that " he wanted more."  " Then wanting
wages does not constitute a right? "  " Yes,
but— " said the stout boy true to his point
which was no stupid one—" if the value of gold
falls, the workman has a right to higher
money wages."  " But if the proportion
between capital and labour should not allow
a rise; if there should be a hundred labourers
and only a hundred pounds to pay among
them, could more be paid than a pound to
each; or would the average wages be higher
if four pounds a piece were paid to five and
twenty? "  " No, sir," replied green polka,
"the average would be the same."  " Then,"
suggested the stout boy, arguing in a fair
train, " the amount of labour should be
lessened. Some of the workmen ought to
emigrate, and make more room."  " Room do
you want, is that all?  Let us see." A
pale-faced little fellow looking with big eyes into
the argument before him, who had already
taken a large part in the lesson, with a
nervous energy of interest, and nervous
irritability of manner, when he found that
he was tumbling upon false conclusions, here
said, " You must apply skill and industry in
labour to increase wealth in a country and
produce more capital."  "Well," said the
teacher, " not long ago three-fifths of the
people of this country could not sign their
names. Suppose the remaining two-fifths
had prudently resolved to better
themselves and the country by emigration.
Suppose they had gone away. There would
have been more room, wouldn't there?"
"Yes," said green polka, " but we should
have been a great deal poorer."  " Why
so, with so much more room? "
"Because those who remained at home would
be the ignorant and idle."  " They would get
drunk," cried one voice— " until they had no
money to get drunk with," added another.
"Then," said the nervous boy, holding also to
his point, "they would go and work for
wages, but they would work badly— "  "Then
it is not altogether room that we want if we
would prosper? There's room in the great
desert, but you wouldn't like to go and live
there, eh? " —" No," said the nervous boy,
"there must be knowledge, skill, and industry,
and prudence to increase wealth."  " There
must be skill, and industry, and prudence;
and how are all those qualities acquired? In a
minute?— " No, sir."  " How then? "— " By
training, by education."  " And when must
education begin? "— " From the first."  " You
are being educated? "—" Yes."  " And when
everybody is educated into knowledge, industry,
and prudence, and bred up to work wisely
—what shall we all do! "—" Increase the
wealth of the country, and so increase also
the amount that is to be divided among workmen."
"That," said the pale boy, with large
eyes, " is civilisation."— "Do you think we
can be too civilised? "—" No," replied a
chorus. " If there were a ship's crew at sea
with a short allowance of rations, could they
do anything to make every man's dinner
larger."— " No, sir."  " But they would not
like it, but they would want more."— " Yes,
but they would have to make the best of it
and be good tempered."  "If a number of
them would not be good tempered, but cried
out for larger rations, what then? "— " Others
would think them very ignorant."

"And what would the others do in such a
case."—"Try to teach them better," said
green polka, quickly. "If wages fell on
shore because there was not so much capital
as usual to divide among the labourers, and
if the labourers understood that, what would
they do? "— " Put up with it," said green
polka."— " And work well," added the pale
face, " in order to make better times."  " If
there were twelve workmen, ten doing their
best for themselves and their country, and
two getting drunk, talking nonsense, and
doing nothing, what ought the ten good men
to do in such a case?" The stout youth
appeared ready to suggest  " Punch their
heads," but green polka forestalled his speech
with the idea that they would " help to teach
them better."—" Then you think teaching
necessary? " —" Yes, but it is better young."
—" And from whom can the young learn
most?"— " From their parents."— " Can any
of you answer this hard question? If we
were all educated, all civilised and working
hard, pulling together to increase the wealth of
us all—what effect would that have, or would
it have any effect, do you think, in increasing
or lessening the number of mouths we have
to feed? " There was a serious pondering
over this question, which was evidently new to
all the children; but at last the youth with,
the half-boots propounded his opinion that
there would not be quite so many of us:
because " if men were intelligent and prudent
they would not often marry till they knew
beforehand how they were to feed and educate
their children."

We need not illustrate these lessons in
greater detail. It is of course impossible in
a few paragraphs to give anything like an
exact transcript of the lights and shades of
expression and opinion, or of the precise
words elicited from many children in any
part of a diffuse lesson carried on by constant
dialogue. In its diffuseness, however, it is
least dull. The quaint suggestions of fresh
minds at every turn enliven the whole
subject, the ponderings expressed on childish
faces, the triumphs of discovery, the pleasant
laughter at the odd conceits occasionally
struck out, and the bold jokes hazarded at
times by some young wild-goose of the party—
all this mingled with a fair sense of the good
work that is being done, makes any lesson of
the kind, if it be conducted by an able
teacher, a very agreeable entertainment.

The imaginative faculty in all these children,
and also (last but not least) their religious
principles, we assume to be cultivated elsewhere.
Such cultivation, we are well convinced, is no