With regard to the first, we take it, that nobody will presume to deny, that if it were possible to supply the requisite funds, and to provide for the maintenance of all the children of the poor, no check would remain upon the propensity to early marriage. Their numbers would be doubled every 20 or 25 years and a rapidly increasing supply of labourers, would be poured forth from the schools, to compete in the market for labour. The means of supporting them remaining the same, or being increased to a very disproportionate extent, they would soon be reduced to the lowest state of existence. They who deny that this would be an inevitable consequence, to be consistent, must deny, that population can increase beyond the means of subsistence, and to produce any further arguments to convince them, is what we shall not attempt. The requisite funds, however, are not to be had, otherwise we have evidence to warrant us in saying that there are men sufficiently ignorant to desire that such funds should be so employed. But if the mischiefs which we have described, would result from the gratuitous maintenance of all the children of the poor, the maintenance of one-hundredth part of them must be productive of, at least, one-hundredth part of the mischief. It is in practice productive of much more than one-hundredth part, for it is well known how prone men are to overrate the chances in their favour. Every poor couple calculate that theirs will be the fortunate child and thus, in addition to other mischiefs, expectations are raised which never can be realised.

The second effect of the maintenance of children at schoolthe causing a greater number to be reared-will scarcely be disputed. The schools provide a more liberal allowance of food and clothing to the children, the medical attendance is better, and the children enjoy all the benefit of cleanliness and pure air. If the parents could afford to give them all these advantages, the children would not be admitted in the schoolsin fact, the benefit conferred upon the unfortunate children, is what is mainly dwelt upon to engage the attention of the public and to procure their support. Assuming that the mortality among the children maintained in the schools is one quarter less than it would be if the same children were maintained by their parents, an addition to that extent is made to the number of consumers depending upon the same stock of subsistence. As, moreover, the parents are enabled to provide better for the remainder of their families, the proportion of those who arrive at the age of manhood is still further increased. These are the immediate effects of gratuitous maintenance, and these immediate effects every one will admit to be good. But

the derivative effects are tremendous-the lowering of wages and the misery of the people.

It is the principle of population which leads to this conclusion, which enables us to look our difficulties fully in the face, and which points out to us the necessity of limiting the numbers if we wish to add to the happiness of a population such as ours. It was the ignorance of this same principle which misled our forefathers, and a want of attention to it which still misleads many benevolent persons of the present day in their attempts to do good. Without a reference to this principle, a charity is supposed to be beneficial which saves the lives of a number of children, and brings them up vigorous and healthy; but with a reference to it, that alone is not sufficient; it must be proved, in addition, that the demand for labour is increased in proportion to the increase of population which such a charity has directly and indirectly a tendency to produce. As no provision is made for an increase of capital to the same extent, and as such an increase, if made, would be of very transient utility, the only alternative in the eyes of men who really wish to ameliorate the condition of their species is, the due regulation of the number of consumers: and, to use the words of Mr. Mill "in the attainment of this important end, it is abundantly plain that there is nothing impracticable. There is nothing which offers any considerable difficulty, except the prejudices of mankind."

As the patronizers of charity schools, and all who are interested in their continuance, will not be very ready to admit the correctness of our conclusion, or to allow that any evil effects can follow from the gratuitous maintenance of the children, they will, perhaps, meet us with difficulties, and endeavour to draw us off from the consideration of those points upon which the merits of the question mainly depend. They will tell us, perhaps, that they not only maintain the children, but that they actually provide for them in after-life—that, in fact, they not only teach them how to earn a livelihood, but that they put them in the way of doing so, by binding them apprentices in different trades. It is entirely forgotten, that the situations filled by their protegés would, but for them, be occupied by others who are thus thrown out of employment. We do not object to such schools because the children in them are taught how to earn a livelihood-so far we approve of them. What we complain of is, that they do more, that they tend to increase the number of those who are compelled to earn a livelihood, and thereby add to the real difficulty of earning one.

But is not gratuitous education likewise bad on the same prin

ciple? This question is deserving of consideration. To answer it satisfactorily it is necessary to inquire a little into the habits of the people. Education certainly is not essential to the existence of the child; and it will depend altogether upon the notions of the parents, whether education is deemed indispensable or not. If it is not deemed so, then gratuitous education cannot in any way act as an incentive to population, since it is the occasion of no diminution of expense to the parents. Unmixed good is accordingly produced to society by the education of children who would otherwise grow up in ignorance. If on the other hand, education is deemed indispensable, it may be assumed that where parents are sufficiently enlightened to entertain such opinions, they will be too proud to send their children to schools where instruction is afforded gratis. Precautions may, besides, easily be taken, not to break down these feelings of independence by holding out the inducement of additional instruction to the children of such as will pay for it.

Here, then, a fine scope is presented to the benevolence of all who wish to confer lasting benefits upon the poorer classes. Free-schools ought to be erected in such abundance, that every child in England may have an opportunity of learning to read and write. Education can now be afforded at so trifling an expense, that a village without a school ought henceforward to be looked upon as a disgrace to the county in which it is situated. Instruction, however, ought not to stop here. We are determined at all events not to lay ourselves open to the imputation of decrying charity. While we wish to deter people from a mischievous indulgence of their sympathies, we will not be backward in shewing how it may be indulged with advantage to society.

Reading and writing, which are taught in the free schools, are merely the keys to knowledge. The portals are yet to be unlocked and for this purpose the co-operation of all is desirable. If we are to pay any attention to the cant of those who wish to keep the working classes in a state of ignorance, in order the more certainly to preserve their power, reading and writing are dangerous; they may be the channels of what is bad as well as of what is good and man is prone to vice! What can be more delightful to a truly benevolent mind, than the practical refutation of this hypocritical cant? The means of placing useful knowledge on a large scale within the reach of the people are already discovered. Institutions for the working classes are fast establishing in every town. Glasgow took the lead. London, Liverpool, Leeds, Aberdeen and many

others have followed. Benevolence need not stop in its career until every town in the kingdom is provided with an institution, and every village has its Book-society. An occasional course of lectures and the distribution of well-chosen books will then place knowledge within the reach of all. There is one particu lar kind of knowledge which, in the important consequences with which it is fraught to the working classes, far surpasses every other. We allude to the knowledge of the laws which regulate wages. Their happiness is inseparably connected with a knowledge of these laws When the deplorable ignorance of the labourers on this subject is removed, our ears will no longer be distressed, as they now continually are, with accounts of the breaking and burning of agricultural and manufacturing machinery. When the poor half-starved, half-naked creatures, by whom these acts of violence are committed, know how much they are indebted to machinery for subsistence, they will refrain from those outrages which are not more injurious to others than to themselves. How soon this desirable change will be consummated depends in a great measure upon the exertions of enlightened philanthropists.

The next Institutions which we propose to notice are Lyingin hospitals.

After what we have said about the gratuitous maintenance of children, it will be unnecessary to make much mention of these -to prove that they are attended with consequences no less pernicious, we should merely have to go again over the same ground. In order, however, to give our readers an idea of the state of helplessness produced among the lower classes by this species of charity, we subjoin the following extract from a work entitled, "Pietas Londinensis" by A. Highmore, Esq., published in 1810. In page 189, after giving an account of the Queen's Lying-in hospital, Bayswater, he concludes with these words:

"The foregoing is the substance of the regulations which were established at the general meeting on the 21st October, 1809, and are indebted for much of their correctness to his Royal highness the Duke of Sussex, who presided on that occasion, and by whose hand they were signed. The renovation of this society may therefore be dated from that day, and the encouragement which it has since received, opens a fair prospect for its entire establishment. An hospital of this nature has been much wanted for the poor, in that part of the north-western district: they had no house of refuge nearer than that near Westminster Bridge, to the south; or Brownlow-street to the north; and if they found any difficulty of procuring recommendation for admission there, they were obliged to proceed so far as to the Lying-in hospital in the City-road: many of which cases have not unfrequently occurred, and the serious consequences are very apparent, when their pregnant situ

ation is considered, besides the entire loss of a whole day from their customary occupations these are among many other cogent reasons, in favour of this hospital at Bayswater.'

We agree with Mr. Highmore that nothing can be more shocking than that women should be running about in such a state, totally unprovided; but we would ask him whether the occurrence of such events is not entirely owing to the existence of Lying-in hospitals. If there were no such receptacles women would then be left to their own prudence, and might, perhaps, reflect upon the inconveniences that necessarily attend a state of pregnancy, and guard against them before-hand. The principle of population assures us, that the miseries of the poor can only be provided against by their own prudence. But some people have an aversion to theory-if any of our readers are of that description, we will treat them with a few facts, by way of illustration. Page 193 of the same work Mr. Highmore, in his description of the British Lying-in hospital, Brownlow-street, says :

From the considerable increase in the price of all the articles of house-keeping, and of every thing used in the house, and from the general good character acquired by this hospital, more women applied weekly than could with propriety be received: the governors, therefore, by their late regulations, abolished the former mode of admitting women by ballot, and in lieu thereof, allowed every governor for life, subscribing 40 guineas, or annual subscriber of 5 guineas, a right of presentation of two women in the year.'

Again, in the account of the City of London Lying-in hospital, page 195, he says:—

The success and continual applications for the benefits of the hospital, had spread so far in the space of the first eighteen years, that its accommodations were found unequal, while the finances were competent to the relief of more patients than Shaftsbury-house could receive, and the object, therefore, was, to erect a new hospital on that or some other spot.'

After a page or two in praise of the matron of the hospital, he proceeds as follows:

In November 1801, principally through her recommendation, a small subscription was proposed and readily entered into, as well by members of this hospital as by others, of 7s. each, for the purpose of alleviating the distress of many poor patients of this hospital who were destitute of necessaries for themselves or their infants, and were suffering by sickness, misfortune or distance from their family, or the want of procur ing comforts on leaving this hospital. The funds of the charity could not be applied to their relief. The subscription was begun at this trifling sum in order that it should not interfere with that which supports the