216 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



half-clad, half-fed, reckless, miserable, suffering children and 

 young persons, growing up in this country of established 

 churches and institutions called Christian, of arts the most pol 

 ished, of learning the most cultivated, and of a wealth and lux 

 ury transcending even the wildest dreams of avarice ; and reads 

 in the ever-turning page their certain history, their sure progress 

 from the cradle to the street, from the street to crimes so enor 

 mous, so extraordinary, as to make one s head grow dizzy at the 

 recital, and one s hair stand on end with fright ; and from these 

 crimes to the prison, and from the prison to the transport-ship or 

 to the gallows ; the benevolent heart is ready to burst with 

 grateful joy to see any green spot in the desert, to perceive even 

 one brand plucked from the burning, even one unconscious or 

 struggling victim rescued from the descending and overwhelming 

 current. 



4. LARNE SCHOOL. 



My next excursion was to the Agricultural School at Lame, 

 where I had the pleasure of witnessing the examination of a 

 class of boys in agricultural chemistry and in practical agricul 

 ture. This is not, properly speaking, an agricultural school, but 

 a national school, where the common branches of education are 

 taught ; and there is connected with it a department or class of 

 agricultural study, and a small piece of land, which the boys 

 cultivate, and on which, in the way of experiment, the prin 

 ciples of agriculture, and its general practice, are, within a very 

 limited extent, illustrated and tested. The examination was 

 eminently successful, and creditable alike to the teacher and the 

 pupils. It was from this establishment that a detachment of 

 five pupils was sent for examination to the great meeting of 

 the Agricultural Society of Scotland the last autumn, where 

 their attainments created a great sensation, and produced an 

 impression, on the subject of the importance of agricultural 

 education, which is likely to lead to the adoption of some uni 

 versal system on the subject. 



I shall transcribe the account given of the occasion : &quot;Five 

 boys from the school at Larne were introduced to the meeting, 

 headed by their teacher. They seemed to belong to the better 

 class of peasantry, being clad in homely garbs ; and they appeared 



