The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-20 00:00:00

2

Wiens after the service on Wednesdays, and the
coatoot fell into desuetude chiefly on account of the
ntmtber of curates who set up private schools, and
wine thus limited in the time they could devote to
tweaks' duties.
Religion must be a part of education, because reli-
gion is part of a man's social existence, but in neither
dee is its claim unlimited. Pushed to its legitimate
consequences, Mr. WATSON'S; demand would lead to
requiring that religion should absorb the whole cycle
of social existence, and that we should become is'
nation of monks and nuns. We do not reject hi/
woposition, we merely restrict it, and if he had cob-
descended to reason instead of indulging in yeses
though polished declamation, ho would soon have
discovered that his proposition needed restrictions.
In one instance Mr. WATSON is so kind as to spe-
cify a secular subject which he points outas peculiarly
dangerous if separated from religion. He and his
fellows are not very_felicitoue in their illustrations;
Archbishop MAC Haut pounced on anatomy as the
most perilous topic to " faith and morals ;" the worthy
Dean of AstDAGII seized on mathematics, evincing at
the same time his profound ignorance of the matter by
declaring that "mathematics would not be rendered
impure by the introduction of religion r Mr. WAT-
SON fixes on history, which he defines to be " religion
teaching by example." It is enough to say that books
and lectures framed in accordance with each a defini-
tion would not be histories, but party pamphlets,.
Like ourselves, Mr. WATSON is not quite satisfied
with things as they are ; he more than insinuates that
the educational results are not proportioned to the
educational expenditure of the country. He de-
clares that parents do not appreciate the value of
instruction for their children, and assigns some very
reasonable, and a few whimsical causes, as explana-
tions of their apathy. To a great extent the nvalry
between the church school an of the dissenting school,
as in Ireland in the time of the Kildare-street Society,
the struggle between the landlord's school and the
priest's school, has lowered education in the opinion of
parents. Committees take a great and not inex-
plicable pride in statistics ; it is notorious that recourse
has been had to very unworthy means for the purpose
of swelling the return of pupils; it is within our owe
knowledge that a reduction of rent was proffered as a
boon to those who sent their children to the school of
an enthusiastic landlord, and ejectments actually
served on such tenants as proved refractory. Even
Mr. WATSON proposes to have recourse to the old
armoury of Church censures, declaring that "having
armed our schoolmasters with the episcopal license,
they must be supported by the episcopal authority."
But no coercion would be necessary if we were able
to show the parents that education has a real and
tangible value. In fact, we practically inculcate the
very contrary.
In; every part of Europe save England an educa-
tional test is imposed as a qualification for office ;
there is not a clever child in any one of the primary
schools of Paris who is not conscious that his success
at school will be a strong recommendation for his
appointment to any office in the gift of the govern-
ment or the municipality. No such inducement exists
in England, except indeed on the railways, where the
attention paid to moral and educational qualifications
has effected more for education, by directing attention
to its nature and its value, than all the voluntary
associations formed by the admirers of BELL and
LANCASTER.
The education given in our primary schools has
the great and obvious defect of being dissevered from
the actual position of the children and from their
future career in life. They are to live by industry,
and yet their education is not industrial. Linear
design forms a pert of primary instruction in every
French school • boys are taught to draw diagrams
even of complicated machinery ; the nature of the
mechanical powers is explained to them, and their
application pointed out ; they are encouraged to
be •handy in the use of the chisel, the hammer,
and the saw. 'ln many schools, girls receive
instruction in the mysteries of plain and economical
cookery and in needlework ; and no child is ignorant
of the legal system of coins, weights, and measures.
The latter is a subject utterly desperate in England.
Having publicly stigmatised the utter barbarism of
our divisions of coins, weights, and measures, we
cling to them contentedly, because philosophy does
not add to the popularity of a statesman in Britain ;
and because an English legislator fears nothing so
much as the puerile sarcasm directed against the
Gregorian reformation of the calendar: "He has
found out an evil which does nobody any harm, and
stereested a remedy which will do nobody any good."
There is no single remedy for the existing state of
things; all parties must be called upon to perform
their proper share in the work of renovation, and the
state must especially be invoked, because it has been
the most negligent, and it can be the most efficient.
The Church has done something; dissenting bodies
have done something ; individuals have done some-
thing: bat the state has done next to nothing. Let
Church, let Dissent, and private benevolence continue,
and increase their exertions; but let not the state
abandon the most important of its functions. When so
much is to be done, we would not discourage
any from working ; but we desire an authoritative
inspection and supervision of the labourers. Even
Mr. WATSON grants that a commission ought to be
issued to check the abuses and lavish waste of funds
in our grammar-schools. We do not despair of con-
verting Mr. WATSON himself to our views. Like
many good, and even clever men, he has allowed him-
self to be imposed upon by his own phraseology :
there are few of his propoeitiors from which we
would withhold assent, if limited by their proper
qualifications. But the question of limits is the only
one of real educational value properly before the
public : nearly all are agreed that the work must be
done, and it only remains to adjust the due propor-
tion of toil to the respective labourers. We court the
aid of the Church in accomplishing oar great object;
but we only beg of zealous and indiscreet churchmen
not to claim for the establishment more than it can
carry into effect, lest despair of doing all should lead
to doing nothing.

Tan Irish landlords are somewhat an overdriven
herd.. They have fattened in years of plenty, and run
riot in deep pastures. They are now turned out, and
goaded along, obliged to exchange the green sward
for the parched rm.d. And where they are driven to,
is a secret more dreaded than divined. Blows fall
thick upon them, whilst their resistance is of the
passive kind. Whilst men goad, boys hoot ; and I
though the conduct of the animal has been of the dull
and the ruminative, rather than of any malignant
kind, still the _general inclination is rather to taunt
and be severe upon it, than to be either fair or merciful.
Amongst those fun-loving people who have followed
and tormented the Irish landlords, the Times has
been the foremost. Armed with its tremendous cat,
that journal, as is its wont, has stricken hard upon
every laggard, and some have turned to bellow a
complaint, or expostulate in a more classic tongue
with the rude and wanton assailant. Commoners

indeed have had their complaints smothered, but lords
have more attention paid them. and their exhortations
are not only presented to the public,but illustrated and
adorned with cut and comment
Lord WeaTMEATH was one of those who first felt
impatient under the lash, and replied in a 'somewhat
embarrassed strain. Lord DE4ART'S remonstrance is
far more plain, energetic and rational. How such a
noble should not be a representative peer, whilst so
many nonsoches enjoy that honour, is unaccountable on
the put of a privileged body, which ought, in these
days at least, to better understand its interests and
put forward its best intellects.
But whatever the difference between Lord WEST-
MEATH and Lard DIMART, both are pretty much in
the same tale. They have done everything they
could—they could do nothing more. The Relief
Societies they do not talk of. The Poor Employment
Act they cannot makeuse of. All they want is to get rid
of the population. To eject that great evil, to transport
it—nothing is to be done without that ; and yet they see
no means of doing it " that is not fraught with diffi-
culties," in ether words, quite impossible. So that the
Irish landlord, like Captain MACHEATH, can neither
live with Paddy nor without hint.
If ever there existed a government willing sad
eager to meet every wish, every feasible proposition of
the Irish landlords, it surely is the present In the
first pressure of famine they urged the formation of
relief sovietise, and offered to contribute one half.
Then aims the offer of work, of course for the
genera benefit. Sot lo! the Irish landlord knew of
nothinig: that ipould be done for the public benefit.
Irelan4 At seems; had been ea well cared for,
that abthing • public was. left for the• engineer.
But there were private works, the thinning ofl
estates and a -variety of little improvements, most
convenient to be done. Drainage repays its costs