master an unknown character of an unknown language-to look out words in a lexicon, in the use of which he is inexpert-to guess, by many trials, in which of the numerous senses detailed in the lexicon he is to use the wordto attend to the inflexions of cases and tenseto become acquainted with the syntax of the language-and to become acquainted with these inflexions and this syntax from books written in foreign languages, and full of the most absurd and barbarous terms, and this a! the tenderest age, when the mind is utterly unfit to grapple with any great difficulty; and the boy, who revolts at all this folly and absurdity, is set down for a dunce, and must go into a marching regiment, or on board a man of war! The Hamiltonian pupil has his word looked out for him, its proper sense ascer tained, the case of the substantive, the inflexions of the verb pointed out, and the syntaxical arrangement placed before his eyes. Where, then, is he to encounter these difficulties? Does he hope to escape them entirely? Certainly not, if it is his purpose to become a great scholar; but he will enter upon them when the character is familiar to his eyewhen a great number of Greek words are fa miliar to his eye and ear-when he has practically mastered a great deal of grammarwhen the terminations of verbs convey to him different modifications of time, the terminations of substantives different varieties of circumstance-when the rules of grammar, in short, are a confirmation of previous observation, not an irksome multitude of directions, heaped up without any opportunity of imme

as profound in grammar as he (or those who educate him) may choose; whereas the old method aims at making all more profound grammarians than three-fourths wish to be, or than nineteen-twentieths can be. One of the enormous follies of the enormously foolish education in England, is, that all young men -dukes, fox-hunters, and merchants-are educated as if they were to keep a school, and serve a curacy; while scarcely an hour in the Hamiltonian education is lost for any variety of life. A grocer may learn enough of Latin to taste the sweets of Virgil; a cavalry officer may read and understand Homer, without knowing that in comes from with a smooth breathing, and that it is formed by an improper reduplication. In the mean time, there is nothing in that education which prevents a scholar from knowing (if he wishes to know) what Greek compounds draw back their accents. He may trace verbs in i from polysyllables in i, or derive endless glory from marking down derivatives in , changing the of their primitives into iota. Thus in the Hamiltonian method, a good deal of grammar necessarily impresses itself upon the mind (chemin faisant), as it does in the vernacular tongue, without any rule at all, and merely by habit. How is it possible to read many Latin keys, for instance, without remarking, willingly or unwillingly, that the first person of verbs end in o, the second in 8, the third in t?-that the same adjective ends in us or , accordingly as the connected substantive is masculine or feminine, and other such gross and common rules? An English-diate application. man who means to say, I will go to London, does not say, I could go to London. He never read a word of grammar in his life; but he has learnt by habit, that the word go, signifies to proceed or set forth, and by the same habit he learns that future intentions are expressed by I will; and by the same habit the Hamiltonian pupil, reading over, and comprehending twenty times more words and phrases than the pupil of the ancient system, insensibly but infallibly fixes upon his mind many rules of grammar. We are far from meaning to say, that the grammar thus acquired will be sufficiently accurate for a first-rate Latin and Greek scholar; but there is no reason why a young person arriving at this distinction, and educated in the Hamiltonian system, may not carry the study of grammar to any degree of minuteness and accuracy. The only difference is, that he begins grammar as a study, after he has made a considerable progress in the language, and not before a very important feature in the Hamiltonian system, and a very great improvement in the education of children.

The imperfections of the old system proceed in a great measure from a bad and improvident accumulation of difficulties, which must all, perhaps, though in a less degree, at one time or another be encountered, but which may be, and in the Hamiltonian system are, much more wisely distributed. A boy who sits down to Greek with lexicon and grammar, has to

The real way of learning a dead language, is to imitate, as much as possible, the method in which a living language is naturally learnt. When do we ever find a well-educated Englishman or Frenchman embarrassed by an ignorance of the grammar of their respective languages? They first learn it practically and unerringly; and then, if they choose to look back and smile at the idea of having proceeded by a number of rules without knowing one of them by heart, or being conscious that they had any rule at all, this is a philosophical amusement: but whoever thinks of learning the grammar of their own tongue before they are very good grammarians? Let us hear what Mr. Locke says upon this subject:-"If grammar ought to be taught at any time, it must be to one that can speak the language already; how else can he be taught the grammar of it? This at least is evident, from the practice of the wise and learned nations amongst the ancients. They made it a part of education to cultivate their own, not foreign languages. The Greeks counted all other nations barbarous, and had a contempt for their languages. And though the Greek learning grew in credit amongst the Romans towards the end of their commonwealth, yet it was the Roman tongue that was made the study of their youth: their own language they were to make use of, and therefore it was their own language they were instructed and exercised in.

"But, more particularly, to determine the proper season for grammar, I do not see how it can reasonably be made any one's study, but as an introduction to rhetoric. When it is thought time to put any one upon the care of polishing his tongue, and of speaking better than the illiterate, then is the time for him to be instructed in the rules of grammar, and not before. For grammar being to teach men not to speak, but to speak correctly, and according to the exact rules of the tongue, which is one part of elegancy, there is little use of the one to him that has no need of the other. Where rhetoric is not necessary, grammar may be spared. I know not why any one should waste his time, and beat his head about the Latin grammar, who does not intend to be a critic, or make speeches, and write despatches in it. When any one finds in himself a necessity or disposition to study any foreign language to the bottom, and to be nicely exact in the knowledge of it, it will be time enough to take a grammatical survey of it. If his use of it be only to understand some books writ in it, without a critical knowledge of the tongue itself, reading alone, as I have said, will attain that end, without charging the mind with the multiplied rules and intricacies of grammar." -Locke on Education, p. 78, folio.

In the Eton Grammar, the following very plain and elementary information is conveyed to young gentlemen utterly ignorant of every syllable of the language:—

"Nomina anomala quæ contrahuntur sunt, Οκοπαθή, quæ contrahuntur in omnibus, ut yous joús, &c. Ongerat, quæ in paucioribus casibus contrahuntur, ut substantiva Barytonia in g. Imparyllatria in cug," &c. &c.

" finis thematis finis utriusque futuri est
Post liquidam in primo, vel in unoquoque secundo,
w circumflexum est. Ante o finale character
Explicitus de primi est implicitusque futuri
w itaque in quo e quasi plexum est solitu in ow.”
Westminster Greek Grammar, 1914.

Such are the easy initiations of our present methods of teaching. The Hamiltonian syзtem, on the other hand, 1. teaches an unknown tongue by the closest interlinear translation, instead of leaving a boy to explore his way by the lexicon or dictionary. 2. It postpones the study of grammar till a considerable progress has been made in the language, and a great degree of practical grammar has been ac quired. 3. It substitutes the cheerfulness and competition of the Lancasterian system for the dull solitude of the dictionary. By these means, a boy finds he is making a progress, and learning something from the very beginning. He is not overwhelmed with the first appearance of insuperable difficulties; he receives some little pay from the first moment of his apprenticeship, and is not compelled to wait for remuneration till he is out of his time. The student having acquired the great art of understanding the sense of what is written in another tongue, may go into the study of the language as deeply and as extensively as he pleases. The old system aims at beginning with a depth and accuracy which many men never will want, which disgusts many from arriving even at moderate attainments, and is a less easy, and not more certain road to a profound skill in languages, than if attention to grammar had been deferred to a later period.

In fine, we are strongly persuaded, that the time being given, this system will make better scholars; and the degree of scholarship being given, a much shorter time will be needed. If there is any truth in this, it will make Mr. From the Westminster Grammar we make Hamilton one of the most useful men of his the following extract-and some thousand age; for if there is any thing which fills rerules, conveyed in poetry of equal merit, must flecting men with melancholy and regret, it is be fixed upon the mind of the youthful Grethe waste of mortal time, parental money, and cian, before he advances into the interior of the language.

puerile happiness, in the present method of I pursuing Latin and Greek.

COUNSEL FOR PRISONERS.*

[EDINBURGH Review, 1826.]

Ox the sixth of April, 1824, Mr. George | well considered. He is, indeed, almost the Lamb (a gentleman who is always the advo- only person we remember in his station, who cate of whatever is honest and liberal) pre- has not considered sound sense to consist in sented the following petition from several jurymen in the habit of serving on juries at the Old Bailey :

:

he prosecutes at the expense of the county. He cannot even relent; for the magistrate is bound over to indict. His witnesses cannot fail him; for they are all bound over by the same magistrate to give evidence. He is out of prison, too, and can exert himself.

The prisoner, on the other hand, comes into court, squalid and depressed from long confinement-utterly unable to tell his own story from want of words and want of confidence, and is unable to produce evidence for want of money. His fate accordingly is obvious;— and that there are many innocent men punished every year, for crimes they have not committed, appears to us to be extremely probable. It is, indeed, scarcely possible it should be otherwise: and, as if to prove the fact, every now and then, a case of this kind is detected. Some circumstances come to light between sentence and execution; immense exertions are made by humane men; time is gained, and the innocence of the condemned person completely established. In Elizabeth Caning's case, two women were capitally convicted, ordered for execution—and at last found innocent, and respited. Such, too, was the case of the men who were sentenced ten years ago, for the robbery of Lord Cowper's steward. "I have myself (says Mr. Scarlett) often seen persons I thought innocent convicted, and the guilty escape, for want of some acute and intelligent counsel to show the bearings of the different circumstances on the conduct and situation of the prisoner."-(House of Commons Debates, April 25th, 1826.) We were delighted to see, in this last debate, both Mr. Brougham and Mr. Scarlett profess themselves friendly to Mr. Lamb's motion.

since it is impossible for the poor wretch to contradict it. A brother or a sister may come -and support every suffering and privation themselves in coming; but the prisoner cannot often have such claims upon the persons who have witnessed the transaction, nor any other claims but those which an unjustly accused person has upon those whose testimony can exculpate him-and who probably must starve themselves and their families to do it. It is true, a case of life and death will rouse the poorest persons, every now and then, to extraordinary exertions, and they may tramp through mud and dirt to the assize town to save a life-though even this effort is precarious enough but imprisonment, hard labour, or transportation, appeal less forcibly than death, and would often appeal for evidence in vain, to the fee and limited resources of extreme poverty. It is not that a great proportion of those accused are not guilty-but that some are not -and are utterly without means of establishing their innocence. We do not believe they are often accused from wilful and corrupt perjury: but the prosecutor is himself mistaken. The crime has been committed; and in his thirst for vengeance, he has got hold of the wrong man. The wheat was stolen out of the barn; and, amidst many other collateral circumstances, the witnesses (paid and brought up by a wealthy prosecutor, who is repaid by the county) swear that they saw a man, very like the prisoner, with a sack of corn upon his shoulder, at an early hour of the morning, going from the barn in the direction of the prisoner's cottage! Here is one link, and a very material link, of a long chain of circumstantial evidence. Judge and jury must give it weight, till it is contradicted. In fact, the But in how many cases has the injustice prisoner did not steal the corn; he was, to be proceeded without any suspicion being exsure, out of his cottage at the same hour-and cited? and even if we could reckon upon men that also is proved-but travelling in a totally being watchful in capital cases, where life is different direction, and was seen to be so tra- concerned, we are afraid it is in such cases velling by a stage coachman passing by, and alone that they ever besiege the secretary of by a market gardener. An attorney with state, and compel his attention. We never money in his pocket, whom every moment of remember any such interference to save a such employ made richer by six-and-eight man unjustly condemned to the hulks or the pence, would have had the two witnesses treadmill; and yet there are certainly more ready, and at rack and manger, from the first condemnations to these minor punishments day of the assize; and the innocence of the pri- than to the gallows: but then it is all onesoner would have been established: but by who knows or cares about it? If Harrison or what possible means is the destitute, ignorant Johnson has been condemned, after regular wretch himself to find or to produce such wit- trial by jury, to six months' treadmill, because nesses? or how can the most humane jury, Harrison and Johnson were without a penny and the most acute judge, refuse to consider to procure evidence-who knows or cares him as guilty, till his witnesses are produced? about Harrison or Johnson? how can they We have not the slightest disposition to exag- make themselves heard? or in what way can gerate, and, on the contrary, should be ex- they obtain redress? It worries rich and com tremely pleased to be convinced that our ap-fortable people to hear the humanity of our prehensions were unfounded: but we have often felt extreme pain at the hopeless and unprotected state of prisoners; and we cannot find any answer to our suspicions, or discover any means by which this perversion of justice, under the present state of the law, can be prevented from taking place. Against the prisoner are arrayed all the resources of an angry prosecutor, who has certainly (let who will be the culprit) suffered a serious injury. He has his hand, too, in the public purse; for

penal laws called in question. There is talk of a society for employing discharged prison. ers: might not something be effected by a society instituted for the purpose of providing to poor prisoners a proper defence, and a due attendance of witnesses? But we must hasten on from this disgraceful neglect of poor pri soners, to the particular subject of complaint we have proposed to ourselves.

The proposition is, That the prisoner accusea of felony ought to have the same power of select