lation to the common Lord, and sustained by the blessed hope of an heavenly inheritance.

To the education of the operative and tradesman the same remarks will apply. Even so far as its object is to provide for present wants, it is the importance of life, as the short season of probation, which forms the true key-note of the whole. It is the day of rest which humanizes and dignifies the six days of labour. Profane the labourer's sabbath, and you turn his tasks into an unmeaning drudgery; and then, in spite of every political expedient, his spirit will quickly sour down into dark and sullen rebellion. A provision for bodily wants, however, is a meagre and barren view of these engagements: their main design is, to be a discipline of contentment and self-denial to the poor, of generous bounty to the rich, and of justice and equity to all. If this be now too much forgotten, one reason is that modern economists have given the lie to the Son of God, and taught that a man's life does consist in the abundance of his possessions. The natural effects of such teaching are only too visible around us: murmuring rebellion in the poor; hardhearted, cold indifference in the rich; fraud and persecution in every branch of trade, and the pillars of the social edifice crumbling into ruin. Such are and ever will be the fruits, when our labourers and artisans are left untrained, or trained for this world only. Such an education poisons the life-blood of the State. Society then sickens fast and dies: the rich will have their hearts frozen by icy theories of men; and demagogues will goad the poorer classes into frenzy and madness.

It would lead us too far to trace the same truth through every class, and in each department of instruction. We could delight to expatiate on a theme so noble and yet so various; but a word must suffice. Whether we consider the liberal education of the Christian gentleman, or the training into healthy allegiance of the intelligent Churchman; whether we trace the research of the natural philosopher, the wisdom of the statesman, or the learning of the divine, true education has the same grand features in every case. It is a present discipline of the soul, by the knowledge of nature, of man, and of God, quickened and inspired by the living hope of eternity, and with the future possession of an immortal inheritance for its final aim.

But we must return to the Government pamphlet. And we cannot but repeat, with grief and pain, that upon this truth, the corner-stone of the whole subject, it maintains a deep and ominous silence. Through these ninety pages education seems

viewed as a State expedient, for drilling the lower classes into order, or a means of repressing anarchy and checking the grosser forms of crime. How deplorable that the rulers of a Christian state should content themselves with so narrow and contracted a view! There must be deep ignorance of the true bearing of the subject, when, in a professed vindication of their measures, the central truth of the whole is passed by in utter silence.

The pamphlet, however, shall explain for itself the views of its authors upon the nature of Education. The three following passages are, perhaps, the most express. First, at the opening :

"All the plans which have been proposed for promoting National Education in England, by calling into operation the powers of the Executive Government, have necessarily been subjected to the most searching scrutiny. The advocates of education must not, however, accept the earnestness with which public attention is directed to this subject, as a measure of the degree in which the necessity of an extension and improvement of the elementary education of the poorer classes is recognised. It is, indeed, generally known, that even the art of reading has been acquired only by a portion of the rising population, and a smaller part of the adult working classes; and that, as respects the rudimentary knowledge which might develop the understanding, and afford the labourer a clear view of his own social position, its duties, difficulties, and rewards, and thus enable him better to employ the powers with which Providence has gifted him, to promote his own comfort and the well-being of society, he is generally destitute, and, what is worse, abandoned to the ill-regulated, and often pernicious agencies by which he is surrounded. It is commonly confessed, that no sufficient means exist to train the habits of the children of the poorer classes-to inspire them with healthful, social, and household sympathies-with a love of domestic peace and order-with an enlightened reverence for revealed truth-and with the sentiment of piety and devotion."

Again, in page 18

"In the concentrated population of our towns, the dangers arising from the neglect of the intellectual and moral culture of the working class are already imminent; and the consequences of permitting another generation to rise, without bending the powers of the Executive Government and of society to the great work of civilization and of religion, for which the political and social events of every hour make a continual demand, must be social disquiet little short of revolution. But the same masses of population are equally open to all the beneficial influences derivable from a careful cultivation of their domestic and social habits; from the communication of knowledge enabling them to perceive their true relation to the other classes of society, and how dependent their interests are upon the stability of our institutions and the preservation of social order."

And still more plainly, page 43

"The Chartists think that it is in the power of Government to raise the rate of wages by interfering between the employer and the workman; they imagine that this can be accomplished by a maximum of prices and a minimum of wages, or some similar contrivance; and a considerable portion of them believe that the burden of taxation and of all "fixed charges" (to use Mr. Attwood's expression), ought to be reduced by issuing inconvertible paper, and thus depreciating the currency. They are confident that a Parliament, chosen by universal suffrage, would be so completely under the dominion of the working classes, as to carry these measures into effect; therefore they petition for universal suffrage, treating all truly remedial measures as unworthy of their notice, or as obstacles to the attainment of the only objects really important. Now the sole effectual means of preventing the tremendous evils with which the anarchical spirit of the manufacturing population threatens the country, is by giving the working people a good secular education, to enable them to understand the true causes which determine their physical condition, and regulate the distribution of wealth among the several classes of society. Sufficient intelligence and information to appreciate these causes might be diffused by an education which could easily be brought within the reach of the entire population, though it would necessarily comprehend more than the mere rudiments of instrumental knowledge.

"We are far from being alarmists; we write neither under the influence of undue fear, nor with a wish to inspire undue fear in others. The opinions we have expressed are founded on a careful observation of the proceedings and speeches of the Chartists, and of their predecessors in agitation in the manufacturing districts for many years, as reported in their newspapers; and have been as deliberately formed as they are deliberately expressed."

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Now, in the first of these passages, we have, it is true, a vague mention of "reverence for revealed truth," and "a sentiment of piety and devotion." But this means everything or nothing, according to the prevailing tone of the writer. There is a reverence' for revealed truth, which shows itself by politely keeping it at a distance, as far too sacred to mingle with the affairs of life. In this reverence,' we suppose, one of the Committee of Council said, if we remember, in his place in Parliament, that the more religion governed our hearts, and the less it guided our hands, the better. There is a 'sentiment also, of devotion,' which, in its dreamy vagueness, has a most bitter contempt for Christian faith or sound doctrine. And such a sentiment may be here intended, from the plain approval with which the following extract of evidence is quoted :

"Do you not suppose that a sufficient religious education could be conveyed without the conveyance, at the same time, of any peculiar religious doctrine?-I am disposed to think so, as regards children,

because I think that the doctrines of our religion, as far as they have a tendency to influence the habits and practice of the young, may be separated and kept distinct from the peculiar opinions of any one sect.' "Has it ever suggested itself to you, in the matter of teaching religion, that teaching theology is one thing, and inculcating religious habits is another? Yes, I think that is obvious, though certainly not sufficiently attended to in practice.

"In the creation of religious habits, do not all sorts of Christians agree, as far as you have had an opportunity of considering the subject of teaching?—I think so.

"Supposing that we wanted to teach theology to pupils, the teaching of theology would be like the teaching of any other science?-It certainly requires a matured understanding to deal with subjects so deep and difficult; nor can it be very profitable employment for the mind of a child, to be turned to points of doctrine, upon which, from its very nature, it cannot be informed.'

But if the first passage were doubtful in its meaning, the doubt is removed by comparing it with the others. There we learn that the main end of the State Education is the "communication of knowledge to the manufacturing poor, enabling them to see their relation to the other classes, and how dependent their interests are on the stability of our institutions, and the preservation of social order." We learn further, that "the only remedy for the anarchical spirit that threatens the country is by giving the working people a good secular education." We learn also "that these opinions have been as deliberately formed as they are deliberately expressed." When further we observe, that in the Model School religious dogmas were to be carefully parted off from the general instruction, who can help seeing that this reverence for revealed truth,' this sentiment of piety and devotion,' is an elegant and tasteful garnish to please the eye, and that secular education is the beginning and ending, the sum and substance of the whole scheme?

We must pause a moment upon this deliberately expressed doctrine of our present Executive. A good secular education' the sole remedy for the anarchical spirit of the day! A knowledge of the laws which regulate the distribution of wealth' the only cure for Chartism and disaffection! Those evil and unruly passions which have scoffed away the fear of God's judgments, and trampled on the hopes of the Gospel, will yield, it seems, to the mighty charm of dissertations on the laws of capital and theorems on the level of wages. stubborn and frantic spirit of democratic lawlessness, that refuses to be bound with the chains of Divine authority, will consent to be caught in the meshes of fine-spun theories of trade, and to be bound with the cobwebs of a selfish

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economy! There is no supernatural power, we have been told, on which we can rely. So that our only resource lies in circulating "the Wealth of Nations," or more attractive novels of the same school, dressed up by some lady politician for the lar taste. Surely those who obtrude such monstrous views on the public cannot be aware of the affront which they are offering to the moral power and transforming energy of the Christian revelation. Who but an atheist, or a madman, can look to human theories of profit and loss for effectual aid, where the ordinances of the Church of Christ, and the immortal hopes of the Gospel, have been trampled under foot and been cast away?

Having compared the Christian view of education with those which appear prominent in the pamphlet, we may next consider the courses open for the State to pursue upon this subject, and compare them with the actual course of our present Government. There seem to us four possible alternatives within the choice of a nominally Christian State.

The first of these is, when the rulers of the State conscientiously submit to the faith of Christ, and cordially enrol themselves as members of his visible Church. It supposes them to feel and profess a deep conviction of the great truths of the Gospel, and of their vital importance to the national welfare. It supposes, further, that they recognize the appointment by Christ of visible ordinances, which all his disciples, whether kings or subjects, are bound to obey; and through which the great purposes of His divine mission can most effectually be realized throughout the land. They will act then, cheerfully and with earnestness, upon these convictions. Thankful for the Divine gift, they will throw their talents, their influence, and their authority, into the scale of truth, which they will know, with full assurance, to be the scale also of national peace and social happiness. If the Constitution have limited their power within narrow bounds-if they need to wait for the consent of the people, and their people disown the principles which they themselves reverence, if just and lawful measures of moral suasion are used in vain-then, rather than sell their conscience, they will sacrifice their power, and nobly resign a trust which they can no longer hold without doing violence to their own convictions, and betraying the highest interests of the State. Such men,-and such, like Gustavus Vasa, whom the authors of the pamphlet might have blushed to name, there have been in former times, though perhaps they now form an extinct species-such men, we say, will doubtless be twitted by the place-hunters of the day as "unfit for the government of men in the nineteenth century." But they would have their reward in the testimony of their con