1795, the annual sum employed by them in supporting their schools in the Highlands and islands, was £3913. 19s. 10d. in which are taught the English language, reading and writing, and the principles of religion. The schools of the society are additional to the legal schools, which, from the great extent of many of the Highland parishes, were found insufficient. Besides these established schools, the lower classes of people in Scotland, where the parishes are large, often combine together and establish private schools of their own, at one of which it was that Burns received the principal part of his education. So convinced, indeed, are the poor people of Scotland, by experience, of the benefit of instruction to their children, that though they may often find it difficult to feed and clothe them, some kind of school instruction they almost always procure them.

The influence of the school-establishment of Scotland on the peasantry of that country, seems to have decided by experience a question of legislation of the utmost importance, whether a system of national instruction for the poor be favourable to morals and good government. In the year 1698, Fletcher of Saltoun declared as follows: "There are at this day in Scotland, two hundred thousand people begging from door to door. And though the number of them be perhaps double to what it was formerly, by reason of this present great distress, (a famine then prevailed) yet in all times there have been about one hundred thousand of those vagabonds, who have lived without any regard or subjection either to the laws of the land, or even those of God and nature; fathers incestuously accompanying with their own daughters, the son with the mother, and the brother with the sister." He goes on to say, that no magistrate ever could discover that they had ever been baptized, or in what way one in a hundred went out of the world. He accuses them as guilty of robbery, and sometimes of murder. "In years of plenty," says he, "many thousands of them meet together in the mountains, where they feast and riot for many days; and at country weddings, markets, burials, and other public occasions they are to be seen, both men

and women, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and fighting together." This high minded statesman, of whom it is said by a contemporary, "that he would lose his life readily to save his country, and would not do a base thing to serve it,” thought the evil so great, that he proposed as a remedy the revival of domestic slavery, according to the practice of his adored republics in the classic ages! A better remedy has been found, which, in the silent lapse of a century has proved effectual. The statute of 1696, the noble legacy of the Scottish parliament to their country, began soon after this to operate; and happily, as the minds of the poor received instruction, the Union opened new channels of industry, and new fields of action to their view.

At the present day there is perhaps no country in Europe, in which, in proportion to its population, so small a number of crimes fall under the chastisement of the criminal law as Scotland. We have the best authority for asserting, that on an average of thirty years preceding the year 1797, the executions in that division of the island did not amount to six annually; and one quarter sessions for the town of Manchester only, has sent, according to Mr. Hume, more felons to the plantations, than all the judges of Scotland usually do in the space of a year. It might appear invidious to attempt a calculation of the many thousand individuals in Manchester and its vicinity, who can neither read nor write. A majority of those who suffer the punishment of death for their crimes, in every part of England, are, it is believed, in this miserable state of ignorance!

There is now a legal provision for parochial schools, or rather for a school in each of the different townships into which the country is divided, in several of the northern states of North America. They are, however, of recent origin there, excepting in New England, where they were established in the last century, probably about the same time as in Scotland, and by the same religious sect. In the protestant cantons of Switzerland, the peasantry have the advantage of similar schools, though established

and endowed in a different manner. This is also the case in certain districts in England, particularly in the northern parts of Yorkshire and of Lancashire, and in the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland.

A law providing for the instruction of the poor was passed by the parliament of Ireland; but the fund was diverted from its purpose, and the measure was entirely frustrated. Proh pudor! the similarity of character between the Swiss and the Scotch, and between the Scotch and the people of New England, can scarcely be overlooked. That it arises in a great measure from the similarity of their institutions for instruction cannot be questioned. It is no doubt increased by physical causes. With a superior degree of instruction, each of these nations possesses a country that may be said to be sterile, in the neighbourhood of countries comparatively rich. Hence emigrations, and the other effects on conduct and character which such circumstances naturally produce. This subject is in a high degree curious. The points of dissimilarity between these nations might be traced to their causes also, and the whole investigation would perhaps admit of an approach to certainty in our conclusions, to which such inquiries seldom lead. How much superior in morals, in intellect, and in happiness, the peasantry of those parts of England are who have opportunities of instruction, to the same class in other situations, those who inquire into the subject will speedily discover. The peasantry of Westmoreland, and of the other districts mentioned above, if their physical and moral qualities be taken together, are, in the opinion of the editor, superior to the peasantry of any part of the island.*

* Appendix to Vol. I. of the Life of Robert Burns. No. 1. note A. p. 34

WRANGHAM.

The following extract is from a note to an Assize Sermon, preached at York, in July 1808, by the Rev. Francis Wrangham, M.A. F.R.S. of Trinity College Cambridge.

"As a farther proof of the benefits of early education, Mrs. H. More mentioned to me that, during the number of years that the late Mr. H. Fielding presided in Bow-street, only six Scotchmen (as he stated) were ever brought before him. Mr. Fielding used to say, that of the persons committed, the greater part were of a sister island, where the natural dispositions of the people are quite as good; but the system of education is neither so strict, nor so generally adopted as in Scotland." (Bernard's Reports for bettering the Condition, &c. of the Poor." III. Introduct. p. 31.)

Lord Justice Clerk, in a late address to the Lord Provost, and Magistrates of the city of Glasgow (1808), at the conclusion of the circuit, took occasion to observe on the small number of criminals and convicts in Scotland, compared with that in England and Wales. "From an official printed list of all the commitments and "prosecutions for criminal offences in England and Wales, for the "three last years, it appeared, that the least number of commit"ments in any of these years was above 4000, and about 3500 were actually brought to trial; a number he observed (setting "aside the two rebellions) nearly equal to the whole number which "has occurred in Scotland since the Union.

"Supposing this calculation to be accurate," said his Lordship," or in any remote degree accurate, it calls upon us for "very serious reflections, and to consider if we can discover the

causes of this proud inferiority. Allowance must, no doubt, be "made for a difference, which has always existed in the population "of the two countries: for it would be unreasonable to suppose

"that the number of crimes must not, in a great degree, be in pro

" portion to the number of people in any two countries.

"It may be said also, that commerce and manufactures hardly "existed in this country during the earlier period of the last century. "True; but now at least in those respects, we are treading fast on "the heels of England, and yet, thank God, the same consequences do not follow. In this very city and district where I now

sit,* commerce and manufactures of all kinds have been long in"troduced to an extent, equal to any place or district of the king"dom, the capital alone excepted: and yet it was stated by a poli"tical writer, but a few years ago, that one quarter-sessions at "Manchester sends more criminals to transportation, than all "Scotland in a year. †

"We must, therefore, look to other causes for the good order " and morality of our people, and I think we have not far to look. "In my opinion, that cause is to be found chiefly in our institu❝tions for THE EDUCATION OF YOUTH, and for the mainte"nance of religion.

"The institution of parochial schools, in the manner and to "the extent in which they are established in Scotland, is, I believe, peculiar to ourselves; and it is an institution, to which, however

simple in its nature, and unobtrusive in its operation, I am per"suaded we are chiefly to ascribe the regularity of conduct by "which we are distinguished. The child of the meanest peasant, "of the lowest mechanic in this country, may (and most of them "do) receive a virtuous education from their earliest youth. At "our parochial schools, they are not only early initiated in the prin"ciples of our holy religion, and in the soundest doctrines of moral"ity, but most of them receive different degrees of education in

* At the execution of James Gilchrist at Glasgow, July 20, 1808, for the murder of his wife, the immense crowds assembled proved the very singular rarity of the melancholy spectacle. "To the east, south, and west, as far almost as the eye could reach, the streets and windows were lined with all ranks and ages."

+ Hume, in his Comm. on the Laws of Scotland, Introduct. p. 50.