upon the face of the earth, at the present day, are so barbarous, so destitute of humanity, feeling for others, and discrimination of right and wrong, as to enjoy or tolerate." Certainly history has brought nothing to light which has surpassed it in barbarity. Savages of the present day stand higher in the scale of humanity than the educated gentlemen and ladies of Rome; although all these had the reading and writing qualification. Who, we might also ask, are the modern patrons of the ring, the horse-race, and other cruel sports? These barbarities would all become extinct in one hour, but for the patronage they receive from the lettered nobility and reading and writing gentlemen of the day. There are thousands who can read and write and yet can rejoice in the spectacle of seeing two immortal beings belabour each other with blows; who travel hundreds of miles, and spend enough to educate the world, that they may see two brutes contend to gether, or behold the glorious spectacle of a number of cowardly dogs tearing to pieces a helpless hare, fox, or hind. We fear that this triumph of the strong over the weak is not confined to the chase; and that there have been times when the sport of the field has been only exchanged for that of the cabinet or the senate, where the rights of the poor have been the game. Who in modern days are the patrons of despotism, monopoly, and slavery? Men, who frame iniquity by a law," and, in their zeal to enthral and crush others, actually sell their own liberty! We have, alas! still a frequent exemplification of the truth of the cutting sarcasm of Tacitus-"Quanto quis illustrior, tanto magis falsi ac festinantes," treachery and servility being in exact proportion to rank, learning, and influence. Some of the greatest patrons of letters and the fine arts have been most vicious in their lives, and most zealous abettors of arbitrary power. What a mockery of humanity and religion it is to say that these men were educated! Hence we learn that mere scholarship is not civilization. There is perhaps more real tyranny, oppression, and suffering in Europe now than in the days of Nero; but then it is all practised under the name of education and Christianity. The very forbearance and patience which, under certain circumstances, the Gospel dictates, is desecrated to the vile task of ministering to the avarice and ambition of despotism. Some beholding this awful fact, have almost come to the conclusion that learning and civilization are in themselves a bane. But this is a false inference; the real fact is, learning is not morality or religion, nor is a man educated because he is learned; we need something more than mere letters or philosophy to humanize the world; we must have the Bible. In Christianity we have the only real genius of civilization, because we have there the only true principles of morality and religion. And what is more marvellous still, we have the whole expressed in one word, and that word is understood by every being upon the face of the earth who has a human heart, and is the dearest, sweetest word that ever saluted the ear of a mortal-that word is love. Love to God and love to man, comprehends all just law, all right, all liberty, all morality, all religion. Love to God, of necessity inspires love to man; he who feels it must worship God, and must do good to his neighbour. By the sweetest word that ever touched the human heart, it constrains to everything holy, benevolent, and godlike, and restrains from every thing immoral, unkind or unjust. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling (the Tλnpwμa, the completion, the embodiment, the perfection) of law,” kaт' e§oxnv, or of all pure law. To teach this law of love was the design of the Scripture; to illustrate it and satisfy its demands, was the grand object of the life and atonement of the Saviour; and to write it on the heart, the Holy Spirit is promised. God is love; Jesus Christ is the most beautiful manifestation of that love; "He is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person." This incarnation of love was intended to be the model of morality and civilization for the whole world. Without imitating it, no one can be a Christian, no one can be saved; for "if any man have not the mind of Christ he is none of his." Here we have a problem solved which has puzzled many. They were at a loss to account for the fact, that the unlettered miners and operatives of England were often better men than the reading and writing citizens of other countries. The truth is, the best of all schoolmasters have been among them. They have had Sunday-school teachers and godly ministers, who have taught them that the perfection of all law and of true religion is "love." They have reiterated this sentiment again and again. They have given "line upon line, line upon line; precept upon precept, precept upon precept;" and God the Spirit has written his own Word, which these pious individuals have uttered, upon the hearts of their pupils, and their learning has been of a higher kind than that taught in ordinary schools. Many of the early Christians could not read or write, but God engraved the law of love on their hearts; and the heathen, astounded at such a novelty, exclaimed, "See how these Christians love!" Hence, the pious teacher who instructs his scholars in this law does more to civilize the people than all the State apparatus in the world. The godly Methodist Sabbathschool teacher or itinerant has taught this law in Cornwall; and the Cornish miner, who can hardly read, is a more civilized, moral, religious man than the educated Prussian. The former can be trusted with his liberty, and can do without the surveillance ! M. Methodists Brought forward Primitive Methodist Jews of a constable or police; while the latter | Dissenters, as under- A question, a most important question, has lately been agitated respecting the connection between crime and creed, and the results have been very startling. The following tables are deserving of the deep consideration of every statesman, as well as of every Christian. They give the religious professions of criminals confined in various prisons in England. NEW BAILEY, MANCHESTER, From October 1839, to October 1842. Episcopalians Roman Catholics Dissenters, as under Methodists Calvinists Baptists Presbyterians Unitarians 1 84 KIRKDALE LANE HOUSE OF CORRECTION, Episcopalians Roman Catholics 1842. 63 12 +126 465 164 1285 76 should be had to the numbers of each deno- | the character and wants of the human mind mination, or else our conclusions will be shall be duly studied, and the connection erroneous. If the Episcopalian population between its thorough cultivation and the be greater than the Dissenting, then a greater happiness and prosperity of nations be number of criminals from the Church of clearly understood, the period allowed for England might be expected. But it must be education will be gradually prolonged. Some observed, that in all the districts compre- imagine, that unless children are put to this hended above the Dissenters are more nu- or that occupation early, they will never merous than those belonging to the Esta- become proficients. But this is a mistake. blished Church; and yet we find. that in Perhaps there is hardly an art or a calling every case the Episcopalians committed to which has not been learnt by persons even prison are more than double the Dissenters. beyond the meridian of life. The great thing I have lately seen a similar table respecting needed in every pursuit is intelligence and paupers in unions, or receiving parochial application; and where these are possessed, aid, and the result was the same. The per- every difficulty will be surmounted. A boy sons dependent on the poor-rates from the allowed to run wild, and rendered dull, idle, Church of England were more than treble and obstinate by every kind of bad treatment, the Dissenters. We refer to these facts, as may be unfit at sixteen or twenty to learn deserving of particular attention. In our a trade, or become a passable workman in judgment they are accounted for by the anything; but if, instead of this neglect, his superior religious instruction given in Sun- powers be early cultivated, his genius and day-schools by the pious teachers whom ingenuity called forth, and his mind imbued Dissenters always, if possible, employ. The with right views of himself, his duties, and Church does not always demand piety even relations to this world and the next, he in her ministers, and much less so in her will be perfectly qualified, even at a late age, teachers. And those who are not influenced to turn his hand or his thoughts to almost by Divine love themselves, can never train any pursuit. In extending the period of others in the morality and benevolence of education, the Americans are therefore much the gospel. The last census of the popu- in advance of us, and by so doing have lation contains several facts illustrative of conferred great blessings on their country. these sentiments. In Cornwall, where Me- It has been a prevalent opinion among thodism and Dissent abound, the proportion us, that at eight, ten, or, at most, at of criminals is one in 1,156; in Merioneth- twelve years old, the schooling of peasants shire, where the number in Sunday-schools and operatives ought to terminate; and much amounts to two and a half of the population, have parents, masters, and the nation had to and nearly all are Dissenters, the criminals suffer for this folly. are one in 7,826; in Radnor, the most hea- The schools in America seem to be far thenish county in Wales, the ratio is one in superior to our own. The following is an 774; in Herefordshire, where Dissent has account of the course of studies pursued never prevailed to any extent, and the pro- | in the Ipswich Female Seminary, instituted portion in Sunday-schools is only one-four-in 1824, on the principle of subscription, teenth of the people, the proportion of crime under the management of trustees, and conis one in 460. Let this subject be fully and ducted by Mrs. Grant, a lady of very superior impartially sifted by all sects and parties, talents and acquirements. I introduce this and it will, I am persuaded, be generally example of a female school, because we may found, that crime decreases, not in propor- rest assured that the advantages granted to tion as the people are taught to read and the other sex are by no means inferior. write, but according to the amount of real Scriptural instruction which they receive; and when this is combined with an extensive intellectual and scientific education, their religion and morality will be of the highest order. It would be deemed an omission if in this place some observations were not made on the state of education in America. We have shown, in a former table, that in some of the States the proportion of the whole population at school is more than one-fourth. It seems also that the Americans extend the age for instruction to sixteen years. This is as it ought to be. The longer the young can be kept under tuition, provided the schools are good ones, the better it will be for themselves, for their families, and for the country. We are persuaded that as soon as Primary Studies.-"Vocal music, reading, linear drawing, composition, botany, geology, philosophy of natural history, modern geography, arithmetic through Interest and Proportion, first book in Euclid's Geometry, history of the United States, English grammar, Watts on the Mind, physiology of the human system, natural philosophy, government of Massachusetts, and of the United States." algebra, ecclesiastical history, natural theology, analogy between natural and revealed religion, evidences of Christianity, composition, and education." "Reading.composition, calisthenics, vocal music, the Bible, and several of the above branches, will receive attention through the course. It is added, that great effort is made "to implant right and elevated principle. Every female pupil is thrown back very much upon herself; she is taught to know herself, and to feel that the measure of her capacity is the measure of her duty, and that her duty has an immediate relation to Him 'with whom we have to do.' Thus selfrespect is substituted for emulation, and the fear of God for worldly and worthless con. siderations. Religion is thus made to run through all the avocations of this family, and each one is made to feel that it is the principal thing." Narrative of Drs. Reed and Matherson's Visit to America."-let. 11. Of course the above is a description of the studies of a superior school; but still the people who proposed and sanctioned such an education as this for their females must stand at the head of the nations for enlarged views respecting what ought to be done for the due cultivation of the human mind. We are told in the preceding letter, that in education the legislature feels "that the more is done by the people and the less by the Government the better-that all sectarian distinctions are unknown-civil distinctions are blended and harmonized. The common, or public school, is generally the very best of its kind that is accessible to the people of a district; and hence the more wealthy citizen covets its advantages for his child equally with the poorer; and the circumstance of his child attending it, and of his taking an interest in it, has again the tendency of preserving its character, and of raising it as society is rising around. The sense of civil equality which pervades all classes undoubtedly is a great auxiliary to its success." "In the common schools there is a good education for all, and the same provision is made for the girls as the boys, and while there are female assistants in each school, a master is the principal." We have before shown what the factory girls in Lowell are doing for their improvement, and we may justly conclude that the males are not behind them in their efforts to obtain knowledge. In England, in 1839, out of 121,083 couples married, there were 40,587 men, and 58,959 women, who could not write, showing how much the education of females has been neglected in our country. But in America woman is being raised to her proper intellectual and moral station, and this is the case, not with one grade only, but with all classes of society. The only exception to this high standard of cultivation is in the slave States. There the whites not only neglect their slaves, but to some extent themselves. The fact is, slavery is more demoralizing to the master than to the vassal. We by no means intimate, that education in America is perfect. We are continually sending into that country the refuse of our own, and thus are doing what we can to spread through the land a moral plague. We wonder that among her prohibitions she has not excluded our worthless citizens; this would have been at least as wise as any present article of her tariff. As long as slavery exists in that country the people who sanction it can lay little claim to morality or religion. To hold 2,000,000 of their fellowcreatures in bondage is a demonstration to all the world that Christrian principle is as yet by no means one of their national virtues. A nation educated in that great law of love which is the " pleroma, the perfection of law," would immediately burst the bond of the slave, and let the oppressed go free. There are several charges brought against them which, if true, demonstrate that, notwithstanding all their advantages, there are many of the citizens in a very imperfect state. If the satires of the "Clock Maker" have any foundation in truth, not only the morals, but the taste and mental faculties of the people, must be very far from maturity. If his three volumes, which contain in them so much immorality, bad taste, and false philosophy, are at all popular in the United States, this fact of itself would be sufficient to prove that education has not done its work as it ought. A truly educated people would not afford materials for such a publication; and if it appeared among them, would immediately consign it to oblivion. On the whole we must conclude, that America has better literary and philosophical schools for her population than we have, and she has more of her citizens at school; but still, taking all things into consideration, we do not think that her moral education is at the present time better than ours; nor would we, when we look at all our intellectual and religious advantages, which we may use if we please, exchange England for America. No one can be offended at this nationality. Every American would, doubtless, say as much; and further, no really educated individual would wish us to adopt the errors of his country, nor even to admire them, so long as we deem them to be wrong; he will rather thank us for expressing our dissent, as it will afford him an opportunity of again reviewing his own creed or practice. If we are right, he will be grateful that we showed him the defects of his principles; and if we are wrong, he will be the more confirmed in his previous judgment, seeing critics, whose bias to opposite opinions prevented them from showing any partiality to his, have failed in their attempts to prove them defective. All men are brethren; and we trust the time will come when even what has been called nationality and patriotism will be annihilated in the prevalence of universal love. It was but a little time ago that we all lived together under our father's roof in the Ark; it is not long before we shall all meet together again before our Father's throne in eternity; and it is a shame that the intervening hours should be filled up with animosity. What is contrary to humanity, to right, to liberty, and especially to the Bible, we ought to condemn; but at the same time it is our duty to show that error makes no human being an outlaw from Christian love. As brethren, we love the French, the Prussians, the Italians, the Americans, and indeed all mankind; and in many instances we must reverence the genius which we believe to have erred; but never may we be so degraded as to extol or approve what we think to be wrong. There is nothing in which either individuals or nations can more manifestly benefit each other than by pointing out their faults. It is a false charity which not only covers or forgives a sin, but undertakes to cloak it. Ireland, except to tax and enslave her; and therefore the bitterness of religious discord is rendered more irritating and galling by a sense of the wrongs that have been inflicted under the name of a purer faith. If the Protestantism which many of the vaunted successors of the Apostles have as yet exhibited to Ireland be Christianity, we wonder not that the Irish should prefer to be Catholics. We trust the educational movement now making in this country will not pass by our sister isle without giving her a blessing. In Scotland education ranges from onesixth to one tenth, giving an average of oneeighth, There, as with us, instruction is greatly interrupted by the frequency with which the children are removed, that they may go to work. Many of the schools are dame-schools; and woman is not raised to her proper intellectual position in Scotland. When we say woman, we mean the women of the masses. We have no idea of that education which would give to ladies all the learning and leave the female peasant in comparative ignorance. Scotland has not done her duty to this most interesting and valuable section of the community. Many of her schoolmasters have received a university education, but, for want of being trained professionally, are inefficient instructors of the young. They are not "apt to teach." And many who have been professionally educated, are very superficial in knowledge. Inspector Gibson, in his account of the normal school of Edinburgh, gives it as his opinion, that the real acquirements of many who are trained in this seminary are very limited. A great number also of the teachers in Scotland have had no previous training at all. The literary tuition of the Scotch is not so high as many suppose, while their moral and religious training, though not perfect, has been far beyond what has been general in our country; and the glorious results have been the subject of admiration for many years. Scotland, like England, has very much yet to do in the great work of education. that country, as in ours, many are still very ignorant, and not at all perfected in Christ tian excellence. Mr. It may be considered a great defect that we have said nothing on Ireland, and not dwelt more largely upon the state of education in Scotland. We have not done so, because we intend this essay to bear especially on popular education in England. From Ireland we fear we have little to learn, except that ignorance, superstition, and misgovernment, are its bane. We are told that only one-thirteenth of its population is under instruction. Ireland, both as an island and as a people, is one of the most interesting of nations. The inhabitants are eminently clever, and vivacious by nature, and, if properly treated, the most affectionate people upon earth; and were only justice done to them by giving them a finished intellectual and Christian education, and granting them perfect political equality, there are no persons on earth who would more beautifully exemplify the zeal and benevolence of the gospel. If, instead.of insulting them by reminding them of the deeds of their fathers, and the "bloody days of Queen Mary," we diffused among them the pure principles of the gospel; if we dropped the word Protestant, and ceased to provoke them by for ever ringing changes on the terms "Reformation and Protestantism," and gave them Chris-orders, are in a very uneducated state, and tianity instead, the regeneration and happiness of the country would soon show that we are reformers in deed, and not merely in name. Hitherto Protestantism has done little for Still In This brief review of education through the world, has shown us that not only the masses, but in many places the privileged in fact, that everywhere there is room for great improvement; and therefore, that in this great work there is no nation which we can implicitly follow. "Domine dirige nos." |