NEW YORK.--In this State a large fund for schools has been created by
the sale of public land. The proceeds of this fund are annually
distributed in such a way as to secure the raising by local efforts of
at least three times the amount for the same object. This fund is thus
used as a gentle stimulant to local exertions. The system described
will convey a notion of what exists in the _middle_ States.

Ohio.--In this and the Western States every township is divided into so
many sections of a mile square; and one of these sections, out of a
given number, is devoted to the maintenance of schools. As a township
increases in population, the reserved section advances in value. These
schools are not subject to any central control, but are under the
management of a committee chosen by the township.

Still education is not so general in all the States as might be wished.
Miss Beecher, the daughter of Dr. Beecher, having devoted to the
subject much time and talent, tells us that there are in the United
States "a million adults who cannot read and write, and more than two
millions of children utterly illiterate and entirely without schools!"
Of the children in this condition, 130,000 are in Ohio, and 100,000 in
Kentucky.

In the working of this system of education, the absence of a State
Church affords advantages not enjoyed in England. Of late, however, an
objection to the use of the Bible in these schools has been raised by
the Roman Catholics, and the question in some States has been fiercely
agitated. In the city of St. Louis the Bible has been excluded. In
Cincinnati the Catholics, failing to exclude it, have established
schools of their own.