picture with the poverty and vice of the unlettered peasantry of Ireland, and the result will be, that reading is one of the chief securities against moral, political, and religious error. An instructed and an intelligent people are always more decent and orderly than those who are ignorant. Feeling themselves individually more likely to obtain the approbation of their superiors, they are, on the other hand, more disposed to pay to these superiors a due tribute of respect; and being more capable of seeing through the selfish views of demagogues, they are less blindly led into disobedience.-Another objection to education, with timid I men, is an apprehension that the lower orders would become unwilling to perform that drudgery which belongs to their situation in life: but this is little else than saying that education would make them forget to eat and drink. The fact is, that while the wants of nature obliged them to continue to labour, education would only enable them to perform that labour much better. Discontent is generally the effect of ignorance; knowledge enabling us both to ascertain our duties and appreciate our blessings in this life, and referring the mind to that future state in which the inequalities of this transient scene will be adjusted.

Though we generally participate in Mr. Dewar's opinions, on one point his views and ours do not exactly accord; we mean, the rapidity of increase in Irish population. He thinks that the early marriage which is common among the catholics, by creating young families without adequate provision, is a public misfortune: but early marriage has such powerful recommendations in our eyes, that we are with difficulty brought to admit arguments on the opposite side. Without entering into a discussion of the question, we shall merely observe that Mr. Dewar's notions are founded on a well known work on population, which perhaps does not adequately estimate the additional means of provision afforded by increased population. We are more likely to agree with the author when he contrasts the state of the poor in Ireland and in Scotland. In the latter, they are industrious and comfortable without much assistance from their richer neighbours; while in Ireland they are superstitious and comfortless, wandering about in crowds on the public roads, and stunning the passenger with their petitioning vociferation. We coincide with Mr. Dewar likewise on a very different matter, viz. the increased necessity of correcting, by previous education, those confined views of which the subdivision of labour is productive. It has been said by many that this favourite doctrine of Dr. Smith tends to debase that society which it professes to improve: but those persons carry the point too far, and do not take a comprehensive view of the extent of Dr. Smith's reasoning. By his plan, the acquisition of education would be as much facilitated and abridged as that of other Vol. III. New Series.

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things. A knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic may be attained in the juvenile years of the mechanic, and should by all means be his object before he takes the step of devoting himself to an uninstructive occupation.

As early as the reign of James I. free schools were erected in several of the large towns in Ireland, and have since been extended to different parts of the country.

"It appears, from a late report of the commissioners of the board of education in Ireland, that their number is greater than might have been supposed. Of 1,122 benefices, returns have been made to the commissioners from 736 of these: by which it is shown, that in this number of benefices there are 549 schools, at which 23,000 children receive instruction. The course of instruction comprises reading, writing, and arithmetic. The schools are open to children of all religious persuasions; who, for the most part, pay for their education at rates which vary from two shillings and sixpence to five shillings and fourpence, and even as high as eleven shillings a quarter. It appears from the report, that there is a great want of proper schoolmasters and school-houses; and that religious prejudices, more particularly in the south and west, have operated against the attendance on the schools. In the parish of Ballesidare, diocess of Killala, there seems to be a general determination on the part of the Roman catholics not to send their children to protestant schools, and vice versă. But from the general returns from all the diocesses, it is evident that a large proportion of the children attending the parish schools, throughout Ireland, are of the Roman catholic religion.' 'The commissioners acknowledge that though a school similar to those which already exist were established in every parish in Ireland, it would be perfectly inadequate to the instruction of the Irish poor.'— No funds, however great, or the best considered establishment, can substantially carry into effect either any improvement in the parish schools, or any general system of instruction of the lower orders of the community, until the want of persons duly qualified to undertake the education of the lower classes be remedied, and till some institution be formed to prepare persons for that important office.

"It should be recollected, then, that in Ireland there are no legal establishments similar to the parochial schools of Scotland: what the commissioners call parish schools, are those in which the teacher receives the principal part of his salary either from the recent or remote endowments of government.

"Those schools that are called protestant charter-schools in Ireland, are far from being adapted for popular instruction. Great sums are annually expended for their support, whilst their utility is extremely limited. This arises, partly from the narrow principle of confining them to protestants, or to the children of such Roman catholics as allow their offspring to be educated in the reformed religion; and partly from the circumstance of their being boarding schools. A general system of education, to make it useful, must be conducted on the most popular plan.

In these protestant charter-schools the children are too much at the mercy of the masters and mistresses; and too little judgment is shown in the selection of the persons who are invested with the important trust of educating these children. The consequences are such as might naturally be expected; frequently gross inattention, or worse, with respect to the cleanliness, the diet, and apparel of the children, as well as to their morals, and progress in industry. Hence, it too frequently comes to pass, that when the charter-school children are taken as apprentices, to be trained up as domestic servants, or instructed in manufactures, they commonly prove slothful, dirty, and vitious.""

The great defect in the plan hitherto followed is the total want of teachers who are acquainted with the native language of the Irish. It is quite natural that the dissatisfaction engendered by oppression among the people should be transferred, in some degree, to the English language, and to English schools. Instruction in this strange tongue flatters no prejudice, and awakens no feeling of patriotism: while their priests, on the other hand, address them in the language of their fathers, which is endeared to them by many circumstances. Moreover, the children, understanding in general only a few words of English, find it very far from easy to comprehend the instruction of their masters. With regard to the difficulty of procuring proper teachers, about which so much has been said, nothing of that kind has been experienced in Scotland, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge having as many as they require, at the moderate allowance of 15l. a year. To such persons, a salary of 251. a year, with a house and trifling school fees, would prove an adequate inducement to undertake the task of teaching in Ireland; and from the similarity of Gaelic to Irish, these teachers would, in the course of a few months after their arrival, acquire a complete facility in instructing the children of the catholic peasantry. This plan has been partly adopted by the Hibernian society, who support between thirty and forty schools; and the Highland teachers prove, it is said, very acceptable to the inhabitants: but no private charity, however respectable, can be equal to the task of a general diffusion of education, and the only proper plan is a provision by law for parish schools. These, if conducted on the plan of Bell, or of Lancaster, will perhaps be sufficient in the number of one in each country parish; while, on the method formerly pursued, two schools in a parish would frequently be necessary. Whatever be the course adopted, Mr. Dewar is confident that no general success will be attained without procuring teachers who understand the native language; and he has no doubt that such persons may be found in adequate number in the north and west of Scotland. No pains, he says, should be spared to amend the degraded state of the catholic peasantry, who are now so sunken in humiliation as not to account it dishonourable to beg; and it is no unusual thing

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for cottagers, after having planted their potatoes, to leave home on a begging excursion, and continue their tour till harvest.

Having completed our abstract of Mr. Dewar's observations, we must fulfil the less pleasing task of animadverting on his style. It often falls to our lot to regret the obstacles which are thrown by authors in the way of their own popularity, by neglecting to digest and arrange their composition; and the measure of our disappointment is doubled when the value of the matter, as in the present case, is such as to possess a considerable claim on the public attention. Mr. Dewar is probably a young anthor; his name being unknown to us in the list of literary labourers, and his composition bearing evident marks of an unpractised hand. Like many other writers, he seems to have taken up the pen, full of warmth for his cause, and of arguments in its behalf, but with no clear conception of the course in which these arguments should be presented to his readers. He appears accordingly to have written straight forwards; and to have gone to press without being aware how much he would have gained by a revision, or rather recomposition of his materials. The author who expects extensive circulation or permanent favour for his work, must arm himself with a very different disposition, and have no scruple in cutting down, with merciless severity, the first effusions of a warmed imagination. It is not enough to possess an ardent zeal, or even a store of ideas on the subject on which he writes; that zeal should be chastened, and those ideas be meditated, corrected, and arranged, before they are submitted to the tribunal of the public. The chief fault of Mr. Dewar consists in want of compression. We have heard it stated as the practice of a veteran analyzer of the principles of law, that he marked in his manuscript each new idea by an arithmetical figure; excluding with rigid scrupulosity, as a useless accumulation of words, all expressions which failed to come under his conception of new thoughts or new illustrations. What an extraordinary deduction in the bulk of volumes would be accomplished by a practical application of this severe edict! How many examples would it afford to Mr. Dewar, that the idea introduced in one paragraph had been repeated with no change, but that of words, in the next; and that it reappeared a third time, at no great distance, in a succeeding chapter. In the case of this publication, indeed, the printer appears to have been in as vehement haste as the author. Not only do we find an acknowledged irregularity in the enumeration of the pages, the numbers beginning afresh in the middle of the book, but, in the words serving to connect different pages, anomalies occur which are not usual among our typographers, Mr. D. promises an additional work on the Poetry, Customs, and Superstitions of the Native Irish; to which we shall willingly direct our attention, in the hope of finding proofs of the same liberality which does honour to the present performance, without equal cause of animadversion on the score of com position.

$469

Hours of Idleness: A Series of Poems, Original and Translated. By George Gordon, Lord Byron, a Minor. 8vo. pp.

200.

[The dispute between Lord Byron and the Edinburgh reviewers has made great noise in the literary world. His caustic retaliation on those writers has gone through two American editions; but the following review, which was the original provocation, has never, we believe, been republished in this country.]

THE poesy of this young lord belongs to the class which neither gods nor men are said to permit. Indeed, we do not recollect to have seen a quantity of verse with so few deviations in either direction from that exact standard. His effusions are spread over a dead flat, and can no more get above or below the level than if they were so much stagnant water. As an extenuation of this offence, the noble author is peculiarly forward in pleading minority. We have it in the title page, and on the very back of the volume; it follows his name like a favourite part of his style. Much stress is laid upon it in the preface, and the poems are connected with this general statement of his case, by particular dates, substantiating the age at which each was written. Now, the law upon the point of minority, we hold to be perfectly clear. It is a plea available only to the defendant; no plaintiff can offer it as a supplementary ground of action. Thus, if any suit could be brought against Lord Byron, for the purpose of compelling him to put into court a certain quantity of poetry, and if judgment were given against him, it is highly probable that an exception would be taken, were he to deliver for poetry the contents of this volume. To this he might plead minority; but as he now makes voluntary tender of the article, he hath no right to sue, on that ground, for the price in good current praise, should the goods be unmarketable. This is our view of the law on the point, and we dare to say so will it be ruled. Perhaps, however, in reality, all that he tells us about his youth, is rather with a view to increase our wonder than to soften our censures. He possibly means to say "See how a minor can write! This poem was actually composed by a young man of eighteen, and this by one of only sixteen!" But, alas, we all remember the poetry of Cowley at ten, and Pope at twelve; and so far from hearing, with any degree of surprise, that very poor verses were written by a youth from his leaving school to his leaving college, inclusive, we really believe this to be the most common of all occurrences; that it happens in the life of nine men in ten who are educated in England; and hat the tenth man writes better verse than Lord Byron.

His other plea of privilege our author rather brings forward in