And also deny your excuse yourself from the spiritual duties of that season. self those diversions in which at other seasons you may indulge, that you may the more effectually humble yourself for those sins for which our blessed Saviour died to atone ; and no season is so proper to do this in as the time appointed to commemorate his passion. I hope you will qualify yourself to receive the holy sacrament at the age the Church requires, which is as necessary to the life of your soul as food is to your body.* The books I chiefly recommend to your present use are 66 The Winchester Manual," "The Scholar's Manual," "Jenks Devotions," "The Whole Duty of Man," and all the other works by that author; especially the "Lady's Calling," "Scott's Christian Life," and " Kettlewell's Measure of Christian Obedience." God has blessed you with a good understanding, which you are to consider as a talent He expects you to use to his gloryf; which is greatly promoted by a proper behaviour to all you converse with. The meanest person is not only partaker with you in the same common nature, but, which is a much greater tie, one through faith of the same promises in Christ Jesus; speak, therefore, with mildness to the meanest person, to which, if you join gravity, you will always meet with respect. To your equals your conversation should be sincere and obliging; but be very careful how you contract friendships, and when you do, be faithful: but remember, that not only your character in this world, but your happiness in the next, is greatly affected by those you converse with. If it is your lot to be among persons of superior quality, make yourself acceptable by every ingenuous art, with such a respect as your different stations in the world require. But make not your court by departing from those strict rules of life, which, though unfashionable, are in some cases indispensable duties; in others, amongst the things that are most excellent: and we are admonished by the apostle, to proceed from grace to grace till we become perfect in Christ Jesus. But whilst you endeavour to excell in all things praise-worthy, take care you do not, with the Pharisee, lose the reward of all your labour, by vainly overvaluing it; for our blessed Saviour, who best knows the value of our performances, bids us, after we have done all we can, confess ourselves unprofitable servants. If it please God to prolong my life, I shall add what I think may be of further use to you. If not, I commit you to his good providence, to direct and guide your steps in the path of peace.§ I am your affectionate mother, January 1735. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. A PROJECT has been started at Devizes to establish an institution of the above description for the counties of Oxford, Berks, Gloucester and Wilts. The Plan.-It is proposed to found an agricultural college, on an example farm, in some approved spot convenient for the counties of Gloucester, Oxford, Wilts, and Berks,—probably near Cirencester, which was supposed to be a fa * Luke xxii. 19.-1 Cor. xi. 23-28.-John vi. 53, 54. † 1 Peter ii. 17.-Lev. xix. 32.-Rom. xv. 2.-Job xxxi. 15, 16.—Col. iv. 9.— Matt. xxiii. 8.-Rom. xii. 5.—Prov. iv. 24.-Matt. v. 5.-James i. 19, 26.—Prov. xv. 12.-Ephes. iv. 29.-Prov. xi. 30.—James v. 19, 20.—Prov. xix. 20; xxvii. 10. -Prov. xvii. 17, 18, 24; xxii. 24, 25.-Prov. xxv. 6, 7.-Luke xiv 8-11.-Phil. i. 4, 8.-Rom. xiv. 19.-John xv. 18. Eph. iv. 1.-Col. i. 10.-Luke xvii. 10. § Eccles. xii. 13, 14. vourable situation. The capital required would be 12,000/, which they proposed to raise by 400 proprietary shares of 301. each, bearing interest, and each shareholder having the privilege of recommending a pupil. Holders of five shares to be governors. The capital to be applied to the erection of school buildings, improvement of the farm, purchase of the stock, implements, &c. The Farm. It is proposed to purchase or to rent a farm of from 400 to 600 acres. The neighbourhood of Cirencester would be preferred, on account of its central situation, its market, and the railway accommodation. The farm is intended to be laid out in the most convenient manner, aud to be brought into the highest state of tillage. Paid Officers and Assistants on the Farm.-A farmer, a married man will be necessary; and high testimonials of character required. He will be expected to have skill and experience in the management of land, stock, labour, &c., to be adapted to have the sole management of the pupils whilst employed in farm labours; to possess such knowledge of the leading sciences applicable to agriculture, as shall enable him to carry into practice the lessons acquired in the college. Also, in addition, a few paid labourers will be selected, competent to set an example in farm work. The College. It is proposed on or near the farm, to erect a building to acommodate the head master and his family, including the domestic servants, the tutors, and, in the first instance, 100 scholars. The greatest attention will be paid to order, economy and health, in the planning of the building, and in all the arrangements for board and lodging. Paid Officers of the College.-A head master, also a married man, will be selected, who has sufficient knowledge of Chemistry and Geology, or of two of the more important sciences, as well as a general acquaintance with the other subjects taught in the college. In addition, it is probable that two tutors or professors will be requisite: one mathematical, who will teach all that relates to calculation, such as mensuration, book-keeping, mechanics, machinery, &c.: the other, a naturalist, competent to teach what relates to the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Pupils. It is expected that the bulk of the pupils will be the sons of the farmers of the district, on whose account the institution is founded; and it is confidently believed that few, if any, parents or guardians will neglect the high duty of providing the best education in their power for their sons; the only fortune that cannot be taken from them. As the college is not intended for teaching the rudiments of learning, no pupil will be admitted under 14 years of age, and who has not a knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic, and grammar; and if above the age of 16 years, he must produce testimonials that he is of moral habits. No pupil to remain longer than four years. The terms will not be above 301 a year, half to be paid in advance. Instruction and Employment.-Half the day each scholar will be under instruction in the schools. The different sciences that relate to agriculture will be taught by the study of the best works on the subject, and by lectures; in the course of which, experiments, with the aid of good apparatus, will be resorted to. and the pupils will participate in the manual part, so as to familiarize them with the analysis and study of soils, &c The other half of the day will be employed on the farm in the works of husbandry, making and registering trials of implements, practical experiments, &c.; also in a common and botanic garden; so that half the pupils will be always in the school, and half on the farm or garden; and the whole be accompanied by such good precept, example, and regulations, as shall conduce, with God's blessing, to the formation of fixed religious and moral habits. Religious Instruction.—The religious instruction of the pupils will be strictly scriptural, and be conducted by a member of the established church; and every possible arrangement will be made to meet the wishes of those parents who, not being members of that church, shall send their sons to this establishment. Poetry. "Oft as I see the moon at night It seems God's church, and saints in light, Is our own Lord-the Holy One- Q. What meanest thou by this word Sacrament? O teach me, holy Love; And all which in that word is meant, It is the outward sign Of grace which then is given, Hymns on the Catechism (Burns). The Editor's Portfolio. INDIGENCE NOT OFTEN FOUND IN COMPANY WITH GOOD EDUCATION. Of all obstacles to improvement ignorance is the most formidable, because the only true secret of assisting the poor is to make them agents in bettering their own condition, and to supply them, not with a temporary stimulus, but with a permanent energy. As fast as the standard of intelligence is raised, the poor become more and more able to co-operate in any plan proposed for their advantage, and more likely to listen to any reasonable suggestion, and more able to understand, and therefore more willing to pursue it. Hence it follows, that when gross ignorance is once removed, and right principles are introduced, a great advantage has been already gained against squalid poverty. Many avenues to an improved condition are open to one whose faculties are enlarged and exercised; he sees his own interest more clearly, he pursues it more steadily, and he does not study immediate gratification at the expense of bitter and late repentance, or mortgage the labour of his future life without an adequate return. Indigence, therefore, will rarely be found in company with good education.— Bishop of Chester's Record of Creation. * Exodus, c. xiii, v. 21. † Acts, c. ii, v. 3. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION CANNOT BEGIN TOO EARLY. It accords well with the holy custom of our Church, derived from apostolic times, to initiate even infants into the communion of Christ, in order that the first dawnings of intellect may be visited with those thoughts and notions which become a christian: and that their corrupt nature may almost imperceptibly contract purer habits and principles than the world would impart to them. I speak not now of that spiritual influence which accompanies the baptismal rite, and which doubtless aids all the operations of man towards his improvement; but the solemn dedication of infants to God, even before reason is developed, is a practice which seems to call for that early discipline in God's word, which is the object of these [Church] Schools to administer, as a suitable and even necessary sequel to their initiation into the Church.-Bishop Coplestone. GOOD NURTURE BETTER THAN GOOD LAWS. Albeit good laws have always been reputed the nerves or ligaments of humane society, yet are they no way comparable in their effects to the rules of good nurture; for it is in civil as it is in natural plantations, where young tender trees (though subject to the injuries of air, and the danger even of their own inflexibility) would yet little want any under-propping and shorings, if at first they were well fastened in the root.-Reliquia Wottoniana. Extracts from Charges. THE FACTORY BILL.-COMBINED SYSTEM. I for one rejoice at its withdrawal. At the first proposal it seemed more than questionable; afterwards it became still less to be desired: and we may now be satisfied that we have cause to be thankful that it has been laid aside. I trust it will never be renewed; and have seen with great pleasure that some who are foremost in the question have declared themselves against any new experiments of combined education. My reasons are, first, because any such scheme of general education would probably end in withdrawing from the church the education of the English people, and in transferring, at some future day, her schools, teachers, trainingcolleges, and the whole matériel of education to such hands as may from time to time hold the powers of government. This appears to be the inevitable, though perhaps remote, consequence of establishing a system such as that lately proposed. That scheme gave such an apparent prominence to the church, as to excite from opponents the objection, that it was simply a system of church education. Had it been carried into effect, it is not to be supposed that it would have been ultimately confined to the factory districts: still less is it to be believed that two systems of church education should long co-exist. The one would in time absorb the other; and the ultimate control of both, including, it may be, even the diocesan machinery, &c., would pass into the hands of such ministers as might hereafter, from time to time, by the variable fortunes of political life, compose the committee of Privy Council. This involves a principle not to be so easily conceded. If education be essentially a religious work, as it is at length fully acknowledged to be, it does not readily appear where the church can find a tribunal upon earth to dispense with her obligations to educate her own children. If education be the parental office, guided by the pastoral ministry, I know of no authority that can release the parents and pastors from their joint charge, and empower them to devolve their office upon any other agents, howsoever efficient or forward to undertake it. And this brings me to a second reason. We are indebted to those who have chiefly obtained the withdrawal of the clauses in question, for establishing, by a counterproof, what has been so strongly urged by the church in the last few years, I mean the absolute impossibility, in the present state of the country, of framing any scheme of education, touching upon religion at all, which shall include the children of those who are of separate and opposing communions. It is impossible to compromise the distinctive characters of those religious systems; and their distinctive characters, energetically repel all approaches to united action. It has been a kindly belief, in which I have never participated, that some neutral ground might be discovered—some common precinct-within which their characteristic religious diversities should be unfelt. But surely it must be obvious, that religious tenets are the earnest and stirring notives which emphatically govern the whole character. They include all minor differences, and perpetuate them. If men will not worship at the same altar, is it to be thought they will entrust their children to the same religious education? Surely, we should think less well of them if they would. Laxity is a thing worthy of no respect: rather, it is worthy of all condemnation. When men are irreconcilably divided in the highest article of conscience and duty, a willingness to compromise in detail, or in the persons of their children, is no sign of good. It is a poor evidence of reality and earnestness; and of all things most intolerable is laxity, and indifference in matters which relate to God. Little good could be hoped from a people in whom their religious faith had no deeper or more clinging root; therefore, I think, there is encouragement to be drawn even from the stubbornness of our contending principles. It bespeaks zeal and energy, and a strong perception of the greatness of the cause about which we are contending. If we are ever again united, this is a pledge of a close and tenacious unity: a lax people must always be divided. Now the discussion of 1839 proved, once for all, that no system of education can be established in this country, which is not based on religion, and presided over by the church. And the discussion of this year has made equally clear, that no measure, fulfilling these two conditions, will satisfy those that are in separation from our communion. The conclusion, then, is plain, that no combined system of education is practicable. From a charge by the Venerable Archdeacon Manning. CATECHISING. It is therefore a narrow and shallow view to conceive that the clergy are, in virtue of office, charged with the details of schools and parochial education. With the duty of parochial catechising the clergy are fully and exclusively charged; and it is their function and privilege, as spiritual guides to their flocks, to visit, inspect, and promote the welfare of all schools and systems of education within their parishes. But, clear as this is in principle, let us never forget that the question of education must become ultimately a masked form of the question of the pastoral office of the church; for what is it but the unfolding of the baptismal life in her spiritual children? It is impossible that the education of a country should be in the hands of one power, and the pastoral ministry in the hands of another. Though distinct, they are inseparable; and if the pastoral ministry do not draw to itself the work of education, and superintend it, schemes of education will assimilate to themselves the pastoral office, and undermine it, by limiting the action of its catechetical teaching within the range of what is acceptable to a divided population. There are two points which may be laid down as certain: first, that the hearts of the people of England in the next generation are now to be lost and won in the area of our parish schools; and next, that the education of the country will ultimately fall into the hands of that community which has the best and most efficient teachers. Let the church, then, make her contribution to this work; and, as an earnest, let us give the careful instruction of 14,000 or 15,000 catechists—a contribution which needs no grants of public money, no lists of private subscriptions. We possess it already. The clergy of England are the catechists of England; and this is the true basis of all national education in this country. Any scheme which thwarts or en |