44 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



cance, and every human being may, on equal terms and with 

 equal confidence, invoke a common and a universal Father. 

 This school was entirely supported by and under the care of a 

 noble woman, who, to the highest distinctions of rank, education, 

 fashion, and fortune, adds the far higher attributes of a deep 

 sense of religious duty, and an earnest desire to be useful. 



The Sunday schools do not, every where, confine themselves 

 to religious instruction, but reading, writing, and the elements 

 of arithmetic, are also taught, because, in many cases, the chil 

 dren of the poor are kept so constantly at labor as to have no 

 other opportunity of getting this instruction. The education 

 given them is of a very limited character, and does not extend 

 beyond reading, writing, and the first principles of arithmetic, 

 exclusive of religious instruction. The British and foreign 

 schools, which are established by aid from the government 

 which measures its bounty by what may be raised by private 

 subscription in any parish or village require the catechism of 

 the established church to be taught, arid the attendance of the 

 children at the church, under the penalty of exclusion from the 

 school. The National School Society allows the attendance of 

 the children at such church as the parents choose ; but the cate 

 chism of the established church, and no other, is allowed to be 

 taught in their schools. The schools supported by the liberality 

 of the dissenters are, comparatively, few ; and in most of these, 

 without doubt, the same interest is active, and the same influ 

 ences are at work, to attach their children to the particular sect 

 by whose patronage the school is established and sustained. I 

 speak now of England. I am not yet able to speak of the con 

 dition of things in Scotland, although it is constantly boasted of 

 that the education of the Scotch laborer is always provided for, 

 and that the Scotch laborer, in point of instruction, is far superior 

 to the English. This remains for me to see. 



The condition of the laborers in this country is a subject of 

 such deep concern to the community, on the ground of pecu 

 niary profit as well as of philanthropy and justice, that I shall, in 

 the course of my inquiries, revert again to it. I do not feel that 

 as yet I am sufficiently well-informed to speak with much con 

 fidence on the subject ; but I shall not leave it without some 

 further remarks. The common wages of farm labor vary, for 

 men, from six shillings to twelve shillings per week ; but I think 



