is now proposed as a substitute for the school law of last session, is, in my opinion, of a most hateful and degrading character. It is a reenactment of the pauper law of 1809. It proposes that the assessors shall take a census, and make a record of the poor. This shall be revised, and a new record made by the county commaisssioners, so that the names of those who have the misfortune to be poor men's children shall be forever preserved, as a distinct class, in the archives of the county! The teacher, too, is to keep in his school a pauper book, and register the names and attendance of poor scholars; thus pointing out and recording their poverty in the midst of their companions. Sir, hereditary distinctions of rank are sufficiently odious: but that which is founded on poverty is infinitely more so. Such a law should be entitled "An act for branding and marking the poor, so that they may be known from the rich and proud." Many complain of this tax, not so much on account of its amount, as because it is for the benefit of others and not themselves. This is a mistake; it is for their own benefit, inasmuch as it perpetuates the Government and insures the due administration of the laws under which they live, and by which their lives and property are protected. Why do they not urge the same objection against all other taxes? The industrious, thrifty, rich farmer pays a heavy county tax to support criminal courts, build jails, and pay sheriffs and jail keepers, and yet probably he never has, and never will have, any direct personal use of either. He never gets the worth of his money by being tried for a crime before the court, by being allowed the privilege of the jail on conviction, or receiving an equivalent from the sheriff or his hangman officers! He cheerfully pays the tax which is necessary to support and punish convicts, but loudly complains of that which goes to prevent his fellow-being from becoming a criminal, and to obviate the necessity of those humiliating institutions.

This law is often objected to, because its benefits are shared by the children of the profligate spendthrift equally with those of the most industrious and economical habits. It ought to be remembered that the benefit is bestowed, not upon the erring parents, but the innocent children. Carry out this objection and you punish children for the crimes or misfortunes of their parents. You virtually establish cases and grades founded on no merit of the particular generation, but on the demerits of their ancestors; an aristocracy of the most odious and insolent kind-the aristocracy of wealth and pride.

It is said that its advantages will be unjustly and unequally enjoyed, because the industrious, money-making man keeps his whole family constantly employed, and has but little time for them to spend at school; while the idle man has but little employment for his family, and they will constantly attend school. I know, sir, that there are some men, whose whole souls are so completely absorbed in the accumulation of wealth, and whose avarice so increases with success, that they look upon their very children in no other light than as instruments of gain--that they, as well as the ox and the ass within their gates, are valuable only in proportion to their annual earnings. And, according to the present system, the children of such men are reduced almost to an intellectual level, with their colaborers of the brute creation. This law will be of vast advantage to the offspring of such misers. If they are compelled to pay their taxes to support schools, their very meanness will induce them to send their children to them to get the worth of their money. Thus it will extract good out of the very penuriousness of the miser. Surely a system which will work such wonders, ought to be as greedily sought for, and more highly prized, than that coveted alchemy which was to produce gold and silver out of the blood and entrails of vipers, lizards, and other filthy vermin.

Why, sir, are the colleges and literary institutions of Pennsylvania now, and ever have been, in a languishing and sickly condition? Why, with a fertile soil and genial climate, has she, in proportion to her population, scarcely one-third as many collegiate students as cold, barren New England? The answer is obvious; she has no free schools. Until she shall have you may in vain endow college after college; they will never be filled, or filled only by students from other States. In New England free schools plant the seeds and the desire of knowledge in every mind, without regard to the wealth of the parent or the texture of the pupil's garments. When the seed, thus universally sown, happens to fall on fertile soil, it springs up and is fostered by a generous public until it produces its glorious fruit. Those who have but scanty means and are pursuing a collegiate education, find it necessary to spend a portion of the year in teaching common schools; thus imparting the knowledge which they acquire, they raise the dignity of the employment to a rank which it should always hold, honorable in proportion to the high qualifications necessary for its discharge. Thus devoting a portion of their time to acquiring the means of subsistence, industrious habits are forced upon them

and their minds and bodies become disciplined to a regularity and energy which is seldom the lot of the rich. It is no uncommon occurrence to see the poor man's son, thus encouraged by wise legislation, far outstrip and bear off the laurels from the less industrious heirs of wealth. Some of the ablest men of the present. and past days never could have been educated except for that benevolent system. Not to mention any of the living, it is well known that that architect of an immortal name, who “plucked the lightnings from heaven and the sceptre from tyrants," was the child of free schools. Why shall Pennsylvania now repudiate a system which is calculated to elevate her to that rank in the intellectual, which, by the blessing of Providence, she holds in the natural world? To be the keystone of the arch, the “very first among her equals?" I am aware, sir, how difficult it is for the great mass of the people, who have never seen this system in operation, to understand its advantages. But is it not wise to let it go into full operation and learn its results from experience? Then, if it prove useless or burdensome, how easy to repeal it. I know how large a portion of the community can scarcely feel any sympathy with, or understand the necessity of the poor: or appreciate the exquisite feelings which they enjoy when they see their children receiving the boon of education, and rising in intellectual superiority above the clogs which hereditary poverty had cast upon them. It is not wonderful that he whose fat acres have descended to him, from father to son in unbroken succession, should never have sought for the surest means of alleviating it. Sir, when I reflect how apt hereditary wealth, hereditary influence, and perhaps as a consequence, hereditary pride are to close the avenues and steel the heart against the wants and the rights of the poor, I am induced to thank my Creator for having from early life bestowed upon me the blessings of poverty. Sir, it is a blessing, for if there be any human sensation more ethereal and divine than all others, it is that which feelingly sympathizes with misfortune.

But we are told that this law is unpopular; that the people desire its repeal. Has it not always been so with every new reform in the condition of man? ́Old habits and old prejudices are hard to be removed from the mind. Every new improvement which has been gradually leading man from the savage, through the civilized, up to a highly cultivated state, has required the most strenuous, and often perilous exertions of the wise and the good. But, sir, much of its unpopularity is chargeable upon the vile arts of unprincipled demagogues. Instead of attempting to remove the honest misapprehensions of the people, they cater to their prejudices, and take advantage of them to gain low, dirty, temporary, local triumphs. I do not charge this on any particular party. Unfortunately almost the only spot on which all parties meet in union is this ground of common infamy. I have seen the present chief magistrate of this Commonwealth violently assailed as the projector and father of this law. I am not the eulogist of that gentleman; he has been guilty of many deep political sins; but he deserves the undying gratitude of the people for the steady, untiring zeal which he has manifested in favor of common schools. I will not say that his exertions in that cause have covered all, but they have atoned for many of his errors. I trust that the people of this State will never be called on to choose between a supporter and an opposer of free schools. But if it should come to that; if that should be made the turning point on which we are to cast our suffrages; if the opponent of education were my most intimate personal and political friend, and the free-school candidate my most obnoxious enemy, I should deem it my duty as a patriot, at this moment of our intellectual crisis, to forget all other considerations, and I should place myself unhesitatingly and cordially in the ranks of Him whose banner streams in light. I would not foster nor flatter ignorance to gain political victories which, however they might profit individuals, must prove disastrous to our country. Let it not be supposed from these remarks that because I deem this a paramount object that I think less highly than heretofore of those great important cardinal principles which for years past have controlled my political action. They are, and ever shall be, deeply cherished in my inmost heart. But I must be allowed to exercise my own judgment as to the best means of effecting that and every other object which I think beneficial to the community. And, according to that judgment, the light of general information will as surely counteract the pernicious influence of secret, oath-bound, murderous institutions as the sun in heaven dispels the darkness and damp vapors of the night.

It is said that some gentlemen here owe their election to their hostility to general education-that it was placed distinctly on that ground, and that others lost their election by being in favor of it; and that they consented to supersede the regularly nominated candidates of their own party, who had voted for this law. May be so. I believe that two highly respectable members of the last legislature, from Union county, who voted for the school law, did fail of reelection on that

ground only. They were summoned before a county meeting, and requested to pledge themselves to vote for its repeal as the price of their reelection. But they were too high minded and honorable men to consent to such degradation. The people, incapable for the moment of appreciating their worth, dismissed them from their service. But I venture to predict that they have passed them by only for the moment. Those gentlemen have earned the approbation of all good and intelligent men more effectually by their retirement than they could ever have done by retaining popular favor at the expense of self-humiliation. They fell, it is true, in this great struggle between the powers of light and darkness; but they fell, as every Roman mother wished her sons to fall, facing the enemy with all their wounds in front.

True it is, also, that two other gentlemen, and I believe two only, lost their election on account of their vote on that question. I refer to the late members from Berks, who were candidates for reelection; and I regret that gentlemen whom I so highly respect and whom I take pleasure in ranking among my personal friends, had not possessed a little more nerve to enable them to withstand the assaults which were made upon them; or, if they must be overpowered, to wrap their mantles gracefully around them and yield with dignity. But this, I am aware, requires a high degree of fortitude, and those respected gentlemen, distracted and faltering between the dictates of conscience and the clamor of the populace, at length turned and fled. But duty had detained them so long that they fled too late, and the shaft which had already been winged by ignorance overtook and pierced them from behind. I am happy to say, sir, that a more fortunate fate awaited our friends from York. Possessing a keener insight into futurity and a sharper instinct of danger, they saw the peril at a greater distance and retreated in time to escape the fury of the storm, and can now safely boast that "discretion is the better part of valor," and that "they fought and ran away, and live to fight-on t' other side."

Sir, it is to be regretted that any gentleman should have consented to place his election on hostility to general education. If honest ambition were his object, he will ere long lament that he attempted to raise his monument of glory ou so muddy a foundation. But, if it be so, that they were placed to obstruct the diffusion of knowledge, it is but justice to say, that they fitly and faithfully represent the spirit which sent them here, when they attempt to sacrifice this law on the altars which, at home, among their constituents, they have raised and consecrated to intellectual darkness; and on which they are pouring out oblations to send forth their fetid and noxious odors over the 10 miles square of their ambition! But will this legislature, will the wise guardians of the dearest interests of a great Commonwealth, consent to surrender the high advantages and brilliant prospects which this law promises, because it is desired by worthy gentlemen, who, in a moment of causeless panic and popular delusion, sailed into power on a Tartarean flood? A flood of ignorance, darker, and, to the intelligent inind, more dreadful than that accursed pool at which mortals and immortals tremble! Sir, it seems to me that the liberal and enlightened proceedings of the last legislature have aroused the demon of ignorance from his slumber; and, maddened at the threatened loss of his murky empire, his discordant howlings are heard in every part of our land!

Gentlemen will hardly contend for the doctrine of cherishing and obeying the prejudices and errors of their constituents. Instead of prophesying smooth things and flattering the people with the belief of their present perfection, and thus retarding the mind in its onward progress, it is the duty of faithful legislators to create and sustain such laws and institutions as shall teach us our wants, foster our cravings after knowledge, and urge us forward in the march of intellect. The barbarous and disgraceful cry which we hear abroad in some parts of our land, that learning makes us worse-that education makes men rogues,” should find no echo within these walls. Those who hold such doctrines anywhere would be the objects of bitter detestation if they were not rather the pitiable objects of commiseration, for even voluntary fools require our compassion as well as natural idiots.

Those who would repeal this law because it is obnoxious to a portion of the people would seem to found their justification on a desire of popularity. That is not an unworthy object when they seek that enduring fame which is constructed of imperishable materials. But have these gentlemen looked back and consulted the history of their race to learn on what foundation and on what materials that popularity is built which outlives its possessor, which is not buried in the same grave which covers his mortal remains? Sir, I believe that kind of fame may be acquired by deep learning, or even the love of it, by mild philanthropy or unconquerable courage. And it seems to me that, in the present state of feeling in Pennsylvania, those who will heartily and successfully support the cause of gen

eral education can acquire at least some portion of the honor of all these qualities combined, while those who oppose it will be remembered without pleasure and soon pass away with the things that perish.

In giving this law to posterity you act the part of the philanthropist, by bestowing upon the poor as well as the rich the greatest earthly boon which they are capable of receiving; you act the part of the philosopher by pointing if you do not lead them up the hill of science; you act the part of the hero if it be true as you say that popular vengeance follows close upon your footsteps. Here, then, if you wish true popularity, is a theater in which you may acquire it. What renders the name of Socrates immortal but his love of the human family exhibited under all circumstances and in contempt of every danger? But courage, even with but little benevolence may confer lasting renown. It is this which makes us bow with involuntary respect at the name of Napoleon, of Cæsar, and of Richard of the Lion Heart. But what earthly glory is there equal in luster and duration to that conferred by education? What else could have bestowed such renown upon the philosophers, the poets, the statesmen, and orators of antiquity? What else could have conferred such undisputed applause upon Aristotle, Demosthenes, and Homer; on Virgil, Horace, and Cicero? And is learning less interesting and important now than it was in centuries past, when those statesmen and orators charmed and ruled empires with their eloquence?

Sir, let it not be thought that these great men acquired a higher fame than is within the reach of the present age. Pennsylvania's sons possess as high native talents as any other nation of ancient or modern time. Many of the poorest of her children possess as bright intellectual gems if they were as highly polished as did the scholars of Greece or Rome. But too long, too disgracefully long, has coward, trembling, procrastinating legislation permitted them to lie buried in “dark, unfathomable caves."

If you wish to acquire popularity, how often have you been admonished to build not your monuments of brass or marble but make them of ever-living mind. Although the period of yours or your children's renown can not be as long as that of the ancients, because you start from a later period, yet it may be no less brilliant. Equal attention to the same learning, equal ardor in pursuing the same arts and liberal studies, which has rescued their names from the rust of corroding time and handed them down to us untarnished from remote antiquity, would transmit the names of your children and your children's children in a green, undying fame down through the long vista of succeeding ages until time shall mingle with eternity.

Let all, therefore, who would sustain the character of the philosopher or philanthropist sustain this law. Those who would add thereto the glory of the hero, can acquire it here, for in the present state of feeling in Pennsylvania, I am willing to admit that but little less dangerous to the public man is the war club and battle-ax of savage ignorance, than to the Lion-hearted Richard was the keen scimiter of the Saracen. He who would oppose it, either through inability to comprehend the advantages of general education, or from unwillingness to bestow them on all his fellow-citizens, even to the lowest and the poorest, or from dread of popular vengeance, seems to me to want either the head of the philosopher, the heart of the philanthropist, or the nerve of the hero.

All these things would be easily admitted by almost every man, were it not for the supposed cost. I have endeavored to show that it is not expensive; but, admit that it were somewhat so, why do you cling so closely to your gold? The trophies which it can purchase, the idols which it sets up, will scarcely survive their purchaser. No name, no honor can long be perpetuated by mere matter. Of this Egypt furnishes melancholy proof. Look at her stupendous pyramids, which were raised at such immense expense of toil and treasure! As mere masses of matter they seem as durable as the everlasting hills, yet the deeds and the names they were intended to perpetuate are no longer known on earth. That ingenious people attempted to give immortality to matter, by embalming their great men and monarchs. Instead of doing deeds worthy to be recorded in history, their very names are unknown, and nothing is left to posterity but their disgusting mortal frames for idle curiosity to stare at. What rational being can view such soulless, material perpetuation, with pleasure? If you can enjoy it, go, sir, to the foot of Vesuvius; to Herculaneum and Pompeii, those cternal monuments of human weakness. There, if you set such value on material monuments of riches, may you see all the glory of art, the magnificence of wealth, the gold of Ophir, and the rubies of the East, preserved in indestructible lava, along with their haughty wearers-the cold, smooth, petrified, lifeless beauties of the Cities of the Dead."

Who would not shudder at the idea of such prolonged material identity? Who would not rather do one living deed than to have his ashes forever enshrined in

ever-burnished gold? Sir, I trust that when we come to act on this question we shall all take lofty ground-look beyond the narrow space which now circumscribes our visions-beyond the passing, fleeting point of time on which we stand; and so cast our votes that the blessing of education shall be conferred on every son of Pennsylvania-shall be carried home to the poorest child of the poorest inhabitant of the meanest hut of your mountains, so that even he may be prepared to act well his part in this land of freemen, and lay on earth a broad and a solid foundation for that enduring knowledge which goes on increasing through increasing eternity.

VII.-EDUCATION IN BULGARIA.

A census taken in Bulgaria in 1893, revealed some remarkable facts. In that year the principality had a population of 3,310,713, among whom were 2,793,272 illiterates, children included, and 517,441 who could read and write (410,973 men and only 106,418 women), hence there were 5 illiterates to every 1 who could read and write, or 3 illiterate males to every 1 literate male, and 14 illiterate women to every 1 literate woman. Of every 100 inhabitants 15.63 had had some school instruction. This ratio is much higher in the cities, to wit: 47.43 males, 23.29 females, or an average of 35.90; while in the country districts the ratio varied between 10.30, and 2.37. If the children under school age, the blind, deaf, and imbecile are deducted as incapable of reading and writing (a total of 700,000 at least) the ratio of literates is raised to nearly 20 per cent. If, furthermore, we deduct the Mohammedans, who are almost all illiterate, the percentage of adult Bulgarians is increased considerably. A search among the marriage registers gives the percentage of men and women who could sign their names:

According to this the Hebrews are the ones who frequent schools most regularly, surpassing the Greek Catholics about two and one-half times, while the Protestants and Armenians remain but little behind them. But with reference to female education the Protestants take the first rank, followed by the Hebrews and Armenians. If the men are taken alone, the Greek Catholics stand higher than the Roman Catholics, but their women stand far below them in education. The Mohammedans exhibit only one-sixth as much education as the Greek Catholics, and only one-fifteenth of that of the Hebrews. These facts are corroborated officially by the publication of the results obtained by examining the army recruits.

According to these publications the following percentages of army recruits had an elementary education: