-places where his ancestor wrestled with the angel of the covenant, or hastily caught up, with the weapon of defence in one hand, the emblems of a Saviour's dying love.

We may suggest, in the second place, the fierce political and ecclesiastical contests, which marked the whole period of the history of Scotland up to the accession of James VI. to the throne of the United Kingdom, and even still later, as one of the causes in the formation of the character of the people. The country was, almost without intermission, the scene of the wildest anarchy, or of the most grinding oppression. The blood of kings, nobles and peasants flowed, for ages like water. Shakspeare's Macbeth is hardly a work of imagination. It is nearly overborne by facts. "A man's foes were they of his own household," was strictly verified; the clan had more than an Indian's scent for the blood of its neighbor. The civil history of no nation in Europe is less grateful to the philanthropist than that of Scotland, for several centuries. William Wallace perished on the scaffold. James I., an accomplished prince, was murdered by his nobles. The insufferable tyranny of James III. excited a rebellion, in which he was defeated and slain. James IV. fell at Flodden. The hostility of his granddaughter, Mary Stuart, to the Reformation, occasioned discontents which terminated in the rebellion of her subjects, her own flight to England, and her subsequent execution. The union of the two crowns, in 1603, was not the harbinger of peace. Even after the Revolution of 1688, and the union of the monarchies in 1707, the waves of discord were not hushed. The partisans of the Stuart dynasty twice rose in rebellion against the house of Hanover. In these political disturbances, the ecclesiastical fortunes of the people were closely interwoven; or rather, as we shall find in the sequel, the affairs of government were often identical with those of the church. These stirring events, this unceasing excitement could not, of course, be without effect on the character of the actors. The Scotchman was nursed in storms both physically and morally. His life was a hard discipline. The stronger elements of his nature were necessarily brought into active play. The tempestuous passions found full scope. Feats of daring became the end of his existence. To murder a noble, or to break a royal sceptre was familiar sport. The dreadful butchery of the battles fought in Scotland attests the physical courage, and the ex

asperated temper of the combatants. The remembrance of these days of old has not perished in Scotland. The same stern characteristics are still, in a measure, exhibited. The present generation sometimes show the "stuff" of which their ancestors were made. A passion for wrangling, a dogged tenaciousness of opinion, an inability to distinguish between the substance and the shadow, and even the protrusion of uncomfortable epithets are not now unknown in Scotland. Dugald Stewart, characterized as he was for the most gentlemanly and conciliating demeanor, manifested somewhat of the national temperament, in the controversy caused at the proposed election of Prof. Leslie to the chair of natural philosophy in the university of Edinburgh. In the famous dispute respecting the circulation of the Apocryphal Scriptures on the part of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the people of Scotland rose as one man, and cut off all connection with their southern fellow-Christians. The Caledonian hills were made to ring with denunciations of the uncanonical books, and of those who would circulate them in the Papal countries. The doings of every General Assembly, that have fallen under our notice, contain striking developments of the national propensity in question. Scenes are sometimes exhibited, and language is employed which would hardly be tolerated in the House of Commons, or in an American House of Representatives, and which lead us back to the wrathful harangues and the scurrilous dialects of the Bothwells, Murrays and Knoxes of Queen Mary's day. A living theological writer, occupying a high station, and who has acquired considerable notoriety, uses epithets which should seem to have been or from the culled from "the Monstrous Regiment of Women," vocabulary of the tolbooth of Edinburgh. American ecclesiastical courts have borne witness to some choice specimens, not only of rigid Scotch orthodoxy, but of a temperament not the most amiable, and of language not very courteous.

We remark, in the third place, that to the early and general establishment of parochial schools, Scotland is largely indebted for her intellectual superiority, and her commanding station among the communities of Europe. The importance of this subject must be our apology for dwelling upon it at some length.

The title of one of John Knox's publications.

In early times, the monasteries contained the only seminaries of education then known in Scotland. If any schools existed in the larger burghs, they were under the patronage of some religious house. Long prior to the Reformation, there seem to have been such seminaries, where Latin was taught. There were also common elementary institutions, called "Lecture Schools," which afforded instruction in the vernacular tongue. As early as 1494, the Scotch Parliament enacted, that all barons and freeholders," who are of substance," should put their oldest sons and heirs to the schools, from the sixth or the ninth year of their age. After the Reformation, the establishment and maintenance of schools became an object of constant and anxious attention on the part of the Protestant clergy. In the First Book of Discipline, composed in 1560, it was recommended that every parish, where there was a town of any reputation, should have a schoolmaster, " able to teach the grammar and Latin tongue;" and that "in landward parishes, the minister should take care of the youth of the parish, to instruct them in the rudiments, particularly in the Catechism of Geneva." The church never lost sight of this object. Many acts of the General Assembly were passed in relation to it. When applying for the restitution of the church property, the endowment of schools was never forgotten by the ecclesiastical courts.* In 1616, the Privy Council for the first time interposed their authority, and enacted that in "every parish of this kingdom, where convenient means may be had for entertaining a school, a school shall be established, and a fit person shall be appointed to teach the same, upon the expense of the parishioners, according to the quantity and quality of the parish." Episcopacy then prevailed; and this act was directed to be carried into effect, "at the sight and by the advice of the bishop of the diocese in his visitations." In 1633, the act of council was ratified in Parliament. This was the first legislative enactment authorizing the establishment and endowment of parish schools.

During the civil wars, a more enlightened act was passed, which, though rescinded at the Restoration, was adopted almost verbatim, in the celebrated statute of William and Mary, in the year 1696, which is the foundation of the present parochial system. The statute is as follows: The estates of Parliament,

* See Macculloch's British Empire, and the authorities referred to by him, Vol. II., p. 484.

"considering how prejudicial the want of schools in many congregations hath been, and how beneficial the providing thereof will be to the kirk and kingdom, do, therefore, statute and ordain, that there be a school founded, and a schoolmaster appointed in every parish not already provided, by advice of the presbyteries; and that to this purpose, the heritors (landholders) do, in every congregation, meet among themselves, and provide a commodious house for a school, and modify a stipend to the schoolmaster, which shall not be under 100 merks (£5 11s. 1 d.) nor above 200 merks, to be paid yearly at two terms," etc. In 1693, an act had been passed, entitled: "An act for settling the quiet and peace of the church," which declared, among other things, "that all schoolmasters and teachers of youth in schools are, and shall be, liable to the trial, judgment and censure of the presbyteries of the bounds, for their sufficiency, qualifications and deportment in the said office." The whole system was arranged and completed by another act of the Parliament of Scotland, in 1699.

The object of these various acts of the government was happily attained. For more than a century after the enactments, the great body of the people in Scotland were better educated than in any other division of Christendom. The power to read and write, and an acquaintance with the elements of arithmetic were placed within the reach of almost every individual; while all classes of the people were enabled to read the Bible from their earliest years, and, with the assistance of the catechism (which was regularly taught in every school), have received the rudiments of a religious education, such as they could not have had the same means of attaining in any other country of Europe.*

During a large part of the last century, the schoolmasters, in many parishes, were qualified to give instruction in the Latin language to such as were desirous to acquire a grammar school education. A very considerable number of individuals, throughout the kingdom, have been prepared for the Universities, in the schools of the parishes in which they were born. In 1836, there were 916 separate parishes in Scotland, and the total number of schools was 1162, there being 146 endowed schools over

* A Brief Account of the Constitution of the Established Church of Scotland, by the Rev. Sir Henry Moncrief Welwood, Bart., D. D. 1833, pp. 103.

and above one school for each parish. These latter are termed secondary or side schools. Generally there is but one secondary school in a parish, sometimes more. Taking the average income of these 1162 schools at £27 10s, which is about the sum, the annual endowment amounts to £31,955, exclusive of schoolhouses, dwelling-houses for the teachers and a garden. The ministers of parishes, and the landholders have the power of determining the branches which a schoolmaster, on induction, must be competent to teach. These, of course, vary somewhat in different parishes. In burghs, there is often a separate school for classics only, sometimes classics and French. Most of the teachers have received a university education. In the three counties, for example, of Aberdeen, Banff and Moray, according to a report presented in 1835, out of 137 teachers, there were only 20 who had not studied at college. The law makes no provision for the payment of assistant teachers. No person can act as schoolmaster, until he has undergone an examination before the presbytery, which has the power, should he be found unqualified, or if his moral character be objectionable, to nullify the election. The decision of the presbytery is final in all matters relating to schoolmasters; unless when a civil question arises, which may be carried by the teacher before the court of session. All parochial schoolmasters must be members of the established church, and are required, on induction, to subscribe the confession of faith and the standards. Every presbytery is understood, by means of a deputation of their members, to visit and examine the various schools within their limits, once every year. This, however, is not uniformly done. The landholders and minister have the right of fixing the fees which the scholars are required to pay to the teacher. These fees are, generally, very low. The annual income from salary and fees may be about £55, exclusive of a house and garden. In the majority of parishes, however, the schoolmasters have slight additional emoluments, arising from their being session-clerks, and, in some instances, precentors. They have, also, small perquisites for making up militia lists, enrolments under the Reform Act, etc.

Great advantages must necessarily flow from such a system of education. The character for intelligence, which the native of Scotland has long borne throughout the world, may be traced, in no inconsiderable degree, to the parish-school of his native mountains. This common-school education has raised the private soldier above his English and Irish comrades. A