xation. A general tax was not imposed; but the people in the various
townships were empowered to tax themselves to a certain amount, and to
manage the whole affair by means of their own "select men." But,
although this law has continued for 200 years, the people have always
done far more than it required. In Boston, for instance, the law
demands only 3,000 dollars a year, but not less than 60,000 dollars is
raised and applied! So that here we have a noble proof, not so much of
the effect of government interference, as of the efficiency of the
voluntary principle in providing education for the young. The people of
Massachusetts, and indeed of all the New England States, are doubtless
the best educated in the world. Not one in a thousand of those born
here grows up unable to read and write.

The calumniated "Pilgrims" were thus early attentive to the importance
of education; and their system had been in full operation for between
thirty and forty years, when, in 1670, Sir William Berkley, Governor of
Virginia, the stronghold of the Anglican Church, thus devoutly
addressed the "Lords of Plantations in England:"--"I thank God _there
are no free schools nor printing_, and I hope we shall not have them
these hundred years; for learning has brought _disobedience and heresy
and sects_ into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels
against the best government. God keep us from both!"

The system of Massachusetts may be regarded as a type of what prevails
in the six New England States, except Connecticut, where there is a
State fund of upwards of 2,000,000 dollars, yielding an annual dividend
of about 120,000 dollars for school purposes.

NEW YORK.--In this State a large fund for schools has been created by
the sale of public land. The proceeds of this fund are annually
distributed in such a way as to secure the raising by local efforts of
at least three times the amount for the same object. This fund is thus
used as a gentle stimulant to local exertions. The system described
will convey a notion of what exists in the _middle_ States.

Ohio.--In this and the Western States every township is divided into so
many sections of a mile square; and one of these sections, out of a
given number, is devoted to the maintenance of schools. As a township
increases in population, the reserved section advances in value. These
schools are not subject to any central control, but are under the
management of a committee chosen by the