presents for the advancement of all the real interests of the people.

But to turn to the agricultural districts: Little as we really know of the actual state of their education, the reports of the Inspectors show too clearly, that, however miserable the instruction of the poor may be in the towns and great mining and manufacturing districts; that of the agricultural labourers is still worse provided for. The dame schools, so inefficient for any thing else than to give a distaste for school, are still more disproportionate, as compared to the numbers of those conducted by masters; whilst of these latter, scarcely any of their teachers have received even a decent training. In fact, except where an intelligent landlord or a benevolent clergyman has provided one, a good school is scarcely to be met with in these districts. And yet what is the era that is opening on the hitherto secluded country parishes? We are rapidly transforming all England into one mighty commercial city. Steam conveyance is bringing all parts of this island into immediate connection with one another. The whole kingdom will soon be reduced to what was but yesterday the size of one of its smallest counties. It will soon be no more troublesome or more expensive for the poor of our most remote counties to visit the metropolis, than it was fifty years ago for them to undertake a journey of twenty miles. I heard a landed proprietor of one of the western counties say a few days since, "I hate the railways, they will sadly alter the character of our peasants and disturb the quiet of our country districts." It is but too true, they will indeed alter their character. They will infuse a life into the peaceable clowns, which they have long wanted, but which will be most dangerous unless we prepare

them for it? Are we prepared to see the energy of the north infused into the peasants of the south, without giving them the means of directing and controlling it? But even then, if we can make our population religious, they will still be in danger of constantly recurring distress unless we can make them provident. And unhappily we have long had institutions and habits of administration, which appear almost designed to destroy frugality and prudence.

We can all remember the alarm, which was felt at the steady increase of our expenditure on the relief of the poor from 1826 to 1834, prior to the passing of the New Poor Law. What shall we say, when we find, that notwithstanding all those measures, which have been so much condemned by some as too severe, the funds expended in the relief and maintenance of the poor, have gradually and continuously risen from 4,044,7417. to 5,208,0277., and notwithstanding the great improvement in commerce in 1842, 1843, and 1844, and the greatly increased demand for labourers of all kinds in these years, that the funds expended in 1843 exceeded those expended in 1842 by 386,5297., whilst the expenditure of 1844 was only 231,9347. less than in 1843! The gradual increase of these funds is best exhibited by means of the following table, extracted from the Poor-Law Reports for the years 1844 and 1845:

Amount of money expended in relief and maintenance of the Poor in England and Wales.

Is it wonderful, that Europe should regard our social state with amazement, when she sees, that we were called upon in 1844, after three years of such remarkable commercial activity, to expend the enormous sum of 4,976,0937. in the relief of pauperism-a pauperism resulting from the gross ignorance and consequent improvidence of our poor. If this was necessary in 1844, what will be required when another time of commercial stagnation returns, our population having in the mean time increased by 400,000 per annum, and continuing as improvident and unforeseeing as ever?

But, unhappily, this is not all. It has long been clearly seen by all, who have given any attention to the subject, that it is not merely desirable, but necessary, that out-door relief should be gradually lessened, until finally restricted to the cases of widows left with more children than they are able to support, and to those of the aged and infirm, having no children able to support them. The reason is manifest; it is because the granting of out-door relief is injurious to the labourer's independence and to his providential habits. A labourer, who knows he has nothing to look to but his own exertions, is much more likely to abstain from a too early and imprudent marriage, and to lay by something in his prosperous days against slack times, than one who feels he has but to apply, in order to obtain assistance in times of hardship, however imprudent, careless, and intemperate he may have been in his prosperous days. It is a cruel and injudicious charity, which to remove a little temporary suffering, would destroy a labourer's pruden

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tial and temperate habits, undermine his honest independence, and render him a thoughtless, careless, and immoral man. And yet what are we doing? I find from the Poor Law Reports, that out door relief is year by year increasing in amount, as the following table, extracted from the Poor Law Report of 1844, will show.

And, notwithstanding the wonderful commercial activity of 1843 and 1844, the expenditure of the latter year in out relief amounted to the immense sum of 2,726,4517. for 585 unions and parishes alone; the expenditure for the remaining unions not being stated. Now let it not be stated, that these out-door paupers are composed only of the sick, the infirm, and the aged, for I find from the same Reports, that the numbers of able-bodied paupers, who received out-door relief on account of being out of work and other causes, (not being sickness, accident, or infirmity,) in 585 unions alone, amounted to 209,660 during the quarter ended Ladyday, 1843, and to 134,994 during the corresponding quarter in 1844. If our poor were educated in temperate and prudential habits, we might hope, in time, to confine this demoralizing charity to those persons, who are its

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legitimate objects, I mean the aged, the infirm, and widows with several young children; but as long as we leave the root of the disease of pauperism untouched, so long must we continue to increase this terrible drain upon the income and resources of the country; and so long must we be content to see our very charity itself, by its injurious distribution, tending still further to demoralize the people.

Can we hope to get rid of this gradually-increasing pauperism without improving the character of the people? Can we hope to materially change their habits until we have changed their education? And are we authorized to stimulate our population without doing anything to improve its character?

Poor-laws, emigration, short hours for children, and allotments for the peasants, may all be useful, and some may be necessary; but, unless accompanied by improved instruction, they are only the external remedies applied by an unskilful physician,-remedies which palliate the symptoms and aggravate the disease.

Were the annual funds now expended in the relief of able-bodied out-door paupers, gradually exchanged for an expenditure in the development of a complete system of national education, securing the direction of religious teaching to the clergy of the different sects, and the direction of secular teaching to the Government, providing separate Normal schools for the training of schoolmasters for the Church and for the Dissenters, providing also for the payment of the teachers in such a manner as to raise their situation in society, and for the building of schools in districts too poor to raise sufficient funds for that purpose; were we to do this, we should withdraw a charity,