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MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
ENGINERY OF WAR, 
ported, in part or altogether, by a self-imposed 
tax upon property. The 13th section of the 
Supplementary School Act, does not permit the 
imposing of a ratebill of more than one shilling 
and three pence per month for each pupil at¬ 
tending school; so that all the -i'boi>lsin Upper 
Canada are now, in a great measure, supported 
by a rate on property. 
dhu atbnal 
THE SCHOOL-BOY’S APPEAL. 
War, at the present day, is carried on in a 
manner quite different from what it was in ages 
past. As in the arts of peace, processes by the 
human hand have given place to the action of 
the machine, whose Briarian arms perform the 
labor of a thousand men, so in war the hand-to- 
hand weapons of offence and defence have all, 
or nearly all, been laid aside. Implements of 
wholesale slaughter—the bomb, the Congreve 
rocket, canister and grape-shot, and a hundred 
other death-dealing inventions—have taken a 
front rauk in the array of hostile armies and 
EVENING TIME, 
BY JAMEvS MONTGOMERY. 
The wonderful developments made in the 
field of Astronomy, as in all other departments 
of physical science, have essentially modified 
the opinions of men. The earth was once sup¬ 
posed to be the great centre of the universe, 
and the sun, moon, and stars were considered 
subsidiary thereto. It is doubtful which had 
most influence in producing this conclusion, 
man’s ignorance or his self-love. The earth, s 
apparent size compared with the sun was one 
cause, and then the idea that he was “ the Lord 
of Creation,” and the especial care and crown¬ 
ing work of the Almighty was exceedingly 
consoling. It is humiliating to consider that 
this mighty world on which we live, instead of 
being the great centre of the universe, is only 
a minute speck upon the verge of creation, 
and even compared with our own solar cen¬ 
tre, it is insignificant; to say nothing of the 
countless other suns and systems scattered 
throughout illimitable space. 
O ! strike not hard, once boyhood’s bloom 
Beamed on the face that now wearB gloom 
Mischief and sport lit up the 03 - 6 , 
That does our little faults descry; 
Then don't strike hard, we are but wild, 
Kemeinbcr thou wert once a child. 
0 ! strike not hard, forgiving be, 
As thou would others do to thee, 
Let not thy heart be turned to steel. 
And merciful toward us feel. 
Then don’t strike hard, we are but wild, 
Remember thou wert once a child. 
0 1 don’t strike hard, lot pity move 
Thy heart, and turn it into love; 
I,et kindness rule o’er crueHy, 
And God will then be kind to theo. 
Then strike not hard, we are but wild, 
Remember, thou wert once a child. 
Zec/i xiv. 7. 
At evening time let there be light: 
Life’s little day draws near iis close; 
Around me fall'tho shades of night, 
The night of death, the grave’s repose 
To crown my joys, to end my woes, 
At evening time let there be light. 
At evening time let there he light: 
Stormy and dark hath been the day; 
Yet rose the morn divinely bright, 
Dows, birds and blossoms cheered the way 
0 for one sweet, one parting ray I 
At evening time let there be light. 
At evening time there shall he light; 
For God hath spoken;—it must be»: 
Fear, doubt, and anguish take their flight, 
His glory now is risen on me; 
Mine eyes shall his salvation see : 
—’Tis evening time, and there is light I 
The annual report of the public schools of 
our sister city, for the year 1853, is published 
and circulated under the superintendence of 
Victor M. Rice, late of that city, and now 
State Superintendent of Schools. 
From the tables which accompany the re¬ 
port, it appears that the whole number of 
scholars taught in all the public schools, except 
the Central school, in 1853, was 15,027. The 
yearly average attendance was 5,520. The sal¬ 
aries of teachers amounted in the aggregate to 
$43,867.19. The average cost per scholar for 
forty-five weeks was $9.19. The total number 
of scholars taught in the evening schools was 
1,796. The cost per pupil for instruction in 
the evening schools was $3.63. The number 
of volumes in District libraries on January 1st, 
1854, was 5,558, and the number of drawn 
books during the year 25,815. The pupils 
registered-for four years stand as follows : 
January 1st, IS61.. . .5,971 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN CANADA, 
[Written for .the Rural New-Yorker.] 
DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE SCRIPTURES, 
Edinburgh Journal , is publishing in that 
periodical an interesting series of papers en¬ 
titled “ Things as they are in America.” lie 
landed at Halifax during the latter part of last 
year; went to Boston, thence to Albany and 
Canada East, by the way of Lake Champlain. 
His observations on America are of the most 
interesting character; very liberal and fair, and 
entirely free from that pre-judged illiberality 
so characteristic of the British travelers in 
America, not excepting even Ciias. Dickens. 
But Mr. Chamber’s observations in Canada 
East, are anything but complimentary to the 
intelligence and public spirit of that people.— 
Ignorant, unenterprising and superstitious, sub¬ 
ject to a kind of Feudal vassalage to large 
landed proprietors called Seigneurs, they have 
hardly yet begun to wake up in the sun-light 
of modern civilization. Public schools are 
nearly unknown, and the rising generation 
grow’ up in ignorance, to fill the places of their 
stolid and imbruted fathers. In the commer¬ 
cial cities, like Montreal, it is true the Anglo 
Saxon is pushing back the original French and 
Indian element, and progress both in science 
and literature is decisive even among the com¬ 
mon people; but in the rural districts the in¬ 
habitants present nearly the same features that 
their ancestors did at the time of the British 
conquest of Canada. There is indeed a law 
for the establishment and support of Common 
Schools, but the power of its enforcement is 
vested in the people, who, ignorant themselves, 
will, from the very nature of the case, bring up 
their children in the same wretched way, and 
vote down all taxes for the support of schools. 
The tide of emigration that pours incessantly 
into the Provinces in common with the States, 
stops only long enough in Lower Canada to 
change steamers at Montreal, and then speeds 
on towards the Upper Province, where there is 
a soil and climate as sulubrious and fruitful as 
ever blessed the husbandman with health and 
comfort 
The population of Canada West is very dif¬ 
ferent from that below’, and is daily assuming a 
character consonant with that of the Free 
United States; active, energetic, progressive, 
seizing hold of all the aids of modern civiliza¬ 
tion to develop their resources physical and 
intellectual, and rapidly assuming a position of 
respectability beside their Republican neigh¬ 
bors. 
Among the most powerful stimulants, as well 
as the most efficient agencies to produce such 
results, is the Common School. From the 
annual report of the Normal, Model, and Com¬ 
mon Schools in Upper Canada, for the year 
1852, which has lately been published by order 
of the Legislative Assembly, it appears that 1 
great exertions are made to perfect and extend 
the benefits of education to all classes of citi¬ 
zens. There are, it is true, a large number of 
children who do not attend any school, yet the 
means are placed within their reach, and the 
number of delinquents are diminishing from i 
year to year. On this subject the report says: 
The whole number of children between the 
ages of five and sixteen years reported for 1852, 
was 262,755—being only 4,148 more than the 
number reported for 1851. The whole num¬ 
ber of pupils reported for 1852, was 179,587— 
being 9,333 more than the number reported 
for 1851. The number of boys reported as 
attending school, was 99,264, and the number 
of girls, 80,323. As the number of girls at¬ 
tending the common schools is nearly twenty 
thousand less than that of boys, so the number 
of girls attending private schools is much 
greater than that of boys. There is, however, 
a difference of 83,168 between the number of 
children of school age reported, and the num¬ 
ber of children reported as attending school; 
and after the most liberal allowance for the 
number of children attending private and other 
schools, there is still the painful and startling 
fact of more than 60,000 children In Upper 
Canada not attending any school in 1852,— a 
fact that ought to rouse to exertion every friend 
of humanity, good government and civilization, 
until the number of children reported as at¬ 
tending the schools, shall equal the number of 
children of school age. 
The doctrine of Free Schools is recognized 
in the Province, although not fully carried out 
in detail. The number of Free Schools report¬ 
ed is 901—being an increase of 46 during the 
year; in addition to which, 429 are reported as 
partly free — making in all 1,330 that are sup¬ 
You believe the truths of the Bible are the 
discoveries of human reason. If the inspired 
writers had claimed for themselves the author- 
ship'of the Scriptures, you would have acknowl¬ 
edged their claim. But because they gave to 
God the glory of having inspired them to write 
it, you believe they lied. Y ou would force them 
to wear the honor, thus making them the best 
of men, and the same time branding them liars. 
My brother, is it not a settled principle in 
law, that a man’s admissions are evidence 
against himself. And will you, who have sat 
at the feet of Gamaliel, so forget his teachings 
as to force upon them the glory they acknowl¬ 
edge belongs to the Most High? Pan you, a 
lawyer, adjudge the glory to the party that 
admits the claim of the other? Suisbao. 
EDUCATION IN TURKEY. 
From “the Czar and the Sultan,” an inter¬ 
esting little volume just published by Harper, 
we learn some facts in regard to the diffusion of 
popular instruction which will probably be 
new also to many of our readers. 
In 1846 a council was formed, by im¬ 
perial decree, for the management of all ques¬ 
tions of public instruction, and the supervision 
of the new university. The state of the prima¬ 
ry schools under their charge is of the most 
satisfactory description. Elementary instruc¬ 
tion in Turkey is not only free but obligatory! 
The law requires every citizen, as soon as his 
sons and daughters have reached their sixth 
year, to inscribe their names in the books of 
one of the public schools, unless he can prove 
his means of educating them at home. In 
Constantinople the most recent report shows 
the existence of 396 free schools, frequented by 
22,700 children of both sexes. After five years 
passed in one of these schools, the pupil can 
enter a secondary school, where instruction on 
all points is also gratuitous. There are now 
six of these schools, with about a thousaud 
pupils. There is also a high school for young 
men intended to fill public appointments, a col¬ 
lege founded with the same view, a normal 
school for the eduction of professors, the im¬ 
perial college of medicine, a military, a naval 
and an agricultural school. The Sultan is him¬ 
self the Superintendent of these schools, and 
visits in person at their examinations. The 
public libraries of Constantinople contain 80,- 
000 volumes. During the reign of the present 
Sultan, protection and toleration have been 
extended to all religions. Christians have been 
permitted to take their position among the ser¬ 
vants of the State, and to share in the adminis¬ 
tration of public affairs; some have been 
attached even to important embassies. Old 
abuses in levying taxes have been done away 
with, monopolies have been abolished. A na¬ 
tional bank has been established, and is now in 
successful operation. Railways are in course 
of construction. Polygamy is on the decrease, 
slavery has been suppressed.— Amherst Exp. 
THE HEROIC MINER, 
A toor but pious miner in Cornwall was 
down deep in the earth with another miner, 
sinking a shaft. They were blasting rocks, and 
their custom was, after the rock was charged, 
for one to ascend in the bucket, and the other 
to wait till the bucket came down again, then 
ignite the fuse, get into the bucket, give the 
signal to the man above, and be drawn to the 
top before the explosion. In the present case, 
the train unexpectedly took fire. The fuse was 
hissing, both men rushed to the bucket, got in 
and gave the signal to hoist; the man above 
could not draw them both. They at once saw 
their danger; both could not escape, and delay 
was death. One of the miners was pious.— 
Looking for a moment at his companion, and 
stepping from the bucket he said, “ Escape for 
thy life; in a few moments 1 shall be in heaven.” 
The bucket was drawn up, and the man was 
safe. Eager to know the fate of his magnani¬ 
mous companion, he bent over the mouth of 
the shaft. Just then the explosion rumbled 
below; and a splinter struck him on the brow, 
leaving a mark he will carry to the grave.— 
They soon commenced laboring among the 
fallen rocks to extricate the corpse. At last 
they heard a voice. Their friend was yet alive. 
They reached him, and found him without in¬ 
jury or scratch. All he could tell of the fear¬ 
ful scene was; that at the moment his friend 
was gone, he sat down and took up a stone and 
held it before his face. When asked what in¬ 
duced him to let his companion escape, he re¬ 
plied, “I believed my soul was safe; I was not 
sure of his.” 
Now look at him who, to build a city called 
by his own name, sacrificed a hundred thou¬ 
sand men, and at this poor miner, who, to save 
the soul of his unconverted comrad, sat down 
there to be blasted to pieces ;%nd say which is 
the true hero. 
garded ; and the manifestation was looked up¬ 
on as a threatening messenger from the gods. 
The form of a sword, a torch, or a bundle of 
rods, (Fasces) which the more brilliant Comets 
usually assume, conveyed to the ignorant rabble 
the idea of scourgings, bloodshed, and confla¬ 
gration. 
In more modern times, after science had 
made some progress but was still far behind its 
present position, another fear arose in the 
minds of men concerning comets. These 
bodies came in towards the sun from the un¬ 
known realms of space, far beyond the orbit of 
the remotest planet; and the fear was that 
some of them would at one time or other actu- 
tually run down our insignificant planet in 
their mad career. Modern science, however, 
has scattered to the winds this baseless theory 
also. In the first place, a very large number 
of comets never come within the orbit of the 
earth at all, before resuming their outward 
flight; and of those which do approach nearer 
the sun, comparatively very few have the 
plane of their orbits coincident with that of 
the earth. In addition to this, we must con¬ 
sider that in the whole wide circuit of the 
earth’s and the comet’s paths, they must be at 
the identical point of intersection at the identi¬ 
cal moment of time. The millions on millions 
of chances against this contingency is above 
all calculation. Again, modern astronomers 
have observed stars of the sixth magnitude 
directly through the densest part of a comet, 
which could not be done unless its substance 
was many times rarer than our atmosphere;! 
and consequently, an actual collision would 
amount to nothing so far as the earth is con¬ 
cerned, although it might upset the comet. 
Some years ago a comet became entangled 
among Jupiter’s moons, and entirely changed 
its orbit williout disturbing their motions in 
the least; which could not have happened if 
the specific gravity of the comet had (to make 
use of a boy’s expression) amounted to a row 
of pins. A comet’s orbit is very nearly — not 
quite — a Parbolic curve, that is to say, an 
ellipse with its sides spreading outward until 
they become parallel lines at an infinite dis¬ 
tance. If the orbit was an actual Parabola, 
the comet of course would never come back. 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BOSTON. 
The city of Boston appropriates yearly, 
about $330,000 for the support of public 
schools. It has invested in school-houses, 
about $1,500,000. The whole amount of mon¬ 
ey raised yearly, by taxation, for all its expenses, 
is about $1,200,000. Substracting from this 
amount the $330,000 appropriated to educa¬ 
tional purposes, it leaves about $870,000 to 
meet all the other expenses of the city. 
More than one-quarter of the whole tax of 
the city is appropriated to schools. The valu¬ 
ation of the city for the year 1852-3, was some 
$188,000,000. The amount taxed upon every 
dollar of property for education, was therefore 
some two mills. The population of Boston in 
the year 1852-3, was nearly 150,000, and if the 
amount appropriated to schools was raised per 
capita, the proportion of every man, woman 
and child, would be about two dollars. The 
number of voters in Boston is about 22,500.— 
If this amount was divided among them, each 
would pay fourteen dollars. The average num¬ 
ber of pupils in the schools is not far from 23,- 
000. The yearly cost of educating each child 
is therefore about fifteen dollara 
“ We see but in part,” in the beautiful lan¬ 
guage of the Bible, is well and forcibly illus¬ 
trated in the following: 
A traveler, as he passed through a large and 
thick wood, saw a part of a huge oak, which 
appeared misshapen, and almost seemed to 
spoil the scenery. 
“ If,” said he, “ I was the owner of this forest, 
I would cut down that tree.” 
But when he had ascended the hill, and ta¬ 
ken a full view of the forest, this same tree ap¬ 
peared the most beautiful part of the landscape. 
“How erroneously,” said he, “I have judged 
while I saw only a part.” 
“ This plain tale,” says Dr. Olin, “ illustrates 
the plans of Cod. We now see but in part. 
The full view, the harmony and proportion of 
things, are all necessary to clear up our judg¬ 
ment.” 
Important Optical Fact. — Mr. Alfred 
Smec observes, that the fact of time being re¬ 
quired for vision has an important bearing upon 
railroad accidents, as it is quite manifest that 
only a certain number of objects can be se«i 
every minute of time. Under the presentsystem, 
the engine-driver has to look out for signals, 
regulate his engine, and attend to its working. 
Now, “when an engine is traveling at sixty 
miles an hour, an immensity of objects has to 
be focused and observed before the engine can 
be driven with safety, and practically we find, 
that if anything is amiss it is frequently unob¬ 
served, and a frightful accident is the result.— 
The laws of vision indicate that one man’s en¬ 
tire attention is required to inspect the road 
for safe traveling. 
Singular Biblical Manuscript. —In the 
library of the late Dr. Williams, in Redcross 
street, London, there is a curious manuscript, 
containing the whole Book of Psalms, and all 
the New Testament, in fifteen volumes folio.— 
The whole is written in characters an inch long, 
with a white composition on black paper, man¬ 
ufactured on purpose. This perfectly unique. 
copy was written in 1745, at the cost of Mr. 
Harris, a tradesman of London, whose sight 
having decayed with age, so as to prevent his 
reading the Scriptures, though printed on the 
largest type, he incurred the expense of this 
transcription, that he might enjoy those sour¬ 
ces of comfort which are “more to be desired 
than gold, yea, than much fine gold." 
The State and Education. —In all parts of 
the country the feeling in favor of general pop¬ 
ular education has been growing stronger and 
stronger. In almost all the States, the govern¬ 
ments have provided the means of common el¬ 
ementary education for all the people. Thus 
far all its friends have gone on harmoniously. 
A sense of necessity has lod them to overlook 
all objections, and no inquiry has been made 
into the grounds of the right of the State to 
educate, or the extent of this right. But now 
some propose going further. Not content 
with elementary education, (to which from its 
obvious benefits no objection could be made,) 
writers now advocate the duty of the State to 
give every one a complete education for the 
business he intends to follow. This may seem 
a sort of reductio ad absurdum, and yet it is 
gravely put forth. But few have spoken out 
as yet, but the same thoughts and ideas are 
doubtless entertained by many .—Rhode Island 
School Report. 
Three Sorts ok Servants. —Cod has three 
sorts of servants in tho world; some are slaves, 
and serve him from a principle of fear; others 
are hirelings, and serve him for the sake of wa¬ 
ges; and the last are sons, and serve him from 
a principle of love. A mere hireling is a 
changeling. He who will not serve Cod un¬ 
less something be given him, would serve the 
devil if he would give more. 
Sir James Brooke, Rajah of tho territory 
reently acquired by the English in the island 
of Borneo, writes thus of the individuals there 
who are occupied in endeavors to Christianise 
the natives:—“ I am inclined to believe the 
American Missionaries, in general, superior to 
the English, not in religious qualification, but 
in their general system.” 
“I KKAR Cod,” said a man of good sense; 
“ and next to Him, I fear only the man who 
does not fear Him.” 
ITow can I come to know myself? Not by 
contemplation; by action only. Do your duty, 
and you will know your value. 
Whole years of joy glide unperceived away 
while sorrow counts the minutes as they pass. 
