than they would of disobeying the laws of the land, because a President whom they did not vote for happened to be the present Executive.

The voluntary system in America works well for the people, but ill, in many cases, for the preacher. Religion itself does not suffer by being placed above the influence of State support and patronage. The State cannot be held responsible for the government of any religious body, it gives offence to none, and the adherents of each sect take a natural pride in doing all in their power to add to its prosperity.

CHAP. X.

POPULAR EDUCATION.

207

CHAPTER X.

POPULAR EDUCATION.1

EVEN Americans who deny that there are any dangers in intrusting the preponderance of power to the bulk of the people, will readily admit that the only safeguard against the growth of future danger consists in the universal spread of education. It is not a question of expediency with them whether they shall educate their poor or not. It is a matter of necessity. They must do it, or submit to the evils attending a rule of men intensely ignorant of the questions they are called upon to decide. The suffrage is open to all, with restrictions in some States which are merely nominal. If men are to govern, they ought at least to be in a position to make themselves moderately acquainted with the course of current events. But the poor are not always willing to send their children to school; they think that it is the duty of their children to help to earn their bread, and therefore the system of compulsory education is recommending itself strongly to the American people.

1 This chapter is partly reprinted, by permission, from the author's letters to the Times,' published 6th and 11th July, 1867.

They believe that they have nothing to fear from the exercise of intelligent and educated opinion, and they spare no pains to make provision for the education of all their citizens. After they have done all that lies within their power, they have only partially accomplished their wishes, but they have at least tried to guard against the shame of being practically ruled by men who cannot sign their own names, or read a line of the Constitution.

The duty of providing the means of education is supposed to fall naturally upon the States. So far as this matter is concerned, the State considers itself the head of the family, and sustains the cost of educating those who look up to it for protection. The Federal Government has from time to time allotted valuable grants of land, nominally as loans, among the States for the establishment or assistance of school funds, and a certain proportion of land is always set aside for the same purpose in new States. The charge of the schools is afterwards always borne by each State for itself, and Congress will probably never be able again to lend that liberal assistance which it was always ready to do before the responsibilities of a vast national debt lay upon it. The tax for educational purposes exclusively is now very high in many States-in New York it amounts to 5 per cent. on the total assessed income,

2 See for a list of the Enactments of Congress for grants for educational purposes, Kent's 'Commentaries,' vol. ii. pp. 200-201, note, Part IV. Lect. xxix.

CHAP. X.

EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS.

209

and in Boston to about half that amount. The people pay it without murmuring, partly because they are proud of the reputation which their country has gained abroad for educating its poor, partly because they perceive that their interests and their duty alike call for the expenditure.

Massachusetts has long held the foremost place in exertions for the cause of education. But the Western States are pressing her hard in the race, and it is generally confessed that the University of Michigan deserves to rank first in the country for the useful and practical character of the training it affords-a training held to be peculiarly adapted to the growth of a Republican country. Chicago has made immense efforts; and these young cities and towns of the West seem determined to outstrip their predecessors in the work of affording instruction to the children of all classes, free of expense. Yet to Massachusetts will always belong the honour of having been the originator of this undertaking. She voluntarily made the necessary sacrifices, and placed upon her own shoulders the inevitable burdens of the task. There never has been a time when she was not ready to acknowledge and meet these obligations. In the earliest days of the Commonwealth the colonists made careful provision for the education of the poor. In 1647 they put into force a definite plan of instruction. They ordered that every township numbering fifty householders should appoint one of its number to teach children, at the expense

P

of their parents or masters; and when the township increased to a hundred households, it was required to set up a grammar school, or pay a fine of five shillings" to ye next schoole till they shall performe this order." From time to time these regulations were enlarged, until they embraced provisions for the support of schools and teachers by all the townships. Wherever the New Englander went to settle, he carried with him the law that out of 63 equal portions into which the chosen territory should be divided, "the first should be for the minister, the second for the ministry, and the third for the school." Thus, as one of the School Committees of recent years states, "the schoolhouse was made the constant companion of the meeting-house wherever these hardy pioneers levelled the forest and set up their humble homestead."

It

Not until the year 1789 was the basis of the present educational system laid. This was very soon after Washington was made the first President of the Republic, and while the community was still labouring, in poverty and great toil, through the hardest and most trying part of its existence. would be a long history to recount the details of all the experiments and devices which were tried in order to accomplish the object the people had in view. They attempted many experiments, and found themselves disappointed in not a few. Even to-day they know that their system needs great improvement. But much has been done, and more will yet