and in arithmetic, from 22.8 to 17 17. There are those who will not believe in the accuracy of my report of these returns. I was accused, last year, by various periodicals of the Established Church with having, by deceptive statistics, obtained an unwarrantably favourable impression on behalf of our schools. Well, these are the Government statistics, carefully analysed by Mr Thomson, whose accuracy all who know him will admit. But if these statistics are not admitted by our friends outside, it may help to compel them to admit the accuracy of the report that the assistant-commissioners of the Royal Commissioners, found, apparently to their own surprise, as the result of their examination of a proportionate number of Free Church and parish schools, that the teaching in the Free Church schools is more efficient than the teaching in the parish schools in the ratio of 86 to 80 per cent. They couple this discovery indeed by a caution in their words "if our estimates are correct," and try to balance their estimate by setting over against it the fact which everybody knows, and which our analysis brings out, viz., that a few boys in parish schools are more advanced than any in Free Church schools. And there is something like an insinuation in the report of the Commissioners (page 97) that some inspectors are more lenient than others. On the contrary, we have great reason to find fault with them for overstringency. My experience is, that whenever you get into the hands of a Government official of the Free Church, you meet with an amount of severity you meet nowhere else. (Hear, hear.) But were this the case in the Free Church schools, the results of the examinations in writing and arithmetic in the three higher standards-which are judged in London-would be more unfavourable than those in the lower standards, which are decided simply by the inspector himself. But the superiority of the Free Church schools in these higher standards is even more marked than it is in the lower ones. Again, as if they were somewhat anxious to take away the argument for the continuance of our schools derived from their superior efficiency, these Commissioners somewhat ultroneously, I should think, as well as in the teeth of the declarations of our leading ministers in their evidence before the Commissioners, take upon them to announce that our schools are become or becoming an unsupportable burden on our Church resources and strength. (Laughter.) To prove this, they state that in the five years (1860 to 1865) our schools had dwindled down from 621 to 570, and our scholars from 62,400 to 61,000—that is, we had at the end of that period 51 fewer schools and 1300 fewer scholars. But it so happens that in 1866 we had 578 schools and 63,127 scholars, and in 1867 we have 595 schools and 64,050 scholars; so that while the number of schools is rather less than in 1860, those that have been discontinued are small schools, and those that have been commenced are of a larger size and a higher class; and there are now 1550 more scholars in attendance at our schools than there were in 1860. (Applause.) Mr Nixon concluded by saying-I will not enter further into the report, because, after the Assembly have approved of it, I will take the liberty of moving a set of resolutions. I am very glad to be able to announce from Dr Thomas Smith, who undertook to be convener of the committee, to raise a sum to meet the crying wants of the old Disruption teachers, that Dr Smith has obtained £100 already, which will be distributed in small sums to the most necessitous of those good men ; and he expects to be able to distribute a similar sum

in a short time-in the course of a few months. And I am also glad to find that the Teachers' Association are taking steps in the same direction. So that, if we get our affairs at all disentangled, I have not the slightest doubt that the sympathy and support of the friends of the Church will not be wanting to those deserving servants of the Church. (Applause.)

Mr MILLER, of Leithen, said he had very great pleasure in moving the adoption of this most satisfactory report, which had been laid before the Assembly by their esteemed father, Mr Nixon. It was peculiarly gratifying to find the high position which the schools had attained throughout the whole country as compared with other schools, either in England or Scotland; and he thought that if there was ever a time when it was of the utmost importance that their schools should stand in a high position it was now, so that they might be able to show that so independent a body as the Free Church could conduct her schools in such a highly satisfactory way as had been shown to them that evening. (Applause.) He would not, however, take up the time of the Assembly on that subject at present, as it would come up afterwards for consideration. Meanwhile, he would move the approval of the report, and that they record their thanks to their esteemed father, the convener, for the energy and organising power which he had manifested in this most important branch of the work entrusted to the Free Church. (Applause.)

Mr MACKENZIE, of Dunfermline, seconded the motion, which was carried by acclamation.

THE ROYAL COMMISSIONERS' REPORT ON NATIONAL EDUCATION.

Mr NIXON then proceeded to propose the resolutions of which he had given notice on this subject. In doing so he said-Before proposing these resolutions I have to make a statement, if the Assembly will be pleased to indulge me with a little patience and forbearance, on a subject to which they have directed a vast deal less of their attention for many years than I think it is well entitled to. I shall not now attempt to state the causes of this, though I am quite prepared when occasion arises to state what I think they are. I shall merely observe that the facts themselves cannot be questioned. I hope the Assembly will acknowledge that it is high time for its mind to be more intently fixed on this great scheme of the Church than it has been for a number of years past; and I may say this, whether they intend to make this scheme what it ought to be, or whether they intend to give it a decent burial. (Laughter.) It is a miserable life a man is leading when daily expecting to be deprived of it, he knows not when the end is to be. I suppose that the days of a lingering existence of this sort are more miserable and painful than even the act of experiencing death itself. With these preliminary remarks, I beseech your attention. According to the recommendations and the draft bill embodying them, the parish schools are to have their name altered into that of old national schools, and to remain otherwise as they are, excepting that the teachers are to be henceforward under inspectors not necessarily belonging to the Established Church, and at the disposal of a general board; and that the heritors and parish ministers, or two-thirds of the parish board which they constitute, may hand them over to the parochial school committees

chosen under the direction of the sheriff, half by the landed proprietors, and the other half by the ratepayers, if such committees are willing to take them. As a temptation to this course, the heritors would save a little money, and lose or not lose, as the case might be, a little power; and the ratepayers, in return for the tax they laid henceforth on themselves, might gain in appearance, if not in reality, a little power; while, in such a position, the parish schools would come in for a larger share of the Parliamentary grants. In all districts where there are no schools of any kind, or schools of a character pronounced insufficient by State inspectors, new schools, called New National Schools, are to be raised by direct taxation of the inhabitants of the district, and under the general board, managed by local committees in rural parishes, chosen as already described, and by local committees in burghs, appointed by the town councils. Schools like ours, known by the misleading name, often somewhat opprobriously given to them, of denominational schools, would be received only individually, and to a greater or less extent, as the Central Board might be pleased to deem them needful and suitable, or otherwise. Such of them as were thus embraced in the general system, while placed also under the Central Board as "adopted schools," would continue for the present to be managed by us as in times past. But though they are still to share in the Parliamentary grants, and though we surely pay a sufficient price for retaining their management, in the voluntary contributions by which we sustain them, we are to pay a further price for this power by being deprived of all share of the local rates raised for the other "national schools." Other disadvantages to be inflicted on us are, that none of our schools shall be taken as "adopted schools," except they are deemed by the Board necessary and efficient; no further aid shall be allowed to us to build new ones; and none of those we build hereafter shall be adopted at all, unless such as we erect within two years after the passing of the bill. There are to be examiners chosen by the universities to certify the competency of teachers. And the Board that is placed over the whole scheme (consisting of four persons chosen by the Universities, the four Provosts of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and Aberdeen; three gentlemen chosen by the three counties of Ayr, Inverness, and Perth; and four appointed by the Crown, one of them as the paid chairman) is to have very great and summary power of establishing schools whenever it deems them required, and of disposing of all teachers of the old and new national schools. Before adverting to the character of the measure recommended by the Royal Commission-its manifest design, its probable workings, the position in which it places us as a Church, and our duty in the circumstances -I may mention here that the facts brought out, and recorded in the volumes of reports just published, will serve to silence for ever most of the arguments for national education that for so many years were so eloquently declaimed upon by our most popular orators from every public platform. Thus the argument from the alleged educational destitution of the country must be to a great extent given up, for it is but a fraction of what it was represented to be, and is found chiefly in a few large cities, in insular regions, and in the remoter and more sparselypeopled districts of Highland parishes. And, altogether, it turns out that about as large a proportion are at school in Scotland as in the best provided for of the United States. Again, the argument from the

deficiency in the quality of the education furnished, must also, to a considerable extent be given up. For, with the exception of the wretched concerns in the shape of schools, found in the lowest, and, of course, often Roman Catholic districts of Glasgow and Dundee, and in such out-of-theway sparse and poor populations, as it will be difficult for any system, and especially for any Government system, without an enormously disproportionate expenditure of money, to reach; with such exceptions, the deficiency lies more in the want of proper school accommodation than in the elementary teaching itself. The deficiency, moreover, is so continually lessening, and the quality of the teaching is so improving of late, that, had we only for a time the benefit of the Revised Code, with the improvements suggested upon it, for Scotland, and were a simple central authority established, that was empowered, on reports of district Government inspectors, to set up, even by means of existing Poor Boards, or other authorised local committees, new schools wherever not otherwise provided, no time need elapse before having a sufficient elementary provision made for the common school education of all the population in the land. Of course, too, we shall hear no more of that stock argument of our famous men, with which they were wont to wring tears from the eyes not only of sentimental ladies, but of other weeping patriots(laughter)-viz., that the present system was introducing the very spirit of all strife into the hearts of the tender little ones, who otherwise might be brought up in happy ignorance of the divisions of the visible Church, locked daily in each other embraces, and destined when they grew up to manifest a perfect freedom from the bitterness that filled their fathers before them. (Renewed laughter.) For what some of us constantly affirmed without being listened tol is now made, plain-viz., that the pictures publicly paraded on this subject were, as regards the general actual state of matters, pure fancy sketches, without the slightest foundation in fact. The way in which the children of all the denominations in the country attend the schools in connexion with "either of them, has served to bring out that no schools can be created or imagined, more truly national in their spirit and their teaching, than such as we have provided and maintain.

In proceeding to deal with the character of the scheme proposed, it is indispensable that I solicit the attention of the Assembly to two distinct theories of education, and then to show, as plainly as I can, under which of these theories I believe this scheme must be ranked. The theories, no doubt, when in actual operation, overlap and run into each other. But they are sufficiently distinct in their principles and workings to be contemplated apart.

The first of these theories is what I called the scriptural one.

This theory deals with the young as reasonable and immortal creatures. It has a proper regard to all their relations and interests. It deals with them chiefly, in their relation to God and eternity, and, subordinately, in their relation to the present world. It labours to train all the faculties of their nature, soul, body, and spirit. And, treating them as sinful creatures, it has, for its main object, to lead them to Christ, for their personal salvation. At the same time, it labours to furnish them, to the utmost possible extent, with all useful knowledge, so as to fit them most effectually for serving Christ on earth, and then going to serve Him for ever in a better world. Is that the theory of edu

cation propounded by this Royal Commission? Is it? Is it not the theory that is studiously ignored? If this scheme is carried out, will trust to it for the vital evangelisation of the young?

any

one venture to stand up in this Assembly, and affirm that we may Does any one ask of me the grounds on which we ought to make so much of daily education as the means of the christianisation of the young! The grounds are broad, solid, and enduring.

In all ages, under the old as well as the new dispensation, the Church has recognised the divine obligation laid on her, by such an education, to cultivate the whole nature, and further the highest as well as all other

interests, of the young.

The Jewish youth were

ually.

As Dr Arnold says, they were taught, not only their national history, but the will of God regarding them morally and politically; His will with regard to all the private and public relations of life; with regard to their government, their limits and divisions, their property, real and personal; their rules of inheritance; their rules with regard to marriage; their whole conduct, in short, in peace and war, as men, as Not less is it divinely required, under the gospel, to train the young so that they may learn to glorify God in every way, in their varied callings and circumstances, and with all their faculties and powers, outward

taught God's statutes and ordinances contin

citizens.

and inward.

The duty thus to train them is involved in the commission given by nations," that is, to bring them into Christ's school or Church; to Christ to His servants, to "go and teach," or make disciples of, "all "baptize" them, that is, to dedicate them wholly and unreservedly to God; and then, " to teach them all things, whatsoever Christ has comthe Church, and to the world. The Church, in reference to their bapmanded;" to instruct them in their duty to God, to their families, to tismal engagements, undertakes to see them performed; and, in referutmost extent of her power, by using every kind of education which she ence to the general commission, undertakes to see it carried out to the can control, for the christianising of old and young. The Church of God is the only community on earth that has, through find civil governments, as such, attempting to provide for the education all ages, endeavoured thus to train the young. It is a modern event, to or teacher, as well as pastor, connected with each congregation, the forIn the earlier ages of the Christian era, the Church had its "doctor" knowledge. The Waldensian Church, that notable witness for the truth mer having it for his special work to educate the young in all desirable amidst the darkness of bygone ages, was kept from the apostasy of other churches, very much by its constant laborious care to educate, in all attainable sanctified knowledge, each rising generation. The churches of the truth. And certainly, one of the highest characteristics of the Scotmeans by which they trained their members to bear aloft the banner of tish Church, and a principal source of whatever intelligence and virtue have been found in our Presbyterian population, was the system of common and higher schools, which Knox planned, and his successors in the ministry have been the main instruments of upholding, so far as it has

of all the youth of a