Education a National Concern. 571 



always distinguished by sitting at the bottom of the table, and being allowed 

 no privileges whatever: and such is the effect of this system of classification, 

 that it rarely happens for a boy to remain in C class longer than a fortnight. 



"'The intention in establishing this society, now called the 'Christian's 

 Friend Society,' was originally to reclaim the neglected and destitute children 

 that infest the streets of the metropolis, and to find employment for them 

 after they had given proof of their reformation. Means of emigration to the 

 Colonies were afforded ; and comfortable situations, either as servants or ap- 

 prentices, were there provided for them. 



"' The boys received into the Asylum may be divided into four classes, 

 viz. first class, boys of respectable parents who are reduced in circumstances, 

 and orphans of ditto; second class, boys neglected and deserted by their 

 parents, who have gained a living in the streets ; third class, boys from work- 

 houses, who, possessing an unsettled or enterprising spirit, have volunteered 

 to emigrate; fourth, boys from the houses of correction, who, upon showing 

 signs of penitence, have excited the sympathy of some persons, and these 

 have exerted themselves to get them admitted into our Asylum on the expira- 

 tion of their imprisonment.'" 



To detail further the contents of this little volume the first, let us 

 hope, of a large family, to which this Society may give birth, would 

 not only take up too much of our space, but might, perhaps, tire our 

 variety-loving readers ; but we cannot part from it without very re- 

 spectfully offering one word of advice respecting these publications. 

 The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge tried by means of 

 its Journal of Education to do precisely what the present Society 

 contemplates viz. " to inquire what is and what ought to be the edu- 

 cation of both sexes of all classes ;" and those efforts, we regret to 

 say, were unavailing. The Journal was very ably conducted, and 

 every number was replete with most important and valuable matter 

 on Educational subjects ; but, whether owing to a general indiffer- 

 ence on the part of the public to the subject of teaching, or to the ab- 

 sence of lively and spirited writing on the part of the contributors, 

 in short, to whatever cause it might be attributed, this undertaking- 

 did not meet with that success which its unquestionable merits de- 

 served, and after a fair trial of five years the work was discontinued 

 very much to the sorrow of the writer of these observations. That a 

 series of publications formed on the same plan as those which closed 

 in 1835 will meet with more success at present we cannot think ; and 

 it is highly necessary that the Society should contrive some expedient 

 by which they may insure for their books a greater popularity and 

 wider sphere of usefulness than that attained by the Journal of Edu-. 

 cation. With this recommendation (which it is hoped will be taken 

 in the same spirit in which it is given), we take our leave of the So- 

 ciety, fully convinced that, although great names are too often formal 

 appendages to our national institutions, there are in the list of its mem- 

 bers, names, whose owners -illustrious not merely by their own high 

 endowments, but by their zeal for the moral and intellectual advance- 

 ment of the species will not allow themselves to be inactive specta- 

 tors of the labours of benevolence which are going on around them, 

 but will cordially give their powerful assistance to forward the educa- 

 tion of ALL classes of a great and free people. 



A TEACHER. 



