There death makes fell havoc; many
destitute widows and children have to be maintained out of the
poor's-rates; and then we reluctantly confess to ourselves that
Ignorance is Power.
The only method of abating this power of Ignorance, is by increasing
that of Knowledge. As the sun goes up the sky, the darkness disappears;
and the owl, the bat, and the beasts of prey, slink out of sight. Give
the people knowledge,--give them better education,--and thus, crime will
be abated,--drunkenness, improvidence, lawlessness, and all the powers
of evil, will, to a certain extent, disappear.[1]
[Footnote 1: The recent reports of Mr. Tremenheere to the Secretary of
State for the Home Department, with respect to the condition of the
population in the iron and coal districts, show that he places
considerable reliance upon the effect of Education. The evidence which
he brought together from all parts of the country, shows that the
increase of immorality with the increase of wages was attributed to the
low tastes and desires of the people.--that the obstinate refusal of the
men to exert more than two-thirds of their fair powers of work, by which
the cost of production is largely enhanced, capital crippled, and the
public mulcted, was due to the same cause,--that their readiness to
become the prey of unionists and agitators is traceable to their want of
the most elementary principles of thought,--that most of the accidents,
which are of weekly occurrence, are occasioned by their stupidity and
ignorance,--that wherever they have advanced in intelligence, they have
become more skilful, more subordinate, and more industrious.
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