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Their roads in that part of Ohio are straight, and much labor is expended on them by the people.

The United States ought to make a road from Lower Sandusky to Detroit. The one which they have pretended to make is of little value.

The BLACK SWAMP, should we have another war with our old enemy, in the first campaign, would tell congress what they had neglected to do. During this period of peace, is the time to make this road, and unless all former experience is lost on the nation, appropriations will soon be made annually, to make this road what it should be, a permanent, good, substantial highway. The black swamp has already cost the nation a million of dollars, besides many brave men who perished from the sickness which they caught by wading through it. Pittsburgh and Greensburgh in Pennsylvania, and Petersburgh in Virginia, will long remember those who thus perished and were buried in this black swamp. Ohio lost in the same way, and in the same swamp, not a few of her best soldiers.

BRIDGES.

Our best ones and the greatest number of them, are on the national road. All of them are good, and some of them are excellent. Across the Stillwater at Cambridge, the Muskingum at Zanesville, and the Scioto at Columbus, there are bridges which may vie with any others in the west. Across the Scioto at Circleville and Chillicothe, are excellent bridges, which the people in their vicinity have erected. At Dayton and Hamilton are good bridges across the Great Miami. The best bridged stream in the state is the Great Beaver in New Connecticut. We need in the state, ten thousand additional bridges. We need wider and better roads and canals; such as will accommodate ten times as many travelers as now pass along them.

THE STATE OF LEARNING IN OHIO.

One of our difficulties, which we must meet, is, and for thirty years to come, will be, the certainty of large numbers of immigrants, settling among us from all parts of Europe. These, when they arrive among us, are, and always will be, entirely ignorant of our institutions. These are to be instructed, and moulded into the mass of our people. Their children are to be educated. Thus far, whenever these foreigners have settled down in any town, they have made very good, peaceable and quiet citizens. Their children have, many of them, soon learned to read and speak our language. In Cincinnati where most pains have been taken to teach them, they have made very commendable progress in learning, for the time they have been at school. It is cheaper, for those who own property, to educate all the children of the state, than to punish them for the crimes, which they will commit, if left to grow up in ignorance and vice. In this view of the subject, if we rise no higher, in our motives, every man of property, will cheerfully bestow some of his time, as well as his money, on this subject, so desirable and praise worthy. With a continual eye to this object, our legislature might soon have an income arising from stocks in our canals and roads, sufficient to educate every child in the state. Let us hope that our means may keep pace with our wants.

There ought to be a Board of Education, who should have the superintendence of all our colleges, academies and common schools. This board should be selected without reference to any party in religion or politics; to be appointed by the governor, and not liable to be removed from office. The superintendence of such a board, would be extremely useful to our colleges, in a variety of ways. Their visits to the several literary institutions, would produce an excellent effect on the teachers and scholars, and diffuse among the great mass of the people, a healthful, moral action.

As things now are, in this state, too many of our literary institutions, seem to be so many elements of sectarian

views, in religious matters. This is not as it should be; or if so, then the state should set up institutions, not under any particular sect of Christians, and foster only such as were founded on the broadest basis of Christianity, without any reference to any of the various sects, into which Christianity is divided, and subdivided. We would not exclude clergymen from being instructors of youth, nor confine learning entirely to them.

To be an instructor of youth, requires as much, tact as it does to be a divine, a physician or a lawyer. And the learning it requires, to be an instructor in our higher literary institutions, is certainly more than is requisite for one who would follow almost any other profession.

At the present time, Cincinnati has within its corporate limits, more and better means of affording instruction, than any other place in this state. Its medical school may be said to be the only one, in the state, of the kind; and if any one seeks to acquire a thorough knowledge of the modern languages, Cincinnati possesses the amplest means of affording such instruction.

And if any young man wishes to acquire a knowledge of any one of the learned professions, Cincinnati is certainly the best place of obtaining it, in the Valley of the Mississippi. And if any one wishes to learn any mechanical art, Cincinnati is the very place to learn it. The field is larger and better cultivated too, than any other, in Ohio, in which the arts grow and flourish. And this will necessarily continue to be the best place in the West, for a long time, in which to acquire knowledge. Perhaps we might except female instruction, to which Columbus, Dayton, Chillicothe, Zanesville and Circleville, have paid great attention.

The greatest difficulty in our way, is not the want of persons competent to teach, but a want of discernment in parents to properly appreciate and reward competent instructors for their labor. So long as the business of an instructor, is not considered in its true light, as one of the highest, noblest, and most useful employments on earth; so long, too, as the compensation is very low, so long shall we labor under all the

disadvantages of our present depressed state of learning.. That our schools, of all sorts, should not be equal to those in the Eastern states, whose, age, wealth and experience surpass ours, is not surprising. Ours is a new country, yet, and we have not had the time, to mature our institutions, of all sorts. It affords us some consolation, though, to see a gradual improvement, slow, indeed, but steadily, moving forward, to its ultimate usefulness. And we must not despise the "day of small things," but hope rather, that the pace will be quickened, when the sun of science rises higher above the horizon. A board of education and funds at its command, would be of immense value to us; and let us hope that the day is not far distant, when such a board may be created and funds be set apart for its benificent uses.

It has often been pressed upon individual members of the legislature, to introduce a bill, for the purpose of organizing a board of education. It should form a part of the constitution itself, because, without education, no real good government can exist any where. Even monarchs have found it for their interest to have their subjects well educated. The kings of England, France and Prussia have done a great deal to promote learning among their people, and they are still doing much, in that way. All the protestant princes of Europe are doing not a little, to promote education. We have done something, in this state, but more needs doing, daily, by our rulers and by our people, to instruct all our citizens, in all that is useful for them to know. With our increased numbers, more statesmen will be needed to govern us; more lawyers, physicians and divines will be required, to maintain the rights of individuals; to heal the sick, and afford moral and religious instruction to our increased numbers of people. The present statesmen and professional men, were educated mostly, in the East, where they were born. These men, will not live always, nor is it probable that there will long be, an influx of educated young men from the East, into this state; such will soon begin to travel farther west before they settle down. We shall be compelled, very soon, to rely on our own resources, for profes

sional men, and unless our colleges are equal to eastern ones, there will be a falling off, in learning at the bar, in the desk, and in the halls of legislation. As the state increases in numbers and wealth, more, not less, learning will be required. It requires something more than a mere superficial education, to carry on the business of this great and growing commonwealth. We fear that one reason, why our western young men who attend our higher schools, obtain no more education, while actually at school, is owing to a want of application to their studies, such as eastern colleges require. That youth should not have all the wisdom of age, is not surprising, but, that they should not feel willing to submit to hard study, to labor and diligence, would be their own and their country's misfortune. They will soon take our places, and govern the country; if well, they will be benefited by it, and if not, they will suffer for it, not their fathers, who will be in their graves. The world will be theirs who take it, not by sloth, but by labor, toil, diligence, activity and vigorous exertion.

Let us hope that our sons and daughters may surpass, not fall behind their parents, in all that is manly, good and fair, so that in every age, Ohio will shine brighter and brighter, as a star of the first magnitude in the constellation of the Union. So DeWitt Clinton predicted in his speech in the United States senate, when we were admitted into the Union; and so may it be.

COLLEGES, ACADEMIES AND COMMON SCHOOLS.

KENYON COLLEGE

Was founded chiefly through the instrumentality of Philan der Chase, D. D., L. L. D., the first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church in Ohio.

It was first established as a theological seminary for the education of pious young men for the ministry in that church. Funds for this purpose were obtained in England in the year 1824, and in the same year an act of incorporation was grant

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