326 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. XV. 



labourer, and far inferior to the emoluments of 

 the menial servants of the higher and more 

 wealthy 'classes of citizens ? Is it consistent with 

 the opulence, the refinement, and the liberal 

 sentiments of the present age, that a body of 

 men employed by the State, in training up the 

 rising generation in the principles of religion, 

 morality, and useful knowledge, should be doom- 

 ed to struggle with indigence and contempt ? 

 To accomplish most effectually the purposes of 

 the institution, the salaries of school-masters 

 ought to be augmented. A more liberal provi- 

 sion would encourage men of character and abi- 

 lities to undertake the office. But, if no mea- 

 sures shall be taken to ameliorate the condition 

 of the parish school-masters ; if poverty, with 

 its usual attendant, contempt, shaH continue to 

 be their portion ; it may be expected, that in a 

 short time, few men of talents or of merit will 

 be found to undertake the laborious task. The 

 education of the young will either be neglected, 

 or fall into the hands of persons destitute of the 

 requisite qualifications. The great body of the 

 people must of course sink into ignorance, and 

 become altogether insensible to every principle 

 and obligation that can restrain their passions, 

 and bind them to duty : a situation which, how- 

 ever agreeable to the sentiments and views of 

 those who consider them as born only for drud- 

 gery and submission, must render them more 

 liable to deception, less apt to bogle at the com- 

 mission of crimes, and a most formidable and 

 dangerous engine in the hands of the desperate 

 and designing. 



