tages of instruction denied to themselves, advocating doctrines irreconcileable with it. It is a fact, recognised by all who have investigated the subject, and demonstrable to all, that the introduction of machinery for simplifying manufacturing processes has had the effect, not alone of increasing the comforts of the great body-the consumers-but also of multiplying manifold the demand for labour, even in the particular branches to which the machinery is applied; and yet how common is it to hear men of educated minds, but who have not allowed themselves to consider this class of facts, inveighing against the introduction of a new machine as an interference with the rights of labour! From such a doctrine, as well as from others equally false and equally pernicious, there are no means of preserving the people but by educating them. It is evident that the kind of knowledge which will preserve from such fallacies will not be the result of instruction in the mere elements of learning; and this is rendered equally clear by the fact, that men, whose education has been carried far beyond the elementary degree, have failed to acquire right views concerning points which the general safety requires should meet the practical assent of all; but this presents no difficulty. The educated man fails to recognise the truth, because, he is but partially educated, and has been left in ignorance with regard to that branch of knowledge which the working men, if educated at all, would be sure to make their own, since it intimately concerns their daily comforts, and is essential to the welfare of their families. That they would do so we have the evidence of experience to teach us; for have not all their strikes and risings had for their object the attainment of something which in their unenlightened reasoning they have conceived to be their right, mistakenly, no doubt, but proving thereby how deep is the interest they would feel in securing the general welfare, fron the moment they should come to know how completely their own true interests are involved in it? It would appear to be the duty of every Government to see that its subjects are taught their duties as men and as citizens, and thus to provide for the security of all. Lessons to this end have indeed been taught by the Government of England, but to whom have they been imparted, and by what agency have they been enforced? To be adopted as a scholar, a man must-at least up to a comparatively recent period-have qualified himself to appear as a criminal at the bar of justice, and his chief schoolmaster would have been-the hangman! If one tithe of the expense that has been incurred to so little purpose during the present century in punishing criminals, had been employed for preventing crime by means of education, what a different country would England have been to that which our criminal records show it to have been! * * * * Thank Heaven! this truth at length is making its way to the convictions of our rulers. The principle is recognised that the people must be instructed. There is no longer any party found to question this principle, or to oppose its practical application. Differences there are and will be as to the best mode of carrying it out, but those differences of opinion are not allowed to stay the progress of education, which will, which must, go forward, and perhaps the more rapidly by reason of the discussions that arise out of those very differences. The Government plans are still [1850,] perhaps, too recent, and, it must be added, too imperfect, to exhibit any very striking result; but with a knowledge of the enlightened zeal which is allowed to carry out the intentions of the legislature, it is not too much to hope that enough of good will soon be made apparent to show the desirableness of extending those plans, so that we shall soon cease to be the lowest among the Protestant kingdoms of Europe, as respects the performance of our duty in promoting the education of the people.-PORTER'S 'Progress of the Nation.' WHETHER it arises from a consciousness of the danger to which sailors know their lives are constantly exposed, or the frequent opportunities they have for calm and serious reflection in the lonely mid-watch, surrounded by the most elevating and spiritstirring scenes in nature, they have, in general, a due sense of the importance of religion and the existence of a future state. It is no less true, that this sentiment is too often found to be strongly tinctured with its not unfrequent concomitant, superstition. They implicitly believe in omens', mermaids, the Flying Dutchman, evil spirits, the appearance of the ghosts of the departed, and the pranks of malicious spirits and goblins. They familiarly talk of frightful sounds and preternatural noises coming up from the deep, all having an import of fearful warning, and occasionally portending accidents or the death of a mess mate. The simple and uneducated mind of the sailor seizes on the supposition of some preternatural occurrence in all such cases, as the easiest way of accounting for these appearances, which a better-informed mind would endeavour to unravel by the application of philosophical principles, or a close examination of the facts-comparing them with the usual operations of nature in such situations. But these are efforts to which a tar is unequal; his creed, therefore, is easily made up, and hence certain shores, islands, and even latitudes, known to the naturalist as abounding in marine animals, which produce strange sounds when approached or surprised on the surface of the water, or basking ashore, are accounted by sailors ominous and fearful of approach. A seaman, too, as devoutly as any Methodist, believes in the efficacy of a call; with this difference, that the latter imagines it will prove the means of preserving him from perishing finally in fire; the sailor, that, if the legend of his mother and granddam be true, it will avert a similar fate by water. Of witches, such is his dread, that a horse-shoe, always toe-up, is nailed to the forepart of the fore-mast as a specific against those unhallowed hags. Is the superstition of a Laplander more silly ? Valuable as a fair wind is to a sailor, he would sooner lose it, and run the chance of its chopping about, and detaining him for weeks in harbour, than voluntarily sail on a Friday. Should he be compelled, from circumstances, to sail on that ill-starred day to schoolboys and sailors, he will not fail to attribute to that circumstance every the minutest failure or most serious accident which subsequently occurs throughout the voyage. For some animals they entertain a singular predilection; whilst for whole classes of their fellow-creatures, even those whom they permit to plunder them with impunity as a matter of business, they entertain in this respect a comparative horror. No sailor would hesitate to throw a Jew rather than a cat overboard, perhaps without being aware of the high authority which sanctions such a line of distinction. He may think, with his holiness of Rome and general councils, that in promoting the cause of the extirpation of heretics, he "is doing God service;" whilst he dreads that the offence against the brute creation will be visited by the consequent and inevitable penalties of sickness, scurvy, hard weather, masts struck by lightning, or vessels miraculously escaping during chase. Their suspicions are not confined to beasts, as allies of the great enemy of man: even the birds which soar aloft come in for their share, possibly from his considering them as liege subjects of the "prince of the power of the air" (as a great authority calls Satan), and therefore bound to do his dark behests on the viewless winds." Their appearance at sea is almost always thought a sinister occurrence. Some are considered the harbingers of a tempest and storm; others, like "Mother Carey's chickens," the active agents of the foul fiend, already bent on their destruction. With reference to these calumniated little creatures, they often gravely tell at nightfall a story, which fails not to make the circle round the galley-fire smaller by degrees as it proceeds-but whether through intense attention or apprehension, it luckily is unnecessary to determine :—as “how the Tiger East Indiaman, outerbound, had one continued gale without intermission, till they got to the 'Cape,' by which time they were almost a wreck; that off the ' Cape of Good Hope,' in particular, they were nearly foundered; that in the height of this gale were seen a number of ominous birds screaming about in the lightning's blaze, and some of them of monstrous shape and size; that among the passengers was a woman called 'Mother Carey,' who always seemed to smile when she looked up to these foul-weather birds, upon which they concluded she was a witch; that she had conjured them up from the Red Sea,' and that they never would have a prosperous voyage while she remained on board; and, finally, that as they were just debating about it, she sprang overboard, and went down in a flame; when the birds (ever after called 'Mother Carey's chickens') vanished in a moment, and left the Tiger to pursue her voyage in peace!”— HALL'S Naval Sketch Book.' 1. In ancient times, it was supposed that coming events were indicated by signs showing their nature. These signs were called omens. 2. There is here a pun on the word call. Methodists, according to this author, believe in a Divine call, and so the sailor believes in a caul, and carries it about with him for his personal safety. 3. The Laplanders were not converted to Christianity till the 17th century, and they still retain many heathen superstitions. 4. I never heard that Friday was in bad odour with schoolboys. Indeed I should rather say it was a favourite day. "Black Monday" used to be the term of schoolboys, but even they would be ashamed of such silly nonsense now-adays. 5. This word points to the belief in omens, already spoken of. A flight of birds, on the right hand, was considered lucky; but on the left hand (Lat. sinister), unlucky. THE INCHCAPE BELL. No stir on the air, no swell on the sea, With neither sign nor sound of shock, Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock; When the rock was hid by the tempest swell, |
