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the purpose of making it close suddenly, so they have venerated both Livy and the Romans too much to question that violence, and bloodshed, and fraud, were just subjects of admiration, when perpetrated (as they always must be, in the nature of things, if successful) by brave and clever men-men regardless of their own as of others' lives, and cunning to deceive those who trusted in their honour. A savage people, plunged in the depths of the most barbarous superstition-devoted to pursuits the most ferocious and blood-thirsty for ages-boasting that the oldest man among them never remembered an interval of innocence, when the murderous sword was sheathed-whose ignorance, for centuries most profound, was only at last enlightened to be replaced by treachery yet more profound, the single lesson they learnt from the civility of those they conquered-whose utmost refinement of manners instigated in them an appetite for blood so inordinate, that their choicest recreations, the sports which feasted the eyes of their matrons and their virgins, and trained betimes the feelings of their children, were the public exhibition of the most inhuman murders-this people is still presented to the admiration of all young persons, in all civilized and Christian countries, unqualified by a single remark upon the habitual enormity of their whole conduct.

We might illustrate this remark by numberless other instances; some we may not even pollute our own page by alluding, however remotely, to;-but we have said enough to lay the foundation of the remark, that beyond all question the early association thus established in the minds of youth in all stations, between glory and cruelty, implants the seeds, which, in all countries, sprout up so fruitfully in bloody and disastrous wars. What can so effectually reconcile men's minds to the course of conduct most incompatible with their best interests-what steel their feelings against the horrors of bloodshed on the largest scale, and for the most insignificant pretext, as the very course which a thoughtless or perverted mode of studying history now teaches the sentiments of young people to take? It is most important, that without neglecting the genius and the valour displayed in those cruc scenes, the virtuous and philosophic historian should reclaim mankind from an exaggerated admiration of such dazzling qualities, to a sober contemplation of their dreadful consequences; and should fix the eyes of learners upon the true glories of the illustrious benefactors of their kind-the "pride, pomp, and circumstance" of Glorious Peace-the vast merits of those who have improved life by inventing new arts, or set to men the example of years spent in purity of living, or left a name consecrated in the memory of a grateful posterity, by the benefits which their

labours and their sacrifices bestowed on the world. We look to the labours of the Society for the history of all nations thus stript of their false colours, and the actions of all great men thus reduced to their true and just proportions.

As long as the Society confines its exertions to the walks of natural science and ancient history, we expect to hear of no opposition arising to its proceedings. But when the more important and interesting field of Modern History, and espe cially its greatest branch the History of England, is entered, then we shall probably hear the objector lift his voice, and predict the appearance of political matter, tinged with peculiar, perhaps with party opinions. That political, as well as other Science will be handled, and that not merely incidentally in the course of English History, but in separate treatises, avowedly intended to unfold the doctrines of civil polity in all its branches, we certainly can entertain no doubt; for the Society's prospectus distinctly announces it, and enumerates many divisions of the science, which are to be formally and fully treated of in succession. From the Society's labours in this great department, we expect the highest advantages to the country; the dissipation of much ignorance in all classes of societythe extinction of many bad feelings, and the overthrow and dispersion of a host of powerful but groundless prejudices, to which all classes, but the highest most remarkably, are at present enslaved. But it is said that the opinions prevalent among the leading members of the Society will tinge the treatises published under their patronage. We trust that all the facts will be unfolded in each subject; that the various opinions will be fairly. stated which divide reasoners upon disputed points; that the arguments advanced in support of each will be fully explained; and that the reader will, in this way, be enabled to judge for himself, after being made acquainted with the merits of each controversy. If this candour and justice be not displayed, a great duty will be violated, and the Society will lose that confidence which is at present secured to it by the bare promulgation of its plan, and of the names of its members. But there can be no harm in each author stating his own opinion,-nor in the Society announcing its preference of one side of any question discussed; and the remedy for this, if a mischief it be, must be always at hand. Any individual who differs may defend his owndoctrines attacked by the Society, or impugn those avowed by it; or any number of individuals, holding sentiments opposite to those of the Society, may associate and act as an opposing body, in favour of their own principles.

The leading members of the Society, whose proceedings we are now canvassing, are men whom we may suppose attached to liberal

opinions,―the glory of the age we live in. If their works support the doctrines of liberty and liberal policy in Government and in Trade, and in our conduct towards Foreign states, and if this moves the bile of those to whom the very name of freedom is hateful; there is no reason why they should burst for lack of a vent to such workings of the passions. Let them combine and form a "Society "for the diffusion of useless knowledge"-or "for the propaga❝tion of ignorance"-or, " for the extinguishment of light"— or, by whatever name they may deem their plans the best described-or, let them barely call themselves "The Constitution"al Society" or "The National Society;" and leave us by their fruits to know them. Then we shall have the dangers of learning displayed in good set phrases, the road to science made thorny, and all its pit-falls described, to scare the adventurous learner. We shall have treatises on the perils of freedom to prince and people-the ruinous effects of free trade the enriching virtue of excessive taxation-the wholesome tendency of wasteful expenditure-the degrading and vulgar position of national Independence, contrasted with the dignity of place and precedence in the Holy Alliance-the benefits of Colonial Slavery and the Slave Trade-the usefulness of a restoration of Spanish tyranny over South America—and the incalculable glory accruing to England from espousing the cause of despotism all over the world. That the publication of such works will, to a certain degree, succeed in England, we in no wise doubt; there are many persons among the English laity, and a larger body, we fear, of the clergy, to whom the glad tidings of narrowminded and ignorant doctrine are mainly acceptable. The body of readers who support the weekly publications of slander, and obscenity, and impiety, will possibly spare a few shillings more to encourage the zeal of such a series of treatises as we have been describing. In this part of the island, it is true, we can give less encouragement to their hopes. Their time is gone by with us; but if their nostrums sell in England, they have no cause to complain; and if they do not, the fault is not in the Society already established, but in the public; or rather it is the misfortune of the ingenious personages to whom we are referring, that they have been born a century or so too late. They should have lived in the time of Dean Swift; and, though they would have failed in assailing Newton and Locke with dulness, as much as he did with wit, they at least would have been more sure of readers for their serious lucubrations, while the wits might have helped to get the laugh on their side.

If further argument were wanting in favour of the extensive plan which the Society has announced, and is steadily pursuing,

and if a vindication of its immediately announcing it were desired, we have it in a circumstance that occurred at the very commencement of the Institution. The prospectus first put forth, had not appeared a week, when the opposite, or illiberal party appear to have taken the alarm-although not a subject, was announced excepting on mathematics and the various branches of natural philosophy. It should seem that the Soeiety had then not determined upon embracing moral and political subjects within its plan-or did not deem the season arrived for declaring such an intention, if it was entertained. But the safe and prudent politicians-they who so dread the over-education of the common people-they who would, above everything, avoid circulating cheap tracts on political subjects -nay, who have actually called in the aid of the legislature, at divers times and in various ways, to put down such dangerous publications by manifold restrictions, and even by actual prohibitions-embodied themselves, or made their known publisher announce that they had embodied themselves, into a Society to publish a rival series of treatises;-and they set to work in their accustomed way. As the Lancaster, or British and Foreign Schools were first opposed by the High Church party; and as, when opposition was found vain, the same party took them up, to use them for their own purposes, forming a "National Society for Educating the People," and planting "National Schools in connexion with the Established Church" ---so now, as soon as the Society had announced its Library of Useful Knowledge, forth came, within a little week, the advertisement of a "National Library," to be published by Mr Murray; and, with the advertisement, a detailed prospectus, giving a list of the subjects of which the works were to treat. The Society had confined its prospectus to the safe grounds of natural and mathematical science, avoiding even any of the matters connected with history. But the National Library was proclaimed to embrace all subjects, from arithmetic to party politics and religious controversy. Nay, the announcement plainly indicated that those debateable grounds were to be far more favourite paths for the footsteps of the High Church Tory writers, than the pure and sequestered haunts of the severer sciences; and the side on which the opinions and facts were to be delivered, was pretty significantly disclosed by a sounding quotation in favour of the Church establishment, and a catalogue of British statesmen, from King Alfred to William Pitt. Thus the party were seen patronizing cheap publications on politics and religion for the common people-the same party which had always vehemently opposed any political or contro

versial instruction to the lower orders, and had uniformly excited the energies of the Law, the Government, and the Legislature, in preventing the dissemination of such information altogether. It followed, as a matter of course, that this example set by the opposite party should be followed by the Society; and accordingly they were compelled to embrace the whole field of moral science as well as the mathematics and natural philosophy. They were suddenly defied, as it were, into ethics, history, and politics, by their adversaries; and had no choice but either to follow into those matters, or leave them in the hands of men sure to misinform those they undertook to teach. The new prospectus of the Society, accordingly, contains a full arrangement of all the branches of human knowledge. The moral as well as the natural sciences-the intellectual as well as the ethical and political-all the branches of politics and of jurisprudence-and the history of sciences and of arts, of nations and of individuals-every branch, in short, of knowledge, except theology, is announced as coming within the plan of the Society, and as to be treated of in the course of its publications. The outline is as complete as it is magnificent; and if the filling up is marked by the same genius, and if the future treatises are executed with the same talent as those already published, and display the same deep knowledge of the subjects handled, and the same extraordinary didactic powers-the same faculty of conveying information in the most plain language and perspicuous method upon the most profound subjects-of being at once popular and scientific, we may safely number this as among the most important, as well as the happiest, efforts that have ever been made to enlighten mankind, and to promote the interests of science.

The reader may be curious to know what became of the rival work announced by the national folks-through their known organ, Mr Murray. They advertised that their first number was to appear on the 1st of March, and one each succeeding fortnight; and they affirmed that arrangements on an extensive scale had been made by a society of eminent literary and seientific men, for carrying the plan through. No doubt there were such arrangements; though they must have been made in singular haste, not to say hurry; for the National Prospectus clearly showed, that the hint was taken from the Prospectus of the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge, and yet it came out in a few days after that appeared; consequently the extensive arrangements of the eminent men must all have been planned and completed in the course of these few days. Their eminences swiftly took the alarm, and speedily conglomerated in a learned mass:

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