sometimes urged against it, may, perhaps, be forgiven. "It is said when the poor are edu“cated, we shall get no servants for inferior ❝places, all will desire to be butlers and ladies' "maids." All desire these situations at present, only they cannot obtain them, and are obliged to submit to other work to maintain themselves. Education will not multiply these better places; it merely gives all servants a power to take their turn for these trusty stations, and to fill them better if ever by merit they reach them. Could we for an instant suppose a general combination of all the servants in the kingdom to take only superior places, would not their wants soon starve them out of this ridiculous pretension?

These matters are regulated by the same rules which keep up or depress the rate of wages by the laws of supply and demand. For happiness, the supply of labourers should be sufficiently rapid to prevent their being overpaid and idle; and yet slack enough to hinder their being overworked, poor, and degraded; good education is the best means of approximating to this desirable proportion.*

See the First Report on the Poor Laws. As capital furnishes employment, the more rapidly capital increases,

The fact is, that during the transition from ignorance to information, education is a kind of distinction which may render the first educated a little vain; but the distinction diminishes as the numbers increase, and when all are educated it fades entirely away.

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Again; it has been said, "that where the poor are all educated no government can "stand." It is true, that were all educated no bad government could stand long; this is, therefore, a valid argument for the few against the many, at Naples or Algiers; but need we fear inspection for the free constitution of Britain! the greatest practical proof of the collected wisdom of men, which is to be found in the records of history, ancient or modern.

Is, then, the English government, so long praised, but a bubble and a cheat, which we dare not examine closely, lest its emptiness and fraud be discovered?

There may be some faults to be amended, and some improvements to be made; but, on the more rapidly may population augment also, consistently with the above rule; he, then, who by his industry, enterprize, or ability, increases in any way the capital of the country, by the same act calls into existence some happy human being.

the whole, the closer the people are acquainted with the constitution, the more will they admire it, and the better defend it. Is an informed and thoughtful people more likely to be led away by a designing or intemperate demagogue, than an ignorant and hasty rabble? Are there more riots and disorders among the educated Scotch, or the uneducated Irish? — Scotland,

Holland, and Switzerland * may be adduced as excellent practical examples of the advantage of education. The people of these three countries are the best educated, and are also the most moral and industrious on the face of the earth; they have to contend against every disadvantage of nature, and by their unwearied diligence and persevering conduct have conquered every difficulty.

To the poorer classes of Scotland we owe much of our knowledge in agriculture and horticulture. Most of our great land-owners have

* A clear and interesting account of the constitution of each canton, and of the federal bond, with a copy of the treaty by which some territory was assigned by the Allied Powers (in 1814) to secure Geneva from the power of France and Savoy, will be found in the " Droit Public de la Suisse," published in German, French, and Italian, at Arau, in 1815, two volumes, small octavo.

even now intelligent Scotch bailiffs as managers of their farms.

The fidelity of the Swiss was proverbial; so much were they depended on, that the custody of the doors of the rich abroad was almost entirely confided to them; and the word Suisse in French became synonymous with house-porter in English. In public situations we have a melancholy instance of their trusty devotion during the French Revolution.

"The more the people are instructed," says Adam Smith, "the less liable they are to the "delusions of enthusiasm and superstition, "which, among ignorant nations, frequently "occasion the most dreadful disorders. An "instructed and intelligent people, besides,

are always more decent and orderly than an "ignorant and stupid one. They feel them"selves, each individual, more respectable and "more likely to obtain the respect of their law"ful superiors. They are more disposed to "examine, and more capable of seeing through, "the interested complaints of faction and sedi❝tion, and they are, upon that account, less apt "to be misled into any wanton or unnecessary "opposition to the measures of Government.""

* Wealth of Nations, book v. chap. i. art. 2.

CHAP. XVII.

SAVINGS BANKS; WAGES OF THE PEASANTRY.

NEXT

EXT to the establishment of schools, it seems to me that the institution of savings banks best merits our attention; their utility is so generally acknowledged that it is superfluous to recommend them; the Legislature has publicly approved of them; each day the advantages to be derived from them become more palpable.

In order, however, to render these institutions available for the purposes for which they have been formed, we must take care not merely that there be safe places in which to deposit savings, but that the poor be so circumstanced as to be able to save, otherwise what we do is not only idle, but a cruel mockery of their situation.

If, however, we calculate fairly the gains and expenses of a labourer, at the average wages of the country for some years back, we shall find that it has been extremely difficult, if not im