Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 391, May, 1848
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Again, in these our own days, when crime is shown to be increasing in
a much faster ratio than either the enormous wealth or the already
great population of the country; and when legal inquirers have traced
back adult crime to puerile and even infantine neglect and ignorance;
when the brutality of the people shows itself at every man's door and
homestead, in the burning of farming-stock or the destruction of
machinery and dwelling-houses, and makes itself to be paid for in the
form of constantly increasing poor-rates,--in times such as these, it
behoves every man, who has any thing to dread from the insurrectionary
rising of the lower classes, to look sharply around him, and to see
how best the sources of the evil torrent may be dried up; where the
strongest dam may be thrown across its impetuous course, and into what
side-channels its blind strength may be diverted. It behoves every
thoughtful lover of his country to consider well how the innate
national energies of his fellow countrymen may be improved, humanised,
and directed to proper objects; and how the mass of the people,
instead of being dreaded as a mob of hungry, savage levellers, may
come to be looked on as the broad basis and support of the whole
national edifice. And this is to be effected by attending, not merely
to the physical and material well-being of the people, but by giving
well directed and unceasing diligence to the promotion of "true
religion and sound knowledge" among them. We maintain that hitherto,
and even at the present time, the public constituted means for
attaining this important end have been, and are, altogether
insufficient; and we further maintain, that the necessity of making
some adequate provision is increasing every day, and cannot long be
postponed without imminent danger to the community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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