BOOK n. CHAP. XII. 255 



under their own eye, and at a moderate expence, to fuch branches 

 of knowledge, as may qualify them to be induflrious planters, fm- 

 veyors, book-keepers, mechanics, ufefiil members of this commu- 

 nity, rather than be (hipped oif to Britain ; from whence it is a 

 great chance, but they might return with a thorough averfion to, 

 or incapacity for, thefe or any other laudable employments. And 

 here let me remark a little on the felnlh and illiberal fentiments of 

 thofe men who, in the exuberance of their contrivances for en- 

 riching tlie mother -country, oppofe every eflablifhment for educa- 

 tion in the colonies, decry them as injurious to the intereft of Bri- 

 tain, and would fain have the whole generation of infants regu- 

 larly fhipped home to learn their A, B, C. Thefe politicians are 

 not fathers, or at leaft have thei'- bofoms fo fleeled with avarice, 

 as to have loft all feeling for their fellow-fubjedts in thefe remote 

 parts. The gain, made by the paftage of thefe poor infants,, is, it 

 is true, in favour of the balance arifing to Great-Britain from her 

 freight. But let this pitiful earning be weighed againil: the ha- 

 zard of their lives, and the extreme agony which fo many tender 

 parents muft fuffer at parting,, through a cruel neceffity, from- 

 their beloved oft'spring, which perhaps they never may fee again, 

 Exclufive of humanity, this circumftance muft alfo be contem- 

 plated, in the view of fecial policy, as a bitter grievance, which 

 to avoid, many perfons have declined contrading marriage, left tliey 

 Ihould thereby be driven into a diftrefs fofevere; and which has 

 forced others, under the intolerance of fuch a feparation, to leave 

 the colony prematurely, inftead of devoting themfelves, as other- 

 wife they would have done, to ti;ie further improvement of their 

 eftates. So that, in confequence of this local defeat, the iQand is 

 become far lefs populous and cultivated than we fliould find it, if 

 provifion had been made for retaining both the parents and their 

 children within it. 



I fhall now fuppofe a feminary properly founded in the Ifland, 

 and happily conduded on fuch a plan, as that the middling fami- 

 lies might think themfelves under no fuch neceffity of fending their 

 children to other countries for a decent education.: and becaufe, for 

 better illuftrating the argument, we muft endeavour to fix fome 

 certain number of them to be fo retained in the illand, let this 



iiu.m.ber 



