when to accede to the representations of his people. Acting upon rational and fixed principles, his measures would be consistent, and his government firm and vigorous. He would have the inestimable advantage of being supported by the best informed, and the wisest part of the nation. As to popular favour, a sovereign must attend to its variations, as a mariner watches the changes of the wind; by throwing up a feather the current of the gale may be known, but his course must be held and directed by the compass.

To form such a prince as has been here described, the first step to be taken in his education should be to give him a contempt for flattery, and a love for sincerity and truth. Till this is effected, he can never judge of character; he must be the dupe of every designing courtier, or of the meanest servanth about his person. To inspire him with ambition to deserve honourable fame, is the true method to make him exert all his talents, and to obtain control over his passions. This ardour for fame, and this self-command, may be felt and acquired even in childhood.

The temper of a prince must be sedulously guarded; he must not be suffered to indulge in caprice, or to substitute his will for reason and justice. Arbitrary restraint, or formal lectures, will do nothing, or worse than nothing. It is the interest of so many underlings to humour a royal pupil, in opposition to the commands, or wishes, of his preceptors; and the prince himself is usually so well aware, that restraint can

Thiebauld. L'Imperatrice et le Frotteur.

be but of a temporary nature; and that he shall, after a short season of mock discipline, be master of himself, and of all about him; that there is no method of governing his mind, but by inspiring him with a desire to govern himself, by cultivating his reason, and showing the fitness and propriety of the instructions that are given to him. In all instances this cannot be done; then the general confidence in the preceptor if he have deserved it, will supply the place of special reasoning.

The good sense and true policy of inspiring a prince with the desire to conduct himself, intead of multiplying temporary prohibitions and restraints, must become more and more obvious, as his education advances to the dangerous season between youth and manhood. From the days of Gil Blas, and the prince of the Asturias and his Lucrece, to the present time, things go on nearly in the same way; princes, just escaped from the nursery, always find persons to assist their frolics, flatter their passions, and carry on their secret expeditions as may be seen, if any body doubt it, by referring to the private memoirs of a modern Lucrece. The padlock must, indeed, be put on the mind; for bolts, and bars, and preceptors, and even bishops, cannot otherwise secure the royal

truant.

In the choice of a preceptor for a prince, good sense, greatness of mind, and the power of inspiring virtuous ambition, should be considered more than learning or accomplishments. These can be acquired from inferior masters, and they are not essential to the character of a prince. His preceptor should be a man unfettered by party, and exempt from

all desire to interfere with politics. His religion also should be pure from worldly views. mild. tolerant, and sincero. should fully understand, that he may be able to instruct his royal pupil in the means of supporting, the true interests of religion, by prudent firmness, by a total freedom from bigotry, from all spirit of persecution, and from any disposition to judge of persons by the sects to which they belong. When Acesius, the bishop of Constantinople, declared that he would hold no communion with those who once departed from the faith, Constantine replied, "Make a ladder then for yourself, and go up to Heaven alone." to Heaven alone." The most unequivocal toleration, and the most sincere horrour of persecution, should be impressed on the mind of a young prince; of this all must be sensible, who recollect the terrible public and private calamities, which have been the consequence of religious prejudices or mistaken zeal in monarchs. As Ganganelli observes, "Charity is often forgotten in the support of faith." But even the word charity, that plain word, has been misinterpreted and abused by designing knaves or zealots. A sermon on charity was preached to the resigned Latimer at the stake, on this perverted text:

Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth "me nothing."

The difficulties, to which the most able and the most honest preceptors of princes must be exposed from the counteracting influence of many who have access to their pupils, appear almost insuperable, as long as princes are brought up court. Some have thought that they should be educated at

in a

a distance from courts, and removed from every circumstance, that could remind them of the dependence of others upon their will, or of their possessing any superiority, but what they obtain by personal exertion and merit. But where is the man, to whom a prince could be safely confided for seven years in retirement? and if such a man could be found, would he accept the charge? The more enlightened the preceptor, the more he would be aware of the difficulties, the peril of the undertaking. Where could he find a whole family, and society, and companions, of his pupil's age, who would cooperate in his measures? Without such assistance, his efforts could be of little avail. Adversity, it has often been asserted, and but seldom doubted, is the best school for princes; but mock adversity, like artificial mineral water, cannot be ensured to answer the purpose intended to be produced. There is no possibility of carrying on, for a number of years, a scene of moral delusions. The prince would soon discover all that was attempted to be concealed, and he would totally lose confidence in his preceptor. There is no necessity for delusion; a young prince might be educated in a private family, at some distance from the capital; and might, without any artifice, and without secluding him from the world, be preserved from the influence of improper conversation, interested flattery, or servile submission. All that is requisite is to have proper persons about him, of all the ranks necessary in a family. The choice of these should depend entirely upon the preceptor; their places should not be matter of favour, lest they should become objects of cabal and intrigue. The prince should have but one preceptor, who should be to him as a

father. The royal pupil, brought up thus in a private family, should be made, during his childhood, dependent upon that family, not the family dependent upon him. Masters for accomplishments should attend; but these need have no more concern with the rest of his education or morals,、 than they have with the children in any other well regulated family. The selection of these and all other masters must belong absolutely to the preceptor; he should not be obliged to attend to the recommendations of any persons whatever. A man "cannot be answerable for measures "that he does not guide;" if this be just in politics, it is still more so in private education, where every thing depends upon the unity of design and will in the family; upon all the members being convinced by the reason, and actuated by the authority of one chief. Such a system of education for a prince must not be disturbed by foreign interference, or it would be worse than any other, that could be devised. The preceptor must be trusted entirely, or not at all.

Perhaps it may be thought, that it would be too hazardous an experiment for a nation, to trust its future sovereign to the management of one preceptor in a private family. It might be feared, that he should be brought up in arbitrary or democratic principles, or suffered to grow up in ignorance, or taught according to some fanciful system, that would unfit him for the high station he is to fill: but the probability of these evils may be prevented by previous care in the choice of the person to whom he is confided, and the possibility must indeed be prevented by the mode of his educa