to him, and by his talent and unremitted industry, acquired a share of the greatest honors that the university had the power to confer, being the fifth wrangler of his year, and was afterwards elected a fellow of his college. He is now the Professor of Mathematics at the King's College, in London, and his eminent station will always form a beacon light to cheer the young students of the present day through the toils and troubles of their scholastic life. Thomas Herring, D.D., Archbishop of Canterbury, the present Bishop of Kildare, and Thomas Clarkson, Esq., (the strenuous advocate for the abolition of slavery,) received their education at this school.

Amongst the number of persons who have held the situation of head master, there is one, whose name it gives us sincere pleasure in recording, and we do so the more readily since there is no probability of this page ever reaching his observation-we, of course, refer to the Rev. J. R. Major, M. A., late of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was elected in the year 1826, in consequence of his high testimonials for talent, and the excellence of his private character. He is a profound Greek scholar, and his knowledge of that language is fully exhibited in the editions of the Orestes and Hecuba, which he published with English notes to facilitate the progress of his scholars.

His talents, however, were of too high an order to be immured in a provincial town, and the same testimonials that acquired for him the mastership of the grammar school, soon afterwards secured him his present honorable and lucrative appointment of head master of the school attached to the metropolitan King's College.

The next subject that claims our attention is the

public charity schools. At the commencement of our chapter we have observed that it was not until the sixteenth century that grammar schools were generally instituted throughout the country; these, however, were appropriated exclusively for the education of the better classes of society, and previously to the time of the reformation there were no public places of resort where the poor could enjoy the benefits of education, excepting occasionally at the convents: after the reformation bibles were fixed on stands* in all the churches, where they resorted for the purpose of learning to read, the prayers of the church were offered up in the vulgar tongue, bibles and books of homilies were distributed, and other measures to instruct the ignorant were adopted by the clergy, who acted in the character of catechists to their parishioners; but the inadequate support left for the clergy, on the dissolution of the monastaries, much impeded the spirit of the reformers, and it was not until the year 1663, that a system of general education for the poor was attempted. In this year a person by the name of Nedham proposed a plan, that the parish clerks throughout the country should have an allowance made to them from the national revenues, for public teaching, under the superintendence of the minister, and from the address published by him at the time, it appears that the poor were clearly the objects of his compassionate regard, since it states that it must needs pity any christian heart to see the little

* Eagles, of brass, on pedestals, are still preserved in many of the churches, on which the bible were placed: there is one in the church of Walpole St. Peter.

dirty infantry which swarm up and down the alleys and lanes, with curses and ribaldry in their mouths, and other rude behaviour, as if they were intended to put off their humanity, and degenerate into brutes.'

In such a state, however, they were suffered to remain for several years afterwards, and the first public charity school was that established in Westminster, in the year 1898.

Brighter days now began to dawn upon this hitherto unenlightened land, and the eighteenth century opened with the most glorious prospects for the uneducated poor. The society for promoting Christian Knowledge commenced its course of usefulness in the same year as the Westminster Charity School, and in 1714, it had succeeded in establishing 1,073 schools, where 19,653 children obtained, gratuitously, religious instruction.

The funds of this noble institution were soon found insufficient for the universal establishment of public charity schools, and some little time after the reformation, the clergy gradually began to treat the revenues raised for the support of religion, and themselves, as private property, destined for their own exclusive use, rather than as a public trust; and thus this good work did not meet with the extensive encouragement that it deserved: but fortunately for the cause of philanthropy, pious individuals were not wanting to contribute their aid, and amongst the benefactors to schools established in Wisbech, we find that the name of Elizabeth Wright stands preeminent above the rest. By her will, which bears date in 1729, she gave certain estates in Wisbech, Leverington, Sutton, Parson Drove, Tyd Saint Mary, and elsewhere, to certain trustees

for charitable purposes particularly specified, and declared that in the event of their deaths, other good churchmen' should be appointed in their places. The rents of the messuage and premises, in the will described to be in the occupation of William Thompson, (but now of Mr. Cripps, and situated between the bridge and the old market place,) after deducting a small portion for an annuitant since deceased, she directed should be applied by the trustees for the use and benefit of the Wisbech Charity School for boys, and £12. per annum out of the rents of the remaining part of the estates, for the use and benefit of the Wisbech Charity School for girls; and the trustees were empowered to apply the surplus rents, which were not specifically appropriated by her will, to such charitable uses, and in such manner as they, in their discretion, should think fit. These valuable funds formed the principal support of the schools for many years, but their usefulness was not considerably extended from a lukewarm indifference that existed as to the gratuitous education of the poor.

The public, however, were aroused from their slumbers, and their attention called again to the subject by the patriotic exertions of the celebrated Bell and Lancaster, and more particularly by the former, whose system as established at Madras in 1789, and published in 1797, had been attended with the most complete

success.

Schools were soon afterwards established in various parts of the kingdom, but it was not until the year 1811 that this town followed the example so nobly held out to it by others. In that year subscriptions were raised, and the present capacious and ornamental buildings

were constructed; that dedicated to the use of the boys was built between the Churchyard and the Canal, and the other at the north end of Ship Lane, now Lower Hill Street, not far from the river. The funds for the support of the boys' school at present consist of the rent of Mr. Cripps's house, £60.-the interest of several sums of money given by various individuals, £33. 10s.— £20., part of the residuary trust money under Elizabeth Wright's will, applied with the sanction of the Court of Chancery, and also subscriptions and annual donations amounting to £36. 4s., making together £149. 14s. per annum.

We have seen that the will of Elizabeth Wright provided a much smaller allowance for the school for girls, but the deficiency was supplied in the year 1814. Abraham Jobson, D. D., the late vicar, whose name again and again stands forth in the character of a public benefactor, gave the sum of £500.; and John Edes, Esq., who had formerly been educated in the charity schools, and raised himself to opulence by his indus- * trious habits, presented a similar donation of £500., and both these sums were invested in the purchase of an estate in the adjoining parish of Leverington, and the rents, amounting at present to £50. per annum, are regularly appropriated, together with the interest of other donations and the annual subscriptions, and an allowance out of Wright's residuary trust fund, towards the support of the Girls' school.

These historical details, and particularly the language of the will of Elizabeth Wright, who may be considered as the founder, will, we apprehend, be a sufficient reply to the enquiry sometimes made, why these public