nize the schools. Advancement should be the certain consequence of knowledge and merit. Public examinations, prize exercises, in which all possibility of assistance should be precluded, ought to precede and decide the election, and an honorary medal should be the ticket of admission into the higher schools. If strict impartiality were maintained, a noble spirit of emulation might thus be excited; and the publicity of the examinations, and the adjudgment of the prizes, would, in fact, serve to register all the talents of the rising generation. Thus, without its dangers, the advantages of the Jesuits' system of education might in this respect be obtained. Youths known to have obtained prizes would in some degree establish a character for industry and abilities among their competitors, which would forward them in life in their several professions.

What the exercises and courses of study or employment in the different professions should be, need not here be pointed out; some of these will be suggested in the course of the following essays, or at least they may be readily deduced from the principles laid before the reader. It must not be concealed, that the present system of parliamentary interest and cabal must thwart, and in some degree palsy, every effort to give to real merit the precedence, which it deserves; but every firm and judicious mind will be convinced, that this wretched system must destroy itself. The pressure of dan

ger, of fiscal as well as military danger, will force these petty means and worn-out resources from the political system. Some great man will be created by circumstances, who can dare to spurn the sordid crew of political adventurers. Financiers and ordinary statesmen, familiar with a certain set of causes and effects, which, in given circumstances, continue for a length of time to act uniformly, are apt to believe, that affairs will for ever proceed in the same regular course; and that there is nothing extraneous, by which this routine can possibly be deranged: they understand, perhaps, every nicety of the intricate mechanism of society, the force and produce of which they can calculate with admirable precision; but they are not always aware, that even from the ready and rapid obedience of the vast machine to their will, even from the continuity and swiftness of its action, it is the more exposed to danger from extraneous violence and internal collision.

CHAPTER II.

On Clerical Education.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Bernard Gilpin, rector of Houghton, refused the bishopric of Carlisle. The following is an account of a visit paid to him by Lord Burleigh:

"retreat.

"The statesman began to unbend; and he could "scarcely avoid comparing with an envious eyc "the unquiet scenes of vice and vanity, in which "he was engaged, with the calmness of this amiable ***** When he got to Rainton Hill, "which rises about a mile from Houghton, and "commands the vale, he turned his horse to take one more view, and having kept his eye fixed it for some time, his reverie broke out in "this exclamation: There is the enjoyment of "life indeed! who can blame that man for not "accepting of a bishopric! What doth he want "to make him greater, or happier, or more "useful?"

upon

It is a curious fact, that one of the greatest and most favoured statesmen, that England ever produced, should, in the zenith of his power, have cast a longing, lingering look at a retired parsonage; that his mind should have paused in the career of ambition, to contemplate the happiness,

and to admire the humble virtues, of a country clergyman. This picture, and all the descriptions of the life of a good country clergyman, from the time of Chaucer to the days of Goldsmith, represent it as the happiest, most useful, and most respectable, that can be imagined. Such delineations, joined to the sense, which all good and wise people must have of the importance and dignity of the clerical profession, would naturally dispose parents to educate their children for the church: and it was obviously the original intention of our constitution, that not only a decent competence should be secured to all deserving clergymen, but that men of superior learning, talents, and conduct, should, without any assistance, or recommendation, but what their own. merit afford, rise to the highest dignities of the church. The regulations and endowments of our universities, and the gifts of many generous individuals, provided a fund, which put it into the power of man to pursue any his studies at college,.

and to make his way in the church, without any expense to his family, and without requiring the assistance of patronage, or the advantages of a private fortune. But, though our universities, and their endowments, continue the same, yet such has been the change in the value of money, and in the real and imaginary necessities, which alterations in manners' have produced, that it is now scarcely possible for any man to go through college without some aid from private fortune.-Even after

the expenses of education are defrayed, and when a young man is ordained, his salary, as a curate, is so small, that he can hardly support the becoming rank and appearance of a gentleman. He has not, like men in other professions, various means of improving and advancing his fortune by his own exertions or merit. He may, indeed, become a schoolmaster, and the press is open to him. Some young men of great talents have, by their mode of preaching, and by their publications, whilst they were yet curates, brought themselves into public notice, and have in consequence obtained preferment. Some have become tutors in the families of noblemen, and, after a course of years, have been justly remunerated for their services by benefices in the church. Some, unconnected with the great, have been distinguished by royal discernment and justice, and, without any species of solicitation, have most unexpectedly been appointed to bishoprics. But they were men of very extraordinary merit; and these are not cases of probable recurrence. It is obvious, that, in all these instances, a considerable length of time was necessary to obtain distinction by exemplary conduct, or by literary superiority. In the mean while, curates must live; if they marry, they cannot support a family decently; and to enjoy the comforts of life, must often be utterly impracticable. Some curates in the remote parts of England, and especially in Wales, have such small salaries, and such hard duty to perform, that it seems scarcely