their peculiar manners and dialect, a stranger will discover that they possess a curiosity, and have obtained a degree of information corresponding to these acquirements.

These advantages they owe to the legal provision made by the parliament of Scotland, in 1646, for the establishment of a school in every parish throughout the kingdom, for the express purpose of educating the poor; a law which may challenge comparison with any act of legislation to be found in the records of history, whether we consider the wisdom of the ends in view, the simplicity of the means employed, or the provisions made to render these means effectual to their purpose. This excellent statute was repealed on the acces sion of Charles II. in 1660, together with all the other laws passed during the commonwealth, as not being sanctioned by the royal assent. It slept during the reigns of Charles and James, but was re-enacted precisely in the same terms, by the Scottish parliament, after the revolution in 1696; and this is the last provision on the subject. Its effects on the national character may be considered to have commenced about the period of the Union, and doubtless it co-operated with the peace and security arising from that happy event, in producing the extraordinary change in favour of industry and good morals, which the character of the common people of Scotland has since undergone. See Appendix, No. I. Note A.

The church-establishment of Scotland happily coincides with the institution just mentioned, which may be called its school-establishment. The elergyman being every where resident in his particular parish, becomes the natural patron and superintendant of the parish school, and is enabled in various ways to promote the comfort of the teacher and the proficiency of the scholars. The teacher himself is often a candidate for holy or ders, who, during the long course of study and probation required in the Scottish church, renders the time which can be spared from his pro

fessional studies, useful to others as well as to himself, by assuming the respectable character of a school-master. It is common for the established schools even in the country parishes of Scotland, to enjoy the means of classical instruction, and many of the farmers, and some even of the cottagers, submit to much privation, that they may obtain for one of their sons at least, the precari. ous advantage of a learned education. The difficulty to be surmounted, arises indeed not from the expence of instructing their children, but from the charge of supporting them. In the country parish schools the English language, writ ing, and accounts, are generally taught at the rate of six shillings, and Latin, at the rate of ten or twelve shillings per annum. In the towns the prices are somewhat higher.

It would be improper in this place to inquire minutely into the degree of instruction received at these seminaries, or to attempt any precise esti mate of its effects, either on the individuals who are the subjects of this instruction, or on the community to which they belong. That it is on the whole favourable to industry and morals, though doubtless with some individual exceptions, seems to be proved by the most striking and decisive appearance; and it is equally clear, that it is the cause of that spirit of emigration and of adven ture so prevalent among the Seots. Knowledge has, by Lord Verulam, been denominated power; by others it has with less propriety been denominated virtue or happiness: we may with confi dence consider it as motion. A human being, in proportion as he is informed, has his wishes enlarged, as well as the means of gratifying those wishes. He may be considered as taking within the sphere of his vision a larger portion of the globe on which we tread, and discovering advantage at a greater distance on its surface. His de sires or ambition, once excited, are stimulated by his imagination, and distant and uncertain objects giving freer scope to the operation of this faculty,

often acquire in the mind of the youthful adventurer an attraction from their very distance and uncertainty. If therefore a greater degree of instruction be given to the peasantry of a country comparatively poor, in the neighbourhood of other countries rich in natural and acquired advantages, and if the barriers be removed that kept them separate, emigration from the former to the latter will take place to a certain extent, by laws nearly as uniform as those by which heat diffuses itself among surrounding bodies, or water finds its level when left to its natural course. By the articles of the Union the barrier was broken down which divided the two British nations, and knowledge and poverty poured the adventurous natives of the north, over the fertile plains of England, and, more especially, over the colonies which she had settled in the east and in the west. The stream of population continues to flow from the north to the south; for the causes that originally impelled it continue to operate; and the richer country is constantly invigorated by the accession of an informed and hardy race of men, educated in poverty, and prepared for hardship and danger, patient of labour, and prodigal of life. See Appenlix, No. I. Note B.

The preachers of the reformation in Scotland were disciples of Calvin, and brought with them the temper as well as the tenets of that celebrated heresiarch. The presbyterian form of worship and of church government, was endeared to the people, from its being established by themselves. It was endeared to them also, by the struggle it had to maintain with the catholic and the protestant episcopal churches, over both of which, after a hundred years of fierce and sometimes bloody contention, it finally triumphed, receiving the countenance of government, and the sanction of law. During this long period of contention and of suffering, the temper of the people became more and aore obstinate and bigotted, and the nation received that deep tinge of fanaticism which

coloured their public transactions as well as their private virtues; and of which evident traces may be found in our own times. When the public schools were established, the instruction communicated in them, partook of the religious character of the people. The catechism of the Westminster divines was the universal school-book, and was put into the hands of the young peasant as soon as he had acquired a knowledge of his alphabet; and his first exercise in the art of reading, intro duced him to the most mysterious doctrines of the Christian faith. This practice is continued in our own times. After the Assembly's Catechism, the Proverbs of Solomon, and the New and Old Tes tament, follow in regular succession; and the scholar departs, gifted with the knowledge of the sacred writings, and receiving their doctrines ac cording to the interpretation of the Westminster confession of faith. Thus with the instruction of infancy in the schools of Scotland, are blended the dogmas of the national church; and hence the first and most constant exercise of ingenuity among the peasantry of Scotland, is displayed in religious disputation. With a strong attachment to the national creed, is conjoined a bigotted preference of certain forms of worship; the source of which would be often altogether obscure, if we did not recollect that the ceremonies of the Scottish church were framed in direct opposition, in every point, to those of the church of Rome.

The eccentricities of conduct, and singularities of opinion and manners, which characterized the English sectaries in the last century, afforded a subject for the comic muse of Butler, whose pietures lose their interest, since their archetypes are lost. Some of the peculiarities common among the more rigid disciples of Calvinism in Scotland, in the present times, have given scope to the ridicule of Burns, whose humour is equal to Butler's, and whose drawings from living manners are singularly expressive and exact. Unfortunately the correctness of his taste did not always correspond

with the strength of his genius, and hence some of the most exquisite of his comic pr ductions are rendered unfit for the light*.

The information and the religious education of the peasantry of Scotland, promote sedateness of conduct, and habits of thought and reflection.These good qualities are not counteracted by the establishment of poor-laws, which, while they reflect credit on the benevolence, detract from the wisdom of the English legislature. To make a legal provision for the inevitable distresses of the poor, who, by age or disease, are rendered incapa ble of labour, may indeed seem an indispensable duty of society; and if. in the execution of a plan for this purpose, a distinction could be introduced, so as to exclude from its benefits those whose sufferings are produced by idleness or profligacy, such an institution would perhaps be as rational as humane. But to lay a general tax on property for the support of poverty, from whatever cause proceeding, is a measure full of danger. It must operate in a considerable degree as an incitement to idleness, and a discouragement to industry. It takes away from vice and indolence the prospect of their most dreaded consequences, and from vir tue and industry their peculiar sanctions. In many cases it must render the rise in the price of labour, not a blessing, but a curse to the labourer; who, if there be an excess in what he earns, be yond his immediate necessities, may be expected to devote this excess to his present gratification; trusting to the provision made by law for his own. and his family's support, should disease suspend, or death terminate his labours. Happily, in Scotland, the same legislature which established a sys tem of instruction for the poor, resisted the introduction of a legal provision for the support of poverty; what they granted on the one hand, and

Holy Willie's Prayer; Rob the Rhymer's Welcome to his Bastard Child; Epistle to J. Gowdie; The Holy Tulzie, c.