ld 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 classes 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 classes 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.
-=-

[end of page #225]

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 classes, 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