tempt to determine in the first instance the persons to whom this paper should be circulated; but to request those who receive it to communicate it to those friends of Dr. Mill with whom they are themselves acquainted, and whom they think likely to concur in establishing the proposed foundation.

Calcutta, Sept. 2, 1837.

LORD BROUGHAM'S EDUCATION BILL.

THE following announcement is found among the parliamentary notices in the Times of December 26th :

MR. WYSE.-Address to her Majesty that she will be graciously pleased to appoint a Board of Commissioners of Education in England, with the view especially of providing for the wise and equitable application of funds granted, and to be granted, for the encouragement of education by Parliament, and for the immediate establishment of schools for teachers. [An early day after the recess.]

Now, this announcement relates to a vocation in which Lord Brougham has been labouring for twenty years in various ways. He has incessantly been nibbling at the educational and charitable institutions of the country, and few who have watched his progress in these matters, will be inclined to doubt that he has been endeavouring to acquire a power which may enable him to wield these institutions at his will, and bend them to the purposes which he thinks of paramount importance. In the commission of inquiry in 1818, he shewed an anxious desire to lay his hand upon the universities, and generally to extend the powers with which it invested him; and from that moment till now he has not lost sight of his object, but, whenever he relaxed his pursuit of higher game, returned to the charge, till at length we are enabled, by the full development of his scheme, in the tangible shape of a bill in Parliament, to judge fairly what that scheme has been. The abstract of that bill is printed in this number of the "British Magazine," and it is earnestly requested that it may be attentively studied by all who are interested in this most vital subject. But little can be said upon it here this month, and that little is said chiefly with the hope of awakening an interest on this subject in those who undervalue and despise the danger impending over us.

Lord Brougham's bill may not pass, and the motion of Mr. Wyse (a Romanist, be it remembered) for an address may have no practical effect at the present moment; but every friend to the religious institutions and the real welfare of his country ought to be put on his guard, and to be taught that he must stand up openly for his principles; he ought to be made aware that the enemies to what he believes the right and Christian mode of education have now taken up a position, and he must be prepared for open hostilities. The motion of Mr. Wyse, and the bill of Lord Brougham,* are the great public demonstration of a principle of education directly at variance with that of those who conceive that to give a Christian education is a paramount duty incumbent on a Christian country, and who believe that a

• His lordship says, it is nearly the same as his bill of last year; but it is now extended from towns with municipal corporations to the whole country. A slight change!

really Christian education cannot be given without religious instruction in the great truths of Christianity, as held by the church of Christ. Lord Brougham, indeed, orders by his bill that the scriptures are to be read in his schools;* and to some persons this may stand in the place of religious instruction. This may be the liberal view; but let those who believe it of some consequence to the immortal souls of those whom they undertake to instruct what interpretation they put on scripture, whether they believe, for instance, in the atonement, or not,let those who think this a matter of importance stand forward boldly, and proclaim the antagonist principle. Let them have no fear of the idle cry of bigotry and illiberality; if they believe their principles to be true, they are bound to maintain them, and to let it be known that they are ready to do this to the extent of their power. This is a duty on all high principles; but if we look to a lower motive-to expediency even that suggests the same course.

The experiment has been tried at Liverpool, and the so-called liberal system was beaten at once. The liberal school soon became little but a seminary of popery, and the church of England schools took a most encouraging aspect,-overflowing with scholars, and only needing an increase in their funds to make them extend their usefulness almost indefinitely. It is impossible now to enter on an examination of Lord Brougham's bill. Its object appears to be to create an instrument whereby to obtain control over all existing schools-to bring all schools, even those grammar schools which were founded for religious purposes, gradually under the new system of latitudinarianism— and to enable a minority of dissenters to prevent the church people from having any public schools at which their principles shall be taught. There is now lying before the writer the 26th Report of the National Society, by which it appears that (although no returns to the inquiries have been made by 1961 places) the number of children returned as educated under the national system,‡ in the principles of the established church, is 827,318. Will those who consider this as a national blessing, look tamely on, and see this sacred trust wrested from their hands for a pittance from parliament, and sell the birthright of these children for a mess of pottage? The tendency of the proposed system has been extremely well shewn in a letter (signed S. T. Ó. P.) to the "Manchester Courier." In fact, Lord Brougham's bill ought to be intituled, "A Bill to withdraw the public instruction of children of the church of England from the hands in which it is now placed." It will be necessary so soon to revert to this topic, that more need not now be said. It is trusted that what has already been advanced may serve to awaken an interest on this most vital point, and to incite every man to promote to the utmost of his power every measure which may give efficiency to the National Society. Among other measures, it is hoped the Queen's Letter, authorizing collections for it in the churches, may receive an abundant answer.

Roman-catholic and Jewish children are exempted.

The Report says that they require 1000l. a year, but have only 5001. be hoped this amount will soon be forthcoming in that rich town.

It is to

+ This includes Sunday, and Day, and Infant Schools. If we supply, by average, the 1961 missing returns, the result would be 996,460 scholars.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

ORDINATIONS.

Bishop of Winchester, in the Chapel at Farnham Castle December 17.