The Rev. J. G. ROBBERDS, in noticing the great abuses of public charity, said he had that day heard of recommendations to the Manchester Lying-in Charity sold by applicants at a shilling each.

The usual business of the society having been transacted, the proceedings terminated, there being a general feeling, and indeed expression of gratification at the extent of good effected by the labours of Mr. Ashworth, with so small an expenditure of pecuniary means.

DISSENTERS' MARRIAGE BILL.

Copy of a Petition to the House of Commons in relation to the proposed changes in the Marriage Law, from the Unitarian Congregation, Greengate, Salford :—

That your petitioners are of opinion that it is the duty of a paternal government to rule with strict impartiality all classes of his Majesty's subjects, and consequently to do away, at the earliest period, all existing distinctions connected with diversities of faith, and especially to avoid creating new distinctions in any measure designed as a remedy for actual grievances.

That with this view of the duty of a British Legislature, your petitioners cannot consider the proposed measure of Sir Robert Peel for regulating the Marriages of Dissenters to be constructed on a proper principle, inasmuch as in its operation it would be found to create a marked and prejudicial distinction between the marriages of Dissenters and those of Churchmen, causing the one to be regarded as more respectable, if not more sacred, than the other, and by the additional trouble required on the part of Dissenters in the ceremony of marriage, occasioning impediments to its performance, offering a fee to conformity to the Established Church, and thus inflicting a penalty on Dissent, to the decrease of its influence and the retardation of its progress.

Your petitioners therefore pray, that your Honourable House will sanction no measure but such as, being based on the recognition of equal civil rights for religionists of all classes, shall put Churchmen and Dissenters on precisely the same footing in relation to the marriage ceremony.

While, however, your petitioners prefer this request, they are most anxious not to infringe on the mental freedom of others; and they humbly conceive, that the granting of their petition would in no way interfere with the religious convictions of any of his Majesty's subjects, if the Legislature should, in its wisdom, devise a plan which, requiring only a well-authenticated registration of marriages, should, by making the ministers of religion of all denominations the civil functionaries, give each person the opportunity of adding such a religious service as might in each case be desired.

To construct a satisfactory measure for this purpose, your petitioners conceive almost impossible, in the existing state of the law; and they, therefore, pray your Honourable House to institute a system of efficient Registration, extending to Births and Deaths, as well as to Marriages, for all his Majesty's subjects in the United Kingdom.'

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

On Female Education,' and 'Philosophy for the People,' in our next.-Those whose articles are postponed, will, it is hoped, excuse the delay, which is occasioned by a press of matter.-In obedience to the wishes of many of our friends, we intend to give more space than we have hitherto done, to brief notices and articles of intelligence, for which purpose communications are solicited.

A Sermon on War, by Dr. Channing, will appear in the next Number of the
Christian Teacher.

HAVING contemplated the female character as it may be, a happy blending of utility and beauty, of strength and sweetness, the mind naturally reverts to the means by which such a character may be formed. To obtain a distinct idea of them we must turn our thoughts to the infant in the cradle, and follow the young inheritor of woman's frailty and tenderness, through the succeeding years of childhood and youth. We must look upon the system of domestic education as it generally is, before we can venture to conclude what it should be; and account for the disappointments which have arisen, before we can hope to avoid such in future.

There is perhaps no class of persons who have a stronger claim upon our sympathy and tenderness, than those who, possessing kind hearts and good intentions, have, nevertheless, made some fatal mistake in the grand business of education. That such mistakes frequently are made, is a subject rather of regret than surprise, as it often happens that those to whose lot it falls to form the habits of young children, are persons who have had no experience in the all important work which they undertake to perform.

Almost all that is wrong in the dispositions of the young, may be attributed to one or other of the following causes. The false kindness, or the harshness, of those upon whom they have depended for happiness in the early years of life. The former is an error that we almost love while we deprecate it, it is so evidently the overflowing of affection and amiability. The latter we can only forgive in the hope that so unnatural a line of conduct has been unwillingly adopted, with a view to escape the evils that have been found to accrue from too great indulgence. The progress of the first error we trace far more in sorrow than in anger.

The young mother receives her infant from the hands of Providence with rapturous gratitude. She feels for it unbounded affection; she thinks, very naturally, that too much love and affection cannot be shown to it, and that nothing else can be wanting to make it, as it advances to maturity, all she could wish to see it. If she be the self-denying creature which is almost implied by the name of mother, her first impulse is to make any sacrifice of personal ease and convenience to the well

being of her child. If she have observed little of children and their habits, she unhesitatingly concludes that the most unremitting attention is necessary, that her treasure must be continually caressed and amused, and cannot be expected to be happy, or even quiet, unless it be engrossing the undivided care of, at least, one individual. The first disappointment arises from the baby being observed to become fretful, but this is quickly attributed to the pains of dentition. It soon begins not only to know its mother, which is delightful, but to cry piteously whenever it leaves her. The trouble which this propensity occasions is overlooked by the fond parent for the sake of the feeling it manifests, which she mistakes for the first glimmering of filial affection. She even indulges herself occasionally in giving the child into the arms of its nurse, or a stranger, on purpose to witness its anxiety to return to her own. The father, mean time, cannot help being annoyed at the increasing demands made upon his wife's time; but he perhaps knows as little about education as she does, and if he be amiable and well-principled he is willing to make great sacrifices for the sake of his child. The pleasure of hearing the little one prattle, for a long time compensates both parents for the pain of hearing it scream; but as these screaming fits become more violent and protracted, fears are entertained for the effects upon the little tender frame. One improper indulgence after another is granted merely to avoid them, and the mother learns to think herself happy if she can get through a day without eliciting any thing worse than a sullen murmur, or a peevish whine.

Perhaps another little claimant makes its appearance, and the same game is played over again; nay, even a third and fourth time without much difference, except that when there are many to clamour for attention, there is great difficulty to know how to apportion it without awakening that jealousy which always co-exists with such a state of things.

With children who are accustomed to every indulgence, the indulgence itself is not enough, it requires comparison to give it a relish. My dear, you shall stay to supper, and your sisters will do nothing of the kind,' we have heard an affectionate and well-intentioned mother say, by way of bribe, to a refractory child, taking care, however, that the sisters did not hear. The straits to which such mothers reduce themselves would surpass the belief of those who have never witnessed any thing of the kind. They are compelled, in a sort of self-defence, to make promises it is impossible to keep, and often for the sake of husband or friend to purchase present peace by the most injurious

concessions.

Through many years of such a toilsome pilgrimage a mother is supported by the belief, that whatever else is wrong, the

love of her offspring is her own. How naughty you are, that you will not go to Miss B, when she is so kind as to notice you, but she is so attached to me she will not leave me for a moment,' is the common language of the affectionate deceived woman, and then she snatches the little rebel to her bosom, and looks up in her friend's face with a pleased smile, as much as to say, 'You see, though she is disobedient, she is so fond of me that in time I shall be able to make her all I wish.' Alas! that time will never arrive upon such a system. In a little while the veil begins to fall. The mother finds that even her exhortations to abstain for her sake, to do something for the love of her, are disregarded, and a slight service is often refused if attended with the smallest self-denial. Still she flatters herself that all will be well. The children are but young,' she observes: when they are old enough to appreciate all the sacrifices she has made, and her great love and anxiety, they will feel and act very differently; yet year after year passes away and no evidences of such feelings appear.

During all this time the erring parent does not escape reproach. Friends are not usually slow in dropping hints about spoiled children, even if they have in former times abetted the spoiling by indiscreet praise. The old adage, Spare the rod,' &c. is ever and anon sounded in her ears. Maiden aunts are apt to observe, that in their days things were very different; and Job's comforters are always at hand to predict what the young people will be when they begin to direct their own affairs.

How any one can endure continually, almost without resistance or attempt at change, so much internal and external disquietude, seems almost a mystery; but a mother's heart is very strong to bear what is, or appears to be, for the happiness of her children. They only can solve that mystery, who know with what intenseness it is possible to love a child;-how every thing around it, and belonging to it, acquires a peculiar, an almost sacred interest ;-how, for its sake, the joyous smile and glistening eye of every other child seems like the sunshine and dew of Paradise ;-how the ringing laugh of infancy, that comes echoing and dancing through the summer woods, calls up by association a thrill of delight, such as even the voices of birds and streams could never have awakened. Truly has it been said of many a little one

His very foot has music in't,
When he comes up the stair.'

There is not in nature a more beautiful and holy feeling than the love of woman for little children. It can, indeed, 'bear all things, hope all things, endure all things.' But if by the mother, the nurse, or the teacher, this feeling be manifested in a wrong way, however sacred may be her devotion to her charge,

a day will come when the spell will be broken, when she must awake to the conviction, that the being she has watched, cherished, all but idolized, is selfish, heartless, and only attached for its own gratification; that the fruit of all her tenderness and care, which was so pleasant to the eye, is ashes to the taste. This is indeed a melancholy picture ;-would that it were not a true one!

When that conviction comes to such a mother as has been described, she has a negative consolation in finding that the children of some criticising friend, who always insisted that the spirits of children ought to be broken, are no more amiable than her own that they have in many respects the very same faults. Perhaps that friend also is becoming sensible that she has erred in her manner of educating, and the two talk over their grievous disappointment, in unmixed astonishment, that such opposite modes of conduct have led to the same results. The fact is easily explained. The subjects of both methods of education become selfish. That of the one, by feeling her gratification the one great object of interest to others, till it becomes so to her own mind; that of the other has learnt to care much for herself, because she has wanted confidence that those around her would care for her. She has been always on the defensive, and dear is the helpless creature we defend.' Both are keen exactors of attention. One, because she has acquired an appetite for it which is not easily satisfied; the other, because she distrusts that any will be voluntarily yielded. Both will probably look upon themselves through life as injured beings. The victim of mistaken indulgence will always find the measure of respect and deference which she will meet with in society, far below what she expected and considers as her due. The one who has endured coldness or austerity, will discover that measure to be so much above what she anticipated, that she will either look upon it with suspicion as the cloak of some sinister design, or she will arouse all the bitterness of her own spirit by comparing it with the conduct of those who were the tyrants of her infancy.

If these dispositions were the only evils that resulted from too rigorous government, it might seem as if the sterner system were the least mischievous. There would be hope that the individual would at length feel her proper level, and enjoy the consideration she received all the more for previous deprivation; but the disposition to concealment and mean subterfuge, which is engendered by severity, can seldom or never be eradicated from the mind.

It has been observed long ago, that the most chastised children rarely make the best men.' Neither will it be found that those who have endured the most, are the most fitted for endu