uch to
correct popular errors in relation to this subject, and have contributed
largely to the formation of sound and rational views in relation to its
importance in the communities where they have been held. In many
instances, however, they have been composed too exclusively of teachers.
These should, indeed, be in attendance; but to increase the usefulness
of such conventions, and heighten the effect they may be made to produce
upon the popular mind, there should also be in attendance members of the
several learned professions, statesmen, capitalists, and all the leading
minds of the communities in which they are held. In some portions of the
country this is now the case, but such instances, I regret to say, are
not yet very common among us.

_Fourth of July common school celebrations_ have, within the past few
years, become quite common in several states of the Union. This seems
peculiarly appropriate, being a practical recognition of the importance
of primary schools and universal education in a civil and political
point of view. One of the most befitting celebrations of this day which
I have ever known was held in Boston eight years ago, when an oration
was delivered before the authorities of that city by the Secretary of
the Massachusetts Board of Education. The theme of the orator was the
importance of national or universal education in a free government as
the interest which underlies all others, and as constituting the only
means of perfecting and perpetuating to the latest generations the
institutions we have received from our fathers, and "a demonstration
that our existing means for the promotion of intelligence and virtue are
wholly inadequate to the support of a republican government." Such
celebrations should be held in every state of this Union, at every
recurring anniversary of our national independence, until there can not
be found a single individual in all our borders who does not know both
his duties and his privileges as a freeman, and who has not virtue
enough faithfully to perform the one and temperately to enjoy the other.
This, indeed, seems to be in keeping with that most impressive passage
of the celebrated Ordinance of the American Congress, adopted July 13th,
1787, which says, "RELIGION, MORALITY, AND KNOWLEDGE BEING NECESSARY TO
GOOD GOVERNMENT AND THE HAPPINESS OF MANKIND, SCHOOLS AND THE MEANS OF
EDUCATION SHALL FOREVER BE ENCOURAGED."

_The twenty-second of February_ has also been obser