starving vassals, being replaced by numerous capitalists, and large bodies of educated farmers and mechanics, who will themselves, with further improvement in the modes of applying labour, become capitalists-showing that when man ceases the work of destruction, nature is constantly at work to remedy the evils which he has caused, and that whatever may be the existing inequalities of condition, there is a constant tendency to their removal, as is seen in the United States. CHAPTER XIII. DISTRIBUTION OF PRIVATE REVENUE. ON a former occasion, we submitted to the reader the proposition, that with increase of population and capital, and the extension of cultivation over the inferior soils, there was a constant improvement in the feelings of man towards his fellow man, manifested by an increased and increasing desire to secure to all the means of comfortable subsistence, and of moral and physical improvement. It is only necessary to trace the history of the people of England and of France for centuries past, to find evidence of the correctness of this proposition. The superior density of population would warrant us in expecting to find this disposition more general in France, England, and India, than in the United States, but the superior quality of the labour would lead us to expect it to exist most abundantly in the United States, next in England, third in France, and last in India. We shall now examine which of these is in accordance with the facts. In INDIA, with a very few exceptions,† there are no contributions for such purposes. The mass of the people do not possess the power, and the few who do, want the disposition. We have had occasion to show how little has been done in FRANCE for the promotion of education of any description. In regard to religious instruction, we have also shown that although the population has so greatly increased, Paris and France are not so well supplied with churches as they were in former times. If we look to the charitable institutions, we find the great mass of them supported by the government. It cannot be doubted that there exists throughout that country much of that dispo "At a meeting of the native inhabitants of Bombay, held August 28, 1827, for the purpose of testifying their respect for the Hon. Mount Stuart Elphinstone, it was resolved to raise a fund for the endowment of certain professorships, to be named after that gentleman, and the sum of 52,276 rupees, = $26,000, was subscribed by those present."-Rickard's India, Vol. II. p. 413. See also page 186, ante. sition which leads us to grant our aid to those who require it, but there exists also a universal feeling of dependence upon the government, the consequence of which is, that there is a want of that confidence in themselves, and in each other, which leads to the formation of institutions by individuals. There is no public spirit. We have now before us a list of the charitable institutions of Paris,† that are independent of the administration of the government, and it is exceedingly small, much smaller than could be produced in a single city of the United States, containing not one tenth as many inhabitants as that city, in which is, notwithstanding, concentrated nearly all the public spirit of France, and to which we should look to obtain a favourable specimen of the influence of the national institutions upon the heart. If the contributions to independent societies be small, those of individuals to the various hospitals, and bureaux de bienfaisance are not large. In the year 1833, the total amount of gifts and legacies to the hospitals of France, was And to the bureaux de bienfaisance, fr. 1,026,000 2,000,000 fr. 3,026,000 equal to $570,000, a very small sum to be contributed voluntarily in a nation of above 32,000,000, containing 2,000,000 of persons in a state of permanent destitution, and in which there exists no tax for the poor. The penitentiaries of France are in a condition that would be worthy of the sixteenth century, and there are few men actuated by the spirit of Howard, to endeavour to introduce any improvements.§ "The citizen is unconcerned, as to the condition of his village, the police of his street, the repairs of his church, or of the parsonage; for he looks upon all these things as unconnected with himself; and as the property of a powerful stranger whom he calls the government."-De Tocqueville, Vol. I. p. 127. + Villeneuve, Vol. II. p. 367. Documens Statistiques, p. 102. § In France, "without the walls of the prison, religious ardour is met with in the ministers of religion only. If they are kept from the penitentiary, the influence of religion will disappear: philanthropy alone will remain for the reformation of criminals. It cannot be denied that there are with us generous individuals, who, endowed with profound sensibility, are zealous to alleviate any misery, and to heal the wounds of humanity: so far their attention, exclusively occupied with the physical situation of the prisoners, has neglected a much more precious interest, that of their moral reformation. * But these sincere philanthropists are rare; in most cases philanthropy is with us but an affair of the imagination.”—De Beaumont and De Tocqueville, p. 94. We have already shown how exceedingly defective is the provision for education in ENGLAND. The institutions of that country for the higher departments of education, have existed for a long period, and the only additions of recent time are King's College, and the London University. In no part of England has the growth of population and of wealth approached so nearly that of the cities of the United States, as in Manchester, which contained in 1831, 237,000 inhabitants, being more than any city of the United States except New York, and it is there, consequently, that we can with most propriety, for the purpose of comparison, examine the provision for education. The reader has already seen what is its condition in that respect, and can form some idea of the extent of voluntary contributions in aid thereof. Of institutions of a higher order, we find only the Royal Manchester Institution; but it appears to possess "no assured means of carrying out the legitimate designs of its founders," as "the permanent annual charges very nearly swallow up its annual income." There is also the Mechanics' Institution, with a library of 3,595 volumes. On an examination of the account given in the work to which we have here referred, it is impossible not to feel satisfied that Manchester has not contributed its due proportion in aid of the dissemination of knowledge. If we look to London, we find a vast number of institutions, all contributing largely to increasing the stock of knowledge, and in the support of which a high degree of liberality is displayed. That city represents England, and the extent to which it does so is to be judged by the extraordinary paucity of institutions in Manchester and other provincial towns. In London, then, we should find a good system of education, the result of the voluntary contribution of time or of money by the wealthy and public spirited of the English people, but unfortunately such is not the case. The provision for general education in that city is entirely insufficient, although possessing the advantage of a vast amount of capital accumulated from past ages for that express purpose. It is impossible to examine into the condition of England in this respect, without feeling a conviction that the amount of voluntary contribution has been very small indeed. In regard to the provision for religious education, we have already shown that it has been necessary for the government to come forward in aid of those who were disposed to contribute * Page 193, ante. VOL. II.-51. + Wheeler's Manchester, p. 411. + Ibid. p. 413. for this purpose; but even with the aid of government it has not, by any means, kept pace with the growth of populaton. = The number of societies for the purpose of disseminating a knowledge of the Christian religion is very great, and they have been active in every part of the world. We have now before us a list of 32, embracing, on the one hand, the British and Foreign Bible Society, with an income of £86,819, and on the other, the Metropolitan City Mission, with £82, the contributions to which, for 1836, amount to £543,522,* $2,600,000. These societies are established in London, towards which quarter flow the contributions of the chief part of the kingdom. The History of Manchester, a work which gives a very full account of institutions of every description, makes no mention of the existence of such societies, nor do we find any such in the account of Liverpool now before us. That local institutions of this description exist to a great extent we do not doubt, but they are not of such character or extent as to require particular notice even in works the object of which is to elevate as much as possible the places which they are meant to describe. The charitable institutions of England are upon a magnificent scale; but a large portion of them are the bequest of past ages, and we doubt if the contributions of the present time have maintained their ratio to population. In Manchester, the last twentyfive years have produced only an institution for the treatment of Diseases of the Eye, the Lock Hospital, a Lying-in Hospital, a School for the Deaf and Dumb, and several Dispensaries. In Liverpool, with a population of 230 or 240 thousand, there existed, in 1836, an Infirmary, a Lunatic Asylum, two Ophthalmic Institutions, an Institution for relieving Diseases of the Ear, one for the Deaf and Dumb, another for the Blind, a Marine Humane Society, and two Dispensaries.§ In London, we find nearly twenty institutions|| of this kind produced in the last quarter of a century. |