The Press.
London, England, 1856-05-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

John's manner that he felt it. In the course of our con-
versation afterwards, he happened, in speaking with great
bitterness of Lord Castlereagh, to say something of his
indifference to the mischief and ruin he might cause by
his measures, which amounted in purport exactly to the
same which he has said of Lord John. I therefore in-
stantly interrupted him, saying, " There, that's precisely
the impression you produce in your character of Lord
John." " You don't say so ?" he exclaimed. " I assure
you," I answered, "that such is the way in which it is
viewed by all whom I have heard speak on the subject."
" Then I mast certainly," ho said, "set myself right on
that point; and as there is a new edition just coming out,
I shall not lose a moment in doing it." On our arrival at
Hampstead, he absented himself from the drawing•room
for a short time, and I found afterwards it was for the
purpose of making this correction. It is merely a short
note denying that he meant to impute any want of feeling
to Lord John. But the arrow hati already sped, and no
one now minds the note.

Upon which passage Lora John makes no
note. There is a point at which reticence pro-
duces some of the effects of eloquence.
One of the pleasantest passages in the
volumes is that in which Mrs. Moore ex-
presses her delight at her husband having
received a pension of three hundred a
year. It smacks of nature, and its heartiness
is welcome after the superficiality of sentiment
in many parts of this butterfly style of
biography :
Sloperton, Tuesday night.
My dearest Tom,—Can it really be true that you have
a pension of 3001. a year ? Mrs., Mr., two Misses, and
young Longman were here to-day, and tell me it is really
the case, aid that they have seen it in two papers. Should
it turn out true, I know not how we can be thankful
enough to those who gave it, or to a Higher Power. The
Longmaus were very kind and nice, and so was I, and
1 invited them all five to come at some future time. At
present, I can think of nothing but 3001. a year, and dear
Russell jumps and claps his hands with joy. Tom is at
Devises. The Pugets did not come to tea yester-
day, Louisa being ill To-day they sent me sonic beauti-
ful flowers. If the story is true of the 3001., pray give
dear Ellen twenty pounds. and insist on her drinking five
pounds worth of wine yearly, to be paid out of the 3001.
a year. I have been obliged, by the by, to get five
pounds to send to Three hundred a year,
how delightful ! But 1 have my fears that it is only a
castle in the air. lam sure I shall dream of it ; and so I
will get to bed, that I may have this pleasure at least; for
I expect the morning will throw down my castle.
Wednesday morning.
Is it. true? lamin a fever of hope and anxiety, and
feel very oddly. No one to talk to but sweet Buss, who
says, " Now Papa will not have to work so hard, and will
be able to go out a little "
You say I am so " nice and comical " about the money.
Now you are much more so (leaving out the "nice "), for
you have forgotten to send the cheque you pi omised. But
I can wait with patience, for no one teases me. Only I
want to have a few little things ready to welcome you
home, which I like to pay for. How you will ever enjoy
this quiet every-day sort of stillness, after your late re-
ception, I hardly know. I begin to want you very much ;
for though the boys are darlings, there is still
How I wish I had wings, for then I would be at Wexford
as soon as you, and surprise your new friends. lam so
glad yon have seen the Gonnes ; I know they are quite
delighted at your attention. Mr. Benett called the other
day on my sons.
N.B. If this good news be true, it will make a great
difference in my eating. I shall then indulge in butter
to potatoes. Mind you do not tell this piece of gluttony to
any one.

The allusion to the joy of the children of
Moore is more affecting in that passage
when we recollecthow unfortunately they both
turned out But how was it that Moore was
not the first to inform his Bessy of the good
news, and that in his improved circumstances
he had forgotten to send her the cheque he
had promised 9
We may, possibly, return to these volumes
for a few special extracts, which require detailed
notice. In the meanwhile we recommend
the two volumes as being, on the v hole, more
readable and various than their predecessors,
but they will leave Moore's character just
Arhere it was. The fair fame of the Whig party
has certainly suffered from the memoirs of Lord
Holland, Sydney Smith, and Thomas Moore.

Oxford Essays. 1856. Contributed by Mem-
bers of the University. London :J. W.
Parker and Son.
THIS series of essays is evidently the com-
mencement of a new style of periodicals. The
articles are genuine essays, and not half-
review half-essay, like those in the estab-
lished Quarterlies. These, as a rule, have
very much degenerated of late ; and it is quite
certain that there has been till recently a
vacuum in literature, which it is possible
the Essays are destined to fill. They are
written in a clear, elegant, and forcible style;

SATURDAY,

by men pledged not to wbriyivtieimo
m men, too,
nxhetepoi
iuelapv_
!hot
Ino.
athreeirreoawllyn
sound
dals
cshllobljae:st:s
o—n
ing sits easily.
The opening article of the present volume is
on " Comparative Mythology," by Professor
Max Miiller. The object of the writer is to
seek for some rational explanation of the
Greek myths, combating both the opinion
of Mr. Grote, who denies that their explana-
tion is possible, and of those also who regard
them as corrupt fragments of a Divine revela-
tion. For the exposition of his theory ho
takes us back to the parent stock of the
Greek, Latin, Teutonic, Celtic, and Sanscrit
languages,. known to the philologist as the
Arian family; and his aim is to prove that
myths sprang primarily from the existence of
a class of words which from the difficulty of
forming abstract nouns became proper names.
Some of these original words are to be found
in the Hellenic language, but for some we
must go back to the common parent, the Arian.
The comparative list of words belonging to
these cognate languages, which the Professor
here gives us, is exceedingly interesting.
The absence of auxiliary verbs in the very
early stages of a language would also lead to
the same result. "0 ur auxiliary verbs have
" had to pass through a long chain of vicissi-
" tudes before they arrived at the withered
" and lifeless form which fits them so well for
" the purposes of our abstract prose." We
must remember also that " every word during
" the inythopteic ages had still ita full original
" power. Words were heavy and unwieldy."
Thus when Healed calls Nyx (night) the
mother of the Hesperides (evening stars), he
means no more than we do when we say that
" the stars are seen as night approaches "—no
more than Tennyson means when he calls the
Mouths the daughters of the Year. These,
then, are the allegorical myths, but there are
many which are not allegorical. These arose
from the radical meaning of certain names
having " become obscured and forgotten in
" the language to which they belong." The
Professor then proceeds to explain several
Greek and Indian myths on this principle—
commencing Ns ith Einlymion, which he sup-
poses to have been a peculiar dialectical word
for sunset, which in classic Greek is derived
not from ivat'iw, but from Z'l'Jw. This meaning
becoming in time obsolete, " what was told
" originally of the setting sun was now told of
" a came, which in order to have any meaning
"had to be turned into a god or a hero."
The three next essays, upon the " Laws of
War," " The Land System of Ireland," and
" The Raphael Drawings at Oxford," are excel-
lent in their way, though we cannot uncondi-
tionally subscribe to all the opinions advanced
in the second one. Mr. Morris advocates the
fusion of the Encumbered Estates Court with
the Irish Court of Chancery—a scheme which
has been condemned by some able juris-con-
sults in the House of Commons.
The article on " National Education," by
Mr. Temple, is a remarkably clear and calm
statement of the present condition of the
education question. Of the five schemes
which have been at different times proposed—
vix., the secular, the denominational, the com•
prehensive, the combined, and the voluntary—
ho dismisses the first and last as imprac-
ticable,—the one owing to the strength of
English religious feeling, the other to pecu-
niary difficulties Of the remainder he gives
his p:incipal attention to the second and third ;
the fourth, which is Mr. Cobden's favorite
plan, being, he thinks,. rather local than
national, and not likely to :command the sup-
port of any large party. We extract a brief
outline of the three :

The denominational method is to have separate schools
for the separate religious denominations, and to supply
them with a sufficient amount of State aid to enable thou
t 3 cover the country. On this plan the Church would have
her schools, the Wesleyans have theirs, the Independents
have theirs. If two or more sects choose to combine,
there is nothing to prevent them, but neither is there any-
thing to encourage them—such a combination must simply
be considered as constituting, for the occasion, a new sect.
Every school would, of course, teach the doctrines, and
be managed by the representatives or officers, of the deno-
mination to which it belonged.

The comprehensive plan proposes to establish schools in
which so much religion shall be taught as all are willing t"
agree in. In a country which, besides containing man`'

MAY 3, 1856.

varieties of Protestants. , contains also Jews and Roman
Catholics, the subtraction of all the differences would leave
so little that it would be hardly worth while to insist on
retaining part to
Jews and Roman Catholics are, there-
fore, set apart to be treated as special exceptions. And since
the Bible is the acknowledged Protestant standard of all
communions, the daily reading
o f the Bible is proposed as
the definition of the religious instruction. All religious
formularies, except the. Bible, are expressly prohibited,
thou
a requirement is generally added that each child
shall attend some place of worship on Sunday, wherever
Its parents may prefer. Thus the instruction is defined,
and so far all is easy.

• • •
The combined plan proposes to separate the civil
from the religious instruction—to put the former under
the ratepayers, the latter under the denominations—
bat to provide in some degree, if not entirely, for both.
Oil this plan there would be one school in a parish for all
deuoinitiations: but there would be special opportunities
for the officers of each denomination to give religious
teaching to the children belonging to that denomination.
How far this provision is to extend—whether a class-room
is to be built for each sect, or the school-room altogether
is to be given up to each sect in turn—or in what wa:, the
religions teaching is to he communicated, may be variously
determined. But the essential feature of this scheme, as
distinct from the secular, is the recognition of religious
teaching as part of the school business.
_ _

The comparative disadvantages of the com-
prehensive and the denominational form the
staple of the essay. NVe say disadvantages,
because Mr. Temple's remarks are wholly of a
negative kind. We shall not attempt to
follow him through his entire argument, but
shall content ourselves with selecting for cri-
ticism one or two passages of a general
character in which we think the views ad-
vanced are of questionable soundness.
At the commencement of the essay, in
speaking of the secular schools, Mr. Temple
seems to assume that all teaching must be
direct :

He (the schoolmaster) would be obliged to bear in mind
the prohibition of all religious instruction, and to use his
discretion in interpreting the limits of that prohibition,
and his discretion would of course be liable to be over-
ruled by his superiors. But everyone knows that in this
country no master would have need to fear that he would
be forbidden to use such broad fundamental dogmas as
alone can enter into the discipline of a school of children.
There would, therefore, be no rea...on to suppose that the
secular school would by its non religious character in the
slightest degree interfere with the impressions made by the
Suuday school, the Sunday worship, or any other means
employed to give the distinctly religious teaching.

But what becomes of the glance of the eye, the
curl of the lip, the shrug of the shoulder, the
looks and gestures by which an opinion may
be insinuated with perhaps greater chance of
its taking root than when formally taught by
words ? Does Mr. Temple mean to assert that
neither a Roman Catholic nor a Socinian
could make the teaching of profane histo►y
subsidiary to his own views without a verbal
assertion of his creed?

Of the voluntary system we find it said:—
If the religious communities are to govern the schools,
it will follow that they must pay for them. In so far as
they cannot afford to pay, they will obviously have no right
13 govern.

Now, we are not going to argue this subject
at length, but we protest against it as a plain
begging of the question. The arguments of
dose who contend, as Dr Arnold did, that
the propagation of religious truth is the first
duty of the State, have not yet been fairly
met. That this doctrine in its integral
form may be in applicable at the present mo-
ment, is possible But it is here denied by
implication ; or, if it is not denied, the pro-
visional doctrine is stated so baldly as to
lead. nine people out of ten to suppose
list it is so.

In the passage which treats of denomina-
tionalists occur the following remarks :

The phrase religious liberty is ambiguous. By religious
liberty may be meant the liberty of self•government by a
religious community, or the liberty of religious action by
an individual. These two senses, so far from being iden-
tical, are most often mutually opposed. To allow religious
liberty to'a community is very often only another phrase
for allowing the oppression of the members by the leaders,
of the quiet by the busy.

The distinction between the religious liberty of a com-
munion and the religious liberty of an individual becomes
immediately practical when applied to school.,. If absolute
liberty were granted to religious communities, several
would found schools in which the management would be
entrusted entirely to the religions leaders, as such, and
the children would be instructed iu distinctive religious
r"rlolaries, or not admitted at all. If religious liberty
wac reserved to individuals, the management of every
school would be open to all members of the denomination
to which the school belonged, and the parents of the
scholar' would be permitted to withdraw their children

THE PRESS.

from any part of the teaching without withdrawing them
from the real.

Here, however, a modicum of theological
knowledge is assumed in the parents which in
reality they very seldom
:possess. And we
much fear, also, that the adoption of Mr. Tem-
ple's " liberty of religious action " would have
a tendency to aggravate the disposition to
stray away from their parish church which is
already sufficiently prevalent among the lower
orders

The concluding remarks upon grammar
schools are able and useful; and, notwith-
standing the several points in which we have
been compelled to differ with him, we can
pronounce his essay a most valuable contribu-
tion to our stock of knowledge on this in-
teresting and urgent topic.
" Carlovingian Romance," by Mr. King, of
Exeter College, is one of the most pleasing
articles in the whole number It is full of
reading, without being heavy ; and the style,
though ornate, is never disagreeably florid.
Mr. Goldwin Smith's essay upon the
Roman Empire of the West" is a masterly
exposure of Mr. Congreve's morbid craving
after despotism. The hollowness of the pre-
tences on which this admiration affects to rest
itself is completely laid bare ; and the true
character of the Juggernaut before which so
many foolish enthusiasts would prostrate
themselves is depicted in plain language.
This is the kind of article to recal people to
their senses ; to refix their attention on the
sober realities of politics; and to put to scorn
that weak and womanish impatience of con-
stitutional action which, like some foreign
epidemic, has infected the robust and prac-
tical character of Englishmen. A fine vein of
irony runs through the whole article. The
opening paragraph is inimitable of its kind :
It has recently occurred to an advanced and slightly
terrorist school of philanthropists that under free institu-
tions it is necessary occasionally to defer to the opinions of
other people, and that as other people are obviously in the
wrong, this is a great hindrance to the improvement of our
political system and the progress of the species. They
therefore propose, for the checks and responsibilities of a
constitutions) system, to substitute an autocracy with no
checks except those which may be imposed on the autocrat
by his own sense of the eternal fitness of things, and no
responsibility, except to the judgment of professors of the
political science, for the safety of whose heads, when the
adverse verdict of science shall have been pronounced, no
adequate provision has yet been made. To secure the as-
cendancy of reason in politics, the autocrat is to be elected
through a process not yet determined on, by the uneducated
part of the nation ; and to purify governo..ent from class
influences and antipathies, and inaugurate the fraternity of
men, he is to represent the interests and feelings of the
lower classes against the upper. In our time and country
probably the fulfilment of this theory would have raised
Mr. Feargus O'Connor to the throne, or rather to the
altar; and the first measure of that eminent leader of the
proletariat would most likely have been tc create a few
dozen dukes; his second, to take otf the beads of writers
of Roman history and editors of Greek classics, as ob-
viously useless to a proletariat republic founded on the
organisation of labour. This bright hope of a demagogic
tyranny for the future, with which Mr. Congreve feels a
cultivated sympathy, has not failed to throw back its light
upon the past, and in the clear and interesting résumé of
the history of the empire before us, it gilds the cruelties
of Caligula, the extortions of Caracalla, and even the brow
of Tiberius.

The character of Julius Caesar is drawn with
useful severity. We had thought the " worship
of intellect" had long ago been delegated to
schoolgirls and young gentlemen with Byronic
collars. But it has returned in another shape.
The pestilent jargon of certain writers who
are perpetually clamoring for " a man," wh
forget that the supremacy of individuals is
indicative of either barbarism or effeminacy,
but never of the meridian ..if civilisation, has
seldom received a more well-directed chastise-
ment than in the pages before us.