of the late census, not a single
American adult in the State of Connecticut, was returned as unable to
read or write. Funds for education are raised by municipal taxation in
each town or district, to such an amount as the male adults may decide.
Their public schools are universally admitted to be well conducted and
efficient, and combine every requisite for affording a sound, practical,
elementary education to the children of the less affluent portion of the
community. I need scarcely add that in a republican government, this
important advantage being conceded, the road to wealth and distinction,
or to eminence of whatever kind, is thrown open to all of every class
without partiality--the colored alone excepted.

The following extract from a letter received since my return from a
respected member of the Society of Friends, residing in Worcester,
Massachusetts, will give a lively idea of the general diffusion and
practical character of education in the New England States.

"The public schools of the place, like those throughout the State, are
supported by a tax, levied on the people by themselves, in their primary
assemblies or town meetings, and they are of so excellent a character as
to have driven other schools almost entirely out from among us. They are
so numerous as to accommodate amply all the children, of suitable age to
attend. They are graduated from the infant school, where the A B C is
taught, up to the high school for the languages and mathematics, where
boys are fitted for the University, and advanced so far, if they choose,
as to enter the University one or two years ahead. These schools are
attended by the children of the whole population promiscuously; and, in
the same class we find the children of the governor and ex-governor of
the State, and those of their day-laborers, and of parents who are so
poor that their children are provided with books and stationery from the
school fund. Under this system, we have no children who do not acquire
sufficient school learning to qualify them for transacting all the
business which is necessary in the ordinary pursuits of life. A child
growing up without school learning would be an anomaly with us. All
standing thus on a level, as to advantages, talent is developed,
wherever it happens to be; and neither wealth nor ancestral honors give
any advantage in the even-handed contest which may here be waged for
distinction. It is thus that we find, almost uniformly, that o