Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-05-04
rRIBurE TO NEW ENGLAND. I.

Z
John Bright, in an address to the Sunda,
School Teachers Of fLacanshire, Cheshire, and
Derbyshire, paid the following high tribute
to New England and her Free Schools:
viii ask you for a moment to 90 with nlc
to portion of the United States Of America
which was peopled from this country some
24O years ago-to the States which are called
the New England States As you look upon
the map of the United States, YOU will find q
cluster of small States to fhe northeast of the
State of New York, and those six States
which 60 by the name of New England are
those which were more than any others orig
inally settled by Puritan emigrants from
England This district to which ] am confin-
ing your attention. for am not asking YOU
to look over the whole of the United States.
though in al the Free States the same system
has extended TO great degree, and is eradu-
ally promising to produce similar fruits-the
New England States contain population of
about three and half millions. When the
Puritans landed In that country, they had
some idea of what was necessary for the pros
perity Of the people, and they, amongst other
things, made this declaration-I take it from
Mr.. Bancroft's '1istorA Of the Colonization
of the United States. They say that none
OF the brethren shall suffer so much barbarism
in their families mark the word barbarism
LAS not to teach their children and appren-
tees SO much learning as may enable them
perfectly TO read the English tongue" And
further they say ito the end that learning
may not be buried in the graves Of our fore.
fathers it was ordered in all the Puritan
colonies 'that every township, when the Lord
hath increased them to the number Of so
householders, shall appoint one to teach all
children to write and read; and when any
town shall increase to the number OF 100 fam
lies, they shall set up a grammar school, the
masters thereof being able to instruct youth
so far as they may be fitted for the uniyersi
ty." Bear in mind that this was done by
your own -cQuntrymen that were
driven out from this country by the tyran-
nous supremacy of the church of that day,
and by the folly aud despotism OF the dynas-
ty of the Stuarts. They were driven out,
forced emIgrants, outcasts as it were from
their native country, landed on shores that
then promised little for the future, and 220
years ago, they passed these resolutions or
laws which | have just explained to you, and
established a system of education which from
chat time to this has gone on with ever-gath-
ering force, raising the population of those
States to condition which is not equalled
amongst any other people on the globe. As
TO the results, | might give you the statements
of travellers, | give you the statement Of one
friend of mine, who is now no longer living
II refer to a very eminent member of the
House of Commons, the late Mr.. Ellice, the
member for Coventry. Mr.. Ellice travelled
In America, as he had done two Or three
times before, very near the close of mis- Ete.
Some SIX or seven years ago he visited Cana
da and the United States. In a conversation
with me after his return, he said that,in the New
ErosIo,J
government In the world, there was sithe
most equal condition and the most universal
comfort amongst the people" and he said
the whole population, he believed were ''mOre
instructed, more moral, and more happy, tru-
", than any other equal population had been
in any other country or any other age Of the
world" And the whole of this is to be ira
ced, not to the soil, not the climate, but be-
lieye, to the extraordinary care which the
population, from the days of the Pilgrim Fa-
Tiers unto this day, have taken that every
child, boy or girl, should be thoroughly in
structed at least in the common branches of
learning. | met man once who told me
that. until he was 20 years of age, he had
never seen man who could not read and
write, and when he saw him, and | believe
he had come from Europe--he looked at him
with amazement, as you look sometimes rath-
er with astonishment, and also with great
sympathy, to persons who have some natural
defect. And the census shows that, speaking
generally, there is scarcely to be found one
person-that is one native American, certain
ly you could not find one out OF many hun
dreds, in the New England States, who can
not read and write. The influence of these
States is enormous. They send teachers all
through the American Union, and the opinion
and the influence of those small States, con-
tanning not more than about one-tenth of the
whole population Of the American Union. are
felt in the remotest corners of that territory.
Now, in New England they consider that
their plan is the Only plan. They have tried
it for two hundred years. It's success is be-
yond all contest, and absolutely compile; and
there is nothing like it that has been equally
successful in the world.