most universally preside, handing down the torch they received, with augmented light, to the latest posterity.

And here it may be proper to remark, that if grammar schools are to be reduced to schools for, spelling, reading, and writing, the clergy, as they now exist among us, could not condescend to preside over them, unless urged by dire necessity. What man, partaking of the spirit of a gentleman or scholar, could submit to be under the absolute control of a low-minded, officious, upstart governor; to be directed even in his modes of instruction and discipline by him, or liable to be turned out by him, on application to the chancellor, for disobedience. He who could bear such degradation, would indeed, deserve it.

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To degrade the clergy, is to discountenance religion; and nothing could more effectually degrade the clergy, than to convert the grammar schools to the same purpose, and mode, and kind of instruction as the common, schools of charity. In the first place, it must most materially injure their own education; in the second, it must render their congregations less intelligent, and consequentJy relax their efforts in composing lessons for public instruction, The clergy of the church, especially the officiating part of them, all over the kingdom, are bred at grammar schools, and there furnished with the weapons of knowledge, learning, and eloquence, which enable them to go forth, a well-arrayed army, to militate against error, and manfully to fight in the cause of religion and

virtue.

that

As private tutors of peers, statesmen, and senators, the clergy contribute to foster those talents, and communicate that knowledge, which, though while confined to their own body, it is of little efficacy in state affairs, yet, may, when transferred to the rulers of nation, serve or save a country. Much of the light that enlightens the great council of the empire is borrowed from the lamps in the sanctuary. Few are those, among the distinguished persons t direct in cabinets, or lead in parliaments, who have not been indebted for a great share of their commanding abilities to some clerical tutor, who was himself trained in a grammar school. The annals also of many rural grammar schools, as well as those of Westminster, prove that some of the brightest luminaries in church and state owed the foundation of their superiority to a BUSBY. A little country free school has been the procatarctic cause of raising a man from a very low estate to a seat on the woolsack, or the most exalted place on the judicial bench; and many a rustic lad, sent thence to college on an exhibition, though born to the plough, the loom, the anvil, or the shop, has at last lifted his mitred front among coronets, and sat down, clothed in purple and fine linen, in his own palace.

Where would the generality of candidates for orders acquire the language of the New Testament, if it were not commonly taught in the grammar schools? What a mean character would a minister of a parish maintain, whose whole stock of preparatory learning consisted in manual writing and the rule of three. Such a debasement of the dignified and most useful character of the pastor of parish, would be levelling the church to the dust, and, in its effects, rendering the congregation, and gradually the whole people, a race degenerated from their forefathers. If such a revolution in the general education should take place, and the higher orders, as well as the lower, be trained chiefly to the arts of trade, well may we be characterized as a nation idolizing MAMMON.

Let it be further considered, that in this happy country, every man, with few exceptions, may be called upon to sit as a judge on his fellow countrymen, whose life, fame, and fortune may be at stake. Of how much moment is it, that the JURYMAN should have a mind competently furnished with knowledge, a judgment strengthened by exercise, a perfect acquaintance with the English language, so as completely to understand the advocate, so as to be able to weigh the testimony, if not by the technicalities of a pettifogger, yet with the wisdom of a Solon, and the justice of an Aristides. The trial by jury is the glory of Britain, the security of our lives and liberties, of every thing dear to us and our friends and kindred; but even the trial by jury, though unassailed by the arts of corruption, may avail us not in our utmost need, if juries, through ignorance, are unable to try our cause, and a true verdict give, according to the evidence. All human things are imperfect; and with shame and sorrow it must be confessed, that, in some of the counties remote from the metropolis, where education chiefly consists in reading and writing, according to the proposed plan, of degradation, the ignorance of juries renders it a risk most formidable, to trust life, fortune, and character to their decision. This is known; and consequently, in such districts, the decision falls on an individual, on a judge, who may or may not be honest or politically unbiassed; but, be that as it may, who, when entirely relied upon, as the director of the verdict, annihilates the boasted privilege of trial by jury. When, however, the persons of that description which constitutes common jurymen have been educated as the founders of grammar schools intended they should be, then are they competent to execute what I may call their holy office, to the benefit of the people, to the satisfaction of the parties concerned, to the maintenance of truth and justice, and with the approbation of their own conscience.

The office of a JUSTICE OF PEACE is most beneficial to the country, and those who execute it are deserving of honor, and the

gratitude of their neighbours and the community; but it requires, in these times, that they should have had the benefit of a good education; for without this, the office, as well as the officers, becomes contemptible. A mere secretary and accountant may be qualified as a clerk to the magistrate, but will never sit in the chair with dignity or efficacy. Ridicule destroys authority. It is of the utmost consequence that the magistracy should be in the hands of persons enlightened with a competent share of learning, and trusted for known integrity. The schools which I have so often described, are calculated to afford the requisite qualification, in a very high degree, if the elementary instructions there received, are followed up, as they are likely to be, by reading and reflection. With these improvements, a justice of peace is one of the most useful members of the state; and whatever conduces to perfect. such a character, deserves to be preserved inviolate, and should by no means be endangered by experimental innovation.

In a country like this, abounding with persons in respectable situations, and raising themselves by activity to a rank above their birth, an education beyond that of spelling, writing, and reading, is required by multitudes which baffle calculation. It is impossible to describe them all. It must occur to every one conversant with the world, that half-pay officers, subordinate agents in great mercantile houses, and persons employed in ten thousand offices, public and private, have many hours of leisure, many days of vacation, and find the burden of time oppressive, when utterly deficient in literary taste and knowledge, and merely qualified to read, write, and cipher. A little knowledge of grammar and taste for good books, acquired at the grammar school, enable such persons to spend their time innocently and pleasantly, and qualify them to associate with superiors in fortune and station, without feeling or betraying, that conscious inferiority which narnow circumstances, accompanied with ignorance, must produce. Mediocrity of circumstances, without knowledge or manners, the. usual result of a cultivated understanding, is apt to cause contempt: and utter exclusion from good society.

The MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS, usually applied to in the first instance, ought to hold a respectable place in the esteem of the neighbourhood, where they exercise their skill, and are called upon for relief, and confided in with perfect reliance, in the most distressing scenes of life. Esteem and respectability of character! will give authority to their practice, and assist their remedies by the powerful aid of favorable opinion. Who can trust his health and life to known ignorance? The Latin language, at least, is indispensably necessary to them. The language of Hippocrates: also would be highly creditable and useful. The very terms they daily use in every branch of their art, and which they write on the

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labels of their phials, are perfectly Greek, and cannot be fully and clearly understood, without a knowledge of their etymology. All the skill and learning of the most experienced physician may be frustrated, and the patient lost through mistake, if the apothecary has had no other education, at school but such as qualifies him to sum up his bill and write inscriptions on his gallipots. Dreadful are the effects of gross iguorance in every branch of medicine and chirurgery. Who can read with accuracy the Latin prescriptions of the physician, who has not a little knowledge of the Latin gram mar and vocabulary? But the practitioners to whom I now allude are often, in the beginning of life, in circumstances too narrow to obtain this knowledge, without the gratuitous education given by some pious founder. He has given it. Let them receive it as intended.

The mechanical concerns of literature require that certain arti sans and tradesmen should have some knowledge of Latin and Greek: those who are engaged in the typographical art, or in the bibliopolian traffic, seem to require it; and they may have it, with out any expense previously to their engagement in an apprentice ship to occupations, daily and hourly connected with some branch of literature. A few years at a grammar school are their best ap prenticeship. There have been printers, learned enough to fill a professor's chair, in the most celebrated university and we have some, at the present time, who are able to correct the proof sheets of both Latin and Greek authors; a very great advantage to classi cal learning, which has been disgraced in this country by inaccurate editions, such as conveyed an idea to foreigners, that we were not so skilled in verbal criticism as fame reported. Happily that evil and disgrace are likely to be avoided. The Bowyers of the age will, I hope, prevent its recurrence. And as to booksellers, there are certainly many who possess a great knowledge of the character of books, both as to their typographical correctness, and® their merits as works of taste and erudition. It is most desirable that all boys intended for either of these employments for life, should spend three or four years at a grammar school.

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ARTISTS of all kinds, (above those who are merely mechanic), the painter, the sculptor, the architect, require for the attainment of a mediocrity of excellence, a portion of classical taste and knowledge. Mythology and history are necessary to several of them. Indeed, all the professors of the fine arts, (and they extend to numerous ramifications) would be injured by the deterioration, and much more by the abolition, of the country grammar schools; where alone, in early youth, they were able to acquire any share of classical knowledge.. Poorly qualified would be the painter and sculptor who should be limited in his education to arithmetical figures. Sir Joshua Reynolds has left writings to

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prove that he was a polite scholar; and it was this which helped to raise him above a sign painter. I could mention many others, who handled the pen as well as the pencil, and owed their superiority to the study of Homer and Virgil. The Polymetis of Spence, that elegant minded man, whose book has not been duly appreciated, proves how much the sister arts of poetry, painting, and sculpture, contribute to each other's beauty.

To particularize all the descriptions of persons, whose characters would be exalted, whose manners ameliorated, whose professional powers improved, whose situation in life, independently of riches, would be rendered more respectable, whose connexions would be more estimable, whose comforts and credit would be increased in a thousand instances by a liberal education, would be to indulge in a tedious prolixity. The advantages of it are obvi ous to common sense and experience. If we only spend an hour in conversation with a man whose mind has been, in any degree, polished by classical studies, we shall feel and acknowledge his superiority over him whose accomplishments are merely those of the desk, the counter, and the counting-house.

-But, merely with this subordinate education, and indeed without any education at all, it may be justly said, that many acquit themselves well in their intercourse with the world, and even make a conspicuous figure in functions of considerable importance, and requiring, for the right discharge of them, intellectual ability, extensive knowledge, great address, and impressive eloquence. It is true; and there are lands which bear beautiful flowers, and fine fruit in great abundance, without much labor or manure. The analogy between the culture of the earth and the improvement of the mind by education, holds good in many instances. Salutary plants grow luxuriantly, with little labor of the plough and harrow, in a rich loam, warmed with a genial sunshine, and duly irrigated by the streamlet in the valley. But such soils and such situations are comparatively rare. The sand, and the gravel, and the cold clay predominate; and the nettle flourishes spontaneously, where toil must be undergone, and expense incurred, if we would reap even a scanty return of corn, oil, and wine. All that is here advanced applies to the average state of native talent; which, I humbly conceive, to be mediocrity. The grammar schools, founded by wise and experienced men, were never calculated for prodigies of genius. The Colossi of literature, the Homers, Shakespeares, Miltons, Bacons, Newtons, require not leading strings, or the nurse, Illustrious men, in every department, whether in common life or literary, are usually self taught. The elements are so mixed up in them, their organs of perception are so perfect, that they see intuitively, judge infallibly, imagine accurately the very form and pressure of the things around them; and all that they thus perceive,