The Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1846-1852, 1847-07-23

1t might seem hat | had enumerated
not only all existing, but all conceivable
systems and forms of schools, and that
having demonstrated their insuficiency,
it would therefore be useless to speculate
any further on the subject. But | have
one scheme yet to suggest, which, ifprac-
ticable, will effect all that the most ardent
enthusiast could desire; for it will furnish
to every young person in the community,
atthe very door of the parental mansions
more substantial, thorough, and practical
education than is at present acquired by
those who attend the foremost seminaries
in the land. The course will commence
in early childhood and be continued from
year to year, up to the maturity of man
hood and womanhood, and the scheme
will then supply the means of indefinite
Improvement in after-life. Besides all
this, the machinery of the entire system
may be constructed and put in play at an
expense of which the people shall be al
most wholly unconscious.
If the plan have to propose, or some
thing equivalent to it, cannot be brought
to bear, then must the idea of the intel
lectual and moral elevation of the masses
be given up as an Utopean dream, and
the doom of the bulk of mankind, must,
through all future ages, continue to be
ignorance, degradation and slavery.
The Plan.
Let a County Educational Society be
formed in which the condition Of mem
bership shall be the payment of one dol
lar per year. Of the the seven thousand
voters in Fairfield County, il is not on
ceivable that one could be found who
would not cheerfully contribute the tri-
fling sum of one dollar for the pormolion
of the noblest of all causes; and among
the females who would take an interest
in the matter. together with young men
under twenty-one we might reckon On at
least three thousand additional contribu-
tors. Let the ten thousand dollars thus
annually raised be applied 20 the pur-
chase Of books and apparatus to be own
ed as a common stock by the society, and
to be distributed among the different
townships in proportion to their respect
i've contributions, the books and more
costly articles of apparatus being subject
to annual exchanges; so that all the
books, and a portion of the apparatus
should, in turn, visit every part Of the
county. The entire collection, thus dis
tributed, would be deposited with the
Towaship Branches of a County Acade.
mn which should be under the supervis-
ion of a board appointed by the society.
The ten thousand dollars a year would
in a short period furnish the schools with
i. all the necessary apparatus, and procure
every thing valuable in literature, wheth-
or ancient or modern, domestic or for
eign; SO that the accumulations of the
Oldest university on the continent would
dwindle into insignificance in compar-
!, ison with the riches of an unprelending
county academy.
After the schools should have been
amply provided with all that can facili-
tate the acquisition of knowledge, the
yearly receipts of the society might be
invested in a fund that should be permit.
ted to accumulate till the interest would
DO sufficient to pay the salaries of the
teachers. Ten thousand a year would
in twenty four years, produce a fund ol
halfa million, of which the interest would
be thirty thousand dollars; asum sufficient
to pay tho salaries of sixty teachers at an
average of five hundred dollars each.
Thus by contributions the most triAing
that could be named, and which the poor.
est might make without inconvenience
to themselves, we might enter at once up
8 on the enjoyment of a more magnifcen,
system of education than the world has
ever known. In addition to the annual
pittance, a moderate sun would, at first,
be required to erect a suitable building
in each township, The tuition too,
would cost something during the pres.
ont generation but in the next, ever
= this expense might cease. w.
Nicholas =. TrisI.
, This busy body functionary, who has
been sent to Mexico by Mr.. Polk, as a
: political agent, to try the effects of the
three millions of secret service money
& yoted nv n auhserv;ent Conurass IVA.