the poor will be left with no advantages above the primary schools. One avenue, and that a broad and easy one for the progress of genius in humble life, is now shut on a large proportion of the community; and talents,

"Th' applause of listening senates to command," are doomed to a virtual death by the operation of this measure. Its effects are the more to be dreaded, because they will follow their cause slowly, and be felt most at some distant period, when it will be most difficult to trace the evil to its source. The means of education, though the most powerful instrument, by which a government may effect the character of the people, are not an instrument, by which they can produce an immediate result. As the good to be expected from liberal appropriations, though sure to follow, is realized to the country, only at a distance from the outfit; so the evils of withholding encouragement, though as sure to follow, are still at a distance. But happy experience

ought to have taught this community, how to estimate the magnitude of the good and evil of the different policies, even though they are at a distance. We are now in the possession and enjoyment of those advantages for education, purchased by the sacrifices of our ancestors. And the question in regard to appropriations at the present day, is, whether we shall transmit those advantages unimpaired to posterity; or whether we shall shut our eyes on the future, and suffer the animating and vivifying princi

ple of our free government to be extinguished by neglect, or perverted by a heedless and inefficient encouragement. We all profess the deepest veneration for the character of the pilgrims, and those characters, who laid the foundation of our free government; and can we consistently depart from those traits in their policy, which have made them venerable, and our government free? To praise the institutions and happy state of our country, and to congratulate ourselves on the free enjoyment of them, is not so much to praise ourselves, as it is to praise the liberal and enlightened policy of those, by whose wisdom and foresight we have inherited such privileges and happiness. Posterity will judge of our policy, at some future period, by its effects on their condition, as we now judge of the policy of our ancestors, by its effects on our condition. If we compare the encouragement afforded to schools and seminaries of learning, by the pilgrims of Plymouth and New England, with their resources; and then in connexion, compare the encouragement afforded them at the present day, with our resources; we shall be astonished and disgusted with our niggardly and parsimonious policy. We seem to rely entirely upon the liberality and munificence of individuals to redeem our degeneracy in this respect. What would our ancestors have though of their posterity, those ancestors, who nearly two hundred years since, amidst all the embarrassments of a new settlement, provided by law for the support of grammar schools

in all towns of one hundred families, "the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the University ?" or what would our fathers have thought of their children, those fathers who, in 1780, enjoined it in their constitution, upon "the Legislatures and Magistrates, in all future periods of this Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especialty the University at Cambridge, public schools, and GRAMMAR SCHOOLS in the towns;" if they could have foreseen, that after one relaxation and another, in forty years, those children would so far forget their duty to "cherish the GRAMMAR SCHOOLS," as to strike them out of existence ? What the peculiar condition of the people of this State is, which renders the support of this class of schools unnecessary, impolitick, or unjust, I have never been able to understand. And, although I have been at some pains on the subject, I have never yet learned, what the arguments were, which carried the repeal of the law through the last General Court. Arguments there must have been, and strong ones, or such an alarming innovation would never have been suffered, upon an institution, to which the people, till quite lately, have always expressed the strongest attachment. Was that class of schools considered. unnecessary ? If If so, what has made them unnecessary? Either the people have no longer need to receive the kind of instruction, those schools were intended to afford; or they

must receive the same instruction in some other way. The policy, and in our government, the necessity of eliciting the talents of the country, by every possible means, will be demonstrated, when we consider how many of our most distinguished Jurists, Statesmen, and Divines, have received their early instruction in the primary and grammar schools of some obscure country village. None, I believe, can be found, who will say, the people have no longer need of such facilities, for bringing forward to notice the promising talents of their children, and of giving to our country some of its greatest benefactors. Then by abolishing the grammar schools, it is expected the people will receive the same instruction in some other way. But two possible sources occur, which promise in any degree to supply the chasm in the system. The primary schools on the one hand, and the academies on the other. Neither of these sources will answer the expectation, or be adequate to the purpose. The primary schools will not come up to the necessary standard, either as they are contemplated by the law, or as they are, and promise to be, supported by the people. And the academies are out of the reach of precisely that class of people, who most need the encouragement offered by the late grammar schools. The effect of the repeal of the law upon the primary schools, is as yet, but matter of conjecture. It is probably expected by some, and it is certainly to be hoped by all, that striking from the system the class of schools immediately

above them, they will be improved so as in some degree to supply the place of the higher schools. If this expectation had any foundation, or if there were any probability, it would be realized in some good degree, it would not be so much a matter of regret, that the late measure was adopted. But several reasons induce me to believe, that the expectation is altogether visionary; and that the measure will have a tendency to sink, rather than improve the condition of the primary schools. Although the late law has not been executed for some years upon a very liberal construction, yet the knowledge, that it existed, had some effect, to raise the character of instructers in the lower schools. To benefit the schools, all possible motives should be offered to raise the qualifications of the teachers. The repeal of the law has removed the strongest barrier to prevent the obtrusions of ignorance. Experience has long since proved, that the approbation of the selectmen as to the character, and of the minister as to the literary qualifications, is no sufficient check, upon the pretensions of incompetent instructers. Those, who aspire to the place of teachers in the primary schools, are very frequently found in the families of the very men, whose approbation is required. And however vigilant and candid they may intend to be, in the discharge of their duty in this respect, paternal affection is a most deceitful medium, through which a father looks upon the merits of his son. And the condition of the clergy, in the country, particularly