The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-25 00:00:00

ROYAL HIGHLAND SCHOOL

SOCIETY.

The one hundred and thirty-ninth anniversary of this
institution was celebrated at Freemason's Hall, on Sa-
turday evening, when a numerous and respectable com-
pany met to encourage and support one of the most a
cient and most useful societies in the kingdom.
The Earl of ELDON was in the chair, with Sir Au-
gustus D'Este on his right, and The Chisholm of that
Ilk on his left.

We observed none of the Scotch Nobility present,
but the ample donations transmitted by them, and alto
by many Englishmen, showed the interest which tle
wealthier classes take in the education of a people that
have been of such service and done so much honour to
their native country. The Chisholm and several other
Highland gentlemen were in full Highland costume,
and the Noble Chairman and all the Stewards wore
tartan scarfs in honour of our gallant countrymen of
the north. Two ladies—Miss Betts and Miss Steele—
volunteered their services, and delighted the company
with some of the best songs of Burns, and some also of
those airs that were treasonsble when a " Stranger
filled the Stuart's throne." Broadhurst and Co. relieved
them at intervals, and the pipers of the Duke of
Sussex and the Royal Highland Society roused the
Highland blood with warlike airs that " stirred the
memory of a thousand years:' The Chairman also did
his duty well. He introduced the toasts with much good
taste, and without the slightest political allusion, and
as befitted the occasion. The healths of their Majesties
the Queen and the Queen Dowager were drank with
the same enthusiasm.
After the usual loyal toasts the NOBLE CHAIRMAN
gave " The Duke of Sussex, the long-tried and able
supporter of the institution."
Sir AUGUSTUS D'ESTE returned thanks for his illus-
trious father, who delighted in supporting every charita-
ble institution, and none more than the ancient, useful,
and benevolent Society which the Company had met to
celebrate. The words " Illustrious Father" were fol-
lowed by loud cheers.

Lord anom then proposed the great toast of the
evening, " Success to the Royal Highland School So-
ciety." The long period during which it had been esta-
blished, he said, was the best proof of the good it had
conferred on the Highlands of Scotland. It had existed
for upwards of a hundred years, and unless its merits
had been very great, it would long ago, like many others,
have fallen to decay.—(Great chering.) All such in-
stitutions went to wreck if not founded on good princi-
ples, and he found (the fact was alike honourable to
England and Scotland) that amidst all the changes,
amidst all the vicissitudes and hostile feelings caused by
wars and rebellions, this noble institution had never
been lost sight of since the Union. It was established,
not on private grounds, but for the benefit of the sister
country. The vast good it had accomplished not only
for Scotland, but England, no one could deny. It had
encouraged moral and religious education, which under
the blessing of God, had made the United Kingdom the
first on the earth. On looking at the map of Europe
and the vast power which Great Britain possessed, he
might fearlessly ask, what but that and like institutions
had made a country that formed such a small feature
compared with the extent of the Continent, what it was ?
—(Cheers.) The Noble Lord then gave a short ac-
count of the history and objects of the Society, which
are well stated in the following summary, drawn up at
the instance of the Directors :

The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian
Knowledge in the Highlands and Islands, was origi-
nally founded in the year 1701, by a few individuals
in Edinburgh, for the Reformation of Manner: in that
metropolis. The activity and good management of its
directors, however, soon gained for it, considerable en-
couragement ; when its sphere of usefulness being ex-
tended, its philanthropic influence at length reached
those distant regions of the North, where the errors of
superstitious ignorance had too long prevailed. The
effects of the institution were speedily felt there also,
by giving additional influence to the ministry of the
established clergy, 'whose pious labours had been pre-
viously frustrated, not less by the miserable condition of
the people, than by the immense extent of the parishes
by which they were surrounded.
Inquiries into the state of those places soon furnished
melancholy proofs of the moral destitution of their ne-
glected inhabitants. Their few Protestant ministers
were thinly scattered over an extensive surface of
rugged eauntry, divided indeed into parishes, but rather
resembiing counties or ,provinces ; several of them
being more than 60 miles in length by 30 in breadth,
and others consisting of numerous islands, separated by
many leagues of a boisterous ocean !—the parishes on
the mainland of the Highlands being also, for the most
part, intersected by arms of the sea reaching far into
the country, and by rapid rivers destitute of bridges,
which are in the winter generally impassable ;
or divided by morasses, bays, and mountains,
covered for months together with insurmountable
barriers of ice and snow ; thus precluding all inter-
course not only between the different parts of the same
parish, but also between the minister and his people, ex-
cept in that immediate district in which he happens to
reside.

The Act of Union having received the Royal Assent
on the 6th of March, 1707, the condition of the
Highlands then became a great object of national con-
cern ; and on the 25th of May, 1709, this Society re-
ceived a Patent of Incorporation from her Majesty
Queen Anne, under the title of the Society in
Scotland fer Propagating Christian Knovtledge. It
was then strenuously supported by the Scottish
Nobility and Parliament, under which distinguished
patronage the patriotic advantages of the Institution
rapidly became more manifest ; and in the year 1738
the directors obtained from his Majesty King George
11. a new patent, authorising them to erect Schools of
Industry, for teaching the youth of both sexes, and
particularly females, its more common employments.
On this part of their plan, as well as on that of their
first charter, they have since proceeded ; and now, the
pupils in tiles? schools, who are chiefly girls, are all
occupied in employments befitting their sex ; whilst
they are at the same time taught the first principles of
the Christian religion.
1 n aid of the Parent Establishment in Edinburgh,
which then greatly needed additional assistance, in the
year 1773 a corresponding Board was formed in Lon-
don, the munificent support of which has been equally
honourable and advantageous to the Institution, and
has most materially aided the Society's advancement to
its present solid respectability and extensive greatness.
On the decease of his late Royal Highness the Duke
of Kent, who had been for many years its benificent
and indefatigable President, that appointment was most
kindly accepted by his Royal Highness the Duke of
Sussex, who, since the year 1820, has presided over this
branch of the Institution ; whilst its list of
officers and subscribers include the names of
many of the most distinguished English Noblemen and
gentlemen resident in the metropolis. It was reserved,
however, for a later period to confer upon the Royal
Highland School Society it's chief distinction, when on
the 4th of April, 1829, his Majesty King George the
Fourth was most graciously pleased to become its
illustrious patron ; which regal protection was also most
munificently vouchsafed by King William and Queen
Adelaide, and has been since continued by her present
Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria : under whose
august patronage it is confidently hoped its blessings
may be yet more diffusively extended, and thousands of
her Majesty's brave and loyal Highland subjects thus
enjoy those advantages of Christian education, which
without its beneficent assistance they could have never
known.

The population of the Highlands and Islands is
computed at nearly 450,000 souls, amongst whom the
blessings of this Charity are daily diffused. It has there
most extensively improved the morals, influenced the
sentiments, and ameliorated the condition of the pecple ;
which beneficial effects have been principally accom-
plished by giving gratuitous instruction to the poor, for
whom schools have been erected wherever they were
most required. These seminaries are supplied with
able teachers, the faithful discharge of whose duty is
secured by the vigilant superintendence of the parochial
clergy and catechists ; by whose united means
the pupils are fitted for filling their future stations
in society with propriety and usefulness. Though
chiefly instructed in the English language, the know-
' ledge of which prepares them for an easy intercourse
with every quarter of the kingdom ; yet the Visiting
Committees are particularly directed that—" in districts
where Gaelic is chiefly spoken, they try the scholars in
the tra,rslating of Gaelic into English ; and whether
they understand the meaning of what they read."
There are, indeed, very many sequestered glens and iso-
lated districts where the Society has schools, in which
Gaelic only is spoken, and where instruction is imparted
in that language alone. For them, therefore, the Bible,
Spelling-books, Grammars, and other useful works have
been translated, and extensively circulated ; and the
public attention is particularly solicited to the official
statement, that—" Gaelic only is taught in those districts
where that language solely prevails."
Though the economy with which this Charity is
conducted is far beyond what can easily be conceived
by strangers, yet its unavoidable expenditure very far
exceeds its permanent and certain income. Many peti-
tions for more schools are annually presented, which
the directors are compelled to refuse, solely because
their funds will not enable them to grant ; the So-
ciety's revenue being yet very inadequate to the accom-
plishment of all the purposes for which it was established.
Its funds must, indeed, be estimated, not by their ac-
tual, but by their relative amount, and by the import-
ance and extent of
_the objects to which tlicy arc ap-