volutions in the national administration. Above all, it is exposed to the influence of that system of Popery which is established in the centre of Europe, and by its ramifications, intrigues, and efforts, open, secret, or disguised, is incessantly engaged in an active warfare against Protestantism. By the aid of the confessional, it penetrates into all transactions, and operates equally by the ascendency of the priest over the weakness of devout women, and the ferocity which he inspires into ignorant men against the heretic.
Education is of two kinds—intellectual and moral. To possess intellect, without moral virtue or benevolent affections, is satanic, or the character we ascribe to the spirit of evil. When a Frenchman said of the late Bonaparte, whether justly or not, that he had un tête sans entrailles—a head without a heart (bowels of compassion or affections), he represented the character of that eminent soldier as utterly diabolical. It is certain that the mere acquisition of knowledge by men, animated only by selfish passions in whatever form—ambition, avarice, sensuality—leaves the individual actually worthless, while it renders his existence a misfortune to human society. Such men, when aided by opportunity and possessed of ability, have in different ages come forth to afflict mankind, and have been well designated as more eminently the scourges of God than famine or pestilence. Our forefathers endeavoured to educate not a part merely, but the whole of the population of the kingdom; and held education to consist of the two branches already mentioned, intelligence and morality, understanding by moral education, instruction in the Christian Protestant religion.
For the first of these purposes, they established a school in every parish to teach the whole of the youth of both sexes to read and write the English language, and also the ordinary rules of arithmetic. In villages, the teachers were required to be capable of teaching the Latin language. The proprietors of lands in the parish were required to furnish a school and school-house, and a salary to the teacher, reserving to him to obtain a very moderate remuneration from the scholars.
Thus, cheap education for his children was brought to every man's door, and thousands and tens of thousands of Scotsmen have found the education received at the parish school their best and no mean patrimony. The teacher of such schools is elected by the owners of property of a certain amount. In every school the translation of the Bible made in the time of James I. is the ordinary schoolbook. Adjacent to the parish school, the parish church and a house for the minister were established. The proprietors of land in the parish were required to furnish both, and a suitable salary to the clergyman. The whole population of the parish have free access to the church; and thus provision was made in Scotland for teaching the Protestant doctrine at the expense of the landed gentry exclusively. This institution continues to this day; although, from the increase of the population, and the establishment of taxation to support the clergy in Edinburgh, and one or two of the larger towns, the institution is less effective than at its original establishment.
That there might be no relapse, and to protect the community more effectually against falling back into that corruption of the administrations of religion which had led to the pernicious institutions of Popery, care was taken to treat according to its merits the impure device on which the chief practical unity and strength of the Popish combination rests—the celibacy of the clergy. The Scottish clergy were not only permitted but encouraged to marry. Further, in the Scottish ecclesiastical establishment, a body of lay elders was in all the parishes appointed to assist the ministers—voting equally with them in all affairs of religion in the Presbyteries and Synods, and with a large mixture of them in the General Assemblies of the Church. In the parish or kirk sessions, which form the radical court, the minister presides; but has only his casting vote added to such influence as may result from his personal character and superior learning. All this was meant to guard against the Popish device of erecting the clergy into a fraternity or corporation distinct from the rest of the community, and with different interests.
The effect of these institutions was, in the first place, to enable every Scotsman, according to the measure of his ability and opportunities, to at-
