[General literacy would] teach [the poor] to despise their lot in life, instead of making them good servants in agriculture, and other laborious employment to which their rank in society has destined them;... it would enable them to read seditious pamphlets, vicious books, and publications against Christianity; it would render them insolent.

John Oxenham: 'Literacy. Writing, Reading and Social Organisation'. As quoted in 'The Writing Systems of the World' by Florian Coulmas p. 6