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It has been the means of diffusing a knowledge of sabbath school exertions; of leading, in several instances, to the formation of new schools and auxiliaries; and of advancing, in various ways, the interests of your society. Your Managers have observed with regret, that improper books are too generally placed in the hands of youth-books abounding with foolishness, vulgarity, and falsehood, or otherwise deficient in relation to their moral influence. And the experience of the civilised world demonstrates that the character of the man is built on the principles instilled into the mind of the child. Your board have felt desirous therefore, not only of furnishing their own schools with suitable books; but of introducing such book's into schools of a different description, and of rendering them so abundant as to force out of circulation those which tend to mislead the mind, and to fill it with what must be injurious to it in subsequent life.

The title of the little magazine alluded to in the last report, under the name of Teacher's Offering,' has been changed to YOUTH'S FRIEND. It was commenced in January 1825, with an edition of 3000 copies, and less than fifty subscribers. In August of the same year the edition was increased to 5000 and the back numbers reprinted. In April of the present year, the edition was increased to 7000, and subsequently to 10,000. This little publication is eagerly sought for by the children of our schools, and finds its way into families of different persuasions. Were the rapidity, with which it has gone into circulation, a sure test of its utility, that utility would be almost unexampled. Two thousand copies are subscribed for, in this city alone, and exertions will be made to circulate it in other places.

According to the accounts received by your board during the year, we are able to state that there are in connection with your society four hundred auxiliaries, two thousand one hundred and thirty-one schools, nineteen thousand two hundred and ninety-eight teachers, and one hundred and thirty-five thousand and seventy four scholars. The increase of sabbath scholars in connexion with your society, during the past year, is forty-two thousand three hundred and seventyseven. Estimating the number of Sunday scholars in the United States not connected with this Union, at forty-four thousand nine hundred and twenty-six, gives a grand total of one hundred and eighty thousand who in this country actually receive the benefit of sabbath school instruction.

In the last report, your managers presented a general survey of sunday schools throughout the world, so far as information could be obtained; and their number exclusive of those in the United States, was supposed to be eight hundred and fifty-seven thousand nine hundred and five. Our information concerning foreign countries has not since that period, been greatly augmented; though we are able to state that Great Britain and Ireland report an increase of one hundred and ninety-four schools, six hundred and seventy teachers, and twenty-five thousand seven hundred and twenty-two scholars. If the present number of scholars in foreign countries is nine hundred thousand, and your board think the number cannot be less, and if the number in the United States not connected with this society be, as before stated; the one hundred and thirty-five thousand and seventyfour under your care being added, will give a grand total of one million and eighty thousand sabbath scholars in the world.

We are happy in being able to report, that there have been, both in this country and Great Britain, manifest improvements in the mode of conducting sabbath schools. One of these, in which your managers cannot refrain from expressing their most hearty concurrence, is the limitation of scripture lessons and the allotment of the same lesson to the class or classes which may be engaged in the study of the sacred Scriptures. Though your board are pleased with the diligence which is exhibited in committing many passages of the word of God to memory, they cannot refrain from saying that they consider the number of verses recited no unequivocal evidence of the advancement of your scholars in divine knowledge. The words which are learned to day may be forgotten to-morrow: but what is clearly understood and forcibly felt, may remain to enlighten the mind and purify the heart forever. Your board would therefore recommend to

their teachers, and they would urge it as a matter of first importance, that they discourage, as far as they can safely do so, the reciting of Scripture lessons by rote, merely for the sake of repeating a great number of verses; and that they endeavor to make their scholars understand and apply to themselves the truth of revelation. In this endeavor it is in the power of your clerical brethren to render you much assistance by explaining to the teachers, in Bible classes or otherwise during the week, the lesson to be recited on the succeeding sabbath.

Another improvement, the good effects of which are too obvious to be overlooked, is the establishment of juvenile libraries in connection with sabbath schools. In some schools the privilege of using the library is the only reward of merit, and the forfeiture of that privilege the only punishment inflicted. But the benefit of the library is by no means confined to the scholars. By it a taste for reading is created in the older inhabitants of a neighborhood, and religious knowledge, communicated in the most instructing way, finds an entrance into families to which it could gain access by no other means.

In a few of your schools, another improvement has been introduced worthy of general imitation It is the formation of those into Bible Classes who have enjoyed, for some time, the common advantages of religious instruction, which sabbath schools afford, and have arrived at a suitable age. By means of these, youth, when they have become too old willingly to submit to the usual exercises of the school, may yet receive the benefit and be subject to the restraints of religious instruction. The promotion of Bible Classes in connection with their other operations has come before your board as a subject of high interest. Facts too numerous and well attested to be doubted for a moment, speak of the value of Bible Class instruction; and your board feel constrained, by the design of their organisation, to take such measures as are consistent with their other duties, for its extension, and do therefore recommend it to the earnest adoption of every friend of their cause.

INDIAN CIVILISATION.

It will appear by the following correspondence, that the Creek Indians are alive to the great object of educating their children; and the delegation recently in Washington has appropriated twenty-four thousand dollars of their means to be disposed of, under the direction of the President of the United States, in promoting it. We see in this much to admire. Indians are made sensible of the necessity of education, and feeling the need of it themselves they seek to confer its advantages and its blessings upon their offspring. The Creeks have followed the Choctaws and the Chicka-aws-and these again the Cherokees, all of whom have allotted large annuities for the same object. Thus far the great Southern tribes have acted in concert, and upon a subject which is highly interesting to humanity, and honorable to themselves. Ontario Repository.

Extract of a letter from Opothle Yoholo, and others, composing the Creek deputation, to the Secretary of War, dated Washington, 1st of April, 1826. "We have consulted on our talk of yesterday in relation to the benefits derivable from a good education. It gives us pleasure to have it in our power to say, that we discover nothing in our father the President, yourself, and Colonel McKenney, but the strictest justice, friendship, and humanity, as evinced during our intercourse on subjects of peculiar character and interest. Any recommendation emanating from this high source, demands respect and attention. The examples you pointed at in Messrs. Ridge and Vann, are too striking to be resisted, and we have therefore accepted your talk, not only as the talk of friendship, but with grateful hearts as children, at a time we hope, when the threatening storm is hushed to silence, and our people left to breathe in the calm of peace, by the graves of their fathers.

We have appropriated twenty-four thousand dollars, to be placed in the hands of the President, to be applied for the education of Creek youth, at the Blue

Springs in Kentucky, entertaining a confident belief that Colonel Johnson, who is known to us, and who lives at that place, and who is represented to us a brave man, will himself see to their being treated in such a way as will accord with our expectations of a man who has deserved such an appellation from his country. Our Secretaries are authorised to enter into proper and specific arrangements with you on the subject, at a time most convenient to his leisure.-We are your friends and brothers."

[Copy.]-DEPARTMENT OF WAR.-Office Indian Affairs, April 3, 1826. To O-POTH-LE-YOHOLO, and others, members of the Creek Delegation.

Friends and Brothers,-Your letter to the Secretary of War of the 1st inst. is received, in which you have assigned twenty-four thousand dollars of the proceeds of the treaty recently executed by you, for the education of your children, at the Choctaw Academy, at the Blue Springs, in Kentucky, under the direction of the Baptist General Convention. The Secretary of War directs me to convey to you the high approbation of your Great Father as also of his own, of an act which reflects so much credit upon the intelligence of the Creeks, and attachment to the best interest of their offspring; and directs also, that I prepare regulations for the government of those funds, for your sanction, and his approval. I am prepared to submit the same to your secretaries, to whom the execution of the specific arrangements are referred by you, at any time when it may suit their convenience to call at my office.

Your Friend and Brother,

MECHANICS' INSTITUTIONS.

THOS. L. MCKENNEY.

On the 7th of May, 1795, Mr John Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy, in this University, bequeathed his valuable Philosophical Apparatus, Museur and Library, for the purpose of introducing a system of popular edu cation to both sexes. The Professor died on the 16th January, 1796, and on 9th June following, a Seal of Cause was obtained for the Andersonian Institution, and since that time, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Mathematics, Geography, Botany, &c. have been taught in it. In 1300, Dr. Birkbeck introduced a class for mechanics. In 1808, Dr. Ure extended the library, and in 1822, a Museum was added to the Institution. The noble example set by Professor Anderson, has since been followed by a number of the great towns in the kingdom. In 1799, a similar Institution was founded in London, under the able direction of Dr. Garnet, till then Professor of the Andersonian Institution. The plan of the Mechanics' Class, has found its way to the continents of Europe and America.

The Mechanics' Class of the Andersonian Institution, and the Class of the Glasgow Mechanics' Institution, are in a most flourishing condition. The latter was opened in November, 1823. Messrs. Steel, I.ongstaff, and Deuchar, have been the successive Lecturers, on Mechanics and Chemistry, Mr. Brown Lectures on Popular Anatomy and Physiology, and Mr. Mc'Fadyen gave Lectures on Natural History. At present there are upwards of thirteen hundred Mechanics attending these classes, nearly in equal proportions. From Messrs. Claud, Girdwood and Co.'s Mechanics' shop, there are 140 Students, and froin Mr. William Dunn's 56, who attend the latter class. The working models and apparatus of both Classes are now so very numerous and valuable, as to answer all the purposes of experiment. The Libraries contain upwards of 3,400 volumes. Dr. Ure gave a Lecture in aid of the fund for erecting a monument to the memory of James Watt, and Mr. Longstaff followed the example, or, in the emphatic words of the Jast Report of the Glasgow Mechanics' Institution, A testimony to the departed worth of one of the most illustrious of men;-to a Mechanic, and a Mechanic of Glasgow.'--The value of Mechanical Institutions may be gathered from the following words, which are taken from the report alluded to:-

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The Committee have to congratulate the Members of the Institution, and all those interested in its welfare, on the state of prosperity in which the termination of

its second year has found it; nor is the happiness which this reflection excites, in the least abated by apprehensions regarding its stability for the future. The difficulty attendant on its first establishment has been more than overcome; the two first trying years--those ordeals of its practicability, have passed away, and left the Institution in a flourishing condition. Altogether, the prospects which it af fords, promise with no little degree of certainty, that this Institution will be as permanent as it is useful. Not only are our fellow mechanics thus put in possession of a consolidated establishment, whence they can always derive amusement and instruction of the most profitable kind, and at the cheapest rate; but the whole mechanics of Europe are furnished with an example, the adoption of which will enable them to partake of the same intellectual feasts. The scene which is now exhibiting is truly interesting; and must cause amazement to the most sceptical, at the rapidity with which learning is penetrating into every recess of society.— The Committee have been applied to from many quarters, both of note and obscurity, for information regarding the organisation of kindred institutions; a duty which they have ever felt pleasure in performing.

The thirst for scientific instruction has not been cofined to our own country, but even on the continent attempts have been made to realise the same object as this institution; and in some cases, particularly in Paris and Lyons, with encouraging success. The unhappy period has now passed away, when learning was an bereditary acquisition; and the title to its inheritance the graduation of a College education. Wide still is, and wide must ever continue to be the difference between the higher and lower classes of society, as exhibited in the external peculiarities of rank; but as moral, and intelligent beings, all classes are fast amalgamating; and man has thereby made a vast stride towards comparative perfection. We have not yet been far removed from the period when the artisan was considered, and too justly so, in the light and character of a machine; his hands performing the operation of his calling from mere habit--totally ignorant of the laws governing the design and execution. It is now far otherwise with the majority of Mechanics in this country. The mind participates with the physical powers in the work which they perform; and the lassitude of systematic drudgery is superseded by the deep and intense interest of discovering the multifarious laws of nature which are constantly developing themselves in the operations of mechanical labor. That insuperable obstruction, the high price of learning, which for ages barred the approach of the lower orders of society to the fountains of knowledge, has now been removed. The establishment of Mechanics' Institutes has undoubtedly done much in hastening on this state of society so different from the past. Education bestowed without price, is too frequently received without profil. There is in man a propensity to undervalue every thing which costs him neither pains nor labor in its acquirement. That system, therefore, which places the lower orders on their own dependency for the acquirement of education; with just so much of encouragement held out by the influential classes as may tempt them to the task, is assuredly the happiest invention, if viewed in its issue, which characterises the present times. It has been said of the Scottish youth that it was a stain in him who could not spell his catechism. The time is arriving, when it will be considered a stain equally obnoxious in that individual, who cannot, scientifically describe the laws and principles which govern the operations and manufactures with which he is professedly conversant. When such a period shall have arrived, may we not hope, that science shall have made unbounded progress, that social order shall have been better consolidated, and that that jarring and clashing of interests and feelings among the different classes of society shall, in a great measure, have disappeared.--Hist. Acc. of the Gram. Sch. of Glasgow.

EARLY ATTENTION TO DOMESTIC EDUCATION.

On the 9th May, 1740, the Magistrates and Council of Glasgow received a petition from James Lochead teacher of Cookery, mentioning "that he being regularly educated by his Majesty's Cooks, under whom he served, in the art of Cookery,

Pastry, Confectionery, Candying, Preserving and Peckling, and of making of Miks, Creams, and syllabus, Jellies, soups, and Broths of all sorts, and who taught to dress and cover a table, and to make bills of fare, for entertainments of all kinds, and that of late he had taught some young ladies, to their own and their parents' satisfaction; and that for instructing of his scholars, he is obliged to provide upon his own charge, flesh, fowls, fish, spices, and some other ingredients, but when dressed lie on his hand for sale, by which he is a loser, and will be obliged to lay aside his teaching, unless he is assured in carrying it on, and therefore craving a yearly allowance for his encouragement;" which being considered, “the Magistrates and Council agree to give him ten pounds yearly, for his encouragement," --a sum equal, at that time, to the salary of a master in the Grammar School. ib.

AMERICAN ASYLUM FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

From the Missionary Herald for September.

The Directors in the tenth Report make the following statement with respect to the terms and conditions, upon which the Deaf and Dumb may be sent to the Asylum.

The annual income, accruing from the permanent fund, is expended in defraying the current expenses of the Asylum. The greater this income, the less, of course, is the charge made to each pupil; and thus throughout the union, any State, or any individual, or any association of individuals may equally participate in the benefit of the grant made by the general government to the Asylum.

By pursuing this course, the Directors Have been enabled to reduce the annual charge for each pupil, to one hundred and fifteen dollars. How soon, and to what extent, they may still further reduce it, must depend on the avails of the land already soid, and yet to be sold, in Alabama.

This annual charge talls far short of the expense of providing for the necessary wants, and comfort, and instruction of each pupil.

Thus, in fact, the Asylum is constantly dispensing gratuitous aid to all who wish to receive it; in a mode, too, which recommends itself, by its impartiality and permanency. Any other mode would lead to invidious distinctions; to insuperable practical difficulties in carrying it into effect; and to such a speedy annihilation of the permanent funds of the Asylum, as would result in the complete destruction of its continued and extensive sphere of usefulness.

On the subject of education the Report contains the following paragraphs. The mechanical department has continued to receive that attention which its importance demands. With the exception of only two or three individuals, who, from peculiar circumstances, have been excused, all the male pupils, during the past year, have devoted a few hours each day, to the acquisition of a trade.Persons of skill and experience are employed to teach them. Their progress has been satisfactory. Measures have been adopted to give permanency to this department of the Institution; and every male pupil, who in future comes to the Asylum, will thus have the opportunity, while he is acquiring useful knowledge, of preparing himself to provide for his support when he shall return to his family and friends.

The pupils who receive legislative aid from their respective States, are generally sent to the Asylum for a term of four years. In this time, high expectations ought not to be formed of their intellectual improvement. Considering the great number of the Deaf and Dumb yet to be educated, and the importance of affording even a moderate degree of useful instruction to as many of them as possible, a period of four years is as much, perhaps, as they ought to expect from the public bounty. This period, however, in the case of other children and youth, who are in possession of all their faculties, affords them the bare rudiments of a common English education. Let every proper allowance, then, be made for those who Jabor under great and peculiar disadvantages; and let not too much be expected of them, or of those who are entrusted with the difficult and laborious task of their instruction.

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