and evidently calculated to turn the different dispositions of the children to the best account.

I mention this part of the subject with most particular interest and satisfaction for the punishments in use in Mr Lancaster's schools have been sometimes represented, not only as ill-judged and ineffectnal, (an observation which individuals without experience might perhaps have hazarded), but as calculated, in their very nature, to destroy all the honourable sense of shame among the children; and, by doing so, to prepare them, when they go into the world, for every species of depravity, and even for that which will lead to the last punishment of crimes.

I can place against this assertion a fact, which almost supersedes every argument, and which it is impossible either to explain away or controvert. Mr Lancaster has taught a school, in a suburb of London where there is the greatest resort of the lowest of the people, for fourteen years together; and of seven thousand children educated there, amidst all the profligacy of a corrupt and overgrown metropolis, not one single individual has ever been charged with a criminal offence, in any court of justice.

I make this assertion from the first authority; from the public resolution of a numerous meeting for supporting the Lancastrian schools, at which the Duke of Bedford presided, supported by the Dukes of Kent, Sussex, and Gloucester, and by many others among the most distinguished men in the kingdom, on the 11th day of May last, in which the fact is asserted in the most unqualified terms; and I am able, besides, to bring it down to the 31st day of January 1812.

After stating this fact, it is useless to add a single remark on as

sertions so completely and irrefragably refuted.

The discipline suggested by Mr Lancaster, is a discipline substituted for corporal punishments, hitherto in common use in all our schools; and has this simple and natural object in view,--to influence the ingenuous dispositions of the youth, not so much by the fear of punishment, as by the love of distinction on the one hand, and by the sense of shame on the other. If I said a single word to prove, that this species of school discipline, if it is effectual, is in every point to be preferred to the corporal punishments so often resorted to, I should offer an insult, both to the understanding and the heart, of every man who is himself a father.

It has indeed been conceded to us, that, in the Lancastrian school in this city, we have selected the best, and excluded the worst parts of the system; and much praise has on this account been given us.

Even of this concession, liberal as it is, the Directors cannot avail themselves. They have taken the whole of Mr Lancaster's plans as they understand them; and they are certainly entitled to affirm, that if there is no just exception to the only Lancastrian school existing here, there can at least be no room for supposing in this city, that the Lancastrian system threatens us with inventions, capable of making any dangerous impressions whatever on the morals of our youth.

It deserves just to be mentioned, before I leave the subject, that whatever else the system admits of, or different circumstances may require, the punishments actually inflicted in this school, have hitherto consisted entirely, in the detention of the children in fault, for a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes, after their companions are dismis.

sed;

sed; and that a solitary instance has occured, in which it was necessary, for aggravated and obstinate disobedience, to send away from the school altogether two single individuals.

They who will attend to the particulars of what has been done, since the school was established, will not find themselves at liberty to say, that the mode employed has been unsuccessful, in any essential part of its arrangement.

The Institution is under the management of a society among yourselves, consisting of men who are heartily disposed to watch over its prosperity, and to promote, to the utmost of their power, its general and permanent usefulness.

His Grace the present Duke of Buccleuch has just intimated to the Directors, his willingness to accept of the situation of President of the Institution, vacant by the much regretted death of his most respectable father.

Though the members of this Society are heartily united in promoting the great objects of the Institution, they do not wish to forget, that they have come together from very different religious communities. Churchmen, Presbyterian and Episcopalian Dissenters, Independents, and the class known by the designation of The Friends, are all concerned in the establishment or superintendance of this school. They have cordially united in a service, which they consider as embracing a most important object: And they fear neither perversion nor disunion, because they give their assistance together in this

labour of love.

They have built and furnished a schoolhouse; and acknowledge with gratitude the liberality of the Magistrates, who have given them the ground without expence. The building and furniture have required

nearly L.1000. This has, for the present, exhausted their funds, and left them in a small debt of about L.200. But they know their fellowcitizens too well, not to be assured, that this sum will soon be realized by their liberality; and they look with the same confidence to the occasional donations and annual contributions, from which the ordinary expenditure must arise.

I have said enough to satisfy you of the importance of the Institution. But I take the liberty of mentioning a single fact more. In the investigation of the atrocities which have so lately disturbed the peace of this city, some of the miserable creatures who appear to have been concerned in them, have been found incapable to read or write.

SCOTTISH REVIEW.

Observations respecting Precedence, and some of the Distinctions of Rank, Ecclesiastical and Secular, on which it is founded, referring especially to the Clergy of the Church of Scotland. By Thomas Brydson, F. A. S. Edinburgh. 4to. 1812.

MOST of our readers are pro

bably aware of the circumstance in which this little work originated, and which has excited soine speculation in this metropolis. Long usage had established, that in all the processions which took place at the time of the General Assembly, the Doctors of the Church should take the precedence of those lay persons who held the rank of esquires. Several of this last description, however, who conceived that the possession of an ample fortune, and the respect which it procured, raised them very much above the members of a church so little distinguished by its wealth,

took

took umbrage at this preference. A complaint was preferred to the Lord Commissioner, who, in order to bring the question to a decision, refered it to the gentleman holding the office of Lord Lyon. Sentence was given in favour of the esquires, who accordingly at the assembly 1811, took their station in the front of their ecclesiastical rivals. The church, however, felt no disposition to acquiesce in this decision. They complained that, in a question by which their dignity was so deeply affected, they had not been afforded an opportunity of pleading their own cause; that the matter had been deliberated and determined, before they had received the smallest notice, that it was at all in agitation. They even insisted that the Lord Lyon, from the very rare occurrence of any such discussions, must, even if furnished with the proper materials, be a much less competent judge, than those who presided in the other Scottish courts. So far, indeed, did they carry their resentment, as to determine, during the late Assembly, to withhold their presence from every exhibition in which themselves, and the esquires could be combined. They absented themselves not only from the public procession through the streets, but from the levee and the table of the Commissioner. In order to justify the proceeding above alluded to, and to counteract the impression made by the judicial sentence given against them, they naturally wished to prepare some statement of the grounds to which their claim to precedence rested. It is to this circumstance that the present publication owes its rise. Mr Brydson, we are convinced, has given nothing but his genuine opinion; but as he was invited to the undertaking by a person who holds a high rank among the aggrieved class, and doubtless with a

knowledge, that his sentiments entirely corresponded, we may fairly consider his work as a pleading on the side of the Doctors. As it does not appear that a similar statement has been put forth by the opposite party, and as we cannot pretend to be deeply skilled in heraldic lore," we should hesitate extremely in giving any decided opinion. We shall only observe, that the Doctors having been so long in the possession of this precedence, and the Assembly being the place where they were naturally entitled to take the lead, it would, we think, have been more laudable, had the lay members forborne to press even a claim which they conceived to be legal. On the other hand, it may be alleged, that the dignitaries of the church adhered to their supposed rights with greater pertinacity, than was altogether consistent with the spirit of Christian humility. The refusing, indeed, to appear in a public procession, was a more serious consideration, since it tended to compromise the dignity attached to the church, and through it, to religion itself, in the eyes of the multitude. But whether, supposing the clergy to have continued to attend the Commissioner's levee, and even to have accepted his invitations, any very alarming consequences would have ensued, does not so precisely appear.

For the reason above stated, we are not prepared, either to adopt or to refute the opinion maintained in this volume. We are more disposde to extract some of the various information here given by our author, who, we believe, has studied the subject very profoundly. Mr Brydson goes back to the feudal times, with a view to fix the standard of precedence; and as the aristocracy of modern Europe is founded chiefly on the usages of that period, the consideration of it must certainly

throw

throw a remarkable light upon the subject. At the same time we must observe, that if any arrangement has been followed by long continued modern usage, the precedent must be considered as thereby fixed; and it seems vain to appeal against it to the practice of a remote age.

The following observations are curious, and apply immediately to the subject under discussion.

"The church was connected with the whole system of chivalry by a variety of relations, besides the protection and defence pledged to her in the oath of knighthood. Among those relations are the following, beginning with the universities, as depending on the church; Academical honours or degrees were analogous to those of chivalry. That of doctor, corresponding to knighthood, was formerly termed master, which designation is still retained in the schools as a junior degree, and was adopted in chivalry as the proper appellative title for a gentleman, bearing no rank or title superior. Bachelor was expressly a title of chivalry applied to those esquires who were more especially or necessarily candidates for knighthood; as in the schools it denoted the next and immediately preparatory degree to that of doctor. The possessors or heirs of "knights fees," among others, who did not possess the more extensive fiefs, termed banner fiefs, which communicated the title of "banneret," were styled "bachelors." Most of those who presided in the schools as professors were formerly ecclesiastics; those who belonged to the highest faculty, that of divinity, were necessarily such. With reference to knighthood itself, it was connected with all other distinctions of rank, ecclesiastical and secular; with the ecclesiastical, inasmuch as prelates could confer the order of

knighthood; and priests, who were not prelates, could confer the degree of "esquire:" a degree in chivalry preparatory to knighthood, and formed on the model of that order. The leading order of chivalry was even incorporated with the church in the persons of those composing the ecclesiastical or "clerical orders of knighthood," as these of Malta, of the Temple, of the Teutonic order, and others, whose sworn profession was war."

He adds afterwards the following important fact.

"The oath of knighthood, and likewise a system of laws for the regulation of the military profession, were originally framed by Aimon, Archbishop of Bourges. With the assistance of certain other prelates, of several distinguished persons among the laity, and with the con currence of the military order itself, the above regulations were finally sanctioned in the council of Clermont, according to the seventh letter of Boulainvillers, and the oath became so sacred as not to be violated under the penalty of death, or abandoning Christendom. Thus at the call of the church, in a period of unexampled depravity, the beginning of the eleventh century, ut supra, the entire fraternity of knighthood became a barrier in the absence of regular government, between the abounding enormity of the times and the threatened destruction of society.

"The renowned fraternity ofknighthood is thence primarily indebted to the church, for the specific dignity and importance which, in consequence of the foregoing event, attaches to this leading order of chivalry. The oath, at first common to the nobles in general, came afterwards to be restricted to knights, and at their creation by

prelates

prelates was always administered, which it could not be by any layman; yet, though afterwards dispensed with in the case of esquires, it appears to have given rise to the conferring the latter degree by presbyters."

We may next proceed to Mr Brydson's definition of the character of esquire.

"The next, and immediately su perior rank to that of gentleman, is the degree of esquire, armiger, bearer of arms, not armorial ensigns, but military weapons, as having publicly received them by a formal ceremonial. This degree of chivalry is modelled on that of knighthood, and conferred with a similar, though less solemn, investiture. It is described by St Palaye, sec. 1. p. 10. The youth having been previously initiated in the accomplishments and exercises of chivalry," was presented at the "altar by his father and mother, "who, each holding a lighted ta"per in their hands, attended the "solemnity. The officiating priest "took from the altar a sword and "girdle, on which he bestowed se"veral benedictions; and having "invested the young man with the "sword, he afterwards constantly "wore it." Another mode of investiture conferring the degree of esquire, applicable to those esquires who gave military attendance on knights, as may be seen in Selden, part II. p. 374, was "by delivery of a sword only, with a blow on the "check, which gave the liberty of "bearing a sword or other arms, "as in attendance on a knight, but "not of wearing it girded on as the "knight did." This must be understood chiefly with regard to the ceremonial, as in succeeding times those esquires wore swords in common with others. Knights of the

66

Bath are at their creation still attended by the esquires, who retain that degree. When the Kings of England, for the last four centuries, conferred the degree of esquire by creation, as may be seen in Selden under that title, they invested the grantee with a collar of "SS" of silver, of the same form with the golden collars worn by knights. Heralds and "serjeants at arms," who are always created esquires, still wear silver collars of SS." Princes, and all classes of the higher nobility, were esquires, unless they had received the order of knighthood. The King of the Romans elect, previously to his receiving knighthood, is at his coronation, ann. MCCXLVII. styled esquire by the King of Bohemia, when presenting him to receive that order. "Præsentamus hunc electum "armigerum," as appears by the ceremonial in Favine, B. III. p. 304.

"The degree of esquire, in contradistinction to the hereditary degree of gentleman bearing armorial ensigns, is strictly personal: it implies recognised personal eminence, and cannot, in ordinary cases, be obtained otherwise than by creation or ascription; accordingly no man is born an esquire. Hence, the "Armigeri Natiliti" mentioned by Spelman and others; such as the eldest sons of knights, &c. must be regarded as esquires by ascription or reputation, which others also are, as has been already shewn. Birth, as above, is in some instances regarded as constituting one species of that personal eminence characterized by the degree of esquire; "For," as is remarked by Blackston, B. I. C. 12, "it is not an es