Comparative Education Research

Approaches and Methods 2nd Edition

Mark Bray
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/comparative-education-research-approaches-and-me
thods-2nd-edition-mark-bray/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Antifa The Antifascist Handbook 2nd Edition Bray Mark

https://textbookfull.com/product/antifa-the-antifascist-
handbook-2nd-edition-bray-mark/

Transnational German Education and Comparative

Education Systems Research and Practice Benjamin Nickl

https://textbookfull.com/product/transnational-german-education-
and-comparative-education-systems-research-and-practice-benjamin-
nickl/

Social Research Methods Qualitative Quantitative and

Mixed Methods Approaches 1st Edition Sigmund Grønmo

https://textbookfull.com/product/social-research-methods-
qualitative-quantitative-and-mixed-methods-approaches-1st-
edition-sigmund-gronmo/

Doing Memory Research: New Methods and Approaches

Danielle Drozdzewski

https://textbookfull.com/product/doing-memory-research-new-
methods-and-approaches-danielle-drozdzewski/
Research Methods in Education Louis Cohen

https://textbookfull.com/product/research-methods-in-education-
louis-cohen/

Research Methods for Education Gregory J Privitera

https://textbookfull.com/product/research-methods-for-education-
gregory-j-privitera/

Research Methods for Education second edition Peter

Newby

https://textbookfull.com/product/research-methods-for-education-
second-edition-peter-newby/

Methods in Consumer Research Volume 1 New Approaches to

Classic Methods 1st Edition Gaston Ares

https://textbookfull.com/product/methods-in-consumer-research-
volume-1-new-approaches-to-classic-methods-1st-edition-gaston-
ares/

Educational Research Contemporary Issues and Practical

Approaches 2nd Edition Jerry Wellington

https://textbookfull.com/product/educational-research-
contemporary-issues-and-practical-approaches-2nd-edition-jerry-
wellington/
32
 Second Edition

Comparative
Education Research
Approaches and Methods
CERC Studies in Comparative Education
31. Bob Adamson, Jon Nixon and Feng Su (eds.) (2012): The Reorientation of Higher Education:
Challenging the East-West Dichotomy. ISBN 978-988-17852-7-5. 314pp. HK$250/US$38.
30. Ruth Hayhoe, Jun Li, Jing Lin & Qiang Zha (2011): Portraits of 21st Century Chinese Universities:
In the Move to Mass Higher Education. ISBN 978-988-17852-3-7. 483pp. HK$300/US$45.
29. Maria Manzon (2011): Comparative Education: The Construction of a Field. ISBN 978-
988-17852-6-8. 295pp. HK$200/US$32.
28. Kerry J. Kennedy, Wing On Lee & David L. Grossman (eds.) (2010): Citizenship Peda-
gogies in Asia and the Pacific. ISBN 978-988-17852-2-0. 407pp. HK$250/US$38.
27. David Chapman, William K. Cummings & Gerard A. Postiglione (eds.) (2010): Crossing
Borders in East Asian Higher Education. ISBN 978-962-8093-98-4. 388pp. HK$250/US$38.
26. Ora Kwo (ed.) (2010): Teachers as Learners: Critical Discourse on Challenges and
Opportunities. ISBN 978-962-8093-55-7. 349pp. HK$250/US$38.
25. Carol K.K. Chan & Nirmala Rao (eds.) (2009): Revisiting the Chinese Learner: Changing
Contexts, Changing Education. ISBN 978-962-8093-16-8. 360pp. HK$250/US$38.
24. Donald B. Holsinger & W. James Jacob (eds.) (2008): Inequality in Education: Comparative
and International Perspectives. ISBN 978-962-8093-14-4. 584pp. HK$300/US$45.
23. Nancy Law, Willem J Pelgrum & Tjeerd Plomp (eds.) (2008): Pedagogy and ICT Use in
Schools around the World: Findings from the IEA SITES 2006 Study. ISBN 978-962-8093-65-
6. 296pp. HK$250/US$38.
22. David L. Grossman, Wing On Lee & Kerry J. Kennedy (eds.) (2008): Citizenship Cur-
riculum in Asia and the Pacific. ISBN 978-962-8093-69-4. 268pp. HK$200/US$32.
21. Vandra Masemann, Mark Bray & Maria Manzon (eds.) (2007): Common Interests,
Uncommon Goals: Histories of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies
and its Members. ISBN 978-962-8093-10-6. 384pp. HK$250/US$38.
20. Peter D. Hershock, Mark Mason & John N. Hawkins (eds.) (2007): Changing Education:
Lead-ership, Innovation and Development in a Globalizing Asia Pacific. ISBN 978-962-
8093-54-0. 348pp. HK$200/US$32.
19. Mark Bray, Bob Adamson & Mark Mason (eds.) (2014): Comparative Education
Research: Approaches and Methods. Second edition. ISBN 978-988-17852-8-2. 453pp.
HK$250/US$38.
18. Aaron Benavot & Cecilia Braslavsky (eds.) (2006): School Knowledge in Comparative
and Historical Perspective: Changing Curricula in Primary and Secondary Education.
ISBN 978-962-8093-52-6. 315pp. HK$200/US$32.
17. Ruth Hayhoe (2006): Portraits of Influential Chinese Educators. ISBN 978-962-8093-40-3.
398pp. HK$250/US$38.
16. Peter Ninnes & Meeri Hellstén (eds.) (2005): Internationalizing Higher Education: Critical
Explorations of Pedagogy and Policy. ISBN 978-962-8093-37-3. 231pp. HK$200/US$32.
15. Alan Rogers (2004): Non-Formal Education: Flexible Schooling or Participatory Education?
ISBN 978-962-8093-30-4. 316pp. HK$200/US$32.

Earlier titles in the series are listed on the back page of the book.
 CERC Studies in Comparative Education 32

Second Edition

Comparative
Education Research
Approaches and Methods

Edited by Mark Bray, Bob Adamson, Mark Mason

123 Comparative Education Research Centre

The University of Hong Kong
SERIES EDITOR
Mark Bray, Director, Comparative Education Research Centre
The University of Hong Kong, China
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Yang Rui, Comparative Education Research Centre
The University of Hong Kong, China
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Robert Arnove, Indiana University, USA
Nina Borevskaya, Institute of the Far East, Moscow, Russia
Michael Crossley, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Jiang Kai, Peking University, Beijing, China
Cristian Pérez Centeno, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Argentina
Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
PRODUCTION EDITOR
Emily Mang, Comparative Education Research Centre
The University of Hong Kong, China
Comparative Education Research Centre
Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
© Comparative Education Research Centre 2014

First edition published 2007

ISBN 978-988-17852-8-2 Paperback

ISBN 978-3-319-05593-0 ISBN 978-3-319-05594-7 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05594-7
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014941595

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or
information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief
excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the
purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of
the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the
Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be
obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright
Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of
publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for
any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein.

COVER: Detail, "Autumn School", from an impressionist landscape by Vietnamese artist, Dao Hai
Phong, reproduced with the kind permission of the painting's owners, Richard and Louisa Barton.
Dao Hai Phong was born in Hanoi in 1965 and graduated from the Hanoi College of Fine Art in
1987. Village scenes and depictions of Hanoi streets executed in very bright colours such as blue,
yellow, green or red are characteristic of his paintings. Phong’s work has been exhibited in Hanoi,
Hong Kong, Italy, Laos, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the USA.

Printed and bound by The Central Printing Press Ltd. in Hong Kong, China

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

 Contents

List of Tables vii

List of Figures ix

Abbreviations xi

Preface xv

Introduction 1
Mark BRAY, Bob ADAMSON & Mark MASON

I: DIRECTIONS 17

1. Actors and Purposes in Comparative Education 19

Mark BRAY

2. Scholarly Enquiry and the Field of Comparative Education 47

Mark BRAY

3. Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to 71

Comparative Education
Gregory P. FAIRBROTHER

II: UNITS OF COMPARISON 95

4. Comparing Places 97
Maria MANZON

5. Comparing Systems 139

Mark BRAY & Kai JIANG

6. Comparing Times 167

Anthony SWEETING
v
vi Contents

7. Comparing Race, Class and Gender 195

Liz JACKSON

8. Comparing Cultures 221

Mark MASON

9. Comparing Values 259

Wing On LEE & Maria MANZON

10. Comparing Policies 285

Rui YANG

11. Comparing Curricula 309

Bob ADAMSON & Paul MORRIS

12. Comparing Pedagogical Innovations 333

Nancy LAW

13. Comparing Ways of Learning 365

David A. WATKINS & Jan VAN AALST

14. Comparing Educational Achievements 387

Frederick K.S. LEUNG & Kyungmee PARK

III: CONCLUSIONS 415

15. Different Models, Different Emphases, Different Insights 417

Mark BRAY, Bob ADAMSON & Mark MASON

Contributors 437

Index 443
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 Statistics on Lower Secondary Education, Selected

Asian Countries .....……….………………...……….. 28
Table 1.2 Rankings on PISA Results in Reading,
Mathematics and Science ……………….……..…… 36
Table 2.1 Disciplinary Groupings and the Nature of
Knowledge ….….....………………..…....…..…..…... 49
Table 4.1 Comparative Case Study Analyses ……………….. 98
Table 4.2 Youth Literacy Rates, by World Regions …………. 107
Table 4.3 Comparison of Nations and US States on Percentage
Deviation from Expected 1990 Grade 8 Mathematics
Scores and Expenditures on Education per Capita … 114
Table 4.4 Demographic and Socio-cultural Characteristics of
the Swiss Cantons …………………………………… 116
Table 5.1 Proportions of Pupils in a Six-Year Primary School
System in Selected Provinces and Municipalities,
Mainland China, 2010 ………………………...……... 145
Table 5.2 Providers of Primary and Secondary Schooling in
Hong Kong, 2012/13 …………………...……………. 147
Table 5.3 Secondary Schools in Hong Kong, by Medium of
Instruction, 1993/94 ……………...…………………… 149
Table 5.4 Schools in Macao, by Ownership and Medium of
Instruction ………...…………………………………... 153
Table 11.1 Curriculum Ideologies and Components ………… 313
Table 11.2 Curriculum Manifestations and Typical Research
Methods ……………………………………………… 321
Table 13.1 Average Correlations between Learning
Approach Scales and Academic Achievement,
Self-Esteem and Locus of Control …………………. 373
Table 14.1 A Hierarchy of Science Literacy Skills ……………. 392

vii
viii List of Tables

Table 14.2 Number of Mathematics Items of Each Type and

Score Points, by Reporting Category, Grade 8 …… 393
Table 14.3 Sub-scores for First Four Pupils in a Class ……….. 399
Table 14.4 Results for a Relative Comparison of a School
with Similar Schools and all Schools in Hong
Kong ………………………………………………….. 400
Table 14.5 Achievement of Hong Kong Students in TIMSS
1999 Compared with International Averages ……. 401
Table 14.6 Pupil Reading, Mathematics, Science Scores in
PISA 2006 by the Characteristics of Region
(Korea) ……………………………………………….. 402
Table 14.7 Percentages of Grade 5 Vietnamese Pupils
Reaching Different Skill Levels in Reading and
Mathematics ………………………………………… 405
Table 14.8 Percentages and Sampling Errors of Pupils
Reaching Functionality Levels in Reading and
Mathematics, Vietnam ……………………………… 406
Table 14.9 Percentages and Sampling Errors of Pupils at
Each Benchmark by Region, Vietnam …………….. 407
Table 14.10 Selected Results from PISA 2009 …………………... 408
Table 14.11 TIMSS Advanced 2008 Distribution of
Achievement in Advanced Mathematics …………. 409
Table 14.12 TIMSS 2007 Intra-class Correlations for Grade 8
Mathematics for a Number of Countries …………. 411
 List of Figures

Figure 0.1 A Framework for Comparative Education

Analyses .…………………..………..……………….. 9
Figure 1.1 Children of Primary School Age who were Out of
School, by World Region ……………..………..……. 29
Figure 1.2 Teachers’ Salaries in Lower Secondary Education,
in equivalent US$ Converted using Purchasing
Power Parities ……………..………..……………….. 34
Figure 2.1 Olivera’s System-Based Classification of
Education-Related Disciplines …..………………… 54
Figure 2.2 A Macro-Mapping of Paradigms and Theories in
Comparative and International Education ……….. 57
Figure 4.1 Bereday’s Model for Undertaking Comparative
Studies……………………..…………………..…….... 99
Figure 4.2 Points of Convergence in Different Settings …....... 101
Figure 4.3 Mapping the Dynamics of Globalisation through
Regional Organisations…...………………..……….. 106
Figure 4.4 Comparison of Lesson Structures ..……..….…..….. 123
Figure 5.1 Systems of Education in Macao as Portrayed in a
1989 Official Document …..….…..….…..….…..….… 151
Figure 5.2 Systems of Education in Macao as Portrayed in a
1993 Official Document …..….…..….…..….…..……. 152
Figure 8.1 Primary and Secondary Insiders and Outsiders in
Ethnographic Research …..….…..….…..….…..…….. 243
Figure 9.1 Varied Methodological Emphases in Comparative
Studies of Values …..….…..….…..….…..….…..…... 275
Figure 9.2 Sampling Design in Case Study Format Research.. 277
Figure 9.3 Four Inferential Strategies in Case-oriented
Comparative Research …..….…..………...…..….…. 277
Figure 11.1 A Framework for Comparing Curricula ………….. 316

ix
x List of Figures

Figure 11.2 Evaluation of Models of Trilingual Education in

China …..….…..….…..….…..….…..….…..….…..…. 324
Figure 11.3 Interpretations of Task-Based Learning from
Policy Intention to Implementation …..….…..……. 326
Figure 12.1 The Seven Cases of Innovation Mapped onto the
Framework Developed by Kampylis et al. ……….. 350
Figure 12.2 Plot of the Participation Threshold for Strategic
Alignment vs its Access Level in the SCALE CCR
Study …..….…..….…..….…..….…..….…..….…..…. 352
Figure 14.1 Components of the Mathematics Domain in PISA 390
Figure 14.2 An Example of Scoring Criteria for a Performance
Item …..….…..….…..….…..….…..….…..….…..…… 394
Figure 14.3 Pupil Reading Achievement Variance Partitioned
by Province, School, Class within School, and
Pupils within Classes, Vietnam …..….…..….…..…. 410
Figure 15.1 Diagrammatic Representation of a Two-Location
Comparative Study …..….…..….…..….…..….……. 418
Figure 15.2 Diagrammatic Representation of a Comparative
Study with a Single Location in the Centre …..…... 419
Figure 15.3 Diagrammatic Representation of an Eight-
Location Comparative Study …..….…..….…..……. 420
Figure 15.4 Diagrammatic Representation of a 25-Location
Comparative Study …..….…..….…..….…..….……. 420
Figure 15.5 Comparisons across Time using the Bray &
Thomas Cube …..….…..….…..….…..….…..….…… 423
 Abbreviations
ACER Australian Council for Educational Research
ACSA Australian Curriculum Studies Association
ACTEQ Advisory Committee on Teacher Education &
Qualifications
ANOVA analysis of variance
ANZCIES Australian and New Zealand Comparative and
International Education Society
APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
ASI Approaches to Studying Inventory
BAICE British Association for Comparative and International
Education
CERC Comparative Education Research Centre [HKU]
CES Comparative Education Society
CIES Comparative and International Education Society
CIESC Comparative and International Education Society of
Canada
CoREF Renovating Education of the Future Project
CPD Continuing Professional Development
DFID Department for International Development
DSS Direct Subsidy Scheme
EFA Education for All
ESCS economic, social and cultural status
ESF English Schools Foundation
EU European Union
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GEEI Gender Equality in Education Index
GEI Gender Equality Index
GPI Gender Parity Index
GSP Gross State Product
IAEP International Assessment of Educational Progress
IALS International Adult Literacy Survey
IBE International Bureau of Education

xi
xii Abbreviations

IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

ICCS International Civic and Citizenship Education Study
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IEA International Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement
IESALC International Institute for Higher Education in Latin
America and the Caribbean
IICBA International Institute for Capacity-Building in Africa
IIEP International Institute for Educational Planning
IITE Institute for Information Technologies in Education
IMF International Monetary Fund
INES Indicators of Education Systems programme [OECD]
IRE International Review of Education
ITL Innovative Teaching and Learning Research
JRC-IPTS Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the
European Commission’s Joint Research Centre
KCES Korean Comparative Education Society
LAs learning activities
LASW Learning Activities and Student Work
LPQ Learning Process Questionnaire
LPS Laboratorio di Pedagogia sperimentale
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
MGIEP Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and
Sustainable Development
MoE Ministry of Education
NAEP National Assessment of Educational Progress
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
NFER National Foundation for Educational Research
NLPN National Literacy Programme in Namibia
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development
OFSTED Office for Standards in Education
PIRLS Progress in International Reading Literacy Study
PISA Programme for International Student Assessment
PRC People’s Republic of China
QUEST Quality in Educational Systems Trans-nationally
SACMEQ Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for
Monitoring Educational Quality
SAR Special Administrative Region
 Abbreviations xiii

SAT Scholastic Aptitude Test

SCALE CCR Scalability of Creative Classrooms Study
SES socioeconomic status
SFSO Swiss Federal Statistics Office
SITES Second International Technology in Education Study
SPQ Study Process Questionnaire
SW student work
TBL Task-based Learning
TIMSS Third [also Trends in] International Mathematics and
Science Study
UCES Ukraine Comparative Education Society
UIL UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning
UIS UNESCO Institute for Statistics
UK United Kingdom
UN United Nations
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
USA United States of America
USAID United States Agency for International Development
WCCES World Council of Comparative Education Societies
WIDE World Inequality Database on Education
ġ
ġ
ġ

Preface
This is the second edition of a book first published in 2007. The editors,
authors and co-publishers were delighted with the reception of the first
edition. It has been reviewed very positively in 25 academic journals, and
has been adopted as a core text for courses in comparative education in all
continents of the world. The book has been translated into Chinese, Farsi,
French, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, and presented in multiple confer-
ences of member associations of the World Council of Comparative Ed-
ucation Societies (WCCES). As such, the book has contributed to dis-
courses in a wide range of locations and languages.
This second edition of the book in turn benefits from these dis-
courses. The book has been updated and elaborated, particularly with a
new chapter on race, class and gender in comparative education. For
reasons of length, some parts of the first edition have been omitted, but
they can of course still be located in the original version.
Feedback from students, professors and reviewers in academic
journals has indicated that the discussion of different units for compari-
son has been considered especially valuable. A starting point for the book
and for some chapters has been a cube presented by Bray and Thomas
(1995) which stressed in three-dimensional form the value of multi-level
analyses. Both the first edition and this second edition of the book
re-evaluate the cube in the context of developments in the field of com-
parative education. The discussions show that indeed the cube remains
useful, though – as recognised originally by Bray and Thomas – it cannot
embrace all types of comparative studies and many alternative ap-
proaches are desirable.
One of the most detailed reviews of the book was written by Sultana
(2011), who explained that he approached the volume from the perspec-
tive of the academic leader of a Masters course in comparative education.
He had encountered difficulties in selecting a core book for the course,
since many comparative education texts adopt either a thematic approach
or are country- or region-focused. The present book, he felt, was “re-
freshingly different” (p.329). He appreciated the framing chapters in Part

xv
xvi Preface

I and the concluding remarks in Part III, and especially valued the Units
of Comparison in Part II. This, indeed, has been much welcomed by other
readers (e.g. Kubow 2007; Langouët 2011). It has therefore been retained
in this second edition.
The contributors both to the original and this second edition of the
book are all in some way linked to the Comparative Education Research
Centre at the University of Hong Kong. The Centre was established in
1994, and is proud to have established a significant reputation. Partly
because of the Centre’s geographic and cultural location, many chapters
give examples from East Asia. At the same time, the book has a global
message that also draws on examples from all other regions of the world.
This also was among the features that particularly attracted Sultana (2011,
p.330), and we hope will prove equally attractive to other readers.
The field of comparative education is dynamic and is evolving in
significant ways. We hope through the second edition of this book both to
reflect and to contribute to such dynamism.

The Editors

References

Bray, Mark & Thomas, R. Murray (1995): ‘Levels of Comparison in Edu-

cational Studies: Different Insights from Different Literatures and
the Value of Multilevel Analyses’. Harvard Educational Review, Vol.65,
No.3, pp.472-490.
Kubow, Patricia K. (2007): Review of Comparative Education Research: Ap-
proaches and Methods, in Comparative Education Review, Vol.51, No.4,
pp.534-537.
Langouët, Gabriel (2011): ‘Recensions’, La revue française d’éducation com-
parée, No.7, pp.145-148.
Sultana, Ronald (2011): ‘Review Article - Comparative Education: Initi-
ating Novices into the Field’, International Journal of Educational De-
velopment, Vol.31, No.3, pp.329-332.
ġ
ġ
ġ

Introduction
Mark BRAY, Bob ADAMSON & Mark MASON

Approaches and methods have naturally been a major concern in the field
of comparative education since its emergence as a distinct domain of
studies. Different decades have witnessed different emphases, and the 21st
century has brought new perspectives, tools and forums for scholarly
exchange. The new perspectives include those arising from the forces of
globalisation and the changing role of the state. The new tools include
ever-advancing information and transportation technology; and the new
forums for scholarly exchange include the internet and electronic jour-
nals.
Setting the scene for this book, this Introduction begins with histor-
ical perspectives. It highlights some classic works in the field, and notes
dimensions of evolution over time. Although many different categories of
people may undertake comparative studies of education, these remarks
focus chiefly on the work of academics, since that is the main concern of
the book. The Introduction then turns to patterns in the new century, ob-
serving emerging dynamics and emphases. Finally, it focuses on the con-
tents of the book, charting some of its features and contributions.

Some Historical Perspectives

At the beginning of his classic book, Comparative Method in Education,
George Bereday (1964, p.7) asserted that from the viewpoint of method,
comparative education was entering the third phase of its history. The
first phase, he suggested, spanned the 19th century, “was inaugurated by
the first scientifically minded comparative educator, Marc-Antoine Jullien
de Paris in 1817”, and might be called the period of borrowing. Bereday
characterised its emphasis as cataloguing descriptive data, following
which comparison of the data was undertaken in order to make available

1
2 Mark Bray, Bob Adamson & Mark Mason

the best practices of one country with the intention of copying them
elsewhere.
Bereday’s second phase, which occupied the first half of the 20th
century, “interposed a preparatory process before permitting any trans-
plantation”. Its founder, Sir Michael Sadler in the United Kingdom (UK),
stressed that education systems are intricately connected with the socie-
ties that support them (see especially Sadler 1900). Sadler’s successors,
among whom Bereday identified Friedrich Schneider and Franz Hilker in
Germany, Isaac Kandel and Robert Ulich in the United States of America
(USA), Nicholas Hans and Joseph Lauwerys in the UK, and Pedro Ros-
selló in Switzerland, all paid much attention to the social causes behind
educational phenomena. Bereday named this second phase the period of
prediction.
Bereday’s third phase was labelled the period of analysis, with
emphasis on “the evolving of theory and methods, [and] the clear for-
mulation of steps of comparative procedures and devices to aid this en-
largement of vision”. The new historical period, Bereday added (1964,
p.9), was a continuation of the tradition of the period of prediction, but it
postulated that “before prediction and eventual borrowing is attempted
there must be a systematization of the field in order to expose the whole
panorama of national practices of education”. Bereday’s book itself
greatly contributed to this analytical approach. The book remains core
reading in many courses on comparative education, and still has much to
offer. Indeed one contributor to this volume (Manzon, Chapter 4) com-
mences with Bereday’s four-step method of comparative analysis.
However, even at that time not all scholars agreed with the catego-
risation of periods that Bereday presented. Nor, if they did accept the
categorisation, did they necessarily agree that the phases were sequential
in which the period of prediction had followed and displaced the period
of borrowing, and in turn the period of analysis had followed and dis-
placed the period of prediction.
Similar remarks may be made about the set of five stages in the de-
velopment of the field presented in 1969 in another classic work entitled
Toward a Science of Comparative Education (Noah & Eckstein 1969, pp.3-7).
The first stage was travellers’ tales, in which amateurs presented infor-
mation on foreign ways of raising children as part of broader descriptions
of institutions and practices abroad. The second stage, which became
prominent from the beginning of the 19th century, was of educational
borrowing; and was followed by the third stage of encyclopaedic work on
 Introduction 3

foreign countries in the interests of international understanding. From the

beginning of the 20th century, Noah and Eckstein suggested (p.4), two
more stages occurred, both concerned with seeking explanations for the
wide variety of educational and social phenomena observed around the
globe. The first attempted to identify the forces and factors shaping na-
tional educational systems; and the second was termed the stage of social
science explanation, which “uses the empirical, quantitative methods of
economics, political science, and sociology to clarify relationships be-
tween education and society”.
The characterisation was widely agreed to have been useful, but the
presentation of stages as sequential, with later ones displacing earlier
ones, was less widely affirmed. To be fair, Noah and Eckstein did them-
selves state (p.4) that the stages were far from being discrete in time, and
that “each of these types of work in comparative education has persisted
down to the present and may be observed in the contemporary literature”.
However, their characterisation of different historical periods had greater
emphasis than this remark about the co-existence of different stages. With
the benefit of a few more decades of hindsight, it is apparent that all five
categories remain very evident in the literature. For some individual
scholars they might provide roughly distinguishable stages in personal
career development, with gradation from simplistic notions to more so-
phisticated analyses; but the field as a whole remains eclectic and dispar-
ate in approaches and degrees of sophistication.
Nevertheless, with this pair of books and related works in the 1960s
(e.g. King 1964; Bristow & Holmes 1968), the field of comparative educa-
tion embarked on a period of considerable debate about methodology.
The debate was not conducted evenly in all parts of the world, and pat-
terns in English-speaking countries were very different from ones for
example in Arabic-speaking, Russian-speaking or Chinese-speaking
countries (Benhamida 1990; Djourinski 1998; Wang 1998). Yet scholarship
in English-speaking countries exerted significant leadership, and thus
deserves particular comment. Moreover, even in that era – a pattern
which has become even more visible during the present century – English
was asserting itself as a language of international discourse for scholars
from multiple linguistic traditions. Thus, for example, another important
work in English emerged from a 1971 meeting of international experts at
the UNESCO Institute for Education in Hamburg, Germany. The meeting
was convened by Tetsuya Kobayashi, a distinguished Japanese scholar of
comparative education who at that time was Director of the Institute, and
4 Mark Bray, Bob Adamson & Mark Mason

brought together participants from Germany, France, Israel, Poland,

Sweden and Switzerland, as well as from such English-speaking countries
as Canada, the UK and the USA.
The resulting book, entitled Relevant Methods in Comparative Educa-
tion (Edwards et al. 1973), both illustrated and contributed to the debates
about methodology in comparative education, and can be considered
another milestone. For example, Barber (1973, p.57) attacked Noah and
Eckstein’s notion of a science of comparative education as being too posi-
tivist and controlled; Halls (1973, p.119) described comparative educators
as having an identity crisis with their multiple labels such as ‘inductive’,
‘problem-solving’, and ‘quantificatory’; and Noonan (1973, p.199) argued
for the alternative paradigm represented by the emerging work of the
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement
(IEA).
Similar diversity was evident in the 1977 special issue of the US
journal Comparative Education Review on ‘The State of the Art’ (Vol.21, Nos.
2 and 3, 1977); and the parallel special issue of the UK journal Comparative
Education on ‘Comparative Education: Its Present State and Future Pro-
spects’ (Vol.13, No.2, 1977). The editors of the UK journal would no doubt
have agreed with the introductory statement by their US counterparts
(Kazamias & Schwartz 1977, p.151):
Uncertainties about the nature, scope, and value of comparative
education were sounded in the mid-1950’s when the foundations
were laid for its promotion as a respected field of study. Yet at that
time it was still possible to identify individuals who were recog-
nized as authoritative spokesmen for this area and writings (texts)
which defined its contours and codified its subject matter. Such was
the case, for example, with I.L. Kandel and his books Comparative
Education (1933) and The New Era in Education (1955), and Nicholas
Hans with his Comparative Education: A Study of Educational Factors
and Traditions (1949). Today such identifications are no longer pos-
sible. There is no internally consistent body of knowledge, no set of
principles or canons of research that are generally agreed upon by
people who associate themselves with the field. Instead, one finds
various strands of thought, theories, trends or concerns, not neces-
sarily related to each other.
A decade later, a follow-up collection of papers that had been published
in Comparative Education Review since the 1977 State of the Art issue sug-
 Introduction 5

gested that the field had broadened yet further. The editors (Altbach &
Kelly 1986, p.1) observed that:
There is no one method of study in the field; rather, the field in-
creasingly is characterized by a number of different research orien-
tations. No longer are there attempts to define a single methodology
of comparative education, and none of our contributors argues that
one single method be developed as a canon.
For example, within the book Masemann (1986) argued for critical eth-
nography; Theisen et al. (1986) focused on the underachievement of
cross-national studies of educational achievement; and Epstein (1986)
discussed ideology in comparative education under the heading ‘Cur-
rents Left and Right’. The final chapter by the editors of the book (Kelly &
Altbach 1986, p.310) asserted that four kinds of challenges to established
research traditions had emerged:
x challenges to the nation state or national characteristics as the
major parameter in defining comparative study;
x questioning of input-output models and exclusive reliance on
quantification in the conduct of comparative research;
x challenges to structural functionalism as the major theoretical
premise under-girding scholarship; and
x new subjects of enquiry, such as knowledge generation and uti-
lisation, student flows, gender, and the internal workings of
schools.
The editors also asserted (Altbach & Kelly 1986, p.1) that scholars had
begun to address intranational comparisons as well as transnational ones.
However, the book did not provide strong evidence to support this
statement. Certainly the field has moved to embrace much more intrana-
tional work, some of which is remarked upon in the pages of this book;
but in general this was a feature of the 1990s and after, rather than the
1980s and before.

Perspectives for the New Century

In 2000, the UK journal Comparative Education published another special
issue entitled ‘Comparative Education for the Twenty-First Century’
(Vol.36, No.3, 2000). It appraised the development of the field since the
6 Mark Bray, Bob Adamson & Mark Mason

1977 special issue mentioned above, and in that connection the opening
paper by Crossley and Jarvis (2000, p.261) observed that:
The significance of continuity with the past emerges as a core theme
in the collective articles and many contributions echo a number of
still fundamental issues raised previously in 1977. Most notably
these include: the multi-disciplinary and applied strengths of the
field; ‘the complexities of this kind of study’; the dangers of the
‘misapplication of findings’; the importance of theoretical analysis
and methodological rigour; the (often unrealised and misunder-
stood) policy-oriented potential; and the enduring centrality of the
concepts of cultural context and educational transfer for the field as
a whole.
At the same time, Crossley and Jarvis noted that the world had changed
significantly. They noted (p.261) that most contributors to the special is-
sue in 2000 saw the future of the field in a more optimistic but more
problematic light than had been the case in 1977. This was attributed to a
combination of factors, and in particular to:
the exponential growth and widening of interest in international
comparative research, the impact of computerised communications
and information technologies, increased recognition of the cultural
dimension of education, and the influence of the intensification of
globalisation upon all dimensions of society and social policy
world-wide.
Indeed these factors had become of increased importance, and the trajec-
tory has continued into the present decade.
The ever-advancing spread of technology has greatly improved ac-
cess to materials and, despite concerns about the ‘digital divide’, has re-
duced the disadvantages faced by scholars in locations remote from li-
braries and other sources of data. As observed by Wilson (2003, p.30):
The advent of web pages at international organisations and national
statistical services has revolutionised how basic research is under-
taken in our field. The development of Internet search engines …
has also transformed our research capabilities.
At the same time, technology has spread the influence of the field, making
the findings and insights from comparative educators available to a much
larger audience than was previously the case through electronic journals,
 Introduction 7

websites and other media. The internet does, however, bring its own
baggage, including an emphasis on English that contributes to the domi-
nance of that language (Mouhoubi 2005; Tietze & Dick 2013).
Also of particular significance are shifts in the global centres of
gravity. The main roots of the field are commonly considered to lie in
Western Europe, from which they branched to the USA. Subsequently,
comparative education became a significant field of enquiry in other parts
of the world (Manzon 2011). In contemporary times, patterns in Asia are
particularly exciting. Japan and Korea have had national comparative
education societies since the 1960s, but younger bodies have emerged in
mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines; and since 1995
Asia as a whole has been served by a regional society (Mochida 2007). The
growth of activity in China, including Hong Kong, has been particularly
notable (Bray & Gui 2007; Manzon 2013). These developments are bring-
ing new perspectives based on different scholarly traditions and social
priorities.
In the millennial special issue of Comparative Education, Crossley and
Jarvis (2000, p.263) noted that new directions for the field included “new
substantive issues, and the potential of more varied and multilevel units
of analysis, including global, intranational and micro-level comparisons”.
Elaborating in his sole-authored paper in the special issue of the journal,
Crossley (2000, p.328) observed that:
While it is already possible to identify concerted efforts to promote,
for example, micro-level qualitative fieldwork … and regional
studies …, the nation state remains the dominant framework in
published work, and few have explicitly considered the various
levels.
Crossley then highlighted a paper by Bray and Thomas (1995) which
stressed the value of multilevel analysis and which, Crossley suggested,
deserved further attention. At the heart of the Bray and Thomas paper
was a cube which presented a set of dimensions and levels for comparison.
Several chapters in this book refer explicitly to the Bray and Thomas pa-
per, and indeed in many respects it provides a core theme within the
volume. The concluding chapter reassesses the cube in the light of the
contributions by the various authors in the book.
A further milestone in the literature came with the publication of the
International Handbook of Comparative Education (Cowen & Kazamias 2009a).
The Handbook comprised two thick volumes with 80 chapters. The edi-
8 Mark Bray, Bob Adamson & Mark Mason

tors placed much of the historical material in Volume 1, and focused on

emerging themes in Volume 2. Their Editorial Introduction stressed
(Cowen & Kazamias 2009b, p.4) that:
Both volumes argue that what is judged to be ‘good’ comparative
education has changed over time. They analyse the shifting aca-
demic agendas, the changing perspectives of attention, and the dif-
ferent academic languages used to construct ‘comparative educa-
tion’. They ask why this happens – why does ‘comparative educa-
tion’ change its epistemic concerns, its reading of the world, and its
aspirations to act upon it? They show the ways in which compara-
tive education responds to the changing politics and economics of
real events in the world as well as to the intellectual currents that are
strong in particular times and places.
One major section in Volume 2 was about postcolonialism, and another
major section was about cultures, knowledge and pedagogies. The former
included chapters on curriculum, human rights and social justice; and the
latter included chapters on religions and values. Chapters in the subse-
quent sections included focus on mapping of comparative education,
intercultural studies, the importance of context, and unit ideas in com-
parative education. Yet, even this two-volume Handbook could not cover
the whole field; and in any case, as the editors added in their Conclusion
(Cowen & Kazamias 2009c, p.1295):
A Handbook is not intended to freeze a field, to fix a canon, but to
rehearse and then release a field of study…. New comparative
educations not imagined in this Handbook can – and will – be
created.
Part of the purpose of the present book is to provide tools to new genera-
tions of researchers so that indeed they can extend the boundaries and
undertake endeavours not previously imagined.

The Bray and Thomas Cube

Figure 0.1 reproduces the cube presented by Bray and Thomas (1995,
p.475). It was contained in a paper entitled ‘Levels of Comparison in Ed-
ucational Studies: Different Insights from Different Literatures and the
Value of Multilevel Analyses’. The paper commenced by noting that dif-
ferent fields within the wider domain of educational studies have differ-
 Introduction 9

ent methodological and conceptual emphases, and that the extent of

cross-fertilisation was somewhat limited. The field of comparative edu-
cation, for example, was dominated by cross-national comparisons and
made little use of intranational comparisons. In contrast, many other
fields were dominated by local foci and failed to benefit from the per-
spectives that could be gained from international studies. The paper then
pointed out that although the field of comparative education had been
dominated by cross-national foci, many other domains lacked such per-
spectives. The authors argued that stronger relationships between dif-
ferent fields would be to the benefit of all.

Figure 0.1: A Framework for Comparative Education Analyses

Source: Bray & Thomas (1995), p.475.

On the front face of the cube are seven geographic/locational levels for
comparison: world regions/continents, countries, states/provinces, dis-
tricts, schools, classrooms, and individuals. The second dimension con-
tains nonlocational demographic groups, including ethnic, age, religious,
gender and other groups, and entire populations. The third dimension
comprises aspects of education and of society, such as curriculum, teaching
methods, finance, management structures, political change and labour
markets. Many studies that are explicitly comparative engage all three di-
10 Mark Bray, Bob Adamson & Mark Mason

mensions, and thus can be mapped in the corresponding cells of the dia-
gram. For example, the shaded cell in Figure 0.1 represents a comparative
study of curricula for the entire population in two or more provinces.
An overarching point of the Bray and Thomas article was their call
for multilevel analyses in comparative studies to achieve multifaceted
and holistic analyses of educational phenomena. The authors observed
that much research remained at a single level, thereby neglecting recog-
nition of the ways in which patterns at the lower levels in education sys-
tems are shaped by patterns at higher levels and vice versa. While re-
searchers can often undertake only single-level studies because of con-
straints dictated by purpose and availability of resources, Bray and
Thomas suggested that researchers should at least recognise the limits of
their foci and the mutual influences of other levels on the educational
phenomena of interest.
The Bray and Thomas framework has been extensively cited, both in
literature that is explicitly associated with the field of comparative edu-
cation (e.g. Arnove 2001, 2013; Phillips & Schweisfurth 2008; Watson 2012;
Brock & Alexiadou 2013) and in broader literature (e.g. Ballantine 2001;
Winzer & Mazurek 2012). It has generally been seen as useful, and some
authors have endeavoured to take it further by making explicit what was
already implicit in the framework. For example, Watson (1998, p.23)
highlighted an alternative grouping of countries and societies according
to religion and colonial history. Such alternative categories are in fact
already represented in the ‘nonlocational demographic’ dimension of the
framework, though rather than being ‘nonlocational’ they might perhaps
be more aptly termed ‘pluri-locational’ or ‘multi-territorial’. The final
chapter of this book draws on the other chapters to comment on ways in
which the cube could be refined and supplemented to extend conceptu-
alisation in the field.

The Features of this Book

Some features of this book have already been mentioned. They deserve
elaboration so that readers can see the context within which the book was
prepared and the contributions which it makes.
Beginning with the earlier point about shifting centres of gravity,
this book is part of the increased strength of the field in East Asia. All
contributors to the book are associated in some way with the Compara-
tive Education Research Centre (CERC) at the University of Hong Kong.
 Introduction 11

Its three editors have been Directors of that Centre; most of the contribu-
tors are or have been academic staff or research students associated with
the Centre; and the other contributors have been visitors for various
lengths of time. Because of this, the book to some extent has an East Asian
orientation. However, all authors also select examples and employ mate-
rials from other parts of the world, and the book is global in its messages
and relevance.
A second feature is a mix of dispassionate and of personalised
chapters. Thus, some authors have sought to portray their perspectives in
an objective way, while others have been subjective and even autobio-
graphical. Both genres, it may be suggested, contribute usefully. Perhaps
especially in a field such as comparative education, the backgrounds and
perspectives of the analysts are of major significance. These accounts fit a
tradition in which scholars have recounted their own career histories and
the ways in which personal circumstances have shaped their subsequent
thinking about the field (e.g. Postlethwaite 1999; Jones 2002; Hayhoe 2004;
Klees 2008; Sultana 2009). The approach shows how scholarship can
evolve within the careers of specific individuals, and indicates that
methodological choices adopted by researchers reflect personal circum-
stances as well as more academic criteria.
In structure, the book has three main sections. First comes a group of
chapters which comment on the nature of the field. Within this group, the
first chapter identifies major purposes for undertaking research in com-
parative education, and remark on the different perspectives that may be
held by different actors. The second chapter relates the field of compara-
tive education to other domains of enquiry, both within the broad arena
of educational studies and within other disciplinary areas. The third
chapter compares quantitative and qualitative approaches, showing the
strengths and limitations of each and taking studies of literacy as a theme.
The second section turns to specific units for analysis. This section is
the longest in the book, and forms its core. Within the field, examples may
readily be found of comparative study of each of these units for analysis;
but it is less common for academics firmly to consider the strengths and
limitations of their approaches. The various chapters, taken separately,
show multiple facets for viewing their subjects; and together they form a
mosaic which represents a significant proportion of the total field. Eleven
chapters focus on a wide range of units for comparison, commencing with
places and ending with educational achievements.
12 Mark Bray, Bob Adamson & Mark Mason

The concluding section returns to the wider picture. It charts some

of the continued diversity in the field and the trends and issues that have
become apparent. The discussion then highlights some of the lessons to be
learned from comparison of approaches and methods in comparative
education research.
Preparation of the first edition of this book was a major exercise of
teamwork and coordination, and the experience was echoed in prepara-
tion of the second edition. Updates and refinements in analysis have
benefited from the inputs of students and of peers around the world.
Most chapters have been presented in conferences and/or CERC seminars
at the University of Hong Kong. The editors and contributors hope that
readers will find the book as stimulating as were the processes of prepa-
ration. At the same time, just as the editors and contributors viewed the
first edition of the book as a stage in the ongoing development of the field,
they have a similar view of the second edition. Indeed the field has many
more dimensions to be explored and developed.

References

Altbach, Philip G. & Kelly, Gail P. (1986): ‘Introduction: Perspectives on

Comparative Education’, in Altbach, Philip G. & Kelly, Gail P. (eds.),
New Approaches to Comparative Education. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, pp.1-10.
Arnove, Robert F. (2001): ‘Comparative and International Education So-
ciety (CIES) Facing the Twenty-First Century: Challenges and Con-
tributions’. Comparative Education Review, Vol.45, No.4, pp.477-503.
Arnove, Robert F. (2013): ‘Introduction: Reframing Comparative Educa-
tion: The Dialectic of the Global and the Local’, in Arnove, Robert F.;
Torres, Carlos Alberto & Franz, Stephen (eds.), Comparative Education:
The Dialectic of the Global and the Local. 4th edition, Lanham: Rowman
& Littlefield, pp.1-25.
Ballantine, Jeanne H. (2001): The Sociology of Education: A Systematic Anal-
ysis. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Barber, Benjamin R. (1973): ‘Science, Salience and Comparative Education:
Some Reflections on Social Scientific Enquiry’, in Edwards, Reginald,
Holmes, Brian & Van de Graaff, John (eds.), Relevant Methods in Com-
parative Education. Hamburg: UNESCO Institute for Education,
pp.57-79.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
IV.

“I have won me a youth,” the Elf-queen said,

“The fairest that earth may see;
This night I have won young Elph Irving,
My cupbearer to be.
His service lasts but for seven sweet years,
And his wage is a kiss of me.”
And merrily, merrily laughed the wild elves,
Round Corrie’s greenwood tree.—
But oh! the fire it glows in my brain,
And the hour is gone, and comes not again.

V.

The Queen she has whispered a secret word,

“Come hither, my Elphin sweet,
And bring that cup of the charmèd wine,
Thy lips and mine to weet.”
But a brown elf shouted a loud, loud shout,
“Come, leap on your coursers fleet,
For here comes the smell of some baptized flesh,
And the sounding of baptized feet.”—
But oh! the fire that burns, and maun burn;
For the time that is gone will never return.

VI.

On a steed as white as the new-milked milk,

The Elf-queen leaped with a bound,
And young Elphin a steed like December snow
’Neath him at the word he found.
But a maiden came, and her christened arms
She linked her brother around,
And called on God, and the steed with a snort
Sank into the gaping ground.—
But the fire maun burn, and I maun quake,
And the time that is gone will no more come back.

VII.

And she held her brother, and lo! he grew

A wild bull waked in ire;
And she held her brother, and lo! he changed
To a river roaring higher;
And she held her brother, and he became
 A flood of the raging fire;
She shrieked and sank, and the wild elves laughed,
Till mountain rang and mire.—
But oh! the fire yet burns in my brain,
And the hour is gone, and comes not again.

VIII.

“Oh, maiden, why waxed thy faith so faint,

Thy spirit so slack and slaw?
Thy courage kept good till the flame waxed wud,
Then thy might began to thaw,
Had ye kissed him with thy christened lip,
Ye had won him frae ’mang us a’.
Now bless the fire, the elfin fire,
That made thee faint and fa’;
Now bless the fire, the elfin fire,
The longer it burns it blazes the higher.”

At the close of this unusual strain, the figure sat down on the grass,
and proceeded to bind up her long and disordered tresses, gazing
along the old and unfrequented road.
“Now God be my helper,” said the traveller, who happened to be
the Laird of Johnstonebank, “can this be a trick of the fiend, or can it
be bonnie Phemie Irving, who chants this dolorous song? Something
sad has befallen, that makes her seek her seat in this eerie nook amid
the darkness and tempest: through might from abune, I will go on
and see.”
And the horse, feeling something of the owner’s reviving spirit in
the application of the spur-steel, bore him at once to the foot of the
tree. The poor delirious maiden uttered a piercing yell of joy as she
beheld him, and, with the swiftness of a creature winged, linked her
arms round the rider’s waist, and shrieked till the woods rang.
“Oh, I have ye now, Elphin, I have ye now!” and she strained him
to her bosom with a convulsive grasp.
“What ails ye, my bonnie lass?” said the Laird of Johnstonebank,
his fears of the supernatural vanishing when he beheld her sad and
bewildered look.
She raised her eyes at the sound, and, seeing a strange face, her
arms slipped their hold, and she dropped with a groan on the
ground.
 The morning had now fairly broken: the flocks shook the rain from
their sides, the shepherds hastened to inspect their charges, and a
thin blue smoke began to stream from the cottages of the valley into
the brightening air. The laird carried Phemie Irving in his arms, till
he observed two shepherds ascending from one of the loops of
Corriewater, bearing the lifeless body of her brother. They had found
him whirling round and round in one of the numerous eddies, and
his hands, clutched and filled with wool, showed that he had lost his
life in attempting to save the flock of his sister.
A plaid was laid over the body, which, along with the unhappy
maiden in a half lifeless state, was carried into a cottage, and laid in
that apartment distinguished among the peasantry by the name of
“the chamber.” While the peasant’s wife was left to take care of
Phemie, old man, and matron, and maid had collected around the
drowned youth, and each began to relate the circumstances of his
death, when the door suddenly opened, and his sister, advancing to
the corpse with a look of delirious serenity, broke out into a wild
laugh, and said,—
“O, it is wonderful, it’s truly wonderful! that bare and death-cold
body, dragged from the darkest pool of Corrie, with its hands filled
with fine wool, wears the perfect similitude of my own Elphin! I’ll tell
ye—the spiritual dwellers of the earth, the fairyfolk of our evening
tale, have stolen the living body, and fashioned this cold and
inanimate clod to mislead your pursuit. In common eyes, this seems
all that Elphin Irving would be, had he sunk in Corriewater; but so it
seems not to me. Ye have sought the living soul, and ye have found
only its garment. But oh, if ye had beheld him, as I beheld him to-
night, riding among the elfin troop, the fairest of them all; had you
clasped him in your arms, and wrestled for him with spirits and
terrible shapes from the other world, till your heart quailed and your
flesh was subdued, then would ye yield no credit to the semblance
which this cold and apparent flesh bears to my brother. But hearken
—on Hallowe’en, when the spiritual people are let loose on earth for
a season, I will take my stand in the burial-ground of Corrie; and
when my Elphin and his unchristened troop come past with the
sound of all their minstrelsy, I will leap on him and win him, or
perish for ever.”
 All gazed aghast on the delirious maiden, and many of her auditors
gave more credence to her distempered speech than to the visible
evidence before them. As she turned to depart, she looked round,
and suddenly sunk upon the body, with tears streaming from her
eyes, and sobbed out, “My brother! oh, my brother!” She was carried
out insensible, and again recovered; but relapsed into her ordinary
delirium, in which she continued till the Hallow-eve after her
brother’s burial.
She was found seated in the ancient burial-ground, her back
against a broken grave-stone, her locks white with frost-rime,
watching with intensity of look the road to the kirk-yard; but the
spirit which gave life to the fairest form of all the maids of Annandale
was fled for ever.

Such is the singular story which the peasants know by the name of
Elphin Irving, the Fairies’ Cupbearer; and the title, in its fullest and
most supernatural sense, still obtains credence among the
industrious and virtuous dames of the romantic vale of Corrie.
 CHOOSING A MINISTER.

By John Galt.

The Rev. Dr Swapkirk having had an apoplexy, the magistrates

were obligated to get Mr Pittle to be his helper. Whether it was that,
by our being used to Mr Pittle, we had ceased to have a right respect
for his parts and talents, or that in reality he was but a weak brother,
I cannot in conscience take it on me to say; but the certainty is, that
when the Doctor departed this life, there was hardly one of the
hearers who thought Mr Pittle would ever be their placed minister,
and it was as far at first from the unanimous mind of the magistrates,
who are the patrons of the parish, as anything could well be, for he
was a man of no smeddum in discourse. In verity, as Mrs Pawkie, my
wife, said, his sermons in the warm summer afternoons were just a
perfect hushabaa, that no mortal could hearken to without sleeping.
Moreover, he had a sorning way with him, that the genteeler sort
couldna abide, for he was for ever going from house to house about
tea-time, to save his ain canister. As for the young ladies, they
couldna endure him at all, for he had aye the sough and sound of
love in his mouth, and a round-about ceremonial of joking
concerning the same, that was just a fasherie to them to hear. The
commonality, however, were his greatest adversaries; for he was,
notwithstanding the spareness of his abilities, a prideful creature,
taking no interest in their hamely affairs, and seldom visiting the
aged or the sick among them.
Shortly, however, before the death of the Doctor, Mr Pittle had
been very attentive to my wife’s full cousin, Miss Lizzie Pinkie,—I’ll
no say on account of the legacy of seven hundred pounds left her by
an uncle, that made his money in foreign parts, and died at
Portsmouth of the liver complaint, when he was coming home to
enjoy himself; and Mrs Pawkie told me, that as soon as Mr Pittle
could get a kirk, I needna be surprised if I heard o’ a marriage
between him and Miss Lizzie.
Had I been a sordid and interested man, this news could never
have given me the satisfaction it did, for Miss Lizzie was very fond of
my bairns, and it was thought that Peter would have been her heir;
but so far from being concerned at what I heard, I rejoiced thereat,
and resolved in secret thought, whenever a vacancy happened (Dr
Swapkirk being then fast wearing away), to exert the best of my
ability to get the kirk for Mr Pittle,—not, however, unless he was
previously married to Miss Lizzie; for, to speak out, she was
beginning to stand in need of a protector, and both me and Mrs
Pawkie had our fears that she might outlive her income, and in her
old age become a cess upon us. And it couldna be said that this was
any groundless fear; for Miss Lizzie, living a lonely maiden life by
herself, with only a bit lassie to run her errands, and no being
naturally of an active or eydent turn, aften wearied, and to keep up
her spirits, gaed, maybe, now and then, oftener to the gardevin than
was just necessar, by which, as we thought, she had a tavert look.
Howsoever, as Mr Pittle had taken a notion of her, and she pleased
his fancy, it was far from our hand to misliken one that was sib to us;
on the contrary, it was a duty laid on me by the ties of blood and
relationship to do all in my power to further their mutual affection
into matrimonial fruition; and what I did towards that end is the
burden of this narrative.
Dr Swapkirk, in whom the spark of life was long fading, closed his
eyes, and it went utterly out, as to this world, on a Saturday night,
between the hours of eleven and twelve. We had that afternoon got
an inkling that he was drawing near to his end. At the latest, Mrs
Pawkie herself went over to the manse, and stayed till she saw him
die. “It was a pleasant end,” she said, for he was a godly, patient
man; and we were both sorely grieved, though it was a thing for
which we had been long prepared, and, indeed, to his family and
connections, except for the loss of the stipend, it was a very gentle
dispensation, for he had been long a heavy handful, having been for
years but, as it were, a breathing lump of mortality, groosy and oozy,
and doozy, his faculties being shut up and locked in by a dumb palsy.
 Having had this early intimation of the Doctor’s removal to a
better world, on the Sabbath morning when I went to join the
magistrates in the council-chamber, as the usage is, to go to the laft,
with the town-officers carrying their halberts before us, according to
the ancient custom of all royal burghs, my mind was in a degree
prepared to speak to them anent the successor. Little, however,
passed at that time, and it so happened that, by some wonder of
inspiration (there were, however, folk that said it was taken out of a
book of sermons, by one Barrow, an English divine), Mr Pittle that
forenoon preached a discourse that made an impression, insomuch
that, on our way back to the council-chamber, I said to Provost
Vintner that then was—
“Really, Mr Pittle seems, if he would exert himself, to have a nerve.
I could not have thought it was in the power of his capacity to have
given us such a sermon.”
The provost thought as I did; so I replied—
“We canna, I think, do better than keep him among us. It would,
indeed, provost, no be doing justice to the young man to pass
another over his head.”
I could see that the provost wasna quite sure of what I had been
saying; for he replied, that it was a matter that needed consideration.
When we separated at the council-chamber, I threw myself in the
way of Bailie Weezle, and walked home with him, our talk being on
the subject of the vacancy; and I rehearsed to him what had passed
between me and the provost, saying, that the provost had made no
objection to prefer Mr Pittle, which was the truth.
Bailie Weezle was a man no overladen with worldly wisdom, and
had been chosen into the council principally on account of being
easily managed. In his business, he was originally by trade a baker in
Glasgow, where he made a little money, and came to settle among us
with his wife, who was a native of the town, and had her relations
here. Being, therefore, an idle man, living on his money, and of a soft
and quiet nature, he was, for the reason aforesaid, chosen into the
council, where he always voted on the provost’s side; for in
controverted questions every one is beholden to take a part, and he
thought it his duty to side with the chief magistrate.
 Having convinced the bailie that Mr Pittle had already, as it were, a
sort of infeoffment in the kirk, I called in the evening on my old
predecessor in the guildry, Bailie M‘Lucre, who was not a hand to be
so easily dealt with; but I knew his inclinations, and therefore I
resolved to go roundly to work with him. So I asked him out to take a
walk, and I led him towards the town-moor, conversing loosely about
one thing and another, and touching softly here and there on the
vacancy.
When we were well on into the middle of the moor, I stopped, and,
looking round me, said,—
“Bailie, surely it’s a great neglec’ of the magistrates and council to
let this braw broad piece of land, so near the town, lie in a state o’
nature, and giving pasturage to only twa-three of the poor folks’
cows. I wonder you, that’s now a rich man, and with een worth pearls
and diamonds,—that ye dinna think of asking a tack of this land; ye
might make a great thing o’t.”
The fish nibbled, and told me that he had for some time
entertained a thought on the subject; but he was afraid that I would
be over extortionate.
“I wonder to hear you, bailie,” said I; “I trust and hope no one will
ever find me out of the way of justice; and to convince you that I can
do a friendly turn, I’ll no objec’ to gie you a’ my influence free gratis,
if ye’ll gie Mr Pittle a lift into the kirk; for, to be plain with you, the
worthy young man, who, as ye heard to-day, is no without an ability,
has long been fond of Mrs Pawkie’s cousin, Miss Lizzie Pinkie; and I
would fain do all that lies in my power to help on the match.”
The bailie was well pleased with my frankness, and before
returning home, we came to a satisfactory understanding; so that the
next thing I had to do was to see Mr Pittle himself on the subject.
Accordingly, in the gloaming, I went over to where he stayed: it was
with Miss Jenny Killfuddy, an elderly maiden lady, whose father was
the minister of Braehill, and the same that is spoken of in the
chronicle of Dalmailing, as having had his eye almost put out by a
clash of glaur, at the stormy placing of Mr Balwhidder.
“Mr Pittle,” said I, as soon as I was in, and the door closed, “I’m
come to you as a friend. Both Mrs Pawkie and me have long
discerned that ye have had a look more than common towards our
friend Miss Lizzie, and we think it our duty to inquire your intents,
before matters gang to greater length.”
He looked a little dumfoundered at this salutation, and was at a
loss for an answer; so I continued—
“If your designs be honourable, and no doubt they are, now’s your
time;—strike while the iron’s hot. By the death of the Doctor, the
kirk’s vacant, the town-council have the patronage; and if ye marry
Miss Lizzie, my interest and influence shall not be slack in helping
you into the poopit.”
In short, out of what passed that night, on the Monday following,
Mr Pittle and Miss Lizzie were married; and by my dexterity,
together with the able help I had in Bailie M‘Lucre, he was in due
season placed and settled in the parish; and the next year, more than
fifty acres of the town-moor were inclosed, on a nine hundred and
ninety-nine years’ tack, at an easy rate, between me and the bailie, he
paying the half of the expense of the ditching and rooting out of the
whins; and it was acknowledged, by every one that saw it, that there
had not been a greater improvement for many years in all the
country-side. But to the best actions there will be adverse and
discontented spirits; and, on this occasion, there were not wanting
persons naturally of a disloyal opposition temper, who complained of
the inclosure as a usurpation of the rights and property of the poorer
burghers. Such revilings, however, are what all persons in authority
must suffer; and they had only the effect of making me button my
coat, and look out the crooser to the blast.—“The Provost.”
 THE MEAL MOB.

During the winter of 18—, there was a great scarcity of grain in the
western districts of Scotland. The expediency of the corn laws was
then hotly discussed, but the keen hunger of wives and children went
further to embitter the spirits of the lower orders. The abstract
question was grasped at as a vent for ill-humour, or despairingly, as a
last chance for preservation. As usual, exaggerated reports were
caught up and circulated by the hungry operatives, of immense
prices demanded by grain-merchants and farmers, and of great
stores of grain garnered up for exportation. As a natural consequence
of all these circumstances, serious disturbances took place in more
than one burgh.
The town of ——, in which I then resided, had hitherto been
spared, but a riot was, in the temper of the poor, daily to be expected.
Numbers of special constables were sworn in. The commander of the
military party then in the barracks was warned to hold himself in
readiness. Such members of the county yeomanry corps as resided in
or near the town were requested to lend their aid, if need should be.
I was sitting comfortably by my fireside, one dark, cold evening,
conversing with a friend over a tumbler of toddy, when we were both
summoned to officiate in our capacity of constables. The poor fellows
who fell at Waterloo sprang from their hard, curtainless beds with
less reluctance. We lingered rather longer than decency allowed of,
buttoning our greatcoats and adjusting our comforters. At last,
casting a piteous look at the fire, which was just beginning to burn up
gloriously, we pressed our hats deeper over our eyes, grasped our
batons, and sallied forth.
The mischief had begun in the mills at the town-head, and as the
parties employed in the mob went to work with less reluctance than
we had done, the premises were fairly gutted, and the plunderers,
(or, more properly speaking, devastators) on their way to another
scene of action, before a sufficient posse of our body could be
mustered. We encountered the horde coming down the main street.
The advanced guard consisted of an immense swarm of little ragged
boys, running scatteredly with stones in their hands and bonnets.
These were flanked and followed by a number of dirty, draggle-tailed
drabs, most of them with children in their arms. Upon them followed
a dense mass of men of all ages, many of them in the garb of sailors,
for the tars had learned that the soldiery were likely to be employed
against the people, and there is a standing feud between the “salt-
waters” and the “lobsters.” There was also a vague and ill-regulated
sympathy for the suffering they saw around them, working at the
bottom. All this array we half saw, half conjectured, by the dim light
of the dirty street lamps. The body was silent, but for the incessant
pattering of their feet as they moved along.
The word was given to clear the street, and we advanced with right
ill-will upon them. The first ranks gave back, but there arose
immediately a universal and deafening hooting, groaning, yelling,
and whistling. The shrill and angry voices of women were heard
above all, mingled with the wailing of their terrified babes. “We
maun hae meat;” “Fell the gentle boutchers;” “Belay there! spank
him with your pole;” resounded on every side, in the screaming tones
of women, and the deep voices of sailors, garnished and enforced
with oaths too dreadful to mention. Nor was this all: a shower of
stones came whizzing past our ears from the boy-tirailleurs
mentioned above, levelling some of our companions, jingling among
the windows, and extinguishing the lamps. Some of the boldest of the
men next attempted to wrest the batons from the constables who
stood near them. In this they were assisted by the women, who
crushed into our ranks, and prevented us giving our cudgels free
play. The stones continued to fly in all directions, hitting the rioters
as often as the preservers of the peace. The parties tugged and pulled
at each other most stubbornly, while the screams of pain and anger,
the yell of triumph, and hoarse execrations, waxed momentarily
louder and more terrific.
At last the constables were driven back, with the loss of all their
batons and most of their best men. The mob rushed onward with a
triumphant hurrah, and turned down a side street leading to a
granary, in which they believed a great quantity of grain was stored
up. The proprietor’s house stood beside it. A volley of stones was
discharged against the latter, which shattered every window in the
house, and the missiles were followed by a thunder-growl of
maledictions, which made the hair of the innocent inmates stand on
their heads, and their hearts die within them. The crowd stood
irresolute for a moment. A tall athletic sailor advanced to the door of
the granary. “Have you never a marlin-spike to bouse open the
hatchway here?” A crowbar was handed to him. “A glim! a glim!”
cried voices from different parts of the crowd. It was now for the first
time discovered that some of the party had provided themselves with
torches, for after a few minutes’ fumbling a light was struck, and
immediately the pitch brands cast a lurid light over the scene. The
state of the corn merchant’s family must now have been dreadful.
The multitude stood hushed as death, or as the coming
thunderstorm. All this time the sailor of whom I have spoken had
been prising away with his bar at the granary door.
At this moment a heavy-measured tread was heard indistinctly in
the distance. It drew nearer, and became more distinct. Some
respectable burghers, who had assembled, and stood aloof gazing on
the scene, now edged closer to the crowd, and addressed the nearest
women in a low voice: “Yon’s the sodgers.” The hint was taken, for,
one by one, the women gathered their infants closer in their arms,
and dropped off. First one and then another pale-faced,
consumptive-looking weaver followed their example in silence. The
trampling now sounded close at hand, and its measured note was
awful in the hush of the dark night. The panic now spread to the
boys, who flew asunder on all sides—like a parcel of carrion flies
when disturbed by a passenger—squalling, “Yon’s the sodgers!” So
effectual was the dispersion that ensued, that when the soldiers
defiled into the wider space before the granary, no one remained
except the door-breaker, and one or two of the torch-holders.
The latter threw down their brands and scampered. The lights
were snatched up before they were extinguished, by some of the
boldest constables. Of all the rioters only one remained—the tall
sailor, who may be termed their ringleader. The foremost rank of the
soldiers was nearly up to him, and others were defiling from behind
to intercept him should he attempt to reach the side streets. He stood
still, watchful as a wild beast when surrounded by hunters, but with
an easy roll of his body, and a good-humoured smile upon his face.
“Yield, Robert Jones,” cried the provost, who feared he might
meditate a desperate and unavailing resistance. But instead of
answering, Robert sprung upon a soldier who was forming into line
at his right side, struck up the man’s musket, twisted off the bayonet,
and making it shine through the air in the torchlight like a rocket,
tripped up his heels. “Not yet, lobster!” he exclaimed, as the bayonet
of the fallen hero’s left-hand man glanced innocuously past him, so
saying, the sailor rapidly disappeared down a dark lane.—Edinburgh
Literary Journal.
 THE FLITTING.

It was on the day before the flitting, or removal, that John

Armour’s farm-stock, and indeed everything he had, excepting as
much as might furnish a small cottage, was to be rouped to meet his
debts. No doubt it was a heart-rending scene to all the family, though
his wife considered all their losses light, when compared with her
husband’s peace of mind. The great bustle of the sale, however,
denied him the leisure which a just view of his condition made most
to be dreaded; so that it was not till late in the evening, when all was
quiet again,—his cherished possessions removed, and time allowed
him to brood over his state,—that the deep feelings of vexation and
despair laid hold of his spirit.
The evening was one of remarkable beauty; the birds never more
rapturous, the grass never greener around the farm-house. The turf
seat on which old Hugh was wont to rest, in the corner of the little
garden, was white with gowans; the willows and honeysuckles that
overarched it all full of life; the air was bland, the cushat’s distant
cooing very plaintive;—all but the inhabitants of the humble dwelling
was tranquil and delighted. But they were downcast; each one
pursued some necessary preparation for tomorrow’s great change,
saying little, but deeply occupied with sad thoughts. Once the wife
ejaculated—
“Oh, that the morn was ower!”
“Yes,” said her husband, “the morn, and every morn o’ them!—but
I wish this gloaming had been stormy.”
He could not settle—he could not eat—he avoided conversation;
and, with his hat drawn over his brow, he traversed wearily the same
paths, and did over and over again the same things. It was near
bedtime, when one of the children said to her mother—
 “My faither’s stan’in’ at the corner o’ the stable, and didna speak to
me when I spak to him;—gang out, mother, and bring him in.”
“If he wad but speak to me!” was the mother’s answer. She went
out,—the case had become extreme,—and she ventured to argue with
and reprove him.
“Ye do wrang, John—this is no like yoursel;—the world’s fu’ of
affliction—ithers ken that as weel as you—ye maunna hae a’ things
your ain way: there’s Ane abune us wha has said, ‘In sorrow shalt
thou eat thy bread all the days of thy life.’ Ye canna expect to gang
free; and I maun say it wadna be gude for ony o’ us. Maybe greater
ills are yet to befa’ ye, and then ye’ll rue sair that ye hae gien way at
this time; come in, John, wi’ me; time will wear a’ this out o’ mind.”
He struck his hand against his brow—he grasped at his neckcloth—
and after choking on a few syllables which he could not utter, tears
gushed from his eyes, and he melted in a long heartrending fit of
weeping. Oh, it is a sorrowful thing to see a strong hard-featured
man shedding tears! His sobs are so heavy, his wail so full-toned!
John Armour, perhaps for twenty years a stranger to weeping, had
now to burst the sealed sluices of manhood’s grief, which nothing but
the resistless struggle of agony could accomplish, ere relief could
reach his labouring breast. Now it was he sought the dearest
sanctuary on earth—he leaned upon his wife’s bosom, and she
lavished on him the riches of a woman’s love. At length he went to
rest, gentler in spirit, and borne down by a less frightful woe than
what had lately oppressed him.
Next morning brought round the bustle of flitting. There is a deep
interest attending a scene of this kind, altogether separate from the
feelings of those who have to leave a favourite abode. Circumstances
of antiquity—of mystery—belong to it. The demolition even of an old
house has something melancholy; the dismantling it of furniture is
not less affecting. Some of the servants that had been at one time
about the farm assisted on this occasion, and entered fully into the
sentiments now described.
“That press has been there, I’ll warran’, this fifty years; it was his
mother’s, and cam on her blithe marriage-day; the like o’t ye’ll no see
now-a-days—it’s fresh yet. Few hae seen the back o’ thee, I trow,
these twa days, but the wabsters and sclaters; they winna ken what to
mak o’ this wark; let me look into the back o’t.”
 “I wad be a wee eerie,” said another, feeling the gloomy
appearance of the old empty dwelling suggest thoughts allied to
superstition, “about ganging into that toom house at night; I wad aye
be thinkin’ o’ meeting wi’ auld Hugh, honest man.”
The flitting set off to a cottage about two miles distant; two cart
loads of furniture, one milk cow, and the old watch-dog, were its
amount. John Armour lingered a little behind, as did his wife, for she
was unwilling to leave him there alone. He then proceeded to every
part of the premises. The barn and stable kept him a few moments;
the rest he hurried over, excepting the kitchen and spence. When he
came to the kitchen (for it was the apartment he visited last), he leant
his head for an instant against the mantelpiece, and fixed his eyes on
the hearthstone. A deep sigh escaped him, and his wife then took him
by the hand to lead him away, which he resisted not, only saying,—
“I hae mind o’ mony a thing that happened here;”—then casting
his eyes hastily round the desolate apartment,—“but fareweel to thee
for ever!” In a few minutes they overtook the flitting, nor did he once
turn again his head towards the desolate place which had so firm a
hold of his heart.—“My Grandfather’s Farm.”
 EWEN OF THE LITTLE HEAD:
A LEGEND OF THE WESTERN ISLES.

About three hundred years ago, Ewen Maclean of Lochbuy, in the

island of Mull, having been engaged in a quarrel with a neighbouring
chief, a day was fixed for determining the affair by the sword.
Lochbuy, before the day arrived, consulted a celebrated witch as to
the result of the feud. The witch declared, that if Lochbuy’s wife
should on the morning of that day give him and his men food
unasked, he would be victorious; but if not, the result would be the
reverse. This was a disheartening response for the unhappy votary,
his wife being a noted shrew.
The fatal morning arrived, and the hour for meeting the enemy
approached; but there appeared no symptoms of refreshment for
Lochbuy and his men. At length the unfortunate man was compelled
to ask his wife to supply them with food. She set down before them
curds, but without spoons. The men ate the curds as well as they
could with their hands; but Lochbuy himself ate none. After
behaving with the greatest bravery in the bloody conflict which
ensued, he fell covered with wounds, leaving his wife to the
execration of his people.
But the miseries brought on the luckless chief by his sordid and
shrewish spouse did not end with his life, for he died fasting; and his
ghost is frequently seen to this day riding the very horse on which he
was mounted when he was killed. It was a small, but very neat and
active pony, dun or mouse coloured, to which Lochbuy was much
attached, and on which he had ridden for many years before his
death. His appearance is as accurately described in the island of Mull
as any steed is in Newmarket. The prints of his shoes are discerned
by connoisseurs, and the rattling of his curb is recognized in the
darkest night. He is not particular in regard to roads, for he goes up
hill and down dale with equal velocity. His hard-fated rider still
wears the same green cloak which covered him in his last battle; and
he is particularly distinguished by the small size of his head.
It is now above three hundred years since Ewen-a-Chin-Vig
(Anglice, “Hugh of the Little Head”) fell in the field of honour; but
neither the vigour of the horse nor of the rider is yet diminished. His
mournful duty has always been to attend the dying moments of every
member of his own numerous tribe, and to escort the departed spirit
on its long and arduous journey.
Some years ago, he accosted one of his own people (indeed, he has
never been known to notice any other), and shaking him cordially by
the hand, he attempted to place him on the saddle behind himself,
but the uncourteous dog declined the honour. Ewen struggled hard,
but the clown was a great strong, clumsy fellow, and stuck to the
earth with all his might. He candidly acknowledged, however, that
his chief would have prevailed, had it not been for a birch tree which
stood by, and which he got within the fold of his left arm. The contest
became then very warm indeed. At length, however, Ewen lost his
seat for the first time; and the instant the pony found he was his own
master, he set off with the fleetness of lightning. Ewen immediately
pursued his steed, and the wearied rustic sped his way homeward.—
Lit. Gazette.
 BASIL ROLLAND.

Chapter I.
In May, quhen men yied everichone
With Robene Hoid and Littil John,
To bring in bowis and birken bobynis,
Now all sic game is fastlings gone,
Bot gif if be amangs clowin Robbynis.—A. Scott.

The period at which the circumstances recorded in the following

narrative happened was in the troubled year of 1639. At that time the
points in dispute betwixt Charles and his subjects were most
violently contested, and the partizans of each were in arms all over
the country, endeavouring, by partial and solitary operations, to gain
the ascendancy for their faction. The first cause of these disturbances
was the attempt of the monarch to establish Episcopacy over
Scotland—a form of worship which had always been disliked by the
Scotch, as they considered it but a single step removed from Popery.
The intemperate zeal with which Charles prosecuted his views
(occasioned by a misconception of the national character of his
subjects), and his averseness to compromise or conciliation, first
gave rise to the combination called the Covenanters; weak at first,
but in a short time too powerful to be shaken by the exertions of the
High Churchmen.
One of the first and most politic steps taken by the Council of the
Covenant, denominated “the Tables,” was the framing of the
celebrated Bond or Covenant; the subscribers of which bound
themselves to resist the introduction of Popery and Prelacy, and to
stand by each other in case of innovations on the established
worship. Charles seeing, at last, the strength of this association,
uttered, in his turn, a covenant renouncing Popery; he also dispensed
with the use of the Prayer Book, the Five Articles of Perth, and other
things connected with public worship which were obnoxious to the
Covenanters.
During this contention, the citizens of Aberdeen remained firmly
attached to the royal interest, and appear to have come in with every
resolution that was adopted by the government. In 1638, a
deputation from “the Tables,” among whom was the celebrated
Andrew Cant (from whom the mission was denominated “Cant’s
Visitation”), arrived in the town, for the purpose of inducing the
inhabitants to subscribe the Covenant; but as their representations
entirely failed of success, they were obliged to desist. The Earl of
Montrose arrived in Aberdeen in the spring of 1639, and, partly by
the terror of his arms, partly by the representations of the clergy that
accompanied him, succeeded in imposing the Covenant on the
townsmen. After his departure, a body of the royalists, commanded
by the Laird of Banff, having routed the forces of Frazer and Forbes,
took possession of the town, and wreaked their vengeance on all who
had subscribed the Covenant. They only remained five days in the
town, and, on their departure, it was occupied by the Earl of
Marischal, who in turn harassed the royalists. As soon as Montrose
heard of these occurrences, being doubtful of the fidelity of the
inhabitants, he marched to Aberdeen again, disarmed the citizens,
and imposed a heavy fine upon them. The citizens, who had been
impoverished by these unjust exactions, were somewhat relieved,
when Montrose, their greatest scourge, after another short visit,
marched into Angus and disbanded his army.
It was in the month of June that the citizens began to feel
themselves elated by the prospect, if not of peace, of the seat of the
war being removed from their dwellings, on the disbanding of
Montrose’s forces, and at liberty to say anything about the Covenant
that might seem good unto them. Those who had subscribed it under
the influence of fear (and they were not a small number) veered
round to the king’s party, and sounded the praises of the Viscount of
Aboyne, who had landed at Aberdeen on the part of his Majesty.
Their former losses and sufferings were all forgotten, and a general
disposition for rejoicing was to be seen among them. Provost Leslie
and his colleagues were inclined to encourage this, as it might lead