everlasting, which is, or at least ought to be, the only principle of civilization among Christians? Another speaker excited the attention and curiosity of the meeting not a little by entering into an account of the progress, which the cause of education had made among the savages of that part of the world, which he had visited as a Christian missionary. But how great was my astonishment, when at the close of his tale it turned out, that the important evidence he had, of the spread of civilization in that quarter, was that he found in a cottage in the midst of the desert, the spelling, pence, and other lesson tables of the Infant School Society, hanging round the walls!! Are these the signs, by which we are to discern the progress of Christ's kingdom in the hearts of little children? Is all distinction lost among us, between the word, which we print on paper, and the everlasting Word, the life-giver of all? This conclusion, indeed, one is sometimes tempted to come to, when hearing declarations such as these, or another made at the same meeting, and, if I recollect right, in the report itself. It was said in defence of the "machinery" of the British System-that mechanical education was not the object in view, but that "the machinery of the system was the great means of producing moral and spiritual results!!" Is it possible that any rational men, not to speak of Christians, should seriously believe and assert, that any machinery, whether that of the British System or any other, can ever produce, or serve to produce, moral and spiritual results? Such, however, is the case, and it shows to what a fearful disregard of God's word we have come, in the midst of professions of zeal for its cause. We want to produce moral and spiritual results; but although there is a power expresssly pointed out to us by God, as the only source of all that is moral and spiritual, we either deny the universal presence of that power, or disregard it as a matter of minor importance, as a mere object of religious belief, and have recourse to machinery. Let those who advocate such principles, reflect for a moment

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on the real nature of God's revelation, on one hand, and of their opinions and proceedings, on the other; let them imagine for a moment our Saviour still dwelling on earth; let them imagine themselves calling upon him in a body, and proposing to him to promote his kingdom in the hearts of little children by the machinery devised by Joseph Lancaster-let them imagine this, and if they have in their minds a living image of the Saviour, if the voice of his spirit be heard in their hearts, let them take the answer which they will there receive.

I will not increase the number of quotations from the transactions of that day, as I have not introduced them from any invidious feelings, either towards the society, or towards any individual concerned on the occasion; but from a conviction, that in these days, in which it is the popular fashion to extol one another's virtues, and to close our eyes upon one another's defects, however much they may militate against Christ and his cause, it is a real charity if a man will take upon himself, to lay bare all the weakness, superficiality, and ignorance, which is displayed every where, and nowhere more than at the May-meetings;* which are for the religious world, I believe, what the Christmas. pantomimes are for the other. I have directed my remarks more especially against the British and Foreign School Society, rather than against any other, not because I think worse, but because I think better of it than of others; and, I trust, it will always remain my principle and practice, most severely to censure those, in whose good intentions I have most confidence, and of whose zeal for improvement, and capability of amending their own notions,

* From the same motive the author of these pages wrote, on a similar occasion, some strictures for insertion in a religious periodical, in the editing of which he took, at that time, a part. But his article was suppressed, avowedly for no other reason, but because the committee of the society concerned in the matter, had ordered two hundred copies of that number of the paper, which was to contain the report of their proceedings. This throws light on the manner, in which the suffrages of public opinion are obtained.

144

EXAMINATION OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS.

I have the greatest hope. "If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted ?" I was, I own it, grieved to hear, on that occasion, what I did hear; and still more was I grieved, that I did not hear any thing respecting the true principles, or the real objects of education. All that was said, on this latter point, was a recommendation of the cause to the public, on the ground of the advantages, which society derived from a better education of its members;* a point on which I have sufficiently enlarged, in a former lecture, to pass it over without any farther remark on this occasion. Enough, I trust, has been said here, to show the dearth of real information, there is on the subject, even among those, whose active exertions prove them to be by no means indifferent to it. This will, however, appear in a still more striking light, if we proceed to a review of those systems of education, which are now the order of the day, and which we must consider as the cream of what the public zeal and intelligence can produce in matters of education, seeing that they are every where praised up as the improvements of this enlightened age upon the darkness and silliness of our ancestors. As regards those ancient charities, which, every one takes for granted, are ill conducted, I may for this very reason be brief: nor am I, I confess, very conversant with the details of their systems, my knowledge of them being confined to what I have occasionally picked up. A visit which I once paid with a friend to a large charity school, down in

* On another occasion, when the effect of education upon the diminution of crime was under discussion, I heard a noble lord, who cuts a conspicuous figure in the religious world, and, of course, at the May meetings too, express his decided approbation of the efforts made for the education of the poorer classes of this country, "because, if the actual diminution of crime were a matter of doubt, it was, at least, beyond all question, that the behaviour of those unhappy individuals, upon whom the sentence of the law was carried into effect, was greatly improved; a fact which he would haíl as a consequence of the more general spread of religious education!" Who would ever have imagined that one of the objects of Christian education could be, to prepare a man to be hanged with better grace?

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the country, was not calculated to give me much information; although I shall never forget the impression made on my mind, by several rows of boys, in blue coats and yellow trowsers, standing, all the time that we were in the room, with their copybooks held up with both hands towards us for inspection, after the manner of soldiers presenting arms, and with faces behind them as dead as sign posts, mechanically bowing by rows as we passed them, in going up and down the room, just as if it was the effect of some machinery, with springs concealed under the floor, over which we walked. I know that I felt, in that room, as if the air was too close for me to breathe in, and this feeling probably prevented me from entering into any conversation, either with the boys, or even with the master himself, whose countenance, full of benevolent monotony, expressed the greatest willingness to answer those questions which, from the physiognomical evidences of his intelligence, no one could be tempted to ask. More information, than from this visit, did I derive from a little boy, of about eleven years old, who is a scholar in an old established charity school in London, and who called one Sunday morning on a visit to his mother, then engaged in my family as a nurse. "Well, my boy," said I, "do you go to school any where ?" "Yes, Sir," was his answer, "at such and such a place," naming the school. "How many boys are there in your school ?” "Between sixty and seventy." "And how many good ones are there among you ?" "Not above a dozen, Sir !" " And what are you? “Oh, among the good ones, or among the bad ones ?" I am among the good ones, Sir." "And how do you know that you are a good boy, and that all those other boys are bad ones ?" "Oh, because they can't read and write, and I can." In the course of some further conversation, which I do not recollect verbatim, I ascertained that this extraordinary criterion of moral value was closely connected, in the boy's mind, with the change of places introduced in the school, as it appeared from the boy's

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146 THE NATIONAL AND THE BRITISH SYSTEMS.

description of the ring in which they stood when reading, by the way of keeping pace with the improvements of the

age.

To these improvements it is due that we should now turn our attention, and I hope, we shall be able to take a tolerably complete review of them, by taking up, one after the other, the three leading systems, which divide among themselves the dominion over the rising intelligence of the plebeians of Great Britain, viz. 1. The BELL, alias MADRAS, alias NATIONAL System, which, if there were lack of names, might also very appropriately be called the square system;* 2. The LANCASTERIAN, alias BOROUGH-ROAD, alias BRITISH system, which, in contra-distinction to the former, might also be termed the semicircular system; and, 3. of less name than the two preceding ones, the INFANT system.

As regards the two first named, the National and the British system, it would appear from these appellations, that they are aiming at the same thing, under different names; at all events, it is a delicate matter to introduce them both at the same time, and, as it were, in a parallel, considering that they have been rivals from the beginning; and that the national system, as the younger of the two, has, to obviate, I suppose, any confusion, which might arise from the striking similarity of their means and methods, always been careful to evince a proper spirit of alienation towards the other. Nevertheless, as my business

* From the squares, drawn with chalk on the floor, to serve as a line of demarcation for the toes of the boys. It is, however, but fair to mention, that, in some of the schools, a very near approach has been made to the circle; still, it is supposed, without any departure from orthodox principles, and without danger of assimilation with nonconformist schools, whose distinctive feature is a semicircle by the wall side. This, and the circumstance that in the latter schools the seats are fixed, whereas they are moveable in the former, will, it is hoped, for ever effectually prevent any improper approximation of the schools patronized by the establishment, to the usages of "schismatics," and the latter will have the great comfort of a visible distinction between their own institutions, and those which are the offspring of "one of the daughters of the mother of abominations."