nical or agricultural occupations: but if it really were necessary that in order to the industrial progress of a nation, nine-tenths of its population should be doomed to ignorance and the vices most usually consequent upon ignorance,* and legislators resolutely attend to the industrial, and slide carelessly over the moral progress of the people what is the inevitable conclusion? It is vain to shrink, and blind ourselves to the discrepancy between our avowed belief and our actions; for if the actions do not tally with this avowed belief, either we must be under coercion, and unable to act voluntarily; or the belief which we profess to entertain is a mere mockerywords repeated without thought, which have never come from the heart, and which if we have the least vestige of respect for truth remaining, ought never to be uttered again. I repeat then, if it were necessary to the prosperity of the nation that nine-tenths of its population should be

* Let me not be supposed to cast this censure on all without discrimination, the intellectual rights of the masses have been recognised and ministered to by several of our statesmen, but they have not been strong enough to stem the current setting the other way; and it is doubtful whether even they serve the full importance of the question in a moral point of view.

abandoned to ignorance and vice, and if at the same time we believe truly that all these persons have a happy immortality within their reach, which they will lose by misconduct, could the question as to which ought to have the first place in our consideration, be entertained for a moment? Every man who felt this conviction would necessarily say, "Let us give as far as in us lies a happy immortality to these myriads of persons born with a capability for this blessed lot ;-the number of bales of cotton imported, or of vessels fraught with the produce of our manufactories or our mines, can only be a secondary thought.* Will no one say or feel this? Then no one in his heart believes in such an immortality and it is better at once to tear away the covering,

*Let it however be here observed that this is only a proposition assumed for the sake of showing the inconsistency of our legislators and rulers: for the progress of a nation towards greatness is usually commensurate with its moral and religious earnestness. The impetus given by a better spirit may carry on a generation or two to apparent greatness, as we have seen in most great empires; but if the standard of morality be low, and the religious feeling extinct or languid, the downfall of that empire is approaching. This subject has been admirably treated in a small work lately published, entitled "Social Aspects. By John Stores Smith."

and shew in broad day light the secret unbelief which, like a canker, is eating into the core of our social system; for, if I mistake not, it is this which vitiates all our legislation, and, though unavowed, shews its results in our habits of thought and action. The belief repeated with the lips is a thing apart,-the real belief which lies at the bottom and regulates the whole, is, that for a nation no less than an individual, wealth is the SUMMUM BONUM; and that nothing else can constitute real well-being: if, in addition to this, an immortality of happiness can be obtained, it is well; but if not-still get wealth, and enjoy the greatness and luxury it affords to the few:-the want, the vice, the ignorance of the many need not be thought of yet: and every fresh generation says the same thing, till the many become too many and too strong for the few; and then, trained to believe that wealth and its attendant luxuries form the sole good, they enact, in grosser and more revolting excess, the only practical lesson which the world has ever taught them.

This assuredly is not such a result as political wisdom would seek, and even the most short sighted rulers, where the danger is imminent, strive to avert it; but this is generally done by

C

severe enactments, or military execution; which may perhaps preserve peace by means of terror, but which leave the evil not only unremedied, but increasing; inasmuch as the submission of fear lasts no longer than the force which causes it is overpowering; and this is an unsafe principle to depend upon. The question proposed by the French Institute shows how little progress has been made in the great science of government, even after twenty-six years of comparative quiet since, in spite of the apparent prosperity of the nation, the numbers of persons composing the dangerous classes were great enough to excite apprehensions which subsequent events too fatally justified, and the revelations of many of the actors in the recent scenes, leave us no doubt as to the motives and feelings of those who set Europe in a ferment two years ago. "How is that part of the population which in Paris and other great cities is dangerous to the peace of society by its vices, its ignorance, and its poverty, to be amended by the government or the upper classes?" This is the question proposed; has it yet received a satisfactory answer, either in England or elsewhere? I think not; and if this be the case,-if legislators and statesmen virtually confess their incapacity by apply

ing only empirical and temporary remedies to so rooted an evil in the body politic, it affords a strong ground for suspecting that the whole system is a vicious one, and that the fundamental principles of all government, which can only be fixed by a deep knowledge of the nature of the beings to be ruled, are as yet mistaken at least, if not disregarded. In this state of things, with a danger great and imminent, and a government unable or unwilling to grapple with it, it is not wonderful that individuals who think they can see a remedy, should step forward to make the experiment; and if that experiment be, as it has proved itself in most instances, eminently successful, it is still less wonderful that it should have attracted the attention of the editors of the present series. Perhaps, even to the worthy persons who have set hand and heart to the work, the deeper causes of their success have hardly been apparent; for, to their credit, not their disparagement, let it be said, it was not among the great or the learned that it originated. Christian benevolence supplied the place of philosophy and science; but it can be displeasing to none, and may be useful to many, to shew that philosophy and science dictate the same course. We are not ashamed to have