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end of the hall, a word with you-come here. I need not ask if you have kept your promise? You have put that detestable vase out of the way?'

Think it done!' replied the wife gaily.

'Forgive me, dear love; you are truth itself!' and the blush that rose into the cheek he kissed made him think that even truth is capable of being embellished by beauty. The young couple now ventured into the presence of Uncle John.

courage you. I will-I will '- and he mopped his eyes with the end of his bundle-'I will go home directly, and tell mother!' and Jacob lifted up his voice and wept aloud, groping his way to the door through his

And with your own hands? for I would not have tears. any accident happen to it after all. Eh?' 'Stay, boy,' said Uncle John, after a moment's pause; Can you doubt it?' demanded the wife reproach-you have given us all a lesson, and I trust we shall be fully. the better for it. It seems I am as bad as any of you! Well, I cannot deny it. None of us, I believe, meant any mischief. We persuaded ourselves that we were telling only a harmless lie! There is no such thing. The effect of falsehood depends upon circumstances of which we are ignorant, and which we cannot control. The moment the lie has left our lips, it is beyond our reach, and we have put a missile of destruction into the hands of the demons. Let us forgive one another, and forget the "crock." Get you into your livery again, Jacob; and do you, nephew, give me your arm to the solicitor's.'

There was something so calm and stern in the old man's appearance, that both nephew and niece felt a sudden chill.

'I called,' said he, in order to walk with you to my solicitor's; but since my niece is here, I shall take the opportunity of letting her know the position in which we stand. I opposed your marriage on principle, because I saw that, having precisely the same defects of character, you were quite unqualified to go through the world together. Your headstrong folly, however, was partly my own fault, and I determined to make the best of matters as they stood, provided I was well assured that the serious warning you had received had at least cured you of your habits of extravagance. All this, however, I have been obliged to take merely upon your own word; proceeding upon the supposition that falsehood is not one of your vices. Nephew, what do you say?'

'I hope I bear the character of a man of honour!' 'Niece ?'

'I would not deceive my dearest uncle for the world.' Uncle John removed the screen from before the vase. 'What is this?' said he. 'Have you any explanation to make? You-I say you, nephew?' But the nephew was gazing at his wife, with expressions of scorn, rage, and pity chasing each other across his face. He whispered something in her ear. It was a smooth, yet vulgar, frightful word of two syllables; and staggering away from him, she appeared about to fall, as if she had received a blow. Jemima, who was at the door, flew in, and caught her mistress in her arms; but the latter reviving at the touch, thrust her away with abhorrence.

'Base, ungrateful, detested. -!' said she, and the short smooth word came forth like a pistol-shot. It was instantaneously echoed by Jemima herself, who bestowed it upon Jacob, together with a sound cuff on the side of the head. Jacob, resplendent no more in livery, was now in the garb of a ploughboy, with a stick and his bonnet in one hand, and a small dirty bundle in the other. He had entered the room with his usual want of ceremony, and the salute of Jemima went nigh to make him vanish in the same fashion.

'Oh, I don't mind it,' said he; not a bit. I wish you would give me one a-piece, for I deserve them all! Mother will give me worse than that-and what can such a desperate liar expect??

Why, what have you been doing, boy?' demanded Uncle John sternly.

Oh, don't you talk to me!' said Jacob; for bad as I am, it's not all my fault. By telling a lie to Jemima, I did the mischief; but if it had not been for you, you wicked old man! it would have come out right in the end. I heard master tell mistress that he repented buying that ugly crock; that he never would do so again; that he would confess all to you; and that he would make you a present of it to-morrow-much good might it do you! Now, if I had told him in time what I ought, does it not stand to reason that he would have made all right before it came to calling names and slapping people's faces? But you, you wicked old man! to put a second lie in my mouth-to bribe a poor boy with a crown to go on from bad to worse; to-toyou ought to be ashamed of yourself! But I will give you back your money: no I wont; it would only en

THE FOREIGN COMMERCE OF GREAT BRITAIN. THE Comparative advantages of home and foreign trade have been frequently, and, we think, needlessly discussed. Both are in reality one thing-a result of the necessities and demands of society; and one cannot be favoured in preference to the other, without inflicting a general injury. Nevertheless, from the beginning of the world, foreign trade has been looked upon with jealousy by politicians, as if it was something that did not come into the ordinary stream of events at all. It is as natural, however, as the currents of the ocean or the course of the storm. Winds, waters, birds, and men, are alike the ministers of nature in carrying her productions from one country to another, and planting new seeds in every soil adapted for their reception; and that nation which refuses the treasures proffered by commerce, or accepts them under invidious restrictions, is not more wise than if it drew a cordon round its coasts to prevent the material agents of the bounty of Heaven from bestowing a new fruit or flower upon the soil.

Few countries owe so much as Great Britain to the agency of man in this kind of distribution; or, in other words, few possess less indigenous wealth, with the exception of that of the mineral kingdom. The inhabitants lived on roots, berries, flesh, and milk, till agriculture was introduced upon the coasts by colonies from Belgium, and extended subsequently by the fortunate tyranny of the Romans, who exacted a tribute of corn. At this time our fruits were nearly confined to blackberries, raspberries, sloes, crab-apples, wild strawberries, cranberries, and hazel-nuts. In all Europe, according to Humboldt, the vine followed the Greeks, and wheat the Romans. We had hardly any culinary vegetables of our own; and one of the queens of Henry VIII. was obliged to send to Flanders on purpose when she wanted a salad. It was not till the reign of Elizabeth that edible roots began to be produced in England. The bean is from Egypt; the cauliflower from Cyprus; the leek from Switzerland; the onion from Spain; spinach and garlic from France; beet from Sicily; lettuce from Turkey; parsley from Sardinia; mustard from Egypt; artichoke from Africa; rhubarb, radish, and endive from China; and the potato from America. Our present fruits, with the exception of the few we have mentioned, are all exotic; and in the animal kingdom, our horses, cattle, sheep, swine, &c. have been so much crossed and recrossed by foreign breeds, that our ancestors, if permitted to revisit the earth, would hardly recognise the species.

The growth of the foreign trade of England is both a curious and an important subject. Before the Conquest, it was carried on by means of strangers; the English receiving passively silk, Oriental luxuries, books, precious stones, and relics, in return for metals, slaves, trinkets in gold and silver, and silk embroidery. Athelstan had tried in vain to tempt his own subjects into

commerce, by ordaining that a merchant who had made three long sea voyages on his own account, should be admitted to the rank of a gentleman. But in two centuries after this, we find English writers boasting that all the world is clothed with their wool. The wool was manufactured into cloth in Flanders. In 1354, the exports, consisting chiefly of wool, amounted to L.212,338, without including tin and lead; and the imports, of fine cloth, wine, wax, linens, merceries, &c. to L.38,383. The balance, therefore, must have been considerably in our favour. Trade now seems to have been looked upon with some interest, and our princes would needs have the kindness to encourage it; in pursuance of which good intention the parliament, in 1402, ordered all importers to invest the whole proceeds of their cargoes in English merchandise for exportation. At this time the chief revenue of the country was drawn from such sources; but political economy had not yet taught that the best way for governments to encourage trade is to let it alone.

The kings, however, were not satisfied with drawing customs from the industry of their subjects; they took to trade on their own account. The kings of Sweden, Naples, and Scotland, were merchants on a small scale; while King Edward of England was an extensive shipowner, and, as an old author tells us, 'like a man whose living depended upon his merchandise, exported the finest wool, cloth, tin, and the other commodities of the kingdom, to Italy and Greece, and imported their produce in return, by the agency of factors and supercargoes.' In 1615, an anonymous writer enumerates 454 English ships employed in foreign commerce, besides those trading to India; but he gives us no idea of the amount of tonnage. In 1622, however, the total amount of exports had increased to L.2,320,436, and that of imports to L.2,619,315; and in 1648, we are told by a pamphleteer that England alone enjoyed almost the whole manufacture, and the best part of the trade of Europe.' In 1662, the imports were L.4,016,019, and the exports only L.2,022,812, showing a balance against us of nearly L.2,000,000. In 1720, the imports were upwards of L.6,000,000, and the exports nearly L.7,000,000. In 1750, the imports were nearly L.8,000,000, and the exports between L.12,000,000 and L.13,000.000. In 1800, the exports were upwards of L.45,000,000, and the imports upwards of L.24,000,000. This fortune is the more brilliant, from the calamities our merchants had to endure; who lost, in the American war of independence, L.2,600,000, in ships and cargoes taken by the enemy. But the loss of the enemy themselves, they had the comfort of knowing—including the deprivation of their fisheries-was still greater; which 'puts one in mind,' says Macpherson, of the story of the attorney who, when his client complained that he was reduced to his last guinea by his lawsuit, comforted him with the assurance that his adversary was reduced to his last farthing.' In 1780, the commerce of the country received another tremendous blow from the French and Spaniards, in the capture of five East Indian and forty-seven West Indian ships at one fell swoop; and before the end of the century, it is calculated that we had lost in this contest at least three thousand vessels.

In 1820, the exports, including foreign and colonial goods reshipped, were, in round numbers, L.44,000,000, and the exports L.30,000,000; in 1830, the exports L.46,000,000, and the imports L.42,000,000; in 1840, the exports L.65,500,000, and the imports L.60,500,000 ; and in 1846, the exports L.76,000,000, and the imports L.83,000,000.

The figures of this last paragraph are taken from M'Culloch's Account of the British Empire;' and the same authority is followed (although without adherence to his plan) in the following view of the actual foreign trade of Great Britain.

From Russia we receive tallow, wheat, flax and hemp, rapeseed and linseed, tar, timber, bristles, ashes, hides, and wax; in payment of which we send her cotton-twist,

and, in smaller quantities, woollen manufacture, salt, coal, hardware, lead and shot, tin, &c.; together with coffee, indigo, spices, and other articles of foreign and colonial produce. This trade employs much shipping, almost wholly the property of English merchants. The total average amount of our own produce and manufactures exported is about L.1,816,000.

Our trade with Sweden and Norway consists of imports of timber, iron, and bark, and exports of cottons and cotton-twist, woollens, earthenware, hardware, and colonial produce. The amount exchanged is about L.250,000 each way.

From Denmark we receive about L.213,000 worth of corn-rapeseed and other articles in smaller quantity; sending her in return coal, salt, iron, earthenware, machinery, and colonial produce.

Our exports to Germany, including Prussia, amount to upwards of L.6,000,000, and consist of cotton-stuffs and twist, woollens, refined sugar, hardware, earthenware, iron and steel, coal, salt, &c. and a very large quantity of colonial produce. The imports are chiefly wool, corn, flax, timber, zinc, &c.

Holland and Belgium supply us with butter, cheese, corn, madder, geneva, flax, hides, &c. to the amount of L.4,500,000; receiving, in return, cotton-stuffs and twist, woollens, hardware, earthenware, salt, coal, &c. and colonial produce.

The average exports to France consist of linens and linen-yarn, brass and copper manufactures, machinery, coal, horses, &c.; and the imports are brandy, wine, silk (raw and manufactured), gloves, madder, eggs, skins, and fruit. The amount is as yet under L.3,000,000, but will doubtless increase, as the insane jealousy of the two governments, which so long distracted the world, is now disappearing-at least from the tarifflike other venerable follies.

From Portugal and Spain we have wine, wool, fruits, olive oil, quicksilver, barilla, cork, &c. to the amount of nearly L.1,500,000; paying for these articles in cottons, woollens, linens, hardware and cutlery, iron and steel, soap and candles, leather, &c. Spain is our largest customer for cinnamon.

Italy furnishes us with thrown silk of the finest quality; olive oil; straw-plait, and straw for hats, which we now mostly manufacture ourselves; wheat (chietly at second hand from the Black Sea), fruit, wine, barilla, marble, and other articles. We give in return a considerable quantity of cotton-stuffs and twist, woollen manufactures, refined sugar, hardware and cutlery, iron and steel, &c.; besides large supplies of colonial produce. This trade exchanges upwards of L.2.500,000.

Our exports to Turkey, Greece, &c. are of the same kind, but to the amount of little more than L.1,500,000; while we receive from these countries opium, madder, fruits, oil, cotton, drugs, and dye-stuffs, &c.

The amount of the trade to the whole of Africa, including Egypt and our own provinces, is considerably under L.2,000,000. It supplies us with cotton-wool, flax, and some drugs, and other raw produce from Egypt, for which we make the usual returns, with the addition of glass and machinery.

In the markets of the United States our business maintains the same ascendancy as when the country was a colony of our own; only exhibiting an increase proportioned to the waxing greatness of the two nations. Cotton and tobacco are the staple imports, with wheat-flour and wheat, rice, skins and furs, hides, staves, &c.; and the staple exports cotton, linen, and woollen manufactures, with hardware and cutlery, earthenware, salt, brass, copper, apparel, books, &c. The amount exchanged is considerably upwards of L.6,000,000.

Our trade with the whole of the rest of the American continent, with the exception of our own colonies, is not so great by nearly L.1,000,000. We import bullion and precious stones, dye-stuffs, cabinet-woods, cotton-wool, sugar, coffee, cocoa, &c.; and remit chiefly in cottons, linens, and woollens.

Tea and silk are the principal imports from China,

and indigo and sugar from India, together with smaller quantities of cotton, silk, coffee, saltpetre, piece goods, spices, drugs, rice, &c. To the former country we export goods to the amount of little more than L.1,000,000; and to the latter about L.6,000,000, chiefly in cottonstuffs and twist.

The colonial trade supplies us with wool, wine, hides, ivory, &c. from the Cape of Good Hope, to the amount of L.500,000, paid for in the usual exports; and with palm-oil, ivory, teak, hides, wax, &c. from Western Africa, to about the same amount, paid for in cottons, guns and pistols, hardware, &c. The principal import from Mauritius is sugar. Exports as usual, to the amount of more than L.250,000.

Our North American colonies take from us about L.2,750,000 worth of woollens, cottons, linens, &c. paying in timber, wheat, furs, fish, ashes, turpentine, &c. The West Indies supply us with sugar, coffee, rum, cotton, pimento, molasses, mahogany, logwood, fustic, cocoa, cochineal, ginger, hides, &c. Here we are tempted to enter upon an investigation of the value of the colonial trade generally, deducting fiscal expenditure; but this we shall leave to a subsequent paper, and in the meanwhile adhere to what properly constitutes British foreign commerce; drawing our statistics from miscellaneous but trustworthy sources.

No view of the commerce of a country can approach to completeness without some distinct idea being given of the customs charged by the government. In England, the origin of these duties is hidden in the dark ages but at the close of the tenth century, we know that every boat arriving at Billingsgate paid for custom one halfpenny; a large boat with sails, one penny; a keel or hulk, fourpence; a vessel with wood, one piece of wood, &c. At that time vessels from the continent 'showed their goods, and cleared the duties.' The nature of these duties may be collected from the fact, that German merchants paid at Christmas and Easter two gray cloths and one brown one, ten pounds of pepper, five pairs of men's gloves, and two vessels of vinegar.

In 1266, we find a regular export duty on wool, payable, like the above, twice a-year; and in 1282, the total amount of customs is stated at L.8411, 19s. 114d. The king's claim to the duties was not established by statute till the reign of Edward I.; but they seem to have been all along tacitly considered his private property. They were frequently assigned to foreign merchants in payment of a debt of the king; and in Scotland, Alexander I. turned to this account the customs received at Berwick.

In 1303, we find a charter of commerce granting certain facilities to foreign merchants, in return for which they came under covenant to pay certain duties. In this charter the earnest penny' is mentioned as a seemingly indispensable part of a wholesale bargain. In 1329, the whole customs of England were farmed by a Florentine company for L.20 a-day. In 1354, the customs on exports (consisting almost wholly of wool) amounted to L.81,846, 12s. 2d., and those on imports to L.586, 6s. 8d. Twenty-eight years after this, the first attempt was made to anticipate the revenue, by granting a handsome discount to those merchants who paid duties in advance. So late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the customs were farmed for L.14,000; but that princess increased the sum to L.42,000, and afterwards to L.50,000. In 1613, they were estimated, including imports and exports, at L.148,075; in 1641, at L.500,000; in 1657, at L.700,000; and in 1709, at L.1,353,483. In every tenth year, from 1760 to 1800, the movement is as follows:-L.2,000,000; L.2,500,000; L.2,800,000; L.3,750,000; and L.6,800,000. In 1815, the customs' revenues amounted to L.11,360,000; and in 1845, to L.21,706,197.

These are the heads of the strangest of all the strange chapters in the world's history. But in reviewing it, we are apt to forget the effect of the industry of this island upon the fortunes of the other nations. If we look back to the twelfth century, when we are told all

the world was clothed with our wool, we find that the whole quantity exported could not have amounted in value to nearly L.250,000. In what relative condition must our customers be now, when they buy from us L.24,000,000 worth of manufactured wool? In the seventeenth century, again, we hear that England was the greatest trading country, and almost the only manufacturing country, in Europe. At that time we imported L.4,000,000, and exported L.2,000,000; whereas at present, when we enjoy only a portion (although the largest portion) of trade and manufactures, the mere duties on our imports alone amount to L.22,000,000. What, then, must be the relative position of Europe in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries? Commerce, in fact, is twice blessed-to the nation which gives, and to that which receives; and in reflecting on the wonderful destinies of our country, we should never forget her influence on the destinies of mankind.

GOVERNMENT EDUCATION.

WE have on divers occasions shown the necessity for a national system of education; the subject has indeed been so often spoken of in these pages, that we are almost ashamed to return to it. And yet perhaps the friends of a general system, conducted under the authority, and at the expense, of the state, never required to speak out with greater vigour. What we want may be told in a single sentence. We desire to see a system of national secular education, projected and maintained by the public, for the benefit of the whole people. We detest everything like sectarianism: it is the blight of every national improvement, and is keeping the people in ignorance. In order that government may, with propriety and justice to all, interfere on behalf of the public in this momentous question, it is our opinion that nothing beyond secular instruction on a broad principle should be given in the national schools; and that the religious portion of the instruction which is desirable, should be given separately by the clergy of the different denominations. Such we believe to be the form of educational belief entertained by every one who is governed by motives of impartiality, and really desires to see the people instructed. As for the proposal to educate the bulk of the poor by charitable subscriptions, or the voluntary principle, as it is called, we consider it to be worse than a fallacy.

But we are told that government has not the power to institute so broad a system as we desiderate. Perhaps such is the case, though we are inclined to think that a lack of courage to announce the principle is more conspicuous than a want of ability to carry it into execution. In the meantime, therefore, as nothing else seems possible, the country will make up its mind to see either an endowed system of sectarian instruction, or see nothing. What is doing at present to educate the lower classes, is a perfect farce. Thousands on thousands get no education at all. England continues the laughing-stock of Europe-a country in which great principles are sacrificed, in order to please the fancies of time-servers and demagogues.

That education is desirable on a far more effective scale than that which now exists, is evident from the lately published minutes of the Committee of Council on Education. The two volumes of which these consist are composed from the reports of the various inspectors of schools, and it is from these that we gather information as to what is doing in the great work of educating the people.

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The council have received applications during the year for aid from 518 places in England, Wales, and Scotland. Most of these are for the enlargement of school-houses, and the building of residences for the master or mistress, for repairs and fittings,' and in some instances for ventilation. Some of the memorials pray for the foundation of exhibitions' of L.10 and upwards, to stimulate the industry of the older scholars; and we learn by a circular that it is proposed to pay those

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selected to qualify themselves as 'pupil teachers,' L.10 in the first year, L.13 in the second, and L.16 in the third. This is, however, in connection only with the London diocesan schools. Notwithstanding the general poverty of the population of Wales, we are informed that urgent demands are made for efficient schoolmasters and schoolmistresses; but as the salary is not more than L.25 per annum, there is no inducement for young persons possessing the requisite qualifications to offer themselves for the work.' According to the evidence, the only means of preventing the present schools from becoming worse than useless,' will be by the establishment of a model school, and a general increase of the salaries paid to the teachers.

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The southern district comprehended in the counties of Berks, Bucks, Hants, Herts, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Wilts, contains three hundred and forty schools, visited by the inspector at an expense of L.2, 6s. 4d. for each school. At Upton, we read that the floor of the schools being of asphalte, the children suffer from chilblains in the winter. In others, the master is described as 'overtaxed,' or 'trusting too much to his monitors, instead of working himself,' or unnecessarily severe.' But by far the greater number of teachers are described as zealous and painstaking, and the schools generally as greatly improved since the visit of the previous year. Singing appears frequently as part of the course of instruction; and being pronounced 'good' in the majority of cases, shows the great value of this delightful accomplishment in the training of youth. Want of funds and of properly-trained teachers are, however, everywhere urged as the chief impediments in the way of diffusing a better and more comprehensive education among the people at large. The necessities of past times,' writes Mr Allan, familiarised the people to the notion that a few weeks' attendance at an organised school, where what was called "the National System" might be learned, was sufficient to transmute a decayed tradesman, with some knowledge of writing and accounts, into a national schoolmaster. But, happily, the conviction is daily gaining ground, that for a supply of well-qualified teachers, we must look to our training establishments, where they may remain long enough to have their characters moulded, and to receive that education in other respects which may fit them for their work.'

Another passage of this gentleman's report amply confirms the often-expressed opinion of the high value of music as a moral agent. Scarcely any school,' he observes, visited in my district, in which music is taught successfully, fails to rise to considerable eminence in other respects. The schools at Longparish and Farton, where great attention is paid to this art, and where it proves a powerful means of attaching the scholars to the church, are excellent specimens of a strong moral influence being exercised thereby. Our forefathers reckoned music among the seven liberal sciences; and I hope that we are making a considerable advance in the right direction, in bringing back into our schools an art which, under proper management, cultivates a certain delicacy of feeling and gentleness greatly needed by the children of the poor, making their tempers plastic, and contributing in various ways to harmony and order.'

In five counties in South Wales, the schoolmasters are described as 'imperfectly acquainted with English, and who have received little mental training of any kind. Some are discarded excisemen; some are brokendown tradesmen or beer-sellers; some have been soldiers or sailors, who, with a little skill in writing and figures, have picked up in their travels a little knowledge of English.' Many of them are habitually addicted to liquor, and frequently appear in public in a state of intoxication. What, however, can be expected, where the first question asked when a schoolmaster's post becomes vacant, is not Who is likely to fill the place best?' but Whose circumstances most need the emolument?' This low moral character shows itself in other respects Of 15 schools visited in Radnorshire, only

3 were found to be provided with the outbuildings necessary for decency. As a portion of the church is, in Radnorshire, the most common place for schoolkeeping, the evils of such a deficiency appear in their most repulsive form.' Where so little regard prevails for decency, it is not surprising there should be a want of morality. While the proportion of illegitimate births throughout England is estimated at 1 in 16, in Radnorshire it is 1 in 7 of the whole.

Mr Cook states, in his report of schools in the eastern district, that we not only lose our children at a very early age, without any systematic means, or indeed, for the most part, without any kind of means of keeping up an intercourse with them after leaving school, but that a fearfully large proportion of poor children either do not enter our schools at all, or remain in them so short a time, that any expectation of their receiving real benefit from the instruction therein given must be a mere illusion. It is true that so many schools have been established in which instruction, if not entirely gratuitous, is attainable at a trifling cost, that every parent who desires to secure the advantages of education for his child may find one in most quarters of London within a moderate distance; but it is equally true that thousands are either too indifferent, or too ignorant, or too vicious, or too little able to command their children, ever to avail themselves of the opportunity. One consequence of this want of elementary education, whether we consider it as a want of knowledge or of training, is admitted to be a frightful increase of depravity among pauper children. At the late Middlesex sessions, it was stated by Mr Sergeant Adams that no fewer than 500 children, between seven and twelve years of age, had been summarily convicted by the magistrates, within a comparatively short period, as reputed thieves. All that the magistrates could do, was to send these children to prison for six weeks, or two months; and when the poor creatures came out again, they were compelled to follow their former pursuits, because they were without any other means of obtaining subsistence.' We have on several occasions pointed out the remedies for this state of things in articles on schools in different parts of Scotland. It is to be hoped that by the establishment of Ragged Schools, and the measures contemplated by government, this juvenile substratum of society will be converted into moral and intelligent beings.

The Midland district includes the counties of Chester, Stafford, Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester, Warwick, and Northampton. The number of schools visited by the inspector, Mr Moseley, was 247; and the aggregate number of children 13:381; of these 1 in 6 can read with tolerable ease and correctness,' 1 in 3 read easy narratives, and the remainder read letters and monosyllables. One in 4 were learning to write on paper, 4 in 15 were in the first four rules of arithmetic, 1 in 15 in the compound rules, while not more than 1 in 53 was acquainted with the rule of three, and 1 in 9 with geography. Mr Moseley objects strongly to the delega tion of the master's authority to monitors. The whole time,' he observes, allowed out of the life of a poor child for its school-days is all too short, and it is daily decreasing. Nothing can be expected to be done unless the most powerful of the resources which the schoolmaster has at his command be brought to bear upon every moment of it. If his work be not taken in hand forthwith, not only will he have lost the most favourable season for it-that when the mind is most readily imbued-but the whole opportunity. I claim, therefore, as a privilege of the child, and as a paramount duty of the master, that his own individual culture of the child's mind, his own direct and personal labour upon it, should begin from the moment when the child first enters the school, and never be interrupted until it leaves it.'

We pass over the other reports, to come to those of Mr Gordon on education in the counties of Stirling, Clackmannan, Linlithgow, and Renfrew. Of the 166 schools under the parochial act, 13 are described as

insufficient in size, 12 insufficiently furnished, 6 wanting repair, and 15 imperfectly ventilated. Besides these, there are 102 non-parochial schools, 90 of which come under the above classification of imperfection. Of the school accommodation generally, it is observed, that the dimensions of the apartments in length and breadth, but more especially in height, are too often insufficient; and that, both in situation and structure, the means of securing proper ventilation are often wholly neglected. That the parochial schools are for the most part better provided in this respect than the act is understood to have required; and at the same time, that the school-houses which have originated in free gift are somewhat more numerous than those which have been produced at the command of the statute; still leaving, however, more than a third part of the whole number to be provided by the teachers themselves at their own expense.' Of the parochial schoolmasters, 10 receive an income of L.50 annually; 14 from L.50 to L.60; 8 from L.60 to L.70; 8 from L.70 to L.90; and 9 from L.90 to L.120. The population of the four counties is 283156; and of the number of children frequenting the schools, 10:150 are taught reading, 3270 writing, 1200 grammar, and 1515 geography. In seventy of the schools, no instruction has been given or attempted in geography, solely for want of maps. . . . In the better schools, the large maps published by Messrs Johnstone and by Messrs Chambers are common. In some a small hand atlas is employed, which the teacher finds to have its advantages, as the pupils can be taught to point out places upon it without any direction from the sight of names-a mode of the same principle which has produced maps without names at all, or with only their initial letters. In a few instances the pupils have been well exercised in the construction of maps. But it scarcely ever happens that they are taught to trace an outline of countries on the board.' The general bearing of education in the four counties is said to be towards improvement. On the one hand, it receives a tendency to advance from ministers and presbyteries, and from many of the heritors and schoolmasters; but this is too often checked by increasing indifference to it among the people, especially those of the mining and manufacturing classes.'

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Wherever we look, the same conclusion appears to be inevitable. To be really beneficial, the scope and aim of education must expand in proportion to the increasing wants of the age. It is now conceded on all hands that the only remedy for the evils of ignorance consists in education. Let it, then, be applied to the circumstances of the case in a broad and liberal spirit, and, although not over-sanguine as to immediate effects, we have no doubt whatever as to the ultimate result.

FORTUNE'S WANDERINGS IN CHINA.* SOME few years ago, it was predicated that the 'Wanderings' now before the public would not only conduce greatly to the advancement of botanical science, but open new views of the Chinese character, and point out new fields for commercial intercourse. This of course heightened the interest with which we took up a volume on a subject so interesting in itself; and the introductory chapter was well calculated to raise expectation to a pitch of excitement.

The author begins by informing us that he is to be no common author; that he is to eschew the errors and absurdities of former writers; and that in his book will be found a picture of the Chinese as they are. This he does in such general and ambiguous terms, as to give one the idea either that his censure included the recent productions of Davis, Gutzlaff, and Medhurst, or that these contributions to our knowledge of China were too

* Three Years' Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China, including a Visit to the Tea, Silk, and Cotton Countries: with an Account of the Agriculture and Horticulture of the Chinese, New Plants, &c. By Robert Fortune. With Illustrations. London: John Murray. 1847.

trifling to require mention. The promise of this introduction, however, we are bound to say, is by no means fulfilled. The reader will here look in vain for new views of the Chinese character, or new materials for forming such views; and before closing the book, he will come to the conclusion that a man may be an excellent practical botanist (as Mr Fortune doubtless is), without possessing any extraordinary talent for observation on other subjects. The Wanderings,' in factalways excepting the information they communicate in agriculture, gardening, and botany-are mere illustrations, though sufficiently agreeable illustrations, of what was already familiar to us from other sources; but they can lay no claim whatever to originality, or even to that vividness of description which sometimes compensates for the want of it.

In the discussion that has been carried on respecting the extent to which the soil of China is cultivated, Mr Fortune takes a part against the hypothesis which assumes that little more is left to be done-that any further increase of the population must depend for subsistence upon foreign supplies. This is perhaps one of the most important of all the subjects that relate to the destinies of the further East; for China has, for some time past, taken a part which attracts far less attention than it deserves in the history of these regions. This people, amounting in number to between three and four hundred millions, have long reached the point of starvation at which emigration becomes necessary. In vain were all things made to give way before agriculture. The flocks and herds, which formed the wealth of their ancestors, vanished, and the lands on which they had fed were turned into fields of grain. The profession of the husbandman was reckoned the most honourable, next to that of the literati; and the emperors set the example to their subjects, by holding the plough. But all would not do: and then rice was eagerly sought for in the neighbouring countries, and a large premium offered upon its importation in the shape of exemption from duties. Home production, however, and foreign_imports, even in their union, were insufficient; and the masses of the people had recourse to anything and everything that could sustain animal life, however disgusting, however horrible to the appetite in other regions. Nay, the common substances which elsewhere form the food of human beings, were devoured by them in a state of decomposition, till the odour of putridity became a national taste. Thus the Chinese would seem to have arrived at the utmost edge of the circle within which nature confines the movement of population; and the fact is proved by the result. Emigration is not merely discouraged by the government-it is forbidden; but although it is treason to go, it is starvation to stay behind, and every year the excess of population from this vast country bursts in resistless surges over the neighbouring regions. Throughout Siam, Burmah, British Malacca, the Indian Archipelago, flows the ceaseless tide of a race whose fecundity is elsewhere without example in the human kind; and it is no wild speculation to suppose that the new empires of which the English have laid some faint foundations in Australia, will be mainly peopled by Chinese. Already they form one-half of the inhabitants in the great and thriving British settlement of Singapore.

Mr Fortune bestows no attention upon any such facts connected with the position of the people. He supposes, from the natural sterility of the hills, that a certain portion of the country is uncultivated; and this is true, since no cultivation in such places could be of any use. But he adds likewise the vague assertion (for his opportunities of observation in so vast a country were limited), that even in the most fertile mountain districts in Central China the greater part of the soil lies in a state of nature, and has never been disturbed by the hand of man.' This would appear to be quite incredible of any part of China, excepting perhaps the range of mountains which separate the provinces on the southern coast from those in the centre, and where, among the other

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