254 
Mcyal British Education Joy the Foor^ 
[Oct* I, 
find useless ckannel, eqaally failed ; and, 
M’hen the matter comes to [)e opened, (as 
one day it vvill be) it will mark the hbe- 
rality of our monarch in so strong a 
point, as the frienrl of poor children, as 
alone is worthy of another jubilee to ce- 
Jebrate it. 
Thus defeated, tlie cry was raised—the 
nonsensical cry of the church in danger, 
•—from a plan to teach the children to 
read the Bible! A plan of which tire 
liead and patron of the church was the 
chief friend and patron, and to whom the 
tjlan for extending it in the nation was 
first submitted, in consequence of en¬ 
couragement arising from his own con- 
riescension and approbation. This evil 
expired in its birth. The cry of danger 
to tlie church from reading the Bible 
was raised—this might have done in the 
dark ages, but it %vas now too late to be 
of any avail to fire and faggot men. 
The base report was tlien circulated, 
that the king had withdrawn his patro- 
r.age from Lancaster. This was de- 
signed to destroy his finances, and it 
partly had that effect. The King’s good¬ 
ness gave a flat contradiction to it, by 
first commanding a statement to be 
made that be iiad no such intention, and 
regularly paying his annual subscriptions 
when due. The mortification which this 
occasioned was inconceivable. It lite¬ 
rally placed the bigots in a purgatory of 
their own making, and they have been 
siting their lips, and gnawing their 
tongues, for pain ever since. The public 
need only to look back and call to re- 
collecion, liow often, in select parties as 
well as in public, this false assertion has 
Teen maintained. The men too, who 
were most anxious in circulating, and 
strenuous in asserting, it, will be long re¬ 
collected. Whoever were the authors, 
the aiders, and abettors, in this de¬ 
grading attack, on a righteous cause 
are personally known; and the fact 
has branded them in the forehead with 
the imputation of falsehood, equal to the 
mark of a red-hot iron. Their conduct 
js a disgrace to their profession. Some 
of them pretend to be divines, but this 
c'iar^icter is too sacred to belong to such 
men. They proved themselves diviners 
of lies, and retailers of falsehoods; and 
all their incantations had no more eflect 
in hindering the education of the poor, 
than Balaam’s magic had on Israel, after 
his stupidity had been reproved by the 
animal on which lie rode. The king 
continued his support; the q»ieen, the 
royal ditkes, and princesses, visited 
Lancaster’s institution, and did him no 
small personal iionour. The Prince of 
Wales was not less cracious tlian any of 
his august family ; and the attention of 
tlie country only attracted tlie more 
towards tlie inventions of Lancaster. 
The enemy, finding all they had done 
would not injure the man and his system, 
anotlier vile cry was now raised by these 
systematic propagators of slander. Bent 
on doing mischief, by any means in their 
power, they changed their note as the 
%v€athercoc!-: changes position, directly 
opposite at once. The plan which they 
had spoken of as the most dangerous, 
became now the most excellent in the 
world. The plan that was replete with 
danger to cliurch and state, became so 
good, nothing could be better; but then 
it was not Mr. Lancaster’s, it was Dr. 
Bell’s. Mr. Lancaster had neither use¬ 
fulness nor originality; every merit was 
Dr. Bell’s. Mr. Lancaster had availed 
himself of the Doctor’s practice of print¬ 
ing on sand, vvliich he made use of foi* 
the alphabet class only, and had com¬ 
mitted the sin of improving on this, 
which Dr. Bell originally borrowed from 
the natives of India. Dr. Bell liad only 
£00 boys in a school at Madras, and 
four masters to teach them. Under the 
care of these four masters and himself, 
the boys ruled their owm books, m-ade 
their own pens, and did drudgery of a 
similar nature. Lancaster adopted three 
hints only from Dr. Bell, and acknow¬ 
ledged them freely and generously. He 
made the acknowledgment of a part, 
and that hut a very small, and at best 
not essential. The champions of igno¬ 
rance drag Bell from his retirement by 
the alluring bait of a feast of fat things; 
and bring him forward to claim the 
whole from Lancaster’s concession of a 
part. But Lancaster’s book and Bell’s 
book were so different then; and the first 
edition of his tract having nine years to 
sell (a proof it was not worth much), and, 
he having been nine years in England 
without attempting to institute more than 
one Sunday-school, and that at Swansea, 
for about twenty children at the close of 
the ninth year; it was essential he 
should make a new edition. He had 
now without additional experience to 
make a new report, to create something 
out of nothing; and this has been done in 
a manner so trifling as to disgrace even 
the worst name that ever had A.M. at¬ 
tached to it without a cause, In the 
first edition of his work he published the 
names of his four masters, But he now 
had 
