president of the Antiquarian Society; Mr. Taylor Combe, secretary to the Royal, director of the Antiquarian Society, and keeper of the antiquities and coins in the British Museum. The Duke of Devonshire is among the most distinguished collectors of books, and works in the fine arts, in this collecting country. The Earl of Elgin brought into England (we need not enter into controversy) the finest specimens of Grecian sculpture existing. Among lawyers, we have Mr. East, the celebrated reporter, and a name which cannot be mentioned without deep regret. The failure of Sir John Richardson's health, and his unavoidable retirement, have grievously disappointed his profession and his country. His promotion was entirely owing to his great talents and unspotted virtues. The acuteness of his conception, the clearness of his understanding, and the soundness of his legal principles, led the public to look forward to the most substantial benefits from his judicial services: and though the profession of the law is too well stocked with talents and integrity to allow the secession of any individual to be irretrievable, it is a national loss that the interpretation and application of the laws should have devolved for so short a time on such a man.

This catalogue might be extended to many more pages; but such extension would be out of place. I will close it with two names, which will only perish, the one with the records of classical learning, the other with English poetry, in the very highest ranks of which his works will stand to the

last, when personal malignity, always pursuing the obliquities of superior genius, shall have expended its stock of exaggerated imputation. You will anticipate the names of Dr. Parr and Lord Byron.

The zeal with which I have defended our public establishments should not subject me to the suspicion of looking with a hostile or jealous eye on the extensive projects of education now afloat. To the unlimited diffusion of knowledge, whether through the channel of philosophical institutions for mechanics, or the erection of a university in London, I wish success, and predict it from the growing spirit of the age. It is to be hoped that soon there will not be a totally uneducated person in this country. The effect of this, so far from being a reasonable subject of alarm, would be as advantageous to the higher as to the lower classes of society. There ought to be no danger, lest the peasant should tread on the heels of the courtier. The education which the working population of a country can possibly receive, must always be limited by their circumstances. The nature of those circumstances will always prevent it from being educated up to the higher ranks. Their knowledge must be of a practical, money-getting order. When once they advance beyond mere rudiments, the ornamental must always be left for the more fortunate. Give them all the education they can possibly receive, no evil consequences can result from its extension. The only danger that could arise, would be in the very improbable case of the gentleman's education being lowered to their stand

ard. But even in the equally improbable case of the general standard being so raised, that their average knowledge should equal or surpass that of gentlemen now, it would still be our own fault if they were educated up to the education of gentlemen then. With the start which the constitution of society has given us, a constitution undergoing a modification, but not a subversion, from the peculiar spirit of the times, with the means of selecting the most valuable assistance, with a large portion of leisure, and a comparative exemption from the anxieties arising out of hazardous subsistence, we should deserve little compassion if we suffered the energies of poverty to rival or overmaster the indolence of advantageous position. Should the cultivation of the popular mind rise above the most cowardly anticipations of those who see more danger in improvement than in deterioration, no harm would really be done, but on the contrary much good for unless in the improbable and disgraceful alternative of the higher classes degenerating in proportion to the improvement of the lower, the education of the poor could scarcely be extended without forcing the rich also to extend theirs. But the education of the common people cannot be so extended as to engender any prejudicial confusion, provided the education of the higher classes, however it may become necessary to enlarge its range, continue to be, as it now is, mainly directed to what we are in the habit of distinguishing by the title of polite literature or elegant attainment. The superior advan

tage of competition above monopoly is not more obvious in the principles of political economy and their application to the commercial system, than it is likely to be in the market of philosophy and letters, when it shall be open to the purchasers of every country, occupation, and degree.

But I have pursued these subjects beyond the modern limits of a dedicatory address. I cannot conclude without expressing much pleasure in the conviction, that after all, I have ushered a much larger proportion of good than of evil into the world, bad as it is represented to be. I can wish nothing better for the generality of you, than that you may act by society at large with as much good faith and correct feeling as you have manifested in your transactions with me. I will close this long epistle with a few words of advice, transcribed from those letters of Lord Chatham, to some passages in which I have already called your attention: "You have the true clue to guide you, in the maxim that the use of learning is, to render a man more wise and virtuous, not merely to make him more learned. Macte tua virtute; go on by this golden rule, and you cannot fail to become every thing your generous heart prompts you to wish to be, and that mine most affectionately wishes for you. There is but one danger in your way, and that is, perhaps, natural enough to your age, the love of pleasure, or the fear of close application and laborious diligence. With the last there is nothing that you may not conquer; and the first is sure to conquer and enslave whoever

does not strenuously and generously resist the first allurements of it, lest, by small indulgences, he fall under the yoke of irresistible habit. Vitanda est improba Siren, Desidia, I desire may be affixed to the curtains of your bed, and to the walls of your chambers. If you do not rise early, you never can make any progress worth talking of: if you do not set apart your hours of reading, and never suffer yourself or any one else to break in upon them, your days will slip through your hands unprofitably and frivolously; unpraised by all you wish to please, and really unenjoyable to yourself. Be assured, whatever you take from pleasure, amusements, or indolence, for these first few years of your life, will repay you a hundred fold in the pleasures, honours, and advantages of all the remainder of your days."

I will not overlay the simplicity, or weaken the force of this wise advice from a wise man, by adding any thing from myself, beyond the assurance of my being

Your faithful and affectionate friend,

BENJ. H. MALKIN.

Bury, May 25. 1825.