tries and times, through the medium of the school abstracts. The cases of schools brought to a violent termination, during the last year, by the insubordination of the scholars, happened almost invariably in those towns and sections of counties in the State, where I have found the least sympathy and coöperation in my labors " pp. 23-25.

There is, however, a different side of the picture, presenting a subject for anxious reflection.

"Much has been, and much still continues to be, both said and written respecting that equality in the laws, and equality under the laws, which constitutes the distinctive feature of a Republican government. By abolishing the right of primogeniture and entails, by the extension of the elective franchise, and in other ways, much has been done towards realizing the two grand conceptions of the founders of our government, viz. that political advantages should be equal, and then that celebrity or obscurity, wealth or poverty, should depend on individual merit. But the most influential and decisive measure for equalizing the original opportunities of men, that is, equality in the means of education, has not been adopted. In this respect, therefore, the most striking and painful disparities now exist. One source of this difference, indeed, is to be found in the almost unlimited freedom of action exercised by the different towns in regard to their liberality or parsimony, in appropriating money for the support of schools, and their fidelity or remissness in the supervision of this great trust. In this respect, the towns resemble individuals. One parent will make all sacrifices, he will economize in his pleasures, dress, shelter, and even in his food, to save the means of educating his children; while another, perhaps his nearest neighbour, will sell the services of his children for a few pence a day, through the whole year, that he may hoard their earnings, or spend them in dissipation. The towns have been left, substantially, to the exercise of the same free will. It is true, that the law, from time to time, has imposed certain obligations upon them; but these obligations they have generally obeyed or neglected, at their option. Indictments against them for nonobservance of the law, have been very few, though their omissions to obey it have been many. The judicial records of the State will show a hundred prosecutions against towns for the defective condition of their roads or bridges, for one complaint on account of omissions or transgressions of the school laws. Some towns, through the influence of a few public-spirited and enlightened individuals, have not only observed, but gone far beyond, the requisitions of the law; while, in other towns,

where a few men of an opposite character have gained a preponderating influence, the schools have fallen far below its minimum requirements. On a broad survey of the State, and an inquiry into the causes which have led to the superior intelligence and respectability of some towns, as compared with others, it will almost uniformly be discovered, that the foundations of their prosperity were laid by a few individuals, — in some cases, by a single individual, — in elevating the condition of their common schools.

"Under these different circumstances, the most striking inequalities have grown up. According to the Graduated Tables, inserted at the end of the school abstract, it appears that, in regard to the amount of money appropriated for the support of schools, the difference between the foremost and the hindmost towns in the State, is more than seven to one!

"There were five towns which appropriated, for the last year, more than five dollars for the education of each child within their limits, between the ages of four and sixteen years. "11 other towns appropriated more than $4 for each child within the same years.

"The average of appropriations for the whole State, was two dollars and seventy-one cents, for each child between the abovementioned ages. No town, in the counties of Berkshire or Barnstable, came up to the average of the State, and in the county of Bristol, only one town (New Bedford) equalled it.

"If any one will take a map of the Commonwealth, on which the several towns are delineated, and, with a pencil, enter the amount appropriated by each for the support of schools, he will be astonished at the difference between towns situated in the vicinity of each other; and, oftentimes, at that between contiguous towns. Let the county tables be referred to, and it will be seen that towns standing at or near the head of the column, and those, which could stand at the head only on condition that the order of precedence should be reversed, are towns which, geographically, lie side by side, or in the near vicinity of each other, and in regard to whose natural resources, or eligibility of location, there is but little difference. In taking the single step which carries us across the ideal line separating one town from another, we pass through an immense moral distance. We pass, as it were, from the fertility of the tropical zone to the sterility of the frozen, without any intermedial temperate. It is a common device of geographers, for

illustrating the different degrees of civilization or barbarism existing in different parts of the globe, to variegate the surface of a map with different colors and shades, from the whiteness which represents the furthest advances in civilization and Christianity, to the blackness denoting the lowest stages of barbarism. A similar map has been prepared, representing the educational differences between the different departments in the kingdom of France. A map of the different towns of Massachusetts, drawn and colored after such a model, would exhibit edifying, though humiliating contrasts. It would show that, during the last half century, the most efficient cause of social inequality has been left to grow up amongst us unobserved; and it would furnish data for the prediction, to a great extent, of the future fortunes of the rising generation, in the respective towns. If all that has been said by the wise and good men of past times, respecting the efficiency of our common schools to fit children for the high and various relationships of life, be not a delusion, then, the most instructive lessons concerning the future may be drawn from a comparison of present educational conditions.

'No other fact has ever exhibited so fully the extent of obligation which some towns are under to a few individuals, who have had the forecast and the energy, in the midst of difficulties and opposition, to sustain their schools. I have met many individuals, who, having failed to obtain any improvement in the means of education in their respective places of residence, have removed to towns whose schools were good, believing the sacrifice of a hundred, or even of several hundred dollars, to be nothing, in comparison with the value of the school privileges secured for their children by such removal. Still more frequently, when other circumstances have rendered a change of domicil expedient, has this principle of selection governed in choosing a residence. I doubt not there are towns, where parsimonious considerations relative to the schools have obtained the ascendency, which have actually lost more, in dollars and cents, by a reduction of taxable property and polls, than, in their short-sightedness, they supposed they had gained by their scanty appropriations, besides inflicting a sort of banishment upon some of their most worthy and estimable citizens." pp. 70-73.

But what we have read in this Report with a surprise, which we ought rather perhaps to be surprised at feeling, is a collection of most interesting facts showing how the capacity of profitable manual labor is improved by the education afforded at these schools. Mr. Mann, from unquestionable data, has

shown to the tax-payers of Massachusetts, that these institutions, instead of being the heavy charge which at first view they appear to be, are, in proportion to their good condition, a rich source of wealth. He has made this appear, not from any vague considerations of the benefits of intelligence and knowledge, but by presenting circumstantial statements, obtained from the most competent witnesses, in the form of figures, which cannot lie. A letter from Mr. J. K. Mills, of a wellknown mercantile house in Boston, is so full of important matter bearing on this point, that we cannot deny ourselves the gratification of giving it almost entire.

"The house with which I am connected in business, has had for the last ten years, the principal direction of cotton mills, machine shops, and calico-printing works, in which are constantly employed about three thousand persons. The opinions I have formed of the effects of a common-school education upon our manufacturing population, are the result of personal observation and inquiries, and are confirmed by the testimony of the overseers and agents, who are brought into immediate contact with the operatives. They are as follows;

"1. That the rudiments of a common school education are essential to the attainment of skill and expertness as laborers, or to consideration and respect in the civil and social relations of life.

2. That very few, who have not enjoyed the advantages of a common-school education, ever rise above the lowest class of operatives; and that the labor of this class, when it is employed in manufacturing operations, which require even a very moderate degree of manual or mental dexterity, is unproductive.

"3. That a large majority of the overseers, and others employed in situations which require a high degree of skill, in particular branches; which, oftentimes, require a good general knowledge of business, and, always, an unexceptionable moral character; have made their way up from the condition of common laborers, with no other advantage over a large proportion of those they have left behind, than that derived from a better education.

"A statement made from the books of one of the manufacturing companies under our direction, will show the relative number of the two classes, and the earnings of each. This mill may be taken as a fair index of all the others.

"The average number of operatives annually employed for -No. 115.

VOL. LIV.

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the last three years, is twelve hundred. Of this number, there are forty-five unable to write their names, or about 3 per cent. "The average of women's wages, in the departments requiring the most skill, is $2.50 per week, exclusive of board. "The average of wages in the lowest departments is $1.25 per week.

"Of the forty-five who are unable to write, twenty-nine, or about two thirds, are employed in the lowest department. The difference between the wages earned by the forty-five, and the average wages of an equal number of the better educated class, is about twenty-seven per cent. in favor of the latter.

"The difference between the wages earned by twenty-nine of the lowest class, and the same number in the higher, is 66 per cent.

"Of seventeen persons filling the most responsible situations in the mills, ten have grown up in the establishment from common laborers or apprentices.

"This statement does not include an importation of sixtythree persons from Manchester, in England, in 1839. Among these persons, there was scarcely one who could read or write, and, although a part of them had been accustomed to work in cotton mills, yet, either from incapacity or idleness, they were unable to earn sufficient to pay for their subsistence, and at the expiration of a few weeks, not more than half a dozen remained in our employment.

"In some of the print works, a large proportion of the operatives are foreigners. Those who are employed in the branches which require a considerable degree of skill, are as well educated as our people in similar situations. But the common laborers, as a class, are without any education, and their average earnings are about two thirds only of those of our lowest classes, although the prices paid to each are the same, for the same amount of work.

"Among the men and boys employed in our machine shops, the want of education is quite rare; indeed, I do not know an instance of a person who is unable to read and write, and many have had a good common-school education. To this may be attributed the fact, that a large proportion of persons who fill the higher and more responsible situations, came from this class of workmen.

"From these statements, you will be able to form some estimate, in dollars and cents, at least, of the advantages even of a little education to the operative; and there is not the least doubt that the employer is equally benefited. He has the security for his property that intelligence, good morals, and a just appreciation of the regulations of his establishment, always