tion. It serves to prove that Europe, at last, has improved itself to that state of civilization in which education becomes an object of primary regard. From this every thing may be expected, by which the condition of human nature may be improved. Without this, few of those results can be expected on which the philanthropist fixes his heart,

The importance which has at last fairly begun to be attached to the business of education, and the celebrity which had been acquired by the proceedings of M. de Fellenberg, attracted the regard of the Emperor Alexander, when lately called into the vicinity of the place where that seminary exists; and he commanded his minister in Switzerland, the Count de Capo-d'Istria, to make himself acquainted with the circumstances, and transmit to him a report upon the subject. The command of the Emperor was obeyel, and a report was transmitted to him hearing date in the month of September 1814. By a train of circumstances which we reckon fortunate, a copy of this report has found its way to England, and is at this moment in our hands. It is a long and a full exposition of the plan of M. de Fellenberg, the views which guided him in commencing the enterprise, the means which he has employed, and the success which has attended his exertions. The Russian minister appears to have been captivated with the institution in the highest degree. He enters into the details with the deepest interest, and bestows upon the whole the highest approbation and applause.

It may be useful briefly to remind our readers of the leading circumstances which distinguish the institution of M. de Fellenberg. Its most peculiar and remarkable feature is the union of instruction in letters with the operations of agriculture.

It has in other instances been proposed to unite a school of industry with a school of letters; and to employ the children of the poor, even during the time of their literary instruction, in works of profit-in operations by which, with the progress of their strength, they might in future earn their subsistence. The operations, however, to which in other instances recourse has been had, were operations of the manufacturing class. M. de Fellenberg, so far as we know, is the first and the only individual who has conceived the plan of grafting literary instruction upon the regular and even laborious employment of the children in the labour of the fields.

To the labour of the fields in M. de Fellenberg's establishment is joined the manufacture of all the instruments of agriculture, which, consisting almost entirely of wood and iron, require the operations of the blacksmith and the carpenter. What are

the peculiar advantages sought from uniting in this instance branches of labour which it is found in other instances convenient to divide, we have not any where found distinctly explained.

There is one point, at which we see that M. de Fellenberg aims; and that is, the improvement of the implements of agriculture. The improvement, however, we should think, would depend upon his own invention, not upon the mere locality of the manual execution, not upon their being made by his pupils, rather than by any other carpenters or blacksmiths whom he could employ. If the work is required, however, to give employment to his pupils, for whom sufficient employment would not be found in the fields, this is another motive which may be sufficiently strong; but whether this is the motive we are no where told, nor any thing indeed about the motive very specific at all.

Another remarkable feature of the institution of M. de Fellenberg is, that it unites a seminary for the poor, and a seminary for the rich. These two classes, though trained in a different manner, and with a due respect to the existing ideas and customs of society, are still in some measure brought up together, and with a proper reference to that natural dependence in which the different classes of society are placed upon one another, and that brotherly love with which they ought to be united together.

The agricultural part of the establishment consists of two farms—one which he calls a model farm-another which he calls an experimental farm. The first is intended to exhibit a well conducted farm on the best existing methods. It is on this that the children of the poorer class are principally employed. The second is intended to advance the science of agriculture, by prompting to new inventions, and affording the means of putting them to the test of experiment. It is by means of this farm, that the children of the richer class are initiated in the theory and practice of agriculture.

The enlightened agriculturist, says the Russian minister, who is desirous of turning to account the knowledge acquired in the science and art of cultivation, continually experiences the most serious obstructions, in the defective state of manual labour; and in the want of knowledge and intelligence in the individuals of whose labour he is obliged to avail himself. The seminary for the more indigent class, established at Hofwyl, holds out a most important example of the means of providing against this evil, and preparing a class of agricultural labourers, who will forward, not obstruct, the important designs of the agricultural reformer.

The pupils of the richer class, who receive an education of the completest kind under the roof and under the eye of M. de Fellenberg himself, are accustomed from an early age to observe the relation in which they stand to those whose riches are the smallest, to observe the benefits which they receive from that class, and the aids which, in their turn, they have the means of bestowing upon them. Such of them, in particular, as take the benefit of the agricultural course, which is optional, have an opportunity of observing what conduct must be pursued for realizing in the highest possible degree the advantages which society derives from a moral and intelligent population.

The manufacture of agricultural instruments is also divided into two branches; of which the one is intended to produce for sale the best instruments at present in use-the other is intended for a school of invention and improvement. M. de Fellenberg, observing that the improvement of the implements of agriculture had never by any body been taken up as a study, and pursued systematically, conceived that the greatest benefit might ultimately be derived from setting an example of this description. A great part of the manual labour is here, too, performed by the boys belonging to the school of the labouring class, of whom a portion are bred to the useful crafts necessary in that manufacture.

The children of the laborious class are not only taught to read, write, and account, but they are attended by their master, a man of liberal education and enlightened mind, during their hours of labour in the fields, and in the work-shop, as well as their hours of recreation, and instructed by him in the properties and connections of all the objects of nature, and all the operations of art, which are under their observation, or with which they have to deal. In short, they are carefully taught to observe, and to reflect; to acquire habits of drawing ideas from things themselves; and by treasuring up a knowledge of their properties, a knowledge of how they may be turned to the good of men; how their useful properties may be used to the greatest advantage, and the effects of their hurtful properties may be the most fully prevented, to acquire the greatest possible power of benefiting both themselves and others.

It is not necessary to say much on the subject of the particular instruction which is bestowed upon the children of the more - opulent class. It embraces all those points of art and science which are reckoned to belong to what is at present understood by the term " a liberal education," in the most enlightened countries of Europe. The distinction consists in the union of this instruction with the agricultural institute, and in the moral

discipline to which, under the system of M. de Fellenberg, the youth are subject. Of this the happy effects, in the case of both classes of children, the opulent and non-opulent, are described as most remarkable: Perpetual happiness, and good humour; no quarrels; gentleness, industry, and contentment.

Upon the report which by his order was presented to the Emperor Alexander of this interesting establishment, that sovereign was pleased to address the following letter to M. de Fellenberg.

SIR, The labours of so much importance to the human race in which for a number of years you have been most successfully engaged; the great results which they have already produced, and those which humanity may still expect to derive from them in future, could not fail to arrest my attention, and to gain for you all my esteem. I have with satisfaction observed that your system of agriculture and of education possessed the double advantage of perfectionizing at once cultivation and the cultivator. Desiring to give you a testimony of the interest which I take in the success and extension of such exalted labours, I create you a knight of the order of St. Wladimir of the fourth class, the decoration of which I transmit to you, and I am happy to give you the assurance of my consideration.

Vienna, 16th Nov. 1814.

(Signed) ALEXander.

The letter of the Count de Capo-d'Istria, transmitting that of the Emperor his master, is part of the proof how much education is now attracting the attention of the world, and on that account highly worthy of being presented to the British public.

Vienna, the 18th Nov. 1814.

SIR, The Emperor, my august master, has desired that I should render him an account of the system of education to which for a number of years you have devoted your studies and your labour. The marks of his regard which his imperial majesty commands me to transmit to you, manifest the deep interest with which he is inspired by institutions which have for their object the good of mankind. In creating you, sir, a knight of his order of St. Wladimir, his majesty has been pleased to appretiate the talents and the virtues which so eminently distinguish you, without meaning to increase the lustre which belongs to them. His desire is, more particularly to draw upon you, and upon a vocation so illustrious as yours, the attention of your own country, and the attention of Europe. This glorious suffrage of an enlightened sovereign is doubtless one of the most powerful

means for propagating your discoveries; and for naturalizing in the different states an institution, of which the tendency is to conduct the labouring class to prosperity and ease, by the love of industry, and the practice of virtue. I offer my sincere prayers for the success of your occupations, which I have had the opportunity of personally admiring; and I beg you, sir, to be assured of the zeal with which I shall on all occasions be ready to contribute to so desirable an object whatever is in my power.

I have the honour to be with a perfect esteem,

Sir,

Your most humble and most obedient servant,

(Signed) The Count CAPO-D'ISTRIA.

It is a matter, undoubtedly, of the purest satisfaction, to find that education, and the improvements of education, have grown to be an object of such importance as to command even the attention of monarchs; and that this grand source of benefit to mankind is now so widely opened, that it never can hereafter cease to pour forth a copious stream of blessings upon the earth, never can cease to pour them forth in greater and greater abundance. It is not easy to express the joy which this prospect is calculated to pour into the bosom of the philanthropist, of the man who has the good of his fellow-creatures really at heart; and still perceives in how much wretchedness so great a portion of human beings are placed; still perceives how ill the great mass of them are used; how full of error and abuse is the management of human affairs; and how certainly the cure of all these evils is to be found in improving the state of education, wretched as it still remains in all countries; how certainly the greatest possible annihilation of human misery, and the greatest possible creation of human happiness, is to be derived from the greatest possible improvement of education.

In the papers relating to this establishment which fortune has placed in our hands, is a representation or sketch, drawn up by the founder of the establishment at Hofwyl himself, of the views which directed him in the formation of his institution. The papers came into our possession after too much was printed of the present number of THE PHILANTHROPIST to admit the document which we have just mentioned. It is our intention, however, to prepare a translation of it for our succeeding number, and to accompany it with some of the criticisms and reflections with which the subject is pregnant.