EDUCATION OP THE WORKING CLASSES. 95 



ment is full of encouragement and hope. Recent events must have 

 proved to all that, independent of any national plan of education 

 being adopted, much will be done by religious societies towards what 

 the majority believe to be necessary — viz., imparting to all a sound 

 and useful education. 



Time will not allow me to make any remarks in reference to the 

 means of education for the poorer classes, except that I consider 

 they are inefficient to accomplish the end in view ; they have only 

 been able to present an obstacle to the current of vice and ignorance 

 which had rushed onward with increased velocity as the vices of one 

 generation were added to those they inherited from the generation 

 which preceded it ; and further, that any system or systems depend- 

 ant upon subscriptions and other casual resoiurces — in short, any 

 plan which is not truly national, both in its nature and extent — must 

 fall short of accomplishing what education is capable of and destined to 

 accomplish. To the shame be it said of the government of this 

 country, scarcely anything has been done by it to educate the poor ; 

 trifling grants to societies is the sum total of their assistance. It is 

 imperative, in my humble opinion, upon the government providing 

 means of education for those who are unable to provide such for 

 themselves. Laws are made to punish crime and vagabondizing, and 

 to afford protection to the honest and industrious ; then why, the 

 question may fairly be asked, should they at all hesitate to erect 

 schools and provide teachers, that all may be educated upon sound 

 moral principles, without favour to sect or party, when incontroverti- 

 ble facts from all parts of the comitry can be furnished, proving that 

 ignorance and crime are so intimately connected, that it may with 

 truth be said, where ignorance is found, crime to a greater or less 

 extent has its abode. The government of a country may be looked 

 upon in the same light as the fathei of a family — as the one is the 

 head of the household, so is the other the head of a nation ; the 

 latter not only punishes the guilty, but it provides suitable accom- 

 modation for the aged and destitute, taxing the community for the 

 support (to carry out the idea) of the household in every depart- 

 ment. After doing this, why, the question may again be asked, is 

 the education of the poor unprovided for ? The larger half of the 



