grammatical correctness. At present it would be found upon a fair enquiry that the dissenters are the best educated part of the English public. Though the schools and academies, at which they are taught, are still very imperfect, often lamentably so; yet they have in general done something, in many instances they have done not a little, towards keeping pace with the intellectual progress of an improved and enlightened age: while the old established institutions, appropriated, and by the tests and subscriptions they require, exclusively appropri ated, to the education of churchmen, have remained so nearly in the state to which the darkest and corruptest ages gave birth, that what the pupils bring away, either of intel lectual or moral worth, they may much more properly be said to bring away in spite of the institutions, than by means of them. Let us but suppose a quantity of funds, equal to that large mass which is absorbed by the English universities, ready to be appropriated to the business of national education. We believe that such an application of such funds would not, at the present day, find a man that would propose any thing like to it. In the first place, such a mass of funds might afford institu tions for the higher branches of education to every part of the English nation; whereas now the universities educate in point of numbers, only a most insignificant portion. It might afford the means of teaching all those branches of knowledge which are of most importance in the public or private business of an enlightened age; whereas the universities hardly teach any of those branches. The plans of education which it might support, might be plans which would impress the pupils with the most elevated notions of the importance attached to the business of teaching them; whereas in the universities the most effectual measures are taken to impress the pupils with a conviction that to the business of teaching them no importance is attached at all. The underlings alone in the universities teach. All the great men, all the men to whom the pupils look up, think teaching below them. All the men, upon whom the highest rewards and distinctions are bestowed, are not so rewarded and elevated, for being the most arduously and usefully engaged in the great business of teaching. No; they are men who do nothing. Doing nothing is the most honourable thing in the universities; and also the best rewarded.-Practical lessons; the sight of what men do; the perception of what men feel; operate much more upon the minds of youth, than the hearing of what men say; especially when their words and actions are at palpable variance. It will be of little use to tell a youth at the universities, that it is of great importance he should learn, when he sees it is reckoned of no importance at all in what manner he is taught; that the business of teaching him, or of even looking at the teaching of him, is despised by all those who are the objects of greatest reverence in the university, and who receive the greatest rewards; and that hardly any one ever thinks of him or his teaching, but the subordinate individual, the private tutor, who minds him only because it is necessary for getting a livelihood. It will be in vain to tell a youth that labour is necessary to entitle him to respect; when he perceives around him that the most idle men are the most respected, the best rewarded; while the laborious men are poor and neglected.* A part of the church have set up the cry of danger, from the prospect of the education of the poor. Were they wise in their generation, they would see that she is more in danger from the education of the rich. When the dissenters were so ill educated, that those among them, who received the best education, were hardly educated enough to speak and write their own language with grammatical correctness, it was easy for the church to retain that superiority, to which the superior endowments of her sons naturally entitled her. Now, however, the case is most remarkably altered. Not only is the education of the dissenters often better than the education of the church; but the education of the dissenters is progressive, while that of the church is stationary. The schools and academies of the dissenters are open to improvement; they are daily receiving improvements; they eagerly adopt them. The institutions of the church are for the most part shut against improvement. * It might be still further remarked; that the English universities contrive to unite the evils of every plan of education; while they exclude the advantages of every plan. The great evil of public education, is the assembling together a great number of youths, who by the violence of their passions, and the weakness of their experience, corrupt one another. The great advantage of it is, that the public teacher is a sort of elevated personage; and his instructions, inspiring reverence and awe, are impressive and commanding. The English universities assemble the youths, but give no public instruction. The lessons of the tutor are private, and might as well be given at the pupil's paternal home. They partake of all the feebleness of domestic instruction; and have none of the advantages which attend domestic innocence and paternal inspection. Whatever public education is calculated to do, for corrupting the morals of youth, is, at the English universities, naturally done. Whatever public education is calculated to do, for strengthening the intellectual faculties of youth, is, at the English universities, for the most part carefully left undone.-This is a fruitful theme; but we must as present pursue it no further. They for the most part reject it with the utmost violence; and, under the name of innovation, or some other such opprobrious name as theory, speculation, and so forth, do what they can to render it odious. If things should go on in this train, the intellectual superiority on the side of the dissenters must sooner or later become so great, that the people at large cannot fail to perceive it. Nor can it happen otherwise, than that, wherever the people perceive the intellectual superiority to reside, there, as often as they have no other motive, their reverence should be attached. It is not the outcry against innovation, the blind adherence to antiquated imperfection, nor all the arts of private, as opposed to public interest, that will subvert the physical and moral laws of the universe.* We shall not stop to notice the common circumstances of the life upon which Howard entered, when he returned from his travels; the places of his residence; his marriage; the places of religious service which he frequented, &c. It is worth while however to remark, that, notwithstanding the defectiveness of his education, it had given him a turn for liberal enquiry; and he evinced his talents of philosophical observation in three papers of his which were published in the Transactions of the Royal Society; of which in May, 1756, he had become a member Dr. Aiken thus states to his rea ders the contents of those papers, and describes the path of enquiry for which Mr Howard had formed a taste. "In vol, LIV. On the Degree of Cold observed at Cardington in the Winter of 1763, when Bird's Thermometer was as low as 10. "In vol. LVII. On the Heat of the Waters at Bath, containing a Table of the Heat of the Waters of the different Baths. "In vol. LXI. On the Heat of the Ground on Mount Vesuvius. "This list may serve to give an idea of the kind and degree of his philosophical research. Meteorological observations were much to his taste; and even in his later tours, when he was occupied by very different objects, he never travelled without some instruments for that purpose. I have heard him likewise mention some experiments on the effects of the union of the primary colours in different proportions, in which he employed himself with some assiduity." It is by no means improbable, had the mind of Howard not received the direction which it did; had it not been led to the collection of facts of a still more interesting description, that several branches of the science of physics would have received important assistance from the rescarches of his active, indefatigable, persevering, and attentive mind. * The education of the dissenters, we mean the education of those who are able to afford the expense of a liberal education, is a most important topic, to which we shall take an early opportunity of doing justice at large. We shall now pass directly to the scenes which occupied Mr. Howard, as a landlord, when he went to reside upon his estate. His first wife having survived their union but a short space, he had contracted a second marriage which added greatly to his happiness; and after a short trial of another residence, he established himself permanently upon his estate. at Cardington in Bedfordshire.We extract the following passage from Dr. Aiken "Here he steadily pursued those plans, both with respect to the regulation of his personal and family concerns, and to the promotion of the good of those around him, which principle and inclination led him to approve. Though without the ambition of making a splendid appearance, he had a taste for elegant neatness in his habitation and furniture. His sobriety of manners and peculiarity of living did not fit him for much promiscuous society; yet no man received his select friends with more true hospitality; and he always maintained an intercourse with several of the first persons in his county, who knew and respected his worth, Indeed, however uncomplying he might be with the freedoms and irregularities of polite life, he was by no means negligent of its received forms; and, though he might be denominated a man of scruples and singularities, no one would dispute his claim to the title of a gentlemen. "But the terms on which he held society with persons of his own condition, are of much less importance in the view I mean to take of his character, than the methods by which he rendered himself a blessing to the indigent and friendless in a small circle, before he extended his benevolence to so wide a compass. It seems to have been the capital object of his ambition, that the poor in his village should be the most orderly in their manners, the neatest in their persons and habitations, and possessed of the greatest share of the comforts of life, that could be met with in any part of England. And as it was his disposition to carry every thing he undertook to the greatest pitch of perfection, so he spared no pains or expense to effect this purpose. He began by building a number of neat cottages on his estate, annexing to each a little land for a garden, and other conveniences. In this project, which might be considered as an object of taste as well as of benevolence, he had the full concurrence of his excellent partner. I remember his relating, that once, having settled his accounts at the close of a year, and found a balance in his favour, he proposed to his wife to make use of it in a journey to London, or any other gratification she chose. "What a pretty cottage it would build," was her answer; and the money was so employed. These comfortable habitations he peopled with the most industrious and sober tenants he could find; and over them he exercised the superintendence of master and father combined. He was careful to furnish them with employment, to assist them in sickness and distress, and to educate their children. In order to preserve their morals, he made it a condition that they should regularly attend their several places of worship, and abstain from public-houses, and from such amusements as he thought pernicious; and he secured their compliance with his rules by making them tenants at will." After some general reflections relating to the state of the poor in England, Dr. Aiken proceeds, "There are few counties in England which afford less employment to a numerous poor than that of Bedford; of course, wages are low, and much distress would prevail were it not for the humanity of the gentlemen who reside upon their estates. Among these, Mr. Howard distinguished himself by a peculiar attention to the comfort and improvement of his dependents; and he was accordingly held by them in the highest respect and veneration. I may add, that he possessed their love: which is not always the case with those who render essen tial services to people of that class. But he treated them with kindness, as well as with beneficence; and he particularly avoided every thing stern or imperious in his manner towards them. Whatever there might appear of strictness in the discipline he enforced, it had only in view their best interests; and if under his protection they could pass a tranquil old age in their own comfortable cottages, rather than end their lives in a workhouse, the subordination to which they submitted was amply compensated. It is certain that the melioration of manners and principles which he promoted, was the most effectual means of eventually rendering them more independent; and I have reason to know, that, latterly at least, he was as well affected to the rights, as he was solicitous to augment the comforts, of the poor. "His charities were not confined to those more immediately connected with his property; they took in the whole circle of his neighbourhood. His bounty was particularly directed to that fundamental point in improving the condition of the poor, giving them a sober and useful education. From early life he attended to this object; and he established schools for both sexes, conducted upon the most judicious plan. The girls were taught reading, and needlework in a plain way: the boys reading, and some of them writing, and the rudiments of arithmetic. They were regularly to attend public worship in the way their parents approved. The number brought up in these schools was fluctuating, but the institutions were uninterrupted. In every other way in which a man thoroughly disposed to do good with the means Providence has bestowed upon him, can exercise his liberality, Mr. Howard stood among the foremost, He was not only a subscriber to various public schemes of benevolence, but his private charities were largely diffused, and remarkably well directed. It was, indeed, only to his particular confidents and coadjutors that many of these were ever known; but they render him the most ample testimony in this respect. His very intimate and confidential friend, the Rev. Mr. Thomas Smith, of Bedford, gives me the following account of this part of his conduct, at a time when he was deeply engaged in those public exertions which might be supposed to interfere with his private and local benefactions. "He still continued to devise liberal things for his poor neighbours and tenants; and, considering how much his heart and time were engaged in his great and comprehensive plans, it was surprising with what minuteness he would send home his directions about his private donations. His schools were continued to the last." It is impossible any stronger proof can be given, that the habit of doing good was wrought into his very nature, than that, while his public actions placed him without a rival for deeds of philanthropy, he should still be unable to satisfy his benevolent desires without his accustomed benefits to his neighbours and dependents, "Another early feature of that character which Mr. Howard afterwards so conspicuously displayed, was a determined resistance of injustice and oppression. No one could be more firmly relied on as the protector of right and innocence against unfeeling and unprincipled power. His indignation was roused by any attempts to encroach or domineer; and his spirit led him, without hesitation, to express both in words and actions, his sense of such conduct. As no man could be more perfectly independent, both in mind and situation, than himself, he made that use of his advantage which every independent man ought to do ;-he acted as principle directed him, regardless whom he might displease by it; he strongly marked his different sensations with respect to different characters; and he was not less strenuous in opposing pernicious schemes, than in promoting beneficial ones." This scene is remarkable chiefly from its rarity; for good taste alone, without any higher motive, would suffice for the production of it. Good taste exerts itself to produce the appearance of comfort and happiness even among the cattle under one's power; to produce order and neatness even in one's |