his liberty at the stake. His answer eighty and six years have I now served Christ, and how can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?" Now to make these accounts consistent, he must have been born a Christian, and then what becomes of his conversion by St. John, which I suppose to be meant, when it is said in the note above mentioned, that he was a disciple" of that apostle?

The question which I have thus agitated, may appear to many to be of slight importance. But on such a subject nothing is trifling, and the authority of Polycarp, as an Apostolical Father, is so frequently appealed to, that no apology can be necessary for such a discussion in a work like your's. In reading the Fathers, it is allowed, that the meaning of their expressions and the value we should attach to them, depend much on the age in which they lived; and I shall hope, that some one of your correspondents, who has more leisure, more ability, and better opportunities than myself, will let us know the true state of the case.

Your's, &c.

CANTAB.

SCHOOLS FOR ALL.

To the Editor of the Remembrancer. SIR,

I HAVE, on a former occasion, addressed you on the impropriety of members of the Established Church supporting schools for all denominations. In that paper I hesitated not to assert that the masters of those schools were by no means persous to whom we should be anxious to commit the religious education of our children, or from whom we should expect principles of honour, loyalty, and civil virtue. The chief and most alarming mode sof generating secession and disloy

alty arises from schools where no religious principles are taught. These are conducted either by poor and destitute preachers, or by common members of different sects, The schools are publicly free, or private. Their children are of the poorest description. Let us examine the general, religious, moral, and civil character of the masters.

The master's religion is undefin able. The rules of the school require no fixed or known principles of faith or doctrine. Whatever place of worship is built in opposition to the Church of England, there the master attends. In small towns, where there is only one conventicle or meeting, he frequents that. No matter how different his own opinions, if he has any, are, he goes any where, and hears any body, rather than the Established Clergy. If in a large town he per haps amuses himself with visiting alternately the insolent Unitarian, and the prim and pious follower of John Wesley. He ridicules meditorial prayer and intercession with the one, and bellows songs of supernatural fervour with the other. If not the nominal minister, he is in many places the favourite prayer, maker; and by his clear exposition of experiences, soon arrives at the dignity of leader of the class, meetings.

• I was once induced to attend a class meeting: a schoolmaster began, and in a high sonorous voice, related his own exper riences, and concluded with an unintelligible prayer. Next followed a dirty, illiterate weaver, murdering piety, humility, reason, language. A thin-faced, miserable looking, pregnant woman stood up -sighed-"I have had, the Lord knows"

sighed deeper tears flowed" I have had Come, come," quoth the schoolmaster, "the Lord; I perceive, has been working wonders with you. With his own right-hand, and with his holy arm, «Alas! I am afraid-No: oh! what hath he gotten himself the victory. striving of the flesh have I endured! He knows what I have gone through last week! Idiave watched, and I have fought; and I

But if the schoolmaster does not frequent either those private licentious meetings, or the serious conventicles, nor assume any sectarian profession, what religion then can you give him? He is an enemy to the Church; he does not by exam ple favour the dissenters: how does he spend his sabbath? At home in indolence, at the public-house in vice, in his garden, breaking human and divine injunctions, in the fields, pursuing vain and empty pleasures. What else can he be doing? Read ing. True, books of impiety, blasphemy, or infidelity. Do not think I am too severe. In a populous town these schoolmasters are under no sort of controul. There school-rooms are certainly, in some instances, occupied on Sunday; but each minister, or some zealous member of each sect, take charge of their own juvenile professors, and the schoolmaster is exempted from attendance. In villages, the principle that every man should follow the dictates of his own conscience, precludes all interference and observation. Nine out of ten of the masters of those public free schools for all denominations, as well as of private dissenting seminaries, are, as I have here asserted, men either of weak and byprocritical principles, or cool infidels. I ask, then, are these the men from whom the children of the poor are to derive their motives of action, their knowledge,

have fought and I have watched: but it would not all do. I have grievously sinned! I have despised his mercy. I have" (eyes rolled wildly)" Good Christian," terrupted the schoolmaster,, " these are evidences of a contrite spirit. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from thee. Do not be disheartened in thy Christian warfare. Let us pray God, that he may endue thee with strength to withstand all the fiery darts of the tempter." A long prayer was uttered, accompanied with deep and heavy groans at every sentence, serious, trifling, figurative, or precatory of temporal com forts, A few verses of a right devout byan concluded the evening's employment.

their habits? But by these they are instructed and influenced. From these thousands do imbibe all the knowledge they possess. Can we wonder, then, to find the poor and their children so destitute of stability of character ? Is it surprising that their conduct vacillates from immorality to desperation, and from fanaticism to infidelity? How can the child, whether biassed at home by a good or bad example, acquire that love of virtue, by practically viewing and feeling its blessings, and that firmness in religious faith, which, though carried to a high degree, are scarcely able to secure a conscience void of offence, from a man whose principles are vicious, whose conduct impious, whose faith incongruous.

"Were these masters indeed, in a perfect state of indifference, and was their influence on conduct and thought insignificant, still there are 'reasons sufficient in my opinion to annihilate the schools altogether, or to reduce the religious instruction to something definite, or to make the master undergo those conditions before he set up or began to conduct a school, the importance of which till lately has been rightly estimated*. Why are the children of the National Church trained by open and secret enemies? Consider how many

thousands enter yearly into these unprincipled seminaries, and how many thousands, without any reverential impressions, yearly issue from them into the world, prepared for every mischief, rooted in hatred of every established institution, and taught no other religious sentiment than to curse the Church they should adore. This is the fact. Go into those schools; talk with the master; he teaches no religion; he favours none yet mark how he rails against the Church! Though he may have endured no persecu tion; though, if persecuted, he might sustain martyrdom, or nota

• Vide Canons.

care a fig what professions he made; yet mention the Church of England or National Schools; then observe his volubility, his rancour, his inconsistency. The illiberality of the Church is intolerable! "The Bell's System teaches nothing else but the Church Catechism. They force the children to learn religion. Our System admits all-teaches all. We let every one choose for himself." Wonderfully rational and becoming! But how sadly to be regretted! As to religion then I conclude, that no sensible man, who either acknowledges that some religious principles are necessary to controul the intemperance of human nature, or that believes in the truth of Christianity, would, on reflection, commit his children to one, who contemns all divine revelation; and that no friend of the Church of England can countenance schools repugnant to the pure form and spirit of godliness.

And well would it be for society, if the danger rested here. But examine, and you will perceive that too many dissenters from the Church are opposers of the State. We at this time lament the infatuation of the bulk of the poor, we see them laughing at every thing that is venerable, and hating every thing that good men love; we see them hallowing the direst vices, and encouraging the deepest treachery.

Church, but frequently violent declaimers against the State, can we be surprized at the tumults and excesses of their devotees? The most lawless demagogues are dissenting preachers or schoolmasters; the ablest republicans write books and political catechisms. Do you want arguments in support of this? Do you want reasons for such an assertion? No; one day's observation is sufficient. It matters not to say, they conscientiously oppose, they conscientiously dissent; their private conscience has nothing to do with public right. They have no power to instigate sedition. They have no authority to break laws. They have no right to property or influence gotten by violence. They are by encouraging uproars, guilty of transgressing the great law of mutual confidence and individual privilege, and if they cannot quietly enjoy their own liberty, but must destroy the comforts of others, they should be either incarcerated, or sent to Botany Bay for life. The property, the safety, the welfare of the good, and peaceable and loyal inhabitants require that some severe measures should be immediately executed. There is no calculating the mischief these men do, and may produce. Every thing that can irritate the evil, and prejudice the good; that can gain popularity and destroy merit; that can countenance vice, and ridicule virtue; that can exalt folly, and stigmatize dignities

peated. The old, the young, male, and female, have their directors. From these they gain their information, by these they act; in these they trust.

The question then is, are we to continue in this state? nay, can we continue? We cannot. What is to be done? I have called your attention to the subject. Vigorous measures must be adopted, and im

* Even Cobbett has written an English