author adds, "These boys are capable of receiving impressions, and are as susceptible of sentiments of gratitude as any lord's son, if the proper treatment were used to draw them out. It is only by cultivating the best feelings of our nature, that any human beings can be improved; all other systems are fallacious, and founded on gross error." The same author informs us, that "There are whole families who had never any other calling but that of theft-ay, hundreds of such families are now in being in London who have continued the same course, some for twenty, thirty, or forty years. One old woman said, last year, when her seventh son was transported, 'Ha! I know not what I shall do, now poor Ned is going; he was a good lad to me; and though I say it, he was as good a hand at his business as any in London.' 'O, then, he was brought up to business,' I replied. She rejoined, 'God bless you, no! I thought he had told when you made his brief that ours was a right sort of cross family;' adding, and so was their father's father, and good ones they all were; now there's little Dick, my eldest son's boy; but I think he'll never make the man his father did—he's dull; besides, he's not old enough quite for any good business yet.' Some of these pathetic mothers will, when warmed with the cream, speak of the numbers which have fallen in their families with as much pride and exultation as a Spartan mother of old used to do, when numbering her sons who had fallen in their country's cause. The increase of these families is daily going on, through intermarriages, and other ramifications of family connections; and thus, in a great measure, is the problem solved, as to the increase of crime. This is an epitome of the history of the poor in London and its environs, which might have been given of them forty years ago, and will apply, for ages to come, unless the legislature grapple with the subject at once." Such facts evidently show, that neither severity of punishment, nor any other arrangement yet made by our legislators, is adequate to arrest the progress of crime, and to promote the reformation of society.

The deficiency of education in our country, as well as the inefficiency and absurdity of our penal enactments, will account for the increase of crime. Instead of one out of four of the population, attending instruction, it is estimated that in England only one out of sixteen, in Scotland one out of ten, and in Ireland but one out of eighteen, are receiving scholastic instruction, which, in most cases, is miserably deficient; "every miserable garret or hovel in which weakness or decrepitude ekes out a wretched subsistence, by abusing

171

the title of teacher-being dignified with the name of a school." But let us come to particulars. According to the " Report of the British and Foreign School Society," for 1833, it is intimated that in the Metropolis alone, above 150,000 children are growing up without education. In one village, containing 272 families, consisting of 1467 persons, only 562 were found able to read. In other districts, villages are pointed out containing 1000, 1500, or 2000 inhabitants, without any efficient school. Whole families are described as having reached maturity, without any mem ber of them being able to read a single letter in short, that many thousands of children are growing up in utter ignorance, not only of the elements of learning, but of all moral and religious obligations. In the town of Nottingham, it is asserted, in a circular lately published, that above a thousand children of an age suitable for school, are growing up in total ignorance. From a canvass lately instituted by the Committee of the Herefordshire Auxiliary Bible Society, it appears that out of 41,017 individuals visited, only 24,222, or little more than one-half, were able to read.* In the Report of the British and Foreign School Society, for 1831, is the following statement: "Debasing ignorance prevails to an extent which could not be credited, were it not verified by the closest investigation. The facts which have been elicited respecting the moral and intellectual state of those counties which have been disgraced by riots and acts of incendiarism, are truly affecting, and yet they are but a fair representation of the actual state of our peasantry. Out of nearly 700 prisoners put on trial in four counties, upwards of two hundred and sixty were as ignorant as the savages of the desert-they could not read a single letter. Of the whole 700, only 150 could write, or even read with ease; and nearly the whole number were totally ignorant with regard to the nature and obligations of true religion." In the reports of the same Society for 1832-3, it is stated, “In September, 1831, out of 50 prisoners put on trial at Bedford, only four could read. In January, 1833, there were in the same prison between 50 and 60 awaiting their trials, of whom not more than ten could read, and even some of these could not make out the sense of a sentence, though they knew their letters. At Wisbeach, in the Isle of Ely, out of 19 prisoners put on trial, only six were able to read and write, and the capital offences were committed entirely by persons in a state of the most debasing ignorance.

Not only in England, but even in Scotland, we shall find a glaring deficiency in the means of education. In Glasgow, at the last census, * Edinburgh Review, No. 117 Oct. 1833.

of remark, in this point of view, that there was no conviction for murder or any other capital offence, in that State, comprising two millions of inhabitants-during the year 1832. The number of schools in New York, that year, was 9270; the number of scholars about 500,000, besides those attending academies and colleges; and the total expenditure for common schools the same year, 1,126,486 dollars, or £250,329; which is more than four times the sum which Mr. Colquhoun says Scotland would require for the supply of education, although its population exceeds that of New York by 400,000. In Prussia, since an improved system of education was established in that country, it is found that crimes have been greatly diminished, and that newspapers, magazines, and other publications, have, in many places, increased more than tenfold. Were we possessed of accurate statistical statements of the progress of education and of crime in the different countries of Europe and the States of America, I have no doubt it would clearly appear, that crime is regularly diminished nearly in proportion to the progress of an enlightened and efficient education. But let no one presume to affirm that the inhabitants of any country are educated, when little more than the form of instruction is imparted, and where less than one-fourth of the population is actually instructed.

Had I not already dwelt too long on this topic, it might have been shown, that the expense of punishing crime, and the losses of property to society in consequence of its prevalence, would be more than sufficient to "This city is clean and well paved, and seems to be not only entirely free of beggars, but of any population that is not apparently living comfort. able. I did not observe a single individual in the streets of this city who was not well apparelled, nor an individual of what we call the lower orders."-" "At Boston there is not the semblance of idleness and filth among the people anywhere. All are, or seem to be, in the full enjoyment of the necessaries of life; and all busy, active, and employed. What a contrast, in these respects, between this city and the city of Dublin, which, in July, 1827, I saw crowded with beggars almost naked, even in the heart of it; and, on the arrival of a mail-coach in Sackville Street, scrambling for the few halfpence which the passengers threw among them."-In 1830, the number of schools in Boston was 235, of which 80 were public, and 155 private schools, besides about a dozen academies and classical schools, several of which are exclusively devoted to female pupils. The total expense of the schools in 1829, for tuition, fuel, books, &c. 196,829 dollars, or about £43,739, which is more than double the grant for education voted by parliament in 1833. to be distributed over the whole of Britain -Where education, is so general and well-conducted, almost every individual is a reader. Hence the number of publications in Massachusetts, Connecticut, &c. exceeds that of any other country. In Boston, there are regularly published 10 daily newspapers, 7 twice a-week, and 26 weekly, being 43 in all-besides Magazines, Reviews, and Religious and Literary Journals of

173

""" that

support an efficient national education. It has been estimated, that the expenses attendant on the imprisonment, the conviction, and the punishment of criminals, will average more than a hundred pounds for each individual. According to a statement formerly made, there are yearly committed to jail 17,428 persons accused of crimes. At £115 for each, the annual expense of the whole would amount to more than two millions. If we add to this the interest of the money expended in the erection and repair of jails, penitentiaries, bridewells, bulks, and houses of correction-the salaries of jailers, judges, bailiffs, and all the other officers connected with criminal courts, together with the fees of pleaders, attorneys, &c. we shall have at least other four millions. If we were to make a rude estimate of the loss of property sustained by criminal depredations, the amount would be enormous. "I have been assured," says "The Schoolmaster in Newgate,' £200 and even £300 in a week, has been obtained by one man and a boy, merely by abstracting the money in shops which is kept in tills and desks." But supposing, on an average, only £120 per annum, as the amount of depredation committed by each thief and pickpocket-the number of such characters in London being estimated at 50,000, the loss sustained by such depredations will amount to six millions; and if we reckon the depredations in all the other parts of the kingdom to amount only to the same sum, we shall have twelve millions of loss sustained by depredations on property. The police establishment in London costs above £200,000 various descriptions; of which there is one published every half year; 7 every quarter, 5 every two months, 3 every fortnight, 22 monthly, and nine annually, including 6 almanacs; being in all, 47 periodicals, in a city containing only 62,000 inhabitants. These periodicals, it is evident, would never be published and sold, unless the inhabitants at large were universally given to reading. And where a habit of reading useful publications is general, the hydra of Crime will seldom lift up its head-the mind being preoccupied with nobler pursuits.. As an evidence of the immense quantity of literary works distributed in these States, I was lately informed by a literary correspondent in Connecticut, that one of the printers in Hartford, the capital of that State, containing only 8000 inhabitants-had printed, during the year 1833, of Geographies alone, great and small, no less than 200.000 copies.-The general state of education in Massachusetts is as follows: The whole number of towns in the State is 305, and the whole population 610.014. The population of 99 towns, fron which returns were lately made, is 201,681. Of these 57,866 attended public or private schools, which is equal to the proportion of 1 to 31; or three times the number in proportion to the pcpulation of those attending schools in Scotland. In addition to which it ought to be considered that the education in New-England is far more efficient and comprehensive than in this country.-The above statements are selected from the "American Quarterly Register" for May, 1833, and the "American Almanac" for 1834 P 2 (173)

a-year; and if we take into account the expenses connected with all the other police establishments of the nation, which may be reckoned at seven times that sum, we shall have an amount of £1,400,000 on this head: --whereas, less than one-fifth of that sum would be sufficient for the preservation of order among a renovated population. Many other items might have been stated, but the above sums, amounting to nearly twenty millions, would be more than sufficient for carrying forward a system of national education on the most ample and splendid scale. It is therefore madness in the extreme to attempt any longer to repress crime by such a machinery as has hitherto been employed, while we neglect the only efficient means by which its operations may be controlled, and its principle extirpated. The very principle of economy, if no higher motive impel, should induce us to alter our arrangements, and to build on a new foundation. It was lately said to the public of Edinburgh, with great propriety, when solicited to contribute to the erection of a school,-"Give your pence to infant schools," (I may add, to well conducted seminaries of all descriptions,) " and save your pounds on police establishments, jails, bridewells, transportations, and executions." In this way we should be enabled, at the same time, both to improve society, and to increase our national resources.

II. Such an education as now proposed, universally extended, would improve the mental faculties, and raise the character of man far beyond the level to which it has hitherto attained. During almost the whole of the past periods of this world's history, the human faculties have been seldom exerted with vigour, except for the purpose of promoting mischief, procuring the means of animal subsistence, or indulging in childish and degrading amusements. Even in the present enlightened age, as it has been termed, what are the pursuits which fascinate and absorb almost the whole attention of the higher classes of society? Horse-racing, fox-hunting, prize-fighting, gambling, duelling, coach-driving, "steeple-chases," slaughtering moor-fowl "o'er hill and dale," masquerades, theatrical amusements, and dissipations of all kinds. And what are the employments of a great proportion of the lower ranks, besides their stated occupations? Cockfighting, gambling, sauntering about the streets, indulging in drunkenness, licentiousness, and cruel sports and diversions-while they remain in ignorance of all that is grand and beautiful in the Creator's works, and feel no relish for intellectual enjoyments. Even the acquirements and pursuits of professed Christians are far inferior to the standard of intelligence and morality which religion prescribes; for we

behold, even among this class, ignorance most subjects with which every rational and religious being ought to be acquainted, combined with hatred of all religious sects but their own, with wealth-engrossing dispositions, and "covetousness, which is idolatry."

What a pitiful picture of ignorance and degradation would the inhabitants of this world present to the view of intelligences of a higher order! Were an inhabitant of the planet Saturn to wing his flight to this globe of ours, and were he capable of communicating his sentiments in language intelligible to man, we should expect to learn from him a minute detail of the history and geography of the globe to which he belonged, of the peculiar phenomena of nature in that region, of the various aspects of the moons, the diversified appearances of the magnificent rings which encircle that world, and descriptions of the different scenes of nature, the operations of art, the sciences cultivated by its inhabitants, and the plan of God's moral government among them; and, doubtless, our curiosity to become acquainted with the physical and moral arrangements of another world, would be abundantly gratified. But were an inhabitant of our globe, from among the lower or even from among many of the higher classes, to be transported to one of the planets, what account could he give of the arts and sciences, of the history, statistics, and natural scenery of our world? What could he say of its continents, rivers, islands, oceans, and volcanoes; its mountain scenery, and the properties of its atmosphere, of the variegated surface of the moon, and the peculiarities of its motions, of the history of its inhabitants, or the progress they had made in knowledge? What description could he give of the arts and inventions of modern times, of the construction of the instruments by which we view distant objects, and by which we penetrate into the scenes invisible to the unassisted eye, of the principle of air-balloons, steam-engines, air-pumps, mechanical powers, electrical machines, or galvanic batteries ? Above all, what could he tell them of the moral dispensations of the Creator towards our world, and of what is contained in the rev· elations of his word? He could perhaps tell them that there were hills, and rivers, and fourfooted beasts, and men that were employed in killing each other; but could convey no precise idea of any thing in which this world differed from that to which he had been transported. He would be looked down upon with pity as a kind of lusus naturæ, unworthy of the name of a rational being. Of 800 millions of men that people our globe, there are at least 750 millions of this description, who could give little more information respecting the peculiarities of our world to the inhabit

ants of another planet, than they could receive from an elephant or a beaver, if such creatures had the faculty of communicating their ideas.

Such is the present character of the great majority of this world's population-and how is it to be elevated to a standard befitting a rational and immortal intelligence? Only by the universal extension of such an education as that, the outlines of which we have faintly sketched. The communication of knowledge is the first part of that process by which the human character is to be raised and adorned, as light was the first agent employed in the arrangement of the material creation; and this knowledge must, in every instance, be conjoined with religious principle and moral conduct, otherwise it will only prove the intelligence of demons. Man, although, in one point of view, he is allied to the beasts of the field, in another, he is allied to superior natures, and even to the Deity himself; and therefore ought to be rendered fit for associating with such intelligences-for receiving from them communications of knowledge and felicity, and for imparting to them similar benefits in return. If man is destined to a future world, as we profess to believe, he will, doubtless, mingle with beings of various orders during that interminable existence which lies before him; and his preparation for such intercourses will, in a great measure, depend on the training he receives, and the principles he imbibes, during his sojourn in this sublunary sphere. There is no essential difference between men on earth, and the highest created beings in any region of the universe, but what consists in the degree of knowledge, and the degree of holiness, or moral perfection, which they respectively possess. When man is endowed with a competent measure of these qualifications, he is fitted for the highest degree of social enjoyment, both in this life and in the world to come; and therefore, in so far as we refuse to lend our aid to the cause of universal instruction, or set ourselves in opposition to it, we do every thing in our power to debase the character of our fellow men, to prevent them from rising in the scale of intelligence, and to interpose a barrier to their present and future happiness.

I might likewise have shown the utility of universal education, from the tendency it would have to induce the mass of mankind to lend their aid in promoting every scheme which tends to advance the improvement of the social state of man; the cultivation of the soil, the forming of spacious roads and footpaths, canals, rail-roads, and bridges; the universal illumination of towns, villages, and the country at large, by gas-lights and other contrivances; the establishment of expeditious

175

conveyances in every direction by sea and land; and the carrying forward to perfection the various arts and sciences. But as I have elsewhere adverted a little to some of these objects, I shall only add, in the meantime, that the value and security of property in any country, depend, in a great measure, upon the intelligence and morality of its population. If the whole mass of society were thoroughly enlightened and moralized, we should no longer hear of "strikes" taking place among workmen, of servants embezzling the property of their masters, or of combinations being entered into in opposition to the interests of their employers. Every man's house would be his castle; and we should lie down to rest in the evening in perfect security from the incendiary, the insidious pilferer, and the midnight depredator. This security has already been partially felt in those countries where an enlightened education is general. Mr. Stuart, when describing the New England States, remarks, that "robberies very seldom happen in that country, and that the doors of houses are frequently left unlocked during night"—the inhabitants having little fear of either depredations or annoyance from their neighbours.

III. Intellectual and religious education, universally extended, in combination with every other Christian exertion, would be more efficient than any other arrangement hitherto made for hastening the approach of the Millennium. That a period is about to arrive, when knowledge, holiness, and joy, shall distinguish the inhabitants of the world in a degree far surpassing what we have yet experienced, is clearly predicted in the oracles of inspiration. By these oracles we are informed, that “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations worship before him"that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the seas," and that "all shall know him, from the least to the greatest,"—that "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh see it together,”

that "the heathen shall be given to Messiah for his inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the earth for his possession,”—that "all kings shall fall down before him, all nations serve him, and the whole earth be filled with his glory,”—that during the continuance of this happy era, "wars shall cease to the ends of the earth, and the nations shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace,”

that "the earth shall yield her increase, and be fat and plenteous,"-that the inhabitants" shall build houses and inhabit them, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, and shall long enjoy the work of their hands,"

that "they shall go out with joy and be led