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control, and who are in continual contact with crime; who commit sin under the influence of an infatuated ignorance, and are degraded because they never had means of emerging from the moral darkness in which fate had thrown them. As evidence of this position, let it be remembered, that though 1512 prisoners were confined in the New York state prisons, at Auburn and Sing Sing, in the year 1834, yet of that number only nineteen had received a superior education. And among the 20,984 committed or held to bail in England and Wales for the year 1836, only 192 had received a superior education. A large majority could neither read nor write, and nearly all the rest were imperfectly educated. In the report of the British and Foreign School Society for 1831, we are informed that out of nearly 700 prisoners put on trial in four counties, upwards of two hundred and sixty were as ignorant as the savages of the desert-they could not read a single letter. Of the whole 700, only 150 could write, or even read with ease; and nearly the whole number were totally ignorant with regard to the nature of true religion. In the reports of the Society for 1832-3, it is affirmed, "in September 1831, out of fifty prisoners put on trial at Bedford, only four could read. January 1833 there were, in the same prison, between fifty and sixty awaiting their trials, of whom not more than ten could read, and even some of these could not make out the sense of a sentence, though they knew

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their letters. At Wisbeach, in the isle of Ely, out of nineteen prisoners put on trial, only six were able to read and write, and the capital offences were committed by persons in a state of the most debasing ignorance. When a jailer was describing his prisoners to Leigh Hunt, he termed them "poor ignorant creatures." This phrase will describe almost every person convicted of crime, for it is undoubtedly true that the vast majority of those who fall into crime are chained by the most hopeless ignorance to their degraded lot in life. Now, if those persons had been cherished by affectionate and virtuous parents in infancy, and had received a good education, perchance among their number might have been found the statesman, the philosopher, the patriot, the philanthropist, and the Christian, while all might have been useful members of the community.

How great is the responsibility which such a truth brings home to each of us. If we, by any exertion of our own, could have saved one of these souls from death, shall we not be called for an account of our stewardship, and required to answer for the use we have made of the talents committed to our charge? But this comprehensive subject requires a distinct chapter for its illustration.

* Dick's Mental Illumination, p. 338.

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O remember those who are in bonds as bound with them, is a precept of the divine

Redeemer which calls the philanthropist to compassionate one of the most deplorable of all states of human misery, since it is one of suffering without the alleviation of hope, or the sustaining power of an approving conscience. In one of the most touching petitions of the Litany of the Church of England, we are taught thus to plead with God for the young and the wretched-"That it may please thee to preserve all young children; and to show thy pity upon all prisoners and captives; we beseech thee to hear us, good Lord." Of the prisoners and captives we have

already spoken in the previous chapter. It will now be our part to plead for the young children, and to beseech, not the Almighty God and Father of all for his condescending mercy, but to bid man extend his regard to a class of long-neglected outcasts, calling no less feelingly for our compassion and regard, than the most miserable of those whom Howard visited in loathsome dungeons, and strove to deliver from a living death.

At length we are beginning to see, that if a child is abandoned to vice, left without any education, save such as it may receive from drunken parents, or criminal associates of riper years, then vice, which must be the consequence, will be its misfortune, but perhaps our crime. We who could have rescued it in time, but did not, must bear the guilt, and will not, nor do not, escape the punishment.

Let us look at the dangers of evil communication on the Christian's child, and think of what it must be with those who never hear of a Bible, a God, or a hereafter, but in ribaldry and oaths.

In one of our little villages which stands on the sea-shore, says a pious clergyman, there lately lived a widow and her little son, a lad of about ten years of age. She had formerly seen better days. Her husband was a respectable sea-captain, and supported his family in ease and affluence. But amidst his own and the

hopes of his family, he was lost at sea. The widow had two little sons, one of six years old, and the other, above-mentioned, then an infant. She retired from the circle in which she had so long moved with esteem, and purchased a neat little cottage, which stands by the water's side. Here she brought up her little boys, and early endeavoured to lead them "in the way they should go." She felt herself to be a pilgrim below, and taught her sons that this world was never designed for our home.

In this manner this little family lived retired, beloved, and respected. The mother would often lead her children on the hard sandy beach, just as the setting sun was tipping the smooth blue waters with his last yellow tints. She would then tell them of their father who was gone, and with her finger would often write his name upon the sand, and as the next wave obliterated every trace of the writing, would tell them that the hopes and joys of this world are equally transient. When the eldest son had arrived at the age of twelve, he was seized with an incurable desire of going to sea. He had heard sailors talk of their voyages, of visiting other climes, and other countries, and his imagination threw before him a thousand pleasures, could he visit them. The remonstrances and entreaties of a tender parent, and an affectionate little brother, were all in vain. He at length wrung a reluctant consent from his mother, and receiving from

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