beneficiary, who makes his returns under each head. This is handed by him to the Principal of the academy or College with which he is connected, who examines it as minutely as he pleases; and then certifies the correctness of it. In addition to this, he certifies that the beneficiary in question sustains, in all respects, such a character as is required by the Constitution and Rules of the American Education Society in order to receive their aid. This is forwarded every quarter, to the Directors of the Society; and on this is predicated their vote in relation to the aid that is sought for. Where the distance of the school or college is very great, however, it is forwarded only once in six months.

Such are the facts, in relation to the details in question.

Let me now, make some remarks on these facts, and examine the proper tendency of them.

(1) It is obvious, that as the Society is called upon to aid those who stand in need of aid, and as it was instituted solely for this purpose, so it can, with fidelity to its trust, bestow aid only on such as afford adequate and satisfactory evidence of such need. But how is this evidence to be obtained? The answer is, By a knowledge of the character and entire pecuniary circumstances of the individuals who apply for aid. If they are themselves indigent, but have friends able to assist them, and liberal enough to do it; if they are able to obtain money enough to help themselves, by any personal efforts which they can make at labour or otherwise, consistently with honesty and integrity of character; then they do not need the aid of the Society. On the other hand, if they are in debt; if they have no friends of the character described; if they fail in the means of aiding themselves in an adequate manner; then it is plain, that they need the aid of the Society. If moreover they are prodigal, or excessive in their expenses for clothing, in the purchase of books, in their incidental expenses, or in their room-rents, or any thing of the like nature; it is the proper business of the Society to know this. It is impossible to know whether they are the deserving subjects of aid, unless all these facts are examined.

I would ask the Reviewer to point out a single article in the Schedule of the student's returns, which is not concerned with an estimate either of his pecuniary condition, or of his character. If this cannot be done, (and I venture to say, it cannot), then does it follow, of course, that the Society have only taken means for information which their duty, and fidelity to their trust oblige them to take. There is not a single item here, which any honest and ingenuous youth should ever be ashamed or afraid to disclose. That he is poor, it is no ground of reproach. I had almost said, it is the contrary. That the whole extent of his indigence should be known to those who are to aid him, is a matter of as plain equity and propriety, as that a man who borrows money of his friend, should not conceal from him his true pecuniary condition. The most open, honest, and ingenuous proceeding, in all such cases, is to keep nothing back which can throw any light on the real circumstances of the case.

The Reviewer thinks that the Committees of examination, or the

EXAMINATION OF THE STRICTURES UPON

teachers under whose inspection the youth are, could judge of these matters with sufficient accuracy. But without attempting to show that the same amount of information never could be obtained in this manner with uniformity and correctness; it may be asked, if it be not incumbent on those whom the community have made responsible for the distribution of funds, to know and judge for themselves, as far as they may, whether those whom they aid are in real need of assistance? Upon the present plan, both Instructers and Directors are supplied with the means of forming an opinion on this subject; dispense with it, and there is no certainty that either will be regularly and thoroughly made acquainted with the facts upon which such an opinion should

rest.

(2.) Returns of such a nature as those in question, are of serious benefit to the individuals concerned.

Need it be proved anew to the world, that the virtues of industry, frugality, regularity of life, and caution as to unnecessary and injudicious expenses, are best taught in a practical way? What can all the preaching in the world do, at Colleges, Academies, or any where else, while young men and boys have their pockets filled with money which is at their own disposal? The most weighty and well enforced precepts, the most attractive examples, exert but little influence in such cases. Every instructer in any Seminary of learning in our country, will confirm this statement.

What then is to be done? What measures will effectually teach young men to enter on life, with frugality, with industry, with a judicious and uniform foresight in regard to all their pecuniary responsibilities and embarrassments? I answer, Let them set out, from the very first, as soon as they are able to take care of themselves, with a responsibility for doing so; and with a responsibility, too, which will amount to something; which will be felt in all their measures, and will have a controlling influence over them so as to make them guarded and sober. The responsibility to parents of most young men educated in public, for the manner in which they spend money and time, is but little felt, and is, in most cases, made so light, as to afford no serious obstacle in the way of their extravagance and profusion. A frown or two when bills are presented, which are large beyond propriety; a murmur at the unexpected amount of them, and a kind of half serious, half joking complaint of extravagance, constitutes the weight of the penalty on the part of parents, which most youth have actually to suffer for extravagance and idleness; and the responsibility to a tribunal which inflicts only such a punishment, is but little dreaded, and has therefore but little influence on such as are disposed to be extravagant.

How different the condition of a youth, whose character, whose prospects, whose success, whose all, depends on the strictness of his discipline, and the rigid watch which he keeps over all his powers and passions of body and mind! I appeal to facts. From what class of youth do our most shining characters in church and state spring? From the children of the rich or the poor? Almost exclusively from the latter. Debauchees, and profligates, and blockheads abound'among

the children of the rich; while among the poor in our Seminaries, characters of this sort are far more rare.

I have been intimately connected with the instruction of youth for more than thirty years; and I have very often been led to believe, that the greatest misfortune which can befal a youth, endowed by nature with promising talents, is, that his parents should be rich. The failure, in some respect or other, as to the requisite strictness of discipline in such a case, is almost certain, in a great majority of instances. the beneficiary of the American Education Society has a powerful stimulus acting constantly upon him, and operating to produce habits of sobriety, and frugality, and industry; habits on which depend, in a great measure, his prospects of usefulness and success in life.

But

The

I feel the more certain of all this, because of the numerous young men, aided by benevolent societies with whom I have been intimately acquainted, I have observed some, who have been aided only in the way which the Reviewer would prefer, that have evidently been injured as to their habits of economy and of feeling. With a conviction that the treasury of their benefactors would not be closed against them, unless they should exhibit some palpable acts of extravagance, they have felt that a nice attention to frugality was unnecessary. fact, also, that they had been taken up, as it were in their infancy, and dandled in the lap of more than parental kindness, contributed to inspire them with exalted ideas of their own talents and deserts. They did not seem to me so much to accept of charity in the way of a gratuity, as to claim it as a debt. Nay, one might well say, who knew the whole developement of their feelings, that they regarded the church as debtors to them, on account of their high importance to her, and of their elevated worth; and that they really deemed it a matter of condescension on their part, to accept of what was gratuitously proffered to them.

Yes, I have seen this; and my soul has sickened at the sight. The blasting influence of such a state of feeling on the Christian character of youth intended for the ministry, is self-evident; and it is my heart's desire and prayer to God, that the church may keep as clear from presenting such a temptation, as the accomplishment of the great ends which she has in view will permit her to do. It is plain, beyond all doubt, that young men, who are to be ministers of the gospel, need to be educated in habits of frugality; in which condition, it is absolutely certain that their salary, in any ordinary case, will never be adequate, without the strictest economy, to their wants. How many pastors are every year dismissed; how many inflict deep distresses on themselves and on their families, for want of early discipline like that which the American Education Society requires, unhappy experience daily testifies. It is my full belief, that the Alumni of the American Education Society will present fewer cases of such melancholy facts, than have heretofore been usual.

I am aware of the objection which has been made, and which the Reviewer hints at under another head, viz. that a mode of educating young men subjected to so many restraints, will make them niggardly and covetous. But I am not prepared to believe, that attention to

frugality and industry; strict attention to all one's pecuniary responsi bilities and expenditures, so necessary in all the business of life, and so much applauded by all men; can have any proper tendency towards the vices of covetousness and pusillanimity. Beyond a few instances in which men love money merely for its own sake, covetousness, rapacity, extortion, and niggardliness, belong mostly to those who are greedy to obtain something to lay out on the means of sensual pleasure, or of gratifying some ambitious desire. In a word, I confess myself exceedingly slow to believe, that the God of nature has so formed us, that the insisting on the practice of certain virtues should, in itself, have a tendency to lead to certain vices. Facts disprove this. Of all the classes of men in society, I know of none more liberal, more kind, more generous hearted in proportion to their means, than such as have been the beneficiaries of the American Education Society. Nay, I can say more; I can say that their purses, light as they are, with scarcely sufficient to pay their letter postages, and to purchase enough of stationary to write to their friends, are opened to the calls of charity and religion; and the simple mites bestowed, with such views and such a spirit, I trust will prove to be, in the Saviour's estimation, like the widow's mite, cast into the treasury of God, in the view of the astonished disciples.

(3.) I must add to the considerations already suggested, that an accountability like the one in question, is absolutely necessary to secure the confidence of the community, and particularly of men of business, who are accustomed to responsibilities.

The experience of the American Education Society determines, that those who are able and willing to give, will not do so to any great extent, and certainly will not continue to do so for any length of time, unless a high responsibility is created on the part of those who are to receive their bounty.

The allegation of the Reviewer against such a measure, is the first and only serious one of this kind, which the Directors have ever heard. With one consent, the community, so far as I have any knowledge, have applauded their measures on this point. Nay, of the hundreds of young men on their list, no one has as yet, so far as they know, ever raised his voice against the measure, or made complaint of its oppressive nature. So far have they been from this, that they have often testified their most hearty concurrence and approbation. If the American Education Society are wrong then, in respect to the measure in question, the whole community, givers and receivers, are wrong along with them. All men of business, especially, are fundamentally in error; for it is from these in particular that the high and imperative demand has come, that the Society should create the utmost responsibility which is fairly in its power. They demand all the security which from the nature of the case can be afforded, that their bounty will not be squandered nor misapplied. That they are in the right, I do most heartily believe; and that the American public will justify this view of the subject, and support it, I am fully persuaded.

(4.) I may remark, in the last place, that the Schedule of re

turns under discussion, is very important to the Directors of the American Education Society, in as much as it furnishes them with a large number of facts, which must serve as the basis of many of their calculations and their measures.

The average amounts of expenses are made out from such statements. The probable and possible means which young men possess of helping themselves by labour, or otherwise, comes in this way to be known. The comparative expenses in different parts of the country are developed. In this way the Directors come to the knowledge of facts, which serve to meet assertions like that of the Reviewer, when he says, that "the aid afforded by the American Education Society is not sufficient to pay half the expense of an education, in the cheapest college in the United States." The answer to this is,

that it does not comport with facts thus disclosed.

I must not quit the topic under discussion, without noticing the two great difficulties which the Reviewer suggests, as standing in the way of the requisitions in question.

In his view, "The plan holds out a powerful temptation to conceal the amount of receipts and expenses, so as to form a stronger claim on the aid of the Society; placing the beneficiary in the attitude of a common beggar, whose success depends on the dolefulness of his story," p. 356.

But how would this evil, (if it be a real one), be cured by a different method of management? If the minuteness and the greatness of the responsibility expose a beneficiary to the evils here mentioned, then, of course, a diminution in both these respects would relieve the evil. But I have always been accustomed to believe, that minuteness of responsibility, and the greatness and certainty of it, is the highest and most effectual of all means to keep men honest and straight in their business. And I appeal to the whole world for a spontaneous decision on this point, without a single argument upon it; for it certainly needs none. If you wish to tempt men to dishonesty and partial statements of their concerns or their management, hold them at loose ends in their accounts; if not, then create a high responsibility. I am utterly unable to see how the temptation is now any greater to give a false account of expenditures, than it would be under a system of inspection less rigid.

And as to "placing the receiver in the attitude of a common beggar, whose success depends on the dolefulness of his story;" how is this dolefulness made any greater or less, by the fact that a man is accountable in regard to more or less of his expenditures? If there be any "hitting the point" here, I am not able to perceive it. Nay, if there be any thing in the revolting idea of "common beggary," which is applicable to the subject in question; then let me ask, who is most like a common beggar?" He who comes with a piteous story of his wants in a lump, without entering, or being able to enter, into any particulars, which are in any measure probable, or will bear the least scrutiny; or he who brings along with him accredited vouchers for all his wants and woes, and can definitely show how they come to exist, and to be urgent? The case is too plain to need comment; and the

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