"The comparison between a home and a workhouse education, is in every respect in favor of the former. Where the whole pauper offspring of the kingdom is to be provided for, on a fixed principle, the expense of that principle is a very primary point; the expense of the workhouse system on this extensive scale must exceed any thing yet known; the buildings to be erected for the young poor of 10,000 parishes, could never be paid for out of rates; and would, if made a concern of the whole kingdom, materially add to the national debt. The annual interest of the money so to be expended, would, under due regulations, nearly support all our Poor. The expense of each child in the workhouse would be at least double, of what would wholly maintain it with its parents; and in the workhouse there is no partial relief. The father may sup port his family with half maintenance for each from the parish; in the workhonse every species of expense falls exclusively on the parish fund.

"Where a rate exceeds so much in the pound rack-rent in any place, all further as. sessment might be portioned out between the place itself and the revenue of the country. Before the revenue is called in aid, the pressure ought to be felt; it should be such as for its own sake the place will have great anxiety to avoid. Suppose 5s. in the pound rack-rent was to be assessed on the place before aid could be called for; till the rate amounted to 10s. the place should raise half beyond five, Government pay the other half; so that if the assessment were 10s. in the pound, the place would pay 7s. 6d., Government 2s. 6d. Beyond 10s. Governmnt might pay two-thirds, the place onethird. The actual rack-rent, and the necessity of the intended rate, should be proved before magistrates in the general sessions, specially called.

"I should be very glad to see the statute of Elizabeth superseded by a new one, which should at once enact what was to be law, and declare the principles on which the law was grounded. The first principle would be, that necessity, and nothing but necessity, should be relieved; and that the relief should be exactly proportioned to the necessity. After stating that to attempt to provide work, was in reality to encourage idleness, and interfere with the regular trader, it should be enacted, that the special mode of relief must still be left to the Overseer, on considering all the circumstances of the case before him.

"However temporary in its origin may be the present distress, it is by no means certain that it may not be permanent in its effects. There is a double habit forming, if not formed; that of giving, and that of receiving. It has been already said, that "where many receive relief and few do not, the receivers of relief become the ordinary class of labourers; degradation is at an end; the few may feel a little pride, but the many feel no disgrace." The kingdom is very much in this situation ;-the shame of being a burden on the public, is nearly extinct; that is one evil, and a great one. The habit of seeing the rate doled out in all directions, and increasing daily as demands upon it increase, has raised a sort of feeling, that it is not the proper source of relief to indience, but the proper means of support to the Poor; their lawful inheritance; no more than the charity which christianity ordains, sanctioned and regulated by civil establishment ! This is a still greater evil.

"The consequence of these two principles is, that every clamour, trick, and artifice is adopted, which may extort from the Overseer this poor man's right; and into this poor man's right, the whole of the rich man's rental may be ultimately converted, unless the country is roused into active measures of prevention.

"This part of the general subject, more important probably in its consequences than any other, calls for particular discussions; and by tracing it up step by step, to its present point, we shall best discern the retrograde path we are called on to pursue.

"The fluctuations of commerce incident to a state of war, and the repeated failures of crops, have laid the foundation of the evil. In years of extreme scarcity, the ordinary wages of the agricultural labourer, being unequal to his subsistence, two modes of remedy were adopted :---In many places farmers supplied their own labourers with corn at a móderate rate. This was accepted with gratitude as a bounty; and with the necessity for it, the bounty ceased.

"In other places the method was adopted of giving rations of corn, according to the size of the family; or what was equivalent, of making up what was earned a certain sum, out of the parish-rates. These two modes of relief have already been discussed; they did not cease with the necessity which caused them, but became the habit of the parish somewhat modified no doubt from time to time, but under every shape and size and colour pregnant with evil.

"It is quite clear that, under this management, the labourer would soon become content with dependance on the parish; and in time discontented with every thing but what was received without trouble and exertion on his own part. The overseer on his part presently grew familiar with high rates, unlimited claims, and relief grounded on no apparent necessity. There was no longer a sufficient cause to deter any poor man from asking, or any overseer from giving; shame was wholly removed from the one, a habit of discriminating from the other. And this is now more or less the state of the agricultural part of the kingdom.

"A similar process took place in the commercial districts: necessity urged some to claim relief, and the contagion of example others; till in towns as in the country, to be a parish-pau per incurred no disgrace; and in towns as well as in the country, the overseer became so used to give, that he never thought of denying.”

"As carelessness in distributing the rate is the latest mischief, it ought also to be the first remedied. We can never begin by lessening claims; it must be by rendering them ineffectual. "There are even now very many parishes, where the spirit of the times has made no great progress; and where, consequently, there is not much to undo. Notwithstanding this, I would recommend a universal district enquiry into the state of the poor; into their wants and conduct; the means of supplying their necessities, and of repres sing their frauds. A select committee should prepare the case of each parish; and the whole should be laid before a general committee of the town or hundred. Much useful information may hence be diffused, and many desirable regulations framed. The poor would be struck by a plan of this sort, and would shrink from unfounded claims, knowing the eye of the public to be upon them."

"In less than a year and a half, the York Saving Bank has obtained so powerful an interest, that the receipts for the last four weeks have exceeded 20007. and this wholly from the class of persons for whom the Bank was designed. The contributions from servants have formed a considerable part of the receipts; and though the pressure of the times has precluded the deposits of labourers with families from being numerous, it is quite clear the Bank is firmly established in the opinion of the public. There is nothing peculiar in this institution; nothing which will not be found in nearly every other. From this experience it may therefore be confidently asserted, that the Saving Bank system is certain of the most extensive success. The operation of this system, as connected with the present subject, may probably be thus detailed :

"That there is a public office known and much talked of, for the receipts of small sums, where the labourer can deposit them without apprehension, is of itself a circumstance of the highest importance. The mind of the poor man has something to work on, an image before it, a point to which his thoughts are directed. Heretofore the labourer has had little inducement to lay by his money; he was at a loss what to do with it; nobody he durst trust would take the two or three pounds he had saved; or if any person would, he knew not how to set about finding him; he had no guide-post; the way was not open before him.

"So difficult a point has the safe loan of his money been, that the cottager has very commonly hid his savings: and an old stocking foot, or the tester of a bed, has comprised the hoard of a whole life's economy. A hundred and ten pounds passed through my hands some time ago, which had been accumulating for above twenty years; and had laid in a cottage without any other protection than the apparent poverty of its owner: amongst this, was more gold than I had before seen together for a very long time.

"In every new disciple of the Saving Bank, I see at least two apostates from the poor-rate; and in fifteen or twenty years, there is no reason to doubt that the inherent and progressive principle of the Saving Bank, will have not only stopped the progress, but will have entirely routed the influence, of its antagonist, the parish-rate.”

A History of Whitby and Streonshalh Abbey; with a Statistical Survey of the Vicinity to the distance of twenty-five miles. By the Rev. George Young, with the assistance of some papers left by the late Mr. R. Winter, and some materials furnished by Mr. J. Bird. 2 vols. 8vo. 21s. pp. 954. Longman and Co. London; Clark and Medd, Whitby.

1817.

THE publication which we now announce to our readers is one which, we think, will be perused with an almost equal satisfaction by the student of general literature and the lovers of antiquity.

We cannot present a better introduction than the following extract from the author's preface:

"The advantages of local history are generally acknowledged. Correct views of a country are not to be gained from the hasty remarks of the tourist, who skims over its surface in a few days; but from the patient researches and mature observations of local writers, each of whom, devoting his attention to objects within his reach, and collecting what is interesting in his own vicinity, furnishes his quota to the common fund of statistical knowledge. In general, topographical works will be more or less correct, in proportion as the field of view is contracted or enlarged: and he who attempts to take in too much, endangers the whole. What is gained in extent, is lost in accuracy. The fore-ground of the landscape is distinctly perceived, while the distant objects are involved in shades.

"To serve the interests of science, the subject of a local history should be judiciously chosen, as well as patiently investigated: the place, or district, must afford an adequate proportion of interesting materials; and the central point, on which they are made to bear, must possess sufficient respectability to entitle it to that distinction. In these respects, few places present a more legitimate subject for the pen of the topographer, than WHITBY AND THE VICINITY. The vestiges of ancient British towns and sepulchres, forts and entrenchments, found in this district; the remains of Roman camps, roads,

and stations, which it exhibits; its connection with the affairs of the Roman provinces and Saxon kingdoms, a connection which may be found in this work to be more intimate than has hitherto been supposed; its singular natural productions; the early fame of the abbey of STREONSHALH, as a seat of religion and learning; the splendour of WHITBY Abbey that succeeded it, after the Conquest; the number and respectability of the other religious houses in the district; the antiquity of Whitby as a town and port ; the rapid progress of its commerce and manufactures, and vast increase of its wealth and population, in modern times; with its importance as the chief town of Whitby-Strand; --all concur in pointing out this town and neighbourhood as a fit object for historical research."

The first part of the work contains a general history of the district, divided into three distinct periods;-the first commencing with an account of the original inhabitants of Britain, and leading us through the period of its government by the Romans to their final departure ;-the second is the history of the Saxon period to the landing of William the Norman with his victorious army; and the third and last contains the history of the district from the Anglo-Norman or English period to the present time.

The character of the Saxons, given us in the commencement of their period of history, is not an unfair specimen of the style in this department of the work.

"The Saxons are described as one of the bravest nations presented to us in the whole compass of an cient history. Strength of body, patience in warlike labours, a ferocious courage, and a formidable activity, are the qualities by which they have been commemorated. Such is the character given of that people who were ultimately doomed to have the dominion of Britain, who were to give laws and manners to a degenerate race, a people depressed into pusillanimity under the slavish government of the Romans, whose imbecility was such, from continued oppression, that they could not defend themselves without the intervention of a foreign aid. Accustomed to a predatory and piratical life, the Saxons braved every element; neither the stormy ocean of the Germans, nor the dangerous shores of Britain, could depress their ardour for plunder and conquest. The frowning clouds of winter darting the lightning's flash amid the howling of the midnight storm, sheltered their designs from the view of an unsuspecting foe. But while we display a gleam of the brightest part of their character, let us not overlook one of the most horrible traits that can degrade the reputation of a people, a crime that casts the most odious shade over every minor virtue, that of sacrificing the whole or a part of the unfortunate captives who fell a prey to their vindictive rage. Had their objects been merely confined to the acquisition of territory or amassing plunder from their fellow-creatures, we might have passed them with the same negative disgust which we entertain for conquerors in general; but when we are informed that they dragged off the inoffensive part of the inhabitants into bondage, and decimated their captives to be sacrificed as victims to an abominable deity of disgusting attributes, our admiration must sink into abhorrence."

In the chapter containing the English period, the author gives us an account of the survey called Doomsday, and concludes it with the followings remarks :—

"It may be remarked, that the richest manor in this quarter in the time of Edward the Confessor, was that of Whitby, which, with its dependencies, was valued at £112. The next in value was Pickering, which was estimated at £83. Walsgrave was valued at £56; and Loftus at £48. Most of the other manors are entered at a very low rate. Lyth, Mulgrave, Hutton-Mulgrave, Egton, Mickleby, and Brotton, were valued at only ten

shillings each! It must be observed, however, that the value assigned them is not what they might be supposed to sell at, but what they produced to the revenue.

"But however low the valuation of the lands in the days of King Edward may appear, their value was vastly reduced at the time of the survey. Domesday is a lasting monument of the sad effects of William's desolating fury. Fifteen years had elapsed since he laid waste the whole coast with fire and sword; yet even at that distance of time the greater part of the country was little better than a desert. Multitudes of ma. nors are given in as waste and of no value: and the reduction in the value of the rest is almost incredible. Whitby is esimated at only 60 shillings, Walesgrif at 30 shillings, Pickering at 20 sh. 4d.: but the depreciation of Loftus was still greater, for it was valued at nothing! All the lands of the earl of Morton are given in as waste, except Lyth, which is valued at 5 sh. 6d. ; Seaton, which is rated at its old valuation, viz. 10 sh.; and Brot ton, Skelton, Guisborough, and other places in the plain of Cleveland, which, though of some worth, were all greatly depreciated."

The second book commences with an account of the introduction of Christianity and of monastic institutions, preparatory to giving us the history of Streoneshalh Abbey. The characters of some of the first preachers of the Christian religion are pourtrayed, and amongst others that of Aidan, the Missionary from Iona, which we cannot refrain from extracting :

"Aidan is represented by Bede as a man of extraordinary piety and goodness, whose worth far exceeded any thing that could be found in the historian's own times. With the greatest meekness, piety, and prudence, he displayed unremitting zeal and indefatigable diligence. Eager in the exalted pursuits of his office, he disregarded the things of the world: what he received from the rich, he gave to the poor. The amiable king Oswin made him a present of one of his best horses, richly harnessed; but, meeting with a poor man asking alms not long after, he dismounted, and gave him his horse; and when Oswin blamed him for this seemingly indiscreet generosity, he replied, "What, my king, is the offspring of a mare dearer to you than that son of God?" An answer with which that worthy young prince was much affected. Aidan was indeed the friend of the poor, the father of the wretched: several slaves were redeemed by him, some of whom he received as disciples, and educated for the ministry. While he was condescending to the poor, he was bold in reproving the vices of the great. Greatness and luxury had no charms for him: even when he was at the royal table, he took but moderate refreshment, and then hastened away to his studies or his prayers: and though he was deemed a fit companion for princes, he was so far from affecting external pomp, that almost all his numerous and fatiguing journeys were performed on foot."

The Abbey, (the history of which, under the names of Streoneshalh and Whitby, takes up the remainder of the first volume,) was founded by Lady Hilda, the grand-niece of Edwin, King of Northumbria, who is supposed to have erected it about the year 658.

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After giving us the life and character of Hilda, together with those of several of her successors, we are brought to the destruction of the abbey by the Danes, which happened at the close of the ninth century. After lying desolate for upwards of 200 years, it was restored under the name of Whitby Abbey. The revival of it is thus described :"In the year 1074, a presbyter named Aldwin, prior of the monastery of Winchelcumb in Mercia, having learned from the history of England, that the province of Northumbria once abounded with monasteries, all of which were now desolate, conceived an ar