the earth beside a beech-tree, and drank some water from a spring, which still bears his name. His brother James, continuing his flight from the scene of the rencontre, reached Waltershausen that evening. The driver, hastily throwing himself into the waggon, in which Amsdorff had already mounted, galloped his horse at full speed, and conducted Luther's friend to Wittemberg. At Waltershausen, at Wittemberg, in the open country, the villages and towns on the route, the news spread that Luther was carried off. Some rejoiced at the report, but the greater number were struck with astonishment and indignation, – and soon a cry of grief resounded throughout Germany- Luther has fallen into the hands of his enemies!' After the stirring conflict that Luther had been called to sustain, it had pleased God that he should be transferred to a place of repose and peace. After raising him on the dazzling stage of Worms, where all the energies of the Reformer's soul had been roused to their highest pitch, God had prepared for him the obscure and lowly refuge of a prison. He draws from the deepest obscurity the frail instruments by which He designs to bring mighty things to pass; and then when He has suffered them to shine for a while on an illumined stage, He dismisses them again to obscurity. The Reformation was to be brought about by other steps than violent struggles or public tribunals. Not thus does the leaven penetrate the body of the people :-the Spirit of God seeks stiller channels. The man whom the champions of Rome were pitilessly persecuting, was to disappear for a time from the world. It was needful that his personal greatness should be hidden in shade, that the revolution then accomplishing might not bear the impress of one man. It was fit that the man should be put aside, that God alone might remain, to move by his Spirit over the abyss, wherein the darkness of the middle ages was sinking, and to say, "Let there be light!" in order that there might be light. It was The shades of evening closing in, and no one being now able to observe their track, Luther's escort changed their route. nearly eleven o'clock at night when they arrived at the foot of a hill. The horses slowly climbed the steep ascent. On the summit stood an ancient fortress, on every side but that by which they approached it, surrounded by the black forests which clothe the mountains of Thuringen. It was to the lofty and isolated castle of Wartburg, where the ancient Landgraves in earlier times had fixed their retreat, that Luther was thus led. The bolts were drawn back, the iron bars fell, the gates unclosed, the Reformer passed the threshold, and the doors were closed upon him. He dismounted in an inner court. One of the horsemen, Burkard von Hund, lord of Altenstein, then left him. Another, John von Berlepsch, provost of Wartburg, conducted him to his apartment, where he found a knight's garment and sword. The three others followed, and took away his ecclesiastical habit, attiring him in the knightly dress prepared for him, and enjoining him to let his beard and hair grow, that no one in the castle might know who he The attendants of the castle of Wartburg were to know the prisoner only by the name of Knight George. Luther scarcely recognized himself under his singular metamorphosis. Left at length to his meditations, he had leisure to revolve the extraordinary events that was. had befallen him at Worms, the uncertain future that awaited him, and his new and strange abode. From the narrow windows of his turret, his eye discovered the dark untrodden and boundless forest which surrounded him. It was there,' says Mathesius, his friend and biographer, that Luther was shut in, like St. Paul in his prison at Rome.' Frederic von Thun, Philip Feilitsch, and Spalatin, in a confidential conversation with Luther, by order of the Elector, had not disguised from him that his liberty would be sacrificed to the anger of Charles, and of the Pope. Yet this forced abduction was so involved in mystery, that Frederic himself was for a long time ignorant of the place where Luther was concealed. The grief of those who were favourable to the Reformation continued. Spring passed away; summer, autumn, winter, succeeded;-the sun had run its annual course, and the walls of the Wartburg still held their prisoner. Truth had been placed under interdict by the German Diet; and its defender, immured in a fortress, was no longer on the stage of events; and even the fate that had overtaken him was unknown. Aleander was all confidence, and the Reformation appeared lost... but God reigns! and the blow which seemed to bring to nothing the cause of the Gospel, will but serve to rescue its undaunted servant, and diffuse far and wide the radiance of faith.* Luther's stay at Wartburg continued about ten months. He suffered his beard and hair to grow, and assumed an equestrian sort of dress, and passed for a country gentleman, under the name of Yonker George. He sometimes accompanied his keepers in the exercise of hunting; and his observations on that diversion, in a letter to Spalatinus, are curious and interesting. "Give yourself no concern in regard to my suffering in this exile. It is of no consequence to me, provided I am not burdensome to the people of this house. I suppose the prince supports me, otherwise I would not stay an hour here.— Lately I spent two days in witnessing the painful pleasure of those famous people called hunters and fowlers, We caught two hares, and some miserable young partridges. Laudable employment indeed for men of leisure! For my part, theological subjects occupied my thoughts even while I was among the dogs and the nets. And any pleasure that I might receive from this species of relaxation, was fully balanced by the sentiments of grief and pity, excited in my mind by an interpretation which I could not but give to the symbolical scenes at that time under my contemplation. This, thought I, is an exact representation of Satan, who, by his snares and his dogs, namely, the corrupt theologians and ecclesiastical rulers, pursues and entangles simple, faithful souls, in the same way that the harmless hares and partridges are taken. The similitude was so striking as to affect me exceedingly.' At last, at the beginning of March, 1522, the great Reformer quitted his retreat, without consulting either his patron the elector, or any of his friends, and suddenly reappeared at Wittenberg; where affairs rendered his presence most needful. * D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, Vol. II. p. 332-346. LORD ASHLEY'S MOTION ON EDUCATION, AND THE GOVERNMENT PLAN. LORD ASHLEY has again conferred a great service upon the country by his promised motion on education, which has happily been received by the House of Commons with the most gratifying unanimity, and has moreover obtained the concurrence of Her Majesty's ministers, who have undertaken the measures necessary to carry the motion into effect. In bringing the subject before the house, the noble Lord had to wade through a statement of facts relating to the ignorance, vice, immorality, and poverty of the lower orders, revolting to the feelings of humanity, painful in the highest degree to those of a Christian, and quite sufficient to rouse the fears of the most stout-hearted statesman. Lord Ashley does not form his opinion hastily, or on a superficial consideration of the facts officially brought before him; he has visited frequently the manufacturing districts, he has held conferences with the operatives themselves, he has heard their complaints, he can appreciate their intelligence, he can rightly estimate their virtues, but he is not blind to their failings; he has listened to their artless well told tale of the sufferings of their children, he has dived beneath the surface of society and seen the workings of the volcanic system; we may therefore well be alarmed when we hear such a man declare in his place in parliament, that unless some fit remedy be applied, the elements of social discord are so much agitated, that the frame-work of society must be disruptured, and that ere twenty years have elapsed, we should witness a general convulsion and dispersion of the whole system. We are by no means disposed to be alarmists, but we cannot look upon such a fearful picture of juvenile ignorance and delinquency, of adult degeneracy, and of moral and social destitution, without feeling that enough has been described to warrant the utmost solicitude for the future state of society in this country, accompanied by a consciousness of the tremendous responsibility which falls upon those who either from cupidity, or carelessness, have suffered things around them to reach their present state. In this responsibility the clergy as well as the laity must participate, and it extends to all classes of society who from their station, property, influence, education, and especially their religious knowledge, had the means of checking the evils before they reached the magnitude they have. The destruction of the poor is their poverty,' and this is one of the evils, if not the principal evil with which we have to contend, and with any measures we adopt for the education of the children, we must connect those which will shew we are not indifferent to that of their parents. We have little doubt we are speaking conformably with the experience of all clergymen, district visitors, and other friends of the lower classes, when we assert that the greatest obstruction to education is in the poverty and destitution of the parents. That poverty may be occasioned by idleness, improvidence, or intemperance; or it may arise from the failure of health or employment, but the effect is the same; depression, anxiety, destitution, recklessness, and wherever this is the case in a family, it is no wonder that the education of the children is neglected, especially if any even the smallest charge is required for it. Lord Ashley after some excellent observations, which we regret our limits prevent us from quoting, gave the following statistical data which, as far as figures go, are important, but the strength of his argument lays in the moral bearing of the subject. In 1801, the population of England and Wales was 8,872,980; whilst in 1841, the returns gave 15,906,829, showing an increase of more than 7,000,000 in less than half a century. Taking one-fifth of the present population, which by the way was understating, as the number supposed to be capable of some education, we should have 3,181,365. Deducting one-third from those as persons presumed to be educated at private expense, there would still remain 2,120,910. Making a further deduction for children supposed to be in union houses of 50,000, and also deducting ten per cent. for absence and casualties, which would be 212,091, there would still remain 1,858,819 to be provided for at the public expense. Now, it appeared from tables made out by the Rev. Mr. Burgess, of Chelsea, that the total number of daily scholars in connexion with the established church was 749,626, and from the same table it appeared that the total number of daily scholars in connexion with the Dissenting bodies was 95,000. The total number. then of daily scholars in England and Wales was 844,626, leaving without any daily instruction 1,014,193 persons capable of some education, Now, if the house would look forward to the next ten years, the probability was that the population in England and Wales would be increased by 2,500,000, and thus an inconceivable multitude would be added to the number of those persons capable of instruction, but receiving none.' This statement his Lordship followed by others exhibiting in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and Sheffield, a disgusting precocity in vice; an extent of juvenile profligacy which we must necessarily pass over, and proceed to make some some extracts setting forth the ignorance which prevails amongst the youth of both classes in some of the most populous districts in the country. His Lordship, after the facts above referred to, said he would now call the attention of the House to the state of Wolverhampton, as reported by Mr. Horne, one of the sub-commissioners. Mr. Horne went on to state :- Among all the children and young persons I examined, I found with very few exceptions, that their minds were as stunted as their bodies-their moral feelings stagnant. The children and young persons possessed but little sense of moral duty towards their parents, and have little affection for them. One child believed that Pontius Pilate and Goliath were apostles. Another, fourteen or fifteen years of age, did not know how many two and two made. In my evidence, taken in this town alone, as many as five children and young persons had never heard even the name of Jesus Christ. You will find boys who have never heard of such a place as London, and of Willenhall (only three miles distant) who had never heard of the name of the Queen, or of such names as Wellington, Nelson, Bonaparte, and King George. But (adds the commissioner) while of Scripture names I could not in general obtain any rational account, APRIL, 1843. S sons of many of the most sacred names never having even been heard, there was a general knowledge of the lives of Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppard, not to mention the preposterous epidemic of a hybrid negro The master of the British school says, song. I have resided as a teacher for the last six years, during which I have observed that the character and habits of the numerous labouring poor are of the lowest order.' The master of the National school says, 'besotted to the last degree.' The report in Willenhall said, 'A lower condition of morals cannot I think, be found. They sink some degrees (where that is possible) below the worst classes of children and young perThe Wolverhampton report said, they do not display the remotest sign of comprehension as to what is meant by the term morals.' That from Wednesfield described the people as much addicted to drinking; many besotted in the extreme; poor dejected men, with 'hardly a rag to their backs, are often seen drunk two or three days in the week, and even when they have large families. The same profligacy and ignorance were found at Darlaston, where we had the evidence of three parties, an overseer, a collector and a relieving officer,- that there are as many as a hundred men in Darleston who do not know their own names, only their nick-names.' The report from Bilston stated that the 'moral condition of children and young persons was on the whole very superior to that in Wolverhampton,' it excepts however, the bank-girls, and those who work at the screw manufactories. The bank-girls drive coal carts, ride astride upon horses, drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, sing, and care for nobody.' If things were better in Bilston, it is owing to the dawn of education, and to the great exertions of the Rev. Mr. Fletcher and the Rev. Mr. Owen in the church; and Mr. R. Bew, chymist, and Mr. Dimmock, iron merchant, among the Dissenters.' As regarded Sedgley, it appeared that Children and young persons grow up in irreligion, immorality and ignorance. The number of girls at nailing considerably exceeds that of the boys. It may be termed the district of female blacksmiths. Constantly associating with depraved adults and young persons of the opposite sex, they naturally fall into all their ways, and drink, and smoke, swear, &c. and become as bad as men.' With regard to the condition of the people in another district he found this evidence given: The Hon. and Rev. Horace Powis, the rector of Warrington, than whom no man was more competent to give an opinion on such a subject, said, My conviction is, and it is founded upon the observation of some years, that the general condition of the children employed in labour in the town is alarmingly degraded both religiously, morally, and intellectually.' And he had again the evidence of the Rev. J. Molyneux, the Roman Catholic priest of Warrington, who stated his peculiar qualifications to give testimony, having a congregation of 3000, and chiefly among the poorer classes, and he says, Children in pin works are very immoral, they sit close together, and encourage each other in cursing and swearing and loose conversation, which, I grant you, they do not understand, but it renders them prone to adopt the acts of immorality on which they converse.' 6 Those girls who, from very early labour at pins, go to the factories, do not ever make good housekeepers; they have no idea of it; neither |