Interest. Sinking Fund.

one per Cent, is calculated.

8,333,203 Excess beyond the Amount,

24,000,000

34,304,000: 0: 0 1,029,120:0:0 402,594: 12: 5 10,291: 4:0 1,442,005: 16:51

The Rate of Interest per Cent. to the Subscribers

£4

59

The Rate per Cent. paid by the Public, including all Charges

6

0:2

ON

THE INCREASE OF CRIMES,

THE

EDUCATION OF THE POOR,

AND THE

NATIONAL SCHOOLS;

IN

A Letter

TO SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.

By WM. LISLE BOWLES, A. M.

One of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Wilts,

AND CHAPLAIN TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE REGENT.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

ADVERTISEMENT

that

In what I have said of the immoral tendency of a certain mode of antinomian and un-apostolic preaching, it ought to be observed, many in the Church are as blameable as those out of it; but none are so pernicious in this respect as the Seceders. For the want of novelty in what is here said respecting the operation of the poor Laws, I trust it will not be thought necessary to make any apology. I am convinced that if the amelioration begins to be visible, it is owing to the accumulated evidence of individual information.

N. B. The price of labor, and allowance from the parish rates, are stated according to the scale of the district in which I reside: they are higher in other places-in Somersetshire I believe they are lower.

THOUGHTS

ON

THE INCREASE OF CRIMES,

&c. &c.

MY DEAR SIR,

HAVING had occasion to address a friend of yours, some time since, on a subject materially connected with the welfare and high moral character of the country, I trust I shall be forgiven, if, once more leaving for a moment my immediate and appropriate avocations, and actuated, as I was then, by no other motive than regard to truth and humanity, I venture to submit to you some "Thoughts on the Increase of Crimes" in the present day; and, together with this momentous topic, on the "Education of the Poor, and the National Schools."

I have been led to address these Thoughts to you, in consequence of the part you have taken, the tempered energies, and the Christian spirit you have displayed, when enforcing the necessity of a revision of our criminal code.

In the letter to Mr. Brougham, I endeavoured to vindicate the more venerable and august establishments of education in this kingdom. My manner and motives have been impugned by those who admit the vindication to have been most triumphant; though I am conscious that I had no other motives of writing then, than I have now.

Previously to entering on the immediate subject of this address, I shall therefore take the opportunity of disclaiming some sentiments which have been attributed to me, by a writer in a widely

circulated and distinguished literary journal, who has, in other respects, ably and eloquently, discussed the subject of "Abuses of Charity."

Gratified as I must be by the praise of the answer to Mr. Brougham, as far as arguments are concerned, I feel myself reluctant to be considered as having been actuated by such base feelings as adulation or fear! I disclaim a shadow of either feeling. I had, and could have, no right to accuse Mr. Brougham's motives, and the cause itself I think as nationally important, as I believe the spirit that prompted the investigation was benevolent. I admit that I ought not to have spoken of abuses as "detected," when they were only to be enquired into, and when all the statements were ex parte. But there are great ABUSES in charitable funds to my own knowledge; and without any feelings of adulation which are abhorrent from my heart, I would not, with the exception I have made, retract a word, respecting the obligations of the country to that active benevolence which led the way to the enquiry.

Truth, and neither "flattery" nor "fear," induced me to write as I did; nor can I imagine that any dispassionate reader of the "Vindicia Wykehamica" could think I meant to flatter Mr. Brougham, when, speaking of his inquisitorial manner, I compare him, in this respect, with the most obnoxious character in the Star-chamber of CHARLES THE FIRST!

Injurious as this manner, and his ex parte statements have been to a cause so nationally important, I do not believe that he intended any direct injury to the venerable seats of English education; but the STONE was put into his hand BY THOSE WHO DID; and when it is remembered who, and what description of men, were in the constant habit of attending the committee, it might be conceived that they took advantage of his ardent character, to effect that task from which they shrunk themselves.

So much for flattery: with respect to the other abject feeling, what should I fear? I have no personal interest whatever; and as to a wish or a thought of seeing other establishments sacrificed, as long as Winchester was safe, I have expressly said, in language far from flattery," If Mr. Brougham has betrayed ignorance of the very language of the statutes to which he appeals, and I should succeed in vindicating Winchester, I trust the BLow aimed at all similar establishments may lose somewhat of its direction and force.""

No other establishments, or charter, or endowments, were the objects of my writing. Let those concerned in them defend them as I have done, who have no concern with Winchester, except that which arises from attachment to the place of my education. I hope I have not uttered a sentiment that might imply I wished any endowment to be condemned from ex parte statement. I have indeed