wholly guiltless. What is the proper remedy for this? evidently public instruction. Even a common education, such as Sweden, in common with many other of the continental nations, provides, would, if engrafted on the habit of self-reliance which prevails among us, lead ultimately to the complete uprooting of those erroneous impressions which make men ask of government what they should accomplish for themselves. We do not say that governments should print books, or send forth lecturers; because, they would most likely be bad books and worse lecturers; and, even if good, the people would suspect them; but not only should all restraints on the diffusion of knowledge be removed, but a system of universal education, including some kind of normal institution, under the fostering care, though kept independent of the immediate control, of government, should be established, the normal college or school to serve as a perennial source of competent teachers. The union of such an education as might thus be provided, with our wholesome habit of self-reliance, would produce a more elevated social state than any country can at present boast of.

Education is certainly carefully attended to in Sweden, and that too by the people themselves. On this subject we must apologize for giving rather a long extract.

"It might be expected that education is in a low state in these remote, poor settlements*, in which the few people can barely subsist their families, and cannot possibly keep a schoolmaster, nor support their children at a distant school. It is, however, to the honour of the common people of Sweden, that they alone, of all European nations, have outstripped the schoolmaster, and are so generally masters themselves of reading, and even writing, that parents in the lowest circumstances have no more occasion for a schoolmaster to teach their children these elementary branches of education, and also the church catechism, than they have for a baker to make their bread, or a sempstress to mend their clothes. Of the whole population, including even Laplanders, it is reckoned that the proportion of grown persons in Sweden unable to read is less than 1 in 1000. This general diffusion of elementary education among the people is ascribed to the zeal of Gustavus Vasa and his immediate successors. John III., in 1574, ordered that the nobleman who had no knowledge of book learning should forfeit his nobility. Charles XI., in 1684, required the clergy to have every Swedish subject taught to read; and he made it a law, that no marriage should be

This vice of regulating all things exists to a greater extent in Sweden than in perhaps any other continental state. In England every thing may be lawfully done which the law does not forbid :-in Sweden, the fundamental rule of action, Mr. Laing tells us, is directly the contrary; nothing being lawful but what the law permits. Thus the government must perpetually make itself felt by the people; though it may not act itself, it lies like an incubus on the actions of the people; until at length, like labour to an idler, action of any kind becomes irksome, and government is looked to for the accomplishment of ends which should always be left to the people themselves. To prevent a people from looking to the government in cases where they should look to themselves, is always a matter of difficulty, even in this country, where self-reliance is really practised to a very considerable extent. Governments which like to be called "paternal," and kings who delight in being designated "fathers of their people," as all despotic kings do, give encouragement to this pernicious state of the public mind. Demands are occasionally made by those who are suffering from insufficient remuneration, or from excessive toil, for legislative relief, in the shape of what they call a "fair day's wages for a fair day's work;" a phrase which assumes a most equitable guise, but which involves an intermeddling on the part of government which could not but be productive of pernicious results, inasmuch as the real meaning of the phrase is,-let a low maximum of time be fixed, beyond which nó man shall labour; and let there be a high minimum of payment, below which wages shall not be permitted to fall. In what manner have these demands been usually met? By shuffling and evasion, and not by fairly and openly attempting to reason down the fallacy. The governing class in our own country may yet have to repent the neglect of popular instruction. The industrious classes in the towns and cities are certainly advancing in intelligence and moral improvement most rapidly; but they are organizing even more rapidly. At the same time, discontent is becoming very prevalent among them, the more especially as they cannot help attributing to the vices, or at all events to the

wholly guiltless. What is the proper remedy for this? evidently public instruction. Even a common education, such as Sweden, in common with many other of the continental nations, provides, would, if engrafted on the habit of self-reliance which prevails among us, lead ultimately to the complete uprooting of those erroneous impressions which make men ask of government what they should accomplish for themselves. We do not say that governments should print books, or send forth lecturers; because, they would most likely be bad books and worse lecturers; and, even if good, the people would suspect them; but not only should all restraints on the diffusion of knowledge be removed, but a system of universal education, including some kind of normal institution, under the fostering care, though kept independent of the immediate control, of government, should be established, the normal college or school to serve as a perennial source of competent teachers. The union of such an education as might thus be provided, with our wholesome habit of self-reliance, would produce a more elevated social state than any country can at present boast of.

Education is certainly carefully attended to in Sweden, and that too by the people themselves. On this subject we must apologize for giving rather a long extract.

"It might be expected that education is in a low state in these remote, poor settlements*, in which the few people can barely subsist their families, and cannot possibly keep a schoolmaster, nor support their children at a distant school. It is, however, to the honour of the common people of Sweden, that they alone, of all European nations, have outstripped the schoolmaster, and are so generally masters themselves of reading, and even writing, that parents in the lowest circumstances have no more occasion for a schoolmaster to teach their children these elementary branches of education, and also the church catechism, than they have for a baker to make their bread, or a sempstress to mend their clothes. Of the whole population, including even Laplanders, it is reckoned that the proportion of grown persons in Sweden unable to read is less than 1 in 1000. This general diffusion of elementary education among the people is ascribed to the zeal of Gustavus Vasa and his immediate successors. John III., in 1574, ordered that the nobleman who had no knowledge of book learning should forfeit his nobility. Charles XI., in 1684, required the clergy to have every Swedish subject taught to read; and he made it a law, that no marriage should be

This vice of regulating all things exists to a greater extent in Sweden than in perhaps any other continental state. In England every thing may be lawfully done which the law does not forbid :-in Sweden, the fundamental rule of action, Mr. Laing tells us, is directly the contrary; nothing being lawful but what the law permits. Thus the government must perpetually make itself felt by the people; though it may not act itself, it lies like an incubus on the actions of the people; until at length, like labour to an idler, action of any kind becomes irksome, and government is looked to for the accomplishment of ends which should always be left to the people themselves. To prevent a people from looking to the government in cases where they should look to themselves, is always a matter of difficulty, even in this country, where self-reliance is really practised to a very considerable extent. Governments which like to be called "paternal," and kings who delight in being designated" fathers of their people,” as all despotic kings do, give encouragement to this pernicious state of the public mind. Demands are occasionally made by those who are suffering from insufficient remuneration, or from excessive toil, for legislative relief, in the shape of what they call a "fair day's wages for a fair day's work ;” a phrase which assumes a most equitable guise, but which involves an intermeddling on the part of government which could not but be productive of pernicious results, inasmuch as the real meaning of the phrase is,-let a low maximum of time be fixed, beyond which nó man shall labour; and let there be a high minimum of payment, below which wages shall not be permitted to fall. In what manner have these demands been usually met? By shuffling and evasion, and not by fairly and openly attempting to reason down the fallacy. The governing class in our own country may yet have to repent the neglect of popular instruction. The industrious classes in the towns and cities are certainly advancing in intelligence and moral improvement most rapidly; but they are organizing even more rapidly. At the same time, discontent is becoming very prevalent among them, the more especially as they cannot help attributing to the vices, or at all events to the

wholly guiltless. What is the proper remedy for this? evi- · dently public instruction. Even a common education, such as Sweden, in common with many other of the continental nations, provides, would, if engrafted on the habit of self-reliance which prevails among us, lead ultimately to the complete uprooting of those erroneous impressions which make men ask of government what they should accomplish for themselves. We do not say that governments should print books, or send forth lecturers; because, they would most likely be bad books and worse lecturers; and, even if good, the people would suspect them; but not only should all restraints on the diffusion of knowledge be removed, but a system of universal education, including some kind of normal institution, under the fostering care, though kept independent of the immediate control, of government, should be established, the normal college or school to serve as a perennial source of competent teachers. The union of such an education as might thus be provided, with our wholesome habit of self-reliance, would produce a more elevated social state than any country can at present boast of.

Education is certainly carefully attended to in Sweden, and that too by the people themselves. On this subject we must apologize for giving rather a long extract.

“It might be expected that education is in a low state in these remote, poor settlements*, in which the few people can barely subsist their families, and cannot possibly keep a schoolmaster, nor support their children at a distant school. It is, however, to the honour of the common people of Sweden, that they alone, of all European nations, have outstripped the schoolmaster, and are so generally masters themselves of reading, and even writing, that parents in the lowest circumstances have no more occasion for a schoolmaster to teach their children these elementary branches of education, and also the church catechism, than they have for a baker to make their bread, or a sempstress to mend their clothes. Of the whole population, including even Laplanders, it is reckoned that the proportion of grown persons in Sweden unable to read is less than 1 in 1000. This general diffusion of elementary education among the people is ascribed to the zeal of Gustavus Vasa and his immediate successors. John III., in 1574, ordered that the nobleman who had no knowledge of book learning should forfeit his nobility. Charles XI., in 1684, required the clergy to have every Swedish subject taught to read; and he made it a law, that no marriage should be