almost as easy of attainment, to say nothing of Scripture readerships, which solicit their acceptance.

And, lastly, we venture (we assure them with affectionate respect) to address one word of counsel to the Clergy. Education is the fever of the times. Even good men speak as though it were the long-wanted panacea for all our ills. The Clergyman is most applauded who is most diligent, or, however, most successful, in his schools. He may neglect his study; he may be dry and sapless in his pulpit; he may, of course, (for this may always be the case whatever his pursuits,) neglect prayer and meditation; in short, he may be in heart and soul secular, and in name only a minister of Christ; and yet, if zealous in this work of education, applauses and preferment shall await him. If, on the contrary, he will not sink the minister in the schoolmaster, nor merge the greater office in the less important one, he may look for little favour at the hands of those with whom patronage and honours are supposed to lie. The temptation is powerful. Many of our brethren feel it keenly and resist it; some are hurried down the stream, piteously protesting against the hard necessity which compels them to build schools, beg obsequiously for guineas, and correct bad spelling and sum's incorrigibly wrong in Practice and the Rule of Three, during the best years of a life which has been solemnly dedicated to far nobler ends, even "the seeking of Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad, and His children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ for ever." The most difficult of all our trials are those which present themselves under the aspect of conflicting duties. Much, no doubt, is due to the claims of Education; but how much more to the claims of the study and the pulpit, and of the directly spiritual work of the ministry! Whatever interferes with these is surely to be viewed with suspicion, as an intrusion upon our proper work. The figtree will not give up its sweetness, nor the vine its fruit, even to be king over the brambles; and the true minister of Jesus Christ will not impoverish his own soul and his people's souls, to promote the education of the boys and girls even of his poorer parishioners.

While we are writing, a Letter of Instructions, addressed by the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of Popular Education, to their Assistant Commissioners, has been printed by authority. It is too important to be hastily discussed, and we dismiss it for the present with the single remark, that it seems to us to breathe a larger and a wiser spirit than has hitherto generally marked the proceedings of the Privy Council. We shall probably have occasion to return to the subject, for it is one in which Evangelical Churchmen are deeply interested, and, owing to the multitude and variety of our duties, but imperfectly informed.

For the present we conclude. In a well-ordered parochial

family, Education is the handmaid, and not the mistress. Subservient to a faithful ministry, she may be made highly useful. Allowed to govern, and to assume an equal importance with the ministry of the Word, she is out of her proper place, and, like all intruders, meddling and offensive. Rightly managed and well controled, she does good service. The Minutes of 1856-7, (p. 422,) contain an admirable illustration of this, in the account of the Kidsgrove Church of England Schools. They were opened in 1839, by the proprietor, Thomas Kinnersley, Esq., in a district of extensive collieries. A church was built about the same time, and the district was placed under the care of the Rev. F. (now Prebendary) Wade. We knew something of Kidsgrove before either church or schools existed; and England did not then present a spot more lawless, more barbarous, and more degraded. The Kidsgrove men were the terror and by-word of the neighbourhood. Whatever Wesley or Whitefield have related of the Kingswood colliers a hundred years ago, was true of the colliers of Kidsgrove, in the North of Staffordshire. The parish church was far remote and seldom entered. The colliers, occupying a bleak and dreary district, were seldom visited by the traveller, and seemed to lie beyond the bounds of civilized England. They were truly a land to which the words of the Prophet might have been applied: "A land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought and of the shadow of death; a land that no man passed through." Their profanity was horrible. The Sunday was generally spent by the miners in sloth or riot, varied by a dog-fight or a pitched-battle; and in the latter, not unfrequently women were the combatants! The change that has taken place is marvellous. "The Schools are now quite crowded, and the great difficulty is to find accommodation for the children." Drunkenness " very seldom occurs." Instances of female immorality are "very rare." Crimes of which the law takes cognizance have absolutely ceased. "Not an instance can be produced of a child, educated at Kidsgrove Daily School since its formation in 1839, having been convicted as a felon." The Superintendent of Police reports, in August, 1856: "There has been no committal (from Kidsgrove) for trial, since June, 1851, except a railway servant, and his offence was committed on the line." Mr. Wade, in making his report, modestly attributes much of the improvement to the sound education which, "under the salutary influence of the Committee of Council on Education," has been provided, and says nothing of his own ministerial labours. But a far higher principle has been at work, underlying the whole process of educational improvement. The Gospel has been faithfully preached. The Church has been, under God, the moving power; the Schools have been subservient. Itis here, as elsewhere, "the glorious Gospel of the Blessed God," which has infused vitality into the parochial district and all its institutions. And the people themselves are conscious of this, and gratefully

acknowledge it. "On the fifteenth anniversary of their church, they presented their kind benefactor and his lady, the former with a Bible mounted in solid gold, and the latter with a costly bracelet." "Every Sunday the church is crowded with a congregation of the working class; most devout and attentive in their manner, and all respectably clothed." "Many persons," adds Mr. Wade, "who remember what the appearance was twenty years since, are struck with amazement; and it is amongst the young men that this change is most wonderful and apparent."

The purse of a wealthy proprietor is not, it is true, always open; and even the cordial co-operation of the neighbouring Squire is not always to be had. Many of our clerical readers will envy, as they read, even the hard task which seemed to be imposed, some fiveand-twenty years ago, on the new incumbent of Kidsgrove. They will feel that they have to carry the same burden, but, alas! without the same assistance. Yet their work, though difficult, may be accomplished; and the Head of the Church himself will grant the sympathy which man withholds.

PORTRAITURE OF A GREAT ENGLISH KING. I.-IN CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

THE most successful book of the present year has been Mr. Carlyle's Life of "Frederick the Great," of which, though an expensive work, a large edition was sold off in less than two months. We are not, at present, about to enter upon the consideration of its merits; but we wish to remark, that the habit of admiring, or of presenting for unqualified admiration, such characters as those of Frederick, or Napoleon, or Charles V., or Louis XIV., is one which must have an injurious effect upon the reader's mind. It is a "calling evil, good; and good, evil;" and it cannot be indulged without an inevitable deterioration of the moral sense.

Nor can we help calling to mind, when pondering over such phrases as "Frederick the Great," or "the Great Hohenzollern," that though England has not been accustomed to glorify her kings, like some continental states, with the high-sounding titles of "the Great," "the Wise," or "the Magnificent," she has had some sovereigns who could well bear comparison with the whole royalty of Europe. And we feel inclined to depict one of these, both because it will introduce a portion of history which is little known, and also because, after the

"Meanness that soars, and pride that licks the dust,"

of most of those who are called "Great," it is both refreshing and instructive to contemplate, for a few moments, the character

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of a man who was both good and wise, valiant and prudent, noble and true; an exemplary son, husband, and father; a model for kings;-and all this, in a period of thick darkness; such as to make it wonderful that, out of such gloom, so bright a character should have shined.

It was in the thirteenth century that the Papacy reached its zenith. When Innocent III. could direct the armies of half Europe against the unhappy Albigeois;-when the crown of England was laid at the feet of the papal legate ;-and when an edict of the Pope imposed a tax upon every beneficed clergyman in England, of one-third of his income, if resident, and of one-half, if non-resident, there remained surely little more for him who styled himself "God's Vicegerent" to attempt: Europe was already his vassal and bondslave.

Yet out of this state of darkness-"darkness which might be felt"-it pleased God, at the same moment, to produce England's greatest prelate and England's greatest king. Making the necessary allowances for the thick gloom which surrounded them, we may name Grossetete Bishop of Lincoln, and the first EDWARD, as at least two of the greatest, if not the greatest, men that England has ever seen. And how wondrous the fact of their simultaneous appearance at such a moment! But the sacred records furnish one case not less remarkable. Young Josiah was brought up in the most revolting idolatry. Demon altars had been reared up even within the temple of the Lord. The Word of God had been utterly lost; and its recovery was an event especially recorded. Yet, in the midst of such gloom as this, God raised up a prince, of whom his own Word declares that "like him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart; neither after him arose there any like him." Equally surprising is it to find, in the grandson of the lewd and despicable John, and the son of the weak and miniongoverned Henry III., a king of whom old Camden says, that "in his gallant soul the Spirit of God made His abode."

Since the days of Edward the Confessor, England had groaned under the yoke of foreign rulers. Conquered by one Duke of Normandy, it continued to be held as a possession by several succeeding dukes. From Normandy came Rufus in 1087, Stephen in 1135, Henry II. in 1154, Richard I. in 1190, and John in 1199. Most of these were born, and all were educated there; and four out of seven kings were in Normandy when death overtook them.

The Saxons had peopled England; the Normans aimed at nothing more than holding it as a possession. Its language was unknown to them; its laws, customs, and manners were held in the greatest contempt. The Conqueror gave to his followers large possessions in all parts of the country, and relied on their zeal for maintaining, by force or by skilful management, the public tranquillity. Hume remarks, that "to Hugh de

Abrincis he gave the whole county of Chester; to the Earl of Mortaigne, 973 manors; to the Earl of Brittany, 442; to Odo, 439; to Earl Warrenne, 298, besides 28 towns or hamlets; to Roger Bigod, 123; to Roger Mortimer, 132; to Geoffry de Mandeville, 118; to Richard de Clare, 171; to Baldwin de Ridvers, 164; to Henry de Ferrers, 222; to William de Percy, 119; to Robert Earl of Eu, 119; to Robert de Stafford, 138;but it is needless to prolong such a catalogue. And these captains soon began to build, for the security of their own power, strong castles in every part of the land. "England," continues the historian, "was filled with these fortresses; which the nobles garrisoned with their vassals, or with licentious soldiers, who flocked to them from all quarters. Unbounded rapine was exercised on the people for the maintenance of these troops; and England was one scene of violence and devastation."

successors.

It was natural that the Saxon population of England should feel discontent and irritation under such treatment; and should look back with regret to the days of Alfred and his Anglo-Saxon It was with a view to meet this popular craving, that Henry I., the third of the Norman kings, took great pains, and broke through many obstacles, to effect a marriage with Matilda, the niece of Edgar Atheling, the last male representative of the Saxon line. Hume adds,-"No act of the king's reign rendered him equally popular with his English subjects, or tended more to establish him on the throne. The people felt so severely the tyranny of the Normans, that they reflected with extreme regret on their former liberty: and hoped for a more equal and mild administration, when the blood of their native princes should be mingled with that of their new sovereigns."

But a single step of this kind could not do much to ameliorate the condition of the people, or to tranquillize the realm. Henry, and his successor Stephen, Henry II., and Richard, were altogether Norman in their feelings, prejudices, and conduct; and the castles of the Norman knights and barons still frowned over the country like so many fortified camps of hostile invaders.

A momentary hope sprang up with Henry III. Born at Winchester, and chiefly resident among the English, the influence of Normandy began to be less sensibly felt in the regal court. But his reign proved to be only a period of transition. The king, not Norman at heart, was still not English. Marrying the daughter of the Count of Provence, a wide door was opened for a new irruption of foreign adventurers, coming now from the South, as their predecessors had come from the North, of what, in modern times, we call France. A Savoyard prelate, uncle to the queen, became Prime Minister; Boniface of Savoy became Archbishop of Canterbury; and Peter of Savoy obtained other rich appointments. Maternal relations of the king came over