of this work, will be found well adapted to initiatory schools. Nothing conduces so much to good order, or so effectually prevents the natural vivacity of children from becoming troublesome in school, as the active. employment of every boy in it. This liveliness, combined with the usual waste of time, makes these schools digusting scenes of noise and riot. When the attention of children is occupied, quietness unavoidably follows, and that without the aid of rigour to enforce it. But I cannot close this account without calling the public attention to a distinct, and almost friendless part of the community. I mean the poor children who are in parish workhouses, who are often friendless, and immured in those receptacles of poverty, depression and vice, without education and without hope; children, to whom curses and ill treatment are too often substitutes for parental smiles or maternal care. Is it not a shame that the enormous sum of five millions sterling should be the annual amount of our poors' rates, and yet the poor children be deprived (with some few exceptions) of even an initiatory share of education, and of almost any attention to their morals whatever? When a poor man, having a numerous family, is cut off by accident or disease, his orphan children are proper objects of public care; and the consolation a dying parent would derive, from the certainty that the public would see that care properly taken, is indescribable; but now the name of a workhouse is too often an object of dread and disgust. The method of farming the labour of the poor to the highest bidder, who generally proves the hardest taskmaster; and sending the children to cotton mills, at distances very remote from all their connexions and friends, merely on the principle of saving ex pence to the parish, is pregnant with mischief to the morals of youth. Above all, one solemn duty is owing from the public to poor children under their care, whether educated in orphan schools, houses of industry, or workhouses-that every child should be able to read his Bible. A part of this neglect in the education of the poor in workhouses, probably arises from many of the overseers and others being men deeply engaged in business, and in the pursuit of riches. Wealth certainly renders its possessor more happy, whenever it makes him more useful; but when wealth alone occupies all the attention and energy of the mind, there is little room left for benevolent pursuits :-the use of wealth is perverted; and, instead of being a benefit to the society; instead of making the possessor more useful; it shuts up his heart, and stops his ears to the cry of the poor; and the man who, but for it, would have been remarkable for tenderness of feeling, is callous to every emotion of pity. As a citizen of the world, and a friend of mankind, actuated by no sectarian motives in my conduct, but animated by the love of my country, I see, with regret, her noble-hearted sons madly pursuing wealth, and grasping at gain, almost to perdition's door. Are not virtue, integrity, and offices of brotherly kindness, the source of all the comforts we derive from social intercourse?—Are not religion, knowledge, and good morals, the very bands of society? Why then so eager in the pursuit of riches? and why not rather pay that attention to the infant poor, which their wants require? I wish the enormous wealth of our country, thus pursued, may neither prove a scourge to mankind, nor a cankerworm to destroy her own bowels. Was the one thousandth part of that care, which is daily bestowed in attaining the fine gold, which may "become dim," or the garment that is liable to be moth-eaten, only given to improve the welfare of the rising generation, by giving them a guarded education, that would early form their minds to virtue, how should we flourish! how would the true ancient spirit of hospitality and mutual good-will revive amongst us, and our nation become as a nation of virtuous brethren! "Full many a gem, of purest ray serene, GRAY. The hidden powers of genius and virtue, as well as the lives, that are lost to the country, by neglecting to give parish children a proper education, are an incalculable disadvantage to the nation. It is inconceivable what a nation this might become, if a proper system of education was universally adopted; combining moral and religious instruction with habits of subordination; laying the foundation in a number of well regulated seminaries, not only in day schools, but also initiatory schools for children, in workhouses, and in similar establishments. The more pliable the tree, the easier it will bend; and children cannot be too soon trained in the way they should go. This might be done with double effect in workhouses, as in them the children are entirely at the disposal of their superiors; and there is not much danger of their showing refractory dispositions, as in the case of children who are spoiled by too much indulgence. I wish these remarks may be considered with proper exceptions and limitations. I should be sorry to be so misunderstood by any, as to suppose that these observations imply a general and indiscriminate charge against all parish officers and others concerned in the care of the poor. I am happy to be acquainted with a number of individual exceptions, and am conscious that many more exist; and I sincerely wish there was no cause for the painful remarks I have thought fit to make on the subject. It is to be hoped, the care of the public for the education of youth, as it respects encouraging suitable persons to have the care of initiatory schools, would have a tendency to do away the superstitions of the vulgar respecting ghosts and apparitions; which are often retailed by some over-credulous persons, and were formerly related by some teachers to their half-astonished scholars. The following curious fact will illustrate this remark. A young woman, who kept a school of this kind in order to procure a livelihood, and who was very diligent in instructing the children that attended her school, in the catechism, hymns, &c. and also to explain them to them, one day, when gravely commenting on the Ten Commandments, related the succeeding tale, in order to influence them to keep holy the Sabbath day.' She told them of a rich man's daughter, who had a fine baby-house and an abundance of toys; that she was fond of dressing her dolls, but, above all, on the Sabbath Day.' She continued this practice, till, one Sunday,' the Devil got into the doll. The doll shook its head three times, and said, 'Dress me fine, dress me fine.' The girl, alarmed at what had happened, threw the doll down, and ran out of the room. The doll was afterwards thrown away, and the girl dressed dolls no more on that day. The awful idea of invisible agency was, in this ridiculous manner, impressed on, the minds of about twenty children. I think this an additional argument for the necessity of reform in these schools. SECOND CLASS OF SCHOOLS. : The masters of these are but too often the refuse of superior schools, and too often of society at large. The pay and number of scholars are alike low and fluctuating of course, there is but little encouragement for steady men, either to engage or continue in this line; it being impossible to keep school, defray its expences, and do the children regular justice, without a regular income. Some masters use as much chicane to fill their pockets, as the most despicable pettifogger. These schools are chiefly attended by the children of artificers, mechanics, and others, whose pay fluctuates with their employ, and is sometimes withheld from the master, by bad principle. Debts are often contracted that do not exceed a few shillings; then the parents remove their children from school, and never pay it : the smallness of the sum proving an effectual bar to its recovery; the trouble and loss of time being worse than the loss of money in the first instance. It is to be regretted, that some especial act of the legislature has not effectually secured the pay of the teachers of youth, that they might be secure of having that bread, for which they often labour with almost unceasing toil. The complaint of bad pay, and the difficulty in obtaining it, is almost generally reiterated through every department of education. It operates powerfully to depress and discourage the energy of the teacher's mind; in particular, when (as is commonly the case) much of that part of the business of school, which is merely mechanical, falls on the master's shoulders; it becomes indeed laborious, with the addition of a poor consolation, that it is worse paid for than any other employ in London. When a man settles himself to this line as an em |