for the time being; and, whenever thereto required by the said Committee, shall produce the said Apprentice for examination.

Thus done and executed, &c.

With most associations, it has been generally the practice to expend large and unnecessary sums upon the buildings and other matters which are by no means intimately connected with the main object; and their funds have frequently been exhausted, not in carrying on the business which they have undertaken with ardour, but in making an appearance before the world. It was, therefore, with much gratification that, upon visiting the asylum at Hackney Wick, we saw the reverse to be the case. One large room, lofty, and consequently healthy, serves for all purposes, except cooking. It is there that the hammocks are swung, the children are instructed, and eat; the office too, at which the general business is conducted, is shared with another society. In fact, the strictest regard to economy appears to have influenced all the proceedings of this society. But since the success of the experiment made by the society has demonstrated the possibility of apprenticing children in the colonies with pecuniary advantage to those who send them forth, we understand that it has become the subject of mercantile speculation to one individual, and may become so to many more: we do therefore sincerely hope, for the sake of the poor children, that such an attempt will not succeed, and that the society will obtain, and obtain alone, the support both of this country and of the colonies. As soon as gain becomes the object of those who intermeddle with matters of this description, the happiness of the poor children becomes entirely a secondary consideration. Their moral and physical comfort will probably be neglected, and every arrangement made with reference to the profit that can be derived from it.

It required all the exertions of the society acting with a parental feeling towards the objects of their charity, to secure proper treatment for the children in the vessels in which they were sent out. Encroachments were attempted to be made on their personal comfort in one vessel, by stowing goods into part of the space which had been engaged for them, and it required much foresight to secure to the children proper rations during the voyage, and prevent their morals from being contaminated by associating with the sailors in the vessel. Now if the emigration of children were to be undertaken by any persons with merely mercantile views, is it likely that all the above circumstances would be attended to with the care they now are, by persons acting entirely from a charitable motive? Is it not rather probable that such persons

would, on the contrary, consider the least cost at which they could send the children out? Is it likely that stipulations would be made with the masters in the colonies, to guard against the abuse of power, and that the eye of guardianship would be extended over the whole period of apprenticeship, as it is by this society?

This account is but brief, but we trust it is sufficient to prove that the Society for the Suppression of Juvenile Vagrancy is worthy of the support of the country, and of the attention of parishes, which will enable the society, with prudence, to enlarge the scale of its proceedings, establish branch societies throughout the country, and not only send emigrants to the Cape, but also to the Canadas, Australia, and any other healthy colonies that may have a demand for industry and intelligence.

It gives us much pleasure to announce the Princess Victoria as the patroness of this society. Royalty does well to sanction such laudable attempts in favour of suffering humanity.

EARLY EDUCATION.

EARLY education comprises the elements of the future happiness or misery, virtue or vice, greatness or goodness of the individual; a truth perhaps hardly sufficiently considered, otherwise education would be less frequently entrusted to the weak, the ignorant, or the injudicious. The stability of a building depends upon the firmness of its foundation; the virtue of man upon the excellence of his early education. It is true, that the grandeur, beauty, or utility of the finished structure

alone be observable; but the judgment and skill of the architect must have been equally exercised in the foundation upon which the edifice is raised. Whether we believe children to be born with evil dispositions, or whether we consider all their ideas and dispositions to be acquired notions,-education must equally correct the one, or form the other.

The phrase ' elementary education' would seem, in its ordinary acceptation, merely to apply to instruction in reading and spelling; but the child who is unmanageable in the nursery will be unmanageable in the school-room, and activity of intellect will be fostered or deadened, according to the nature of the early discipline, before the child has learned to speak. It is impossible to separate moral from intellectual education; intellectual cannot be efficiently conducted independent of moral education, and we maintain the converse to be equally true. That development of the faculties, which is necessary to the

acquisition and application of knowledge, is equally essential to the acquisition of morality-reason and observation are as important in the one as in the other: thus the two branches, although apparently distinct, grow from the same stem. He who cannot reason, and whose perceptions are dull and torpid, will be no more moral than he who only possesses a well-stored memory will be a really wise man. It follows, then, that the faculties which enable us to act from virtuous motives, and the faculties which are employed in the acquisition of knowledge, are originally the same; and a well-regulated education will begin by practically cultivating those faculties, since from them are to spring all moral as well as all intellectual results.

Early education is almost universally in the hands of females, according to a wise provision of nature; their habits and characters being peculiarly adapted to the purpose. Women are naturally devoted to the minor operations of life; they can dwell with interest and patience upon the trifles that make up the lives of children, and it is upon the direction of these seeming trifles that future greatness (and this term also includes goodness) will depend. The present artificial system of female education very much unfits women for the task which nature has so clearly assigned to them; gentleness, placid firmness, evenness of temper, watchfulness, tenderness, and that quiet discretion, which is usually called good sense, are the characteristics of an unspoiled woman; and surely these are the qualifications which are best adapted to check the peevish. and violent, to encourage the idle or timid, and, above all, to give an example of what is virtuous and rational to those little beings whose future happiness depends so much on a mother's care and discretion.

The first six years in the lives of children demand as much or more watchfulness on the part of their guardians as any other period of their youth; yet it is generally believed, that if they be carefully fed, clothed, washed, and taught to read, or rather made to stammer over a book, the duties towards them are perfectly fulfilled; if they should have become wilful and unmanageable, (and this is a general case,) they are sent to school to be corrected, because little master or miss cannot longer be controlled at home. At school, as elsewhere, the influence of a bad example is as powerful as that of a good one, and unless unremitting vigilance be exercised, the innocent minded will be corrupted by their associates. Fear of personal chastisement, or severe punishment, produces habits of deceit, and those are the happiest and the most honoured who are most successful in deceiving their instructors. What will be their struggles, when, at a riper age, they perceive and would

correct their errors! How much more severe are the pangs they will then suffer, than the rational privations and restraints of childhood would have inflicted! And how many are there who never arrive at a sense of their moral degradation! Let it also be remembered, that the evil goes on increasing; for persons so educated, and so dead to moral virtue, will assuredly visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.'

Parents, and mothers most especially, must learn that their parental duties have not ceased when the personal comforts of their children are provided for; that it is on their example, their attention, their firmness, that much of the moral worth of their offspring depends.

Whatever be their situation in society, all, or nearly all, have the means of inculcating and enforcing the early and habitual practice of virtue. The nursery, the school-room, and the world, are alike the scenes of evil passions, restrained or encouraged, corrected or triumphant; but in the first there is a presiding power, which will retain or lose its influence in the subsequent scenes of life, according as it is well or ill employed in the first and opening stage: a power which will be silently, but deeply acknowledged, reverenced, and remembered, in after years, when its worth can be appreciated, and its effects manifested-this power is possessed by every sensible, judicious, and wisely affectionate mother; and let her deem it as one of her highest privileges, that to her is confided the happiness of implanting those seeds of virtue and morality, upon the culture and growth of which will depend the future welfare of her children.

It is impossible to lay down systems of education, which shall embrace all particulars; a general system may be recommended, subject to the modifications which the various characters of children demand. But as no precise and universal rules can be given, it is the more important that early. education should be confided to judicious persons, whose conduct is regulated by the motives which they wish to inculcate, and whose judgment is clear, firm, and mature.

are

The first manifestations of the dawnings of reason shown before the power of speech is attained; children signify by imperfect sounds what they desire to obtain, and become violent when their wishes are not complied with. It is the mother's part to watch the moment when she can make the little tyrant comprehend that desires so expressed will not be gratified, and to show that a contrary mode of conduct will be successful, when the object desired is not considered improper. From this point she must proceed, step by step, until she makes her pupil know by repeated experience, that he is not to obey his first impulse, and that self-control, a

thing which even an infant can comprehend, is necessary to his own comfort. Example has been pronounced the best instructor in the arts; and so it is in education. Those who undertake that great and interesting duty must first learn to know themselves, and to command themselves. An angry look, a violent action, an over-harsh word, will undo hours of advice upon the necessity of a well-regulated temper. Unreasonableness, irregularity, insincerity, and indolence of mind or body, will overturn precepts however well worded and judiciously expressed.

Theory is only comprehensible to a child when illustrated by practice. 'I shall do or say so, because mamma or papa does or says so,' is an unanswerable argument, and an excuse for, or a defence of what is wrong. 'Do as I say, and not as I do,' is unintelligible to a child. Parents or preceptors are at first supposed by their children or pupils to be perfect in conduct; their very authority and power invest them with a dignity, which, in the innocent minds of children, presupposes virtue. When, therefore, they perceive in parents or instructors any deviation from the rules laid down for their own government, the opinion as to their virtue sinks as much too low, as before it was too elevated.

The operations of a child's mind are sources of deep interest, and it is with and upon these that the instructor has to work. Repetition of acts, association and affection, are the foundation of habits and opinions, as soon as the perceptive powers are called into exertion. An infant that has been regularly accustomed to eat and sleep at particular hours will, in a very short time, become hungry and sleepy at those hours. It is happy when in the arms of those to whom it is accustomed, uneasy when with strangers; its agreeable feelings are associated with those with whom it is at ease-this then is the result of habit.

The association of pleasure with what is right, of pain with what is wrong, is in fact the true foundation of reward and punishment; reward and punishment should grow, if possible, out of the acts which have deserved either; the commission or omission, whether of good or evil, should lead to its own penalty or reward. Severe measures can never be necessary, except where there is crime; but this presupposes total early neglect. To reward is less difficult than to punish: the former may be founded on affection and conscience, for the consciousness of rectitude, where a love of right is instilled, is as strong in childhood as in manhood; and where selfcontrol is a ruling power, self-approbation and the praise of the loving and the loved will be all-sufficient.

The time at which reason begins to show itself in children