working as an agricultural labourer, found he did not, in point of fact, receive half the wages of a married man; although he did as much work; murmuring and discontent ensued, and ill-feeling was engendered against his employer, which had but too facile means of gratification.

Local assemblies, invested with large powers, and removed from the surveillance of superior authority, soon assume the worst features of an oligarchy; and, if their decrees have the appearance of interested origin, and are oppressively carried into effect, they, in the first instance, bring their authors into contempt; and, as irritation supervenes, produce wrath, malice, and revenge, and excite all the evil passions of human nature.

Authority, removed from the vulgar eye, is clothed with the attributes of the Deity, against omnipotence murmur is unavailing and malice impotent; and, when the imagined injury is not levelled against an individual, but a general arrangement intended for ultimate good, and to benefit the majority of the community, resigned submission takes the place of what would have been rankling discontent.

"It is the peculiarity and principal excellence of free governments, that as the great have no property in the labour of the poor other than what is acquired for a time by a mutual agreement, so the poor man has no claim upon his support and maintenance, except under some particular covenant. It follows that, in such states, every man is to derive a support for himself and his family, from the voluntary exertions of his own industry, under the direction of his own genius, his own prudence, and his own conscience. Hence, in these free governments, some considerable improvement of the understanding is neces

sary, even for the lowest orders of the people; and much strength of religious principle is requisite, to govern the individual in those common interests of private life, in which the laws leave the meanest subject equally with the wealthiest, master of himself. Wherefore, the greatest danger threatens every free constitution, when, by the neglect of a due culture of the infant mind, barbarism and irreligion are suffered to over-run the lower orders."*

A war for our existence had blinded the people, as well as the minister, to the rapidly increasing amount of the public debt, all minor irregularities were absorbed in the powerful excitement occasioned by the momentous struggle, and, when attention was directed to the education of the lower orders, it was met by many with the argument that they would be unfitted to fulfil their destiny-would be disinclined to be hewers of wood, and drawers of water; and it was forgotten that, in a country of free-men, every individual should have the power to rise to the highest offices of the state; whereas, if unable to read or write, he could not advance himself one single step in the social community.

Rulers, conscious of upright intentions, and confident likewise in the intrinsic worth of the institutions, which it is their duty to uphold, knowing those institutions to be founded on the rock of righteous principles, have always endeavoured to establish a well-founded system of public instruction. "Ignorance is rude, censorious, jealous, obstinate, and proud; these being exactly the ingredients of which disobedience is composed; obedience, on the contrary, proceeds from ample consideration, of which *Bishop Horsley.

knowledge consists; and knowledge will soon put into one scale the weight of oppression, and in the other the heavy burden which disobedience lays on us in the effects of disorder, and then even tyranny will seem much lighter, when the hand of supreme power binds up our load and lays it artfully upon us; than disobedience, which generates confusion, when we all load one another, and when every one endeavours to increase his fellow-creature's burden, that he may lessen his own."*

Government have availed themselves of the opportunity given them by the Poor - Law Amendment Act, to introduce a system of training and instruction for the children resident in the union houses, calculated to form them to become useful members of

society. "The state is in loco parentis to the pauper children who have no natural guardians, and the interest it has in the right discharge of its responsi bilities, may be illustrated by supposing the government had determined to require direct instead of indirect service in return for education. If the army and navy were recruited by the workhouse children, it is evident that it would be the interest of the state to rear a race of hardy and intelligent men-instructed in the duties of their station-to fear God and honour their sovereign. The state has not less interest, though it may be less apparent, in supplying the merchant-service with sailors, and the farms and manufactories of the country with workmen, and the households of the upper and middle classes with domestic servants: and it has the most positive and direct interest in adopting measures to prevent the rearing a race of prostitutes and felons.

*D'Avenant.

It may be questionable, how far it would be proper to permit the pauper children to volunteer for service in the army and navy, and to train them accordingly; but the duty of rearing these children in religion and industry, and of imparting to them such an amount of secular knowledge as may fit them to discharge the duties of their station, cannot be doubted."*

The great object of the earlier efforts in pauper legislation was the restraint of vagrancy. The 12th Richard II. (1388) prohibits any labourer from quitting his dwelling place without a testimonial from a justice of the peace, shewing reasonable cause for his going; and, without such a testimonial, any such wanderer might be apprehended and put in the stocks. Impotent persons were to remain in the towns where they were dwelling at the passing of the act, provided the inhabitants would support them; otherwise, they were to go to the places of their birth, to be there supported. Other more stringent and severe enactments successively followed, but without any permanent effect, until the 43rd Elizabeth, chap. ii., which remained in operation from that time until the Poor-Law Amendment Act of William IV., which passed in 1839.

During that long period, many abuses had crept into the administration of the law, and, in 1818, when the money levied for the maintenance of the poor amounted to the large sum of £7,870,801, and in many districts the property was so unequal to the charge, that it was necessary to call for a rate in aid from the neighbouring parishes, public attention was

* Doctor Kaye's Report on Education.

turned to the possibility of increasing pauperism absorbing the income of the landholders.

And yet it was a subject that nothing but a strong government could attempt to grapple with; borne into power by the popularity of the Reform Bill. the ministry of the day judiciously seized the favourable moment; how wisely was plainly manifested; for, when re-action ensued, and the opposing party were called to assume the helm of the state, on the dissolution of Parliament, several candidates passed through the populous boroughs in their carriages, with their partycolours displayed; calling out "No Bastille," "Away with the Poor-law Amendment Act," Hurra for the Times;" the proprietary of this very influential journal having taken a strong prejudice against this most necessary measure of the Reform Ministry; as if such an Augean stable could be cleansed in any other way than by turning the current of public education into it, and preventing further accumulation of filth. To make a firm stand against any possible increase of the mound was the first step to be gained at any risk; and, although the heap of corrupted matter might, by the means used, become for some time more widely spread, yet it would be at length absorbed, and the atmosphere become purified.

To

To prevail upon a man to part with any portion of what he calls his liberty or free-will is difficult, and it can be only be effected by making him perceive that he gives up a part to secure the whole. induce him to yield any of his property is still more so the same argument must be used, and it is the only one likely to produce any impression.

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Let never so much probability hang on one side

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