The Express.
London, England, 1852-12-31 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIBA r, DECEMBER 31.

Teta Berl of ABIOIDECN intimated to the House of
Leeds ea Monday night that the attention of the
Minis° y would be directed to the subjectuf Education.
As his Lordship leaves us at present in the dark as to
what kind of measure the Government is about to
propose, and how they intend to act with regard to
existing arrangements, it will be well at once
that the public should turn to the question, in order
to discover, if possible, what sort of education
we have a right to ex; ect. Thankful to tied a
Ministry promising legislation on the subject, we
must limit our expectations to what is possible. It
is very desirable that, in addttion to all the in-
tellectual instruction a child receives, his moral facul-
ties shall be developed and his religious instincts
cultivated and instructed. Of the desirableness of
this there can be no manner of doubt. .t feeling of
the truth of this propon•ion lies at the bottom of the
theory and practice of education in the middle ages.
Peisnaded of the fact that the man cannot be consi-
dered educated unless all his faculties are educed and
brought out, the education of youth was entrusted to
the teachers of religion, who, in addition to their
intellectual qualifications, w. re naturally supposed to
be in possession of those of morality and religion.
There is no need to deny that this system worked
well as long as it was possible to be worked at all.
But the thing assumed a different aspect when the
teachers of religion separated into parties, and
held controversies on the subject-matter o: what
was to be taught. When this fell out—
when one priest anathematised the doctrines that
another priest taught—then national education,
with religion for its basis, becsmc simply bfripossible.
Tlivre is no need in mincing the term; a national theo-
logical education is irnp'oiible. This announcement
may be received with • bigoted denial in certain
quarters, but the only answer to this is, that theme
who utter the denial recognise this impossibility most
fully Urumqi es iu their practical dealings with the
question. The stanch Protestant acknowledges the
impossibility era national system of theological edge:o-
tiose, when he keeps his son at home rather than let
him partake of instruction from • Roman Catholic.
The Romanist, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, by
their exclusive systems of education, all =knowledge
the same thing. The effect, then, of insisting apes the
theological element in public education is to throw
insuperable bars in the way of national ednestion at
all. A system which will be applicable to all the
children o! a nation nowt leave out that element
about which the parents differ.
Perhaps no more striking example can be given of
the truth of the opinions we are maintaining, than
the fact that the only systems of education that have
been successful in modern Europe are those which
are so constructed that no religious scruple shall be
offended. Leaving out of consideration the Bcoles
gniztes of France, the Netherlands, and those of
Prussia, look merely at the hgures mentioned in
the eighteenth annual report of the Commissioners of
National Education in Ireland. The children of the poor
twenty years ago in Ireland could not be educated.
The Protestant parson invited children to his school,
bet the Roman Catholic priest would not let them
attend. The children were deprived of all chance of
intellectual culture by the fulminations of ecclesias-
tics of both parties. They were introduced to bigotry
at the very moment their understandings began to
dawn. They sew that somehow or another religion
stood in the way between them and education.
The priests who would not educate the intellectual
faculties of their flocks, in spite of themselves,
gave the worst sort of education to the religious
instincts. Protestant and Catholic, taught nothing
else, learned to hate each other on religious grounds.
When the evil was at its height, the government of
the day stepped in with a remedy. The national
system of education was introduced pursuant to the
advice of • committee, recommending that a plan
should be adopted to " afford, if possible, a combined
" literary, and a separate religions education, and to
" be capable of being so far adapted to the views of
" the religious persuasions is Ireland, as to render
" it, in truth, • system of national education for the
" poorer classes of the community." The progress
of this system has exceeded all expectation. In
1834 the number of schools was 789, and
that of the children attending 107,042. In
the year 1846, the schools were 3,637, and the
children attending, 456,410. In 1849, the schools
were 4,321, and the children attending, 480,823. In
1831, there were 4,704 schools in operation, attended
by 520,401 children. Here is • vast result of more
than half • million of children educated under a
system which excludes doctrinal religion from the
teaching of the schools, and which experience has
could have been obtained by no other method.
EtweiTid not the defenders of secular education a right
to turn round upon their opposers, and say : " It is
" you who are irreligious. It is you who by re-
" ligious pretexts would keep children down to
" the level of brutes, and send them oat
▪ into the world with faculties so little
" developed that they are inespeblo of eaderstandiag
" religion at all except in its groom& hem. It ie
" you who wickedly throw °Weeks is the way of
" the mind of man attaining that stature Wended
" for it by the Caaoroa."
Here, then, we see that a near ewes* to an es-
elesively secular education ispeasslle.—ln the condition
et hatred before the introduction et the National
&heels we have we peed est of many that in the
pesest day a @Wm' theologise' awake is imp:e-
lide. Whatazine sc: hem the Ministry is, that
lbw will these truths and act upon
*lm. We do est these in defog this to inert a
new •
• 'pls. It is a principle that hes run through all
mien on the subject of edaustion for the last
twenty years. It is one that runs through all the
proceedings of the Committee of Education. All
this legislation, all this administration, assumes the
principle that the great mass of poor children in
So country ems* be brought together to be edu-
cated as long an you make doctrinal theology the
hew of your mistime. Are these large masses to be
educated at all? Ha any government a right to
keep bask the means of instruction from a numerous
elms of its subjects? Hes it a right practically to
leave a monopoly of culture to the rich? In a
world in Audi the domain of the intellect is ex-
paoding day by day, and the difference of power
between the uneducated and the educated man is
constantly ineresslng, is it not the bounden duty of
a iformarcent te met, as far as possible, bounds to
this difference? Amongst inhabitants of the same
nation, is it net monstrous that education should
make almost as bread • line of demarcation between
various classes as between animals of different
!
sp
ecies
The Ministry must boldly, in defiance of all oppo-
sition, insist upon the fact of the utter failure of any
other education than that which is secular, when
applied to a nation. If the richest Church in Europe
cannot find time and opportunity for the religious
education of the poor, the sin be on its own head. The
ample question for the Government is this—Are we to
allow thousands of the 'abject/ of the QCELN to grow
up in ignorance, and therefore in a state of degrada-
tion, merely because a few theological persona cry
out for an impossibility ? Until the opposers of
secular education can point to any country where an
exclusive system founded on religion has succeeded,
er until they can produce any scheme which possesses
Se elements of possibility within it, they most be
cold not to impede the progress of the
people.ae They must be told that the Lords and
• of England have a high and holy mission
entrusted to them, and that a heavy sin will be laid
to their charge if they do not perform it. The
Ministry and the Parliament must act as if the evil
of an uneducated nation will be laid to their door.
They must turn their ears away from fanatics, and
listen to the solemn words of the great poet and
prophet—low MILTON:
Lords and Commons of England, consider what
" nation whereof ye belong, and whereof ye are the
* governors : of a nation not slow and dull, but of a

" quick, iugenioua, and piercing spirit; acute to in-
" vent, subtle and sinewy to discourse; not beneath
" the reach of any point the highest that human
" capacity can soar to. What want there to such
towardly and pregnant soil, but wise and
tob.ourers to make a knowing a nation of
" prophets, of sages, and of wolhies.
There ate not wanting antecedents in the life of
the l'exittre that induce us to hope that he will act
upon the spirit of this warring, wisely and liberally.
Whether or not the leaven of an extreme party in the
Church which is visible in the formation of the Cabi-
net, will interfere to prevent the adoption of the
only true course. time will show.

Tea salesspedesee both in this and other Eng-
lishSeeenais, and the concurrent testimony of our
American contemporaries, leave very little doubt
;hat the African Slave Trade is reeivirg in the island
of Cuba. The cause of this revival is not, however,
any abatement in the stringency of our cruising
system, either on its coasts or on those of Africa.
Oar squadrons there were never stronger, more
active, or persevering. At Ambriz our Go-
vernment has refused to allow Portugal to
establish a factory, lest a Portuguese settlement
in that river for lawful purposes should give any
encouragement to the visits of slavers Eby the recent
affair at Lagos, the slave trade north of the line has
been for a time, at least, suppressed ;--south of the
equator the most stringent measures are being taken
at Santa Tanga, Cabenda, and in the Rio Congo;
—over the Portuguese possessions, of which Loanda
is the capital, a very strict watch is kept ;—and eveu-
where on the western coast of Africa, especially
in the Bight of Benin so long the emporium of
illicit trade, a better industry and a lawful commerce
are springing up in the mast surprising manner.
This, then, is not • time when any revival of the
slave trade by Cuba can be tolerated; and yet in
spite of all our cruising efforts, in spite of all treaties,
squadrons, and Courts of Mixed Commission, the
question of its revival depends more on the Spanish
Court and on the Cuban authorities than on any
other agency. " The slave trade," it is truly re.
marked- by Commodore Biwee, in his report to
the Admiralty of the 17th January last, " requires
"no organised system foe its support; it might
"cease for a century and be renewed in • week." It
depends on the encouragement given to demand.
But recent experience not only in Brazil, but in Cuba
also, shows the power of a determined government
to'check the demand. Scarcely had the Brazilian
Chamber passed the laws we have so frequently de-
scribed,—and the Brazilian government begun to act
on them,—than the slave traders in Brazil took fright
and of their alarm some curious evidence has lately
been published. In the house of King Kosoxo, at
Lagos, whoa captured by our squadron, were found a
aerie[ of letters from his slave-trading friends
at Bahis-In theearlier portions of this correspondence
they give that Chief accounts of the proceed sales of
his human consignment; complain of the preferences
he shows to their rivals in the trade ; and exhibit all
the usual jealousies of mercantile competitors. No
sooner, however, were the Brazilian anti-Slave Trade
laws enacted, than the tone of their correspondence
totally changes. Instead of desiring, they refuse, to
receive further consignments; instead of slaves,
they ask for palm oil, ground nuts, and other
articles of lawful commerce. "As the Government is
" decided,"says Senhor Beak, writing to the King,
" upon putting a stop to the trade, / am desirous
" that you should not continue to make consignments
"to me but Ar the leaefel trade in oil, clothes, and
" ivory, I shall always be ready to serre you." Again,
a month later, the same once flourishing slave im-
porter, at Bahia, repeats If you are my friend,
you will not consign any more dares to me, fur I
" would not hare them on any account, if they could be
" had fur 5 or 6 rel. each." So, also Seabee Go-
DI,IIIO, another Bahia slave merchant, addressing
King Kosoko, thus winds up his transactions:—
" Our accounts are thus balanced; and me &deices
" to you, to the effect that I could receive no more
" commissions to sell bake (fardos is the cant Porte-
" geese term for slaves) are now confirmed. I wish
" you good health, and am, Ace." The Government
of Brazil ordered the suppressal of slave-dealing, and
slave-dealers write thee. _ _ _

We quote them passages from this remarkable cor-
respondence to show the power of a government to
suppress the slave trade. And if this power has
proved so efficacious along 4,000 miles of Brazilian
coast, bow much lighter would be the task of the
Spam= government in Cuba ? But it is not at the
Havannah that it will be the duty of Lord
Jon RUSSELL in his new sphere of usefulness,
to attack this monstrous revival of the
African slave trade. It is at Madrid only that a
telling assault can be made upon the abomination.
The British Government has, of course, no right to
dictate to the Spanish Court who shall be appointed
Captain-General of Crba; but it has a perfect right
to remonstrate against the continuance is power
there of a captain-general, whose principal duty
seems to be to give encooeagrment to a breach of
the obligations which Spain has contracted with
this country. And this worse of conduct, it
is to be hoped, Lord Jose Russiu.i. will, in the
interests at once of humanity and of Spain itself,
lose no time in pursuing.
It is not merely the example of Brazil which
proves that the Spanish Court can, if it please,
terminate the African slave trade. There is ample
evidence in Cuba, also, that a resolute Captain-1
General can be equally successfuL During the
government of General CONCHA the slave trade in
Cuba was nearly suppressed. But its suppression
diminished the gains of the greedy Cantering at
Madrid; and Cosmic wee recalled. Under the
ride of Ca:cants, the slave trade is reviving,—that
the coffers of corruption and riot in that capital
may be replenished. It was from the profits of this
infernal trade that the QUM Moran was fur-
nished with means to overthrow the authority of
ESPAILTERO;—it is by the profits of the trade that she
hopes to have the power of restoring Absolutism in
a country where the throne of her hapless daughter
was founded= Coostitatiosaliens.
_ _ .

-7The question of the revival of the Cuban slave
trade is therefore an Rams= one; for it is the mis-
rule of Cuba that reacts on the misgovernment of
Spain. Deprive the court of Madrid of the wealth
it derives from Caba, and its claws are cut. Throw
it back on the revenues et Salm ami it k shorn of
great part of its power of ammulle miathieL Cuba 1
1 yields it more than eft alike airlift of yearly
tribute. Bat to tint lade mat be Wool the
profits which the Quaint Worm ad the Camelia&
derive from the taz_paid there by the dera Isatim
morredgme.
from their jobs in Kavanagh, from the they
derived from their mosepolia, their
and their plantations. Theses it is that deft
means for their plots and conspiracies
at home ;—thenos it is that the • dab ig
stimulated.
It cannot be for the welfare of hammity ha
Spain shall continue to hold Cuba on ash Isems a 1
these; and ea these terms, and in this ilia Ipin
I omit sag gentians to held Cuba. Bevelakee en& I
motion. eves Maeda; will be pedaled lie he
seatiwasd and petsZitPada
devastation of AI
aM,
absolutism, , and pop
debasement to at Madrid. " The
real and well knows fast," Lard PzutzureM
told Lord Holmes in see of his latest despatches.'
•ib that the goverment el Madrid has system.
• Melly and intentiooolly messaged the Ceiba
• dove trade for two pewees :—First, in r=ist.e 1
a Wof Word income to a number ill-paid public
• se to appointed lamina by moans of bribes Pan
or by slave traders; Ind. secondly, Ile the purpose e•
istainiag a hold_mse the Md. Mame it I
• lingibt at Main thet as keg as hew is,
alio Cabs a lorge to et mem he
• while moieties IM3 dog to tle -whir 1
• sentry la potation twist tie bleat ma I
" But bell these meta. Oa hid is error.
a FM k all
N .1.1 ii demoralise its own diem and leamtorn
• them be violate the law; sail a mast eery will
• boo bat a feeble hold of a salvo
_y it the elmagest
•61 which connects them is the fear en he part of
• iste&ter of an insurrection of the wen It is
• that protection against such Mew might
a IS hood by ether means and in other garters—by
•to segpsole of the slave nolo width many
•an Lewiston desire; or by as etwocration to
"sem eller elate, for whirl, SOWN Mere are not
• seenlisypertirans in Cuba."
"The slave trade," Lord PALMERATON also re-
Itaked.--and in full contormity with all the views
Ultima in this journal,—" was till last year carried