AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 195 



indignation when I have heard the cause of popular education 

 spoken of disparagingly, by those who were reaping its richest 

 fruits ; I have felt such a deep compassion for the very degraded 

 condition, in this respect, of a large portion of the laboring pop 

 ulation of England ; I have seen with so much pain, on the part 

 of some of those whose laps were overflowing with these rich 

 est blessings of Heaven, so strong a reluctance to communicate 

 of their abundance to these benighted children of ignorance and 

 want, in many cases, undoubtedly, springing from an honest dis 

 trust of their utility, and, at the same time, I have felt my own 

 heart swelling almost to bursting, with gratitude, for the privi 

 leges in this respect enjoyed by a large portion of my own 

 countrymen, and the blessed fruits of which are every where 

 seen among them in such rich abundance, that I cannot refrain 

 from speaking out ; and too happy should I be if my feeble 

 voice could do any thing towards commanding that attention 

 to the subject which its importance demands.* 



* That I do not express myself too strongly on this subject, may appear from 

 the following remarks of a distinguished professor of agriculture, who is much 

 employed in lecturing to the farmers about the country. They were made 

 recently at a large agricultural meeting. 



&quot; I put no stress on the spread of knowledge, whether here, in Scotland, in Ire 

 land, or elsewhere. I attach no importance to intellectual improvement amongst 

 the agriculturists. I do not value that instruction which you saw those boys had 

 received to-day, unless that knowledge furnishes you with the means of putting- 

 more money into your pockets.&quot; 



And, indeed, is this all the value which this learned gentleman can see in edu 

 cation ? One cannot help feeling that it is greatly to be regretted that he him 

 self should have been put to so much trouble to acquire his own education, for an 

 object in which it is not unlikely, with all his success, many a thimble-rigger, or 

 dog-meat-seller, would beat him. 



At the great meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, in Dublin, 

 the last year, a peer of the realm, of high rank, and who (so much better often 

 times are men than the principles which they profess) is esteemed withal a very 

 just and kind landlord, was pleased, after strongly proclaiming his interest in the 

 improvement of the condition of the peasantry and the laboring classes, &quot; to beg 

 of his hearers not to misunderstand him, nor to subject him to the imputation of a 

 desire to raise these people out of their proper condition the condition which 

 Providence had assigned them.&quot; 



One would be glad to know, under such an interpretation of the designs of 

 Providence, how any man should ever attempt the improvement of any body, or 

 any thing ; and whether he himself could by any compulsory process be induced 

 to exchange his marquisate for a dukedom. 



With great personal respect for both these gentlemen, whose publicly-expressed 



