The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-02 00:00:00

DEPUTATION TO THE PREMIER ON THE
GOVERNMENT EDUCATION BILL.

A deputation on the Education Bill, consist-
ing of a committee appointed by a conference held at Had-
ley's Hotel, and from the deputies of the three denomina-
tions of protestant dissenters—presbyterian, independent,
and baptist—had en interview with the Earl of Aberdeen,
yesterday, at his official residence in Downing•street. The
members of the deputation were Mr. Samuel Morley, Mr.
Benjamin Hanbary, Mr. Josiah Condor, Mr. J. Cook
Evans, Mr. Nathaniel Eastly, Mr. Wm. Nathan, Mr. R.
Randall, the Rev. J. H. Hinton, the Rev. Dr. Manic, the
Rev. Wm. Groper, the Rev. John Kennedy, Mr. William
Batt, Mr. W. J. Unwin, Mr. Isms Carter, Mr. John Clap-
ham, Mr. Joseph Soul, Mr. Frederick Roller, the Rev.
Witham Brock, Mr. Joseph Adshead (Manchester), Mr.
Henry R. Ellington, accompanied by the following mem-
bers of parliament :—Mr. Frank Crossley, Mr. Robert Mil-
ligan, Mr. Thome Barnes. Sir George Goodman, Mr. Law-
rence Hayworth, Mr. Alderman Kershaw, Mr James Fir
kington, Mr. Edward Mall, Mr. Joseph Crook, and Mr.
John Cheetham.

The following document was presented to the Premier :
" My Lord,—On behalf of the gentlemen whom you
have appointed to wait upon you to-morrow, to state to you
their objections to the educational measure which has been
brought forward by the government, I ban the honour of
forwarding to you a memorial, by which yin may los made
acquainted beforehand with the general manna the con-
siderations which they have to urge. The deputation tender
to your lordship the most sincere easurness that their
opposition to the government measure does not arise from
either hostility or indifference to the advancement of popu-
lar education Itself ; on the contrary, it is in the interest of
popular education itself, of which they are humble but
strenuous and not altogether unknown promoters, that they
speak. Had the measure of the government professedly
contemplated the extension of popular education, the depu-
tation would have called your lordship's attention to the
facts, equally gratifying and unexpected, which have been
brought out by the census of 1851; and which, with all
deductions, present a splendid case of educational progress
within less than fifty years, and give to the British
people a high place among the educated nations of
Europe. This result Lord John Russell admitted in
parliament to be chiefly owing to voluntary exertion,
and the deputation might ask with some surprise, why the
confidence warranted by such results should not be placed
in it. It appears however that, according to the early
announcement ef Lord John Russell, the aim of the pre-
sent measure of the government is not so much the exten-
sion as the improvement of education. Both the bill which
is before parliament, and the minute of the Committee of
Council of April the 2nd, provide for an augmentation of
the general income of • certain clue of schools, with the
view (as the measure is expounded by Sir J. K. Shuttle-
worth) of enabling them to avail themselves of the
advantages offend by the celebrated minutes of
1946. lien again the deputation assure your lord-
ship that they are quite sensible of the value and
importance of improving the current quality of education
among the working classes, of which the exertions
made by them in the support of normal schools on the
voluntary principle afford ample evidence ; but they think,
first, that the further interference of the government is not
needful to this end; and, secondly, that its pursuit by the
government involves very serious evils. To en enumeration
of some of these evils the deputation request your lordship's
further attention. The deputation will notice in the first
instance the mischiefs which tae government measure will
work to popular education itself.
" 1. It will bear cruelly on all schools supporting them-
selves entirely by voluntary means, and maintaining an in-
dependence of government grants. It will at once increase