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 hardship 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 assisted 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.
-=-

[end of page #226]

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 sex; 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,