temporal intereft and emoluments of one must be folely studied and refpected; and to this feeling must be facrificed the formation of the character, and the temporal and fpiritual welfare of thousands in fucceffion.

"I shall efteem myself happy in your communication of proceedings, in which I cannot but be deeply interested; and if any cafe arise, or difficulty occur, in which you conceive my experience can be of use, you cannot do me a greater kindness than by commanding my fervices.

"I muft not conclude without befeeching you to introduce into your schools every practice on the records of the Male Afylum. For, nothing has a place there but what was demonftrated, confirmed, and rivetted by approved experience: and to fave yourself a great deal of time, and perplexity, and perhaps many wanderings and frequent recurrence, by going no further in the beginning.

Lay well and deep your foundation. Of the reft it will be time to confult at a future period."

SKETCH OF A

NATIONAL INSTITUTION

FOR TRAINING UP THE

CHILDREN OF THE POOR.

"Quod enim munus reipublicæ afferre majus meliusve possumus, quam si docemus atque erudimus juventutem? His præsertim moribus atque temporibus, quibus ita prolapsa est, ut omnium opibus refrænanda atque coercenda sit."-Cic.

THE expediency and utility of educating the lower orders of the people I have already argued on moral, religious, and political principles, and have refted my conviction on the grounds of found reasoning, on the authority of the greatest and most celebrated writers on civil economy, and still more on the folid bafis of the experience of ages and of nations. The mode, too, of education, I humbly hope, will not be difputed by those who have examined the claims of the Madras System, its facts, and illustrations. The only queftion, then, which remains, is, whether the moral and religious education of those children, who are deftitute of other means of inftruction, fhall be left dependent on the fortuitous bounty and direction

of individuals, focieties, and parishes; or be placed under legislative provision and control.

In the former cafe, there can be no doubt, from the fpirit of the times, the general conviction of the neceffity of the measure, and, may I be allowed to add, the facilities furnished by the new System, that a wider range will be given than heretofore to education, and more attention paid to religious inftruction. Indeed this work is already begun in moft parts of the kingdom, and an example held out on a great fcale in the populous parishes of Lambeth, Whitechapel, and Maryle-bone, &c. If matters remain in this ftate I have nothing more to propose than what is already begun to be acted upon. Already measures, best adapted, are introduced into the schools I have mentioned, and the feeds are there fowing of further and future nurferies. And these inftitutions are placed, for the present, under the highest and most facred auspices in the church and the state, and are under the adminiftration and direction of those best qualified by rank, ftation, character, perfonal influence, and ability, for regulating and conducting the intellectual and moral machine.

Of this, the richest and most populous pa

rish in the world, confifting of 63,000 fouls following up the precedents of Lambeth and Whitechapel, exhibits an illustrious and commanding example. Under the Moft Reverend His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, Patron; the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop. of London, Prefident; the Honourable and Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Durham, &c. Vice Presidents; the Mary-le-Bone inftitution is not only to form a model of a Madras School on a scale commenfurate with the population of the parish, but also to train up fchoolmafters and miftreffes for the purpose of enabling other parishes to follow their steps, and of giving an extenfive circulation to the new mode of inftruction.

But fhould it be thought expedient to place the education of the poor under legislative authority, little more remains to be done than what the law exacts, which requires that the parochial minifters "examine and inftruct the young and ignorant perfons of their parish; and that schoolmafters (for the ftat. 19 G. III. does not here fall within my notice) be licenfed by their bishop." Little more remains to be done than to

give confiftency, uniformity, and stability, to the measures which are already onfoot. It may fuffice for the present to begin with putting Sunday (fee p. 193) and other charity and free fchools for the poor under exifting and appropriate authorities.

As much as England goes beyond Scotland and all other countries in a legislative eftablishment of parochial relief for the bodily wants of the poor, when they occur; so much do Scotland and fome other countries furpafs England in the legislative establishment of parochial schools for the spiritual wants of the poor, and for preventing the occurrence of bodily wants by an early and appropriate education, under the natural and conftituted guardians of the religion and inftruction of the people the parochial clergy.

T

How far the one of these provisions is politic and expedient without limitation, is every day more and more difputed; the expediency and the utility of the other is every day more and more apparent. With the purest form of apoftolical government in the church, and the moft perfect model of a free conftitution in the state, where, in the three branches of the legislature, execution, wisdom, and integrity,