not the only one that has claims of this nature on the Church. On the contrary, there are perhaps none to whose education its attention requires more to be directed, than to that portion of our Middle class, on which, more than any other, the welfare of the bulk of our population depends.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this section of our countrymen. It consists of the chief employers of labour, the principal owners of our cheaper tenements, the persons who are in close and constant contact with our labourers and artisans. They are the men who fill our municipal and parochial offices, who control our vestries, who return our representatives to Parliament; who thus have more influence than any others, in promoting or preventing improvement. As guardians of our poor, as wardens of our churches, as mixed up officially in many ways with the clergy, they ought to be the stay and life of the English Church. But in numerous instances they are the men who uphold and feed dissent.

The reason is, they are just the class to whose education the Church for long has paid the least attention. It educates the poor; it educates the aristocracy; it does not educate the class of which I speak. And therefore in all that really constitutes education —in moral culture, in knowledge of Scripture, in religious training, in depth and breadth of view, in sense of duty-they are, it may be feared, as far as the Church is concerned, the most neglected part of the community.

And in the conviction of many

more conversant with the subject than myself, their education is the most unsatisfactory of all. Certain branches of instruction, mainly prized by the trading community, it of course imparts. But in other respects it is pronounced by competent authority to be inferior to that which may be obtained in many of our national schools (86). It is utterly wanting in the elements which distinguish our public schools. Its religious teaching and training are radically defective. While on matters affecting the principles and interests of the National Church, it is more wanting than in any other particular.

And hence the defects by which the class of which I speak, is commonly characterised-its inadequate information and prejudice on religious subjects-its vulgar worship of wealth as wealth-its depreciated standard of commercial morality-its self-sufficiency in judging of important questions, and yet the facility with which it is duped by shallow pretensions, and religious and political impostures-its want of power to appreciate depth of thought and real superiority in a teacher—while it is caught by sham and glitter, by a loud voice, and an imposing manner, and a fluent tongue.

There are, doubtless, private schools for the middle class, which are well and ably conducted. But it is to be feared, that the most pretentious and the least efficient are generally most in vogue (87). And the fact that these schools are in many instances the speculations of persons utterly unfit to be entrusted with

the education of youth, and mere educational adventurers, is undeniable. Added to which, they are without the guarantee afforded by the inspection of either the Government or the Church.

The matter, it will be admitted, is one of very great importance, and affecting in many ways the social and religious interests of this country. And happily it is beginning to attract general attention. Some good Middle schools have been already founded; and in these, at a moderate expense, the best education is afforded, and gratifying reports as to their acceptance and success are received (88).

I cannot quit this portion of my subject, without adverting to the little benefit conferred by many of the old Educational Foundations on the class, for whose use they were primarily intended. The decay and practical inutility into which many of these have fallen is, indeed, alike deplorable and disgraceful.

Thus it is in evidence, that many of our Endowed Schools are utterly ineffective for the purposes of education that they are characterised by general dulness and want of life: that they are almost without exception, more or less abused: that they are obstacles to advance and improvement in education. A well known Dean, when under examination before a Parliamentary Commission, described the endowed schools with which he was acquainted, "as generally speaking, unmitigated evils." A Bishop under similar circumstances, declared "that they are

the curse of his diocese." An Inspector of Schools represents the masters "as too frequently appointed with no regard to their qualifications for the duties. they have to render, and as, in every sense of the term, unfitted for the situations which they hold,— as in some instances, the halt, the maimed, the drunken, the idiotic" (89).

Even when not so abused, many of the Endowed Schools in England have been diverted altogether from their original intention, and rendered lucrative to the few, rather than beneficial to the community at large. They have not been made, as they should have been, good Middle schools; they have effected next to nothing for the education of our yeomanry and tradesmen; they have not leavened, as they might have done, the commercial mind of the country. And it has been with many a matter of regret, and been used by others as an argument against the principle of educational endowments,-that foundations with such important trusts and such large capabilities should, through neglect and mal-administration, have generally proved so inefficient, and productive of so little good.

It must, of course, be admitted, that there are not wanting honourable exceptions; and that some of our endowed schools have proved in every day seminaries of sound and useful learning. And it is gratifying to know that efforts are at present being made in many places to resuscitate and restore them to their original and proper use,-in which endeavour it is

to be hoped the Charity Commissioners will render their valuable assistance,-as the Universities, as far as in them lies, seem disposed to do (90).

But I would urge on any of my younger brethren who may be disposed for a time to undertake the duties of tuition whether the revival of these old foundations might not be an object having claims upon themselves.

That the work of education is one to which those who have an aptitude for it may legitimately consecrate their gifts, will be denied by no one. Yet it behoves men to look to their motives for selecting this particular field of labour. It undoubtedly has baits for the ambitious and the worldly. It offers a more easy and direct path than parochial services to the highest dignities of the Church, and is much more lucrative than the cure of souls. To a cultivated mind it is also more attractive than ministra

tions amongst the poor and illiterate. And therefore in our marts of commerce, and crowded districts, and remote rural hamlets, the clergy are crying out that help is not to be had from our Universities,

that the best educated, and the best bred of our youth shrink from spheres where they are most wanted, and prefer lighter and more profitable work.

I would, therefore, ask of any who are disposed to exercise their gifts in teaching-whether to educate the lower rank of our middle class; to raise the intellectual, moral, and religious tone of our agricultural and trading community; to make of our