there is no moon torches are used, but as the moon was nearly full, we arranged our ascent so as to get to the top by sunset, which to behold from the summit of Vesuvius is very fine, as gleaming across the ripples of the magnificent bay its long level beams light up Naples, and gild its neighbouring mountain tops with effulgent splendour; then, as the twilight is short, and it is rapidly dark, we purposed to have the full effect of the volcano, and to descend by moonlight. We had three capital horses, and two guides; and after an hour's most terrible riding over little mountains of lava and rock, redeemed, however, by overhanging festoons of delicious lachrymæ grapes, we arrived at the hermitage, presided over by a most sinister-looking monk; there, after partaking of some genuine “lachrymæ Christi" wine, grown on the spot, with bread and cheese and fruit, we mounted again for another half hour's ride over immense clinkers of lava, and without any redeeming vegetation, which at the hermitage suddenly and singularly ceases. You pass by a footpath from the utmost exuberance of nature to the utmost sterility—as if the mountain had an extinguisher put upon it: this, of course, is owing to the lava, which ordinarily descends thus far. Our ride brought us to the foot of the great cone; here we dismounted and left our horses; and here begins the real tug of climbing. For three quarters of an hour the ascent is almost perpendicular, over a surface of huge fragments of lava, imbedded in fine ashes like sand, so that you may some times set your foot upon a block of lava, and congratulate yourself upon your stepping-stone, when away it goes rolling to the bottom, and unless very careful you go with it; sometimes indeed you do thus slip five or ten feet. In some places the ashes are unmixed, and you are up to your knees at every step, and seem to get no higher. So long as it lasted it was the interset tell that can be imagined; once or twice I thought that I must have given in; and to aggravate my mortification, a little sturdy rogue, not more than sixteen years of age, put a belt round his shoulders, and skipping past

me with perfect ease, proffered the end of it to pull me up. This is a very common expedient of the guides with ladies or effeminate gentlemen, and had he been a man instead of the urchin that he was, even I should have gladly laid hold; but a little laughing rogue, not higher than my middle-I could have kicked him into the bay below; it was "the unkindest cut of all.”

I contrived, however, at last to reach the edge of the large crater, and a more terrific and desolate scene cannot well be imagined. It is about three miles in circumference, and is filled to nearly a level with enormous masses of lava, which have been heaved up in a semi-molten state, and which are therefore twisted and wreathed in a most fantastic manner, -something like dough of a good consistency, when it is torn asunder. A cone, which constitutes the existing and active crater, rises from the centre of this immense and terrific mer de fer, to the foot of which we crossed. The surface that we traversed was broken into huge gaping fissures, red hot as you looked into them, in the dark quite lurid, and emitting sulphureous matter almost to suffocation. Some of the fissures have one side much higher than the other, like an overhanging wave; the higher side glowing with red heat, even to the very top. We stood before them as before a huge kitchen fire. Our guides cooked some eggs, and produced some "lachrymæ," of which we very gladly partook. Our position was, however, in nowise comfortable; it was difficult to find a seat that was not too hot, and the tremor of the labouring mountain in no degree tended to inspire a sense of security; the burning scoria, after falling like hail upon the cone of the active crater, rolled to our feet at its bottom; and the surface over which we had passed gradually assumed a disquieting aspect as the darkness increased; the curl of the lava wares grew more and more lurid, withering at the top to a kind of white ash, which might well be imagined the spray of this molten sea. I had not been seated more than half a minute before I started up in dismay. I had chosen a

tage, whence we were hurried off with all expeditiousness, as it was late, and perilous, through the number of banditti who infest the mountain. A gendarme accompanied us to the top for our protection. A little while ago a gentlemen, ascending alone, was met by banditti from the opposite side, and murdered

We kept, however, a at the top. vigilant look-out as we rode amongst the overhanging vines; met with no adventure, but safely reached our carriage; arrived in Naples about midnight, and after a voracious supper, went weariedly and gratefully to bed. H. A. Islington.

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS.
NATIONAL EDUCATION.

Ar a meeting of the Committee on Pub-
lic Questions of the United Presbyterian
Synod, held here this day, the commit-
tee had under their consideration the
bill recently introduced into Parliament
by the Lord-Advocate on the subject of
national school education in Scotland,
and having deliberately examined said
bill, they resolved unanimously-

I. To express their gratification that Government has shown an earnest purpose to grapple with the question of national education in Scotland, and their cordial approbation of the main object and of many of the provisions of the pre

sent bill.

II. To record their regret that there are two prominent principles in the bill to which they are constrained to offer most decided opposition. These are (1), The statutory provision for religious instruction, specially contained in the 27th clause, which enacts that "Every school committee under this act shall appoint certain stated hours for ordinary religious instruction by the master." On this point it has all along been maintained by the United Presbyterian Synod, and is most strongly and earnestly held throughout the denomination, that it is not within the province of civil government to provide for the religious instruction of the subject, and that this department of the education of the young belongs exclusively to the parent and to the church." (2), The institution of a system analogous to that at present in operation under the Privy Council minutes, but in an aggravated form, to uphold and foster denominational schools, contained

in the second part of the 36th clause, which provides that it shall he lawful for the Board "to contribute at such fixed rates per scholar as they may deem proper towards the support of any schools which shall be reported by the inspector to be useful and efficient, and deserving of such contribution, and which shall comply with the regulations prescribed or to be prescribed by the Committee of Council, and to be open to children of all denominations." Of the system carried on under the Privy Council minutes, the United Presbyterian Church has distinctly and repeatedly expressed unqualified condemnation, on account of its tendency and effect to subsidize religious denominations out of the funds of the State, and to confound moral distinctions by the indiscriminate support of truth and error. To these objections the system now proposed is liable, with the serious aggravation that the schools are to be aided from a special tax to be levied from the whole community.

III. To declare their opinion (1), That the constitution of the Board of Education and of the Parish School Committees is most objectionable, on account of the utter absence of any popular element. This defect is the more flagrant that the General Board is to be invested with very extensive powers; and that under the new arrangements for the parish schools, a third of the salary of a teacher is to come from the public funds, and in a very large number of parishes the parentage, for the education of whose children the schools exist, will have no representation whatever. (?). That the appointment, ex officio, of the

parish minister to a seat at the school committees constituted under the act, even in the new schools to be upheld by assessment, is an invidious and altogether unwarrantable distinction.

to London without delay, to submit the views of the committee to the members of the Government.

JAMES PEDDIE, Clerk to the Committee.

The details of the bill were then considered, and it was agreed that a depu- Edinburgh, March 8, 1854. tation should be appointed to proceed

A FEW WORDS TO AN ANXIOUS INQUIRER.

THERE are numerous questions proposed on religious subjects which are indicative of a spirit of curiosity. Our Saviour had such questions frequently put to him, and it is very observable that he either passed them over in silence, or so replied to them, as to give those who put them occasion to feel that they were rebuked by him, at the same time they were admonished. There are questions bearing on religious subjects of the deepest moment, which, though not in themselves improper, it is highly inexpedient for some persons to propose, or dwell upon. Our experience has satisfied us that it is a device of the devil to get some minds engrossed with questions of the class to which we now refer, because they are presented in such a form as either to ensnare, or at least divert the mind from matters which more immediately concern the personal salvation of the sinner. We have had submitted to us a series of questions of the class now alluded to, and shall avail ourselves of another opportunity of stating our views upon them. In the meantime, we would tender a few words of counsel to an "Anxious Inquirer," and request that all disturbing thoughts on the points alluded to be suspended; the more so, as they do not directly bear on the question of a personal interest in Christ.

Let your own salvation be the first subject to engage your deepest concern, and let it be the only subject in which you feel interested, until you have taken refuge in the Redeemer, and found peace with God, through a simple-hearted re

VOL V.-No. 52, N.S.

liance on his suitable and all-sufficient atonement and advocacy. Your mind, you say, is disquieted, and in darkness. You say that you feel you are going deeper and deeper into unbelief. And this is not to be wondered at. You have been perplexing yourself about the salvation of others-about its possibility-and how to reconcile the justice and mercy of God in his dealings towards others.

The Scriptures make mention of one who had to confess, "Mine own vineyard I have not kept;" and the same confession has been penitentially made by thousands, who have been so taken up by the case and condition of others as to neglect their own. The sinner has his anxieties about many things, but until he has become a sure possessor of "the one thing needful," he is blameworthy if he be permitting any other thing to come into competition with it. Let a sinner get acquainted with God in Christ, as a reconciled God, and be at peace with Him, and then he will be able, without disquietude or hazard of unbelief, to enter on the study of some of the difficulties of the scheme of our redemption. But until he can say, "I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him,' we do not wonder though he feel himself to be engaged in dangerous work while trying to fathom some of the deep things of God. Live more and live longer on "the milk of the word," before trying to live on "the strong meat."