almost exclusively to their countrymen; they were aided and enlightened by the accumulated political experience of the two last centuries, (of all others the most fertile in great events) and in the midst of a continual discussion of constitutional questions in America, France and England:-they discuss but a few great political principles. Grotius had hardly any of these advantages; and yet his treatise upon War and Peace, is quoted as an authority all over the world, in the tribunals of every nation; in the diplomatic papers of all cabinets; and excepting the most barbarous governments, and those without the pale of Christianity, all others respect and have profited by his maxims. Uncommissioned and unauthorized by any sovereign power, but sanctioned by the universal voice of nearly two centuries, in an age not the most prone to submit to the yoke of authority, he stands at a greater height than even the compilers of the civil law. He is in fact, so much above all praise, that eulogium is superfluous, even when clothed in eloquent language, and coming with the weight of kindred genius.

Grotius has, nevertheless, been criticised for his deferencehis servile deference, as it has been called, to the authority of precedents and examples, and the sayings of sages and poets. Sir James Mackintosh thought it necessary to refute this censure; and at the time he wrote his Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations, perhaps there was some foundation for the opinion, for French philosophy exerted a baneful power over a large portion of mankind. Every thing was then to be deduced from, or reduced to abstract principles. The discredit which it was intended to throw upon all constituted authorities, was to extend to the authority of history and the experience of past ages. The several French Constitutions which differ so much in the arrangements of civil polity and the distribution of political powers, were all alike essentially metaphysical-a string of abstract principles. In public discourse, Religion was held up to derision and contempt; parental power was likened to political tyranny; classical studies were denounced as mere trammels of fanaticism and pedantry. No wonder that Grotius, with his quotations from Scripture, and Greek and Latin authors, was treated with disrespect, and that his most moderate critic among the French philosophers of the eighteenth century, Condillac, hinted that his genius would have

"We remember only one diplomatic note where Montesquieu is quoted even by the French; and this is one presented by Talleyrand to the Allied Powers at the Congress of Vienna. In a parallel between the author of the Spirit of Laws," and Grotius, much might be said in elucidation of a difference in national character and times, and the minds of these two philosophic jurists.

served him better than his learning. Still less cause is there for wonder, that a clerk of the foreign department at Paris, had the hardihood to publish a small pocket volume on international law, which was intended to supersede his. That the multiplicity of examples drawn from Scripture, and the classical authors of antiquity, was not, however, the most powerful reason of the dislike which the founders of the French Revolution entertained towards Grotius, may be inferred from the fact, that they studied Machiavelli, repeated Montaigne, and worshiped Montesquieu, who are all equally liable to the same censure (if it is one) of fortifying their opinions by numerous quotations and references.

That age, when learning was the exclusive occupation of a few men, and the most studious generally devoted themselves professionally to some particular branch of it, has, nevertheless, transmitted to us works, which prove a universality of reading in their authors, and we may add, of knowledge, considering the progress which natural science had then made-such men were Bacon, Grotius, Montaigne, Machiavelli, Jeremy Taylor, and Burton. Their works are full of references to authors— some of whom would probably be unknown to the general reader, and even to profound scholars at the present day, were they not mentioned by these great writers. In the freshness of learning-a freshness which ever exists for those who never cease to study-there is a natural tendency to throw out lavishly, what the mind has acquired, to unburden, as it were, the memoryand when taste is not yet formed, there may be a want of selection and a want of economy in the riches thus communicated— but certainly not a vain display of knowledge or a learned foppery. A book of the latter kind may aptly be called liber conglutinatus, or in the words of a happy quotation of the author of the "Pursuits of Literature," Ex epistolis virorum obscurorum-"a book made up of as many books as would serve for fuel, to dress sheep, oxen, swine, pigs, turkeys and geese, without number; or as would be sufficient for one high-dryer to heat an hundred stoves."* But who would dare to think so of Grotius and Jeremy Taylor! Might it not rather be supposed that modesty leads a great genius to support his opinions and his advice by authorities venerable in his own eyes? We confess that besides the pleasure of reading passages, which such men as we have mentioned thought themselves incapable of improving, we receive them gratefully as an intimation that they did not wish to rely on their own powers and opinions,

* Pursuits of Literature. 12th ed. p. 102.

without fortifying and enforcing them by the authority of those whom they thought as wise or wiser than themselves.

Besides, Grotius, in particular, did not intend to publish a speculative work. His great Treatise is, on the contrary, wholly practical. The pressing circumstances of his times, and the wars in which his country was engaged, made him think of the necessity of establishing rules to mitigate their evils, or to ascertain, at least, the rights and duties arising out of them. He trod in the steps of Albericus Gentilis, who had been induced to discuss maritime law, in consequence of the war between England and Spain. The war of independence of Holland led, thus, some other jurists, as Ayala and Arias, to write on public law. But it was reserved to Grotius to become an universal, though unauthorized lawgiver.

We could easily be betrayed into an attempt to compare Grotius with those who have undertaken to improve upon him ; but we resist this temptation for the present.

ART. VIII.—1. An Address pronounced at the opening of the NewYork High School, with Notes and Illustrations. By JOHN GRISCOM. New-York. 1825.

2. Third Annual Report of the Trustees of the High School Society of New-York, made November 12. 1827.

3. Tenth Annual Report of the Comptrollers of the Public Schools of the First School District of the State of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia. 1828.

4. Address of the Trustees of the Public School Society in the city of New-York, to their Fellow-Citizens, respecting the extension of their Public Schools. 1828.

5. Report of a Sub-Committee of the School Committee, recommending various improvements in the System of Instruction in the Grammar and Writing Schools of the city of Boston. Boston. February 8, 1828.

6. Prospectus of the Livingston County High School for Boys on Temple Hill, Genesee, N. Y. Genesee. August, 1827. 7. Annual Report of the Superintendant of Common Schools to the Legislature of New-York. Svo. Albany. 1828.

THE subject of practical education is now claiming the serious and devoted attention of all classes of citizens in the

United States. It occupies the reflections of the prudent and the benevolent, it awakens the exertions of the statesman and the sage. It is becoming more and more in our country a measure of national concern. It constitutes one of the topics embraced of late years in the annual communications of the Governors of States to their respective Legislatures; and in many of the States, there are statutory provisions for extending the benefits of education to the children of the poor, and for the erection and support of schools in every district. In no one, has the design of the Legislature been more successfully executed than in the State of New-York; in no one, perhaps, is the system more wise and liberal. In that State, as soon as the inhabitants of a neighbourhood can agree to erect a school-house, and furnish a certain sum for the payment of a teacher, they have a right, by law, to draw upon the public school fund for a sum equal to their own contribution.* The effect of such a provision is not in the least problematical. The last report of the superintendant of common schools, made to the Legislature of New-York, shews, that there is within the various school districts of that State, the astonishing aggregate of 441,856 children, between the ages of five and fifteen, at school during eight months of the year, and that this number exceeds by 17,804, the whole number of children between five and fifteen years of age, within the districts, according to the last census. This statement, we think, may challenge a comparison with any part of the world. The superintendant, Mr. Flagg, whose diligence and discretion in collecting and collating his materials, are entitled to the highest praise, has, in fact, in one of his reports, given a tabular view of the relative extension of the benefits of education in different countries of Europe. This statement is given on the authority of Baron Ferussac, whose monthly bulletin of knowledge, collected with Herculean labour, from every source within the reach of the indefatigable savans of Paris, is, probably, as worthy of confidence in all statistical matters, as any thing that issues from the press. It thus appears, that while in the State of New-York, the number of children at school, is to to the whole population of the State, as 1 to 3 in the most favoured countries of Europe, viz. in Scotland, and in the circle of Gratz, in Germany, the pro

9 10

*It is required by the school law of that State, that a sum shall be assessed upon the taxable inhabitants, equalling that which is apportioned to each township; and by a vote at town-meeting, double the amount may be raised. In the course of the last year, the towns raised by tax $10,542 32, more than were required to entitle them to the public appropriation.-Report of Superintendant, January 29,

1828.

portion is as 1 to 9 or 10. But we doubt not that our readers will be gratified with the table itself.*

It is probable that the New-England States, and many parts of New-Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio, might furnish statements nearly as favourable to the extension of common school learning as New-York; for we find, by Mr. Flagg's Report, that it is by no means in the most populous and wealthy counties of that State that the number of the educated bears the highest ratio to the population. Indeed, we are somewhat surprised to find that the reverse is strikingly true. In the county of Albany, the number of children at school is to the whole population as 1 to 5.8, and in the county of Kings, a very small district, including the populous and wealthy commercial town of Brooklyn, the ratio is as 1 to 16! but we presume that this proportion cannot include the number of scholars that frequent the private schools of that thriving and rapidly increasing village. With respect to the great commercial emporium itself, it is evident, not only from the remarks of the superintendant, but from a late Address of the trustees of the public schools at the head of this article, that notwithstanding the exertions of the public-school society, together with those of the numerous charitable and religious associations concerned in education, there is, in all probability, an amount of at least twelve thousand children within the limits of the city, on whom the light of instruction never falls, with the exception of a small portion who attend the Sunday schools. This is a melancholy disclosure; more especially when contrasted with the statement from the counties of Chenango, Otsego, Madison and others, in the interior of the State, which exhibit a ratio of 1 to 2.8. We have no means of determining whether the city of NewYork contains a greater or less relative number of untaught children than the populous cities and towns of other States; but the facts sufficiently prove that the concentration of vast numbers of people within narrow limits is exceedingly unfavourable