children were taught on paying a penny or twopence per week. M. Guizot, considering that his authority and patronage would be considerably extended, and his love for domination gratified, by placing all the schools under his immediate control, proposed and obtained a law for that purpose."-France, &c., pp. 185, 186.

It is stated, that of the large sum spent by the Government on education, amounting to upwards of 500,000l. annually, the larger portion by far is expended on the education of the rich, and only 1,600,000 francs, or less than 70,000., is devoted to the instruction of the masses. It seems also that the education of the rich is of the worst character, and that everything, except Latin, Greek, and mathematics, is doctrinarised; and that liter

ature, history, philosophy, and ethics, are rendered by Villemain, Guizot, Cousin, and Salvandi, mere compounds of "wild extravagant ideas, of obscure or absurd theories, a mixture of all the paradoxes they have been able to collect from the rhetors and sophists of the 'bas empire,' with the delirious speculations of the fatalism and illuminatism of modern Germany."—Ibid. pp. 188, 189.

It is justly added by the same writer, "A rising generation thus educated must be fit only for ministering and submitting to any despotism, and for setting the example of servility and degradation to the uneducated classes of the people."

The population of France is about 34,400,000, and they are thus classified by the author above quoted :

Class 1. The working classes, the poor, the helots
2. Agriculturists and industriels
3. Learned and scientific professions, and people living upon
their incomes

4. Paid officials, army and navy

Of the working classes, the poor, the helots, 18,846,000 are engaged in agriculture; 5,812,000 are occupied in trade; and 3,426,000 in manufactures: 1,855,000 of paupers must be added to this number, which will make the amount 27,853,000. All these individuals are, we are told, "completely shut out from civil life; in one word, they are French helots. They owe their daily bread to their labour or charity, and are precluded by their poverty and occupations from all participation in municipal or political action."

On the education of this immense mass of humanity, the Government, which prohibits all private schools, bestows less than 70,0007. a-year; while, in giving a bad education to the 6,477,000 of the higher classes, it wastes

27,953,000
3,342,000

1,390,000

in various ways the whole remainder of its 500,000. The sum devoted to the tuition of these helots is not "one-half so much as is devoted to the opera, not one-third of what is given to the studs, nor one-fifth so much as is granted to the secret police." Our Lord says, "How much better is man than a sheep!" In France, if we judge from the moneys spent on the two, the doctrine is, How much better is a beast than a man!

"The official returns of particular classes of the population, such as the recruits (conscrits) and the convicts, recognise three degrees of ignorance and three degrees of instruction. Taking these returns as the basis of our calculations, we find the following results for the whole population :

by Government functionaries than the engineer watches the steam-engine.

Mr. Laing has shown, that in an English or Scotch county not more than thirty or thirty-five paid functionaries are at present employed among the same amount of population that in France has stationed over it one hundred and eighty-nine.—“ Notes of a Traveller," pp. 69-71.

to Europe! Why, independent of any other consideration, their suspicion of every body and of every thing is a perfect demonstration that there is no really educated, manly mind in the Government, and those that exist among the people are doomed to silence.

The French are constantly subject to the surveillance of police, even ladies are not exempt; and worse than all, there is "a secret police," which endeavours to make itself acquainted with every one's private movements, which sticks at no means, how• ever base, to accomplish its object, and then transmits the whole of its discoveries to the Government. The following is a copy of one of these notifications under the government of Thiers :-" M. De ***persists in his sarcastic opposition, and as a leader is the more dangerous, as he possesses a large fortune and an uncontrolable spirit. He has long patronized the projected canal of —; let him there sink his property, while the coquetry of Madame De ****, skilfully managed, will soon bring about a fracas and turn the laughers on our side. Her lover has chosen me for his confidant; he has not succeeded, but I give him hopes; and he assiduously continues his courtship. You shall know results."-France, &c. p. 171.

"The individual liberty of a French citizen consists in a perpetual vassalage to all the delegates and hirelings of the Minister of the Interior and of his police, and in a perpetual fear of the officials of the Minister of Justice. There is not a single act, except working and eating, that does not fall under the control of some administrative authority." "A Frenchman cannot enter into any trade, cannot be a member of any company, society, or companionship, cannot call or assist in public meetings to consider or discuss any question relating to general or local interests, without leave and licence" from the powers that be. "Even private meetings of more than twenty persons are prohibited, if in any way connected with political matters." We fear that the late state trial in Ireland was only an attempt, by the enemies of freedom, to see what can be done in our country to crush the expression of the popular mind. How lamentable to reflect, that we incurred nearly the whole of our national debt in riveting the chains of our brethren on the continent! The present despotism of France, Germany, &c., was purchased by the blood and treasure of Eng-ciety" of these men. land; and those who were thus lavish on foreigners, will feel no objection to see the people of this isle sunk into the same state of civil and political servilism and helplessness. Who does not tremble at the thought of our young Queen being at all influenced by such a refined and polished despot as the monarch of France?

"A Frenchman is confined within the narrow limits of his district, and cannot go beyond without a passport from the municipal or general police. Lodging-house and hotel-keepers must give lists to the police of the passengers or lodgers who resort to their house on the day of their arrival; and their neglect is visited with fines, and sometimes with loss of licence." Every traveller complains of the manner in which he is watched, searched, and annoyed by their suspicious Government officials. The French suspect themselves and every one else. The Church, the Throne, the whole nation is in such a tottering condition, that they imagine that even a defenceless woman might sweep the whole away, and therefore they suspect every one, and tremble before every one, and must have the stature, the form of the nose, the colour of the hair, of the complexion, &c. &c., of almost every visitor. And these are the refined, educated people, whose normal schools have been held up as a pattern

|

There is a viciousness and villainy in these transactions, far more Tartarian than is found in the vices of the majority of criminals who have been hanged, drawn, and quartered. The "common damned would shun the so

These facts respecting France and Prussia, show us that if education means the cultivation of the whole intellectual and moral man, then there is no such thing in either of those countries. The poor Cornish miner who can hardly read, but whose Methodism has made him so moral, that neither constables, policemen, nor magistrates are needed to keep him in order, is an angel when compared with these polite and literary vassals, who cannot be trusted without a passport and a spy.

The review we have taken of national education in France and Prussia, exhibits in a very striking manner that system of centralization which nearly all modern Governments are so anxious to employ. Centralization in politics, means that all power should centre in the Government, and radiate from it, so that the State should have the direction of every thing. Mr. Gladstone's idea of a "State conscience," to be religious for all the people, is centralization in the Church. State education is the Government thinking for the people, and is that kind of centralization which, wherever it is carried out, makes the people a race of intellectual puppets. We have a good deal of this centralization in our country. The army, the navy, the police, the poor-law, the Church, are all specimens of centralization;

the scenery. If it be possible to build out
a fine view, or put down a house exactly
where one, with any eye or feeling for the
beauty of situation or scenery would not
place it, there the traveller may reckon
upon finding the mansion and offices of the
wealthy class of the Swiss who could afford
to indulge a taste, if they had it, for the fine
scenery of their land."
"The Swiss specu-
lators in hotels and lodging-houses for
strangers are altogether puzzled at the un-
accountable preferences the strangers give
to cottages on the lake side, to single houses
or inns in the little villages, instead of their
superb chateaus in the middle of a market
town, or built out from every prospect by
the magnificent office houses."-" Notes of
a Traveller," p. 320.

and the bill of Sir James Graham was in- | lake and fountain to the magnificence of tended to have centralized education; and had it succeeded, the sun of England would have set. There is nothing that the nation should so determinately oppose, as this attempt to concentrate everything in the Throne or the Government. As soon as this is done, the people have lost all their liberty and become a race of mere civil, political, and religious machines. It is the ancient despotism of Nimrod, Nero, and others, under a more polished form. It is the old beast and dragon of the Apocalypse, with the head and "horns of a lamb." Whenever it succeeds, the sad spectacle which Tacitus so briefly describes is again brought on the stage. "At Roma ruere in servitium, consules, patres, eques; quanto quis illustrior, tanto magis falsi ac festinantes.-Consules primi in verba Tiberii Cæsaris juravere, mox senatus, milesque et populus." To break up this confederation of tyranny and servility, God allowed the northern hordes and the Saracen invaders to overrun the Roman Empire. Alas! most of these bold minds have been civilized into slavery; and the friend of liberty is ready to ask, if any power yet remains that can arouse the dormant genius of freedom, and burst the fetters of modern times. There is such a power. The masses educated in Christian truth, and trained to think and act for themselves under the guidance of God's Word and Spirit, will present an impregnable moral bulwark against which despotism will waste its resources in vain, and before which, it is destined to fall and perish for ever. Our own country, America, and the missionary field in other lands, are the cradle in which this giant power is to be fostered and matured, until, in the omnipotence of the Captain of Salvation, it shall sweep every vestige of tyranny and slavery from the globe, and cause the jubilee of universal liberty to resound from the rising to the setting sun.

Among those who admire almost everything that is foreign, Switzerland has been a great pet. In her cantons, the proportion of the inhabitants at school ranges from onefifth to one-ninth of the entire population. Her people are always spoken of as industrious, frugal, contented, and fond of liberty. Doubtless the diffusion of knowledge has done wonders for the people. But still, if education means the calling forth into vigorous exercise of the whole of the moral and religious attributes of man, we must, if travellers are to be credited, deny to the Swiss that high moral standard which some have awarded to them. According to Mr. Laing, even the natural taste of the people has hardly as yet been cultivated. "Men of all nations, except the Swiss nation itself, and of almost every station in life, are found in Switzerland wandering from one scene to another, pilgrims paying homage at every

A people thus dead to the natural beauty and grandeur of their country can hardly be said to be educated. He who cannot read God's first book—and nature is that first revelation,-has learnt to read and write to very little purpose; and to be thus rude in Switzerland, where this revelation is rendered peculiarly interesting by being illustrated with some of the most beautiful and sublime scenes, is a proof that the taste and religious feeling of the people is in a very imperfect state. Mr. Laing says, "material interests are at the top, bottom, and middle of their minds;" if so, we have a striking example of the influence of mammon, in paralysing the finest susceptibilities of our nature.

The ancient custom of the Swiss of hiring themselves out as soldiers to foreign nations is notorious, and has always left a deep stigma upon their characters. In former years it was not unusual for the field of battle to present the disgusting sight of a regiment of Swiss mercenaries in each of the contending armies, ready not only to destroy the supposed enemy, but to massacre each other for the love of gold. They still hire themselves out as journeymen murderers and plunderers, to any nation that will pay them for their services. It is said that "France had at the restoration of the Bourbons about 17,000 men of Swiss regiments; and the disgust of the French nation at the preference shown to these mercenaries, was a main cause of the expulsion of Charles X. Naples has at present four regiments of these mercenaries; Rome as many: and it is reckoned, that from 8,000 to 10,000 Swiss are in foreign service at present, embodied generally in Swiss regiments distinct from the native troops of the country." Their only motive for entering on this degrading occupation is pay. "The Swiss Government sanctions this demoralizing system, and sells the military services of the officers of her aristocratic families and of her young citizens to support the most arbitrary Governments in Europe. The Protestant republic of Berne

furnishes one regiment entirely for the ser-, vice of the King of Naples, and even in the Pope's body-guard there are Protestants from Berne, and other protestant Cantons." Men thus void of any principle but the love of money, and willing to shed their own blood in defence of any creed and every creed on the face of the earth, and for pay to launch any number of souls into eternity at the caprice of their masters, can lay no claim to education in the high and noble sense of the word. To engage in such despicable and inhuman services shows the absence of every good feeling; and if depraved before they can enter upon such a work they are worse at their return; for when they come home, they prove that they are devoid of religious habits or feelings, or attachments to any religious faith. We do not therefore wonder to find that at Geneva, where Calvin and Knox preached, in the very church in which crowds used to listen to their voices, Mr. Laing tells us, he sat down at the only service on the Sabbath-day in a congregation of about 200 females, and three and twenty males, mostly elderly men. The bells had tolled, the church was spacious, and the city contained 25,000 souls. The liturgy was meagre, and the sermon an ingenious essay on Mosaic chronology. There was not a boy or working man present." In the afternoon the only service in towns or in the country, is reading a chapter in the Bible to the children, and hearing them gabble over the catechism in a way which shows they have not a glimpse of the meaning. A pleasure tour in the steam-boats, which are regularly advertised for a Sunday promenade round the lake, a pic-nic dinner in the country, and overflowing congregations in the evening at the theatre, the equestrian circus, the concert saloons, ball-rooms and coffee-houses, are all that distinguish Sunday from Monday in that city where Calvin laboured and died."Notes of a Traveller," 324. p. Here then we have what has been called an educated people, and yet we find among them the prevalence of the most immoral, inhuman, and irreligious principles; although in this very country ignorance is punished. "The usual mode," Mr. Symons tells us in his " Arts and Artizans," "of enforcing education, is thus:-The gemeindamann (or local mayor) of the parish, finding children uneducated at eight years of age, warns the parents twice to send them to school. This neglected, he informs the stadtholder (prefect), who orders the landyager (local constable) to fine them heavily, and if need be, to take the children to school." -p. 108.

We have none of this forced education among us, and we trust we never shall. Education, to be prized by the recipients, must be voluntary. Doubtless many of these Swiss can read and write better than our Cornish

miners, and other unlettered but pious operatives in our country; but the latter reverence God's Word and Sabbath, and would rather die themselves, than sell their services to uphold error and despotism, by plundering and murdering their fellow mortals; and therefore are, in morality and religion, and everything manly, far in advance of these educated Swiss.

There is one nation in Europe to which statesmen and philanthropists have paid little attention, but which ought not to be passed over. We refer to Norway. According to Mr. Laing's volume on that country, it must at present stand at the head of all the continental nations, both in education and in everything else that concerns the liberty and temporal happiness of man. There, all are well instructed, and all respect one another. The working man not only pays all due respect to those above him, but also regards and honours the men of his own order. Children are not educated to be children, but are brought up in the society of their parents and elders, and thus early possess a maturity of mind and manners unknown in other countries. There are schools in every parish, and all the people are not only taught to read and write, &c., but are well instructed in all their civil and political rights. There the rich make no attempt to crush or enslave the labouring classes, and these in return are patterns of order and industry. The constitution of Norway is one of the best in Europe: the people understand it, and stand by it so firmly that their sovereign, the King of Sweden, has in vain attempted to overturn it. Still the loyalty of the people is such, that when the monarch came among them, he could dismiss his body-guard; and yet this loyalty is altogether dissociated from that sycophancy and servility which is so prominent a feature of other countries. I have not Mr. Laing's book before me now, but when I read it sometime ago I took notes, and the reader who will procure and peruse the volume will be most amply repaid, and will find the statements given above amply illustrated. Every statesman, every prince, and every teacher of youth ought to study the present condition and character of the Norwegians. The nation is centuries in advance of Prussia, France, Switzerland, or any other of the continental populations or Governments. There, the peasantry, the children, and the women, are raised to a very elevated position. The chief defect among them is in religion; and Mr. Laing thinks that this may be attributed, solely to the absence of Dissent. On the divinest of all sciences their minds appear to be stagnant, and consequently their worship is formal. They seem to illustrate the Rev. T. Page's intimation, that without the competition of Dissenters the Church will become "dry, cold, and lifeless."