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In vain did Mary re-assure him she had it not. The judge ordered her to be severely beaten, whilst she, shrieking and weeping, still protested her innocence. Her words, however, were not believed: pale, trembling, and bleeding, she was again thrown into prison. Her wounds were so painful, that she passed half the night sleepless on her hard bed of straw, sobbing and praying to GOD. He mercifully gave her refreshing sleep towards morning. The next day she was again brought before the judge. Severity having failed to make her confess, he now tried mild and kind promises. "You have forfeited your life, Mary," said he: you deserve to be executed. If, however, you acknowledge where the ring is, we will not further punish you; you shall even return with your father to your own peaceful home. Reflect on it well, and choose between life and death! You see, I am still kind to you; what would be the use of the stolen ring to you, were your head to lie bleeding at your feet?"

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Mary remained firm to her first statement. The judge, who had remarked the strong love of the child for her father, continued―

"If you then be callous, and care not for your own life, think of your father's grey head! Would you see it fall under the hands of the executioner? Who but he could have persuaded you so obstinately to adhere to this falsehood? Do you not know it may also cost him his life?"

Mary was so startled by these words, that she almost sank to the ground.

"Acknowledge," said the judge, "that you took the ring-one word-the syllable 'yes' can save your father's and your own life!"

This was indeed a strong temptation for Mary. She was silent for some time. It crossed her mind that she could say that she took the ring, but lost it in the road. Then she thought, "No, it is better to adhere to the truth; a falsehood is indeed a great sin. I will not commit this sin, cost me what it may-no, not even to save my father's and my own life. I will obey Thee, O GOD, and fearlessly leave the rest to Thee."

She then said, with a loud, but trembling voice:-"If I were to say I had the ring, I should tell an untruth; and could I save my life by doing so, I would not. But," continued she, "if blood must flow, O spare my good, grey headed father! for him will I joyfully die."

All who were present were much affected by these words. Even the judge, a stern and severe man, was quite overpowered. Silently he made a sign for Mary to be conducted back to the prison.

THE TRAINING COLLEGE, CHESTER.

THE attention of the public has been so long and so deservedly fastened upon the sister Training Colleges of S. Mark's and Battersea, that we fear that other institutions are comparatively little known. All honour be to those who at the head of the institutions already named are doing their mighty work of training in the faith and practice of Churchmen, those who are to occupy so important a position in the several parishes to which they are from time to time drafted. Well do they husband, and advantageously do they use the resources placed at their disposal, and, we trust, they will long remain what they are now, the models after which other similar colleges may be moulded.

But whilst the first place is justly assigned to these, there are others also who are following the example they have set, and we trust the day will yet come when every Diocese will have its Training Colleges for masters and clergy, and the learning of the Cathedral Chapters, as well as their experience, will be brought to bear upon them. One such institution in the far North has been long and successfully in operation. The good old city of Chester, with its many beauties to arrest the eye, with its Cathedral now being restored to somewhat of beauty by the zeal and taste of the present Dean, with its quaint old streets, and its covered pathways, and houses that tell of other days, possesses also its College for the Training of Masters for the manufacturing districts. The low state of the education of the Lancashire and Cheshire parochial schoolmasters, claimed the attention and awakened the energies of the then chief Pastor, and many of the laity and clergy. With that perseverance, so characteristic of the Northern men, they took active measures to raise funds for the erection of a building adapted to the purposes they had in view. It was erected in 1837 at a cost of £10,752, all raised in the Diocese, with the exception of £2,500 granted by the Lords Committee of Privy Council. It is of the Tudor style of architecture, and the several decorations are of no mean pretensions. Its position too is good, being about a quarter of a mile from the city, commanding on one hand the hills of Denbighshire and Flintshire, and on another a wide and extensive view of richly-wooded Cheshire. Besides the institutions for schoolmasters, there are also an excellent commercial school. in which a sound education can be received for a very moderate outlay, and a model school, in which the art of teaching is learnt.

In the original design there was no chapel. This defect the students themselves undertook to remedy, and sedulously devoted themselves to obtaining subscriptions. But they did more. They devoted their leisure hours, and their talents to the production of the internal ornaments. They would not give to God of that

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which cost them nothing. Well do we remember the enthusiasm that prevailed on a visit we paid to the College, when this question was on the tapis. Well do we remember being struck with the beautiful carving which was being executed. And now it stands, with its stalls, and windows, and paintings, the works of the students' hands, in all the simplicity of its touching beauty. The work still advances, and we trust ere long, the stained glass in every window, will tell its sacred legend. May GoD prosper this work of love, and grant that they who thus adorn His sanctuary, may be full of those graces that spring from sacramental union with their Divine Head.

The arrangements of the College are much the same as obtain in every such institution; and we can, from experience, bear testimony to the solid character of the masters sent out. Our own impressions are so fully borne out by the following graphic, and by no means overdrawn statement, made by an Irish gentleman, whilst on a visit to England, that we shall make no apology for introducing it to our readers.

“Not to dwell, however, on externals, we entered the building at the western end, which, it seems, forms the residence of the Principal, and inquired for him. We were told that twelve o'clock had struck, and that he had just left the class-room, and that he was probably somewhere among the workshops. It seemed odd to hear of workshops in a College; but your friend who knew all the ways of the house, desired us to follow him; and having passed through a small piece of kitchen garden, where two young men in square caps, such as are worn in Cambridge, were digging very neatly some borders into which plants were to be set; we went up a passage through which we entered a yard, in one corner of which was a blacksmith's forge in full activity. The bellows were working merrily; quick and heavy blows were falling on a piece of red hot iron; and bright sparks were flying in every direction from the anvil; while two men were striking, and half a dozen lads were busy, either in working the bellows or in subjecting pieces of metal to the fire. Mr. Principal,' said your friend,

I have brought you some visitors, who wish to see the College, but do not let us disturb you, if you are busy.' One of the work men stopped, and briefly saying that he was quite at our service, he threw off the leather apron which he had been wearing, put the sledge-hammer into the hands of a stout youth who had been standing by, told him in a word how he was to go on, and then presented himself to us as the Rev. Arthur Rigg, late of Christ College, Cambridge, and Principal of the College at Chester. I could not but ask him what he was about; as I certainly wished to know what it was that had turned a learned ecclesiastic into a blacksmith, and whether it was fancy or amusement that led to this unusual employment. He told me with great good nature, that they were employed in

VOL. XII.

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kitchen, a lofty, light, and spacious room, where an excellent dinner for about 90 hungry men and boys was being cooked by a fire which was less than that which I frequently see in your drawing-room; and we also saw the tables prepared in the hall, for the reception of the whole body. Beyond the hall, we proceeded by a short passage to the College Chapel; and here alone can anything like ornament be traced. Throughout, the building is as simple as it possibly can be, though the mass is imposing, and the outline forms a group of no ordinary beauty. The Chapel, however, is elegant. It was elegant in its original design; but the interior is now receiving continued increase of embellishment, through the labour of the young men, who are filling up the panels with mouldings on the best and purest form, and who beyond this are endeavouring to purchase the embellishment of painted windows by the sale of works done in their hours of recreation. When that decoration shall be added, few mansions of our nobility, few Colleges in either University will possess a building so chaste in design, and so appropriate in its style as the one of which I am writing.

"While we were occupied in admiring this very striking scene, the dinner-bell had summoned the men and boys from their workshops, and after a very hasty toilette, had collected them in the class-room. We heard the hymn chanted, which is used before meals; and as they slowly filed through the rooms, and took their places at the table, the harmony of sound was sustained. The music indeed then ceased, and the clatter of knives and forks testified to the appetite with which the meal was welcomed, after the exertions, bodily as well as mental, included in the morning's employments. My companions were loud in expressing their admiration of what they had seen; but I own that on my mind there was another feeling still more predominant. I had long been thinking and inquiring on the subject of education. I had long been wishing to find a place where a really useful and practical education might be got. I had considered the plans of Pestalozzi, of Fellenberg; and I had been prepared to run some risk and much expense, in order to obtain what I wanted; and here, to my surprise, I seemed to find it, combined with the strictest moral discipline, and the soundest religious training, and offered at a price infinitely lower than I had been prepared to expect. The charge was stated as being £30 for a boy below twelve years, and £35 for a boy above, without any of the various et ceteras which swell out the accounts at schools of a different description.

"When at last it was necessary to take leave, I turned to the Principal; and whilst expressing my grateful acknowledgment of his courtesy, and for the pleasure he had given us, I could not help intimating my surprise that I had previously heard so little of a place of which so much might be said. He smiled and said,

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another workshop, where the boys were making those cardboard models for linear drawing, which you have seen in use at and which are now recommended by the best masters. They were working on geometrical rules, and were evidently doing their work both accurately and neatly, and two others were hard at work binding a book. In an adjoining room there were half a dozen more employed in a chemical experiment; in the laboratory two others were melting some brass ornaments out of which they were to construct a paper weight; and in the midst of them, a tall gentleman-like person, with something more of an academical look than the Rev. Principal, was preparing for a lecture on Agricultural Chemistry by mixing in separate saucers the earths of which he was to give an analysis in the evening. We were introduced to him as the Vice-Principal, and he explained briefly the nature of the lecture for which he was arranging the materials, and in which his young companions seemed to take considerable interest by the attention they paid to what he said.

"Passing through these rooms, we followed the Principal into another workshop, where a small steam-engine of singularly neat construction, was in full operation. It was moving six or eight lathes, and iron and brass were being turned into screws, or holes were being drilled through plates of the same metal, with a rapidity which astonished us; and our astonishment was no doubt increased, when I heard from the friend who introduced and accompanied us, that the steam-engine had been constructed by the students in their leisure hours, and that the whole apparatus which I saw was literally home-made, from the engine itself down to the tools with which the men were working.

"The ladies, however, were now growing weary, and Mr. R. kindly proposed that they should go into his house to take some refreshment; but they wished to proceed, and we did proceed. We passed, however, through his house, and were introduced to his lady, who kindly insisted on accompanying us through the interior. Under her escort we went on, and saw the two large class-rooms, and admired the excellent system of ventilation, which secured to each a continued influx of warm but pure air; and then on the two upper stories of the house, we saw the dormitories of the men who are training as masters for schools; and that for the boys in the commercial school, which is above. In these dormitories each individual has his separate cell, a cell just large enough to hold an iron bedstead, a wash-hand stand, and a chest of drawers; all lighted up by gas at the hour of retiring, and all lights extinguished at the same minute. We saw the separate apartment called the hospital, which, happily, has hardly ever been used, but which contains a good sitting-room, together with four sleeping rooms, differing only from the others in this, that each room is on a larger scale, and has a small fireplace. We descended to the

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