PAR 
tiofls; for it is provided tint, if any perfon fends any 
•child under his government beyond the Teas, either to 
prevent its good education in England, or in order to 
enter into, or refide in, any popilh college, or to be in- 
llruCted, perfuaded, or (Lengthened, in the popilh religion; 
in fuel) cafe, befides the dilabilities incurred by the child 
fo lent, the parent or perfon fending Ihall forfeit iool. 
which Avail go to the l'ole life and benefit of him that 
ihall dilcover the offence. And if any parent, or other, 
(hall fend or convey any perfon beyond fea, to enter into, 
■or be relident in, or trained up in, any priory, abbey, 
nunnery, popilh univerfity, college or fchool, or houfe of 
Jeluits or priefts, or in any private popilh family, in order 
to be initruCted, perfuaded, or confirmed, in the popifli 
religion ; or Ihall contribute any thing towards their 
maintenance when abroad by any pretext whatever ; the 
perfon both fending and fent Ihall be difabled to fue in 
law or equity, or to be executor or adminiftrator to any 
perfon, or to enjoy any legacy or deed of gift, or to bear 
any office in the realm; and Ihall forfeit all his goods and 
chattels, and likewifeall his real eftate for life. 
Mr. Walker (Sermons preached’at Nottingham) has 
the following excellent and elegant eft'ufion upon this 
important part of the duties of parents. 
“ Many have only narrow and contracted views of the 
importance of the parental character. They contemplate 
it only in the interefted relation which attaches them to 
their offspring, and fubferving the deligns of Providence 
in obeying the inftinCt which it has given them; they 
view not the wide range of public good to which Provi¬ 
dence affigns the individual aCting of every parent to 
miniffer. In a wife education, whether we have it in 
view or not, we are doing the beft fervice to our country 
and to human kind. For the ultimate end of all our at¬ 
tention to our children is to fit them for aCfing their part 
©n the great theatre of the world with credit to them- 
felves, and fatisfaCtion to their fellows; to anfwer to the 
demands of every relation in which they may ftand ; to 
do the duties of a virtuous citizen, to fuftain the honour 
of human nature. Without fome pains to cultivate the 
minds of the young, to feafon them with the principles, 
and pra&ife them in the habits, of wildom and found mora¬ 
lity, what is to be expeCted from them but ignorance and 
profligacy? which, though it may not immediately ap- 
ear in the form of an unpolifhed barbarifm, yet is capa- 
le of greater enormities, of a more unprincipled con¬ 
duct; and, by diffblving all the bonds by which a well- 
civilized community is held together, ends at length in 
the very rudenefs and barbarifm of our favage anceltors, 
from which we think ourfelves to be the beft fecured. 
The felfilh diffipation which diffufes itfelf through a 
luxurious community, appears as its laft character, in the 
toorrid form of indifference to children ; and thus every 
fucceeding generation becomes worfe than the preceding, 
till ignorance as well as vice predominates ; and then 
all traces of the manly and Chriftian character are done 
away; the love of country, with all its generous train of 
virtues, appears no more on the aCtive ftage ; and all the 
fountains of human happinefs, and all the fublimer ends 
of human life, are annihilated. 
“ Capacity both for knowledge, virtue, and happinefs, 
is the gift of God ; education, habit, and exercife, bring 
forth this capacity ; and conftitute all the difference that 
is found between man and man. However rich the foil, 
without culture it is luxuriant only in weeds. The in¬ 
equality which appears fo ftriking in the characters of 
men, is more owing fo education than to any natural 
■difference ; at leaft with refpeCt to moral character, 
■which is the great objeCt that I have in view. I never 
yet beheld that mind, as it comes from the hand of its 
-Creator, which the management of the parent might not 
train to virtue, and to ufefulnefs; and even in the view 
of mere knowledge and wifdom, the difference which 
education produces is vaff: and aftonilhing. It is this 
which opens and .illumines the human mind, which en¬ 
voi.. XVIII. No. 1*5*. 
ENT. 42f) 
larges and ftrengthens all its natural powers; which, 
fetting it, as it were, on a riling ground, gives it the molt 
extenlive and commanding view of the world of God, of 
human life, and of human nature. This unlocks all its 
fecret treafures ; brings into exercife all its native force 
and dormant virtue ; and, compared with the untutored 
and uncivilized mind, exhibits it like a god. In fine, 
it is education that works fo many wonders in man ; that 
polilhes our manners, (tamps a worth and dignity on our 
views, forms to wife and good conduCt, leads to happi- 
nefs, and conftitutes the grand difference in the human 
fpecies. The wild Indian, the rude Tartar, and the grofs 
African, have the fame ereCt gait, the fame commodious 
form, the fame fenfes, and molt probably the fame capa¬ 
cities of mind, with the exalted European ; but how low 
in the fcale of humanity has the want of inftruCtion and 
inftitution placed them? In every thing which is the 
true glory of man, in the ufeful and elegant arts of life, 
in the protecting forms of civil polity, in the intercourfes 
of focial life, in the higher walks of virtue and religion, 
they appear not as creatures of the lame fpecies ; we 
hardly own them as fellows. If then you wifh your chil¬ 
dren to come forward into life in the higher ltyle of hu¬ 
man nature; to he, in all grace and dignity and ufeful¬ 
nefs of character, the European, the Briton, the Chriftian ; 
to pafs from a life of honour here to a life of exalted re¬ 
ward hereafter ; be all the parent to them, in inftruCtion, 
difeipline, example; and, as you have not betrayed the 
mod glorious trult which the Creator can confide into 
your hands, you may go into the prefence of your Lord, 
and wait his audit, with the virtuous hope of his appro¬ 
bation : Well done! good and faithful fervant ; than hajl 
been faithful oner the charge which I committed to thy care : 
enter than into the joy of thy Lord." 
The Rights of Parents, or their power over their 
children, relult from their duties; this authority being 
given them, partly to enable them more effectually to 
perform their duty, and partly as a recompenfe for their 
care and trouble in the faithful dilcharge of it. And 
upon this fcore the municipal laws of fome nations have 
given a much larger authority to the parents than others. 
The ancient Roman laws gave the father a power of life 
and death over his children ; upon this principle, that 
he who gave had alio the power of taking away. But 
the rigour of thefe laws was foftened by fubfequent con- 
ftitutions: lo that we find a father banifhed by the em¬ 
peror Hadrian for killing his fon, as though he had com¬ 
mitted a very henious crime ; upon this maxim, that Pa¬ 
tras potejtas in pietate debet , non in atrocitatc, conjiftere. 
But ltill they maintained to the laft a very large and abfo- 
lute authority : for a fon could not acquire any property 
of his own during the life of his father; but all his acquifi- 
tions belonged to the father, or at leaft the profits of them 
for his life. 
The power of a parent by the Englilh law is much 
more moderate; but ftill fufficient to keep the child i» 
order and obedience. He may lawfully correCt his child, 
being under age, in a reafonable manner: for this is for 
the benefit of his education. The confent or concurrence 
of the parent to the marriage of his child under age, was 
alfo direfled by our ancient law to be obtained ; but 
now' it is abfolutely neceflary, for without it the contract 
is void. And this alfo is another means W'hich the law 
has put into the parent’s hands, in order the better to 
difeharge his duty; firft, of protecting his children from 
the fnares of artful and defigning perfons; and next of 
fettling them properly in life, by preventing the ill con- 
fequences of too early and precipitate marriages. A fa¬ 
ther has no other power over his fon’s eftate than as his 
truftee or guardian ; for, though he may receive the pro¬ 
fits during the child’s minority, yet he muft account for 
them when he comes of age. He may indeed have the 
benefit of his children’s labour while they live with him, 
and are maintained by him; but this is no more than he 
is entitled to from his apprentices or fervants. The legal 
5 R power 
