No. I.

LEGAL PROVISIONS FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE FEOPLE IN MASSACHUSETTS.

The Legislature of Massachusetts, by an act approved 18th March 1839, has ordained as follows: §1. Every town containing fifty families or householders, shall maintain, at its own charges, one school, for the instruction of children, by a competent teacher or teachers, in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and good behaviour. The school shall be kept open during six months in every year; or if the town shall support two or more schools, the terms of them all shall be equivalent to six months.

§2. If the town contain 100 families or householders, the school or schools shall be kept for twelve months in each year.

§3. If it contain 150 families, two such schools shall be kept for nine months each.

§4. If it contain 500 families, two such schools shall be kept for twelve months each.

Towards the middle of the day, there was a commotion in the yard, and soon afterwards, the jailers and some other people came in, and I and two more, a marine and a boy, were carried out; after waiting a short time in the yard, our cages were again shouldered, and we were conveyed through the town to the residence of a mandarin, but not the same house we had been at two days before. We were taken into the entrance-hall, which had the usual canopy at the further end; being, I suppose, the “Hall of Ancestors.” I was released from my cage directly it was set down, and found myself with the English prisoner I had previously seen. He told me he was Captain Anstruther, and had been kidnapped at Chusan; that our heads were in comparative security, but that perhaps we should have a long imprisonment, as the Chinese would only consent to give us up, if the English would evacuate Chusan; but to this condition we could not hope the commander-in-chief would accede. However, he was, at the desire of the mandarins, going to write to Chusan to this effect, and by this means our countrymen would know where we were, and perhaps be enabled to procure our release.

Philadelphia, Jan. 21. Ther 33° The Climate — There is far less moisture in the air of Philadelphia than in that of British cities in winter, and more electricity. The climate is so stimulating, that wine is unnecessary, and to many persons disagreeable. On 11th January, I mentioned the circumstance of my collection of drawings and casts being on board of a schooner which was then frozen up in the Delaware. The ice-boat has succeeded in cutting a clear way in the river, and the vessel has arrived. I find that the boxes have been on deck all the voyage, and these not waterproof: Nevertheless there is scarcely any damage done even to the drawings. A small portion of water has entered and been frozen after reaching the first layer. In Dr Franklin's days, the English considered the climate of America more damp than that of their own country, and he, with his usual sagacity, expresses doubts whether the opinion be correct, at least in regard to Philadelphia. Whatever may have been the state of matters then, the air is now certainly drier in the American city: But much of the forest has been cleared since that time.

Godliness profitable unto all things.—The Boston newspapers contain a circular, dated 19th December 1838, addressed by the Commissioners appointed by the Western Railroad Corporation, to the clergy of Massachusetts, pointing out to them “the moral effects of rail-roads,” and earnestly requesting them “to take an early opportunity to deliver a discourse before your congregation, on the moral effect of railroads on our wide extended country.”