most approved evidence, to be undeserving of this blame. A few may pass in review before us. Alabama is divided into two great districts. The popu

lation of both is 590,756. In the Northern District there is a university with 90 students; to which must. be added 28 academies and grammar schools with 1055 scholars; 260 primary and common schools with 7544 pupils. To show the influence of proper parental motive, only 1993 of these pupils are at the public charge. In the Southern District there may be numbered a university with 62 scholars; 86 academies and grammar schools with 3953 scholars; 371 primary and common schools with 8599 pupils, - of these 1220 are alone at public cost. Yet the number of white persons, over twenty years of age, who can neither read nor write, is 22,592. We will now cast our attention on Louisiana, divided into its eastern and western districts. Its population is 352,411. It has 12 universities or colleges and 989 students: 50 grammar schools and academies with 1995 scholars: 179 primary and common schools with 3573 pupils, of whom 1190 are publicly supported. The number of those who are above twenty years of age, and who can neither read nor write, is 4861.-The population of Tennessee is 829,210. It possesses 8 universities and colleges and 94 alumni; 152 academies and 5539 scholars; 983 primary schools and 25,090 pupils, of whom 6907 are educated by the state. But its number of whites past twenty years who can neither

read nor write, is 58,531.-Kentucky claims a population of 779,828. Its colleges or universities are 10 with 1119 students: its grammar schools are 116 with 4906 scholars; its primary schools are 952 with 24,641 pupils. Only 429 are at the expense of the state. Still 40,018 whites, above twenty years of age, are without any education.-Ohio is a most populous district, comprehending 1,519,467 souls. It includes 18 colleges with 1717 members; 73 academies with 4310 scholars; 5186 common schools with 218,609 pupils; of these 51,812 depend upon the public revenue. Those who can neither read nor write, being more than twenty years old, are 35,394.-Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and even Arkansas, are all urging forward in the career. And where the free coloured population is so widely dispersed, and the slave is so generally extant, may we not confidently hope that education will be a principal means of breaking invidious caste and cruel oppression? Before the holy light shall not this injustice be scared away?*

It must not be imagined that the Religious Communities of this great people are indifferent spectators of what is going on. The Presbyterian Church in the

* Besides the Works before cited, reference has been made constantly to the most unimpeachable documentary evidence in the Sixth Census or Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States, as corrected at the Department of State in 1840 : published by authority of an Act of Congress, under the Direction of the Secretary of State. Washington Blair and Rives.

United States, during 1840, gathered for the purposes of Education 22,435 dollars.*

In the arrangements of Education among the New States, the Federal Government has acted with perfect faith and zealous regard to this most important cause. No territory can be received into the Union without a formal partition of certain lands on behalf of schools. The method is the following. Each township is six miles square, and is surveyed into sections of one mile square. This gives a plot of thirty-six sections. The sixteenth is "donated" by Congress for the support of common schools. This is as nearly central as the subdivision will allow. It is then sold, the proceeds are invested, and the interest is annually applied towards the expenses of all the schools which that area may contain. But no part of the section can be sold to obtain a building: this must be raised by the people. The sectional fund can only be devoted to salary, fuel, and current expense of administration. The people are not compelled to take part in the business. It may be that the section cannot find a purchaser. But if they do agree to undertake it, and decide to choose trustees, then the trustees may compel payment of every cost which the schools incur. That the allotted portion should not find a buyer, is very improbable. It is so placed that it is a most desirable property. The outer lines of the large quadrangle may front to an unpeopled wild. Trade must be chiefly within the included

* Minutes of the Presbyterian Church. 1841.

squares. It is not likely that such an allocation will long remain unsought. The enumeration of the sections is from the north-east corner of the Map, or from our right hand, recommencing at the left.

It

In such a Country, Education finds a boundless field. America is young in its people, its soil, its government. It has no history, and scarcely annals. counts days rather than centuries. A mighty experiment is acted there. It might need a rein for its tossing neck and impatient foot, to guide it to the goal. The bark, launched on such a sea of rocks and breakers, demands a powerful helm. The people are the power, the rule, the life, of all: Senatus Populusque. None could ever so require to be taught. Education is the star of their hope and their guidance. That star is fixed. As the school-house rises amidst the landscape of New England, on the far shores of Missouri and Missisippi, and at the very base of the Rocky Mountains, there is the emphatic pawn, which that

N

great Republic gives to an attentive world, of enlightened freedom, extending civilization, and pure religion. When America and Britain, so essentially one, contend, it is not War but Sedition.

The United States, whether always on the best principles or not, have begun the work of Education in right earnest. Between them and our Country there. are many marked distinctions in the manner of undertaking it. It has seized a far more powerful hold upon their public mind. Their action is far more ramified and commanding. A much stronger, and a far more living, power is infused into the administrations. More individual votaries, more noble enthusiasts, are at work. We take it up as a necessity, slowly felt and heavily imposed: they cherish it as a passion and explore it as a science. It is every one's delight. The statesman will not descant on suffrage but with this guidance : the œconomist will not treat of barter but with this "check the patriot will not appeal to liberty but with this inspiration. On our side of the Atlantic there are none of those scorching fulminations hurled at country, state, people, with which their orators flame amazement." They scoff, they satirise, they taunt, they jeer, the mass of ignorance among them. They declare from on high that there are nearly 2,000,000 children in the Union untaught. They avail themselves of inauguration, festivity, holyday, when spirits can little brook reproof, to cast the charge into the nation's teeth. Tribune and pulpit lend their utmost power to the object.

66