From whom, as from the fountain of their race, Yet ftill the root gives KINGS to BRITAIN'S ISLE: Nor lefs, MACLEOD, thy triumphs fhe'd adorn, All hail, great Chiefs, to your paternal feats, To view the dawnings of approaching light, Or like loft lovers, all their forrows o'er, With DRUMMOND's name his ELPHINSTONE's might join, And hail the union of their kindred line; Might fing of virtues, by the wife extoll'd, And paint the CASTLE fmiling as of old! Thefe fubjects charm; but fuch emotions bring, May each enjoy whate'er confpires to please,- P Nor Nor courts nor camps engross their only care, And fcorn a knave, tho' dignified and great. April 11, 1784. TO THE EDITOR OF THE GENERAL MAGAZINE. ON EDUCATION. SIR, CONVINCED of the neceffity of a proper education, to form the minds of the lower claffes, I fhall not offer any other apology for the following effay, but that I am forry that it is not more worthy of your acceptance, and that of your numerous and enlightened readers. The plan propofed, though defective in many refpects, is fuch, I am perfuaded, as will meet with the approbation of fome of the most intelligent and beft informed men in the country. That man is in a great measure the creature of habit and education, is what every perfon of found understanding is ready to admit. What then is to be expected of the children of the labouring poor in this country, not one amongst a hundred of whom have been able to give their children one half of the food neceflary for preserving health for these two years paft, much lefs of beftowing any education upon them?-Let us furvey the ftreets of large towns; What do we see but vast numbers of ill-clothed and worse fed idle children, left to ramble at large, and commit petty crimes for want of better employment? It is evident that their parents are unable to pay school fees for them: Therefore fome proper method ought to be taken for supporting public teachers, in order to instruct them in reading the Englith language grammatically, and also in writing, and the rules of Arithmetic, Vulgar and Decimal, if they fhould have no more. Without education the mind becomes torpid or depraved; and the perfon is rendered not only incapable of rational converfation, but of conceiving any generous, noble, tender, or sympathetic fentiment. How many men, without any other patrimony than a good education, have raised themselves to the first ranks in fociety, merely by their talents? and how much have fuch men benefited fo ciety ciety by those talents, which, but for education, would never have appeared in the world. It is feldom from those men called noble that the world is much benefited by fcience.-The greater part of these have large overgrown fortunes, and defpife fcientific as well as mechanical employments. The discoverers of the most ufeful arts have, with few exceptions, been men of mean birth. If then the youth of this country are to be brought up like fo many beafts of prey, it is to be feared that we are already paft the meridian of our national prosperity, ingenuity and glory. It is, in my opinion, a duty which government owes to fociety, or rather to the nation, to establish public feminaries for the inftruction of youth. Let the teachers have moderate but not large falaries; let them have annual gratuities according to the proficiency of their scholars; and let those who are found deficient in inftructing their pupils be difmiffed, their names published, and themselves rendered incapable of ever again acting as public teachers. The falaries ought to be paid by government, and the school-houses provided by the counties. A committee ought to be judiciously chofen from the learned of all claffes, to examine the candidates as well as the fchools annually, and according to their report let the teachers be either rewarded or dif graced. All perfons whatever, who make application to have their children admitted into thefe schools, ought to be allowed to fend them without anfwering any queftions. The nation being paymafter, all ought to have an equal right. Unless fome fuch plan as the above is adopted, I will venture to affirm, that Britain will fall as faft back in knowledge, as any nation ever did. The mechanic and labourer are now incapable of paying fees for the education of their children, nor is it at all probable, that they ever will be able again. The prices of provifions have been gradually advancing for many years, and this is not to be wondered at, for an increase of the price of the neceffaries of life is the natural P2 *It must be allowed, however, that the prefent age has to boast of fcientific noblemen more than any former one. Not to expatiate upon the late Count de BUFFON and other foreign nobles, the Earl of STANHOPE's abilities are well known. Every one has heard of the valuable difcoveries of the Earl of DUNDONALD: and your correfpondent, the Earl of BUCHAN, is in many respects as confpicuous as either. The Editor begs leave to refer PHILANTHROPOS to Lord Orford's Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, (now very incomplete), for a very extensive lift of men not lefs illuftrious for learning than by birth. natural confequence of the increase of taxes. The manufactories of this country have in many inftances reached their climax. If an example is wanting to confirm this. truth, I shall mention one of the moft ftaple branches we have, viz. Weaving. No improvement of any confequence has been made in it for the laft twelve years. The mechanic at that period could do as much work as it is in his power to do now, and at that time he had in many branches far better wages than he has at this time, or probably ever will have again, though the prices of moft neceffaries are now tripled. At that time he could hardly afford to give his children a moderate education; what then can he do now, when his utmost industry will not afford him more than one third of the neceffaries of life, which it would have afforded at that period?-I am not one of those who think that things will at fome future period run in their old channel: no, that will never be the cafe. The landholder: cannot pay heavy taxes unless he receives high rents. The farmer cannot pay these rents unless he obtain a high price for the product of his fields. This being the cafe, dear provifions may be reasonably looked for, even after the moft plentiful harvests. Our manufactories never can, and never will bear a proportion with the neceffaries of life; for the other nations of Europe will rival us as foon as peace is fettled. In many places of Germany a man can live as well .on fix-pence a day as he can now do in Britain on four fhillings. Is it then reasonable to fuppofe, that the labouring part of the community will ever be able to educate their children? No, they never will. If government therefore does not provide inftructors, they will foon become as ignorant and barbarous, as the ancient inhabitants of this island were when the Romans firft invaded it. Perth, 20th July, 1801.} PHILANTHROPOS. Mr EDITOR, YOUR inferting in your General Magazine, The 'Abbé Barruel's Account of THE RECANTATION AND DEATH OF VOLTAIRE, will, I dare fay, afford more 'fatisfaction to many of your Subfcribers, than the account of the King's Bench, and will particularly oblige, W. B. -VOLTAIRE was at that time in his eighty-fourth year. After fo long an abfence, and always under the power and and lafh of the law, he could only have appeared publicly in Paris to controvert thofe impieties which had brought the animadverfion of the parliament on him. D'Alembert and his academy refolved to overcome that obftacle. In spite of religion they easily fucceed, and minifters, chiefly adepts, abufing the clemency of Lewis XVI. obtain the recal of this premier chief, under pretence that this aged man had been fufficiently punished by his long exile; and that in confideration of his literary trophies, his failings might be overlooked. It was agreed that the laws fhould be filent with regard to him on his approach to Paris; the magiftrates feemed to have forgotten the decree they had passed against him. This was all that the confpirators wifhed. Voltaires arrives in Paris, he receives the homage of the Sect, and his arrival conftitutes their triumphal day. This man, bending under the weight of years spent in an unrelenting warfare, either public or private, againft Chriftianity, is received in the capital of his most Christian Majesty, amidst thofe acclamations which were wont to announce the arrival of the favorite child of victory returning from the arduous toils of war. Whitherfoever Voltaire bent his fteps, a croud of adepts and the gazing multitude flocked to meet him. All the academies celebrate his arrival, and they celebrate it in the Louvre, in the palace of the kings, where Lewis XVI. is one day to be a prifoner and a victim to the occult and deep confpiracies of the Sophifters. The theatres decree their crowns to the impious chief; entertainments in his honorrapidly fucceed each other. Intoxicated through pride with the incenfe of the adepts he fears to fink under it. In the midit of thefe coronations and acclamations he exclaimed, You wish then to make me expire with glory!-Religion alone mourned at this fight, and vengeance hung over his head. The impious man had feared to die of glory; but rage and defpair was to forward his laft hour fill more than his great age. In the midst of his triumphs a violent hemorrhage raised apprehensions for his life. D'Alembert, Diderot, and Marmontel, haftened to fupport his refolution in his laft moments; but were only witneffes to their own ignominy as well as to his.. Here let not the hiftorian fear exaggeration. Rage, re-morfe, reproach, and blafphemy, all accompany and characterize the long agony of the dying Atheift. This death, the most terrible that is ever recorded to have stricken the impious man, will not be denied by his companions in it-piety; their filence, however much they may wish to deny P:32 its |