or seller, could very materially differ from the imperfect returns at present obtained: and with regard to the frauds which your Committee were assured are now practised in making the returns of the prices of flour, the inducement to have recourse to them under any regulations of assize must be so strong, and the difficulty of detection so great, that your Committee are of opinion, that no enactment could avail entirely to prevent them and generally, with regard to fixing the assize of bread by the price of flour, your Committee beg leave to point out, that no benefit can be expected to result from it, beyond that of fixing a rate upon the labour and profits of the bakers, whilst the miller and mealmen must be left wholly without any control; and your Committee are distinctly of opinion, that more benefit is likely to result from the effects of a free competition in their trade, than can be expected to result from any regulations or restrictions under which they could possibly be placed.

Your Committee being thus led to conclude, that any remedy to the evils arising from the assize could hardly be brought about by an alteration in the law, beg leave also to point out, that the competition which has arisen, even under the discouragement of an assize, has already removed a part of the evil; and your Committee are of opinion, that if the trade was thrown open by the repeal of the Assize Laws, it would have the effect of gradually drawing persons with capital into it, of diminishing the waste of

labour and unnecessary subdivision of profits, which appear by the evidence at present to exist.

That your Committee have found an opinion to be extremely prevalent, that Assize Laws operate beneficially as measures of police, and, by removing from the bakers to the magistrates all responsibility for the price of bread, ensure when that price is high the tranquillity of the Metropolis. But your Committee could not find that any disturbances had arisen, or were at all apprehended, from the suspension of the assize in the populous towns of Birmingham, Manchester, and Newcastle; and are of opinion, that the value of the Assize Laws in this point of view is so secondary, as not to counterbalance the evils apparently resulting from them.

That your Committee thought it their duty to examine the act of the 53d of Geo. III.; and they observe generally, with regard to that statute, that it has been so short a time in operation as not at this moment to be duly judged of, though it cannot fail to be liable to the general objections which your Committee have pointed out as applicable to all Assize Laws.

Finally, your Committee came to the following resolution :

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that it is expedient that the Bread Assize Laws for the City of London, and within ten miles of the Royal Exchange, should be forthwith repealed.

6th June 1815.

EDUCATION

EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND.

people during the reigns of Charles and James, which were chiefly occupied in religious persecution.

the Life of Mr. Park.)

There is no part of Europe, in which education has been a subject of more general attention or produced more important effects than in Scotland. During little more than a century, a system of public instruction established in that country, has not only had the most beneficial influence upon industry and private morals, but has been the principal cause of one of the most remarkable changes of national character which has ever yet taken place during so short a period. At a time when the public attention in this country is so laudably directed towards providing means of instruction for the poor, a few remarks on the effects of a system of general education in Scotland may not be thought unseasonable. The following facts and observations relative to this important subject are principally extracted from the interesting Life of Burns, the poet, written by the late amiable and excellent Doctor Currie.

The system of education in Scotland, though closely connected with its ecclesiastical establishment, owes its first legal existence to a statute passed in the year 1646 by the Parliament of that Kingdom for establishing schools in every parish, at the expense of the landholders, for the express purpose of teaching the poor. On the Restoration in 1660 this excellent statute was repealed; and nothing farther was done or attempted for the instruction of the

after the Revolution, the statute of 1646 was re-enacted nearly in the same terms, and continues to be the law of Scotland at the present time. Connected with this legislative provision are many acts passed by the General Assemblies of the church of Scotland, which are binding as to matters of ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and the whole together forms a code of regulations, which is eminently distinguished for the reasonableness and practical good sense of its particular provisions, and which experience has shewn to be perfectly effectual for the important purpose intended. So much convinced indeed are the lower classes in Scotland of the benefits attending this system, that when the parishes are large, they often form subscriptions and establish private schools of their own, in addition to the parochial seminaries.

In the year 1698, about the time when this system was established, Fletcher of Saltoun, in one of his Discourses concerning the affairs of Scotland, describes the lower classes of that kingdom as being in a state of the most abject poverty and savage ignorance; and subsisting partly by mere beggary, but chiefly by violence and rapine, "without any regard or subjection either to the laws of the land or to those of God and nature." Some of the instances given by this writer of the disorder and violence of that period may remind us of the effects produced by a similar state of things during our own times, upon the

or seller, could very materially differ from the imperfect returns at present obtained: and with regard to the frauds which your Committee were assured are now practised in making the returns of the prices of flour, the inducement to have recourse to them under any regulations of assize must be so strong, and the difficulty of detection so great, that your Committee are of opinion, that no enactment could avail entirely to prevent them and generally, with regard to fixing the assize of bread by the price of flour, your Committee beg leave to point out, that no benefit can be expected to result from it, beyond that of fixing a rate upon the labour and profits of the bakers, whilst the miller and mealmen must be left wholly without any control; and your Committee are distinctly of opinion, that more benefit is likely to result from the effects of a free competition in their trade, than can be expected to result from any regulations or restrictions under which they could possibly be placed.

Your Committee being thus led to conclude, that any remedy to the evils arising from the assize could hardly be brought about by an alteration in the law, beg leave also to point out, that the competition which has arisen, even under the discouragement of an assize, has already removed a part of the evil; and your Committee are of opinion, that if the trade was thrown open by the repeal of the Assize Laws, it would have the effect of gradually drawing persons with capital into it, of diminishing the waste of

labour and unnecessary subdivision of profits, which appear by the evidence at present to exist.

That your Committee have found an opinion to be extremely prevalent, that Assize Laws operate beneficially as measures of police, and, by removing from the bakers to the magistrates all responsibility for the price of bread, ensure when that price is high the tranquillity of the Metropolis. But your Committee could not find that any disturbances had arisen, or were at all apprehended, from the suspension of the assize in the populous towns of Birmingham, Manchester, and Newcastle; and are of opinion, that the value of the Assize Laws in this point of view is so secondary, as not to counterbalance the evils apparently resulting from them.

That your Committee thought it their duty to examine the act of the 53d of Geo. III.; and they observe generally, with regard to that statute, that it has been so short a time in operation as not at this moment to be duly judged of, though it cannot fail to be liable to the general objections which your Committee have pointed out as applicable to all Assize Laws.

Finally, your Committee came to the following resolution :

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that it is expedient that the Bread Assize Laws for the City of London, and within ten miles of the Royal Exchange, should be forthwith repealed.

6th June 1815.

EDUCATION

EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND.

people'during the reigns of Charles and James, which were chiefly orcupied in religious persecution.

the Life of Mr. Park.)

There is no part of Europe, in which education has been a subject of more general attention or produced more important effects than in Scotland. During little more than a century, a system of public instruction established in that country, has not only had the most beneficial influence upon industry and private morals, but has been the principal cause of one of the most remarkable changes of national character which has ever yet taken place during so short a period. At a time when the public attention in this country is so laudably directed towards providing means of instruction for the poor, a few remarks on the effects of a system of general education in Scotland may not be thought unseasonable. The following facts and observations relative to this important subject are principally extracted from the interesting Life of Burns, the poet, written by the late amiable and excellent Doctor Currie.

The system of education in Scotland, though closely connected with its ecclesiastical establishment, owes its first legal existence to a statute passed in the year 1646 by the Parliament of that Kingdom for establishing schools in every parish, at the expense of the landholders, for the express purpose of teaching the poor. On the Restoration in 1660 this excellent statute was repealed; and nothing farther was done or attempted for the instruction of the

after the Revolution, the statute of 1646 was re-enacted nearly in the same terms, and continues to be the law of Scotland at the present time. Connected with this legislative provision are many acts passed by the General Assemblies of the church of Scotland, which are binding as to matters of ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and the whole together forms a code of regulations, which is eminently distinguished for the reasonableness and practical good sense of its particular provisions, and which experience has shewn to be perfectly effectual for the important purpose intended. So much convinced indeed are the lower classes in Scotland of the benefits attending this system, that when the parishes are large, they often form subscriptions and establish private schools of their own, in addition to the parochial seminaries.

In the year 1698, about the time when this system was established, Fletcher of Saltoun, in one of his Discourses concerning the affairs of Scotland, describes the lower classes of that kingdom as being in a state of the most abject poverty and savage ignorance; and subsisting partly by mere beggary, but chiefly by violence and rapine, "without any regard or subjection either to the laws of the land or to those of God and nature." Some of the instances given by this writer of the disorder and violence of that period may remind us of the effects produced by a similar state of things during our own times, upon the

Irish peasantry in the disturbed parts of that unhappy country.— "In years of plenty," says Fletcher, 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." Such was the state of Scotland at the time when the present system of education was established.

It is justly stated by Dr. Currie that, 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 in Scotland; and he adds, upon undoubted authority, 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 that more felons have been convicted and sentenced to transportation at one quarter sessions for the town of Manchester only, than the average number of persons sentenced to a similar punishment during a whole year by all the Judges of Scotland. But the influence of education in Scotland has not been merely negative or confined to the diminution of criminal offences; it has produced in a very eminent degree those habits of industry and frugality, upon which all civilization and improvement ultimately depend. In no age cr country have these excellent qualities, the cardinal virtues of the lower orders of society, been more prevalent than among the peasantry

and common people of Scotland during modern times: in none have the instances been more frequent of individuals who, by a course of meritorious exertions, have raised themselves from an inferior condition of life to ease and competence, and sometimes to riches and distinction.

It is impossible to conceive any situation more happy and respectable than that of the parent of a well educated family (such as was the father of the subject of this memoir, and such as there are now many others among the farmers and peasantry of Scotland) enjoying the just reward of his paternal cares in the prosperity and success of his children; each of whom he sees engaged in some beneficial pursuit, each bettering his condition in life, and each advanced somewhat in the scale of society above the situation in which he was born. It is this visible progress and continual improvement in the circumstances and condition of families, so frequent in the class here particularly alluded to, which produces the greatest portion of happiness of which any community is capable; which stimulates to intelligent activity, and useful, persevering exertions; and which keeps alive and invigorates that orderly quiet ambition, which is the foundation of all private and public prosperity, and the great civilizing principle of individuals and nations.

It is true that there are several other circumstances, besides the system of public education in Scotland, which have assisted in producing that extraordinary change of national character which has given occasion to the present

remarks.