Since Lord Brougham's inquiries were instituted, education has lost nothing of its vigour in that beautiful portion of Switzerland. Indeed, the law renders the education of their children imperative on the parents and guardians of youth, although, I believe, it is rarely necessary for legal compulsion to be interposed; so that, probably, an uneducated youth is not to be found in the canton. In looking from the heights of Lausanne over that blooming region, what a cheering reflection, that an untaught being, beyond the age of infancy, does not tread its soil.

In Basle, where I had some opportunity of making local inquiries, the educational machine seems complete and active; and the progressive steps, from the primary school to the higher departments, seem very judiciously arranged. I was informed by Professor Hoffmann of the Basle Institution, that he believed education was universal in the city and canton. Nor is the education merely secular. As in Geneva, the public worship of the Sabbath begins at nine in the morning; and at eleven the youth are assembled for religious instruction in the churches. I attended one of those juvenile meetings, at which I estimated the number present as not less than from 400 to 500; and I have seldom witnessed a more refreshing spectacle. The pupils were of both sexes, and apparently from the various orders of society, as in the ordinary services of the church; and their decorous behaviour, their intelligent and eager looks, the manner of the minister, in which condescension, affection, and authority seemed admirably blended, were in the highest degree impressive. I could not

but sigh for the condition of our own empire, compared with the youth of Protestant Switzerland. What a proportion of the rising race in that England, which aspires to be the instructress of the world, is left in a condition of gross and almost brutal barbarism!

The following remarks, written in 1830, on the "Education of Switzerland," is, I think, with one remarkable exception, substantially correct, at least as it regards the Protestant cantons. "Switzerland is remarkable for nothing more than for the means of education it possesses, and the consequent intelligence of its inhabitants. In this respect, it is not inferior to the best educated countries in Europe. When the means of education are sufficiently ample in a country, from one ninth to one tenth of the population are attending school." (One seventh would be nearer the truth.*) "In Scotland, where our parochial schools afford us such facilities, the proportion undergoing education is below that average. In England, the deficiency is still more apparent. In France, not more than the twenty-eighth part of the people are enjoying the blessings of education; while in the Pays de Vaud, the proportion is one eighth, being more than the average;" (about the average,) "so that the inhabitants of this district have been pronounced the best educated in Europe. The state of schools, however, is different in the different cantons. In none of them, however, is this important subject neglected; but edu

* The proportion in the Prussian States is about one-seventh. In the States of New England, and in New York, the proportion is still greater.

30

LOCALITY AND INSTITUTIONS, &c.

cation is more generally diffused among the Catholic than the Protestant States." (This is certainly a slip; the opposite must be, or should be, intended.) "The most improved plans of instruction, such as that of Bell and Lancaster, have been introduced; and every means have been used to promote the great object in view, the education of the people. Nor has Switzerland merely introduced the plans of others, she has, with great success, tried methods of her own, and has thus lent her aid to the great cause of education. The celebrated school of Pestalozzi, at Yverdun, in the Pays de Vaud, has been visited and celebrated by every traveller. This was the first seminary in which the intellectual system, as it has not inaptly been called, or that system which consists, not in mechanical routine, but in illustrating the rationale of every subject taught, and of cultivating the mental faculties, had its origin, and was brought to great perfection. It embraces also the plan of mutual instruction, on the part of the pupils, and recommended by Bell and Lancaster." *

Having presented this general and introductory information, I shall next attempt to supply some facts as to the religious condition of Geneva.

* Edinburgh Encyclopædia.-Article, "Switzerland."

CHAPTER II.

THE DECLINE OF RELIGION IN GENEVA.

IT has often been remarked, that periods of great and sudden change in the condition of nations have ever been signalized by the appearance of extraordinary and eminent individuals. To the influence of such men, revolutions must, in some cases, be mainly ascribed, and they are thus, in so far, the causes of the events with which their names have been associated; but the events also have acted upon the men, and have tended to form and elicit the characters by which they have afterwards been known. The influence of the agents and of the events has thus been reciprocal, the agents producing the events, the events moulding the agents. Such periods of great public trial and conflict, amidst which good influences have been abundant, have contributed to bring out the noblest manifestations of character of which the human soul is susceptible. The various elements of mind have been thrown into the crucible, and while much that is

worthless has been detached from them, they have entered into new and more profitable combinations, and have come forth in finer and brighter forms, than before they were cast into it. These facts, which the great revolution of the 16th century so abundantly developed, were nowhere more striking and plentiful than in Geneva.

Indeed, one of the highest services which some ecclesiastical historian is yet destined to render to the Church of Christ, one of the noblest efforts which sacred genius can aspire after in this department of truth, is to furnish a bold and faithful portraiture of men and events in the Genevan Church, during the first century, from the commencement of the Reformation. The amazing struggles which this small State made for securing her freedom and independence -the circumstances which, under the guidance of Providence, led to their success- -the arrival, in the midst of the Genevese, during these conflicts, and even by occasion of them, of a nobler liberty than they themselves were in quest of the combination of the highest qualities and acquirements by which the leaders of the Genevan Reformation were distinguished, vast talents, which reached, in some cases, maturity even in youth, learning unsurpassed even in that age of learning, above all, their moral qualities, their faith, their devotion, their patience, their heroic fortitude, their humility and self-denial, which mark them out as rare instruments, at distant intervals, prepared by God, for accomplishing his gracious purposes on behalf of the world and of the Church-these assuredly fur