it is impossible to make the human race recede in this particular; and that if it were practicable, it is not desirable. Unquestionably education and the press must work out their own impurities; the fermentation must take place, if the British empire should perish during the process.

But this much appears evident, that public instruc tion must be aided by a very different safeguard, and antidotes to evil very different provided from the scientific efforts of the educationists. It is neither by Bacon nor Newton, nor the Labourers' Institutes, nor the Penny Magazine, that the tendency of popular education to admit evil and run riot is to be corrected. A phantasmagoria of curious and amusing scientific tracts, or pieces of information, compiled for the diversion of the labouring classes, and drawn rapidly by the periodical press before their eyes, is utterly nu gatory as a preventive to evil. It is RELIGION which must stand guardian at the gate: it is the Cherubim, whose flaming sword turns every way, that should guard the entrance. Philosophy and science must be left to philosophers and the learned: the great body of mankind must be reached by that only branch of know ledge, which was delivered to all indiscriminatelythe knowledge of the Gospel. We hear little of this from the educationists: it is studiously excluded from the course of study in many seminaries of educa. tion and institutions for the spread of information; but, nevertheless, it is the only species of knowledge which is universally intelligible, which is universally useful, which is universally desirable. Nature has destined three or four in every thousand to be philosophers; thirty or forty in the same number to be learned men;

but seven or eight hundred to be virtuous citizens, faithful husbands, kind parents, and good men. She has communicated to a few gifted spirits in every age the power of enlarging the boundaries of knowledge; to a wider, but still narrower circle, the faculty of acquiring and enjoying it; but to all, the means of discharging their moral and religious duties, and passing with as little stain as human frailty will admit through this scene of trial. It is on this basis that every rational and useful system of public instruction must be founded; any other is contrary to the intentions of Nature, at variance with the capacities of mankind, productive in the end of more evil than good.

In the hour of creation God himself said to our first parents," Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat; for the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The expression, "thou shalt surely die," is wrong translated; it means, "thou shalt become liable to death," and such, accordingly, was the fact. These words have been to the Jews a stumblingblock, to the Greeks foolishness; but, six thousand years after they were spoken, the experience of mankind is beginning to prove their truth and develope their import. They mean, apparently, that man is unable of himself to withstand the choice of good and evil; that, unaided, he will in general choose the latter, because it is the most alluring; and that, from tasting of the fruit of knowledge, and being exposed to the temptations which it involves, nations, not less than individuals, will imbibe the seeds of mortality.

Is, then, knowledge to be for ever kept from the people? must we rest in the melancholy conclusion,

346 ADVANTAGES AND DANGERS OF POPULAR INSTRUCTION.

that the light of science is too strong for the human mind, and that ignorance is the only passport to social happiness? No! there is a remedy existing, which was in full operation fifteen hundred years before the means of general information by means of the press were communicated to mankind. The Christian religion has provided an antidote to the poison which lurks in the luscious fruit of the tree of knowledge; and which, indispensably necessary to all ranks, is most of all to those who receive only the rudiments of educa tion, and from their humble station in life can never procure more. She has established a Guardian, who is able to give to mankind the blessings of information, and keep from them the corruptions with which it is attended. It is by separating these things that the disasters which all deplore have been brought upon society in the British islands: it is by reuniting them alone that they can be averted. But if we pursue our headstrong course, and disregard the admonitions of experience, not less than the dictates of religion, let us not deceive ourselves, we "SHALL SURELY DIE;" and the ruins of the British Empire, the most glorious monument of human civilisation that ever existed, will attest to the latest generation the truths unfolded in the book of Genesis, and the consequence of the rejection of the Elixir of Life provided in the New Testament.

CHAPTER XV.

ON COLONIZATION AND THE RECIPROCITY SYSTEM.

ARGUMENT.

Marvellous growth of the British Colonial Empire-General decline of our exports to Europe during the last forty years—And progressive increase of foreign over British shipping in conducting our trade during that period—Causes to which this has been owing-Different principles of the Colonial and Reciprocity Systems—They cannot coexist in the same state-Effect of the Reciprocity System on our foreign shipping with the countries with whom these treaties have been concluded-Effects on the progress of our trade with the same countries-Trade with the countries with whom we have concluded no Reciprocity treaties-General result of the progress of our trade with foreign nations, and our colonies or their descendants-Fundamental errors of the Reciprocity System-It strives to resist an obvious and important law of Nature-And was founded on an apparent and fallacious, not real reciprocity-Principle on which the commercial hostility of foreign nations to us is founded-Signal error in supposing that the increase of our exports to any quarter will counterbalance these disadvantages—Causes which have counterbalanced the decay of our exports to, and shipping with the European states-Astonishing growth of our colonial empire-Progress of our trade with Canada—And Australia—And the East Indies-Wonderful contrast between that and our trade with the old states of Europe-Magnitude of our exports to the colonies per head of their inhabitants, compared with that to the states of the old world-Causes of this difference Incredible benefit which the increase of our colonial empire would bring to the parent state-In relieving our population, creating a market for our manufactures, and increasing our navy-Marked decline in the British Navy at this time, compared with what it was in 1792-Effect of Colonies in obviating this evil-Singular passage of Gibbon on New Zealand-Magnificent prospects of British Colonization-And their apparent connection with ancient Prophecy.

ON the 20th October 1805, the conqueror of continental Europe stood on the heights of Ulm, to behold the captive army of Germany defile before him. While every head around him swam with the giddy

intoxication of the spectacle-while every eye in the vanquished thousands who crowded past, was turned with involuntary homage towards the hero who had filled the world with his renown,-the steady mind of Napoleon regarded only the future; and, discerning through the blaze of present glory, the shadow of coming events, he said to those around him-" Gen tlemen, this is all well; but I want greater things than these; I want 'ships, colonies, and commerce.' On the day after these memorable words were spoken -on the 21st October 1805-the combined fleets of France and Spain were destroyed on the waves of Trafalgar by the arm of Nelson, and a few dismasted hulls, riddled with shot, alone remained, of the vast armament which had so recently threatened the British empire, to carry the tale of woe to the vanquished, and "ships, colonies, and commerce" had irrevocably passed into the hands of their enemies. We now see the fruits of that mighty victory; we behold the British race peopling alike the Western and the Southern Hemispheres, and can already anticipate the time when two hundred millions of men on the shores of the Atlantic, and in the isles of the Pacific, will be speaking our language, reading our authors, glorying in our descent. Who is there that does not see, in these marvellous events, the finger of Providence, or can avoid the conclusion, that the British race is indeed the chosen instrument for mighty things, and that to it is given to spread the blessings of civilisation and the light of religion as far as the waters of the ocean extend?

When such has been the evident preparation made for the British Colonial Empire, and when it is