of the 8th of January, 1824, amounted to $1,637,000; and it has since been in a course of progressive enlargement.

*

According to the annual report of the superintendent of common schools, made in January, 1831, there were in the state 9,062 district schools, in which were taught, during the year 1830, 499,429 children between five and sixteen years *201 of age; and the general average of instruction was for the period of eight months. The sum appropriated among the common schools, in the year 1830, was $239,713, of which $100,000 was derived from the state treasury, and the residue was raised from taxes upon the towns, and from local funds.

The instruction is probably very scanty in many of the schools, from the want of school-books and good teachers; but the elements of knowledge are taught, and the foundations of learning are laid. (a) The school-fund is solid and durable;

(a) On the 1st of January, 1835, there were 10,132 school districts in the state, and 541,401 children between the ages of five and sixteen were taught, in 1834, in the common schools. The sum of $732,059 (with the exception of a few thousand dollars expended in the city of New York upon school-houses) was paid, in 1834, to teachers for their wages; and, of that sum, $312,181 was distributed to the common schools from public funds, and the residue was contributed by the inhabitants. The surplus revenue of the literature fund is directed by law to be distributed by the regents of the university among the incorporated academies under their care, (of which there were, in 1833, 67, with 5,506 students,) for the education of commonschool teachers. It was computed that $3,000 would be annually applied for that object. In 1845, the capital of the school fund was $2,646,453. The revenue distributed was $275,000, and with a like sum raised by taxation, amounted to $550,000. The number of organized schools was 11,018. Number of children between the age of 5 and 16, was 690,914. The capital of the literature fund was, in 1839, $268,164, yielding a revenue of $48,109, and placed at the disposal of the regents of the university, to pay tutors in the academies, and for instructing teachers of common schools.

It is computed that the state employs, annually, 10,000 common-school teachers; and the legislature, in 1835, made provisions to facilitate the education of commonschool-teachers, in the establishment of school-district libraries, and furnishing each school with the report of the regents of the university, on the education of the teachers. Laws of New York, 1835, ch. 34 and 80.

In 1838 great improvements were made by New York in the enlargement and efficiency of the system of popular education. The governor, in his annual message to the legislature, recommended the subject to their consideration in a forcible and enlightened manner; and the report of a committee of the house of assembly contained a liberal and comprehensive plan of improvement, which was carried essentially into effect by the act of April 17th, 1838, ch. 237. It directed that the share of the state in the surplus revenue of the United States, under the act of congress of June 23d,

and it is placed under the guaranty of the constitution, which declares, (a) that "the proceeds of all lands belonging to this

1836, should be wholly applied to the purposes of education. $110,000 thereof were to be annually distributed to the support of common schools, but upon the condition that, to entitle the general school districts to their share of the common-school fund, and of the surplus fund coming from the United States, each school district was to maintain a school taught by a qualified teacher for four months in each year. The further sum of $55,000 was to be appropriated by the trustees of the school districts for three years (and which was enlarged by the act of 1839, ch. 177, to five years,) for the purpose of a district library, and after that time, either for a library or for the payment of teachers' wages, in the discretion of the school districts. Five thousand dollars were also appropriated for five years, and until otherwise directed by law, to Geneva College; and the like sum for the like period to the University in New York, for the payment of professors and teachers; and $3,000 for the like period and purpose to Hamilton College; and the further sum of $28,000 of the like surplus to the literature fund, and which, with the $12,000 of the then existing literature fund, was directed to be annually distributed by the regents among the academies and incorporated schools, subject to their visitation; but the latter grant was upon the condition that a suitable building for each academy was erected and finished, and a suitable library and philosophical apparatus furnished, and a proper preceptor employed, and the whole to be of the value of at least $2,500; and it was further provided, that every academy so receiving a sum equal to $700 a year, should maintain a department for the instruction of common-school teachers. The residue of the income was to be annually added to the capital of the common-school fund, and duly invested. In 1839, further provision was made, that whenever the supervisors of any county should omit in any year to raise by tax a sum equal to that apportioned to the towns of the county under the common-school system, by the superintendent of common schools, the school moneys appropriated for such county should be withheld, or so much of that proportion as the county should not raise. The superintendent was to appoint visitors for the common schools of the counties, and at the request of the trustees to select the library, and provision was made for the use and preservation of the books of school-district libraries. Act of April 15th, 1839, ch. 177, and May 3d, 1839, ch. 330. These wise and enlightened provisions do great honor to the educational policy of New York. A plan of local supervision, through the agency of county and town superintendents, has been found most efficient towards the success of the common school-system. In 1839, more than 100,000 volumes of useful books were disseminated through the 10,000 school districts in New York. In the governor's message to the legislature of New York, in January, 1842, it was stated that the productive capital of the common-school fund was $2,036,625; and that there were 10,886 school districts and libraries, with an aggregate amount of 630,000 volumes; and that the whole capital permanently invested for the support of education, including the literary and common-school fund, the endowments of colleges and the value of school edifices, was ten and a half millions of dollars. But facts are not quite in accordance with the splendid vision, on paper, of the New York common-school system. In the report of Mr. Young, the secretary of state, in January, 1843, (and he is, ex officio, superintendent of common schools,) he is of opinion that the school districts have been needlessly multiplied and divided—that

(a) Art. 7, sec. 10.

state, except such parts thereof as may be reserved or appropriated to public use, which shall thereafter be sold or disposed of, together with the fund denominated the common-school fund, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated and applied to the support of common schools throughout this state."

Such provisions for the universal diffusion of common and useful instruction may be contemplated with pride and cheering anticipations. But the splendid provisions which have been made in some of the states, and especially in Connecticut and New York, for the support of common schools, ought not to relax the efforts of parents and guardians, and of the community at large, to encourage and sustain a more thorough and elevated system of education. They ought not to remain contented with the means the state fund affords, of instruction without taxation and without expense. The true province of a school fund is not to supersede, but to encourage and stimulate the proper efforts of parents and town authorities, in sustaining

more than one half of the children residing in the school districts were irregular and uncertain attendants-that it was bad policy to distribute the proceeds of the school fund in proportion to the number of children residing within each district limits, instead of making the distribution according to the time the children are in actual attendance—that of the 7,534 school-houses under the system, only 4,000 were in good repair, and the rest unfit for use. The legislature of New York, by the act of May, 1844, ch. 311, established a normal school in the county of Albany, " for the instruction and practice of teachers of common schools in the science of education, and in the art of teaching," and $10,000 were to be annually appropriated for that purpose. And in the New York Revised Statutes, vol. i. 3d edition, under the head of "public instruction," there is a well-digested code in detail of the establishment, organization, government, powers, and funds of the colleges, academies, select schools, normal schools, common schools, school districts, and libraries, which have from time to time been wisely and liberally provided and endowed; and for this system at large, I must refer to the statutes, without going into further particulars.

But the Revised Constitution of New York, in 1846, art. 9, has made some material alteration in the distribution of public moneys for education. It declares that the capital of the common-school fund, the capital of the literature fund, and the capital of the United States deposit fund, shall be preserved inviolate, and that the revenues of the common-school fund shall be applied to the support of common schools; the revenues of the literature fund shall be applied to the support of academies, and the sum of $25,000 of the revenues of the United States deposit fund shall each year be appropriated to and make part of the capital of the common-school fund. These constitutional provisions seem to have drawn unwisely all legislative support from colleges, normal schools, and district libraries.

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and perfecting the system of common-school education. Individuals ought to coöperate with the public authorities, and a wise and patriotic legislature cannot cease to patronize and endow academies and colleges, and render the elements of science and the higher branches of education accessible in every state. Without a large portion amongst us, of men of superior * education, who can teach the teachers of common schools, we cannot expect that the great duties appertaining to public trusts will continue to be discharged with the requisite skill, ability, and integrity. It is not common schools alone; (for they must, of necessity, be confined to very humble teaching;) it is the higher schools, academies, and colleges, that must educate those accomplished men, who are fit to lead the public councils, and be intrusted with the guardianship of our laws and liberties, and who can elevate the character of the nation. (a)

The remaining branch of parental duty consists in making competent provision, according to the condition and circumstances of the father, for the future welfare and settlement of the child; but this duty is not susceptible of municipal regulations, and it is usually left to the dictates of reason and natural affection. Our laws have not interfered on this point, and have left every man to dispose of his property as he pleases, and to point out in his discretion the path his children ought to pursue. The writers on general law allow that parents may dispose of their property as they please, after providing for the necessary maintenance of their infant * children and those adults who are not of ability to provide for them

*203

(a) President Humphrey justly remarks, that it was a great oversight when the Connecticut school fund of two millions of dollars was established, that the academies were not brought in for a share of the income; and that it is a wise provision in the school laws of New York, which empowers the regents of the university to help the academies of that state. Mr. Young, of Nova Scotia, on Colonial Literature, Science, and Education, vol. i. p. 246, says the perfect and modern system of education ought to consist of-1. Infant schools for the training of children; 2. Normal schools for the education of teachers; 3. Common schools; 4. Academies; 5. Useful knowledge institutions; 6. Itinerating libraries; 7. Colleges for the higher branches of learning and science. Again, he says, education ought to be conducted under the superintendence of the government, and regulated by law, and supported by legislative funds or local taxation, and the funds made permanent, certain, and compulsive.

selves. (a) A father may, at his death, devise all his estate to strangers, and leave his children upon the parish, and the public can have no remedy by way of indemnity against the executor. "I am surprised," said Lord Alvanley, (b) " that this should be the law of any country, but I am afraid it is the law of England."

II. Of the rights of parents.

The rights of parents result from their duties. As they are bound to maintain and educate their children, the law has given them a right to such authority; and in the support of that authority, a right to the exercise of such discipline as may be requisite for the discharge of their sacred trust. (c) This is the true foundation of parental power; and yet the ancients generally carried the power of the parent to a most atrocious extent over the person and liberty of the child. The Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, Gauls, and Romans, tolerated infanticide, and allowed to fathers a very absolute dominion over their offspring; but the Romans, according to Justinian, exceeded all other people, and the liberty and lives of the children were placed within the power of the father (d) It was not, however,

(a) Puff. Droit de la Nature, lib. 4, ch. 11, sec. 7.

(b) 5 Vesey, 444. See infra, p. 327, and vol. iv. pp. 502, 503, as to the provision made by the laws of ancient Athens and Rome for children, out of the estates of their parents.

(c) In the case of the Commonwealth v. Armstrong, in the session of the peace for Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, in 1842, Mr. Justice Lewis, the president judge, decided, after a learned examination of the subject, that a minister of the gospel had no right, contrary to the express commands of the father, to receive an infant daughter, under the immediate guardianship of the father, from the church to which the father belonged, and in which the child was baptized and instructed, and initiate it, by baptism, into another church of a different denomination. It was held to be the right and the duty of the father, not only to maintain his infant children, but to instruct their minds in moral and religious principles, and to regulate their consciences by a course of education and discipline. All interference with the parental power and duty, except by the courts of justice, when that power is abused, is injurious to domestic subordination, and to the public peace, morals, and security. Parents, says a distinguished jurist on natural law, have the right by the law of nature, to direct the actions of their children, as being a power necessary to their proper education. It is the will of God, therefore, that parents should have and exercise that power. Nay, he observes, parents have the right to direct their children to embrace the religion which they themselves approve. (Heineccius's Elem. Jur. Nat. et Gentium, b. 2, ch. 3, sec. 52, 55.)

(d) Inst. 1, 9. De Patria Potestate. Law of the Twelve Tables. p. 524, note. Taylor's Elements of the Civil Law, pp. 395, 397, 402. Anacharsis en Grece, tom. iii. ch. 26. Cæsar de Bel. Gal. lib. 5, ch. 18.

See vol. i.
Voyage du

St. John's