Ch. ix. prevailing Opinions un Population. 357 



making them bear with patience the evils which 

 they suffer, from being aware of the folly and in- 

 efficacy of turbulence. The quiet and peaceable 

 habits of the instructed Scotch peasant, compared 

 with the turbulent disposition of the ignorant 

 Irishman, ought not to be without effect upon 

 every impartial reasoner. 



The principal argument which I have heard ad- 

 vanced against a system of national education in 

 England is, that the common people would be 

 put in a capacity to read such works as those of 

 Paine, and that the consequences would probably 

 be fatal to government. But on this subject I 

 agree most cordially with Adam Smith* in think- 

 ing, that an instructed and well-informed people 

 would be much less likely to be led away by in- 

 flammatory writings, and much better able to de- 

 tect the false declamation of interested and ambi- 

 tious demagogues, than an ignorant people. One 

 or two readers in a parish are sufficient to circu- 

 late any quantity of sedition ; and if these be 

 gained to the democratic side, they will probably 

 have the power of doing much more mischief, by 

 selecting the passages best suited to their hearers, 

 and choosing the moments when their oratory is 

 likely to have the most effect, than if each indivi- 

 dual in the parish had been in a capacity to read 

 and judge of the whole work himself; and at the 

 same time to read and judge of the opposing ar- 



* Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. b. v, c. i. p. 193. 



