different schools, and also to furnish an electrical machine and other philosophical instruments. Oberlin likewise has the credit of having at this time struck out an original idea, which has since been perfected in Scotland. This was the establishment of small itinerating libraries. A neat and handy collection of books being put into a case, was left at a village for three months, for the use of the inhabitants. At the end of this time it was removed to another village, and another collection of books, different from the former, took its place. Thus collections of books, some of which were printed at Oberlin's own expense, were made to circulate through the canton, and a continual fund of amusement and instruction kept up.*

The arrangements for the intellectual cultivation of his people were not yet terminated. A crowning point to his labors in the department of literature was the composing and publishing of an almanac for the use of his parishioners. This interesting annual was divested of all the falsehoods and superstitions with which almanacs are usually filled; and, like that of 'Poor Richard,' was replete with useful advices, and hints on many subjects of interest.

Evils of too great Prosperity obviated.

At the time of Oberlin's settlement, the parish contained from eighty to a hundred families; now, it comprised five or six hundred, numbering altogether a population of about three thousand. Here was a perplexing problem. Oberlin felt that the very improvements he had instituted had probably hastened the arrival of the period when the land could support no more inhabitants with a reasonable share of comfort. From whatever cause, the fact of over-population was becoming evident. Every little bit of land was occupied by its family; and the family patches were in the course of subdivision. There was as yet no actual want, because all less or more assisted each other, and the economical habits of the people led them to make the most of the small means at their disposal. Potatoes being their chief fare, the only immediate danger to be apprehended was a failure in the crops of that vegetable. In 1812, the calamity of a greatly deficient harvest fell upon France; corn rose to an exorbitant price; and in some parts of the country potatoes were sold for a sou apiece. The Ban de la Roche suffered in common with other districts, but to a less extent, in consequence of Oberlin having introduced a vigorous variety of the potato. From

* An account of the plan of Itinerating Libraries, pursued in some parts of Scotland, will be found in Chamber's Encyclopædia, article 'Itinerating Libraries;' also in Barnard's Journal of R. I. Institute of Instruction.

this cause alone the people did not die of famine, as they must otherwise have done.

While thankful for the narrow escape which his parishioners had made on this occasion, the good pastor was the more alarmed for the continued welfare of his flock; and as they did not seem inclined to emigrate, he set about contriving means for introducing employment from without. The plaiting of straw, kniting, and dyeing with the plants of the country, were accordingly introduced. A more successful branch of industry which followed was the spinning of cotton by the hand, for the manufactories of Alsace. In having women and girls taught the art of spinning, Oberlin was indefatigable; and such was his earnestness, that he gave prizes to the best spinners in addition to their ordinary wages. He had the gratification of seeing his plan succeed. In a short time the spinners became so expert, that in a single year the wages paid by a manufacturer for spinning cotton in the Ban de la Roche amounted to 32,000 francs (£1,280). Weaving by the hand was next introduced, and promised to be equally remunerative, when a stop was put to the whole of this prosperity by the introduction of machinery at Schirmeck. Hand-labor could wage no effectual war with this cheaply wrought and powerful enginery, and the inhabitants sank to their former state of privation.

While still smarting under the bereavement of their labor, the Ban de la Roche had the good fortune to be visited by a M. Legrand, a ribbon manufacturer, from Basel in Switzerland; and so charmed was he with the character of the Cher Papa Oberlin, and the orderly habits of the people, that he forthwith induced his two sons, to whom he relinquished his business, to remove their manufactory to the Steinthal. This proved to be a more permanent and suitable undertaking than that of cotton-spinning. Ribbons are woven by hand-looms, and these being dispersed amongst the cottages of the

In a Report to the Royal and Central Society of Agriculture in France, the President, Baron de Gerando, introduces a letter from M. Legrand, from which the following is an extract:

'Conducted by Providence into this remote valley, I was the more struck with the sterility of its soil, its straw-thatched cottages, the apparent poverty of its inhabitants, and the simplicity of their fare, from the contrast which these external appearances formed to the cultivated conversation which I enjoyed with every individual I met whilst visiting its five villages, and the frankness and naïveté of the children, who extended to me their little hands. I had often heard of the good pastor Oberlin, and eagerly sought his acquaintance. He gave me the most hospitable reception. It is now four years since I retired here with my family; and the pleasure of residing in the midst of a people whose manners are softened and whose minds are enlightened by the instructions which they receive from their earliest infancy, more than reconciles us to the privations which we must necessarily experience in a valley separated from the rest of the world by a chain of surrounding mountains.'

peasantry, in which also the winding of the silk weft for the weavers is conducted, employment was found for some hundreds of people, old and young, in their own dwellings-a plan every way more advantageous than that of working in large factories. As in some of the Swiss cantons, the Ban de la Roche now exhibited a happy mixture of agricultural and horticultural labors with mechanical pursuits. From many of the cottages on the hill-sides were heard the sounds of the swift-flying shuttle; and when these were hushed at an early hour in the evening, the weaver might be seen trimming his garden or digging in the patch of arable land connected with his establishment.

Blessed are the Peace-makers.

One of the public services performed by the Cher Papa for the Ban de la Roche was the settling of a long and ruinous lawsuit which was carrying on between the peasantry and the seigneurs of the territory. A seigneur, according to the old French usages, was the feudal lord or superior of a tract of land, from the resident proprietors or cultivators of which he exacted certain annual dues and services; in requital, he gave them legal protection and some other privileges, such as the right of cutting timber from the forests, or fishing in the rivers. At the Revolution, the seigneuries were generally abolished; without, however, as it would appear, quashing any legal disputes which had previously been unsettled between the seigneurs and their vassals. The litigation, in the present instance, was with regard to the forests which covered a large part of the mountains, and, with varying fortune, the suit had lasted upward of three-quarters of a century, and through all varieties of tribunals. In 1813, the quarrel, handed down from father to son, still raged, and promised to rage for many years longer. Attempts had been made by the seigneurs to compromise the matter, but without avail. This perplexing law-plea had been the plague of Oberlin's life: it was the standing grievance of the canton: now sinking into silence, now reviving, it kept every tongue in exercise.

With some useful advice from his friend, the prefect of the department, Oberlin undertook to convince his parishioners how much more advantageous it would be for them to make certain sacrifices, with a view to settle the dispute, than to protract it even with the ultimate chance of being victorious. He showed them the amount of expenses they had already lost, and which they might still lose; what were the vexations to which they had been exposed; and what pleasures they would have in being no longer subjected to such a

torment. Besides offering these reasons, he urged the religious view of the subject, insisting on the duty of living at peace and in friendship with all mankind. The moral power of the good pastor was, perhaps, in nothing so remarkable as his conquest on this occasion. Melting the obstinacy of his auditors by his arguments and eloquence, they agreed to the terms of a mutual compromise, and the litigation was brought to a close. A few smooth words effected what years of wrangling and battling had failed to accomplish. The day on which the mayors attended to receive the signature of the late belligerents, was one of rejoicing in the Ban de la Roche; and at the suggestion of the prefect, these magistrates presented to Oberlin the pen with which the deed had been signed, requesting him to suspend it in his study as a trophy of the victory which he had achieved over long-cherished animosities. The gift was gratefully accepted; and it was often afterward declared by Oberlin that the day on which that pen was used had been the happiest of his life.

FAMILY LIFE OF OBERLIN.

Oberlin was happy in his own domestic life-married within a year after his settlement, to Madeleine Salomé Witter, daughter of a professor in the University of Strasbourg, he found in his wife a woman of good sense and tender feelings, who entered heartily into his labors, and yet tempering his zeal with considerate prudence. During the sixteen years of their married life, she bore him three sons and four daughters,—when she died in 1784, filling his heart for a time with despair. The loss was in some degree supplied to his children, by a young woman, an orphan, named Louisa Schepler, who had been a conductrice in one of the infant schools, and finding the occupation not suitable to her health, she became a domestic -a help in his family-declining all recompense, and performing any and every service which a daughter and housekeeper could do, with the most affectionate devotion.

Death.

Oberlin died June 1, 1826, in the 86th year of his age, and the 60th of his ministry in the Ban de la Roche-and the last touching ceremonies were performed on the 5th of June in the presence of a large concourse of parishioners and strangers, of every sect and party-the Catholic population, the priests in their ecclesiastical vestments, and the various religious orders joining in the Protestant ceremonies. In his death, it may be truly said, 'mankind lost a friend, and no man got rid of an enemy.'

UNIVERSITY CHAIR OF EDUCATION-EDINBURGH.

BY S. S. LAURIE

Professor of the Theory, History, and Practice of Education.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS-MARCH, 1876.

MR. S. S. LAURIE, M.A., the newly appointed 'Professor of the Theory, History, and Practice of Education' in the University of Edinburgh, delivered his inaugural lecture on Friday, the 31st March. Sir Alexander Grant, Principal of the University, presided, and there was a large attendance of students and friends of education, including many of the professors and authorities of the College. The interest which attaches to the first professional lecture on Education delivered within the walls of a British University induces us to give Mr. Laurie's able and thoughtful address in extenso. Professor Laurie said—

Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen,-The first occupant of a Chair new to the Universities of Great Britain is placed in a somewhat peculiar position. It may be fairly expected of him, not merely to correlate the new subject with the other studies of a University, but to vindicate for it a right to the promotion which it has obtained, to explain its bearing on the educational interests of the country at large, and to satisfy the skeptical as to its direct utility. Were I, however, to undertake to maintain a thesis so large, I should weary even the well disposed listener, and probably fail after all to convince or convert the unfriendly. A broad treatment of the subject would involve me in a range of argument, fact, and illustration, so wide and varied, that I think it better to assume very much on the general question. I am entitled indeed to make large assumptions, if the educational movement of the last thirty-five years has had any genuineness and honesty in it; if Education has been any thing more than a pretext for political and ecclesiastical contention. It is not improbable, moreover, that by limiting my range of observation, and confining myself to the objections taken to the foundation of this particular Chair, while at the same time giving some indication of my own point of view with respect to the question of Education, I may do more than could be accomplished by a general treatment, to reconcile the hostile and the skeptical to this new event in educational history,— But, first, a few words as to the foundation.

Dr. Andrew Bell was born in St. Andrews in 1753.* At the ancient University of that town he was distinguished in most subjects of study,

* See Memoir in Barnard's American Journal of Education, Vol. x., 353; ditto, 467.