The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-15 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 15, 1846.

mewls end skeiredgeta palls (Aces, they oar mamerable examples
tartesdary et sari Set Is tailed einmtlote to England. 'they
Wm
prod 11=911ak preledkol 'trees et tads pans, and have
sere elar
inserthe utaddeek,alth se esrer essivieltabie
AM rent
Oet "am Ur." TM peak wheal epees les sneated
Ist=ailit shift
pipedthe bowie et Melt west ea re mare weak dmakters.
we orielested Vs, :
kid Isletuneeretan's
eseegise belfrenee awl efreralers eserstelat e tbree
ea
lie rumba et a eaelhal iiiikkallemmememalla
Immaakftemes aseenimmed,_ elms elder Wks le Yea end redeem
densedfrea tasters the ess et the bey Into the of the
men, aid Yffs to produce, In a wry tarp prnFortßs any
OM
result we have a right to look for from efrardlea. Its
ex, frequent effect Is, to turn loom on the world a met
of
iMes rasa et Utak end station with unfurnished intelligences,
pdeelples, and uncontrolled appetites, taught to ride, to
that, Meg Usemat-thenks to ecteoolbome not echoolmasters' dla.
elpff en ne— spat truth; an education suited perhaps to a Persian
in the time of Cyrus, but not exactly qualifring an iinglish gentleman
forthe Rowdies of legkelator, or even of a feeder of the peace. (Greet
applause.) One may appeal to the Iwo:lecterns of all who have spent
much time in either of our principal univemitist, whether a very
large proportion of the wealthier student. did not enter them unealu-
cued, and leave them, to all mete! intents, in the same condition.
The youth of the middle clues comprise two orders, those intended for
the teemed protections, and those destined to the naval and military per-
vices,commeretetrade, and °User pursuite, not coneidered to require hie h
Intellectual cultivation. For the education of the trot order we have
the large public schoole already described, other endowed and grammar
Pelmet% proprietary gime% and the higher clam of boarding-schools;
for that of the wood a cheap and inferior variety of the suns
genus of establishment. The education given in many of our grans-
maratchoob to confined almost entirely to Latin and Greek. itespect
for the intention,' of the founder is pleaded as a reason for not ex-
tending the range of instruction in such echool.. In such cues,
though there can be no reasonable doubt that the spirit of those
Intentions is violated by the very adbennee to their letter,
there exists no pewee to compel alteration except in the legislature.
Grammar schools were either designed by their founders for the chil-
dren of their own district, or were open to all who chose to go to
them. In mot mem they were intended primarily for the poor and
indigent of the population; ftecesehonle in the real some of the term;
but admitted a certain number of "foreigner,'," that is, pupae from
other parte, as boarders. This privilege has been much abutted, and
mist of them schools, giving an education now suited only to the
upper claw., hare coved to afford any bruefit to the poor for whose
behoof they were intended.
The most comprehensive remedy of the abuses and mismanagement
of ouch achools would he the State's interference by a general measure,
remodelling them where neeemary, without too strict attention to the
terms of the original bequeot. The object of the donor wifia food one.
But the mean. he Instituted are no longer efficient to attain it. Two
things mug be revered by State interference with these schools,—
a good emote of etudies anal efficient maiden.. It might be necemary
to divide ouch catabliehmeate, according to the gate of their locality
and their reernose, into thereat claeses—the highest to teach Latin '
and Greek with other things, while in others the learned itutPlages
should be replaced by something more useful to the scholars that
would attend them. Such a measure, it is hardly necessary to add,
should be carried out cautiously, and only on careful inquiry.
In the preen ietary schools a more intelligent conception inapparent in
the :Mend at to mathematics, history, and living at, well as dotal lan-
guages. These ochnols, most of which have grown op within the last
ten years, are markel improvements on the old grammar rebook on
the one hand, and the common boarding-AL-hoots on the other. The
Intellectual instruction imparted in the latter is often of the most
wretched order. nary puttees to prepare youth for the univereitiee,
as well as for commercial occupations. Their apparatus is equaliy
worthtese, in nine out of ten cases, fur both purposes. For the one, ten
or twelve years arc resent in learning Latin anal Greek very badly ;
in thematic. and modern languages still worse ; geography. Ligon.,
and natural philosophy not at all. Of course there are marked exceP-
tions to this unfavourabte judgment. But they only serve to make
the general deficiency more apparent. In the commercial education
of ouch schools, the Latin and Greek are not carried quite.. far;
perhaps the latter is not entered upon. la its place Le substituted a
modern lanruage, probably French, too often taught by an utterly
illiterate native—more attention Is paid to arithmetic, especially those
eminently worthless parts an which gounder the Mysterlo4l4 maimed
tare and tret, mitigation, mato and hew°, demount and barter flaug=
and so "through some dozen of commercial relate, reducible on p
pie to three at most, and these unconnected, illiiarranged, and in nine
eases out of tea, utterly wake, to the peace whet know, them." AU
this is model on without the least attempt at explaining the pried-
plot contained in the rule.. " Many instructors, it h been mid by
a competent authority, " If placed In the temple of truth, would be
oblieed to ask, ' flow Khali 1 teach what I do not know !' Others
would say, AU I here to do at present into look at the pupil's' work
and compare it with the key, which I have locked up to ms desk.
I Should I begin teaching principles and aU that, there would be no
end of troublesome mistimes. The sums as they arc cat!! d. when,
after many a correction, theyeoinciale with the master's key, err care-
' fully (niers' into a book, each with Qu. at the beginning, and Am. at
the eml, with red ink lines in the places which taste point. out ; and
this goo, home at the vacation with the young gentleman, a triumph-
ant proof of his proeresg showing the delighted parent that his tome
is in ' comptetund multiplication,' or, if he he a genie., in ' discount,'
or ' barter:" (Much laughter.) Similar absurdities to those involved
in this method of temehine what is styled cyphering. recur in the
instructions given at such schools In ecometry, better known as
"Euclid," anal Algebra. Of aubjecte reallv Important in commercial
' education, such as phi-deal geography, the economy of trades and
m inufeetures. the ponCiples of international anal commercill law, no
trace appears Ia sChnolit of this clans. (Applauth.)
There is a Mill lower order of commercial boarding retool., which
have been truly described as very often "mere ergaguin," to which
boys are sent out of the way, to be boarded anal Matched at 20f. al
year. The attainments or occupations of parents In this class °Mil-
itarily prevent them from forming any opinion of the proems ma le
by their children. The merits of the school are deft:Taunted by the
shortness of the vocations, and the ornate penmanship of the half.
yearly hill. The actual beeline, of tuition le madc over by the igno-
rant muter to more ignorant anal ill-paid others ; and the acquire-
ments of the scholar", even in the rielimenta of learning, would dis-
grace any Lancaeterian This wasteful course of min-itotrue.
lion is early and abruptly ended. At fourteen the boy is snatched
*war from lamorant idlenees to the balances of meney-getting. The
period of life thus lost, which in important to all, le irreparable to
him. Ile Is hurried Into life without having learned to discharge
in hie turn the dutie.of a eitleen and a father. lie becomes rich with-
out taste, anal influential without either wisdom or knowledge; and
he may even remain uncoiocioue oft e lamentable clvtleiciacit.. which
a more awakened mind would attribute to the early neff.ect of the
commercial school." !Much applaime.)
It is not ea, to describe the education of the lower and lowest class,
re as to satisfy all parties. This department of the subject has re-
ceived much attention for the last few venni. Even a certain State
superintendence and aid, by granta of public money, have been afforded
It, on a entailer wade, from 1833 to 1839, and on an annually-increm.
lag one since that year. Schools receiving aid from t'te,e grant, are
subject to the Inepetaion of officials appointed for that purpoth by the
Oemmittee of Council of Education. Their reports Mouth us with
them. fit trustworthyeridence ae to the education of the hover orders
in the two grad climes of school.—the National, In connexion with
the Church of England; annul the British and Foreign, professing to
admit children of all setae, =al using no catechism in their ingrue.
lion. There it much dispute ite to the extent of ',hoot accommode-
lion effected to the pourer ekes. Statistics are of course ap-
pealed to by oppeeing partisan.. But it is of compatatively
little Importance whether ',chattel accommodation exist for one
in ten or One in twelve whether it should be afforded
10 one in nine, or ona in six. It is important to know whether the
school' which 11,, emit, are filled ; and how far, if they are net, this
is owing to the quality of instruction given in Mein. Nothing ean
be more fallarioue than to estimate ,ehool attendance lay the amount
of school accommodation. Let its take the midland district of the
Government inspection, which includes Chester, Stafford, Derby,
Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester, Wattrick, and Northampton, a
mixed agricultural and manutehtring population, and therefore
giving a tolernbly fair overage for the whole of England. The Itev.
Henry Mondry states, that " in Si wheals sitting by Lim in 1844,
erected to contain 11,147 children, and to provide for the educational
wants of an aggregate population of 247,199, he found 6,351 children
resembled. The schools were thus only foureseventhe full, anal but
1 in 3.5 of the whole population for whame benefit they were intended
was under instruction in them. In 44 of the echuole which the same
inspector rioted in 1013, erected or a population of 21'4,014, and
providing accommodation for 10,317 children, he found 4.165 absent-
bled. lins3 of the population, only, therefore, availed themselves
of these echoed% although I out of every I was of an age to go to
school from 3to 13), and the reheat. were only half-full. It is gra-
Wring to find, however, that this indifference on the pert of parents
arm ee lees from their own want of education than from the
miserably Insufficient gate of the wheels open to their
children. Mr. Moseley actures u. that when the education of
in the %thole has been rendered thoroughly efficient, or when en
Impression, whether true or Glee, hae Wee produced on the minds of
the parent. that it was so, he hie. invariably found their indifference
to be removed. It la, he believes, the concurrent experience of per-
POIVI interracial is education, that where a really good rehool is offered
to the labouring claw., they are ready to make some thcrifice to
secure for their children the benefits which It offers.

. .
Until a very recent period, we dare not say that parenta stye 1
Inexcusable for this apparent neglect. The mulifications and claims
of an old-fashioned elementary schoolmaster were very often on a
par with tho-e of the Alsatian instructor of youth questioned by
Stouter, the pmleernor of Oberlin, in the Ban de la Ito Me.
stouter began his pastoral office by reforming the village schonta.
The 'rind!" d eatablishaient for the elementary in of the
district 1,11. a mirmbe cottage where a number of children were
crowded together, wild and noisy, and without occupation. The
schoolmaster, a withered old man, lay on a little bed in the metier of
the room. The following dialogue took place between St other and
this functionnry
• What do you teach the children P
" ' Nothing, 'sir.'
" • Nothing! How is that
" Because I know nothing myself.'
" ' Why then were you instituted achoolmaater P
" Why, sir, I had.been taking care of the Waldbach pia, for a
great numier of years, and when I got too old and infirm for that
employment, they rent me here to take care of the children." (Much
laughter.)
We will not dwell long on elementary education. The subject is
likely to receive sufficient attention in more important quarters The
government inspection has already produced remarkably good effects.
Various normal schools now exist for the education of elementary
schoolmasters though there are gill inautlicient to supply the number
of maters that would be required, if elementary education were in •
ratiafartory state. The average instruction given in ouch schools in
the midland oounties is still confined to a little very imperfect read-
ing, often only in one book, the New Testament; writing in copybooks
for one-fourth of the pupils, a little arithmetic for one third—of
whom about a fourth learn the four simple rules, one fifteenth the
compound rides, and one fifty-third have advanced a* far as the rule
of three. One ninth may be taught geography. but this by rote, and
in a way little likely to awaken the intelligence, w rectal aphy, pro-
perly taught, may do, beyond any other branch of in The
use of the Scriptures as the sole leading book ; the employment of
monitor*, often as ignorant as the class they instruct ; the prevailing
habit of teaching worth., without impressing their meaning; with the
utter want of any industrial training; tend to keep our elementary
schools below the level of usefulness, to which, with better and more
numerous masters, they might coolly be raised. There is, however,
a dawn of improvement in these schools, such as we can hardly be
said to see in those of higher pretensions. The lower classes in Eng-
land bid fair to be better educated for their station, as far as formal
instruction goes, than the wealthier and higher orders. Inoaleulable
as are the benefits likely to flow from intelligent cultivation of this
clan, they can not be realised without corresponding improvement in
the training of the middle and higher ranks. It is their knowledge
and practice which shape the lot of those below them in the social
scale, and we should the more in on the deficiencies in ther instruc-
tion and the remedies for them, that there MeTllll a danger of these
being overlooked In the demand for elementary education.
I hare now taken a rapid surrey of the existing means of school
education in England. It is not within my plan to notice those moans
of 'supplementary education, ouch as mechanics' and literary institutes
museums, and similar aids to self-culture, nor the all-pen4ading tau-
encei of the =the bininee of life and political institutions, though
these two mar be said, in one sense, really to carry on edueation In
this country. I hare spoken generally, because it is the general nature
of formal educational means that it Is intended to lay before son.
Before we can estimate their merits or faults we must have some sten-
Jard to :L.:war, thorn Wz cast ha:: .tmeeption what elo-
cution is before we can determine if the machinery for it exists and is
at work in this country. Education, roughly defining it, is the draw-
' tug out the faculties at the whole man, in obedience to reason, with a
view to the gate of life he is likely in ordinary circumstances to fill.
It is beat divided under the •hree beads of phYsical, moral, and In-
tellectual education, addreased respectively to the body, the will, and
the reasoning faculty in man. Of these moral education Ma been
properly dercribed as "the foundation and the teat not only of every
aystem of inatruclion, but of the whole nodal edifice. The first thing
that strikes na in the present day, when we reflect upon domesto
education, and colonially that of whorls, in their eel ition to the
formation of morels, is either the total want of such achoola or their
insufficiency with reference to thin object. We do net speak of a
apeculatire and purely Intellectual inenlcadon of rurality. We do
not nay that the edueation which is obtainel in honriling-schools en-
tirely neglect, to instruct us what we ought to do and what we o gbt
to avoid. It is quite tree that our memory is charted with the names
of a great 'miry vices and virtnes and that we are told something of
the evils which result from site sad the happineas which proceed*
from virtue, with the motives which we hare for atigaining from the
one and for practiahme the other. But this iagroction is extremely
imperfect. Many actions are recommended an good which are indif-
ferent or really bad. Many motives are *soigne I to good actions
which are either inautficient or vicious- Thia mode of instruction,
however, does exist, and, right or wrong, we exercise oar
talents on morality in the same way that we exercise
them on a multitude of other subjects. But it is only our

talent. that we thus exercise. It is, if you please, a pert of the I
education of the understanding a branch oi • coarse of philo-
sophy—but It It nothing more : tee impressions we receive In relation
to this do net extend tr our eilt—we are not taught to practise') the
goal which we are taught to comprehend—in a were, the great thing
that education neglects is the formation of character one morals.,
Ogg edirotten, sorb se it Is, be compelling us to perform a attain
work, reeessanly inculeace certain yirtuee. Every kind of Ithmer
requires us to have a certain command over ourselves ( exercises ow
patience in o emitter or less degree, and makes es acquire habits of
activity, application, and a tort of regularity. Besides, education e at-
not develope our sensitive and intellectual faculties, without, at the
some time, acting indirectly upon our wills. It cannot awaken grad
feelings in us without exciting us to do good. We also
admit that this education Ls not absolutely confined to
telling to what we ought to do. We are stimulated also
to put it in practice by a more or less judicious custom of pride,
or blame, reward or punishment. The Renee circumstance of
the poplin
they
a wheel living torten:ea has, to a certain
extent, the effect of reforming that which is violent or
unjust in their wills, for each of the pupils it more or less
restrained by the rest, and obliged to check hie evil disposition.. The
result of education, then, it to render our habits more or ism moral,
though it does not directly keep that object in view. But what we
condemn in nth pre:reels that it does not make the formation of our
moral habits a special object, became it doe. not subject the will an it
does the understanding, to regular exercise, and does not reduce Nie-
-1 tee to a science like knowledge,"—by the practice of vir.uousactinties,
habits of self-examination, cad a ml religious discipline, as distinct
from committing to memory unexplained forme, and practicing exter-
nal observances.
Ail this is at present neglected In most schools In !gland, Is It
any wonder, when we consider the average character and attainments
lof Dab masters and amistants,—points totally overlooked by
.moat
parent, in choosing a school for their ceildren? "By exercising a
careful choice of masters; by showing gratitude and respect to mas-
ters and aseistante, who deserve such consideration; and by impress-
ing Ruch feelings on their children, regents merht do much for the
amelioration of the schools in which their children we Mundell."
(Applause.) On the part of mestere, their superintendence,
eitber personal, or through trusted and trustworthy assistants,
should extend as well orer the hours of sleep and relax-
ation, as over those of instruction; and elosilication of pupils
according to age should be carried out in el three. As thing. are
now, perhaps), the more liberty that is left to boys the better. Ordi-
nary masters know no raethed of retaining and exercising authority,
but through feet. When this is the ease, such a euperintendence an
is suggested would make the bulletins-wheel a little hell. But it is a
lementable mate of things that, from the incapacity of instructors,
boys should be driven to ouch caprieieus self-reed:then us alone is
possible to their age and habit.. This miechice is most apparent in
our largest schools: and whatever plaueible arguments may be ad-
duced by the advocates of the fagging at stem, there can be no doubt
that the secret annals of Long-chember at Emu, and the Dormitory
at Westminster, could produce Instance, of tyranny, on the 011 e hand, ;
and nuflthing on the other, as fatal to the character of tyrant and
victim as anything recorded of Eastern despotisms, (Much applause.)
Next in import: owe to moral, is intellectual discipline. lion far is
this secured by our modern school engem ! That m Meal directs itself
almost exclusively to the cultivation of the leernel languages. Few
will deny, on due consideration, and with proper knowledge of the
sueject, that these languages, studied under competent masters,
and with constant reference to wreck' distinct objects, do
furnish the best intellectual diethline fir encountering the
begone; of rife which we possess. But they met be studied
systematically, and the teacher must be a per with very
different conceptions of his work, and knowledge of his subject, from
tbnseof the clam now assuming the title dela-deal instructors. 'these
leaguers, tre-ated etymologically, exemplify more conveniently than
any living tongue could do, the general laws which regulate the
growth and formation of all languane, and form, at the same time,
the best foundation for ethnographical study. Only, In the mason log
of languages belonging to people whore ineeltuuons differ entirely
from our own, or any round about us, can we attain thew fixed no-
tion. attached to words, which, tar has been truly mice "are almost
as important as the right understanding of the thing of which those
terms arc the Mena" Independently of the ground), which give
value to the study of languag' generally, throtwe the medium of tome
particular tannage, it must be rememeereci, boa been pointed oat
by the authority already referred to, That the history of our own
social exigence, and that of Europe and its culenies, is only the his- .
tory of the further development of th it which we real of In the extant
monuments) of the Greek and Roman nations Our social life is a
link in that long chain which binds togeteer all European potpies, and
reaches backwards to the ensile of our arts and einem—to the ear.
Best memorials of the nations of Greece, and the (mindere of the
gee:Anna of Rome. A study of their monuments is a study of our
own hiatory."
The practice of tmnelatlen also, as distinguished from that useless
and stultifying process called "construing,' in which word of Greek
or Latin is metered by word of Eaglet, without regard to precise
appreltemion of the original or appropreiteneg of the native term,
with a total log of coherence between separate parts of a passage end
of spirit In the completed version, is one of the most valuable and
searching mental exercise)s to which the mind can be subjected. What I
represents this proem in ordinary schools, is, we need hardly sir,
I
without any of its aevantagee. Those who wish to see a full discussion
of this subject, on which my limits only allow me to touch, wilt find it
handled with singular precision and imprrtiality in the third publica-
tion of the Central of Education, by one Prof.( Long) fullyqualitied tole 1
it justice, 11111 l little likely to err from prefenoce of the orniuovatal to
the useful in education. In our common endowed tine bounties
school)) what may be fairly complained of is not that Latin and Greek
are learned to the exclu,ion of other things, but thit Latin and Greek
are nut leaned, though all the pupas' time is appropriated to them.
The study of them should begin et the age, at which, in such schools,
it is laid aside for the business of life. never to be resumed. M a means
of intellectual education they may be Reiterant' pronounced unites, white
tea ines and inetboD of tuition continue unaltered. As thew who meat
leave school early, gannet have time for that accurate and camera.
bemire study of langtalinere. which aline gives vit time to rank as tee chief I
nineational instrument, it would °thither he better that their time
were devoted to other pursuits more eindied to their future occupa-
tions. There are many ouch. Anthinetic, the logic of the poodle,
as it has been galled, with proper explenatioa of its principle., and a
constant recurrence to these metered of pupils, le one. To the
esaablitheell milled of treating this branch, we have already referred
with disapprobation. Geography, comprehensively dealt with, not
as a collection of ill-understood definitions followed by the use of
ready-made uninstructive maps, owith no maps at all, ist another.
Ilistary, modem languages, and the principles of natural philosophy,
might nutty find a Vac() within the limits of a commercial education,
in the hands of duly qualified masters. ; so that without burdening
the mind with crude facie they Mould awaken and discipline its
powers of obserretion, analv.l., and comparinin. This may be, and
probably is, done in some selmuls ; but they form a marked exception
to the general practice.
Modern ht elleetted education, then, is only more advance I under
the present school arrangements than moral degiletne, boater an
attempt is made at the Conner, while the latter is not [Amelia or.
As to ithysioll Memnon, it may more safely be left to itself than
either of the other branchne But even Wee superintendence on tee
part of the muster, with greater attention to exercise, diet, and venti-
lation is wanted. In pointing out dee-ets, it will be seen we have
confined parolees to ghoul', withoo directly deeding with the uni-
versities.. We ham lone so, xeauae Improvement In schools is ewe
sooner or later to produce its elfeete enlversity Machine. tic risks,
fur those who will exert themselves, the universities do oiler mug-
thine like a eyetem, such es it is. Strict exananetions previous to
nienioion, requiring from student+ arm antance with that acenen-
thigineets welch no gentienvin's inteleeence is complete witkout ;
sure as reeling, writing, spelling, and arithmetic, with the power of
tranelating an easy I. itin and Greek scalier, would prolobly be (omit
of more etfeet on university resting than signature of the Thine-nine
.Irtieles. 'Appl tug.) The standard of ordinary degrees should be
mime at 'eve at Oxford, so as to require, as is now the use at
C.unbridge, an acquaintance with the elementary brenehee of algebra,
geometry? and mechanics, tae well nth a little Ethic, a little 1.0,1ie, a little
bait, a little Greek, and a little Divinity. Nattier would time allow
me to touch upon the debateable topics of university religious wee;
and the exclusion of Dissenters from ethication, degrees, and emole-
nient. at oxford, from degrees and emoluments only at Cambridge;
the latter limitation the most illegical. (Applause.)
In our se-etein of elementary education, if that can be calked system
which Le entirely weyetemetie, there are as glaring defects in forth
moral and intellectual training as disgrace our higher schools. But
the Weigh of the sslject is under direugion in so many quarters,
that I may be excused from dwelling upon it here.
The question naturally summits itself: is there a remedy or set of
remedies for this condition of our erhathe, swop-eine it to be as burl m
has been represented ! If so, where is it to be looked he!
The mot of the nifschiefe complained of is in the ignorance and
int-enmity of masters, which are maintained and sheltered by the
absoluee want of intercommunication among those engaged in tuition,
and of that unity which creates systematic actien and run only itself
he produml by the operation of eitite external lower. That power
moot re.ile in the State. Tlie interference of the state mint be
directed to the education of mancr fur their meet onerous duties, the
registration of those duly qualified, the eetiblishment of government
schools in certain districts throughout Engiand, the regular inspection
of thaw ghouls, and communication of the result. of the inepection to
schoolmasters and the public. In fact, government should do much
In the matter of masters and training establishments for the higher
and commercial eitrenes, which It is now urged by almost all parties
to do for elementary school., only.
Such a proposal is yore to be received with opposition and ahem,
basest not early on self-interest or bigotry, but on et/M111,41,
confused, notions of the limits of civil and religious liberty, even
among earnest friends of education.
The following considerations of a precise and enlightened author,
already quotnl, may aid in dissipating alarm, and fixing tire bounds
within which individual liberty and government control re.pectively
ace " man has two distinct relation+, or classes of relations, to-
wards tie state : one comprehends his dune" as a citizen, wherein he
is, or ought to be, wholly • uninainate to the state; the other compre.
bends all his functions as a producer and enjoyer of wealth, wherein
he hes, or ought to have, ail freedom that is not inconsintent with the
proper diech.uge of his duties as a citizen." Now, if we contemplete
the schoolmaster as one who is to form eitiz.tat for the due discharge
of their social and political functions, it is clear he should be
subordinate to the State in so doting. But, looked at as
predwer of wealth, he has a right to be left so free In the
exercise of his pursuits as the pub: ie interests will permit Ilds is the
limit to his freedom. It is expressly to fix these limits, and pude*
those who overstep them, that the society called a State exists. In
exercise of the implied right given by the vital =enmity of maintaining
these restrictions, the State requires the lawyer and the pevecian to
go through a certain course of profegional eduartion, and imposes
penalties for practising their pretensions without haring done so. On
the same principle, it confines noxious and dangerous teaks to certain
localities, and compels builders to comply with ce. taro regulations as
to the building) thee erect. And it fa precisely on the mine ground that
the State may claim, and, had it aced consistently and wisely, would
long ago have claimed, the right to require that scheelmaster;shonkl
go thronen a suitable course of Instruction, or at least prom their
qualifleatione to edue ne by submitting to an examination from per-
sons competent to pronounce upon them. It bats been argued that
the State his no right to direct eduedien, because if it have it rale
logic illy assert that of directing religious teaching. This, it n said,
would be destructive of "religions liberty." There Is, however, a
distinction to be drawn here. Religion, as religion, is not the business
of the Mate. (Great applauere The Slate of which we
are members, for example, tolerates in its different sub-
jects not only Christian, but Jewish, llindoo, Mahometan,
and other turns of faith. While it does so, it cannot be called Chris-
tian. But neither is it anti-Christian. It is true that Christianity is
intimately blended with all our private ways of thought, our public
institutions, our social systems. And this is good reason why the
State should not meddle with the matter. (Applause.) "Christianity
has rooted itself more deeply titan any legislation can do. It pervades
all society ; its influence is above law ; it is a truth indisputable,—a
truth which no man in his senses can deny, that modern mailiedion
is Christian ; and that, if all state eetablisernents of religion were Alt}
tidied, Christianity woull exist in the minds of the greet mass of the
nation, and would be taught and propagated by zealous teachers.
(Great applause.) If, then, Cluistianity pervades the mass of a nation.
the political system, the government, cannot oppose Christianity, and
It need not he identified with it. Christianity, though one thing as
contrasted with MohammeeLinion or other religions, is not sae in

itself. There arc numerous seers: all profs Christithity,
but all differ among themselves in mine mattersof faith and ceremony.
If all are allowed to differ, and all are allowed to protean Christianity se
they choose, it is an idle thing to speak of a Christtui state
if we understand thereby that the State is to be considered both a
rat: z rcligt:fix bony. :t involvm a cantratholon sae
State cannot be Christian In any given form without tring op-
posed tothase who are Christians in a different form. It follows, that
In a State water,• all forms of Christianity are allowed, the State is not
Christian; and It gives, or ought to give, no more encouragement to
one farm of Christianity than to another. It allows to all the free ex-
ercise of their religion ; it subjects all alike to the wane rules and re-
straints; it gives its aid rand encourni,,ment to all on equal terms.
The practical consequeneen of this must be, that whatever remains
there may be in an old state of the identity of a Church and State, or,
as it is sof uctimes expressed, onion of Church and State, the coons of
events, if it proceed., onwards in the game direction, must, in time,
efface every trace of this union." (Much app Louse.) These considera-
tions indicate the grounds on which a State may coreaistently refrain
from interference with religious teaching, while vet at claims the con-
trol of Its clocators, as of Its lawyers and plavnicians It lino con-
cern of the State, as a state, that a member of it should be Christian
rather than Mthomcton, or belong to one rather than another of the
many Christian denom tione ; hot It is a vonorrn or tho Mate thin all its
member., as far as posatee, should, If rich, be acquainted with their
duties, and habituated to fulfil them—if poor, should be frugal, self-
remmtlnx, patient, Industrious, rational, unnenniull in their pleasures,
affectionate and orderly In their homes. It depends mainly on sound
moral and intellectual education whether they shall be all this or the
reverse. And the Christianity that in diffused through all social fife
will not WI to impresa Itself on every educational lawmen, though
catechisms and collects be excluded from our schools. (Applause-)
flow and what our teachers are to be taught, and how superintended;

by what preetical try tha note Is ta ilksoisools when
established; how Lir it noty ennenrage Tfe3E4' with-
out sacrificing the todiyammary fur *OK mid hair roma-
elle local activity nth matt* power; lee prddeme'shish le Is the
funcitiao of the WOW in aim In weld*. IllereAteedme * State
Interference, It aim net be suede Mat that It hem ahem m been em-
ployed in oar own nesmilastenlog Oath* ash tali emapelling the
establishment of whoa* bet sin Sp 01111116111110 Of a Nor
won such compulsion at as artist plod one own practice,
or that of Scotland. A statute peseed Is IMtith fyaart of the reign of
Henry VIII. enforces, in foetal Isms, the of a school
in every parish in Ireland, and Impute the duty *enforcing such
establi&nient on the clergy, by the ennttlaa of an oath., widen is still
taken. In 1494, the Scotch parliament email' that all barons and
substantial freeholders throughout the tuba should send their
children to school from the age of six to site years, miler a penalty
of R2O Scotch ; while, in 1615, ea ea of the Pricy Council
of Scothind, confirmed by pseilmont in 1633, established
schoola in every pariah, and amen* the lands for their
support. The well-known act of leen made dill more complete
and certain provision for such establishment. If it be argued that
these acts were paned when the royal prerogative was strained to a
point from which it hae long made', we may refer to the republican
cantons of Switzerland and the free states of North America, which
have both taxed themselves for this laudable purpotie.
Resides the unity of plan and completeness of organization which
government control could not fail to confer on schools, the necessity
of such interference is demonstrated by the condition and character of
our schools under the operation of the voluntary principle. They are
emully Inefficient and expenave. On the score of economy we should
be direct gainers by the establishment of a store uniform system, with
masters trained in government normal schools, suppoi ted by local
rates. But the indirect gain resulting from improved education is not
to be calculated.

Thlie establish—meld of • responsible minister of education may or may
not be nn indispensable preliminary to effectual government action.
Perhaps a modiftmition of the present machinery of a Committee of
I might enable government to carry out ouch educational mese
oures ao have been suggmted. But be this as it mac, it seems pro-
b .ble that the time is approaching when the Executive will venture to
act In this moot important matte r. All their other functions fink into
insignificance compared with thisof educational control, if its purpose
and mope be Adequately conceived. We shall no longer fee the youth
of all chaates% the materials of the future manhood of the nation, left to
the education of circumstance, without the preliminary training which
enables man to niaraer events. We shall no longer suffer under the
miserable error that Latin and Greek for the rich, reading and writing
for the poor, cauffitute education ; when they are but the bumble in-
struments with which education it to he helped forward, under the
guidance of right mason. We shall no longer have to lament that
moral training is utterly overlooked where it should. be the work. of
stead of
ii:iolltdemorg
teiv.etrry.ehopur , andlace m that th
the van :fe;litratp or ificomniftitririsgile
no mmecting dragon has guarded thaw mercer waters from which the
youth of thin 'nighty ye side is destined to drink life, and truth, an 3 love.
they have been left unwatched to the profane or polluted vmseloof all
who chose to draw forth and offer. Still, though tainted, they have
not lost all their virtue. Bad as we may be, it it due to thea that we
are not worse. Their healing effect in the hands of a priesthood duly
taught to preserve them pure, and administer them in a reverent
this generation may no:, but those who come after no, must,
of a surety, experieilce.
The lecturer concluded amid loud and general applause,
continued for some time.

CHARGES AGAINST THE ROYAL SEA-