“. . . . .You know, my dear Neville, that I have endeavoured always to impress upon the public the necessity of educating the people. If that education is either so conducted, or left so imperfect as in many cases to do harm rather than good, the fault is not in the principle, but in the mismanagement of it. The great evil which at present it produces is that of making young persons discontented with the stations which they were intended to fill; and thus producing more claimants for the stations one degree higher than can be provided for in that class. Whenever the education which such persons receive shall become universal, this mischief must necessarily cease. It produced nothing but good in Scotland, because it was universal there.
“A more difficult question is, how to render the
religious instruction which children receive at school of more effect. And
where parents neglect, as they so very generally do in that station of life,
this duty,
| 144 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 57. |
“I am perfectly satisfied that no children ought to be left without education; so much as to enable them to read, write, cypher, and understand their moral and religious duties. But about infant schools I do not see my way so clearly; and am not sure whether some harm is not done, both to parent and child, by taking so much off the parent’s hands. No doubt it is a choice between evils. Of this I am sure, that half the crimes which disgrace this nation are brought on by street education, which goes on in villages as well as in towns. So far as infant schools tend to prevent this, they are greatly beneficial.
“You ask me about Magdalen institutions. There is
scarcely any form of misery that can have so strong a claim upon compassion as
that which these are intended to alleviate. Often as the intention may be
disappointed, one case in which it succeeds may compensate for fifty
disappointments. And these poor creatures are not so generally, I might say so
uniformly, to be distrusted as prison converts.
| Ætat. 57. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 145 |
“Look again at what I have said concerning the observance of Sunday, and you will perceive that I have argued against Dymond’s liberal notions about the day, and also against, not a religious, but a puritanical, observance of it; for that, I am sure, tends to promote irreligion. Of the two extremes I would choose rather the popish than the puritanical Sabbath. Let us keep the mean.
“James Stanger is expected here next week, but for a short time only. He is a very valuable man, and I have a sincere respect for him, though very far from being as good a neighbour as he might like to find me, and, were he less considerate than he is, might expect me to be. But I have no time for neighbourly intercourse.
“No room is left for politics. My hope is that the Ministers will not think it expedient to resign till war begins; for something would seem wanting in political justice if it were not to be begun under their administration. God forgive them for the mischief they are doing by their portentous budget of reform; and for calling in, as they have done, and are doing, the aid of the villainous press, in order to carry it by intimidation. Passages in the ——, which even the Editor would not dare to write, are said to have been supplied to him for this purpose.
“Our kind remembrances to your fireside.
“God bless you, my dear Neville!
