speaking and acting, and not to allow them to imagine themselves to be acting a charitable and a kind part, when in reality they are doing no such thing?-to see the poor crowded into cottages in such a way as to bid defiance to any possibility of their practising habits of decency, or of being brought up in them?—to see men nominally employed on the parish roads under a plea of humanity, when, in fact, it is to run them on in a sort of straw-yard* during the winter at a small expense, until their services may again be wanted?-in short, to allow the most erroneous notions on all subjects of a social kind to prevail without any attempt at amendment, from a fear, perhaps, of being classed among those taking too great care of earthly things, when the doing so might be the means of checking some of the most demoralizing influences which prevail among our labouring poor in the agricultural districts?

I know parishes where, for a long series of years, at least 75 per cent. of the money spent on their roads has been absolutely thrown away, the value of the work actually done not being 25 per cent. of the expenditure, the road rate having become a poor rate for the able-bodied, who are employed at a rate of wages varying with the number of their families, the term roadman being used for and in every way synonymous with the word pauper-and what is almost unaccountable, is, the ratepayers themselves being perfectly persuaded, or at least appearing to be so, that they are doing what is right, and the surveyor making oath every year before the magistrates that he has expended the parish money in such a way as the statutes relating to the highways direct. The effect of all this where it prevails, and in a greater or less degree it prevails extensively, is bad beyond description, and it is almost impossible to imagine the mischief to which it leads-in demoralizing the labourers as a class-in unduly keeping down the rate of wages and the proper remuneration of labour, and the in every way low and degraded social state to which it leads.

Now if the object of religion be (what I think every one must confess it is) to make men practically good, then I think it must be allowed by all that its teachers are by no means exceeding their duty, in endeavouring to give clearer and

* A parish workshop-a sort of Louis Blanc-ism on a small scalecarrying out in a parish what he wished to carry out in a nation, and with like result.

better views in those matters nominally of a civil kind, having so intimate a relation and so direct an influence on the morals of a people, and in the healthy administration of which, almost all the links in our social chain are equally interested.

There is no subject on which both the labourer and the employer in our rural districts require more to be enlightened than on their mutual relations with respect to the remuneration of labour-a thing necessary before there can be any great change in the character of the labourer in this countrybefore he can feel that it is a sort of moral degradation for a healthy able-bodied man to throw himself (and in the present state of things he is obliged to do so) upon the parish the moment he is out of work. Nor can the farmer think, nor does he in fact think, that the labourer is wrong in doing so. Now, in blaming the labourer for doing this, and for having so little of a spirit of independence as to throw himself unscrupulously upon the parish the moment he is sick or out of work-every one must feel that it is in reality a part of his wages, and this is implied between both parties-the employer and the employed-the present system of wages always supposes a third party to the contract-the parish, and never contemplates anything beyond getting on from one Saturday night to another, and in case of sickness or work failing, the parish to do the rest. A system like this necessarily leads (and we all know what in past times it has led to) to an unhealthy state of society; each individual employer is willing to save himself as much as possible, in order to throw the rest on the general rate-payer-the labourer from ignorance has lost sight of his true interests, and of what constitutes respectability and self-dependence; he is become improvident, without forethought, these being in his case not at all necessary, and is quite as contented to take part from his employer and part from the parish, as if he had the whole at once; perhaps more so, as in the one case it would imply he must take care of himself in case of sickness, want of employment, &c.; and in the other, he is taken care of by others; but at all events, the present system treats the labourer through life as a child that cannot take care of itself as one that neither reflects upon the past, nor looks forward to the

future.

6

The following passage from Mrs. Marcet's Conversations on Political Economy' well expresses what ought to be the tendency of the education given to the labouring classes; she says:

"I would endeavour to give the rising generation such an education as would render them not only moral and religious, but industrious, frugal, and provident. In proportion as the mind is informed, we are able to calculate the consequences of our actions; it is the infant and the savage who live only for the present moment; those whom instruction has taught to think, reflect upon the past and look forward to the future. Education gives rise to prudence, not only by enlarging our understanding, but by softening our feelings, by humanising the heart, and promoting amiable affections. The rude and inconsiderate peasant marries without either foreseeing or caring for the miseries he may entail on his wife and children; but he who has been taught to value the comforts and decencies of life, will not heedlessly involve himself and all that is dear to him in poverty and its long train of miseries”

It certainly appears to me to be the true theory of a healthy state of society, and certainly more consistent with honest, straightforward conduct in all parties-(for the other leads to a great deal of low cunning)-more consistent with the rights of industry—that the wages of labour should, in the case of the industrious man, be equal to all the decent wants of his class-house-rent, food, clothing, education; and in all cases of ordinary sickness, medical attendance-that the labourer should feel that it belongs to himself and to his own character as an honest man to provide all these things for himself and for his family-to feel happy in providing them every comfort within his reach; but then it is equally necessary that the employer of labour should view the matter in the same light. And although it may be difficult to arrive at this, yet I hope it will be the tendency of education to point in this direction, and to enlighten both as to their true interests— that the one will respect the rights of honest industry—that the other will no less duly estimate what is owing to the em ployer who acts on this straightforward, manly, and honest principle (and which ought to be the commercial principle); which, although making the labourer earn his living by the sweat of his brow, would place him in a situation of decent

comfort-happy in himself and in his family around him— happy in the blessings which this life affords him,* and equally happy in looking forward to leave it, when it shall please God to call him.

*"The common benefits of our nature entirely escape us; yet these are the great things. These constitute what most properly ought to be accounted blessings of Providence; what alone, if we might so speak, are worthy of its care. Nightly rest and daily bread, the ordinary use of our limbs and senses and understandings, are gifts which admit of no comparison with any other. Yet because almost every man we meet with possesses these, we leave them out of our enumeration. They raise no sentiment: they move no gratitude."-PALEY'S Natural Theology.

APPENDIX (A.)

THE following extracts are from an Educational Tour in Germany by Horace Mann, Esq., Secretary to the Board of Education, Mass., U.S.; they are made for the purpose of recommending linear drawing to school teachers, a thing not much practised in our schools, but of the usefulness of which there can be no doubt.

Speaking of one of the first schools he entered, he says: "The teachers first drew a house on the black board, and here the value of the art of drawing a power universally possessed by Prussian teachers-became manifest.

"The excellence of their writing must be referred, in a great degree, to the universal practice of learning to draw contemporaneously with learning to write. I believe a child will learn both to draw and to write sooner, and with more ease, than he will learn writing alone. I came to the conclusion that, with no other guide than a mere inspection of the copybooks, I could tell whether drawing were taught in the school or not-so uniformly superior was the handwriting in those schools where drawing was taught in connexion with it.

"I never saw a teacher in a German school make use of a ruler, or any other mechanical aid, in drawing the most nice or complicated figures. I recollect no instance in which he was obliged to efface a part of a line because it was too long, or to extend it because it was too short. If squares or triangles were to be formed, they came out squares or triangles without any overlapping or deficiency. Here was not only much time gained or saved, but the pupils had constantly before their eyes these examples of celerity and perfectness, as models for imitation. No one can doubt how much more correctly, as well as more rapidly, a child's mind will grow in view of such models of ease and accuracy, than if only slow, awkward, and clumsy movements are the patterns constantly held before it."

The following passage on the subject of teaching geography, as taught in the Prussian schools, is well worthy of the teacher's attention: "Here the skill of the teacher and pupils in drawing does admirable service. I will describe, as exactly as I am able, a lesson which I heard given to a class a little advanced beyond the elements, remarking that, though I heard many lessons on the same plan, none of them were signalised by the rapidity and effect of the one I am about to describe.

"The teacher stood by the black board with the chalk in his hand. After casting his eye over the class, to see that all were ready, he struck at the middle of the board: with a rapidity of hand which my eye could hardly follow, he made a series of those short divergent lines, or shadings, employed by map engravers to represent a chain of mountains. He had scarcely turned an angle, or shot off a span, when the scholars began to cry out 'Carpathian Mountains, Hungary; Black Forest Mountains, Wurtemberg; Giants' Mountains (Riesen-gebirge), Silesia; Central Mountains (Mittel-gebirge), Bohemia,' &c.

"In less than half a minute the ridge of that grand central elevation,