e that a government should
interfere. It should interfere in guiding the richer classes of working
people, and the middling ranks, in the education of their children, and
in assisting those of the lower orders, who are too much pressed upon
by indigence.

The end in view in all education is to make the persons, whether men
or women, fill their place well and properly in life; and this is only to
be done by setting a good example, instilling good principles,
accustoming them, when young, to good habits; and, above all, by
teaching them how to gain more than they are habituated to spend.

It follows from this, that industry, and a trade, are the chief parts of
education, that reading and writing are not, being but of a very
doubtful utility to the labouring class of society.

On this subject, it is absolutely necessary to advert to what Dr. Smith
says relative to apprenticeships; the opinion of so great a writer is of
too much importance not to be examined, and refuted, if found wrong.

Apprenticeships, or teaching a trade, is the basis of the future
happiness and prosperity of the individual in the lower and middle
classes. On this subject, however, Mr. Smith says quite the contrary.
That the idleness of apprentices is well known, that their inducement
to industry is small, and that, as to what they have to learn, a few
weeks, or sometimes a few days, would, in most cases, be sufficient.
In short, he maintains, that they would learn better, be more
industrious and useful, if employed on wages, than if bound for a term
of years; and, finally, that there were no apprentices amongst the
ancients. As to there being no apprentices in the ancient world, if that
was the case, is no argument with respect to the present state of things;
for, while most part of working men were slaves, there could not
possibly be much occasion for apprentices; but are we quite certain,
that the freed men, so often mentioned, were not people who had
served apprenticeships? Freed men are so often mentioned, that there
must have been probably something else to which they owed their
freedom, besides the goodwill or [end of page #219] caprice of their
masters, particularly as that goodwill must have been exercised to
deserving objects, and consequently the sacrifice made in giving
liberty was the greater. {176}

As men cultivated difficult arts; that is, as luxury increased, it must
have become difficult to get labour done by slaves, merely by
co