they cannot believe. He must have regarded the State's _unconditional_
right to educate as _conditional_ after all, and dependent on the
form assumed by the party on which or through which it was to be
exercised. Let the reader examine for himself, and see whether
there exists in the document a single expression suited to favour
such a view. Nothing can be plainer than the words 'Parliament,'
'Government,' 'State,' 'Legislature,' employed to designate the
educating party on the one hand; and surely nothing plainer than
the words 'people,' '_men_ of all Churches and denominations,'
'families of the land,' and 'society at large,' made use of in
designating the party to be educated, or entrusted with the
educational means or machinery, on the other. There is a well-grounded
confidence expressed in the Christian and philanthropic zeal which
obtain throughout society; but the only bodies ecclesiastical which
we find specially named--if, indeed, one of these can be regarded as
at all ecclesiastical--are the 'Unitarians and the Catholics.' It was
with the broad question of national education in its relation to two
great parties placed in happy opposition, as the 'inner hall of
legislation' and the 'outer field of society,' that we find Dr.
Chalmers mainly dealing. And yet the document _does_ contain
palpable reference to the Government scheme. There is one clause in
which it urges the propriety of 'leaving [the matter of religion]
to the parties who had to do with the erection and management of
the schools which [the rulers of the country] had been called on
to assist.' But the greater includes the less, and the much that is
general in the paper is in no degree neutralized by the little in it
that is particular. The Hon. Mr. Fox Maule could perhaps throw some
additional light on this matter. It was at his special desire, and
in consequence of a conversation on the subject which he held with
Chalmers, that the document was drawn up. The nature of the
request could not, of course, alter whatever is absolutely present in
what it was the means of producing; but it would be something to
know whether what the statesman asked was a decision on a special
educational scheme, or--what any statesman might well desire to
possess--the judgment of so wise and great a man on the all-important
subject of national education.

It will be found that the following valuable letters from Dr. Guthrie
and the Hon. Mr. Fox Maule determine the meani