ple has done harm. I do not mean to say that it is not desirable that children should be educated; but if they are to be educated, and afterwards have no employment, you have merely given them expertness to become thieves.' The Committee here ask how such expertness can come from reading and writing, and Mr R. answers- All increase of knowledge, increases expert'ness to a certain degree.' It is then asked, if any of the crimes are of a nature, which reading and writing assist them in committing. Not merely reading and writing,' (answers Mr R.) 'but we know that all boys who are educated are cleverer than those who are not.' He thinks, too, that some of the Sunday papers teach young people no good.

When Mr Dyer, a respectable magistrate from the Marlborough-street Ofice, was interrogated on the 10th of March, as to the causes of delinquency in the class here mentioned by Mr Rawlinson, he enumerates various other causes, and omits education. So far, therefore, his authority may be considered as opposed to that of his brother magistrate. But when, on the 28th, the same gentleman ، wished (p. 170,) to make a farther communication,' and proceeded to speak of masters robbed by servants, he traced this growing offence to a generally diffused spirit of extravagance, and a false ambition to ، imitate their superiors, on the part of shopmen, apprentices, &c.;' but why that has increased, he cannot so well explain. The farther you go into these inquiries, the more do they ap'pear enveloped in difficulties; but if I were driven to assign a cause, I should say that you may perhaps find it in the overeducation which now prevails in this country-it makes fine 'gentlemen of those who would have been content with a more 'inferior station, and who are led to supply their artificial wants by undue means. Do you think that mere reading and writing 'make a fine gentleman? By no means. Are those persons, of ، whom you have been speaking, persons of superior education ? ، Not, certainly, of the highest classical education, but persons 'generally who have been well brought up.' To the question which so naturally arises, whether persons actually charged before Mr D., with criminal offences, have generally received this superior education, he replies in the negative, but adds, ‘I think the far greater number brought to justice can read and write. ، You object, then, to reading and writing ? Indeed I do not, nor was I going to mention the subject at all, but I was pressed to give a reason; and though I set out with saying, I found a difficulty in answering, I could not withhold what occurred to me as a 'probable cause.'

Mr Dyer, having stated, as well as Mr Rawlinson, that the

majority of persons charged before him can read and write, is reminded, that the great majority of the whole people can now read and write, and then he oscillates back again once more to 'a 'superior education.' He says: I did not mean merely to advert to reading and writing; but there is such a thing as forcing 'mental improvement beyond its natural course, and I think there is a tendency of that sort in these days, which is calcu⚫lated to produce confusion. It is painful to me, I confess, &c.' We should apprehend, Mr Dyer's mental improvement must here have been forced beyond its natural course.

The opinions of Mr Bodkin, a respectable practitioner at the Bar, and honorary secretary to the Mendicity Society, are to be found at p. 68.

With regard to the increase of juvenile delinquents, I should say, although certainly without attributing it to the fact of their being educated, that the facility afforded for obtaining instruction, and the consequent degree of intelligence that pervades the lower ranks of society, have caused, with respect to those boys, a sort of premature manhood; and that, whether for good or evil, a boy at ten or twelve years old, is now much more able to do either the one or the other, than he would have been at the same age some years ago.

Do you think he is more likely to do good? I am decidedly of opinion, that those boys who have had the advantage of moral instruction, are those who come the least before criminal courts; but I mean say, that in consequence of the universal spread of intelligence, there is a greater aptitude either for good or evil at an early age than formerly.

to

Do you suppose that an old thief, who wanted to make a tool of a boy, would prefer an educated boy, or an uneducated one? He would, of course, prefer the most intelligent.

Are the greater number of boys who come before you as offenders, educated or not educated? As far as my means of observation have gone, there is a greater number of those not educated; and I am borne out in that opinion, by persons who have had better opportunities of judging than myself.

6

Which of the two descriptions of boys do you think would be most easily seduced by a thief? That is a difficult question to answer; so much must depend upon the previous habits and dispositions not only of the boys, but of his parents and associates.

Having been in a very responsible situation connected with the Society for the Suppression of Mendicity, do you think, that of those who come before that Society, the greater portion were educated or uneducated? Uneducated, certainly.

We have thought it right to give these opinions in the lan guage of those professing them, that their extent and authority may be duly appreciated. If the propositions were left in general terms, a rumour might go forth, that lawyers and magis

trates had ascertained, from experience, the fact, that education promotes crime. How far the sentiments of these three respectable gentlemen lead them on this point, may be matter of controversy; but it is certainly very remarkable, that their evidence contains no facts that warrant that opinion in the least degree. There is not even an attempt to bring their premises in contact with such a conclusion. Mr Rawlinson offers no argument to show that moral and religious instruction can demoralize; and, though it certainly cannot provide employment, we deny its tendency to sharpen the faculty of thieving, or whet the propensity. The very opposite ground of attack-that the smallest acquisitions in science and literature disqualify from the dexterity required in handicraft trades-is older, and much more plausible. On the other hand, Mr Rawlinson is obliged to admit, that the hours devoted to education are redeemed from bad company and profligate habits, gambling and early debauchery. All the witnesses conversant with the subject, particularly Mr Black, in his clear and gratifying account of the Refuge of the Destitute, prove the positive benefits of education. And Mr Rawlinson must be well aware, that half an hour's converse with an idle and ignorant companion, will vitiate the mind more incurably, than all the John Bulls and Ages that ever defiled the Sunday press.

When Mr Dyer objects to education in shopmen and apprentices, he forgets that they could not possibly fill those situations without reading, writing, and arithmetic. But why these should inspire a false ambition to imitate superiors, why studious habits should generate dissipation and extravagance, he does not inform the Committee. Is it not clear that these faults arise, not from mental improvement, but the want of it,-the want of innocent and rational employment for the hours of leisure, and the absence of those principles of thought and action which counteract all evil propensities, and can only be engendered in cultivated minds?

Casting a second glance at Mr Bodkin's evidence, we find, that, upon the whole, he is not an enemy, but an ally. His reasons, though very nicely balanced, preponderate in our favour; and we shall not, by disputing those opinions which we do not entirely share, give the adversary the least pretext for sheltering his heresies under the sanction of that gentleman's name.

Of the heresies themselves, it is irksome to be called on for a fiftieth refutation; and it does, indeed, seem strange to us, that any one should still be found to reason against the use of a thing, from the mere possibility of its abuse and perversion. If men were not taught to write, they would not commit forgery!—most

true But, is it not equally true that, if they were not taught to speak, they would not bear false witness against their neighbour? if they were not allowed the use of their hands, they would do no murder? In the same way, if there was no fire in the world, there would be no conflagrations-if there was no navigation, fewer people would be drowned-if there were no stage coaches, there would not be so many legs broken by upsets. But it would not be more manifestly absurd to say, that the use of carriages, and ships, and fire, and speech, ought to be forbidden or very much restricted, on this account, than that the use of writing ought to be discouraged, because it may give occasion to forgery. Forgery is no more the natural or common use of writing, than perjury is of the gift of speech, or arson of the employment of fire; and while the good and enjoyment that results from the natural use of it greatly transcends that of any other gift or contrivance of men, the occasions of its actual abuse are incomparably fewer than in the instance of any of the other acquirements, as to the innocence and value of which all men have always been agreed.

Those who have watched the course of public opinion on great moral and political subjects, will not be surprised at the necessity for demonstrating first principles over and over again. Look at the Slave question, and the Catholic question. The truth was long manifest, and almost universally received, before interest and prejudice would allow it to prevail completely. The great intellectual tide has long set steadily in, and still keeps ' right on,' while numberless under currents, obstructions, and diversions, still prevent the pouring forth of the waters. The cause of education has, perhaps, suffered less than any other: But the cause of ignorance must, in all times, have powerful patrons. Many will catch at any plausible apology for discontinuing their subscriptions; and the touch of the peasant's toe is still fully as galling to the courtier's heel, as it was in the days of Hamlet or of Shakspeare. No rank, indeed, inferior to the Ducal coronet-no wealth less than the ownership of several Boroughs, can stand an open avowal of hostility to the march of intellect and the spread of knowledge. Yet many wish in their hearts that the former had stood stock-still; and would gladly compel the latter to shrink, like the genie of the story, into its old dimensions, and return to the narrow vessel, from which it has escaped for ever.

ART. VI. 1. Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1825, 1826, and 1827. By John Franklin, Captain R.N. F.R.S. &c. 4to. London, 1828.

2.

Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, in 1827. By William Edward Parry, Captain R.N. F.R.S. 4to. London, 1828.

3. Remarks on the Probability of Reaching the North Pole; being an Examination of the Recent Expedition under Captain Parry. By the Rev. William Scoresby, F.R.S. Lond. and Edin. &c.

-Edin. Philos. Journal.

E VER since the grand era of the discovery of America, and the rise of Britain into maritime greatness, her views have been steadily and zealously directed towards the discovery of a Northern passage to India. In this attempt, many of her most celebrated navigators acquired their glory, and have had their names almost canonized by a grateful people; a Frobisher, a Hudson, a Baffin; on which list others, scarcely less distinguished, have been recently enrolled. Perhaps from the first, this pursuit was tinged with somewhat of a chimerical character. As soon as Cabot, Verazzani, and Cortereal, had ascertained the continuity of the American coast, from the Gulf of Mexico to the borders of the Arctic circle, there was little ground, indeed, to anticipate any easy or comfortable passage to the Eastern world. Perhaps even the hardihood of the undertaking, and its very hazards and improbability, conspired with the greatness of the objects to which it related, to make it attractive in the eyes of a people to whom such enterprises are congenial. It is now established that, in reference to any practical object, or purpose of commercial navigation, no such passage exists; yet we are far from thinking that this long and arduous search has been either vain or unprofitable.

Among the benefits resulting to mankind from the discovery of America, and of the modern passage to India, those of a physical nature hold perhaps the lowest rank. Men are not better, or perhaps in any degree happier, because they drink tea and coffee, wear cotton, and smoke tobacco. It avails them much more to be wise and brave, than to be in the fullest possession of foreign and exotic luxuries. Man has been exalted in the scale of being, not by the enjoyments afforded by these commodities, but by the impulse received from them, when they first appeared as new and rare objects of desire. Thus all his energies were called forth, new worlds opened to his view, and the whole sphere of his existence was expanded. The present pursuit, vain though it proved as to its primary object, has rewarded its followers with