

174 THE GENESEE FAKMEK. 



Still more proGrressive knowledge. The teachers .and pupils in Mair>e, California, Missis- 

 sippi, and Wisconsin, should hold a regular professional correspondence, so far as to 

 learn the progress of education in each State, the text-books used, the system practiced 

 — its success, advantages, and disadvantages, as developed by experience. Let a united, 

 national effort be made to improve the schools and elevate the masses in every county 

 and district throughout the republic, and an incalculable amount of good may be achieved 

 and lasting honors won. Our country already enjoys a high reputation in Europe for its 

 excellent schools. The Loudon Chronicle remarks : 



" When we consiiJcr what has fietnally been dore in transatlantic England :n the can?e of educa- 

 tion, and compare it with what one of tlie most advanced of o-iir practical statesmen only dubiou'sly 

 proposed to do in our own England — it is impossible not to be impressed by a deep feeling of the 

 contract. Let the truth be told. It is not only Lord John Russell who fall beneath the height of this 

 great argument, but the English public in who-e name he proposes to legislate. There is no subject 

 on wiuch public opinion has made so little progress as on this. The British mind cannot act freely 

 in this matter. The mist of old prejudice still settles heavily on her. The idol spcciis hover in this 

 twilight. False fears — superstitious .ilarins — baseless visrons of evil — overcast some of our clearest 

 intelligences, and shake some of our firmest minds, whenever the practical problem is proposed. 

 How shall we educate the millions of our people?" 



A new spirit has come over the dream of John Bull. The United States are no longer 

 ridiculed and treated with contumely by the leading London journals. They begin to 

 talk familiar of "trans-atlantic England ;" they are "impressed by a deep feeling of the 

 contrast" bet-ween the deplorable lack of popular education in rich and densly populated 

 England, and in comparatively poor and sparsely settled America. The following para- 

 graph is copied from Dicken's Household Words : 



" It has been calculated that there are in England and Wales 6,000,000 persons that can neither 

 read nor write — that is to say, about ot>e third the population, including of course infants ; but of all 

 the children between five and fourteen, more than one-half attend no place of public instruttion. 

 These statements — compiled by Mr. Kay from official and otlier authentic sources, for his work on 

 the social condition and education of the poor in England and Europe — would be hard to believe if 

 we had not to encounter in our every-day life degrees of illiteracy which would be startling if we 

 were not thoroughly used to it. Wherever we turn, ignorance, not always allied to poverty, stares 

 us in the face. If we look in the Gazette at the list of partnerships dissolved, not a month passes 

 but some unhappy man, rolling i^erhajis in wealth, but wallowing in ignorance, is put to the expcri- 

 mentuni crucis of 'his mark.' The number of petty jurors, in rural districts especially, who can only 

 sign witl^ cross is enormous. It is not unusual to see parish documents of great local importance 

 defaced wth the sam-e humiliating symbol by persons whose office not only shows them to be 'men 

 of mark,' but men of substance. We have printed already specimens of the partial ignorance which 

 passes under the pen of post office authorities, and we may venture to as.^ert that such specimens of 

 penmanship and orthography are not to be matched in any other country in Europe." 



There is a greater lack of common school education in the Middle, Southern, and 

 Western Stat-es than a New Yorker or New Englander would believe, if he were not 

 personally conversant with the facts of the case. We allude to them only for the pur- 

 pose of exciting a common and earnest effort to remedy the evil. We look upon all the 

 States as a unit, and wherever schools are wanting or defective, there we would labor to 

 raise the standard of popular education, and invite its friends — not in that district alone, 

 but everywhere in the republic — to support it with dignity and success. The strong are 

 morally and legally bound to support and defend the weak when an enemy invades their 

 territory. Our government supports a small army and has provided a powerful militia 

 force of citizen soldiers for this purpose. Military aid is not the only assistance due 

 from one good citizen to another. Good citizens now liave a thousand million acres of 

 public lands, and an immense federal income. Shall little or none of this vast public 

 treasure go to benefit the common schools of the several States, as the distribution of the 

 United States Surplus, in 1837, benefitted the common schools of New York ? 



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