meanwhile, in these very seminaries, let that education in religion which the Legislature abstains from providing for, be provided for, as freely and amply as they will by those who have undertaken the charge of them. We should hope as the result of such a scheme, for a most wholesome rivalship on the part of many, in the great aim of rearing on the basis of their respective systems, a moral and Christian population, well taught in the principles and doctrines of the Gospel, along with being well taught in lessons of ordinary scholarship. Although no attempt should be made to regulate or enforce the lessons of religion in the inner hall of legislation, this will not prevent, but rather stimulate to a greater earnestness in the contest between truth and falsehood, between light and darkness, in the outer field of society; nor will the result of such a contest in favor of what is right and good, be at all the more unlikely, that the families of the land have been raised by the helping hand of the State to a higher platform than before, whether as respects their health, or their physical comfort, or their economic condition; or last of all their place in the scale of intelligence and learning. Religion would, under such a system, be the immediate product, not of legislation, but of the Christian and philanthropic zeal which would obtain throughout society at large. But it is well when what legislation does for the fulfilment of its object tends not to the impediment, but rather we apprehend to the furtherance of those great and higher objects which are in the contemplation of those whose desires are chiefly set on the immortal well-being of man. On the basis of these general views, I have two general remarks to offer, regarding the Government scheme of education.

“1.—I should not require a certificate of satisfaction with the religious progress of the scholars, from the managers of the schools, in order to their receiving the Government aid. Such a certificate from Unitarians or Roman Catholics, implies

the direct sanction or countenance by Government of their respective creeds; and the responsibility, not of allowing. but more than this, of requiring that these shall be taught to the children who attend. A bare allowance is but a general toleration, but a requirement involves in it all the mischief, and I would add the guilt of an indiscriminate endowment of truth and error.

"2.—I would suffer parents or natural guardians to select what parts of the education they wanted for their children I would not force arithmetic upon them, if all they wanted was writing and reading, and as little would I force the catechism or any part of the religious instructions that are given in schools, if all they wanted was a secular education. That the managers of the Church of England schools should have the power to impose their catechism upon the children of Dissenters, and still more to compel their attendance at church, I regard as among the worst parts of the scheme. The above observations, it will be seen, meet many questions which might be put in regard to the applicability of the scheme to Scotland, or in regard to the use of the Douay version in Roman Catholic schools. I cannot conclude without expressing my despair of any great or general good being effected in the way of Christianizing our population, but through the medium of a Government, themselves Christian, and endowing the true religion, which I hold to be their imperative duty-not because it is the religion of the many, but because it is true. The scheme on which I have now ventured to offer these few observations, I should like to be adopted, not because it is absolutely the best, but only the best in existing circumstances. The endowment of the Roman Catholic religion by the State, I should deprecate as being ruinous to the country in all its interests.* Still I do not

*Dr. Chalmers may be pronounced too dogmatic in denouncing the Roman Catholic religion, and perhaps he is so; as a question of right to endowment whether for schools or churches, it is clear however, that they can claim no concessions in Protestant countries, to which they themselves afford no precedent in Roman Catholic countries; say, the Papal States.

look for the Christianity of the people, but through the medium of the Christianity of their rulers. This is a lesson taught historically in Scripture by what we read there of the influence which the personal character of the Jewish monarchs had on the moral and religious state of their subjects; it is taught experimentally by the impotence, now fully established, of the voluntary principle; last and most decisive of all, it is taught prophetically in the Book of Revelation, when told that then will the kingdoms of the earth (Baσideiai or governing powers) become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the Governments of the earth become Christian Governments."

CHAPTER IX.

IN ENGLAND much has been done for education, but much remains to be done. Munificent indeed are the charities of England, not only as regards schools, but every work to which the benevolence of the human mind can be directed; nevertheless, however unbounded may be the wealth of a country, and however freely that wealth may be bestowed, it is manifest and it is now generally acknowledged that in a matter like that of education, the work must be nationally undertaken if it is intended to be effectually carried out. However well lighted a few rich men's houses might be, if it were the fashion for each citizen to keep a lamp burning, instead of having cities lighted by means of combined efforts, there can be no doubt that the majority of houses would be ill-lighted in such a case, and that the cost of lighting a town, if such an individualized system should ever be attempted, would very soon fall more heavily than agreeably upon the voluntary martyrs who might for a while "hold up their farthing candle to the sun."

It is unnecessary to dwell at any length upon the various kinds of schools extant in England during the dark ages; we have seen that our great Alfred made it compulsory upon a person able to employ a plough, to procure also a teacher for his child; we have also noticed that during the turmoil of succeeding times, the efforts of Alfred were deprived of

their fruit; at one time, indeed, the state of England became in some respects gloomy as that of the continent; the dark ages spread their universal pall on all countries alike, but the storm-beaten shores of our island home were in some degree a safeguard for her children; and it is remarkable, that at no date did the people of England fail to assert their right to exercise free thought and action. For particular purposes particular powers were often delegated, but to whomsoever any trust was confided, it was confided with an understanding that the national power remained supreme. In the reign of the dastardly John, our ancestors took occasion to declare their independence by extorting from their feudal lord the celebrated Charter of Runnymede, from which the quotation of its most remarkable passage will, perhaps, prove acceptable. "Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut disseisiatur de libero tenemento suo vel libertatibus, vel liberis consuetudinibus suis, aut utlagetur, exuletur, aut aliquo modo destruatur, nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, vel per legem terræ. Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus rectum vel justitiam." And we must observe, that the law of the land here spoken of, was nothing ultramontane, for we find it manfully asserted to be otherwise (soon afterwards,) in the reign of Henry III., at the Parliament of Merton, when in reply to an attempt on the part of the prelates to introduce a portion of the canon law, "All the earls and barons with one voice answered, that they would not change the laws of England which had hitherto been used and approved."* Again, in the reign of

aut

* Hallam in speaking of the reign of Henry III., says, "The common lawyers soon began to assert the supremacy of their jurisdiction by issuing writs of prohibition, whenever the ecclesiastical tribunals passed the bonndaries which approved use had established. Little accustomed to such control, the proud hierarchy chafed under the bit; several parochial synods reclaim against the pretensions of laymen to judge the anointed ministers whom they were bound to obey; the cognizance of rights of patronage and breaches of contract is boldly asserted;-but firm and cautious, favored by the nobility, though not much by the king, the judges receded not a step, and ultimately fixed a barrier which the church was forced to respect."-HALLAM'S MIDDLE AGES.