city. One of these is in the heart of the business part of it, being an old house of the date of 1630, the only relic of architecture that has an air of great antiquity about it, resembling as it does some of the oldest houses in Bishopsgate, London, or Chester, and other old cities of England. The other is in the most fashionable quarter of the town, Beacon-street, overlooking the Common, and close to the Statehouse. This was the residence of the patriot John Hancock, and is occupied by the descendants of his family, with whom we passed many agreeable hours under its venerated roof Of literary institutions there are many, and some very distinguished. The first is perhaps the Boston Athenæum, the proprie tors of which were incorporated as a body in 1807. It is agreeably situated in Pearl-street, and has a large and commodious building, with all the requisite accommodation for its members. The house, worth at least 30,000 dollars, was the gift of one munificent citizen, the late James Perkins. The books, pictures, statuary, and cabinet were purchased by the funds of the shareholders. Each proprietor's share is 300 dollars, and of these there are 258. Of life subscribers at 100 dollars there are fifty, and of annual subscribers at ten dollars there are about fifty more. Proprietors have three tickets of perpetual admission, life subscribers one; and both of these have the privilege of introducing any number of strangers during their stay in Boston. All the members of the Legislature, of the judiciary, and of the colleges of education, have free access at all times. The library contains upward of 30,000 volumes; the reading-room is furnished with American and foreign newspapers, and almost every periodical of value at home and abroad. The gallery contains an excellent collection of pictures and statuary; and a lecture-room, capable of seating 500 persons, with a complete apparatus for scien tific lectures, completes the establishment, which appeared to me, in all its arrangements and details, to be equal to any of a similar kind that I had ever seen in England, and inferior only to the Institute at Paris, which is undoubtedly the first of its class in the world. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is another excellent institution. It was chartered in 1780. Its design is to promote the study of the natural history, productions, and antiquities of the North American Continent, to encourage science in all its branches, and to apply the knowledge thus obtained to the advancement of American interests and American happiness. Its library comprises about 2000 volumes, and it has published four quarto volumes of its transactions, the last of which appeared in 1821. General Washington, President Adams, and many other distinguished men of the country have belonged to it; but it seems to languish at present, amid the more attractive institutions by which it has been since surrounded. The Boston Library Society was instituted in 1794, mainly with the view of collecting together for general reference such books as are not usually found in popular libraries, including foreign works of celebrity as well as English; and the collection now amounts to more than 7000 volumes, which appear to have been carefully and. judiciously chosen. A proprietor's share in this library costs only twenty-five dollars, with annual payment of two dollars for adding to the stock, which is continually augmenting in the numbers and value of the books added to it every year. The Columbian Library, formed on nearly the same model, but situated in a different part of the city, contains upward of 5000 volumes, and is also constantly increasing in extent. The Boston Society of Natural History is in active and vigorous, operation. It was instituted in 1830, for the investigation of the natural history of the United States, and for forming collections of the various specimens of natural productions from all parts of the world. There are about 300 members belonging to this society, at an entrance fee of five dollars, and an annual payment of three dollars; in addition to which, the State Legislature has granted them 300 dollars annually for five years. The zeal and good taste with which these funds have been applied, in increasing and enriching the museum and cabinet belonging to this society, is deserving all praise; and the stranger who visits Boston will find few objects more worthy of his attention than the beautiful specimens and preservations which this cabinet and museum contain. The Massachusetts Historical Society, which was incorporated in 1794, has for its exclusive object to collect, preserve, and communicate materials for a complete history of Massachusetts, as well as of the Indians who first peopled it, as of the white race who suc ceeded them, and of the progress made by these last in arts and industry. They have an excellent library and museum, and include among their members some of the most distinguished men of the state; and the diligence with which they have carried out the design of the society may be judged of from the fact, that their published "Collections of Papers" amount to twenty-two octavo volumes, and contain a great variety of curious and important matter. In addition to these there are the Mercantile Library Association, formed chiefly of the younger members of the mercantile community; and the Mechanics' Apprentices' Library, for the accommodation of that class of society. The subscription to the former is two dollars annually, and the addition of a volume to the library worth at least one dollar. To the latter, the only qualification of membership required is that of being an apprentice, and having a certificate from the master under whom they serve that they are worthy of the privilege of attending and using the books of the library. Besides these facilities for acquiring knowledge, there are courses of lectures delivered every winter in some one or other of the public rooms, to which the admission fee is made as low as possible, hardly ever exceeding a dollar, and sometimes half a dollar, for the whole season, which gives to all classes, at this cheap rate, an opportunity of hearing from twenty to thirty lectures, from as many of the most eminent men in the state, including the governor, senators, representatives, judges, counsellors, divines, physicians, merchants, and others; so that every evening in the week, from the end of October to the beginning of June, there is a lecture or a public meeting, a debate or an address, somewhere or other in the city, at which almost all who desire it may attend. Audiences from 1000 to 1500 are quite frequent at such meetings, all behaving with the utmost decorum, and all evidently taking the deepest interest in the information thus communicated to them. It would be a miracle indeed, therefore, if the members of such a community were not generally well-informed. CHAPTER XXXII. Public Schools.-Statistics of Education.-Course of Studies in each Class.-Grammar Schools for English, Latin, and Greek.-Harvard College, or the University of Cambridge.-Exhibition of the Students.-Speech of Mr. Adams on Education. To prepare the rising generation of Boston for the enjoyment of all the advantages in store for them, great care is taken and great expense bestowed on the public schools of the city. The first class of these are called "Primary Schools," for the education of chil dren of both sexes, from the age of four to seven years. Of these there are no less than eighty-three in the city of Boston alone, so situated and classified by districts and numbers as to be accessible to the children in every quarter, and the number of these is every year increasing. The management of these schools is conducted by a board consisting of twenty-four members, two from each ward in the city, who are annually chosen by the town; and these, with the mayor and president of the common council, appoint a committee man to look after each separate school, and to be held responsible for its state and condition. There are, besides these primary schools, fifteen grammar schools, into which those educated in the primary schools are deemed eligible to enter when they have attained to a correct knowledge of spelling and reading the English language. The primary schools were instituted in the year 1818, for the gratuitous instruction of children from four to seven years of age. The schoolrooms are hired or built by the city in convenient places, each designed to accommodate, on an average, fifty pupils. The services of the board and committee men, though laborious, are wholly gratuitous. The following is an abstract of the report of the Boston schools, presented to the State Legislature for the past year, 1837: Number of persons between 4 and 16 in the city, Average wages of teachers per month, including board, males 159 In addition to these, the report adds, "There are a great number of private schools; the number cannot be ascertained, the mode of keeping them, nor the number of pupils attending them. They are generally kept through the whole year, with short vacations. The amount estimated as paid for private tuition is greater than that paid for public schools; but the amount cannot be exactly ascer tained." Thus speaks the official report. During my stay in Boston, however, having been invited to give my courses of lectures on Egypt and Palestine to the pupils of the private as well as public schools, in the afternoons of Wednesday and Saturday, when their usual studies are suspended, I had the means of learning that the private schools exceeded fifty in num ber; that, on the average, they educated forty pupils each; and that the expense of the tuition, not including board, averaged at least sixty dollars per annum, which would make the number of pupils in private schools about 2000, and the annual sum paid for their tuition 120,000 dollars. Seeing by the official report that there are 17,485 children between four and sixteen years of age in Boston, and that of these there are 9683 in the public schools and 2000 in the private schools, there remains a balance of 5802 children between these ages who are not educated in either. These, no doubt, will be found chiefly among the children of emigrants, who, though they can obtain instruction gratuitously, are not permitted by their parents to attend the schools, because their services can be turned to some immediately profitable account at home. It is for this class that the Prussian system of enforcing the attendance of every child at school would be so useful; and were this one feature only added to the American system of education, as it is seen in Boston and Massachusetts generally, it would be complete. The course of instruction pursued in the primary schools is as follows: Alphabet on Cards. Monosyllable Spelling. Numeration, 1 to 100. Dissyllable Spelling. Combination of Numbers. Easy Reading Lessons. of seven age The schools receive the children at the grammar years, if they can spell and read English correctly. Boys may continue in these until the annual exhibition after they have reached their fourteenth year, and girls may continue till they have completed their sixteenth year. The art of writing is then taught, and reading and arithmetic of course continued; but the general character of their studies, and the subjects on which their minds are exercised during the period, may be best judged of by the following list of the books used by the pupils: Ecermal's National Spelling Book. History of the United States. A philosophical apparatus is furnished to all these schools, by which natural and experimental philosophy is illustrated; and the Bible is read by each class frequently. Besides these grammar schools, there is an English High School which was instituted in 1821, for the purpose of furnishing the young men of the city, who are not intended for a collegiate course, but who have enjoyed the usual advantages of the other public schools, with the means of completing a good English education. Pupils may enter this school at the age of twelve, and remain there till eighteen, during which period they receive instruction in the elements of mathematics and natural philosophy, with their application to the sciences and the arts; in grammar, rhetoric, and the |