The consequences of these establishments we see and feel every day.--A native of America who cannot read and write, is as rare an appearance as a Jacobite, or a Roman Catholic, i. e. as rare as a comet or an earthquake.--It has been observed, that we are all of us lawyers, divines, politicians, and philosophers.--And I have good authorities to say, that all candid foreigners who have passed through this country, and conversed freely with all sorts of people here, will allow, that they have never seen so much knowledge and civility among the common people in any part or the world.--It is true there has been among us a party for some years, consisting chiefly, not of the descendants of the first settlers of this country, but of high churchmen and high statesmen, imported since, who affect to censure this provision for the education of our youth as a needless expence, and an imposition upon the rich in favour of the poor;--and as an institution productive of idleness and vain speculation among the people, whose time and attention, it is said, ought to be devoted to labour, and not to public affairs, or to examination into the conduct of their superiors. And certain officers of the crown, and certain other missionaries of ignorance, foppery, servility, and slavery, have been most inclined to countenance and encrease the same party.--Be it remembered, however, that liberty must at all hazards be supported. _We have a right to it, derived from our_ MAKER! But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us at the expence of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.--And Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great CREATOR, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings and a desire to know; but besides this they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right, to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers. _Rulers are no more than attornies, agents, and trustees for the people_: and if the cause, the interest, and trust are insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attornies, and trustees. And the preservation of the means of knowledge, among the lowest rank, is of more importance to the public, than all the property of all the rich men in the country. It is even of more consequence to the rich themselves, and to their posterity.--The only question is, whether it is a public emolument? and if it is, the rich ought undoubtedly to contribute in the same proportion as to all other public burdens, i. e. in proportion to their wealth, which is secured by public expences.--But none of the means of information are more sacred, or have