t pace with our much-vaunted
prosperity, but have been, and are, forging ahead at a rate that fills
all thoughtful minds with alarm.

We cannot extend our space and burthen our brief comment with the
statistics necessary to prove this fact, already patent to the more
intelligent. Let the reader consult them for himself. He will find that
the increase of criminals and the increase of insanity, set forth in
cold figures, are not to be disputed or misunderstood. But it does not
follow that these grave evils are to be laid to the communism of the New
England common-school system. Perhaps not; but how much has this
wonderful system done to arrest those evils? According to preachers,
poets, editors, and stump orators, we are safe in leaving all to its
care and keeping. It has certainly accomplished little in behalf of the
Republic. Penitentiaries and asylums for the insane are increasing at a
fearful rate; divorces follow fast upon the heels of marriage; and it
may safely be said that not a single trust-fund has been left untouched
by the hand of fraud throughout the entire country.

A further investigation, however, will lead us to yet another
conclusion. The communism of the common school accompanies the evils. In
those parts of our country where it is most rigidly enforced crime and
madness have increased. In those sections yet new to the system these
ills are less; and as there must be a cause for the difference, is it
not safe to attribute it to this usurpation of the State, this insidious
assault on the parent, and through both a weakening of religious faith
and moral conduct?

We are well aware that, in the bigotry of belief that hedges about this
system, there is no toleration for comment or criticism, and no room for
amendment. To add to this, immense sums of money are involved; for while
the State is keenly alive to the education of the people, and furnishes,
with the greatest liberality, school-houses and pedagogues, it is
strangely oblivious to the demand for books and stationery. In this
supply lies two-thirds of the vociferous praise and vindictive support
of the system. As the late Colonel Sellers was wont to say, "There's
millions in it."

ABOUT THE BALLOT.

We have a growing number of earnest reformers who seek to better the
machinery of elections by throwing about the ballot-box certain
precautions, legally enacted, that will make the purchase of votes and
the intimidation of voters more difficult. T