raise £10,000 annually, it is calculated that, in conjunction with the small sums furnished by the readers, there could be established, in the course of twenty years, a library for every 524 persons in Great Britain and Ireland, taking the population at twenty millions; and in twenty-five years, for every 294 persons. which would be a complete supply for the wants of the whole population. And what would such a sum be to the British government, which is extravagant enough to waste twenty times that sum every year in bestowing pensions on those who neither deserve them nor stand in need of them? The great object of these libraries is to promote the interests of religion, in connection with the study of history, biography, voyages and travels, and all the popular and useful branches of science. They have been supported and patronized by the most respectable persons in the country, and have met with almost unprecedented success. They have been introduced into several other counties in Scotland and Ireland, and in some of the West India islands, and even in South Africa. The number of volumes connected with the East Lothian itinerating libraries now amounts to nearly three thousand. In some of the divisions every volume has been issued about 120 times, and many of them much oftener. Mr. Brown, who has directed and superintended these libraries for eighteen years, deserves the thanks of his country for his benevolent and unremitting exertions.* In several cities and towns in America, such as Philadelphia and Albany, libraries have been established for the use of apprentices, both male and female. The apprentices' library in Philadelphia contains above 8000 volumes. Although well-selected libraries are of immense importance for the diffusion of knowledge, yet no person, who has it in his power to purchase a few good books occasionally, ought to confine his reading to the books of a public library; but in conjunction with the use of such books, should endeavour to furnish himself with selections of some of the best standard books in the language, which he may study at leisure, and to which he may immediately refer for any particular information of which he is desirous. Every general reader should, if possible, be furnished with an English Dictionary, a portable Encyclopedia, a summary of universal history, and some of the best systems of popular science. * Mr. S. Brown is a son of the Rev. John Brown, of Haddington, well known as the author of the "Self-Interpreting Bible," "Dictionary of the Bible," "System of Divinity," and many other works. His exertions, and the beneficial effects which have flowed from them, show how much even an individual engrossed in an extensive business has it in his power to perform, when his aims are directed to promote the good of mankind. IX. Knowledge might be promoted by de lineations and inscriptions on various articles of furniture. We have, for example, many kinds of bowls, drinking' vessels, &c., made of porcelain or earthen ware, on which many foolish inscriptions and devices are engraved. We have likewise carpets, bed-curtains, handkerchiefs, &c., on which groups of fantastic figures, and various distorted representations of natural and artificial objects, are depicted, which serve no purpose but that of exhibiting a gaudy show.-Now, if, instead of such paltry devices, moral sentiments and maxims, pithy sayings, and sentences descriptive of certain historical and scientific facts, such as those formerly specified, (pp. 68, 205,) were inscribed on the articles to which I allude, useful hints might be communicated and rendered familiar wherever we turned our eyes, and might occasionally suggest topics for useful conversation. In like manner, were real objects in nature and art depicted on china-ware, drinking vessels, printed cotton handkerchiefs, window-curtains, carpets, and similar articles, in place of the fantastical figures usually delineated, which have no prototypes in nature, a considerable fund of information might in this way be imparted. For pictures, when true to nature and correctly delineated, convey useful knowledge as well as books, and sometimes in a more pleasant and rapid manner; and there is no more difficulty in engraving real objects than in depicting the distorted and fantastic objects which are usually represented; and in course of time, every rational person would be induced to consider every thing as beautiful which is really useful. In following out these suggestions, we might have paper hangings and carpets deversified with maps of the world and of particular countries-bed and window curtains adorned with public buildings, landscapes, views of caverns, grottos, volcanic mountains, cataracts, steam-carriages, air-pumps, telescopes, foreign trees, shrubs, and animals-our plates, teacups and saucers decorated with miniature pictures of similar objects, accompanied with wise sayings, immutable truths and short statements of important facts. In this way a fund of sententious wisdom, in connection with views of interesting scenery, might be introduced into every family; which would tend to excite inquiry, to lead to improving conversation, and to deter from the pursuit of vicious and criminal courses. A king was said to have been saved from being poisoned by his cup-bearer, by the following motto en◄ graved on the cup which contained the poison, "Never begin any action of which thou hast not well considered the end."-It is evident, that the above hints might be reduced to prac ABOLITION OF TAXES. tice with as much ease and cheapness as silly and licentious inscriptions and clumsy castles in the air; and that almost every article of dress and furniture, every garden bower, and every rural and architectural decoration, might in this way be rendered subservient to human knowledge and improvement; provided society would give encouragement to such devices. But, hitherto, the foolish and depraved character of man has displayed itself in this as well as in almost every other department of his actions. X. The improvement of society requires that changes and alterations be made in many of our established laws, regulations, and customs. The laws and practices to which I allude are so numerous, that I shall mention only two or three as a specimen. 1. All taxes connected with the diffusion of knowledge should be wholly and for ever abolished. These include taxes on the materials and the manufacture of paper, which, besides directly adding to the price of this article, are found to be extremely vexatious to the manufacturer, and prevent him from getting his articles rapidly conveyed to the market-taxes on newspapers, engravings, pamphlets, periodical works, and advertisements of books and other articles of trade—and taxes, too, in the shape of entering books in "Stationers' Hall," depriving the author or publisher of thirteen copies of his work, however valuable and expensive, which in certain cases will amount to the sum of £200 or £300. Were these and all other taxes connected with literature abolished, and an economical mode of printing adopted, books might be purchased at little more than one half of their present price. In this connection, too, it may be stated, that the charges demanded for the insertion of advertisements of books in newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals, are extravagantly high, and add, in no inconsiderable degree, to the price of literature. In consequence of the tax on newspapers there are only 30 millions of them circulated in Great Britain and Ireland, which is but the one twenty-fifth part of the number circulated in the United States of America, which contain little more than half the population of the British empire. In England there is only one newspaper to 46,000 inhabitants.-2. The postage of letters should be greatly reduced. The conveyance of letters is scarcely a fair subject of taxation, if we wish to facilitate the interchange of sentiment and friendship among mankind. It tends to prevent the poor man from corresponding with his friends and relatives at a distance--to prevent communications being sent to periodicals-and to abridge the correspondence of men of literature and science, 207 some of whom have very little money to to spare. I have known persons cf this description taxed in this way, to the amount of three or four shillings, and even of half-a-guinea in one day, when such sums were imperatively required for procuring the necessaries of life.It is likewise unfair, and absolutely unjust, that the inhabitants of villages, who are gencrally poorer than those in towns, should pay more for letters and newspapers than others. While a person in a large town receives a daily newspaper from London gratis, the villager, only four miles farther distant, pays for the conveyance of the same paper, twentysix shillings a year, besides paying an additional penny for all his letters.* The postage of letters should be so regulated that all may enjoy an equal benefit-that every facility may be afforded for transmitting them to foreign countries, whether belonging to the British dominions or not, and the charge for letters and packages should be no more than what is sufficient to defray all the expenses of the Post-office establishment; as is the case in the United States of America. Under certain regulations all proof sheets of any work sent to the author for corrections should be free of postage. In these and many other respects our Post-office regulations require a thorough investigation and amendment.-3. The names of ships and steam-vessels should be painted in large characters on the most conspicuous parts of these vehicles. If the names of ships are intended to distinguish them from each other, it appears preposterous and truly ridiculous, to have the name depicted on the lower part of the stern, which always stands in an oblique position, and which is seldom or never seen, when approaching another vessel or towards the shore. If the name of a vessel were painted in large characters on each side of the bow, it might be distinguished by a good telescope at the distance of four or five miles, whereas it is sometimes difficult to read the name of a vessel on the stern at the distance of a few yards. As it is interesting in many cases, not only to the owners of ships, but to those who have friends and relatives on board, to be able to distinguish any particular vessel, when it first makes its appearance, the hint now given cannot be deemed altogether unimportant.-4. The practice of paying waiters, chambermaids, boot-boys, and ostlers at inns, servant-maids, &c. at private houses, and guards and postillions in stage-coaches, should be universally discarded-as creating unnecessay trouble and * Here I allude to the Penny posts lately established in most of our villages. + In America the postage for any distance under 300 miles, is 5 cents; over 300 miles, 10 cents. expense to travellers, and fostering a spirit of meanness, impudence, and avarice, in the persons occupying such situations. It would be conducive both to the moral and pecuniary interests of all parties concerned, were such customs abolished. Mr. Stuart informs us, that no such custom prevails in the Northern States of America, and that it would be considered in almost every instance as an insult, to offer such persons a gratuity for performing their duty. This absurd and degrading practice has been handed down to us by the aristocracy, the servants of whom are always on the watch for gratuities from strangers and visitors. A literary gentleman, Dr. who had frequently been invited to dine with Lord -, was one day accosted by his lordship, and asked why he had not for a long time past complied with his invitation to dinner? Why," replied the doctor, "because I cannot afford it; I can dine at my own apartments for less than two shillings, but when I dine with your lordship it costs me at least five shillings-every one of your servants, at my departure, holding out his hand, and expecting a half-crown or a shilling at least to be given him."-5. Another abominable custom which prevails at public meetings, and which should be discarded, is, hissing and groaning at certain speakers, or at the sentiments they express. A hiss or a groan may display the malignity of those who utter it, and their antipathy to the opinions expressed, but it never embodies a reason or an argument to confute the speaker, or convince the audience of the futility of his sentiments. In all deliberative assemblies, every speaker who conducts himself with decorum should be listened to without interruption, and facts and arguments brought forward to confute his positions, if they be untenable. To attempt to put down a speaker by hisses or groans is inconsistent with the dignity of an assembly of rational beings-is characteristic of a rabble, or a company of boors, rather than an assemblage of men of intelligence-and generally indicates the weakness of the cause which such conduct is intended to support.-6. Our civil and criminal codes require to be simplified and re-modelled, and formed on the principles of equity and natural justice. Many of their enactments are repugnant to reason and religion, and inconsistent with the dictates of philanthropy and common sense, and with the spirit of an enlightened age. The expense of law processes, as presently conducted, amounts to a prohibition of a poor man's obtaining justice in any case where he has suffered an injury; and the multiplicity of statutes and precedents, the vagueness of their language, and the unintelligible jargon of terms and phrases connected with them, frequently lead to almost interminable litiga tions, till the whole value of the subject in dispute is more than expended, and the liti gants reduced to poverty. Our civil code requires to be cancelled, and reconstructed, de novo, on principles similar to the "Code Napoleon"-and our penal statutes require to be remodelled in such a manner, that punishments may be proportioned to crimes, and that they be of such a nature as to promote the reformation of the criminal. The above are merely specimens of customs, laws, and usages, which require to be either modified or abolished, in order to promote the advancement of society. XI. The diffusion of knowledge, and the improvement of mankind, are, in some measure, dependent on a friendly intercourse being established among all civilized nations. Hitherto, nations, even those that are adjacent to each other, have acted towards other nations with a spirit of selfishness and jealousy, as if they were beings of a different species, and had no common relation as brethren, or as children of the same Benevolent and Almighty Parent. Harassing restrictions, duties, excise regulations, and every other impediment, are thrown in the way of travellers, when passing from one country to another, as if the interests of one class of human beings were set in opposition to those of another. When a traveller passes from England to France he must pay for a passport, and should he happen to lose it he is treated as a rogue or a spy. When he passes from Holland to Britain, and carries an old Dutch Bible along with him, before he can convey it from the shore he must pay a duty to the amount of far more than its value. When he is about to embark at Liverpool for America, his trunks and packages are searched, duties demanded, and a host of petty tyrants under the excise vex and harass him in all his arrangements; when he lands on the other side of the Atlantic, he is subjected to a similar ordeal; and when he returns to England with a few volumes of American literature, his luggage is again subjected to a strict scrutiny, and he must pay a shilling for every pound weight of knowledge he has imported.* Besides the spirit of war *The following instance, among many others, rictions:-A. Davidson, A. M., a celebrated lecshows the harassing nature of custom-house returer on experimental philosophy and chemistry, after having returned from Ireland to Liverpool, had his packages, containing an extensive apparatus, thrown into the custom-house, which were not permitted to be removed till they should be minutely inspected. They consisted chiefly of glass cylinders, globes. receivers, &c. of all de scriptions, which required several days and much exertion to get packed; and they could not be un INSTRUCTION OF SEAMEN. fare, which has so frequently interrupted the correspondence of nations,--such harassing and vexatious restrictions have a tendency to foster a principle of antipathy, and to imperle the progress of knowledge. They are founded on a principle of selfishness and malignity, and, like all such principles, they frustrate even the pecuniary object they were intended to promote; for, in point of fact, so far from increasing the wealth of a nation, they tend in many ways to diminish its resources. Were all such restrictions and exactions abolished, philanthropic travellers might make a tour through the nations without being annoyedthe manufactures and natural productions of every country could be afforded at a much cheaper rate than at present-and the hundred thousands of pounds and dollars annually expended in keeping up a numerous retinue of excise officers and underlings, would be saved for the purposes of national improvement. The most enlightened political economists now agree that Free Trade should be universally encouraged, and that extraordinary restrictions upon the importation of goods are injurious to the wealth and prosperity of nations. XII. The improvement of society requires that particular attention be paid to the intellectual and religious instruction of seamen. The British navy includes about 30,000 men; the British merchant service about 220,000, of whom about 100,000 are engaged in the coasting trade, and 120,000 in the foreign trade. The coast-guard service includes 21,000 individuals; and there are of fishermen, watermen, and boatmen, probably not less than 50,000 persons, beside their families, amounting in all to above 320,000 individuals, exclusive of their wives and children. An immense number of this class of men is likewise connected with the United States of America, but I have no data on which to form an estimate of their amount. A great proportion of these persons have been brought up in debasing ignorance, both of general knowledge and of the truths of religion, and they are too frequently addicted to habits of profaneness and intemperance. They form, however, a most important and interesting class of our fellow-men-they are frequently packed, in such a situation, without considerable expense and great loss of time, and the risk of having a great part of the apparatus broken and destroyed. He offered to unpack them in the presence of excise officers, in the apartments he had procured for the purpose; but this was refused. He called day after day at the customhouse about the matter, but to no purpose. One underling gave him a sealed card, containing about two lines of writing, to carry to another underling, for which he charged half a-crown; this last gave him a similar card to a third person, for which the same charge was made; this third person gave another half crown card, to be handed 27 209 distinguished for heroism, humanity, and a noble generosity; and, were they generally instructed in useful knowledge and Christiar morals, they might be rendered useful agents in promoting the good of mankind both at home and abroad. The "British and Foreign Sailors' Society" was formed sometime ago, "for promoting the moral and religious improvement of seamen." Of this society, Lord Mountsandford is president; Alderman Pirie, and G. F. Angas, Esq., treasurers; the Rev. Dr. Cox, and the Rev. T. Timpson, secretaries-gentlemen distinguished for their activity in every department of philanthropic labour. The principal scene of their labour is the port of London, where the gospel is preached, and prayer-meetings held on board ships, every evening, by agents of the society, who distribute Bibles, religious books and tracts, and enter into conversation with the seamen on moral and religious subjects. They have already spent upwards of £2000 in fitting up a chapel and other buildings, and have provided 140 "Loan Ship Libraries," comprising 4000 volumes, now abroad in many vessels; and 50 small libraries for the fishing smacks sailing from the Thames; besides the "Vestry Library," which contains upwards of 3000 volumes, daily open to the sailors in the depot of the chapel;-but the want of adequate funds prevents them from enlarging the sphere of their operations. To complete such benevolent arrangements, it would be requisite, could funds be procured, to establish schools on a moral and intellectual principle, some of them adapted to the children of sailors, and others for the rational instruction of adults. Lectures on popular Science, accompanied with experiments, might likewise be occasionally delivered; and the religious books contained in the libraries blended with popular and interesting publications on geography, astronomy, history, voyages, travels, and other departments of knowledge. Were sailors well instructed and moralized, they might improve their own minds by reading and conversation, during long voyages, and feel a superior degree of enjoyinent to what they now experience; they might be the means of promoting both knowledge and religion in foreign lands-they might soon be accustomed to a fourth person who could give him the requisite information, but this fourth person could never be found; and thus he was bandied about from one harpy to another, and filched out of four or five half-crowns. In this way, three weeks were wasted to no purpose, till by accident he meţ with a gentleman, connected with the customhouse, with whom he was formerly acquainted, who got his packages released, after he had been subjected to much trouble, expens“, &ini anxiety, and lost nearly a month, during which his lectures might have been nearly finished. Regulations which lead to such impositions and perplexities require to be speedily abolished. 8 2 (209 1 cial state. From the operations of Bible and Missionary Associations, it is evident how much may be achieved by the formation of societies for the accomplishment of a specific object. The societies to which I allude, including the Church Missionary, Scottish, London, Wesleyan, and several others, now raise nearly £300,000 annually. The general object I would propose to accomplish by a new association, is as important as any other which has yet engaged the public attention; for it lies at the foundation of all other philanthropic plans, and they can never be brought into extensive operation till it be accomplished. If all ranks were thoroughly instructed in knowledge and engion, and, consequently, led to appreciate the importance of Christianity, and the necessity of its universal propagation, the funds of our missionary institutions, and the energies with which they would be conducted, would be increased tenfold more than they now are, and few individuals would be found altogether indifferent to such noble enterprises. Such an association might be instrumental in calling the attention of the public to the subject-in diffusing information respecting it-in detailing plans for accomplishing the grand object intended-in illustrating the noble and beneficial effects which would flow from its accomplishment-and in exciting the more wealthy members of the community to contribute a portion of their substance for carrying forward the requisite arrangements. By such a society, with all the auxiliaries that might be formed throughout a nation, it would scarcely be too much to expect that a million of pounds might annually be procured, which would render society nearly independent of the caprices and partialities of civil rulers, or of the grants of money which governments might either withhold or bestow. XIV. Before any plan for the improvement of mankind can be brought extensively into effect, the principle of avarice, as it now operates n society, must be counteracted and subdued. The great object of the majority of mankind appears to be, to acquire as much wealth as possible, not for the purpose of applying it to the service of God and the good of society, : but to gratify a selfish principle and an avari. *The late distinguished philanthropist, J. R. Wilson, Esq., of Clapham Common, was once |