is now likely to ornament that singular old-world spot a century or so longer.

I think I must close my letter with some account of my festive doings in the city which have prevented my replying to your last more promptly.

I have been employed in a legal business with Mr Alderman Cduring the last six months. Now the worthy Alderman was discerning enough to form a good opinion of me, and civil enough to show his good opinion, by inviting me to dinner. I had heard much (as who has not?) of the wealth of the citizens of London, but I was not prepared for any thing like the magnificent display of it I saw at my new friend's house at Stoke Newington. You know the character of that place; its quiet air of comfortable grandeur, with a little " pride which apes humility," and a great deal of solemn self-satisfaction about it. Whenever I used to go there formerly, I could not help feeling that its purseproud and punctiliously correct appearance was a tacit reproof to a poor fellow like myself, "with a plentiful lack of cash, together with most weak merit." In those days I did not know my friend Mr Alderman C- The

first time I went to his house, it was to join a dinner party. I dare say, now, you suppose all citizens dine at the plebeian hour of two or three. Let me undeceive you at once. Mr Alderman C-'s invitation was seven for half past." Shades of Whittington and Sir Thomas Gresham, dining at noon, hear it!

66

Gog and Magog, descending to dinner when ye hear the clock strike one, ponder on this, and blush for your unfashionable hours! In the words of the famous ballad—

"Oh when I arrived at the Alderman's mansion, How boldly then I rang the bell!"

There was no 66 proud young porter" to open the gate to me, but a very proud and stately old one, who conducted me from the lodge to the hall door, where he consigned me to the charge of two footmen, one of whom, with lofty obsequiousness, conducted me up a fine staircase, splendidly lighted with clusters of wax tapers, held by

beautiful marble statues. We then crossed a handsome lobby, and he ushered me into the drawing room. This room was magnificent in the extreme. The hangings and furniture were orange and silver; the walls were exquisitely painted in medallions, representing the twelve months of the year. The articles of vertu about this room were worth a fortune in themselves. My host presented me to his wife and daughters. The former was a stout, cheerful, warm-hearted old lady; the latter were two thin, intelligentlooking, and very fashionably attired young ladies. I took my seat beside the mother, and began to converse with her. I found her a shrewd, clever, practical old dame, with no great respect for the letter H, but a great reverence for her husband, "the alderman' -a great pride in "my daughters," and a doting fondness for "William, my son, Sir," who appeared in the distance, endeavouring to play the agreeable to a young lady, by burning small portions of gun cotton at a lamp near him, and as he did so, effectually hiding the light from another young lady who had been reading by it. This latter lady, from that slight circumstance, and a few others equally trivial, I perceived was the governess." My chivalrous feeling was roused directly; I went up to the Alderman, and requested he would "introduce me to that lady." The old gentleman stared for a moment, and then smiled as he said, "What, is she like any one you know? Well, she's a very clever creature, I can tell you, and a very good girl into the bargain. She's my daughters governess, and has been the making of the girls." I was introduced to her, and took her in to dinner. I gathered from her conversation enough to feel sure, that, in the families of wealthy citizens, a greater respect is paid to those of her class than in most other families higher in rank, i.e. mental superiority is valued by them. I learned from her, that the Alderman has a good library, although she had too much delicacy to hint that he never troubles himself about its contents. She told me that Mrs C. was a very charitable woman, and gave

much money and time to the poorthat dinner parties were very frequently given by the Alderman, who was fond of society. The dinner in ques

tion was first-rate; but I cannot say much for the company. It was good

natured and dull. The conversation consisted mainly of criticisms of the dishes on table, and speculations as to the next move of the ministers. When the ladies retired, I expected that the gentlemen would drink inordinately, as we were taught in childhood that gentlemen were wont to do at an alderman's feast. Believe me, A—, I have seen a party of young templars and a party of judges drink much more, although, had they drunk less than they did, it would have been better for them. From all I saw at this first dinner at Alderman C-'s, I was quite sure that the old notions concerning city ignorance, and vulgarity, and city gormandizing, are far from correct now. I do not mean to say that the members of le haut commerce in the city of London have the refinement and polish of courtiers, or the air and manners of very highly educated gentlemen; but I have seen much of them lately at Alderman C-'s, and at other wealthy citizens' houses, and I can af firm that they are often tolerably well read and well bred men, and their manners are generally free from upstart pretension, or an affectation of an aristocratic air which nature never gave them; their position in the world being established, they can dare to be themselves. One thing is found among them all. They are anxious to give their children the advantages of education which they themselves, in most instances, never had.

is a

Their sons have classical, and their daughters accomplished, educations. The family of Alderman Cgood specimen of that of rich citizens in general. Mr William C— is really a very fine young man. He was at Cambridge, and is a good classic, a tolerable mathematician. He travelled two years with a good tutor, and is a generally well-informed person, with manners which, if not thoroughbred, are easy and agreeable. His sisters are highly educated and very well-read for their ages. One is a fine pianoforte player,

and the other paints excellent portraits. Their manners are a little too missish and stiff, but you are repaid for your trouble in talking to them, for they are clever, intelligent girls, and very nearly free from affectation. Besides my late visiting among the citizens in private, I have been admitted to several "Company Dinners." I have dined with the Goldsmiths, the Fishmongers, and the Mercers, and the Drapers, and several other companies. Good dinners, of course, I found with each; but besides the dinners, in each case, there were some things, rich or rare, to be admired; and I came away from each more fully persuaded than before, that it was a fine thing to belong to such a city as London, "whose merchants are princes," and whose retail tradesmen vie with nobles in wealth.

Through the kind attention of Alderman C I went to the grand City banquet at Guildhall on the 9th inst. To see that beautiful old hall brilliantly illuminated, and filled with tables

"That groan with the weight of the feast,"

is one of the best means I know of impressing you with a proper idea of city state blended with city joviality. The fearful tales told of London gluttony on this grand day, are, as far as I could see, quite inapplicable at present, except in a few rare cases. I have seen very fine gentlemen, who would scorn the city and all its ways, devour turtle with as much zeal and concentration of mind as I perceived in a few old bon vivans in Guildhall on Monday last. In short, A-, my intimacy with city people and city doings has removed a few prejudices from my mind. I am now persuaded that "London citizens of credit and renown' are a very superior race of people to their grandfathers, and that we may fairly hope to see again among them such people as the Corporation boasted when the City of London was almost a fourth estate of the realm-men of lofty character and of intellectual excellence, equal to the other wealthy classes. In conclusion, I will give you the chorus of a song sung long ago at a Guildhall banquet, at which the then Lord Mayor enter

upon

At the Meeting of the General Assembly of the Free Church in May last, the Assembly, in reappointing the Educational Committee, referred "the whole subject of the system of educa tion, and more especially of the appointment, qualifications, superintendence, and dismissal of teachers to this Committee, with instructions to them to give special attention to this important subject, and if they saw cause, to report to the Commission views any this subject, which they might consider sufficiently matured, with a view to their being transmitted to Presbyteries for their opinion and suggestions." In virtue of this instruction, the Committee have given their attention to the preparation of a Constitution for the schools under their charge, and at the recent meeting of the Commission in Edinburgh, DrCandlish, their convener, read an Interim Report on the subject. In presenting this report, he explained, that the Committee did not desire to be held as pledged to all or any of the views, or principles, or rules contained in it; that they had only approved of it to the extent of finding it on the whole a suitable sketch to send down to Presbyteries, and no further; and he did not ask from the Commission any approval of it; all he craved from them was an opportunity of explaining it to them, and their authority to transmit it to Presbyteries for their consideration, and with instructions to report their judgment and suggestions in regard to it, to the Committee, within such time as would enable the Committee to have the bene fit of them, in framing their final report to submit to next General Assembly, so that it might be as complete and accurate as possible. To this request, the Commission unanimously acceded, and appointed Presbyteries to report upon it against 15th March next. The interim report in question is in every point of view a document of so much interest and im-portance, that we make no apology for presenting it entire to our readers—

heartily commending it to their attention, as developing the noblest, soundest, and most comprehensive scheme of popular education, which has ever been presented to the church or the world.

INTERIM REPORT.

Following out the instructions of the General Assembly, the Committee have given their best attention to the subject of the constitution to be prepared for the management of the great Educational Institute placed under their charge. In submitting their present report to the Commission, according to the Act of Assembly, they do so with a view to its being sent down for the consideration of Presbyteries, in order that, with the benefit of their suggestions, a revised draft of a constitution may be laid before the General Assembly, and finally adjusted and adopted, according to the laws of the Church. The Committee have, in the first place, to offer a few preliminary remarks on the origin and present state, racter, of the Education Scheme, before as well as the design and general chaproceeding to the particular rules and regulations which they have to propose.

I. It must be borne in mind that, on the footing on which the late General Assembly placed it, the Education Scheme is rather the extension and enlargement of an old undertaking, than the commencement of a new one.

1. For years before the Disruption the Church was engaged in providing additionpopulation of the country; being satisfied al schools for the increased and increasing that the supply furnished by law was miserably inadequate; and, moreover, the Church was labouring to improve the quality, as well as to augment the quantity, of the education given in these schools; and, accordingly, she had her Normal Institutions in full and vigorous operation. Since the memorable era of 1843, the Church has continued to prosecute this work with undiminished zeal. In that year, not only were the teachers who adhered to the Church's principles maintained, as usual, by the annual collection, but the Normal Schools of Edinburgh and Glasgow were recognised and supported; and a plan was formed and approved of for the erection of no fewer than 500 schools in connection with the congregathis plan was successfully carried out, and tions of the Church. In subsequent years the Church pledged herself to an energetic

and sustained effort in the cause of a high intellectual as well as Christian education, by the appointment of the present Superintendent, and by other measures equally significant. The resolution of the Assembly in May last, to establish a Sustentation Fund for Schoolmasters, and generally to place the whole Scheme on a basis, and prosecute it on a scale, commensurate with the position and responsibilities of the Church, is only the natural and legitimate sequel of all her previous proceedings.

2. Before the Disruption, it was not deemed necessary to have a constitution framed for the Education Scheme. That Scheme was then limited in its range, being merely supplemental to the Parochial Economy, upheld by public endowments. Now, however, the case is altered. The Parish Schools have been declared to be mere appendages of the present ecclesiastical establishment, and entirely under its control. therefore, be regarded by this Church as worthy of the confidence of the people; and, in these circumstances, it becomes her duty to provide, as far as possible, not a supplement merely to the schools of the Establishment, but a substitute for them.

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3. It is true that this Church must ever protest, not only against the wrong she bas sustained in being deprived of her constitutional privileges, but also against the manifest injustice of appropriating the national funds to such a system as that of the Parochial Schools is now declared, in law, to be; and she must hold herself entitled, in all competent ways and at all suitable times, to seek the redress of these grievances, of which she may justly complain. It is true, also, that in setting up her own educational machinery, she disclaims all intention of mere rivalry and needless opposition; and desires to bend her first and most strenuous endeavours to the most destitute districts of the land. At the sametime, as matters now stand, she must carry on her operations altogether irrespective of the legal school establishment; which she cannot consider suitable in character, any more than it is sufficient in amount, for the population she is bound to care for. And it is this consideration, among others, which gives to the Education Scheme its present magnitude and importance; and makes it desirable, and indeed essential, that without farther delay, its constitution should be satisfactorily fixed.

II. But in fixing the constitution, it is of the utmost consequence to have a clear view of the precise design, or object, of the scheme.

1. It is to be observed, then, that in this whole undertaking, as now contem

plated, the Church is acting altogether for herself; upon her own resources and her own responsibility; not shared with any other body, civil or religious. She is acting, also, not as a voluntary association of subscribers, but in her ecclesiastical capacity. It would seem, therefore, that the Scheme must partake decidedly of the ecclesiastical character; that it must be framed in accordance with the principles which the Church, as such, avows, and with a view to the ends which she professes to seek. It is needless to inquire what modifications might have been necessary, had it been considered desirable, or possible, to proceed upon any other footing ; as, for instance, on the footing of an arrangement with the Government; or on the footing of active co-operation with other free churches in the land. No proposal, of either sort, is involved in the present question, which is simply this: How the Free Church of Scotland, taking the field herself, can best fulfil her high intention of setting up a sound scriptural and comprehensive system of education, for those coming generations that she is desirous of influencing? The Church has seen it to be her duty, not to wait for the issue of any movements or negotiations, contingent upon the will of other parties; but to go forward, at once, in doing her own work; and she is, therefore, in such circumstances as enable, and seem to oblige her, not merely to consult as to what might be a tolerable plan, or one to which she might, without serious compromise of principle, submit; but to frame, and, by God's blessing, carry out, her own model of what is best, according to the mind and will of her great and only Head.

2. Taking this view, the Church has evidently to contemplate a scheme of educa tion, co-extensive and commensurate with her ecclesiastical machinery; or, in other words, it must be her aim to provide the means of education, at least as widely as the other means of grace, for all the adhering population, and for all those, destitute of these means, whom she desires to recover and reclaim. Thus, two distinct classes of schools must be established. The first will consist of congregational schools, properly so called, i. e., schools in immediate connection with particular congregations, for the children of these congregations, or of the parishes or districts attached to them. These schools must, of course, be more numerous than the churches; for, while some congregations may not, at present, require schools at all, a far larger proportion will require more than one school each, to meet the wants of a large parish, or a flock whose habitations may be widely scattered. It is calculated that not fewer

-than 1000 schools of this class will speedi۔