In England, the pride of the middling classes is to have their children educated at boarding-schools, where the business of eating, sleeping, dressing, and exercise, is pretty well understood; where the branches of education, pretended to be taught, are little attended to, (writing, and some exterior accomplishments, of which the father and mother can judge, excepted,) where moral conduct, the duties in life, and the conduct necessary to be followed, are scarcely once thought of.

It is true, that, till a certain age, it is generally not known for what particular line of life a young man is intended; but, there are certain things necessary to every line of life, and those should never be neglected.  The habits contracted at schools are very often of a sort never to be got the better of; and how can good habits be contracted when no attention is bestowed on the subject?

The consequence of this is, that, when the good sense of the father or mother, or of the boy himself, does not correct the evil, he is bred up to consider himself as born to be waited on, and provided for, without any effort of his own; he is led to suppose that he is to indulge

—–­ {180} In the notes upon the Wealth of Nations, this case is argued, but the matter is too important not to be examined on every occasion and opportunity.  The opinion here alluded to is that general way of thinking, respecting corporations, privileges, and regulations, or restraints of every sort imposed on trade, which the writers on political economy, in general, think ought all to be entirely done away. -=-

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in a life similar to that his father leads at home, where a few indulgencies =sic= are the natural consequences of age, and the fair returns for a life employed in care and industry.

In England, it would be absolutely necessary to make school-masters undergo an examination; not only at first, and before the school should be licensed, but the boys should be examined twice a year, and the result enregistered, so that the business would really be to learn something, and not merely to spend the time.

The small proficiency made in the schools, in England, and around London in particular, is incredible.  It is even difficult to conceive how the boys avoid learning a little more than they generally do, during eight or ten years. {181} The masters pretend, for the most part, to teach boys Latin, by way of teaching them English, but without almost ever accomplishing it.  In arithmetic, the common rules are taught, but scarcely ever decimal fractions, and almost never book-keeping, so useful and so easy an art.

Writing and spelling are better taught, perhaps, than in any other country, and, certainly, those are great advantages; but, according to the time and money spent, it is the least that can be expected.  Here we may remark, that those are the only acquirements with the proficiency in which the father and mother are necessarily acquainted; it therefore gives reason for thinking, that, if the same check were held in other branches of their education, they would be excited to make equal progress.