MODERN EDUCATION. 345 



irreproachable conduct, they have been so well re- 

 ceived, rather than that such deeds of prowess should 

 sink into oblivion for the want of an honest chronicler 

 to proclaim them. Doubtless the Education Act has 

 had on them, as on other classes of society, a bene- 

 ficial effect — an advantage which our forefathers 

 never possessed. Too much praise therefore cannot 

 possibly be given to the politicians whose great 

 minds conceived such an inestimable measure, and to 

 whose untiring energy and wonderful ability its 

 speedy passage through both Houses of Parliament, 

 and its incorporation as one of the most essential 

 parts of the English laws, for universally uniting 

 all classes of the community in one indissoluble 

 bond of friendship, are due. The elementary part 

 of it — the three R's — would alone have been suffi- 

 cient for all practical purposes in the education 

 of the rising generations of political aspirants 

 to fame, who have not had the opportunity of 

 studying Adam Smith's ' Wealth of Nations,' and 

 to have stamped their name for all time as loving 

 benefactors of their still more loving and grateful 

 species. So great is the commendable thirst for 

 knowledge, that not a single principle taught, or a 

 syllable used, is by the greatest sages thought redun- 

 dant ; nor is the expense of obtaining the blessing 

 considered by the most rigid economist a farthing too 

 dear. What a happy combination of fortuitous cir- 

 cumstances for the good of all ! Yet I blush to say 



