small school-fees of the pupils be such as to secure the feeling of personal independence, and make them value the instruction for which a price is exacted. An "education committee" was therefore established for St. John's; subscriptions were set on foot for the erection and endowment of schools; and when a sufficient sum was procured, a desirable site was found for the building of the first school. The ground was the property of the College, and Dr. Chalmers repaired to its head, the venerable Principal Taylor, to obtain it upon such cheap terms as the case justly demanded. "Ah!" said the Principal, shaking his head, "we have been talking about establishing parochial schools in Glasgow for these twenty years." "Yes," replied Dr. Chalmers, " but now we are going to do the thing, not to talk about it; we are going to take the labour of talking and planning completely off your hands." This good-humoured application was successful; and by the middle of 1820 the school was finished, and the work of teaching commenced, under two efficient schoolmasters. Another school was soon erected by the same prompt liberality that had supplied funds for the first, and conducted also by two able masters. The four teachers had each a fixed salary of ₤25 per annum, and a free house, in addition to the fees of 2s. per quarter for reading, and 3s. for reading, writing, arithmetic, and book-keeping, while the right of admission was limited to parishioners exclusively. There was full need of this restriction, for so highly were the benefits of this system of education appreciated, that the two schools had 419 pupils. Even when the doctor left Glasgow, also, the work was still going on through fresh contributions and erections, so that about 800 children belonging to the parish were furnished with the means of a complete and liberal education at a small expense. Such a heavy and complicated amount of toil as all this organization involved, would have been impossible for any one man, however energetic, and even Dr. Chalmers himself would have sunk beneath the load before his four years' experiment in St. John's had expired, had it not been for the efficient aid which he received from his assistant, the Rev. Edward Irving. Contemplating the vast amount of work which he had proposed to himself in his trial of the parochial system as applied to large towns, it had been considerately resolved that a regular assistant should be allowed him in the task; and by a train of fortuitous circumstances, that office was devolved upon a congenial spirit—one to the full as wonderful in his own way as Dr. Chalmers, but whose career was afterwards to be so erratic, and finally so mournful and disastrous. At present, however, the mind of Irving, although swelling with high aspirations, was regulated, controlled, and directed by the higher intellect and gentler spirit of his illustrious principal, so that his vast powers, both physical and mental, were brought fully to bear upon their proper work. Nothing, indeed, could be a more complete contrast than the genuine simplicity and rustic bearing of Dr. Chalmers, compared with the colossal form, Salvator Rosa countenance, and startling mode of address that distinguished his gifted assistant. But different as they were in external appearance and manner, their purpose and work were the same, and both were indefatigable in advancing the intellectual and spiritual interests of the parish of St. John's. Little, indeed, could it have been augured of these two remarkable men, that in a few years after they would be the founders of two churches, and that these churches should be so different in their doctrines, character, and bearings.
After having laboured four years in the ministerial charge of St. John's parish, a new change was to take place in the life of Dr. Chalmers, by the ful-
