Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/109

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
104

latter is a rare accomplishment. In both cases, it is unaccompanied by that moral and religious instruction, which alone can make it valuable.

The most strenuous exertions have been made to introduce the Lancasterian system by the committee of that valuable institution, the British and Foreign School Society of London, but hitherto unsuccessfully. Congress has publicly expressed its determination to establish it, commissioners have been appointed and reports made, but from some cause or other no active steps have been taken to forward the object. The distracted state of the country, the want of finances, the secret hostility of the clergy, and the indolence of the government have all operated againt its establishment. But it cannot be delayed many years. A republican form of government is more than any other a government of opinion, and it will soon be found vain to boast of a freedom whose root is rottenness. Knowledge, universally diffused, is the vital sap of the tree of liberty, and without this strengthening impulse in every branch, its beautiful foliage will fade and wither. The page of history proves to us that monarchies may exist in the midst of moral and intellectual darkness, but republicanism is a plant of light, and will perish if the sources of its life and vigour be long withdrawn. If therefore Guatimala maintains