EDITION 1815. EDITION 1817. P. 32. That no P. 32. That no other than baptis-fother than baptismal regeneration is mal regeneration is possible in this to be expected in this world.' world." P. 40. If ever P. 40. If ever the new birth be the new birth be not not conveyed by conveyed by bapbaptism rightly ad-tism rightly receiv ministeredLeted Let it be it be shown from shown from Holy Holy Writ, that any Writ, that any perperson, to whom son, by whom bapbaptism was rightly tism was rightly readministered, was ceived, was not renot regenerate.' generate.' P. 81. Lydia at Thyateira.' P. 81. Lydia of Thyateira.' Pp. 15, 38, 70, 78, 68, 86, trifling corrections, not affecting the sense. J. S. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. Darlaston, near Birmingham. THE heavily-afflicted state of my parish induces me earnestly to solicit a fuller statement of our distresses than that inserted in your last Number but one. Many circumstances combine to render our sufferings peculiarly severe. Our population, consisting chiefly of gun-lock filers, nailers, and miners, exceeds five thousand. The parish contains only eight hundred acres of land and our poor's-rates (now most oppressive) have been accustomed to be paid by all who did not receive parochial relief. During the last eleven months, from the stagnation of trade, hundreds, once in comfortable circumstances, have been reduced to the deepest poverty; nor could any efforts of industry secure them even necessary food. For thirtythree weeks the bounty of the London Association, a county fund, and distant private benevolence, have maintained one hundred and fifty heads of families on the roads at one shilling per day; but from the entire failure of these funds this plan has now terminated, and great numbers are thus necessarily added to those previously requiring parochial assistance. Since the 14th of last August, soup and bread have been distributed to nearly seven hundred individuals four times a week, and clothing has been sold at half price to those who could raise the means of obtaining it. Excepting the food thus furnished, our poor have subsisted almost exclusively upon barley meal, not separated from the bran, lest its quantity should thereby be diminished. Numbers once in respectable stations have had their dwellings stripped of their little all, for rent or levies; and our work-house presents such a scene of wretchedness, that even hunger itself recoils from entering it. To the Editor of the Christian Observer: A SPIRIT of active benevolence, encouraged and supported by an enlightened government, having lately succeeded in spreading through Ireland various plans for the charitable education of the children of the poor, it becomes a matter of much moment to ascertain whether those plans be in reality formed upon the best principles, and executed to the greatest advantage-whether this great engine of national education be erected with the skill, and guided with the ability, requisite to render it efficient to the production of all the good which ought to be the result of such powerful combinations. With respect to the female children educated in our charitable seminaries, to whom it is intended to confine the following observations, I have no doubt of the fact that, comparatively, very few in deed have hitherto been found to reward with success, the expense, the time, and the exertions, which have been bestowed upon them. To what causes shall we attribute this disappointment? To answer so important a question, the following hints are suggested, for the consideration of those who are interested in such human undertakings, and who possess talents and leisure to investigate a subject, involving the present, and the everlasting welfare of so large a portion of the community. If in the enunciation, or the proof of my positions, I should chance to differ from your own opinions, or those of your readers, I still trust that you will not object to the fair and candid discussion of a topic of such high importance; especially as I shall be ready to listen in return to any counter-remarks which your able correspondents may please to make upon the subject. It appears, then, to the writer of this paper, that there are five prominent causes of the failure of which we complain. First; the female children are raised above the sphere of their parents and families, in all charity schools perhaps ; not excepting even those in which it may be supposed that this evil can have no place. Secondly; the difference which it has pleased Providence to allot between the different ranks in society, is lessened, if not for the time abolished, by the familiar intercourse which subsists between the pupils and the governesses of those schools; and this, in a degree smaller or greater, as the routine of daily business is conducted by ladies or by a school-mistress. Thirdly; the stimulus of praise, and the excitement of emulation, perhaps too generally employed in all systems of female instruction in the present day, and which are injurious to the children of the rich, are ruinous to the children of the poor. Fourthly, even in institutions to which the first and second objections may not be applicable in their full force, much moral evil is sustained, by the early and complete separation of the child from its parents. Fifthly; religious knowledge is either not attempted to be communicated, or (though certainly with many laudable exceptions) is communicated in a very defective manner. In many of our plans for the education of the female poor, we seem to forget the plain maxim, that the means must be adapted to the end. "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?" The first object to be pursued is, to prepare the dispositions which we have undertaken to direct, and the hearts which we are pledged to guide, to discharge the duties of Christian women in the lowest rank of life. We ought to remember, that it is out of this rank that we receive these children; and that it is into this rank they are to be returned. We ought to remember that, as women, their station is subordirate; as poor women, it is doubly so. Upon these points the language of St. Paul is, "I will, that women adorn themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety. Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. Young women teach to be sober, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, obedient to their husbands, to love their husbands, to love their children. Servants, be subject to your masters, with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward; obedient to please them well in all things, not answering again." Now, when we consider what description of husbands, and what description of masters, it must fall to the lot of the greater part of charity children to obey, we shall be better able duly to estimate the value of a system, the tendency of which appears to me to be, to render them unfit for such subordination. occur in the case which such a child · would deem the most favourable; that of being placed in a family of affluence and fashion. Such is the result of habits unsuited to the station of the child, as affecting merely her earthly welfare and happiness. Let us proceed with this examination a little more in detail. The sort of clothing which is appropriated to female children in charity. schools, embraces a wider extent of consequences than at a cursory glance may be evident. If it be of better quality, as I suppose is usually the case, than that to which they have been accustomed, it excites their present vanity; and it raises the standard of dress, upon which they form their future desires and expectations. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the sins and miseries which are occasioned by an excessive love of personal decoration, and personal distinction, in the female world in general: the notoriety of the evil is but too indisputable. To the poorer classes, it is absolutely the highway to destruction. The child who has the seemingly good fortune of being placed in any of the best regulated and best endowed charitable seminaries, is clothed, dieted, and taught with the utmost care. All her wants are sedulously supplied; all ber difficulties are zealously removed: in many cases, she is rebuked in the accents of lady-like gentleness, and soothed, if unhappy, with tender kindness: she is encouraged with perpetual praise; and, if sick, is nursed with affectionate solicitude. Her good actions are always noticed, and generally highly rewarded; whilst, with the condemnation and punishment of her bad ones, is mixed a cultivation of that selfish sensibility, which, even in the higher ranks, generates a sicklied refinement, but which, in the lower ones, will, it is to be feared, produce a miserable irritability. Is it, then, in human nature, for a creature so reared, so fostered, so cherished, and so overrated, to be properly prepared to encounter the rude shocks of cabin intercourse, or to sustain, with cheerful resignation, the hardships and mortifications which await her in a state of servitude? From the former she turns with disgust; into the latter she enters to her sorrow. Unaccustomed to laborious occupation; knowing little of the business she has to perform; disdaining the advice of her fellow servants, whom she regards as ignorant and inferior beings, and who, in return, view her with dislike and jealousy; experiencing no longer the luxury of commendable little possessors. If we could tion, or the excitement of promised change the entire condition of the reward, she becomes either listless, lowest classes in this country, byu disheartened, and desponding, or thus selecting one out of some! careless, confident, assuming, and, hundreds of their children, to be I fear, not unfrequently insolent. the receivers of our bounty, the case These deplorable circumstances would be different; and of course 7 In estimating the proper clothing for poor children, we are apt to overlook the gradations in the scale. We compare their apparel with our own, rather than with the dirty rags, half covered with which they emerged from the smoke of their own squalid habitations. When we behold a number of such children, absolutely transformed, in new stuff gowns, white aprons, white tippets, &c. our hearts exult in the neatness and beauty of the spectacle; and we are satisfied, that what yields to us, in the contemplation, so many grateful and pleasing sensations, cannot but be highly beneficial to the comforta 13 by wherever the poor are in a better condition, the clothing of the children should be bettered in proportion. In most parts of Ireland, the utmost efforts of the parents could not procure, for their best apparel, any thing equal in value to that which in many schools is the daily attire. The every-day dress, therefore, for charity children, should not only consist of the coarsest material, but be made into the most appropriate forms for laborious employments. The salutary distinction, of a best, for Sunday, is not to be disregarded, but should be regulated by the same principle of strict adaptation. For Sundays, it should suffice to provide a course stuff or calico gown, check apron, a coloured plain shawl, a cheap bonnet without ornamental ribbons, gray or black stockings, and, in winter, a frieze cloak. Nor should the weekly articles be renewed, as long as, with mending and patching, they can be made to hold together. With respect to school uniforms, so generally introduced into charity schools in Ireland, it is much to be doubted whether they are not altogether of injurious moral tendency to the children. They may be admissible, but only upon Sundays; and then, only when the children accompany the mistress to their place of worship. Upon all other days, it is more for the best interests of the children, that they should not be marked by any peculiar dress. In daily schools, where the uniform is not completely bestowed, but the child is, for a certain length of time, accountable for it, the grossest frauds are practised, and a wide door is unavoidably opened for many species of deception and falsehood. But in fact the distribution of any articles of clothing gratuitously is far from desirable. Let them be earned by the regular at tendance, the diligence, and the good conduct of each child. Thus industry and profit will be assoCHRIST. OBSERV, No. 187. ciated in their minds, as cause and effect; and they will early be im pressed with the truth, that idleness and want are inseparable companions. The foregoing observations apply equally to the diet of the children, and to the acquirements which should be placed within their reach. Plenty of wholesome food, to those who at home are half starved, is in itself a sufficient luxury; and reading, plain sewing,spinning, and knitting, are the whole of the school attainments which in this country can be useful to the wife of the labourer or of the mechanic. In every school, there may be a few children of superior talent, calculated to tread a somewhat higher walk in life, and to whom it might be gratifying to afford more instruction; but these can at most furnish only some trifling exceptions to the general rule. The sedentary way in which children pass their time in schools is much to be regretted, as conducing to indolent habits, and an enervated constitution. If some active business, to which they might be sent in turn, under carëful superintendence, could be annexed, it would render to the children the most essential service. In towns, it might be practicable to add an establishment for washing and mangling; and in the country a small dairy, where it would generally confer a great benefit upon the neighbouring peasantry to sell to them milk upon reasonable terms. But, if this part of the plan were not eligible, cheese and butter find every where a ready market. Girls are fully competent to most of the work in a garden. To encourage them to these, or any similar ex. ertions, and to induce the permis sion of the parents, the exercise should be held out, as a reward rather than a task; and small payments in' money or in value should be given, in proportion to the good 3 L ness and the quantity of the work performed. Of course, these hints are not applicable to daily schools in the country; where the children are, in the intervals of the school hours, similarly employed by their parents. The second objection must not be understood as intended to insinuate, that the presence of judicious and well-qualified ladies, in charity schools, is not of invaluable benefit, and even of indispensable necessity. But, on their visits to the schools, their time would be more advantageously occupied in examination-in general, and especially in religious, instructions and in inspection, than in the details of teaching. Nor must it be supposed, that in urging the importance of impressing on the minds of the children, the difference which subsists between their rank and that of their worldly su periors, to whom they are to be subordinate, it is meant to vindicate a haughty demeanour on the one part, or mean servility on the other; but simply that the distance between them is never to be forgotten, and that all approach towards familiarity, on either side, is to be avoided. Likewise, in deprecating the tuition of delicacy and refinement, and the gentleness of lady-like reproof, it is not in tended that any plea whatever should be admitted for harshness and severity. A great difficulty in the manage ment of all schools, presents itself in the attempt to procure a suitable school mistress. A woman well qualified for so arduous and responsible an office is not easily found in any rank of life. Yet the success of the institution mainly rests upon the properties of the mistress; and in the choice, therefore, of such a person, there should be the greatest circumspection. She should be chosen solely with a view to the benefit of the children, without the influence of any feeling of personal favour, or even of motives of humanity towards those who may solicit the employment. Poverty is disqualifying, both in its cause and in its effects: it has, probably, been occasioned either by want of management or want of industry; and it produces embarrassments, which affect the temper, hurt the health, and tempt to conduct inconsistent with the welfare of an establishment demanding all the energy of unbroken spirits and all the application of undivided time. Besides, the material point of maintaining, by the external respectability of the mistress, her greater weight and influence over the children, should, as far as possible, be secured. Hence, to offer an inadequate stipend to an incompetent mistress, from the wish (however laudable in itself) of economizing the school funds, is, of all modes of saving, the most injudicious. (To be continued.) REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of John Calvin; compiled from the Narrative of Theodore Beza, and other authentic Documents. Accompanied with Biographical Sketches of the Reformation. By JOHN Mackenzie. 8vo. London. 1809. Institutes of the Christian Religion. By JOHN CALVIN. Translated from the original Latin; and collated with the Author's last Edition in French. By JoHN ALLEN. 3 vols. 8vo. pp. xv. and 1623. Price 21. 5s. London. 1813. WHEN, in the earlier years of the Christian Observer, we were com |