No. XX.

EDUCATION OF THE POOR IN SCOTLAND.

BY y an act of the King (James VI.) and privy Council of the 10th December, 1616, it was recommended to the bishops to deale and travel with the heritors, (land proprietors) and inhabitants of the several parishes in their respective dioceses, towards the fixing upon "some "certain, solid, and sure course" for settling and entertaining a school* in each parish. This was ratified by a statute of Charles I. (in the year 1633), which empowered the Bishop, with the consent of the heritors of a parish, or of a majority of the inhabitants, if the heritors refused to attend the meeting, to assess every plough of land (that is farm in propor tion to the number of ploughs upon it) with a certain sum for establishing a school. This was an ineffectual provision, as depending on the consent and pleasure of the heritors and inhabitants. Therefore a new order of things

every

• Reports, No. CXXVIII,

was introduced by an act passed in 1646, which obliges the heritors and minister of each parish to meet and assess the several heritors with the requisite sum for building a school house, and to elect a schoolmaster, and modify a salary for him in all time to come. The salary is ordered not to be under one hundred, nor above two hundred merks, that is, in our present sterling money, not under 5l. 11s. 11⁄2d. nor above 111. 2s. 3d.; and the assessment is to be laid on the land, in the same proportion as it is rated for the support of the clergy, and as it regulates the payment of the land tax, But in case the heritors of any parish, or the majority of them, should fail to discharge this duty, then the persons forming what is called the Committee of Supply of the county, (consisting of the principal landholders), or any five of them, are authorized by the statute to impose the assessment instead of them, on the representation of the presbytery in which the parish is situated. To secure the choice of a proper teacher, the right of election of the heritors, by a statute passed in the year 1693, is made subject to the review and controul of the presbytery of the district; who have the examination of the person proposed, committed to them, both as to

his qualifications as a teacher, and as to his proper deportment in the office when settled in it. The election of the heritors is therefore for the appro

only a presentment of a person, bation of the presbytery: who, if they find him unfit, may declare his incapacity, and thus oblige them to elect anew.

The legal salary of the schoolmaster was not inconsiderable at the time it was fixed; but by the decrease in the value of money, it is now certainly inadequate to its object; and it is painful to observe, that the landholders of Scotland resisted the humble application of the schoolmasters to the legislature for its increase a few years ago. The number of parishes in Scotland is 877; and if we allow the salary of a schoolmaster in each to be, on an average, seven pounds sterling,* the amount of the legal provision will be 61397. sterling. If we suppose the wages paid by the scholars to amount to twice this sum, which is probably beyond the truth, the total of the expenses among 1,526,492 persons, (the whole population of Scotland,) of this most important establishment, will be 18,4177. But on this, as well as on

This is now increased to more than double the former amount. See p. 265.

S

other subjects respecting Scotland, accurate information may soon be expected from Sir John Sinclair's Analysis of his Statistics, which will complete the immortal monument he has reared to his patriotism.

The benefit arising in Scotland from the in struction of the poor, was soon felt; and by an act of the British parliament, 4 Geo. I. chap. vi. it is enacted, "that of the monies arising from the sale of the Scottish estates forfeited in the rebellion of 1715, 20,000l. sterling shall be converted into a capital stock, the interest of which shall be laid out in erecting and maintaining schools in the Highlands.” The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge,* incorporated in 1709, have applied a large part of their fund for the same purpose. By their report, 1st May, 1795, the annual sum employed by them, in supporting their schools in the Highlands and Islands, was 39137. 19s. 10d. in which are taught the English language,

* "The want" (says the judicious Hooker), "of the knowledge of God, is the cause of all iniquity amongst men, as contrariwise, the ground of all our happiness, and the seed of whatsoever perfect virtue groweth from us, is a right opinion touching things divine.-For the instruction therefore of all sorts of men to eternal life, it is necessary that the sacred and saving truths of God be openly published to them." 5. 8.

reading and writing, and the principles of religion. The schools of the Society are additional to the legal schools, which, from the great extent of many of the Highland parishes, were found insufficient. Resides these established schools, the lower classes of the people in Scotland, where the parishes are large, often combine together, and establish private schools of their own, at one of which it was that Burns received the principal part of his education. So convinced indeed are the poor people of Scotland, by experience, of the benefit of instruction to their children, that though they may often find it difficult to feed and clothe them, some kind of school instruction they almost always procure them.

1st May, 1800.