The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-09 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

IT is characteristic of Englishmen that they make their business a
pleasure, and their pleasure a business. Parliament is not sitting, it is true;
but the work of Parliament is going on. To be debarred from making a
speech for six long months is more than your regular politician can
endure. So, notwithstanding all the professions of fatigue that used to
emanate from our honoured representatives a month or two ago, we find
them very soon yielding again to the seduction of their regular calling,
and getting up miniature Parliaments of' their own wherever a public
meeting can be got together. Politics, of course, take the lead ; and on this
subject Sir G. C. LEWIS and Sir J. WALSH at Knighton, Messrs. COLLIER
and WRITE at Plymouth, and Colonel SYKES at Aberdeen, have been
delivering themselves of the ideas accumulated since August. The first-
mentioned gentleman's opinions on Parliamentary Reform we have dis-
cussed elsewhere. Sir J. WALSH'S observations on the subject of
democracy and despotism were excellent. We only wish the truth
they conveyed was more taken to heart than it is. The only
point deserving particular notice in Mr. COLLIER'S speech was his repetition
of the old maxim about measures not men. " The great question with the
" people," said he, " was whether they were well governed—it then being
" of minor importance which of the parties it was that governed." This bit
of political cant first began to make itself heard some ninety years ago, and
those who would fully comprehend its hollowness should turn to BURKE'S
admirable treatise, " Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents."
The Hon. Gentleman was also good enough to inform us that he did not
go with the Chartists in paying members of Parliament. We wonder how
Mr. BRIGHT likes to see himself ranked with that class of politicians.
Colonel SYKES at Aberdeen, after a general condemnation of the past session
from every point of view, and reiterating the phrase about men and measures,
recommended that the one hundred and twenty Independent Liberals should
enter " into an intelligible and practical combination." With whom, or for
what special object, he does not inform us. If they are to combine, they must
combine with somebody. Yet nobody in the House, according to the Gallant
Colonel, deserves their confidence. Up to this time, however, the majority
of these gentlemen do not seem to be of the same opinion as their would-be
spokesman, but have accorded a hearty support to her Majesty's
Government.

The subject of Education has this week been handled by some of the
most accomplished and experienced gentlemen in the country. Mr.
ADDERLEY, Mr. SOTHERON-ESTCOURT, the Bishop of SALISBURY, Sir
JOHN PAKINGTON, and others, have each of them been illustrating it from
different points of view. Let us see, therefore, to what conclusions, if any,
these various addresses will enable us to arrive. Mr. ADDER-
LEY, who spoke at an educational meeting in Staffordshire, on what is
more specially known as " National Education," tells us that the general
feeling of the people of this country is not in favour of the secular system.
This he thinks proved by the large number of candidates who elect to be
examined in the Scriptures. The statement, however, is one in which we
can readily believe, without demanding any special evidence; and our
confidence in its correctness leads us to accept at once his further asser-
tion, at variance with the opinions of the school inspectors,—that the reli-
gious difficulty is still an obstacle to any comprehensive scheme of educa-
tion. Mr. NORRIS, the inspector, reasoning from the fact that two
hundred children of all denominations consented to be examined by him
in the Scriptures, had rather hastily jumped to the conclusion that the
" religious difficulty " no longer existed. We must confess for our own
part that we should be rather sorry if it disappeared. The present
system, known as the " denominational," we believe to be working very
well ; and increased economy and efficiency would be dearly purchased by
the smallest sacrifice of religious earnestness. Mr. ADDERLEY said that
the secular system might be adopted if the parents were sensible and the
managers of schools trustworthy. We think he might have left out the
first-mentioned condition ; for if the schoolmasters were trustworthy, the
parents would shortly become " sensible." But this same trustworthiness—
i.e., the power of an honest and complete abstinence from the introduction of
religious opinions—is a quality so rarely met with that any system to which
it is indispensable must for ever be relegated to Utopia. Even among the
most highly cultivated and philosophical minds the art of so wording
lessons on history or science as never to jar upon the religious convictions
of those who differ from the teacher is a comparatively rare gift. Can we
ever hope to have a class of national schoolmasters who, as a rule, are
endowed with it ? This, in our opinion, is the hinge of the religious diffi-
culty—a topic from which Mr. ADDERLEY passed on without proposing
any solution, of a subject which also occupied the attention of Mr.
EmotrßT—viz., by what means it was possible to prolong educational
influences among the children of the labouring poor after they had quitted
school ? Both deprecated the idea of " keeping the children of labourers
" from the labour which was their real school for life." But Mr. ESTCOURT
thought a system of prizes might do much towards preventing parents
from setting their children to field work before their strength was equal to
it. We have no doubt that in the purely agricultural districts such a
plan might be partially successful ; but over a wide area of the midland
and manufacturing counties the indoor labour of young children can be
turned to very profitable account without the least injury to their bodily
strength. In these districts, therefore, we doubt if the proposed plan
would be effectual. Mr. ESTCOURT is in &your of evening-schools and
reading-rooms in all our villages, which we know have been already tried