The different documents, now adduced, having conveyed every material information relative to the subject in question, little remains to be added. The Report of the Trustees, dated about three months ago, left the school, consisting of sixty seven children, in possession of an apartment, adjacent to the Alms-House, provided by the Corporation. During the short period which has elapsed since that date, the number of children has increased to nearly two hundred. More than two hundred, the present building cannot with convenience accommodate; and to this number, therefore, the benefit of the Institution must be confined until a larger house is provided. This consideration cannot but excite the most earnest hope that some plan may be speedily devised to raise a fund sufficient for the erection of the building adverted to in the Trustees' Report. Five hundred, or even one thousand children on the plan already adopted, might be educated, with nearly the same facility, as are the number that now compose the school. Although the funds which the Society will possess, after its receipt of the money granted by the Legislature, may appear to many to be, and in fact, will be very respectable, yet it must be obvious that a still larger amount will be necessary to erect such a building, and to purchase such a lot, as the interests of the school require. Were the society already in possession of a suitable building, the interest of the present fund, added to the annual al. lowance of the Legislature, such is the economy of the system, would perhaps be sufficient for the ordinary expenditures of the school, even though it consisted of five hundred children. To render the establishment permanent, the interest only should be employed. Every day's experience affords additional evidence of the extensive usefulness which promises to result to the community, not only from this Institution in particular, but especially from a general adoption, in similar establishments of Lancaster's improve ments. The progress of the children has equalled the most sanguine expectations of those who early espoused the plan. The regularity, subordination, and emulation, so characteristic of it, are viewed with astonishment by every visitor. Children, who before knew little other ambition than to surpass in the practice of those vices, to which idleness, and their peculiar situations in life exposed them, are here engaged in the new scene of striving to excel in the performance of their tasks, and thereby secure the honours and rewards which their master confers upon them. To obtain the enviable epithet of "GOOD Boy" or "GOOD GIRL," which, with much parade and solemnity, is conferred upon those who merit that distinction, is the general ambition. In fine, the patrons of this Institution have cause for humble gratitude to the great Dispenser of every blessing, that they have been instrumental to so excellent a work. Many who compose the little flock, who are the partakers of their bounty, will long remember them as the medium through which they have been "plucked as brands from the fire." With regard to the book of JOSEPH LANCASTER, it may be necessary just to remark, that it has been thought proper to publish it entire, without attempting any abstract or enlargement of it. A very long list of subscribers to the book, consisting of above three thousand names, and which forms no part of the work itself, is omitted. The re-publication of this list could answer no useful purpose, unless to shew the great popularity of the subject in England. The intelligent reader will doubtless meet with some observations in the course of the work which are not strictly applicable to this country; but they are without doubt founded on correct views of the state of society in Great Britain. Far distant, it is hoped, will be the period, when the poor in the United States shall be reduced to that state of depravity and degradation to which they are consigned in the older countries of Europe. In what estimation both the book and the subject of it are held in Great Britain, will be learned from the high patronage bestowed upon them-In a late important debate in the House of Commons on the Poor Laws and Education of the Poor, we find the following remarks in the speech of SAMUEL WHITBREAD a very respectable member of that house, as reported in one of the public Journals. "He was so far a friend to reform that he wished to introduce that greatest of reforms, which was to give the benefit of Education to every poor man in the country. Since Mr. Pitt opened his plan to the public, a system of Education has been discovered, which, much to his credit, an Hon. Member of that House, had warmly supported. It was also countenanced by many of the most enlightened persons in the other house, and was fortunate enough to have obtained the patronage of the Royal Family. This system was the discovery of a Mr. LANCASTER, who was entitled to the thanks, not only of this, but of every country, for the labour with which he had endeavoured to perfect and introduce it. This system, the cheapest, the easiest acquired, and the most general and beneficial in its effects which human ingenuity had ever devised, he trusted he should see flourish," &c. &c. It may here be proper to explain that the attention of the British nation has been considerably arrested towards the subject of a bill for the amendment of the Poor laws introduced into Parliament by the member whose speech we have quoted. The author of the bill, it seems, has in contemplation a general adoption of LANCASTER'S system. The following paragraph, under the head of Literary News, in the London Monthly Magazine for Fifth Mo. (May) the latest that has reached this country, is too intimately connected with the present subject to be omitted. "Perhaps one of the most interesting spectacles to be seen, at present, in or near London is the Free School of MR. LANCASTER, situated about two hundred yards from the Obelisk, in St. George's Fields. In this school nearly one thousand children are rapidly taught reading, writing and arithmetic, by one master, for a total expence, not exceeding three hundred pounds sterling per annum. Aided by this plan, the children of the poor may without exception be initiated in the first rudiments of knowledge; and we congratulate the country on the prospect of its speedy adoption by the Legislature, on the introduction of Mr. WHITBREAD.' It should be added that PATRICK COLQUHOUN, the celebrated writer on the Police of London, has also recently published an interesting pamphlet expressly on the subject of LANCASTER'S system. His statements relative to its importance are not less decisive than those of the speaker above quoted. TRUSTEES Elected Fifth Mo. (May) 4th 1807. DE WITT CLINTON, President. Matthew Clarkson, Henry Ten Brook, Gerrit H. Van Wagenen, Matthew Franklin, Adrian Hegeman, John R. Murray, Wm. S. Burling, Wm. Franklin, Samuel Hicks. William Smith, Teacher. |