State of the Nation," which has run through many editions. Several of
his speeches have likewise been published.

It is, however, in connexion with _Public Education_, that the pen
of Lord Brougham has been more extensively employed. His zealous
co-operation with Dr. Birkbeck, and other patriotic men of talent, in
the establishment of Mechanics' Institutions in the year 1824, must
be gratefully remembered by thousands who have enjoyed their benefits;
and, for the advantage of the London Mechanics' Institution, were
republished from the _Edinburgh Review_, his excellent "_Practical
Observations upon the Education of the People_, addressed to the
Working Classes and their Employers."--The twentieth edition of
this pamphlet is now before us, and from its conclusion, to show
the practical utility of the author's suggestions, we quote the
following:--

"I rejoice to think that it is not necessary to close these
observations by combating objections to the diffusion of science
among the working classes, arising from considerations of a political
nature. Happily the time is past and gone when bigots could persuade
mankind that the lights of philosophy were to be extinguished
as dangerous to religion; and when tyrants could proscribe
the instructors of the people as enemies to their power. It is
preposterous to imagine that the enlargement of our acquaintance with
the laws which regulate the universe, can dispose to unbelief. It
may be a cure for superstition--for intolerance it will be the most
certain cure; but a pure and true religion has nothing to fear
from the greatest expansion which the understanding can receive by
the study either of matter or of mind. The more widely science is
diffused, the better will the Author of all things be known, and the