the disadvantage of producing malaria in the neighbourhood of the basins where the contents were left for settling, running off, filtration, and drying. Instead of one main sewer, or one aqueduct or more, form a well at the mouth of every sewer where it enters the Thames; filter off whatever is larger than an inch in diameter, and force through underground pipes, of adequate capacity and strength, all the liquid contents of the sewers several miles' distance into the country for evaporation and desiccation. However expensive this might be, there can be no doubt of its practicability. Notwithstanding the large size of the sewers, there are few if any of them that deliver, at an average, more fluid matter than would pass through a pipe of 2 ft. in diameter; the contents of some of them, we are persuaded, would not, at an average, fill a pipe of 1 ft. in diameter.

A better plan, and, we think, the best, would be to construct a building, 50 or 60 ft. high, rectangular, and from 50 to 100 ft. in diameter, over the mouth of each sewer. In this building there might be 30 or 40 floors, at about a foot apart, each floor being a grating or filter; commencing at the top with a filter of wire with the meshes half an inch apart, and ending with a floor of sponge. The contents of the sewer, after passing through a grating to separate bones and other matter above an inch in diameter, might be pumped up to the upper floor by the power of steam, every floor being in, say eight divisions. The discharge from the pumps might easily be so contrived as to be delivered for about five minutes at a time into the top floor of each division. From this it would filter to the bottom floor, gradually becoming purer and purer, leaving a deposit of different degrees of fineness on each floor, and coming out pure water. This would give half an hour to the deposit on each floor to dry, and to be brushed off by machinery into vats or boxes, where it might be compressed into cakes for sale. The bones and other bulky matter separated by the first filter or grating, before the liquid matter entered the well from which it is to be pumped, might be passed through a bone mill, to be worked by the same machinery, and would be found not the least valuable part of the manure. Perhaps it might be worth while to mix the ground bones, and other bulky matters ground along with them, with the finer matter procured by filtration, adding a little quicklime; by this means the cakes would be less liable to break by carriage.

The average discharge of any sewer being ascertained, it would be easy to determine the proportionate size of all the apparatus, and the whole might be roofed in with glass to admit the influence of the sun, while the sides might be formed of open weather-boarding, like the late horizontal windmill at Battersea, in order to admit a free circulation of air. The cakes of manure, or poudrette cakes, might be dried in a separate building, or set up in walls and thatched in the manner of unburnt bricks, mushroom spawn, or turves cut from peat bogs to be dried for fuel.

After the water had passed through the last filter of sponge, it would at least be free from all the impurities it held in mixture; and though there would remain the impurities held in combination, still these would be nothing like what mix with the water of, the Thames at present.

We cannot help thinking that an apparatus of the sort contemplated, placed at the Chelsea Dolphin, would pay as a manure manufactory: and it may be worth while for the government and the water companies to consider how far the establishment of similar manufactories, at the mouths of all the sewers, would contribute to render the Thames water sufficiently wholesome for domestic purposes, which it is acknowledged not to be at present. Perhaps the time may come when the 140 sewers, which empty themselves into the Thames between Deptford and Battersea, may be let out to manure manufacturers by the city of London, as toll-gates now are.

ART. X. Parochial Institutions; or an Outline of a Plan for a National Education Establishment, suitable to the Children of all Ranks, from Infancy to the Age of Puberty.

INSTEAD of pointing out the uses of education, in body, in mind, in heart, and in manners, we shall at once take it as granted

That all human happiness and prosperity, whether public or private, domestic or national, are founded on individual cultivation.

That knowledge is pleasure as well as power; and that of any two individuals in society, whether rich or poor, the more highly cultivated, other circumstances being the same, will possess the greater share of happiness, and will be the more valuable member of society.

That every good principle in society, to do good effectually and generally, ought to be effectually and generally applied; and that, therefore, to raise any society or nation to the highest degree, individual cultivation should be carried to the greatest practicable extent in all classes of society.

That individual cultivation carried to its greatest practicable extent in any one society, however corrupt or misgoverned it may be, will, sooner or later, effect, in the laws and government of that society, every amelioration, and, in the people, the highest degree of happiness and prosperity of which hunian nature is susceptible under the given geographical circumstances.

That the education of every individual has been encouraged by government for the last thirty years in Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, and other states of Germany, and has been attended with the happiest effects on all ranks in these countries; that it reformed the government of Wurtemberg contrary to the wishes of its late king; and that it has neutralised the animosity of different religions, and produced and maintained a marked superiority of happiness in Bavaria, Baden, and other states.

That a National Education Establishment in Great Britain would ultimately, by degrees, and as far as human nature admits, lead to arrangements which would correct every evil at present existing in society.

These positions being granted, we shall present an outline of what we think ought to be, I. The degree of education to be imparted; II. The description of school buildings; III. The qualifications and duties of the teachers; IV. The obligations of parents, with respect to sending their children to be instructed; V. The obligation of the parochial governments or vestries, with respect to seeing that the parents do their duty; VI. The expense; VII. The immediate national advantages; and lastly, VIII. we shall notice the objections to the scheme.

We premise, however, that our plan is neither original on our part nor striking, being little more than what is already put in practice in Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden. We have merely made such variations in the application of the system which has been for upwards of thirty years in use in those countries, as we think suitable to the present state of things in Britain. We by no means offer this plan as perfect: but, such as it is, we think it advisable to make it as public as possible, in order to call attention to the subject, and we shall be happy to hear all that can be suggested for or against it; requesting only that our critics or commentators will previously

For proofs we refer to Des Etablissemens pour l'Education Publique en Bavière dans le Wurtemberg et à Bade, &c. (1829. Paris, and Treuttell and Würtz, London. 8vo, 2s. 6d.) Athenæum, April 22. 1829, p. 215. Monthly Review, Aug. 1829, vol. xi. p. 604. Gard. Mag., vol. iv. p. 487. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol i. p. 585. The Ecclesiastic, vol. i. p. 204. See also Ensor on National Education, 8vo, 1811, by far the best work that has yet appeared on the subject in any language.

inform themselves, as we have done, with regard to the plan and result of the public education in Wurtemberg, Bavaria, Baden, Silesia, and Sweden.

I. The Degree of Education to be imparted. —The kind and degree of education that we think ought to be given to every human being in this and in every country, and in every state of civilisation, may be thus defined :— All the knowledge and accomplishments that a child's body or mind, and the state of knowledge and the art of teaching at the time, will admit, previously to the age of puberty; giving preference to those branches of knowledge considered the most useful, and those accomplishments and manners considered the most humanising, by the wise and good of the age.

We consider this degree of cultivation to be as much the birthright of a child in a community where there is a high degree of civilisation, as food and clothes are its birthright in the rudest states of society; because, without it, a man or woman is ushered into society without a fair chance of being able to procure the means of subsistence and of happiness which belong to human nature, under the given degree of civilisation; in short, without a fair chance of making the most of life. To introduce an ignorant youth into a highly civilised country, under the supposition that he could obtain the requisite degree of prosperity and happiness, would be more absurd than to turn an educated child into a country of savages. This is one view of the subject, and it is a view on which all who can afford the expense act with respect to their own children.

If we regard the subject in the light of humanity, and the sympathy of one part of society with another, this principle will equally dictate the duty of bestowing, as far as practicable, that good on others which we feel to be a good in ourselves, and which we are convinced would add to the general happiness.

Viewed as a matter of public policy, and considering that the grand object of every government ought to be, with reference to its subjects, their happiness and prosperity; and, with reference to other governments, its own stability; reason dictates the use of the most important means for gaining these ends; and that it would be prudent, no less than just, in government, so to legislate, as that every individual subject should have the degree of education above defined.

Let none, therefore, exist in society who have not their minds matured by the care and culture of public teachers, as their bodies are by the nourishment and clothing of their parents. The religious and humane owe this to the poor as a part of human nature; the benevolent, as sympathising with the miseries they suffer; the enlightened, in order to raise them to their rank in the scale of creation; the rich man, to give them a greater chance of possessing property, in order that they may respect the property of others; the prudent man, that they also may become prudent; and government, that they may not be made the tools of faction, foreign or domestie.

Knowledge gives power; and if one part of society has the degree of cultivation defined, and the other has it not, it is evident that there can be very little sympathy between them. The experience of ages shows the continual tendency of the powerful in wealth or in skill to oppress the weak; and the continual tendency of the weak to react by personal force, by cunning, or by numbers, on the strong. Materials so discordant can never form the basis of a sound, healthy, and permanent state of society. The poor and ignorant, becoming, under such circumstances, little better than slaves to the rich and enlightened, regard them as their enemies, and often finding them to be such, must and will rebel; and the result is, sooner or later, a subversion of society. It would evidently contribute to the stability and harmony of society to moderate this action and reaction, by a more equal distribution of power; and, as knowledge gives power, the most obvious and effectual way of attaining the end proposed is, by

diffusing such a high and equal degree of school education as we have defined. It must be evident, we think, that the state of society which this degree of education will sooner or later produce, will include in it every amelioration and happiness of which human nature, under any given circumstances, is susceptible.

In all countries, education, in as far as it has been carried, has had the effect of rendering the poor content. Compare the poor of Sweden and Germany with those of England. The uneducated are prone to consider wealth and happiness as synonymous, a delusion which knowledge quickly dispels; philosophy teaches its fallacy, and history exemplifies it. For our part, we can see nothing in education but increased security to the rich, and increased happiness to the poor.

One of the great evils which at present afflict society in this country is over-production; not only of manufactured goods, but also of human beings. We are apt to believe that the plan proposed would remedy even this calamity; for if every labourer in the country considered a high and equal degree of education as a necessary of life, and no more to be dispensed with in a child than food or clothing, he would not think of marrying till he could bestow this degree of education on his children. If any labourer acted otherwise, he would bring himself into disgrace among his own class; he would suffer a loss of reputation for good sense and good taste; his wife and himself would no longer be able to associate with their neighbours, either from the extraordinary exertions which they must make, in order to educate their children up to the general level, or in consequence of not being able to do so, and having it done for them by the parish as paupers. The dread of the reflections and neglect of the children when they arrived at maturity, and found that they were indebted to the parish more than to their parents for their education, and that they had, in fact, to pay the parish for this education themselves, would also act as a powerful inducement to prudential conduct. Besides, when parents themselves have once enjoyed the degree of education defined, they will consider it cruel and unjust not to bestow the same degree of education on their children. This is, in fact, the feeling of all educated parents; and one great object that we have in view is to communicate the same feeling to the very lowest members of society. We are justified in concluding that universal education would do so, by what actually takes place at present among the educated classes.

But, supposing that a high and equal degree of education had no influence whatever on the amount of the population, the question is, Would any thing like the same degree of misery exist as at present? Would an enlightened superfluous population be as miserable individually, and as expensive and dangerous to the state, as an ignorant superfluous population? Unquestionably not. An enlightened superfluous population would emigrate, and try their fortune in other countries, like the superfluous popu lation of the comparatively enlightened part of the Continent and of Britain. How is it that there are more Scotchmen to be found in other countries than either Englishmen or Irishmen? It is simply because they are taught a little more at school.

We consider that it has been satisfactorily proved, that, by means of infant schools, and the judicious application of the most improved modes of teaching after infancy, boys and girls may attain the degree of knowledge and manners contemplated in our definition by their fifteenth or sixteenth year. We would, therefore, commence with infant schools on the most approved principles, and embracing all the subjects taught in those of Edinburgh and Glasgow; ample details of which have been given, from time to time, in the Scotsman newspaper, and in various publications on the subject, to which it is needless to refer. In many cases, from the distance of families from the school, it would be impracticable to send infants there; but these might after

wards attain the requisite degree of cultivation in the adult schools; in which, also, the infants should enter after a certain period, and continue, whatever might be the degree of progress they made, till the time of puberty; or say, in Britain, fourteen years for the girls, and fifteen for the boys. It is an essential part of our plan that both sexes continue till the age of puberty, because, before that age, we do not consider that their faculties, under any system of education, can be fully developed. At that age, we conceive, they may; but to educate to any period short of it, would not be just to the poor, because the children thus incompletely educated would not have a fair chance with those of parents who could afford fully to develope their children's faculties.

We know very well that the capacities of individuals are so very dif ferent, that probably no two persons are capable of deriving equal benefit from instruction; but still we would give the same opportunities to, and take the same pains with, all. Supposing education to be a fluid, we would immerse every male and female child in it, not only for the same length of time, but in order to let the rich become personally acquainted with the poor, and the poor with the rich, in the same vessel: in short, we would wish, as far as should be found practicable in the state of society which we contemplate, to keep the children of the rich and the poor on the same level in the public school in all respects. If in some minor details, such as equality of pocket money, and of the ornamental part of dress, we would borrow from the school system of the Jesuits, it must not be supposed on that account that we would wish to extend this jurisdiction beyond the limits of the school, and the age of puberty. At that age, those parents who could afford it might cultivate their sons and daughters by private teachers, or in superior schools, colleges, or universities, as much more as they considered necessary for the profession or part in society which their children were intended to fill. The children of the poorest, on their part, would have imbibed a sufficient degree of elementary instruction to enable any one of them of extraordinary capacity to pursue any subject, by the aid of books, as far as he chose.

The subjects to be taught as essential may be stated, as reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, drawing, geometry, anatomy, physiology, vegetable culture, the care of live stock, natural philosophy, political economy, morals, and natural theology, with a knowledge of French, and the rudiments of Latin. The accomplishments for the boys alone should be, the manual exercises, military tactics of every approved kind, swimming, wrestling, and self-defence, with and without weapons; those for both boys and girls, marching, dancing, singing, music *, and, to a certain extent, even horsemanship. Works and accomplishments for the girls alone may be, the principles of cookery and housewifery, tailoring, hair-dressing, mantua-making, millinery, embroidery, lace-making, knitting, straw-plaiting, and such other female works as are useful in families, and for the ornament of individuals. †

We will not stop to reply to the objections which will be made to teaching girls who may never rise higher than maids of all work, and men

* We would not omit this even in the case of pauper children: the guitar might be taught to boys as well as girls. It is of all musical instruments the most easily learned, and one which more than any other encourages and calls forth the exercise of the vocal powers, which after all form the most charming and agreeable part of the musical art.

+ With the exception of horsemanship, swimming, and one or two other articles, all these branches are taught to the children of even the commonest labourers and paupers, in the public school in Carlsruhe. We saw the school, and received the printed half-yearly account of the progress of the pupils, in November, 1828. See Des Établissemens, &c., p. 18.