community, country as well as town, and be established by legislative authority. It is a reproach to our State Legislatures that they do not exercise their deliberations more than they do upon the subject of common education. Instead of multiplying laws upon indifferent matters, which, even if discreetly framed, from their number become a vexation, instead of wasting their time in enacting nugatory regulations and alterations of a militia system, from which all the good that ever will result, is the simple enrolment of the names of those who are liable to perform military duty, so that they can be conveniently called upon in time of need, for the discipline of militia is nothing, or rather worse,-instead of descending from the sublime character of legislators of a republic, to construct schemes for lotteries, debauching the morals of those over whose dearest interests it is their solemn charge to watch,-instead of making each legislative session a political caucus, in which are adjusted, not the great concerns of their constituents, and the commonwealth, but the petty and ephemeral affairs of a party, instead of submitting to lend themselves to be the instruments of agents, employed by individual, or incorporated monopolists, to procure exclusive rights and permanent privileges-instead of thus forgetting the proper objects of their pointment and forsaking the legislative hall for the private chambers of office hunters, and petitioners for Inequitable favours, if they would turn their attention and devote their labours to the great subjects of internal improvement, the excitement of industry, the diffusion of knowledge, the advancement of science, the protection of arts, and the invigoration of morals, then might it be said with some propriety, in regard to the obligation of the citizens, if not to the investiture of authority, "the powers that be are ordain ed of God."

Of all the systems of instruction applicable to the ordinary requisitions of society, the Lancastrian is not merely the best, but incomparably the most excellent. It is the true method, dictated by nature, and arranged according to the wisest practical philosophy. The process of instruction is orderly and perfectly perspicuous, not permitting the pupil to hurry through his lessons without understanding them, and overwhelming his memory with a mass of undigested matter, fatal to the solid growth of the mind, and the just equipoise of its faculties. It is commonly said that memory is the faculty principal

ly unfolded in childhood, and on the strength of this supposition, almost the whole employment given to the intellectual powers of children, is to learn things by rote, to speak pieces, and to pass the first years of pupilage in the unequal and extravagant exercise of one faculty, to the detriment of that very faculty, thus sought to be invigorated, to the very great injury of the mind, and to the retardation of its ultimate developement. This course is injudicious not only because it crowds the memory with undigested matter, with words rather than ideas, but it is founded upon mistake. Why is the memory said to be the faculty principally developed, in childhood? Because objects makes a stronger impression at that period than any other, because the feelings are more vivid, and every thing appears with the captivating charm of novelty. But the same vividness of feeling, the same eagerness for knowledge, which, by fixing attention, replenishes the memory, furnishes at least as favourable an opportunity for quickening perception and teaching discrimination. If an object strikes the mind forcibly, all those qualities belonging to it, which mark its specific character, form a part of the impression, and the discrimination of peculiarities accompanies the general idea. The reasoning faculty, therefore, might naturally be expected to unfold itself at the same early period with the memory, observation appears to warrant the assertion that such is the fact. How quickly do children learn to comprehend the expression of the countenance of one who has authority over them-of the face of a father or mother-and there is scarcely a child of five years of age who is not a better physiognomist than Lavater. If the judgment of a child, in regard to the affairs of life be erroneous, it is not because he cannot distinguish between things that are different, but because his experience is limited; his judgment, in all matters that pertain to his age and condition,-in all transactions between himself and his playmates,—is as correct and prudent as that of an adult. All that is wanting, then, is a mode of presenting a subject to the mind of a child in such a way that it may proceed, step by step, from what is simple and well defined, to what is complicated and remote, and it will soon comprehend. A system of education, which imposes upon the preceptor the necessity of pursuing such a method, is, then, the most perfect system-and such an one is the Lancastrian. It compels both master and scholar to

and

analyse, and to combine—to think and understand. It requires capacity and fidelity on the part of the teacher, and this fact alone, if it were not so admirably adapted as it is, to the yet budding faculties of childhood, would be an imperative reason for its general adoption. Neither preceptor nor pupil, can make any progress without understanding their subject, and if the system were to obtain, what an enormous quantity of abuse would be put down that now exists in the shape of country and city school-masters, clogging up the avenues of knowledge, and disgusting the young mind with the exercises of the school. The mode of government, also, which prevails in schools on the Lancastrian plan is admirably adapted to the encouragement of study. It succeeds by an honourable appeal to generous ambition, and harshness is rendered unnecessary, by the pleasure the pupil finds in that facility of acquisition which results from the general system of instruction. It is not labour, which disgusts the pupil, but it is labour to no end ; and if, because he cannot comprehend his lesson, and his ignorant, or unfaithful master cannot, or will not explain it to him, is it strange that he should turn with weariness from his irksome employment, and if he should, does he deserve the rod ? an instrument, which, however wholesome it might have been when applied to a stiff-necked and rebellious young Israelite, should be banished from the schools of civilized men; or if retained, it should be for the back of the master, who, in the present state of our schools, might probably be benefitted by its application. The character of the governed will always partake in some degree of the nature of the government. Rods may have been made for the backs of fools, and they most unequivocally tend to increase the number, but they could not have been designed as the principal instrument for the management of rational creatures, and they are most lamentably destructive of that "nerve of the mind," which forms so conspicuous and fair a feature of the proper republican character. Indeed this whole Lancastrian system is admirably adapted to the nature of our political institutions, and ifuniversally employed in the common schools of our country, would prove a foundation of rock to our social edifice. The system has been put to experiment on a very extensive scale in England; the only plausible ground of opposition there has

been, that it is not compatible with the nature of a political and religious aristocracy,—an objection which strongly recommends it to republican favour, and we perfectly accord with the remark of one of our correspondents, contained in the first number of the second volume of this magazine, in a communication on the subject of the African Free School of New-York, that "our legislatures could do nothing wiser than to enact laws that the whole establishment of common schools, in the several states, should be new modelled upon the Lancastrian plan, and ordain that the public school-funds should be appropriated accordingly."

Let the sister-hood of States once adopt a school establishment like this, that should comprehend the children of the great mass of the community, backed by Sunday schools, judiciously conducted for the especial benefit of the offspring of poverty, in connexion with a general system of public charity, yielding support through the medium of labour, and shutting its hand to every thing but sickness and decripitude, and the aspect of society would soon brighten, the gloomy brow and squalid visage of poverty would shine with the oil of gladness, and a hardy and happy yeomanry, the bone and muscle of the State, would people the smiling land.

There is but one passage in the address, the sentiment of which, we cannot think just. The complaint so perpetually reiterated, but so notoriously groundless, is renewed in this discourse, the complaint that the church is persecuted by the world; that the more zealous and sincere is the christian, the more obnoxious is the man-that the service of the Lord is flouted, and that the professors of religion are oppressed. Now nothing appears more like a noon-day fact than, that public opinion pays all deference to religion, to religious teachers and professors. Who are more honoured than they who minister at the altar ? none. Where is the individual, actually exhibiting the graces of the christian character, actually sustaining" an evangelical profession of the gospel" by "a steady production of all the fruits by which the Lord Jesus Christ requires it to be manifested before the world," who is not exalted in the estimation of society, and" honoured above his fellows?" No where. And so it ought to be

L.

ceeded from the land that had beheld and worshiped their rising :—and of that glorious land I was a native-in that land dwelt and dwells almost every being with whom my heart claims kindred ; a father, whose talents have illustrated the literary and philosophical annals of his country-a mother whom sincerity and filial duty must alike pronounce an ornament of hersex; a brother who may reasonably as pire to the loftiest honours of a noble profession; a sister whose superior accomplishments fascinate all whom her retiring disposition permits to observe them; then memory bore me back to that dear and sacred home, to me the shrine of every pure delight; and the faces with which my infancy and boyhood and youth had been familiar were present to my waking visions, and looks of affection, mingled with sorrow, were cast upon me from eyes that seemed to reproach my departure ;-and every field in which I had walked, and every tree beneath whose shading foliage I had sat, and every brook by whose calmly flowing waters I had wandered with those tender friends and companions of my happiest days;-yes, I beheld them all, and even now, while faintly recording the remembrances and emotions of an evening I shall ever recollect with strong and peculiar interest, I seem, as then I seemed, to be transported back to those cherished scenes of my youth, and communing with those for whom my heart felt the first glow of affection; and if, on leaving the deck, I found my eyes moistened with involuntary tears, I shall not find it difficult to excuse my weakness with those whom the world and its contaminations have not rendered proof against the softer sympathies of nature.

Of the people among whom I was going to reside I had formed notions which, if not very comprehensive or exact, were, I flatter myself, more liberal and just than those entertained by the generality of my countrymen. With that excess of refinement which borders upon effeminacy, I neither expected nor wished to come in contact. In a country where every muscle and nerve should and must be strained to sustain that character of individual independence by which the citizens of the United States are so honourably distinguished, those elegant trifles and amusing frivolities which occupy the leisure of a vain and luxurious aristocracy, can never find a sufficient number of wealthy idlers to render them fashionable, or to diffuse through the busy ranks of a society engaged in more serious and manly

pursuits, a taste for occupation, whose ultimate tendency it is to unhinge the mind from every worthier object. The graces that flatter in the precincts of the Thuilleries, or sparkle in the environs of St. James's, would droop and wither in the uncongenial atmosphere of Washington; and the gay flippancy, and luxurious ostentation of an European court would but ill accord with the severer morality and economical expenditure of a republican people and government.

I am no advocate for democracy, in that sense which the erring enthusiasm of its votaries has occasioned it to be so generally taken, but I cannot avoid perceiving that in Europe the comforts and happiness of the immense majority of the people are deeply taxed to support a few individuals in wasteful and profligate splen dour; and when I reflect upon the enormous devastations committed by the pride and ambition of her rulers on her suffering and degraded population, I think with the less indignation of the excesses into which the miseries and exasperated sensibility of a whole nation occasionally hurries it. These can be considered only as the inevitable results of that lamentable system of misgovernment for which the sovereigns of Europe seem to cherish so perverse and persevering a partiality; and whose certain effects are, in the first place, the disorganization of the natural mechanism of society, by throwing upon the springs of industry a weight destructive of their elasticity:-and, in the second, its own overthrow from the despair engendered in the popular mind by the rapacious and unrelenting tyranny which, discontented with the generous contributions of the nation—contributions maintaining the government and its dependents in a style of magnificence always and vastly superior to their servi ces-proceeds in its exactions, and continues its encroachments on the liberties of the subject, till the last slender tie between the governors and the governed is burst asunder, and the whole fabric of despotism is shivered into a thousand fragments, and scattered in as many directions, by the explosion of the popular indignation.

In America I was prepared to meet with society in a state approximating much nearer to that elevated sphere to which I trust her citizens will exhibit to mankind at large, the possibility of their successfully aspiring. The general characteristics of the great mass of the people, I expected to find to consist in a considerable boldness of external dema

nour, not more remote from the debasing servility of an European populace, than from the vulgar insolence of an uneducated and clownish commonality—and a spirit of inquisitiveness natural to a people so distant from the other civilized regions of the earth-and the active and Lively intelligence that will always prevail wherever the elements of education are pretty generally diffused-and the decent and rational piety that education cherishes, and which leads in its train the gentler and unobtrusive virtues of domestic life-and the chaster morals of a race as yet unfamiliar with the gross pollutions which contaminate the overgrown capitals of more ancient empires-and in an industry commanding a higher remuneration than in older countries, and subjected to but few and slight extraneous calls, the master-quality upon which all the others depend for their very existence. Among the superior classes-for superior classes will be formed even in republics -in addition to these general features of the national, I looked for the cultivated intellect and polished manners which distinguish the gentlemanly character in every country, and to them I ascribed the enlarged and liberal views, and freedom from national prejudices, which constitute such essential distinctions between the upper and inferior ranks of a community. In a country where the spread of useful knowledge is more rapid and extensive, perhaps, than in any other, and where the lights of literature illumine the most remote and apparently desolate spot, and penetrate the darkest depths of the wilderness, it would indeed, be something partaking of the marvellous, if that class of society from which are selected the conductors of the public weal, and the administrators of religion and the laws; by whom the liberal professions are exercised and adorned, whose education has rendered them familiar with the wisdom, the genius, and the eloquence of antiquity-and whose daily habits and associations tend to the preservation of that unenvied superiority which is productive of such important advantages to the state; it would, I repeat, be something singularly envious, if the gentry of the United States did not possess some acquisitions of an order distinct from those enjoyed in common with the mass of their countrymen; and if, cherishing with the same ardent zeal the spirit of national and personal independence, and animated with an equal love and veneration for the sacred ordinances of religion and partaking with the g.eat

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body of their fellow-citizens in the observance of every moral duty-and urged onward in the path of their more elevated avocations by an industry that assuredly keeps pace with, if it do not surpass, that of the farmer and mechanic--they were not, at the same time, entitled to the veneration of these, and the respect of d foreigners, for qualifications honourable to themselves, beneficial to their country, wholly disconnected from aristocratical distinction and privilege, and constituting the graceful appendages of that simple but majestic structure of society of which the United States present the only existing example. That these should prepare the way for the introduction of hereditary distinctions of rank-that the station gratuitously assigned to that portion of the community by whose superior talents and acquirements the whole is strengthened and embellished, and under whose enlightened protection the amenities of life effuse their softening influence, should generate the political abominations of caste-is too extravagant a supposition to find support from unprejudiced thinkers; and can never become an object of reasonable dread to the most sensitive republican, so long as the laws regulating the succession of property are respected and enforced, and while nature preserves her usual impartiality in the distribution of her gifts, and bestows her loftiest and most precious attributes without regard to the wishes of parental ambition: for I am not unwilling to admit, that the extremely improbable descent of genius in the eldest branches of numerous families for several successive generations, together with the operation of the law of promogeniture, might possibly go far towards the establishment of an aristocracy that would not be the less invidiously** regarded, because its claims to superior rank and reverence were fortified by superior talents, and disproportionate affluence. But as no one, I imagine, is disposed to regard these premises as probable, and as I most devoutly trust that the people are too intelligent, too thoroughly convinced of the inestimable value of their republican institutions, ever to be seduced into their abrogation, they may witness, not merely without alarm, but with approbation, the merited eminence of a class reflecting an honourable lustre on the country, and behold with exultation the massy and lofty pillar of public freedom and glory crowned with the luxuriant foliage of a Corinthian capital.

Were I not fearful of having already tasked your patience to an unpardonable