I remember an old lady saying it would be horrible if her maids could read--she would not be able to leave her letters lying about. That was before the Education Act of 1870, but was only a faint echo of things said in 1807. “From the first dawning of that gracious benevolence, which issued spontaneously from the bosoms of their present Majesties, in promoting the instruction of the poor by the establishment of Sunday Schools, the Surveyor has looked forward with a sort of dread to the probable consequences of such a measure.” That is on page 465 of _A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Devon_ by Charles Vancouver, Surveyor to the Board of Agriculture. It also says, page 469, “How will it be possible to suppress communications and a concert among the multitude, when they are all gifted with the means of corresponding and contriving schemes of sedition and insurrection with each other?... The Surveyor thus respectfully submits to the consideration of the Honourable Board the propriety of opposing any measures that may rationally be supposed to lead to such a fatal issue.” But in some ways he was right. If there is agriculture, there must be labourers. He preferred “exciting a general emulation to excel in all their avocations,” page 468, rather than making them despise these avocations without fitting them for any others. When the Education Act was passed in 1870, nobody expected more than the three R’s and nobody expected less--I remember what a talk there was about it at the time--but more has been attempted and much less has been done, at any rate, in village schools. There is the child that can’t learn, and the child that won’t. Not many years ago a small girl in the village made up her mind that she wouldn’t learn no Readin’ nor ‘Ritin’ and couldn’t learn no ‘Rithmetic; and she didn’t learn ’n, though she made attendances and thereby earned the school some money in the shape of Government grants. But she did not look far enough ahead. She was quite happy without her R’s till she came to the age of Flirtation; but then she found she could not read the little notes that she received, nor write notes in reply; and she did not much like asking other folk to read her the contents of notes that were intended for herself alone. And so she found that education has its uses after all. But even if it has its uses, it also has its risks: at least, some people think so. An old man here was asked to witness the execution of a Deed, and signed the Attestation with very great misgivings. “There now, if ’t ’ad bin for anyone but you, I’d ’ve bin mazin’ coy o’ that. I’ve heerd of men a-losin’ thousan’s by just settin’ hand to paper.” A man here, not much older than myself, escaped all schooling and has prospered greatly; and he tells me he has never set hand to paper, and this is why he is so prosperous. When people sign agreements, they do not always see the full effect of them; and he avoids that risk. He signs nothing but his