architects, naturalists, geologists, and astronomers; as many schools of navigation as would be competent to prepare the future shipmasters and skippers that shall ever hereafter be born, from Newburyport all along shore to Provincetown, in the mysteries of their noble and indispensable occupation. I mean that the State should furnish all the pecuniary resources necessary to sustain all these institutions, and not leave any one of them to the individual benevolence or public spirit that may chance to be excited here or there. Still less should it leave their management to the skill and knowledge of individuals. The entire combination should be systematized by the wisest heads, and organized and conducted by the most adroit and competent administrators; the necessary apparatus should in each case be furnished at the public expense, and such means supplied as would aid in the support of those pupils too indigent to support themselves.

And now I imagine the prudent members of our House of Representatives looking aghast at the horrid phantom of the accumulated and aggravated expense I have raised. But let them not be alarmed in vain. The expense would not for many years exceed what might very well and profitably be saved out of their own excessive numbers and prolonged sessions. We have the authority of His Excellency the Governor for the statement that the expenses of legislation in 1851 and 1852 exceeded those of 1841 and 1842 by the sum of $144,000, and I suppose nobody will doubt that there was legislation enough ten years ago. Let the people have, for purposes of education, merely what might be saved by judiciously curtailing the annual session of the Legislature, and the number of its members, and we might have the greater part, if not the whole, of all I have enumerated, without a dollar of additional taxation. And if it be true, as I think there can be no doubt it is, that the people of Massachusetts grudge no judicious expenditure for general education, then all that is necessary is to show them that the plan proposed would be for the good of all, that it is not a scheme to assist one class and leave another to its fate, but that it comprehends all as equally as the nature of things will permit, let them be satisfied that such a scheme offers the best investment of their superfluity, and let them realize the advantages which would accrue to the entire population, and the renown which such an all-embracing scheme would confer upon our glorious old Commonwealth over all the world, and I will venture to predict there will be no complaint of the amount of taxation necessary to carry it into full effect.

The people of Boston are a pretty fair sample of the New Englander. They are gathered from every part of Yankeedom, from every section of this and the adjoining States. Now it is well known that one quarter of the entire tax of the city has been, for many years, spent upon the schools, making a sum of from $200,000 to $300,000, according to the growth and consequent wants of the population, and an average of more than $2 a head for every man, woman and child within its limits. Yet who hears the first word of complaint about the amount expended? There may be occasional fault found with the manner in which it is used, as injudicious or extravagant, but never with the appropriation of such a proportion of the tax bill. The member of the Legislature who first discovers, and acts upon the discovery, that the spirit of the

people of the entire Commonwealth is the same as that of the city of Boston, in this respect, is destined to a greater renown than has been acquired by any one of them for several years. $300,000 per annum, about the sum raised in Boston for the purpose, would accomplish all, and more than all, that has been mentioned. Half that amount, perhaps a quarter of it, wisely used, would accomplish it in a few years; and half that amount would be an addition, not of $2 apiece, but of less that one shilling a head to the population of the entire State. Who shall say that this is impossible?

Let it be considered, too, that if these foundations were once made by the Commonwealth, the private benevolence which has already done so much towards these very objects would still continue to delight in giving its aid, as it has already to several of the State institutions, and thus the burden on the treasury would gradually be materially relieved. But why talk of a burden on the treasury, when all experience shows that for every dollar spent in this way by the State, five are speedily returned, and our credit, now higher than that of any other State in the Union, would by such a course be made to rise higher yet? It is the school and the college which now create a large part of the wealth of the State, and support a large share of her credit abroad. Let the system of education be extended and perfected, and we will have such a Commonwealth as the world has not yet seen.

The party of education is the true party of progress, of a sure movement onwards and upwards. The extension of the area of freedom, which means only overrunning our neighbors, seizing their territory, and making them free, whether they will or not, may be productive of benefit, if God overrule to such an end the human passions which may bring it about; but the probability is, that doing such enormous evil, that good may come of it, would be productive of more mischief than even our former sins of the same kind, burdening our institutions with the dangerous support of those who do not and cannot understand them, and inflaming to ten-fold heat the sectional jealousies which are always hot enough. And what are the advantages that can flow from the acquisition even of Cuba, compared with those which will not fail to result from the appropriate education of the whole youthful population? People who can sell with profit the rough stones in their hills, and the spring water in their ponds, have no occasion to envy the growers of sugar and coffee, or to covet the possession of their lands; while the position of Massachusetts, as a cultivated, intellectual, and prosperous commonwealth, may well be, aye, it is a subject of envy to many who have more physical wealth, but less of the products of mind.

Whatever is satisfactory or honorable in our past history, and our present condition, may be traced very directly to the intelligence and cultivation of the mind of the people; and whatever has happened or now exists which is unsatisfactory or discreditable, may, in like manner, be undoubtingly ascribed to the want of knowledge and discretion which might and probably would have been prevented by a more extended and better system of education. If these things are so, there will be but few of the million of inhabitants of this Commonwealth, who will grudge the cost of a plan by which it will be raised to the highest pinnacle of the glory suited to the present age,—the glory of intelligence,

knowledge, improvement in every department of society; and there will be equally few who will not look with distrust upon politicians who will do nothing to promote the kind of progress which is of more importance than all other public measures, and which alone can enable the little Commonwealth of Massachusetts to maintain a station of eminence among the States of the earth. Every successive legislature should be held to a strict accountability, by their constituents, till they shall have found out that the advantage of the Commonwealth is something different from the obtaining of offices for themselves and their political friends, and of more importance, too, and which the people are determined to cause them to attend to, in preference to their own emolument or station. Something to promote this greatest of all public objects should be done each year, and every year till the end is certainly and securely obtained. Then, and not till then, shall we have done our duty to the fathers, who knew so well" what constitutes a State," and who bequeathed to us such great opportunities of improvement, and our duty to posterity, who will have a right to the best that we can do for them, and who must not accuse us of having neglected or misused the privileges we are bound to transmit to them, not merely unimpaired, but increased.

LETTER FROM THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

HONOLULU, Sandwich Is., Sept. 3d, 1852.

(Concluded from page 55.)

Geography is a study which takes more of my time for preparation than any other. We go by no particular text-book, though Bliss's Analysis is nominally our text-book. I assign particular countries, and the class have a set of topics to be examined with reference to all these countries. They get their information from all sorts of resources, encyclopædias, histories, geographies, &c., &c. Each scholar is expected to examine every topic, though some get a great deal more than others. When one is called upon to recite a topic, for instance the soil, if any think he is wrong they make their statement, and then we compare notes; or, if any one has anything additional to state, he raises his hand and an opportunity is given. This is very common, and in this way we get a full statement of all the facts in the case; and many times I get information from the scholars-facts which I did not know before. I pay more attention to the great physical features of the countries. I do not require them to learn many numbers, and these only in round numbers, such as latitude and longitude, area, population, lengths of the most important, not always the longest, rivers, heights of mountains, elevation of table lands, &c. We pay

but little attention to subdivisions of countries into counties and townships, &c., except such towns as are of much commercial or manufacturing or political importance. We should spend. more time, for example, with Boston, than with all the rest of the towns in Massachusetts. Every scholar is required to draw a map of the country, or section of country which he is studying, from memory, on the blackboard. Each scholar draws a map every day, and we recite mostly from these maps, pointing, out the position of towns, describing rivers, surfaces, &c. The older scholars spell once a week-fifty words each week-on Friday afternoon. The lesson, sometimes in misspelled wordsin which case the scholars are to find out how they should be spelled-these are commonly words which have been misspelled. in their compositions-are handed to some of the scholars who print them neatly on the top of the blackboards, where they will be out of the way, and the scholars study them during the week. On Friday, P. M., the words are put out to the school, who write them in nice books, previously prepared; these books are then collected and handed to me. Then the words, or such of them as I choose, are put out again, and the pupils called upon to spell them orally, define them, and illustrate their meaning by a sentence, and we frequently spend a considerable time. on one word, examining and illustrating its different meanings. I examine the written lessons, and such as have missed five or more words re-write the lesson. The smaller scholars spell every day the words of their reading lesson, some orally, and some writing them on the blackboard, according to their age. Writing and drawing alternately, each every other afternoon, about three-fourths of an hour. Those who do not draw write every afternoon except Friday. I keep some scholars a whole term on a single copy, till they get a free use of their hand.

Singing comes the last thing before the long recess. There are two classes, those who are learning to read the notes, and those who can already read them; the first attend more particularly to the rules, and the last to singing tunes. There are other studies, but I will not stop to particularize further. My general plan is the same, varying according to the nature of the study. We have a recess of ten minutes at half-past ten, at twelve, and one, of an hour, from half-past one till half-past two, and a short recess about a quarter-past three, closing at four, P. M. We close school with singing. Between the recesses there are little rests of two minutes each, when scholars can communicate with each other, and, by obtaining permission, can leave their seats to get anything they wish; at other times there must be nothing of any kind going on between one scholar and another. A report of scholarship, deportment, and attendance is sent home every week and returned again, signed by

the parent. I find this very efficacious for good. But I have written much more than I expected on these points, and will stop.

A word or two in regard to our rhetorical exercises. We declaim every week, on Friday afternoon, before the recess. About half of the pupils declaim each week. Some of the older boys write their own pieces for declamation. Our compositions are carefully attended to; all who are able to write are required to have a composition in my drawer as soon as Wednesday night. They are dropped in through a hole in the top. If the composition is not in Wednesday, the scholar is marked a failure, and is required to write a composition the next day at the long recess. This is an invariable rule. My principle in all the exercises is not to allow a scholar to fail unless previously excused for a good reason. I take no excuses after the failure, except in extraordinary cases. If a scholar fails in his recitation, he must stop and learn it at the long recess; I am always in the school-room, or about it, at that time.

Sat. Sept. 11. The mail goes to-day. We are in successful operation in our fourth term,-eighty pupils and one assistant.

POPULAR EDUCATION, by Ira Mayhew, A. M. Second Edition. New York: D. Burgess & Co.

MR. MAYHEW was formerly engaged as a practical teacher in the State of New York; and afterwards, for a period of five or six years, he was distinguished as the able and efficient Superintendent of Public Instruction, in Michigan. His treatise on Popular Education was prepared in accordance with a Resolution of the Legislature of that State, and embraces the substance of the Lectures prepared by him while engaged in discharging the duties of his office. The great interests of physical, intellectual, and moral education are here ably and thoroughly discussed, in a volume of between four and five hundred pages. It is adapted to the wants of teachers, and parents, and pupils; and has already taken its place among the few standard works that we possess on the subject of Popular Instruction.

CHANGES.

Mr. F. Crosby, late principal of the High School in South Reading, succeeds Mr. Hunt in the Plymouth High School. Salary, $800.

Mr. Adoniram Alden, for several years past a highly successful teacher in Dorchester, has received the appointment of Usher in the Quincy School, Boston, in place of Mr. James O. Brown, promoted. Salary, $800.