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of education which now engages your attention amongst the body I represent." Universal applause followed the delivery of this speech.

The Duke of Sussex then observed, that the tenets of their friend Lancaster did not allow of the drinking of his public health; but he could not suffer to be passed by, a man, who by his own great exertions had contributed so essentially to the establishment of this Institution, and therefore gave "the health of Mr. Lancaster's father," with three times three.

Mr. Lancaster expressed his acknowledgements, and adverted to his recent journey through a part of England, through Scotland, and Ireland, where he found every disposition to further the great objects of this Institution; observing, that to the advancement of those objects he should be at all times ready to contribute his own personal labour; and that, when the system was established throughout the British Empire, he should be ready to go to the remotest corners of the world, to contribute still to the extension of its bencfits.

He bore honourable testimony to the conduct of Lord Fingall, and the handsome attention he received from him when in Ireland.

The Duke of Sussex then gave

The Friends of the System in Scotland.

On which Lord Selkirk returned thanks in behalf of him

self and colleagues. "Our Lancasterian Institutions," said his lordship, "have not met with the same public attention which they have done here; and for this reason, that no opposition in Scotland has been set up against them. Here the most illiberal attempts have been made to counteract the beneficial effects of the system. With us it has been otherwise; and for the best of all reasons, that the blessings of education already imparted to the lower ranks in the North are so apparent, there is not a man to be found who could lift up his voice against it.-[Loud applause.]

The Corporation of the City of London was then proposed from the Chair, and drunk with three times three.

Messrs. Ald. Wood and Sheriff Heygate severally returned thanks.

The Duke of Sussex now proposed the health of

'Mr. Whitbread, the friend of his country, and benefactor of the poor. This also was drunk with three times three.

Mr. Whitbread rose amidst the incessant applause of the company. The illustrious Duke, he said, had indeed done

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him a most unworthy and unexpected honour. "If," continued Mr. Whitbread, " it be not what I deserve, it must excite me to deserve it. It is my anxious wish to further this system for the reformation and information of the poor. For the means of so doing I look to my friend Lancaster, and our sister kingdom Scotland. Gentlemen, when I endeavoured to promote the welfare of the poor by their instruction, I was told that I was about to subvert the Established Church; to which I replied, that I thought the Church of England, of which I am a member, founded her precepts on the principles of the Gospel; and I added, that I had no doubt but in the person of Joseph Lancaster she would find one of her warmest supporters, because his system was confined to the Bible." He congratulated the country, that, however his efforts had been frustrated, what he had endeavoured to do by law had been effected without law. The King, in spite of all efforts, was the firm bulwark of the man whose cause he originally supported; and the same support was given by the Prince Regent, and other branches of the royal family. After the most eloquent and impressive reasoning they had heard that night, and considering the high auspices it enjoyed--the system of Joseph Lancaster had to dread no attack from either enemics or rivals. He paid a compliment of gratitude to the beneficent exertions of those individuals, without whose substantial co-operation this work of charity must have failed in its outset. Mr. Whitbread concluded, amidst loud applauses, by again returning thanks for the very marked and distinguished manner in which his health had been proposed and received.

Mr. W. Smith then addressed the meeting at some length. He described the good effects which must result from the system of Mr. Lancaster, and ridiculed the idea that the Esta blished religion would be at all endangered.

The Stewards,

were then drunk; on which there was an universal call for Mr. Brougham, who rose and thanked the meeting for the high honour which had been done him and his colleagues. "To receive," he said, "such an expression of feeling from the friends of universal toleration, was indeed a grand consi-" deration; and it was more peculiarly gratifying to participate in this meeting than in any other. He concluded a most impressive speech, by recommending a zealous support of the Lancasterian system, enforcing on the minds of all who heard hin the recollection that the rival institution was a child of

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this, having entirely sprung from the labours of Mr. Lancaster; and he trusted that as it would be silly in the Lancasterian Institution to be angry with any of the actions of its child, so it would be worse than silly in the offspring to lift its hand against its parent.

The business of the meeting was conducted throughout the evening in a manner which reflected the highest credit on the royal persons who presided, on the stewards, and on all the company present.

The chair will be filled next year by His Grace the Duke of Bedford, supported by the Dukes of Kent and Sussex.

** The Donations and Susbscriptions announced at this Meeting will be published in the next Report.

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Prospect of further Reform in the Penal Laws of America.

A respected Correspondent has favoured us with the following Extracts of Letters which he has recently received from America.

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PHILADELPHIA.

I rejoice in the hope that in this state, (New Jersey.) Pennsylvania and New York at least, the punishment of death will ere long be entirely expunged from their penal codes. The Governors of the two latter states, in their last addresses to the respective assemblies on meeting, strongly recommend its entire abolition, as being inefficacious to the prevention of crimes, and inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity; and here (New Jersey) a conviction of the propriety of such a measure appears to be fast gaining ground: so that, although this desirable step has not yet been actually taken in either, it is highly probable it will be in some, if not all of these states."

Another correspondent says, "that the legislature of Pennsylvania are about to complete the work of benevolence, long since commenced, in its criminal code, by expunging from our statute-books the penalty of death for murder; the only offence for which that punishment can now be inflicted. A similar beneficent and enlightened policy has (it is said) many advocates in the councils of our neighbours, New Jersey and Delaware."

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PAUL CUFFEE.

It will perhaps be interesting to many of our readers to learn that the black captain Paul Cuffce has safely arrived at his home in Newport, Massachussets: his vessel, however, was seized by the Americans as she approached the coast, but has been released in consequence of application at the seat of the American Government. We shall probably have occasion to advert to his further prospects and views, as to the civilization of Africa, in a future Number.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the communication from Ashford, on a Plan for establishing a Bank for the Poor: the subject is a highly important one, and will meet with our carly attention; other plans for the same object are also before us.

The writer of the article on the Bible Society will see that we are fully sensible of the importance of the subject, though we had not room for the insertion of his Essay.

We fully intended to have inserted the article on War, but were unexpectedly prevented.

L. S. on the situation of the Village Poor, contains some very interesting remarks, which will not be lost sight of, though the article came too late for insertion in the present Number.

No. VIII..:

On the Poor, and the Poor Laws.

1. EXTENT OF PAUPERISM,

ALL men seem now to be in a great measure agreed about the policy of the English poor laws. The effect of them is, to oppress the classes upon whom the contribution to them falls, and to ruin the character and morals, and impair the comforts, of those for whose benefit the contribution is ostensibly raised.. The provision for the poor is so managed as to rise to the weight of an enormous burthen upon those who pay, and to operate as a curse and a scourge upon those for whose relief it is intended. This is not a point which is now a matter of dispute. Philosophers and antijacobins; priests and philanthropists; lawyers and patriots; sinecurists and reformers; all, how far soever they may differ in other points, profess their belief in the peccancy of the system relating to the poor. We know but one exception; which seems to be found in the mercantile class; of whom a portion, in trying to ape the great, ape them (in this as in former ages) by copying that which is their disgrace. Men of a weak and hateful character, who are ashamed of the level from which they have risen, often think they cannot more successfully conceal their relation to the lower classes of society, than by seizing all occasions to express contempt and hatred of them. It is true that among the ill-educated and unintelligent part of those who are born to riches and elevation, (a part which goes too far towards including the whole,) the mercantile haters of the poor find a disposition not uncongenial. Hereditary riches and elevation, however, are less forward to express their contempt and hatred; they have not the same motive; they rather adopt the tone of patrons, benefactors, guardians; and would very willingly appear the friends, provided they could, to the degree of their own liking, remain the lords and masters of the great mass of the people. The case is different with the mercantile aristocrats. They press forward in all companies, and even in VOL. II,

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