The Express.
London, England, 1862-02-14 00:00:00

INIIIRATIA AT LOIDON WOOS.

jerilasiss. Sti. is- AMMO" 211. geOL
e.-416sella Aftsnows, Ida

LONDON, FRIDAT, IEB. 14.

!!‘ his masterly speech last night, Mr. Lowe
took the whole question of National Education,
which has bees so intensely debated during the
recess, out of the narrow region of party feeling,
co:iventional prejudice, and sectional interests, and
placed it in its broadest aims and issues before the
reason and conscience of Parliament and the

country. Even those captious critics and in-
dignant orators on the Opposition benches, whose
short memories and perverse ingenuity enables
them not only to denounce the mysterious silence
of the Government with regard to the New
Minute, but to discover all aorta of sinister
motives for imaginary reserve, must have
been completely satisfied with the powerful and
e::haustive statement made to the House by
the Vice-President of the Committee of
Council. For three hours and a half the

Right Hon. Gentleman held the attention of the
House while he reviewed the existing system of

education, pointed out in lumiuoui detail its
glaring defects, and stated the leading principles
and provisions of the New Code, with the modifi-
cations that have been recently introduced to
meet the chief objections urged against it during

the recess. Every point of the statement was
supported by pertinent facta and cogent are
the evils of the present system being exposed
under special beads and with detailed proofs,
while the absolute necessity of a change in the
direction of the New Minute was demonstrated

not only by facts and figures, but by irresistible
force of reasoning and • stat4isnianlike appeal to

those principles of public duty and that supreme
regard to the public interests which should guide
the action both of the Government and the House
in the matter.

Nor is this able and elaborate statement at all
out of proportion to the importance of the sub-
;ect and the interest it excites. For though the
question of Government Aid to Education and
the kind of Education it secures, is not, u Mr.
Lowe justly said, one of first-rate magnitude, it is
nevertheless of serious moment, and one which,
in the absence of any great political measure,
will necessarily occupy a prominent place in the
business of the Session. The urgency of the
question, however, is quite equal to its importance.
The Educational Reforms proposed by the Govern-
ment have not been brought forward a moment
too soon. The present system was, as Mr. LowE
reminded the House last night, not only essenti-
ally tentative and provisional in its origin and
design, but it has retained that character up to the
present moment. And features that might be ap-
pro?riate and useful enough in a merely tentative
scheme, may very naturally become a source of weak-
ness and injury if permanently retained. That is
precisely what has happened with regard to the ex-
isting system of Government Aid to Education. Tho
original objectuf the Government grants westogive
an impulse to primary instruction by establishing
specimens and models of the right kind of teaching
—in a word, by giving it an efficient start iu the
righ: direction. Lord RVMELL, a leadin4 Minister
of the Crown at the time it was iumagurattli,

stated distinctly that it was "not intended that
" tie system should pervade the whole country ;
" but that the object was to create models of
" teaching." The details of the scheme were
accordingly accommodated to this end. The great
object being to create models of effective teaching,
the first thing to be done was to secure a class of
effective teachers. A great proportion of the
annual grant was therefore given in the form of
premiums to certified masters and pupil-;..achers.
Training colleges were established on an extensive
scale, which, though originally the offspring of
voluntary enterprise, were soon maintained almost
entirely at the public expense. The system of
Government inspection proceeded on the same
principle, awl was directed to the same end—that
of securing good teachers and diffusing general
types of good teaching. This was all very well
for a time, but it is obvious that such a system is
essentially provisional, and that to make it perma-
nent would he in fact to sacrifice the main end of
eaective popular education. The true end of
Popular edim.ition is not to produce teachers, how-
ever a-compli-hed, but to furnish pranary instruc-
tion to the children of the poor. And this is pre-
cisely the point which the present system natu-
rally and aluixt necessarily, from its provisional
character and limited aim, so much neg-
lected. The system was accommodated to its main
end, that of providing teachers, and having ac-
c-mirdislied this it is right that its merely
provisional features should be done away with,
and those changes adopted which are neces-
sary to secure the real end of education—
the diffusion of sound instruction amongst the
children of the poor. Hut it seems that this
essential change has already become a teak of
enormous difficulty. From various causes the
provisional system has lasted so long that those
who enjoy its benefits and are directly interested
in its continuance have already forgotten its origin.
They denounce any change in the conditions of the
f ,Ivernmoit grants, which are still voted annually,
as a breach of faith towards themselves, and meet
the proposals for Reform with the cry of " vested
" rights and interests." It may, no doubt, be said
that this is to some extent natural from the length
of time during which the provisional system has
been retained without alteration. But, on the other
hand, this Lind of opposition demonstrates the im-
perative neceeiity of reform, and that without a Tao-
nient'rfurtherl.day. Unless the true ends of educa-
tion are a ba p,:ricauently abandoned, this kind of

organized and interested resistance to reform most
be promptly met and subdued. Mr. Lows pointed
out the danger arising from this source :—" He
" wished to point out that such a state of thins
" might bring about moat disastrous results, and
" that, like Pore's Atom's, they would find them-
" selves ' by the means defeated in the end,' and
" that, instead of the grant being a grant for
" National Education, it would become a grant
" for sustaining vested interests in the existing
" machinery of Education, and that Ministers,
" finding the fearful opposition they would have
"to encounter from such a phalanx in any
" attempt to divert the grant to its original
" object, would relinquish the attempt altogether,
" and no government would be found bold
" enough to face the opposition they would
" meet with. Now they felt that it
" was necessary to deal with this sub-
" ject as soon as possible. Tkey waited'
" three years while the Commissioners were deli-
" berating. The reason they were anxious to deal
" with the subject was the increasing number of
" the claimants. They felt that such a state of
" things would arise that it was necessary to deal
" with the subject at once, it being foreseen that
"if the House did not, upon the earnest repro-
" mutation of the Committee, put a stop to the
" evil, all control over the distribution of the
" grant would pass out of the hands of the Privy
" Council and of Parliament into the hands
"of those who were working the system ; while
" any demand that the latter chose to make upon
" the Minister would be supported by such an
"army of stipendiaries, that no Minister would
"be found courageous enough to withstand
" it. Such a state of things would be
" most dangerous and unconstitutional." After
all, the proposals of the New Minute do not
seriously affect the position or the incomes of thaw
who seise the cry of vested interests. But that such
a ery should be raised, supported by a powerful
agitation, and backed by threats of political action,
is the strongest possible proof of the necessity and
urgency of reform.
The New Minute makes no other changes in the
existing machinery than are necessary to correct
glaring deficiencies, and secure in the most efficient
manner and on the widest scale the true
ends of education. And notwithstanding the

partial outcry that has been raised, and the
political support of • party kind which the oppo-
nents of the Minute may possibly secure, we
believe that it will be accepted by the country at
large and by the House of Commons as a most
important and seasonable reform. The modifica-
tions of the New Code announced by Mr. Lows
last night will certainly help to mecum the
general acceptance of the measure. All
the objections of any weight and validity
urged against the provisions of the Code are met
and removed by these changes. Perhaps the most
important is that relating to Infant Schools. The
children in these schools are not to be examined,
the capitation fee being paid simply on attendance,
so that, as Mr. LOWE pleasantly said, the
children will be to the managers as well as to their
parents " little treasures." The change in the
age at which the capitation fee will be granted in
Evening Schools, from 13 to 12, is also
a very useful, as it is sure to be • very
popular one. The Training Colleges, moreover,
are to be maintained, for the present at all events,
on the existing plan. These changes, with • pro-
vision for securing the master's salary by giving
him a lien on the capitation grant, are the most
important features of the amended Code. Slight
as they are they will remove a host of objections,
and help to secure the success of a measure which
is now as unexceptionable in its details as it was
always sound in principle.