sanction; and the law itself falls into contempt. But it is also a merciful course to the offender; because the crime being censured on its first appearance, and before it has become flagrant or alarming to the community, is restrained at that season by far milder correctives than are afterwards necessary to be applied to it, when the growing evil has come to require the passing of an express law in that behalf. Thus, in England, the sending of incendiary or threatening letters is punished with death, in virtue of certain statutes, which passed at a time when this sort of wickedness prevailed. But our judges punished the first offender of this sort, (whose trial was within these fifty years), with transportation; and it has never been found necessary to seek authority for any higher or more rigorous judgment. The same is true with respect to the corruption or alteration of bills, promissory notes, and the like, to the prejudice of the acceptor; which by certain statutes is felony without benefit of clergy in England, and is punishable with us at common law, with transportation. Many other examples might be given. In short, if things are to be judged of upon the testimony of experience, and not according to the fallacious conjectures of human wisdom before the event; the inhabitants of Scotland have no reason to envy the condition, with respect to the administration of criminal justice, of any other part of Europe.

While I express myself in these terms, let me not be thought to intend passing a censure on the practice of England, as impolitic or cruel, in rearing up so great a mass of penal statutes upon special transgressions. I have no doubt that their practice is good, and I will presume of the wisdom of their legislature that it is necessary, in their state of wealth, society, and manners. I only mean to say, that ours is, in all probability, at least as well adapted to our own situation in those respects.

Let me add, that while I thus disclaim that superstitious admiration of the English law which prevails among some persons, and especially, like other superstitions, among the ignorant; and

URRIT

which would set up that system as a standard of perfection, after the likeness whereof we are to reform and new model our own; yet on a proper occasion, and for a proper purpose, I have been ready to avail myself of the important assistance which its doctrines may often afford me. I have already said, that as a great body of written and practical reason, and recommended by the example of a free and enlightened people, it has every where, and certainly in our country more than elsewhere, (because the form of our government, and the general spirit of our jurisprudence are the same with that of England) a strong claim to deference and regard. In matters, therefore, which depend on the common feelings of equity and right, and are not determined otherwise by our municipal custom, nor are anywise involved in it, I have made liberal use of the sentiments, and sometimes even of the words of the English writers on law: an obligation, which, as their works cannot properly be quoted as authorities in a book of Scots law, I beg leave in this place, once for all, to acknowledge.

DR. CURRIE.

A SLIGHT acquaintance with the peasantry of Scotland, will serve to convince an unprejudiced observer that they possess a degree of intelligence not generally found among the same class of men in the other countries of Europe. In the very humblest condition of the Scottish peasants every one can read, and most persons are more or less skilled in writing and arithmetic; and under the disguise of their uncouth appearance, and of their peculiar manners and dialect, a stranger will discover that they possess a curiosity, and have obtained a degree of information corresponding to these acquirements.

These advantages they owe to the legal provision made by the parliament of Scotland in 1646, for the establishment of a school in every parish throughout the kingdom, for the express purpose

K

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e comparison

ds of history,

of educating the poor; a la

with any act of legislation to be fo

whether we consider the wisdom of the hus

w, the simpli

city of the means employed, or the provisions made to render these means effectual to their purpose. This excellent statute was repealed on the accession of Charles II. in 1660, together with all the other laws passed during the commonwealth, as not being sanctioned by the royal assent. It slept during the reigns of Charles and James, but was re-enacted precisely in the same terms, by the Scottish Parliament, after the Revolution in 1696; and this is the last provision on the subject. Its effect on the national character may be considered to have commenced about the period of the Union, and doubtless it co-operated with the peace and security arising from that happy event, in producing the extraordinary change in favour of industry and good morals, which the character of the common people of Scotland has since undergone.

The church establishment of Scotland happily coincides with the institution just mentioned, which may be called its school establishment. The clergyman being every where resident in his particular parish, becomes the natural patron and superintendant of the parish school, and is enabled in various ways to promote the comfort of the teacher, and the proficiency of the scholars. The teacher himself is often a candidate, for holy orders, who, during the long course of study and probation required in the Scottish church, renders the time which can be spared from his professional studies, useful to others as well as to himself, by assuming the respectable character of a school-master. It is common for the established schools even in the country parishes of Scotland, to enjoy the means of classical instruction, and many of the farmers, and some even of the cottagers, submit to much privation, that they may obtain for one of their sons at least, the precarious advantage of a learned education.*

* Prefatory remarks to the life of Robert Burns, p. 3. v. 1.

The importance of the national establishment of parish schools in Scotland will justify a short account of the legislative provisions respecting it, especially as the subject has escaped the notice of all the historians.

1

By an act of the king (James VI.) and privy council of the 10th of December, 1616, it was recommended to the bishops to deal and travel with the heritors (landed proprietors) and inhabitants of the several parishes in their respective dioceses, towards the fixing upon "some certain, solid, and sure course," for settling and entertaining a school in each parish. This was ratified by a statute of Charles I. (the act 1633, chap. 5.) which empowered the bishop, with the consent of the heritors of a parish, or, of a majority of the inhabitants, if the heritors refused to attend the meeting, to assess every plough of land (that is, every farm in proportion to the number of ploughs upon it) with a certain sum for establishing a school. This was an ineffectual provision, as depending on the consent and pleasure of the heritors and inhabitants. Therefore a new order of things was introduced by stat. 1646, chap 17, which obliges the heritors and minister of each parish to meet and assess the several heritors with the requisite sum for building a school-house, and to elect a schoolmaster, and modify a salary for him in all time to come. The salary is ordered not to be under one hundred, nor above two hundred merks, that is, in our present sterling money, not under £5. 11s. 1d. nor above £11. 2s. 3d. and the assessment is to be laid on the land in the same proportion as it is rated for the support of the clergy, and as it regulates the payment of the land-tax. But in case the heritors of any parish, or the majority of them, should fail to discharge this duty, then the persons forming what is called the Committee of Supply of the county, (consisting of the principal landholders) or any five of them, are authorized by the statute to impose the assessment instead of them, on the representation of the presbytery in which the parish is situated. To secure the choice of a proper teacher, the right of election of the heritors, by a statute passed in 1693, chap. 22, is made

subject to the review and controul of the presbyte ryof the district, who have the examination of the person proposed committed to them, both as to his qualifications as a teacher, and as to his proper deportment in the office when settled in it. The election of the heritors is therefore only a presentment of a person for the approbation of the presbytery, who, if they find him unfit, may declare his incapacity, and thus oblige them to elect anew. So far is stated on unquestionable authority.

The legal salary of the schoolmaster was not inconsiderable at the time it was fixed, but by the decrease in the value of money, it is now certainly inadequate to its object; and it is painful to observe, that the landholders of Scotland resisted the humble application of the schoolmasters to the legislature for its increase, a few years ago. The number of parishes in Scotland is 877; and if we allow the salary of a schoolmaster in each to be, on an average, seven pounds sterling, the amount of the legal provision will be £6139, sterling. If we suppose the wages paid by the scholars to amount to twice this sum, which is probably beyond the truth, the total of the expenses among 1,526,492 persons, (the whole population of Scotland) of this most important establishment, will be £18,417. But on this, as well as on other subjects respecting Scotland, accurate information may soon be expected from Sir John Sinclair's analysis of his statistics, which will complete the immortal monument he has reared to his pa

triotism.

The benefit arising in Scotland, from the instruction of the poor was soon felt; and by an act of the British Parliament, 4th George I. chap. 6, it is enacted, "that of the monies arising from the sale of the Scottish estates forfeited in the rebellion of 1715, £2000 sterling shall be converted into a capital stock the interest of which shall be laid out in erecting and maintaining schools in the Highlands. The society for propagating christian knowledge, incorporated in 1709, have applied a large part of their fund for the same purpose. By their report, 1st May,