130 



SCHOOLS. 



itruction. New Jersey has a school fund of 245,404 

 dollars, the income of which, with a tax of A per 

 cent, on the capital stock of the hanks, is distri- 

 buted, in small sums, to towns which will niise an 

 equal sum for the support of schools. In Pennsyl- 

 vania, little has been done for common education. 

 In the Report of the Society for the Promotion of 

 Public Schools (April, 1831), it is stated that, dur- 

 ing the preceding year, the number of children be- 

 tween the ages of five and fifteen, was 400,000, of 

 which there were not 150,000 in all the schools in 

 the state. There is no legislative provision for the 

 support of schools. In Delaware, there is a school 

 fund, the income of which is distributed to such 

 towns as will raise a sum equal to that which they 

 receive; and, in Maryland, some attempts have been 

 made to establish a general system of primary edu- 

 cation ; but it has been only partially accomplished. 

 The New England system of free schools has been 

 introduced into Ohio (March, 1831) : and, in In- 

 diana, the constitution makes it the duty of the 

 legislature to provide, by law, for a general system 

 of education, in which tuition shall be given gratis. 

 Similar provisions have been made in Illinois ; and 

 in Kentucky attempts have recently been made to 

 effect the same purpose. But in the Southern and 

 Western States generally, there is no legislative 

 provision for the establishment of common schools, 

 on the plan of those of New England. The Sunday 

 schools in the United States are, in a great measure, 

 intended for religious instruction, and are therefore 

 composed of the pupils of the day schools. Further 

 information on this subject may be found in the 

 American Annals of Education (1826, seq.), vari- 

 ous numbers of the North American Review, and 

 American Almanac (vols. ii. and iii.) 



In Canada, education is, generally speaking, in a 

 very low state, which is greatly owing to the popu- 

 lation being much scattered. 



In the West Indies, the schools, though improv- 

 ing in some parts, as in Cuba, must be subjected 

 to very different influences before they can reach 

 any thing like perfection; and in South America 

 the people labour under the immense disadvantage 

 of having been formerly under the Spanish and 

 Portuguese governments, which did nothing for 

 the education even of their European subjects; to 

 which must be added that the population is scat- 

 tered, and that they are under the exclusive sway 

 of the Catholic clergy. Common schools have 

 been established, of late, in several colonies of 

 Europe (e. g. at the cape of Good Hope), and 

 several schools, on the plan of mutual instruction, 

 in the East Indies. Independent of the influence 

 of European civilization, schools of different degree 

 are to be found in the East Indies, China, Japan, 

 and the other empires of Eastern Asia, in which 

 despots or priests give children such an edu- 

 cation as will best fit them for their service. 

 Persia, also, has established schools, in which boys 

 of all classes learn to read and write. Turkey anc 

 Northern Africa alone limit instruction to the 

 explanation of the Koran. A few schools (e. g. in 

 Asia Minor), established by American or European 

 missionaries, need hardly be mentioned in this 

 general view. Missionaries have also establishec 

 schools in various parts of Greece; yet it has been 

 found impossible to do much in the present dis- 



science and general information, that, in most civi- 

 lized countries, the urgent necessity of general 

 education has been clearly felt, and measures have 

 jeen taken (though not always the most effective, 

 as might well be expected) to bring about this 

 object. The changes which have taken place in 

 science, and in the whole condition of modern 

 nations, who are no longer dependent, like those of 

 the middle ages, for their means of intellectual 

 culture, on the remains of ancient civilization, 

 necessarily make the character of school instruction 

 very different from what it was formerly, when the 

 whole intellectual wealth of Europe was contained 

 in two languages; and though these noble idioms 

 will always retain a high place in a complete system 

 of education (see Philology'), yet their importance 

 is comparatively less, while that of the natural 

 ciences, history, geography, politics, &c., has very 

 much increased. All this has had a great influence 

 upon schools, and will have a still greater. The 

 importance of education, moreover, is now set in 

 strong relief by the general conviction, entertained 

 in free countries, that the general diffusion of 

 knowledge is the only true security for well regu- 

 lated liberty, which must rest on a just sense of 

 what is due from man to man ; and few results can 

 be attained by the student of history and of mankind 

 more delightful than this of the essential connexion 

 of light and liberty; not that great learning neces- 

 sarily leads to liberty ; history affords many instances 

 which disprove this; but that a general diffusion 

 of knowledge always tends to promote a general 

 sense and love of what is right and just, as well as 

 to furnish the means of securing it. We see, 

 therefore, in our age, not only a great increase in 

 the number of schools, but also the introduction of 

 various new kinds, as the Sunday schools (q. v.) 

 and the infant schools ; the latter we think of ad- 

 vantage in the case of parents who are unable to 

 take care of their children at home, but injurious 

 where (as it happens but too often) they induce 

 mothers, the natural guardians of their infants, to 

 neglect those duties which Providence has best 

 qualified them to discharge, and thus lose those 

 opportunities of exerting a beneficial influence on 

 the opening character of the infant, which are fully 

 perceived only by the keen eye of parental love. 



From the circumstances which we have men- 

 tioned, a great zeal for the improvement of schools 

 has been exhibited, in several countries, since about 

 the year 1818, a few years after the conclusion of 

 the general peace in Europe ; and we shall therefore 

 take one more rapid view of the state of schools in 

 Europe since that time. Prussia has done, of late, 

 more than any other country of equal or larger size, 

 for the improvement of schools. In addition to 

 the nineteen seminaries for the education of instruc- 

 tors, which existed in 1818, nine new ones have 

 been founded, so that, since 1825, 1500 teacheis 

 are continually educated in twenty-eight large 

 seminaries and twenty-one of less size. The de- 

 mand for teachers is great, as the country sch ools 

 alone require 21,000. The expense of these semi- 

 naries for teachers is 100,000 Prussian dollars 

 yearly, which is paid by the government. The 

 government have also sent teachers into foreign 

 countries to study their school systems. All the 

 countries of Germany have seminaries for teachers, 



turbed state of that unfortunate country. and many laws have been enacted to induce 



The time in which we live is so remarkable for oblige the poorest classes to send their children to 

 the important changes produced in almost all de- school; still, however, much remains to be done, 

 partments of human activity, by the power of I to bring the instruction of the people at large to 



