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improvements , as they ought to have dune , they have not left the others undone . It is remarkable that after the plan of Mr * Raikes had been making for fourteen years
a generally applauded progress , an alarm was excited against it % chiefly on account of its encoiu ^ agemeni by political Reformers , to whose views , misrepresented by
ignorance or interest , it was supposed peculiarly favourable . In the Gentleman ' s Magazine for 1 797 , ( V . 67 , p . 819 ) ap . peared a writer , with the signature of Eusebius , and understood to
be a clergyman . His letter displays prejudices unworthy of a liheral scholar . He decides that iC a man of no literature will seldom attempt to form insurrections or plan an idle scheme for the reformation of the state . " He
* therefore concludes , that the Sunday School is in reality productive of no valuable advantage /' and " ought to be exploded as the irain and chimerical invention of
a visionary projector . " Eusebius was aided ( V . 6 * 8 , p . 31 . ) by one who signed himself * ' a Friend to the Established Church , and a Well-wisher to all mankind ; though an enemy to every thing that looks like mischief or rebellion . " This
writer would substitute Saturday for Sunday Schools , that the fc employments on the Sabbath " may be t 4 not of a worldly , but entirely of a religious nature . " If ' xthe Clergy are allowed and requested to superintend and
direct , it is hoped that the minds of children will not be poisoned , as they have been sometimes , with tracts published for the use of Sunday Schools . " The Dean of Lincoln , whom we quoted ( p . 581 . ) , had , in ano-
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ther part of his Charge , supposed the race of objectors to the in . tellectual and moral culture of the poor , almost extinct . They however , survived in these writers who were ably , though easily , atu swered , especially by Clericus ( Vi 6 Sj p , 32 . ) who charges such objectors with " being instrumental
in taking from the poor that key of knowledge which was given to them by Christ himself , before it was bestowed on the rich . " We know of no later published opposition to the plan of Mr , Raikes , ' who lived to see his be .
nevolent purposes advanced , to an incalculable extent ^ by the facili . ties latel y ^ afforded to the education of the poor . The report of
the Sunday-School Society in April last is worthy of being here presorved , premising that it can only display a partial and perhaps not the most considerable view of the
progress of Sunday Schools . * Since the commencement of this Institution ,- 385 , 67 * Spelling-books , 6 a , 166 Testaments , and 7 > 7 * 4 Bibles ,
have been distributed to 3 , 348 schools , containing upwards of 270 , 000 scholars . Besides which , the sum of 4 , 17 6 Z . os S& has been paid to teachers , in p laces where they could not be otherwise obtained " Frot . Dis . Almanack , i 8 ix .
P . %% . Mr . Raikes appears to have been highly favoured in tke circumstances of his death , which happened April 5 , 1811 , in his native city of Gloucester , without any previous indisposition , and in nis
76 th year . Thus he came w his grave in a full age , and mig " > surely , have solaced his life ' s decline with the promise of his gr ^ Exemplar—Blessed art thou , fo r these cannot recompense thee , bii thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the Just .
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584 Memoir of Mr . Robert R # ikes *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1811, page 584, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2421/page/8/
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