The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-12-08 00:00:00

UPPER CLASS EDUCATION.

WHO would have imagined at any epoch of the
five and forty years which have elapsed since the
decisive struggle at Waterloo, until within the
last five, that in England the well-known in-
junction, " teach the young idea how to shoot,"
would have met with so literal and so
universal a compliance as it is receiving at this

moment ? Who could have believed that the
study and practice of the tir de precision at our
universities, at all our great public schools, and
at very many private ones, would have suddenly
come to be treated as an almost indispensable
branch of knowledge, and that a familiarity with
drill, and a thorough initiation into the mysteries
of the goose-step, and the other military move-
ments of which it is the foundation, would have
come to be viewed as scarcely less necessary than
any of the other departments of ordinary school
work ?

But so it is ; and we are not aware that any
well-founded complaints have been made against
the infusion of this new element into the general
educational system of the country, or that any
other than beneficial results can be said to have
arisen from the mixture. On the contrary, mas-
ters, students, and pupils seem alike to sympathise
with and Welcome the movement which has thus
penetrated in so remarkable a inanner into all our
academic institutions; and, with rare exceptions,
there is no public man who alludes to the subject
who does not enlarge upon the good effects which
it is calculated to exert both on the minds and
bodies of the young. Mens sand In corpore Ba2lo,
bids fair now at length to find its realisation in
all our principal seminaries of learning, and the
instructors of our youth find, ready made to their
hands, one of the most important auxiliaries to
the moral training of their pupils which has
heretofore been placed within their reach.

A great many ideas are on their trial at the
present time. To say nothing of Constitutional
Government in England, there is the principle of
"Nationality" in Italy, of " Imperial Constitu-
tionalism " in France, of "Imperial Autonomy "
in Austria; of " Federal Union" in presence of
one of the rudest shocks to which it has yet been
subjected, in the United States, which are eack
and all undergoing their separate trials at this
juncture. But there is a domestic matter of no small
moment, which is, and has been, also on its trial
for some time past. We allude to the English
Public School System. To many minds the
latter may not have so many glittering attrac-
tions • as the others; but it is surely of scarcely
less consequence to watch its progressi and !Mark
its results, as bearing largely upon a foremost
branch of the leading home subject of tile dat,
Until lately, the question as to the merits
of the public school system, viewed in
connection with the education of the children of
the upper classes of society, which is the aspect
in which we are regarding the matter on this
occasion, lay between Eton, Winchester, Harrow,
Rugby, and one, or two other famous schools on
the one hand, and the small provincial grammar
schools, or home or semi-private tuition on the
other. But' the comparison has been largely
broken in upon—first, by the introduction of a
vast swarm of intermediate establishments which
have sprung up in different places, all conducted
more or less on the public school system, but pos-
sessing statutes and institutions moulded out of less
ancient elements ; secondly, by—though perhaps
only as regards the upper department—numerous
and more or less extensive institutions such as
those of which Liverpool possesses Vt.() of the
very highest rank and popularity ; and thirdly,
by an infinite number of private establishments,
which offer an endless variety of educational
attractions, in conformity with the additional
requirements of the age, and whose conductors,
enjoying a perfect freedom from all control in the
shape of constittitions or trustees, are enabled to
bend their respective systems in any direction
which may be mutually agreed on by themselves
and the parents or guardians of the boys whose
educational training is entrusted to them. To all
these may also be added the rapid and enormous
advances which late years have witnessed in the
educational machinery of the classss which fall
below those for whose wants the higher and more
extensive schools of which we have been speaking
are provided, and it will at once be seen to what
an enormous amount of competition these latter
arc exposed ; and what exertions are demanded
of those by whom they are administered, in
order to keep themselves ahead of that rapid,
variable, and accelerated stream of progress which

is pressing upon them,
Happily in the present day it has come to pass
that the aristocracy of rank, and in a great degree
that of wealth also, is always measured by an
intellectual standard. It has been accepted as an
absolute necessity, if the English political machine
is to iteep its true balance, that those whose social
position places them anioiig the upper classes
should take a corresponding rank in intellectual
acquirements ; that those who are born to
lead should have
.the requisite capacity to
discharge the duties of leaders, and also
the moral force and superior weight of cha-
racter to deprive others of any just ground for
refusing to recognise their tight td do 66. In

short, that, as is pre-eminently the case With the
able and talented heir to the noble House of
STANLEY, every scion of England's nobility, who
aspires to take a leading part in the councils of
his cotintry, should be, if possible, as illustrious
for his ti.acquirements as he is for his birth and
hereditary distinction.
Now, it has come to be inquired with no little
earnestness and anxiety, will thoso places of
education which are frecquented chiefly by the
sons of the upper classes, be able to meet the
emergency which has thus arisen ? Will our
great public schools be able to hold their own,
and to do their work triumphantly and success-
fully in the face of such an active and unceasing
rivalry, or is there a danger of their losing their
present superiority and celebrity, and thus, so far,
it may be, dislocating the socio-political machine,
just as it had got into such admirable working
order.

To this latter question we answer—Yes, pro-
vided the public school system be not liberalised
and expanded;--No, if this process be judiciously,
seasonably, and effectually carried out. We
don't go into the question of moral superinten-
dance, checking extravagance, and such like; we
assume, as a matter of course, that all ground for
complaint on these heads, so far as it may not
already have been removed, will be so forth-
with. If not, no purely abstract changes
in the system of educational training, how-
ever radical and remorseless, will be of the
slightest avail to save their pre-eminence.
What is chiefly wanted is, as was so well
pointed out by an eminent authority, when
dealing recently with the case of Eton, an easier
and freer working of the system, under which
new books and new methods of teaching them,
and new and enlarged fields of study can be
introduced; and under which no acknowledged
improvement in the administration of the school
should be debarred admittance, the moment its
utility or necessity is recognised. Objections under
the head of " contrary to the will of the Pounder,"
are effectually disposed of by the dictum of the
same learned judge we are alluding to when he
laid it down that no legal barrier existed to
making alterations in the foundation statutes ;
and besides, as everyone knows, there is not one
of the great schools we are speaking of whose
rulers have not, at one time or other, considered
it necessary to infringe upon its constitution,
though, as it happens, somewhat awkwardly for
many of the principal opponents of further
changes, the alterations objected to are generally
found to militate against the interests of the
objectors. It is astonishing how much elasticity
is attributed by this
class of persons to those
statutes, which have a contrary tendency.
The day is, we hope, far distant when these
great schools shall cease to discharge the im-
portant functions we have pointed out, and to

discharge them well. Their admirers claim for
them—and, we cannot help thinking, with jus-
tice—that they generate a fine scholarship, a
ready wit, a manly independence, and a noble
sense of brotherhood, which, despite their imper-
fections, are riot to be obtained in any other way.
But the preservation of their present high posi-
tion and powers of usefulness will only be con-
tinued to them so long as their administrators
are quick to detect, and prompt to remedy, every
fault ; alert to appropriate and to communicate
new knowledge, and new methods of teaching it,
while, at the same time, they maintain inviolate
in substance that long-tried system under which
classics "reign supreme," which for centuries past
has yielded such splendid fruits, and to which
every one of our greatest men in modern times
has paid unhesitating homage.

The universality of the Volunteer system, which
we have commented-
:upon at the outset, was
two short rears ago, as little dreamt of in the
" philosophy of tlib pAreilta and guardians of
English youth, as are. many of the very -Wildest Pill'
jects started is connection with the enlargement
and util isation of the benefits and advantages of the
system of English public schools. That move-
ment is everywhere popular and approved of.
Let the rulers of our great public schools in like
manner throw themselves boldly on popular sup-
port, and the day will still be their own.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, Dec. 7.

A dreadful murder has been committed in a
railway carriage, on. the person of one of the
most eminent magistrates of the Court of Paris,
which has caused eitraordinary excitement and
consternation. At first there was an ittlpression
that M. Poinsot, who is the President of the
Imperial Court, was the victim of an assassin
who had taken this means of satiating his
revenge for some public or private wrong done
to him ; but the actual circumstances were as
follow :—On the arrival yesterday, at the station,
of the train from Mullhouse, the lifeless body of
the lamented gentleman was found in the com-
partment of one of the carriages. The deceased
had, it is said, arrived from the Champagne
districts, where he OAVIIS several valuable pro-
perties. He entered the train the previous
evening at Troyes, and took his place in a
first-class carriage, which was empty. An
individual appears to have entered the
the same compartment sometime afterwards, and
got out at another station without his departure
having given rise to the slightest suspicion. Such
at least is the rumour which prevails, for until a
judicial enquiry takes place no reliable details
can be obtained respecting the facts which pre-
ceded, accompanied, or followed the crime. It is,
however, generally believed that robbery was the
sOle motive for its commission. It was on opening
the couipartmerit gesterday morning at five
o'clock, when the train arrived for the purpose of
collecting the tickets of the passengers, that one
of the company's servants of the Cliemin de fer de
l'Est perceived the body of M. Poinsoit lying
bathed in blood. No time was'lost in acquainting
the family orthe deceased with the. lamentable
event, as well as the judicial authorities. The
Procureur-General and the Procureur-Imperial,
and the Prefect of Police, as well as the heads of
the municipal police and of safety, immediately
proceeded to the Strasbourg station to commence
the necessary investigation. It has sttbsequentlY
been ascertained beyond doubt that the murdeted
gentleman had been robbed, and his watch torn
from his waistcoat pocket. It is supposed that
the crime must have been committed before the
arrival of the train at Noisy:le-Sec station.* A
lady, who was in an adjoining compartment, states
that she heard some cries before that station
was passed. The body was lying on the jars
containing the hot water with which the carriages
are supplied ; and the reason the murder was not
sooner discovered, was that the murderer had
taken care to draw down the window blind,
intended to exclude the light during the
night. It is reported that, near to Noisy,
the traces of footsteps have been discovered, indi-
cating that the murderer had leapt out at that
station while the train was being slowed in order
to receive the mail bags.
Unfortunately, railway management in France,
as it is in England, is still behind both Belgium
and Germany. In both these countries a passen-
ger has the means of stopping the train at any
minute ; and had such means of calling for aid
been available to M. Poinsot, either his life would
have been saved, or at all events the murderer
would have been caught red-handed.

The news from Gaeta is to the 3rd December,
at which date there was "nothing new." On the
afternoon of the 2nd the besiegers sent some
shells into the town, but they alighted upon places
where no damage was done ; and the firing
ceased, in order that its direction might be
rectified.

The greater part of the Piedmontese army is at
present in the Neapolitan provinces, where it has
plenty of work before it. Independent of Naples
itself, and other towns where there are garrisons,
there are three powerful corps—one of which i 5
employed in the investment of the fortress of
Gaeta ; another is operating in the Abruzzi, where
the state of things is still serious ; and the third
occupies Calabria, where its movements are pro-
ducing some little excitement. Matters seem
likely to remain in their present situation until
the spring.

There was little doing at the Bourse yesterday,
but much firmness continued to be exhibited.
Itentes closed at 70f. 60c.

LECTURE Mc THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.--LaSt
night, Mr. R. Trimble, commission merchant, of this
town, gave, at the Hope-street Church schools, a lecture
on the Volunteer Movement. The chair was oetneied
by Mr. Councillor Estill. Mr. Trimble has evident:!
a very qualified opinion of the volunteer movement,
which was described as a product of the panic or fear of
invasion raised two years ago,—an alarm, he said, raised
from various motives, and propagated by various agencies
—" which had been fomented by ignorance, and found
strength and support from national jealousy." The
alarm, however, had become so general, had taken so
unusual a channel, that those who raised the alarm nolt
stood aghast at its consequences. Volunteering had
many open, but a greater number of secret enemies. It
had, however, its legitimate influence, and it was well
that they should guard it from some of the evils to
which it was exposed. These he enumerated in detail.
One was the fostering of a war spirit. But the move-
ment should encourage trust in ourselves ; it should not
encourage distrust of our neighbours. The charge of
Mr. Robertson Gladstone, that the movement had with-
drawn the attention of young men from the counter
and the desk, was, he said, not without justification
in the facts of the case. Business was too often
neglected for this new excitement, and also mental pur-
suits. Again, the volunteer movement might lead to
false security, the process of laudation had been carried
to such extent. To make efficient artillerymen required
three years' constant training. When the troops of the
King of Naples began to fight, the service of their
regularly-trained artillery against the artillery of Gari-
baldi's men was painfully apparent. It seemed to him,
then, that the prominence given to a volunteer artillery
force was a grand mistake, and that if relied upon as
artillery for the defence of the country, it would break
down in the day of trial. He counselled that, before
too late, the whole of the artillery corps should be formed
into troops of the line. He asked, after eighteen months'
enrolment, was there a corps which had been trained to
the use of field guns ? Many of them had not yet seen
a gun. There was another force which it was very diffi-
cult to train. It was proved by the Crimean war that
we are deficient in cavalry, and he contended that instead
having of mounted volunteers, who could only mas-
querade in a procession or ride down an armed mob, the
artillery and cavalry force requisite should be provided
by the Government. As infantry, the volunteers would
be of the utmost service, and to make them marks-
men practice only was required. Let the Ration and the
government remember, however, that too much depen-
dence upon an untried force, leading to false security,
would be one of the greatest misfortunes. He argued,
from a reference to the history of the Irish Volunteers
in the last century, that there was a danger of the
volunteer movement becoming subservient to party-
Another evil was, that it might increase the antagonism
between class and class. The lecturer then spoke of the
deception practised in the formation of many corps ,by
e
misrepresentations as to the cost of joining : one n
mentioned in which the cost was advertised at two
guineas, but one article after another had been ordered,
till the amount had reached £9 3s. Mr. Trimble next
dwelt, but at less length, upon the advantages of
movement. Drill he pronounced to be a
invigorating exercise. It also induced sobriety,heoaithy and
order, and
respectful conduct. To be armed, inspired
eoovngeofideeence; and
nrnmt ouegntsht.
also deference in our dealings with foreign
It was a guarantee for peace, and the movement
S
to lead to a more economical national.
urged that the volunteer movement shouldexpend iture.
be made Ie
general, popular, and permanent • It would thus be
fromall partial
removed from all class influences,
interests, from all sectional jealousies.. Let them. not,
make this pursuit the b.%inge,ssietbuitt tbnee rseeecerenadtaioryn
to
life. As a physical train
mental discipline; and, in concluding, the lecturer
exhorted all men of
mi
defenders
to embrace
under
every
every opportunity
civilisingand
of
bringing our unpaid
refining influence. lie sat down amid loud applause.