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sing and winning accomplishment. And what may seem extraordinary, that very progress of society which is so desirable, and that indefinite division of labour, without which manufactures cannot flourish, form the causes by which these effects are produced.

In an advanced state of civilization it is perfectly manifest, that the friendly and familiar intercourse between the higher and the lower ranks, common to other times, is at an end. Those manners, therefore, which in such times were not altogether peculiar to any class of the community, are now, for the most part, confined to those circles from which all mechanics are of course excluded. In place of that respectful confidence which the vassal felt, when he addressed his chieftain as his friend and his lord, and in place of that condescension and warmth of affection which the chieftain on his side discovered, there is now, on the one hand, expressed a haughty indifference to the concerns of inferiors, and on the other, a servile abjectness little calculated to beget liberal or manly sentiments.-But the tendency of an indefinite division of labour is not less hostile to intellectual exertion, than that change of circumstances to which I refer is to the polish of the manners; since it confines the noble powers with which man is invested, to the mere mechanical production

of an unvaried effect. If the powers of the mind, like those of the body, are improved only by exercise, then it follows that where this exercise is not necessary, or rather is completely precluded, mental debility must have the ascendency.

If these remarks be well founded, and they seem almost self-evident, the consequences which result from the progress of manufactures and the indefinite division of labour, afford rather a melancholy prospect, as it regards the advancing perfection of the human character, and the interests of civil liberty. These interests depend, not so much on the comparatively few literary men which a state of growing opulence. and civilization will produce, as on the intellectual endowments, and on the moral feelings and perceptions of the great body of the people. Where the middling and inferior ranks of society are weak, and ignorant, and consequently superstitious, they are altogether incapable of appreciating the invaluable blessings of a free government, and are still less willing to hazard their lives to defend them: though such a government may be established among a people in these circumstances it cannot long continue; and while their faculties remain depressed and inert, though revolutions in the state should take place in infinite succession, their

condition cannot be changed greatly for the better. If British liberties, therefore, are to be maintained, those qualities in the people by. which they were originally secured must also be maintained, and the circumstances by which these qualities may be affected should be carefully observed, and their injurious influence counteracted. A beneficent providence in this case, as in every other which relates to the hap-piness of man, has not left us without resources; since it has put into our hands the means by which the intellectual and moral character of the people, may, notwithstanding the obstacles by which it is opposed, be maintained and greatly improved. Education is this powerful means: and to be satisfied that it is capable of attaining this end, let us only recollect that the division of labour enervates the mind of the mechanic by depriving him of all occasion for mental exertion, The communcation of knowledge goes a considerable way to supply this deficiency: it presents to the mind new ideas, by the comparing of which, the judgement must necessarily be strengthened: it unfolds prospects which cannot fail to stimulate his imagination, and to enlarge the sphere of his intellectual energies.

It is true, the poor have little time which they can devote to the acquisition of knowledge: when children, they have been em,

ployed in earning their bread; and now that they are men, they must, by incessant application, provide for themselves and their family. But this circumstance only proves the infinite importance of education to the poor; since that period of their youth, in which they are unfit for business, is the only time which their poverty will suffer them to spare from necessary labour, and which, therefore, ought to be assiduously employed in laying some foundation for their future moral and intellectual character. The branches of education which it is possible to acquire in such a short time must necessarily be very limited; but they will be found extremely useful: a knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic, may be tolerably well attained, which, if it fails to do all the good that might be wished for, will at least prevent, in some degree, the recurrence of evils which ignorance and imbecility most certainly ensure. A knowledge of reading itself enables the mechanic to obtain useful information, and is likely to induce him rather to spend his leisure hours in the improvement of his mind, than amid the riot and intemperance of the ale-house.

By noticing those branches of education which it is in the situation to of the poor in every power acquire, I am far from approving of the officiousness of those whose benevolent anxiety

for the concerns of the inferior orders, obliges them to appoint prescribed limits to their instruction. This conduct seems to me as absurd, and as contrary to sound policy, as that of determining the kind and quantity of food which the poor are to eat, and the quality of the cloth with which they are to be clothed. Superiors are sometimes accustomed to think, that they can manage the interests of their inferiors much better than they can themselves. No supposition can be more unreasonable or more contrary to fact since experience shews that the poor are more economical themselves than any rich man can be for them, and are capable of directing their immediate interests much better than it is possible for those who are placed in very different circumstances to do on their behalf. The poor have the power of reason as well as the rich: and is it not probable that they will act more conformably to common sense and right reason, when they are permitted to think for themselves, and feel that they are solely accountable for the merit or demerit of their actions, than when they are taught to believe that others must think for them?-It is truly provoking to hear those, who in general terms assent to the education of the lower orders of the people, strenuously maintain that there is a danger lest they should become learned over much; to prevent

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