482 The Four- Nations. [MAY, 



riority of the lower and middle classes of the Scots, in point of education, 

 intellectual powers, and capacity for rising in the world, is mainly to be 

 attributed ; and as long as the contest for the church livings shall remain 

 between peasant and peasant, and as long as the preference shall be given 

 to the cringing tutor over the independent student and manly youth, so long 

 will Scotland retain a means of education more general, more efficient, 

 more pure, less expensive, and less liable to imposition or abuse, than can 

 be devised in a country where the church holds out allurements to the 

 aristocracy. 



In these observations I have not thought it necessary to enter into any 

 estimate of the comparative value of education at the respective colleges in 

 the three great divisions of the United Kingdom ; neither have I thought it 

 necessary to make any particular allusion to the principality of Wales 

 because that portion of the island does not differ much from the neighbour- 

 ing parts of England in this respect. The public schools and colleges of 

 England have the same exclusive and aristocratic character which belongs 

 to the candidates for the church. Their system, followed out and attended 

 to, produces very neat and very elegant scholarship ; but it is scholarship 

 for the chosen few, and not for the people generally ; and if you are to 

 have a young man completely educated there, you must provide both pupil 

 and teacher. All this demands an expense in the first instance, and an object 

 of reward in the ultimate vista, which takes it out of the national cha- 

 racter, and confine it within narrow limits. The system of the Scottish 

 colleges is more limited as to knowledge of particular subjects; but it is 

 more rapid in the acquisition, more stimulating in the progress, and what 

 is of infinitely greater importance in a practical point of view it is far 

 less costly. There are some paltry distinctions between those who pay 

 single and those who pay double fees ; but the price of this honour is only 

 a few pounds, and it is so odious, and confined to so limited a number, that 

 the distinction, and any preference that might be obtained from it, are 

 soon lost. From the temperate habits of the boys, too, and the inferior 

 price of every thing connected with education, a young man may attend the 

 general classes at one of these colleges, including fees and board, for a sum 

 not exceeding '200 for his whole education ; and, if he be a young man 

 of ability, he may contend publicly for a bursary, which may produce him 

 more than a third of this sum ; while, by teaching during the vacation, 

 and by being tutor to a richer dunce during the terms, he may not only 

 make up the whole of the remainder, but absolutely save money while he 

 is acquiring his education. As to the making of a bishop, an attorney- 

 general, a judge, or a prime minister, these would be but small considera- 

 tions ; but, in a national point of view, and as they tend to form and 

 influence the character of the people, and give them a love of education and 

 a turn for thinking, they are very great indeed. The general doctrine, 

 that the highest price procures the best commodity, is not true in as far 

 as education is concerned ; for it is not only in the inverse ratio (taking its 

 general utility) of the price that is paid for it but it is in the inverse ratio 

 of what is done by the tutor ; and, under whatever form it may appear, 

 the water of knowledge which a young man driuksat the fountain for him- 

 self, is far more invigorating than if it were brought for him in an earthern 

 pitcher, of the most classic mould, and the most ample size. 



The University of Dublin combines some of the leading advantages of 

 the English and tho .Scotch. The system of education, and more esnecially 

 the scholarship at it, is more profound than the latter ; and it is much 



