schools are not liberally opened for the admission of dissenters: if they were supported by a grant out of the revenues of the nation under the direction of parliament, there might be some ground for all classes of the community partaking of the privilege; but when we discover that these schools have been indebted from their first establishment to the present time to members of the church for their support, no reasonable complaint can be made against the trustees and subscribers for giving preference to the admission of children of their own persuasion, and requiring their regular attendance on the services of the church.

The system at first adopted was that arranged by Dr. Lancaster, but it was from some cause or other soon afterwards abandoned, and there is at present but little order or regularity in the method of tuition; the principal defect in the school for boys is the want of regular attendance being strictly enforced; leave of absence is so generally granted, either for purposes of husbandry in the field or for some other temporary and irregular employment in the town, that it is altogether impossible to secure a regular classification of the scholars; a committee should be appointed by the subscribers, to visit the school in rotation, not only to record their names in books provided for the purpose, but to enter minutely into all the machinery of their daily management and proceedings.

It must be admitted that owing to the ignorance and prejudice of the parents of the children, there is very considerable difficulty in forming a general scheme of management, and that difficulty is considerably increased when the education of females is concerned,

since it is not confined to reading and writing, but also to needlework, and other matters of domestic polity: the general introduction of machinery has almost entirely superseded the good old practice of knitting, and the distaff, which always formed a constant and useful means of employment. At present the girls occupy part of their time in making their own apparel, but they might also be instructed in working articles of clothing for the poor, to be distributed under the direction of the Dorcas Charity,-to the plaiting of straw bonnets, the washing of linen, or any other household acquirement that might prove serviceable to them in future life,—a point which is never lost sight of by the Moravians in all their excellent establishments.

In addition to these there is a sunday school* in connection with the church, established by Dr. Jobson, who resigned into the hands of the capital burgesses the sum of £500. and directed that the interest should be applied in providing books and public teachers: this privilege has, however, been much neglected, and it is really lamentable to see how little this school is attended to; but whilst the members of the church establishment and its ministers exhibit such an unhappy indifference to this important subject, the dissenters, with the zeal and activity that characterize all their

* Sunday Schools were first brought into notice by Robert Raikes, a printer, of Gloucester, in the year 1781: that excellent divine, Bishop Porteus, warmly espoused the cause: but it was chiefly indebted to Mrs. Trimmer, who not only devoted her valuable time to superintend schools, but wrote those valuable Treatises, which are found so useful in religious instructions.

proceedings, are diligently engaged in this field of usefulness, and tribes of little children that formerly spent those days, which should be devoted to religious exercises and quiet recreation, in idleness or riot, are now seen flocking in well-arranged order, from the schools to their various places of worship.

The charitable institutions that we have recorded are exceedingly useful, but they are too limited in their operations, and we should exceedingly rejoice to see some general system of national education adopted. Prussia* and other states on the continent have long since experienced its advantages, but in England the science of education, like that of all other branches of political economy as applicable to the existing state of society, appears in its infancy, and but little understood. The present Lord Chancellor (Lord Brougham,) and many other eminent persons have devoted much time and consideration to the subject, but after all their laborious researches, they have not been able to devise a plan to accomplish their wishes, being apprehensive that the dedication of public money to purposes of national education, would chill the present active operations of private charity.

We have observed that the plan of Nedham, in 1633, was to afford all parish clerks an allowance for teaching the children of the poor, but these functionaries are generally so incapable of executing their own duties of simple repetition with any degree of credit, and are so deficient in a knowledge of even the rudiments of

* See a Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia, by M. V. Cousin, Peer of France, translated by Mrs. Sarah Austin.

learning, that their services would not be very satisfactory; and the village schoolmasters are generally elected to this office because they are incapable of filling any other active station in life; and as they teach more by the ferula than the force of talent or rational persuasion, we fear but little profit could ever be derived from their manual exertions.

We hope that in the course of a few years some public institution will be established for the instruction of schoolmasters, and that when well versed in the hitherto mysterious art of teaching, they may be sent into the provinces, and their services generally called into action, their salaries being partly provided for out of the national funds: but whatever system of tuition they may be recommended to adopt, we are firmly convinced that their teaching will be in vain, unless the children are educated in the principles of christianity, since it is as impossible for religious habits to spring up spontaneously in the infant mind, and grow with its growth, as it is for us to see the most beautiful flowers flourish in a barren soil without their being planted, and the aid of a cultivating hand to rear and direct their tender shoots, and protect them from the storm. We are most firmly convinced that all systems of education must be radically defective where the holy bible, without note and without comment, is not the principal class-book in all schools for the education of the poor.

CHAPTER IX.

Public Charities.

THERE are, perhaps, few towns in the kingdom

where the public charities are so extensive, or where they are more faithfully or beneficially administered. The capital burgesses have the control and distribution of the principal funds, and as they annually publish an account of the manner in which their trust has been performed, by a regular statement of their receipts and payments, an effectual check is kept on their proceedings, and all possibility of abuse is prevented. These charities are of such great importance to the public, that we shall give a full detail of their origin and history, and as in their distribution the intention of their founders should be the only guide, we shall adopt as much of the language of the original wills and documents as the limits of our work will possibly admit; it may, probably, appear to some rather a tedious enquiry, but it must be recollected that we are not only recording the good deeds of our ancestry, but at the