An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations Part 36

The consequence of this is, that, when the good sense of the father or mother, or of the boy himself, does not correct the evil, he is bred up to consider himself as born to be waited on, and provided for, without any effort of his own; he is led to suppose that he is to indulge

{180} In the notes upon the Wealth of Nations, this case is argued, but the matter is too important not to be examined on every occasion and opportunity. The opinion here alluded to is that general way of thinking, respecting corporations, privileges, and regulations, or restraints of every sort imposed on trade, which the writers on political economy, in general, think ought all to be entirely done away.

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in a life similar to that his father leads at home, where a few indulgencies =sic= are the natural consequences of age, and the fair returns for a life employed in care and industry.

In England, it would be absolutely necessary to make school-masters undergo an examination; not only at first, and before the school should be licensed, but the boys should be examined twice a year, and the result enregistered, so that the business would really be to learn something, and not merely to spend the time.

The small proficiency made in the schools, in England, and around London in particular, is incredible. It is even difficult to conceive how the boys avoid learning a little more than they generally do, during eight or ten years. {181} The masters pretend, for the most part, to teach boys Latin, by way of teaching them English, but without almost ever accomplis.h.i.+ng it. In arithmetic, the common rules are taught, but scarcely ever decimal fractions, and almost never book-keeping, so useful and so easy an art.

Writing and spelling are better taught, perhaps, than in any other country, and, certainly, those are great advantages; but, according to the time and money spent, it is the least that can be expected. Here we may remark, that those are the only acquirements with the proficiency in which the father and mother are necessarily acquainted; it therefore gives reason for thinking, that, if the same check were held in other branches of their education, they would be excited to make equal progress.

When the time comes that it is fixed on what line of life a young man is to adopt, then there should be schools for different branches, where

{181} Without contesting the point, whether dead languages are of any use, it will be allowed that the study costs pretty dear. Three- quarters of the time, for seven years employed on that is equal to five years employed constantly, and twenty pounds a year, at least, is the expense. Not above one in one hundred learns to read even Latin decently well, that is one good reader for every 10,000 L. expended.

As to speaking Latin, perhaps, one out of one thousand may learn that, so that there is a speaker for each sum of 100,000 L. spent on the language. It will, perhaps, be said, that Latin is necessary to the understanding English, but the Greeks, (particularly at Athens,) who learnt no language but their own, understood and spoke it better than the people of any other country.

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there should be knowledge taught, a.n.a.logous to the profession. For the mercantile line, for agriculture, for every line of life, boys should be prepared; and, above all, it should never be neglected to instil into them the advantages of attention to industry, to doing their duty, and in every case making themselves worthy of trust.

Public examinations, such honours and rewards as would be gratifying, but not expensive, for those that excelled, would produce emulation. Though, perhaps, it is not of very great importance to excel in some of the studies to which a young man applies at school, yet it is of great importance to be taught that habit of application that produces excellence.

With regard to the education of the lower cla.s.ses, it would be no great additional burthen to the nation if there were proper schools established in every parish in the kingdom, at the expense of the public, in order that there might be a proper control over those who teach, and over what is taught. {182} Without going so far as to compel people of the lower cla.s.ses to send their children to school, they might be induced to do it for a short time, and, at all events, care should be taken that the teachers were fit for the office they undertake.

In no country do the lower cla.s.ses neglect the care of their children more, or set them a worse example, than in England; they are mostly brought up as if the business of eating and drinking were the chief purpose of human existence; they are taught to be difficult to please, and to consider as necessary what, in every other nation in Europe, is considered, by the same rank of people, as superfluous.

Although the lower orders have as good a right as the most affluent to indulge in every enjoyment they can afford, yet to teach this to children, without knowing what may be their lot, is doing both them and society an injury. A great number of crimes arise from early indul-

{182} As there are between nine and ten thousand parishes, twenty pounds given in each, to which the schoolmaster would be allowed to add what those who were able could pay, might perhaps answer the purpose, and would not amount to a great sum.

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gence of children, and from neglecting to instil into them those principles which are necessary to make them go through life with credit and contentment. {183}

The Spartans used to shew their youth slaves or Helots in a state of intoxication, in order to make them detest the vice of drunkenness; but this was the exhibition of a contemptible and mean person in a disgraceful situation. The effect is very different when children see those they love and respect in this state; it must have the effect of either rendering the parent contemptible, or the vice less odious, it perhaps has some effect both ways; but, at all events, it must operate as a bad example, and, amongst the lower cla.s.ses, it is a very common one.

When a nation becomes the slave of its revenue, and sacrifices very =sic= thing to that object, abuses that favour revenue are difficult to reform; but surely it would be well to take some mode to prevent the facility with which people get drunk, and the temptation that is laid to do so. The immense number of public houses, and the way in which they give credit, are undoubtedly, in part, causes of this evil. It would be easy to lessen the number, without hurting liberty, and it would be no injustice if publicans were prevented from legal recovery for beer or spirits consumed in their houses, in the same manner that payment cannot be enforced of any person under twenty-one years of age, unless for necessaries. There could be no hards.h.i.+p in this, and it would produce a great reform in the manners of the lower orders.

There are only three modes of teaching youth the way to well-doing,-- by precept, by example, and by habit at an early age. Precept, without example and habit, has but little weight, yet how can a child have either of these, if the parents are encouraged and a.s.sisted in living a vicious life? Nations and individuals should guard

{183} The French, before the revolution, were not be =sic= considered as a more virtuous people than the English, yet there were fewer crimes, and less dissipation amongst the lower orders than in England, and more amongst the higher. The French, particularly the mothers, have less affection for their children, yet they brought them up better, both in habits and in principles.

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against those vices to which they find they have a natural disposition; and drinking and gluttony are the vices to which the common people in this country are the most addicted.

Whatever other things may be taught, let this truth be instilled into all children brought up to earn their bread, that in proportion to their diligence will be their ease and enjoyment, and that this world is a world of sorrow and grief to the idle and the ignorant; that knowledge does not consist in being able to read books, but in understanding one's business and duty in life, and that industry consists in doing it.

Female education, in England, requires as much reform as that of the other s.e.x; but, though the subject is not much less important, it is perhaps still more difficult. It has been remarked, by those who have travelled abroad, that, in other countries, women are in general not better, but rather worse dressed than men of the same rank: in England it is different; for, at an early age, the women are dressed, both as to style and quality of clothes, far above their rank. This might, perhaps, not be difficult to account for, but it undoubtedly is a misfortune, and one that is greatly increased by the mode of education and manner of thinking; for the main and indispensable virtue of that amiable s.e.x excepted, (for which Englishwomen are highly distinguished,) perhaps no women in the world are brought up in a more frivolous unmeaning manner. The French women, with all their vivacity and giddy airs, have more accomplishment; {184} and, as they speak their mind pretty plainly, they have, on many occasions, testified surprise to find English ladies, who had studied music for years, who could scarcely play a tune, and who, after devoting years to the needle, were incapable of embroidering a pin-cus.h.i.+on.

Novels, a species of light, insipid, and dangerous reading, are the bane of English female education. They teach a sort of false romantic sentiment, and withdraw the mind from attention to the duties of

{184} The emigrants have taught to ladies of rank, fas.h.i.+ons; and to those of an inferior cla.s.s, arts and industry. The English women did not know half what they could do, till the French came amongst them, about twelve years ago.

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life, at a time when it should be taught to learn their high importance.

In female education the government should interfere; for the education of the mother will always have an influence on the education of the son, as her conduct in life must have on that of her husband.

As one general observation, relative to the education given at most public schools, it may be observed, that, whilst much time is taken up in teaching things that can never probably be of great utility, that species of knowledge that does not belong to any particular cla.s.s, but which is of the utmost importance, is left to chance and to accident.

While a boy is tormented with learning a dead language he is left to glean, as in a barren field, for all those rules of conduct on which the prosperity and happiness of his future life depends. {185}

A public education is, in many respects, better than a private one for boys, but, in some things, it is inferior: consequently those who can afford it, and wish to give their sons the most complete education, try to unite the advantages of both, by sending them to a public school, under the care of a private tutor. It is not in the power of the middling cla.s.ses to do this; but modes should be adopted to give the boys, either by books or public lectures, those instructions, relative to moral conduct, to prudence, behaviour, &c. which a private tutor gives to those under his particular charge.

As to female education, it is a difficult subject: one great improvement would, nevertheless, be not to allow above a certain number in any one seminary; to have people of irreproachable conduct over them, and, wherever the parents can, to bring them home at the age of thirteen or fourteen. The public education ought certainly to finish at an early age, and, in all cases, with respect to females, a private is much preferable to a public education. {186}

{185} The most virtuous of the Roman emperors attributed to his preceptors every one of those excellent qualities he possessed. The ancient education of Greece and Rome was very different from that of the moderns.

{186} Since this was written, we understand a book for this very purpose is about to be printed, with the professed design of uniting the advantages of a public and private education.

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CHAP. III.

_Of the Effects of Taxation in England_.

What has been said of the increase of taxes, their tendency to ruin a nation, and bring on its decline, together with the counteraction occasioned by the continuance of necessity, as being applicable to all nations in general, applies, in every sense, to England, and even more to England than to any other nation. Taxes are carried to greater excess than in any other country; and, as England flourishes by trade and manufactures, (the price of which taxes enhance,) they gradually tend to shut foreign markets against us. This has already been explained; we, however, still have to inquire into the particular manner in which it operates upon this country.

That the system of taxation, though irregular in England, is less so than in any other country, in proportion to the extent to which it has been carried, is true; but still, however, if a number of the most troublesome and ill-contrived taxes were done away, and others established in their place, it would be a great advantage.

Greater danger arises from the augmentation of taxes in a wealthy country than in a poor one, when they stretch beyond the proper line, because the general prosperity hinders the effect from being visible, till it has advanced beyond the power of remedy; whereas, in a poor country, the injury is soon felt.