The Express.
London, England, 1847-04-15 00:00:00

Mies unheard. That the present ministry, or the
President of the Council, were influenced in drawing
up their minutes of education by any wish to please
the church, or to conciliate any potent body, more
than was necessary to carry out any sehemo of edu-
cation, is to suppose both to be inept and corrupt.
No doubt ministers were exceedingly anxious to
commit that crime of which the Rev. Dr. us.....isti.ros;
accuses them, viz., "to conic to the rescue of the Na-
tional Schools." What, if ministers beheld an immense
number, the great majority of schools throughout the
country, languishing fur want of good preceptors, for
want of funds and impulse, for want of a greater and
better admixture of secularl education—should not
ministers step forward to supply this great majority of
schools—viz., the National, by supplying them with
precisely what they want, masters of more secular
learning, and with facilities of more secular educa-
tion ? For dissenters, men of liberal and rational
opinions, to find fault with this, and denounce that as
a crime which they should hail as an especial boon
and blessing, even to themselves and their creed, is
one of the blindest specimens of sectarian bigotry
that ever disgraced this country.
We fully agree with one of the movers of the Con-
ference, that the dissenters have been the first and
greatest friends and promoters of education. We
admit that it was their example which stirred
the established church to make use of its far greater
power in the same task. But it was the dissenters
who also set the example of making education a re-
ligious task, undertaken with purely religious aims,
and performed by ecclesiastical machinery. The
Church of England adopted this plan in self-defence;
and now the dissenters come forward to find fault
with the blending of the ecclesiastical and
secular functions. And after they themselves
had given birth to a system which has
grown to giant dimensions, and has rooted itself on
the land, they ask a ministry to undo this at once, or
take no account of it, but proceed to uproot the old
and existing system. They would have the govern-
ment, not come to the aid of national schools, but
make a tabula rasa of all the church has done, and
commence the building of an educational esta-
blishment which wsild cost millions, and might nut,
after all succeed. -

Between them and voluntaryism thc opponents of the
government seem to admit no medium. Some few voices
are raised for voluntaryism as the only basis of education.
Very few, however, support Mr. SII4EB in this ex-
treme opinion, of which all must admit the utter
futility, and of the fruit of which we have indeed
ample proofs in the " Congregational Year Book" for
1816. Having sent out Ila 9 circulars to congrega-
tional ministers to report the progress made in
education, only G 7! answers were received, and of
these " record the fact that nothing hes &von
done in those localities since the defeat of Sir JAMS,
GR %HAM'S bill to advance the general cause of
education !" _ . .

Such extracts as these show that the present
question is, education or no education—schoolmasters
or no schoolmasters. Whether* peasant population
in a normal state of comfort might not be left to
pay for the education of their own children, especially
if they themselves had known the benefit of educa-
tion, is one question. A more pressing and quite
another question regards a peasant population re-
duced to the lowest scale of wages, and reckless from
insecurity of means and life. To give them education
is not a mere matter of philanthropy, but of policy
and self-defence. The daily records of the courts of
justice prove it.
The present ministry has, we think, with great
courage, and with perfect political disinterestedness,
attempted to remedy this great evil. They have come
forward with a measure, of which the temporary pro-
visions are such as to conciliate the prejudices of reli•
gious creeds, and thus command from them the
greatest amount of aid. The government has
received the adherence of the majority, but
this very circumstance has filled the minds
of the minority with fears, and they denounce
the scheme "as a compromise with the church."
Of course it is a compromise. What in our political
world is now possible, that is not more or less a
compromise? But is it not a compromise that uni-
versally extends secular education, the means and
elements of knowledge and reasoning? If dissenters
demur to this, then we can expend no more argu-
ment upon them.
As to the particular forms of teaching, the little or
the less of religious:reading in schools, these matters
arc evidently temporary, and may be altered by
the will of the legislature. The permanent creation
of the new system is the profession of schoolmaster.
Dr. Hamturox recurs to the volumes of the political
economist, and denounces " any (bounty on the scho-
lastic profession, as disturbing the natural relations be-
tween demand and supply, and overstocking the
market with a deteriorated article in the way of pre-
ceptorship." This assimilation of the preceptor to
corn or bacon—this application of free trade to in-
struction, to that instruction which conveys the ele-
ments of moral conduct and immortal life—is startling
in an assembly of divines, as it would be simply ludi-
crous in an assembly of politicians.
There is one thing indispensable to trade in any
article, be it free trade or prohibitive ; which is, that the
article exist, that it be known, and that the country,
which is to purchase it, should know its existence and
value. The peasantry of this country are, unfortu-
nately, unacquainted with the nature or value of edu-
cation or its preceptors. If the supply is to wait for
their demand, we may " hang up" education. Hi-
therto, the supply has been provided, not by the class
demanding, but by quite another and a higher class,
from charitable and religious motives. So that
preceptorship has been always an artificial
article of trade. The state in all countries
has founded seminaries of learning, and devoted
funds to raise the teaching profession to a level with
the other paid and privileged professions. Clergymen
arc paid not merely as clergymen, but as filling many
dignities and offices. Physicians are paid for the per-
formance of a variety of duties and functions. Law-
yers also. There is not one intellectual calling, the
members of which may not hope for state employ, as
well as private business. Are these professions
all degraded, lowered, perverted by this? Or
are not some of them enabled, by the dignity and
wealth thus communicated, to impart to the original
profession a dignity, an illustration, an honour,
which acts as a greater incentive than mere money,
to procure the first intellects, trained and exercised in
the most efficient way, towards the noblest and most
philanthropic of ends. When voluntaryism is universal,
and when the state shall be forbidden to meddle with
any and all professions, then let teaching be dependent
on voluntaryism. But, till then, do not condemn the
preceptor, who is, after all, the eldest-born of the
intellectual family—let him not be thrust forth,
like Josses', by the envy of his brethren, and
sold to slavery, poverty, and degradation.

The Paris papers and oar correspondence of the
13th have come to hand.
Numerous appeals have been made by the French
railway companies to the Minister of Public Works
to relax the severe conditions to which they. have
improvidently submitted; but there is both in the
cabinet and in the chamber the strongest disposition to
resist the principle of backing out of contracts, and it
must be acknowledged not without some reason.
Before the railway. mania had attained the feverish
height which was witnessed during the last two years,
leases of 100 years were granted, and the
Rouen and Orleans railways were thus undertaken,
and are now conducted with success. But under
' the competition produced by the recent excitement
vast enterprises have been undertaken on leases of
less than forty years. Several of these have
proved to be improvident bargains, and the lessees
repent of their precipitation. The issue of all this is
that the progress of railways in France threatens to
be suspended. The contracts made must either be
forfeited or government must relax the conditions
under which they have been accepted. It is rightly
objected that if, whenever a bargain is found dimd.
vantageous, it is not to be enforced, companies in
future competing with each other will be encouraged
to propose conditions to which they never intend to
submit, merely to obtain the i ape in the first in-
stance, relying on tgiTaEgity at a later period to
obtain such relaxation as will render the affair pro-
fitable. This question was debated in the Chamber
on Monday, when it was proposed to invest the go-
vernment with a discretionary power to aid such
companie, as are or may be embarrassed, by refund-
ing to them the caution-money from time to time by
small instalments, amounting tonne-tenth of its entire
amount, each instalment to be paid on the companies
supplying proofs of having expended double the
amount on their works, and the last tenth not to be
refunded until the lines are in actual operation. This