But however flattering to our hopes be these details, whatever confidence we may feel in the ultimate triumph of truth-let us not deceive ourselves, the fearful stormy spirit of discord is loose in the world. We live not yet in a calm which promises permanent security from the tempest. When the Angel of Peace shall descend-when the holy principles we seek to diffuse, shall mingle in all the cares, and all the concerns, and direct all the great purposes of society, then, the Kingdom of the Redeemer being established in the heart and affections of man, we may repose-our eyes will have seen the salvation of the Lord, the visions of Divine prophecy will receive their consummation,-and Earth become a prototype of Heaven.

[The Appendix, besides an increased list of the Society's Members, contains a part of the Massachusetts Society's 4th Annual Report, the whole of which we hope to lay before our Readers in our next Number.]

Mr. Owen's Plan.

When, some few years since, we first recognized Mr. Owen in his evidence before several Committees of the House of Commons, we were sanguine enough to hope, from the novelty as well as benevolence of his views and statements, that if a new era in the history of man was not about to commence, at least some speedy advances would be made towards bettering and improving the condition of the poorer classes of society. And if our favour able prepossession remained unshaken by the cold-heartedness of the Ministry who could disregard, or the tavern clamour which treated with ridicule, benevolences so exalted; neither did we despair, when the more matured and detailed plan of Mr. Owen was deprived of its excellent patron the Duke of Kent. We respect and venerate good men, and the more perhaps

larged means of usefulness; but we are free to confess at the same time no very great predilection for the prevailing fashion, which fosters a belief that nothing for the benefit of society can be undertaken, unless its promoters and promulgators are ccvered with stars and garters. Predominant however as is the evil of fashion (and scarcely less so is it, we fear,in any thing than in whatever approximates to benevolence or charity) we augur of Mr. Owen too well to believe that he remains in a state of quiescence from any such cause-whether he does or not, the seed sown by him appears to have taken root, and the harvest which the high and noble were in vain invited to partake, bids fair to be exclusively reaped by plebeians. With these remarks we introduce to the reader one or two extracts from the first Number of The Economist, a periodical publication calculated to excite much interest.

"The Co-operative and Economical Society. While the Legislature has been entirely occupied, and the country agitated from one extremity to the other, with the proceedings and discussions on an unhappy question, deeply affecting the peace and welfare of the Royal Family, a few individuals in the Metropolis have been anxiously engaged in maturing arrangements, which are destined, probably, to give the first impulse to the combined operation of principles tl at are certain to produce extraordinary and highly beneficial changes in the condition of mankind. The first result of the labours of these individuals is the formation of an Association, amongst the Working Classes, denominated THE CO-OPERATIVE AND ECONOMICAL SOCIETY. The Committee appointed to investigate the principles on which the Society is formed, have issued a REPORT, in which their reasons for recommending the immediate formation of a Society on the principles submitted to them, are stated in

a clear and convincing manner. The document is altogether very interesting, and is the most important that has, perhaps, ever proceeded from a body of working men. The Society is to consist of 250 families, who are to occupy contiguous dwellings; to expend their money jointly in the purchase of necessaries, and to prepare their food, and cleanse their dwellings, with all the advantages to be derived from the combination of their means. They are to educate their children in the best manner, in large and commodious school-rooms, &c. provided for the purpose. They will eat together in a large and commodious hall; and will manufacture many of the articles they consume within themselves, besides cultivating a certain portion of ground as gardens, &c. They will be provided with their own teachers, and medical attendant, and will have a portion of their leisure hours occupied in proper and becoming amuse ments, and in receiving instruction in various branches of useful knowledge, within the establishment. The great majority of the members will however continue at their present employments -each male member paying One Guinea, weekly, to the general fund for which he will receive lodging, food, and clothing, for himself and family, education for his children, a participation in all the other advan tages (useful or agreeable) of the Association and his full share of the property or capital which the society will rapidly accumulate; besides being provided for in sickness and in old age, and being relieved from all anxiety respecting the fate of his off spring-who will be kindly and properly trained, educated, and provided for, should death deprive them of parental protection."

"Societies on the above plan are every where practicable, and of easy introduction. Though the one now formed by no means embraces all the principles and arrangements by which alone the prosperity of mankind can be carried to the highest pitch, yet, the

extension of similar institutions cannot fail greatly to ameliorate the condition of the working classes, and to be highly beneficial to society at large.

The Editor predicts that the example now given will soon be extensively adopted. ly adopted. "These Societies, (he says) will flourish, in spite of all the disorder and distress which may prevail around them. They will rapidly contribute to extricate the country from its present difficulties. Where ever they appear, they will reduce; and speedily extinguish, the Poor's Rate; and, if facilities be afforded by the public for their rapid establishment, they will avert the threatened calamity of a civil war." To this we heartily say Amen.

In the Prospectus, or prefatory part of the Work, the writer lays himself open, perhaps, to the invidious critic; but his observations on the improvement of the moral character are so apposite as to induce us to make a short quotation by way of conclusion.

"The speediest and most certain way to improve the moral character of men, is first to remove the sources of discomfort instead of endeavouring, as heretofore, to cultivate virtue on a soil where its growth is too often choked by the cares and sorrows, if not by the absolute privations and positive miseries, of life. No one, who finds a fellow creature dying of hunger, thinks of administering mental consolation to him, till he has previously relieved his first and most urgent necessity. We staunch [stanch] the life-stream gushing from the lacerations of a mangled sufferer, before we preach patience to him under his agonies. The philanthropist is in more haste to use the means of resuscitation upon the helpless subject of suspended animation, than to admonish the by-standers on the supposed indiscretion that led to the catastrophe. We arrest the desperate hand of the self-destroyer, before we inquire into the causes of his frenzy; and, who

does not feel, that the removal of his griefs, and the soothing voice of kindness, and the heart-warming influences of a friendly benevolence, are more powerful to prevent the future accomplishment of his purpose, than formal denunciations of the intended crime, even though backed by all the cold and calculating maxims of reason and philosophy?

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Applying the same plain and practical principle to the multitude as to individuals, we are bound by every consideration of duty and humanity, to provide them abundance of wholesome and nutritious foodcommodious and healthful abodes comfortable and sufficient apparelpleasurable and productive employments-agreeable and innocent recreations and amusements, before we attempt to force upon them a taste for intellectual refinements, or a disposition to the pure enjoyments of morality and virtue.

"There is a fundamental error, which has unhappily found its way into the frame of every society that has hitherto existed, and which has not only prevented this felicitous state of things from arising in any of them, but has successively and necessarily' consigned them all to destruction. This error is, that The interest of each individual has been placed, in almost every circumstance and situation, in direct opposition to the interests of other individuals, and to the interests of society."

In illustration of the truth of this assertion, the writer proceeds: "Every society, immediately after making a very slight advance in the practice of Agriculture, acquired the power of producing a superabundance of food, not only for its existing population, but for any supposable increase of their numbers. From that period, therefore, positive distress, arising from want, ought to have been entirely unknown amongst men, until the whole accessible surface of the earth had been subjected to cultivation. Even in a very early stage of society, each

individual was capable of producing more than several individuals could consume. In England, with all the facilities for production which we have derived from Science and Mechanism, each man is capable of producing more than can be consumed by twenty individuals. In England, therefore, if society were constituted on true principles, the performance of labour would be a light and easy duty-a superabundance of all the goods of life would flow in upon every dwelling

the value of land and labour would rapidly rise-the burthens of the state would scarcely be felt-and comfort and tranquillity would soon supersede the existing misery and deep-rooted discontent. The most injurious and lamentable misapplication of the powers of production, was an early and necessary consequence of the error of which we speak. The longer any large society has existed, the misapplication of its powers has become the more and more extensive and ruinous. It is owing to this, that mankind have been scourged with almost all the evils to which they have been subject. It is to this that poverty, in the present state of the civilized world, is solely attributable. It is this that has doomedthe bulk of mankind, in every age and country, to unceasing and unprofitable toil, and cheerless penury. It has consigned countless millions of human beings to premature graves, and has prevented population and civilization from spreading over the earth. It has rendered the great majority of every people wretched, in every period of their history, and has driven them all successively into inevitable destruction."

Mr. Brougham's Education Bill.

THIS Bill, framed (as our readers. are already informed) on the principle of defraying the expense of educating the Poor by a tax-of compelling the teachers to be chosen from among the members of the established church-and of placing

VOL. III.

the schools under ecclesiastical jurisdiction-has called forth several temperate and well written pamphlets on the part of the Protestant Dissenters, who feel very warmly interested in favour of the professed object of this measure, yet view the means by which it is to be accomplished with considerable alarm. From one of the most recent of these productions we make the following extracts.

As to the Tax.-"The burdensome nature and effect of the poor-rate is already a subject of just and general complaint, and the mode by which this Bill proposes to raise funds for the establishment and support of schools, will add materially to the grievance. In the present times of severe pressure, a housekeeper, finding himself compelled to contribute to a school-rate, will be inclined to withdraw his subscription to a school charity; and those who from benevolent motives may continue their voluntary aid, will be in the situation of the Dissenter who is forced to contribute to the support of the national church, while, from a sense of duty, he must maintain his own. Thus not only will the Bill exclude many needy objects from its influence, but at the same time impede every exertion which the friends to universal education might wish to make, to supply its deficiences, and remedy

the education of the children of their fellow-citizens, or with the management of schools at which even their own children are expected to attend."

Control and Superintendence."It is always painful to be obliged. to speak in terms of distrust of any general order of men, and particularly of a body like the clergy, among whom are so many bright, examples of piety, learning, and benevolence: the fear, however, that the power extended will be abused, is fully justified, by the prevailing disposition of the clergy to visit nonconformity with their displeasure, by the increase of influence which the Bill proposes to give them, and the absence of any adequate check to prevent or redress its abuse."

To the question-In what respect will the Bill increase the clergyman's power of exercising oppression? the writer simply answers, "The first effect of the measure will be to reduce materially the number of schools now in existence, supported by voluntary contributions. In a village, for instance, in which is already a day school, on the British plan, and a Sunday School, such schools will, after the passing of this act, be no longer considered necessary by the supporters, who, deceived as to the real effect of the schools to be established, and compelled to contribute to their maintenance, will withdraw their voluntary subscriptions. The Dissenter residing in such a village has no alternative; he must send his child to the "established" school, or deprive him of education. There are many evils to which both parent and child will be exposed, which the act does not contemplate, and which would not come within the cognizance of the ordinary, or dignitary of the diocese. The parish minister has, under certain rules, the power sending children gratuitously to the school: these free admissions he may choose to confine to the children of churchmen. He has the right of examining the children at the

of

school. He is also authorized to give his sanction to the introduction of any book of religion which he may think proper. It is perfectly well known what bearing these examinations and the instruction from such books may be made to produce on the child's religious belief. For these grievances, besides many others, the parent has no remedy. But let us imagine a very possible case an instance of gross aggression, such as would constitute a violation of the act. Suppose the corporal punishment of a child for refusing to learn the catechism, or attend the parish church. What is the legal course for the parent to adopt? He applies, in the first place, to the parish minister, who may be the author of the oppression: from him therefore he can expect no redress. His legal remedy is then to appeal to the ordinary, who may, says the act, “from time to time, as he shall see fit, visit such school either by himself in person, or by directing," the archdeacon, chancellor, dean, &c. to do so. It is not intended to convey any reflection on the office of ordinary, or on the character of those gentlemen who fill it, when we venture to suspect that the cases would not be very numerous where the ordinary would "see fit" to make a formal visitation, or hold a visitation of the dignitaries of the diocese, on the petition of an humble and obscure village labourer, complaining of the conduct of his parish minister. Observe, there are no means of redress whatever, should the ordinary refuse or neglect to institute inquiry; but let us admit, for the sake of argument, what is not very likely to occur, that investigation would always follow complaint, and that it has uniformly terminated in favour of the villager. Is the contest in no way likely to be injurious to his interests? Will he be in the same situation will he reside with the same advantages in his village, enjoying the favour of the clergyman

and the opulent of the neighhour hood, on whom probably depend his employment and the subsistence of his family? No, such a contention would be ruinous. This right of appeal, then, to the ordinary-the only legal remedy the Bill provides

would produce one of two effects. If exercised, it could scarcely fail materially to injure the appellant; or it would induce the poor man to suffer oppression and violate his conscience, rather than reduce himself and family to beggary by attempting to gain redress.'

"

While it shocks us to give publicity to any thing in the form of persecution, we feel how essential it is that the too prevailing and petty spirit of domination and overbear ing supercilious pride should meet its due reprobation. On this subject we cannot forbear a short quotatation."It is of the highest importance that even the humblest of our fellow-creatures should be encouraged to form and cherish his own religious convictions, and profess them openly, without fear of molestation; and surely that conduct is nothing short of absolute persecution that would impose obstructions, in any shape, to the free enjoyment of this inalienable right. The sufferings of the poor are sufficiently severe, without depriving them of those consolations which flow from the uninterrupted exercise of religious profession. Numerous are the hardships, even in this land of liberty, and in the nineteenth cếntury, which the poor, in country villages, frequently endure for conscience sake. A Dissenting meeting-house, or school, upon the British or Sunday School system, is perhaps established. The pious labourer is conscientiously desirous of attending the worship of the one, and of sending his children for instruction to the other. In doing so, he incurs the displeasure of his clergyman, whose intimacy perhaps with the wealthy of the neighbourb od renders his