men thinking and acting. Models of men of piety and power cannot be set up, and truthfully discoursed upon, without drawing forth admirers and imitators from the crowd; nor can the poisons of infidelity be analysed with skill before an audience, without some being led, as God gives His grace, to abhor the unclean thing, and desire a better way.

It would be an interesting inquiry, and one which ought to be pursued by our Societies,—who are the persons chiefly drawn together by our present lecture system,-how far the artisan and mechanic are affected by them. In London, the trades probably form the largest portion of the audiences. In Manchester, Birmingham, and other places of the same description, a large body of the artisan class are interested in and receive benefit from the effort. It is impossible to calculate the good results which may follow a thoroughly organized and permanent lecture system, such as it is not at present. The thought it gives rise to in others, the influence of conversation upon the topics handled, the books taken up and read for the first time, the new connexion with holy, humble-minded, faithful men,-all this, if at all spread through the nation, must act as a powerful lever, to carry out the great end of our Christian ministry. But we need cautions. One of our great apprehensions is, lest it should encourage a superficial acquaintance with grave subjects, and thus pave the way for an indolent habit of mind, and for that heady presumption which turns the half-instructed pupil into a self-willed and reckless teacher. "A little knowledge," from this fountain-head, as well as others, "is a dangerous thing." If a man only knows half the use of the tools he is employing, he will be sure to injure,—indeed, himself first, but then to bring extensive detriment upon others. Perhaps, however, this tendency of a simply popular system ought to be as much a caution to the Lecturer, as an admonition to the hearer. Some of the printed Lectures which have appeared in this benevolent embassy to the people, are remarkable specimens of accurate knowledge in their subjects, and discriminating exposition; but with many which are merely fugitive efforts for the occasion, a thorough Scotch mist seems to pervade the arguments, and excentric digressions on passing matters of the day become the salient features of the whole. Such a course must inevitably lead to most lamentable results. As a vehicle of general instruction, the subject must be grappled with and mastered in the chamber, and presented in clear, common-sense, practical, and intelligent phraseology to the auditors. Otherwise their ideas, say of the hero of your story, are as obscure as your own, probably more so. Upon the imperfect knowledge they have acquired, they begin to act, and a grotesque caricature, instead of a faithful portraiture of the manly, the disinterested, the virtuous, the spiritually minded, is the result.

Just when the late war was at its height, the writer of this remembers being asked to preside, in a provincial town, at a Lecture

before the Young Men's Association of the place, on War and Warriors. An excellent man delivered it; but the main topic of his discourse-a ragged, ill-considered, and disconnected production— which he had the power and art to have made most interesting and instructive upon the subject, had he pleased, was his own conversion when once a soldier,-he was now a clergyman, in a faroff country! Such efforts are benevolent indeed, but suicidal. The history of the Christian warrior sheathing the weapon of his rebellion, and turning with a bitter cry of sorrow for sin to Christ, is a noble subject for contemplation; but then, let your subject be upon conversion, and go through and through it, as a wise master builder, who does not take the surface-stone of the quarry for the best, but digs and blasts until he reaches the richest strata. To the inefficient Lectures often delivered, we attribute the decline in attendance which has been observed in some places; while in those where greater attention and more careful study have characterized the lecturers, the interest has widely increased.

We could much wish that this movement might become more definitely organized than it is-that it were more national; with some one Central Institution formed, which might have funds sufficient to pay able and good men who were willing to give their occasional services; and which might supply other places with a succession of the men they wanted, on application to the Committee. We must not, however, go into the opposite error of expecting too much from popular lectures. No great amount of reliable instruction can be gained without a stricter application, and a more personal discipline of the mind. Catechetical exercises must render effective the Lecturer's chair. We must, if we are to make good our ground in these difficult days, aim at a far more extensive system of Catechesis than at present exists; and thus, with the forge-hammer and the furnace, train men for future usefulness in their generation.

There the superintendents of the "sections" will be able to break up their subjects, test the knowledge, and ascertain the weaknesses of their pupils, and furnish them according to their need. We believe, for instance, that numbers of our working men would attend biblical classes, if adapted to their position, and made useful for their class in life. In St. Martin's parish, Birmingham, if we are rightly informed, such have been established, and, conducted by laymen in whom the clergyman has confidence, are largely and regularly attended. The subjects for these catechetical instructions might be almost infinitely various, according to the classes of men we had to meet, and the amount of talent in the staff that we could command. We must strive to get the working-classes within this inner circle; and one hour's instruction there will be more valuable to their minds, than ten in the townhall, listening to the public lecture. With our young men, too, of the present day, in whom we cannot but notice an unhappy

tendency to be wiser in conceit than their teachers, the class-room, as at our Universities, will do more to teach them their proper level than anything else.

2. The Working Men's Association, though more doubtful in its aim, is likely to be a useful auxiliary in reaching the masses. More doubtful, we say, because it has been the type rather of the secular, while the Lecture has been that of the religious element in the country. Its great use, we think, must be to attract and draw from lower pursuits, rather than to effect any great or distinctive work of itself. Where men can refresh themselves, and have their reading-room besides; where they can now and then drop in to the lecture or the professional class-room, for the most moderate yearly sum,-the smoke-begrimed bar of the publichouse and the din of the crowded beer-tap will be abandoned. And so far it is gain: but Christianity does not always begin where drunkenness ends. One of the best associations of the kind we have seen, is at Lichfield, and we are told, it is one of the first in England. It had been eminently successful for the size of the place, had a balance in hand over the last year, and combined almost every object which such an institution could propose within itself. We regret to say, however, that its designer has recently left Lichfield; and the death of Archdeacon Hodson, one of its chief supporters, will be two serious-we trust, not overwhelming

-blows.

3. The Artisan and Labourer's Night School can hardly be named under the head of the Working Men's Association, unless, at least, we be content, in many instances, to make this educational effort secular, instead of Christian! A fatal compromise! How can secular knowledge be expected to effect national improvement, when men are not taught their moral and religious position in connexion with it? But it will marvellously sharpen intellect, and turn the foolish democrat into a dangerous and successful agitator; the laughed-down and stupid Infidel into a bold and influential partisan against revelation. Never ought we to consent to the instruction of adult classes in the usual elementary subjects, but agree to ignore the Bible.

The night-school has been often found to fail, principally, it is to be supposed, from the perseverance and self-denial that are required in the men who attend, who all think that their little Rome is to be built in a day; and not less from having only voluntary and amateur teachers (though useful in their place), without any professional head to be responsible. If we can overcome the first and carefully guard against the last, by having always a paid Superintendent present, who makes the school his business, we shall not be left without a blessing from God; and oh! what grateful thanks ought we to render to Him for the wonderful and unexpected course of His providence during the last fifty years, in laying upon our hearts our great responsibility respecting the

masses, and in making these weak efforts mighty to the pulling down of many a stronghold.

O. C. O.

COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Ir is the duty of Christian patriots in England to look carefully into the Educational system of the United States, and I, for one, am glad that your pages have been open to receive the communication of M. W., containing the results of his personal observations in the States. In some respects, his view of the Schools is more favourable than that of other visitors. For instance, he speaks of the Masters and Mistresses as being very superior as a class, "whether in education, manners, or social position," and as taking much interest in their work ;-whereas other authorities limit such superiority to the Teachers in the great cities, and represent the village Teachers as taking to that calling only as a matter of convenience, and with no intention of following it for more than two or three years, and likewise as by no means qualified for the office they have undertaken. So, also, he speaks of a strict discipline as being enforced in all schools; while Mr. Ferguson, lately reviewed in your pages, and other writers, lament the independence and wilfulness of the children, and the absence of a proper measure of control over them.

These points, however, appertain only to the accidents of the system-excepting so far as the avowed exclusion of religious influences may tend to relax discipline; to place it on an inferior footing; or to affect, as it needs must, the character and tone of the instructors of the youth of the nation.

But your correspondent goes to the root of the matter, when he proceeds to declare how the system of education affects the state of religion and of public morals throughout the country. He notices the strenuous efforts made by several of the religious bodies in America to supply the deficiencies of the Public School system. There is something awful in his quotation from a reputable American writer, which represents that "the number of souls that can be regarded as within the covenanted conditions of salvation is less than in any other portion of the Christianized world," and that, in his opinion, "there is not more than one in ten of our adult population who make a public profession of Christianity by a regular observance of the stated ordinances required by the denominations to which they may severally belong." This latter statement is somewhat ambiguous, as it seems to speak only of those who "belong" to a "denomination," and says nothing of those who are of no denomination. It also ought to include the Lord's Supper amongst the "stated ordinances required." But in that

case the proportion stated would not be so remarkable (though sufficiently lamentable) as the author evidently considers them to be.

Mr. Seymour Tremenheere's book, relating in part to Education in the States (Notes on Public Subjects, &c. 1852), contains two principal sections on the Public Schools, the one of which is devoted to the purpose of showing, with regard to a large proportion of the labouring population, that the religious instruction which is withholden from them in the Day Schools is not given in the Sunday Schools. The other has this for its theme,-" That the injurious consequences of separating religious from secular instruction, are becoming evident to some of the most observant persons, and the most zealous supporters of popular education." What he says on this latter subject, and particularly his quotation of the deliberate and alarming judgment of Dr. Edson of Lowell, ought to be read by every one who may be disposed to follow the example of our American brethren, and who yet is not so far prejudiced as to be ready to rush after them blindfold, for good or for evil. Dr. Edson wrote under "the painful conviction that our (the American) Public School system has undermined already among our population, to a great extent, the doctrines and principles of Christianity." (Tremenheere, p. 51.)

But the most weighty testimony, and the most solemn warning which I have encountered, is to be found in a Pamphlet, printed, but not as yet published (a fault which it is hoped may be rectified), entitled "Remarks on the Common School System of the United States." Under its present circumstances there might be an impropriety in mentioning the author's name, or quoting his own sentiments, or the results of his observations. But he cites authorities which are as available to us as to him; and they constitute a body of testimony, all of the same character, and painful in the extreme. It would seem as if the sentiment, "He that is not with me is against me," were finding a glaring illustration in these Common Schools: their very neutrality operates as hostility.

A quotation from the Mercersburg Quarterly Review for January, 1853, ought to be got into the pages of the Times, introduced into all our educational periodicals, and read aloud in the House of Commons in answer to the next Member who shall venture to bid this nation adopt the American system. The Article referred to contained the substance of a Sermon which had been preached, a few months before, on a solemn occasion, namely, at a Synod of the "German Reformed Church." The Author condemns a system under which "religious culture is studiously excluded and prohibited" from the schools, and "no religious qualifications are sought in the Teacher." Parents have to send their children "to a place where no pious whisper is allowed, where religious instruction is contraband and unlawful, and where the Teacher may be an Infidel." It is not to be wondered at, under such circum