in

result of this inquiry disclosed that a considerable proportion of the young in these classes was entirely uneducated; and that the means of education, even if desired, were for many, a considerable degree, wanting. Regarding this as the source, or among the sources of the evil which had emerged, the Clergy then united in the scheme of opening a school in each of the city parishes for the religious instruction of the children of the poor. This was a Sabbath school, and nothing morethe exercises, as usual, partly devotional-but, in great part, directed to instruction in the truths of religion, by the usual means of catechisms, not merely of doctrine and precept, but of sacred geography and history; and more especially by reading of the Holy Scriptures.

It was soon found, however, that many who resorted to these Sabbath schools were unable to read the Holy Scriptures; many both of the school age and beyond it; and that the design of giving religious instruction could not be carried out without first providing instruction of another kind. A daily school was then set on foot, to afford to the same class of children instruction in reading and the other parts of an elementary education; a single daily school supported by a general contribution, and open to pupils from all parts of the city,-each Kirk Session having the privilege of sending a certain number of children to be taught gratis. This school was placed in Market-street, of Tron Parish. It was the same, which soon became well known as the Sessional School of Edinburgh; the same, in which those remarkable improvements took their rise, in the mode of conducting elementary education, which have since been very generally adopted throughout Scotland, and which form what is called the explanatory or intellectual method of instruction.

A single school of this sort, however, was found to be insufficient for the work it proposed to accomplish; and not many years elapsed, till others were established for the same purposes, in connection with certain Kirk Sessions in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and elsewhere.

2. At a later period, this class of schools was considerably augmented, and upon views somewhat different from those that had led to their original institution. It was then proposed that the sessional school should afford a greater range of instruction than before, and receive pupils, as well from the industrious classes of the community, as from the indigent and idle; that it should not be so much, in any point of view, of the description of a charity; in short, that, in all respects, it should take a somewhat higher place among the seminaries of the country.

In this extension of its plan, perhaps some advantage was intended to the poorer class of children, by uniting them with others in the common exercises of the school; more probably, it was only meant to furnish to these others necessary addi

tion to the means of education which befitted them; but in some instances, it was supposed that the larger course of instruction, under proper guidance, could have no other effect than to profit, in any view of the matter, all classes of children without exception.

It was on this last consideration that the sessional school of St. George's parish was planned in 1823, not for children of the poorest, but for those of the working classes; and to give, at least, an opportunity to both, of instruction in something more than the merest elements. The seal of Cause and Charter of Erection of that school, dated January 1828, bears, that the children for whom it is intended "may be safely and beneficially entrusted with a much more liberal course of instruction than what the children of our population usually enjoy; and that, when all the knowledge they acquire is guided by the authority, and sanctified by the influence of the Gospel, then the more knowledge that can be infused into them, the better will it be for elevating the tone of their dispositions, and securing the improvement of their character." Other schools of the sessional kind, it is believed, were designed upon exactly the same views; and in all such cases, it was apparently intended to assimilate, as far as possible, the Sessional to the parochial schools of the national establishment.

The Sessional schools, indeed, were commonly established in such places, and under such circumstances, as might readily suggest the fitness of conforming them in the points just noticed, to the model of the parochial. These circumstances are noticed as follows, in a memorial addressed to your Lordships, in 1842, by the General Assembly's Education Committee:

"The result of the enactments of 1696 and 1803 has been, that every parish in Scotland, either wholly or in part landward, enjoys an endowed school; while the Burgh parishes have been left to find the means of education for themselves, that is, the teachers have proceeded on their own adventure, depending for their emolument entirely on the wages which their pupils might happen to afford. Some, indeed, are aided by allowance from the public funds of the Burgh, or by chance endowment from other sources. But the number of such cases is small in proportion to the number of schools within the Burgh; it is not equal to the number of Burgh parishes; it is disproportionate in an uncommon degree to the amount of the Burgh population. This sort of provision is merely accidental, and generally of precarious continuance; it is not secured in the same effectual manner as that which has been provided for the Landward parishes.

"How far it was fit that the town parishes should be excepted from the provisions of the later Act, may appear from their present state, in respect to the education of the lower classes. It is known that a large proportion of these receive much less of the benefits of schoc! than the rural population throughout Scotland; nay, that they have little or no advantage, in this respect, over the poor in the remotest districts of the Highlands and Islands. At the same time, if instruction may be supposed more necessary in one place than another, there are obvious grounds for the strongest claims to it on the part of the lower population of the towns. The Committee are warranted in stating, that many thousands of children there are suffered to grow up without any instruction

deserving of the name, and with a very short irregular attendance at schoolif, indeed, they attend at all from one term of the school age to the other. How is this to be accounted for? Perhaps by the fact that there is no school at hand, because no teacher finds encouragement to establish one; more probably, there is a school which is maintained exclusively upon fees; but to defray these is beyond the ability of the poor; and the teacher can neither be required nor expected to dispense with them. Even when there are schools within reach, and these not neglected, the provisions for education in such localities is often seen to be extremely defective. Better schools are called for than such as can be had without endowment, and this is not to give an instruction transcending the real needs of this class of people, but to give that which they do need more effectually; to attract individuals otherwise indifferent, by the spirit with which they are conducted; and if the time of attendance must be short, to make it profitable to the acquirement of as much knowledge as possible. The efforts of many of the town parishes, especially of the quoad sacra divisions, to provide themselves with improved schools for these purposes are, at this time, exhibited in a very interesting manner. They participate in the zeal which prevails throughout the country for the advancement of education; they have felt the necessity of having it more effectually applied among themselves; and to supersede a variety of small schools that have sprung up, and are found almost useless for their purposes, they have established one of greater pretensions."

It was here intimated that congregational or sessional schools had arisen to supply the place of those which the National Establishment did not afford to the Burgh and quoad sacra parishes, apparently because the same necessity which gave rise to the separation of the district into a parish quoad sacra, called for the establishment of a parochial school within the bounds of that parish.

The parish school was here regarded as a proper and necessary part of the ecclesiastical economy of each parish, whether civil or only quoad sacra; and upon the same notion, the Genera. Assembly of 1838 approved of the Declaration of its Committee for Church Extension,- "That the two measures of Church Extension and School Extension should be made to keep full and equal pace with each other."

By the exertions of that Committee, the quoad sacra erections were, in the course of a few years, very much increased throughout Scotland; while the increase of churches became the occasion of a large addition to the number of schools, which, under the name of Sessional, made the nearest approach possible in the circumstances, to those of the National Establishment.

It appears, then, that one class of these schools was intended, from the first, for the plainest elementary instruction of the children of the poor; another, for the ampler and more liberal instruction of all who, from any part of the population, might be induced to resort to them; and this distinction is still observable among such of the schools referred to as I have now the honour to bring under the notice of your Lordships.

If they are few, I suppose them to be still deserving of attention, not merely for what marks them as a distinct class, but also for their merit in those things which they have in

common with parochial and other schools throughout the country. They are a distinct class in respect of their constitution and the sources from which they derive their means of support; they are not distinct, in respect of the quality or range of the instruction which they afford. It is now proposed to describe their constitution and resources, and to state how far they appear to succeed in imparting the good and useful knowledge which they profess to give.

Constitution. The sessional schools were established by the same Kirk Sessions, or Church Congregations, with which they are respectively connected, and the office of these parties may be defined as follows,-to elect the master; to fix the conditions of his appointment; to provide the required accommodations; to supply occasionally school books, and other things necessary to the poorer children; to regulate in some points the management of the school; to attend to its interests, and contribute towards its support; and to exercise a general superintendence over its concerns. This is the varied duty of the Kirk Session, or of the Congregational Committee, in relation to all the schools now referred to, and it is never performed in all or any of its parts but to their manifest advantage. I remark—

1. That this superintendence is, in some respects closest, most constant, and most effective in regard to female schools,a description of school which being generally new, and under female charge, most requires to be so assisted, and in which the instruction being either wholly or in part industrial, the supply or disposal of the material of the work gives occasion to an active interest on the part of the ladies who superintend. In some schools of this class, as in those of St. Stephen's and Newington, Edinburgh, St. Mathew's and St. Andrew's, Glasgow, one or more of those who undertake this charge visit daily; and, at the last mentioned, it is usual for each member of the Committee, by turns, to assist in teaching, some time daily, for the period of one week. A superintending committee of ladies is essential to the success of all schools of this class: it is wanting, in the meantime, to one or two of those now referred to.

The other schools, conducted by masters, and attended by children of both sexes, are seldom so well superintended; they are seldom, at least, so often visited, unless it be by the minister of the parish. In those cases in which this service is best performed, each member of the Kirk Session, or of the Congregational Committee, in turn, has the school under his more special care for a period perhaps of one month; the children of the poorer people in the parish are by them sought out and sent to school; relief from the usual charges for

instruction is given, where needed; regular attendance is enforced; and the teacher is freed from all trouble and concern in collecting from the pupils the usual dues which form part of his emolument.

If superintendence to this extent be wanting to some Sessional schools, it is not to be forgotten that it is unknown to a large proportion of other schools throughout the country. This must be regretted,-for the school is never so countenanced and aided without the good consequences of instant encouragement to the teacher, a greater interest in education among the families of the district, and the privilege to those who superintend of entertaining, for their own advantage, an impersonal interest in what relates to the good of the whole neighbourhood with which they are connected. Such local superintendence, to some extent, is recognised and even required by some parts of the plan, on which schools are aided from the funds administered by your Lordships.

2. It is farther observed in the constitution of this class of schools, that the appointment of the teachers is always held during the pleasure of the Kirk Session, or of the Congregational Committee.

It seldom happens, indeed, that the appointment of a teacher is held during life, unless where the school has the benefit of a permanent endowment; because, in general, where that security for the permanence of the school is wanting, an appointment on that footing is neither so much desired on the one part, nor can it be so conveniently warranted on the other. Accordingly, these schools seldom remain many years under charge of the same teachers.

Of the whole 31 schools under male teachers, it is observed that only 15 have been held for a longer period than two years, and only six for more than five years, by their present

masters.

This frequent change of masters, there is reason to believe, proceeds mainly, if not entirely, from the inclination of the masters themselves. It will appear, from what follows, that the emolument from many of these schools is not such as ensure their remaining long under the same charge. At the same time, from their situation in the large towns, they are apt to be occupied by young men whose views are not limited to the schoolmaster's profession, and who find in these schools a convenient position to pursue at the University the studies that qualify them to take licence from the Church. But whether that be their aspiration or not, their advantages from University education are such as to recommend them readily to a higher class of schools elsewhere.

It appears, accordingly, that these schools are occupied by a greater proportion of teachers so educated than is common

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