BOSTON INFANT SCHOOL SOCIETY. THE following communication is entitled to respect; and we can assure the friends of Infant Schools, that the editor of this periodical is always happy and in readiness to promote the cause of education by any means in his power. Let us hear from our correspondent again. To the Editor of the Tracts and Lyceum. MANY highly respectable individuals are either entirely opposed to, or are sceptical about the utility of the Infant School System, among whom, possibly, you may be ranked. If the latter be true, believing you to be open to conviction at all times on all subjects, I would refer you to a very interesting Report, lately issued by the Infant School Society of this city. It is ably and handsomely written, and of a strictly practical and common-sense character— a plain statement of facts and arguments, without exaggeration, or any attempt to do more than give the Institution its proper place among the benevolent institutions of the day. Moreover, the excellency of the social and intellectual character of the individual who, I understand, drew up the Report, entitles her to a candid hearing on all subjects upon which she may choose to write." Believing, as I do, that the Infant School System is calculated to lessen the cares of many mothers whose time is necessarily employed in indispensable occupations, and to prevent young children from being too much neglected, and under judicious management, to invigorate the faculties both of body and mind in the young pupils, I hope that attention will be devoted to the discussion of the subject in future numbers of the Tracts and Lyceum which its importance deserves. The philosophy of the devel opement of the mental and physical powers of children is one to which I hope to have opportunity, on some future occasions, to invite the attention of your readers. CONCORD LYCEUM. PERHAPS the accompanying Constitution and By-laws of the Concord Lyceum are as unexceptionable as could be devised, and we therefore give them entire, as a model to work from, in organizing similar Societies. Not a word is said about public lectures, the very life-blood of Lyceums. Without instituting a regular course of popular lectures, the institution must certainly deteriorate, and ultimately die. The experience of years, in Boston, clearly demonstrates the advantages of lectures, at stated periods, cost what they may. PREAMBLE. BELIEVING knowledge and virtue, united, an unerring passport to prosperity and happiness, and that there are various means by which these great ends may be accomplished, but none more sure than Societies, where the efforts of all tend to mutual instruction, we, the undersigned, do therefore agree to form ourselves into a Society, and adopt the following CONSTITUTION. ART. 1. This association shall be called the CONCORD LYCEUM. ART. 2. The officers of this Society shall be a President; two Vice Presidents; Secretary; Treasurer and Auditor, to be chosen quarterly by ballot. ART. 3. It shall be the duty of the President to call special meetings at the request of the majority of the members; to preserve order; to appoint a member at each meeting to propose a question for the next debate; to appoint some member to deliver a Salutatory Address at the opening of the next meeting; to propose a subject for Dissertation; appoint members to act on the debates, should not a sufficient number hand in their names; lay before the Society applications for membership, and communications of any kind, which may relate to the affairs of the Society, and deliver a Valedictory Address at the close of each quarter. ART. 4. In the absence of the President, it shall devolve upon the 1st. Vice President to occupy the chair; and in the absence of the two before mentioned officers, the 2d Vice President will preside. ART. 5. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to call the roll at the commencement of each meeting; note delinquents, and return their names immediately to the Treasurer; read the proceedings of the last meeting; inform all new members of their election; give certificates of membership; and record the proceedings of the Society. ART. 6. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to hold the funds of the Society; defray its expenses from the same; collect all dues, and keep an account, which shall be laid before the Society at the expiration of each quarter, and shall see that the Hall is lighted on the evening of the meeting, and take care of the same. ART. 7. It shall be the duty of the Auditor to examine the book kept by the Secretary, and also the account of the Treasurer, and report at the last meeting of each quarter. ART. 8. The expenses of the Society shall be defrayed by fines, initiation fees, and assessments, if necessary. ART. 9. Any person wishing to become a member of the Society, must make application personally or through some member of the Lyceum, to the President, who, at the next meeting, shall lay the same before the Society, and the applicant shall in no case be present when the vote for his admission is taken. After having been voted in by ballot, the Secretary shall inform him accordingly, and by subscribing the Constitution, and paying twenty-five cents to the Treasurer, he becomes a member. ART. 10. The meetings of the Society shall be held from time to time as determined by vote. ART. 11. The exercises of our meetings shall be Addresses, Reading, Debates, Dissertations, Compositions, Declamations, or any others that may be deemed expedient. ART. 12. The order of exercises at each meeting shall be:-1st, An Original Salutatory Address, by some member of the Society; 2d, Reading; 3d, A Debate, by some four members; 4th, A Written Debate; 5th, A Dissertation on the subject proposed by the President, by any of the members; 6th, Each member will be called upon by the President, and will read Composition or declaim as he may be prepared. ART. 13. The debate, and all other questions coming before the Society, shall be determined by a majority of the members, the former according to the weight of argument advanced. ART. 14. Honorary members may be admitted, and not required to conform to the rules of the Society. ART. 15. Any member, after paying up all arrearages, and leav ing a written notice with the Secretary, may withdraw himself from the Society. ART. 16. This Constitution may at any time be altered or amended by a vote of the Society. BY-LAWS. 1. There shall be two critics appointed by the President at each meeting, who shall, to the best of their ability, with kindness and discretion, make such remarks as may occur to them in relation to the extemporaneous performances of the members, and shall inspect all written exercises, and make their remarks thereon at the next meeting. 2. Spectators may be invited into the meetings of the Society by the members. 3. Any member who shall speak to another aloud, or leave his seat during any exercise of the Society, shall be fined six and a quarter cents. 4. When a member wishes to make a motion, he shall rise and respectfully address the President. 5. When a question is once carried, it may be in order for any member in the majority to move a re-consideration thereof. 6. The President shall vote only when the Society is equally divided, or when his vote, if given to the minority, will make such an equal division. 7. When two members rise at the same time, the President shall decide who shall have the precedence. 8. No motion shall be debated until the same is seconded, and if requested, the same shall be reduced to writing. 9. When the Yeas and Nays are required upon any question, each member called upon shall, unless he be for special reasons excused, declare openly his assent or dissent to the question, by answering Aye or No. 10. When a question is under debate, no motion shall be received but to adjourn, to postpone indefinitely, to a day certain, to correct or amend, which several motions shall have precedence in the order they are named. 11. It shall be a standing order of the Lyceum, to resolve itself into a committee of the whole on the state of the Society. In forming a committee of the whole, the President shall leave the chair, and name a chairman to preside. 12. No sectarian religious questions shall be discussed in this Society. 13. Three members shall be necessary to constitute a quorum. 14. If any member transgress the rules of the Society, the President shall, or any member may call him to order, in which case the person so called to order shall sit down, unless permitted to explain, and the Society shall, if appealed to, decide on the case without debate. If there be no appeal, the decision of the chair shall be submitted to. 15. If any member is absent from any meeting of the Society, and cannot offer a satisfactory excuse, he shall pay a fine of twelve and a half cents. 16. Any member appointed on a debate, who shall neglect to act accordingly, or procure a substitute, shall be liable to a fine of six and a quarter cents. 17. Any member who shall neglect to act on any required performance, except debate, without offering a reasonable excuse shall pay a fine of six and a quarter cents. 18. Any member may be excused from the payment of any of the above fines, by a vote of the Society. 19. Any member who shall behave disorderly in any meeting, or shall disregard the Constitution or By-Laws, shall be reprimanded by the President, and if the offence is of sufficient magnitude to merit such a proceeding, he shall be expelled. 20. The person proposing the question for debate shall be, in all cases, considered an actor thereon, and shall be entitled to a choice of colleagues, and the one who volunteers, or is appointed first, to a choice of sides. 21. A Public Address shall be delivered before the Lyceum, by some one of its members, at the commencement of each Quarter, who shall be chosen by ballot, at the election of officers, one quarter prior to the time of delivery. ORIGINAL MISCELLANY. BURIALS IN HAVANA.-The following items are from the journal of a young gentleman of Boston, now on his travels, from whose diary, a few weeks since, an account of the Sand at Sea,' on the coast of Africa, was taken. Further notes, from time to time, are promised us. JAN. 8th, 1834.-After dinner, we rode on horseback, a few miles out of town. We stopped at a burial-ground about two miles beyond the walls. Just as we got there, a dozen or two negroes arrived from the city, four of whom bore a coffin on their shoulders. At the gate, one of them handed a ticket to the door-keeper, and they all passed in. We tied our horses and followed them. They carried the dead negro to the first of a line of graves, took him out of his coffin, put him in the grave, and covered him over with earth. There were many graves ready for their tenants. here are very economical in the use of their ground. are dug more like trenches than anything else. A little partition of a few inches in thickness separates the graves. finished, apparently, another is begun by its side. The people The graves When one line is The graves are not dug promiscuously, all over the yard, as with us, in New England. The ground must have been used over many times, for skulls and bones were scattered all over it, and at each corner there was a large bin filled with dried bones; each contained at least twenty cart-loads. In each of these bins is a pyramid thirty feet high, with a Latin inscription painted on it. After seeing the negro so unceremoniously disposed of, we wandered over the yard. There are two paved walks, crossing at |