Can we say, "Look round at the comfort and plenty of our rural population, and the cheerful contentedness of their well paid-labours-observe the orderly activity, the decorum of our towns, and the excellence of our schools?"

I would ask, is a general disposition to faction and turbulence-are combinations of one part of society against another-incendiary fires-a stupid resistance to every new improvement-are these characters of civilization, or of semi-barbarians? Is there not something almost preposterous in our piles of legislative enactments for ignorant people, whom we leave nearly destitute of proper instruction in the duties or interests of citizens? While this first step is wanting, in what are we so much more prudent, than that excellent lady, who set out to convert the rude natives of some South Sea Island? She poured out her eloquence against their unregenerate state, their cannibalism, their wars and idolatry; she told them of the remedy she brought, she beautifully unfolded the whole scheme of redemption-one touch only was wanting to kindle their zeal,-she spoke in English, and they understood not a word that she said.

To those who most dissent from the possibility of a retrograde movement in virtue und happiness, while knowledge and liberty are increasing, it may however be remarked, that a certain, by no means implies a steady and uniform, progression of moral with intellectual developement. That knowledge and freedom have a tendency to overcome everything adverse to human improvement, is true in the long

run. If we compare century with century, and the best civilization of one age with the best in a subsequent one, (in whatever country it may have fled to,) there will be no doubt of the fact. Nature takes care of the progress of her creatures, as she does of their species. But adverse causes produce petty or partial refluxes, and it may always be a question, whether some particular country have not touched the term of its greatness, or whether some of its ebbs may not last long enough to waste a generation.

On the other side, even among thinking persons, there are many to whom the connexion between knowledge and moral improvement is not apparent. The nature of the union between knowledge an virtue, and the reasons why it fails, were adverted to in the last chapter. In this place it is sufficient to observe, that though among numbers, there may be individual cases of great moral deficiency, united with great knowledge, yet, as the general rule, nature always supplies moral sensibility sufficient to be called forth by cultivation. And when we represent knowledge as one of the best means of moral improvement, we do not mean the knowledge of trifling facts, or insignificant adventures however sanctified by antiquity; nor a great acquaintance with fables; nor much learning in exploded opinions, and vain hypotheses. We mean the knowledge of things that are true, and which it is important to know, because of their applicability to our feelings or our conduct. Such are, first, all great and general truths, the contemplation of which in itself gives growth and

expansion to the soul, seeming to foster in this world, the germ of that nature which shall expand in another. Secondly, the truths of a more confined sort which relate to our social condition, and the particular business which it is our lot to follow. In this view, the fallacy of supposing the increase of knowledge to be unconnected with happiness and morals is apparent, whatever we may think of the progress of knowledge, compared with the misery and demoralization around.

SECTION II.

Disproportion between the Happiness of Society and its Means.

Our condition is full of striking inconsistencies. We have such wealth as no nation ever possessed before,-wealth that at one time could subsidize half Europe, and that fills our country with private fortunes, greater than the revenues of some sovereign princes in other lands,-wealth, that meets the eye in every direction, lavished upon caprices, because wants have failed. And yet, we are liable to perpetual recurrences of extensive and most appalling wretchedness. The moral certainty, that in many branches of our industry prosperity and depression alternate, produces no foresight, no caution. Penury and excess are quietly permitted to alternate too; and the deadly passions and habits generated by misery, are allowed to overflow on the blessings of plenty. In the periods of depression, we see the working classes borne down, with a degree of toil

that conquers the hardening effect of habit, and exhausts the vital powers; yet scarcely able to earn by it a scanty supply of meagre and unwholesome food. Prosperity comes, and what do we see? Riot and debauchery; leagues for iniquity or absurdity, in which the people are banded together against their employers, practising at the same time a jealous and malignant tyranny on each other. We leave them at the command of interested or frantic demagogues, who harangue and infuriate them as they please; but we seldom think of addressing them ourselves in the language of reason and truth, to try, whether by possibility eloquence and benevolence might find some clue to their hearts and understandings. And if no better system be attempted, the same evils will recur in future, with an increased population.

Arts and manufactures are pouring forth every convenience of life, with such profusion and cheapness, that it rather resembles a creative power than the proceeding of industry. Or if we covet the productions of foreign countries, such is the celerity and safety of transport, that the intervention of half the globe scarcely adds an assignable fraction to their price. Some idea, of the cheapness of production at home and of transport from abroad, may be formed from the fact, that even from India, where climate and constitution enable the Hindoos to work for wages that would starve the British, we can import cotton, work it up here into cloth, send it back, and there so undersell the native manufacturers that their market is almost destroyed. But this outpouring of implements, furniture, clothing, and other additions

to comfort and health, scarcely reaches the cold, damp, ill-constructed houses, where the poor live huddled together.

The means of abridging human labour appear to be carried to an unexampled degree of perfection. But by some fatality this blessing is to many a calamity. To some the severity of their labour is excessive, while others are thrown out of employment. And what is still more deplorable, children at an early age, that should be exempt from all labour, except what is required to invigorate the body, have been compelled to work twelve, and even fourteen or fifteen hours a day, for a pittance that barely feeds them! After every allowance for the exaggerations with which party spirit loaded this evil, still it is one at which humanity shudders; and notwithstanding the risks to the interests of the children themselves, with which every attempt at legislation on this difficult subject is attended, our efforts should never relax. It is a subject that requires the most dispassionate judgment, and the most persevering benevolence. It would be hard to name any other, in which an evil so great can be regulated or amended, with such difficulty by legislation, or over which, education and principle would have so much control. Education in the parents of the children would reform the depraved habits, that contribute to stifle natural affection, and it would awaken in the wealthy manufacturers, an abiding sense of their responsibility for the fate of the helpless and innocent beings, who are wholly in their power.

The fluctuations of employment, which of neces