ciples, and on a benevolence which (I have been credibly assured) shows itself in personal attention to the poor. I found myself more at my ease than among Radicals, or than in the loftiest regions of aristocracy.

The same thing is not suited to all, nor good for all; and I am one of the last to wish that all trees should bear the same foliage. Yet one

cannot help feeling that, though extraordinary specimens are interesting as natural curiosities, the trees which must compose the forest of the country-at once its strength and ornament— must be like these.

LETTER XXVI.

Visit to Haileybury-English Sundays-Want of intellectual Recreation-Want of popular musical Education-Beer BillBeer Shops-Gin Shops-Causes of Drunkenness-Prostitution -Illegitimate Children-Population-Increased Value of Life.

London, Sunday, May 25, 1835.

YESTERDAY I went with Messrs. P and P― to the East India College at Haileybury, near Hertford, in compliance with the kind invitation of Pr― V. S. The weather was perfectly favourable, both going and returning; two of the loveliest spring days. Horse-chestnuts, laburnum, hawthorn, lilacs, all in the most brilliant and luxuriant bloom; the whole way a succession of elegant houses, neat cottages, and farms, -gardens, meadows, fields, richly interspersed with trees. Passing through Hackney, Stamford-Hill, Tottenham, Edmonton, Wormleigh, and Hoddesdon, we reached our journey's end in about two hours and a half. It was hardly possible to say where one village or small town ended and another began; so thickly sprinkled were the dwellings, the interval between which was never greater than was necessary to heighten the variety.

The East India College was established by the Company for the education of the young men destined to their civil service. The course of in

struction is consequently special. The expenses of the students are not small, (the table, for instance, alone, costs fifty-two guineas a-year,) yet the Company is obliged to contribute a considerable sum towards the salaries of the very well paid Professors. Each of these gentlemen has a pleasant residence and a beautiful garden: the buildings, on the whole, however, can lay no claim to architectural beauty; on the contrary, they display a total inability to reconcile the objects of utility with the demands of art.

On Sunday I arose, while all the rest were asleep, and wandered into a wood of oaks, thinly. scattered amidst grass and underwood: spring flowers were under my feet, and larks and other birds singing and fluttering around me,-no other sound to break the deep silence and the perfect solitude. After having for months seen and heard nothing but the restless motion and the ceaseless din of London, this sudden stillness and seclusion had the strongest effect on me: I felt as if there were no human being but myself on earth,—as if I were alone; and, excepting the birds, no other living creature existed. This, combined with my real separation from all my dearest and most cordial friends, and with the dim recollections of all scenes of home and country, threw me into a fit of unspeakable melancholy. But I shook it off and returned back to habitations and to men.

I breakfasted with Mr. J, and had a long conversation with him on the condition of our agricultural population, and the relation of Eng

lish farmers and tenants to their landlords. It is only by degrees that I begin to perceive, from my own experience here, how difficult it must be for an Englishman to enter thoroughly into the nature and current of our institutions.

I attended Divine Service, and heard a very celebrated preacher; looked at the library, and returned home alone, as I was to dine with Lord M-.

So here again were two days full of instruction and variety. If I do not go into more minute detail, it is from the pressure of other labours. But I must indulge myself with an outpouring on the subject of the English Sunday.

I perfectly admit that the English ought to draw a sharper line of distinction, or rather contrast, between the sabbath and the week days, than any other people. After their intense devotion to, and ceaseless occupation about, the things of this world, they need to be more strongly reminded of another, than the Germans and many other nations. People of education, too, doubtless fill this day in a varied and intellectual manNevertheless the contrast of the week days and the Sunday appears to me too narrow, I might say too Judaical: the cheerful recreation and gladness of mind, which are much more congenial with Christianity than many sects believe, are entirely wanting. The lower classes, who often have to toil wearily through every other day, find Sunday (as it is constantly described) the weariest of all. Often, after serving an austere master, they are made to see in the Father

ner.

of Love an austerer still. Singing, music, dancing, the drama, and all amusements which are addressed to our intellectual nature, are forbidden and denounced as schools of the devil. What is the consequence? That people of temperate, regular habits conduct themselves in a temperate and regular manner; while a great number of the less sedate and less patient of restraint give themselves up to the grossest sensual enjoyment, and seek in that the distinction between Sunday and working-day. One set of people complain of the desecration of the Sabbath,—and in this they are perfectly right; but the only means they can devise for the remedy of the evil are still severer laws; and in this, in my opinion, they are quite wrong. If (the difficulty of which can hardly be calculated) all public-houses and gin-shops could be entirely closed on a Sunday, what would the common people do then? how would they get rid of their intolerable ennui ?-By spiritual exercises? But are not two sermons, two services of religion, sufficient? Are they not as much as the mind of an ordinary man can bear?—By reading? But many cannot read, and more have not books which they care to read.-By sleeping; or what? In this way we should arrive at the conclusion, that, to avoid all these disorders, some millions of people ought every Sunday to be chained or locked up.

I am convinced, on the contrary, that drunkenness would decline, if music, dancing, and all the less sensual and animal recreations were allowed. These necessarily impart higher pleasures and