1811.) © 
You will coticlude with me, that one 
need not wonder much at seeing many 
of the priests and friars in poverty, In 
this place, numbers are so poor, that 
they solicit charity daily from house to 
house, where a regular provision is made 
for them, either in money or food; and 
the poor wretches, old and young, carry 
_a bag of bread, &c. on their shoulders, 
like the most common mendicant, some 
of them with a cassock on their back, 
both ragved and filthy. 
The*income of some of the convents 
is considerable, and it is a few only that 
are reduced to this state of begging; I 
have not been able to obtain the parti- 
cular income of any of them, and [un- 
derstand that the Spaniards are very 
unwilling .to give information to a 
Stranger; it must be a work of time, and 
under great favour, that any statistical 
memoranda can be procured, and _ this 
is not the period for entering on the sub- 
ject with them. From the following you 
may, however, form some opinion of the 
income of the heads of the church, and 
ef the riches that adorn their places of 
worship. The archbishop of Seville re- 
ceived in tythes of corn only, the enor- 
mous quantity of 382,903 fanegas, or 
about 76,580 English quarters, in the 
year 1798; and during the year of scar- 
City.in 1804, he received 56,746 fanegas, 
or 11,349 quarters English; the whole 
revenues of this cathedral producing 
upwards of sixty thousand pounds ster- 
ling per annum. 
The ggld and silver ornaments belong- 
ing tothe cathedral of Seville were estima- 
ted to weigh 200,000 pounds; the taber- 
nacle at the high altar was of massy silver, 
and weighed six hundred pounds. Con- 
siderable quantities of this plate has, 
however, been sent to the mint in the 
course of the last year, as a donation to 
the state; and the cathedral at Cadiz has 
supplied ppwards of forty thousand dol- 
lars for the same purpose. 
re 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THOUGHTS on the EDUCATION of the Poor. 
_T a crisis in the history of mankind, 
when the kingdoms of the earth 
aie torn from their foundations, dis- 
solved, and lost in a flood oblivious as 
the deluge ; when, in the place of nations 
and of sovereigns, which time and great- 
ness have rendered venerable, we see 
new kingdoms and new dynasties spread 
hefore us; whiJe the whole continent of 
Europe exhibits this fearful change, let us, 
in this little ark of man, this hitherte- 
. Monzury Mac. No, 211, 
Thoughts on the Education of the Poort 214 
favoured island, still preserve a relic of 
the old world, and maintain inviolate our 
laws, gur country, and our prince! 
But how is this to be effected ?—Not 
by our fleets and armies alone. They, 
for a few months, or a few years, may 
keep the invader from our shores, may 
preserve quiet within our lands. But 
the time will come, when what has laid 
other countries at the feet of foreign 
despotism, must prostrate England in 
similar degradation. Nothing can stem 
the torrent of this fate, but a united peo- 
ple; united by the principle of virtue, as 
well as of self-interest. Men, who con- 
tend for their properties alone, may be 
bribed from their allegiance by offers of 
greater wealth. Ambition and avarice 
both have their price; and the sensualist 
is more easily purchased than either of 
the two. We see then, that nothing can 
give an efficientand stedfast impulse to a 
nation, but the principle of virtue; and 
that principle, to have adequate power, 
must be found in the people; and they 
cannot produce it but by means, namely, 
instruction in the knowledge of what is 
really the good of man. 
The poor are the most numerous class 
in every country; they are the sinews of 
its strength, or the rapid movers of its 
dissolution. For this reason did the Sa- 
viour of mankind preach the gospel to 
the poor. Profligacy and cowardice are 
the natural effects of ignorance, while 
presumption and turbolence show the 
tendency of a false education. When 
the lower ranks of life are taught to read, 
without the precaution of directing their 
attention to good subjects, mischievous 
‘advisers, and the curiosity natural to the 
mind, are too apt to throw in their way, 
and induce them to embrace, works dan- 
gerous to morals, religion, and political 
tranquillity. From this class come the 
idle and discontented demagogues of the 
public-house ; from consequential pur- 
suits spring the revolutionary mobs of 
every country. It is true, they have 
eaten of the tree of knowledge ; but, like 
the first transgressors, they have received 
poison instead of the food of life. 
Thus, it may be seen, and it has been 
proved by the experience of ages, that 
education is the principle of good or evil 
in man. “ How shall they believe in 
him of whom they have not heard?” 
Man is then to be taught the doctrine of 
Christ by the lips of the instructor; it is 
also necessary fur mankind to hearken 
unto his laws to know them; and in the 
perfection of this knowledge, consists 
20 the 
