PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

We have already alluded to the interest which was taken by the town of Newport, in the promotion of education, as early as 1640; and private schools have ranked as high in this place as that of any section of the country.

The Newport Academy, Col. Levi Tower, Principal, had a very extensive popularity. Students from the South, as well as the New England States, were to be found under his instruction and guidance. The higher, as well The higher, as well as the common branches of education were taught. In penmanship the pupils excelled. Many of them are occupying places in countinghouses, banks, &c., in the various cities in the Union. Once a week, the older male scholars engaged in declamation, at which their parents, and other spectators were present, and who were both highly amused and gratified. It is no flattery to say of Col. Tower, that the school under his supervision, has never been excelled, if equalled, by any other in the State. It was the ne plus ultra !

In March, 1825, the freemen of Newport decided, by vote, to establish free schools in the town; and a Committee, in May following, recommended to erect two school houses, to obtain the Church school house, and thus establish three free schools in the town.

In 1820, a Committee of the town reported on a resolution of the General Assembly of this State, calling on the several towns for information on the subject of free schools, and recommended that the town instruct their representatives in General Assembly, to unite their efforts, to procure an act for such a general system of public schools, as in their wisdom they may devise.

On the 14th of July, 1826, the corner stone of the town school house, No. 1, was laid by Lieutenant-Governor Charles Collins. The Rev. Mr. Gammell offered an appropriate prayer on the occasion.

A Committee was appointed in April, 1826, to investigate and enquire into money, said to be due from the town, for or on account of school lands. In their report they say, "The undersigned, a Committee of said town, appointed on the 3d of

September, 1825, to inquire into the evidence of the title of the town of Newport to the Newtown, or school lands, on the subject of which lands a former Committee reported on the 16th of May last, from which report, and other representations then made, some of the freemen were induced to believe that the town received the aforesaid land as a gift, on condition to apply the whole income to the education of the youth of said town, and that the town was, in law and equity, bound for the faithful performance of the same; and as the town had sold most of the lands in question soon after the Revolutionary War, to pay the debts of the town, they must now make good by taxation the trust committed to them by the donor. It was also reported by that Committee, that the town was indebted to said education fund, in the sum of $51,283 34." The Committee, after detailing sundry acts and resolutions of the town, relative to said Newtown or school lands, gleaned from the old mutilated records of the town, among which is a report of a Committee made to the town in 1763, which Committee say, "Upon examining the town records, we found that the said land was purchased by the town of one Bartholomew Hunt, the 17th day of December, 1661, for which they gave him in exchange a lot of one hundred acres, now lying in Middletown." They say, "Thus it appears that the town, in the year 1661, exchanged one hundred acres for the tract since called Newtown, or school land, being the property in question. If your Committee were allowed in any conjecture respecting the hundred acres exchanged, they submit the subjoined extract, from Callender's Centenary Sermon,' acknowledging at the same time, that it is but a connection of remote and detached circumstances, resting as much on possibilities as probabilities." The extract from Callender's Sermon has been already noticed, in a former part of this work, showing that the town appropriated one hundred acres of land, for a school, for the encouragement of the poorer sort to train up their youth in learning, &c., at an early period of the settlement.

In March, 1827, the town passed an act to establish a School Fund, and appointed three Commissioners of said fund; one to go out every year, and a new one to be chosen in his place, who are to receive all donations and bequests thereafter given for public schools, as also the bequest of the late Constant

Taber; likewise all moneys received for licenses, auction tax, and estates taken by the town for want of known heirs; and directed that the remainder of the said Newtown lot be sold, and the proceeds placed in the fund.

During the January session of 1829, the General Assembly of Rhode Island, appropriated $10,000 per ann., for the support of public schools, to be paid over to the several towns, according to their respective population, under the age of sixteen years; and authorizing the several towns to raise by tax, in each year, as the majority of the freemen in Town Meeting shall judge proper, a sum not exceeding double the amount to be received out of the general Treasury. The number of schools have since been increased.

On July 4th, 1826, Major John Handy read the Declaration of Independence, from the steps of the State House, in Newport, that being the place where, fifty years before, it was read to the people by the same gentleman. The steps were decorated with an arch of flowers. Major Handy addressed the multitude as follows: "My respected fellow-citizens,—at your united request, I appear before you in this public station, at an age when it would seem advisable that I should remain a silent spectator of the performances of this day, a day which, half a century past, secured to us our independence and prosperity; and no nation more prosperous! My own feelings on this occasion I have sacrificed, to gratify your wishes. The recollection of past scenes of the last fifty years, rushes in succession on my mind, with a hope and belief that the mantle of charity will be thrown over my imperfections; and under that impression I shall proceed to the performance of the part required of me." After the Declaration was read, a hymn was sung in the tune of "Old Hundred," the whole multitude uniting their voices, with a fervency and zeal which gave it a most sublime and happy effect.

It is a most painful truth, and one from which the heart recoils with horror, that the course which has been pursued for a few years by a certain class, calling themselves Philanthropists, has had an indirect tendency to nearly, or quite, obliterate from the mind of the rising generation, all remembrance of the glorious events connected with American Independence. Such profess to have the entire monopoly of all the benevolence,

but which is rather the product of ambition, a desire of selfaggrandizement even at the expense of the liberties of the Union. The roar of cannon, accompanied with the soul-stirring sound of martial music, animating the heart of every true patriot, who loves liberty in preference to slavery, and the free exercise of his mind to all the vain honors and distinctions which wealth confers, if purchased by the relinquishment of his inalienable rights, dearer by far to him than even life itself—has no charms for such stoical minds.

We have no hesitation in saying that the abolition of the Christian Sabbath, would not more effectively efface from the heart all regard to the precepts of Jesus Christ, and render the land a waste howling wilderness, and the people mere heathens, than the forgetfulness and neglect of observing the national jubilee, would go to the overthrow of the liberties of this country. It is by a recurrence to the event that the flame of liberty is fanned and made to burn more brightly on the altar of the heart. Auspicious day! let the mind of every American ascend to heaven in triumphant songs of praise! Let the bugle sound loud and long, through the vallies and reverberate over the hills of our dear native Isle: "Independence now! and Independence forever !"

No day in the calendar ever gave us such intense delight, as the Fourth of July, when party spirit becomes merged in the one glorious event. It was the social meeting of the American brotherhood on the broad platform of universal liberty and the rights of man. But in some sections how changed the scene ! Shall the political horizon continue to be dimmed by one cloud to mar the festivities of the day? Rather let us regard the views entertained by the elder Adams, the Colossus of American liberty, and not suffer his prophetic language to fail of its accomplishment:

"When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy."

Let us prize this bulwark of constitutional liberty, and discountenance every attempt to undermine its foundation, in which consists our glory, our happiness and our independence.

Major John Handy was a merchant of Newport. He was the son of Charles Handy, Esq., a distinguished citizen of Newport. He entered the Revolutionary army, to defend the honor of his country, and was promoted to the rank of Major. He died in Newport in 1828, aged 72 years.

The late Thomas Handy, Esq., brother of the Major, was a gentleman of dignified and courteous manners. He married Mary, the daughter of John Henry Overing, an eminent merchant of Newport. Mrs. Handy was truly a most estimable lady, endowed with those rare virtues and accomplishments which rendered her an ornament to society. Of a large and highly interesting family of children, but four survive her. Mary, who married her cousin, James Overing, of Westchester, N. Y.; Matilda, widow of Mr. Levi of Philadelphia; Robert, of the U. S. Navy; and Augustus, the wife of Mr. Sinclair of the city of New-York, a Counsellor at Law.

These reminiscences, though highly interesting in their character, yet nevertheless recall to mind solemn and affecting thoughts on the ravages produced by time, in the domestic circle, and should teach a salutary lesson of the fading and transitory nature of all earthly glory. As the Handy family held an important position in society, and was highly regarded, a mere glance at their history we view as important in a work of this kind.

General Charles T. James, whose recent election to the Senate of the United States has created such an unusual degree of interest in the public mind, stands intimately and prominently connected with Newport, and we have felt called upon to notice his origin.

His grandfather John James, and his maternal grandfather, Charles Tillinghast, settled in Newport at an early period. His grandfather Tillinghast, was a devoted patriot; he was in Sullivan's expedition on Rhode Island, and was subsequently seized in his house at night by a band of British soldiers, and carried off. His sad fate was never satisfactorily known; it was, however, reported that he had died of the small pox.

Silas James, the father of the General, was born in Newport, and although a lad, was also in the expedition with his grandfather; he afterwards removed to West Greenwich, where he improved a farm, and was repeatedly elected to represent that