The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1855-05-09

| oI youth. tnlnK L III suit, but oil course
it is not for me to say. Gents, am in
your hands. All ask is, as the great
Julius Caesar said, " fair play aud no
gouging"
Your respectful and humble servant
to command. PERO TUBBOCKS.
Master of the Uncle John.
Macaulay on Popular Education.
This is my argument. 1t is tho
duty of Government to protect our
persons and property from danger
The gross ignorance of the common
people is a principal cause of danger
to our persons and property. There's
fore, it is the duty of the Government
to take care that the common people
shall not be grossly ignorant. And
what is the alternative ? 1t is uliver-
sally allowed that, by some means,
Government must protect cur persons
and property. If you take away edu.
cation, what means do you leave p
You leave means such as only necesl
sity can justify, means which inf1ict
fearful amount Of pain, not only on the
guilty, but on the innocent who are
connected with the guilty. You have
guns and bayonets. stocks and whip
ping-posts, trcad-mills, solitary cells,
penal colonies, gibbeis. See then
how the case stands. Here is an end,
which, as we all agree, Governments
are bound to attain. There are only
two ways of attaining it. One of those
ways is BY making men better and wis.
er, and happier /; the other way is by
making them Infamous and miserable.
Can it be doubted which way we ought
to prefer Is it not strange-is it
not almost incredible, that Iious and
benevolent men should gravely pro-
pound the doctrine that the magistrate
is bound to punish, and at the same
time bound not to teach,
My confidence in my opinion is
strengthened when l recollect that 1
hold that opinion in common with all
the greatest lawgivers, statesmen, and
political philosophers of all nations and
ages, with all the most illustrious chacl.
pions of civil and spiritual faecdom, and
especial with those men whose names
were once held in the highest venera-
ton by the Protestant Dissenters o.
England. l might cite many of the
most venerable names Of the old world,
but would rather cite the example of
that country which the supporters of
the Voluntary System here are always
recommending to us as pattern. Go
back to the days when the little society
which has expanded into the opulcnt
enlightened commonwealth of Massa-
chusetts began to exist. Our modern
Dissenters will scarcely, think, ven>
ture to speak contumeliously of those
Puritans whose spirit Laud and his
high commission Court could not sub
due of those Puri;ans who were will.
ing to leave home and kindred, and all
the comforts and refnements of civili>
zed life, to cross the ocean, to fix their
abode in forests, among wild beasts
and wild men, rather than commit the
sin ofpcrforming, in the House of God,
one gesture which they believed dis
pleasing to Him. Did those brave cx-
lies think it inconsistent with civil or
religious freedom that the State should
take charge of the education of the
people No, sir one of the earliest
laws enacted by the Puritan colonists,
was that every township, as soon as the
Lord had increased it to the number
of fifty houses, should appoint one to
teach all children to write and read,
and that every township of one hun
dred houses should set up grammar
school. Nor have the descendants of
those who made this law ever ceased to
hold that the public authorizes we're
bound to provide the means Of public
instruction. Nor is the doctrine cons
fined to New England. Educate the
people," was the first admonition adj
dressed by Penn to the colony which no
founded. educate the people" was
the legacy of Washington to the nation
"hiSi iic hdN odfCu. Educate tuO
people," was the unceasing oxhortation
of Jefferson and I quote Jefferson
with peculiar pleasure, because of all the
eminent men that ever lived, Adam
Smith himself not excepted, Jefferson
was the one who most abhorred every
thing like meddlins on the part Of gov.
ernments. Yet the chief business Of
his later years was to establish a good
system Of State education in Virgin
ia.
PRoF. DAWES Rules FOR STuDf.
The other evening Prof. Davies,
tho eminent mathmetician, in conyer-
sation with young friend of his upon
the Importance of system in studying
as well as in every thing else, took
piece of paper and wrote of for him
the following important rales
l. Learn one thing at time.
2. Learn that thing weR.
8. Learn its connections, as far as
possible, with all other things.
4. Believs that TO know everything
Of something, is better than to know
Il IL