and the progress of the children in reli-
giòn, are more watched over, than in
any great general schools can be the case.
So that if National schoo`s should spread
over the whole Metropolis. I still think
they would not supersede Sunday school
instruction. As to a plan of mere me-
chanical instruction, without the great
principles of Christianity being also in-
culcated, I cannot but view it as preg

Do you not think that the educating of cular regard for them, in small numbers. the poor, and their acquirement of know-There also the observance of the Sabbath, ledge, will tend much to lessen the poor rates of parishes?—I should think very much; because it tends directly to lessen those vices which throw the poor upon our parishes, and creates that proper spirit of independence and desire to do for them selves which directly leads to exertion. It gives them also the feeling that they are men, and reasonable beings; it raises them above the mere animal, and gives them a desire to appear creditable in their neigh-uant with very dangerous consequences to bourhood and connections; it qualifies, the pube. children for filling up stations which they otherwise could not fil; and it particularly forms that habit of industry and of regular employment which bars out many of those vices which interrupt the happiness of the poor, and reduce them to abject dependence.

Does it fall within your knowledge that there is a great want of accommodation for the poor in places of worship in the Establishment?-Most deplorable. In the parish where I reside there are about 30,000 inhabitants, and there are only, so far as I remember, four places of worship in the Established Church, viz. fhe mother-church of St. Andrew's Holborn, the church of St. George the Martyr, and two chapels. 1 do not suppose these four places would hold above 6,000 or 7,000 persons altogether, leaving 24,000 without the possibility of attending divine worship in the Church of England in our parish.

Do you not think that the continuance of the Lancaste 140 pian preserves a competition?- should think so. And yet it is an awkward thing to say so, when

approve of the one so much more than of the other; and yet I must think, considering what human nature is, and how things geueraily go ou, it must be the case that the continuance of the Lancasteriau schools is necessary to preserve the National ones in their full vigour.

And you think that conspelition is bene
ficial to both systems, in promoting ac-
tivity and industry?—Yes, I should think
it is.

Is it said, "the clergy of the Church
of England have the countenance and
of the state."
support
Be it so what
countenance, what support, other than
general liberty, which nobody withholds
from the Catholics, have other dissen-
How do they manage? What is
ers?
their character? Mr. James Millar
states it in these words:

What objection have the Disseuters to
send their children to the schools upon the
National plan, supposing they were not
obliged to attend church on a Sunday, or
to learn the catechism? I believe almost
all the Dissenters that I know any thing of,
provide for the education of their own
children; they must be very poor indeed
if they do not.

Have you formed any opinion of the comparative merits of the Lancasterian and the National system of education?-Ishou d say, that certainly I conceive the benefits of knowledge to the lower orders to be so incalculably valuable, that I would risk any thing as to the mode of communicating it, in order that they might receive that benefit. At the same time I think it o high importance to inspire the great mass of your population already members of the Church of Eugland, with a fixed and en lightened regard to their own religious establishment; and cousider further, the particular principles of religion upon which our church is founded, to be so essentia: to that religiou, that I regard the National system, when it can be obtained, as hav- Do you mean that all Protestant Dissening incomparable advantages over the Briters have the means of education for their tish and Foreign system. I am of opinion children, of all classes? I know of none also, that the present system of Sunday of them that do not get their children iaschools, and especially schools for religious structed, of the lowest order of all that I instruction on Sundays, is necessary where know. they can be had, because there you have your children addressed individually and specifically, by persons who have a parti

Are you a Dissenter yourself?-I am. Our principal object is rather for others to be educated; we wish Catholics, and others, completely to get the benefit of instruction.

Are you not alluding to some particular class-No, I speak generally.

Do you mean that all over London the

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chose.

sert, than for an Irishman, in the metropolis of the British empire, under the controul of his Priests!

What effects have you observed resulting from education upon the savage nations in Southern Africa?-I should first state, there are part of three nations who are capable of reading-the Hottentots, the Griquas, and the Namacquas; a considerable number of those nations have been taught by the missionaries to read, and, from the statement of those missionaries when I was present with them, they considered their reading as particularly conducible to promote civilization.

Do you mean that Dissenters have better meaus of education for the poor, than I got twelve of the Hottentots who acmembers of the Church?-Not so much companied me in the interior of Africa, that: but, I think they make greater exeron our return to Cape Town, fully instructtious; I do not think they have bettered in the British system of education, on

means.

If this be true, what prevents the Catholic from doing the same? How long shall the difference continue to the disadvantage of the sons of St. Peter? The Irish, for instance, do not want talent: all the world does them that justice. Accident has given a spur to that talent: accident of another kind may, and, under Providence, will, give a scope to it; and future historians will have to congratulate the sister island on the return of learning, respectability, and distinction, to the natives of Erin,

Says Mr. Campbell, known to the lic by his "Travels in Africa,”

purpose that they might commence, upon that plan, a school at Bethesdorp, which is about 550 miles from the Cape.

About four months ago, I received a letter respesting that school, stating that upwords of sixty Cottentots, who ten months before knew not their letters, could read the Dutch Testament as well as the mis

sionaries.

You found the Hottentots as quick in receiving their education, as the people in England-Nearly so; it brings them into a new world to be able to know what a book says, it is completely a new world. I may mention here, that I have found pub-conception of a savage how a book spake. nothing so difficult as to convey to the I attempted with the King of Lattakoo, to make him understand it, but he and his principal men all shook their heads, and said it was impossible to understand it ; I took a journal that lay before me, in which I had inserted, from the lips of his uncle, the names of his forefathers, who had been kings before him (the_goverument is hereditary;) this I read to the king and his chief men, on which they per

One circumstance that led the Catholics in Ireland in a certain district, I think it | was in the vicinity of Belfast, to wish to obtain reading for part of their family, was the issuing the one-shilling, the two-shilling, and five-shilling notes; there were instances of men going with their cow to market, and bringing home a five-shilling note instead of a five-pound one; in consequence of this, they resolved that at leastceived that I had formerly stated the truth, one of their children should be able to read, to accompany them to market, to distinguish notes; the priests could never successfully oppose that measure ; and that was the commencement in Ireland of a desire among the lower orders of Catholics to read.

Certainly, the Irish are not inferior to the Hottentots in respect to talent; but, they are in respect to the means of cultivating that talent. To say all in one word, there is a better chance for a wild Hottentot, a Kaffer, or a Bosh-man, that he should acquire instruction in his de

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but had no idea how the book gave me that information; the King inquired if it would be possible for them and their children, by the instructions of a white man, to understand what books "said" (there is no other way of conveying reading, they can form no idea of what reading is, it is only speaking;) he and his people seemed highly gratified when I stated, that in the course of a few moons after the arrival of a teacher, they should be able to understand reading as well as myself. The missionaries have not yet arrived there, so that I can give no idea of the success.

The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland: being a History of the House of Commons, and of the Counties, Cities, and Boroughs, of the United Kingdom, from the earliest Period. By T. H. B. Oldfield. Six volumes. Price £3 12s. London, Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. 1816.

try, they might, properly enough, perhaps, have insisted on the immutability of their institutions; but, if the circumstances of their country, like all other things under heaven, were the subjects of vicissitude, on what principle could they indulge the imagination that their change, whether with design to improve descendants should refrain from all the political system generally, or with design to adopt it to events rising fresh with every shifting age? In fact, the antients never entertained notions so ab

ages, wishing to enjoy parts of what, in their imagination, was good, must allow us to say, that unless they are willing to take the whole, as things then stood, their appeal is entitled to little attention.

When the violence of the French Revolution burst on the astonished world, those who were but partially informed on the probable consequences, proclaim-surd: and those who look back to past ed their rapturous expectations without reserve. Instead of waiting to witness the course it might take, they called on all nations to imitate the example, and change-or, in the party language of the day, to reform the tyranny under which they groaned. It cannot be denied, by any rational mind, that the fluctuating course of human affairs, invariably brings with it a variety of imperfections and weaknesses: neither can it be denied, that the energies of the human intellect are constantly employed in counteracting this principle of deterioration, by endeavouring to convert it to advantage. Times change, and with them manners.

There is every reason to believe that the States of Europe, in what the Romans-and we from them, bave been pleased to call their barbarous state, discussed their national affairs in national assemblies. This we learn from Tacitus; and there are remains of these institations in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, and other countries to this day.

When the army of the Franks passed the Rhine, the monarch consulted the army on measures to be taken. That these measures were made known to the whole, as Gregory of Tours says, in universis Leudis tam sublimibus quàm pauperibus, - of all ranks, high and low, is credible enough; though it cannot be thought that the voice of the chiefs was not predominant in the issue. And we find the monarch answering to a proposal of importance, that he must consult the general assembly of the Frank people, before he could give a determinate answer. The admission of the Bishops somewhat varied the compo sition of the States General, but did not greatly change it.

It was not to be expected that our own constitution, especially the popular part of it, the representative, should escape from this phrenzy of reforma- | tion; and the publication before us was then compiled with a view to forward the good work of restoring it, to what the writer supposed it to be, many centuries ago. If the purpose had been honest, and the conduct of the author had been impartial, we should have hailed the communication with joy. But, the purpose could not be pronounced honest, in the sense of benevolent, till it had been proved, that what was suitable to the state of society and of the country, in antient times, is suited to the state of the country now. Our forefathers might, with the greatest propriety, establish proceedings and principles for themselves they were competent judges * Conventum nobilium debere eam of their then situation, and of the pur-aggregare Francorum, et communi statu poses they intended to answer. Could de omnibus consulere rebus: se they also have conferred immutability judicio illorum, in omnibus pariturum, on the then circumstances of their counnec preceptis promisit obstaturum.

When Pepin desired to divide his dominions between Carloman and Charlemagne, he convoked an Assembly of the

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Franks, and the Bishops, at St. Denis. | others but possessors of land, who could The Assembly consented, and the par- claim the legislative and judicial privitition was made: but, the Bishops were leges. Arts and commerce had not then now summoned as lords of territory, in created other ranks to assume the exaddition to their spiritual character. In ercise of this invaluable blessing.' 806 Charlemagne also desired to divide "As land was the only original posseshis Realm; but, not without the univer- sion of our Saxon ancestors, it was this sal consent of his people :---ut plenitur species of property alone, which could omnes consentire debeant. Aud when entitle them to the right of freemen." in 813, he wished to place the Imperial Now, if he thinks proper to annul arts crown on the head of his son, Louis le and commerce, and to reduce all proDébonnaire, he held a national assem- perty to that of land alone, as in the bly at Aix la Chapelle, in which he de-Saxon times, then let him fairly restore manded from each member individually, whether it was his pleasure that he should confer the title of Emperor on his Son? Having received a unanimous answer, Yes, he pronounced him his associate in the empire; and directed him to go to the Altar, and take the - crown from off it, and place it on his head." This was to shew," says Mezerai, "that he held it from God, by the voice of his people."*

the Saxon constitution, as a proper accompaniment to his favourite state of things. But, that he will persuade the present, or any succeeding generation, to realize a dream so destructive, can excite no apprehension, even among the most ignorant.

The character Mr. Oldfield gives of the Saxons, as a band of robbers, obtaining settlements by violence, at the expense of the original possessors, the But, it cannot be imagined, that every Britons, is little calculated to raise faindividual of the French people could vourable anticipations of the purity of assist at St. Denis, or at Aix la Cha- their institutions, political or legislative. pelle, or at any other council, though call- That what they had acquired by rapine ed General: the chiefs or principals, they would secure by enactment, canthe leading personages, only, could not be doubted; but, in the mean while, transact the business, really; and this ap- what became of the rights and privipears, as history gradually opens on us, leges of that prior population, which with further particulars. So Louis VIII. they allowed to remain among them? speaks of the advice and consent of his What was good for the Saxous, was Archiepiscoporum, Episcoporum, Com-surely bad for the Britons; what estabitum, Baronum, et Militum regni Franciae;---in which list, however, the military, not the populace, the land-versal suffrage, supposing it might, by holders, not the husbandmen, are the parties considered. And much the same was the estimation of ranks, in our own island: those Britons to whom it is customary to trace up principles, differed little or nothing from their continental neighbours.

war

Mr. Oldfield informs us, that " and agriculture being the chief employments of the Saxons, there were

no

lished these, most certainly subjugated those: and, as to the principle of uni

possibility, extend to the lords and masters, the conquerors, the Saxons; did it include the labourers, the menials, the Britons?

Mr. Oldfield is desirous of displaying an acquaintance with the state of the Britons before the arrival of the Saxons; and he talks of Hu the mighty, the Cymri, and Dyvnwal Maelmwd, as if he believed, or could persuade his reader to believe, that he understood the subject on which he discourses. No such thing; and, to supply a part of his deficiency, we adduce the following evi

This fact is thus described by Tegan, the Historian. Interrogans omnes d maximo usque ad minimum, si eis placuisset ut nomen suum, id est Impe-dence, from Roberts's Chronicle of the ratoris, filio suo tradidisset: illi omnes responderunt, Dei esse admonitionem illius rei. De Gestis Ludovici, cap. 6. in Annal. Pith. tom. II.

Kings of Britain.---Appendix, No. V.

The following Triad exhibits the original mode, and improvements upon this mode, of collecting the popular suffrages, in order