Creator. The word of God is not the only book that has been excluded. We first excluded the New England Catechism ; this was yielded as soon as it was objected to, because it was sectarian, and inculcated a particular creed. We then excluded all books in which there was any religious discussion. This was yielded for the same reason. We then excluded all books that spoke harshly of the Roman Catholic creed. Though this is a Protestant country, we yielded that too.

In this was shown a principle of liberality, in Protestantism, that it would be well if all denominations of Christians would copy, and let our noble system of Common School education progress in peace. But we have done more than this: we have banished from some of our schools, some of the choicest English literature, because it was offensive to Roman Catholic taste. We have excluded impartial history because it spoke of the despotism of the Roman Church. We have mutilated books, and blotted out clearly authenticated facts, for fear of offending the conscience of this denomination, or of exciting prejudice against the career of that church in times long past. In this we have committed a grievous

error.

The history of the past is the common property of all the present, and we can withhold it from none without perpetrating a wrong. This is not the way to educate those who are sovereigns.

The past should be permitted to speak to them in the language of frankness and truth, and to utter in their ear its

voice of admonition. The pilot of State should be well acquainted with the rocks and shoals upon which other governments have been wrecked. Sir, when sectarianism demanded this, when it went further, and demanded that we should surrender the Bible, it should have been met with a firm and emphatic denial. Regard for the truth of history, reverence for the Deity, a decent respect for the religion and faith of the country, a holy regard for the future welfare of the State, should have prevented our yielding up and denying the Bible a place on the scholars' desks, and in the teachers' hands of our schools. The Bible, sir, is not a sectarian book; men base sectarian theories upon it, and pervert it to their own purposes. This is not the fault of the Bible, and it should not be held responsible for the weakness or wickedness of men. The Bible, sir, is the foundation of the Christian's faith. It is the corner stone upon which the doctrines of every Christian denomination rests. It is the foundation upon which civilization itself and rational liberty are based. Sir, it is more. It is the only guide that man has to lead him upward to God-without it human wisdom is as nothing. Without it the future is all darkness, and the present all gloom. It is the only ray of light glancing from the throne of God that illuminates the destiny of man beyond the

grave.

STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.

BY F. S. KEY.

OH! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous

fight,

O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming;
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

On the shore dimly seen, through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the tow'ring steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam;
Its full glory reflected now shines on the stream.
"Tis the star-spangled banner, oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
Mid the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country they'd leave us no more?

Their blood hath wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home, and the war's desolation;

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heaven-rescued land,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust;"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

"THE KNOW NOTHINGS."

BY DR. THOMAS E. BOND.

Ir will be readily admitted that all secret associations are liable to be abused to bad purposes, and especially political organizations, whose proceedings are secret, because they are not restrained by the wholesome check of public opinion; and hence the individual members are not so essentially controlled, by regard to their reputation, as they would be if what they proposed to do was subjected to public animadversion. "Know Nothingism" may, therefore, be an evil, or it may become one of great magnitude by the abuse of power; but, on the other hand, it may, if directed by right motives, effect great good, and counteract evils of the greatest magnitude; and evils, too, for which we know no other remedy.

If we are rightly informed, the association has been got up to counteract the political influence of Romanism, by resisting the political elevation of foreigners. It does not propose to exclude from office or authority, legislative or executive, Romanists as such, but only foreigners. Yet, as the great body of Romanists in this country are emigrants from Europe, it cannot be denied that the exclusion of foreigners will necessarily affect the Roman Catholic Church more