‘aa ee ee 
erstand, far exceeded: her most 
Sanguine expectations. ee 5 
The expences o fF the salary of two masters 
on the sabbath day for the boys, and one 
school-mistress for the girls for Sundays and 
week-days, rent of school-room, and firing, 
Stationary, &c. &c. and also including the 
amount of reward-tickets, &c. for the school 
of indystry; do not amount to forty six 
pounds a-year, which'is defrayed by a vo- 
Juntary subscription ofthe parishioners, al- 
though but of small extent. 
" ‘To enlarge on the benefits arising from 
such institutions, which are highly honour- 
able to the managers, would surely be super- 
fluous. Remarkably illustrative of the happy 
effects of early instruction on the lower 
classes of society, is the declaration of the 
celebrated Mr. Howard, the philanthrophist, 
“that he found many of the prisons in Swis- 
serland empty of criminal prisoners :—a cir- 
cumstance that inestimable character ascribed 
solely to the great care that was taken in that 
country to give children, even the poorest, a 
moral and religious education.” 
The Dean of Lincoln, speaking of the be- 
nevolent institutions alluded to (Sunday, 
schools) justly observes, ‘* that they possessan 
invaluable antidote to the poisonous manners 
of this depraved age;” and that ** the power 
and efficacy of these establishments, reach to 
such an extent of situation, and of numbers, 
as no other mode of improvement can possibly 
equal.” ‘¢ Having,” (continues the same 
Venerable writer,) ‘ anxiously watched their 
infancy, and attended to their progress, I 
have thought their principles the most une- 
quivocal, and their influence the most exten- 
sive, that can be employed in the cause of 
general refermation.” 
4 a 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the abyantaces tosociety from the 
more general ESTABLISHMENT Qf SUN- 
DAY-SCHOOLS. 
HE, endowment of Sunday schools 
was begur: in 1785, since which 
period to the year 1803, (when the Sun- 
day school union was established in Lon- 
don) upwards of 200,000 children were 
admitted into them ;_ and it is worthy of 
temark, that since 1803, Sunday-schools 
have increased considerably, and they 
have also been better conducted. 
The reply in the Monthly Magazine 
(published the 1st inst.) to G, Cumberland 
€sq. on the Education of the Poor, induce 
me to add a few remarks, in corroboration 
of the facts there stated —“ that we owe 
many of the evils our criniinals pro- 
duce to their being in a state of extreme 
ignorance.” That this is but too lament- 
ably true, there can be no doubt. The 
question, “ whether the poor ought or 
nt gee rh = 
‘ 
eS) Oe ae 
ba ' a le ew By hes 
r' ¥808.]' Advantage s from Sunday-schools. } 
oe 
213 
ought»not to be educated?” has been fre= 
ently and ably discussed. He who will 
take the trouble to peruse the accounts 
of the lives, trials; and executions of the 
most notorious malefactors in this king- 
dom, will find them protesting in their 
last moments with anguish of heart, 
that the violation of the sabbath was the 
first offence in their iniquitous course ; 
that however the career of their villainy 
terminated, it always began by a neglect 
of attending divine worship on Sundays; 
by shortly after profaning that day, with 
gambling, tipling, and other excesses ; 
and in the last stage of their profligacy, 
by often selecting it as Lest suited to 
their thefts, depredations, sacrileges, and 
murders. Can any thing add to the very 
great advantages arising from the general 
diffusion of knowledge among the lower 
classes so effectually as to Sunday schools? 
I answer, without hesitation, Nothing 
can; more especially if the children are 
rewarded according to their respective 
merits, which will serve as an incentive 
to greater industry, and occasion a spirit 
of emulation to be excited amongst them, 
To revert to the very great utility of 
Sunday-schools, for the purpose of coun- 
teracting the pernicious tentlency of such 
profligate and improper conduct of these 
who have not had the benefit of early 
instruction, or been properly initiated in 
those primary daties which itis ineum= 
bent-on all to attend to as members of 
civil society, and which is the indispensa- 
ble duty of every parent to impress early 
on the minds of youth:—the due observ= 
ance of the sabbath is the first point in- 
culcated by these excellent institutions, 
and the mind is formed in its earliest ape 
prehension thus to feel the just value 
of this great security, and what thé 
duty and conduct of youth must be so 
as to be happy here, and to enable them 
to enjoy everlasting felicity hereafter ; 
for among the causes which the un- 
happy victims to the laws of their-couns 
try alleve for their Yuin, and its attend- 
ant consequences, the breach of the sab- 
bath must be accounted -as the first step 
in guilt, as it takes place before they are 
capable of the crimes’ of more mature 
age. 
August 11, 1808. Be 
—aEoe 
‘Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine 
SER, thay 
AVING read several remarks in your 
valuable publication, respecting the 
cuckoo, I thought proper to send you the 
following 
