340 
MOORE’S RURAL'NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
(Bktational lEpartinent. 
BY L. WETHERELL. 
FREE SCHOOLS.-" LASTLY.” 
Mb, Editor: —Does not the principle 
that demands free schools for a free people, 
demand for them also “ free churches, free 
preaching, free property, free everything?” 
If not, how happens it that so many honest 
people really think it does ? That’s a ques¬ 
tion worth looking at—how happens it ? 
These men are not fools—who dare to call 
them so ? Look at them, they are genuine 
mm, with their full proportion of “good 
common sense.” And for this reason pre¬ 
cisely I now venture to reason this matter 
with them for a little. Let the dust and 
smoke disappear, and then we’ll begin. 
Who said that the State owed an educa¬ 
tion to every child within its limits ? No 
matter who, only let them own that they 
were a little hasty. An individual, in his 
isolated capacity, can claim from the State 
only protection. All the claim he can have 
in this direction, is one in common with the 
mass of the people. .. The question, then, is, 
not whether individuals can claim State 
gratuity for indifidual purposes; but this 
rather—does the State owe it to the peo¬ 
ple to guard most effectually the great 
treasure which it holds, in trust, for their 
benefit ? I hold this truth to be self-evident, 
that upon the gross ignorance of a people 
cannot be predicated the wise and safe ad¬ 
ministration of a popular government. And 
this otlier to be equally so—that, should the 
State, at this time, withdraw her patronage, 
and fostering care from our common school: 
we should recede, with a rush, into grossest 
ignorance. Not five years w'ould pass, 
(rather, I submit to your judgment whether 
five years w’ould elapse,) before three-fourths 
of our <Y>mmon schools would be chron¬ 
icled “ among the tilings that were.” I do 
[ ^ not say that the time will never come when 
the common school interest can stand alone 
but that time certainly has not yet arrived 
I submit that it will be soon enough for the 
resjxinsiblity to be shifted from the State to 
the people (I metui that portion of respon 
sibility noiv sustained by the State,) when 
every father and mother, brother and sister 
shall have become qualified, really compe 
tent, to act ;is instructors. 
Now to the point. Can it be shown that 
the feeding, clothing, or enriching of an in 
dividual, sustains any such relation to the 
integrity and perpetuity of government, as 
his education? If so, then is it the just 
province, yea, the bounden duty of govern¬ 
ment, to interpose in his behalf for the at¬ 
tainment of these things. If not, then 
the objection irrelevant, luid not at all ger- 
main to the question. Don’t lose sight of 
this one thought:—State interference in the 
matter of education, does not find its justi¬ 
fication in the aim to secure, or prospect of 
securing individual interests, but rather in 
the endeavor to promote the general good. 
Plowman. 
Bergen, N. V., Oct., J850. 
Rkmarks. —“ Does the State,” inquires 
Plowman, “ owe it to the people to guard 
most effectually the great treasure which it 
holds in trust for their benefit ?” He as¬ 
sumes that this duty is “self-evident”—and 
that the preservation of this “ treasure” de¬ 
pends upon the cultivation of the intellect 
by the agency of State Schools. Did the 
cultivation of the intellect save Egypt from 
ruin ? Did it save Greece ? Did it save 
Rome ? Has it ever saved any nation or 
people from ruin ? If so, on what page of 
history is it recorded ? If then, intellectu¬ 
al culture cannot savc!^ n people from de¬ 
struction —cannot “ effectually guard the 
great treasure ” which Plowman says “it 
holds in trust,” is there anything that can ?— 
for it is of the highest importance that this 
“ treasure ” be preserved. President Quin¬ 
cy, in discoursing on the duties and pros¬ 
pects of New-England, says:—“The great 
comprehensive truths written in letters of 
living light on every page of our history— 
the language addressed by every past age 
of New England to all future ages, is this: 
Human happiness has no perfect security 
hut freedom;—freedom none hut virtue; — 
virtue none but knowledge; and neither 
freedom, nor virtue, nor knowledge, has any 
vigor, or immortal hope except in the prin¬ 
ciples of the Christian faith, and in the 
sanctions of the Christian religion." 
The Christian religion, and'Yiot the State 
schools which eshew it, can save us as a 
people, from the fate of the nations of an¬ 
tiquity. 
With.regard to what Plowman says of 
State patrimony, we repeat what we .said 
in a former article:—Let the State with¬ 
draw her aid to schools, and at the same 
time, make a law, that no one, born within 
the State, and coming of age in 1855, shall 
vote, unless he can read, write and cipher, 
sufficiently to transact common business. 
With this qualification for a voter, and •with¬ 
out aid from the State, every citizen would 
see thart his son should be sufficiently in¬ 
structed to be made a voter. It is true 
that under a state of things like this, that 
such State schools as are now advocated 
might and would be “ chronicled among the 
things that were,” because they never 
should have been chronicled with the things 
that are. As Christianity with her attri¬ 
butes can “ guard the great treasure” which 
nothing else can save, then, for self-preser¬ 
vation the State must be converted and 
obey the precepts of the Gospel. This be¬ 
ing done all other needed blessings, such 
as food and raiment and intellectual culture 
shall be added thereto. This is in full har¬ 
mony with the axiom that the greater con¬ 
tains the less—consequently, in direct op¬ 
position to the course of reasoning pursued 
by our corre.^ondent. 
For the Rural New-Yorker. 
As a condition we are first to show that 
the parent is less bound to educate than 
to feed, clothe, (fee., his child. In support of 
this it may be said to be the duty of every 
government to provide the elements of its 
own preservation, and one of a representa¬ 
tive form, above all others, requires an in¬ 
telligent population. It is for the benefit of 
each individual that every citizen should 
be instructed in the common, reciprocal du¬ 
ties of life. Government can*only be justi¬ 
fied in exacting obedience to law in the 
supposition that its subjects are capable of 
understanding their nature and of appreci- 
ting their importance. We are required to 
sit in judgment upon the rights and^^nvi- 
leges of those with \^hom we are suiTound- 
ed, and to determine the line of justice be- 
tw^ecn opposing parties. But it is not re¬ 
quired that we should subscribe to any sect 
in religion, be clothed M'ith any hue or (pial- 
ity of apparel, or use prescribed food. 
A general education, so far as to render 
capable of pursuing the usual or ordinary 
occupations of life, is a i^ositive benefit to 
community, not only because it enlarges 
and improves the mental faculties and pu 
rifies the source of all political power, but 
as a preventive to pauperism and crime.— 
Education is moralizing as well as refining 
in its effects, and is a direct benefit to 
State; but we build churches and supply 
ourselves with food and clothing, not for 
the purpose of the State, hut for individual 
benefit—the good to community being en¬ 
tirely accidental. All experience shows 
that where education is promoted, places of 
religious worship and other institutions of a 
useful nature follow as the fruits of a cul¬ 
tivated intelligence. If the State had no 
more right to tax for the payment of teach 
ers’ w’ages than for the employment of min¬ 
isters, then it follows that the same right 
exists to order a tax to build a church or to 
supply it with fuel, or the pulpit with books, 
as there is to build a school house, or to 
furnish wood or purchase a library; the same 
right to rent a pew for the inciigent as to 
pay the schooling of the same. Those who 
claim the one must subscribe to the other. 
Having so long acted upon a very different 
system, this would appear nearly as strange 
as to gravely deliberate, after having resolv¬ 
ed upon levying the tax, whether the State 
should require cash, a leg, an arm, or some 
of the powers of the mind—having pre¬ 
viously determined that a qian’s property 
is as sacredly his as arc “ his limbs, or fac¬ 
ulties by which he has acquired his wealth.” 
One word in relation to “ borrowing ” 
from the review. I did not regard the ed¬ 
itor as giving his sentiments in the article 
alluded to, but rather as throwing out the 
idea for reflection and consideration—and, 
taken in connexion with a previous article 
two, I think there was room for the 
opinion. Perhaps my language, however, 
was not well chosen. I would not “ charge ” 
the greater with “ borrowing ” from the 
lesser for the sake of material certainly. 
In reply to inquiry No. 2, I would say 
that the right of possession is made by the 
compact a political one, and subjected or 
pledged in common for ” the reasonable 
demands of government; and as this is the 
right in question I need not enumerate now. 
And thirdly, that it may be proper to tax 
for educational purposes and not for dissem¬ 
inating said catechisms, for the reason that 
men can not otherwise profitably comply 
with the requirements of the State—but 
she prescribes no religious tests. No. 4 
does not stand committed upon the right to 
tax for fuel, libraries, <fec. No. 5. does not 
have reference to the idea contained in my 
commuication, for that every one is individ¬ 
ually responsible, not only to God but to 
his government, I fully believe. I referred 
to the fact that under government man was 
not alone the protector, (fee., of his family 
and himself. To No. 6 I admit that any 
tax that has for its object the taking of 
money or property from the industrious and 
bestowing it upon the indolent is unjust, 
but I had not so regarded the school law. 
Finale:—If a wise and prudent man, who 
has the means at his control, does not assist 
his son as he is starting in a “ separate and 
equal station ” in life, it must be regarded 
as an exception and not the general rule, so 
far as my information extends; and as m- 
spiration has been introduced, I refer to 
thd case-of the man who was going into a 
far country, but first divided his goods, to 
some giving ten, to some five, and to oth¬ 
ers one talent, and setting them up in busi-1 
ness. And if children are to be taught un 
der the roof or superintendence of their 
own parents, what becomes of that well 
settled principle in political economy- 
division of labor ? 
I have now done with the scliool law. 
shall take no less interest I liope in your 
paper or your Department, in consequence 
of any difference of opinion—and trust you 
w'ill still allow me to be a subscriber, es¬ 
pecially if I “ pay in advance,” and say to 
others “ go and do likewise.” 
Yours truly, C. B. Vercelius. 
Lodi, N. V., Oct., 1850. 
Matnrul liMorq. 
FREE SCHOOL LAW - IMPORTANT DECISION. 
A CAUSE was tried at the Circuit Court 
for Tompkins County, in September last, 
Justice SiiANKLAND presiding, for property 
taken under a Collector’s Warrant, issued 
by Trustees under the “Ne'w^ School Law,” 
involving the constitutionality of said law. 
A special verdict was taken for the plaintiff 
at the Circuit, subject to the opinion of the 
Court upon the law of the case. * 
The Judge has now rendered judgment 
for the plaintiff, and delivered a brief writ¬ 
ten' opinion, in which he takes the broad 
ground of declaring the law in question un¬ 
constitutional, for the reason that the Legis¬ 
lature, instead of definitely passing it them- 
selve.s, attempted to delegate their legisla¬ 
tive power to the people to be exorcised at 
the polls. The learned Judge approves of 
the reasoning, so far as it is applicable to 
this case, in the case of Barker vs. the 
Commonwealth, reported in the 6th of 
Barr’s Pennsylvania Reports, page 575, (fee. 
NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
The Instit(jtks or English Gkammar, meth- 
odicially arranged; with examples for parsing, 
(juestious for examination, false syntax for cor¬ 
rection, exercises for writing, observations for 
the advanced student, and key to the oral exer¬ 
cises ; to which are added four appendi.xes. De¬ 
signed for the use of schools, aca(lemies and 
private learners. By Goold Brown. Ste¬ 
reotype edition, revised by the author. Publish¬ 
ed by William Ailing, Rochester ; al.so by S. 
S. & W. Wood, New York. 1850. 12 mo. 
pp. 311. 
This is one of the best, if not the very 
best treatise on the science of English 
Grammar, published this side of the At¬ 
lantic. The author has here embodied in 
a convenient form the true principles of the 
English language; they are presented in a 
plain and clear style, well suited to the ca¬ 
pacity of learners. These principles are 
fully illustrated by appropriate examples 
and exercises, methodically arranged. These 
illustrative examples and exercises, if prop¬ 
erly attended to by students, will make 
them thoroughly familiar with the present 
reputable use of the English language.— 
The author assumes not to give law to lan¬ 
guage, but to teach what is called by clas¬ 
sical writers, “ good usage.” The excellen¬ 
cies of this Grammar have given it an ex¬ 
tensive and permanent use in schools and 
academies; and notwithstanding the multi¬ 
tude of new compilations on the subject, it 
still used, according to the last An¬ 
nual Report of the Regents of the Uni¬ 
versity, in more than seventy Academies in 
this State. 
Be good— for to be good is to be happy. 
THE HIBERNATION OF ANIMALS. 
The lecture before the Young Mens’ In¬ 
stitute on Thursday evening,— says the 
Springfield (Mass.,) Republican,—was by 
Rev. Emerson Davis, of Westfield, on the 
Hibernation of Animals, or the manner in 
which certain animals pass the winter. 
This hibernation has been noticed even 
from the time of Jeremiah, 8th chapter, 7th 
verse.—“The stork in the heavens, anil the 
turtle, and the crane and the swallow ob¬ 
serve the time of their coming.” The lec¬ 
turer observed, that the theories of natu¬ 
ralists on this subject were numerous, and 
that there were four species or different 
ways of hibernating. The first is by a 
change of color. Trappers and fur dealers 
are aware that the furs of all animals, even 
in extreme northern latitudes, are more val¬ 
uable in the Vinter, than at any other peri¬ 
od of the year. For instance, the Ermine, 
(which is thought by many to be the same 
as the common weasel) and the Alpine 
Hare, whose fur in summer is of a tawny 
yelloAv, at the approach of winter, changes 
to a pure white. It has been thought by 
some that this change of color was in order 
to screen the animals from the observation 
of other animals, varying with the color of 
the ground at different seasons of the year; 
but this has been proved to be incorrect. 
The second species of hibernating, is by 
laying up stores of provisions for the winter. 
Squirrels, field mice and beavers belong to 
this class. The squirrel collects his store of 
nuts in an old tree. The field mouse pre¬ 
pares hidden repositories of grain, acorns, 
(fee., under ground. Hogs, by their exqui¬ 
site smell, are often led to their hoards and 
dig them up. 
The third species is by tnigration. All 
kinds of birds hibernate in this way, and 
surpass all other animals in the facility'of 
continuing their motion without resting, as 
well as in its rapidity. Migration is not 
wholly confined, however, to birds. The 
buffalo and musk ox, on the aproach of 
winter frequently travel five hundred miles 
to the southward. As an example of the 
rapidity of the flight of some birds, the lec¬ 
turer stated that swallows are supposed to 
fly at the rate of 150 miles an hour. A fal¬ 
con belonging to Henry the Fourth, having 
escaped from its keepers at Fontainbleau, 
was captured at the expiration of 24 hours, 
1300 miles distant. Most birds can fly to the 
West Indies in the course of 3 or 4 days. 
JBirds have been shot at the North with 
their crops filled with rice in an undigested 
state, which they must have obtained at the 
rice fields of the South. In 1833 a Polish 
gentleman caught a stork, and putting a 
brass collar around its neck, with the in¬ 
scription, “ This stork comes from Poland,” 
let it go. The next year the stork return¬ 
ed with an additional collar inscribed,— 
“India sends back the stork with gifts.” 
Some male birds are so ungallant as to de¬ 
part without the females. The nightingales 
are said to do so. It is worthy of remark, 
that the stork emigrates on the approach of 
winter, even when circumstances of food or 
climate cannot operate, or can operate but 
faintly, in inducing it to do so. Thus at 
Bagdad, which enjoys an extremely mild 
winter, and where even a slight degree 
of frost is unusual, the stork regularly leaves 
the place against the approach of that 
season. 
Pigeons migrate together in immense 
numbers. A flock‘of these seen by Wil¬ 
son, the great ornithologist, was supposed 
to be over a mile wide, 240 miles long, and 
to move at the rate of more than a mile a 
minute. Supposing that each square yard 
of this moving body comprehended three 
pigeons, the square yards multiplied by 
three would give 2,230,272,000 pigeons, 
an almost inconceivable multitude, yet 
probably far below the actual amount. It 
was estimated that this flock would con¬ 
sume 17,420,000 bushels of grain per day! 
In the winter of 1776, the cold was unusu¬ 
ally severe. The Hudson was crossed at 
New York, and hay and other provisions 
were extremely scarce. That year the pig¬ 
eons came much earlier than usual, and in 
immense numbers. It was owing to this 
providential supply of food that multitudes 
of persons were saved from famine. It is 
said that rabbits and partridges resort to 
the sea shore in the winter, where the 
ground being for the most part destitute of 
snow, they are enabled to procure food with 
less difficulty. A gentleman from Nor¬ 
walk, CL, sent, in one winter, $300 worth 
of the above animals to the New York 
market 
It was long alle'dged and believed that 
swallows, instead of removing to warmer 
climates, lie concealed in banks and even at 
the bottom of ponds, remaining during the 
winter in the mud. Unfortunately for the 
credibility of such accounts, they all wear 
an aspect of fanciful conjecture, rather than 
of a fact actually observed, and though wo 
have accounts purporting to be from actual 
observation, yet they all appear suspicions 
when strictly investigated. 
Magnus, a Swedish philosopher, in 1555, 
asserts that he saw swallows dragged up 
from the bottom of ponds by the fishermen, 
in clustered masses, foot’to fooL mouth to 
mouth, and wing to wing. Etmuler, Pro¬ 
fessor at Leipsic, a century after, says he 
found more than a bushel of swallows 
closely packed together in some reeds un¬ 
der the ice. Linneeus repeats the same as 
an acknowledged fact. He was repeatedly 
called on to bring evidence to prove it, and 
as he did not, we may infer that he was 
unable to support what he had asserted. 
Frogs and other animals that hibernate un¬ 
der water, have a particular formation of 
the heart, which enables them to do so; 
but Sir John Hunter dissected many swal¬ 
lows and found nothing in them different 
from other birds, as to the organ of respira¬ 
tion. A tract was written on this subject in 
1703, purporting to be from a person of 
learning and piety, who maintained that 
they (the swallows) went to the moon.— 
(By reference to this tract we find he con¬ 
cludes thus: “This I do suggesL because 
it is as hard for me to persuade myself that 
they come from any part of the earth, as 
to persuade another that they come from 
the moon; therefore, if the moon will not 
be allowed, some other place must be found 
for them.”) In Germany a reward of an 
equal weight of silver was offered for as 
many swallows as could be found under 
water; but it was never claimed. 
The fourth state of hibernation is by tor¬ 
pidity, as with frogs, bats, toads, (fee. In 
1691 a mine was opened at Meriden, Conn.; 
soon after it was abandoned, and a land 
slide completely covered the entrance. Af¬ 
ter the lapse of 30 years it was re-opened, 
and Judge Woodward, with others, visited 
it soon after. Pie says, “ we perceived mul¬ 
titudes of bats suspended with their heads 
downwards, and completely covered with 
blue mould. On applying a candle to them, 
they cringed slightly, and on laying them 
in the palm of the hand, they soon revived 
and flew' about.” The lecturer seemed to 
think that torpidity was not caused by cold, 
but by the will of the animal, and offered 
numerous facts to sustain this idea. 
The lecturer closed by some appropriate 
remarks on the endowments of man by the 
Creator, and his duties in regard to the im¬ 
provement of his superior faculties. That 
which the instinct of animals led them to do 
for their protection and comfort, man’s rea¬ 
son taught him to do for himself in various 
ways. If he failed to exercise tliis faculty, 
he alone could be the sufferer. 
MUSCULAR STRENGTH. 
The muscular power of the human body 
is indeed wonderful. A Turkish porter will 
trot a’ rapid pace, and carry a weight of tjix 
hundred pounds. Milo, a celebrated ath¬ 
letic of Crotono, in Italy, accustomed him¬ 
self to carry the greatest burdens, and by 
degrees became a monster in strength. It 
is said that he carried on his shoulder an ox 
four years old, weighing upwards of one 
thousand pounds, and afterwards killed him 
with one blow of his fist. He was seven 
times crowned at the Pythian games, and 
six at the Olympian. He presented himself 
the seventh time but no one had courage 
to enter the list against him. Pie was one 
of the desciples of Pythagoras, and to his 
uncommon strength that learned precep¬ 
tor and his pupils ow’ed their lives. The • 
pillar which supported the roof of the house 
suddenly gave way, but Milo supported the 
whole roof of the building, and gave the 
philosopher time to escape. In old age he 
attempted to puli up a tree by its roots, and 
break it Ifc partially effected it; but his 
strength being gradually exhausted, the 
tree, where cleft, reunited, and left his hand 
pinched in the body of it. He Vv (.io bilCQ 
alone; and unable to disengage himself 
died in that position. 
Haller mentioned that he saw a man, 
whose finger, caught in a chain at the bot¬ 
tom of a mine, by keepin'»' it forcibly bent, 
supported by that means the whole weight 
of his body, one hundred and fifty pounds, 
until he was drawn up to the surface, a 
distance of six hundred feet. Augustus IP, 
King of Poland, could roll up a silver plate 
like a sheet of paper, and twist the strongest 
horse-shoe asunder. A lion is said to have 
left the impression of his teeth upon a piece 
of solid iron. The most prodigious power 
of muscle is exhibited by the fish. The 
whale moves with a velocity through dense 
medium of water that w'ould carry him 
around the world in less than a fortnight; 
and a sword-fish has been known to strike 
his weapon through the plank of a ship. 
A Negro Woman without Ears. —The 
Rev. B. H. Benton, in a letter to the London 
(Va.) Chronicle, says:— 
Strange, but no less true, .! yesterday 
saw a colored woman without ears; not only 
without the article or the external part of 
the ear, but there is no trace of a foraman 
or passage for sonorous vibration—the mea¬ 
tus is entirely closed, yet she can converse 
with others, and distinctly hear their words, 
for which purpose she opens her mouth. — 
Now, is the sound transmitted to the brain 
by the means of the tympanum, or does it 
act on the auditory nerves without the in¬ 
tervention of the drum and appendant or¬ 
gans? This is an interesting question for 
physiologists. \ 
