The Express.
London, England, 1846-12-31 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 31, 1848

rence in the ness of education, ing that
there already buesixists a sufficient amoubyntshow of school-
accommodation in the country. This is a matter
perfectly indifferent to the issue; if his calcuematical
lations
were correct to the very acme
of math
certainty, they would only prove that the interfe-
rence of government is not necessary for the erection
of schools in wealthy manufacturing districts. Sup-
posing Dr. VAUGHAN to have conceded this position,
instead of controverting the accuracy of Mr. BAINES'S
calculations, the question of state interference in the
nagement of a system of national education
would neither have been advanced nor retarded
I one jot ; schools are no more education than
I knives and forks are dinner. The question does
not arise whether there are sufficient means in Eng-
land for the right and effective instruction of the
rising generation, but whether those means are so
applied as to attain the desired end. We should be
much more disposed to complain of a superabundance
than of a deficiency of means; our complaint is, that
these means are perverted to evil, and misapplied to
wrong. There are schools that, instead of an educa-
tion, give a miseeducation ; and every such school,
instead of flourishing in a statistical return as a posi-
tive agency of good, should occupy the place of a
negative quantity in an algebraic statement, or of the
debts in a merchant's ledger. The amount of mis-
educating. schools must be separated from the amount
of educating
.schools in order to ascertain the extent
of the provision made for the effective instruction of
the people. No one but a bewildered statistician
could have dreamed of uniting the two together, and
setting forth agencies of evil as part and parcel of
the means by which good is to be accomplished.
Were we called upon to substantiate our case in a
court of justice, Mr. EDWARD BAINES would be one
of the first whom we should place in the A itness-box ;
his evidence simply comes to this, that school accom-
modation exists, but that the people are not educated.
Such being the result of the existing no-system, we
say that a system should be devised to adapt the
means to the end—to prevent the useless expenditure
of money, the waste of labour and of time, and the
multitudinous forms of costly exertion expended in
the purchase of absolute failure. Nothing but the
strangest obliquity of intellect or perversity of heart
could resist such a conclusion ; and had not Mr.
BAINES completely mystified himself by his conjura-
tions with figures, he must have reached it as directly
as Dr. VAUGHAN.
But our case is much stronger; mis-education is
not a merely negative thing—it is something more
than the absence of a good education—it is a positive
evil ; it is the presence of a fearful wrong. Ignorance
is not the mere absence of all knowledge, as folly is
not the mere absence of all intelligence ; but igno-
rance is depraved knowledge, and folly is depraved
intelligence. Let Mr. BAINES go into any one of
our prisons, and enter into conversation with any one
of the juvenile delinquents classed under the category
of ignorant. He will find him sullen and suspicious,
for he has been trained in both qualities, and has
been taught to use them as a tortoise does his shell,
for the protection of weakness; he will find his mind
destitute of principles, but amply stored with preju-
dices: the young criminal has little acquaintance with
religious doctrines, but he is tolerably familiar with
vulgar superstitions : he probably knows nothing of
history or geography, but he is familiar with the ex-
ploits of all the thieves in the county, and could, if
he pleased, describe the localities of the best-
managed robberies in the neighbourhood. His
state of knowledge is as much the result of
training as that of the captain at Eton, or the
senior wrangler at Cambridge ; it is as artificial
and factitious as that of the lawyer, the physi-
cian, and the engineer. For his suspicions were
not born with him; his prejudices did not unfold
themselves spontaneously in his mind ; his supersti-
tions have not been self-developed, and his intelli-
gence in felony was not perfected without labour.
Here then is an obvious result, not of non-education,
bat of mis-education, and this mis-education is as ob-
viously the result of the no-system advocated by Mr.
BAINES.
There is no more common error than to imagine
that negative names always indicate non-existences ;
they very frequently describe things as positive and
as real as their opposite; because the negation is used
only in a limited sense and merely denies a special
form of existence. 'rho man we call "an unbeliever"
may possibly reject the creed which we have adopted,
but he must in doing so believe a great many other
things to which we would refuse assent; infidclit3 may '
be the result of excessive credulity—the man who re-
jects the gospels as inspired books receives them as
forgeries. We know that vice is a reality as well as
virtue, that crime has an absolute existence as well as
rectitude, and it requires very little acuteness in any
one but a statistician to discover that ignorance is just
as positive, as palpable, and as substantial a thing as
knowledge. There are schools for ignorance, systems
exist for depraving the intellect not less than for cor-
rupting the heart, efficient means are at work for
training to dulness as well as to depravity. But
these schools, these systems, and these means are
actually items in Mr. BAINES'S calculations of the
existing amount of the provision made for the educa-
tion of the people. "The landlord has robbed me of
a thousand pounds," exclaims a statistical priest in the
" Beaux' Stratagem." " How do you make that out ?"
asks an astonished bystander. " Oh," says the worthy
father, " there was five hundred pounds 1 owed him,
and five hundred pounds I intended to owe him."
We could wish that Mr. BAINES had adopted
better
.formulte of calculation than those borrowed
from Father Foigard. In the natural progress of dis-
cussion the question of national education has as-
sumed a new aspect as it comes to be better under-
stood. When (awe men axe thoroughly convinced
that some process, either of education or mis-educa-
tion, is constantly and necessarily moulding and form-
ing every individual mind in the community, they have
reached the important discovery that their choice does
not lie between something and nothing, bat between
something absolutely good and something absolutely
evil. Simple as is this discovery, it is one which Mr.
BAINES has yet to make. All his calculations arc
based on the erroneous supposition that he has only
to compare a positive with a negative, and he there-
fore compounds his positive of all agencies, good, bad,
and indifferent ; school accommodation is the be-all
and the end-all of his inquiries, but whether it be an
accommodation for training to igr.orance or to learn-
ing, to depravity or to rectitude, is a matter of too
little importance to attract the -notice of a sublimated
statistician.
The choice then propounde?, to us is between a sys-
tem and a no-system ; and to decide it we need only
ask ourselves whether we are satisfied with our no-
system ? Has vice seneoly abated,—is there a per-
ceptible diminution ie. the number of juvenile
delinquents in towns, and a palpable increase in the
supply of skilled labour? Do we find less of stolid
prejudice in oar rural districts accompanied by a
marked improvein ent in all agricultural and farming
processes ? If these improvements exist, they are
capable of bei.ng tested and established by statistical
tables, and such tables would have the merit of bear-
ing on the question in issue. We repeat what we
have said before, that calculations of the amount of
school accommodation have ea little to do with the
supply of the educational wants of the country as cal-
culations of the amount of table accommodation have
to do with the supply of food during a famine.

The Paris press has begun to sound the note of
preparation for the approaching session, and a move-
ment
is visible in all the ministries. Solicitude and I
apprehension are apparent on the brows of the great
public functionaries. The great questions of the day
will be those of the foreign relations; compared with
them all domestic questions at present sink into com-
parative obscurity. The railways will probably
receive some attention, and evoke some criminatory
speeches from the opposition. But the internal policy
of the country cannot give rise to a division. Some
of the journals of Tuesday affirm that M. Guizot
will so manage matters that the explanations on the
marriage question will be postponed, so as to force
Lord Palmerston to deliver his explanation before he
can receive from Paris a report of that which will be
given by M. Guizot in the Chamber of Peers. The
Journal des Debats professes an impatient desire for
the arrival of the moment when the Minister of
Foreign Affairs will have an opportunity of dis-
pelling the clouds which surround this diplomatic
and international question.
" A great session," it says, " is about to commence,
the greatest apparently that has occurred for fifteen
years. It is from the foreign policy that it will receive
its importance. An immense task will devolve on the
illustrious man who directs the foreign affairs of
France." But the Journal des Debals feels assured
I that that statesman will not be below the level of his

France
" With M. Ginsot for minister," it exclaims,
••• France need not fear any rivalry either of argument
or of eloquence."
La Freese contradicts, apparently upon autho-
rity, the statement that the article on the Cracow
affair, which has lately called forth so much and so
severe comment in the journals of Paris and London
said to be extracted from the Austriats Observer, has
any official character.
'The Eeprils Public of Tuesday says that Queen
Victoria has again made known her fixed determina-
tion not to accept the cadeaux usually tendered to
her upon the jour de ran, from the Tuileries.
The King and Queen of the Belgians were to have
left Paris for Brussels on Wednesday morning by a
special train. It was announced that the Duke and
Duchess of Montpensier contemplate a visit to the
King and Queen of the Belgians in the course of the
next month. They will peas a fortnight in Brussels.
A report was spread at the Bourse on Tuesday that
Lord Normtuiby had signified his intention of declin-
ing to join the corps cliplopnotique on Friday, at the
Tuileries, in offering their felicitations to the King.i
or
n
consequence of the papal nuncio, who, as the seni
member of the corps, would present the address,
entertaining the intention of ngratulating Louis
Philippe on the marriage of the Duke of Montpen-
sier. This report was attended by a slight decline of
the funds. It was, however, stated later that at the
particular desire of the King no allusion would be
made to that event in the address, and that upon this
understanding the British ambassador would appear
on the occasion.

The prorogation of the Cortes at Madrid to the 31st,
—mentioned in our Madrid correspondence of yester-
day, the ostens ble cause of which was the obstructed
state of the roads,—is differently interpreted by the
Opposition journals, and ascribed to the difficulties
created by the ministerial crisis; but against this it
is asserted that M. Isturitz having determined, in
compliance with the desire of the Queen formally ex-
pressed, to submit his public administration to the
judgment of Congress before retiring, there seems to
be no object in the adjournment for five or six days.
It is not doubted now by any party that MM. Isturitz
Sanz, and Caneja, will retire after the opening of

Congress.
M. Castro y Orozco will no doubt be elected to
the presidency of the elective chamber by a large
majority. M. Pacheco, the candidate of the Puritans,
and M. Cortina, the candidate of the Progressistas,
will divide the opposition. On the 22nd, a meeting of
the moderate party among the deputies was held to
decide upon the course to be followed at the com-
mencement of the session. The event which engrossed
most attention was the triple election of M. Olozaga.
It was said that an authorisation to enter Spain had
been forwarded to him at Bayonne.
The following are the chief provisions :—At the
meeting of the Moderado deputies above mentioned it
was decided that measures shall be taken to secure
the union and coherence of the party. Another
meeting was to take place before the opening of the

Cortes:
A private letter states that, in consequence of the
conciliatory tendencies of the ministerial party, the
conservative fraction of the Chamber will not hesi-
tate to support the Moderados, in order to oppose
more effectually the Progressista minority. It was
expected that several of the Conservative deputies
would attend the next meeting of the Moderados.
The Curlists continued to agitate, and it was ex-
pected that some attempt would be made by them
before the close of the year.
The Madrid Gazette of the 23rd instant publishes
a royal ordonnance, in virtue of which the Bank of
St. Ferdinand continues to be the bank of the
government, and will open a credit equal in its total
amount to the Budget of 1847.

ROME, DEC. 15.
You have been in possession of the dismissal of the
Governor of Rome, Monsignor Marini, of whose poli-
tical tendencies and obstructive obstinacy some idea
was given in a former despatch. His successor has
since been announced in the person of a native of
Palermo, Grazzolini, now acting legate at Ancona,
where he was sent on the late outbreak, and won
golden opinions: he had previously been at the head
of the railway board here, and shown business habits
of the first order. As this office is of the utmost
I importance to the progress of internal improvement
in the capital, much satisfaction is felt at so judicious
a selection. The removal of Marini was a measure
which evinced a bold determination on the part of
Pius, but what follows, unless explained to you,
would seem to be in contradiction with that display,
of energy. This very Marini is to be the, first, and
as yet the only cardinal of his creation ! He received
the official communication yesterday ; next week he gets
his hat. Commentary of a very bitter sort will be
made on this promotion throughout Italy; but the
facts of the case will ultimately become known and
go far to exculpate his Holiness. It appears that
Marini, who belongs to a respectable family, had a
younger brother who was seeking the hand of a
daughter of the princely house of Chigi, and to
enable him to make a suitable settlement on the
occasion, the elder brother, who inherited all the
entailed property, renounced his claims by a solemn
deed, and contented himself with whatever provision
he might earn in his profession as a churchman.
Under the old I.ginte he could not be displaced from
the governorship without receiving a cardinalship on
retirement, with its usual allowance of 4000 dollars
a year from the treasury. Deprivation of office
under the new arrangement reduced him to actual
beggary, having burnt his fleet a la Scipio as related
above on entering the church. Much sympathy was
accordingly felt for him by the aristocracy of Rome,
and many a fair suppliant has made exertions in
his favour with the powers around the throne. The
princely house of Sacripante, very influential with the
Pope, has been indefatigable ; and even Count Rossi
has been induced, by some mysterious agency, to in-
tercede on his behalf. The result is merely an in-
dication of the good nature and kind feeling of Pius,
and must be distinctly understood as such, not as
a token of altered policy or subserviency to Austria,l
as it would seem to the uninitiated.
; In reference to the above-mentioned pension of
4,000 dollars a year, which every Roman cardinal
draws from the common exchequer (Foreign cardinals
must contrive to keep their red hat in proper trim at
their own expense), it would appear to be and is
in reality, a rather heavy item of expenditure in the
pontifical budget. Yet you would be wrong in think-
ing that the resources of St. Peter's patrimony are not
adequate to the full expenditure of the papal system,
under proper management ; and that management, I
am happy to know, is about to be witnessed without
much external manifestation. It has been admitted
to be a proper maxim (one I believe of Rochefau-
eauld's), Qu'il fart lacer son linge sale en
famine, and you will learn with satisfaction
that a secret and confidential commission has lately
been named by his Holiness to investigate every
branch of ecclesiastical revenue, the rent-roll of every
convent, hospital, confraternity, every canonry,
chantey ; in fact, to overhaul the whole financial re-
sources of the Roman district. Other districts will
come next. This secret committee is composed of
Cardinals Micara (General of the Capuchins),
Bianchi (ditto of the Benedictine Camaldulese
monks), Osteni (Prefect of the "Bishops and Re-
gulars"), and finally the late Prime Minister Lam-
&uschini. The most searching powers have been
given to this committee, and woe to any abuse, or
dilapidation, or malversation which may ceme under
their notice. A consolidation of various institutes,
and a severe economy throughout, will, it is under-
stood, produce an aggregate of surplus to the treasury
sufficient to meet all pressure, so as to obviate the re-
currence to loans for the future altogether.
And though what follows more properly belongs to
the money market article of your paper than to its
political correspondence, the attention of buyers and
sellers in the public funds of European states would
do well to consider the new aspect of things in Italy,
and the relative stability of the various governments,
whose prospects have of late been materially changed.
The price of the Roman funds (Five per Cents.) has,
for the last ten years, remained unaltered, at from 100
to 102, or thereabouts, even during the precarious rule
of Gregory, whom the slightest breath of popular re-
venge would have dethroned in a twinkling, at
any general outbreak on the Rhine, the Po, or
the Bosphorus. Still, he managed by borrowing and
patchwork to keep up the papal credit, which never
sunk below par. At the present juncture of ponti-
fical prospects, and with the stability which a whole
people's enthusiasm must necessarily add to " that
divinity which doth hedge a king." I should not won-
der to see the Roman Five per Cents. advance at least

nmiolim....