That country, if at all, is to be lov'd!

Of the chaste eye or ear unworthy, may In this my early song be seen or heard. The following beautiful passage is from another part of the poem.

In such a silent, cool, and wholesome hour,

The Author of the world from heaven

came

Ο γὰρ μισότεκνος, καὶ πατὴρ πονηρός, οὐκ ἂν ποτε γένοιτο δημαγωγός χρηστός· οὐδὲ ὁ τὰ pikrara nal oixsióтatα σwμaтa un σrépywv, ουδέποτε ὑμᾶς περὶ πλείονος ποιήσεται τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους" οὐδέ γε ὁ ἰδίᾳ πονηρὸς, οὐκ ἄν ποτε Véroito dnμogía xpnorós. Esch,de Cor. xxix.

This remarkable coincidence has also been noticed in the Quarterly Review, art. Gifford's Political Life of Pitt.

Those of your readers who are familiar with Cowper's Letters, will recollect the name of Hurdis, the well-known and amiable author of the Village Curate. It may be no unsuitable supplement to the Cowperiana, to insert a select extract or two from an author who, in manner and spirit, bears, though on a smaller scale, a considerable resemblance to that poet; displaying in the midst of much careless. ness, some rather insipid description, and much prosaic writing, much of Cowper's freshness of expression, liveliness of painting, and purity and kindness of sentiThe following is the open.

ment.

ing of the second part.

Ye gentle pow'rs, if any such there be, (And, if there be not, 'tis a sweet mistake To think there be) that day by day un

mark

Shall He approve, who cannot look on guilt?

The following inscription was written by the author for the tomb of a younger sister.

Farewel, sweet maid: whom, as bleak Winter sears

The fragrant bud of Spring, too early blown,

Untimely Death has nipt. Here take thy rest,

Inviolable here! while we, than thou Less favour'd, through the irksome vale of life

Toil on in tears without thee. Yet not long Shall death divide us -flight

· Rapid is the

Reply to the Inquiry of Mr. Steven into the Abuses of the Chartered Schools in Ireland. By the Rev. R. N. HORNER, A.B. Curate of Dundalk, Diocese of Armagh. Dundalk: 1818. pp. 32. General Report of the Charter Schools of Ireland, visited in the Summer and Autumn of the Year 1817, presented to the Incorporated Society in the Month of February 1818. By the Rev. ELIAS THACKERAY, A.M. Vicar of Dundalk, and formerly Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, Dublin: 1818. pp. 68.

IN our Number for March last, we gave some account of a pamphlet published by Mr. R. Steven, on the subject of the Chartered Schools of Ireland." The statements which that pamphlet contained have produced a vindication of those schools from the pen of Mr. Horner, in which it is affirmed, that the greatest part of Mr. Steven's delineation is utterly groundless as applied to their existing circumstances. He complains, and certainly with some shew of justice, that Mr. Steven should have previously entered into no personal examination of the schools which he so unsparingly attacks, and that he should have cited no printed documents on the subject, of a later date than thirty years. We conclude, however, that during that long period only one printed document has made its appearance-namely, the Report of

the Commissioners of Education made to the Government in 1809, and afterwards laid before the House of Commons-because it is the only one to which Mr. Horner refers. Had there been any other, he ought to have pointed it out. Assuming that we are correct in supposing that this Report is the only additional source of infor. mation respecting these schools, which has issued from the press since the year 1788, we think the public have still some right to complain of the obscurity that has enveloped the conduct of an institution which has been supported at so large an expense to the nation, and which the clearest evidence had shewn to have been most shamefully mismanaged.

To this Report, on which Mr. Horner lays great stress, we ourselves have not had access; and we cannot therefore venture to state what may be its general bearing ou the question at issue between that gentleman and Mr. Steven: but, without doubt, the extracts produced by Mr. Horner are of such a decisive character, that it will be necessary for Mr. Steven to explain why his inquiry was not di rected to this document as well as to those which had preceded it,

Mr. Edgeworth is the principal witness adduced by Mr. Horner. He is brought forward as congratulating "the Society on the flourish. ing state of their schools," and as testifying "that the system of edu

cation was efficacious, practical, free from bigotry, and in every respect such as to put it beyond the reach of private defamation or public censure." With all our respect for Mr. Edgeworth, however, we must think that his testimony is somewhat too general and unmeasured for the purpose of satisfactory vindication, especially as we shall find that, eight years afterwards, when Mr. Thackeray inspected these schools, there still remained some defects in their administration, which might very reasonably call for censure and reform.

Mr. Horner affirms, that the animadversions of Mr. Howard and Sir J. Fitzpatrick had produced their intended effect in the increased comforts and improvement of the children, and that those establishments have now attained to a state of considerable excellence. He supports this assertion by bringing forward from the Report of 1809 two additional witnesses, Mr. Corneille, Secretary to the Board of Education, and Dr. Beaufort. The former expresses "the very great satisfaction he experienced from the very general good state of the Society's schools which he had been sent to visit and inspect." And the latter speaks thus: "It appears that this great number of children are trained up in health, cleanliness, and good order; and, although they may be better instructed in some schools than others, yet in all they are reasonably well taught to read and write, and all learn their duty to God and man."

"When our Report," adds Mr. Edgeworth, "passes through the hands of Government to the public at large, it will be compared with Mr. Howard's just representations of these schools at a former period. The comparison will give an irrefragable proof of the gradual and increasing attention which is now paid to the lowest classes of people in Ireland," It does not appear,

however, that this Report, though laid on the table of the House of Commons, was ever given to the public. And we the more regret this circumstance, as Mr. Horner's extracts from it are very scanty, consisting indeed only of the passages which we have above transcribed. At the same time, enough transpires to shew that the Report did not consist exclusively of panegyric; for it is observed by Mr. Horner, that while the witnesses "bestowed praise on all that merited approbation, their censure was inflicted on all that merited reproof." No further particulars, except in the way of incidental reference, are given of this important document on which Mr. Horner seems mainly to rely as establishing the extreme inaccuracy of Mr. Steven's statements. This charge of inaccuracy, however, will turn upon the fact, whether Mr. Steven had this document before him. Mr. Horner more than insinuates that he had: he says, "Mr. Steven's own words imply his having read it." He leaves, therefore, the inference to be drawn that he could not have overlooked it, but must have suppressed the information which it contained.

The assertion of Mr. Steven, that the children of Papists have been kidnapped, or torn from their parents, to fill these schools, Mr. Hor ner states to be utterly unfounded. The very form of admitting a child to the Charter Schools requires that the father, or the mother, or the next of kin if both should be dead, should entreat for the admission, and should give a full and voluntary consent to the child being educated in the principles of the Protestant religion. He endeavours, also, to convict Mr. Steven of some exaggeration in his statement of the finances of the Society. Instead of 60,000l., the sum at which Mr. Steven had estimated its annual income, Mr. Horner maintains, that it amounts only to 50,000l. But even this fast

sum is so very large as to give the public a fair right to expect the most important results from its application. The National Education Society, in the seven or eight years of its existence, has produced, on the population of this country, effects of vast extent and magnitude, compared with which the results of the Chartered Schools in Ireland, during the same period, dwindle down into perfect insignificance; and yet the whole amount of the funds, which the former has bad to expend, has not exceeded the income of the latter for a single year. The two societies proceed, it is true, on different plans. But why is not the most efficient plan adopted in Ireland, the country which is acknowledged on all bands to stand most in need of it? The objection of Mr. Horner to the substitution of a different course of education in the place of that pursued in the Chartered Schoolsnamely, that "the defects of a different course can only be fully ascertained by the test of years, and can only be known, when to know them may be fruitless"-will have no weight whatever, in opposition to the experience furnished in Scotland by its parochial schools, and in this country by the National and Lancasterian institutions. -There was, it is true, one grand purpose which might have been served by the Chartered Schools; we mean that of educating schoolmasters for Ireland. Had this object been attended to, we might have long since witnessed the most beneficial effects flowing from their institution to the whole population of that neglected country. As mat-, ters have been conducted, the, Chartered Schools Society, with an admitted income of 50,000l. per annum, has not succeeded in furnishing fit schoolmasters even for their own forty or fifty schools. And now, for the first time, as we learn from Mr. Thackeray, the Committee of the Society are called to deliberate upon the propriety of

taking measures for the education of male and female teachers. But we are anticipating Mr. Thackeray's interesting Report, to which we shall now turn our attention.

In the year 1817, Mr.Thackeray, accompanied by his lady, inspected the whole of the Chartered Schools: and, at the close of his tour, rendered to the Society a minute and circumstantial Report of each, which we trust will be laid before Parliament in the ensuing session. The Report now published contains only such general remarks as had been suggested to him by what he saw. To these we will briefly advert.

An uniformity of dress has been adopted in the Society's schools, and the clothing of the boys is supplied from Dublin; so that there is now, in Mr. Thackeray's opinion, a greater security that the materials will be good than when they were supplied by the masters. The girls, however, are still supplied by the mistresses, and the materials are stated to be, in some instances, inferior; in addition to which some useful articles are wanting. On the whole, a great improvement is reported to have taken place as to the comforts of good clothing, and as to neatness and cleanliness in the management of it. And yet it is clear, that much still remains to be done on this important head. "In some schools," says Mr. Thackeray, "these points are by no means neglected; and though in others more attention is requisite, there are very few instances of striking disregard." Something, he says, is still required "in order to make the schools universally creditable, and to ensure to the children all the comfort which good clothing affords." This Mr. Thackeray regards as of " vital importance," "because it will otherwise be impossible to form those habits of neatness and decency which it is one of the important objects of the Society to introduce."

Mr. Thackeray speaks of the

schools as generally healthy: all except one have been exempt from the late epidemic. A few schools, however, have been dicredited by the prevalence of ophthalmia and ringworm, and more by the blameable neglect of eutaneous eruptions. We draw a more unfavourable inference respecting health from the generality of the following apologetical observations than even from these admitted instances of culpable neglect. "To judge fairly," says Mr. Thackeray, "on this head, it is necessary to remember that these institutions are open to poor children of every description; that as there is no admission under six years old, bad nursing, bad feeding, and consequent disease, may have made deep inroads before that age upon the constitution; besides, that maladies rooted in the frame may not appear until after that period.' Is there, then, no medical examination instituted before children are received into these schools? Is it possible that deep inroads on the constitution of a child of seven years of age, or even that maladies rooted in the frame, should in any material number of instances evade the scrutiny, we will not say, of medical skill, but even of a superficial observer who has been accustomed to contemplate the varying appearances of his own children?' What would be said to the conductors of Christ's Hospital or any other great school on the English side of the channel, who should preface their Report of the health of their pupils with such an anticipated defence as this? The reasonable presumption would be, that there was much ill health among the children, and conse quently much neglect in the conductors of that particular seminary. Such a mode of defence, indeed, if it could be admitted, would be equally available to the cottonspinners of Lancashire as to the schoolmasters of Ireland.

Mr. Thackeray has remarked,

that the progressive improvement which in most instances is observ. able in the manners and general appearance of the children, is in proportion to the attention of the visitors and catechists, and the kind conduct of the masters and mistresses; and he very properly re commends that the masters and mistresses, whose negligence has led to different results, should be made to feel that their continuance in office will depend on their future care and fidelity.

Mr. Thackeray's observations on the education given in these schools are far more creditable to him than they are to the Society. They seem to us to indicate a lamentable failure in the main object of its institution. Let Mr. Thackeray here speak for himself.

Society differ greatly from each other. "In this respect the schools of the

In several of the schools the masters have persuaded themselves, that they are not concerned in the education of the children, but merely in their domestic and general super. intendence.

"Where masters have formed this erroneous opinion, the ushers are, în some instances, but ill qualified to dis charge the duties of instruction.

"The difficulty of obtaining teachers is universally acknowledged throughout Ireland: the Society, therefore, have too frequently been compelled to be satisfied with the best they could ob tain. I have already expressed my per suasion, that they may have, in their own institution, the very best remedy for this defect; and that by a proper course, they may not only derive from

their establishment the means of its own

great improvement, but also make it become an extensive national good.

"The demand in Ireland for parish clerks, schoolmasters, and mistresses, in her present anxiety for information, ap pears to me to be such as would employ one half of the children annually sent

out of the Society's schools: and I am inclined to believe, that if institutions, such as I have suggested to the Board, were once formed, applications would soon be made from every quarter. The progress in common education, including under this term, reading, writing, spelling, and accompts, is in many