The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-10 00:00:00

temperate, though, as far as we can gather that gen tleman's meaning, too favourable. There are cer tain instincts so strongly implanted in us that even where they seem to come into collision with facts we are warranted in doubting the latter and looking for some future explanation rather than in rejecting the former. But Mr. Buckle's method seems exactly the reverse of this. "Shooting in Albania," "Jays and Nutcrackers," and "Wanderings on Exmoor," are three very pleasant sporting and naturalist essays; and Art is represented by three papers seve rally entitled " The Origin and Function of Music," " Manchester, and its Exhibitions of 1857," and " Art and History." The Dublin contains such a number of articles of great substance and research that we cannot really undertake to do justice to its contents. The open ing paper upon India is a forcible censure of the shortsightedness of our Indian policy, and espe cially of Lord Dalhousie. The following paragraph illustrative of the state of our defences at the break• ing out of the mutiny is worth quoting:— From Calcutta to the Sutlej, to overawe territories containing 2(19,989 square miles, under our direct rill., besides many great principalities of native chiefs, populated by one hundred millions of people, we had H.M.'s 53rd regiment at Calcutta, the 10th at Dinapore, the .32nd at Cawnpore , the 3rd Bengal European regiment at Agra, the Carabineers and 60th Rifles at Meerut, the 61st at Ferozepore, and three weak regiments—H.M.'s 75th and the let and 2nd Fusiliers, out of sight and reckoning in the hills. In other words, we undertook to control an empire equal in extent to Great Britain, Austria, and liavasria, and a population outnumbering that of Great Britain, France, and Austria, with ten thousand English. men. Professor Creasy's "jPeace of Utrecht" is deformed by the repetition of the stupid and stale old slander ' about Bolingbroke. Nothing but peace at that moment could have secured either the honour of ' England or the interests of Europe. The former had been tarnished by the cool and selfish conduct of Austria, and the latter was imperilled by the impending union of Austria and Spain, which must have resulted from the continuance of the war. Any body who will take the trouble to study the facts of the case in an impartial spirit cannot fail to perceive this. As for St. John's supposed partiality for the Stuarts, writers obstinately ignore the patent truth that the Succession at that time was quite an open question, and overlook the circumstance that those who would have protracted hostilities to spite the friends of James were actuated by every whit as much self-interest as those who terminated them for an opposite reason. The article on "The Purchase System " is opportune and impartial, but we do not fancy the writer has given any deep thought to the subject. He certainly does not succeed in answer ing the objection he quotes from Lord Grey to any abolition of that system. Mr. Shirley Brooks's story is continued with his usual smartness ; and we have some very pretty verses, "In Memoriam, It. W. A." The remaining articles seem to possess merit, and certainly, if the treatment of them is worthy of the subjects, this number of the Dublin must be pronounced one of the best magazines of the month. Bentley this month is particularly good. "The English in India" is a singularly useful article, con veying a volume of information about ordinary 'lndian matters in which the British public is eager to be instructed. "A Fortnight's Sport in the High lands "is a pleasant sporting sketch. The death of the stag is told with great spirit. "A. Mysterious Visitot " is the title of the tale with which the authoress of " Ashley " comes before the public this month. It is scarcely up to her mark. "The Mil lionaire of Mincing-lane" sustains its interest. And the article on the list India Company, though infected by the sneering spirit against Christianity, is politically sound. The best articles in the New Monthly, are, a long historical paper upon Delhi, a readable sketch of "Fox at St. Anne's Hill," an interesting con tinuation of " The Newspaper l'ress " by Mr. Andrews, and " A Day in York," in which the antiquities and traditions of that good old city are treated briefly, but well enough to show how much might be made upon the subject. Tait has a very violent article on our Indian crisis, which the writer professes to believe a proof that England should be governed by a Convention On the principle that similia similibus curantur, per: haps anarchy abroad might fairly be met with chartism at home ; but we do not think that the experiment will be tried. Some good reviews of books, and a tale called " The Smuggler's Revenge," are the best of the remaining papers. The National Magazine contains its usual assort ment of tales, essays, domestic advice, and :natural history. There is nothing in it whicli requires more particular characterisation. It is up to its usual standard, and that is a high one. The Train for October has its regular continua tions of Mr. Brough's and Mr. Friswell's stories, but its most important feature is the republication of a sketch by Mr. Yates which appeared in Sharpe's Tll E PRESS, OCTOtER 10,1857. Magazine two or three years ago• under a different title. Does Mr. Yates mean to repeat his works till they are read, like the clergyman who preached the same sermon on swearing every Sunday till his flock discontinued the habit against which his dis course was aimed? Paved with Gold is very good this month. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED--Ocr. 9. BOOKS. The Epistles of Sl. John. By . Fred. D. Maurice, M.X. Macmillan. Days of the Regency Hodgson The Economical housekeeper Loutledge Avert Court Ditto Time Conquest of Canada Ditto The Solar System as it is and as it is represented Piper A 11 - yawn's Preachiogs for 11 - olnan's Prachce Groombridge Picture Fables Houtledge PERIODICALS. The church of England Quarterly. Partridge—Art-Journal. Virtue and Hall—The Commercial Travellers' Magazine. Kent and Co.—The Quarterly Journal of Denial Science. Walton and Maberly—The Bombay Quarterly Review. Smith and Elder—The Werd of Scotland Magazine. Hall and Virtue—The Sanitary Review. Hichards—King Henry IV. Itoutledge. PAMPHLETS' The British Expedition to the Crimea. Routledge—Cicil Service Competition. Stanford. THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY ON CHURCH MATTERS. THE Archbishop of Canterbury last Monday met a large body of the clergy at Canterbury Cathedral, when his grace delivered a lengthened address on questions relating to the present condition of the Church. Referring to the Divorce Bill which passed through Parliament towards the close of the last session, he remarked that it would be of little use to open afresh the question of marriage and divorce, which had recently been the subject of anxious par liamentary legislation. There were portions of the measure which had become law in which he could never concur, and he rejoiced that so many of the clergy had agreed in protesting against the liberty granted to divorced persons to claim again the rites of the marriage office. He believed, however, that persons under such circumstances would not be anxious to present themselves at church, particularly as there had been provided for them a legal resource of which they could without difficulty avail them selves. Adverting to the church rate question, his grace remarked that it was in statu quo—a circumstance not much to be regretted, since it had given time for an inquiry which could not fail to be highly bene fisial, since it had tended to show in how small a proportion of the parishes—only five in a hundred — there was any opposition to church rates. It would, therefore, be no less unjust than unreasonable to abolish the impost upon the request of so small a number of persons. He, however, advised that in all cases where it was imposed the objects of the rate should be plainly stated, and that nothing should be charged upon it but things which were absolutely required for the services of the - Church and the sus tentation of the fabric. He congratulated his reverend brethren upon the fact that there had been none, or hardly any, of those distressing perversions—he might call them aposta cies from the truth—to which, at previous meetings, he had thought it necessary to advert, although there were still portions of the Lord's vineyard where ten dencies were observable towards doctrines and prac tices which belonged rather to the Church from which they had separated than to that to which they belonged. It was a subject greatly to be regretted, but he trusted that the grounds of complaint would gradually decrease. He regretted to say that of late some disparage ment had been cast upon the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. The subject was too important to he discussed in a desultory manner, but it appeared to him that to doubt the inspiration of Scripture, or to sui pose that it contained anything not in accord ance with the mind of God, was to attribute to the Almighty a want of foresight, which, not to speak irreverently, could not be expected in fallible man. It was as if the inventor of one of those wonderful and complicated machines which the science of these latter days had contrived were to deposit it in some distant land, or so to adjust it that persons might tamper with it to their own destruc tion. His grace having next spoken of the increase of churches and schools in his diocese, adverted to the extension of the episcopate. Since IS-10 nineteen new sees had been founded, and this he held to be amongst the snbjects which the Church had for con gratulation. On the other hand, they had to deplore the spread of Romish principles and of latitudinarian speculation, together with the indifference and demoralisation of the working classes, and the dese cration of the Lord's Day consequent ou the intro duction of railways. The archbishop concluded 905 with some practical advice to the clergy on the manner in which their parochial ministrations should be conducted. HANTS AND WILTS EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY. THE annual conference of this society was held at Basingstoke on Monday. The Very Rev. the Dean of SALISBURY presided on the occasion, and pointed out the necessity of improving the elementary educa tion of the people : We ought, in the first place, to introduce a practical and useful system of instruction, and one which bears directly on the trading and agricultural pursuits of the locality ; and then we ought to introduce as much as possible the combination of industrial work, yielding wages, in con nection with school teaching. Now, it will never do to shut up within the walls of the schoolroom all the day long a boy who has to get his bread by the sweat of his brow. He ought to be accustomed to give a portion of his time to manual employment; he ought to be early inured to hard work out of doors, and to the vicissitudes of the weather. It therefore should be our object to induce the employers of labour and parents to concur in some plan by which school teaching shall be combined with industrial employment out of doors. The union of school teaching with industrial em ployment no doubt could be successfully carried out, but in the present condition of the labouring classes, with low wages and high prices, we could hardly wonder that the labouring man should remove his child from school as soon as he is able to earn a trifle, or 2s. or 3s. per week, for his work : Now, to ask a parent to keep his children at school be yond the age they are now allowed, and when by their work he would make an addition of about one-fourth to his own earnings, is something like asking a parent to pay so much for his children's education. Now, let us be just to a poor, hard-working man, and ask whether there ale any persons in the middle or higher classes of society who would like to pay so large a portion of their income to education? We must therefore adapt our system of in struction to the circumstances of the poor. But, in fact, we are, I fear, too apt to use an unreal and lofty language in talking to the poor about the blessings of education. Beyond all doubt we cannot insist too strongly upon education exerting a lofty influence, and that it is of immense importance to train up the young early in habits of morality and religion. But the working man requires something more than that. Be requires that the instruc tion to be given to his child should be that which would bear on his future calling—that it should, in fact, be pro ductive of solid and tangible advantage. The half-time system he thought the best : The system of alternate days for work and school has been strongly recommended, and we have the result of an experiment tried by Mr. Paget, the member for Notting ham, who has carried out this plan with admirable success; but this may have been under exceedingly favourable cir cumstances, and we must not fro:n this rashly deduce any positive conclusions. We hear it constantly alleged that the movement of the lialf-time system will be opposed by farmers. No doubt they will, until they see the practical benefit of it. Once satisfy the fanner of the superiority of educated over uneducated labourers, and we shall have all opposition cease, as the opposition did cease in the remarkable instance of the parish of King's Sombre. We all know the opposition the former excellent vicar—the Dean of Hereford—received from the farmers, but when they saw the success of it their prejudices died away, and they became his heartiest supporters. In conclusion, the dean referred to the brightening prospects of education and the advantages of the competitive system : This system of examination into the qualification of persons for public offices, although carried out but im perfectly at present, has already produced very important results. Parents in the middle and upper classes of society are now more anxious to give a superior education to their children; teachers in all ranks are stimulated to greater exertion ; the youths are incited to greater steadi ness and industry, now that they know that upon their own exertions must depend their own advancement in life. Only apply this principle in its full extent—only let great public companies and employers of labour insist on a certain amount of education as a condition of em ployment, and we shall have accomplished as much as we can expect to do in the matter of education in a free country like this. By such gentle, such judicious pres sure, we shall apply the only mode of compulsion which England is ever likely to submit to in promoting the education of the people. The Earl of CARNARVON also addressed the meet , ing upon the practicability of applying the half-time system to the rural districts : They were bound to remember what the position of the agricultural labourer was He started from no very high intellectual level, and just at the time when he thought he had done with the main expense of hie child, they proposed he should pay for additional sohooling, and also forego the labour of his child just at the time when be was looking to be repaid. In fact, the plan seemed to bring into collision two very important principles— first, the principle of a love of knowledge; and, secondly, the principle of marketable labour. And, much as one would wish it to be the reverse, when they put these two principles together, their strength was so disproportionate, that, like the old fable, the earthern pot, when dashed against the iron pot, would be the first that went to the wall. At the same time he did not deny that there was a difficulty in the case ; that there was a considerable