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antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of the poles. We know that while some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No sea that is not vexed by their fisheries; no climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hard indus→ try to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent people-a people who are still as it were in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." *

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This splendid eulogium on the enterprise of the New Englanders is not undeserved; and paints in glowing colours that activity, which since the time of Burke has continued to increase, and which so strongly characterises the people of those States.

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CHAPTER XXVII.

EDUCATION.

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THERE is nothing that is more worthy the attention of a traveller than the system of education pursued in the whole of the United States, and particularly in New England. Classical learning may perhaps be rather too much neglected, though this is much better than the exclusive attention that is paid to it in the public Schools of England; for I am sure I do not exaggerate, when I say, that out of ten boys leaving Eton, not more than one, in my time, could solve the simplest question in the rule of three, and many not even a sum in compound multiplication.

Dr. Franklin has very properly observed, that classical learning should be taught when the mind is more mature, and when this learning can be obtained at half the labour usually bestowed upon it. Our English system is a remnant of the venerable old Monkish Institutions: for when the English supposed that Latin was the only language which the Almighty understood, it was of course proper for every good Christian to be able at least to read it. But times have altered strangely'; "nous avons changé tout cela;" and the Deity condescends now to pay just as much attention to our prayers as ever, although we may address him in the unclassical dialects of Yorkshire or Somerset.

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It would be amusing to trace the orthodox, system of education which is inflicted upon our English youth. No sooner does the boy after much labour and many tears acquire a little knowledge of Latin, than he is set down invitâ Minervâ to write verses in that language. "Poeta, nascitur, non fit; yet a boy incapable of writing Latin verses, is looked down upon with the utmost contempt, by the erudite masters and the more happily gifted pupils. Indeed the writing nonsense verses, which precedes that of writing others erroneously called sense, is no doubt a highly intellectual employment, and amply deserving a year's labour-the time usually devoted to it! But after all, what is produced by these young verse smiths and bard mechanicians?" A few copies of tolerable verses are indeed given to the world in the Musæ Etonenses; but it is unfair to judge of the produce and cultivation of a whole farm, from a few flowers picked up in the corner of one of the fields.

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Though in the United States, the number of schools of the higher order is comparatively few, and though the system pursued is by no means perfect, yet every day a rapid improvement is taking place. The Masters are not, as in England, bigoted to any particular system, but are anxious to adopt any obvious improvements, in order that their method of education may correspond with the advance of knowledge, and with the wants of an enlightened people.

-But Schools for the common people are of greater importance than those for the rich; and hence the Americans, and the New Englanders in particular, are worthy of the highest admiration. I took some pains to obtain information on this subject; and should have been tempted to have given my own observations in my own words, had I not seen an article in a late number of the North American Review, that contains information which I can corroborate from my own inquiries. I shall there fore make some copious extracts from it, being well aware that the learned reviewer has put the subject in a much stronger and clearer light than I could.

In the system of laws of the colony of New Haven (now part of Connecticut), published in the year 1656, the following are the provisions for children's education.”

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"It is ordered that the deputies for the particu lar court in each plantation within this jurisdiction, for the time being, or, where there are no such depu ties, the constable, or other officers in public trust, shall from time to time have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbours within the limits of the said plantation: that all parents and masters do duly endeavour, either by their own ability and labour, or by improving such schoolmaster or other helps and means as the plantation doth afford, or the family may conveniently provide; that all their children and apprentices, as they grow capable, may through God's blessing obtain at least so much

learning as to be able to read the Scriptures and other good and profitable printed books in the English tongue, being their native language," &c. Parents and Masters, found to neglect this duty, were, on the first complaint, to be fined ten shillings; on the second complaint, three months after the first, twenty shillings, on the third complaint, they were to be fined still higher, or their children or appren tices to be taken from them, and put under the care of others, males till twenty-one, and females till eighteen years of age.

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5.In the Colony of Connecticut, the laws respecting schools seem not to have been materially different. In the laws of that colony, published in the year 1672, eight years after the Union of Connec ticut and New Haven, there is a provision on the subject of education, very similar in its language to that we have just copied from the first New Haven code. It is there ordered, that, "the select men of every town in their several precincts and quarters, shall have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbours, to the end that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeavour, by themselves or others, to teach their children and apprentices so much learning, as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue," &c. The penalty for the neglect was twenty shillings. In the same code it is ordered, that every town, containing fifty householders, shall forthwith appoint one, within their town, to teach

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