tion on the peasants and labouring classes of France, affirms that, if he must speak his mind, "Instruction, as it is now imparted in our country districts, often does more harm than good; our country people have a worship but no religion, they have schools, but the instruction given in them is not worth what it costs, and everybody knows how our schoolmasters are paid. Taken by itself," continues the professor, "instruction in our country-places (nos campagnes) is insufficient and almost ridiculous; under these deplorable circumstances it requires years for children to learn to read badly and to write still worse." But there is light breaking in from another direction. "In the Protestant schools," continues the professor, "the children learn to read in six months and to write in one or two years; the consequence is that parents prefer to send their children to the Protestant school where they pay, to sending them to the Roman Catholic school which is gratuitous." Mons. St. Hilaire attributes this superiority to the Protestant school because there is a higher principle which is wanting to Catholic teaching. "We seek," he says, "to moralize the people, and we ask them to believe; Catholicism only bids them to obey."

I now hasten to speak of the education of the poor of France, as it is conducted in Protestant communities.

The two greatest Protestant communities of France recognised by the law are the Reformed Church and the Church of the Confession of Augsbourg, better known among us as the Lutheran. They possess about 1,640 parishes or districts and 1,750 schools; in 1816 there were only two schools in the whole of Paris for the children of Protestants. There are now 58, and a demand for many more. Some of these schools are "communale" and are therefore aided by the municipality. Others depend upon the Protestant consistories, and upon private charity, but many are in a great measure supported by school payments varying from twenty-five centièmes to half a franc per week; at this time in Paris alone 4,000 children are receiving primary instruction in these schools. No less a sum than 8,500 francs (£340) was received by a committee of an association in one year in the form of school fees cheerfully paid by the parents, who are for the most part dependent upon their manual labour for subsistence; attempts have been made to put down these flourishing schools, but the police authorities having fortunately ascertained for themselves the nature of the instruction, have rather given encouragement than otherwise to these "free Evangelical schools;" they exist, however, only by sufferance, not being connected with any corporate body recognised by the law. In Paris and other great towns the Protestants have not much reason to complain, either as respects liberty of worship or liberty of establishing schools; it is in the rural districts where the oppression is felt, and where the Academic Council, aided by illiberal magistrates, prevents the spread of sound education.

In 1844 a remarkable change was effected in some rural communes in the Department of the upper Vienne, of which Limoges is the chief city.

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In a commune of 600 souls not one was found capable of reading of writing at all; but, before the end of the reign of Louis Philippe, every person of an age to understand could both read and write, and similar advantages were extended to several villages or communes in the Arrondissement of Bellac. It was not until the Republic of 1848 was two years old, that the attention of the local authorities was called to these Protestant schools, which had begun to alarm the ecclesiastical authorities; the Academic Council, called into existence by the law of 1850, viewed these strange institutions with an evil eye, and succeeded before long in securing the Prefectorial authority on its side, and the schools were all suppressed-it was alleged that they were unauthorised, and the teachers although possessing certificates of competency, were declared unqualified to teach morality. The inhabitants of those villages applied to the Society at Paris, by whose aid their children. had received and were receiving a superior instruction, to know how they were to act. The Society decided that the children should be taught at their own homes, the teachers, whom they agreed to maintain, going from house to house through the day. This plan was continued with persevering industry for nine years. There was no law to prevent a parent procuring private instruction for his child at his own home at his own cost; but if it could be discovered that one child not of the family was ever present at a lesson, the teacher was liable to fine and imprisonment, and disqualified from teaching even privately. Great caution was therefore observed both by the heads of families and the teachers, and the detective officers failed in the course of all those years to find occasion against the master or mistress, on their daily rounds. At length the patience of the local authorities was worn out by the obstinate perseverance of the people and the teachers; it was at length perceived that the decree of 1852 might afford the Academic Council and the perplexed magistrates of the arrondissement of Bellac, the means of dealing with the refractory Protestants. It was argued that as the decree forbade meetings of more than twenty persons without a licence (“authorisation") it was an evasion of the law on the part of these private teachers to gather children by twos and threes together, seeing that in the aggregate and in the course of the same day, there would be an unlawful meeting for every twenty. The schoolmaster, Jusnel, at Villefavard, was selected to be the victim of this application of the law of the 25th of March, 1852. He was summoned, and condemned at the local tribunal, for holding unlawful meetings; and, upon his appeal to the superior court at Limoges, the sentence was confirmed and he was condemned to pay a fine and all the costs, and prohibited from teaching in families at Villefavard. The question involved in this decision of two provincial courts was so important, that it was determined by the Society at Paris to carry the case into the Court of Cassation. The question to be tried was, whether a Frenchman, father of a family, had or had not perfect liberty to have his child taught in his own house, and at his own cost, by a person of his own choice. The case was so grave that it had now all Paris for a spectator. The advocate, M. Jules

Delaborde, pleaded on behalf of the accused parties, and in a striking address, in which he began from the Pandects of Justinian and ended with the Presidential decree of the 25th of March, carried the whole of his auditory with him, and the Judges followed, and reversed (casser) the judgment of the inferior court. The case was then referred for a fresh trial to the Imperial Court at Bourdeaux, and the schoolmaster, Jusnel, was held harmless, and went back in triumph to his former scene of labour. It was impossible for shame that this state of things should continue, and the Minister of Public Instruction, M. Rouland, intimated to the Prefect of the " Haute Vienne" that the Protestant schools in his province should no longer be kept closed; and the magistrate, in obedience to superior orders, was under the necessity of sending his rescript to the schoolmasters, authorising them to re-open all their schools. Then came the days of rejoicing, a festival in every village; and a universal mutual greeting both by Roman Catholics and Protestants in the villages of the valleys of the river Vienne, proclaimed the victory of common sense and parental authority over the folly and bigotry of priests and rulers. But a most ungracious condition was attached to the Prefectorial authority, that no children of Roman Catholic parents were to be admitted into the schools. This was an evident violation of the principle established by the highest court of judicature in France-viz., that every parent had a right to choose a school or teacher for his child; but the reinstated teachers had agreed to the conditions, and although several came with their children to be admitted, and said they were not Catholics, the master was advised by the Committee in Paris to refuse to receive the children. This is not a transaction of the time of Louis XIV.; the re-opening of the Protestant schools of the Upper Vienne took place in 1861.

Nor is this a solitary instance. Cases precisely similar are to be found at Crevecœur, the centre of a large district in the neighbourhood of Cambrai, and in other parts of France. The establishment of a new school under Protestant superintendence is a matter of difficulty and a work of time. There is sufficient power in the hands of "the Church" to prevent the introduction of schools into the rural districts, except those which are to come under the control of the religious orders and made subservient to ecclesiastical interests. In whatever light the education of a people may be viewed, it is certain that both in point of quantity and quality elementary instruction in England is far ahead of that in France; and while a steady improvement is visible in the one, there is no hope of any change for the better among our neighbours. As long as the present system continues, the teaching of the children of the poor in France, except in the large towns, is but a name. Almost the only bright spots, generally speaking, are

the Protestant schools.

It may be affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that the ignorance of the French peasantry is deplorable, and were it not in some measure redeemed by the native intelligence which marks the French character, it would be a stolid ignorance, approaching to a state of

barbarism; and yet all the appliances needful for the education of this intellectual people are still wanting in France. The very best elementary schools of the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Charity fail to develop the moral and intellectual powers of the children. The lay teachers are fashioned in the normal schools, according to the model of a seminary, and a new generation has already grown up in the stunted proportions of the ecclesiastical

stature.

It may be hoped that the Government will see its way to encourage, rather than suppress, schools which soar above the atmosphere of scapularies, litanies, and wonder-working medals; and that the Reformed Churches, wherever they extend themselves, will have liberty to open schools and offer a superior instruction to all who choose to profit by it; and, while religion holds its proper place in the system of a popular instruction, the men and women who are to teach the masses should bear in mind the words of the Minister of Public Instruction, "il faut faire des hommes," we must make men, and bring up educated females to be the intelligent mothers of families.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Hospital System of Scotland. By DR. BEDford.

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F the many institutions that go under the common name of hos-pitals, it is my purpose to speak exclusively of those where boysand girls are boarded and educated out of some charitable fund.

The total number of this class in Scotland, including two now erecting, is, so far as I can learn, fourteen. Most of these are in or near Edinburgh, which for this reason has been not inaptly called "The City of Hospitals.". As my object is less to supply a body of statistics than to remark on the peculiarities of hospital training, I shall trouble you with no more of the many facts in my possession than are barely necessary for my purpose. Other important facts will be found in the subjoined Table.

The first hospital established in this country was George Heriot's, in 1628, after the model of Christ's Hospital, London. The Founder's bequest was little more than £23,000, and the present annual income is between £16,000 and £17,000, with a prospect of still further increase. Out of a portion of this revenue, 180 sons of Edinburgh burgesses receive a liberal board and education, followed by an apprentice-fee of £10 for five years, or a college exhibition of £30 for four years.

The surplus funds, amounting to several thousand pounds, are devoted to the education of upwards of 3,000 pupils in twelve

foundation schools established by power of an Act of Parliament, granted in 1836.

All the Scottish hospitals, except three, take the names of their founders, which to some persons sufficiently explains why the establishment of George Heriot's has been so infectious in Scotland. Unfortunately, however, for this suspicion, the three very hospitals that do not take the name of any particular founder were successively established immediately after Heriot's, the Merchant Maidens, in 1695, the Trades' Maidens in 1704, and the Orphan Hospital in 1734; and more than a century elapsed before Robert Gordon's Hospital, Aberdeen-the second hospital bearing a founder's name— was established, the date of its foundation being 1732.

If to this circumstance we add the well known fact that the funds of all the Scottish hospitals have been administered with exemplary discretion and fidelity, we may perhaps find a more charitable reason for the multiplication of this class of institutions, without altogether ignoring the influence of this "last infirmity of noble minds." George Watson's Hospital, Edinburgh, similar in its constitution to Heriot's, was founded in 1738; James Schaw's, at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, in 1789; Louis Cauvin's, at Duddingston, near Edinburgh, in 1833; George Stiell's, at Tranent, near Edinburgh, in 1822; John Watson's, Edinburgh, in 1828; James Donaldson's, Edinburgh, in 1844; Daniel Stewart's, Edinburgh, in · 1855.

To these will shortly be added James Morgan's Hospital, Dundee, and Fettes' Hospital (or College) in the suburbs of Edinburgh, both of which are at present in course of erection.

It appears that John Allan's Hospital, Stirling, founded in 1724, "for the maintenance, education, clothing, and apprenticeship of male children of poor and indigent tradesmen," was for a while occupied as proposed by the founder, but the "New Statistical Account of Scotland" informs us that "the arrangements not being found to answer expectation, it was discontinued."

In most of these hospitals, the very best possible kind of education is given to both boys and girls; in some, as at Donaldson's and the Orphan's, the course of education is less pretentious. The usual age of admission is about eight, and the average period of residence about six years. At the Merchant Maiden and Trades' Maiden Hospitals, the girls are allowed to remain until they are seventeen. On leaving the institutions most hospitals allow a sum of money for outfit; many allow an annual sum during the period of apprenticeship, and give a bursary, or exhibition allowance for four years, to those attending college. In Donaldson's Hospital seventy, or nearly half of the pupils, are deaf-mutes.

Any advantage or evil from the establishment of a single hospital is inconsiderable when distributed over a wide district; but it becomes a social problem of some importance how far and in what way the general character of a city's population is affected when, as is the case at present in Edinburgh, 860 children are receiving their