schools highly respectable; in several schools only moderately good; and in some few, very defective. The circumstances just referred to sufficiently account for this difference.

"I must once more observe, that I see no means of ensuring general efficiency except that already pointed out. This, and this alone, would remedy defective schools, and improve the best.

"The sensible advantages, thus seeured, would obviate objections which at present, even some Protestants, start

against the Charter School Establish

ment.

"It would be universally felt, that the public money could not be better expended, than in not only communicating competent education to those who would otherwise be neglected, but in continually training apt and able instruments, who might communicate to multitudes, the beneficial habits formed in themselves by lengthened discipline and complete instruction." pp. 14-16. What a picture does the above extract exhibit of the inefficiency of this great and expensive esta blishment! What must be the system of regulation, inspection, and controul, when masters could be suffered to continue for one day, not to say for years, under the delusion that they had nothing to do with the education of the children! And then the ushers, who are their only substitutes, are sometimes altogether unfit for the office of teaching! And this, be it remembered, is the Report made in the year 1817 respecting the schools of a society possessing an annual income of upwards of 50,0007., and having therefore ample means, by the judicious appropriation of a small part of this sum, to procure teachers eminently qualified for their office from the central National or Laneasterian schools in England. From these sources schoolmasters have been procured during the last six er seven years for almost all parts of the world. In that time, the National Education Society alone has sent forth nearly one thousand new teachers and yet in Ireland the liberality of the public is shamefully wasted, because the conductors CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 201.

of this institution have not been at the pains to procure or to rear proper instructors. The demand for schoolmasters in Ireland, it is known, has long been great; so great, that an institution has existed for ten years past, supported by the voluntary donations chiefly of persons in England, for the express purpose of educating Irish schoolmasters. The Chartered Schools, no less than the other schools in

Ireland, have languished for want of capable teachers; and yet now, for the first time, does it appear even to have been suggested to the Committee, that a part of the enormous funds at their disposal might be beneficially applied in preparing the indispensable means of making the whole available to any certain and permanent purposes of good. But to proceed—

The religious instruction of the children in a third of the schools is confined almost entirely to the repetition of catechisms, which Mr. Thackeray justly considers as furnishing inadequate means of information on this all-important subject. In the other two-thirds of the schools he states that religious instruction is communicated to a much larger extent, embracing the historical and prophetical parts of Scripture. Why the doctrinal should be omitted we know not. Mr. Thackeray strongly recommends that the pupils should further be made not only well acquainted with, but interested in, the Liturgy--a point "which has not hitherto been attended to in the manner which the case requires."

The state of religion and morals in the schools depends, in the view of Mr. Thackeray, mainly on the masters and mistresses. Where they are steady, vigilant, and ju dicious, things proceed satisfactorily; while a contrary conduct on their parts leads to directly opposite results. He suggests various remedies for this evil. The only effectual one, however, appears to 4 H

in that interesting portion of his Majesty's empire.

Let it not, however, be supposed, that, while we animadvert on Irish mismanagement in the department of education, we are insensible to the existence of many still more flagrant instances of the abuse and perversion of funds destined to the education of the poor, and to other charitable purposes, in our own country. We hope in no long time to lay the whole of this opprobrious case before our readers. In the mean time, we trust that the Comwittee of Fifteen in Dublin will be actively employed in carrying into effect the wise suggestions of Mr. Thackeray, so that the Chartered Schools may at length be made to yield something of an adequate return for the immense expenditure which they occasion.

Calebs, ou le Choix d'une Epouse, Roman moral, contenant des Remarques sur les Usages et les Devoirs domestiques, sur la Religion et sur les Maurs. Par Mde. HANNAH MORE. Tra duit de l'Anglais sur la treizième édition, par M. HUBER, de Hartwell Farm. A Paris, chez P.Mongie l'Ainé, Libraire, Boulevard Poissonnière, No. 18*. 1817. 2 tom. pp. 970.

rit both to the work and its unknown author, concluding our remarks in the following terms.

"We have spoken of the defects of this work, but how shall we find proper terms in which to speak of its merits? The sentiments expressed in Coelebs are so congenial to those which we have ever approved and laboured to inculcate, that an eulogy passed upon the writer would be an eulogy on ourselves. To say all we feel would appear both adulation and vanity; and to say less would be unjust. We must be content to deny to ourselves the most pleasing of all offices, and leave the reader to collect our opinion from the general tenor of this article. Yet were it permitted us to express the feelings of delight, admiration, and gratitude with which we bave perused these volumes-delight in anticipating their usefulness, admiration at the genius and virtues of the author, and gratitude for the consecration of such talents to the cause of truth-the writer would not think us either jealous or insensible of excellence. May the Father of all goodness bless this work to his glory in the advancement of piety and happiness! To Him doubtless it is a pleasant sacrifice; and what are the applauses even of the wise and good compared with His favour, in whose

Of the valuable work of which the above, as far as English critics may presume to judge, is not only a faithful but an elegant translation, it was our lot to give a copious account shortly after its publication, before the public sanction had been declared, or the name of the much-revered author was known. In that Review we ventured, nostro periculo, to attribute very high me

It may be had likewise of Bossange and Masson, French booksellers, Great Marlborough Street.

whose right hand are pleasures for evermore!"" (Christ. Observ. 1809, p. 121.)

Decisive, however, as were our views as to the merits of the work, and sanguine as were our expectations of its success, we could not have anticipated the full tide of its popularity, or the religious benefits with which its perusal has been, in very numerous cases, accompanied. While the invaluable "Practical View" of a revered senator, whose name is his best panegyric, has attracted the attention of no small number of the more serious and reading part of "the

higher and middle ranks of society," the Cœlebs of Mrs. More has found its way into circles in which a didactic treatise, even with all the merited popularity of the one just mentioned, could scarcely have penetrated. Were it not that, to minds disciplined as those of both these excellent individuals have been by Christian principles, the benefits which it has pleased God to confer upon society by their publications is the best reward, we might justly congratulate them on the literary celebrity of their productions, which we consider as already ranked among the standard and classical writings of their native land.

But to return to the work immediately before us-we greatly rejoice to find that it has visited the continent in the present French translation since the publication of which a German translation has appeared at Vienna, and may probably, before long, be followed by others in different parts of Europe. Of the merits of the original work we have nothing at present to say, except to repeat our former opinion, with increased confidence, from the circumstance of the work having obtained a permanent as well as immediate popularity, and, what is of still more consequence, having been the happy means of bringing no small number of persons, especially among the younger members of society, to serious and practical reflection upon the most important subjects which can occupy a human being. If those who turn many to righteousness shall shine as stars in the kingdom of heaven, we cannot but anticipate what will be the happy lot of the author of these volumes, who, at a period of life which usually demands perfect ease and retirement, has been found still active and at her post the moment her efforts were needed. We allude particularly to her exertions in the early part of last year, to stem once more the torrent of revolutionary and irreligious publica

tions by new accessions to her wellknown tracts, some of which, we presume to think, stand as unrivalled in their own department of writing, as Colebs does in that which it has so peculiarly occupied, and in which few, if any, of its imitators have been able to succeed.

The question of the merits of the original being thus set at rest, we shall have discharged our duty by making a few remarks connected with the translation. We cannot then but think that in the present degraded state of the French press, relative to every thing connected with the morals and highest interests of mankind, the appearance of such a work is an omen which ought to be hailed with cousiderable hope. We cannot, indeed, venture to predict that "Colebs, ou le Choix d'une Epouse," will rapidly attain its merited rank in the meridian of Paris: indeed, the translator's addition of the words" Roman Moral" would indicate that he felt that any thing like didactic divinity was far above the region of ordinary French readers, who could not be tempted except by a title which promised something more piquant than a mere treatise. Indeed, the structure of the original work itself was a lawful stratagem of the author for attracting those to her graver matter who could be gained only through an indirect promise of amusement; and if they rose from the perusal of her pages with wiser heads or better hearts than before; they had certainly no occasion to lament the innocent snare which had been laid for their improvement. We sincerely hope, though in this also we dare not predict, at least to any considerable extent, that a similar result will take place on the other side of the channel. At all events, considering how extensively the French language is spoken through out Europe, it is certainly very im portant, that as many interesting religious works as possible should be accessible to its readers, esper

-cially such as are likely, in any measure, to allay that hostility to theological subjects which it has been the too successful effort of the infidel philosophy to produce. There is, however, still another view in which we gladly welcome this translation; we mean, as a useful and amusing reading-book for the younger students in the French language. Its general introduction, which we most strongly recommend, into private families and the superior order of seminaries of education, might be productive of great utility, especially as so few works of an unexceptionable, or at least of a positively beneficial, tendency can be found among that limited stock of French literature which usually finds its way to the hands of the younger students of that language. Even of works written expressly for the rising generation, how seldom does one appear such as a Christian parent can willingly and without reservation domesticate in his nursery or parlour circle. Without taking grosser cases, even against such works as the popular tales of Madame de Genlis and Berquin's L'Ami des Enfans, and a score of other French books used in education, and especially in female education, we could substantiate objections which a British parent could not easily refute. But the original of the work before us, is so well known and so deservedly esteemed at home, and is so especially calculated both to benefit the character and form the taste of young persons in the respectable ranks of life, that we can conceive of no possible objection to its introduction in the manner we have mentioned, except, perhaps, a fear that the translation is not a sufficiently correct and ele gant specimen of French composition. On this point, however, we are happy to add the testimony of native critics who have spoken of the translation as well as of the original in terms of considerable eulogy. Several reviews of the

work have been inserted in the continental journals: the following, which appeared in a Paris paper, we shall submit to our readers, not because it is the best, but because it is one of the shortest, and was written by the pen of Madame de Staël, whose judgment is doubtless the more impartial, as Mrs. More has spoken of some of her writings with considerable severity, and certainly could not look for much quarter at her hands. We cannot, therefore, but regard the following critique as highly honourable to the writer as well as to the subject of her remarks. What a treasure had that woman been, had her speculative talents been turned to the best of purposes! She might, then, have been as great a blessing to France as the writer whom she eulogizes has been to Great Britain, and, instead of sharing only the barren laurels of human renown, might have attained those higher honours which we have already mentioned as so eminently belonging to a sister writer, whose "piety" has ever been as "practical" as her" morals" were "Christian."

"There is no nation," remarks Madame de Staël, "in which female authors are more numerous than in England. It may appear astonishing, that in a country where persons confine themselves so much to domestic life, the women should thus attend to pursuits which seem to be somewhat foreign to them. But it is precisely because they pass the greater part of the year in the country, and live almost always in retirement, that intelligent persons feel the necessity of enlivening their existence by literary speculations.

"We pourtray passion in works of fiction because we desire to be free from its influence in our own persons, and invent imaginary scenes in order to vary the monotony of real life. But the novel, the translation of which we now announce, was not composed with this intention. Mrs. Hannah More is a lady entirely devoted to