d chiefly recruited as our
legislature is from among those who are brought up at such schools, this
barbarising influence becomes a hindrance to national progress.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Equally at the squire's table after the withdrawal of the ladies, at the
farmers' market-ordinary, and at the village ale-house, the topic which,
after the political question of the day, excites the most general
interest, is the management of animals. Riding home from hunting, the
conversation usually gravitates towards horse-breeding, and pedigrees,
and comments on this or that "good point;" while a day on the moors is
very unlikely to end without something being said on the treatment of
dogs. When crossing the fields together from church, the tenants of
adjacent farms are apt to pass from criticisms on the sermon to
criticisms on the weather, the crops, and the stock; and thence to slide
into discussions on the various kinds of fodder and their feeding
qualities. Hodge and Giles, after comparing notes over their respective
pig-styes, show by their remarks that they have been observant of their
masters' beasts and sheep; and of the effects produced on them by this
or that kind of treatment. Nor is it only among the rural population
that the regulations of the kennel, the stable, the cow-shed, and the
sheep-pen, are favourite subjects. In towns, too, the numerous artisans
who keep dogs, the young men who are rich enough to now and then indulge
their sporting tendencies, and their more staid seniors who talk over
agricultural progress or read Mr. Mechi's annual reports and Mr. Caird's
letters to the _Times_, form, when added together, a large portion of
the inhabitants. Take the adult males throughout the kingdom, and a
great majority will be found to show some interest in the breeding,
rearing, or training of animals, of one kind or other.

But, during after-dinner conversations, or at other times of like
intercourse, who hears anything said about the rearing of children? When
the country gentleman has paid his daily visit to the stable, and
personally inspected the condition and treatment of his horses; when he
has glanced at his minor live stock, and given directions about them;
how often does he go up to the nursery and examine into its dietary, its
hours, its ventilation? On his library-shelves may be found White's
_Farriery_, Stephens's _Book of the Farm_, Nimrod _on the Condition of
Hunters_; and with the contents of these