Poor Law Circular. Under the superintendence of the Executive Committee to promote the substitution of productive labour for idleness and useless tests), who are responsible for this depart ment of the Publication exclusively. Communications to be addressed to the Secretaries of the Association, 1, Elm of" THE NATIONAL POOR LAW ASSOCIATION" (established Court, Temple, London, and 7, Norfolk street, Manchester. DEPUTATION TO THE POOR LAW BOARD. THE PROHIBITORY ORDER. can do, if properly directed. There are 80 young girls daily employed at the crotchet work, of which you are sent samples; and so much is it prized, that Mr. Fitzgibbon, of Cork, has entered into an arrangement by which the guardians can sell him all their work, which at present returns them about £6 a week. The advantages generally to the poor inmates, and to the ratepayers, by the successful working of the industrial works here, can scarcely be over estimated. In preparing his estimate for a new rate, a few days since, the clerk found that no rate would be required for clothing for the next year, though heretofore this cost 16s. per head per year; saved, which was heretofore drawn out of the so that by this means 1,600 times 16s. will be pockets of the industrious portion of the commu must not encourage competition between honest | men on the one hand and paupers and criminals on the other, I have no sympathy with it, unless indeed the competition be conducted unfairly, and the pauper or prisoner be made an instrument of bringing down the wages of honest working men. So long as the competition is a fair one, the ratepayer gains by it, for nothing is so costly to him as the compulsory idleness of those whom he is forced to support. The principles which I should wish to see carried out are these:-1. That the criminal should make restitution through labour THE deputation, appointed at the meeting held for the injury done by his crime. 2. That the in the Albion Hotel, Manchester, on the 10th of able-bodied pauper should be provided with the January, had an interview with the Right Hon. and at the same time be subject to such an indusmeans of supporting himself in the work-house, M. T. Baines, on Wednesday, the 16th ult., at Gwydr House. The deputation, which consisted trial training as may make him when he leaves of Mr. John Holt, chairman, the Rev. J. Fawcett, ism. 3. That great efforts should be made to the workhouse less likely to relapse into pauper-nity. Mr. S. Fielden, Todmorden; Mr. Hawkridge, Not- diminish the idle-class from which both paupers tingham; Mr. Little, Oldham; Mr. J. Middleton, and prisoners are drawn by substituting paid laHull; Mr. W. P. Woodcock, Bury, and Mr. Wil-bour for such voluntary services as are rendered kinson Gateshead; representing altogether 19 unions, were accompanied by Viscount Goderich, Mr. J. W. Patten, Mr. Cobden, Mr. J Kershaw, Mr. J. Clay, and several other members of parliament. Mr. Holt stated the objections to the prohibitory order, even as modified by the order of the 14th November. The principal points were these:Soap was sold again by paupers, and they had to wait longer at the workhouse shop for the bread than if they bought it themselves;-there ought to be a discretion allowed guardians in purchasing tools for paupers;-the rates would be increased if guardians were not allowed the discretionary power of giving relief to the able-bodied while employed by other persons; the application of the labour test to all able-bodied persons applying for relief, might have the effect of hardening the hands of many who required a delicacy of touch in their trades ;-the order would involve a great increase of correspondence and reports, and thus cause an augmentation of salaries;-but the main point was the dissatisfaction of the guardians at having the discretion which they exercised withdrawn from them by the Poor Law Board. Several members of the deputation and members of parliament having addressed the Board, Mr. Baines promised that the subject would have his most serious consideration; but he begged to make two remarks, first, that the "order" had been issued under the provisions of the law, which empowered Sir John Trollope to issue it, if he thought it necessary; and, secondly, the "order" had not been sufficiently long in operation to enable it to have a fair trial. As to the soreness of the guardians at the authority exercised over them by the Central Board, there were many noblemen and other eminent persons, the Duke of Newcastle, the Duke of Richmond, Sir J. Pakington, &c., acting, without complaint, under orders quite as stringent as that condemned by the deputation. He intimated, however, that, in future, 21 days' notice would be given to Boards of Guardians before any order regulating relief was issued. DR. GUY ON RE-PRODUCTIVE LABOUR. 26, Gordon-street, 18th Feb. 1853. DEAR SIR,-I beg to thank you for the Second Number of The Constitutional, which has just reached me; and, I take this opportunity of expressing the pleasure which it gives me to find the just cause of Industry versus Idleness taken up in so efficient a manner. Though I should have preferred a movement against the Poor-laws to an attempt to improve them; I believe that the National Poor-law Association will do great good if it can only establish the principle, that no man who can work shall live otherwise than by working, whether he be outside or inside a workhouse, outside or inside a prison. It is as unjust towards Rate-payers to require them to support ablebodied men in idleness, as it is towards the men themselves to allow them to be idle. The one class suffer in their pockets, the other still more seriously in their morals. As to the plea that we by Street-Sweepers; by putting in force the laws Yours very faithfully, WILLIAM A. GUY. PRACTICAL WORKING OF THE RE- THURLES. THE return which I have the pleasure of sending W. RYAN. Master's Industrial Report, shewing the first cost of raw materials, wages of tradesmen, and all moneys paid for the employment of the inmates; as also a Return on the Creditor side, shewing the value of all goods manufactured for the period commencing 25th March, 1850, and ending 29th September, 1852. Vests..... 80 Caps...... 774 Repairs, 113 15 0 includ 141 9 9 Profit......... 255 4 9 mater. 35,293 1d. 147 11 FARM DEPARTMENT Name of Article. Price paid. Name of Article £. s d. produced You will perceive that there are in all ten dis- I have taken the trouble to ascertain how long I send you a few specimens of the work done here, from which you will see what pauper labour turist ............ 16 0 0 255-49 £. s. d. 276 11 5 276 11 54 By crochet and muslin work sold 0 Do. on hand............ 27 11 5 Profit.................62 1 5 89 12 10 £. s. d £. s. d. 64 12 10 25 O 0 89 12 10 Quan. in Val. of Total. Name of Article. Price paid. 900 Clear profit......109 0 0 £6 118 0 0 118 O O Work done. By furniture, coffins, cars, wheels, &c., made and repaired Value. £. s. d. as per account......483 3 11 44 3 6 356 03 400 3 91 By flax, cotton, wool and tow yarn, making and mending pauper clothes, & knitting quilts & stockings, &c, as Total £. s. d. [THE FRENCH LAND LAWS-The pressure of topics of merely temporary interest, compels us to postpone the fur SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. not be the better for having more gold in their pockets, though with a corresponding diminution of its value. I wonder whether they would be persuaded they were the better of more liquor in their case-bottle, though the addition was avowedly made of water. Yet a candidate in a manufacturing town in an esteemed sagacious county, told the electors he wished there might be more gold, that they might have more of it in their pockets; and as he won his election, it is to be supposed they agreed with him. ther consideration of this important subject until our next number.-ED. C ] GOLD DISCOVERIES.-THE CURRENCY. 483 3 11 As you have given insertion to my speculations on the subject of Pauper Employment, I should be glad of a similar opportunity of endeavouring to support the Resolutions which were placed in June last on the journals of the House of Commons, on another subject, of which the interest increases daily-the discoveries of gold. And here I would begin by protesting against the objection which consists in saying, the thing never will go the length of danger. It is only the old assertion, "Ye shall not surely die." Let us trace the consequences first, on the assumption that it is to go a dangerous length. Let us know what the results would be, if gold were to become so abundant as to be used like lead or zinc for domestic purposes. And then, having satisfied ourselves on what the tendency is if the thing goes far enough, let us keep our eye on the progress of the results; well assured that we shall do everything the better for having done one thing at once, and not having the least disposition to invite to any rash action, or counsel that "our lives to save we leap into the pit." per account......... 400 3 93 The foregoing items of profit, together with that derived from weaving, baking, tinware, cooperage, nailmaking, smith's work, and other operations carried on by the recipients of relief, produced a clear pecuniary saving to the ratepayers of Thurles of £2,975. The moral results, the indirect and prospective advantage, of adopting this system, in lieu of that pursued in most of the large towns in England, cannot be estimated. We will only add that half the amount so saved by the guardians of Southwark or Manchester would suffice to support "industrial schools" for all the destitute children of either union, who are now left in active training for a life of ungodliness and profligacy. And here I think we may expect the point to be UTILIZATION OF WORKHOUSE REFUSE. conceded, that if gold were to become as abundant The necessity, upon economical and sanitary as zinc or lead, all old debts (meaning thereby debts grounds, of applying the residue-the veriest re- of long standing, and dischargeable by a certain fuse-of that which has sustained human life, to weight of gold as fixed at the time they were conthe fertilization of the earth, is pointed out in a tracted), would be virtually annulled. Conceive, recent tract.* Mr. Billing seems to give to Mr. for instance, the streams of annuitants and others, Chadwick the credit of first calling attention to who now look quarterly for their support from the virtues of town manure as an agricultural money lodged in the funds by their predecessors agent; but long before that gentleman's labours for their use,-conceive them presenting themwere known, it was recognised as one of the best selves and receiving as many dumps of lead as friends of the farmer in England, Scotland, Hol- they counted upon sovereigns, or which comes to land, and, more than any where else, perhaps, the same thing, as many dumps of gold of no more in China. In the latter country, the art of mak-value than the same weight of lead,—and you will ing the debris-the "dead waste" of that which have a vision of the results which, in one direction has contributed to nourish man, perform a new at least, would arise. And the vision will be quite function, that of revivifying animal and vegetable sufficient for the immediate purpose, which is to nature, has been for years, perhaps for centuries, give a clear view of what is meant by an old debt turned to the best account. In a financial point or credit, as distinguished from others. of view, the question is of so much importance that we cheerfully hail Mr. Billing as a Poor Law Reformer, for having pressed it upon the exccutive and the public. We commend the subject to the attention of Poor Law Guardians, and others interested in the management of large public institutions. A letter to the Poor Law Board on the residuary elements of food and other matters consumed in Workhouses; by John Billing, Esq., F.S.S., &c., London. NATIONAL POOR LAW ASSOCIATION. THE object of this Association, we would remind our readers, is to urge upon Poor Law Commissioners and Boards of Guardians, as well as upon the Legislature and the public-to whom Guardians and Commissioners are ultimately responsiblethe duty and advantage of employing, as usefully as possible, all whom the public is called upon to support. It contemplates no "gigantic system of State employment," but merely recommends that funds which are now wasted upon the unwil lingly idle should be beneficially expended and reproduced by healthful labour. Whilst there are economists who contend that it is better for paupers to be idle than to reproduce their subsistence, and whilst the Guardians in many Unions still maintain the impracticability of agricultural and other industrial arrangements which are actually in operation in other places, the utility of such an Association will be apparent, on the ground of pecuniary saving to the ratepayers, no less than of humanity to the poor. The Committee respectfully invite those who concur in the principles of the Poor Law Association to become members, and aid in giving them practical effect. And this brings me to the next position I feel desirous to support; which is, that the effect of the supposed operation, however substantial on the parties who come under the definition of old debtors or creditors, would be null in the aggregate on the operations of commerce. There is a satisfaction in putting this out in the bluntest manner; because if it is untrue, it ought to be refuted, and if it is true, it is the key to much that is important. And here, if engaged with an opponent strong in practical knowledge of commercial operations, I would begin by asking two questions. First, Has not every man engaged in commerce, debts to discharge from day to day, as well as credits to receive? Secondly, If a change in the value of money takes place by imperceptible degrees, is not everybody's credit somebody's debt, and vice versa, and will not the gains and losses in the aggregate be equal, or in other words null ? When in and after the time of Elizabeth, the changes took place in the value of money which are recognized to this day in songs regretting the time when "eggs were a hundred a penny," and led to those inscriptions in our parish churches commemorating to the astonishment of schoolboys that a departed alderman left twenty shillings to be distributed annually in clothing to fifty poor widows,-does my supposed opponent hold, that this was attended with any advantage to general commerce, exclusive of the benefit of having more gold to employ for ornamental gilding, or making gold touch-holes to fowling-pieces? If he does, he must be invited to show how he clears himself from the effects of the preceding questions. At the same time, it is difficult to persuade the unthinking portion of the public, that they would Leaving this part of the question, I will come to what relates to old debts; of which the debt to the fundholders may be taken as the most important instance. As things stand, a reduction of the value of gold to that of lead or zinc, would be applying the sponge to the national debt in the completest manner. Would this be honest? Would this be politic? And first, Would it be honest? I know there are those who chuckle over it, and say what a glorious thing to get rid of an engagement through a flaw in, the terms. The terms offered to the thousands of honest men who have lodged their savings in the public funds, were, that they were to receive a certain proportion annually of the value lent to the government. Everybody knows, that when what are called 5 per cents were put up for sale, the stipulation in the minds of both buyer and seller was, that a twentieth part of the substantial value lent, was to be paid annually; the purchaser taking the risk of what this might sell for at future periods in consequence of the increased or diminished opinion of the stability of the government. But the man that would maintain that the purchaser also took the liability of the government's paying him in stuff of a reduced value, would pick a pocket and tell the sufferer it was because he had not put a padlock on it when he ought. I remember a discourse on this subject with, if I mistake not, an office-holder under the present government, and the way in which he proposed to remedy the evil was so curious that I cannot help relating it, and with the more zest because it was only while writing this that I was struck with a full sense of the drift of the proposal. I was pressing him with the hardship, that the widow Workington, left with fifty pounds a year for the support of herself and six female children, by the savings of the lifetime of her industrious husband, should go to the office and be paid with fifty dumps of a quarter of an ounce each, in value equal to the same number of musket bullets. And he replied, (upon my word, if I make no involuntary mistake, he spoke as follows), "It is Mrs. Workington's own fault. If she has apprehensions of the fall in the value of gold, Mrs. Workington ought to go into the money market, and ask somebody to insure her against loss." I do firmly and verily believe this was what he said. Now sift this and see what it amounts to. It simply amounts to saying, Mrs. Workington may go into the market, and pay down the estimated value of the loss. It is as good a joke, as if the ship-owners were to complain of the loss of their vessels from deficient lighthouses, and were to be told they had nothing to do but go and insure. Is the insurance anything, in the long run, but paying for the losses? This is an example, of the chance the workingclasses have of finding themselves defended. And the case is certainly made worse, and not better, by the fact, that it is the most provident and careful of the working classes or their families, on whom the loss is to fall. Have not all good books and moral stories for the last fifty years, been full of exhortations to the working classes to save, and not leave their families upon the parish? And has not every man of influence been exhorting his poor neighbour to put his money into the funds, as what it would be of the nature of treason or at the least disloyalty, to doubt of being an impregnable security? And then comes a wholesale plan for robbing them, or at all events of allowing them to be robbed for want of hinderance. What is government for, if not to prevent honest men being robbed for love? If any man of the working classes who has ten pounds in the funds cannot see what is hanging over him, the pity is, that it is not he but his family after him who must take the consequences. But then, what a "jolly" thing it would be, to cease paying towards the interest of the debt. "C Jolly" it might be, but it would be as when nine men agree to rob the tenth. If every man had a share of the dividends equal to what he pays towards them in taxation, it would be plain that no national gain would be made by ceasing to pay, unless it were the expenses of collection. But when the proportions are different, the nine men are to chuckle over the fact that they can rob the tenth; and this taking from one to serve the others, is to be set forth as a national gain. I have great hopes that the good sense and honesty of the working-classes will see into this, and that they will aid in giving confirmation to the often and asserted fact, that it is not the masses who are for plundering anybody, nor their friends either. I perceive that I have plunged into the question of policy, and given without intending it the evidence that there can be no policy in plundering the fund-holders. And if there is no policy, there can be nothing but impolicy, in a course which must produce so much concentrated misery, with nothing to urge on the other side, but what might be urged in the case of highway robbery, namely, that what one loses, somebody else gets. I stop to notice an objection which has been diligently rung into the ears of the working-classes, taking advantage of their ignorance of figures and of facts. And that is, that the fund-holders have in some way or other been vastly overpaid. The fraud consists in reckoning those who have been overpaid, and not reckoning those who have been underpaid. Every working man can tell, what kind of account would be made of his week's wages, if he was charged for every day he had been overpaid, and no account taken of the days he had been underpaid. The true statement is, that taking all together, there is on the lowest estimate a balance of eight millions and a half, which on an equitable adjustment would be due to the fund-holders; for the proof of which I refer to the article on "Equitable Adjustment," with the Tables of Mr. John Childs, of Bungay, in the Westminster Review for April 1833. By all means let us have an equitable adjustment; but let us see that it is an equitable adjustment, and not the kind of adjustment proposed to the working man for his week's wages as above. If we could but get rid of these two delusions, that the quantity of gold has anything to do with what commercial men mean by the plenty or scarcity of money, and that there would be a national gain by robbing the fund-holders, there might be some chance of arriving at a remedy. On the first of these, I cannot help putting a parallel, though perhaps it may not be absolutely for the first time. There was a noted quack medicine, celebrated in advertisements for "sweetening the blood;" and somebody said of it, "what will sweeten the blood, if treacle and water will not?" Just such connexion as between treacle and sweetening the blood, is between the quantity of gold and what commercial men mean by plenty of money. Adam Smith, two generations ago, defined what was meant by plenty of money; and there I must refer for further proof if wanted. been below shillings per quarter; any contravention of such acts, in respect of issuing more than therein directed, to be dealt with as in cases of forgery; the amount of such authorized issues to be debited to the Exchequer, and applied to the Consolidated Fund. I have observed that scarcely anybody objects, if he might be allowed to fill up this blank at his discretion. When opponents present themselves to this, I recommend two inquiries; first, whether they understand it; and secondly, whether they have not personal interests, hostile to the general. The case was so with the Corn Laws, and will be with all other questions that involve a change. Such a change would be best made gradually; but one of its effects would be, to give back to the country the twenty millions, which it has now paid for, to keep in cellars in the Bank. Fancy a Manchester manufacturer or trader, taking into his head that he could not be a man of credit without digging a hole and putting into it a hundred thousand sovereigns, or two hundred thousand as the case might be. And it would further relieve us from the enormous insanity, of keeping twenty millions in gold within two days' march of an army of 500,000 men, if they can only get over. I must take time to enlarge on this super-human folly, because it is a little in my own way. Do you know that twenty millions is £400, or ten thousand francs a-piece, for an army of 50,000 men? Are you aware that there never was such a prize-money in the world, and that half the exertions of armies and navies in all history have been produced by expectations (often delusive it may be) of what was to be gained by the combatants? Has it ever occurred to you to think what would be the uses of ten thousand francs to a French private soldier, magnified or not by the peculiar turn of the individual? To the libertine, it would be the prospect of endless enjoyment in the ways he liked best; to the more thoughtful, it would be discharge from the service, farm, vineyard, and Honorine. There is no use in making men out either better or worse than they are; but if ever a regular army fought energetically and unanimously, it would be an army landing with the prospect of every man carrying away six pounds weight of gold in his knapsack. Perhaps they would lay it down again, because it was so heavy. The argument is as good as some that have been urged. It is now about sixteen years since there was proved before parliament to be an avowed plot for changing the succession to the throne, and probably reverting to arbitrary power. If the aspirant had got temporary possession, and wanted twenty millions without asking leave of parliament, what would he have had to do but lay his hands on the twenty millions in the cellars of the Bank, and issue a currency that should be independent of such a store? It would have gone down as quietly, to everybody's astonishment, as the stopping payment by the Bank in 1797, which I am old enough to remember. I was going to what boys called "follow the hounds," upon a pony, and when the news came of the stoppage of the Bank, I had doubts whether, under such a national calamity, it was proper for me to go on; but as others did, I did. A partner in a great London banking-house, who happened to be at my father's, went to bed, and lay there, I suppose, till the shock was over. Why something of the nature proposed should not be done, when all we get by leaving it alone THE DECLINE AND FALL OF MECHANICS AMONG the experiments which have been tried in Why is this? What are the causes of the acknowledged failure of a form of instruction, or of amusement, from which at one time so much was expected? If, in our inquiry, we are led to speak plainly, let no one imagine we are speaking bitterly, or design anything disrespectful of honourable and estimable classes in the community. We do not contemplate the bolstering up of things which ought to die, or which cannot live, but a simple explanation of a melancholy failure, from which, however, a few hints may be suggested, unfortunately, alas! to those not likely to profit by them. But, before enumerating the causes of failure, we would say, lectures are abandoned not because the people will not listen to eloquence; for the crowds which are easily collected to hear speeches, ||| for the agitation of great political, economical, and moral reforms, in public meetings, confute this supposition. The English, with all their reserve, are easily excited when genuine or powerful ap peals are made to their conscience and heart; and, when pleased, they express their approbation in the noisiest manner, with an enthusiasm which would shock many nations less refined than they. Nor are lectures deserted because there is a retronever was so much of it in other forms; nor because there is no intellectual life, for all England is a hot-bed of inquiring minds; nor because the people will not leave their homes of an evening, for musicians, male and female dancers, actors, circus riders, tumblers, jugglers, all of whom style themselves artistes, are reaping golden harvests in every part of the land. In the city of Manchester alone, 4,000 people have attended every Monday If these two delusions were out of the way, there might be hope that some government would lay the foundation of a Currency of stationary value, or as nearly as the thing can be done, by connecting its value with that of corn, which is well known to be for any considerable period together, the is to lay out twenty millions for the sake of offer-grade movement in popular education, for there nearest to being stationary, and this from the pe-ing it as prize-money to an invading army, would culiar fact, that an abundance of corn produces an be a mystery if we did not know by the example abundance of men to eat it, and the contrary. of the Corn Laws, how slowly reason makes its Your mechanicians among the working-classes way through the haze of fancied interests and will perceive that in this there is what they are groundless prejudices. A step towards the end, used to call a compensatory power, competent to is to begin. the effect assigned. And this connection would be accomplished by issuing a paper currency, not containing a promise to exchange for gold upon demand, but issuable only to such amounts as should be from time to time directed by act of parliament, on evidence produced that the price of wheat had for the average of a certain period One thing I wish to lay down broadly,-that all accomplices in the results, which seem in a fair way of being accomplished. who see into the case and do not stir in it, are evening, for a year, to promenade concerts in a single hall-to say nothing of other concerts, better T. PERRONET THOMPSON. and worse, theatres, public tea-parties, and other public assemblies, if they are so fortunate as to Blackheath, 28th Feb., 1853. secure some popular nobleman, or some twaddling dignitary to preside over their deliberations, or give a countenance to their orators. could mention a flourishing institution which in In the first place we attribute the failure of lectures to the fact that, in this country, a low idea seems to prevail as to what a brilliant lecture really is, and what it is capable of doing. Of course there are exceptions, and there are some men who have expended much energy and labour in written discourses; but, after all, those orators who thrill, are generally more fond of making speeches, where they can make political capital, than of elaborating their views for the lecture room. Nor are the people accustomed to artistic and finished dissertations, which exhaust a subject, and which impress the mind as much by the style as the matter. Of course we refer to viva-guished noblemen. voce communications,-not to reviews or leading articles in newspapers. When have such men as Mr. Macaulay and Sir James Stephen itinerated among the various popular institutions, and given to the people, with all the glow of eloquence, such productions as they have written for reviews? The very idea of such a thing seems preposterous; and yet, in another country, such men as Webster, Everett, Channing, Adams, Choate—all the really brilliant men of whom that country is proud, have not disdained to deliver the ablest productions, which they were capable of preparing, to popular assemblies. And the few specimens of American literature, which have strayed over here, were originally, as a general rule, pronounced to the people, and afterwards collected and published in books. But nobody, in this country, ever thinks of giving to the people, in the lecture theatre, his best thoughts. Indeed, most written discourses, even from the pulpit, are tame and lifeless, or are given in a tame and lifeless manner. The pulpit is not generally considered a proper place for the display of genius and learning; nor are high places given to those who excel in popular discourse. The best sermons are extemporary sermons-delivered like speeches, with which alone the people associate all ideas of eloquence. Both sermons and lectures are generally so poor-so deficient in thought and art,-when they are written, that the people will not venture out to make discoveries. And who can blame them? They will go and hear a popular orator make a speech on some exciting subject, especially if it relate to their interests, but not to a comfortless, cold, desolate, empty barn of a place to hear some unknown person read a poor essay in the worst possible manner, and on a subject to which they are perfectly indifferent. Secondly, the clergy, especially of the establishment, have never, at any time, had much faith in popular lectures, and have either secretly or openly opposed them. Their opposition, sometimes, has been from local canses, but generally from contempt of all popular influences, especially such as have not emanated from them, or which they have not been able to control. Nor have they sympathized with that sort of knowledge which the wants of the people require. Men imbued with the spirit of the dark ages, have affected to despise popular education; and learned men, in other professions, have shared with the clergy, this aristocratic disdain of the people-of their intellects, their tastes, their pursuits, and their wants. But while many in the church, and in high social life, have opposed popular institutions, or thrown cold water upon them, from ill disguised disgust, a very respectable portion of the clergy have also been alarmed by the infidel or extremely liberal course which some of these institutions have adopted. These institutions, abandoned by the legitimate guardians of learning, have fallen into bad hands-into the hands of the inexperienced, the extremely radical or free thinking, who have introduced lecturers with superficial views of society and truth, or they have catered to a vile taste for the hope of immediate profit, or with the view of advancing some object incom patible with the high and lofty one for which the institution was originally organized. Disgust and disappointment have provoked hostility, and the cry of alarm has been raised; and very properly, when the interests of truth are in danger. We Again, in close connection with what we have Another cause, perhaps, of the decline of lectures community, and expect them to raise themselves. They must be raised, and they can only be raised by enlightening their intellects,—not by flattering their prejudices, or exciting their passions. From all these causes combined, lectures have gone out of fashion; and those institutions which were established to encourage them, are either turned into evening schools or reading rooms, or are shut up from want of support. Nor can they be revived in their present form. They are dying, and let them die. They have hopelessly failed, when they ought not to have failed: If they are to be revived, they must be established on different principles. They must not disdain the aid of the Church, and the Church must not disdain to give them her support; for religious instruction is indissolubly blended with all kinds of praiseworthy education. The time may come when, on the removal of some of the evils to which we have alluded, a new impulse may be given. But that time is remote, and no one can predict when it shall arrive. Certainly it will not come until the intellect and fashion of this nation shall take a deeper interest in the culture of the universal mind than heretofore,-not until eminent men in all pursuits shall vie with each other in producing finished intellectual efforts as works of art,—not until the clergy, above all others, as the natural guardians of learning, shall be able and willing to wrestle with great ideas. And when will that be? One might as well ask when will the social habits and ideas of English life be revolutionized? A change, indeed, is going on perceptibly in the material condition of society. Great democratic influences are at work, especially in manufacturing districts, to assimilate classes. Thus far, however, the people have only caught the ideas and imitated the habits of their superiors,-those silly ideas, those luxurious habits which ever have undermined the moral health, and prepared the way for ruin. Such is the contagion of fashion, that even the people now sneer, like aristocrats of old, at the folly of teaching them anything. We can read at home, say they, even as the luxurious incumbents of easy chairs are wont to speak. It may be so. It may not be. For our part, in spite of fashion, we still attach great importance to oral instruction from accomplished orators and scholars; and we think that great will be the glory, as well as noble the mission, of those, come from what ranks they may, who shall succeed, as we hope they will, some future day, in giving a new form and life to a species of literary effort which is capable of inspiring the noblest sentiments, and imparting the grandest ideas, to which human eloquence, united with learning and wisdom, ever aspired. A PLACE OF REPENTANCE. A Christian Minister in the Metropolis, appealed to his congregation in the month of February, 1842, for teachers in a Ragged School. Amongst his auditors was a young man, who, born at Bristol, had come to London some years before and was filling the situation of a commercial clerk.-But, finally, the great reason why popular insti- He visited one of these Schools for the destitute tutions, relying on lectures, have failed, is, because and was prevailed upon to take a class, but they have not been true to the ends which they disheartened with his non-success, resolved professed to seek. Their directors, too often, have never to try again. He was, however, induced prostituted the whole profession of public speaking, to remain, and before a month was gone had so partly from ignorance, but more from the desire of far gained the attention of his class, that he retemporary advantage. They have introduced, solved to devote himself to the instruction of proh pudor! ballad singers and jugglers-scraps criminal and neglected children.-The earnest exof music interlarded with small criticisms, which ercise, and increased consciousness, of his capacity they have dignified with the name of lectures for this work, led him to renounce the engagedissolving views of the Duke of Wellington-ments of trade and consecrate himself to it. fireworks, which they call chemistry-and shreds of science, instead of noble, manly, able, and artistic discourses. They have lowered lectures to the taste or capacity of the meanest rabble. They have sought to draw crowds at cheap prices, rather than sober and sensible people of the middle class, who only can be the proper patrons of this style of amusement or instruction. They have undermined the respect and confidence of those on whom all stable support ever did rest, and ever will rest. It is a mistake to appeal to the lowest class in the He entered the Normal School of the British and Foreign School Society, with the view of being trained for Day-School teaching; and in January 1848 he was engaged as Master to the Ragged School, Pye Street, Westminster. He did not confine his exertions to the school-room, but visited the haunts of vice, for which Westminster is remarkable, and invited the ragged children to come to school. He stopped the youthful vagrants and criminals whom he met, and invited them to attend. Here a difficulty presented itself. They pleaded that it was useless to attend the School in the day, if at night they were obliged to beg or steal to get necessary food. It was impossible for him to provide for all. Two were selected; one being in a most filthy condition was purged of his dirt and virmin, and clothed by the patroness of the school; the other boy was cleaner and better dressed. Our Schoolmaster paid for their lodging, saw them to bed at night, took them each morning to school, and gave them food during the day. The last mentioned boy absconded; the other, after giving some cause for discouragement, became completely reformed, and made such rapid progress in education, that our Schoolmaster stimulated by success, extended his efforts. He hired a room in Orchard Street, and placed six boys in their new abode. He possessed no funds, and literally trusted to Providence for the means to support the charge which he had undertaken; and his faith was rewarded. The lads had slept upon the floor a whole week without bed or bedding, and a poor woman hearing of their case sent them some old bed-linen, which, with some straw, sufficed for their accommodation. The children of the Day-School brought of their free will every morning pieces of bread spared from their own scanty meal, placing them upon a shelf set apart for this purpose. The farthings, which some in a better condition received from their parents for sweetmeats, were added to the store. The pupils and teachers of neighbouring Sunday and Ragged Schools made collections of halfpence. A baker supplied bread upon credit, waiting for payment till means were in hand. Help gradually came from other quarters. Still, how ever, great difficulties had to be encountered. Our Schoolmaster lost his situation, and was driven to find a fresh home for the eight boys now under his care. He had expended every shilling of his own; had borrowed money of all his friends; had pledged every article of clothing he could with decency spare from his own person; and was living on a few pence per day, in order to provide food for the boys. He received timely assistance from Mr. S. Gurney, the Bishop of Durham, and Lord Ashley. Soon a larger apartment was taken at 28, St. Ann's-street, Westminster. The character of this house involved fresh self-denial. Every room was tenanted by thieves, and others of most depraved character, both male and female. The street door had not been closed, day or night, for several years. The silence of the night was broken by quarrelling and debauchery. To protect the boys against the dangers of contamination, their kind guardian left his own family, and slept in the apartment. Desirable cases presenting themselves, the number of boys was increased. A second room was taken, then a third, and subsequently, the entire house. The drunken, wretched tenants were got out, the street door was closed for the first time, and the lads themselves cleansed and whitewashed every room. principles of integrity and truth, to teach the relations of men to each other, and of every man to his God. It strives to make the idle industrious, the dependent independent, the thief upright and honest; and when it has evidence of such a change, it provides some situation, either in this or in a foreign land, where, the past being unknown, the youthful criminal may, as a new creature, enter upon a new life."-Page 17. * This is the only institution of the kind that receives adults. The inmates are not treated as criminals, and everything is done to prevent its appearing a place of punishment. At the same time, the primitive simplicity of the establishment is sustained, and the greatest economy practised. By means of the industrial department work is done which is required for the establishment and for emigrants. In the printing office orders are executed for the public. But the principal object is to impart skill in various trades, pecuniary profit being subordinate to the formation of habits of industry and self-dependence. If, as appears but too well established, civil punishment, however wisely administered, does not reform the criminal, and if the friends of an erring youth too often shut their door against him, and employers reject his application for work,what must be his resource? Fortunately for society and its victims, a satisfactory answer to this question is, at length, supplied by the admirable institution which owes its existence and success to Charles Nash! "A Place of Repentance; or an Account of the London Colonial Training Institution and Ragged Dormitory for the Reformation of Youthful and Adult Male Criminals, Great Smith-street, Westminster." By the Rev. S. Martin. Nisbet and Co. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The "Constitutional" (unstamped edition) will be supplied through any bookseller in town or country by Messrs. Saunders and Stanford, 6, Charing Cross, London: where from the publishers by remitting (in postage stamps or this is inconvenient the stamped edition may be obtained otherwise) the subscription for six or twelve months. TO CORRESPONDENTS. All letters to be addressed to the Editor (care of Messrs. Saunders and Stanford). W. W. STEPHENS, (Edinburgh,) will find the desired information as to the reproductive system, in the numbers of the "Constitutional," the publications of the National Poor Law Association, and in various works by Mr. G. Poulett Scrope, M.P., Mr. Serjeant Byles, Mr. Jelynger C. Symons, Dr W. P. Alison, &c. &c. OBSERVER. We agree with our correspondent, but fear that the evils to which he refers are beyond the reach of would submit. We shall be glad to receive his communiany "regulation and adjustment" to which the community cations, properly authenticated. The Constitutional. TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 1853. WHO'S FOR WAR? Hitherto the entire management of this good enterprise had been in his own hands. But the time had come to appoint officers and a committee. WHEN little Jack Ratlin returned from his first This was done at a public meeting convened in voyage, he was eagerly questioned by his doating St. Martin's Hall, on the 9th of May, 1850, and mother respecting the wonders he had seen in Charles Nash, the benevolent founder, was in-foreign parts." With ready credulity and waterstalled as governor and corresponding secretary. At this time the two lads have increased to 70; one room has expanded to premises covering 4,532 square feet of ground; and the crusts of the ragged school children have been superseded by an income for this year of £1,000. The premises embrace an office and dwelling for the governor, a day-room for the inmates, two dormitories, carpenters', tailors', and shoemakers' workshops; also a printing office, four probationary rooms, and the domestic offices necessary for such an establishment. In the basement are the lavatories and bath room. In the rear of the front house is a building having two large dormitories, and a dining room, also used as school rooms. "Reformation and restoration," (says the work to which ing mouth she heard the urchin tell of mountains of sugar and rivers of rum; nor did she suspect his veracity until he assured her that he had seen fishes fly. She then at once charged him with lying. The venerable heroine of this anecdote is but the type of that many-headed beldame, the British public. Because Bruce assured his readers that he had seen in Abyssinia steaks cut from the living haunch of a peripatetic bullock, he was as sailed with a shout of ridicule from the Land's End to John O'Groat's; and this too at a period when it would have been heresy to doubt the power of the crocodile to imitate infantile wailing in order to allure his prey, or that the Upas tree diffused a pestiferous effluvium for miles around. So with history. We are only just beginning-thanks to the labours of Niebuhr and Arnold-to resign with a sigh our belief in the Jack the Giant-killer porscience, to soften the heart, to arouse self-respect, to impart tion of Roman lore, which, even when thus care we are indebted for these particulars,) "are the ultimate objects of this institution. It seeks to awaken the con fully sifted, affords but a one-sided view of the events it records, for the enemies of Rome have left no annals. We know this, and we regret it. But a glance at the chronicles of our own time is sufficient to inspire an almost universal Pyrrhonism. When, after the lapse of a few centuries, some antipodean Gibbon shall grapple with the conflicting testimony supplied by so many nationalities to the mighty events of the Napoleonic war, and finds the Spaniard claiming for his countrymen all the laurels of Salamanca and Talavera, the Frenchman registering among his “Victoires et conquêtes" the journée of Thoulouse, which left Wellington in possession of that city, the Prussian just acknowledging our hero, and the impregnable living rampart which crowned Mont St.Jean, as little better than an insignificant ally, he will utter a sigh of despair and exclaim with Pilate, "What is truth?" Where, again, an author, like Lamartine, is found gravely asserting that during that tremendous struggle Wellington ordered brandy to be served to his dragoons, and the bridles of their chargers to be removed in order that horse and rider might burst upon the foe with the impetus of a thunderbolt,-that the Scotch infantry were instructed to rush under the bellies of the French horses and stab them with the claymore, a weapon which the Highlanders had long discarded, can it be wondered if, ere long, history itself shall cease to awaken any interest, or that such fascinating pictures as the invasion of Xerxes-with its Thermopylae and Marathon, the retreat of the 10,000 Greeks, or the march of Alexander, should possess greater attractions for teacher as well as student in every seat of learning throughout England, than the complex, prosaic, and contradictory memorials of a war and of a period, howbeit involving the interests of the whole human race, and requiring therefore years of profound thought and collateral reading to comprehend or appreciate. But let us picture to ourselves the perplexity of our future historian when he stumbles upon a pamphlet (for we presume upon its immortality), the writer of which, an Englishman, has laboured with an energy, an eloquence, and, we must add, an acrimony unsurpassed hitherto even by himself, to prove to the world, and especially to our in the last war. most formidable rival, that we were the aggressors He has demonstrated, and that most powerfully, that it is the interest of England and France to maintain the most amicable relations; and we do not believe that within the whole of sound mind who disputes this position. But area of Great Britain there is one single individual with the antagonistic evidence we possess, bearing on the probability or otherwise of a rupture between the two Powers, it is only natural that some degree of anxiety should exist on this side the Channel. Where, we again exclaim, is the truth? Whilst Mr. Cobden assures us that the French are too wise, or too amiable, or too civilized to dream of a hostile descent upon our shores, we are told by numberless recent visitors that such a descent is the burden of conversation in every café in Paris; and we have a M. Billot, with a demoniacal ferocity which we are sure will find no parallel in this country, urging upon the Emperor this enterprise as a sacred duty. We know that it is speculated upon as a probable event throughout Europe, and we observe the Abeille du Nord, a journal of St. Petersburg, discussing the question in its columns. But be Mr. Cobden right or wrong in his estimate of the policy which advocates vigilance and preparation on our coasts and amongst our people, we appeal to him whether the statements which he has put forth-omitting no argument tending to fix on England the infamy of aggresson in the strife which ended in the humiliation of France, which restored a hated dynasty, and chained her darling hero to a rock of ocean-are contributing, in a less degree than the advocacy of additional means of defence, to exasperate our quondam foe, to rekindle his smouldering animosity and goad him to revenge for fancied outrage and perfidy. Already has this pamphlet been translated, published, and widely circulated in France, and we very much fear that, if ever a hostile landing on |