8 ENGLAND'S BEST HOPE. heights to which we may reasonably aspire ; - let us not think it unworthy our attention to enquire how we can alone answer our high destination, revive what we have lost, attain what more is within our reach, or having attained it, how we may perpetuate the inestimable blessing. We have at, length, though with a slow and reluctant movement, begun to pro- vide a national education for the children of the poor. Prejudice held out against it with its accustomed pertinacity, - knowledge would only make them idle, ignorance would preserve subordination, the knowledge of their duty would impede the performance of it. This last we did not perhaps say in so many words, but was it not the principle of our conduct ? We put off the instruc- tion of the poor till the growth of crime made the rich tremble. We refused to make them better till they grew so much worse as to augment the difficulty, as to lessen the probability of their reform.
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