The Express.
London, England, 1848-07-28 00:00:00

peasantry are, after all, far less ignorant and less fa-
natic than they were, their spiritual guides are
far more rational and pacific, their physical and moral
grievances less poignant. On the other hand, tr.e
military force and military talent which could be
brought to bear against Irish rebellion now, are twenty
times as Rifest as England could have furnished in
1798. The remlt, therefore, in putting down insur-
recti,m, should it start up, must be infinitely more
assured and more speedy.

WE learn with pleasure that the Committee of ,
Council on Education have at length freed themselves
from the charge of partiality in the administration
of the powers confided to them. by admitting Roman ,
catholic schools to a participation in the parriumen-
tary grant. It is most gratifying, also, to observe j
that the right thus conferred is qualified with no hu- j
miliating or bigoted restrictions. The religious edu- j
cation of the pupils is abandoned by government to
the religious teachers. Thesecond regulation expressly
states that the government iiipectors "shall report ,
concerning the secutar instruction only." We are not
aware whether the committee of council intended by
this regulation to give their sanction to the principle
which has been of late years the object of so much dis-
cussion, that secular instructiou may be totally uisjoined
from religious ed ucat ion in a national system: whether, •
however, they ietended to give this sanction or trot,
the result will be the same. AL parties will give
there credit for such an intention. The rule which
has hitherto been laid down, of requiring the daily
use of the authorised version of the Bible i❑ all
schools receiving government aid, is abandoned in
favour of the Roman catholics; and it would be ob-
viously uufair to enforce the rule with respect to
other denominations who may have conscientious ob-
jections to the use of the same. Now, of this prin-
ciple, to which the committee have given their sanc-
tion, it is well known that a large number of persons
entertain a dislike aparoachicg to abhorrence. It is
stigmatised as latitudinarian, as savouring of in-
fidelity. Many who are disposed to be exceedingly
liberal on all other points, are stubborn on this. They
will not allow that national education can be carried
on without a substratum of religion. A strong ex-
hibition of this feeling in a very high quarter,
was displayed lately upon the occasion of a
deputation from the Lancashire Public School Asso-
ciation waiting upon the Bishop of Manchester, for
the purpose of requesting his lordship to take charge
of a petition on the subject of general education. As
his lordship's answer to the deputation embodied
many of the p•pular objections to the principle in
question, we will give a brief sketch of it, previous
to pointing out the fallacy of his reasoning. He
told the deputation that ho could not consent to the
exclusion of all instruction in peculiar religious doc-
trines. It seas perfectly impossible for any teacher to
gain influence over the hearts and minds of his pupils
if lie was interdicted tram communicating with them
on the most vitally important subjects. The late
Dr. Astoosn gained pate influence over the minds
of his pupils in this maniatr. Ile would ask, also,
was the deputation prepared to sanction the constant
association of young people carefully trained in reli-
gious principles at home with those who were
under no religious influences whatever? The
above observations contain as many fallacies
as sentences. So far is it from the truth that it is im-
pomible for any teacher to gain influence over the
hearts and minds of his pupils it he is interdicted
from communicating with them on the most vitally
important subjects, that, on the contrary, unless the
teacher belong to the same denomination as the pupil,
every statement made by. the former on doctrinal
voiles will be sets ived with suspicion by the latter,
and thus be an element of estrangement between the
two. Every attempt to communicate knowledge on
a "vitally important subject" will be resented by
parents who hold different opinions from the teacher
on these points, as an evidence of a design to make
proselytes. The pupil on such occasions will see
brought into:distinct light the religious dissension be.
tween his parent and Ins teacher. lle will be initiated
at an age when unity in religious feeling is above
measure desirable, into the demoralising practice
of theological squabbling. The case of Dr. ARNOLD
is precisely that which the Bishop should not have
cited. That great and good man was a devoted lover
of the church of England, at the head of a large
church school. All his pupils were presumably not
only christians, but church of England Christians.
The head master of Rugby was bound by his office
to instruct his pupils in the doctrines of the established
church. No dissenter's child could have had any
place at Rugby. No pupil, therefore, could make it
a subject of complaint that he was instructed in sus-
picious doctrines. Although, however, the bishop
could cot cite the case of Dr. ARNOLD as supporting
his view of the question, it is certain that the com-
mittee might have done so to support theirs. The
religious opinions of Dr. Ansone were so dis-
tasteful to one party in the church of Eng-
land, that his appointment as head master
of Rugby was made the subject of most
bitter animadversion, and it was only because there
was another party large enough to compensate by
its patronage for the opposition of the (Oiler, that the
school flourished. Numbers of the clergy refrained
from sending their own children to Rugby, and pre-
vailed upon their friends to imitate their example, fur
the very reason that De. Aneoro all make a paint of
communicating religious instnictioe. The committee
then had assuredly more right than the bishop to
point to Dr. ARNOLD in support of their case. His
lordship's last objecti-n applies to the pupils, and not
to the master. The danger of association with boys
who have had no religious training is there insisted
on. The only answer to this remark is, w•ltsre are
these boys ? How in any persons are there in the coun-
try who are professed infidels, and systematically pre-
vent their children from receiving religious
training? Is their number so great as to make it
necessary to include them in a question of education? 1
And if it were, is that a reason for shutting them
out from the benefits of a national system of educa-
tion? After stating his opinions as to the plan of the
deputation, his lordship expounded his own views on
the subject. He would have schools founded on
church principles, admitting dissenting pupil, who
should be excused from attendance in the hours de-
voted to doctrinal lessons. Objection being made to
this plan as being impracticable when applied to a
national system, his lordship considered it sufficient
to point to the school at Birmingham which
he had himself conducted upon similar principles!
Tire few parents who agreed were therefore to be
taken as the representatives of the whole body, in-
cluding the vast majority who dissented Because
sonic rew dissenters soot their children to his school,
therefore all could, or should, or would, do the same !
As a climax to this strange medley of unfounded
assertion and bad logic, his lordship in replying to the
objection, that it would be unfair to tax dissenters to
provide funds for the dimemination of doctrines to
which they entertained conscientious objections,
observed that this would not be more unjust than the
taxing the members of the Peace Society for the
army estimates. As if there were no difference in
making one body cf men in a state pay
for the instruction of another body, in doc-
trines which it conceives erroneous, and

in compelling a party of dissentients to pay for the
preservation of the whole state. According to the
bishop there is no more injustice in making JOHN
contribute a sum of money for the purpose of instruct-
ing TOXIN children in doctrines which the former
considers false, if not damnable, than in making the
raid Jolts, if he be a member of the peace society,
contribute towards a fund which is to prevent a
foreign enemy from making free with the lives and
property of the whole nation! Assuredly, whatever
was the curriculum of study at Birmingham, logic
could have had no part in it.
The fact is, and we have only space to notice the '
fact briefly, the whole reasoning of the objection is
founded upon a wrong basis. At a future
period we will devolope the subject fully; in the mean
tune let the following observations suffice. The
really wise men who hold opinions similar to those of
the bishop on the subject of education, but have ad-
vocated them in a very different manner, have taken
their views from the appearance of education as it
existed in the best period of all great states up to the
time of the breaking up of the mediaeval form of
society. In the brightest periods of Grecian and
Boman history there was a distinct national life
visible. There was an unmistakeable national cha-
racter, brought out, educed from a system of training,
which owed its strength to a unity of faith, of race,
and of political objects. Society was simply constituted,
there were nom, of the thousand various springs of ac-
tion which eplit up modern society in such numerous
elements. There existed then naturally a standard
U."4E1140141 form, to tbo likeness of which all good