Foreign Notices : — Italy, Sicily. 657 



country, for instance in the Tarantaise and Maurienne, nine. Mere, in 

 Geneva, and, for the last five jears, in the Canton de Vr.ud, it would be 

 difficult to find a healthy child, of ten years of age, ciiat cannot both read 

 and write with facility'. (Fo?'. Quart, Rev., Jan.) 



Education in the Canton of Argovia. — The little council of the canton 

 of Argovia has issued an ordinance, in order to secure the benefits of edu- 

 cation to children who are employed in manufactories. By this ordinance 

 the owners of all such manufactories are compelled to establish a school, 

 and provide a proper schoolmaster to instruct the children employed by 

 them. One hour daily, or two hours every other da}', is to be allowed 

 them for the purpose. All these schools to be under the special super- 

 intendence of the counsellors of schools. No manufacturer is allowed to 

 receive a child into his establishment without a certificate from the clergy- 

 man of the parish that the child is of proper age. {Ibid.) 



In the Gymnasium at Bern the children are taught not only the exercises 

 of the mind, but also those of the body ; to swim, to jump, to climb, to ride ; 

 a plan which seems to me excellent, as giving a wholesome direction to that 

 restless activity of boys, which so often leads them first into mischief, and 

 then into vice. (JVood^s Letters of an Architect, vol. i. p. 192.) 



The VaUais is a fine valley, much narrower here than I had imagined 

 from my view of it from above Martigny. The mountains which bound it 

 are steep slopes, the bottom appears flat, and, altogether, it wants variety : 

 yet it offers some beautiful scenes, especially at the openings of the little 

 valleys. The inhabitants are esteemed to be lazy, dirty, and goitrous, and 

 by far the most licentious in Switzerland, but rather improving of late 

 years. Till the road over the Simplon was made, it was one of the most 

 unfrequented parts of the country, and it may serve as an encouragement 

 to those who fear that good roads, and freer intercourse with their neigh- 

 bours, will spoil the sobriety and simplicity of the Swiss character. {Ibid, 

 p. 197.) 



ITALY. 



Food of the lower Classes. — On one occasion I listened to a capuchin 

 preaching in the Coliseum : his subject was a comparison between the 

 Virgin Mary and the river Jordan, which descends from Lebanon as the 

 virgin descended from heaven ; and he added a great deal of stuff, which 

 you would not thank me for remembering. I asked one of the more 

 respectable clergy why such conduct was permitted, and he pleaded that it 

 was necessary to please the lower classes with nonsense, as hogs are fed 

 with garbage. To amuse and to cheat the people has been too often the 

 endeavour of those who think themselves called to rule the world ; but if 

 they vitiate the taste of the multitude, by furnishing them with unwhole- 

 some food, it is the fault of the teachers, not of the people, if the latter 

 lose their relish for plain and salutary truths; and this argument seems to 

 come with a very bad grace from the Roman Catholic clergy. The watch- 

 fulness over the press, and the refusal of the Scriptures to the people, can 

 only be defended on the plea of refusing to them, not only every thing but 

 good and wholesome food, but all such as they can by any means mis- 

 digest, if I may coin a word, and continue my metaphor. Particular truths 

 may be hurtful at certain times ; general ones are good at all times ; and 

 he who imagines that the multitude is incapable of understanding the prin- 

 ciples which gnide his own conduct, has either mistaken his way, or is led 

 by vanity to attribute to himself a superiority over his fellow-creatures 

 which he does not possess. {Wood's Letters of an Architect, vol. ii. p. 586.) 



SICILY. 



The Botanic Garden at Palermo. — There is a good botanic garden at 

 Palermo, and the warmth of the climate gives us an opportunity of seeing 

 Vol. V. — No. 23. u u 



