Q20 
~~ 
murder, and to the, gallows, as the end 
of all things. In every want he is to 
work honestly with his hands, and to 
trust to Providence for a decent main- 
tenance here, and a glorious existence 
hereafter. The girl is removed from the 
temptations of squalid idleness, from 
theft and prostitution, from blasphemy, 
and all the horrors attendant on female 
weakness, remorse, and despair; she is 
rescued froin all this, and given again to 
the world a virtuous, useful, happy, mem- 
ber of the family om earth, and in Hea- 
ven, .My God! can any one contem- 
plate this plan for the salvation of thy 
creatures, and yet reject it as dangerous ! 
Is it dangerous to render Newgate an 
uninhabited place? Is it dangerous to 
see the brothels of London void of their 
unhappy victims? Such would be the 
effects of a general adoption of Mr. 
Lancaster’s plan; and such is now the 
good which is growing up, in at least 
thirty thousand youthful bosoms of this 
empire. ‘Thirty thousand sounds a great 
nutuber; but when we compare it with 
the multitudes of miserably neglected 
children, who are in these lands, children 
who must, in their adult age, become 
members of the hody pulitic, either to its 
good or mischief, we cannot but wish 
that there were thirty times thirty thou- 
sand; that every seminary for youth were 
grounded on the plan of Joseph Lan- 
easter, 
Some people establish a dislike of the 
plan, from an idea that it was not ori- 
ginally Mr, Lancaster’s, but that he owed 
the design to Dr. Bell. his is a most 
ridiculous objection. As well might the 
students of Cambridge refuse to submit 
to the college laws, on a plea that similar 
ones are made use of at Oxford. It is 
not for Mr. Lancaster or Dr. Bell that I 
contend, (I never had the pleasure of 
seeing either of them), but it is for the 
plan. fit be good, let it be adopted; 
and let the consciousness of the inven. 
tion be to the bosoms of the inventors; 
the pupils have nothing to do with that 
part of the subject. Paul taught in one 
place, and Peter in another, but both 
preached of Christ, and the doctrine was 
received as of one. So then let it be 
with the parties which now contend 
about names. Mr. Lancaster has ac- 
knowledged in the most ingenuous man- 
ner, the part of his system he owes to 
Dr. Bell; and let not the friends of the 
latter do the venerable doctor such an 
injury, as to lead the world to infer that 
he repines at the increasing glory of his 
Thoughts on the Education of the Poor. 
[April 4, 
fellow-labourer, | These » ‘contentions 
might awaken a suspicion, that the spi- 
“rit we now revere, as that of charity, is 
not of God but of men; that it befriends 
in the open street, when it would desert 
in a corner, Let these disputants. ‘be 
convinced, that he who labours for 
Christ, labours for a master that will re= 
pay; and, being so impressed, we shall 
hear no more of calumnies which can 
only. prejudice the  undiscriminating 
against, not. merely the. parties, but the 
cause. ; 
The tolerant scheme of making the 
Scriptures the first and only book of res 
ligious doctrine, which Lancaster puts 
into the hands of his youth, is the only 
one that would be likely to introduce qa 
spirit of reformation amongst our Roman 
Catholic brethren of Ireland; and theres 
fore te render that object no longer ne- 
cessary: were schools on this plan in- 
troduced into all the towns and villages 
of Ireland, catholic parents might easily 
be influenced to send their children to 
sO unprejudicing a seminary, and the 
consequences are obvious, The young 
mind would receive early, ;clear, and 
lasting, impressions of divine trath; and 
it would hardly be ever, after.in the 
power of the Catholic priesthood, to i i 
lead their judgments. By these me 
the good seed sown will graduatly and 
peaceably bring forward .the harvest, 
which will finally turn the sword f dis- 
content into the sickle, and the poor 
reprobated rebel, into the . hated 
and loyal subject. These are“the arms 
which befit a Christian legislature to use. 
Let then the finger of Christ touch the 
wounds of that bleeding country, and we 
shall see that it will be ‘ whole.” 
If then, such may be the anticipated 
effects in the sister kingdom, (where the 
Catholic priests, from their ignorance, 
&c. have lost all their influence,) where 
the people are indeed wandering about 
like sheep without a shepherd; Jet us 
then pray that such labourers as those 
we have described, may be sent amongst 
them; and Christ, speaking from his own 
Scriptures, to their hearts, will soon bring 
them in peace to his fold. This atten- 
tion to the education of the people, is 
the only true ground af domestic policy; 
for a country can only be Jastingly great, 
in proportion to its virtue; and its virtue 
js not comprised in that of a few indi- 
viduals, but must comprehend the ins 
tegrity of the greater mass of the people 
at large. It was thus Lycurgus planted 
the strength of Sparta; it was thus, be 
! trie 
