SCHOOL AND STATE. 261 



The most extraordinary blunders seem to have been made by Count de Les- 

 seps himself in his estimates. For instance, De Lesseps contemplated a perpen- 

 dicular cut on the Culebra section 283 feet deep. It has been ascertained, how- 

 ever, that the banks must have a slope of at least fifty-four degrees, and this will 

 involve the removal of many millions of cubic feet of earth over and above the 

 amount contemplated in the estimates. The cost of this cut was fixed at $10,- 

 000,000, but it will exceed $20,000,000. 



Mr. Growney has no hope that the canal will be completed within the cen- 

 tury, and he says that if De Lesseps were to die the whole project would collapse. 

 — National Republican. 



EDUCATION. 



SCHOOL AND STATE. 



C. W. STEVENSON. 



In the midst of a great political conflict like the present, when all govern- 

 mental policies are discussed throughout the land, the great underlying principles 

 should not be forgotten. The theories of parties should not blind us to the fact 

 that American life is full of crying evils and that in the thoughtful mind grave 

 fears arise as to the ultimate result of free government. What are the needs of 

 the hour, and whither are we tending? 



The past shows that governments by the people have been of short duration. 

 Democracies have been their own destroyers, and the history of the rise, pro- 

 gress, decay and fall of the Grecian and Italian RepubUcs is but the mournful 

 story of the enervation of prosperity, the triumph of party over principle, and of 

 a venal populace made the prey of despotic chieftains from without and of ambi- 

 tious leaders and false patriots from within. It is the boast of the nineteenth 

 century that the past one hundred and eight years of American independence 

 has at last demonstrated the beneficence of a government by the people and for 

 the people. We behold with pride the stretch of empire having for its heart the 

 matchless valley of the Mississippi; we love to gaze upon the material wealth and 

 architectural splendor which everywhere greet the eye; and the glory of our edu- 

 cational institutions, our religious and political liberty, the purity and protection 

 of our laws, and the peace which we enjoy with all the world, together, render 

 the words " I am an American citizen," the proudest utterance vouchsafed to 

 man. But the forces which under an intelligent administration of popular rule 

 serve to maintain a Republican form of government, misguided, become sur- 

 charged with evil, and the immediate cause of its downfall. And if we but look 

 a little deeper into the workings of the system under which we live, we will find 



