PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AND L Miscellany. COLLEGE DEPARTMENT. OUR newspaper forces understand the value of concentration. Whether it is a principle to be defended or a Butler to be denounced, editorial broadsides, all aiming at the same point, follow each other with surprising rapidity. As a consequence, whatever the field of discussion, to that all eyes are directed, and less absorbing interests become obscured. A few months ago, a skirmish, rather than a war, of words had begun to arouse the public mind to a consideration of the subject of Compulsory Education. The feasibility of adopting any one of the half-formed plans and the advantages which would accrue, were dwelt upon by all thoughtful educators. The questions in regard to the system have been only postponed, not decided. In New England, whose common schools are her pride, one is, at a superficial glance, surprised to find a deep-felt opposition to any proposal of coercion; yet this opposition is most characteristic. Here is shown a certain rugged independence, a sturdy reliance upon one's own abilities, which is but the outcropping of an honest self-respect, and, as such, commands and |