"There shall be no such estate in Ireland," said he, 66 as mine. Never a child, however humble, but shall receive the most careful fostering. Perish the baseness that would lay prostrate the soul of man, and leave incult the principles of our common nature!

There shall

be schools with every desirable accessory food for both body and mind; for it were brutal to expect starving infants to learn. Clothing, also, to those in need of it, enforcing cleanliness and self-respect by every available means.

"Religious education, so termed, I would leave to the clergy as to secular culture, it were essential that each child should be inti

:

mately acquainted with its mother-tongue; with natural science in all its branches - from the

plant in the field to the pebble on the shore astronomy, botany, mineralogy, natural history, natural philosophy, and designing; also with insight into the structure of language, and

into the constitution of the human mind. The art of learning languages, desirable in itself, helps to dissipate the magic prestige connected with the cabalistic forms in which the human intellect has loved to shroud itself; disperses prejudice, and lays open those so wonderful vehicles of thought and feeling betwixt man and

man.

"The meanest, poorest, most abortive essay should be carefully encouraged. Consider, it is the groundwork, the glorious first fruits, however imperfect, of an immortal soul. The utmost kindness and firmness should be used, associating toil with pleasure, till these children had been snatched from the bondage of apathy, ignorance, and want of thought, for ever.

66

Competent, well-salaried teachers, male and female, should be appointed from the first, and, as soon as possible, assistants of both sexes, from the more deserving of the pupils.

“Each child should be impressed with the sacred claims of labour, and the incumbency under which he is born to be serviceable to his kind. Half his time, therefore, would be fitly devoted to study, half to industrial occupation. Exclusive of workshops, there should be attached to every school a farm and gardens effectually tilled; for manual dexterity opens fresh resources and constitutes an important branch of mental development. Occasionally, the young people, the teachers presiding, should have a little feast, the preparation of which, along with that of ordinary meals, would initiate the girls into the culinary art; winding up the whole with the graceful and humanizing dance.

"Select vocal music should be sedulously cultivated, while business should open and close with hymns of praise and thankfulness to the ever compassionate God. The children should

nature

learn the compositions of the great mastersthose so precious transcripts of the music of - God's music, that infinite solace and forecast of heaven. Loving sentiments, garbed in gracious melodies, are calculated to reform the world. Whom would they not benefit; for who is wholly free from the plague-spots of error and sin? It would recall the lullabies of infancy the low sweet voices on a mother's knee. The haven of rest and of a blessed eternity, albeit dim and distant, would open again; while, swelling, sweetly swelling, on the elemental air, floods of glorious harmony would waft the regenerate soul to heaven once more!

"But should we neglect the parent while we fostered the child? That were not well. For every peasant I would construct, and maintain in substantial repair, a well-built cottage. There should be poultry, a cow, and the peasant's wealth, a swine, with large enclosed garden, the

whole at an acreable rental. I would supply each family with seeds, plants, cuttings, free of cost; and, further, allow one day in the week, without deduction of wages, for the culture of the little spot. I should, moreover, maintain a model farm and garden accessible to all; and in cases of sickness or accident, send some one to look after the poor man's affairs.

"The estate should be drained and trenched at my own expense: while I advised the general adoption of spade labour, with house-fed cattle, my draught oxen should be at the service of the tenants in all agricultural straits. I would follow the best system of alternate husbandry, and, both by precept and example, do what I could to extend to all the advantages I enjoyed. Encouragement should be given to those who kept the neatest houses and most comfortably attired families, as well as prizes for superior stock and crop. And every month my butcher