EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE, IN 1856.

Beside the above schools, which belong to the Ministry of Worship and Instruction, there are special schools for the Army.

The expense of the common schools, chargeable to the government was $4,531,662 florins, (a florin is about two thirds of a thaler, or about 47 cents.) The expense of the Infant Schools-literally gardens for infants during the day, when mothers are obliged to go out to work, is 90,000 florins.

MECKLENBERG.

In turning from this topic, I am sorry to give a statement published in an official paper with regard to the present state of education in Mecklenberg, viz.: that of 940 recruits conscribed last autumn, there were

226 who could not read writing, (i. e., print they could read.)

380 who understood no arithmetic, and but six had a higher education. Such things, adds the Saxon School Gazette, are read with horror! How is it to be accounted for? Beside the State schools, there are in Mecklenberg a great many "ritterscherfslicke," village schools, i. e., which are supported entirely by the lords of manor. The only law affecting them is of the year 1821. According to it, the school is to be open in winter, of course, daily, but in summer, twice a week for two hours, four in all,-actually they are open for 8, 12, even 18 hours, but badly attended. The schoolmaster is appointed by the gentleman, and under his inspection, (with that of the clergyman,) hence a complaint brought before the patron, is at the same time a complaint against the patron. The teacher is taken wheresoever he may be got, provided he can pass the examination before the provincial school board. But that examination is of a very low character, nor is much to be required from a man at a salary of about one hundred dollars a year.

XX. OBITUARY.

THOMAS ROBBINS, D. D., died at Colebrook, Conn., on the 13th of September, 1856, aged 79.

In the death of this venerable Christian pastor, and representative of the habits and costume of the primitive days of New England, the common schools of Connecticut have lost an old teacher, a faithful officer, and one of the earliest laborers in the "Educational revival" which began about the year 1826, and which we hope has not yet reached its full development.

THOMAS ROBBINS, D. D., was born at Norfolk, Conn., on the 11th of August, 1777, the son of Rev. Ammi R. Robbins,* the first minister of that town, and for fifty-two years, in the pastoral charge of the same people. He fitted for college with the scholars which his father was in the habit of instructing in his own house, and joined the Freshman class in Yale in 1792, under the presidency of Dr. Stiles, with whom he studied Hebrew in addition to the regular course. At the close of the Junior year, he left Yale in good standing and joined the Senior class in Williams College, where he graduated with honor in August, 1796, and in September following, took the same degree of bachelor of arts with his former class at Yale College. For several years following he taught school, at Sheffield, Mass., and Torringford, Conn., while pursuing his theological studies, was licensed to preach in September, 1798, and officiated and supplied vacant pulpits in the States of Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, until the autumn of 1803.

While officiating in this way in Fairfield county, he taught an academy in Danbury, from Dec. 1799, to Dec. 1802. While there he delivered on the 11th January, 1800, at the request of the town authorities, an oration on the Death of George Washington, and preached on the 1st of January, 1801, a Centenary Sermon on the first settlement of the town, both of which were published. In November, 1803, he was ordained a missionary of the Connecticut Home Missionary Society to New Connecticut-having declined urgent invitations to settle as pastor in Becket, Haddam, Winchester, and several other churches. From November, 1803, till May, 1806, he labored principally in the county of Trumbull, Ohio, until his impaired health obliged him to return. In May, 1809, he was installed pastor of the first Congregational church in East Windsor, where he continued till 1827, when he was dismissed at his own request. In 1830 he was installed pastor of the First Church in Stratford, and in September, 1831, removed to Mettapoisett, a parish in the town of Rochester, Mass., where he remained pastor of the church till August, 1844, when he removed to Hartford, Conn., to act as Librarian of the Connecticut Historical Society. For several years before his death he was obliged to give up the active duties of his office, 'Rev. Ammi Ruhamah Robbins was born at Branford, Conn., on the 25th of August, (0. S.) 1740. a son of Philemon Robbins, pastor of the church in that place. Graduated at Yale College in 1760; studied theology under Rev. Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlem, and ordained pastor of the church and society of Norfolk, in October. 1761, and died in the fifty-second year of his ministerial labors, on the 31st of October, 1813, aged 73 years. leaving a widow and eight children; three of whom were in the ministry. He was a brother of Rev. Chandler Robbins, D. D., of Plymouth, Mass.

and in 1855 he withdrew to the country, and with his relatives in Norfolk, and Colebrook, passed the last months of his life. He died at Colebrook, of the 13th of September, 1856, aged seventy-nine years, one month and two days.

Dr. Robbins was a member of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, and received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Corporation of Harvard College in 1838, and of Williams College in 1842.

His remains are interred in the North Burying Ground of Hartford, in the immediate vicinity of the grave of the Rev. Dr. Strong, with whom in life, he was always on intimate personal and ministerial relations.

The following notice of his funeral, and the proceedings of the Connecticut Historical Society, are taken from the Connecticut Courant.

FUNERAL OF REV. THOMAS ROBBINS, D. D.-The funeral of the Rev. Dr. Robbins took place Tuesday, Sept. 16th, at 5 o'clock, P. M., at the Centre Church. The services were conducted by Rev. Dr. Hawes, who made a brief but touching address on the Christian and pastoral character of the deceased, and on his own happy personal relations with him, from the outset of his own ministry in Connecticut. He spoke of his uniformly courteous, faithful, exemplary Christian life, and as almost the last representative of the manners of the early generation of Puritan ministers. There was a deep solemnity in his allusion to the closing hour of the day which was beginning to fill the church with the shadows of the coming night, and the blissful morning which would break on the spirit of the faithful Christian who departs this life like the deceased in the faith of the Lord Jesus. After the reading of appropriate selections from the Scriptures, and a prayer, solemn, impressive, and edifying, and appropriate anthems by the choir, the body was borne out of the church by four of the pas tors of Hartford, and followed by the relations and friends, and the members of the Connecticut Historical Society, to the North Burying Ground, where it was consigned to the tomb just as the sun was setting behind the western hills.

A special meeting of the Connecticut Historical Society was held at the Library at half-past four o'clock, which the President, Henry Barnard, opened with the following remarks:

GENTLEMEN:-We have assembled on this occasion, by special summons, to join in an appropriate expression of our grateful remembrance of the Rev. Thomas Robbins, D. D.,—one of the earliest and best friends of the Society, whose decease and funeral have been almost simultaneously announced to us. The departure of this venerable Christian Pastor, whose ministrations for a half century have been familiar to the pulpits of this city and state, and whose life, presence and teachings have seemed a connecting link between the present generation and the Puritan period of New England History-would at any time have arrested the sorrowing attention of all who seek in the past the roots of our present prosperity; but in this venerable Christian Pastor, we brethren, recognize a pioneer in historical and antiquarian research in this state-one of the founders of this Society-one named in the act of its incorporation-one of its earliest office-bearers, and one whose valuable collection of books, pamphlets, and historical memorials constitute the treasure and attraction of our library and museum.

And to add to his claims, to our grateful remembrance, Dr. Robbins has, by his Will, made the Connecticut Historical Society the Trustee of his property, a no inconsiderable sum,* by which his valuable collection of biblical, ecclesiastical, and antiquarian literature will be preserved, and gradually augmented— an ever enduring monument of his piety, patriotism, and zeal for learning, and

About $4,000.

a source of ever widening instruction and pleasure to generation after generation. A brief notice of the Library, and of his, and its connection with the Connecticut Historical Society, can not be considered an inappropriate introduction to the Resolutions which will be submitted to your consideration.

The books which fill these numerous alcoves and shelves, and these interesting memorials of the piety, bravery, and domestic life of the fathers of Connecticut and New England, were the gatherings of nearly fifty years' explorations of the garrets, chests, and libraries of the old families of Connecticut and the "old colony," as well as purchases of antiquarian book-sellers and collectors. Many of these pamphlets are very rare and valuable, and are often consulted by scholors interested in the literary, ecclesiastical, and civil history of New England.

The books were not purchased at once, out of the abundance of a largely inherited fortune, or from year to year out of the surplus of a large salary. Nor were they collected for the owner's sole or temporary gratification. Dr. Robbins has always been a Home Missionary, or the pastor of a country parish. He commenced his collection while in college, by preserving his text-books; and in 1809 made a formal beginning of a permanent library, by making a catalogue of his entire stock, consisting of one hundred and thirty volumes, with a determination that he would add at least one hundred volumes a year as long as he should live. He consecrated his design by invoking the blessing of God upon it, and declared in writing on the first leaf of his catalogue, the following to be his objects:

First, To assist the divinity student in the investigation of the Holy Scriptures, in the study of the history of the Church of Christ, and in such general services as may enable him to become an able and faithful minister of the gospel of salvation.

"Secondly, To assist the lover of history in his researches to discover the character of the Most High, and of man in the various events of Divine Providence. The design is now committed to God. I pray for his holy approbation and blessing."

From this small and pious beginning in 1809, by denying himself all superfluities, out of a modest income, Dr. Robbins persevered, adding year after year at least one hundred volumes to his collection, till, instead of a few shelves in a single case, we now see this spacious hall filled with many thousands of choice and valuable books.

How much purer and higher has been his satisfaction from year to year, in adding to the glorious company of the great and good—coming to him across oceans of space and time-his instructors in the noble themes which have occupied his meditation, his pen, and his voice, for nearly half a century-his resort in hours of solitude-his recreation after severe labor-and his solace in periods of trial and affliction-than if he had expended his earnings and savings on things that perish with the using.

It was his intention from the start, that his collection should be kept entire after his death, and pass, with such conditions as should appear best calculated to secure its preservation and gradual increase, into the safe keeping of some chartered Institution; and by arrangement entered into twelve years ago, his long cherished purpose was consummated by this Society's becoming at first the Trustee, and afterward the owner of his valuable collections. By this arrangement he had the satisfaction in his own life-time to see his entire library

displayed, as it had never been before, in one of the noblest rooms of the most substantially built edifice in the State-safe from the hazards of fire, and from the vicissitudes which attach to the property of individuals, and committed forever to the custody of a Society, which, under the laws of the Commonwealth, and in the patriotism of its citizens, is destined, we trust, to a permanent existence, and ever-widening usefulness. And more than this, he was able to retire from his chosen field of labor, when he could no longer serve his Master as a Christian pastor from his failing strength, and without any apprehension that the evening of his life would be clouded by want or neglect, and here, in our midst, where he was universally respected, with those facilities and helps which his zeal and self-denial had collected, give himself up to those historical and antiquarian studies and pursuits which he loved so well, and which he had commenced so early in his career.

Dr. Robbins was for a long time almost the only collector in the State, of pamphlets and memorials of the past, and as far back as in 1811, in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, commenced a series of papers on the divines and statesmen of our early history, which were afterward collected and published in a volume entitled, "First Planters of New England." In every place where he ministered, he devoted himself to the elucidation of its local and ecclesiastical history.

In 1822, in an address delivered in this city on the 4th of July, before a number of military companies, he urged the formation of an “Historical Society as a depository of ancient books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and temporary publications," and that it should be done here, "in this, the oldest town in the State." Whether growing out of this suggestion, or not, I can not say, but three years later he had the satisfaction of seeing his name among the incorporators of the Connecticut Historical Society, and of being associated with the venerable John Trumbull, and Hon. Thomas Day, among the officers of the institution. Called a few years later out of the State, he was not permitted to labor here in behalf of its objects, but he carried his antiquarian taste and labors, which were recognized by his being elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester.

In 1844, it was my good fortune to consummate, on my own responsibility,* an arrangement by which Dr. Robbins became the librarian of our Society, and re

* At the May session of the Legislature of Rhode Island, in 1844, a Memorial was presented. setting forth that the valuable library of Rev. Thomas Robbins. D. D, of Mettapoisett, Mass., could be procured for a public institution," and asking that it might be purchased by the State, as the foundation of a State Library. The Memorial was referred to the Committee on Education. Mr. Barnard, at that time Commissioner of Public Schools, on being consulted by the Committee, advised that the library be purchased for this purpose, and drew up a Report and Resolution for the Chairman of the Committee, favorable to such action.-remarking to the Chairman, “that if the Legislature did not act promptly and definitely at this session, it would be too late." The Committee did not adopt the Report, and the Legislature adjourned without any action on the subject. On the same day Mr. Barnard drove over to Mettapoisett, and after an interview of an hour, finding that Dr. Robbins' health required a cessation of pastoral duties, gave his personal obligation for a salary for five years, equal to that which he was then receiving as pastor, if he would remove to Hartford with his library, and become Librarian of the Connecticut Historical Society. In the course of the week fol lowing, he visited Hartford, raised among the members of the Society, and the personal friends of Dr. Robbins, the sum required, and presented the matter to the sanction of the Society, which was promptly and cordially given. The annual payment for five years was subsequently converted into an annuity, in consideration of which, Dr. Robbins of his own accord transferred his Library to the Society.