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Reprinted from the “American Presbyterian and Theological Review," for April 1867.

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.*

"The worst thing we have to fear in the future of our country, as it strikes me, is the influence of demagogues. The violence of party spirit, the intense greed of office, and the intricacies of political machinery, give great power to a few, while the many, who are either entirely ignorant and incapable even of reading, or are educated chiefly by newspapers and grog-shop debates, are made their dupes. If you have not investigated the subject, I think you would be surprised to find how superficial our popular education is, and how utterly inadequate to prepare our people for an intelligent discharge of their duties, or a just appreciation of their privileges."

"You must pardon me, my dear sir, but I think your fears are groundless. I have always supposed that if there is any thing we may take an honest pride in, it is our noble public school system."

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Well, sir, all I can say, is, that I have observed carefully and inquired diligently for many years, and with rare opportunities of access to all classes of the community and all sections of the country; and I am satisfied that our public schools, as now conducted, are not preparing their pupils as they should and might be prepared for the part they are to act, if our happy institutions are to be preserved and transmitted. It is, in my judgment, a very superficial and illadministered system, and will prove to be so in due time."

The above is a fair report of a casual conversation which occurred at a sea-side hotel during the past season. The hopeful party is one of the judges of an important municipal court, and the doubter is a veteran editor and a Yankee.

We suppose nine-tenths of the community would concur with the former, and exult in the conviction that whatever else we lack, as a nation, our school system is unsurpassed. To confirm them in this opinion they might refer to the testi

1. The Daily Public School in the United States. pp. 158. J. B. Lippincott & Co., Phil.

2. Twelfth Annual Report of the (Chicago) Board of Education. 184 pp. 8vo.

3. The Galt Prize Essay on Common School Education. pp. 26. Sherbrooke, Canada East.

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mony of distinguished foreigners, who have been here and have seen for themselves, and have gone back to report to older nations, that in our young and vigorous republic popular ignorance is unknown!

It is not our purpose to decry, or unduly to exalt our public schools. We propose rather to inquire what views the pamphlets whose titles we have given above, and others of like character, take of the subject. What indications do they furnish that the boys and girls resorting to these schools, year after year, are in the way to become such men and women as our country deserves to have? In prosecuting this inquiry the first point to determine is, what kind and degree of education we are bound to give at the public expense.

There is no saying more familiar to our ears than that the safety and permanency of our institutions depend on the general intelligence of the people. We choose persons to fill certain offices, not that they may guide us, but that they may obey us. The theory of our government is, that the intelligence, the virtue and the patriotism of the country reside in the people, and that when we call out sundry persons to make laws, and others to interpret them, and others still to execute them, they are really our servants, though we are accustomed, for some reason, to call them rulers. Standing at the polls in some of our chief city districts at a popular election, we shall scarcely recognize the dignity, independence and thoughtfulness of men having large interests at stake and looking for the most capable persons to take charge of them. If men of that description are there in any considerable number, it must be in deep disguise. To fit them for just this duty of selecting public servants, with intelligence and discrimination, is one of the prominent purposes of our free schools. We can not train them to vote for Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones, but we can train them to inquire and judge of this, among other things-whether any of the Smiths or the Joneses are proper persons to vote for, instead of following the dictation of a clique, whose first and last purpose is to serve themselves.

When an American citizen comes to the polls, with a ballot in his hand, on which is written or printed the name of the

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