ONE peculiar feature in the English character is that activity of mind which prompts men to be continually aiming at advancement and improvement in every department of life;-a disposition resulting in a great measure from the commercial spirit of the nation, which, in its turn, it fosters and extends. Most English towns contain certain busy, active-minded men, who are the first to suggest the adoption of schemes for the improvement of the place and neigh

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bourhood. It is manifest, however, that there is a great difference in the character of active men, and in the value of their activity; and that, while a welldirected activity may produce the most beneficial results, the activity of bad men can yield little but evil. One man shall look with the eye of Christian love and pity on the multitudes perishing around him for lack of knowledge, and shall feel his spirit stirred within him, and shall set his mind on procuring for them the means of worshipping God, and receiving pastoral instruction, and educating their children in God's true religion. He shall give freely of his money; and if "silver and gold he has none," he shall devote his talents and time to the cause:-it shall be his dream by night, and his occupation by day, until his object be accomplished. It is incredible how much may be effected even by one mind zealously set on a given object; and he who has occasioned the building of one church or school for religious instruction, has not lived in vain. He is a fellow-worker with God: generations after him will benefit by his good deeds; and if they have been done in faith and charity, they will in no case lose their reward. Such was the character of Mr. Walton's activity: he was always ready for every good work. It was he who had been principally instrumental in establishing the national schools, as well as the savings-bank; and the dispensary, though it had existed before his time, yet owed its enlargement and efficiency to his judicious suggestion. And he had the rare excellence of perseverance, as well as energy. Some men will shew great eagerness in forming a new and useful institution; but when their object is accomplished, they grow tired of it. Not so Mr. Walton:-he continued with unwearied patience to uphold and carry out whatever useful work had been projected.

It were well if the activity of the present age always flowed in such beneficial channels. But, alas, how many clever and able men in our towns and cities are there, whose talents are devoted to the worst purposes; and bring a curse, instead of a blessing to the generation in which they live; and treasure up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath. A sort of political mania has infused itself into the present generation. Men have taken it into their heads, that our old English constitution, under which we have flourished for so many years, must be altered. You will meet with people of this sort in every town -mad about reform and politics; some really sosome, I fear, affecting it from self-interest, or from the love of consequence. All the activity of these restless persons, which might have contributed to the good of men and the honour of God, is absorbed in schemes of local or general politics. An election is to them a festival or holyday: their whole minds are set on preparing for these great events of their lives. Politics are their meat and drink: their business is neglected; their home deserted; their evenings are devoted to going round to the beer-shops and publichouses; and when men's senses are stupified, or their passions excited, with strong drink, they flatter the vanity of the most ignorant and immoral of the people, and infuse into them what they are pleased to term "liberal politics." It is incredible the pains and assiduity with which certain men, in almost every town, will pursue this course, and the unscrupulous and dishonest means which they will use thus to gather around them a host of angry disaffected spirits. These men are manifestly doing the devil's work, and will be rewarded according to their deeds.

But, besides those which have been mentioned, there are a number of active men, whose energies are directed to matters which are in themselves in

different-mere matters of business and convenience. Such persons there must be in every town, or we should never get on with the rest of the world. In truth, there is no reason, whether we live at Churchover or elsewhere, why we should be the last to adopt the new inventions of the age. Other towns are lit with gas; why should we go on with our old dull lamps? Let us form a company,-subscribe for shares,build a gasometer; and who knows whether by good management we may not put something into our pockets, as well as save our neighbours and ourselves from tumbling into the gutters? The next town has got its main street Macadamised, why should we go on with our old rattling, jolting pavement? Then, again, why should we not club together, and have our reading-room, and get the principal daily papers, instead of each taking in his weekly journal, and having his news seven days old? In all these schemes of improvement Mr. Walton gladly concurred: sometimes suggesting them himself, but generally leaving them to be worked out by those who were most interested about them; gladly affording them the benefit of his able advice, if he saw them bungling the matter.

One day he was waited on by three gentlemen, who were well known as being amongst the most active in the town in matters of this sort. 66 They came," they said, "to request his advice and concurrence in a scheme which they had been concocting, in order to improve the morals and enlarge the understanding of the lower orders. It was wonderful, they said, to observe the great want of intellectual cultivation which existed, even in these enlightened times, amongst those who got their living by their daily labour. Why might they not be induced to spend their leisure-hours in more refined enjoyments, and the improvement of their minds, and acquiring_a knowledge of the wonders of art and nature?

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short, to come to the point, why should they not have a Mechanics' Institute? There was a Mechanics' Institute at Sutton, and Norton, and Weston, and Eaton, why should they not have the same advantages at Churchover, which might enlighten and humanise the minds of their humbler fellow-townsmen ?"

Mr. Walton was rather amused at the wonders which they expected to arise from the establishment of a mechanics' institute; and though not quite so sanguine as his visitors with regard to its beneficial results, yet he did not think proper to make any objection to the scheme, provided it was not made a political affair. He was well aware that an institution of this sort depended very much on the way in which it was taken up and managed; and therefore he deemed it best to give it his countenance and support. The three gentlemen were highly pleased with Mr. Walton's consent, and still more with his subscription; and strongly urged that he should accept the office of president, and open the institution with an address. Mr. Walton did not wish to identify himself so completely with a scheme, of the beneficial results of which he was not entirely convinced; and therefore compounded with them to give them an opening lecture, on condition that they should allow him to decline the honour of accepting the presidency;-and so it was agreed.

The day at length arrived for the opening of the institution. The people of Churchover were assembled in the town-hall. In the front row sat the gentry; behind them the trades'-people; next the members of the Institute; and in the rear, half-way down the hall, a mixed multitude, who came to hear what was going on. The committee, consisting of the doctor, the lawyer, the curate, and others of the principal inhabitants, sat round a table raised on a slight eleva