Every where are keepers, watchmen, spies; one must always be loaded with a number of certificates and papers. France, then, resembles a large garrison, because every where there are sentinels and guards. The spectator often beholds a young man with a gendarme at his heels; often on looking closely he finds his hands tied, or even manacled. The measures of vigilance are multiplied in proportion as the frontiers are approached; a sixfold, perhaps a tenfold file of watchmen and guards is there established. The legions of the custom-house then examine the countenance and physiognomy as they do the pocket.

You are travelling. A numerous crowd obstructs the high-way. The clanking of chains-plaintive voices-an escort of cavalry-naked swords--men pale and emaciated, heads shaven, hideously dressed, dragging fetters and cannon-balls, form a shocking procession. Of what atrocious crime, are these miserable wretches guilty, to be reduced to so abject and deplorable a condition?-They are refractory conscripts and deserters, who, collected in the depôts, are transporting to a fortress in the interior.'

Such is the general picture: let us take a single figure of the miserable group. A refractory conscript is seized; after enduring the extremities of hunger, thirst and imprisonment, he is brought before the paraded troops, and declared unworthy to serve. He is stripped of his clothes, and disfigured by a dress contrived to resemble partly that of a monk under penance, partly that of a convict in the gallies; he has large wooden shoes; and a chain, terminated by a heavy ball which he must drag after him, is rivetted to his leg.' M. Faber with his usual neglect of particulars does not inform us that this is the punishment of desertion only, and that it is limited to ten years. A conscript merely refractory, that is, one who does not appear on public summons, is employed in the public works and subjected for five years to all the privations and inflictions of labour and slavery combined. To give efficacy to this tremendous system, seems to be the first, we had almost said the only object of the French government; all its measures tend to this point, and every excitement of ambition, and every terror of punishment are put in force to oblige the magistrates to the rigorous execution of their most rigorous duty. All omissions or mistakes in the lists of conscripts, are considered as public frauds, and punished with the utmost severity. Penalties pecuniary and personal are heaped on every offence against the regulations of the conscription; he who escapes the former is caught in the latter: and those to whom both can be applied suffer both: from the highest to the lowest, from the arch-chancellor of the empire to the houseless orphan of the Ardennes, this jealous and inexorable law strikes terror, and wherever it fails of moving obedience, is certain at least of inflicting punishment.

Such

Such is the work, which the motives already stated have induced us to bring under the notice of our readers. We have, in the course of our observations, treated it as genuine; but we deceive ourselves if the extracts we have made, and the view of the whole which we have endeavoured to arrange, do not justify the doubts which we found ourselves compelled to express on this subject. To the testimony in its favour, already noticed, we have nothing indeed except internal evidence to oppose; but we must declare that the repeated perusals and the minute consideration which we have bestowed on it have weakened the confidence with which we commenced our task. If it should be inquired why, with these doubts of its authenticity, we have yet given it so large a portion of our attention, we reply, in the first place, that we only doubt; and, in the next, that it does not follow a work is false, because it is not genuine. The sketch of the internal state of France may not be written by M. Faber, and yet the statements which it contains may be -nay, in many parts assuredly are-founded on facts, and in every way intitled to credit. Whatever uncertainty we feel as to the author, we are satisfied that we have, with his assistance, been enabled to give a truer and fairer representation of the state of France than could have been derived from any other work hitherto published in this country. But the consideration most forcible on our minds is that with which we commenced our observations. It is because the slavery of the press is so confirmed and complete; it is because the communication of facts and of opinions between man and man, and between nation and nation, has been destroyed by Buonaparte; it is because he invelopes himself and his empire with the darkness of despotism, that we are left to doubt of the authenticity and truth of works like this before

us.

If we form our opinions of France on doubtful information, it is because the ruler of France has deprived us of any other. If we suspect the author of having assumed a name not his own, it is because we cannot believe that any man on the continent of Europe dares to avow such a work, or that any man, who does not live under the protection of British laws, has dared to write it.

If M. Faber be indeed an impostor; if he have unfairly represented the state of France and the character of Buonaparte; if the public opinion, though suppressed, be not in inveterate hostility towards him; if the civil administration be not at once negligent and oppressive; if the finances be not in disorder and taxation in extremes; if murder have not been legalized; if religion be not decayed and its ministers degraded; if public education be not blighted by the breath of a tyrant; if the conscription have not destroyed the peace, blasted the hopes, and torn the hearts

R 4

of

of every family in France; if, finally, the whole frame of his government whether domestic or foreign, be not held together by falsehood and force,-ample justice is within his own reach : let him appeal to the voice of thirty millions of people; let him emancipate the press; let him permit the usual intercourse of civilized nations; let him do this, and we venture to promise in behalf of a high minded and generous nation, that England will be the first and the happiest to retract erroneous opinions, to cast away unfounded prejudices, and to do his administration all the justice that it shall be found to deserve.

But this is dreaming, and we awake again to the melancholy conviction that the greater part of Europe is prostrate at the feet of a usurper, in the sullen and abject misery and degradation which M. Faber describes.

Of the merits of the translation there is not much to be said. It is evidently a hasty performance, and far too liberal of the idioms of the original, to satisfy our taste. It is not, however, deficient in spirit, and its fidelity is unquestionable. Our extracts have been made from it.

ART. XV. A Comparative View of the Plans of Education as detailed in the Publications of Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster, and Remarks on Dr. Bell's Madras School, and Hints to the Managers and Committees of Charity and Sunday Schools, on the Practicability of extending such Institutions upon Mr. Lancaster's Plan. By Joseph Fox. Third Edition. pp. 67. Darton and Harvey. 1811.

A Sermon, preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London, on Thursday, June 13, 1811. To which is added, a Collection of Notes and Illustrations. By Herbert Marsh, D.D. F.R.S. Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Third Edition. F. C. and J. Rivington. A Comparative View of the two New Systems of Education for the Infant Poor, in a Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Officially of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, at Berwickupon-Tweed, on Tuesday, May 12, 1811. By the Rev. R. G. Bowyer, L. L.B. Prebendary of Durham. 8vo. pp. 18. London. Rivington. 1811.

SIR Walter Raleigh is said to have burnt the second part of his History of the World, because he could not obtain a true account of a quarrel which occurred under his prison window, and in his own sight. The question which has arisen respecting the New

System

System of Education, brings to our recollection this well-imagined story, of which every thinking man's experience must sometimes remind him. Volumes have been written for the purpose of proving who it was that invented the art of printing three centuries and a half ago; and here is a discovery scarcely twenty years old, the merit of which is claimed for two persons, and contested by the one and his partizans as loudly and as boldly as if there were no recorded and dated facts in existence upon which the decision must depend. The system which has occasioned this controversy, has, at length, excited public attention in a considerable degree, though not more than its importance deserves. Two questions have grown out of it, a personal one respecting its author, and a political one respecting its application. An account of the origin and progress of the system will enable the reader to decide the first question, and the manner in which that part of the controversy has been treated by one of the parties will go far towards deciding the second.

6

In the year 1789, a school was opened at Egmore, near Madras, for the orphans and distressed male children of the European military: Dr. Bell, who was then chaplain at that establishment, undertook the superintendence of this charitable institution for the sake of being more useful in his station than he otherwise could be. Here,' he reasoned with himself, is a field for a clergyman to animate his exertion, and encourage his diligence. Here his success is certain, and will be in proportion to the ability he shall discover, the labour he shall bestow, and the means he shall employ. It is by instilling principles of religion and morality into the minds. of the young, that he can best accomplish the ends of his ministry: it is by forming them to habits of diligence, industry, veracity, and honesty, and by instructing them in useful knowledge, that he can best promote their individual interest, and serve the state to which they belong, two purposes which cannot, in sound policy, or even in reality, exist apart.' With these feelings, and with this sense of duty Dr. Bell began his task. He had to work upon the most unpromising materials. It was an established opinion, that the half-cast children were an inferior race, both in moral and intellectual faculties, as if a certain mulish obliquity of nature had been produced by crossing colours in the human species. This opinion was like one of those prophecies which bring about their own accomplishment. Dr. Bell knew how deeply it was rooted, and saw but too plainly that it rested upon apparent experience; he knew also, that these children learnt from their unhappy mothers that

*

Bell's Experiment in Education, first Edition, p. 6. The necessity of being thus minate in reference, will be apparent in the course of this Essay.

cunning,

cunning, and selfishness, and deceit, which become the defensive instincts of a despised and degraded generation; the baleful prejudice which prevailed against them inevitably producing the vices which it pre-supposed. The boys placed under his care were in general stubborn and perverse, addicted to trick, lying, and duplicity, and those among them who were farther advanced in age were, for the most part, trained in habits and customs incompatible with that method, without which, no system of education could pro ceed.

'I soon found,' says he, that if ever the school was to be brought into good order, it must be done, either by instructing ushers in the economy of such a seminary, or by youths from among the pupils trained for the purpose. For a long time I kept both of these objects in view; but was in the end compelled, after the most painful efforts of perseverance, to abandon entirely the for mer, and adhere solely to the latter. I found it difficult beyond measure to new-model the minds of men of full years, and that whenever an usher was instructed so far as to qualify him for discharging the office of a teacher of this school, I had formed a man who could earn a much higher salary than was allowed at this charity, and on far easier terms. My success on the other hand, in training my young pupils in habits of strict discipline, and prompt obedience, exceeded my expectation: and every step of my pregress has confirmed and riveted in my mind the superiority of this new mode of conducting a school through the medium of the scho lars* themselves. The first attempt which Dr. Bell made to introduce a new practice in the school, proved to him the necessity of proceeding upon this principle, which is in fact the key-stone of the system. Simple as the practice was, he could not fully establish it till he had trained boys whose minds he could command, and who, as he says, only knew to do as they were bidden, and were not disposed to dispute or evade the orders given them.

This practice, which is that of teaching the letters in sand, was one which Dr. Bell borrowed from the natives, having at first sight been struck with its simplicity and utility. It is extraordinary that so easy an improvement should never before have been adopted in Europe, especially since it was noticed two centuries ago by some of our European travellers. Pyrard de Laval, who began his voyage in 1601, thus describes it among the customs of the inhabitants of the Maldives. Pour apprendre à escrire à leurs enfans, ils ont des planches de bois faites exprès, bien polies et bien unies, et estendent dessus du sable fort menu et fort delié, puis avec un

* Experiment, first Edition, p. 10.

poinçon