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[No. LXXX.j THE TABLE T. No. LXXX. <1 jVe errors are more dangerous than those which ap pear too trifiing to be correiled," (Continued from the la 11 number, and concluded.) 4'T WOULD just observe concerning the man -1 ner-of teaching arithmetic, that boys in ge neral spend a vast ileal more time and pains to learn that art, than is neceflary, and do not al ways learn it, when they have done. Boys can not learn arithmetic mechanically, as they do writing : They mail be old enough to unde: ltand it. If lads are put upon the study of arithmetic before they are fourteen or fifteen years old, How will be their progress, and imperfect their at tainments. The mind must have formed Come Ikill in combination, before it can be employed in that study to profit. But boys may acquire a fufficient knowledge in arithmetic for allthepur pofes of common life,by applying five or fix weeks closely to it, under a good infti uctor, and at a proper age. Instead of this, how often do we fee boys spend winter after winter in learning a few of the*moft simple rules of that art, and at last not be able to reduce a single rule to practice ? And is it not requisite that females should have some acquaintance with a. ithiuetic ! A venerable old man, in grey hairs,and an aged matron, who cannot keep their own accounts, may justly weep over a misfortune, for which they are not ant werable ; but an indifferent fpecftator, who knows the worth of an education, may view with indig nation that criminal negligence in men of inter est, which will render "the fate of posterity not less unfortunate. Thus have I hinted at the principal defecftsand inconveniencies that attend the p<efent mode of education. lam sensible that, though all I have said may be coiifefied, yet there is one general objection to any alteration ; which is, that the people cannot support more expensive schools. But in answer to this I would observe, that if they would venture upon the experiment, they might support schools with the fame or less expence, that would be much more advantageous. Eco nomy may defeat itfelf by being carried to an extreme. * When calculations are tooclofe, there may be a favitig in the expenditure, but the ob ject will not be acconiplifhed; and byattempting to save too much,all may be loft. Men who are al w.iys employed in small, trifling business, who pursue an unlteady course of life ; and who, to use a fa miliar phrase, are always creeping along l>j the edges, will never make a head in the world, but must always remain poor and contemptible. 1: is just so with schools. People build an honfe, or rather put up fo/nething that ■mill do the turn .for the present ; they fend fifty, fivy, or seventy children to one Inftruftor, though this is too great a number, they own, yet, he must do as ■well as he can : Part of them have books—foine have only pieces of a book which mujt do the turn for the present ; and some have none'at all, but these must do as well as they can. The children cannot be spared, more than two or three days in a week, to attend school, but when they do go, they must learn as we/I as they can. A matter is hired, who perhaps is a vagabond, and if he is not quite so good as could he wiihed, yet he is cheap, and people must do as well as they can these hard times. What is all this but creeping along by the edges ? What is it but fq'iandering away money and making a mock of education ? Dare, my candid readers, to ltep from the bea ten path ofcuftom and prejudice. Erert schools npon a different footing, and you will find them not only more advantageous for your children, but in the end, much cheaper for yourselves.— ButeVen upon the fuppofirion that good schools arc eventually more expensive than had ones, this should not frighten people, when they reflecft t hat a good education is the best legacy they can be queath their children. Thousands ofperfons, who have grown up to a state of manhood and found they could fcarcelv read or -.vrite, have wiflied, fervently wiihed their parents had left them less eftateand a better education. But there is one argument of more weight than private ad vantages, and which ought to make parents more solicitous to encourage schools. We inhabit a country evidently formed for a great empire, where civil and religious liberty have taken up their abode, and where they will be found, as longasthey arc found on earth. Jhe only way topreferve these unimpaired, is to diffule know ledge among the body of the people. Once re duce the mass of the people to a state of ignorance and their bondage is inevitable. We haveltrug gled through an arduous war to defend our reli gion and freedom, and let us be vigilant to tui liifh posterity with the means of defending them. We fhoukl remember at the fame time, that we live in a late period of the world, as well as a glorious or.e, and may we not look forward with SATURDAY January 16, 1790. eagerness to that 'finifhed state of society, when the difFufion of science shall have taught men, that there canbe no happiness but in virtue ; no liberty but in law ?" FROM THE INDEPENDENT GAZETTEER. Mr. Oswald, AT a noted inn upon the road to Reading, I found two countrymen, who had arrived nearly at the lame time. After warming them selves, they began a conversation, which appear ed to me at once incerefting and diverting. 1 therefore took the firft opportunity of putting it in writing, as nearly in the words of the parties as my memory could enable me. If you think i. will either be ufeful or entertaining to your read ers, it is at your service. A Traveller. Andrew. Aye ! three days? Why, how could you fprre so much time ? Henry. I was waiting for my waggons ; and it was such fine fun to hear the speeches, that I could hardly get away at last. A. Then you can tell us a great deal of what they are doing. H. Why as to that—l do not know very well what they are doing; but loii'e of them make monlhous fine speeches. A. Well and what do they fay? H. O ! they do pay one another off so cleverly. A. Why Henry I suppose that you and I must put our hands in our pockets and help to pay them all at last. If they spend their time in paying one another off in words, we shall be forced to pay all hands of them in solid coin. But can't you tell us any thing about the business they were about ? H. Yes—the firft day I was there, they were just finifhingalong dispute about Eleifto.s. They had been at it all the week before. A. What about Electors ? H. Why, whether the people should chufe for themselves, or find some others to chufe for them. A. To chufe what'? H. Why, to chufe Senators, I think they called them. A. And why were the people not to chufe for themselves ? H. Because they would not chufe right—and it svas too much like the old Constitution—so they Taid. A. And who were to chufe the Senators ? H. The people were to chufe men to chufe them—l don't well understand it. A. Will there be no end of distrusting the peo pie ? Have our gentry so soon forgot where they sprung from ? I fuppole the people will not be trusted to get their own children, by and by.— But h< )vv did it end ? H. It was voted at last, that the people lhould chufe the Senators themselves. A. Very good—l'm glad to hear it.—What was the next thing ? H. Compound rations was the next. A. Compound ration*! what's that ? H. 1 did not quite undei stand it—but they talk ed as if a rich man was to have a great many more votes than a poor man—Something about reckon ing a man's head worth twenty (hillings, and then making compound rations of his head and his money. A. What! are we to be governed only by the wealthy ? H. Why not ? Would you have beggars and vagabonds govern us ? A. No, by no means ; for beggars and vaga bonds always vote on the fide of the rjch, whe ther they are right or wrong; io that the weal thv will always have full as much weight as they ought to have, without increasing the number of their own votes. The middling class of people, freeholders and houfeholdei s, of moderate pro perty, fettled refulents, who live industriously upon'their labor, are the firmed supporters of the country. They have a firm attachment to their country, and they are free from tliofe am bitious, aspiring thoughts which lead a man to seek his own aggrandizement at the expense of his neighbours. A rich man 13 always wishing to be richer and greater ; and he always has a rab ble of needy dependents ready to aiiilt him. He need not be helped to more influence.^ NOTES. + I believe it will be found upon a very little reflexion thai thole are naturally molt attached to their country, who have tht most to lose in consequence of any d.fafters which may happen to it ■ Asthe great bodv of oaf citixens coofifts of those in middling cirrumftances. it necessarily follows, that they mull be the luppon of the country ; but that " they arc tree from ambitious thoughts . uher collectively or individually, is contradiftcd by the "Per ience of all ages ; and eipenally bv that of the State of Pennfylva ma, otherwifea form of government which centered ail P" wer m a purely democratic assembly, never would have been so obi. 1- nately fuppomd—a form of government, which left nothing to the wealthy part of the community, but what they obta '" cd ' *7 intrigue, and the influence of property. And pray have the rich no rights 1.1 which to be secured ? That wealth which the object [.Vubltjhed ou Wednesday and Haturduj H. Why, truly, there feemt fometliing in this —But how will you hinder beggars and vat-rants from voting ? 0 A. This might be done. Suppose that nobody was to vote till his name had been at least a welve-month on the county tax books, and the taxes paid. I think this matter might be managed. H. Well! Andrew! you could always out-talk ne ; but if you were to hear ihe orutors in tlie Convention, yon would be quite dumbfounded. A. And vrho are the great orators ? H. Why there is Will'on; but thay fay he has changed fides. A. How so ? what fule is he of ? H. Why, he was againlt Ele&ors, and againfh the compound rations. \ A. Well, whether he changed fides or nor, I find he's on the right fide. Who are the other orators ? H. Why, there's a tall lean gentleman—l for get his name; but it seems to me that his th"oat is lined with bell metal, and his tongue fteeltd like a broad-axe—He hack'd and hew'd at Wil lon, like any wood-chopper—But Wilson could alk back again—and it's fine fun. There's a heap of them—all speakers—and they talk by the hour. A. But you forgot to tell me what became of the compound rations, as you call them ? H. O ! they had not finilhed that yet. — A. No !—and when do they expetlt to get thrrt their business ? H. Some time next Summer, they talk. A. Some time next Summer ! —\V hy I thought, when some of you were carrying petitions about, you told the people they were to lave expences ; that the 'Convention would fit only a fortnight and make us a cheap government. — H. Why;—yes;—it was—somehow so ; —but, to fay the truth, they begin to talk that the new government is to coil more money than the old Dii e. A. How so! H, I can't tell;—but they talk about Chancel lors and Judges with salaries all over the Hate. * Indeed neighbor Andrew 1 almost wish I had been .juiet as you advised me, and contented myfelf as I was. A. Well! well! come don't be discouraged; (ince the Convention is met, let us hope for the best. 1 trull they will go through with what they ire about; and if they do but give us a tolerable Government and cure the people of the itch for calling Conventions for altering the government every twelvemonth, 1 ihall be contented.—Good, ometimes comes out of evil, and, for my part, I really wish this Convention may not rife, till they present us with a bill of colts that fliall make us lick of them.— ** H. Why 1 hardly think I fball carry about a petition for a new Convention very soon again.— Gut which way are you travelling Andrew ? A. To Philadelphia upon the old affair.—My Lawyer writes me word that' the Supreme Court: fits this month, and, if I will attend, he experts o get final judgment for me this term. And then I expert old Nicodemus will pay me off. I really want my money, neighbour Henry ; and if you and some others had not befriended me, I do not know how 1 couldhave held out so long with out it. _ j H. Well, Andrew—have patience !—I have bad news for you. So many of the Judges and Law yers are in the Convention, that the Supreme ' ourt is put off; n , Upon this piece of information, lionelt Andrew a (Turned an attitude and countenance that was too diltreffing for my feelings. As I could not re» lieve him, I left the room. .ftnvy of desire—and the great spring of exertion to every man, let his situation be what it will, n a jmpk democracy, may be, and ■cnerallv is employed to the moll pernicious purposes; orelle be ing confide-rd as a grievance, or necelfary to be affirmed by the majority for exigences of S.aie, proves the deftruftum of its po(- fc/ffors—f fts iuftify these observations How important and ne . (Tarv then is the great revolution in Pennfy Ivama, by which the Right's of every class of citizens are more clearly aftertamed and fee u red— " For nature ). iath left the tinßure in the blood, • 1 All men uou/d be tyrants ij they cou d. Poor men are always wilhing to be rich : Rich men td be rich er ; and power is equally attractive to all, but most dangerous in the hands oi thole who are the most ignorant. * " Chancellors, Judges, and Salaries."—lndividual, compe tent, and refponflble officers, are held up as a bugbear—while the x.ences of the people for their support, bear no proportion to these innumerable ftreann which drain the public trealury to de fray the charges of Committees on Committees Stateofficers with out titles, and without refponfibihty, who always keep pubc business in a circle, and never bring any to conclusion, whiife they have a majority to keep the public purfeopen for their emolument. ** A very laudable with! but a free people never will be eafyun der a bad Constitution ; and Conventions are the wisest expedient that mankind ever adopted , and nexttothe w.fdom of t,-y difcovcred in making Conftuutions, they do the greatest hou or to our invention and philanthropy as a people : Let people feel the salutary influences of a good Constitution, and they wl not think of Conventions,