state the grounds of that objection, in what I deem fact and argument, to support the following propositions: 1. That, to tax the people; to deduct from their food and clothing, and means of good lodging, in order to set up schools, and create masters and mistresses, to teach the children of that same people, reading and writing, would be a perfect monster in the law-making way. 2. That heddekashun," such as I have above described it, and extending over the whole of a people, must be productive of mischief, instead of good; must tend to create idleness to supply the place of industry, and must be, generally speaking, productive of misery, to the "hed- Upon what ground is it, according to dekated "persons themselves, while what rule of right is it, that single men its natural tendency must be, to and single women are to be taxed for produce an infinite number of the purpose of giving "heddekashun" frauds, thefts, and other acts of to married people's children? roguery, which would not have upon what ground are married people to existed without it. be taxed for the purpose of giving "heddekashun" to bastard children? But, I defy any man to state, in the compass of a whole Register, like this,

Is every man to be compelled to send his children to these schools? Is he to be compelled to send his children to a place to be brought up in idleness, while he has to feed them and clothe them? This would be an act of sheer tyranny. At any rate, such man is to be compelled to pay for " heddekating" the children of others, if he does not choose that his own children should be thus bred up. Nine-tenths of the parish may detest the persons who are appointed schoolmaster and schoolmistress; yet, all are to be compelled to place their children under their care and management; or to pay these detested persons for giving "heddekashun" to other people's children.

And,

the instances of injustice, which must take place, if a scheme like this were to pass into a law; and, in the prosecution of which scheme, your lordship took the first step, during the last session of Parliament.

With regard to the first of these propositions, what is this scheme of "national heddekashun?" Why, to establish schools in all the parishes and town-a tenth part of the absurdities, and of ships, and to support them out of the taxes. The money must pass through the hands of the Government. The Government will take care not to let the money go into hands that are politically hostile to itself. As it will have the giving of the money, and will be an- But, I hold it to be impossible that swerable for its application, it will, of the Parliament should ever consent to course, have the choosing of the persons the adoption of a scheme so unjust, and into whose hands the money is to go. so every way mad, as this scheme is. No matter whether the schoolmasters The people must be reduced to the state or schoolmistresses be immediately ap- of mere serfs: they must be deemed to pointed by the Government in London: be the mere property, or live stock, of they must be appointed under the au- the Government, before coercion and thority of some one who acts in behalf interference like this can take place. of that Government in this respect; Therefore, I consider this scheme as and thus there will be created fifty thou done for. In spite of the cry about sand more tax-eaters, and those, too," heddekashun;" in spite of all the dethe most dependent and most servile lusion that has prevailed upon the subthat can possibly be conceived. They ject; in spite of all the cant and all the will, too, naturally be amongst the nonsense that have been at work most unprincipled, because they will throughout the country upon the subbe idlers in their very nature; and they ject; in spite of the natural desire that will be a band of spies working for the parents have that their children should oppression of the people, on whose become what they call scholars sweat they will live. people, the industrious and worthy part

the

of the people, who have no desire to properly called labour, the stern applilive upon the labour of others; in spite cation of the limbs to the doing of of all the deluding circumstances, something. This is by no means a when the industrious part of the people pleasant thing in itself; the love of ease come to have these questions put to is natural to all animals, and to man as them: Do you wish to pay more well as the rest; in many cases it is intaxes than you pay now? Do you wish jurious to health; but that is no matter; your children to be brought up without it is loved and sought for by all men,work until they be twelve years of age? and by all other animals. Therefore, Do you wish them not to contract the the desire to live without labour is habits of labour in their infancy? Do general, if not universal; and young you wish to be compelled to send them people who are sent to school, instead to schools, the masters and mistresses of being set to work, naturally imof which you have nothing to do in the bibe the notion that that which is appointing of? Do you wish to be com- taught them will supply the place of pelled to pay to "heddekate" the chil- that labour, which all so much disdren of idle people? Do you who are like. single, wish to pay taxes to "heddekate" the children of married people? Do ed in the head, the limbs will very reyou, who are married, and have quite luctantly take to labour. Conceit comes, enough to do to get a sufficiency of bread too, to prop up this notion; the confor your own children, wish to have a part ceit is fostered by the natural fondness of that bread taken away to be given to and partiality of the parents; and the some body to "heddekate" bastard son of every mother is a prodigy of children? Do you wish to have two learning, and she, poor woman, is full of servile spies, a male and a female, in sorrow, and of envy of her more fortuevery parish in the kingdom, upheld nate neighbours, that she cannot get a by the Government, and plotting "situation" for her son, he being too against those who feed and maintain well" heddekated" to make shoes, or them? These questions put home to to go to plough. the people, they will at once reject a scheme so full of injustice, and so manifestly calculated to render them almost literally slaves.

When once this notion is firmly seat

This nation absolutely swarms with young people of this description; they have no learning worthy of the name: not one out of five hundred of them But, my lord, I do not stop here: I possesses the smallest particle of am against any scheme of general literature, or is competent for any "heddekashun," being firmly of the thing worthy the name of accounts. opinion expressed in my second propo- Yet they think their case hard: they sition; namely, that such "heddekashun" must be productive of mischief instead of good. In answer to this opinion of mine, the question has often been asked me, What harm can this “heddekashun” do? The harm is this that it rares young people in habits of indolence; that it causes them to begin the world without work of any sort; that it deprives them of the capacity of earning their bread at as early an age as they otherwise would earn it; that the miraculous advantages of what is miscalled learning, continually chanted in their ears, gives them the notion, that a better living is to be got without work, than with work; that is to say, work,

think themselves ill used; they think, that the whole frame of society is bad; because they can find no one who will, out of the fruit of his labour or study, give them the means of living without work. They lounge about the house of their parents; they spunge upon their friends; and when both these, either cannot, or will not, keep them in idleness any longer, they then resort to frauds of all sorts, going on, till, at last, they end as downright acknowledged and notorious criminals; or as destitute and miserable beggars; when, if their little hands had been taught to pick up stones, or to weed the corn, and their tongues had been taught bawling at the

mischievous birds, instead of the former | the country; and, therefore, the misbeing trained to the making of scrawls conduct of the young man himself, upon paper, and the latter to the spell- might have defeated the very rational ing or singing of words in a school, they intention of parents; but, even in this might have lead lives of patient and useful case, how much better would an aplabour, lives ending in ease and as much prenticeship have been, and how much happiness as old age admits of.

more likely to have prevented that misconduct! And, as to persons who have to work for their bread, who have no property beyond what is necessary to

Since the vote of twenty thousand pounds for the work of “heddekashun," I have met, in my walks and rides, about a hundred and fifty-three beg- their subsistence, when they conceive gars; seven only of whom acknow- the mad notion of making their sons ledged that they could neither write gentlemen, because they can scrawl nor read, and two of them told me that upon paper; when they conceive the they had been sailors. About a month notion of making their children miserago, I, being in a post-chaise, had to able dependents upon the caprice of stop by the side of the causeway, near patrons or employers of any description, the turnpike-gate at HAMMERSMITH. A when the sure resource of honest labour young man, about three-and-twenty, presents itself; such parents, if they act without shoes, without stockings, with deliberately, and upon reflection, are out hat, with an execrably dirty and really criminal. ragged bit of a shirt on, a ragged jacket The BROUGHAM school, of which, to over that, and a pair of breeches which use the words of the flabber-gaster some gentleman had recently given orator himself, tell us that "the schoolhim, and which were much too large master is abroad," insist, or have infor him, came up to the chaise door, sisted, and, perhaps, will again, that, to imploring me to give him something." heddekate" the people is the way to He had not at all the appearance of a prevent their being criminal; is the drunkard; was a very handsome young way to make them good, peaceful, and man, not impudent in his manner, by honest citizens. In answer to this most any means, and the hand that he held stupid, and, at the same time, most imout, clearly showed that it had never pudent and insolent assertion, I have embraced any rude instrument. I was frequently cited these undeniable curious to know what could have facts: FIRST, that the number of perbrought such a young man into that sons "heddckated" in England, is state. I first asked him, whether he twenty times as great as it was thirty could read and write? "Oh, yes, sir, years ago; and that the number of thank God!" I found, that he was the crimes (legal crimes) has not only not son of a tradesman of BRISTOL; that he been diminished during that thirty had been at school several years; that years, but has increased, in the propor he had been what is called a clerk; and tion of nearly twenty to one! Now, that, according to his own account, these facts are undeniable; and must being a long time without being able to not that man have a pretty good stock get employment, he had at last come to of impudence, who tells us, that to this state. Most likely, there had been" heddikate" the people is the way to great faults, but arising from very na- make them just, peaceable, and honest! tural causes most likely, very serious And, is it in England alone, that this is delinquencies; but still springing from the case? Oh, no! It is now discothe same root. This was a case in vered that just the same, or, at least, which the parents might be wholly ex-much about a similar increase of crime cusable, and which might not have been has attended the increase of "heddefairly ascribable to the popular delusion of the day; for, some clerks are wanted; some such persons are necessary to carry on the commercial transactions of

kashun," both in France and America? How often has it happened to me, to stand alone in the promulgation of an opinion! How often have I had to bear the re

proaches and ridicule of corruption and " crime is to be found in these uneduof folly: how often to hear the doubts" cated departments, and the maximum of adherents, and of personal friends;" in Corsica and in the south-eastern and, how often have I, in the end," provinces, and in Alsace, where nearly heard these adherents and friends con- "half the population can read. The gratulate themselves in my perseverance" different employments of the populain an opinion which they had thought "tion may account for this difference wrong! Just so will it happen here:"in part; yet still we may again draw truth will prevail at last; and, in an "the cautious conclusion, that if eduarticle which I am now about to quote" cation has not caused, at least it has from the GLASGOW HERALD, it would" not yet been seen to prevent crime. seem, hat she has, at once, taken a bold step.

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The only ascertained moral effect of "intellectual education was stated in "last March by the Lord Chancellor, "in the House of Lords. In Russia,

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(From the Glasgow Herald of the 25. of No vember, that paper having taken the article from the Scottish Guardian, of the preceding" where education can scarcely be said Friday). "to exist, out of 5,800 crimes com"DOES MERE INTELLECTUAL EDU-"mitted within a certain period, 3,500 CATION BANISH CRIME? "were accompanied by violence; whilst "Two magistrates of Paris recently in Pennsylvania, where education is "made a tour through the United" generally diffused, out of 7,400 crimes "States, and in the course of two years" only 640 were accompanied by vio"collected important information re- "lence, being in the proportion of "garding the statistics of crime and " 1-12th of the whole number, instead "education. In the state of New" of 3-5ths, as in the former case. Thus "York, 500,000 children, out of two" the only ascertained effect of intel"millions, are at public schools; that" lectual education on crime is to sub"is, a fourth part of the population, "stitute fraud for force-the cunning "and 240,000l. are annually expended" of civilized for the violence of savage "for this purpose. Yet in this state" life. Nor would even this small "crime increases, and that, too, though" change be permanent. A highly in"the means of subsistence and employ-"tellectual community, without moral "ment are so much more easily ob-" principle and the habits of self-denial "tained than in older countries. In which religion imposes, would only "Connecticut, education is still more prove a sleeping volcano, ready to "extended, and nearly a third part "awaken every moment, and overthrow "of the population is at school; yet" those very institutions under which it "crimes multiply to a frightful extent." had been fostered. To increase the "The Journal of Education, stating "intellectual power, and enlarge the "these facts, draws this cautious con- " knowledge, of a man void of prin"clusion,-if knowledge cannot be ac-ciple, is only to create in him new "cused of causing this increase, at least desires, to make him restless and dis"it has not prevented it. satisfied, hating those that are above "On turning to France, and ex- "him, and desirous of reducing all to his "amining tables of the comparative" own level; and you have but to "proportion of instruction in its dif-"realize universally such state of so"ferent departments, during a period "ciety to fill the cup of this world's "of three years, the western and "guilt and misery to the brim. What "central provinces have been found" do we say, then? Not, certainly, "the most uneducated,-15, 14, 13," that education is to be withheld from "12, and 8 per cent. only being any member of society (for that ques"able to read and write; but ac- "tion is now decided, whether we will "cording to an essay on the moral sta-" it or not), but that from the infant "tistics of France, presented to the" school, upward to the university, it "Academy of Sciences, the minimum of "must be a thorough Christian edu

"cation, in which our youth shall be" being its concomitant. Will the Greek "trained in the ways of virtuous self-" church and the Catholic church be "control, and piety and righteousness" equally efficient in affording the due "wrought into the understanding, and "counteraction to mere moral education "into the whole habit of the man. 66 A as the Protestant; or must the counperfunctory religious education will "tries where these are established come 66 no longer serve; not mere Bible read-" to a stand-still? Do all those semiing, but Bible education. The un- "naries of public and private instruc"derstanding must be enlightened, and "tion, where, in the spirit of Christian "the heart must be gained over to the " charity and liberality, it has been de"side of truth and righteousness: in "termined not to interfere betwixt pa"short, the grand aim of education" rents and children, and where the "must become, not merely the forma-" parents omit their duty-do all these "tion of intellectual habits, or the ac-" schools merely increase the capacity "quisition of secular knowledge (as is" of doing evil, and thus injure both the "too exclusively the case in present" community and the very individuals times), but the formation of the" themselves whom the benevolent en"Christian character. Men have hi-"dowers hoped to benefit? Do these "therto been prone to take for granted," piously intended bequests help' to fill "that it was only necessary to teach" this world's guilt and misery to the "the art of reading, and before this" brim ?'”

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new power all vice and error would This editor is certainly right; for, "flee away. These are dreams of men though in England, the fact of crime ignorant of themselves, and ignorant having increased with the increase of "of our poor nature. Men must be "heddekashun," would not be proof "trained to piety and virtue as they that "heddekashun" had increased "are trained to any other habits, whe- crime; because there are other engen"ther intellectual or physical; and the derers of crime at work here, and very "moral man must advance contempo- busily at work; but when we take "raneously with the intellectual man, France and America into the view, and "else we see no increase from our in- find that crime has advanced in them, "creased education but an increased step by step, with "heddekashun," it is "capacity for evil-doing. Let the impossible not to come to the conclusion "Christian community, then, and es- to which this editor has come; namely, pecially those who watch over the that" heddekashun" has a tendency to "interests of religion-let the clergy cause an increase of crimes. This is "and laity of the church of Scotland going, however, mueh farther than I "start forward now, and, as their ances- have ever gone before; but these "tors did, pre-occupy the foreground in two instances of France and America "the education question; for, if they joined to our own experience, warrant "do not, they may yet mourn in vain me in giving it as my decided opinion, "that they have lost an opportunity of that the "heddekashun" has a tendency "guiding the issues of a question daily to produce and to multiply crimes. One "rising into importance, and soon to "come before the legislature."

Upon this very interesting article, the editor of the Glasgow Herald makes the following remarks:

would have thought it unnecessary to argue about the matter, after the new and severe laws which we have seen passed during the last twenty or thirty years; the new modes of punishment that we have "The above are most appalling state-seen introduced, and those punishments "ments. It is certainly made to appear inflicted with unheard-of severity; the "that mere intellectual education in- doubling and tripling the size of the "creases crime, and consequently, that jails, and doubling and tripling their "no further progress should be at- number in some parts of the kingdom; "tempted in that system unless there the millions upon millions expended in "be a perfect assurance of the Bible the prosecuting, transporting, and other