116 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



" O ! had the tithe of monumental offering, 



Which wealth and rank have on his memory rolled, 



Been poured upon the living and the suffering. 

 Ere yet the twelfth hour of his fate had tolled, 



How changed had been his tale, so bright, so brief !" 



It would, be unpardonable to omit noticing the wood-cuts which 

 form the vignette, head and tail pieces, to the number of twenty- 

 six, from designs hy Mr. E. Lambert ; they greatly adorn the vo- 

 lume by their appropriateness to the occurrences in each month. 

 We could not look upon that of April, the peaceful river, and the 

 contemplative anglers enjoying their recreation, without experienc- 

 ing a strong movement of the spirit, and feeling an inclination to 

 look out our rod and tackle, to set off* on a piscatory excursion, with 

 Izaak Walton in one pocket and Yarrell's Fishes in the other. We 

 hope to do this ere long. 



National Education ; its Present State and Prospects. By Frederic 

 Hill. 2 vols. fcap. 8vo. London : Charles Knight. 1836. 



The object of the present work is to give a clear and succinct 

 account of the state and prospects of education in the different 

 countries, without professing to teach the science to the uninitiated, 

 or even entering deeply into the discussion of the most expedient 

 methods of instruction. That it is necessary to obtain a tolerably cor- 

 rect estimate of the statistics of national education, and of the man- 

 ner of imparting it, is too obvious to require enforcing. Unless 

 we are aware of the numbers of educated persons in the various 

 countries and districts of countries, as well as the relative effects of 

 such instruction, we must be working in the dark, and our labours 

 will be rendered comparatively useless. That education, as a national 

 object, is positively beneficial to the morals and general habits of 

 industry of the working classes, is placed beyond doubt by the re- 

 results of the educational reports so frequently had recourse to in Mr. 

 Hill's volumes. Cceteris paribus, a nation will be moral and steady 

 in proportion to the amount of instruction imparted, provided that 

 instruction goes beyond the mere teaching of reading and writing, 

 implements which, undirected, are as likely to be abused as properly 

 employed. Our author details, in his National Education , the 

 modes of instruction adopted by some of our principal schools, ap- 

 plauds where approbation is due, and freely censures when the oc- 

 casion requires. He has, moreover, instituted a minute investiga- 

 tion into the practical use of infant schools ; the evidence under this 

 head, being obtained from those who, by their situations, are fully 

 capable of giving a true estimate of the case, may, it is presumed, 

 be relied upon. The conclusion almost unanimously arrived at 

 is, that such establishments are always more or less beneficial, and 

 that even where they are under injudicious management some advan- 

 tage always accrues from them. It has further been observed that 

 those children who have attended infant schools, and have after- 



