fered and triumphed in this naughty world, instead of imaginary heroes and heroines, whether of the Church or of the world. True it is, that GOD and nature and Providence are continually doing greater and better things than men can dream. As Sandy Mackaye says, "Shelley is gran', always gran', but Fact is grander." We have been too much enervated by fiction, enervated both in our piety and our general thinking; and we need the more bracing atmosphere of actual truth. Moreover there is a solid comfort and satisfaction in feeding on what has been done in the world about us, such as no creations of the brain can supply. And this satisfaction rises to something higher, when we are made to converse with the wise and good that have gone to their reward.

More sweet than odours caught by him who sails

Near spicy shores of Araby the blest,

A thousand times more exquisitely sweet,

The freight of holy feeling which we meet,

In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales

From fields where good men walk, or bowers wherein they rest.

OUR LEFT-HAND DRAWER.

COMMON SCHOOLS.-We hope it is generally understood that " our left-hand drawer" is designed on purpose for the Editor to overflow in. We here speak in our individual, not on our official capacity, and consequently must not be regarded as standing on our official good behaviour in what we here propound. We know not how far our brethren, or even our contributors, may agree with us in what we have said or may say touching the question of common schools. We hold ourself perfectly free of them, and them perfectly free of us, in this matter. We have spoken, and, as occasion may seem to require, shall continue to speak, our honest thoughts on the subject, as an American, earnestly deprecating any collision or antagonism between what is ours as members of the Church, and what is ours as citizens of the Republic. Some of our brethren have, in their own way, spoken their thoughts on the other side. We are far from questioning either their right to do this, or their rectitude in doing it. What they have said on the subject expresses, no doubt, their private opinion; what we have said expresses our private opinion, which we shall continue to express, totally unfettered by official regards; always remembering that others differ from us nearly or quite as much as we do from them.

We hope it is also understood that, in both our individual and our official capacity, we stand up with all our legs for Church and parish schools. The more of them, the better. We believe they will do good in two ways; one, in serving us as nurseries of enlightened and loyal Churchmen; the other, in keeping up a healthful competition with the common school system, and holding it on its good behaviour, by showing that order, intelligence, and all the better fructifications of manhood will thrive as well in the atmosphere of the

Bible and the Church, as in any atmosphere from which those elements have been discarded. If we could have our way, there should be a school in every parish, so that the children of all our brethren might draw their whole mental and moral nutriment from the breasts of their Mother Church. But we cannot have our way; and, such being the case, hold it best to take up with such a way as we can have. And we know full well, that even if we had schools framed and conducted exactly to our mind as Churchmen, they would nowise satisfy our interests as Americans, because the great majority of our fellowcitizens would have nothing to do with them. And as we are bound to cast in our lot with them as citizens, we see no better way than to stand together with them in behalf of the best that all can agree and unite upon. So, while doing all that we can for ourselves in the way of Church schools, we shall contribute our share towards giving character to that which is to give character to all who share with us in the Commonwealth.

We notice that some of our brethren are disposed to attribute the late increase of vice and crime to the system of common schools: at least, they hold that system to be utterly impeached in that it has not yet been able to prevent such evils. They seem to forget, that on the very same grounds Christianity itself has been concluded a failure, by certain parties who probably wished it to fail. However, our position in this matter is, that the public school system is as yet but a novelty in human experience, and has not been tried nearly long enough to warrant any settled conclusion against it; no, not even if it had accomplished far less of good than it really has. We need a much larger induction of facts, a far wider gathering in of statistics, and a great deal more of tentative and experimental practice, before we can justly set up any other argument, than that the system is nowise responsible for the evils charged upon it, save as it has not yet been able to keep pace with the demand for it.

Statistics in point have hardly more than begun to come in ; yet such as we have are far from bearing out the conclusions that have lately been broached against the common school system. It is mainly with the view of producing some of these statistics, that we have now taken up the subject. The first testimony that we shall put in is from the Hon. Horace Mann, who was for many years Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and who spared no diligence in seeking trustworthy information on the subject. Some twelve years since he addressed a circular to all the leading teachers throughout the Union, inquiring of them as follows: "Under the most vigorous system of education we can now command, should all our schools be kept by teachers of high intellectual and moral qualifications, and should all the children from four to sixteen years of age be brought within those schools for ten months in a year, what proportion can be made useful and exemplary men and women, honest dealers, good parents, good neighbours, good members of society, temperate, industrious, frugal, prompt to pity and instruct ignorance, public spirited, and observers of all things sacred?" Answers to this inquiry were received from a large number of the most experienced teachers in the country, who with one accord expressed their conviction that, under the conditions specified, ninety

nine out of every hundred thus educated would become upright, virtuous, and useful citizens. The late Mr. Page, then at the head of the State Normal School at Albany, said that he should no longer think himself fit to be a teacher if, with the aids and influences supposed, he should fail in one case in a hundred to rear up children fully answering to the character described.

Our next is from an Address of the Hon. S. S. Randall, Superintendent of Schools in the City of New York, as published in the Proceedings of the Board of School Officers, in 1855. From the official records of criminal convictions in this State during the last ten years ending with 1849, it appears that the whole number of such convictions in that time was 27,949. Of these, 1,183 were returned as having had a "common education;" 414 as "tolerably well educated;" 128 as "well educated;" while of the remaining 26,225, about one-half were barely able to read and write, and the rest not able to do even that. According to this, scarce one in three hundred of such convictions is from the educated classes. The Address adds that a strict examination of the facts would, no doubt, materially reduce even this proportion.

We can stay for no more showings at present; but will furnish more as occasion may serve. Now, we suppose the end of school education is, to make good citizens, as that of our theological seminaries is to make good clergymen. And we suspect it would be found, on due examination, that our seminary education fails of its proper end in quite as large a proportion of cases, as that of the common school. Can it be fairly doubted, that as many at least as one in a hundred of our theological graduates turn out bad clergymen? Some of them, we know, do worse than this; they prove bad citizens as well as bad ministers. What if it should appear, that, in proportion to their number, even moral failures are as frequent among our clergy as among those educated in the common schools? But it is quite enough for our argument, if the former are, proportionally, as often overtaken in clerical crimes, as the latter in civil crimes.

We are very far from regarding all this as any valid reason against clerical education. The truth is, no human institution moves infallibly towards its purpose there is so much of evil and infirmity in man, that every system of means hitherto tried, whether human or Divine, sometimes fails of its end. Clergymen, like the rest of us, are but men; and as long as they are so, there will needs be some bad cases among them, in spite of all that human wisdom and Gospel motives can do, to make them good. We expect it will be the same with men, whatever advantages of education, whether mental or moral, may be afforded them. It is indeed certain that the best gifts may be abused: men may be highly enlightened without becoming virtuous: knowledge and mental power, instead of being exercised in the ways of honest living, may be all perverted to the ends of impunity in crime. Still we are for giving men instruction; religious instruction, Church instruction, if they will take it; if not, such as they will take; because it seems to us that almost any kind of instruction is better than none. We cannot quite shake off the conviction that "ignorance is the curse of GOD, knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven."

Since the above was in type (it was intended to appear last month, but was unavoidably crowded out), a correspondent has written us from Canada West, giving some interesting particulars as to the working of the "separate school system" in that region. He enclosed the following paragraphs from a leading Canada paper:

SEPARATE SCHOOL SYSTEM.-A separate school has recently been established in Thornhill, and an attentive correspondent in that village informs us that since it was put into operation the fiercest battles have been daily fought between the children attending it and those attending the village common school. We shall allow our correspondent to describe the scenes in Thornhill in his own graphic language:

Every day regularly, after 12 o'clock, a most outrageous yell is heard from that quarter of our village where the common school is situated. This juvenile yell has scarcely died away in the air, before our ears are greeted by another equally frantic and warlike in its character, from another quarter of the village where the Roman Catholic separate school is placed. The children of both schools now sally forth to meet each other, armed with sticks, clubs, stones, and whatever is most easily obtained at the time, and the battle of the Diamond is played over again in miniature. The whole affair generally terminates in bloody noses, broken heads, &c. The combatants separate, mutually satisfied with flinging back yells of defiance at each other. The separate school here has only been in operation for a short time.

We will subjoin a part of his note to us : "As you may not be informed of the evils of the separate school system here in Canada, I take the liberty of sending the enclosed extract, taken, as you will see, from the Toronto Colonist. I may add that, since the extract was published, several battles have been fought by the separate schools in the city of Kingston; and so serious did they become, that the police were called out, to prevent the further flow of blood and broken heads."

We know not what special causes there may be for these difficulties in Canada, or whether any similar troubles need be apprehended here. But the facts may serve to show that, if the system of common schools does not work to perfection, there will probably be found some imperfections in any system that may be substituted for it.

READERS' EXCHANGE.

SMOKING SPIRITUALIZED.-This " quaint old rhyme," as given in your number for April, 1857, seemed familiar to me when I read it. Overhauling the upper shelf of my bookcase, to-night, I came upon it. It is to be found in a book entitled thus: "GOSPEL SONNETS, or SPIRITUAL SONGS, in Six Parts; I. The Believer's Espousals; II. The Believer's Jointure; III. The Believ er's Riddle; IV. The Believer's Lodging; V. The Believer's Soliloquy; VI. The Believer's Principles, concerning creation and redemption, law and gospel, justification and sanctification, faith and sense, heaven and earth. By the late Mr. RALPH ERSKINE, Minister of the Gospel at Dumfermline." My copy is the "first American edition from the twenty-third British,” printed and sold

at No. 1 North Third street, Philadelphia. 1793. pp. 384. 12mo. The poem in question is at the close of the volume, and there appears in two parts, with this introductory note, viz: "The following POEM, the second part of which was wrote by Mr. Erskine, is here inserted, as a proper subject of meditation to smokers of Tobacco. In two parts. The first part being an old Meditation upon smoking Tobacco; the second a new Addition to it, or Improvement of it." Part I., as here given, comprises the first, second, eighth, ninth, and tenth verses as given by your correspondent, and in that order. These are not claimed for Mr. Erskine, it seems. Part II. takes your correspondent's verses in the following order, viz: the fifth, sixth, seventh, third, fourth. Who wrote Part I.? Lest any one should ask "who Ralph Erskine was," I will add a note. He was born in Northumberland in 1685, educated at the University of Edinburgh, became a preacher, joined the "Secession" in 1734, and died in 1752, aged 67. He was a man of popular abilities. He published sermons, and a work entitled a "Paraphrase in Verse of the Song of Solomon," and also these "Gospel Sonnets.". Of these latter, it seems, there were (at least) thirty-one" British editions." Of their value, his French biographer well says, "qui ont eu une certain célebrité, et ou on trouve des idées fort étranges." SMOKER.

THE CHURCH AT HOME.

Since our last issue, the Diocesan Convention of New York has been in session three days, beginning with_September 30th, and closing with October 2d. The sermon was by the Rt. Rev. the Bishop of California; a sound and carefully-written discourse, and, so far as we could judge, very well received. The attendance, though not remarkably full, was much fuller than had been generally anticipated. The proceedings were lively and spirited, the debates marked, in general, by ability and decorum. The annual address of the Provisional Bishop was such as ought to come from the chief pastor of the Church; a simple, earnest, straightforward document, abounding in wise remarks, and well-considered suggestions touching the practical work of the Church. It was listened to with the deepest interest, and followed with hearty approval. The address was particularly strong in urging the establishment of Christian charities, such as Church homes for the aged and destitute, orphan asylums, and City missions. Such means would enable the Church to take more care of her poor, and the pressure of such objects would stimulate individual exertion, and many bequests, now lost to the Church, would be gained. Not that private charity should be wholly superseded; for, after all that could be done by public institutions, there would still be room enough for private beneficence. The address also urged that more "ragged schools," as they are called, should be established, that very poor children might be cleansed of their filth, rescued from debasement, and put in the way of elevation and usefulness. There were a great many such children whom the public schools could not reach nor get hold of: they would but sink the deeper in that very filth and wretchedness from which others turned away in disgust. It was only in the spirit of Him who had washed His disciples' feet, and who gave His life for man's