power of school officers to exempt the indigent from the payment of tuition fees. Such exemptions, rendered the Common Schools, to some extent, charity schools, or schools for the poor, a feature which will disparage every system of public instruction, into which it is incorporated, because it is repugnant to the feelings of American citizens. Experience has abundantly demonstrated the fact, that a System of Common Schools, with the charity principle engrafted upon it, will prove inefficient, and fail to accomplish the object at which it aims, because it tends to create distinctions hostile to the character and spirit of our institutions.

Every where, the conviction seems to be settling down upon the public mind, that the free school principle should be engrafted upon our educational systems, and that the funds necessary for their purpose, should be provided by a combination of State and county, or township tax, to be equitably levied on real and personal property, according to a fixed and uniform standard of valuation; and distributed, in both cases, according to the enumeration of youth of school age.

In short, the modern educational doctrine is: “That the property of the State ought to educate the youth of the State." This is regarded as a sound principle, having the value of a golden maxim.

It is a principle which the people have, in effect, incorporated into the Constitution of the State. In Art. VI, Sec. 2, it is expressly required, that "the General Assembly shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise, as, with the interest arising from the the School Trust Fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of Common Schools throughout the State."

This language is too plain to be misunderstood. No feeble system, or half-way work, will comply with this wise and noble requisition. But how is such a system to be maintained? The constitution replies, by "taxation," to be levied by "uniform rule." The Legislature has, therefore, enacted a school law establishing

a general system of free schools, and imposing for their support, upon all the taxable property of the State, a State School Tax, on the broad principle, that the property of the State should be charged with the responsibility of educating the youth of the State. This system is based upon the principle, that there is no security for a Republic, but in the intelligence, wisdom, and virtue of the people; that "the power of self-defense, and selfprotection, the power to cultivate and strengthen the powers of its own being, to improve its own nature, belongs as much to every government as to every man," and that the State is even more deeply and permanently interested in the education of its children than their parents.

But it is sometimes urged by those who do not seem inclined to take a very comprehensive view of this matter, that the property of the State ought to be no more bound to educate the youth of the State than to clothe and feed them. This assertion embraces a sentiment, which, if not traceable to selfishness or an unphilanthrophic disposition, is, at least, as unpatriotic as it is inconsistent with the best interests of the State, and the rising generation. It is mind that makes the man, and not dollars. And hence there is a wide difference between the mental and physical wants of our children. They have not the ability to judge of their mental needs, nor have they the power or the disposition, if left to themselves, to provide for such needs.

It is not denied that every parent is under obligation to provide, according to his means, for the education of his children; but since all have not the means, and some have not the disposition, the State should provide a system of free Common Schools, and declare that the expense of it shall be borne by the aggre gate of taxable property within its limits.

In many instances, parents regard the mental culture of their children as a matter of but secondary importance, if they do not treat it with total neglect. What would soon be the mental and

moral condition of our population, were the State to discontinue her parental care and guardianship of our free Common Schools? This question is sufficiently answered by referring to the benighted condition of the masses in those States and countries where no system of free schools has, as yet, been established.

The truth is, the State, as such, has a vital interest in this matter of popular education; and is bound in her sovereign capacity, to look to it. All her youth have a God-given right to an education -to such an education, moral, and mental, as constitutes a perfect manhood; and, therefore, they have a claim, not only upon their parents, and the State, but upon the entire property of the State, to furnish them with all the requisite facilities for attaining to such a degree of intellectual culture as will enable them rightly to comprehend their duties and relations to God, to the State, and to their fellow-men.

It is not territory, or wealth, that constitutes a great and powerful State. It is well educated men; a population, honest, industrious, intelligent. Is it not, then, as much the duty of the State to establish a general system of free schools, as it is to establish courts of justice? As a matter of public policy, the one is as necessary as the other. Yet, it is not contended that free schools should be made a branch of the government; but it is maintained that a republican form of government can not long be sustained without them. This important fact has been, within a few years, sufficiently illustrated in France. All true patriotism, and all true civil and religious liberty, must be based upon popular intelligence and virtue.

Ignorance, superstition, and oppression, whose elements of power enable the few to "lord it over the many," are old associates, and the implacable enemies of free institutions. But in this country, as long as the governed are their own governors, and free Common Schools are maintained by State authority, and rendered accessible to the children of the poor as well as of the rich, there can be no

danger of a concentration of power in the hands of irresponsible persons, nor will corrupt influences creep into the Republic and control its destinies. Let our Common Schools be free, and the people will be free.

What is the object of government, but the benefit of the governed? What is the true, legitimate motive for imposing taxes any kind, but the security, the prosperity, and the happiness of the people? Why should a State School Tax, then, be regarded as burdensome ?

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Will not a thorough and efficient system of Free Schools subserve these important ends? Who pays this tax? Those who reap the benefit of it. Who reap the benefit of it? Those whose lives are protected by the virtue and regard to law which a good education always inspires,-those whose property is rendered more valuable by the industry and skill which a good education always imparts,—those who sleep in peace, because education and the virtues of which it is the handmaid, have extinguished the torch of the incendiary,—those who enjoy quiet and security, because education has disarmed the robber and assassin.

And who are those that are thus protected in the peaceable enjoyments of their possessions? ALL. The benefits of education are not confined, like the waters of our rivers, within certain narrow channels; but they are like those waters changed into vapors, which a Beneficient Power diffuses far and wide. The objection sometimes urged against a State School Tax seems to arise from the narrow view taken of Education, and of the relation which educated men sustain to the State. The important fact is too often overlooked, that disorder and misery in one part bring disorder and misery upon every part; that the prosperity of one communicates itself to all; that the strength, wealth, intelligence and happiness of each, are entwined with the vigor, and prosperity and security of all. In a Republic, all are elevated in the elevation of one, and all are depressed in the depression of one.

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Surely no tax should be regarded as burdensome which yields. a greater and more substantial return than the tax itself. what branch of the public revenue is there whose disbursement yields so many, so certain, and such invaluable returns as this? Or in what department of the public service does the amount of labor for the same amount of money compare with that in our Common Schools? What has produced the remarkable development of power and activity exhibited within the last twenty years ? The answer is, that better and more efficient systems of Education have exerted an important agency in producing these grand results. The mind of the masses has been stimulated by the animating power of Education, and the benefits are hourly being unfolded before us. Good schools not only increase the value of property, but the value of human life. And although their agency in enhancing the value of property and in developing the physical resources of the country may not be so visible as that of turnpikes, plank-roads, and canals, yet it is even greater and far more certain.

Their influence is like that of the dew, and the shower, and the sunshine, quiet and almost imperceptible; but let them cease to diffuse their benefits and their blessings, and devouring famine would not more surely come in the one case, than would a deadly blight upon our prosperity and happiness follow in the other. To abandon, then, the idea of free schools, is to turn back half a century to that crude system of education which every step of modern progress, and every result of modern improvement unite in condemning as unsuited to the times in which we live. We might almost as well recall from the past its obsolete system of finance, its iron forms of government, its slow modes of commerce, and its bloody superstitions.

H. H. BARNEY.