Eating in fuch a manner, modern Candour, Liberality, and Moderation, confift in a facrifice of all principle; in a difpofition, not merely to regard undoubted guilt with complacency, but even to confider it as meritorious, and in a readiness to palliate the greatest crimes, and to invent excufes for the greateft criminals. Thefe qualities, in fhort, feem to be the conditions of a convention between virtue and vice, by which it is agreed that all hoftilities fhall ceafe between thefe, hitherto, irreconcileable enemies, and that moral feeling fhall no longer take offence at moral turpitude. A convention which, like the pacific treaties of the French Republic, tends to deprive Religion, Virtue, and Social Order, of whatever fecurity they ftill poffefs."* iş Another miferable effect of the prevailing spirit of the times 66 a manifest relaxation in regard to induftry, regularity, and punctuality; and a general love of eafe and pleafure." To the factitious neceffity, produced by this difpofition, more than to any other caufe or motive, may be traced the frequent demands, of late years, on the part of artifans, journeymen, and the labouring claffes of the community, for a rife in their wages; on the deftructive confequences of which, both in a moral and political point of view, the author makes many judicious reflections, through which we regret our inability to follow him. On the fubject of modern drefs his obfervations are peculiarly strong and judicious. "It is with the deepeft artifice, as well as if with a perfect confiftency of character and views, that the modern philofophers, in pursuance of their levelling fyftem, have declared war againft titles and armorial bearings; and that they have even attacked thofe forms of drefs, which have been used to diftinguish the higher orders, and endeavoured to introduce a garb which really tends to confound all diftinction of rank. The fignal for this attack was given in France, and it has been repeated, in every country, by all who wished to promote the cause of anarchy. Unfortunately many, who in their hearts abhor that cause, have been prevailed upon to thew a contempt for ontward appearances.† * "On this fubject the reader is again referred to the letter figned Cato, (already noticed), which letter is founded upon fome compli ments paid by Mr. Sheridan, to the encreafed amiability and cencili ating feelings of the age; and alfo to the admirable poem in the fame collection, entitled New Morality.” "It is a fact, that a gentleman, known to the author, faw lately in a high affembly two perfons, whofe appearance was fo undignified, as to make him wonder at their being admitted into fuch a fituation. His wonder, however, was greatly encreafed when he was informed that thofe perfons were no less than the Duke of and the Earl of whofe cropped heads and Gallic Pantaloons, as well as the rest of their garb, would have qualified them, in appearance, at leaft, to affume the character of members of a Robespierrian Commitee," , "It- behoves fuch perfons to confider, that the fentiment, denominated respect, is a neceffary bond of the Social Union-that this fentiment, by its mild operation, gives vigour to authority, and efficacy to laws-that it harmonizes the whole fyftem of fociety, and, without any effort, keeps every part of it, from the lowest to the higheft, in its proper place. But this highly valuable fentiment never can, with the mafs of mankind, be the refult of reflection. It would be impoffible, by any chain of reafoning, to convince the multitude that it is effential to their happiness. Neither can it be, according to the fyftem of modern philofophers, a pure homage to merit and virtue. To fecure its exiftence, it muft depend upon caufes more certain and univerfal in their operation, than the claims of virtue or merit. It must even operate where no fuch claims are known to exift. It muft be, in fhort, as it has ever been, a spontaneous impulse, which no reflection is neceffary to produce and it must be excited by the mere prefence or idea of its object. It is to fome external diftinction that the child is taught to bow with reverence, until an affociation is formed in his mind, between that diftinction and a feeling of refpect; fo that the latter is fure to be called forth by the appearance of the former. It is thus that, according to the philofophy of nature, all our beneficial impulfes (even that of filial affection itfelf) are produced. For, according to that philofophy, man is a creature of fenfation and habit, as well as of reafon." He proceeds to fhew the beneficial fentiments which are generated by a due attention to those circumstances, which are trifling only in the eyes of thofe vain and weak men who look no farther than the fuperficies of fociety. "Of thefe two kinds of external diftinction, manners, and drefs, indifpenfable as they both are, the latter is the most operative upon the bulk of mankind. Cultivated manners are calculated chiefly to make an impreffion on cultivated minds; but drefs is more exclufively an object of fenfe, and it is, therefore, most fitted to operate on the mafs of fociety. It wants no aid from reafon, education, or reflection. It is fimple and obvious-it instantaneoufly ftrikes the fenfes, and it is uniform, conftant, and invariable, in its operation. It is a fymbol which no one can misunderstand, which every one, entitled to it, may, without difficulty, poffefs, and it denotes a claim, which being founded in custom (the most folid foundation of all claims) every one is ready to allow. The Receffity of exterior appendages, in order to keep alive fentiments of refpect, and to afford additional aid to authority, is recognized by the moft barbarous nations; and the Indian Chief, when he difplays his gaudy feathers and tinfel ornaments--when his fcarified body exhibits a painful pre-eminence beyond the extent of plebeian privilege-he proves himself a much better judge of human nature and of fociety, than the ableft advocate for the fublime system of modern philofophy." The The inference deduced from these reflections is that a more than ufual attention fhould now be paid, by every friend to virtue and his country," to the ceremonial ufages of wellordered fociety." Alas! the ftudied neglect of these usages fo difgufts the eye at every place of public refort, and has produced fuch a woeful change in the public manners, that unless they whofe peculiar duty it is to enforce, by their example, a rigid obfervance of them, immediately combine for that purpofe, it is much to be feared that the evil will ftrike too deep a root, to be eradicated without fome dreadful convulfion of the focial fabric. It is not a mere change that has taken place, of late years, in this refpect, but an abfolute inverfion of the order of fociety; for formerly the complaint was that the Blackguard (we beg pardon of the liberal world for ufing fo illiberal a reflection; but our vocabulary has not yet been reformed, à la mode de Paris) that the Blackguard, in his drefs, aped the Gentleman, whereas, now, it is notorious, the Gentleman apes the Blackguard; and the gentleman, as might be expected from his fuperior knowledge and attainments, is much the most successful imitator of the two. Some very pertinent remarks are made on an observation which has been mifchievously wrefted from its real purport, that "the pulpit is not the proper place for politics." If it be not the duty of a Chriftian minifter to enforce the observance of every duty of man, and of course, his political duties among the reft, many of the admonitions and precepts of the Apoftles had better bé érafed from the New Teftament. But the fact is that his religious and political duties are so interwoven, that he cannot duly difcharge the one without difcharging the other. In adverting to the rule of conduct neceffary to be obferved for producing a reform in the morals of the age, Mr. Bowles makes fome judicious remarks, on the Prefs, with the importance of which we have long laboured to imprefs the minds of our readers. "The first step towards the attainment of this most important object, obviously must be to check that contagion, by which the mind of man has been already fo far contaminated, as to endanger his focial exiftence. Numberless are the channels through which the most destructive paifon is conveyed into his mind; innumerable are the communications by which he is taught to disbelieve Chriftianity-to doubt even the existence of a God-to despise the obligations of morality-to contemn the authority of government and of law-to diflike his place in fociety and to pant, with inceffant refflefsnefs, for a change, of which he cannot form any idea, and which would involve the deftruction of every eftablishment that can afford him protection, and would expofe him, without the fmalleft defence, to the outrages of ruffian violence, and favage cruelty! The prefs is the chief vehicle by which thefe mifchievous impref frons are produced. Other means are certainly reforted to for the fame deteftable purpose; but none is fo much calculated for the univerfal circulation of bad principles as the prefs, which is inceffantly employed, at once to corrupt the fountains of fcience, and to ftimulate the lower orders to tumult and infurrection. To thefe baneful effects it is made fubfervient by every mode and species of publication-by grave and folemn effays on education and morality--by works of hiftorical compilation,* by novels teeming not only with allurements to vice, but with the horrors of blafphemy,† by New Annual Registers, by Monthly Magazines, and Critical Reviews, by cheap tracts, and by Jacobin newspapers-and even by reports of Parliamentary fpeeches-which reports often contain matter of the moft inflammatory nature, evidently calculated to promote fedition, to excite to treason, and to render the very labours of Parliament, for the relief of the country from the preffure of fcarcity, a fource of difcontent, difaffection, and outrage. "It is, therefore, of the first and most urgent neceffity to check and counteract the various endeavours, which are used to corrupt mankind, to render their principles depraved and their paffions ungovernable. Every perfon who really withes, not merely for the ultimate escape, but for the immediate prefervation of fociety, fhould exert all his vigilance and all his activity for the above purpofe. He fhould particularly fet his face against every publication which has a pernicious tendency. He fhould be conftantly on the watch to guard every avenue by which the foe to fociety makes his approaches to the human mind, and determined in whatever fhape that enemy may appear, to oppofe his progress-to expose his mifchievous attempts to the execration of the wife and good, and, wherever that is poffible, to fubject fuch attempts to legal retribution." The author views, the important fubject of education in a very proper light; and he corres a mistaken idea, respecting the interference of government, which is very prevalent though certainly pregnant with the most mifchievous confequences. "Of all the errors which lead to focial infelicity, no one can be more mischievous than that which feems, for centuries, to have generally prevailed in the civilized world, that education is not a ftate concern. If there be one duty belonging to Government, more important than all the reft, it is that of preserving the rifing generation from the infection of bad principles, and of preparing "* It is not merely by new publications of an historical kind, like the New Annual Regifter, that the public mind is infected, but old ones of good authority, and of unexceptionable principles, are continued to the prefent time, and thereby made inftrumental to the perversion of the youthful mind. Of this description is the new edition of Guthrie's Grammar.” "A work of this fort has been unblushingly avowed by a Member of Parliament: for its merits fee the Purfuits of Literature." them, them, by the inplanting of good ones into their tender minds, for the important character of members of fociety. The manner in which this duty ought to be performed, in a free and highly culti vated state, without appearing to put any violence on domeftic feelings, or disturbing the facred connection between parents and children, deferves the moft ferious confideration. The difficulty is greatly increased by the almoft total neglect of that duty which has prevailed, and by the great degree of depravity which exifts in confequence, chiefly, of fuch neglect—and which unavoidably pervades the established fyftem of education. The object, which in this refpect it would be defirable to attain, is that, without any interference with fatherly care and authority, education fhould be rendered the certain means of preparation for a virtuous life, as far as fuch preparation can operate with certainty upon a creature like man. The attainment of this object would involve so great a change from our present state and habits, that it can only be brought about by flow degrees. But every perfon, who really wishes well to the next generation, muft defire, at leaft, that the Legiflature fhould inftantly take effectual means to reftrain the very grofs abuses of education which actually exift-to prevent such persons from being entrusted, by inconfiderate parents and guardians,* with the care of youth, as would teach them to despise the duties of fubjects— duties, as we have feen, of religious and moral, as well as of civil obligation-and to provide, particularly, that the children of the poor, throughout the kingdom, fhall be brought up in the practice of attending divine worship every Lord's day, with fufficient inftruction to enable them to understand and join in that worship. It is a moft lamentable confideration, that a fmall, a very small, proportion of the labouring poor, ever attend the public ordinances of religion-and that their children, as far as depends upon them, are moftly deftitute of all religious inftruction. Can it excite wonder that their morals are fo depraved? This is an evil which calls for an inftant and effectual remedy. The inftitution of Sunday fchools, if not, under that name, carried to fuch an extent as to interfere with the duties of humble life, may be of admirable utility. But even those "The inconfideration of parents in this refpe&t is alike aftonishing and lamentable. Some, indeed, are guilty of a worse fault, than inconfideration, for they purpofely felect as inftructors for their children, men who are diftinguifhed for their difloyalty. But others, without any inquiry as to principles, fend their offspring to feminaries where it would be a miracle if they were not trained to become difaffected subjects, and, if occafion should offer, rank traitors. Parents of a third clafs, make full enquiries of every kind; but, finding a man of deep and extenfive erudition, but whofe principles they deteft, they facrifice every confideration to the fond, and, when prudently indulged, the laudable with of feeing a favourite fon make a brilliant figure in life, and refolving to run all risks, they truft him in the very midft of contagion, in the prepofterous hope that he may not be infected." fchools |