the impostures of daring hypocrisy, partook, in their origin, too much of the character of infidelity, to produce real benefit. The attempt to inspire the nation with enthusiasm upon such a basis, could but degenerate into those deplorable excesses, which will for ever stain the close of the last century, and was of course not calculated to give a better impulse to education. Since the storm has been allayed, the prospect has, apparently at least, become clearer; but it is to be feared, that the pretended improvements will not bear the test of closer examination. The turn which the tide of public instruction, in France, has taken since the restoration of peace in Europe, seems to indicate a decided predilection for the superficial glitter of an extensive empiric knowledge; in the acquirement of which, the idol of human reason is not less profanely worshipped, than in the mad performances of revolutionary atheism; whilst the heart is left cold and indifferent, a prey to false sentiment or degrading passion.

And now, if we fix our looks lastly upon England, and ask, "What is the spirit of those changes which have been made in popular education within these last thirty or forty years ?"–shall we arrive at a more favourable result ? I fear not. Here also the wish for improvement has received a false direction, singularly analogous to the cha-* racteristic bias of the nation. Whatever has of late been done in this country under the name of improvement in education, has invariably borne a manufacturing aspect. The question has not been-What must we do to give to every child the best possible education? but-What are the best means of educating the greatest possible number of children with the smallest expense of capital and of human labour? So that, without the slightest regard being paid to the nature of the treatment which the child's mind and heart receive, it has been considered as an unquestionable proof of a superior system, that one master should be enabled to drill a thousand children instead of a hundred, and that the movements of the mass should strike the eye

20

ADVANCED CIVILIZATION OF ENGLAND.

as more regular, and less interrupted by any expression of individual thought and feeling, than what had been exhibited before under a less perfect system of machinery. This false tendency is the more deeply to be deplored, as England is, of all the countries of Europe, and perhaps of the world, that in which mistakes on matters of vital importance are of the greatest consequence. The nations of the continent can, to use a common phrase, better afford to commit blunders, because in the slow march of their national life evils do not spread so rapidly, and there is more time left for their observation and correction. Not so in this country. Whoever has impartially observed and compared the state of things here and abroad, must be aware of the immense difference in the degree of development which society has attained; and I do not think this difference at all overrated in saying that England is from two to three centuries in advance in the march of civilization before the other countries of Europe. This superiority, whilst it is a subject for congratulation, is on the other hand also a cause for serious apprehension. The complication of all the relations of society, and the rapidity and superficiality of social intercourse, are a great drawback upon social morality, for which no other compensation can be found than a more strict, firm, and independent adherence to principle on the part of every single individual in the community. In countries in which civilization is in a less advanced state, there is a primitiveness and a simplicity in all the ties of society which form a happy substitute for that higher moral development which is generally wanting. The contact which every individual has with society is of such a nature as to render him, in the sphere in which he moves, perfectly well known, not only in his character, but also in his various concerns, and therefore dependant upon the moral suffrages which he may earn; in this manner a sort of public morality is created, by which the individual, however weak in his own principles, is supported like a faint man in a crowd. Nay,

THE CLAIMS OF SOCIETY.

21

the whole of society resembles a crowd of faint men upholding each other, because they stand too close to allow to each other room for falling. The progress of civilization, on the contrary, has the effect of enlarging the sphere of every individual, and rendering him more insulated and more independent; and hence it is, that it has a tendency to weaken that mutual support which man gives to man in a primitive state of society. But it is not the purpose of God that man should remain leaning upon man ; he must learn to stand, independently of man, in the strength of the Lord; and the gradual breaking down of that social morality is therefore to be hailed rather than deplored, provided civilization take such a turn as will tend to render the individuals strong in the Lord; that is to say, provided society give to those whom it no longer upholds by the power of the mass, an essentially religious education.

This brings me back to the question from which I was led to this review of the history of education, the question-What are the rights and duties of the family, and of society at large, respecting the education of children belonging to them? Is it not evident from the consequences which the neglect of education produces in the inevitable progress of civilization, that society must have a positive duty to give it to every individual born in its bosom? This duty might indeed be inferred indisputably from the claim which society lays to the services of every such individual; for-(to take no higher ground than is taken by all moral philosophers, and even by political economists)—it is generally admitted, that every right produces a corresponding duty. Now, if society have, or pretend to have, a right to the services of every individual, it is clear that this right necessarily involves some duty; and what can that duty more obviously be, than that society should give to its children such an education as will fit them for the services which it intends to exact from them in after life?

22

THE DUTIES OF SOCIETY.

The duty of the family, and especially of the parent, is, no doubt, more immediate; and accordingly its fulfilment has in some measure been secured by an innate feeling, which, although weakened or misdirected in almost every instance, is yet exterminated, or entirely perverted, only where vulgar degradation has reached its lowest ebb, or fashionable corruption its highest tide. But whilst this feeling is so deeply engrafted in the human bosom, that there is hardly a parent to be found wholly indifferent to the fate of his child, the fulfilment of the duty which it involves presupposes such a variety of moral qualifications, of intellectual acquirements, and even of outwardly favourable circumstances, on the part of the parents, that by far the greater number of them are not able to discharge their obligations in this respect, however strongly they may feel them. It devolves then upon society, as the claimant upon the future services of their children, to assist those parents who are willing themselves to lend a helping hand in the education of their children, and altogether to take the place of those who entirely neglect it, either from the straitness of their circumstances, or from moral torpor or dissipation.

But if, what seems almost impossible after so simple and so conclusive an argument, any doubt should be left concerning the duty which society has to discharge towards the rising generation,-if there be any that do not wish to follow principles, without the evidence of facts,—let me appeal to the grievous facts which the present state of this country exhibits. Let any one take an attentive survey of the present condition of society; let him carefully examine the motives and feelings by which the great mass of the population are guided in their transactions; let him look at the overbearing influence of covetousness, and selfishness in every other garb, by which men are led away, at the expense of honest principles and generous sentiments; let him cast up the sum of dishonesty and immorality which is with impunity committed, because not amenable

CONSEQUENCES OF NEGLECTING THEM.

23

to the law of the land; let him add to this the sum of vices and crimes which escape the avenging arm of justice, daily and hourly stretched out upon the perpetrators; and let him complete this sad account by the number of those who are every year doomed to more or less protracted wretchedness, or to an untimely death; let any one, I say, cast his eye upon this disgusting and deplorable scenelet him, on one hand, trace to their origin those evils, by which the very vitals of society are infected, and observe, on the other, their rapid and progressive increase; will he dare to deny, that it is the hand of God avenging upon society the neglect of its duties to the rising generations ? Of all the laws laid down by God for the government of the moral world, there is none that can be violated with impunity; and in his justice and his wisdom he has so ordered it, that the more sacred the trust, the more terrible will be the vengeance upon those that disregard it.

But where, it may be asked, is the proof that society does neglect its duties to the rising generation? Are not our ears daily filled with the praise of this happy and enlightened age, on account of its extensive exertions in the cause of education? I will not now be fastidious, and find fault with this or that system; I will, for a moment, suppose all education that is given, to have a truly good and moral tendency; and will merely ask, what proportion of the children of this country receive any education whatever? The number of children of the poorer classes in England (for of the other two kingdoms we have not even sufficient data to form an estimate) amounts, according to the latest calculation, to about two millions, not in cluding those under five, nor those above twelve years of age. Of this number, there are one million attending at day schools of different descriptions; the Sabbath schools belonging to the Establishment count about half a million of scholars; and those conducted by different dissenting denominations contain an equal number. At the same time,