NEW-ENGLAND is justly entitled to a large share of the credit of having given an impulse to the cause of popular education. The early settlers of that section of our country were fully sensible of the defects of the English institutions, which they had forsaken. That the schools of learning and religion were corrupted, and the fairest hopes overthrown by licentious behaviour in those seminaries, was one amongst the many causes of their emigration from the old world, and of pledging themselves to the education of their children. In the year 1668 a document was published, by order of the Government and Council of Massachusetts, and addressed to the elders and ministers of every town; in which paper was set forth an earnest desire for the moral and religious instruction of the people, and an appeal to those to whom the instrument was directed, to examine whether the education of youth in the English language was attended to. From the time of Mather and his associates, who laboured zealously in this field of usefulness, to the present period, New-England has devoted her attention to the promotion of knowledge; and in the industry, integrity, and frugality of her children, now behold the brilliant results of her perseverance. When we consider that the tide of emigration, which is sweeping before it the forests of the West, takes its rise in the Eastern section of the United States, and bears upon its bosom the elements of enrichment that it is composed in a great degree of those who have been enabled to obtain the rudiments of learning - the first principles of valuable information, ought we not to be grateful to those who have toiled to render the fountain pure and transparent?

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The system adopted in the New-England States is that of a general tax, which is distributed according to the number of children of the particular school districts. It is not our intention to give an account of the particular systems adopted by the several members of that section of the confederacy; it is sufficient to state that they vary but little from each other. We give a brief sketch of the plan of one neighbouring State, Connecticut. The original division in regard to school districts was

that of a parochial character; but in the course of time the territorial division, composed of ecclesiastical societies, gave way, in consequence of the diversity of religious opinions, to what were termed school societies. This division existed as early as 1766. Appropriations were made from the public treasury to the school fund, in addition to the tax levied for the support of schools, until the year 1795, when the avails of certain lands belonging to the State, and amounting to a large sum, were appropriated to the schools, and the annual product made perpetually liable to distribution. These lands are known as the Connecticut reserve, and form part of the present State of Ohio. A portion of land appropriated to the same purpose, situated in the State of New-York, has been exempted from the operation of a general law requiring the payment of a tax on certain debts arising out of the sale of lands situated in, and belonging to persons residing out of, the State: an exemption which may be justly considered as a proper appreciation by the State of New-York of the value of education, and an evidence of the disposition of this enlightened community not to impose the smallest tax upon knowledge or the distribution of mental light. Every school society in the State of Connecticut must hold an annual meeting, appoint a clerk, treasurer, a committee of management, committee for each school district within the limits, and a number (not exceeding nine) of persons to act as visitors. The districts can levy a tax for the erection or repair of a school house, and furnishing it with proper accommodations. The committee of the district, with the approbation of the visitors, who examine and approve, can appoint the teacher. The school fund is under the control of a commissioner, who pays its proceeds to the State treasurer, by whom it is transmitted, semi-annually, to such societies as have conformed to the law, and in proportion to the number of children between the ages of four and sixteen. These societies distribute the amount amongst the several districts. Under this arrangement, it cannot be denied that the schools have flourished, and instruction extended to that degree, that for a period of sixty years not one ever appeared in the courts of justice unable to write his name.

Notwithstanding the efforts made on behalf of a general diffusion of the elements of knowledge throughout this country, it was supposed that, not long since, in the States south and west of New-York and New Jersey, 1,400,000 children were wholly without the means of instruction. The announcement of this fact is sufficient, we should imagine, to arouse the most profound attention of, and create the deepest anxiety in the bosom of, every philanthropist. The necessity of educating the people of a free government is admitted on every side; and yet, through a culpable inertness on the part of those whose duty it is to move forward in this momentous subject, an immense portion of those into whose hands the destinies of this last sanctuary of freedom must be delivered, is left in total darkness, and wholly unacquainted with the information nécessary