Page images
PDF
EPUB

vation, aud therefore it would always be requisite that a discretionary power should be lodged in the crown or its confidential officers. He instanced the variety of criminality which might exist, and had existed, in cases of burglary, horse-stealing, and sheep-stealing, and applied the arguments to those offences specified in the bills on the table. The principle of terror, he conteaded, must have an effect, and one observation had struck hin: for, it was said, the prosecutor was afraid, the witness was afraid, the jury were afraid, and the judge participated in the same terror of mind, for fear of affecting the life of a fellowcreature; and yet the criminal himself was supposed to have no fear at all. The noble and learned lord, after stating many other arguments, disclaimed the smallest intention to impute improper motives to those who differed from him in opinion.

Lord Erskine defended the policy of the intended alteration of this part of the criminal law. If out of 100 instances of the same offence, the course of punishment was the infliction of death on 60 or 70 of them, then he should say that the punishment was such as was deemed appropriate to the crime; but if out of that number, nay more, out of 1000, there was scarcely one instance of death being inflicted, he should say the punishment was not that which was commensurate to the crime. It was urged by those who opposed the bill, that as the law at present stood, a criminal might be visited by death, but at all events was sure of transportation; while by the act then before the house transportation alone could be inflicted, and the benefit arising from the fear of death was entirely lost. But he was convinced that a criminal in contemplating his chance of escaping from the greater punishment, felt very little terror as to the smaller, and thus the whole effect was lost.

Lord Liverpool contended that the bill came before their Lordships upon no other ground than that of theory, and that all practical experience was against it.

The Marquis of Lansdown in a neat speech contended, that the practical inference from the testimony of practical men most competent to form a proper judgment of the question before the house, was directly favourable to the opinion that the difficulty of ultimately awarding punishment was enhanced by its uncertainty. The present bills did not remove the exercise of considerable discretion from the judges, for it left with them the power of transporting for a limited time, or to commute the punishment for hard labour. The noble marquis, then, after many further observations, dwelt with great force on the necessity, in a free country, of giving to every legislative proceeding the moral sense and approbation of the people.

The question being put, a division was called for, when there appeared
For Lord Holland's motion
Against it

Majority against it

[ocr errors]

10 27

17

The bill is consequently lost. The Dwelling-house Robbery Bill, and the Navigable River Stealing Bill have shared the same fate.

The English and Irish Bleaching-grounds Robbery Bills were read a second time, and ordered to be committed; and have since passed into laws.

Instruction: a Poem. By Isaac Brandon, Esq. Written for the first Anniversary Dinner of the Subscribers and Friends to the Royal British System of Education, at Free-Masons' Hall, on May 17, 1811.

Dedicated by Permission to the Duke of Kent.

AMONG the different objects by which the interests of humanity are liable to be promoted or injured, no class is less

worthy of omission than that of books, in all its modifications; books-the main instrument by which, since the invention of the great art of printing, knowledge is conveyed; and hence the main instrument of removing all the ills under which, from ignorance, mankind at present labour, and of attaining all the advantages which it is competent to human nature to attain.

Accidental circumstances have hitherto prevented us from any attempt at the cultivation of this part of the field which we have marked out for our labours. But as often as the selection of the objects which present themselves as adapted to the ends of this work shall point out books as among the most eligible, so often will such account of the book in question as appears most conducive to these ends form an article in the successive numbers of this publication.

The subject of the Poem which we are now to review gives it, as will, we suppose, be readily allowed, a pre-eminent claim to our attention. It was intended to celebrate an occasion which we trust we may be allowed to hope will form an era in British history; the occasion of the first public meeting of the patrons and friends of that system of instruction which promises to extend with unexampled efficacy the benefits of education, the inestimably important faculties of reading and writing, to the whole body of the British people. All the blessings with which the improvement of the character of human creatures, and the improvement of the institutions and arts of society, are fraught, may be regarded as intimately connected with this great event; which may, we trust, be now confidently contemplated as the first movement of a great machine, which possesses its principle of action within itself, which is," instinct with living spirit," and which, being now fairly in motion, is in no danger of being reduced to a state of rest. It is in the nature of knowledge, we think, and in the nature of the human mind, when the connection between them is fairly established, that the connection should be indissoluble. Let one generation only of our countrymen be made to taste of knowledge in proper perfection, and there is no danger that any coming generation will be without it.

If the Muse be the real friend of man, (she has in by far the majority of instances hitherto acted as the reverse,) no occasion would be more adapted to her highest exertions. There is scarcely any thing in all that is calculated to excite admiration in the attainments of man, or to delight in viewing as his enjoyments, which might not have become the subject of her glowing pencil, and have exhausted the most brilliant of

her colours. There is scarcely any pungency of reproof, any strength of exposure, which might not have been usefully employed, in creating a sense of the weakness in point of argument, the unhappiness in point of tendency, of the attempts which are making to counteract and discredit the propagation of knowledge among the poor. No darkness could surpass the horror of the scene which was presented to her for painting, on the one hand; the light of the mid-day sun is but an image of the glory of that which was presented to her for painting on the other. The lovers of the dark scene, the enemies of the bright, presented a strong demand for being drawn in their true proportions, with those strong lines and gla ring colours which the Muse, above all other artists, knows best how to employ ;-not surely for the sake of rendering their persons odious, but to make the undesirable, the dismal consequences, to which their unhappy purposes lead, the more distinctly seen, the more sure of being locked to the memory, and of operating with their due force upon the active principles of men.

But to return to the poem before us.-The author in composing it. has not given to his imagination that high and extended flight to which the momentary contemplation of the subject was just now hurrying ours. But the tone of feeling which he expresses, and which it is the tendency of his production to inspire, is in unison with the best emotions by which the breasts of the friends of knowledge are filled.

With the exception of the two last lines, in which the mode of expression is at least obscure, the opening of the poem presents some appropriate ideas, in correct and elegant verse, "To mark the human from the brutal kind,

God breath'd in man his noblest gift-a mind!
But gave that blessing like the fruitful land,
To yield its harvest to the tiller's hand:
Left to itself, the wildest weeds shall grow,
And poisons flourish where the fruits should blow,
This law is nature, of Almighty plan,

And God's command,-that man enlighten man!” These introductory lines are followed by two pictures, the one intended for presenting a view of the facts and consequences of the system of non-education, so zealously applauded, and so effectually patronized by some; the other intended to present a view of the facts and consequences of the

[blocks in formation]

plans of education, of which Lancaster and his supporters are endeavouring to extend the benefits to every part of the nation. Some of the most important circumstances are placed in a strong light, which it is not in the power of some want of perfection in the mode of placing, to do much to obscure.

"O say, ye candid, liberal and wise,

In which of these a nation's safety lies?
In youth impress'd with what fair lessons yield,
Or left more rude than cattle of the field?
Base groups of filth, the pupils of the street.
Where playful theft and young debauch'ry meet;
Young social villians that in rags are seen,

While wrinkled wretches mould the vice that's green;
Whose shrivell'd hands, with drams, the infants ply,
Teach them diseas'd to live, and harden'd die !
Teach Plunder quickness,-back the lie, and swear,-
Crime's brutal laugh,-all leading to despair!
"Go mark the youth with manly feelings brave,
Sunk ere his manhood in the culprit's grave ;-
Firm to his band,-with fortitude to bear,
Genius to plan, and enterprise to dare;
The sturdiest virtues moulded into guilt

Which wisely train'd immortal Fame had built."

This is the gloomy picture; this is the exhibition of the objects of which it is the laudable purpose of Mr. Brandon to create in us a becoming aversion. The following is the portrait of the opposite, the truly desirable state of things, which he presents us in counterview.

"O bless'd Instruction! now thy temples rise,
Virtue shall spring like incense to the skies!
Thy searching powers the mental mines explore,
And gems of Genius shall be lost no more!
Each tender flower shall feel thy fostering care,
Nor waste its sweetness more on desert air!
"Honour'd the MAN, and deathless be his name,
Whose SCHOOLS now rise his monuments of fame;
Marble will moulder, that his worth may trace,
But these rever'd shall dive from race to race!
"Behold the School! see rang'd in order fair
(Plants of his hand and children of his care,')
The shelter'd babes of Poverty and Guile,

Their looks all brighten'd from Instruction's smile!

Cleanly, though poor-though rude, yet gently taught
Th' industrious habit and the virtuous thought:
Each little bosom feels the sacred fire,

Which Faith, and Hope, and Charity inspire.
See cheerful ranks on emulation bent,
Where gen'rous contest never clouds content;
Studious, yet playful, where at once we see
Wise discipline and wholesome liberty;
No coward brow !-no lip that tremor speaks,
While fear's pale passion frosts upon the cheeks;
For here no Tyrant deals the brutal smart,
To rouse the baser passions of the heart;
But here wise Punishment awakens shame,
While sweet Reward proclaims the infant fame.
"As from vile habits base diseases flow,

So turn'd from these, pure vigorous health shall grow:
What gallant youths shall spring o'er all the soil,
Strength in their arms, where virtue follows toil;
Early impress'd to feel th' important cause

Of mild religion and protective laws,

The conscious good their manly nerves shall string,
True to themselves, their country, and their king!"

We cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of inserting the tribute which he pays to the merit of those early patrons of the Lancasterian plan, whose names will be remembered with gratitude by the philanthropists of all ages, in which the fruits of the knowledge which they were so instrumental in sowing shall continue to be reaped.

"INSTRUCTION! bending o'er thy groups, proclaim
The school's first patrons bore each royal name!
And as the little list'ners lift their

eyes,
'Grave on their hearts who bade the fabric rise;
With cherish'd knowledge, grateful love instil
The names of BEDFORD and of SOMERVILLE!
O'er Britain's youth, or o'er her pregnant plains!
Names ever dear where CULTIVATION reigns,

"As tigers haunt the darkness of a den,

The DESPOT's rule must be o'er darken'd men:
But where brave FREEDOM lives, no fear she knows,
To make men learn the blessings she bestows!
Th' enlighten'd KENT, excited at her shrine,
Spreads quick instruction thro' each martial line,

« PreviousContinue »