royal charter in 1628, was a law for the education of every child in the colony. This law merely made it obligatory on parents to educate their own children and apprentices; but in 1647 the same colony enacted a law to establish schools for instruction in the common branches of an English education in every town containing fifty families; and a school for the higher branches in each town containing one hundred families. The germ of all the common school systems of the United States, may thus be regarded as coeval with the settlement of the country; and the spirit which dictated this admirable provision for universal intelligence (though blended in the minds of the early colonists with much of that puritanical austerity which is equally opposed to nature, reason, and rational religion) is to be commended as the essential principle of free government and of equal rights. A penalty of twenty pounds was affixed to the neglect of this law on the part of any town.

There is a difficulty, if not an utter impossibility, in obtaining authentic information respecting the exact state of the schools erected in early times, in accordance with these laws. They were managed and controlled solely by the little corporations. called in the eastern states towns; elsewhere known by the designation of townships. No regular general report of their condition and operation was rendered, and the government of the colony was not authorised to interfere in their management farther than to grant the remedy for neglect to provide schools, where the law authorised and required such provision. But public opinion appears to have been ever in advance of the requirements of the law; as few, if any penalties were incurred by the towns for remissness in this particular. The colony of Connecticut was early engaged in the cause of universal education; and her system of public common schools has at all times constituted the chief object of care and anxiety. The same provision and the same limitations as to number of families required to oblige a town to support schools, were found as in the older colony of Massachusetts.

But notwithstanding the obvious policy and usefulness of the system of general education, it will require but little reflection to convince us that the greater part of the efforts of a public nature made for the diffusion of education, have been applied to those classes whose moral and intellectual culture least requires the fostering care of government. With the exception of some of the New England states, particularly Massachusetts and Connecticut, little had been done for common schools before the commencement of the present century. In the two states just named, provisions for universal education were, as already stated, among the first objects of their pilgrim founders. Their reason for wishing the blessings of knowledge to be widely diffused, are certainly as cogent under the independent as they could have been under the colonial govern

ment.

In the first law of Massachusetts, it was provided "that none of them (the colonists) shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeavour to teach, by themselves or others, their children and apprentices so much learning as may enable them to read the English tongue, and knowledge of the capital laws."

By a reference to the list of colleges given below, it will be seen that up to the time of the revolution in 1776, only eight of those institutions had been formed for a population of three millions. This number it will also be seen is now increased eight fold, for about a quadruple population; and other schools of a higher class have doubtless been multiplied in a proportionate degree.

Harvard college, the oldest in the United States, had, during the ten years immediately preceding the American revolution, about one hundred and seventy students. The other seven colleges did not probably, at that time, average more than half that number each, but the wealthier and more loyal part of the colonists were in the practice of sending their sons to England for education a practice, which, while it fostered a colonial dependence, with drew a portion of encouragement from the institutions founded in America.

The constitution of the United States has not confided to congress the superintendence of public instruction, rightly judging, perhaps, that such a power could be best exercised by those who were most immediately concerned in the faithful execution of laws respecting this matter. The bestow ment of a portion of the public lands to be held by the several states for purposes of education, is, in fact, an acknowledgement that congress does not possess the power to regulate the details of instruction, at the same time that it indicates a just estimate of the important cause, for the promotion of which the appropriations in question have been made. The local legislatures of the twenty-four states

are therefore the only acknowledged organs for declaring and executing the public will in this particular.

But though the minute arrangements for promoting education, are not under the control of the general government, there is one mode in which it may conduce directly to the advancement of the cause of instruction; and that is, by furnishing, at the time of taking each census, a full account of the number of persons receiving education in every precinct of the country: such statistics are a great desideratum, and could in no manner essentially impede the progress of those employed to make the enumeration.

The different kinds of institutions for education established by public authority, may be reduced to the following classes:

1. Primary or "common" schools. 2. Academies, high schools, or gymnasia. 3. Schools and institutes for practical popular instruction.

4. Colleges and universities. 5. Professional schools.

To which may be added several establishments for the instruction of particular classes, who from certain peculiar circumstances are precluded from a participation in the benefits of the general provisions for instruction. Such are the deaf and dumb, for whom several flourishing institutions have been erected, and the blind, who are likely soon to enjoy such a measure of the blessing of instruction as their unfortunate deprivation will admit.

It will be evident that the cause of education is one on which the American people set a high and a just estimate, when we recollect that the establishment of public seminaries, of all the above descriptions, has never been made to prejudice the right of any individual or company to establish similar institutions on their private account and responsibility; and that no authority and no inquisitorial power whatever can be exercised to limit or abolish that right, but on the contrary numerous establishments of the first respectability have from the earliest times been maintained on that footing. The seminaries of a private kind have, indeed, sometimes far surpassed those which claim public patronage, both in the liberality of their provi sions, the ability of their teachers, and the numbers of their pupils. They are useful in giving that free scope to the choice of methods and range of studies which is seldom allowed in those public institutions especially of a higher class, which rest on the basis of chartered privileges. We proceed to give such facts in regard to the nature and condition of the several classes of institutions as the imperfect and scattered statistics of the subject will at present admit.

States.

TABLE XLIX.

Maine

N. Hampshire

Vermont

Massachusetts

Rhode Island

Connecticut

New York

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

Delaware Maryland

29 2

fits.

None.

1629 56 3|

$10,000 annually ap

propriated. by state.

and derelict property.

24

do.

1819 24 2

of appropriated land

granted by con

From the above table it will be seen that in two of the New England states, Massachusetts and Connecticut, laws for the establishment of common schools, where all classes of society might together receive the elements of an English education, were enacted at a period far anterior to the revolution. The system of general education in Massachusetts was commenced prior to the establishment of any college in the country. So far, therefore, as precedent. and prescription have authority, the common school system ought to be regarded as the national system, and cherished accordingly. This appears to be, at present, the general feeling throughout the community, and it is probable that no considerable legislative action in favour of education will hereafter take place, which does not involve the acknowledgement of this as the basis, and admit the right to be educated as a preliminary to the obligation to submit to the authority of law or to bear a part in

the national defence.

In several of the southern and in some of the middle states, the public provision for instruction in common schools has reference solely to the poor. This peculiarity has tended little to render the plan either acceptable or useful. The feeling of degradation connected with the acceptance of a boon, is, in many instances, strong enough to deter the people altogether from receiving the proffered instruction. And though panegyric has been exhausted and efforts multiplied to force this system into popularity, yet they have been so far from succeeding, that the people often prefer total ignorance to knowledge on such terms; and the poorer classes of population in the states where it exists, are accordingly among the worst instructed poor in the Union-perhaps in the world.

It may be inferred from recent movements among the people themselves, as well as among their representatives, that the estimate in which eleemosynary instruction is held, cannot be very high. The former claim as a right, and as an indispensable incident to their condition as freemen, the equal enjoyment of at least elementary instruction, since this is the only means of enabling them to comply with the duties and obligations imposed by the constitutions and laws under which they live.

Plain sense and some experience have concurred to justify the remark of an able advocate* of public education, which we take the liberty to transcribe. "Only allow the rich (no matter under what pretext, whether of philanthropy, or patriotism, or interest) to prescribe the education of the poor, and they prescribe their condition and relative importance. If any thing be anti-republican, it cer tainly is so, directly or indirectly, to maintain that although a hundred dollars a year is not too much to expend for the mental improvement of the son of the wealthy merchant, lawyer, and physician, a two dollar education is quite sufficient for the children of the poor; or in other words, the mass of our fellow citizens."

The system of common schools has in some instances been so modified as to include a department

exclusively appropriated to children under seven years of age. They are sometimes called primary in contradistinction to the remaining portion of the common schools; and sometimes infant schools-the latter designation, as well as the general features of the system itself, being derived from the establishment of Mr. Owen, at New Lanark, where the first infant school is said to have been put in operation. Wherever the system of common schools has been established on a solid basis, and managed by the people on just and liberal principles, it has not failed to display the most gratifying results on the character and habits of the people. It has diminished crime, promoted temperance, quickened industry, abated pauperism, substituted mental for animal pleasures, implanted a general desire for useful information, and rendered the spirit of liberty and of patriotism a living and energetic principle of action. It has made the enormity of slavery more apparent to the general mind, and has followed close in the rear of that odious system, whereever the force of public sentiment has caused its abolition. Female character is observed to possess more universal esteem wherever the system of universal education has been adopted.. Both sexes are alike the subjects of its salutary and sustaining influences, and mutually aid each other to maintain the virtue and intelligence of the social system.

2. Academics, high schools, gymnasia.-The term academy, as applied to a species of schools intermediate between the colleges and the common or English schools, has long been known as a denomination of a valuable class of seminaries which abound in all the United States, and which have probably been instrumental in sustaining the general intelligence of the population in a degree quite equal to that of the colleges, and inferior only to that of common schools.

The advantage possessed by these institutions is, that not being fettered by any exclusive course of studies and operations, they are enabled to extend the range of studies and adopt such improvements in instruction as the spirit of the age shall from time to time render expedient or useful; they can provide practical instruction precisely adapted to the situation and circumstances of the community in which they are established; they can dispense with the waste of time incident to the study of branches that can never be rendered available, and can substitute those which are directly connected with the duties and occupations of life; they can afford to youth in moderate circumstances the means of becoming adequately qualified for any of the stations and relations of general society, and they are often made to furnish a portion of classical and other instruction entirely sufficient for entering on any of the learned professions. Many highly distinguished members of all those professions have received no other education than that furnished by an academy, high school, or gymnasium.

The mode of sustaining the academies is generally that of uniting a small fund sufficient to provide buildings and furniture, and to pay some portion