The Express.
London, England, 1847-02-01 00:00:00

parliament cannot deprive those who pay for education
of their undoubted right to waste their money
on a worthless commodity. Perhaps it may take
steps to supply something better, by reviving the
efficiency of the numerous local endowments which
were provided about the time of the Reformation for
the education of the middle classes. In these cum
the government is neither a mere intruder, nor a
donor who has a right to attach arbitrary conditions
to his benefaction; bat a general trustee for the
founder, and for the objects of his bounty. When a
modification of his specific intentions becomes neces-
sary, the Court of Chancery exercises the discretionary
power of effecting it on reasonable and intelligible
principles; but a general restoration of grammar
schools will probably require the authority of parlia-
ment. We doubt whether public opinion is as yet
sufficiently instructed to make • general settlement
of the question desirable at present
It seems more likely that discussions will arise in
parliament and elsewhere, on the merits and condition
of the universities. A small pamphlethas justbeen pub-
lished, under the title of " nions on the Admission
of Dissenters to the Universities, and on University
Reform, of the Bishop of Durham [here follows a lms
list of speakers and writers on thesubject), &c.," which
will furnish convenient authorities and common-places
to those who wish to take a part in the controversy. Of
amuse, a mere collection of isolated passages can
prove nothing as to the merits of the question, or, in
general, even as to the opinions of those from whom
they are quoted. Several of the persons whose names
appear in the pamphlet would strenuouslyprotest against
the changes which are, no doubt, contemplated by the
compiler, and if it was worth while they might complain
with some reason, of the use made of admissions,
which no doubt were originally guarded by statements
or arguments of an opposite tendency. As we do not
wish that the universities should remain as they are,
we think it of great importance that the first attempt
at a change Amid be made in a right direction.
The very general ignorance, which prevails in parlia-
ment and elsewhere as to their real merits and defects,
offers by far the most serious obstacle to any alteration
for the better. The ruling bodies of the universities are
notoriously averse to change ; but they have no means
of resistance to it so available, as those which are sup-
plied by injudicious assailants. They have resisted the
admission of dissenters on grounds which were too
readily admitted to be tenable by the dissenters and
their friends, who relied too much on generalities and
doubtful arguments. We propose hereafter to consi-
der the most flagrant evils of the present system, and
the remedies which it is desirable to provide for them.
It must never be forgotten that all education of all
chums depends originally on the highest education.
The parish schoolmaster and the parents of parish
children who are learning the alphabet have an incal-
culable interest in the scholarlike spirit which will never
be diffused through the mass of society, unless it is che-
rished and concentrated at the professed seats of learn-
ing and philosophy.

Ws insert in another column a letter from the Rev.
HENRYWOODWARD, of Fethard, whose essay and ser-
mons have won for him a milted reputation in the reli-
gious world. To what he has perhaps too forcibly stated
we have little to add ; there are claws of enthusiasts
on whom reasons thrown away, and experience is
wasted. But we cannot avoid warning those who
are anxious for the conversion of the Irish people,
that intemperate &boas of Popery, and violent
invectives against Romish priests, are about the
worst means that could be adopted to effect such
a purpose. When ST. PAUL preached at Athens,
he did not denounce Paganism as " damnable
and idolatrous," but from the existence of an
altar to " the Unknown God," he derived
means of directing the attention of the Athe-
nians to Him whom they ignorantly worshipped.
The attempt to connect proselytism with benevolence
is nothing better than an attempt to propagate reli-
gion by bribery,—to support the cause of truth by
means borrowed from the worst form, of corruption.
We wish that those who have unwarily joined in
such a scheme would reflect that it is only by pure
means that pure ends can be attained. It is an
insult to the Protestant religion to combine its pro-
mulgation with the distribution of food—to assoc ate
its creeds with a mess of pottage, and its articles with
a morsel of meat. CHRIST reproved those whose only
inducement to follow him was the miracle of the
loosen and fishes; and it grieves us to find that there
are those who call themselves Christians, and yet
publicly recommend a course of conduct directly
opposite to the principles and practice of their binned
Muter. We dwell not on the danger of adding re-
ligious rancour to the other evils by which Ireland at
the present moment is so fearfully afflicted ; we need
not mention that the Irish peasant clings to his
religion for support and consolation in the existing
distress, as sincerely as the members of the Protestant
Association do to theirs.
Bigotry, still more preposterous, but much akin to
this, is the declaration of Mr. HOARE, in his letter to
Lord ROBERT GROSVENOR, that the present famine and
pestilence in Ireland is a judgment of Heaven, sent
against those who voted the Maynooth grant. We are
not of the opinion that the Catholic priesthood of Ire-
land should be paid out of taxes levied on English
Protestants. But the monstrous assumption, by men
apparently devoid of common sense, and who by the
light of fanaticism undertake to interpret and account
for the decrees of Providence, ought to be scouted and
branded, as the mountebank might be, who should
daze to parody the grave ceremonies and sacred
maxims of religion. We do not think that VOLTAIRE
ever uttered anything so fully calculated to render
religion hateful and ridiculous as this declaration of
Mr. HOARE.

If the vengeance of heaven, in the shape of famine,
had fallen upon the voters of these relaxations or
mere police measnres—(the Maynooth grant was one)
c t —towards the Irish Catholics, there mi t have been
some colour for this interpreting of ju ent. But ,
in the many inquests in Ireland of whic r the verdict
has been "death from hunger," we never
heard of one liberal member of parliament
The middle and mercantile classes in Ireland,
chiefly a Catholic class, have not suffered by the
rise of provisions and influx of money. The 'tory
landlords and the indigent peasants, both as innocent
of bringing about emancipation or the Maynooth
grant, as Mr. HOARE himself, have been the sole
sufferers. To represent the population of Skibbereen
as expiring by hundreds, on their straw, of fever and
inanition—all this in order to pay for the po-
litical sins of Sir ROBERT PEEL—ia really the most
preposterous and impious piece of nonsense that ever
lisgmced a reasoning and religious population.

IT is not long since the different markets of London
imagined that they had few or no interests in com-
mon. Each stood isolated, like a ward in the city
during the middle ages. Their places of meeting
were, indeed, not fortified and protected by men-at-
arms. But, practically, a sugar-man had no right to
trouble his head about the price of corn, and still less
could the number of Essex and Kent barges that the
flowing tide was likely to bring lip, or the nature of
their cargoes, be supposed interesting to the dealer in
wool or in hides. Everything about cotton was to
be learnt, where it was known only, in Lancashire.
Wine seemed to be grown in order that it might be col-
lared in the London docks. The operation of peace
or war, of good or short crops, was traced only to the
particular market that was left bare, or was over-
stocked. Trade was not only without fellowship
with politics, with science, with agriculture, or ma-
nufactures, but was as unsociable as possible in its
own subdivisions.

Matters have of late been better understood. The
dependence of one market upon another, of politics
upon industry, of all kinds of industry upon science,
is better appreciated. The recognition of this de-
pendence has recently gone the length of laying
down practical rules for commercial calculations.
A gradation of dependence is now recognised, com-
mencing with the corn market, no which all depend.
The wale merchant, the wool importer, the dealer in
sugar, now, all look to the corn market. When grain
is cheap, all expect to do business. When it is dear
they know they will have dull seasons. The rule
dates, however, from a very recent period. Lord
Rirox, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, based all
the prosperity of the country upon high corn prices,
and was met by none of the arguments that are now
current.
'llia is a cheering feature of the present epoch ;
and, when tic lesson is well learnt, how many
anxieties, how many heart-breaking., what scenes
of remorse and despair will it n t save ! To
commercial men, who now hare a rule for
speculation; to the agriculturist, whom the rule serves