ranks. The social standing of a "British and foreign school" teacher, or a "national" teacher, in England, is that of a menial and a dependent. Between him and the teacher of the gentry, the merchants, nay, even the shop-keepers and the better sort of artisans, there is a great gulph fixed, which, qua teacher, he never can pass. He must either drudge on to the end of his days in this servile condition, or if he rises into the higher walks of teaching, it must be by the same sort of process that would enable a blacksmith or a cobbler to do the same. That there may have occurred one or two exceptional cases, in which, by dint of rare merit, the master of a poor-school has stepped directly into a grammar-school frequented by the children of the gentry, is not impossible; but, as a general rule, he must turn his back upon his school, as the son of Vulcan turns his upon his smithy,-be initiated in a new life and a new line of study at a university, after which he may resume teaching in a higher sphere, and rise to a lucrative and honourable position. It is clear, however, that his promotion has been won, not by diligently labouring in his original vocation of teaching the poor, but by abandoning it and qualifying himself for another; just as he might have studied law and made a fortune at the bar, or might have gone into orders and risen to a bishoprick. But where is there an instance in England of a young man who has finished a brilliant or even an honourable university career, entering life as a "British" or a "national " teacher, and rising-BY TEACHING, for that is the point-to be head master of Eton, Harrow, or Rugby? But, in Scotland, elevations of the kind are occurring almost every year. A young man who has passed through college with the greatest honour, cheerfully undertakes a parish school of the humblest kind, or even a subordinate situation which may lead to it. And from the poorest parish school (or from a school still poorer), on the bleakest lowland moor, or in the loneliest highland glen, a young man may make his way, step by step, to the rectorship of the High School of Edinburgh, or to some similar situation, scarcely less honourable, and perhaps more lucrative. Professorships in the universities, too, with the higher social rank they confer, the learned leisure and opportunity for concentrating the whole mind on one favourite pursuit which they afford, are not beyoud the reach of the rural or village schoolmaster. On the contrary, an open and not untrodden path stretches from the scene of his present humble labours to these high places of literature and science; and, what is best of all, he knows that in order to attain the desired elevation, his only course is,-(1.) To prove himself a skilful and faithful teacher by doing his present humble duties well; and (2.) To increase by private study his literary and scientific attainments, and carry forward that work of mental culture, of which he laid the foundation when at college.

That this is a very good state of things for the humbler class of Scotch schoolmasters, is the remark of a superficial thinker; but every man capable of looking beneath the surface, sees at a glance that it is also an unspeakable blessing to the country. It furnishes an inducement to men to become teachers to our peasants and artizans, who would sooner cut off their right hands than accept employment in mere pauper institutions, from which there was no avenue to a respectable competence, with something like status in society and some sort of literary name. I have known an English aristocrat take the alarm lest the effect of this should be to admit into the masterships of the upper schools a class of men with low habits and low ideas, like the teachers of poor schools in his own country. No such thing; its effect is to give Scotland, for her very lowest schools, men of high ideas, and men, if not possessing, capable at least of forming, refined habits; and to banish creatures of the type of the English pauper-pedagogue to their own proper places, as hewers of wood and drawers of water for society.

Let it not be thought that my imagination is carrying me away. I do not mean to say that all Scotch schoolmasters, or even a majority of them, are such men as I have described; but I do say, that a goodly number of them are; and every man who knows anything of the literary history of his country, will corroborate my statement. This is enough for my purpose. No man can deny that a considerable number of the Scotch parochial teachers, and other teachers of the same class, have been for several generations men of talent and education; that, having, in those humble spheres proved themselves fit for higher stations, they have had their claims acknowledged by their country, have been placed at the head of our most distinguished academies, or have attained the ease and dignity of university chairs. "The consequence is," says a leading English journal," that a considerable portion of the schoolmasters by whom the children of the poor are taught in Scotland, are, in education, in manners, and in sentiments, gentlemen. We could produce a Scotch parish schoolmaster who is in every way fitted to associate with any peer in Britain, and who, in point of fact, is a frequent and most acceptable guest at the tables and in the drawing-rooms of the first people in his neighbourhood. We could name a gentleman who, soon after taking his degree in Arts at a very celebrated Scotch University, was appointed schoolmaster to an hospital or alms-house; who, while he filled that situation, associated with some of the most eminent men of the day; and, as a member of the same literary society, read his paper, in his turn, with philosophers whose fame was sounding throughout Europe, and criticised their views as freely as they did his; yielding them due respect and courtesy, of course, but receiving equal courtesy in return.

"Nothing of this sort can possibly happen in England. Who has ever heard of an English parish schoolmaster dining with the squire and the rector, and received in the drawing-room, both by family and by guests, at least as cordially and as familiarly as the curate of the parish, or as the lieutenant commanding a recruiting party in the adjoining town? Who has ever heard of a schoolmaster of a poor-house in Oxford or Cambridge taking a part in some local literary or scientific association, along with ARNOLD and WHATELY, discussing questions of philosophy and science with PEACOCK and WHEWELL, or questions of politics and political economy with Mr MALTHUS and Professor SMYTHE ?

"We must not be misunderstood. We have no intention of conveying the idea that all the parish schoolmasters and poor-house schoolmasters in Scotland, or any very large proportion of them, are such accomplished gentlemen and men of letters as the two individuals to whom we have alluded. But we do say, that these cases, though rare, are very far from being unique; and that such men would never have engaged in the occupation, if it had not been one which was for the present respectable, and which opened a way to future preferment."

Why, then, are there not more men of this stamp filling the masterships of your common schools? Why are there complaints so loud and frequent of the inefficiency of parish schoolmasters? When it is an undoubted fact that these situations have attractions for men of high education, talent and energy, what is the evil influence that generates the drones and dunces?

The answer is easy-more than two-thirds, probably not less than threefourths, of the population of Scotland, are by law excluded not only from all the highest places in the profession, but from all public situations connected with education except a few about the middle of the scale. We agreed at the outset to forget for a little the sectarian character of the schools and universities, and to speak of them as if they still retained that national character which was given them by their founders; but the time is now come to look at the sad reality.

It is evidently the public interest that, when a school is vacant, the candidates should be numerous-(1.) Because there will be a greater probability of finding a highly-qualified man-(2.) Because the competition will be keener. The vacancy has not been unexpected; those who intended to be candidates have been exerting themselves for months. One has been rubbing up his Latin; another has been zealously studying arithmetic and algebra; a third has been anxiously trying to find out the best methods of teaching, and to accustom himself to practise them. At last the day of decision comes, and of course one only, out of a dozen or two, is successful. The others go away comforting themselves that some other opportunity will soon occur for enetring the lists, and resolved to be better prepared for the coming conflict than they were for the past. Assuming that in both cases there is an honourable and impartial decision, it will make a great difference, both to the individual school, and to the country at large, whether the number of candidates have been twenty, or only five. In the former case, the particular school has got the best man out of twenty for its master; in the latter, it has only got the best man out of five. Perhaps he who is the best of the five, would also have been the best of twenty-this is possible; but the same person, as the best of twenty, will be a better man than as the best of only five. Knowing that he is to have a larger number of competitors, he will labour more zealously in preparing for the competition. Again, if there be only five candidates, there will be only four sent back to prepare themselves for another competition; in the other case, there will be nineteen. Of these, some are already teachers of less lucrative schools; they go back resolved to redouble their diligence, in order that they may obtain a celebrity for skill in teaching like that which secured the prize on this occasion for their rival; or that they may make up their deficiency in some department of knowledge in which the victor was found to surpass them. Others have never taught; they feel that their being untried men was an objection against them; and, in order to remove it, they are ready to accept any situation, however humble, or to open "adventure schools" of their own, if they find a promising field; present emolument is a secondary object. And (to cut short this illustration) the fag-end of the candidates-the two, or three, or four lowest on the list-have been taught the measure of their own pretensions; they know the sort of men they would have to encounter in any future contest, and see that they have no chance; they turn aside into other employments, and leave the great work of education to their abler competitors. Had there been only three or four unsuccessful candidates, the sorriest would have had some prospect of success on another occasion.

Therefore, in a country where the way is open from the humblest village school to the highest university chair, and where the faithful and efficient discharge of the duties of each lower situation is the surest means of rising to the step next above, it is plain that a large competition for the higher and middle-class appointments must be most beneficial to the education of the humbler classes. 1st, It will increase the efficiency of the lower schools, both by driving away bad teachers, and by stimulating the efforts of the good; it will promote the health and fruitfulness of the scholastic tree, both by lopping off rotten branches, and by giving a salutary stirring to the roots. 2d, It will increase the number of lower schools, without a farthing of expense to the country; in one place, an unsuccessful candidate will open an "adventure school," not so much for the immediate profit it will bring, as for the sake of making a little reputation for himself against the time when some public situation shall again become vacant; in another, a benevolent individual, whose neighbourhood is scantily supplied with education, induced by

the facility of obtaining a good teacher, sets up a school of his own, the mastership of which comforts a disappointed candidate till his turn for preferment comes round; in a third, some farmers and tradesmen, far from the parish school, have long felt that it would be desirable to have a respectable teacher within their reach, and now, by this competition, half-a-dozen eligible men have been brought to their door; one of these is engaged, and soon gets up a flourishing school in what had been deemed an unpromising locality: his income is but a pittance; yet waste not your pity on him,-in due time he is amply paid for his labour by a flattering invitation to the adjoining burgh school, where he is on the highway to Ayr or Perth-to the Dollar Institution or the Madras College, St Andrews-to the High Schools of Glasgow and Edinburgh, with the vision of a professorship dimly seen in the background.

The greatest practical mischief done by the sectarian exclusiveness of the schools and universities, is that it restricts this competition to a fraction of the population. Whatever talent or energy, whatever literary ambition, love for education, and aptitude for teaching, there may be in the various seceding and dissenting communities, is all but completely lost to the educational service of the country. Open the masterships of the parish schools to the aspiring and educated young men of the Free Church, the United Presbyterian Church, and the other denominations of Christians, and you will immediately have a large increase to the number of candidates for every parish school that becomes vacant; not that the parish schools themselves are (generally speaking) so great an attraction, but because the burgh schools, and many of the foundation schools,* are already open, and the surest and shortest road to these more agreeable and more lucrative situations would be through the former. But nothing short of opening the universities will give the country the full benefit of having opened the parish schools. The highest order of seceding and dissenting talent will not betake itself to teaching, so long as it is shut out from the highest prizes in the profession. Consequently, if the parish schools be opened, the universities remaining exclusive, there will be but a partial increase in the number of candidates, and but a slight elevation in the standard of qualification. Only a small increase will take place in the keenness of the competition, and but comparatively a small increase in the efficiency of the schools. There will be comparatively few so anxious to get into the profession as to make openings for themselves by "adventure schools ;" and comparatively few cases in which the excitement and interest raised about the matter, will lead to the erection of new foundation schools,* or the establishment of permanent or temporary supplementary schools, such as have been described above. But open the universities and schools; tell the student youth of Scotland that their way to the highest literary offices their country has to bestow, runs upwards from her rustic seminaries, through the academies and high schools of her towns and cities, and that no sectarian distinctions will pamper one class while they expel the others, then will you see not only an immense improvement in the efficiency of existing seminaries, down to the very lowest, but also a spontaneous school-extension far more healthy and far more effective than ever could be produced by parliamentary grants and government boards.

I have hitherto spoken only of the good that would be done to " common schools:" but there would be a not less sensible benefit conferred on the higher

Thus I designate, for brevity's sake, seminaries founded by private bequests or donations, and by public subscription.

seminaries. The patrons of these institutions would have a higher class of men to pick from; and, what is the most important point of all, men of tried skill and efficiency.

I am fully aware of two objections that will be urged against these doctrines.

I. It will be said that university appointments are seldom bestowed on schoolmasters too seldom to produce the effects I expect from their being thrown open to all. I know it, and I regret it; but I contend that this great evil will spontaneously and necessarily be rectified by the desectarianising of the schools and colleges. In the first place, schoolmasters will be a higher class of men, and a larger proportion of them will have strong claims on university chairs.* Secondly, patrons of universities will come to understand their duties better, and will set a higher value, than at present they seem to do, on skill in teaching. A little more experience will cure them of their Anglomania, if they be not already cured; English talent will find on Scottish soil the most perfect fair play, but nothing more. There will be an end of the "flunkeyism" which has too often preferred an Oxford or Cambridge man merely because he comes from those costly seminaries which are frequented by lords and millionaires, where the learning is, no doubt, more massive than in the Scotch Universities, but the education certainly far inferior. Electors will no longer suffer themselves to be dazzled by a candidate's fame as a discoverer in science, or his reputation as a man of vast learning; they will look more to his power of communicating his stores to others; and, most of all, they will anxiously inquire about his skill in training young men to those habits of independent thought and that ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, which will make them the discoverers and the massive scholars of the succeeding generation. That a professor should be a scholar is no doubt important; but it is ten times more important that he should know how to make scholars.

It will perhaps be said, that this principle of selecting professors from the ranks of the schoolmasters, would exclude from university appointments young men of the upper and middle ranks of society. Why should it? A prince of the blood who enters the army or navy, must serve as an ensign in the one case, and as a midshipman in the other. The son of an English duke who hopes to be a bishop, enters the church as a curate: why should not the son of a Scotch laird, or banker, or merchant, or advocate, who aspires to a professorship, first give proof of his possessing the primary and most essential requisite for the office,-practical skill in that which Dr Thomas Brown so justly calls "the noblest of all arts, the art of education"? Nothing is farther from my mind than to exclude persons born in the rank of gentlemen, from academic chairs; on the contrary, I very much wish that there were even more of such chairs filled by such men. But I would not bate them one jot of qualification for the sake of their gentility. Why should not they, like other men, be first tried in a subordinate position, where failure would bring less discredit to themselves and do less harm to their country? Some will think it a fond and groundless fancy, that men of refined habits and high education should ever be found labouring in country schools; but such people are very ignorant of human nature. I have plenty of additional proofs; but reasoning would be thrown away on such antagonists. All I shall say, therefore, is—“ Quid tentare nocebit ?" Let the experiment be made whether it will make our educators a genteeler class of men or not, may be a matter of debate; but there is no room for the shadow of a doubt that it will make them unspeakably more efficient,

* Since these remarks went to press, I have seen the same idea, with a somewhat different application, forcibly stated in Bailie Fyfe's admirable speech on the Tests.-See Scottish Press, January 14, 1852.