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and good men. But other measures are required for the salvation of those of the first division. These measures, however, are within the scope of our power; and ours will be the fault if we fail to enforce them.

The second class consists of those, who, although they can read, and might therefore be in our grammar schools, either have not yet been placed in them, or from various causes have been taken from them by their parents.

Of those who can read, but are not known to our in"structers, and are idlers and vagrants when they should be at school, some by reason of the poverty, but a greater number through the inefficiency, or the vicious. habits of their parents, were either allowed to run at large at the time when they should have been transferred from the primary to the grammar schools; or they were kept from school for the sake of the occasional services they could render, in obtaining food and fuel for their families. Some of these are also the children of foreigners, and of parents from the country, who have neglected to avail themselves of the privileges of our free schools. And of those who have been in these schools and have been taken from them, some are the children of parents who could not, or who, at the expense of the least self-denial, would not, obtain the books that were required for them. Some, as I have been told by parents, were allowed to leave school, because it was intended to send them into the country; an intention which has been delayed, till it has been forgotten. And some have been removed from school, to be placed in shops and offices, from which they have been dismissed

for unfaithfulness, or because their services were no longer wanted. Of this class I would likewise form two divisions, corresponding with those of the first. In one division I would place those, who, in disposition and practice, are vicious; who are corrupting one another, and will corrupt all who shall have intercourse with them. However qualified, as far as knowledge is concerned, for our grammar schools, these ought not to be admitted into them. Other provision should be made for them. In the other division I would place those, who, with better moral dispositions, and a higher order of general character, require only the intervention of one interested in their well-being to place them in our free schools. Admitted and fixed there, and still kept under the kindly eye of the friend who interposed to save them, they would probably be made useful, respectable and happy.

The third class consists of truants from our schools. Of these also I would form two divisions.

The first division consists of those, who have lost their places in our grammar schools, and are stricken from the lists of the teachers. Even among these, however, an important distinction is to be recognised. By far the largest part of this division consists of those, who ought not to be sent again to our free schools. They are associates, and are partakers of the vices, of the worst division of the two first classes; and are not behind them in any wickedness. But there are those among them, who, from mere weakness of character, and the absence of all judicious restraints at home, have been led away by the persuasions, or the artifices, of others. These, if taken into the moral charge of a

friend, or of friends, who will watch over and encourage them, may be restored to the schools from which they have been excluded. I would not, therefore, have them confounded with those, for whose salvation, if it is to be obtained, other and more authoritative measures must be taken. — In the second division I would place those, who are but occasionally, and even those who are frequently but not habitually, truants; and who, if unchecked and unguarded, will soon fall into the first division of this class. Of this division I would observe, that all should be considered as recoverable, merely by a restoration of them to our free schools. No boy becomes at once an obdurate truant, or in any respect obdurately vicious. But he who has begun to be a truant, if he shall be left uncared for, will probably sink into the corruption of those with whom he seeks his pleasures, and become a vagrant. The restoration of a boy of this description to our free schools, I consider, therefore, as the most important service which can possibly be rendered to him. Nor is it an unimportant service to the whole community of which he is a

member.

I must say a few words also of the female children, who should be, but are not in our schools. would likewise divide into three classes.

These I

In the first class I would place those, who cannot read well enough to be received into our grammar schools. And where this is the only cause which keeps them from school, it would seem that it could not be very difficult to obtain a remedy of the evil. There could hardly be a wiser economy than that of maintaining three or four charity schools in the city, for boys and

limited to fifty;

girls of this description. There is now in Salem street, one school of this sort for girls, which has been kept three and a half years. Its number is and the average number in it is forty. But it is often full. I have no doubt this school has been for the moral salvation of many.

The second class consists of those, who, having been kept from school by the inability, or the failure from other causes, of their parents to purchase the books required for them, are growing up in ignorance, and exposed to every moral danger. Where the evil arises from parental neglect, the parent is to be excited to his or her duty to the child. And much may be done in giving this excitement to parents who need it. And where there is an actual inability to obtain the books required, there is benevolence enough in our cominunity, if it can be felt that the kindness will not be abused, to meet the necessities of every parent and child in the city who shall so need it.

The third class are the children of parents, who have little or no care for the intellectual, or the moral culture of their offspring. Girls of this description are frequently to be seen in our streets, in the filthy and tattered garments, which indicate the character of the

poverty in which they live at home.

however, by their attire, would intimate

Some of them,

better things of

those who have the charge of them. These girls are sometimes the play fellows of the vicious boys of their age, and are scarcely less viciously inclined. The best condition to be hoped for concerning them, if left to go on in the course in which they now are, is one of abject poverty. But it is at least equally probable, that they

will become as corrupt, as they are ignorant and destitute.

I repeat, that the children of whom I have here spoken are under fourteen years of age. Is it asked, how many, probably, are there of these children? I answer, certainly not less, I think, than between three and four hundred.

But there is another, and a very large class, which forces itself upon our notice, and which has not less claims upon the interest and sympathy of our community. I refer to the boys, between fourteen, and sixteen or seventeen years of age, who are without any regular employment; and a large part of whom, if neglected, will at best become paupers, and probably sink into the debasement even of the grossest sins.

This class consists principally, but not wholly, of those who have arrived at this period of life without having received the elementary instruction, which would have qualified them to have served as apprentices in the different mechanic employments; and of those who, as truants, and as otherwise vicious, have learned to prefer a life of vagrancy. Of these I would form one division. But this class comprehends also a considerable number, who have been employed as errand boys, but from various causes have lost their places, and are thus daily brought into connexion with the above named classes of idlers; and of some also, who, having completed their term at school, are wanting places, and in the meantime are wandering through our streets, to find companions or pleasure, where they may. Of these, I would form another division. Even of the first, and worst division, however, it may reasonably

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