tion. 1. The rights and privileges which had been vested in the several religious communities, still remain in them, by virtue of the first section of the law, which amounts to an act of confirmation. Therefore, the rights of the churches, to lead in the election of ministers, and of other officers, and to maintain order and discipline, where they have been accustomed to exercise and enjoy those rights, still remain in them. 2. The established mode in which the societies in Boston have supported publick worship, is

likewise preserved, together with the rights of the several bodies politick, of which they are composed. If there is any thing in those old laws, as undoubtedly there is, which is repugnant to the provisions of this act, it is repealed. For it is a rule in the construction of a clause in a statute, that it is to be taken with the other parts of the statute, and to be restrained or enlarged by them, so as to give, if possible, that force and efficacy to the whole, which was intended by the legislature.

THE question of the superiority of private over publick education has of late been obtruded upon us in various shapes, till at length every one has been tired of attending to an argument which no discussion, however frequent, had advanced nearer to decision; and cach determines it at present according to his own prejudices, or, if he has any children, by a wiser way, according to the disposition, or presumed capacity, of his own boy.

The two questions of most importance with those resolutely bent against the method of publick education scem to be, an apprehension for the morals of their children, and a dread of the enormity of the expense. Whatever relates to the former part of this question should be examined with coolness, and, as far as possible, be determined without leaving behind a shadow of doubt; what respects the latter, I hope to prove to the satisfaction of any impartial man as totally groundless: publick

schools are not only less expensive than our present system of private education, but the remuneration to the masters from each boy is so small, that I am fearful lest some grains of contempt should adhere to them, for submitting to a drudgery so truly slavish, for rewards so comparatively inadequate.

That the provision for religious education at Westminster-school is far from what has been represented, is proved by the late learned and venerable master, under whom the writer of these present observations is proud to say he himself received his education. Facts, unquestionable facts, have been submitted to the publick, who have received and judged the question with such deliberate candour, that little encouragement has been given to any writer on the contrary side, since it seemed, as it really was, impossible to overturn what was advanced with such cogency of argument and strength of testimony.

As I presume it is the object of your Magazine to discuss all questions of general utility, that of education must necessarily force itself upon you with a kind of prescriptive claim: I shall, therefore, require of you to submit to your readers the following account of the most illustrious publick seminary in Great-Britain. I trust it will correct some errours into which many men of good intentions have fallen, and give them a complete idea of a system of education which their ancestors established, revered, and supported, for more than two centuries from the present age. The method of instruction is but in a few trifling particulars different from what it then was. We are compelled to a rigid observance of our statutes; and if we sometimes differ from the letter, the spirit is universally preserved.

I confess myself unable to trace the exact ara in which Westminster-school was founded; that in the antiquity of its origin it surpasses all other seminaries in G. Britain, is universally acknowledged; but as the precise year of its institution has puzzled many antiquaries, I may, at least, be allowed to avoid a question so dark and intricate. It has been thought coeval with the endowment of St. Peter's collegiate church, commonly called Westminster Abbey. This was originally a monastick institution, and is permitted, I believe, to claim for its first founder, William Rufus. In the reign of Henry the Eighth, when the rich and overgrown monasteries presented a tempting bait to a king,equally covetous and profuse, the spoil of Westminster Abbey, among the rest, did not escape his rapacity. The time was now favourable for the utmost violence of innovation. The monks were

held by the secular clergy in profound detestation; the laity had lost all respect both for them and their institutions, in the notorious profligacy of their characters, and the atrocious enormity of their vices. Henry had but this last and fatal blow to give to their patron at Rome, at once to tear up by the root the most stedfast hold of his authority in that kingdom, and complete his vengeance to the full. Most of them fell without a struggle, and with but ineffectual appeals for mercy. But to overthrow an establishment like that of Westminster Abbey, at once so opulent, so ancient, and so long esteemed sacred; which had to boast kings for its founders and benefactors, and in whose walls the ceremony of coronation had for centuries been performed, appeared so evidently hazardous, that the rapacity of the monarch for once yielded to the necessity of the case, and it was spared a total dissolution. On the surrender of the abbots and monks, the king converted it into a cathedral. It did not even long retain this form, since the see was dissolved by Edward the Sixth, and the college restored; and, on the accession of Mary, it again resum. ed the name of Westminster Abbey with some small portion of its original endowments. It is, however, indebted to Elizabeth for its present institution. That princess founded a college, which is the proper name of the establishment, appointed a dean and twelve prebendaries, with numerous petty ca nons, and instituted a school for forty boys, who are called by the name of king's scholars, and two

masters.

Dr. Henry, in his history of Great-Britain, has attributed the foundation of Westminster-school to Henry the Eighth, and certain

trary is the case

they are burthened with a very heavy exercise on every half holiday, Tuesday excepted, which they are required to produce in the morning afterwards. And I can assure my reader, to escape this exercise, they would freely go without their half holiday. The hours, therefore, which many, inflamed with an ignorant rancour against publick schools, have supposed devoted to idleness and play, are, in reality, the most busy and instructive of any! The whole afternoon of the half holiday is spent in labouring the exercise for the next morning, which is first done in a foul book, and thence copied on a half sheet of paper, and presented to the usher, or master, before breakfast on the ensuing day. It is for want of examination that publick schools are accused of idleness. The ushers, as I have before said, are paid partly out of the funds, which are not, however, sufficient for their support; they have a guinea, therefore, yearly from every boy in the form to which they belong; and, as all the board ing houses must necessarily have an usher to keep peace and order among the boys, he obtains the same sum from each belonging to the house where he himself resides; and has besides many other ways of augmenting his salary. The ushers are generally clergymen, and all at present, I believe, are handsomely provided with church livings, or are fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. They are men of extensive learning and high respectability, and, without lessening their authority, live on the most friendly terms with the boys.

2d. I come next to consider the town boys. I must define them by negatives. They are such as are not king's scholars, who are inde

pendent of the foundation, and who may be admitted or dismissed at the master's pleasure. They either belong to boarding-houses, or, if their friends reside near, live at their own homes, and then, except in school hours, are not subject to the jurisdiction of the masters or the ushers, which the boys who live in the boarding-houses are. In every respect these day boys have the same advantages of education with the rest, and may pass through the school, and obtain all its profits for the moderate sum of six guineas per annum! These boys are held in equal respectability with the others; there is no difference that I know of; and many of the opulent families who reside all the year in London, prefer sending their children in this manner. Never after this let us hear of the expense of a publick school education in Great-Britain.

3. I now come to the king's scholars. This foundation is very different from that of any other school. They are forty in number, and are supplied by an annual election from the town boys. Thus every king's scholar must necessarily have been a town boy, though no town boy, unless chosen, can be a king's scholar. The foundation draws to itself, as a centre, all the talents, the industry, and respecta bility of the whole school. It is where every father wishes to see his son; where greater attention is paid both to their morals and learning, since the superintendence over them is necessarily more strict. It is where the sons of the first families in the kingdom have been educated; where a Busby trained up his scholars; whence Cowley, Dryden, Smith, Halifax, and all the illustrious men of that age issued, and whence most of

those of the present have imbibed the early seeds of education.

Interest forms no part of their introduction into the college. It is open to talents alone, and a fair competition once a year, takes place between the boys who are candidates for the foundation. They generally stand out, as it is termed, from the fifth form, and commence their competition about two months previous to the time, when the seniour boys on the foundation are preparing for their election to Oxford or to Cambridge. A great number contend for admission, and about eight, or more, according to the vacancies, are admitted. The king's scholars wear caps and gowns to distinguish them, are never above the age of fourteen when admitted; they remain four years on the establishment, and then are either elected students of Christ Church, Oxford, or are chosen to Cambridge, where they mostly succeed to a fellow ship. The king's scholars live in what is called the dormitory, but whether from caprice, pride, or I know not what, do not choose to receive all the profits of the foundation, but are content to dine in the college hall only, and have their other meals from the boarding-houses, of which they are termed half-boarders. Thus the education, as a king's scholar, is very little cheaper, though, on many accounts, much to be preferred. The dean and sub-dean of Christ Church attend once a-year, at Whitsuntide, to take their equal portion of the seniour candidates for election, as do likewise the master of Trinity, and some fellows. They have their choice alternately, but as it is esteemed more advantageous for the boys to be students of Christ Church, the Cambridge electors always wave their

right of claim, and accept of those, whom the dean of Christ Church, who bestows the studentships, does not elect to his own college. The election to Oxford is always a mere matter of interest, superiority of talents is totally out of the question. But the boys who are studious and prudent, may improve the advantages of an election to Cambridge to an equal, and sometimes superiour profit.

4. I come now to my last consideration, the books read, and the method of instruction pursued throughout the school. I have already mentioned the division of the under school into three forms, one of which I shall call a double form, namely the third, it consisting of two distinct forms, and each being divided into an upper and lower part, as with the rest of the single forms.

In the petty or first form, are taught the rudiments of Latin grammar. In the second, the boys are taught to construe Æsop, Phædrus, and turn some sacred exercises into Latin.

In the under third, begins their first instruction in prosody. They here commence their verse exercise, a species of education, with some so much the subject of censure, with others of applause, in all our publick schools. The boys read Ovid's Tristia, and Metamorphoses; Cornelius Nepos is their prose author. They turn the Psalms, and sacred exercises, into Latin verse, on Thursdays, and Saturdays, first beginning with what are called nonsense verses, and making them approach, as fast as they are able, to an union of sense and metre.

In the upper third,where the under master presides, the same course of discipline is, for the most part, pursued; the exercises being only