Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1881-05-10
that time to thi. has gone on with ever.

that time to this has gone on with ever
gathering force, raising the population of
those States to condition which is not
equaled amongst any other people on the
globe. (Applause.) As to the results,
! might give you the statements Of trav-
ehrs. I give you the statement Of one
friend of mine, who is now no longer
living-I refer to 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 his life. Some years ago he
visited Canada and the United States.
In conversation with me after his return,
he said that, in the New England States,
there was 1.-THE most perfect government
in the world. there was "the most equal
condition and the most universal comfort
among the people, and he said the whole
population, he believed, were "more in
structed. more moral. and more happy.
truly, than any other equal population
had been in any other country or in any
other age of the world. And the whole
of this is to be traced, not to the soil, not
to the climate, but, believe, to the ex-
traordinary care which the population.
from the days of the Pilgrim Fathers un-
to this day, have taken that every child,
boy or girl, should be thoroughly in
structed at least in the common branches
of learning.
met a man once who told me that
until he was about 20 yeaas of age ne
had never seen man who could not
read and write, and when he saw him,
and | believe he had come from Europe
Claughter). he looked at him with amaze
ment, as you look sometimes rather with
astonishment and also with sympathy, TO
persons who have some extraordinary nat
ural defect. And the census shows that,
speaking generally, there is scarcely to
be found one person, that is, one native
American, certainly you could not hnd
one out Of many hundreds, in the New
England States, who cannot 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 these small States, con-
tanning not more than one tenth OF the
whole population of the American Union,
arc felt 10 the remotest corners of that
vast territory. (Hear, hear. Now, in
New England they consider that their
plan is the only plan. They have tried
it for 900 years. Its success is beyond
all contest, and absolutely complete; and
there is nothing like it that has been
equally successful in the world. And
what their Puritan ancestors-for augbt
| know they were our ancestors, some OF
them. as we'll as theirs-what their Puri
tan forefathers did in the New England
States, if the people OF England had the
sense to comprehend their true interests
they might compel to BE- done in this
country as well. Loud applause Who
is there, except the unhappy children,
who are left in darkness, who are so in
terested in this question as you. the Sun.
day School teachers that | see before me
If these children were taugh ut reading and
writing, the ordinary branches OF what IS
called secular instruction, in the week,
how much less laborious would be your
work in the Sunday School, and how
much more prolific of great and blessed
results: When the Government OF this
country is more "of the people hear,
hear, and "by the people applause,
then il will also be more "for the people.
And believe now, if it were possible to
poll all the men and women in great
Britain, that there would be prodigious
majority in favor of establishing some
great system which should bring the bless
ings Of common school education down to
the very humblest people in the realm.
know nothing, believe there IS moth
ing, that can SO contribute to the freedom
and the happiness and the true greatness
of nation as thorough, comprehensive
and complete system of instruction for Its
people. (Applause.)