The church government once included the celebrat ed foreign seminary of Donay, but its establishments for education are now confined to Scotland. Of these Lismore is the chief, and Auchcort the next, main tained chiefly by the produce of lands, and in the for mer case, by that of a manufactory of lime. Three bishops, in partibus, have the charge of as many dio cesan divisions of which Lismore and Auchcort are the places of two, and the third is located in Edin burgh. The priests are few in number, but found in the various places where the population of this per suasion is concentred; and hence the performance of their duties is necessarily deficient, as the remoter and scattered Catholics have little opportunity of profit ing by their instructions, except under distant visita tions.
As to the church revenue, we may say that is no thing; and from the poverty of the flocks, the office of priest is truly one of religion and of privation. There arc no foreign grants for its maintenance. The property of Auchcort was held on a long lease which will shortly expire, and that of Lismore is scarcely sufficient to maintain its limited college. A grant of .21000 per annum, formerly given by our govern ment, has been suppressed and not replaced; and the ministry has consequently nothing to depend on but the contribution of its flocks, which, from their general poverty, are necessarily small. A few small chapels in different places serve for the performance of the weekly or periodical duties; but in many of the islands and elsewhere, there is not even that accommodation.
There is no country in the world where the establish ments for the education of all ranks in society are placed on such an excellent footing.
It was enacted during the reign of William and Mary, that •‘ there shall be a school and schoolmaster in every parish of Scotland," with a salary varying from 100 to 200 merks. In the year 1803, the limits of the salary were raised to 300 and 40'0 merks, or to L. 16, 13s. 4d. and L.22, 4s. 5d. To this was added a dwelling house, having at least two apartments, and a quarter of an acre of ground for a garden. The pro prietors of land in the parish are assessed for these expenses and for that of the school-house. Half of the salary, however, is paid by the tenants, and the other half by the proprietors. At those schools are taught reading. writing, arithmetic, and in general the Greek and Latin classics, French, geography, land-surveying, and the elements of mathematics. The fees in the country parishes vary from ls. Gd. to 5s. per quarter.
In towns and villages many of the teachers of the pa rish schools have evening schools, at which mechan ics and other labourers have been long taught arith metic, practical geometry, and other useful branches of knowledge.
Provision being thus made by act of Parliament for the support of a school in every parish in Scotland, every parish possesses one; and as all the schools are placed under the inspection of a resident clergy, being annually visited and examined by the presbytery within whose bounds they lie, Scotland possesses a system of instruction which cannot be obtained in any other country where the clergy are not compelled to resi dence. A very great number of the schoolmasters in the country parishes in Scotland are young men who are either students in divinity, or preachers of the gospel, and whose minds are deeply imbued with all the learning and science of the times, and from this cause there is a good understanding between the paro chial schoolmaster and the established clergy, which produces the happiest results.
With such establishments for education it is not to he wondered at that it is scarcely possible in the low land districts of Scotland to find a man who is not able to read, write, and count, and there are very few who cannot write and read.
In the highland districts, however, but particularly in the islands,the parishes are of such extent that it is impossible for the inhabitants to avail themselves of the parish schools, and consequently the people in these districts are instructed in a very inferior degree to the lowlanders.
This great evil has been to a considerable extent re medied by the Society for Propagating Christian Know ledge, who have established missionaries, catechists, and schoolmasters in these benighted districts. In or der to promote the same object, the king presents to the General Assembly every year the sum of L.2000.
As the funds, however, and consequently the exer tions, of this society are greatly limited, the state of education in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland became lately a subject of general interest.
In 1824, the General Assembly appointed a commit tee to enquire into the existing means of education and religious instruction throughout Scotland. This committee transmitted to each of the ministers of the 907 parishes a list of queries, in order to ascertain the facts of the case. They received in the course of the year 800 returns, and from a statement which they have published in 1825, we have taken the following abridg ed view of the leading facts.