IMPROVEMENT IN SOCIAL CONDITION. The history of the United States of North America is, in some respects, one of the most instructive that we can turn to; because we are accurately acquainted with the origin of this social community, and are also enabled to trace its history in all its important facts, from the first establishment of the several colonies up to the present condition of the Union. Of all historical records none can be put in comparison with legislative enactments, as showing the condition of the people at any given period, and the degree of mental culture diffused among them. In the American States, even under their former colonial government, there were few men of any importance in the provinces who did not participate in some of the functions of government; and we may therefore consider the laws enacted at that period as indicative of the opinions held by the most influential classes. We happen to have before us an old collection of Virginia laws, entitled, ‘A complete collection of the Laws of Virginia, at a Grand Assembly held at James City, 23d March, 1662;’ a few extracts from which may not be uninteresting. There appears to be in this volume only one law about education, which prescribes the founding of a college “for the advance of learning, education of youth, supply of the ministry, and promotion of piety.” The law states how the money is to be raised; but as to its application nothing more is said, except that a piece of land is to be got, and, “with as much speed as may be convenient, housing is to be erected thereon for entertainment of students and scholars.” The _housing_ department seems to have been the uppermost thing in the legislature’s thoughts; the providing of good teachers was a secondary consideration. There are several enactments about “rewards for killing wolves,” which at that time infested even the lower parts of Virginia. At the present day, owing to the increase of population, the wolf and other wild animals, though occasionally heard of, are but rarely seen even in the mountains, and seldom do any damage. The reward “for every wolf destroyed by pit, trap, or otherwise, is 200 pounds of tobacco.” Tobacco was the most common standard of value in Virginia at that time, as we see from this and numerous other instances, where fines, &c. are estimated at so many pounds of tobacco. Thus it is stated in enactment 35, that “the court shall not take cognizance of any cause under the value of 200 pounds of tobacco, or twenty shillings sterling, which a private justice may and is hereby authorized and empowered to hear and determine.”