influences of civilization, knowledge, and happiness. In all these respects Dr. Channing might have been writing for England.

The crimes against property, this Country can testify as well as America, are not confined to the uninstructed and the destitute, but proceed principally from wealthy adventurers, and "those who are making haste to be rich."

"Undoubtedly there is insecurity in all stages of society, and so there must be, until communities shall be regenerated by a higher culture, reaching and quickening all classes of the people; but there is not, I believe, a spot on earth, where property is safer than here, because, nowhere else is it so equally and righteously diffused. In aristocracies, where wealth exists in enormous masses, which have been entailed for ages by a partial legislation on a favoured few, and where the multitude, after the sleep of ages, are waking up to intelligence, to self-respect, and to a knowledge of their rights, property is exposed to shocks which are not to be dreaded among ourselves. Here, indeed, as elsewhere, among the less prosperous members of the community, there are disappointed, desperate men, ripe for tumult and civil strife; but it is also true, that the most striking and honourable distinction of this country is to be found in the intelligence, character, and condition of the great working class. To me it seems, that the great danger to property here is not from the labourer, but from those who are making haste to be rich." *

*

*

"Again, what occurrence among us has been so suited to destroy confidence, and to stir up the people against the moneyed class, as the late criminal mismanagement of some of our banking institutions? And whence came this? from the rich, or the poor? From the agrarian, or the man of business? Who, let me ask, carry on the work of spoliation most extensively in society? Is not more property wrested from its owners by rash or dishonest failures, than by professed highwaymen and thieves? Have not a few unprincipled speculators sometimes inflicted wider wrongs and sufferings, than all the tenants of a state prison? Thus, property is in more danger from those who are aspiring after wealth, than from those who live by the sweat of their brow. I do not believe, however, that the institution is in serious danger from either. All the advances of society in industry, useful arts, commerce, knowledge, jurisprudence, fraternal union, and practical Christianity, are so many hedges round honestly acquired wealth, so many barriers against revolutionary violence and rapacity. Let us not torture ourselves with idle alarms, and still more, let us not inflame ourselves against one another by mutual calumnies. Let not class array itself against class, where all have a common interest. One way of provoking men to crime is to suspect them of criminal designs. We do not secure our property against the poor, by accusing them of schemes of universal robbery; nor render the rich better friends of the community, by fixing on them the brand of hostility to the people. Of all parties, those founded on different social conditions are the most pernicious; and in no country on earth are they so groundless as in our own."

Again, the passage on the Literature of the People, and the intellectual influences most likely to penetrate and transform, could not be more true than it is to the condition and wants of England, if it had been written for us alone. With many marked differences, it is most interesting to observe in a variety of directions the sympathy that exists between the two Countries. If America lives mainly upon English literature, American books upon Education and Religion are among the most acceptable and spirit-stirring to English Readers.

"But some will say, 'Be it granted that the working classes may find some leisure; should they not be allowed to spend it in relaxation? Is it not cruel, to summon them from toils of the hand to toils of the mind? They have earned pleasure by the day's toil and ought to partake it.' Yes, let them have pleasure. Far be it from me to dry up the fountains, to blight the spots of verdure, where they refresh themselves after life's labours. But I maintain, that self-culture multiplies and increases their pleasures; that it creates new capacities of enjoyment; that it saves their leisure from being, what it too often is, dull and wearisome; that it saves them from rushing for excitement to indulgences destructive to body and soul. It is one of the great benefits of self-improvement, that it raises a people above the gratifications of the brute, and gives them pleasures worthy of men. In consequence of the present intellectual culture of our country, imperfect as it is, a vast amount of enjoyment is communicated to men, women, and children, of all conditions, by books, an enjoyment unknown to ruder times. At this moment, a number of gifted writers are employed in multiplying entertaining works. Walter Scott, a name conspicuous among the brightest of his day, poured out his inexhaustible mind in fictions, at once so sportive and thrilling, that they have taken their place among the delights of all civilized nations. How many millions have been chained to his pages! How many melancholy spirits has he steeped in forgetfulness of their cares and sorrows! What multitudes, wearied by their day's work, have owed some bright evening hours and balmier sleep to his magical creations! and not only do fictions give pleasure: in proportion as the mind is cultivated, it takes delight in history and biography; in descriptions of nature, in travels, in poetry, and even graver works. Is the labourer then defrauded of pleasure by improvement? There is another class of gratifications to which self-culture introduces the mass of the people. I refer to lectures, discussions, meetings of associations for benevolent and literary purposes, and to other like methods of passing the evening, which every year is multiplying among us.

66

A popular address from an enlightened man, who has the tact to reach the minds of the people, is a high gratification, as well as a source of knowledge. The profound silence in our public halls, where these lectures are delivered to crowds, shows that cultivation is no foe to enjoyI have a strong hope, that by the progress of intelligence, taste, and morals, among all portions of society, a class of public amusements will grow up among us, bearing some resemblance to the theatre, but

ment.

purified from the gross evils which degrade our present stage, and which, I trust, will seal its ruin. Dramatic performances and recitations are means of bringing the mass of the people into a quicker sympathy with a writer of genius, to a profounder comprehension of his grand, beautiful, touching conceptions, than can be effected by the reading of the closet. No commentary throws such a light on a great poem, or any impassioned work of literature, as the voice of a reader, or speaker, who brings to the task a deep feeling of his author, and rich and various powers of expression. A crowd, electrified by a sublime thought, or softened into a humanizing sorrow, under such a voice, partake a pleasure at once exquisite and refined; and I cannot but believe, that this and other amusements, at which the delicacy of woman and the purity of the Christian can take no offence, are to grow up under a higher social culture. Let me only add, that in proportion as culture spreads among a people, the cheapest and commonest of all pleasures-conversation, increases in delight. This, after all, is the great amusement of life; cheering us round our hearths, often cheering our work, stirring our hearts gently, acting on us like the balmy air or the bright light of heaven, so silently and continually, that we hardly think of its influence. This source of happiness is too often lost to men of all classes for want of knowledge, mental activity, and refinement of feeling: and do we defraud the labourer of his pleasure, by recommending to him improvements which will place the daily, hourly, blessings of conversation within his reach ?"-Pp. 51, 52, 53.

And upon the great question of National Education, the great debt of a Government to the People, without which all legislation and punishment partake of injustice and cruelty, we have only in the following passage to substitute "The National Endowments" for "The Public Lands," and we could fancy ourselves listening to the earnest pleadings of the awakened People of England. Would to God that the cry arose like the voice of many waters! But the uneducated will not raise their cry for a blessing the greatness of which they do not know. The Educated must provide for the uneducated, or anwer for it here and hereafter.

"Now, I ask, why should not the public lands be consecrated (in whole or in part, as the case may require,) to the education of the people? This measure would secure at once what the country most needs, that is, able, accomplished, quickening teachers of the whole rising generation. The present poor remuneration of instructors is a dark omen, and the only real obstacle which the cause of education has to contend with. We need for our schools gifted men and women, worthy, by their intelligence and their moral power, to be entrusted with a nation's youth; and to gain these we must pay them liberally, as well as afford other proofs of the consideration in which we hold them. In the present state of the country, when so many paths of wealth and promotion are opened,

superior men cannot be won to an office so responsible and laborious as that of teaching, without stronger inducements than are now offered, except in some of our large cities. The office of instructor ought to rank and be recompensed as one of the most honourable in society; and I see not how this is to be done, at least in our day, without appropriating to it the public domain. This is the people's property, and the only part of their property which is likely to be soon devoted to the support of a high order of institutions for public education. This object, interesting to all classes of society, has peculiar claims on those whose means of improvement are restricted by narrow circumstances. The mass of the people should devote themselves to it as one man, should toil for it with one soul. Mechanics, Farmers, Labourers! Let the country echo with your united cry, The Public Lands for Education.' Send to the public councils men who will plead this cause with power. No party triumphs, no trades-unions, no associations, can so contribute to elevate you as the measure now proposed. Nothing but a higher education can raise you in influence and true dignity. The resources of the public domain, wisely applied for successive generations to the culture of society and of the individual, `would create a new people, would awaken through this community intellectual and moral energies, such as the records of no country display, and as would command the respect and emulation of the civilized world. In this grand object, the working men of all parties, and in all divisions of the land, should join with an enthusiasm not to be withstood. They should separate it from all narrow and local strifes. They should not suffer it to be mixed up with the schemes of politicians. In it, they and their children have an infinite stake. May they be true to themselves, to posterity, to their country, to freedom, to the cause of mankind."

J. H. T.

"ART. II. THE PICTORIAL SHAKSPERE.* Nos. I-IV. C. KNIGHT.

FOUR numbers of this work have appeared when we take up the pen to notice it; and the pleasure with which we greeted the first has encreased with every succeeding one. A splendid edition, embellished with specimens of the highest class, in Art, might, at first sight, seem the most appropriate token of the respect, the love, the gratitude, which England owes to her own Shakspere; but we are convinced that the present work is, in reality, a still more efficient means of attesting our love to the greatest of Poets, than one, which its very splendour would confine to the Libraries of but a few, and those, perhaps, not the greatest admirers of the author. Magnificence is applicable to national monuments, when they are of a nature to be constantly exposed to the eyes of all; but the best means to honour literary works, to whose intrinsic merit no pomp of external ornament can do justice, is to spread the knowledge of them throughout the nation to which they belong. The only national monument which can be adequate to the claims of Shakspere upon English gratitude, would be a familiar acquaintance of all who speak his language, with the best, at least, of his plays. Such a result, we are confident, if not absolutely obtained, will be greatly promoted by the edition which occupies our attention.

But, it will be asked, is not Shakspere already known to all who can afford leisure to read for their amusement? We positively answer in the negative. Being ourselves heartily attached to the great poet, we have, for some years, directed our observation with a view to ascertain the degree of knowledge which educated people have of his plays. The result of this observation is, that though in almost every private library a copy of Shakspere may be found, the number, nevertheless, of the possessors, or the members of their families who are well read, even in the finest of his dramatic works, is comparatively small. Were it not for the theatres, a multitude of reading people would be found with little or no knowledge of those great compositions beyond the mere names, of Lear, of Macbeth, of Hamlet. Nor is this at all surprising, when we consider the obstacles which stand in the way of a well-grounded and discriminating taste for the works of the immortal Bard.

Shakspere is a writer whose poetical beauties cannot be properly enjoyed except by those who have studied him. Like

* We adopt this spelling in consequence of the proofs which the editor gives, that the great Poet used thus to write his own name.