DEDICATION OF THE EVERETT SCHOOL-HOUSE.

The new school-building erected on Northampton street, named the Everett School-house, in honor of that distinguished orator and friend of education, was formally dedicated on the 17th of September, by the usual exercises, which took place in the large upper hall of the building. This building, which is erected on a plan which does not differ materially from the other school-buildings, is finished and furnished throughout in the most perfect manner, and in all respects may be regarded as a model Boston school-house. The first floor over the heating apparatus is fire-proof, an improvement which will be adopted in regard to the houses hereafter constructed.

The platform was occupied by His Honor Mayor Lincoln and the members of the City Government, Hon. Edward Everett, President Felton, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, Rev. Dr. Putnam, Hon. J. D. Philbrick, and others.

The exercises commenced with chanting "The Lord's Prayer," by the pupils. Rev. D. C. Eddy then read selections from the Scriptures, after which a prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Burroughs. A commemorative song, written for the occasion by Mr. Rufus Leighton, was sung. Alderman Bailey, Chairman of the Building Committee, then delivered the keys of the school-house to Mayor Lincoln, who responded briefly to the remarks of Alderman Bailey, and then handed the keys to Mr. E. F. Thayer, Chairman of the local School Committee. Mr. Thayer made a few remarks and presented the keys to Mr. George B. Hyde, Principal of the Everett School. A dedicatory hymn, written for the occasion by Mr. Wm. T. Adams, was sung by the pupils. Mr. Everett was then introduced by the Chairman, and made the following address:

ADDRESS OF EDWARD EVERETT.

Mr. Chairman :-You will easily believe that I feel a peculiar interest in the occasion that has called us together. The dedication of a new first class schoolhouse is at all times an event of far greater importance to the welfare of the community than many of the occurrences which at the time attract much more of the public attention, and fill a larger space in the pages of history. The house which we this day dedicate is to be occupied by a school which had already, as the Dwight school for girls, established an enviable reputation among the sister institutions. It is now, in consequence of the rapid growth of this part of the city, transferred, with the happiest prospects, to this new, spacious and admirably arranged building-a model school-house, fit for the reception of a model school. I hope, as a friend to education from my youth up, I should duly appreciate the importance of such an event; but you have kindly given me a reason to the strength of which it would be affectation to seem insensible-for taking a peculiar interest in this day's ceremonial.

One of the highest honors which can be paid to an individual—one of the most enviable tokens of the good opinion of the community in which he lives-is to connect his name with some permanent material object, some scientific discovery, some achievement in art, some beneficent institution, with reference to which, by word or by deed, he may be thought to have deserved well of his fellow-men. Hundreds of towns and cities on the continent recall the memory of the great and good men, who, in peace and in war, founded and sustained the liberties and rights of the country. Science gives the name of the astronomer to the comet, whose periodical return he has ascertained. Botany commemorates her votaries, in the flowers, and the trees-the Kalmias, the Dahlias, the Robinias-which they first discovered and described. The fossil relics of the elder world are designated by the names of the geologists who first exhumed them from their adamantine graves; and we can not but feel that one of the strongest instincts of our nature is gratified by these associations.

But what are these lifeless, soulless substances, these mute, inanimate bodies in

the heavens above, or the earth beneath-the vaporous comet, the fading flower, the extinct animal, whose very skeleton is turned into stone-compared with an institution like this-a living fountain of eternal light, a flower garden planted in each succeeding year, with germs of undying growth; a nursery, beneath whose fostering wings so many immortal spirits shall be trained up in the paths of duty, usefulness, and happiness; and in which you permit me to hope that my poor name will be kindly remembered, as long as the schools of Boston shall retain their name and their praise in the land; and that I am well aware will be as long as Boston herself shall retain her place on the earth's surface; for as long as there is a city council to appropriate a dollar, or a treasurer to pay it, I am sure it will be voted and paid for the support of the schools. Devoted for a pretty long life to the public service, in a variety of pursuits and occupations, laboring, I know I may say diligently, and I hope I may add, though sometimes with erring judgment, yet always with honest purpose, for the public good, at home and abroad, I frankly own, sir, that no public honor, compliment, or reward, which has ever fallen to my lot, has given me greater pleasure than the association of my name with one of these noble public schools of Boston.

They are indeed, sir, the just pride and boast of our ancient metropolis, and it is with great propriety that you select the 17th of September for the dedication of a new school-house. As the corporate existence of the city dates from that day, so nothing can contribute more to its continued prosperous growth-to its perpetuated life-than the organization of one of these admirable institutions. What offering to our beloved city, on this its two hundred and thirtieth birthday, can we present to her more appropriate, more welcome, more auspices of good, than the means of educating eight hundred of her daughters? Nor is it the birthday of our city alone. On this day, seventy-three years ago, the Constitution of the United States went forth to the people from the hand of the peerless chief, who, whether in war or in peace, commanded all their respect and united all their affection. The best, the only hope under Providence, that we may long enjoy, we and our children, the blessing which it secures to us as a united, happy, and prosperous people, is in the intelligence, virtue, and enlightened patriotism of which these free schools are the great living fountain.

We are accused sometimes by our brethren in other parts of the country, and by our friends on the other side of the water, with being a little given to selflaudation. I don't think that the worst fault of a community, though it may be carried too far for good taste. But it implies at least the possession of something, which we not only ourselves think worthy of praise, but which we have reason to believe is held in esteem by others. For I really do not think we habitually over-praise the common schools of Boston. Not that they are perfect; nothing human is perfect. but I must think it as liberal, comprehensive and efficient a system, as the imperfection of human affairs admits. It aims to give to the entire population of both sexes a thorough education in all the useful branches of knowledge. If there is a class in the community so low that the system does not go down to them, it is for causes which no system, established by municipal authority in a free country, can overcome. In all cities as large as Boston, there must be some hundreds of unhappy children, such as those to whom I alluded last Saturday, (it makes one's heart bleed to see them,) whose wretched parents prefer sending them into the streets to beg, to gather chips, to peddle lozenges and newspapers, rather than to send them to school. But with reasonable cooperation on the part of the parents, the city does certainly, as I have said, provide the means by which a thorough education, in all the elementary branches of useful knowledge, may be attained by all her children.

The cost at which this end is obtained, bears witness to the liberality of the city. I perceive by the Auditor's report, that, for the last financial year, the expenditure on the schools, exclusive of school-houses, amounted to $373.668.61; for school-houses, $144,202.67, making a total of $517,371.28-$17,371 over a half a million of dollars for a single year, which I am inclined to think is, in proportion to our population, a larger expenditure for the purposes of education than is made by any city or people on the face of the globe.

The school-house, whose dedication we are assembled to witness, is for the aecommodation of a girl's school; and this circumstance seems to invite a few words on female education.

FEMALE EDUCATION.

There is a good deal of discussion at the present day on the subject of Women's Rights and her education. No one would be willing to allow that he wished to deprive them of their rights, and the only difficulty seems to be to settle what their rights are. The citizens of Boston, acting by their municipal representatives, have long since undertaken to answer this question in a practical way, as far as a city government can do it, by admitting the right of the girls to have, at the public expense, as good an education as the boys. It is not in the power of the city to aniend our constitutions, so as to extend political privileges to the gentler sex, nor to alter the legislation which regulates the rights of property. But it was in the power of the city to withhold or to grant equal privileges of education; and it has decided that the free grammar schools of Boston should be open alike to boys and girls. This seems to me not only a recognition at the outset of the most important of Women's Rights, viz., equal participation in these institutions, but the best guaranty that if in any thing else the sex is unjustly or unfairly dealt with, the remedy will come in due time. With the acknowledged equality of woman in general intellectual endowments, though tending in either sex to an appropriate development, with her admitted superiority to man in tact, sensibility, physical and moral endurance, quickness of perception, and power of accommodation to circumstances, give her for two or three generations equal advantages of mental culture, and the lords of creation will have to carry more guns than they do at present, to keep her out of the enjoyment of any thing which sound reasoning and fair experiment shall show to be of her rights.

I have, however, strong doubts whether, tried by this test, the result would be a participation in the performance of the political duties which the experience of the human race, in all ages, has nearly confined to the coarser sex. I do not rest this opinion solely on the fact that these duties do not seem congenial with the superior delicacy of woman, or compatible with the occupations which nature assigns to her in the domestic sphere. I think it would be found, on trial, that nothing would be gained-nothing changed for the better-by putting the sexes on the same footing, with respect, for instance, to the right of suffrage. Whether the wives and sisters agreed with the husbands and brothers, or differed from them-as this agreement or difference would, in the long run, exist equally in all parties the result would be the same as at present. So, too, whether the wife of the husband had the stronger will, and so dictated the other's vote, as this, also, would be the same on all sides, the result would not be affected. So that it would be likely to turn out that the present arrangement, by which the men do the electioneering and the voting for both sexes, is a species of representation which promotes the convenience of all and does injustice to none.

Meantime for all the great desirable objects of life, the possession of equal advantages for the improvement of the mind, is of vastly greater importance than the participation of political power. There are three great objects of pursuit on earth-well-being, or happiness for ourselves and families; influence and control over others; and a good name with our fellow-men, while we live and when we are gone. Who needs be told, that, in the present state of the world, a good education is not indeed a sure, but by far the most likely means of obtaining all the ends which constitute material prosperity, competence, position, establishment in life; and that it also opens the purest sources of enjoyment. The happiest condition of human existence is unquestionably to be found in the domestic circle of what may be called the middle condition of society, in a family harmoniously united in the cultivation and enjoyment of the innocent and rational pleasures of literature, art and refined intercourse, equally removed from the grandeurs and the straits of society. These innocent and rational pleasures, and this solid happiness, are made equally accessible to both sexes by our admirable school system.

Then for influence over others, as it depends much more on personal qualities than on official prerogative, equality of education furnishes the amplest means of equal ascendency. It is the mental and moral forces, not political power, which mainly govern the world. It is but a few years since the three greatest powers in Europe, two on one side and one on the other, engaged in a deadly

struggle with each other to decide the fate of the Turkish empire; three Christian powers straining every nerve, the one to overthrow, the two others to uphold the once great and formidable, but now decaying and effete Mohammedan despotism of Western Asia. Not less than half a million of men were concentrated in the Crimea, and all the military talent of the age was called forth in the contest? And who bore off the acknowledged palm of energy, usefulness and real power in that tremendous contest. Not emperors and kings, not generals, admirals or engineers, launching from impregnable fortresses and blazing intrenchments, the three-bolted thunders of war. No, but an English girl, bred up in the privacy of domestic life, and appearing on that dread stage of human action and suffering, in no higher character than that of a nurse.

And then for fame, to which, by a natural instinct, the ingenuous soul aspires:

"The spur which the clear spirit doth raise,

(The last infirmity of noble mind,)

To scorn delights and live laborious days"—

need I say, that the surest path to a reputation for the mass of mankind is by intellectual improvement; and that in this respect, therefore, our school system places the sexes on an equality. Consider for a moment the spectacle presented by the reign of Louis XIV., the Augustan age of France, rich in the brightest names of her literature, philosophy, politics and war-Pascal, Descartes, Corneille, Racine, Lafontaine, Moliere, Bossuet, Fenelon, Bourdaloue, Massillon, Colbert, Conde, Turenne, Catinat. Among all these illustrious names there is not one that shines with a brighter or purer ray than Madame de Sevigne; not one whose writings are more extensively read by posterity; not one in whose domestic life and personal character all future ages will probably take a deeper interest. The other distinguished individuals whom I have mentioned, we regard with cold admiration, as personages in the great drama of history. We feel as if Madame de Sevigne belonged to our own families. The familiar letters principally to her daughter, written by this virtuous and accomplished woman, who preserved her purity in a licentious court, who thought with vigor and wrote with simplicity, earnestness, and true wit in a pedantic and affected age, have given her a place among the celebrities of France, which the most distinguished of them might envy.

Apart then, girls, from a preparation for the pursuits, duties, and enjoyments of life, which more especially pertain to your sex, in the present organization of society, you possess in these advantages of education the means of usefulness and (if that be an object) of reputation, which, without these, would be, in a great degree, monopolized by the stronger sex. The keys of knowledge are placed in your hands, from its elemental principles up to the higher branches of useful learning. These, however, are topics too familiar on these occasions to be dwelt upon, and I will conclude by offering you my best wishes, that the reputation already acquired by the Dwight School for girls may be maintained under the new organization; that your improvement may be proportioned to your advantages; that your progress may equal the warmest wishes of your teachers, parents, and friends; and that you may grow up to the enjoyment of the best blessings of this world, and the brightest and highest hopes of the world to come.

THE LOWE PRINTING PRESS AND OFFICE.

Among the useful appliances of a large educational establishment, or of a Family School, we should name "The Lowe Printing and Letter-copying Press," with an outfit of Composing Stick, Case and Font of Type, Ink Roller, Blocks and Bearers, Can of Ink, &c., which can be got of the Lowe PRESS CO., No. 13 Water street, Boston, for $43. We know of no better school than such a printing office for acquiring the habit of correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and paragraphing, while the pupils are printing Circulars, Questions for the daily, weekly, or quarterly examinations, Catalogues, and Blanks of various kinds for the use of the school, or a Monthly Paper for the amusement and improvement of the contributors in composition.

INDEX TO VOLUME IX.

BARNARD'S AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

Barnard, H., articles by, 129, 167, 170, 215, 351, 381, Conventores, 65.