idea has helped enormously the cause of education in Scotland, where it has been comparatively so far forward. Education does greatly help you on in the world, and it is of extreme importance in that point of view. The race of life is not one easy to run. Taking into view all casualties, it is not easy to fulfil those primary duties which are connected with securing sufficient of the means of subsistence, both for yourselves and for those who in the course of time and in the order of nature gather around you; and therefore, even upon that ground alone, the importance of diligence in the discharge of your school duties is immense. But there is something higher than that. Depend upon it, the purpose of this world is not limited to certain pursuits, considered as the means of obtaining from us either livelihood or distinction and fame. There are many things in this world. From day to day there is a great deal of making that goes on, but the most important kind of making goes on silently, and that is manmaking. Man is the great commodity, so to speak, which the whole structure of this world and of society has been organized in order to produce-to produce, I mean, a state of his nature in which all of its best powers shall be developed in the best manner. The nature of man is capable of sinking to the most deplorable depths of corruption, debasement, cruelty, and all things else that are bad; but if rightly handled, if we employ in proper manner the means which Providence has placed in our hands, the nature of man is a work so noble that we can hardly conceive almost how creative power itself can go further. One has come down to earth to show us to what point the nature of man can be raised, and that nature our Saviour bore is the nature we bear, and it is given to us to endeavour to bring it, so far as we are able, along the road by which He trod, and, according to the circumstances in which our lot is cast, to bring it up to excellence. Be inspired with the belief that life is a great and noble callingnot a mean and grovelling thing, which we are to shuffle through as best we can, but an elevated and lofty destiny for

us who are called the sons of God, and who are endowed with faculties to make our calling a reality. It is a happy and blessed thing if anybody shall succeed, and even if anybody shall endeavour to carry this idea into their mind, that it may take deep root there.

Now, when I spoke of the making of a man, I meant the making of a man with all his faculties, his mental faculties and his bodily faculties alike. I am not going to set up here for a moment any such doctrine as that because you are exhorted to attend to your school duties, you are not expected to attend to your sports and exercises. Run, jump, play cricket, football, and anything else. That is a precept that you don't want, because you all do it, whether it is given you or not, and you would have a very great-I won't say contempt for those boys who do not. You would think there was something wrong indicated, something that was not right; and so there would be. All I ask you is thisBe in earnest when your minds are at work, as you are always in earnest when your bodies are at work; try to do the same justice to your higher faculties, as we are all of us ready to do when our lower organs and faculties are at work. Now, that is a rational, and it is not an immoderate demand. I have detained you long enough. School would be a very serious affair indeed, if you were liable to hear longer speeches than the one I have just delivered. I bid you good-bye, with the heartiest good wishes. God bless you and prosper your efforts, and don't fall short in making them. Try to cultivate earnestness of purpose in your school life; depend upon it that will be the best introduction to enable you to encounter the difficulties, and enable you to use the opportunities you will have to meet hereafter in the world. It will be the best preparation for an honourable and useful existence, and for a happy termination of that existence, come when it may.

T

HE RIGHT HON. JOHN BRIGHT was born near Rochdale, on 19th November 1810, and is a partner in the firm of John Bright & Brothers, manufacturers there. During the discussion of the Reform Bill of 1831-32 he distinguished himself; and also became one of the earliest members, and was a powerful orator and advocate, along with Richard Cobden, in favour of the Anti-Corn-Law League. After the triumph of this league by the legislature decreeing free trade, this body was dissolved at Manchester in 1846. He represented Durham in Parliament from 1843 to 1847, when in the latter year he was returned for Manchester. He represented Manchester in the House of Commons from 1847 to 1857, when in the latter year he was returned for Birmingham, which he has represented ever since. Mr. Bright's name stands identified with many popular measures; chief amongst them are his labours on behalf of free trade, and a scheme for the reform of the electoral representation. During the discussion of the Eastern Question, under Lord Aberdeen's ministry, he denounced the Russian war; and he was no less plain and decided in calling in question the policy of the Conservative Government (1876) in their treatment of the Eastern Question in connection with the civil war in Turkey. As a member of the Society of Friends, Mr. Bright has always upheld in all his public utterances a national peace policy. He advocated the policy of the North during the American civil war. On November 3, 1868, he was presented with the freedom of the city of Edinburgh, and

in 1869 he accepted office as President of the Board of Trade. In August 1873 he was appointed to the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster. After the return of a Liberal Government to power in 1880, Mr. Bright accepted a seat in the Liberal Cabinet. A very copious review of his public career will be found in the Memoirs by William Robertson of Rochdale. Gifted with an excellent voice, great earnestness, and with solid convictions, a master in pathos, if less a statesman than Gladstone or Disraeli, he ranks as one of the few really great orators of modern times.

WAR.

[The following example of his oratorical powers is from an address at Llandudno, November 22, 1876.]

Some people think that the loss of life in war is a very common thing, and that it is not worth talking about. They think a soldier takes his wages and stands his chance. I recollect being disgusted during the time of the war by the observation of a gentleman at the dinner of a person of high rank in this country, and of the party by whom the war was originated. He said: 'As for the men that are killed, I think nothing of that. A man can only die once, and it does not matter very much where he dies or how he dies.' Now, I think it matters a good deal. It matters a good deal to widows and orphans, and sisters and friends. It matters a good deal to thousands, scores of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of men who are cut off in the very flower of their youth, that they should be thrust with the passionate thrust of a bayonet, or rent asunder by shot and shell-killed it may be at once, or left lingering on the field or in hospital, dying of intense and inconceivable agonies. What is it that is so valuable as life? What happens if some unfortunate visitor to this place, or unfortunate and helpless boatman, is drowned in your bay? Does it not make a sensation in your community? Is there not a feeling of grief that passes from heart to heart until there

is not one man, woman, or child amongst you that did not feel that a calamity has happened in your neighbourhood? And what if there be a wreck? I was in this neighbourhood two or three days after the wreck of the 'Rothesay Castle,' fortyfive or forty-six years ago, and I suppose nearly a hundred men and women were drowned on that occasion. I was down at the scene of the wreck of the 'Royal Charter' only a few years ago, when nearly four hundred persons were drowned. Did it matter nothing? I saw a poor grey-headed man there wandering along the beach, as he wandered day after day in hope, not that he might find his son alive, but that he might find even the dead body of his son, that he might be comforted by giving it a fitting burial. These things gave a shock to the whole district, to the whole nation, and rightly and inevitably so. Look, again, to the accidents on railways. Take the sad accident in this county,-the most appalling that has ever happened on any railway in this kingdom,-I mean the accident at Abergele, when men were destroyed in a moment, apparently without a moment's warning. Take the terrible accidents that happen from time to time in the collieries in various parts of the country. See what woe is caused by them, and remember, as you must remember, how every family in the country is stirred and filled with grief at the narrative of the disasters that have occurred. Well, now, take other things that happen that distress us connected with the loss of life. Take the private murders that are committed throughout the kingdom, and hangings that take place of the criminals who have been guilty of these murders. All these things fill us at times with sorrow, and cover our feelings and our hearts with gloom; and now take together all the accidents from boats that you have ever heard of, all the accidents from shipwrecks that have ever been recorded; take all the accidents on railways since railways were first made, and all the accidents in mines since the bowels of the earth were penetrated to obtain coal for the use of man; and besides these, take all the lamentable private murders which have been caused by passion, or cupidity, or