THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



487 



Esechanism ; the extended use of complicated machinery 

 and scientific appliances to farm-work ; the wondrous 

 power of steam, which has effected an almost incredible 

 revolution in the pre-existing modes of life, beneficial 

 to the producer of food no less than to the consumer — ■ 

 whose utilitv in application consists in the addition 

 which it makes to human power, its economy of human 

 time, its conversion of substances almost worthless in 

 themselves, into articles of great value and nourishing 

 food for cattle, as also in the increased command which 

 it gives society over the necessaries and comforts of life 

 — I say that the forces derived from wind, water, and 

 steam are so many vast additions to human power ; and 

 M. Dupin has calculated that the amount of inanimate 

 force thus obtained is equivalent, in Great Britain alone, 

 to an addition of twenty million of labourers. Again, 

 the enormous demand made upon our limited soil for 

 the people's food, and our bounden duty to supply that 

 food at the cheapest possible cost to the utmost possible 

 extent — the advantage which in a few exceptional cases 

 is sure to be taken of the present level of high prices in 

 letting and renting farms — the unsettled state and 

 ever-doubtful position of the corn-supplying countries 

 on the shores of the Baltic and Black Seas— the bondage 

 of antiquated statutes, which in many cases still cripple 

 the agricultural resources of the country, forbidding just 

 and ample security for capital invested in the land 

 through the non-acknowledgment of tenant-right 

 (cheers), and impeding it in supplying its own wants — 

 the duty to ourselves, and to the community who rely 

 on us for food, to cheapen produce, to increase its quan- 

 tity, to improve the tillage of the soil, and to look to ad- 

 vancing knowledge to aid us in developing to the utmost 

 the latent powers of those fields which we have -now in 

 hand — the artificial modes of stall-feeding, and the richer 

 food supplied to cattle, rendering the health of our stock 

 far more precarious , and attention to the economy of ma- 

 nures and sanitary measures far more absolutely essen- 

 tial — the race which is now being run between mechani- 

 cal ingenuity and manual industry, the one not puffing and 

 panting to supplant and destroy the other, but being its 

 most valued helpmate and ally — all these things, I say, 

 make it now absolutely essential to the farmer to have 

 skilled and clever workmnn for skilled labour, sharp - 

 thinking and intelligent men for modern appliances and 

 pursuits ; or else he must be content to leave it to 

 better men to avail themselves of all the modern 

 improvements in farming, and struggle against 

 a competition from which activity, skill, and 

 enterprise can alone expect to reap advantage. 

 And this brings me to the next point, viz.: — What mean 

 we by education, which my thesis declares needs im- 

 provement ; in what that improvement must consist to 

 be worthy the name, or suited to the present wants of 

 the community. And in this respect the heathen 

 nations put us to shame. In Persia, so great was the 

 attention paid to education, that everything appertaining 

 to youth — even to their food, exercise, and punishment 

 — was made the subject of express laws. At Athens, 

 the education of the young was conducted according to 

 uniform regulations. In Sparta the greatest anxiety 



was shown to train the young in the love of virtue and 

 of country ; and in their code of morals was included — 

 " To ride the horse ;" "To string the bow ; " To speak 

 the truth." The Romans were careful to educate ac- 

 cording to certain rules. And now with regard to our- 

 selves : as the invention of printing and the power of 

 steam have dispelled the mist of general ignorance, as 

 learn something our people will, and as we acknowledaie 

 that there is neither hope nor strength nor comfort to a 

 nation, but in " a virtuous, a wise, and an understanding 

 people," let us take care that the advantages which 

 we have had be not used to oppress our fellow-creatures, 

 or the light which has been given us to darken the crea» 

 tion of our God. Let me, though, not be misunderstood ; 

 I acknowledge, to the fullest extent possible, that edu- 

 cation does not prevent crime. The forger, the swindler, 

 the fraudulent banker, the concoctor of bubble compa- 

 nies, the embezzler of other people's moneys, and the 

 man of intense selfishness and ungovernable passions, 

 are not uneducated ; but these grievous blots on the 

 Christian character are the abuse of educition and not 

 its use, and we are not to argue against a principle be- 

 cause it may be abused (Hear, hear). When such flaws 

 appearin the character and conductof anyof the working- 

 classes, who may have had in early life some smattering of 

 instruction, but whom we subsequently permit and 

 compel to huddle together in wretched, filthy dwellings, 

 in such a way that decency, morality, and religion can- 

 not but be extinguished ; then, I say, we pervert logic 

 and lay the blame on the education they have received, 

 forgetting, that omissions of our duty and commissions 

 of neglect have made good moral conduct to be almost 

 impossible. When bad passions are thus naturally 

 engendered, and discontent and disaffection stalk abroad, 

 we are alarmed and stand aghast, forgetting that this 

 is not because poverty is always seditious, but because 

 justice is retributive and wealth too frequently oppressive. 

 It is now pretty generally acknowledged that general 

 education for the working classes is a good thing, and 

 that, if it were not, the pressure of the times is so great, 

 the peculiar position of the labour market so restless 

 and uncertain, and the wonderful improvements in every 

 department of machinery, science, and art so vast, as to 

 make education an -absolute necessary of life; and I 

 maintain that on the judicious education of the people, 

 more than any other human means, hangs the destiny 

 of this country. Practically, the question whether edu- 

 cation is or is not a good thing in itself, is for ever 

 settled; and all we have to think about is, in what man- 

 ner and to what extent the working classes shall be 

 taught, for taught they must and will be. I have no 

 unworthy fears about the powers of man's mind being 

 called out and strengthened so that he can apply his 

 knowledge to the business of life ; and I hold it unwor- 

 thy of Christianity to suppose that there can be any 

 opposition whatever between the fullest development of 

 those faculties with which Almighty God has furnished 

 man, and that Christian faith and duty which are to 

 train those faculties for their highest ends, and remind 

 us at the same time of the wants and necessities of the 

 producers in society, and that, after all, man is greater 



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