belles lettres; in moral philosophy, in civil history, and in the French language. The teachers must all have had a collegiate education, and be in number as one to every thirty-five pupils. There is an excellent apparatus for philosophical experiments. The pupils to be admitted must bring certificates of intellectual attainments and good moral conduct from their previous masters. The books used are the following: Worcester's Ancient Geography. Worcester's General History. Colburn's or Baily's Algebra. Legendre's Geometry. Blair's Rhetoric. Paley's Moral Philosophy. Works on Chymistry. Trigonometry and Astronomy. Logic and Intellectual Philosophy. The Latin Grammar School is still a degree beyond the English High School. In this the Latin and Greek languages are taught, and scholars are fitted for the University. Mathematics, geography, history, declamation, and English composition are also carefully attended to. Boys may enter this school as early as ten years of age, or as late as fifteen, but they cannot remain longer than five years as pupils. Certificates of qualification and good moral conduct are required, as in the English High School. The books used are the following: Stoddart's Latin Grammar. Andrews's Latin Reader. Dillaway's Roman Antiquities. Cleveland's Greek Antiquities. Jacobs's Greek Reader. Fisk's Greek Exercises. Phædri Fabulæ Expurgatæ. Cornelius Nepos. Cæsar's Commentaries. Greek Testament. Xenophon's Anabasis. Paley's Evidences of Christianity. The pupils are also frequently exercised in arithmetic, geography, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, as well as in translations and composition in the Greek and Latin languages; and no English editions or interpretations, or keys to any of the authors, are permitted in the school.. They are examined also in Starling's Catechism of the Constitution of the United States, and in the knowledge of the Old and New Testaments. The higher branches of education are reserved for Harvard College, or the University of Cambridge, as it is called, which is within four miles of Boston, across one of the bridges leading to Charlestown, and may now be almost regarded as a part of Boston itself, from the facility of access of omnibuses and other public conveyances. This institution was established so long ago as the year 1636, and is named after the Rev. John Harvard, who was the first to make a donation to its funds, of £780 sterling. Since then the donations have been considerable, so that it has now a permanent fund of $600,000 in property, and an income of more than $22,000 per annum, besides the fees of the students and graduates. The college buildings are agreeably situated, and surrounded with lawns and trees. University Hall, which is built of granite, is 140 feet long by 50 broad, and 42 feet high. The separate colleges, of which there are six, are of brick, but substantially built, and furnished with every requisite accommodation, as well as with a library of 30,000 volumes, and a most complete philosophical apparatus for experiments. The residences of the professors are separate buildings, in the villa style, near the colleges; and the village itself, in which the whole are seated, is extremely pretty. There are usually about 400 students in the University; and the president, as well as the professors generally, are highly respected for their learning, virtue, and high character as citizens and men. Attached to the University is a Medical College in Boston, at which lectures are given by the most eminent professors in anatomy and surgery; and not less than 400 students, partly from the University and partly from the country, come, up to attend these in the winter. The museum, formed and classified chiefly by Dr. Warren, one of the principal physicians of Boston, and lecturer of the institution, is one of the best I remember for the extent and variety of its anatomical preparations, and the exquisite skill with which some of those in wax are executed. I had the pleasure of visiting it under great advantages, and have rarely been more highly gratified. I had an opportunity also of attending one of the exhibitions at Cambridge, of which there are three in the year, besides the anniversary, called the "Commencement," which takes place in August; and I was much pleased with the gentlemanly appearance and CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.-EDUCATION. 345 manners of the students, as well as with the perfection of their exercises. We dined afterward with the president, Mr. Quincy, the governor of the state, Mr. Everett, the ex-president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, and other friends and official guardians of the institution, and were much delighted with our visit. The number of auditors who attended the exhibition amounted to about 300, among whom the ladies were as numerous as the gentlemen; and the following was the order of the exercises: "Latin Oration, De Festis diebus qui nostra in Universitate celebrantur. English Version, The Real State of France. Latin Dialogue, Procida and Raimond. Conference, History, Biography, and Fiction. Greek Version, Extract from a Speech of Tiberius Gracchus. Colloquy, How far the Right should be controlled by the Expedient. Latin Version, Orationis Josephi Story apud Societatem P. B. K. habitæ pars. Forensic Disputation, Whether a Want of Reverence be justly chargeable on our Age and Country. Greek Dialogue, Eurylochus and Melanthus. Dissertation, Public Opinion as a Standard of Right. Mathematical Exercises, The Construction of Charts, Rotary Motion derived from the Electro-Magnetic Forces, Properties of the Cycloid, Meteors, Use of Infinitely small Quantities in Mathematical Investigations. English Oration, Modern Patriotism." I believe that neither Oxford nor Cambridge in Old England would have been ashamed of their own students if they had been the actors, and had acquitted themselves as well as these youths of New-England did on this occasion; and this, perhaps, is as high praise as any English auditor could bestow. Notwithstanding these ample means of education, from the primary schools to the University, means in which America is surpassed by no nation on the globe excepting only Prussia, there is yet a strong desire on the part of the leading men in society to do more. Indeed, where 5000 children between the ages of four and sixteen, in such a city as Boston, attend no school at all, there must, of course, be ample room for improvement, though this is, perhaps, a smaller number of uneducated children out of a population of 80,000 than any city in Europe, those of Prussia alone excepted, could present. In consequence of this, public meetings are continually held, to awaken public feeling to the importance of using additional means, so as to extend education to all children, and to train, by normal schools, the teachers with more care. One of the most recent meetings of this kind was held at Worcester during my stay in Boston. Governor Everett, Daniel Webster, and Mr. John Quincy Adams were among the speakers; and the following short extract from the speech of the last-named gentleman is so good and so characteristic, that I venture to transcribe it. "The Hon. John Q. Adams said he had noticed the organization of the Board of Education, the reports, and improvements in those reports. He had examined the subject of late, and he thought the movements in this country by the friends of education had been deliberate, and wise, and Christian; and he thought the plan contemplated by the VOL. II.-X x very important resolution before the meeting could not but find favour with every one who would examine and comprehend it. We see monarchs expending vast sums, establishing normal schools through their realms, and sparing no pains to convey knowledge and efficiency to all the children of their poorest subjects. Shall we be outdone by kings? Shall monarchies steal a march on republics in the patronage of that education on which a republic is based? On this great and glorious cause let us expend freely, yes, more freely than on any other. There was one usage, he added, in the ancient republic of Sparta, which now occurred to him, and which filled his mind with this pleasing idea, viz., that these endeavours of ours for the fit education of all our children would be the means of raising up a generation around us which would be superior to ourselves. The usage alluded to was this: the inhabitants of the city on a certain day collected together and marched in procession, dividing themselves into three companies, the old, the middleaged, and the young. When assembled for the sports and exercises, a dramatic scene was introduced, and the three parties had each a speaker; and Plutarch gives the form of phraseology used in the several addresses on the occasion. The old men speak first; and, addressing those beneath them in age, they say, 'We have been, in days of old, Wise and generous, brave and bold.' Then come the middle-aged, and, casting a triumphant look at their seniors, say to them, "That which in days of yore ye were, We at the present moment are.' Lastly march forth the children, and, looking bravely upon both companies who had spoken, they shout forth thus: 'Hereafter at our country's call, We promise to surpass you all.'” CHAPTER XXXIII. Periodical Literature of Boston.-Statistics of the Public Journals.Quarterly and Monthly Publications Newspaper Press. - Partisanship.-Examples of Political Exaggeration.- Opposition or Indifference to Abolitionism. Morals and Manners turned to Party Account.-Scenes in Boston Theatre and on the Bridges. THE periodical literature of Boston is more varied and extensive than that of any other city in the Union, though the operations of its publishers are not so large as those of the same class of persons in New-York and Philadelphia. Among the best periodicals may be mentioned the North American Review, published quarterly, and the Christian Examiner, published every two months. There are, however, besides these, four large periodicals, published quarterly, and at intervals of two months; twelve monthly magazines, including a horticultural, an educational, and several religious journals; a medical journal weekly, and several literary and religious newpapers published weekly also. The newspapers include PUBLIC JOURNALS.-PARTISANSHIP. 347 10 daily, of which 8 are morning and 2 evening papers, 8 semiweekly and 24 weekly, exclusive of The Yankee Farmer, an agricultural paper, and The Liberator, an abolition paper; and, upon the average of the whole, the circulation may be estimated at 2500 each, some having a circulation of 5000, and some not more than 1000. This would give an aggregate of 153,000 copies per week for the 10 daily publications, 40,000 per week for 8 semi-weekly papers, and 60,000 per week for the 24 weekly papers, or an aggregate of 253,000 copies per week in a population of 80,000 persons, exclusive of the monthly and quarterly journals; a proportion, it is believed, which exceeds that of any other city in the world. The quarterly and monthly publications are conducted with great ability, and in a spirit of moderation, fairness, and candour. This praise cannot, however, in justice be bestowed on the greater number of the daily and weekly papers. They partake of all the feebleness and inefficiency of the newspaper press of the country generally, while they are inferior in original intelligence to the papers of New-York, though in the spirit of partisanship they surpass all their contemporaries. Relying chiefly, if not entirely, on their advertisements for support, and these being furnished by persons engaged in the mercantile and trading operations, they can hardly dare offend those on whom they are so dependant by advocating what is unpopular with them. Hence they are almost all Whigs in their politics, and nearly all opposed to the recent law for restraining the retailing of spirituous liquors in quantities of less than 15 gallons, because all the importers, manufacturers, and sellers of this article will have their profits lessened by it. One paper alone out of all the daily press, the Mercantile Journal, had the courage to run counter to its contemporaries in this matter, and was severely handled by the rest for so doing. Its reply to these attacks was at once calm, dignified, and unanswerable, because it exposed the vulnerable point of its enemies in a manner of which all men saw the force and applicability. The following is the short paragraph in which they notice the subject. : "The editors of the Centinel and Gazette think it a remarkable circumstance that the Mercantile Journal is the only Whig paper which has yet arrayed itself against the proscriptive measures of the Convention. It may at first appear somewhat remarkable that a wise, a just, and expedient law (the law for restraining the sale of spirits in smaller quantities than 15 gallons, so as to put an end to all retail or dram shops), which, if carried into effect, will tend to promote the happiness and prosperity of the people of this commonwealth to an extent surpassing that of any law ever enacted by our Legislature, should not receive, not only the approval, but the earnest support of the whole newspaper press throughout the state. But we all know the influence which self-interest ordinarily exercises over the human mind: a person is proverbially unwilling to believe that an action which militates against his individual interest can be just, righteous, or expedient; and by ex |