1830.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



211 



Kenneth was one by birth. Under one of 

 his successors, a third Kenneth, were sub- 

 dued the dominions of Strathclyde, or, at 

 least, rendered tributary, for, apparently, 

 they were governed by their own chiefs 

 still. 



Till the age of Malcolm Crean Mohr, 

 son of the e gracious Duncan,' little can be 

 made of a continuous story ; but with him 

 begins a new and a permanent interest. 

 There are no more gaps of any considera- 

 ble dimensions. Malcolm married Edgar 

 Atheling's sister, which connected him 

 with an English party, which, though a 

 discomfited one, had some influence on the 

 fortunes of Scotland. His court became by 

 degrees the common refuge of the discon- 

 tented, not only of the Saxons, but of the 

 Normans, many of whom, by him and his 

 successors, were retained by feudal grants. 

 The daughter of this Malcolm was married 

 to Henry I. of England, and his son David 

 volunteered a defence of his niece, Matilda, 

 but proved unfortunate at Northallerton. 

 The connection with the Normans was kept 

 up by nearly all the successors of Malcolm 

 till Alexander III., at which time all the 

 chiefs of the Lowlands at least were actually 

 Normans ; and on the death of his grand- 

 daughter, the maid of Norway, nearly all 

 the competitors for the crown were Norman 

 both Baliol and Bruce were so. The 

 story of the Bruce is, of course, told con 

 amore ; and, indeed, the whole narrative, to 

 the succession of the Stewarts, is fondly and 

 warmly told, and possesses more interest, and 

 is altogether more readable, than it has ever 

 been made before. The volume concludes 

 with the Field of Flodden, and the death of 

 the fourth James. 



Dr. Biber' s Lectures', 1830 We know 

 nothing of Dr. Biber more than he tells us. 

 He is a German, it seems, who has long 

 resided in England, and considers it as his 

 country. He writes the language of Eng- 

 land well too idiomatically, indeed, for the 

 writing to be all his "own and he has looked 

 upon English society, in its several gra- 

 dations and classes, with the eye of a philo- 

 sopher, sternly trying them, not by any arti- 

 ficial criterion, but by the inflexible princi- 

 ples of common sense and common equity, 

 enlightened by revealed religion. He is a 

 most unflinching and unsparing person ; he 

 makes no compromisings ; he tells what to 

 him seems the truth, and he tells it plainly 

 and eloquently, in full confidence that plain 

 truth can do no harm, and must, first or 

 last, work useful effects. The Lectures 

 were delivered to public audiences in town, 

 and are stated to have been given extempo- 

 rarily not, of course, without due prepara- 

 tion and subsequently written from notes 

 taken by a friend, which process probably 

 contributed very materially to the perfect 

 English of them. The subject of them is 

 Education, and, specifically, Christian edu- 

 cation, which the author finds to be univer- 



sally neglected in all existing systems, 

 whether for rich or poor. The thing which 

 is wanting through the whole of society, 

 and which, to be at all effective, must 

 begin and co-operate with education, is 

 influential religion not a religion for the 

 brain, but for the heart not the incul- 

 cation of doctrines, but the controlling of 

 conduct not catechisms and creeds, but a 

 permanent stirring of the conscience. 



Dr. Biber is of no church or sect ; he is 

 a Christian, neither indifferent, nor tolerant 

 of indifference, but earnest to excite and 

 extend a feeling for religion that shall 

 really operate upon the actions of its pro- 

 fessors. He would influence the education 

 of youth, not by emulation, by ambition, by 

 the hope of reward, but by the love of 

 knowledge by a deep sense of the obliga- 

 tion upon them to cultivate all their powers 

 by obedience to the commands of Scrip- 

 ture. Upon parents he would enforce their 

 duties towards their children more than 

 their rights over them, and presses upon 

 them the necessity of directing education 

 more according to the abilities and qualities 

 of their children, than, as is universally 

 done, according to the station and circum- 

 stances of the family. He would good 

 man ! banish vanity from among the motives 

 which operate upon parents in the education 

 of their offspring. He would gladly see 

 broken up among children those distinctions 

 which depend upon the father's acres, 

 and dwells with delighted recollection 

 on schools in Germany, where the sons 

 of the noble, and his tenant, or his tailor, 

 learn and eat together. The right, or rather 

 the duty, of superintending education, falls 

 naturally upon the parents ; but if they 

 neglect, society must not it is equally the 

 duty of society to supply such neglect. It 

 is the duty of society to see that all its 

 members are educated, and that, not accord- 

 ing to their rank or station, but their capa- 

 cities and tendencies, and to the fullest 

 extent. It is not only the duty, which, 

 however, he chiefly insists upon, but the 

 advantage of society to do so for what is 

 the consequence of neglecting it, but a 

 mass of population bred up to plunder and 

 prey upon the rest ? Dr. Biber doubts not 

 the actual losses incurred by the wealthy in 

 this way would more than cover the expences 

 attending upon general and complete edu- 

 cation. But the quantum of expence he 

 disdains to calculate it is the first obliga- 

 tion of society, involved in the profession of 

 Christianity, to look to the well-being and 

 cultivation of all its members. 



Well, but has not society, within these 

 few years, effectually bestirred itself for this 

 purpose has it not actually instituted 

 schools of one kind or other, in which not 

 fewer than a million receive instruction ? 

 Yes; bat probably a million more share 

 none of these advantages. Advantages, 

 too, Dr. Biber would exclaim, -+- I have 

 looked close into these schools ; I can trace 



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