his secret council, has thought it necessary and expedient, in every parish of this kingdom where convenient means may be had for entertaining a school, that a school shall be estab lished, and a fit person appointed to teach the same, upon the expense of the parishioners, according to the quantity and quality of the parish, at the sight and by the advice of the Bishop of the diocese in his visitation: commanding hereby all the Bishops within this kingdom, that they and every one of them, within their several dioceses, deal and travel with the parishioners of their particular parishes within their said dioceses, to condescend and agree upon some certain, solid, and sure course, how, and by what means the said schools may be entertained and if any difficulty shall arise amongst them concerning this matter, that the said Bishop report the same to the said lords, to the effect they may take such order thereabout as they shall think expedient: and that letters be directed to make publication hereof, that none pretend ignorance of the same. Act of Parliament 1633, c. 5.

OUR SOVEREIGN LORD, with the advice of the states, ratifies the act of secret council dated at Edinburgh, the tenth day of Decem

ber, one thousand six hundred and sixteen years, as to the planting of schools; with this addition, that the Bishops in their several visitations, shall have power, with consent of the renters and most part of the parishioners, and if the renters, being lawfully warned, refuse to appear, then with consent of the most part of the parishioners, to set down and stent upon every plough or husband land, according to the worth, for maintenance and establishing of the said schools. And if any person shall find himself grieved, it shall be lawful to him to have recourse to the lords of secret conncil, for redress of any prejudice he may or doth sustain. And he doth ordain letters to be directed for charging of the possessioners, to answer and obey the schoolmasters, of the duties that shall be appointed in manner aforesaid.

Act of Parliament, 1696, c. 26

OUR SOVEREIGN LORD, considering how pre. -judicial the want of schools in many places*

The statute of 1696, (says Dr. CURRIE), the noble legacy of the Scottish Parliament to their country, began soon 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. In the year 1698, (I state this on the high and unquestioned authority of Mr. Fletcher of Saltoun) "there were in Scotland 200,000 people

have been, and how beneficial the establishing thereof in every parish will be to this church and kingdom; therefore his Majesty with advice and consent of the estates of Parliament, statutes and ordains, that there be a school settled and established, and a schoolmaster appointed in every parish, not already provided by advice of the heretors and ministers of the "begging from door to door:-and at other times there had "not been less than 100,000 of these vagabonds, who lived "without any regard or subjection either to the laws of the "land, or even to those of God and nature;-frequently "guilty of robbery, and sometimes of murder; - both men "and women, perpetually drunk, cursing, blaspheming, and "fighting together:" such however, in the course of a few passing years, was the effect of this Scotch Act for Education, that at the present day (as Dr. Currie observes), "there is no country in Europe, in which, in proportion to its population, દ્ર so small a number of crimes fall under the chastisement of "the criminal law of Scotland."-In the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, and in New England, the peasantry have the same advantage of schools. This is also the case in certain districts of England, particularly in the northern parts of Yorkshire and of Lancashire, and in the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland. The peasantry of Westmorland (to continue a series of quotations from Dr. Currie), and of the other disticts mentioned before, if their physical and moral qualities be taken together, are superior to the peasantry in any other part of the island.

* Dr. Currie observes, that the same legislature which established a system of instruction for the poor, resisted the introduction of a legal provision for the support of poverty: and imputes to this circumstance, that the Scotch have a more than a usual share of prudence and reflection.

parish and for that effect, that the heretors in every parish meet and provide a commodious house for a school, and settle and modify a salary to a schoolmaster, which shall not be under an hundred merks, nor above two hundred merks,* to be paid yearly at two terms, Whitsunday and Martinmas, by equal portions; and that they stent and lay on the said salary, conformably to every renter's valued rent within the parish; allowing each renter relief from his tenants of the half of his proportion, for settling and maintaining of a school and payment of the schoolmaster's salary;

The lesser of these sums is 57. 11s. 1d., the greater 117. 2s. 3d. By the 43d of George III. these salaries are not to be less than 167. 13s. 4 d. nor more than 221. 4s. 6d. With the increase, however, it is still to be considered as an annual fee to engage their services, rather than as a compensation for the performance of them, While the salary establishes the school, the pay received from the scholars, though very small as to each individual, make up the amount of the master's income. By these means it becomes, not merely a consideration of interest, but in some degree a matter of necessity, for Scotch schoolmasters to attract scholars to the school; and I have been informed that the effects of this, in promoting and increasing the utility of the Scotch parochial schools have been very important Though the scholar's payment is only from six to twelve shillings a year, yet to a person who already has a school-house and salary, the addition of scholars makes a material addition to his income; while at the same time he finds that his school will never be beneficial to him unless it is made useful to the public.

which salary is declared to be by and attom the casualties, which formerly belonged to the rea ders and clerks of the Kirk session. And if the heretors or major part of them shall not convene, or being convened shall not agree among themselves, then, and in that case, the Presbytery shall apply to the Commissioners of the supply for the shire, who, or any five of them, shall have power to establish a school, and setttle and modify a salary for a schoolmaster, not being under one hundred merks, nor above two hundred merks yearly, as afore; and to stent and lay on the same upon the heretors conformably to their valued rent, which shall be as valid and effectual as if it had been done by the heretors themselves. And because the proportion imposed upon every heretor will be but small, therefore, for the better and more ready payment thereof, it is statuated and ordained, that if two terms proportions run in the third unpaid, then those that so fail in payment, shall be liable in the double of their proportions then resting, and in the double of every term's proportion that shall be resting thereafter, until the schoolmaster be completely paid; and that without any defalcation. And that letters of horning,