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abundance to the possessors, is now become a barren desert.

To avert such ruin from this highly-favoured nation, every patriot-feeling should be called into exertion. If the wisdom of Parliament has hitherto been unable to devise a prompt and effectual remedy for the evil, it surely proves that the means must be sought where the authority of the Senate cannot penetrate. It is to be sought for in the moral character of the people. The people themselves must, each in his individual capacity, accomplish that reform upon which the public safety and happiness depend -a reform which can only be effected by the means pointed out in the energetic language of Mr. Burke:"Patience, Labour, Frugality, Sobriety, and Religion:-these should be recommended to them. All else is downright fraud."

L.

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

AMONG the distinctions of the present age, no invention promises more important advantages to mankind than the new system of National Education. For this public benefit we are chiefly indebted to the Rev. Dr. Bell, who, as the originator of this great improvement, has justly obtained the grateful acknowledgments of his countrymen, as well as of many enlightened foreigners, who have transplanted the system into other nations.

So early as the year 1789, Dr. Bell, while chaplain in the service of the East India Company at Madras, undertook to remodel the Military Orphan School at that presidency; and introduced among the children the contrivance of mutual instruction, which forms the basis of the present system. He devoted his gratuitous services for several years to this favourite object, adopting some of his improvements from the practice of the native schools, and extend

ing and perfecting his plan as he proceeded. O̟n returning to England in 1797, he published an account of the Madras method of instruction, recommending it as peculiarly applicable to the education of the poor in England. He shortly after exhibited it in practice at the charity school of St. Botolph, Aldgate, and also in a parish school at Kendal.

In 1800 the celebrated Quaker Joseph Lancaster, opened an institution for educating children of the lower classes in Southwark, and availing himself of Dr. Bell's plan (to which he added several ingenious improvements of his own,) he gave a further impulse to the popularity which it was gradually acquiring, by making it known in various parts of the kingdom which he visited for that purpose.

The new System presented exactly the power which had hitherto been wanting, for the ready dissemination of Christian knowledge, and became a powerful auxiliary to those institutions which were directed to the moral improvement of the labouring classes. It saved time, expense, and labour, and thus removed the greatest impediments which had hitherto limited the sphere of popular instruction. It enabled one master to teach an almost indefinite number of children, by relieving him from the drudgery of individual instruction. It gave him leisure for the general superintendence and discipline of his scholars, while their attention, kept constantly alive by mutual examination, converted the labour of learning into a rival spirit of improvement, and conquered all the difficulties of elementary tuition in the shortest period.

In England patrons are always to be found ready to support any scheme for the public advantage. The national society for educating the poor in the principles of the established church was founded in 1812, and its operations have been attended with complete success. A central school containing 1000 children was formed in London, and upwards of 1600 other schools, in union with the parent institution, have been since established throughout the kingdom,

extending the blessing of a bible education to 300,000 children. The system of mutual instruction has also been adopted to a very large extent, under various modifications, by societies acting independently of the established church. Almost every community of Christians has availed itself of the benefit, not only throughout the British dominions, but it has been spread over France, Germany, Russia, and other nations, scattering the seeds of Christianity wherever it has penetrated.

Notwithstanding the very general acknowledgment of the advantages resulting from this beneficent system, there are many who opposed its reception at first, and who still watch its progress with anxiety and alarm. Nor are these objectors to be found only among the ignorant and perverse. The prejudice has taken great root in the minds of persons who betray no want of liberality in other matters, and whose dislike to popular education proceeds from a sincere attachment to good order. They dread the introduction of a new power, the mighty action of which they already perceive, but cannot calculate its movements.

In examining this important question, it appears to us most unjust to condemn a mechanism which is sure to awaken the faculties of the pupil, by opening to him an intelligence which has been hitherto limited to a narrow portion of mankind. The number of readers throughout the world, as yet bears no proportion to the millions which compose the human race. The Creator bestowed these intellectual powers for the general happiness of mankind, and it is ungrateful to neglect the cultivation of those enlarged means of benefiting our fellow creatures, while their exercise cannot fail to augment the enjoyment of human existence. For want of this culture how many noble minds yet lie buried in ignorance;-how much genius which would have blossomed in the sun, still withers in the shade. What powers of investigation -what fertility of imagination-what spirit of enterprize-what capacity for wisdom-remain useless and unknown to the world, and are hidden from the

knowledge of the unconscious possessor. The want of education debars whole nations from the full exercise of those faculties which they share in common with ourselves. Generation after generation passes away with minds benumbed by ignorance, and incapable of employing those powers which were never developed. To such a neglected race all the discoveries of science are unknown, all arts are useless. The noble invention of printing, which has given wings to learning, is to them an unprofitable discovery, and the dispersion of the sacred scriptures a benefit unvalued and unintelligible.

It is as an instrument for spreading this mighty blessing throughout the world, that the advocates for National Education should most earnestly promote its advancement, The duty of sharing Christian knowledge with those more ignorant than ourselves, is so clearly taught in the bible, that it is not easy to comprehend how those who sincerely believe in its authority, can reconcile themselves to the resistance of a system of popular education so eminently calculated to serve the cause of religion. The Israelites were commanded to teach the sacred precepts diligently to their children, and our blessed Lord, who said "suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not," has undoubtedly given his sanction to those means of communicating religious instruction, which cannot be conveyed to all without some plan of education, in which the art of reading must necessarily be included.

Notwithstanding this many serious persons maintain, that although religious knowledge is unquestionably designed for the poor as well as the rich, education is so dangerous a possession in humble life, it is better not to incur the risk of so much mischief in endeavouring to improve their understandings. Such mistaken persons are willing to leave the poor in total ignorance, rather than give them the power of reading the scriptures, lest they should abuse the talent thus bestowed upon them. This is about as wise and just as to deny a man victuals, lest he should be choked;

or reduce him to starvation, for fear his food might possibly disagree with him.

There is scarce a blessing bestowed by the bounteous hand of Providence, which weak and sinful man does not sometimes pervert; but no one was ever so absurd as to assert that these blessings should be withheld because they are capable of perversion. Proud and narrow-minded men would keep the poor ignorant, under a most mistaken notion that they shall thus preserve their own superiority. We hear such people for ever declaiming that insubordination and discontent were scarce known in the nation, so long as the lower classes were uneducated; that it is only since they were taught in Sunday schools and national schools to read and write, that they have begun to meddle with politics, and to endeavour to turn the world upside down. Any one tolerably acquainted with history may show this assertion to be entirely unfounded.

In looking back upon the history of England, we shall find abundant proofs that public commotions heretofore sprung with the wildest luxuriance from totally different sources. We may convince ourselves, from the experience of our forefathers, that when the English people were most ignorant, they were not the most loyal and contented. If we examine the accounts of other countries, either in ancient or modern times, we shall find rebellion and public distraction agitating the ignorant subjects of the rudest nations, and vice and profligacy pervading every order of mankind, while unrestrained by the controul of Education. We, who have visited the remote nations of Asia and Africa, can bear witness to the brutal profligacy which never fails to accompany ignorance wherever it be found; we have had occasion to remark, that those nations are always the most moral which are the most enlightened by the precepts of the Gospel. There is not a more striking testimony to the truth of our holy religion, than the extraordinary amendment in public morals which the doctrines of the bible produced in those nations

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