promotes agriculture by giving farms to actual settlers, and by collecting and scattering new seeds and plants, and disseminating information of new and improved modes of carrying on the business. It has given bounties to persons engaged in certain kinds of fishing. It aims to encourage manufactures by placing duties upon foreign goods, so that home productions may have an advantage in the market. It has given lands and money to aid in building railroads and canals, and in establishing steamship lines to foreign ports.

Education.

The duty of the government to provide for the education of the people rests upon the same basis as its obligations to care for the public health and public morals. Ignorance is so fruitful a source of poverty and crime, that the government is striking at the root of many evils when it labors to promote the general intelligence of the community. It is bound, therefore, to provide the rudiments of an education for all the children under its authority. Beyond this the best governments furnish opportunities to all who desire a higher culture, not only intellectual, but in professional and industrial pursuits.

If the government is bound to furnish schools for its youth, it is also bound to compel their attendance. It should not allow the carelessness or avarice of parents to deprive their children of what is so essential to their welfare and happiness.

Public Education in Repub

There are other and stronger reasons why a democratic republic should encourage popular education. All the interests of the state are directly in the hands of the mass of the people. The officers are chosen by the people and from the people. What the voters are, the govern

lics.

ment will be. The ignorance and vice that prevail among the people will be represented in the government, as surely as the intelligence and the virtue. A corrupt public sentiment produces corrupt legislation and corrupt administration; and these produce weakness and decay. Hence the interests of every citizen are, in a measure, in the hands of every other citizen; and to protect himself he must use all his influence to make his neighbor as intelligent and virtuous as himself. The education needs to be not only intellectual, but moral and religious. All that the statutes of Massachusetts require is needed in every republic. That State makes it the duty of all instructors of youth, to exert their best endeavors to impress upon the minds of their pupils "the principles of piety and justice, and a sacred regard for truth; love of their country, humanity, and universal benevolence; sobriety, industry, and frugality; chastity, moderation, and temperance; and those other virtues which are the ornament of human society, and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded."

There are some educating influences besides schools. Public libraries, museums, and galleries of

General Culture.

art do much to promote the general intelligence, and to refine and cultivate the taste. Public parks and gardens furnish means of healthful and innocent enjoyment. It may seem that these are outside the province of government, and that it should not tax the people for such purposes: but experience has shown that cultivated minds and hearts, and refined tastes, result in softened manners; that educated people understand better their relations and obligations in society, and have more respect for law and order, than

the ignorant; and that from the lowest motive, economy, it is better to prevent crime than to punish it.

Defence of the

State.

The third comprehensive duty of the government is to defend the state against foreign and domestic enemies. In doing this, it is to be prompt and vigorous; and it may make use of all the resources of the state. There can be no limitations upon its authority in this direction. The existence of the state is so important that all ordinary considerations of economy become insignificant. The government may draw upon the wealth of the people to exhaustion; and it may demand their personal services and their lives, until resistance becomes useless. It may suspend all its ordinary operations in an extremity. But all this sacrifice of money and of human life and happiness is for defence, not for aggression. The government has no right to involve the state in war simply to increase its territory, or to extend its power.

International

Relations.

For, intimately connected with its duty to protect the state, is its obligation to other states. It is bound to respect their right to exist, and to refrain from acts of injustice and oppression. It must recognize their sovereignty, and treat them with proper courtesy. It must respect the person and property of every member of every other state, and it must do all in its power to promote mutual good feeling among all the nations.

International
Law.

These are called international obligations, and when formally stated constitute what is called International Law. Thus, when Great Britain allowed the piratical "Alabama" to sail from her ports to destroy the commerce of the United States, she was said to violate the law of nations. When Russia,

Prussia, and Austria divided Poland among themselves, they committed the highest crime possible against a sovereign state. When a United States war-vessel stopped an English steamer, and took from it Mason and Slidell, the act was contrary to international law. The law of nations differs from all other law in that it International is not the expression of a controlling will. Law Peculiar. There is no human authority above that of a sovereign state; so that this law is only a collection of rules which the Christian nations acknowledge as binding upon them in their relations with each other. This law is also peculiar in that there is no umpire to settle disputes, and no penalty. If a state violate the law of nations, the injured party can only obtain redress by war, unless the guilty state chooses to make amends in some other way. Thus, in the case mentioned above, the United States restored the prisoners taken, and apologized for the act. The "Alabama" case was submitted to a board of arbitration, which decided that Great Britain should pay a certain sum for property destroyed through her negligence.

SUMMARY.

1. By securing justice, the government promotes the general welfare.

2. It does this also by executing measures of public utility, and by fostering the industries of the state.

3. It is the duty of the government to provide for the education of the people.

4. The government may compel children to attend school.

5. The government should care for the general culture of the people.

6. It is a duty of the government to defend the state:

to do this it may draw without limit upon the wealth and the services of the people.

7. The government is bound to respect the rights of other states.

8. Certain rules are recognized by Christian nations as guiding them in their intercourse with each other. These constitute International Law.

9. Until recently there has been no mode of effecting a final settlement of international disputes but by force. Within a few years, some nations have submitted their quarrels to arbitration.