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against the adherents of King Ferdinand.* And sincerely as we pity the untimely end of a brave and (on the whole) a respectable soldier, it would be weakness to forget the massacre of Madrid, and worse than weakness to deny that the death by which he suffered was as just as it was legal and necessary.

ART. XIV.-1. First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth REPORTS of the Select Committee appointed to Inquire into THE EDUCATION OF THE LOWER ORDERS IN THE METROPOLIS, and to report their Observations thereupon, together with the Minutes of the Evidence taken before them from time to time, to the House: and who were instructed to consider WHAT MAY BE FIT TO BE DONE WITH RESPECT TO THE CHILDREN OF PAUPERS WHO SHALL BE FOUND BEGGING IN THE STREETS in and near the Metropolis, or who shall be carried about by Persons asking Charity, and whose Parents, or other Persons who [whom] they accompany, have not sent such Children to any of the Schools provided for the Education of Poor Children. 2. A Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, M. P. from Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. F. R. S. upon the Abuse of Charities. Tenth Edition. London. 1818. Svo. pp. 67.

1816-1818.

3. The Speech of Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. in the House of Commons, May 8th, 1818, on the Education of the Poor, and Charitable Abuses. London. 1818. 8vo. pp. 49.

4. A Letter to the Right Hon. Sir William Scott, &c. &c. M. P. for the University of Oxford, in Answer to Mr. Brougham's Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, upon the Abuse of Charities, and Ministerial Patronage in the Appointments under the late Act. Fourth Edition. London. 1818. 8vo. pp. 100.

5. Vindicia Wykehamicæ; or, a Vindication of Winchester College: in a Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. occasioned by his Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, on Charitable Abuses. By the Rev. W. L. Bowles. London. Svo. 1818.

'Ogni individuo impiegato da Ferdinando dopo l'epoca suddetta cesserà le sue funzioni dal giorno della publicazione del presente decreto o della nuova del nostro sbarco. Quelli che dopo tale publicazione o nuova, si ostinassero a conservare i loro impieghi, e a dare una disposizione qualunque, saranno riguardati come ribelli, traditori della patria, e come tali saranno puniti con tutto il rigore delle leggi.'-' Qualunque ministro di Ferdinando [qualunque impiegato] che dopo la publicazione del presente decreto o della nuova del nostro sbarco verrà conservare il potere a fare eseguire gli ordini del suo Sovrano, ordinare delle misure, o dare una disposizione qualunque tendente ad impedire l'esecuzione del nostri ordini, sara dichiarato rebelle, provocatore della guerra civile, traditore della patria e del Re, messo fuore della legge, e giudicato come tale.'-Art. 3 and 4 of the printed decree found on Murat's person. The pas sage between brackets was interlined with his own writing.

6. A Letter

6. A Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. F. R. S. in Reply to the Strictures on Winchester College, contained in his Letter to Sir Samuel Romilly, M. P. From the Rev. Liscombe Clarke, A. M. Fellow of Winchester College. London. 8vo. 1818.

7. A Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. from John Ireland, D. D. formerly Vicar of Croydon, now Dean of Westminster, with an Appendix, containing the Letter from Mr. Drummond. London. 1818. 8vo. pp. 31.

IN presenting to our readers some account of the proceedings of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, whose duties and functions (as entrusted to them by the House) are so carefully described in the title of their First Report; as well as of the several pamphlets to which those proceedings have given birth, we must supplicate a more than ordinary portion of indulgence. Great would be the difficulty of comprising within the limits of a Review even a brief notice of all the momentous topics (some of them most unexpectedly) involved in the examinations of the Committee, and in the Letter and Speech of its Honourable Chairman. Either of the two branches of inquiry upon which the Committee were specially directed to report, would have furnished ample materials of discussion for a separate Article. The latter branch, it must be owned, indeed, appears to have obtained but a small share of the attention of the Committee, in proportion to its urgency at the season when they were appointed: but, in return, they have made pretty wide excursions into provinces not immediately assigned to them. The result is to bring, amid many others of minor importance, the following distinct and most grave matters under our consideration.—1. The present condition of the lower orders of the metropolis.-2. Plans for promoting education amongst them, as well as for bettering, by other methods, their morals and their general state.-3. The propriety or impropriety of connecting the national religion with national education.-4. The nature and state of all charitable endowments and trusts.-5. The circumstances and administration of the great public schools and of the two universities of England :—and, lastly, sundry charges of malversation, and robbery of the poor, adduced against some personages of exalted rank and exalted character in the country.

It is not the extensive nature of these subjects alone that makes the discussion of them a task of great labour, and of some pain. The frequent and strong personalities which the learned Chairman of the Committee has, whether as their organ or in his own individual character, mixed up with most parts of his multifarious statements and arguments, cannot be read by any impartial person without a feeling of something like disgust. In accompanying him

through

through his long train of complaints and invectives, we find him continually treading upon ground, which few people willingly select for their operations, and meddling with weapons which, if they fail to inflict their meditated wound, are apt to recoil upon those who wield them. Nothing can be more unpleasant than to have to deal with topics such as these; but they cannot be avoided, without omitting altogether some of the most important features of the case now brought before the public. We trust that we shall be able to avoid the contagion of the example set to us in the manner of treating that case: but when we see those illustrious seminaries, which have for ages contributed to form the character of English gentlemen, made the objects of assault, we should be wanting in our duty to the public, were we to decline entering into an investigation in which their reputation, perhaps their existence, is concerned, and pursuing it whithersoever it may lead us. Our attachment both to the literary character, and to the established religion of our country, engages us to discharge fearlessly the important office of guarding the public mind against misrepresentation and prejudice, which are never so dangerous as when disguised under the mask of patriotism.

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As the Chairman of the Committee comes before us voluntarily as an author, making both his Speech,' and the materials upon which his pamphlet is founded, public property, we may without impropriety with regard to the individual, and without trenching upon the sacredness of parliamentary privilege, say a few words of the author, before we turn to his works. He has been long known to the public, first as an able and energetic writer upon politics and economics, and of late years as one of the most powerful debaters in parliament. His style is extremely forcible, though deficient in purity and good taste: he abounds with sarcasm and invective; and upon almost all questions has recourse to personalities in a degree which is very unusual among men of his scope of abilities. In all his pursuits, he displays a spirit of industry and a power of exertion which cannot be too highly praised. But joining, as we do, with all the world, in admiration of these energies, we cannot help deeply lamenting the manner in which they are sometimes applied. We do not allude to the mere dissensions of party, nor to any of the questions which divide the two great bodies in the senate. An able and vigilant opposition, if exempt from factious and unpatriotic designs, must always prove a security to the constitution. It is the habit of disparaging the most revered institutions of this country, and the propensity to every species of innovation, that awaken distrust and alarm. If a disposition to discredit or subvert every thing that is familiar from custom, or venerable from antiquity, arises in any man's mind from a sincere and honest wish of benefiting his

fellow

fellow subjects, we can only say, that his notions are such as the philosopher and the practical man must equally condemn. Who, in truth, can really have persuaded himself, that the way to benefit his country, or even to introduce such corrections and improvements in its institutions as the lapse of time and the course of events may require, is by continual efforts to hold up to public odium the various branches of the legislature, particularly the highest; to throw suspicion upon the proceedings of the courts of judicature, and to bring into contempt the great establishments for national religion and national education? Upon whom can the practical lessons afforded by the history of Europe for the last thirty years have been so entirely thrown away? Prejudice may be entertained against English education by those who themselves do not happen to have enjoyed its advantages, the nature of which they therefore do not thoroughly comprehend: and this feeling, by no means universal or even generally prevalent among those who have been brought up under a different system, is in the present instance too conspicuous to escape the notice of the most careless observer. From what cause a like prejudice against our Established Church may spring, we cannot take upon ourselves to determine: but it is as impossible to peruse the publications now before us, as it is to read the productions of a certain Northern school of critics, without observing a continual eagerness to censure the conduct of the Church of England, and to speak of its distinguished characters with expressions of bitterness or derision.

The above remarks are forced from us, and are made rather in sorrow than in anger. Whether they be justified by the conduct of the late parliamentary investigation, the voice of the public must decide. We are not ignorant how jealously our countrymen are disposed to feel on the subject of charitable endowments; nor do we wish to see this jealousy abated or lulled asleep: it is the best security for those institutions, the peculiar and distinctive boast of this island. But we also know, that they are too clear-sighted to be long deluded by any suggestions, however specious, from those improvers who, if once admitted into the garden for the purpose of weeding it, would infallibly proceed to root up the fairest and googliest products of its culture, and convert the soil to purposes of a totally different nature.

In submitting the merits of this subject to our readers, we purpose to adopt the simplest and plainest course. The importance of the subject is in itself sufficient to command their attention. It is our wish only to put them in possession of the facts, and to leave them to form a dispassionate opinion for themselves.

On the 21st of May, 1816, the Honourable and Learned Member for Winchelsea moved for the appointment of a Select

Committee

Committee of the House of Commons,' to inquire into the state of Education of the Lower Orders of the People in London, Westminster, and Southwark.' To prove the necessity of such an inquiry, the learned Gentleman mentioned the result of investigations lately pursued by some benevolent individuals in the metropolis, associated with the view of promoting the education of the poor; who, in the course of their laudable pursuit, had discovered in some parts of the town, particularly the districts of St. Giles's and Shadwell, that many thousands of children were totally destitute of education, and that this state of ignorance was accompanied by the most shocking misery and depravity. He threw out, at the same time, an idea of proposing some scheme for educating the poor by parliamentary assistance, to be tried in London, in the first instance, by way of experiment. The motion thus stated was agreed to unanimously, and without the least expression of jealousy from any part of the House: and a Select Committee was appointed ‹ To inquire into the Education of the Lower Orders of the Metropolis, and to report their observations thereupon, together with the Minutes of the Evidence taken before them, from time to time, to the House; and were instructed to consider what may be fit to be done with respect to the children of Paupers who shall be found begging in the streets in and near the Metropolis, or who shall be carried about by persons asking charity, and whose parents, or other persons whom they accompany, have not sent such children to any of the schools provided for the education of poor children.' With their powers and the objects of their attention thus accurately defined, the Committee forthwith commenced their inquiries, and continued them with laudable industry till the 19th of the following month. The result of this labour was published in the shape of Minutes of Evidence; in which appear the examinations at large of many persons connected with, or possessing information relative to, the different Charity schools, Sunday schools, and Catholie schools in the metropolis, as well as those in the connection of the National Society, and the British and Foreign School Society. In addition to these objects of inquiry, to which they were directed by their instructions, the Committee, of their own accord, examined evidence respecting Westminster, the Charter-house, and St. Paul's schools, as well as other establishments, which have, ever since their foundation, been appropriated to the classical education of the higher and middling orders of society.

The day after the Committee had concluded their sittings, a short report was presented to the House, recommending, in general terms, that Parliament should take proper measures, in concurrence with the prevailing disposition in the community, for extending the blessing of education to the poor of all descriptions; urging like

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