[19th Cent. to his "Church History," of his defeat at the Asylum, by a competitor, of whom he speaks in no respectful terms. The day was lost by a single vote, being that of a gentleman whose carriage could not draw up within the limited time. All this might be avoided by the governors of public charities, were they at once to make a tender of each vacant lectureship to some clergyman of approved talents.

XXI. When we contemplate these valuable associations, to a few of which (together with the local charities of every one's respective district) 10l. or 15l. a-year, saved out of a moderate fortune, might render important assistance; thus at once contributing to maintain the religious establishment of the country, and to diffuse, the most effectually and purely, the advantages of knowledge and Christianity;--the mind swells with a sense of the port of high pre-eminence which our nation assumes in the civilized world. Justly may the rich who support, and the indigent who enjoy these various plans of beneficence, unite with gladness and gratitude in the exclamation, "Happy are the people who are in such a case; yea, blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God."

We would wish neither to encourage ostentatious benevolence, nor to chill the spirit of secret almsgiving; but we would observe, that contributions to these well-regulated public charities

are not liable to imposition or abuse; that they make their way directly to their object; and effect the largest possible quantity of good, with the smallest possible means. Offices are, in such institutions, discharged gratuitously; the performance of which, if paid for, would cost many hundreds of pounds; and they are discharged with a zeal and attention, which could not be purchased with money. To contribute to such charities, is to lay a shoulder to the support of our excellent constitution, both in Church and State. It is to perform at once the duties of patriotism and of piety. It is to maintain the honour of our country, and to pay tythe unto God.

NOTE. We would submit to every churchman the claims of the following list of charities on his annual guinea: 1. The Clergy Orphan; 2. The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; 3. The Central National School Society; 4. The Clergyman's Widows, of his own district; 5. National School, for ditto; 6. Sunday or Charity School, ditto; 7. A public Hospital; 8. A Dispensary; 9. Indigent Blind; 10. Deaf and Dumb; 11. London Orphan; 12. Hervé's Institution.

CHAPTER XXXI.

ON EDUCATION.

Contents.

1. Education prior to the Reformation.-II. State immediately after it.-III. Schools opened first in London; Norton Falgate.-IV. Parochial and Ward Schools.-V. Anniversary at St. Paul's.-VI. Progress of Manufactures.-VII. Origin of Sunday Schools.-VIII. Sunday School Union.-IX. On gratuitous Teaching.-X. Utility of Sunday Schools. -XI, Joseph Lancaster, Joseph Fox, and William Allen.-XII. Principles of the British and Foreign School Society; Objections.-XIII. Their Answer to these Objections.-XIV. Reply.-XV. Mechanism of the Lancasterian Schools.-XVI. Dr. Bell, and . Madras System.-XVII. Comparison of the two Systems. XVIII. Infant Schools. XIX. Anti

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educationists.

I. POLITICIANS and moralists, in their views of national improvement, have united in recommending the removal of ignorance from the minds of the lower classes, by general and gratuitous instruction*.

Trist's Policy of Educating the Poor, 1822.

"Afore the blessed Reformation," says Fox*, "it is not unknown what blindness and error we were all in; when not one man in all this realme, unlearned in the Latin tongue, could say, in English, the Lord's prayer; or knew any one article of his belief, or rehearse any one of the ten commandments. And that ignorance, mother of mischief, was the root and well-spring of all idolatrie."

II. To the higher orders, at that period, a smattering of Latin was communicated; but no provision was made for the advancement of the lower orders, in any species of intellectual culture †. Even during the century succeeding the Reformation, little was done to remove the blindness of the inferior classes. "It would make any true Christian's heart bleed, to think how many thousand poor souls there are in this land, that have no more knowledge of God than the heathens. Thousands of the mendicant condition never come to church, and are never looked after by any; likewise thousands of mean husbandry men that do come to church, understand no more of a

Fox's Acts, &c. p. 1727.

+ Christ's Hospital affords no exception to the fact here asserted. Both in its original foundation, under Edward the Sixth, and in the additions made by Charles the Second, it was limited in the number and description of its objects; nor was it at any time a foundation for the lowest class, or for the general education of the poor.

sermon than mere brutes. Perhaps, in their infancy, some of them learned a little of their catechism; that is, they could, like parrots, say some broken pieces, but never understood the meaning of one line; but afterwards, as they grow up to be men, grow mere babes in religion, so ignorant as scarcely to know their heavenly Father; and are admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, before they are able to give an account of the Sacrament of Baptism *." These lamentations over the ignorance of the lower classes, uttered towards the end of the seventeenth century, by the pious Herbert Croft, Bishop of Hereford, make it clear, that no platform, or fit provision for general education, was prepared, when our Church renounced the darkness of Popery; and that our great reformers, in promulgating their catechism and institutes, without appointing means for their being communicated to the poor, had left their work unfinished. Had these fathers of the Reformation arranged some judicious plan, for giving effect to their principle of general illumination, it would have come down to us hallowed by time, and by the reverence due to their sanction; like our other national institutions, of a kindred nature, it would have grown with our habits; and those wild speculative objections, now often started, to the training up of our population

Trist on the Education of the Lower Classes.