235 
1811.] British Edimiionfor the Poor'. 
'Iiad to claim the oritzinallty of an inven¬ 
tion for teaching school bv one master 
only. In the second edition of his book 
he "boldiy suppresses the names of his 
/our masters, and speaks of the Madras 
school, as if it were conducted by one 
fnaster only; whereas he knows that, even 
ziow, George Stevens, Win, lalkner,Tho¬ 
mas Langford, and John Ludicnis, are 
now in the school at Madras——having left 
it with four masters, with four masters it 
yet remains. Let Dr. Bell demonstrate 
how one master can be four, or four can 
be one, and he will soon have the palm 
he aspires after conceded to him. 
Sir, for some lime this passed off; but, 
after the niue-days’ wonder was over, be- 
iiold the truth came out, and the wonder 
then was, that such a publication should 
have been believed, even for a moment. 
Your excellent Magazine, about May, 
1808, had an explicit communication 
from a gentleman at Cambridge ; after 
that, Mr. Joseph Fox published his Com¬ 
parative View of tlie plan of Dr. Bell and 
Mr. Lancaster. 
The balance was in favour of Mr. Lan¬ 
caster so much, that the Bellites have 
been dovvn in the mouth ever since, lo 
reply was impossible ; the Bellites pass 
by in silence the fact, that Dr. Bell 
arrogantly holds to view a school at Ma¬ 
dras as the origin and model of the plan 
for teaching school by one mastery when, 
by his own account, in his first publica¬ 
tion (a shilling pamphlet sold by Cadell 
and Davies at that time), he had four sala¬ 
ried masters, who say they were employed 
as teachers. Tuition by those masters 
was not tuition by the boys themselves. 
Yet it will not do for these truths to be 
noticed by the Dr.’s partizans; they pass 
them by in stupid silence; and, Sir, I hope 
the pages of your periodical paper will 
operate like galvanic electricity, and give 
them some little muscular motion. Jf 
the Dr. had not four masters to his Ma¬ 
dras school, why publish the names of 
four; and if he did not feel their names 
as a bar in the way of his claims, why 
suppress tliem in the 2ad and 3rd editions 
of his work? 
The sole claim was now given up ; but 
a paragraph truly degrading to tlie Dr. is 
contained in his third edition, and worthy 
attention as explaining his real motives; 
.—“It is not proposed that children of the 
poor be educated in an expensive man¬ 
ner, or even taught to write and cypher. 
Utopian schemes for the universal diffu¬ 
sion of general knowledge would soon 
realize the fable of the belly and the 
otliermembers of the body; and confound 
that distinction of ranks and classes of 
society on wiiicli the general welfare 
hinges, and the happiness of the lower, 
no less than tliat of the higher, depends. 
Parents will always be found to educate, 
at ttieir own expence, children enow ta 
fill the stations which require higher qua- 
lihcations; and there is a risque of ele¬ 
vating, by an indiscriminate education, 
the minds of those doomed to the 
drudgery of daily labour, above their 
conditions, and thereby rendering them 
discontented and unhappy in their lots.’” 
The Dr. had acted on the reverse of 
this liorrid principle when in the Ease 
Indies ; but that instruction which was 
not too good for the children of India, 
and slaves, is dangerous for the youth of 
Britain, who, by the doctor’s fiat are 
doomed to the drudgery of daily labour 
and chains of ignorance. Dr. Bell might 
acquire this detestable notion from the 
despotic practices of the East, but he 
never learned it in Scotland. The inha¬ 
bitants of his native land reprobate such 
principles, and are ashamed of the illi- 
berality of any man who dares avow them. 
The time of Dr. Bell making his claim is 
very suspicious; he comes from the East, 
obtains a pension, retires on it into a 
snug corner of the island with a good 
living. He sits down with all these fat 
things, and cares not a tittle about the 
children of Britain for nine years; till 
that time lie makes no one solitary exer¬ 
tion for the good of the poor: but the 
moment the royal patronage is given to 
Lancaster, he is allured from !iis obscurity, 
and publishes a second edition of his 
book, suppressing the main facts in his 
first. When nothing but toil and labou 
was to be obtained, the pleasure of serving 
his country by educating its youth could 
not tempt him from feeding and fattening 
a single tythe pig; could not allure him 
from “planting a cabbage,” and rearing' 
saint-foin, which he then considered the 
last occupation of a man’s life; alj who 
knew him then know he considered him¬ 
self retired from the w’orld. The plea¬ 
sure of doing good, the deplorable state 
of vice and ignorance which he knew the 
poor were in, had no more effect in 
moving him from his easy chair and 
merry friends than the callous rocks of 
Purbeck. But the king’s name, the king’s 
patronage to another, was a charm that 
held out the prospect of the pomps and 
vanities of the world, which cast the die 
and decided the question at once. The 
attempt was made and was unsuccessful. 
Thus 
