94 EDUCATION OF THE WORKING CLASSES. 



Having called your attention, at as great a length as the limits of 

 a single lecture will allow, to the state of ignorance and crime 

 existing in some of our principal towns, and taking this in conjunc- 

 tion with the glance we have had of the ignorance found in the 

 country, coupled as this also is found to be with crime, it is proved, 

 I think, that the connection of the two is of so close and intimate a 

 nature, that when we speak of one, our remarks may with equal pro- 

 priety be applied to the other ; and further, that this is a state of 

 things the existence of which in any country we must deplore, more 

 particularly in our own, which claims to rank high in the scale of the 

 civilized nations of the world. I wish — ^before making any general 

 remarks upon the means at present in existence to suppress or check 

 this mass of wickedness, or of the advantages which would follow the 

 adoption of an extensive system of education for those who are una- 

 ble or unwilling to provide it for themselves — to call your attention, 

 which I do with great pleasure, to the means provided by the govern- 

 ments of Prussia and America to supply this desideratum. I do 

 this more particularly that a case, as it were, may be made out upon 

 which we may be justified in founding our claims for the adoption 

 of similar means, in order that corresponding results may be obtained. 



[Want of space compels us to pass over entirely this part of the 

 lecture, Tvhich we do with regret ; the accounts furnished from various 

 authorities of the means provided by the governments of Prussia 

 and America being highly interesting, and calculated to do away 

 with any doubt, if any existed, of the efficacy of government inter- 

 ference with the education of the people. Mr. D. continued.] 



I am aware that the foregoing remarks do not treat of the systems 

 of education in Prussia and America at the length it is desirable they 

 should, in order that a just conclusion of the merits of each may be 

 arrived at; but this in one brief address was out of the question. 

 Sufficient has, T trust, been shewn to prove not only that they are 

 suited to the wants of the people in both countries, more particularly 

 in Prussia, but that they are much superior to the combined systems 

 in operation at the present time in this country. 



That much has been done, say within the last fifteen or twenty 

 years, no one I think will doubt; the result of which onward move- 



