AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 445 



There are, besides Mettray and Petit Bourg, several other 

 institutions on the same plan in different parts of France. They 

 cannot be too strongly commended ; and this seems a kind of 

 philanthropy without fault. Let me add, with reverence, that 

 if it were a mission worthy of a Celestial Messenger to seek and 

 to save those who were perishing, what can be more a duty 

 than, in our humble measure, to imitate a divine example ? * 



I have deemed it useful to go thus fully into the matter of 

 agricultural education in France, as the subject attracts much 

 attention in England and the United States. The provision 

 made in France for this object is obviously of a most liberal 

 character, arid the arrangements are made with equal judgment 

 and wisdom. 



I pass now to other topics. 



* Some of my readers may be interested in the subjoined anecdote, which I 

 received from the benevolent director of the establishment : Among the re 

 wards given at the institution, and those, extraordinary as it may seem, most 

 coveted and deemed most honorable, are what are called tickets of favor. 

 These only entitle the possessor to obtain some mitigation of punishment for an 

 offending companion by bearing it himself. In one case, at the strong solicita 

 tion of the parents, a very unmangeable boy had been received into the institu 

 tion. Silence is always strictly enjoined at meal times. This boy, after re 

 peated admonitions, persisted in violating this rule, when a monitor took him by 

 the collar in order to remove him from the table. The boy instantly stabbed the 

 monitor, so as to endanger his life. For this offence he was sentenced to some 

 months imprisonment and seclusion, upon short allowance. After being some 

 time confined, the boys solicited his release ; the boy who had been wounded 

 among the rest, and who had a right to claim a favor. After repeated refusals, 

 the master at length consented, upon condition that the boy who had been 

 wounded should take his place, and suffer out the time which remained to com 

 plete his sentence. This being agreed to, and the wounded boy taking the 

 place and the penalties of the criminal, the culprit was appointed to the duty of 

 attending upon him by carrying him his food. The confined boy finished the 

 time to which the criminal had been sentenced. In the mean while, the culprit, 

 witnessing the sufferings of the boy whom he had injured, and his magnanimity 

 in undertaking to suffer for him, and the kind and forgiving conduct of the 

 whole school towards him, was so deeply affected by it, that it appeared to have 

 worked an entire reformation of character, and he became and had continued for 

 a long time one of the best boys in the school. 

 VOL. ii. 38 



