The Express.
London, England, 1847-03-30 00:00:00

it was the duty of every civilised and free cora-
Inanity to provide its members with some know-
' ledge of their rights as men, aad their duties
as citizens; until the present year, all publicists re-
garded it as a gross injustice in a penal system to
punish delinquents for violating laws of which they
had never heard, and for neglecting duties which
they were never taught. Until the present day, there
was unanimous condemnation of the Spanish inqui-
sitor, who ordered the slaughter of an American chief
for having flung down a book to which he was un-
conscious that any sanctity was attached. Hitherto
men have lamented that punishment was unjustly in-
flicted on persons ignorant of the nature of crime,
because they had net been taught the distinctions be-
tween right and wrong; we feel grieved, we feel
ashamed that the United States of America,
a governmeet which has not yet existed for
a century, should possess a complete and
efficient system of national education, and that
England should be the only civilised country on earth
in which the state manifests its existence to the great
body of the people, solely by means of coercion. This
point was very ably handled by the Rev. Mr. BAY LEY,
of Sheffield, whose words we quote :
There was a third reason why he approved of the govern-
ment measure; forming as it did in English history a
new principle of government. It had all been done on
the law system hitherto—flog, scourge, vinegar, gall, the
screw, the boot-jack, the gallows, and all the implements
of torture. But now, government for the first time was be-
ginning to try the principle of rewarding well-done. Mark,
he did not say the pensioning system was wise, in the way it
was proposed to put it in operation ; but he maintained that
the principle was good, and philosophical, and wise. It was
a progressive and grand reform—to hear an English govern-
ment saying to a humble man in the country—" Well done;
we are glad to see you have done something ; and here
is a reward for you.' He believed the reward principle
would take the place of the punishment principle. It was
a beautiful principle—it was God's principle. And, what
men would like it perhaps more for, it was the cheapest prin-
ciple by far of the two. Now, he was going to say a ques-
tionable thing. Being a schoolmaster, he did not allude to
personal grounds. Not being likely to receive a share in the
spoil, he could not be supposed to make any undue preference.
Butwas it not something that it proposed to lift them up from
the starvation condition in which many of them were ,• and,
after wearing out their lives in teaching our children, did we
not think that it was an improvement that government pro-
posed to give schoolmasters brown bread and a little water
during their superannuated period ? And, although the
pensionary principle might be had in a pare state of being, it
was fully as good to give it to oar achoolmatters as to our
lord chancellors ;—quite as humane to pension our school-
masters as clergy and members of parliament, or soldiers
in the army who perhaps have lost a fourth finger, or
it may be a little toe.
We have heard equally generous sentiments from
the Rev. Dr. VAUGHAN (Eheu! guantem mutate),
and, in spite of recent aberrations, we trust to
find him again zealously contending for the
moral elevation of the people, for the suppression of
ignorance and vice, for the promotion of knowledge
and virtue. We have paid the most respectful atten-
tion to the objections which the Rev. dr. Ben=
and the Rev. Dr. VAUGIIAN have urged against tie
ministerial measures, and we candidly confess that
these objections would be decisive, if the government
Were free to give the country a new and complete
measure of national education, and if the ground had
sot been pre-occupied by educational societies. It
was not free to the committee of council to inquire
what was most desirable in the abstract, but whet
was most attainable under the existing circumstances.
As Mr. HAMILTON, in a very able pamphlet, recently
published, justly observes:
Nallibat the exclusive church system nor the exclusive aisle
I asp emle practicable, and the exclusive voluntary epee= is
tto meet the wants of the country; there there-
Ze=one available alternative, that the people aboulil
bessieed by the government in the task of educating them-
selves. Ia other words, we must have such a combination of
tilevoleatary and state systems as shall vest the general
separinteadence of popular education in the state, but shall
have it to be exercised in conjunction and 00-operation with
the people. There are certain conditions on which alone
the state, or the executive government, can discharge the
fanstieee thus assigned to it It must, as we have just sees,
avail itself of the t slating schools; it must secure full free-
doms et eessrsence, and it must net with strict imps.
eiaNty eawards tho several denominations of dissents' s.
Here, however, we arc met by that question which has been
the source of so much unhappy controversy, the question of
religious instruction. This it has been propo-ed to adjust by
one or other of the three following modes. First, by making
the Church Catechism the basis of instruction in the doc-
trines of Christianity, as in the schools of the National So-
ciety. Secondly, by making the Holy Scriptures the vehicle
of general religious instruction, as in the schools of the Bri-
tish and Foreign Society. And thisdly, by excluding
religious iustrueiion altogether from the shy schools, and
devolving it on the clergy of the several denominations. It
would be superfluous to enter into a formal examination of
theie proposed methods of settlina this controverted point ; LEGISLATORS and governments appear to have laid
inasmuch as we know beforehand that the first would be re-
it down as an axiom that railways are exceptional ex-
acted by dissenters, the second by churchmen, and the third
by the everwh•lining majority o 1 both. istences, and to be dealt with on entirely different
These difficulties could not have escaped so able principles from all others. Two cases have been
and intelligent a writer as Dr. VAUG3AN, when be supplied lately by Lord LYNDHURST'S committee of
eloquently and powerfully invoked the interference inquiry on the affairs of the Oxford and Birmingham
of the State to check juvenile ignorance, and its two Junction, and by the report of " The Government" of
fearful consequences, juvenile destitution and juvenile Bombay relating to the Great Indian Peninsula Rail-
depravity, some months ago. It is to be regretted way Company.
that he canvasses the proceedings of the Committee In general it is understood that it is the business
of Council as if no such difficulties were to be en- of legislatures to make laws, and of courts of law to
countered. When wo asserted that the proposed apply them. It was the business of the House of
measure is identical in principle with that established Lords (assisted by the other two branches of the legis-
in Ireland and in the United States, we added that it latare) to make the Act incorporating the Birming-
differed from the Irish and the American system in ham and Oxford Junction. The question whether the
some not unimportant details. We deplore those shareholders or directors. have acted in conformity to
differences ; we deplore them the more because we that law, it is for the courts of common law or equity
believe them to be unavoidable. The National to decide. Yet, Lord LYNDHURST asked, and the
Society and the British and Foreign School Society House of Lords granted, a committee to inquire
will not get out of the way and make room for whether, by certain sales and transfers of shares in
the state to give us in full size and efficiency a the company, the Act had or had notbeenviolated. The
truly national system of education. Had Dr. railway share for which a man pays his money is as
VAUGHAN attended to this simple fact, he would entirely his property as the acre of land for which a.,
not have unfairly assailed the government for este- man pays his money : the purchaser acquires than
blishing regulations which it merely teeogaises as same dominititti over the former es over the latter.
existing rules of the National Society. There are What would the Lords have said if Lord LYNDHURT r
many of the rules adopted by that society, and by had proposed that they should inquire into tt
ie
the British and Foreign School Society, which we legality of any purchase of land, instead of leavi rag
disapprove, and which we believe that the Committee the question to the Courts at Westminster ? Are
of Council would desire to see changed. But the rights to railway property less sacred than
committee has not the power to alter them, and its the rights to landed property? Can the latter las one
interference, under present circumstances, would only sidered safe when one branch of the legislatur take.
engender obstinacy in error. We pray Dr. VAUGHAN upon it to usurp the functions of a court of jr Ace in
to remember, that there i. a danger of the &minuet respect of the other? This usurpation is bi a first
molten prevailing in practice, while the SUMMUM step. Lord Frrewituee naively enoagh let out what
botiem is sought in theory, is to be the next—the transference of r mealy in
Every objection urged by Dr. VAUGHAN applies, railways, created and sanctioned by acts o' the`
legts-
not to the plan proposed by the government, but lature, from the present owners to govcrr
.ment.
to the system constituted by the National Society. The local authorities in India appear ' be as lax
That system is fairly open to controversy, and at a -in their notions of what is just toward a railway er,_
preper season we shall not be indisposed to discuss its dertakers as the hereditary legislate-
merits. But whether it be faulty, or whether it be They appear to entertain the straw ,est notions of
perfect, it was constituted before an educational coo- what constitutes " inducements." tr railway enter-
mittec of council had existence, and that committee prise. The report of " The Govern went" of Bombay
has to deal with things as they are, not as they may on the proposals of the Grand Indian Peninsular
Railway Association at that wee- el of England.
wish them to be.
That many schools have been and will be este- long ago to parliament, metes that " The Govern-
blished, with the lurking desire of making education ment" had received a some annication from the
a bribe and a means of proselytism, is, we fear, very provisional committee of the fence-, presented not
association, intimating
probable. Folly and fanaticism are elements of their intention to COMAE& ee operations, and ex-
society too signally manifested in the present day to pressing a desire to have r
mitable ter minuees fixed
leave on our minds a doubt of their existence. But at the Bombay end of 4
.he line. The committee
the bribe and the means will fail : the experiment pointed out the bier „twice of having the
was tried in Ireland by the Kildare-place Society, and goods terminus placed at the water's edge, and
the result was, that those who were forced into a pre- asked leave to early t
he railway along the verge
tended conformity with the Protestant principle of of the Esplanade to • vacant spot of ground on the
reading the bible have since, in every instance brought harbour. This row
ender our knowledge, become the most bitter enemies which " aPPtluediae at was negatived on grounds
aperable" ; videlicet, because the
of Protestantism and the bible. ground selected WOW u far too valuable, in a pecuniarl
But we do not believe that great majority of point of view, to
be gratuitously assigned away.
the Church of England desire to establish an insidious I But it was hithee
to the committee that they might
and compulsory conformity. There are no traces of "be allowed Old' pririlege of reclaiming land along
such a spirit to be found at the meeting of the church the shallow • sees-beach.,, In the opinion of
institution at Bradford, where the ministerial met-4- "The Govan
es, went," the projectors of a railway
sure was sanctioned only on aceoust of its perfect acre" the Qtr' are likely to be induced to proceed
fairness to alt parties. It is for the same reason that by beingea. .led on to undertake, in addition to that
we have given it our zealous support: we seek not aufficier onerous task, the difficult and expen-
profit for church or sect, but for the universal British gee (111 e of reelaiming land from the sea ; an
people, and especially for the operative and labouring enter* e, it is coolly added, " calculated nl-
claws, whose interests and condition have hitherto timat'al. to advantage government, by raising the
been too, much neglected. We wish it to be recog- vales of land on the Esplanade." " The Government"
shied, that the state has duties to the poor of B' 3mbay, at the time of making this report, ap-
es well as to the rich, and we lament that pea' to have been "like Cerberus, three gentlemen
any should be found who would limit all the la one :" at least, three signatures are appended to it;
duties of government to protecting the property of t` lough, when the egregious nature of the offer is
the latter. It was the anger which such a limitatioa Laken into account, it may be allowed to doubt
inspired that led to the rather harsh diacomfitare of whether the three names represent as many heads.
the opponents of national education at Wakefield, ere' , The truth is, that railway undertakers are, in the
which is not unlikely to provoke other manifestatioe As dominions of polished England, mach in the same
of the same kind ire the manufacturing distia• ets, condition as traders among a savage tribe who see
Working men find it difficult to understand how civilised men for the first time. The traders' gifts d
hostility to the church can justify injury t the beads and knives are, for a while, received with grade
nation ; and why evil should be perpetuated, 1. ,ecjiwp tude and reciprocated with kindness ; but insatiable
churchmen, in common with the rest of the e nation, desire for more invariably gains the upper hand, and,
would profit by the substitution of good. unless the donors are strong and wary, a general
scramble and plunder terminates the interview. Se
railways and their projectors were, for a time, obit-ease(
gratitude, and the accommodation they afforded was
thankfully received ; but now we hear of nothing 0”11
hands save exaggerated estimates of their prate, Ill-
dignation at their earning so mach, and sage pro-
posals to appropriate their gains to the public ser-

not at all certain to meet the views, or flatter the
prejudices, of the Irish landlords themselves—we
should not be surprised to find the ministry either
throwing up such a bill altogether, or at least reducing
its dimensions to that size, and its powers to that de-
gree, which might mitigate opposition in the house,
and offer no umbrage to the Irish aristocrat.
We should extremely regret any such result, or the
necessity for it. There are wants and exigencies in
Ireland, not to be met by adhering to the rigid rules
of political economy. There has long been a surplus
population even for potato diet. 'the substitution
of corn diet being supposed, that surplus is enor-
mously increased. And that the property of the country
can, unaided, at once meet, employ, and supply this
multiplied pauperism, becomes a stronger doubt every
day. Nevertheless, a poor-law is passed, and, as the
Prime Minister admitted, is passed out of sheer neces-
sity, there being nothing else to be done. Such being
the state of things, the universal effort should be to
render the operation of the poor-law in Ireland
feasible and successful.

In the eastern and northern provinces, this may not
be difficult. But on the western coast, in the wilds of
Clare, to hope that loans for drainage, joined to the
current agricultural employ, can suffice to absorb the
labouring population, or afford it ample provision
even at harvest, is more than the most sanguine can
hope. It is in such districts as these, that schemes for
home colonisation would take those fearful masses of
human destitutioa, clustered along the sea shore, or
on the skirts of bops, and spread them out on larger
masses of land, which they would permanently re-
claim as labourers, guided by farmers of skill and
capital.
Without an effort to realise some scheme of this
kind in the western provinces, the poor-law will
there prove a dead letter. No way of alleviating the
pressure of the labour market will be found so
economical ; for the same sum that would transport
the emigrant to Montreal, would reclaim an acre,
and the expense of removing a family would be
infinitely greater than its location at home.
It would, however, be most unwise to hold up the
reclamation of waste lands, as the great and saving
remedy for Irish destitution. Of the fo ar millions of waste
acres that Sir ROBERT KANE speaks of, a email quan-
tity may be capable of being reclaimed at a moderate
cost, a small quantity may be in the neighbourhood of
the sea-weed, or the lime, indispensable to its amelio-
ration. The reclamation of waste lands should therefore
be considered and treated, less as a great na-
tional and universal remedy, than as a necessary
supplement and aid to the poor-law in those unions,
in which the figures of rated property and population
are equal, or, as in many instances, the paupers out-
numbering the pounds.
Unfortunately, the difficulties in the way of
home colonisation are increased by the diversity
of opinion respecting the mode and machinery
for carrying it into effect. All parties have a
horror of government itself becoming a pos-
sessor, and reclaimer, and letter of land ; whilst
almost as many have as strong objections to entrust
money and works to the control of such landlords as
those whom the correspondence of Capt. WYNNE has
depicted in the county of Clare. There is much
weight and truth in both kinds of objections. Yet, if
neither landlords nor government are permitted to
undertake at least the first works of reclamation,
where are farmer capitalists to be got to undertake
such a task in a remote region? And were they found,
where is the money at once for purchase, and for
the requisite outlay in labour and in living? A heath-
covered mountain does not become a pasture in a lbw
months, nor will a morass become arable land in a
year.
We can discuss these points when the govern-
ment scheme is before parliament and the pub-
lic. This, we trust, it will be. It is no doubt pro-
vocative of all the varieties of opposition which
we have enumerated. And it is also, unfortunately,
very obnoxious to hostile jokes. To spend money
upon Irish bogs forms at once an. obvious sarcasm,
and is too apt to raise a smile, even before it excites
a quire, which is precisely the mode of attack chosen
by Sir ROBERT PEEL on the first broaching of
the scheme. We trust, however, that Ministers will
persevere. If they do not, they must invent and
agree upon some other scheme for supporting, and
rendering practicable, the operation of the poor-law
in the populous and impoverished regions of the
west.

THE bill for the reclamation of waste lands in Ire-
land is promised to be laid on the table of the House
of Commons this evening. It is or e, we fear, not
popular—sconted by Sir ROBERT PEEL on the one
band, and by the economists on th-e other, whilst it is