ten, it has nothing at all to do. It is indeed proper, and it is the duty of all parents to teach, or cause to be taught, their children as much as they can of books, after, and not before, all the measures are safely taken for enabling them to get their living by labour, or for providing them a living without labour, and that, too, out of the means obtained and secured by the parents out of their own income. The taste of the times is, unhappily, to give to children something of book-learning, with a view of placing them to live, in some way or other, upon the labour of other people. Very seldom, comparatively speaking, has this succeeded, even during the wasteful public expenditure of the last thirty years; and, in the times that are approaching, it cannot, I thank God, succeed at all. When the project has failed, what disappointment, mortification, and misery, to both parent and child! The latter is spoiled as a labourer; his book-learning has only made him conceited: into some course of desperation he falls; and the end is but too often not only wretched but ignominious.

Understand me clearly here, however; for it is the duty of parents to give, if they be able, book-learning to their children, having first taken care to make them capable of earning their living by bodily labour. When that object has once been secured, the other may, if the ability remain, be attended to. But I am wholly against children wasting their time in the idleness of what is called education; and particularly in schools over which the parents have no control, and where nothing is taught but the rudiments of servility, pauperism, and slavery.

The education that I have in view is, therefore, of a very different kind. You should bear constantly in mind, that nine-tenths of us are, from the very nature and necessities of the world, born to gain our livelihood by the sweat of our brow. What reason have we, then, to

presume that our children are not to do the same? If they be, as now and then one will be, endued with extraordinary powers of mind, those powers may have an opportunity of developing themselves; and if they never have that opportunity, the harm is not very great to us or to them. Nor does it hence follow that the descendants of labourers are always to be labourers. The path upward is steep and long, to be sure. Industry, care, skill, excellence, in the present parent, lay the foundation of a rise, under more favourable circumstances, for his children. The children of these take another rise; and by and by, the descendants of the present labourer become gentle

men.

This is the natural progress. It is by attempting to reach the top at a single leap, that so much misery is produced in the world; and the propensity to make such attempts has been cherished and encouraged by the strange projects that we have witnessed of late years, for making the labourers virtuous and happy, by giving them what is called education. The education which I speak of, consists in bringing children up to labour with steadiness, with care, and with skill; to show them how to do as many useful things as possible; to teach them to do them all in the best manner; to set them an example in industry, sobriety, cleanliness, and neatness; to make all these habitual to them, so that they never shall be liable to fall into the contrary; to let them always see a good living proceeding from labour, and thus to remove from them the temptation to get at the goods of others by violent or fraudulent means, and to keep far from their minds all the inducements to hypocrisy and deceit.

And bear in mind, that if the state of the labourer has its disadvantages, when compared with other callings and conditions of life, it has also its advantages. It is free from the torments of ambition, and from a great part of the causes of ill health, for which not all the riches in the world, and all the circumstances of high rank, are a compensation. The able and prudent labourer is always safe at the least; and that is what few men are who are lifted above him. They have losses and crosses to fear, the very thought of which never enters his mind, if he act well his part towards himself, his family, and his neighbour.

Poverty leads to all sorts of evil consequences. Want, horrid want, is the great parent of crime. To have a dutiful family, the father's principle of rule must be love,

not fear. His sway must be gentle, or he will have only an unwilling and short-lived obedience. But it is given to but few men to be gentle and good-humoured amidst the various torments attendant on pinching poverty. A competence is, therefore, the first thing to be thought of; it is the foundation of all good in the labourer's dwelling; without it, little but misery can be expected. "Health, peace, and competence," one of the wisest of men regards as the only things needful to man, but the two former are scarcely to be had without the latter. Competence is the foundation of happiness and of exertion. Beset with wants, having a mind continually harassed with fears of starvation, who can act with energy, who can calmly think? To provide a good living, therefore, for himself and family, is the very first duty of every man. things," says Agur, have I asked, deny me them not before I die: remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee: or lest I be poor, and steal."

Miscellaneous.

"Two

EDITORS OF THE OLDEN TIME.-Some of the early editors of London newspapers appear to have assumed as many opposite functions as a Jack of all Trades." He was," says the author of 'Tales of To-day,' quoted in the Monthly Magazine, "the printer and publisher of his journal, and must have been more like a broker or auctioneer of the present day than any character now known in connexion with the diurnal or weekly press ;" and from a string of advertisements from a paper published for the truth of his advertising friends. The following in 1697, he seems to have been a sort of general voucher examples may not be unamusing :

"If a Hamburgh or other merchant, who shall deserve L.200 with an apprentice, wants one, I can help.” "One has a pert boy, about ten years old, can write, read, and very well recommended; she is willing he should serve some lady or gentleman."

"I want a cook maid for a merchant."

"I sell chocolate made of best nuts without spice or perfume, and with vinelloes and spice, from 4s. to 10s. the pound, and I know them to be a great helper of bad stomachs, and restorative to weak people, and I'll answer for their goodness."

"If any will sell a free estate within thirty miles of London, with or without a house, to the value of L.100 the year or thereabout, I can help to a customer."

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If any have a place belonging to the law, or otherwise, that is worth L.1000 or L.1200, I can help to a customer."

"If any divine or their relics have complete sets of MS. sermons upon the Apostles and Gospels, the Church Catechism or Festivals, I can help to a customer."

"A fair house in East Cheap, next to the Flowerdeliz, now in the tenure of a smith, with a fair yard laid with freestone, and a vault underneath, with a cellar under the shop, done with the same stone, is to be sold: I have the disposal of it."

"I believe I could furnish all the nobility and gentry in England with valuable servants, and such as I can have very good recommendations."

"Mr David Rose, chirurgeon and man midwife, lives at the first brick house on the right hand in Gun Yard, Houndsditch, near Aldgate, London. I have known him these twenty years."

"I want an apprentice for an eminent tallowchandler."

"I know several men and women, whose friends would gladly have them matched; which I'll endeavour as from time to time I shall hear of such whose circumstances are likely to agree; and if they will come to me it shall be done with all the honour and secresie imaginable. Their own parents shall not manage it more to their satisfaction: and the more comes to me, the better I shall be able to serve 'em.”—Newspaper Directory.

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HOME. Not poets only, but persons who ought to know better, are apt to discourse fluently upon the sanctities of home. "Home's home," says the wise proverb, abstaining from going beyond a bare fact. "Home's sacred," says the dealer in false dogmas, caring nothing about fact. 'Approach," cries the sentimentalist, "but approach slowly and with reverence. This is hallowed ground. Home is at hand. Pause ere you presumptuously cross the threshold, or look lightly in at the open door. A man's house is his castle. Sanctity dwells there. Direct not a flying glance at the window; let not even one heedless, wandering look find its way in at the halfclosed blinds. As for the keyhole-take care, or your ear may come accidentally in contact with it; for heaven's sake take care, or your eye may be drawn by the strong current of air to the aperture, and with one compulsory peep you may violate all the sanctities! Home is sacred." But why are the sentimentalist's fellow-mortals to enter these precincts thus cautiously and reverentially? Why dread to intrude? Why step as if upon holy ground? Why shrink from knocking uninvited? Why not enter without ceremony? A man's home is the place where a man is most himself; home, then, is the very place of all others where we should rush in at all hours to see him, sure of never taking him at a disadvantage. When somebody is seen to make himself vastly comfortable, and to indulge at ease in the enjoyment of his own natural manner, he is said. though wandering all the time a thousand miles from his hearth-stone, to be quite at home. Human nature, at home, then, is a true thinga veritably honest existence. It is not a semblance of the man, but the man. He has scraped off his hypocrisy with the dirt from his shoes at the street door, ere he entered; he has left his mask, comic or tragic, with his hat on the appointed peg, not wanting either by the fireside where he unfolds himself; and he has thrown off the garb of outward manner which he has perhaps all day worn, as effectually as he has relieved himself of his travelling incumbrances. He has now no more power to act a part than he would have in sleep. His face is his natural face, his manner is his own personal property, and his speech is not a kind of ventriloquism, but describes his real feelings in tones unaffected. Is this a state of things that should make delicate people blush at the bare idea of their own intrusiveness ?-Laman Blanchard's Sketches from Life.

PRICES OF BOOKS AMONG THE ANCIENTS.-It is recorded of Plato, that notwithstanding he had a very small paternal inheritance, he bought the books of Philolaus, the Pythagorean, at the price of ten thousand denarii, about L.300 sterling. It is also said that Aristotle bought a few books belonging to Spensippus, the philosopher, after his decease, for three Attic talents, about L.581, 5s. St Jerome almost ruined himself in order to purchase the works of Origen. -Hartwell Horne.

TIME.-We are for lengthening our span of life in general, but would fain contract the parts of which it is composed. The usurer would be very well satisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the present moment and next quarter-day. The politician would be contented to lose three years in his life, could he place things in the posture which he fancies they will stand in after such a revolution of time. The lover would be glad to strike out of his existence all the moments that are to pass away before the happy meeting. Thus, as fast as our time runs, we should be very glad, in most parts of our lives, that it ran much faster than it does. Several hours of the day hang upon our hands, nay, we wish away whole years, and travel through time as through a country filled with many wild and empty wastes, which we would fain hurry over, that we may arrive at those several little settlements, or imaginary points of rest, which are dispersed up and down in it.-Addison.

AIM.-Aim at perfection in every thing, though in most

VALUE OF REGULAR EMPLOYMENT-With the exception of one extraordinary man, I have never known an individual, least of all, a man of genius, healthy and happy without a profession-i. e. some regular employment, which does not depend on the will of the moment, and which can be carried on so far mechanically, that an average quantum only of health, spirits, and intellectual exertion are requisite to its faithful discharge. Three hours of leisure, unannoyed by any alien anxiety, and looked forward to with delight as a change and recreation, will suffice to realize in literature a larger product of what is truly genial than weeks of compulsion.— Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.

persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.-Chesterfield.

sold by HOULSTON & STONEMAN, Paternoster Row, London; W. BLACKWOOD and J. M'LEOD, Glasgow; L. SMITH, Aberdeen; and may be had by order of every Bookseller in the United Kingdom. Edinburgh, Saturday, April 25, 1846.

deal but to gamble in matters which they did not know, or, if knowing, had certainly no exclusive or absorbing concern with. It is all very well to say that Government should have imposed restraints but that puts us in mind of a drunken fellow in & market, who proposing to fight, called out to the crowd, "Hold me! hold me." Some were foolish enough to comply with the request, but the more sagacious observers thought he might safely be left to take care of himself. At the boiling point of the excitement none lifted up a warning voice save the Times, Punch, and here and there a banking house. The Times was roundly accused of being bribed, and an Iron rival was started to put it down with mailed glove the sneer of the witty hebdomadal was held to be no scandal-the old bankers were regarded as old wives, and new institutions adapted to the age sprang into existence, and we doubt not that they have softened the fall. Then editors generally maintained a prudent reserve, for golden showers, in the shape of advertisements, were falling thick, and supplemental leaves fluttered as copiously as those of Vallambrosa. The order of the day was that commercial enterprise should, like woman, be left to follow "its own sweet will," and we are afraid that the fate of Perceval would have been the lot of any statesman who should boldly have controverted the proposition. When horses in a carriage run off, the toll-keeper, if he sees the animals in the height of their fury, does not shut his gate, but rather opens it the wider, knowing well that if suddenly arrested, destruction will follow both to horses and passengers -if their ardour were on the wane, the shutting of the gate would be good policy; but the whole success of the experiment depends entirely on the stage of the gallopade. When the railway delusion was at its climax, and when men imagined that a new era had dawned on the world, a check would have produced something like revolution. Compliance with standing orders in the matters of lodging plans, paying deposits, and such like, were all so many breaks to retard the downward movement; and it may be a question for discussion, how far, after there was a visible diminution in the rate of speed, it was prudent to delay the shutting of the gate. That, however, comes to be a political topic, and as this is a journal which aims at discussing points in self and not political government, we can enter no further on it. We therefore only say this, that however much inclined to sympathise with railway victims, we cannot condole with them at the expense of truth and common sense, and we therefore tell them distinctly, that mainly they have themselves to blame for all that has happened. Money is loved for its own sake, which is avarice; or for the sake of the things which it can acquire, which in excess is ambition or extravagance. Avarice, ambition, and extravagance, have thus been the leading incentives to railway speculation-and what was the fourth? People who had families to support from slender incomes, were they not entitled to join in the general mêlée in search of gain? Undoubtedly people so situated, and every other body who has a farthing to spare, is entitled to add to their means if they can. But the method adopted is something. The cottager should not risk his all on any contingency-if safer, although less tempting investments can be made-nor should the shopkeeper leave his counter and fly to the Stock Exchange, and allow himself to be led away by the frenzied competition that prevails there. Who is attending to his customers while he is playing his fantastic tricks with scrip, and bulls, and bears, and stags? Not his

shop-lads, but his plodding, steady rival, who, minding his own proper business, will not allow himself to be seduced into bye-paths of extra-traffic, however alluring. Speculation so pursued becomes imprudence-and we take it, that the four principles named have been the root of the evil.

But the evil exists, palpably and tangibly; and how is it to be remedied? The merchant cannot get his customers to pay their accounts, and in return he cannot pay those from whom he bought his goods; neither can he settle with his physician, lawyer, or the teacher of his children. What is to be done? This scheme has been wound up, and the preliminary expenses have swallowed all save a trifle; that scheme has also been wound up, and left over a surplus for division; but he bought at a high premium, and for many reasons can have no recourse on the party who was the seller. In answer, we have only to say, that, if not absolutely ruined, such parties must wait the turning of the tide. No capital has left the country; it has merely changed hands; and, like waves which for a time have been gathered to one side of a continent, it must gradually find its way back to a state of equilibrium. The parliamentary agents, the lawyers, the surveyors, the engineers, the engravers, the contractors, landed proprietors, architects, masons, labourers, &c., are in possession of the money which speculators have lost. None of it has been flung into the sea or been buried in the earth. A thousand pounds, if, like "the adventures of a guinea," it were possible to trace its progress, might perhaps be found to have gone, in the shape of weekly wages, into the pockets of a thousand "navies," and they do not throw it from them. If not consumed in the "truck" vortex, it finds its way into the hands of the village baker, grocer, or innkeeper, and in due course of time goes upwards in society until the panic subsides and disappears, just as a storm at sea exhausts itself and settles down into tranquillity. Patience and caution are therefore the only things that can be prescribed for the present tightness in the money-market; and if it be objected that they are slow remedies, we can only say, that the nature of the disorder admits of nothing beyond sedative treatment. Legislation may prevent some railway losers from losing more, but it cannot cause those who hold the lost money to disgorge and refund the original capitalists; that must be left to the slow operation of time. It and "chance" are, in the words of the song, sore to bide," but needs be must be.

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Like all casualities, the present embarassments will cause the wary to learn more caution, and teach the reckless circumspection; and although both will have to pay the schoolmaster Experience somewhat expensively, his instructions will be salutary and not easily forgotten. Another evil, however, remains behind, which is not so easily remedied, and that is the arrestment of a national movement of great and lasting importance. Railways, considered abstractly, have nothing improper about them; the same illusive speculation might have sprung up in building houses, steam-boats, or in conveying water or gas. Transit of goods and passengers is of as much consequence as any of these objects; and it is to be regretted that, as in the case of all gregarious efforts to do too much, the re-acting influence will be to do too little, and hence an embargo may be laid on what is in itself most useful for the accommodation and positive enjoyment of the community. Such a result, however much to be deplored, cannot be warded off by any other means than those we have pointed out as remedies for the cases of individual hardship under which so many are presently suffering.