thought upon them would degrade him, even if it were not actual profanation. Accordingly, no business is submitted to him, no act of sovereignty is performed by him, that has not a religious character. He deifies or canonizes great men after death--the Ziogoon taking the trouble of pointing out the dead that are worthy of apotheosis, He confers the offices of his court, a real spiritual hierarchy, and from their nominal dignity and sanctity, objects of ambition to the princes of the empire, to the Ziogoon's ministers, and to the Ziogoon himself. He determines the days on which certain moveable religious festivals are to be celebrated, the colours appropriate to evil spirits, and the like; and one other governing act, if act it may be called, he daily performs, which should prove him to be, in virtue of his partial identification with the sun goddess, quite as much the patron divinity as the sovereign of Japan. He every day passes a certain number of hours upon his throne, immoveable, lest by turning his head he should bring down ruin upon that part of the empire to or from which he should look; by this immobility maintaining the whole realm's stability and tranquillity. When he has sat the requisite number of hours, he resigns his place to his crown, which continues upon the throne as his substitute during the remainder of the day and night."

But although the Mikado be a sort of automaton, and be allied to divinity, his food and clothing are expensive as well as purely earthly things. Everything about him must necessarily be new; every article of dress, and every dish which he uses must only be used one time; and not a morsel that is left, or a piece of stuff that is worn, dare be used by another person; for any such sacrilege would call down the vengeance of heaven upon the offender. Everything that has once been in any way employed in the service of the Mikado is immediately torn, broken, or otherwise destroyed; his clothes which are of a colour that no other person may wear, are burnt; and hence arises the only drawback upon all his state. The Mikado is supported by the Ziogoon; and the allowance from Yedo not being as ample as might be wished, the heavy expense of renewing daily, almost hourly, whatever appertains to the son of Heaven, is alleviated by supplying his wardrobe, table, kitchen, &c., with articles of the cheapest, and therefore coarsest description."

Our readers must be content, after the view of the Japanese constitutional system, with very short and scanty illustrations of their other singularities. The first of the following extracts refering to a eustom which confines females within certain environs, shows how prompt and decided punishment may be, and also that the severity of the law may be evaded by practical stratagems.

"An inhabitant of Yedo, named Fiyosayemon, a widower with two children, a girl and a boy, was called to a distance by business. He was poor -he knew not how to provide for his children during his absence, and resolved to take both with him. Accordingly, he dressed his daughter in boy's

clothes, and thus passed the Fakone guard unsuspected. He was rejoicing in his success, when a man, who knew what children he had, joined him, congratulated him on his good luck, and asked for something to drink. The alarmed father offered a trifle; the man demanded a sum beyond his means; a quarrel ensued; and the angry informer ran back to the guard to make known the error that had been committed. The whole guard was thunderstruck. If the informer spoke truth, and the fact was detected, all their lives were forfeited; yet, to send a party to apprehend the offenders, and thus actually betray themselves was now unavoidable. The commanding officer, however, saw his remedy. He delayed the detachment of reluctant pursuers sufficiently to allow a messenger with a little boy to outstrip them. The messenger found Fiyosayemon and his children refreshing themselves at an inn he announced the discovery made, and the imminent danger; offered the boy as a temporary substitute for the disguised girl; and told the father that, when the falsehood of the charge should have been proved by both the children appearing to be boys, he might very fairly fly in such a rage as to kill his accuser. The kind offer was, of course, gratefully accepted. The wilfully dilatory guard arrived, surrounded the house, seized upon Fiyosayemon and the children, and gladly pronounced that both the latter were boys. The informer, who well knew Fiyosayemon's family, declared that some imposition had been practised; which the accused indignantly resenting, drew his sword and struck off the informer's head. delighted guard exclaimed that such a liar had only met his deserts, and returned to their posts."

The

Every one has heard of the dexterity which Spanish ladies display with the fan, and Mr. Lay has indicated the uses to which the Chinese put the same gentle instrument. But the people, male and female, of Java beat both hollow :

"Neither men nor women wear hats, except as a protection against rain: the fan is deemed a sufficient guard from the sun; and perhaps nothing will more strike the newly-arrived European than this fan, which he will behold in the hand or girdle of every human being. Soldiers and priests are no more to be seen without their fans than fine ladies, who make of theirs the use to which fans are put in other countries. Amongst the men of Japan it serves a great variety of purposes: visiters receive the dainties offered them upon their fans; the beggar, imploring charity, holds out his fan for the alms his prayers may have obtained. The fan serves the dandy in lieu of a whalebone switch; the pedagogue instead of a ferule for the offending schoolboy's knuckles; and, not to dwell too long upon the subject, a fan, presented upon a peculiar kind of salver to the high-born criminal, is said to be the form of announcing his death-doom: his head is struck off at the same moment as he stretches it towards the fan."

486

ART. II.

1. Report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department from the Poor-law Commissioners, on the Training of Pauper Children; with Appendices.

2. On the Employment of Children in Factories and other Works. By LEONARD HORNER, Esq., F.R.S. London: Longman and Co. THE Training of Pauper Children is a subject of paramount importance; and the Report of the Poor-law Commissioners on it with the evidence and the comments contained in the volume, disclose many facts and suggest points well calculated to arrest the public mind, and to set intelligent philanthropic men upon a course of the most deeply interesting study and speculation. Without feeling prepared to acquiesce in all the representations made in these pages, or of relying upon every one of the theories put forth, we hesitate not to pronounce the publication to be in the main instructive and suggestive, and often most touchingly illustrative with regard to human nature and national character. We shall first indicate the kinds of contents which the volume sets before us; next convey a general notion of the facts or reasonings adduced; and then quote a few pas

sages.

After the Report comes a mass of evidence collected by Mr. Chadwick both at home and abroad upon the manner in which education affects workmen, either as such or as moral beings and members of society. We have then the returns made by several Assistant Poor-law Commissioners to a series of queries framed and put to them by the Chiefs in a circulated form, and which returns contain more or less of statistical facts, as well as disquisition and theory; sometimes throwing valuable light upon the nature of children, it may be at different ages or as characteristic of the sexes, and how plastic in early life is the heart and mind of mankind; all demonstrating in an impressive manner the necessity of early and sound training, not merely in a moral but an economical sense. A part of the volume is also taken up with an account of the "Training School at Battersea," and the experiments of Dr. Kay and Mr. Tufnell, together with their Continental inquiries.

The following outline of the facts and opinions of main importance in this volume will satisfy the reader that we cannot over-rate them, and also that all the general and most strongly-worded assertions or truisms current about the value and uses of education, unless backed by positive results, and tested by practical and close observation, are comparatively cold and unprofitable.

It appears that there are not fewer than fifty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty-five pauper children in the workhouses of England, who are between the ages of two and sixteen years; while

there are several thousands more, if the whole be included up to the earliest infancy. Now, it is perfectly obvious that in some one or more senses these persons are unfortunates, are paupers from no fault of their own, and are very often inevitably destined to lead a future life of vice and misery. First of all, they are for the most part either orphans, the children of worthless or wretchedly poor parents, or it may be of criminals who have not an opportunity even if natural affection were strong in them, to support their offspring. Well then, such children find an asylum in the workhouse. But secondly, what sort of asylum in the great majority of cases, and always, indeed, where the Guardians are not at extraordinary pains to provide for their welfare? Why, they are exposed to the contagion of such examples as the paupers lend, who are such generally in consequence of the want of industry, skill, frugality, or forethought, the very things which children cannot be charged with. Even the workhouse schoolmaster is frequently a pauper himself, or quite incompetent. It would require a person of various and superior qualifications to train a number of children, especially when situated as those in the workhouses are; and where can such teachers be procured, and for such establishments, without liberal salaries? Then, it is to be borne in mind that the children's misfortunes do not terminate with their temporary residence in the workhouse, for the time comes when they must be got rid of, which has hitherto been mostly done according to an unwise and a disastrous system,-the parish-officers giving apprentice-fees with the dismissed pauper, which, although seldom amounting to twenty pounds, and often not the half of that sum, are sufficient to tempt small and poor tradesmen, -as has been extensively the case with the Spitalfield weavers,-to take apprentices for whom they had no employment or need, and who if the apprentice was not soon given up, was neither likely to be properly taught a trade, nor wholesomely fed and otherwise well treated. To the question, "Do the masters, with whom the apprentices have worked out their time, generally concern themselves much about their future welfare?"-the answer was, "Very few instances of that have ever come under my notice. I have known some. There are females in the parish who engage a considerable number of apprentices to assist them in tambouring; they, like the rest, go to a distance for the apprentices in order to obtain the premiums, and, as soon as their time is expired, (if they work out their time) instead of employing them at wages, they turn them adrift, and seek other apprentices. The same occurs with the lint-makers." When we state that it has been estimated that 43,000l. has been paid in one year in the way of premiums with pauper-apprentices, it will be felt that a great amount of wrong has been committed by this system; and that many boys must have been set adrift who will become thieves, and girls prostitutes, to rear, besides, multitudes of paupers. The sys

tem is bad, speaking economically, as well as socially and morally; for where care has been taken in the training of the children, and tradesmen become acquainted with the fact, there is no difficulty in finding respectable persons, and having a good business, to take apprentices without fees; thus saving a parish a heavy expence, and rearing a body of industrious people, as well as raising the moral temperature of the district.

But in an economical view, taking it alone, the system that generally prevails at present is false and unsound; for there appear to be indisputable grounds for asserting that a good education may be given to all the pauper children of the Unions at as cheap, if not a cheaper rate, speaking merely of the direct outlay of money, than has hitherto been the case; and that this may be accomplished by establishing Central schools, where adequate tuition and efficient training may be obtained, separate and distinct from the several Unions within the range of each Central establishment.

There are some striking facts and opinions to be found in the volume relative to the manner of conveying instruction to pauper children, especially such as have been neglected or partially spoiled before coming under a wholesome and kind system of training, as well as to its matter and constituent parts. The hearts and the confidence of the youngsters, for a time run wild, must be touched and secured, while the head is stored. They must be made to see that their own dearest interests are consulted rather than the convenience or savings to the parish. Philosophical principles, even as to the mode of commencing and also of progression in the way of discipline as well as teaching, may be collected from the evidence in this publication; and consequently by remarkable illustrations it makes one acquainted with some of the great lineaments of human nature, together with the modifications produced by different circumstances. And this brings us to the few proofs and passages which we promised to copy out from the evidence in the volume. Our first extracts go to show that there are remarkable reciprocal connexions between capital and education, between profits moral and economical. Speaking of the more educated workmen, and in answer to the question," How have you found the opinions of this class of work-people on the subject of large capital," Mr. Ashton, of Hyde, in Cheshire, states that

"They appear to be quite aware that it is for their advantage; they find that in connexion with large capital they get the best wages and the most constant work. They have seen the concerns in which small capital is embarked, uncertain, irregular in their payment of wages, making frequent reductions, and stopping in periods of pressure, whilst concerns conducted with large capitals are carried on. Indeed, in consequence of some Chartist agitation, we had a discussion on this subject with some of our workpeople. I said to them, 'Suppose, according to the Chartist proposal, there