But we lag in our narrative. That melancholy event took place which cast a shade of sadness over Christendom; and in a few weeks after, the posthumous document, kindly communicated to us by the family of the deceased, appeared in the columns of the _Witness_. We perused it with intense interest; and what we saw in the first perusal was, that Chalmers had gone far beyond us; and in the second, that, in laying down his first principles, he had looked at the subject, as was his nature, in a broader and more general aspect, and had unlocked the difficulty which it presented in a more practical and statesmanlike manner. _We_ had, indeed, considered in the abstract the right and duty of the civil magistrate to educate his people; but our main object being to ward off otherwise inevitable bankruptcy from a scheme of our Church, and having to deal with a sort of vicious Cameronianism, that would not accept of the magistrate's money, even though he gave the Bible and the Shorter Catechism along with it, we had merely contended that money given in connection with the Bible and Shorter Catechism is a very excellent thing, and especially so to men who cannot fulfil their obligations or pay their debts without it. But Chalmers had looked beyond the difficulties of a scheme, to the emergencies of a nation. At the request of many of our readers, we have reprinted his document in full, as it originally appeared.{5} First, let it be remarked that, after briefly stating what he deemed the optimity of the question, he passes on to what he considered the only mode of settling it practically, in the present divided state of the Church and country. And in doing so he lays down, as a preliminary step, the absolute right and duty of the Government to educate, altogether independently of the theological differences or divisions which may obtain among the people or in the Churches. 'As there seems no reason,' he says, 'why, because of these unresolved differences, a public measure for the health of all, for the recreation of all, for the economic advancement of all, should be held in abeyance, there seems as little reason why, because of these differences, a public measure for raising the general intelligence of all should be held in abeyance.' Such is the principle which he enunciates regarding the party possessing the right to _educate_. Let the reader next mark in what terms he speaks of the party _to be_ educated, or under whose immediate superintendence the education is to be conducted. Those who most widely misunderstand the Doctor's meaning--from the circumstance, perhaps, that their views are most essentially at variance with those which he entertained--seem to hold that this _absolute_ right on the part of Government is somehow _conditional_ on the parties to be educated, or to superintend the education, coming forward to them _in the character of Churches_. They deem it necessary to the integrity of his meaning, that