third of the surplus fund derived from the United States, was added to the school fund. In Kentucky, in 1839, the annual income of the school fund was $50,000. In Tennessee, there is a perpetual fund for the support of schools, but its amount we have no means of ascertaining. The capital of the school fund of Indiana, in 1839, was stated to be two millions of dollars; and that of New-York, the same year, amounted to $1,978,069, yielding a revenue of $282,472, to which is to be added the capital of the literature fund, which then amounted to $268,164, yielding a revenue of $48,109, placed at the disposal of the regents of the university to pay tutors in the academies, and for instructing teachers of common schools. In South-Carolina, the sum of $37,000 only is annually appropriated for the support of her free school system. We are not surprised that many of the commissioners should regard so small an amount totally inadequate to the support of a system of public schools, on a scale at all commensurate with those which prevail in several of the States. The amount, however, is large enough, and too large, if it is to be applied only to the education of orphans and paupers indeed, if such is to be the policy of the State, we see no sufficient reason why she should be at a large additional expense for the support of a teachers' seminary, and a Superintendant of Education of first-rate abilities. If a complete system of schools is to be organized and sustained, it will be attended doubtless with a heavy expense; and if the State is neither able nor willing to meet this expense, the project of public schools, on any liberal scale, suited to the spirit of the age, must be abandoned. If a permanent and constantly accumulating school fund were raised, in the manner suggested by the Hon. R. F. W. Allston of Winyah, in his Report on the Free Schools, which lies before us, and an amount equal to that derived from this fund were raised by taxes, to be assessed upon the citizens at large in proportion to their property, upon the New-York plan,-the best and most effective plan for the purpose, we think the difficulty which alarms so many, and which prevents any effective action on the subject, arising from the supposed want of means and the impracticability of raising them, would be removed. Any such plan of sustaining a system of public instruction must, of course, emanate, in the first instance, from the people, but after having once received the sanction of the Legislature, it would be idle to say, that it should not be compulsorily enforced. All laws, which are not voluntarily obeyed, must be compulsorily enforced, and however "independent in their opinions" a people may be, the highest liberty they enjoy must always consist in the power of voluntarily obeying just and equitable laws emanating from themselves; and if they have any "notions and habits” which conflict with great public interests, the sooner they are abandoned the better. Upon reviewing the Reports of the commissioners and others to the Legislature, on the Free Schools, one is struck with the preparation, the thought, the intellectual energy, the extent of information, and the roused attention and anxiety in respect to indispensable reforms, which they, in almost every instance, exhibit. They are at once indicative of the wide-spread intelligence and patriotism of our fellowcitizens; and one cannot help being surprised, that a State which contains among the directors of public opinion men, in large numbers, of such high-minded and generous purpose, and entertaining such opinions as to the pressure of existing evils, and the necessity of prompt, vigorous and concerted action, should not have long since proceeded boldly and resolutely to the organization of a system of public schools, at least equal, if not superior, to any that prevails in any part of the world. There may be something in the circumstances by which we are surrounded, calculated to embarrass for a time the free action of the State. We hope it is not so, but if it be, the very fact should only stimulate her to more vigorous and victorious efforts. It is the characteristic of all great minds, if we have read history aright,-to control circumstances and shape them to good and noble ends. This is the province of genius and philanthropy. The only circumstance by which it would seem proper that a sovereign State should be controlled in its legislation, is the public good; and any circumstances which interfere with that object should be looked upon, not as paramount but subordinate matters, not as exercising a mastery over affairs, but only as subject to the influence of that mastery. No circumstances should ever be permitted to stand in the way of what is right, just, honorable and fit to be done. Circumstances are the syren song of the tempter, whose voice is not to be heard either in the court of conscience or before the altars of patriotism. A favorite project, in this State, has been the engrafting of common schools upon academies, which has been done under a law granting the commissioners power to add the funds contributed by the citizens to the amounts drawn by the districts and parishes from the State Treasury. Villages and neighborhoods have thus been enabled to secure the services of competent teachers, and have established many excellent schools. The objection to this plan is, that common schools, in which the elementary branches of education are taught, are different in their character, and intended for a different class of pupils, from academies and high schools, in which the languages and sciences are instructed, that the former are intended for beginners, and for children and youths gathered from all classes of the community without distinction, while the latter are designed more especially for advanced scholars and the children of parents in easy or affluent circumstances, who propose that they shall pass from the high school to the college, and from the college into some of the walks of professional life. The State should, we think, as far as practicable,-provide for a regular gradation of institutions, from the common school up to the college. We see no reason why academies, as well as colleges and institutions for the practical application of the sciences to the purposes of life, should not be introduced into and form essential parts of a liberal and extensive system of State education. They ought to do so. But above all institutions, Common Schools deserve the encouragement of government. It is in these schools, that the great mass of our citizens are to be educated. They are emphatically THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOLS, and every State in the Union should watch over, foster and protect them, as the great nurseries of free principles and the fountains of useful information. Whatever system is adopted, it should be an uniform one. The plan should be the same for every section of the State. The studies should be arranged after one method. The text-books should be alike in all the schools; and all should be under the direction of a State Superintendant of Education, whose duty it should be to enforce this one system, and who should be responsible for the faithful discharge of his duties to the Legislature. If academies, as well as common schools, were embraced in this plan, there are many already existing, which, without the slightest violence to personal or public rights or interests, might be engrafted on the general system devised by the State. In these, too, the studies and discipline should be of uniform character. There should be something characteristic in the attainments of a South-Carolina scholar, by which he might be known among scholars every where. An excellent model for institutions of this class, would be found in the Charleston High School, organized a few years since by the city government. We conclude this article,-already too protracted,-and whose length nothing could justify but the importance and interest of the subject,-with expressing the hope, that something will yet be done, and that speedily, for the organization of a thorough and complete system of public education among usa system comprehensive and efficient in its character, harmonious in all its parts, and honorable to the State; and that it may be truly said by the future historians of our country, that the citizens of South-Carolina, distinguished in times past both in peace and war, and presenting, in their annals, a long succession of illustrious heroes, patriots, statesmen and scholars deserving the admiration of the world, were unsurpassed by any people in the enduring monuments which they raised, in the nineteenth century, to useful science and elegant literature.* W. We have just received from Boston, a pamphlet entitled "Remarks on the Seventh Annual Report of the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education;" also "Observations on a Pamphlet," (being the pamphlet just alluded to,) "by G. B. E.;" also a "Reply to the Remarks of Thirty-one Boston Schoolmasters, on the Seventh Annual Report," etc., by the Hon. Secretary himself. We have read these publications with care. The first of them takes exceptions to the Secretary's noble Report, on grounds not very creditable to the patriotism or discrimination of its authors. It is a document characterized by much injustice and ill-temper, by many puerilities, conceits and rather indifferent attempts at wit and brilliancy. It is signed by thirty-one Boston Teachers, comprising one-seventh part of the teachers of that metropolis. The two other pamphlets are able, eloquent and triumphant arguments in favor of the positions assumed by the Secretary in his Report. ART. II.-The Life of Robert, Cavalier de la Salle. By JARED SPARKS. Library of American Biography, No. 11. New Series, No. 1. Boston: Chas. C. Little and James Brown. 1844. THE spirit of adventure which manifested itself in Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was one of the clearest evidences of an approaching moral and political regeneration. It indicated the first waking moments of mind from the torpor which had crept over it, and the struggle that ensued, though ill-directed and ill-regulated, was yet active, energetic, earnest,-working out into reality and fact, what had seemed before but the vagary of a dream. There was a movement in Europe, a progressive movement, whose vital energies were to be exhausted in new fields. Men were looking out of themselves, and indulging in airy fancies; they panted for new scenes and enterprizes; they loathed the contracted empire which nature apparently had assigned them; their anxious eyes were strained for new revelations, and the "ships of Tarshish, which had brought gold from Ophir," were to be re-fitted and navigated. The spirit, like the dove released from the ark, wandered hither and thither. The genius, called into being, indulged its speculations airy and ill-defined: its cravings were not to be appeased. In the first notions of its own being came its restlessness, and "Give us something new," was the watchword of Europe, echoing and resounding every where,— something new, something bold, elevating, hazardous, suited to the high resolves, purposes and yearnings which the soul began to realize. It was enough. The spirit which had been awakened, was to slumber no more, there was hope for Europe. The work of manumission was at hand, and the despotism over body and mind crumbling away.—A new world was announced; Columbus had presented to Castile and Arragon a new world,-men accepted the boon: "For stormy seas they quit the pleasing plain, The fifteenth century opened a way for the sixteenth. It was then that the Portuguese sailor, urged by this restless |