ders, which has a tendency
to grow worse, as the nation advances in wealth.

In England, the pride of the middling classes is to have their children
educated at boarding-schools, where the business of eating, sleeping,
dressing, and exercise, is pretty well understood; where the branches
of education, pretended to be taught, are little attended to, (writing,
and some exterior accomplishments, of which the father and mother
can judge, excepted,) where moral conduct, the duties in life, and the
conduct necessary to be followed, are scarcely once thought of.

It is true, that, till a certain age, it is generally not known for what
particular line of life a young man is intended; but, there are certain
things necessary to every line of life, and those should never be
neglected. The habits contracted at schools are very often of a sort
never to be got the better of; and how can good habits be contracted
when no attention is bestowed on the subject?

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.
-=-

[end of page #223]

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 pa