Such is the work, which the motives already stated have induced us to bring under the notice of our readers. We have, in the course of our observations, treated it as genuine; but we deceive ourselves if the extracts we have made, and the view of the whole which we have endeavoured to arrange, do not justify the doubts which we found ourselves compelled to express on this subject. To the testimony in its favour, already noticed, we have nothing indeed except internal evidence to oppose; but we must declare that the repeated perusals and the minute consideration which we have bestowed on it have weakened the confidence with which we commenced our task. If it should be inquired why, with these doubts of its authenticity, we have yet given it so large a portion of our attention, we reply, in the first place, that we only doubt; and, in the next, that it does not follow a work is false, because it is not genuine. The sketch of the internal state of France may not be written by M. Faber, and yet the statements which it contains may be -nay, in many parts assuredly are-founded on facts, and in every way intitled to credit. Whatever uncertainty we feel as to the author, we are satisfied that we have, with his assistance, been enabled to give a truer and fairer representation of the state of France than could have been derived from any other work hitherto published in this country. But the consideration most forcible on our minds is that with which we commenced our observations. It is because the slavery of the press is so confirmed and complete; it is because the communication of facts and of opinions between man and man, and between nation and nation, has been destroyed by Buonaparte; it is because he envelopes himself and his empire with the darkness of despotism, that we are left to doubt of the authenticity and truth of works like this before us. If we form our opinions of France on doubtful information, it is because the ruler of France has deprived us of any other. If we suspect the author of having assumed a name not his own, it is because we cannot believe that any man on the continent of Europe dares to avow such a work, or that any man, who does not live under the protection of British laws, has dared to write it.

If M. Faber be indeed an impostor; if he have unfairly represented the state of France and the character of Buonaparte; if the public opinion, though suppressed, be not in inveterate hostility towards him; if the civil administration be not at once negligent and oppressive; if the finances be not in disorder and taxation in extremes; if murder have not been legalized; if religion be not decayed and its ministers degraded; if public education be not blighted by the breath of a tyrant; if the conscription have not destroyed the peace, blasted the hopes, and torn the hearts

of every family in France; if, finally, the whole frame of his government whether domestic or foreign, be not held together by falsehood and force,-ample justice is within his own reach : let him appeal to the voice of thirty millions of people; let him emancipate the press; let him permit the usual intercourse of civilized nations; let him do this, and we venture to promise in behalf of a high minded and generous nation, that England will be the first and the happiest to retract erroneous opinions, to cast away unfounded prejudices, and to do his administration all the justice that it shall be found to deserve.

But this is dreaming, and we awake again to the melancholy conviction that the greater part of Europe is prostrate at the feet of a usurper, in the sullen and abject misery and degradation which M. Faber describes.

Of the merits of the translation there is not much to be said. It is evidently a hasty performance, and far too liberal of the idioms of It is not, however, deficient in spithe original, to satisfy our taste. rit, and its fidelity is unquestionable. Our extracts have been made from it.

ART. XV. A Comparative View of the Plans of Education as detailed in the Publications of Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster, and Remarks on Dr. Bell's Madras School, and Hints to the Managers and Committees of Charity and Sunday Schools; on the Practicability of extending such Institutions upon Mr. Lancaster's Plan. By Joseph Fox. Third Edition. pp. 67. Darton and Harvey. 1811.

A Sermon, preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Lon don, on Thursday, June, 13, 1811. To which is added, a Collection of Notes and Illustrations. By Herbert Marsh, D. D. F.R.S. Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Third Edition. F. C. and J. Rivington. A Comparative View of the two New Systems of Education for the Infant Poor, in a Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Officialty of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, at Berwickupon-Tweed, on Tuesday, May 12, 1911. By the Rev. R. G. Bowyer, L.L.B. Prebendary of Durham. 8vo. pp. 18. London. Rivington. 1811.

S

IR Walter Raleigh is said to have burnt the second part of his History of the World, because he could not obtain a true account of a quarrel which occurred under his prison window, and in his own sight. The question which has arisen respecting the New

System of Education, brings to our recollection this well-imagined story, of which every thinking man's experience must sometimes remind him. Volumes have been written for the purpose of proving who it was that invented the art of printing three centuries and a half ago; and here is a discovery scarcely twenty years old, the merit of which is claimed for two persons, and contested by the one and his partisans as loudly and as boldly as if there were no recorded and dated facts in existence upon which the decision must depend. The system which has occasioned this controversy, has, at length, excited public attention in a considerable degree, though not more than its importance deserves. Two questions have grown out of it, a personal one respecting its author, and a political one respecting its application. An account of the origin and progress of the system will enable the reader to decide the first question, and the manner in which that part of the controversy has been treated by one of the parties will go far towards deciding the second.

In the year 1789, a school was opened at Egmore, near Madras, for the orphans and distressed male children of the European military: Dr. Bell, who was then chaplain at that establishment, undertook the superintendance of this charitable institution, for the sake of being more useful in his staation than he otherwise could be. 'Here,' he reasoned with himself, 'is a field for a clergyman to animate his exertion, and encourage his diligence. Here his success is certain, and will be in proportion to the ability he shall discover, the labour he shall bestow, and the means he shall employ. It is by instilling principles of religion and morality into the minds of the young that he can best accomplish the ends of his ministry: it is by forming them to habits of diligence, industry, veracity, and honesty, and by instructing then in useful knowledge, that he can best promote their individual interest, and serve the state to which they belong, two purposes which cannot, in sound policy, or even in reality, exist* apart.' With these feelings, and with this sense of duty Dr. Bell began his task. He had to work upon the most unpromising materials. It was an established opinion, that the half-cast children were an inferior race, both in moral and intellectual faculties, as if a certain mulish obliquity of nature had been produced by crossing colours in the human species. This opinion was like one of those prophecies which bring about their own accomplishment. Dr. Bell knew how deeply it was rooted, and saw but too plainly that it rested upon apparent experience; he knew also, that these children learnt from their unhappy mothers that

Bell's Experiment in Education, first Edition, p. 6. The necessity of being thus minute in reference, will be apparent in the course of this Essay.

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cunning, and selfishness, and deceit, which become the defensive instincts of a despised and degraded generation; the baleful prejudice which prevailed against them inevitably producing the vices which it pre-supposed. The boys placed under his care were in general stubborn and perverse, addicted to trick, lying, and duplicity, and those among them who were farther advanced in age were, for the most part, trained in habits and customs incompatible with that method, without which, no system of education could proceed.

I soon found,' says he, that if ever the school was to be brought into good order, it must be done, either by instructing ashers in the economy of such a seminary, or by youths from among the pupils trained for the purpose. For a long time I kept both of these objects in view; but was in the end compelled, after the most painful efforts of perseverance, to abandon entirely the former and adhere solely to the latter. I found it difficult beyond measure to new-model the minds of men of full years, and that whenever an usher was instructed so far as to qualify him for discharging the office of a teacher of this school, I had formed a man who could earn a much higher salary than was allowed at this charity, and on far easier terms. My success on the other hand, in training my young pupils in habits of strict discipline, and prompt obedience, exceeded my expectation: and every step of my progress has confirmed and riveted in my mind the superiority of this new mode of conducting a school through the medium of the scholars* themselves.' The first attempt which Dr. Bell made to introduce a new practice in the school, proved to him the necessity of proceeding upon this principle, which is in fact the key-stone of the system. Simple as the practice was, he could not fully establish it till he had trained boys whose minds he could command, and who, as he says, only knew to do as they were bidden, and were not disposed to dispute or evade the orders given them.

This practice, which is that of teaching the letters in sand, was one which Dr. Bell borrowed from the natives, having at first sight been struck with its simplicity and utility. It is extraordinary that so easy an improvemeut should never before have been adopted in Europe, especially since it was noticed two centuries ago by some of our European travellers. Pyrard de Laval, who began his voyage in 1601, thus describes it among the customs of the inhabitants of the Maldives. Pour apprendre à escrire à leurs enfans, ils ont des planches de bois faites exprès, bien polies et bien unies, et estendent dessus du sable fort menu et fort delié, puis avec un

poinçon ils font les lettres, et les font imiter, effaçans à mesure qu'ils ont escrit, n' usans point en cela de papier. A more minute account is given by Pier della Valle, one of the best, as well as the most amusing, of those old writers. Being detained during his journey in Malabar by some accidental delay, that I might profit by the time,' said he, I remained in the vestibule of the Pagoda, to look at some children who were learning to read in a remarkable manner, which I shall describe to you as a very curious thing. There were four of them, who had all been taking the same lesson from their master; and now, for the sake of impressing it more perfectly on their memory, and repeating the former lessons which they had been taught, one of them chanted a line of the lesson in a musical tone, as for example, two and two make four. In fact, one easily learns a song. While he thus sung out this portion of the lesson, he wrote it at the same time, but neither with a pen, nor upon paper. In order that nothing might be needlessly expended, he traced the characters with his finger upon the floor whereon they sat in a circle, having previously strewn it for this purpose with fine sand. After the first had thus written while he sung the others chanted and wrote the same thing all together. The first then began again, singing and writing another line: as for instance, four and four make eight, which the others in like manner repeated, and thus they went on. When the floor was covered with writing, they past their hands over it and effaced the characters, then strewed more sand if it was necessary, to trace more letters, and in this manner they continued during the whole time appointed them. These boys told me that in this way they learnt to read and write without paper, pens, or ink. When I asked who taught them, and who set them right when they were wrong, seeing they were all scholars, and no master among them, they replied very reasonably, that it was not possible the same difficulty should impede them all at the same time, so as to be insurmountable, and for that reason they always learnt together, that if one was out the others might assist him.' It appears, from this passage, that even the main principle of the new system might have been discovered in the practice of the Hindoos. Not that this in the slightest manner affects the merit of the discoverer, more than the use of monitors among ourselves, or the custom at some of our public schools of placing a new-comer under the care of a substance whom he attends as a shadow, till he has become familiar with the business of his form. The person who first introduced into a school the principle, as a principle, of conducting it by means of the scholars themselves, is as much the discoverer of that principle, as Franklin of electricity, or Jenner of vaccination. The facts were known before them, but in an insulated and unproductive form;