3. She next enumerates those, of whom the mother is dead and the father married again.

4. And next those of whom the mother, being left a widow, has married again. On this we may remark, that the necessity in this case will be less frequent than in the foregoing; because it is matter of experience, that in this respect there is a considerable difference in the conduct of the two sexes, which we are sorry to say is not in favour of the weakest. Step-fathers behave with cruelty to the children of their wives, much less frequently than step-mothers to the children of their husbands. The latter is so common as to have become proverbial. The former, as far as our experience reaches, is by no means common.

5. And lastly she mentions the children of parents, though both alive, whom disease, or other calamity, has reduced from a state of respectability to a state of distress.

It is of use to mention these cases; not as a complete enumeration, but as specimens, of that sort of selection which she recommends, and which ought undoubtedly to be made.

But it is not only the objects of selection, and the subjects of instruction, which attract Mrs. Cappe's attention under the head of Charity Schools. She holds up to view several capital errors in the plan upon which the greater part of these schools are conducted.

1. One is, that the masters, or matrons, are the contractors for the board and the clothing of the children.

2. Another is, that these masters, or matrons, are allowed to make the regulations for their own governance.

3. And a third, that they are subject to no efficient inspection or control.

The result of all these causes combined is, that the management must be bad.

1. They have an interest in feeding the children badly, and clothing them badly; that they may profit the more by the contract.

2. They have an interest in making bad regulations; regulations which will favour their own convenience, and their own profits, at the expense of the education, or comforts, of the children.

3. It is needless to add that, when the interest is created to misbehave, and when the misbehaviour is likely, for want of inspection, to pass unnoticed, every thing is done which can be done to ensure misbehaviour.-Such is the sort of police, under which English charity-schools in general subsist.

What happens, if not uniformly, at least very generally, to the girls who are educated in charity-schools, as well as in poor

houses? They are bound apprentices. This is a subject to the consideration of which Mrs. Cappe addresses herself under a deep conviction of its importance, and with peculiar solemnity. It is no wonder. The facts before the world are among the most affecting that ever touched the heart of man. And the case is such, that every considerate person who reflects upon, it for a moment, must see that by its very nature it cannot fail to abound in such facts. The situation is calculated and framed for the exercise of barbarity, in all its shapes. The known victims of it are not few; the unknown ones must be countless.

The term apprentice is familiar to us, and the usual carelessness and dullness of our humanity makes us rest satisfied with the name. There would be some trouble in taking cognisance of the differences in the things which we named. That case of apprentices, to which our imagination most frequently recurs, that of a youth articled for education in some particular trade, bears no sort of resemblance to that of the wretched girls apprenticed from charity-schools and poor-houses.

In the first place, the males bound apprentices to trades are of a certain age, before that event takes place. They are in general lads and youths, rather than boys; and then it is not so easy to use them ill with impunity. They can speak out, they can tell what sort of treatment they endure. Another important circumstance in their case is, that they are not without parents and relations to look after them, and take care that their situation is not worse than it ought to be. A third consideration, and one of importance, is, that their situation is one of elevation, rather than depression. They are placed with their master for the sake of education, and an education intended to place them on a level with himself. All these causes combined are such as to prevent the frequency of misconduct towards apprentices of this description. We see them in general as happy as their situation admits of and whenever we hear a name to which we have not been accustomed to attach any thing evil, our lazy philanthropy is satisfied.

In no case under the sun, more remarkably than in that of charity-school and pauper apprentices, was it ever exemplified that the name is one thing, the reality often a very different thing. It is hardly possible to conceive a situation of slavery more absolute, more helpless, more cruel, and barbarous, than that of the victims whom we are contemplating.

It is at a very tender age that they are in general consigned to the hands to which for seven or more years they are bound; at an age easily intimidated from complaint, too inexperienced to

know that any human being will regard their complaints, or that cruelty is not the very lot for which they are designed.

They are orphans, or in the situation of orphans, and have no parents or relations to look after them, and by the dread of their inspection to deter from barbarity.

Their situation is one of the lowest degradation. They are not placed with a master, to receive an education which shall elevate them in society. They are placed with him in order to relieve those who maintained them from the burden of their existence. And the very lowest species of drudgery falls of course to their share.

Now let us only endeavour to conceive, if we can, a situation of more exquisite misery than this. Let us not disguise the It is slavery; slavery of the most strict and most terrible

name.

kind.

For slavery is more or less dreadful, according to the motives which exist for abusing the powers of the master.

The infirmities of the human breast constitute a sufficient motive, where there is nothing else. Few, indeed, are the human beings who can possess with safety unlimited powers over a fellow creature. The tendency of the human mind to wreak its own pains upon others; the proneness which it has in a moment of wretchedness to impute blame to others; and the desire which it seems to have at such a moment to make others wretched, is quite enough, when relieved from all restraint, to make the greater portion of men tyrants. For it is the unhappy nature of this evil propensity to grow stronger by every indulgence. The occasions for the exercise of it, being the moments of inward uneasiness, are very frequent; and when there is scope for indulgence, the progress of the mind in barbarity is commonly very rapid.

The case of the masters or mistresses of pauper apprentices seems to be one of the cases in which this lamentable propensity of human nature has scope for the most unbounded indulgence. The victims are helpless, unprotected, unseen, and unregarded, They suffer, they linger, and they die; and not a human being, for the most part, inquires what has become of them.

But this is not all. This powerful cause of cruelty and oppression is aggravated by other motives; motives which rank among the strongest in the human breast. The profit, capable of being derived from these unhappy creatures, is the inducement of the masters to receive them. Their labour is the source of his profit ; their food and clothing are the source of his expense. The advantage is, to obtain as much as possible of labour; to give as little as possible of food. How great the motive which is thus con

stituted, to whip and goad the children to excessive labour; to deny them a sufficiency of food and clothing-who can forbear to perceive? Who that knows human nature, but must know that this is a situation which can seldom fail to generate abuse? A motive to drive to excesive labour; a motive to withhold sufficiency of food; with a power of punishment, almost unrestrained; and all this exempt from dread of consequences, or but little exposed to it, constitute a state of temptation to the exercise of barbarity, which the mass of mankind are as yet by far too barbarous to resist; and we may be sure that cruelty in the greater number of instances is the deplorable result.

Let us bring to view another case. Suppose these unhappy apprentices should fall into disease, an event which, from the usage they receive, must be very frequent; what is then the unhappy situation of both master and apprentice? The apprentice is unable to work. The master is bound to maintain the apprentice. The apprentice is now a source of loss, not of gain. It would be a source of benefit to the master, if the apprentice even died. What a dreadful motive is this to operate in such a situation upon a coarse, undisciplined mind! How effectually must that mind have been trained to virtue, which could be depended upon for perfect good conduct in such a case! If the master is poor, which he probably is, in the greater number of instances, so that the maintenance of his slave without the profit of its labour, is a burthen which it is not easy for him to bear, the motive to crime is too great, to expect, under our prerent wretched systems of education, sufficient strength of mind, in many persons, entirely to resist it. The number we verily believe is not great of those who would imbrue their hands in the blood of the victim. That is not the shape which the evil would assume. Neglect, privation, hardship; abandonment without help to all the consequences of disease; cold, hunger, blows,-these are the modes by which the desired event, the death of the miserable apprentice is accelerated.

Negro slavery in the West Indies is not worse than this. The abandonment of the unhappy victim to the will of the master, cannot be more complete in the one case than in the other; nor can the motives be stronger to make an atrocious use of his power. The difference of the two cases is, that the negro is an apprentice for life; the apprentice is a negro only for seven years. But observe what is the consequence of this limitation. It is to give the master a greater temptation to the exercise of barbarity. It has been calculated upon, as a grand security for good treatment to the West India slave when the master was

made to have a greater interest in his health and strength, than was constituted by ownership during the whole period of his life; viz. when, by the abolition of the slave-trade, he was made to depend upon breeding for the maintenance of his stock. But in the case of the seven years slavery in England, the barbarity of the master is not restrained by a sense of interest attaching to the productive powers of his slave beyond seven years. His interest is to get out of him the greatest quantity of profit during the seven years. If he should die the next day, or be rendered a victim of disease for the remainder of his life, he loses nothing. The case is too dreadful to be contemplated without horror. Not a year passes over our heads, in which instances of the most aggravated barbarity appear not in our newspapers. These cases, which accident discovers, only show to us what is passing behind the scenes.. Yet we go on from year to year; express our humane compassion for the victims, our horror for the authors of the miseries and deaths; and then remain as if we had amply satisfied the calls of virtue!

We have societies for bettering the condition of the poor,societies filled with the greatest names in the country; we have societies for the suppression of vice; societies for the abolition of the African slave-trade; and the men of the greatest influence in the nation are the members of both :-yet our children are brought up in poor-houses in society with liars, blasphemers, thieves, and prostitutes; and the execrable system of parish apprenticeships goes on, nay yearly enlarges, without redress, or so much as inquiry!

Our Common Councilmen undertake with boldness the reform of prostitution, by driving numbers of women from the streets to the gaols yet some of them have read Malthus on Population, and all of them, like Mrs. Cappe, ought to have read him. She quotes the following passage: "There is a degree of squalid poverty, in which if a girl was brought up, I should say that her being really modest at twenty was an absolute miracle. Those persons must have extraordinary minds indeed, and such as are not easily formed under similar circumstances, who can continue to respect themselves, where no other person whatever respects them. If the children thus brought up were even to marry at twenty, it is probable that they would have passed some years in vicious habits before that period." This is really an important observation. Reason and experience unite to confirm the truth of it. The practical conclusions go far. This leading truth demonstrates where the measures for reforming the morals of the lower orders ought to begin. We must reform