tures the most neglected and unblest, is one of the foulest blots in the records of the world. Your history, like Ezekiel's roll, is written "within and without, with lamentations, and mourning, and woe ;" and though ages of barbarism are said to have passed away, yet the civilized despotism of the present time threatens you with a more frowning aspect than the savage tyranny of ancient years, and the only hope is centred in yourselves.

Your Sovereign is too much environed to have an opportunity of allowing you to realize any practical proofs of her sympathy. The despotic power of the Prime Minister of the country is hardly surpassed by that of any absolute monarch upon earth. His will is law, or at his bidding soon enacted into law. Before him the majority of the aristocracy bow with the most abject submission. The House of Commons is equally prostrate, and is no longer yours; there you have few who ever plead your cause. It is granted that you are not represented, and asserted that you ought not to be. Numbers of your legislators have obtained their seats by the grossest bribery.

Never, perhaps, was

there a time when the throne, the constitution, and the people were so completely trampled in the dust, or when the nation so silently and obsequiously submitted to this degradation.

Politics are allowed now to be so base and abominable that it is almost universally admitted that no pious individual can touch them without being defiled. A good man who meddles with them is branded as a heretic. The pulpit not unfrequently rings with declamations, not against the political injustice of the age, but against the impious mortal who should dare " plead the cause of the poor and needy," or attempt to assimilate the laws of the country to the laws of Jesus Christ. The civil and political regeneration of the empire is henceforth, it seems, to be turned over to Satan and his angels, and therefore it is vain for you to look for any redress from the present ruling powers. From each Senate House, as well as from the Bible, the solemn warning constantly echoes in your ears, "Put not your trust in princes !"

It is true there is now a professed regard for the operatives, but then the salutation that greets you is too often that of Judas. Formerly, rude violence crushed you to the ground, but now you are betrayed with a kiss.

In this condition the only remedy is education-not, remember, State education, Church education, or charity education, but the education of yourselves and of your children in the great principles of truth, liberty, equity, and benevolence. You must not delegate this work to others, if you do you will be duped, for modern despots have learned that the schoolmaster is one of the most efficient agents they can employ to enslave their subjects. He who has been rendered by education a voluntary slave, is past redemption.

DEDICATION.

Your proper position in society can never be obtained until you have made yourselves, and your sons, and your daughters, acquainted with their true dignity as "the offspring of God," with their natural and unalienable rights as brethren to the whole human family, and with the Bible, which, in the noblest and most extensive sense of the word, is the charter of your liberties. He who follows God's Word, will be Godlike in all his actions; he will "love his neighbour as he loves himself;" he will respect his own rights, and never disregard those of another; he will not be the minion of tyrants to enslave others at their bidding, nor ever resort to violence in defending himself; the omnipotence of moral force will be his only armour, and victory his certain reward.

A very slight review of the past will show, that you have always been the agents in riveting your own chains. For the most paltry wages you have sold yourselves to be soldiers, and have learnt the trade of blood. Monarchs have only two eyes, two hands, and two feet, and have not always been blest with the acutest intellects, and therefore have been the most dependent of creatures, and yet have been the most powerful. They have presented the spectacle of impotence combined with a power that seemed to proclaim them omnipotent. That power was such as yours; your brethren lent them eyes, and hands, and mental endowments, and became spies, soldiers, and executioners, and therefore the world has not groaned so much under the tyranny of despots, as the madness of the people.

All this has occurred in the days of your ignorance, and must occur again if you continue to be ignorant. Only resolve to be enlightened, and then you must be free and happy. All reforms await your regeneration. Other grades of society may have a vested interest in corruption, but you have none. Justice, the justice taught in the Bible, must be your watchword, and then salvation, in every sense of the term, will be your portion; but without education you will neither understand that justice, nor be able to assert its claims, or demand its exercise.

Knowing what you are, what you can be, what God created you for, and what the Scriptures assure us you are one day to become, the Writer has dedicated this Essay to your service; and, as he has always been, trusts he shall ever remain, with the utmost esteem,

Your humble and devoted Servant.

Ebley, March 28, 1845.

vii

PREFACE.

FOR upwards of twenty years the Writer of this Essay has been occupied in the education of the operative classes, and during that period has been collecting the sentiments and facts out of which it is composed. To many of his friends, to whose kindness he has appealed, the Work has been promised for some time, but a multiplicity of engagements have interfered, and occasioned considerable delay.

On seeing the advertisement for "An Essay on Education," he resolved to put his thoughts into the following form, and send them to the adjudicators. The result is known. Dr. Hamilton's eloquent work obtained the prize. The Author resolved not to publish until he had carefully read that Essay. Having done so, he considers that there is sufficient difference between the facts and arguments contained in the two works to warrant the publication of the following pages. The subject of education, instead of being exhausted, has as yet attracted but little of the attention which it must have before the world can be enlightened and saved. Besides, the Author has thought that a cheap work on this most important topic would be acceptable to the operative, the teacher, and even the minister, whose scanty income precludes him from the privilege of reading more expensive volumes; and therefore he submits. the following fruits of his reading, reasoning, and experience, to the public, most firmly believing that if the principles of the Essay were reduced to practice our world would ere long be enlightened, regenerated, and happy. He utters this opinion advisedly, having for some considerable time tested the doctrines here advanced, and proved their efficacy.

viii

CONTENTS.