The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-05-27 00:00:00

INSTRUCTING THE PEOPLE.

If anything were required to show the great
interest and importance of education, it would
_ _ _

be found in the -increased attention devoted to

he subject by Parliament and the country. No

session-of the Legislature now passes iithout

a measure bearing-upon this topic being intro-
duced and discussed, either by the initiative of
the Government,or through the medium of a

private member. The Act of 1870, indeed,
seems to have laid the foundation of a solid and

substantial superstructure whose results will be
more apparent every year. In transitory and
shifting scenes such as those to which we are
accustomed, and amid circumstances that we
often differ with the changes wrought by each
revolving season, no human arrangement can be
regarded as perfect or final. The Reform Act
of 1832 wus rightly looked upon by its authors
as a great and comprehensive measure, but as
time went on, and alterations took place in the
fluctuating localities and populations, it was
seen that a re-distribution of political power
was absolutely neeessary. This was effected in
1867, and although nine years have passed since
that settlement was arrived at, a eemand is even
now arising for a further remodelling of the
constitutional machine. So it is with the legs.
tion for the instruction of the peoplQ. It is not
easy to say off-hand how many revised codes
there were between the famous one introduced
by Mr. Lowe in 1857 and the carrying of Mr.
Forster's Education Act in 1870. And within
two years of that statute becoming law, Mr.
Forster himself brought in an amending
measure, this in its turn having been followed
by the Government Bill expliiine'd to the House
of Commons a few nights ago by Lord Sandon.

One feature connected with the education
controversy can never have failed to command
the attention of earnest and thoughtful men.
That i 3 the importance of making a thorough
impression upon the young and tender mind the
idea being that, once turned into a particular
channel, there it will continue for life. The
eagerness of the different denominations to
train the young in the faith of their own par-
ticular belicf3 is thus explained. The child in
the class in a Sunday Schcol who is attentively
drinking in this or44hat par,icalar teaching may
deve:op into a man of enormous intellectual
snperioriy over his fellow human beings. Thus
gifted, be exerts a corresponding influence, and
this may continue until he at length travels
down the steep of time and finds his rest upon
the shores of eternity. " Hands
.that the rod
of empire might have swayed" were once as
small as those which trace ont the alphabet in
our schools, and . the tiny infant upon the
mother's lap may yet achieve a reputation which
shall list as long as the English lan-
guage is spoken. Sometimes ene soltary truth
out of the many taught in early life rashes
unbidden to the memory after having been lost

sight of for perhaps a- quarter of a— century.
The mind no less than the body has undergone
a marvellous change since the words which now
_ _ _ _ _ _

rise up were last Geard ; the physical frame has
expanded. During the interval the man of to-
day has seen much of the world ; it may be that
his experiences of it have not been altogether
pleasant; he has roamed through foreign lands;
he has sailed over distant seas, when suddenly
a trivial incident brings hack to his recollection
one of those ko!emn truths abounding in the
Bible, and which his teacher, without fee or
reward, taught him at Sunday School long, long
ago. To a sensitive imagination the impression
of bygone days often acts most powerfully; the
saying thus expectedly brought back is now re-
membered and acted upon, and the saying of
Holy Writ has been verified : " Cast thy bread
upon the waters, and it shall be found after
many days."
Wonderful is the retentiveness of memory
with respect to early associations. The old man
who is eighty ye:.rs of age to-day could better
describe the sensation produced by the news of
the Battle of Trafalgar than the excitement
caused by the su r n•l(r at Sedan sixty-five
years afterwards. During the space which
separated the two events the mental faculties
had Lecome worn and dull ; events, or rather
the records and chronicles of time, glide from
the mind as shadows disappear from the plain ;
the memory is no longer susceptible to the re-
ception of ideas or impressions, indeed the
power of retention is- io a great extent gone.
The an whose heads are now white with the
snows of four score winters could tell us a great
deal more about the incidents of political life
half a century ago, than of those which happened
only a month since. The reason is clear. At
the former period the intellect was fresh and
vigereus ; the healthy mind drank in the infor-
mation respecting the events of the day as the
thirsty Lino receives the water from the rill.
But when arrives the " wietry hour of maturer
age," the mind no longer resembles the dry and
parched soil lorging for the rain, but becomes
more like a saturated meadow in the midst of an
inundation. As the earth forming the meadow
finds it impossible to absorb a greater quantity
of water than that which it contains, so the
human mind is brought acquainted with the im-
possibili:y of retaining nay but a small propor-
tion of the facts passing in an ever shifting,
panorama before it. The warmth of the com-
petition for the instruction of the' young is thus
easily accounted for. The course of learning
cannot but affect their future Path in life, and
who knows but that a chance saying uttered in
the presence of a child, may, after lying buried
for
instzhenatymoarnntleiriratis'
toy
eexare'sr.t caopmoewetrofuthl eiusurface
e
• upon the life of the orator, the divine, the
philosopher, and the statesman ?