extended colonial possessions, has the requirement for educated. and capable men to “ serve God both in church and state" been so urgent as at the present time. In the answer to the address of the University of Cambridge, on the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne, her Majesty was graciously pleased to intimate:-"Your University owes much to the protection and encouragement of former sovereigns. I am actuated by an equal desire to promote its interests, and to enlarge the sphere of its utility." It may be presumed that the late Commissions and the pending legislation respecting the Universities are designed "to enlarge the sphere of their utility" by affording education to a larger number of students. If a restoration of the maintenance to divinity students were made by the cathedral bodies according to their statutes, and a restitution of the estates which were granted for that purpose, the Universities would be able to send forth a larger number of welleducated and fit men for the service of the church, both at home and in the colonies, as well as missionaries to the heathen.

It cannot be pleaded that recent legislation has rendered such restorations and restitutions either impossible or impracticable: neither could it be affirmed of them, as it has been of other appropriations of cathedral funds, that they were alienated for objects foreign to those contemplated by the statutes of Henry VIII. statutes which deans of the reformed cathedrals are bound by oath to observe, in these words:

"Ego N. qui ad Decanum hujus Ecclesiæ Cathedralis electus et institutus sum, Deum testor et per hæc sancta Dei Evangelia juro quod pro virili mea in hac Ecclesia bene et fideliter regam et gubernabo juxta Ordinationes et Statuta ejusdem, Et quod omnia illius bona, terras, tenementa, reditus et possessiones, juraque et libertates atque privilegia, cæterasque res universas tam mobiles (salvo eorum rationabili usu) quam immobiles, et alia omnia commoda ejusdem Ecclesiæ bene et utiliter custodiam ac servabo atque ab aliis similiter fieri curabo: ad hæc, omnia et singula Statuta et Ordinationes Regis Henrici Octavi Fundatoris nostri quatenus me concernunt bene et fideliter observabo, et ab aliis quatenus eos concernunt studiose observari procurabo. Sicut me Deus adjuvet, et hæc sancta Dei Evangelia."

It may be remarked that the words "Regis Henrici Octavi Fundatoris Nostri" were altered into "Augustissimi Regis nostri

Caroli Secundi Fundatoris nostri" in the statutes of Ely Cathedral, on their revision in 1666, after the Restoration.

The brief historical accounts of schools and the exhibitions, &c. attached to them, have been drawn chiefly from the Reports of the Commissioners on Charities, and Mr Carlisle's work on endowed schools in England and Wales. And in order to secure correctness, the compiler has written to all the masters of grammar-schools in England and Wales for such information as he could not obtain from other sources. To those who have favoured his letters with any attention, he begs leave to express his grateful acknowledgments.

It is generally admitted that the noble impulse of Christian charity in the founding of grammar-schools, was one of the means under the providence of God for bringing about the Reformation in this country: and it is a fact to be observed, that within thirty years before its accomplishment, there were more grammar-schools erected and endowed in England than had been established in the preceding three hundred years.

The founders and benefactors of the grammar-schools in England were unanimous for the union of "sound learning with religious education," as is evident from the rules and the regulations they have left for the direction of their schools. They regarded education as a preparation not for this life only. They seem to have had no idea of separating religious and secular education, a notion which occupies a prominent place in the many crude theories of education of the present day. They had no conception of the novel process whereby "young gentlemen are expeditiously educated for the Universities, the army, the professions and public life;" nor how a young man, piously disposed, on leaving his previous employment, with no sound basis of grammatical learning, and a very imperfect education, may be rendered a trustworthy interpreter of the records of revelation, and a fit minister of the gospel, in the brief space of two years. This is advertised to be done by certain modern Theological Colleges which have been honoured with the sanction and have received the encouragement of high authority. It is to be hoped that the ancient University of Cambridge may escape the infection of the newfangled notion of "expeditious education.”

In order that "poor scholars" of good morals and bright talents may be properly qualified for employing their abilities for the good of the commonwealth, many of the founders and benefactors of schools have left exhibitions for the maintenance of one or more students at the Universities. Some of these exhibitions are appropriated to particular schools or localities, and others are left open without any limitation of place. It has been justly observed that "the connecting of a school with a college is a wise contrivance to preserve it in honour and reputation ;" and it may be added that if such connexions were more general (even of those schools which have no exhibitions to the Universities), great advantages would accrue, and the results would be found to be mutually beneficial.

It has with much truth been remarked, that "of those who superintend the education of youth, Erasmus is ever fond of expressing his praise; and whenever he had an opportunity, he encouraged men of letters to undertake the laborious care of a grammar-school, which he always most justly commends, as what exalts the master to the highest dignity; whose business is to season youth in learning and religion, and raise up men for the service of their country. 'It may be,' he observes, 'the employment is accounted vile and mean in the opinion of fools; but in itself it is really great and honourable."

"The historians of all those empires which have become great and eminent, have taken much pains in discovering and describing the progress of their arms, the enlargement of their territories, and the increase of their power and grandeur; but, unhappily, they have not taken the same pains in tracing and delineating the cultivation of their intellectual faculties, and their gradual improvement in learning and useful knowledge. While the exploits of every victorious prince and general, who had contributed to the aggrandisement of his country, have been recorded with the greatest care and the highest praises; the very names of those peaceful sages who had enlarged the empire of reason, had improved the minds, and polished the manners of their fellow-citizens, have hardly found a place in the annals of their country." Dr Johnson, in his life of Addison, very justly observes: "Not to name the school or the masters

of men illustrious for literature is a kind of historical fraud, by which honest fame is injuriously diminished."

The formation of the national character depends greatly on the principles, ability, and energy of schoolmasters. It is highly important for schoolmasters to accustom the minds of learners to recur to first principles on all subjects of human inquiry, and in history to trace and scrutinize the consequences, both to individuals and nations, of any departure from truth and rectitude. It is painful to remark, that the evidence in the reports of parliamentary commissions, and the disclosures and explanations made of late years in the British legislature, have exhibited strange violations and want of principle in high places. The question "What have we to do with principle," as reported to have been uttered by a statesman of no small influence in his day, appears to be somewhat like a defence of such dereliction of principle. These symptoms, perhaps, may be indications of the incipient decline of the national character. The reader of the history of England may recollect that under the advice of evil counsellors, a departure from the principles of the British constitution was followed by the exile of a sovereign and the banishment of a royal line from the throne.

It is an essential part of education that learners should be impressed with the conviction, that they have something to do with principle, if the frank, open and upright honesty of the English character is to be upheld among us, and not sacrificed or complimented away in unworthy concessions to Jesuitical and time-serving expediency.

The brief historical notices of the Chartered Companies of London, and the account of the exhibitions, &c. in their gift, are abridged from the Reports of the Parliamentary Commissioners for inquiring into Charities, and from Mr Herbert's valuable history of the Livery Companies. The compiler has to acknowledge his obligations to the Clerks of the Companies for the information respecting the present value of their exhibitions and the rules and conditions under which such aids are granted to poor students at the universities.

TRINITY COLLEGE,

March 19, 1855.

R. P.