Rev. R. Hamilton was the son of one of my elders of my first charge, and his wife used to be in my juvenile class in those early days. He has two congregations, and is happy and honoured in his work. Driving with him in his buggy, we had of course much talk of old times and former scenes. I know not that we had anything more fresh and enjoyable than that country drive in the buggy. The landscape is in that condition of partial occupation and cultivation which shows that the settlers have overcome the worst toils of clearing, and are beginning to reap the rewards of their industry. In the course of our journey, we came upon a Sabbath-school pic-nic in the woods, where indeed we had to go to find Mr. Hamilton, and here we had a pleasant sample of how they conduct things there. A monstrous circular swing, plying its vocation with its load of youngsters among the trees, could be seen as we approached, and there had been other pastimes and exercises. When we reached, and had our horses hitched to a tree amid a number of the others, we found that the intellectual part of the proceedings were just begun. On a platform of boards stood the chairman, and a few chief friends; a chair was vacated for the delegate from afar, and of course he had to make a speech. It was well for him that among the trees, and out keeping holiday, people, young and old, are willing to be pleased. I was made to wish that we could have a few acres of these back-woods for our Sabbathschool excursions at home, though they are not finer in their way than Epping Forest after all, and it is only scattered fragments of them that remain in the neighbourhood of St. Mary's, as the town of that district is called.

In London we had the satisfaction of meeting with a young friend, much esteemed when, some years ago, a member of the Young Men's Society connected with Park Church, London, now occupying an important position in the rough and unsavoury regions of Petrolia. Here, too, we had opportunity of witnessing the process of rectifying the rock-oil and getting it ready for the market. The mode is, in the main, simply distillation-turning the clear oil into vapour and again condensing it. In a chamber, into which we entered cautiously, where the distilled oil was seen flowing into casks, we were told that the effluvia are sometimes so strong as to strike men to the ground, or blind them for days. How strange that so many of our most useful productions are ever to be reached at the peril of men's lives! Here, too, just before we left, we witnessed a brief burst of a violent thunderstorm, and were so startled with one tremendous peal, that on reaching the railway station we were not surprised to learn that the lightning had struck one of the buildings, and furrowed the gable from top to bottom.

I might have mentioned that the day before we had the singular satisfaction of visiting two friends-maiden ladies of fourscore and threescore and ten respectively, daughters of one of our ministers of a former generation, and members twenty years ago of my church at Denny loanhead. The elder of the two was on what has since proved her death-bed-although then a little recovered from a severe attack of seeming paralysis. It was an impressive picture to see her sitting up in her pure white dress, pale, thin, and feeble, but looking up at us with a smile of sweet surprise, and evidently remembering with pleased wonder the days gone by. We felt grateful that she had been spared till once more on earth we should so unexpectedly visit cherished familiar friends of the past.

A journey of some seven or eight hours brought us to Detroit, where we again, in crossing the frontier, encountered our attentive friends of the

Customs. This time the officer became suspicious of the weight of one of our boxes, and insisted on opening it and diving to the bottom. He was not, however, very rough in his handling of the contents, and I stood by without apprehension of his discovering any seizable article. Free from his inspection, we were, after some little difficulty with a tooter for the omnibuses, comfortably housed in one of the hotels. I might have remarked that the Custom-house examination takes place on board a ferry steamer, which is moored so close to the pier where the railway terminus is, on the Canadian side, that you step aboard of it without discovering that it is anything but an extension of the platform. The boat crosses the river St. Clair, joining Huron and Erie, and flowing through a considerable lake of the same name. On its banks sits the city of Detroit-a charmingly beautiful place clean, regular, bright, with broad streets flanked with rows of trees,.. and picturesque, comfortable-looking houses. resting among the greenery. Here, sallying forth in quest of an address kindly furnished us by a friend at home, I had the opportunity of witnessing for a second time what I had seen in Philadelphia before, the fondness of the Americans for fast-trotting. horses. It seemed to me as if the animals, dashing on at that determined pace, must have taken the bits in their mouths and run away;-only, I suppose, in that case they would have broke into the gallop., Here, too, we observed first on an extensive scale, the habit of families gathering together, and occupying seats on the door-steps and chatting with their neighbours. is right pleasant after a hot day and the day's task to have these out-ofdoor socialities.

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Next morning, much pleased with our short acquaintance, we bade adieu to Detroit, and took the train for Chicago. It was a long ride, through the State of Michigan, and, by reason of the heat, rather weary. I do not remember much that makes the journey stand out from others. Only, when we reached Michigan city, I recollect the immense hills of barren sand surrounding the place, and giving it an air of imprisonment in barren desolation. The city stands on the eastern shore of the lake of that name, near its southern extremity; and from thence to Chicago the railway pleasantly rounds the end of the lake-sometimes close to the bank, and sometimes miles inland. We are now on the verge of the great western prairies, Chicago taking from them its name of the Prairie City. Passing from London to Detroit, we had seen the day before a first specimen of prairie land—a broad belt of smooth meadow, clothed with long luxuriant grass, and extending some thirty miles along the line of railway. But that great plain was but a little garden plot compared to the great ocean-like field we were now entering on. Still, as we were but skirting it on one side, with the lake on our other hand, we could not yet realize the feeling of boundless expause which connects itself with a position in the midst of the rolling prairies, stretching all round you, like the sea, to meet the stooping sky afar off. About four or five o'clock we found ourselves in Chicago, where, as near as may be, we spent twenty-four hours.

The first thing that drew our emphatic attention here, after reaching our resting-place, was the superlative heat. We had been experiencing bursts of it in Canada melting enough, but they were nothing to what lay glowing over Chicago. The natives themselves were confessing it to be unusual and extreme. Well they might, with the thermometer ranging as high as 103 degrees. I remember our sitting at the open window, and finding that it was doubtful whether we reaped any advantage from the up-throwing of the sashes. For so heated was the air outside, that on the least stirring of the NO. IV. VOL. XVI. NEW SERIES.-APRIL 1872.

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mass by the breeze, a wave of what appeared to be breathed from a furnace came round you like a salutation from the wilderness. Still it was wonderful how, with no heavy work to do, we managed to endure it. At night came a great roaring thunderstorm, and relieved the atmosphere greatly, so that next day was cooler. Had the wind shifted, we were informed, so as to blow from the lake, we might have found it positively cold;-alternations from great heat to even a low temperature being thus not uncommon.

Next day, unwilling to be caught and detained over Sabbath, we kept ourselves quiet, only attempting to report ourselves passing through to one friend. It so happened that there were two of the name, and we went to the wrong party. Not finding him in, we left our names and temporary addresses; but not knowing anything about us, he did not think of inquiring after us. So we were left to wander at our own sweet will. We did not, however, wander far from headquarters, satisfied that we were getting a fair impression of the character of the Prairie City from what could be seen in an easy saunter through the nearest streets. Chicago is a city wholly given to business. It aims and promises to be the New York of the Western States-midway between the capital of California and the great empire city -the grand emporium of traffic for the centre of America in this latitude. The great line of railway through the midst of the country to the Pacific shore has one of its main stations here, and sweeps westwards from that point to San Francisco. In view of the rapid growth and present size of the city, it is hard to conjecture to what portentous bulk it may grow, or what stream of traffic from the boundless west may flow to and through it. The most remarkable thing about it, however, is, that having been originally built upon a level, which exposed it to inundation from the lake, it has been lifted up, one might say bodily, some feet. In some of the streets you see yet evidences of what has been done. The roadway in the centre is lower considerably than the pavements or side-walks, these having been lifted up, and time having not yet sufficed to raise the carriage-road to the same level, if, indeed, it be intended to do so. I believe buildings have been raised and transported in this country, but in Chicago it is quite common. We met a house slowly rolling along the streets, and saw others in process of being lifted. They say it has been done so quietly that, in one case of a hotel, the great building was raised and, I think, removed without interruption of the ordinary avocations of the guests.

[I have let these sentences stand as they were first written, before the tidings reached us of the great conflagration that desolated so large a portion of the city, including the very hotel where we had our temporary home. Little dreamed I, as I wrote this, that so soon afterwards what I had seen of Chicago would be mostly in ashes. Perhaps the rebuilding of the Prairie City will be as memorable as its upraising.]

NATIONAL EDUCATION.*

A WIDE-SPREAD and deepening agitation is at present going on in all the three divisions of the United Kingdom on the absorbing question of National Education. It is to be hoped that some practical result will at length be attained by this protracted excitement and controversy, and that, as the churning of milk bringeth

*We do not hold ourselves responsible for all the statements made in this article by our well-known correspondent. It appears to us that on this subject there should be, at present, liberty of discussion in these pages, as there is difference of opinion in the United Presbyterian Church.-ED. U. P. Mag.

forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood,' so this 'forcing of wrath' and turmoil and trouble may end in bringing forth a sound, liberal, and comprehensive educational measure for Scotland.

With regard to Ireland, it is so far satisfactory to learn that all the manifestoes and pastorals of Cardinal Cullen, and all the fulminations and anathemas of the Romish prelates and priests, have produced as little effect upon the Government as they have done upon the country. Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues assert boldly, and we believe truly, that they have never contemplated any inroad upon the Irish national system, and do not intend, and never did intend, to grant a charter or an endowment to any Popish college or university. They admit, indeed, that, in their opinion, the Irish Roman Catholics have a grievance arising out of their inability to obtain degrees unless they have completed their curriculum in one of the Queen's Colleges, or in Trinity College, Dublin; and that they cannot support Mr. Fawcett's Bill for the reform of the latter institution, because they consider it inadequate to redress this grievance. We mentioned a considerable time ago that we had learned, on the best possible authority, the precise nature of the measure which the Premier really intends to bring forward for the readjustment of the Irish colleges on what he considers an equitable basis. His project of university reform is simply the establishment of a Board entrusted with the exclusive privilege of conducting examinations and conferring degrees. The last number of the Edinburgh Review has put forth a feeler in the shape of an elaborate article recommending the institution of an Irish university on the model of the University of London, which teaches nobody, but tests all, and the withdrawal at the same time of the privilege of granting degrees from the Queen's University, and Trinity College, Dublin. And Mr. Lowe, in his recent speech at Halifax, affirms that 'what the State ought to have to do with the universities is to decide of what the curriculum should consist, or to frame a list of subjects on which the examination should be held.' 'What I mean,' he adds, 'by a university, is an Examining Board.' It is unnecessary to discuss just now the merits or demerits of this scheme-which has long been a favourite project of the Premier—as it has been announced that the Government have resolved (wisely, for their own comfort and safety) not to bring forward any educational measure for Ireland during the present session. But the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College have already, as far as lies in their power, thrown open the fellowships and professorships in their College to qualified persons of all denominations; and they now request the Parliament to confer on them authority to sweep away the last vestige of restriction and sectarianism from the venerable Silent Sister,' as Trinity College used to be denominated. Professor Fawcett has a second time introduced into the House of Commons a Bill to effect this important reform; and whatever course the Ministry may think proper to adopt with regard to this measure, we trust that the friends of liberal education and religious equality will follow the example of the Committee of Synod, and without delay send petitions to Parliament in favour of the Bill.

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There is entire unanimity among Nonconformists in Great Britain and Ireland respecting University education, but there is no small diversity of opinion about the common school system in the latter country, arising mainly out of the extraordinary misapprehension that prevails as to its precise nature. It is constantly dinned into our ears that if the Scotch Education Bill should pass in its present state, it will exercise a most injurious influence on the Irish national system;-that if the Scottish school boards are not prohibited from introducing religious instruction into the national schools,-even at a separate hour, and under the restriction of a time table and a conscience clause,—it will be difficult, if not impossible, to prevent the introduction of Popish instruction into the national schools of Ireland, and (in the words of the Birmingham League) the use of the money of the State and of the ratepayers, Protestants included, for the teaching of distinctive Roman Catholic doctrines in that country.' 'The action of the Government,' the Council of the League further affirm, whether by design or accident, is tending irresistibly towards the concession of all the demands of the Irish Roman Catholic priesthood.' The ignorance of the present state of the Irish schools, which these assertions display, is astounding and highly culpable. The Irish national system, though established by the State,

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and carried on at the expense of the State, was never designed to be a secular system; and though it has undergone various modifications, it is less so now than ever. One of the original rules required the managers to record the attendance of the pupils at public worship on the Lord's day. Selections from the sacred Scriptures were read and explained during the hours devoted to instruction in secular branches; and though these Scripture readings have now been excluded, the ten commandments, together with exhortations to the performance of moral duties, enforced by texts of Scripture, are still suspended on the walls, and made the basis of instruction in these duties; and, above all, at a separate hour, which may either be before the commencement, or at the close, or in the middle of the secular teaching, the doctrines and rites of one or other of the Irish Churches are taught to the children connected with the particular denomination to which the patrons of the school and the teacher belong. There are no school boards and no school rates in Ireland, and scarcely any fees. The income of the schoolmaster is drawn almost wholly from public grants. In what is called the non-vested schools, which form at least 70 per cent. of the whole, the patron, who is almost always the priest, appoints the teacher and dismisses him at his pleasure, without any right of appeal. To the patron it is also left to determine what religious instruction shall be given in the schools, with the restriction merely of a time table and a conscience clause. The consequence is, as the Report of the Royal Commission shows, in 4182 schools out of 6240 in Ireland, national teachers, supported almost entirely by State funds,—in the words of one of the commissioners,- —are required by the priests to teach the Roman Catholic catechism, to exhibit Roman Catholic symbols, and to train their pupils in Roman Catholic practices, as soon as the secular lessons are ended. In the schools under Episcopalian and Presbyterian patrons, nearly 1600 in number, instruction in the distinctive tenets of these Churches is given in the same manner and on the same conditions.' With these facts before them, we leave our readers to form their own opinion of the Council of the League, who have just issued a circular, in which they affirm that 'it only remains for the Government to bring in a Bill establishing a similar system [to that of the Scotch Education Bill] in Ireland, and the education of that country will be placed almost wholly in the hands of the Roman Catholic priesthood, to whom will be entrusted the administration of the money paid out of the imperial exchequer, and of rates levied upon persons of different and hostile religious creeds.' The state of the Education question in England resembles nothing so much as the 'hoary deep' described by Milton, where, amidst anarchy and endless wars and confusion,' hot, cold, moist, and dry strive for mastery, and 'to battle bring their embryo atoms around the flag of each his faction in their several clans.' Rumour and Chance,

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'And Tumult and Confusion all embroil'd,

And Discord with a thousand various mouths.'

We deeply regret to be obliged to admit that for this most unsatisfactory state of matters the English Congregationalists and Baptists are mainly responsible. In the year 1846 they suddenly abandoned the good old Nonconformist position in regard to education, and, in spite of the warnings and entreaties of such ornaments of their body as Drs. Vaughan, Wardlaw, Lindsay-Alexander, and Thomas Binnie, became the violent opponents of all national aid in the work of educating the people. During nearly a quarter of a century they doggedly maintained this isolated position, perversely thwarting every attempt to improve the existing systems, allowing the Established Church to occupy the ground, and, by the utter failure of their own fitful and feeble efforts, proving beyond question the impotence of the boasted willinghood' on which they wished to devolve the onerous task of educating the nation. The introduction of Mr. Forster's Bill in 1870 found the English Dissenters like a rope of sand, without cohesion or unity either of opinions or of aim,—hopelessly divided among themselves, and therefore helpless to promote any common purpose. One influential section of the body, under the direction of Mr. Baines, the quondam Voluntary Education leader,— made terms with the Privy Council Committee, and agreed to accept the muchabused Government grants; another supported unsectarian religious instruction,