The Press.
London, England, 1856-12-13 00:00:00

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE ON
EDUCATION.

THE Duke of Newcastle last week laid the founda-
tion-stone of Christ Church schools at Newark. Dr.
Jackson, the Bishop of Lincoln, was present. His
grace, at the conclusion of the ceremony, addressed
a few remarks to the meeting upon the subject of
education. His grace observed that our religious
differences would seem to preclude the idea of es-
tablishing any great scheme of improved national
education :

At the same time there was no reason why they should
be apathetic or negligent in the matter of education. On
the contrary, whilst the Legislature was discussing various
schemes of improved education, they might be endeavour-
ing in their respective localities, as they were here to-day,
to promote an improved system of education on the prin•
ciples of our holy national Church. This they might do
without any feelings of bigotry or ill will towards others
who were labouring in the same vineyard. On the con-
trary, there was room enough for all. They need not
wait for any great national system, there was plenty to
occupy all their attention until some such scheme could
he devised. He regretted to add that this county of Not-
tingham stood by no means prominently forward in good
works of this description. The report of her Majesty's
inspectors showed a deplorable state of things as regarded
the schools of Nottinghamshire. There were only four-
teen certificated teachers throughout the whole county.
Many of the schools were not more than half filled. One
great cause of this undoubtedly was owing to the pro-
sperity which created an enormous demand throughout
the country for a species of infant labour. In the agricul-
tural districts the parents received considerable wages for
children only nine years old, and in the manufacturing
districts children at the early age of seven found profitable
employment. They might build endowed schools, and
provide them with efficient masters and mistresses, but
until they devised some scheme to keep the children at
school their efforts would be in vain, for on the average
each child was not kept more than a year at school. This
in reality was one of the great crying necessities of the
time, and though he for one should regret if any compul-
sory measures were resorted to, lie believed that it was to
the interest of all, the employer as well as the employed,
to arrange matters so as to facilitate the attendance of
children at school to a far greater• degree than it was done
at present.

In conclusion, the noble duke said he thought it
would be advisable to call a meeting in the county
to consider the subject, and be was sure the bishop
would be very ready to render his assistance in the
promotion of so good a work. By applying a remedy
in this direction, in bis opinion they would be doing
more good even than by the mere erection of schools.

The Bishop of LINCOLN said he should expose
himself, he knew, to the charge of being an alarmist
in saying so often, what he had felt himself obliged
to say, that probably the next two years would be a
time of severe trial not merely to our own Church
but also to the great principle of religious educa-
tion

1105

Be maintained that there was no education worthy the
name but that which was founded on sound definite re-
ligious principles. He could not but see that there were
many men, and those by no means inimical to religion—
on the contrary, men of eminence, sound in their own
religious opinions, who had at heart the welfare of their
fellow-creatures—who had been brought by Ruch reasons
as satisfied them to the conclusion that our present efforts
at education had been proved to be ineffectual, that they
did nut reach the wants of the people, and that the time
was come when the State must step in, and, either from
the general taxation of the country, or from local funds,
supply an education suitable to the growing wants of the
population. It must be recollected that from such an
education specific religious instruction must be excluded.
While he honoured the conscientious convictions of such
persons, he greatly regretted the conclusion they had
arrived at.

MR. BARON ALDERSON ON THE TICKET-
OF-LEAVE SYSTEM.
AT the opening of the special winter assizes for
South Lancashire at Liverpool, on Monday, Mr. Baron
Alderson delivered an unusually lengthy charge, the
principal topics of his address being the ticket of-
leave system, transportation, and the reformation of
criminals. His lordship upon this subject said :
Gentlemen, you will find a good many-1 don't know
how many—in cases which people have been pardoned,
so to speak, and come back into the world with what is
called at present a ticket of leave, which certainly seems
to me,—in its effects I mean,—an unwise proposition.
They are let loose upon scciety ; and the reason is, that
it is impossible to keep persons for so long a time as they
were usually transported for before in this country. People
get tired ; and then the chaplains of the gaol become ex-
tremely attentive; the offender turns up the white of his
eyes, and pretends to be a converted sinner. The chaplain
considers himself complimented in the effect of his admi-
nistration, and recommends him to be set free. A pardon
is given, which is nothing but an incentive ; and then you
have the result in a greater number of crimes committed
by these people, who are not really reformed, but pretend
to be so for the purpose of escaping punishment. Now,
that transportation was subject to considerable evil, and
required considerable reformation, was perfectly true ; but
it is, after all, the best punishment for the country which
inflicts it and the criminal who receives it,—for I believe
it was perfectly well known that the persons who recovered
a good name, and lived a decent and respectable life, formed
a large per centage of the total sent out; while of those
who remain in this country, and who, after a time, are
turned adrift, there is a very small, if not an infinitesimal
per centage only. They cannot obtain employment: what
are they to do ? You turn them among their old associates.
They have the cleverness which belongs to that description
of persons, and they place themselves at the head of some
new gang. Then evil arises. The men are punished
perhaps for a second time, and it ends probably in death.
Now, that is the fact. But turn him out in a colony,
where the capital of the country requires an additional
quantity of labour ; the residents would take those persons
most readily, and could avoid them with greater ease ; they
would be rid of their old associates in England, and would
go into a new place, where they might distinguish them-
selves, as they are really capable of doing, by their talents
and conduct, and they have often recovered themselves
altogether, and become good men.
With respect to incorrigibles, Baron Alderson was
of opinion that they ought to be kept at home :

We have no right to inflict on the colonies people who
are incapable of being reformed in any country at all. The
young criminals are to be reformed by reformatory schools,
which are really doing great service, and I don't wish to
make any alteration in that respect. J speak of the adults,
for whom the establishment of the right system of trans•
portation would be the greatest blessing that could be con-
letTed upon them.

Mr. Baron Bramwell, at the opening of the Chelms-
ford Assizes on Thursday, while disclaiming all in-
tention of advocating either the abolition or con-
tinuance of the ticket•ot leave system, said :

He must say that it appeared to him the granting of
tickets of leave had very little indeed to do with the
amount of crime that was alleged to be committed by the
persons who received them. The fact was that when a
person was sentenced to a certain period of imprisonment
or other punishment, he was allowed, if he evinced con-
trition towards the end of the sentence, to escape a portion
of his punishment. Undoubtedly it happened that many
such persons, after obtaining their liberty, committed
other crimes; but it appeared to him that the same result
would most probably have occurred if the prisoner had
received a pardon, or had been sentenced to a shorter
period of imprisonment, and what he desired to point out
was, that the granting of a ticket of leave was not in itself
any more likely to he productive of crime than either of
the other proceedings he had alluded to. He did not wish
it for a moment to be understood that he was speaking in
favour• of the ticket•of leave sy item—it might or it might
not he advisable to return to the system of transportation,
or that some other punishment should be substituted ; but
whether the ticket•of leave system was retained or abolished,
he thought that either course ought only to be resorted to
upon some ground that was reasonable and in accordance
with common sense.

M. JULLIEN'S ANNUAL GRAND BAL MASQUE will
this year take place at Her Majesty's Theatre, on
Monday, December 22, on a scale of unprecedented
Ail
splendour and effect. The orchestra will be removed
from its present position, and the whole floor of this
magnificent theatre will form an enormous salle de
dance. The house will be hung with festoons o