That popular education requires regulation and direction, as much as other benefits bestowed on the people, there can be no doubt. To leave the choice of books and studies arbitrary, I conceive very objectionable. There are, perhaps, two-thirds of mankind doomed to drudgery for existence; and to such it is of the last consequence, that none but the most necessary and useful kind of knowledge should occupy their time, during the few hours of the week which they may be able to snatch from their sleep or their toil. If the cargo must be very small, it ought for that reason to be of the very best quality that can be had. An acquaintance with the Bible, and his religious duties, are the most that a drudge of this description can be expected to cultivate, if he is even able to do so much: but while no restraint is put upon the kind of books he chooses to read, it is obvious that his valuable moments may as readily be squandered upon things unprofitable as the contrary.

Mr. B. calculates a great deal upon the odd Franklin and Watts he may be able to hew out

of his intellectual quarry, as repayment for a great deal of unproductive matériel. But if the same pains should be sufficient, with proper direction, to enlighten the great mass of the labouring classes in a knowledge of their duties to God and their fellow-creatures, would not these pains be better bestowed on such an object? If we were to have at the rate of a Franklin a year, or even an annual author of "Practical Observations on Popular Education," it would not be an equivalent for the neglected religious instruction of the class he belongs to. I say this without the most distant wish to disparage Mr. B.'s laudable intentions of benefiting the human race; but I think he would not do his duty, who, discerning the fact, should, from any feeling of delicacy, fail to tell him that he has already been too long occupying himself about things more specious than profitable. The more I reflect on the very wild idea of occupying the place of religious instruction by teaching algebra, or even his favourite Bacon's ethics, to the mob, had the thing come from any one of less

known discretion than Mr. B., I should have thought it furnished a case sufficiently clear for the Chancellor to take under his protection.

There is no opinion our modern educationists try to turn into greater ridicule, than that the giving scientific or refined instruction to any class of the people, should have the effect of making them idle, or tend to diminish their usefulness. The following passage from a volume which has just made its appearance, appearance, entitled, "Sketches in Persia," will shew that this opinion is, however, not so very chimerical. "At Ispahan," says the author, "almost every man above the very lowest order can read and write; and artisans and shopkeepers are often as familiar as those of the higher ranks with the works of their favourite poets. The love of such learning seems, in some of the youth of this city, to degenerate into a disease. These Tâlib-ool-Ilm, or seekers of science, as the students are called, may be seen in crowds. round the gates, or within the walls of their colleges, reciting stanzas, or discussing obscure dogmas or doctrines in their works on philo

sophy or religion; and they often become, from such habits, unfitted for every other pursuit in life." This is fact; and one page of fact is, at any time, worth a whole volume of practical observations which are not bottomed on prac

tice.

A great deal of detail is taken up in the "Practical Observations," with the means of procuring lecturers, and debating-rooms, and books, and book-clubs, &c., all of which must cost much, both in money and trouble, and perhaps the supply, after all, none of the best. Why, then, to revert to the method pursued in France, should our Government not undertake the supply themselves, either in whole or in part? The State is the guardian of our religion. Is there any thing to forbid its extending some share of guardianship to adult education? What reasonable objection is there to libraries, lecture-rooms, and museums, being thrown open here, any more than in France? If Mr. B. fears the blighting influence of patronage, and I think he is quite right to stand on his guard against it where there is any pro

bability of its operation, let the people defray part of the expense by a trifling subscription, so as to give them at once a right and an interest in the plan. The expense to each individual need not be one half what it would cost them for miserable accommodations of their own procuring, such as Mr. Brougham specifies, and which must imply a degree of continued and voluntary effort, that he may assure himself he calculates on very chimerically from the multitude,

Government could have elementary works printed at a very cheap rate in every science, with which not only the metropolis, but, as in France, every great town in the kingdom might be supplied. By adopting this plan, sources of instruction would be open constantly, so as to suit the purse of the humblest individual. A great deal of the success of Mr. Brougham's scheme must depend, as he admits himself, upon a right course being taken, proper rules laid down, fit subjects selected for lecture, good teachers, &c." Now

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all these difficulties are easily obviated by the