angels, but the divine dispensations in God's dealings with men ; so the three companies denote the peculiar nature of these dispensations towards those kingdoms with which the people of God had any connection. These were, at different times, the Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires; and the "red horses were symbolical of the Medo-Persian wars by which the Babylonian empire was overthrown,— "and in consideration of the awful vengeance which had been inflicted on that power, the colour of the horse on which the commander rode is represented as being red, rather than bay or white, evidently with the design of affecting the minds of the Jews with a sense of the great deliverance which had been wrought for them by their Divine Protector."* The "bay horses" denote that mixed, or transition state, which intervened between the destruction of Babylon, and the complete establishment of the Medo-Persian dynasty, the second monarchy of the prophet Daniel. The "white horses" denote the state of peace and prosperity which followed that event. Such we hold to be the meaning of these symbols. The interpretation is in entire accordance with the scope and design of the vision. These symbolical horsemen having been described by their chief as the instruments of Jehovah, "sent to walk to and fro through the earth," feel as if they were called upon to give a report of their proceedings; and accordingly they reply, "We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest." The terms "earth "the whole earth "-must evidently be understood, not as comprehending the whole habitable globe, but that portion of it over which the vision extends. Such universal terms are frequently employed in this restricted sense. Thus in Acts xi. 28, we have a prediction "that there should be a great dearth throughout all the world"—that is, throughout the Roman empire; for the famine predicted occurred in the fourth year of Claudius, continued for several years, and spread over most of the provinces of the empire. It is in this sense the term is used in the verse before us. It is universal, in the sense of including all the parts of the earth referred to, and restricted, in its referring only to that portion of the earth comprehended within the scope of the vision-the Medo-Persian empire.t

This being the extent of signification of the phrase "all the earth," we have now to consider the report of the mystic horsemen regarding its condition. They say, “ Behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest"—that is, "The whole empire towards the close of the Babylonian dominion, it is probable that four companies would have appeared, the first of which would represent the angelic host superintending the affairs of the Jews during their captivity, animating the Medes and Persians to undertake the conquest of Babylon, and influencing their government to restore the Jews. But at the time of Zechariah's vision these events had taken place: These two companies had fulfilled their ministry; and, consequently, they could not be properly introduced upon the scene. The number of companies would then be reduced to three, the very number seen by Zechariah. Following the number and succession of the empires, the first troop is intended to represent the ministering spirits surveying and directing the affairs of the Jews during their subjugation to the Persian empire, removing the obstructions which that government offered to the rebuilding of the Temple of God, and the complete restoration of the people, and finally preparing the way for the Macedonian conqueror, and the establishment of his kingdom in all its wide extent. By parity of reasoning the second company seen by Zechariah denotes the angelic messengers appointed to superintend the concerns of God's people while the third monarchy should bear rule, and to array the forces destined to overthrow it. The third and last of the mystic cohorts represents the celestial messengers preparing the way for the immediate arrival of the Prince of Peace, waiting on him and communicating with him during his earthly course; thus ministering to the heirs of salvation, supporting and strengthening his church, confounding the designs of its enemies, marshalling the hosts to the battle against his apostate subjects, gradually exhausting the resources of the heathen empire, and at length subduing it to his victorious kingdom."-STONARD, pp. 22-24.

This is an ingenious interpretation of the three equestrian bands. But it is entirely fanciful, and wholly away from the scope and design of the vision. The exposition given in the text is manifestly the most simple and natural, and is in entire accordance with its obvious design.

* Henderson.

"By the word 'earth,' no larger part of it is to be understood than that with which the prophecy is immediately concerned; that, in short, which contained the church or chosen people of God, which, in the time of Zechariah, was comprehended within the limits of the Persian Empire."-STONARD.

"The term, all the earth,' must be understood here, and in many other places, in a restricted sense, for all the nations with whom Judah had connection."-BLAYNEY.

is in a state of tranquillity. War has ceased from one end of it to the other. All its many provinces are at peace among themselves.' The scenes of war and bloodshed, symbolised by, the horsemen on red horses, had passed away. The Babylonian empire had been overthrown-the great city, Babylon, had been subdued, and the Medo-Persian dynasty established. That mixed state-symbolised by the bay horses, and extending from the time of Cyrus to the accession of Darius Hystaspis -had also terminated. The disorders and confusion necessarily caused by horrible and long-protracted wars, had gradually subsided. The desolations and miseries of that season of blood had been repaired and forgotten; and now the state indicated by the "white horses" had come, and universal tranquillity reigned. The earth sat still, and was at rest.*

Such is the general signification of this part of the vision; and, on reviewing its contents, we ought to notice with admiration and gratitude the unwearied interest which Jehovah manifests towards his church and people. The vision has a direct reference to the nations of the earth, and to his dispensations towards them. But let it be carefully observed, that these dispensations have an ultimate reference to the chosen people. Babylon was overthrown to give deliverance to them. The dynasty of the Babylonian monarch was destroyed to make way for the Median line of Cyrus and his successors. But this was only to prepare the way for the restoration of the Temple, and the re-establishment of the worship of God at Jerusalem. We shall see, moreover, by and by, that he who superintends the affairs of the nations, and executes upon them the Divine judgments, is none other than the Divine Redeemer-Elder Brother, True Friend, and Portion of his people. It is He who manages the affairs of the world, and he does this for them. Surely all will be well with them at last, and all things be made by him to work together for their good. It not unfrequently happens, however, that the world is at rest-outwardly tranquil and prosperous-while his people are distressed and in suffering,-harassed by temptation, disquieted by fear, and oppressed by persecution. They may seem at such seasons to be forsaken by their best friend. Then are they prone to say, "the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." But it is not so. It cannot be so. "For he has graven them upon the palms of his hands; their walls are continually before him. At the very time when they think themselves cast off, and left to the power of the enemy, he is so directing his providence, as to secure, effectually, their deliverance, and overwhelm their enemies.

EDUCATIONAL REFORM.

TO THE LORD VISCOUNT MELGUND, M.P., ETC, ETC.

LETTER I.

Importance of Desectarianising the Schools and Universities before attempting

further Reforms.

MY LORD-Having resolved to offer to the Scottish public, through your Lordship, my views on the best mode of reforming the educational institutions of our country, I will not waste time by an exposition of my motives to those who know me, it would be superfluous; to those who do not, it would be useless. Besides, with all sensible and intelligent readers, the question will be" What force is there in his arguments?"—rather than "What has induced him to bring them forward?” And if any one should think me intrusive, because, living in Ireland, I write on a Scotch question, this is my defence,-I am a Scotchman, born of Scottish parents, and on Scottish soil; and though residing in another part of the United Kingdom,

*The reader who may wish to verify the statements made in the text from historical evidence, will find ample testimony in Prideaux's connection of the History of the Old and New Testament, vol. i. p. 230-240. The peace and tranquillity of the nations, however, were of short duration. For three years after, the Babylonians revolted, and it cost Darius a siege of twenty months, and the expenditure of much treasure and blood, before Babylon was reduced, and the revolt subdued.

I am still bound to Scotland by many ties, stretching not only into the past, but into the future; these ties have become of late much closer, so that my dearest interests of every kind are as much identified with my native land, as if I had never left her shores.

Your Lordship's attention, and that of the benevolent and public spirited men who have supported you "out of doors," has been directed exclusively to schoolreform. I have always thought this unfortunate. The universities are so thoroughly interwoven with the schools, and the reforms needed in both are so identical in principle, that we can neither arrive at a sound basis for a measure of school-reform, nor at a sensible and business-like arrangement of its details, without surveying the whole educational edifice

"From turret to foundation stone; "

for the schools and universities of Scotland form one structure, whose parts are beautifully adapted to one another, and here lies the great beauty and excellence of her educational system,—the vital principle which, despite the incubus of sectarian exclusiveness, makes it at this moment the best in the world; and if that incubus were removed, would make it all that the heart of the patriot and philanthropist could wish.

Your Lordship is too true a Scot not to wish me success in my attempt to prove this. Permit me, then, to try ;—and let us imagine for a moment that we are speaking of institutions really national, as they originally were—not sectarian, as recent events have made them.

In England and Ireland, the men who teach the children of the poor are a totally distinct caste from those who teach the children of the upper and middle ranks. The social standing of a "British and foreign school" teacher, or a "national" teacher in England, is that of a menial and dependant. Between him and the teacher of the gentry, the merchants, nay, even the shop keepers and the better sort of artisans, there is a great gulph fixed, which, qua teacher, he never can pass. He must either drudge on to the end of his days in this servile condition, or if he rises into the higher walks of teaching, it must be by the same sort of process that would enable a blacksmith or a cobbler to do the same. That there may have occurred one or two exceptional cases, in which, by dint of rare merit, the master of a poor-school has stepped directly into a grammar-school frequented by the children of the gentry, is not impossible; but as a general rule, he must turn his back upon his school, as the son of Vulcan turns his upon his smithy,-be initiated in a new life and a new line of study at a university, after which he may resume teaching in a higher sphere, and rise to a lucrative and honourable position. It is clear, however, that his promotion has been won, not by diligently labouring in his original vocation of teaching the poor, but by abandoning it, and qualifying himself for another; just as he might have studied law and made a fortune at the bar, or might have gone into orders and risen to a bishoprick. But where is there an instance in England of a young man who has finished a brilliant or even an honourable university career, entering life as a "British" or a 66 national" teacher, and rising-BY TEACHING, for that is the point-to be head master of Eton, Harrow, or Rugby? But in Scotland, elevations of the kind are occurring almost every year. A young man who has passed through college with the greatest honour, cheerfully undertakes a parish school of the humblest kind, or even a subordinate situation which may lead to it. And from the poorest parish school (or from a school still poorer), on the bleakest lowland moor, or in the loneliest highland glen, a young man may make his way, step by step, to the rectorship of the High School of Edinburgh, or to some similar situation, scarcely less honourable, and perhaps more lucrative. Professorships in the universities too, with the higher social rank they confer, the learned leisure and opportunity for concentrating the whole mind on one favourite pursuit which they afford, are not beyond the reach of the rural or village schoolmaster. On the contrary, an open and not untrodden path stretches from the scene of his present humble labours to these high places of literature and science; and what is best of all, he knows that in order to attain the desired elevation, his only course is,―(1.) To prove himself a skilful and faithful teacher by doing his present humble duties well: and (2.) To increase by pri

vate study the stores of his literary and scientific knowledge, and carry forward that work of mental culture, of which he laid the foundation when at college.

That this is a very good state of things for the humbler class of Scotch schoolmasters, is the remark of a superficial thinker; but every man capable of looking beneath the surface, sees at a glance that it is also an unspeakable blessing to the country. It furnishes an inducement to men to become teachers to our peasants and artizans, who would sooner cut off their right hands than accept employment in mere pauper institutions, from which there was no avenue to a respectable competence, with something like status in society and some sort of literary name. I have known an English aristocrat take the alarm lest the effect of this should be to admit into the masterships of the upper schools a class of men with low habits and low ideas, like the teachers of poor schools in his own country. No such thing; its effect is to give Scotland for her very lowest schools, men of high ideas, and men, if not possessing, capable at least of forming, refined habits, and to banish creatures of the type of the English pauper-pedagogue to their own proper places, as hewers of wood and drawers of water for society.

Let it not be thought that my imagination is carrying me away. I do not mean to say that all Scotch schoolmasters, or even a majority of them, are such men as I have described; but I do say, that a goodly number of them are; and every man who knows anything of the literary history of his country, will corroborate my statement. This is enough for my purpose. No man can deny that a considerable number of the Scotch parochial teachers, and other teachers of the same class, have been for several generations men of talent and education; that having, in those humble spheres, proved themselves fit for higher stations, they have had their claims acknowledged by their country, have been placed at the head of our most distinguished academies, or have attained the ease and dignity of University chairs. "The consequence is," says a leading English journal, "that a considerable portion of the schoolmasters by whom the children of the poor are taught in Scotland, are, in education, in manners, and in sentiments, gentlemen. We could produce a Scotch parish schoolmaster who is in every way fitted to associate with any peer in Britain, and who, in point of fact, is a frequent and most acceptable guest at the tables and in the drawing-rooms of the first people in his neighbourhood. We could name a gentleman who, soon after taking his degree in Arts at a very celebrated Scotch University, was appointed schoolmaster to an hospital or almshouse; who, while he filled that situation, associated with some of the most eminent men of the day; and, as a member of the same literary society, read his paper, in his turn, with philosophers whose fame was sounding throughout Europe, and criticised their views as freely as they did his; yielding them due respect and courtesy, of course, but receiving equal courtesy in return.

"Nothing of this sort can possibly happen in England. Who has ever heard of an English parish schoolmaster dining with the squire and the rector, and received in the drawing-room, both by family and by guests, at least as cordially and as familiarly as the curate of the parish, or as the lieutenant commanding a recruiting party in the adjoining town? Who has ever heard of a schoolmaster of a poor-house in Oxford or Cambridge taking a part in some local literary or scientific association, along with ARNOLD and WHATELY, discussing questions of philosophy and science with PEACOCK and WHEWELL, or questions of politics and political economy with Mr MALTHUS and Professor SMYTHE?

"We must not be misunderstood. We have no intention of conveying the idea that all the parish schoolmasters and poor-house schoolmasters in Scotland, or any very large proportion of them, are such accomplished gentlemen and men of letters as the two individuals to whom we have alluded. But we do say, that these cases, though rare, are very far from being unique; and that such men would never have engaged in the occupation, if it had not been one which was for the present respectable, and which opened a way to future preferment.'

Why, then, are there not more men of this stamp filling the masterships of your common schools? Why are complaints so loud and frequent of the inefficiency of parish schoolmasters? When it is an undoubted fact that these situations have attractions for men of high education, talent, and energy, what is the evil influence that generates the drones and dunces?

The answer is easy-more than two-thirds, probably not less than threefourths, of the population of Scotland, are by law excluded not only from all the highest places in the profession, but from all public situations connected with education except a few about the middle of the scale. We agreed at the outset to forget for a little the sectarian character of the schools and universities, and to speak of them as if they still retained that national character which was given them by their founders; but the time is now come to look at the sad reality.

It is evidently the public interest that, when a school is vacant, the candidates should be numerous (1.) Because there will be a greater probability of finding a highly-qualified man— (2.) Because the competition will be keener. The vacancy has not been unexpected; those who intended to be candidates have been exerting themselves for months. One has been rubbing up his Latin; another has been zealously studying arithmetic and algebra; a third has been anxiously trying to find out the best methods of teaching, and to accustom himself to practise them. At last the day of decision comes, and of course one only, out of a dozen or two, is successful. The others go away comforting themselves that some other opportunity will soon occur for entering the lists, and resolved to be better prepared for the coming conflict than they were for the past. Assuming that in both cases there is an honourable and impartial decision, it will make a great difference, both to the individual school, and to the country at large, whether the number of candidates have been twenty, or only five. In the former case, the particular school has got the best man out of twenty for its master; in the latter, it has only got the best man out of five. Perhaps he who is the best of the five, would also have been the best of twenty-this is possible; but the same person, as the best of twenty, will be a better man than as the best of only five. Knowing that he is to have a larger number of competitors, he will labour more zealously in preparing for the competition. Again, if there he only five candidates, there will be only four sent back to prepare themselves for another competition; in the other case, there will be nineteen. Of these, some are already teachers of less lucrative schools; they go back resolved to redouble their diligence, in order that they may obtain a celebrity for skill in teaching like that which secured the prize on this occasion for their rival; or that they may make up their deficiency in some department of knowledge in which the victor was found to surpass them. Others have never taught; they feel that their being untried men was an objection against them, and, in order to remove it, they are ready to accept any situation, however humble, or to open "adventure schools" of their own, if they find a promising field; present emolument is a secondary object. And (to cut short this illustration) the fag-end of the candidates the two, or three, or four lowest on the list-have been taught the measure of their own pretensions; they know the sort of men they would have to encounter in any future contest, and see that they have no chance; they turn aside into other employments, and leave the great work of education to their abler competitors. Had there been only three or four unsuccessful candidates, the sorriest would have had some prospect of success on another occasion. Therefore, in a country where the way is open from the humblest village school to the highest university chair, and where the faithful and efficient discharge of the duties of each lower situation is the surest means of rising to the step next above,—it is plain that a large competition for the higher and middle-class appointments must be most beneficial to the education of the humbler classes. 1st, It will increase the efficiency of the lower schools, both by driving away bad teachers, and by stimulating the efforts of the good; it will promote the health and fruitfulness of the scholastic tree, both by lopping off rotten branches, and by giving a salutary stirring to the roots. 2d, It will increase the number of lower schools, without a farthing of expense to the corintry; in one place, an unsuccessful candidate will open an adventure school," not so much for the immediate profit it will bring, as for the sake of making a little reputation for himself against the time when some public situation shall again become vacant; in another, a benevolent individual, whose neighbourhood is sc antily supplied with education, induced by the facility of obtaining a good teacher, sets up a school of his own, the mastership of which comforts a disappointed candidate till his turn for preferment comes round; in a third, some farmers and tradesmen, far from the parish school, have

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