I WAS now busy with my education. I cannot say that I made a brilliant figure at college, but I was plodding and persevering. Though every step I mounted in the ladder of learning was a great effort to me, I never lost what I had once acquired; if I had not a quick and penetrating intellect, I had at least a retentive memory. Archie, too, was always ready to assist me; and, upon the whole, I got through my first session creditably.

Of course I was thrown into the company of other lads at college, and had opportunities of forming friendships, but I was ever slow in availing myself of such. I generally required the first advances to be made by others; so, as I lacked both Archie's gay turn and good looks, few sought my society-at all events, none like my dear old friend Adam. Indeed, I may as well confess that my nickname amongst my fellow-students was "sober Matthew,' having reference to a certain old-fashioned formality and sobriety which they professed to discover in my demeanour.

There were only two lads with whom I was on terms of intimacy. They showed a liking for my company, and a little of this went a great way with me. They were from the Highlands, and roughlooking tykes they were, with the north-country accent in full perfection. They were, however, decent lads enough, although their up-bringing had been very different from mine-they having literally followed the plough till the ambition, so common among the Scottish peasantry, of seeing their sons ministers of the "kirk," had dawned upon their parents' minds. The lads were not related, but being from the same district, and both utter strangers to the town, they, from motives of economy, as well as for company, shared the same lodgings.

Our acquaintance commenced through some little attentions I paid to them in the loan of books, which the poor fellows could ill afford to purchase; they were my father's, who possessed every theological and classical work of merit of that day. I was sorry for the lads. Their uncouth appearance and evident poverty procured them the ridicule of the better-born and better-clad students, who, generally speaking, are a most unfeeling tribe. They were the laughingstock of the classes. I saw that they felt this keenly, for they had all the irascibility and pride characteristic of their race; and often did these boil over beneath the petty annoyances and boyish wit with which especially their younger fellow-students unweariedly assailed them. So little accustomed were they to civility that mine at first was received suspiciously; but once convinced that no covert insult was hidden under it, they met my advances in a friendly spirit. It was some time, however, before they had sufficient confidence in my good faith to admit me into their lodgings, or even to give me an inkling where they were situated, and I was careful to betray no curiosity on the subject. With my mother's consent, I invited them occasionally to our house of an evening, and undoubtedly it was her kindly, motherly reception of them that finally induced them to throw off all reserve.

My first visit to their lodgings was rather embarrassing to me, for their pride was evidently up in

arms and on the watch for some cause of offence. Their lodgings were mean enough, certainly. They were situated in the West Bow-now demolished six stairs up, and such stairs! They were so steep and narrow that persons could not pass each other except at the small landing-places on each floor, and these consisted merely of a somewhat broader step. There were some narrow apertures in the outer wall for admitting air and light, but little of either found entrance. Add to this, that the staircase, being rarely cleaned, though much frequented, was squalid and filthy in the extreme. I had a great dread of it; and when I occasionally engaged to visit my friends in the evening-for I could not always give them complete possession of a book we mutually needed, but we had to study it together-it was on the understanding that Bob Galbraith (Big Bob we used to call him), who was a giant in size and strength, should protect me to the bottom.

The tenement was thickly peopled, and strangely diversified were the occupations of its inhabitants; cobblers and the humblest class of seamstresses, however, most abounded. My friend's landlady was a Widow McLeary, who, besides letting lodgings, maintained herself by making clothes for the dead, a signboard to that effect being projected from one of the windows for the information of the public. Poor Big Bob! what an ill-will he had to that sign, being prone to superstitious fancies, like most of his race, and often did he express the desire that some windy night he might have the satisfaction of hearing it torn from its fastenings and shivered on the street below. But many a year after Bob Galbraith and Malcolm Campbell had quitted the lodgings did Widow McLeary's doleful signboard maintain its position high up beneath the garrets of the West Bow.

In this uninviting domicile they rented one small room, containing a truckle-bed, but with little else in the way of furniture; and for this accommodation, and for the privilege of occasionally pursuing their studies at Mrs. McLeary's fireside, they paid eighteenpence in the week.

Our house and manner of living were plain and simple, for we were compelled to practise strict economy, but this was not apparent to these lads, to whom ordinary comforts were luxuries. There was a great contrast, of course, between our clean orderly home and their sordid lodging, and I generally found them more or less disposed to be jealous and touchy, and full of those sharp proverbial sayings with which Scotland abounds, intended to humble my pride, after spending an evening with us. Poor fellows! the pride was all on their side. It was doubtless a keen mortification to those poor proud lads, who were anxious to make a creditable appearance before others for the honour of the Highlands, when I inadvertently looked in on them one morning and found them at breakfast, consisting of one large wooden bowlful of thick oatmealporridge without milk, but with a lump of salted butter in the middle for kitchen (relish). They were evidently keenly appetised, having just returned from the morning class, where I had not succeeded in speaking to them, for their horn spoons were

passing rapidly between the dish and their mouths when I entered their room. They received me ungraciously enough, so I discharged my errand as quickly as possible, and I took care to time my visits better afterwards.

It was not always easy to bear with them patiently, but then I sincerely pitied the lads and their friendless condition in Edinburgh. My mother, too, would say to me when I was feeling chafed by any unreasonable exhibition of temper on their part," Matthew, my dear, let us bear with the pride that springs from poverty." I did bear with it, and it was not my fault that our friendship, at least for that session, came to an abrupt conclusion.

They had promised to call on me one evening, and my mother kindly proposed to detain them to supper, and had provided a bunch of savoury Finnan haddies for their entertainment. Just about the hour when I expected them, she recollected an order which she had forgotten to give in the afternoon, and as the shop was in the neighbourhood I offered to deliver it, as Nelly was busy. Before leaving the house I told the latter that if the gentlemen from the Bow -so I called them in the uprightness of my heart and not in mockery-should arrive ere I returned, she was to explain the cause of my absence and ask them to wait. I was back in about ten minutes, and was surprised to learn that they had come in the interval, but had refused to enter.

"And 'deed, I think, Mr. Matthew, begging your pardon," said Nelly, whose good-temper seemed unusually ruffled, that neither o' them is very right in the head. I just gied them your message in your ain words-for laye like to be particular-that the twa gentlemen frae the Bow (though weel-a-wat, there's little gentlemen about them) were to come in and wait till such time as you came back, when they took to fighting on me like fishwives-na, as to that, Jean Jaup's tongue is naething to theirsand the big ane said that you were an insolent, jeering fallow, but that he would be upsides with you yet for it. And awa' doon the stair they ran, and I wonder you didna meet them at the foot o' it." Though we questioned and cross-questioned Nelly, none of us could make anything of it. But I did not doubt of getting an explanation at the morning class, and of being able to disabuse their minds of any wrong impression; at the same time I was growing seriously weary of these causeless alternations of mood. They, however, carefully avoided giving me an opportunity. Moreover, they both looked, but especially Big Bob, so scowling and wrathful that I had not courage to follow them to their lodgings. We met, of course, every day at the classes, but their displeasure with me underwent no abatement. Nay, they waxed more and more outrageous, as if my very patience under this treatment provoked them, even putting themselves in my way on the streets, that by their gestures and looks-I knew not what they said, for they jabbered to each other in Gaelic-they might testify their contempt for me. Any one that has seen an angry Highlander snuffing up the air can imagine it. I grew so nervous from this state of things that at last I would slink up any close or backway to avoid them. My father's books, which I had lent them, they returned without the civility of thanks, thrusting them into Nelly's hands when she opened the door at their knock, and then running down the stairs so quickly as to escape the torrent of indignant words which she sent after them.

I found a half-crown put up along with the books, intended, I supposed, as payment for the use of them, which, of course, I sent back by a sure hand to their lodgings. The session was at its close, and I gave up all expectation of an explanation. The thing, however, caused me some pain, for I have been ever constant in my friendships, though slow to form them. They finally departed for their distant homes, to prosecute their studies alternately with labouring on their fathers' small and unproductive farms till the next session of college arrived; and I continued in utter ignorance of the nature of my offence.

The harvest of that year was exceptionally good in the Highlands. Friends were found willing to open their stockings (an old stocking is a common purse in the north) to help them, and when the two students returned to Edinburgh they could afford better lodgings than Mrs. McLeary's; their outward man was also improved, and, perhaps owing to the soothing influence of these changes, they were less touchy and irascible in temper. We met at the first as strangers; but in a few days they began to feel their way to a renewal of intercourse; and perceiving this, I met them half-way, being curious to know what excuse they could make for their past behaviour, at the same time resolving to be very prudent in all my future dealings with them. And now came the explanation of the riddle. Will it be believed that my offence entirely consisted in the unfortunate appellation which I had innocently put into Nelly's mouth ? Gentility, indeed, had little to do with the locality of the "Bow;" and my presumed bad jest was the sole cause of the burst of rage which had so scandalised Nelly, and of their outrageous conduct towards me during the last month of the session. Truly, Highlanders are kittle cattle to deal with, and need wary approaching to!

I lost sight of them after this session; circumstances having induced them to continue their studies at Glasgow College. I believe they hoped to get pupils there, which their strong north-country accent prevented in Edinburgh. I often thought of them, however, and wondered how they were getting on, especially Big Bob, who had many eccentricities. I knew not whether he were alive or dead till, years after our separation, I chanced to hear him preach in a chapel of ease in the west. I recognised him the moment he entered the pulpit; and truly he rowted that day like one of his own Highland stirks, much to the edification of the deaf old wives in their grey duffle cloaks and white caps, in the table seat, who appeared to think that they had lighted on a perfect Boanerges.

The church was vacant, and he was preaching as a candidate before the congregation. I waited to speak to him at the close of the service, and he greeted me with great heartiness. Bob had spruced up wonderfully, and had now a good black coat on his back. I learned from him that Malcolm Campbell had emigrated with his relations to Canada, and now had a kirk and Gaelic congregation in the backwoods, and that he himself, if at present unsuccessful, meant to follow his example. And as Bob was unsuccessful, probably by this time he has preached many a sermon in his native Gaelic in the remote regions of the far-west.

I must not omit to state that Bob's preaching, judging from the specimen which I heard, was both earnest and evangelical, and not devoid of a certain rugged eloquence.

BISMARCK AND GORTSCHAKOFF.-" Galignani's Messenger" has the following anecdote: Prince Bismarck had undertaken to obtain the adoption by foreign Powers of German as the language of diplomacy. He had not hitherto endeavoured to impose it officially, but had confined himself to semi-official propositions by his agents. He has just himself commenced the struggle. He sent a note in German to Prince Gortschakoff, who replied in Russian. As the Emperor William's Prime Minister does not understand that language, he had to send for a translator, and the opposition journals of Berlin state that he was much irritated at the result of his experiment.

ROME AND THE BIBLE.-What can the reason be which

induces Rome to seek to sever believers from the Holy Scriptures? Cardinal Wiseman has betrayed the secret. He says the prohibition of the reading of the Scriptures is the stronghold of the Church's unity. Let the faithful but read the Scriptures, and the government of the church will tumble to pieces, insubordination will enter, and self-sufficiency and pride take the place of humility and docility. No doubt, this unity of the church, which denies the true Church of Jesus Christ, this despotic unity, would be destroyed. For when the Pope maintains that, as Christ's vicar on earth, he has the right of wearing the triple crown, or causing himself to be borne about by his fellow-men, then, most assuredly, he cannot allow the faithful to read the Scriptures, with which such a vicarship is absolutely incompatible. When the Pope proclaims that, as the vicar of Jesus Christ, he is the judge of all men upon earth, then assuredly the faithful may not read that Christ said "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world "-" to seek and to save that which was lost." The Pope has as little right to judge a Christian brother as that brother has the right, supposing him to have recognised in the Pope a brother, to judge him. The words "Judge not, that ye be not judged," hold good for the Pope as for everybody else. God only sees, and God alone has the right to judge what transpires in the inmost soul of man. When the Scriptures tell us that the bond between man and God is without human meditation, that it is the Father who draws to the Son; and when Paul, placing himself on this foundation, exclaims, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" and then, after having enumerated all the elements which weaken and destroy this bond, declares triumphantly. "In all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us"--when that can be read in the Holy Scriptures, and the Pope maintains that he can separate us from the love of Christ by a maledictory Bull, then certainly he does well in prohibiting the reading of the Holy Scriptures. Bishop Reinkens, at the Congress of Old Catholics.

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BEDFORD AND THE HARPUR CHARITY.-Bedford, as is pretty well known, is celebrated for its associations with Bunyan, the glorious dreamer, and Howard, the philanthropist. It is also noted for its remarkable charity in the shape of schools and almshouses. The original endowment was bequeathed to the town some three hundred years ago by Sir William Harpur, who was born at Bedford in 1496. At an early age he went to London to learn the business of a tailor, and so well did he sucIceed that he became one of the chief officers of the Merchant Taylors' Company, and subsequently, in 1561, was elected lord mayor of London. In 1566, Sir William, and Dame Alice his wife, founded a Free Grammar School at Bedford, and conveyed it, by an indenture entitled "The Deed of Gift to the Mayre, Baylyfes, Burgesses, and Commonaltys of the Towne of Bedford." The annual income at the time named amounted to only £40, and was derived from property in London and Bedford. In those days, however, this was sufficient for the purposes of such a school. The value of the estate increased so rapidly that in 1760 the income had reached the sum of £3,000 At the present time the annual rental of the property of the Charity amounts to something like £15,000. Until the recent interposition of the Endowed Schools Commissioners, the Charity provided, in addition to the schools, a hospital for twenty-six poor boys and girls, sixty-five almshouses, marriage portions of £20 each for Bedford-born maidens, and apprentice fees for boys. Under a new scheme, which has recently been sanctioned by the Commissioners and accepted by the authorities at Bedford, the income is devoted almost entirely to education. Indeed, every provision has been made for developing the usefulness of the Charity for this particular purpose, to the greatest possible extent, and the town bids fair to become more than ever one of the chief educational centres of the king

a year.

dom. The cost of the existing school buildings amounted to from £30,000 to £40,000; some idea may thus be formed as to the accommodation already provided. After making the necessary provisious as to the expense of management, etc., the new scheme states that one eleventh share shall be appropriated to eleemosynary purposes, two eleventh shares to elementary education, four elevenths to the purposes of modern schools, and four elevenths to the purposes of grammar and high schools. The education to be given is liberal, and the fees only nominal. In the case of the elementary school, the fee is not to exceed threepence weekly, and this is to be remitted if the governors are of opinion that the parent or guardian is unable to pay. In the modern school the annual tuition fee is not to be less than £1 10s., or more than £4 per year, the subjects of instruction to be English language and literature, Latin, one or more tical economy, natural science, drawing, and vocal music. A modern languages, history and geography, mathematics, polisimilar school for girls is also to be established. Provision is likewise made for a grammar school for boys, and a high school for boys, the minimum fee to be £4 a year, with a maximum of £12. The subjects of instruction are to be proportionate with mestic economy, the laws of health, and needlework, are added those given in the modern schools. In the case of girls, doto the list. The schools are "open to all candidates who are of good character and of sufficient bodily health, and who are residing with their parents, guardians, or near relations."

veniences.

EMIGRATION TO CANADA.-As we are sure to hear much about emigration as the result of Mr. Arch's visit to Canada, and as rumours not favourable to the success of emigrants have already been spread, the following letter to the "Times" from the Rev. A. Styleman Herring, of Clerkenwell, is worthy of attention :--"In 1868 Canada had but one agent, now 20; then the cheapest passage was £8, now £5 15s. (£3 5s. for an agriculturist), with a return of £1 4s. 8d. after three months in Ontario; then no remittances. This season £48,000 was sent direct to my lamented friend Mr. Dixon, the late Commissioner, to aid relatives and friends to Canada. These betoken increasing prosperity. My experience, based on helping upwards of 3,500 poor people, a visit to Canada, and piles of letters, leads me to take a cheerful and hopeful view of emigration. In fact, unless by misfortune or misconduct, the greater part of my emigrants have exerted themselves greatly to diminish hindrances and inconThe Dominion Government have improved their condition." steamships (ten days only on voyage), food and lodging on They have provided cheap passages in splendid arrival, free passes to destinations, and a register_of_vacant places (600 emigrants in two days found places from the Toronto depôt). Perhaps two instances out of many will suffice to show how people may, by perseverance, progress. Two brothers from Marylebone, hired out on arrival-one to a farmer, and the other as a navvy-saved £60 from May to October, and secured 200 acres on free grants. In April I sent out the eldest's young lady. The following year I sent another brother (a mechanic) and his wife. They, united, possess 500 acres (60 per cent. good land), and are happy and prosperous. An Islington mechanic-wife, and seven children (happy is the man who has his quiver full of them in the colonies !)-has now a cleared farm of fifty acres, with ten years to pay for it. The Ontario Government are always suspicious of big schemes for colonisation, as most have proved failures. I feel Mr. Arch would better serve his cause if he allowed the labourers to be scattered and go where required than by colonising. I can but say that well-conducted emigrants will meet with a hearty welcome from the loyal and hospitable Canadians. Food and labour are in abundance, good credit given, free or cheap land, free schools; a well-kept Sunday, with grog-shops closed from 7 P.M. on Saturday to 7 A. M. on Monday. Many places of trust and position are open to all (four-fifths of men in office-merchants, farmers, etc.-are self-made men). True, there are drawbacks; but to the sober, industrious, and persevering there is a good and prosperous field open."

AN EMPLOYER'S VIEW OF LABOUR.-Mr. T. Brassey, M. P., in a recent speech said :-"It is most economical to pay labour well. It is better to employ fewer men at high wages than more men at low wages. Every individual is better off, and the total expenditure on labour is reduced. For the nonemployed fresh fields must be found, and these will be opened by the ingenuity and enterprise of mankind."