The Express.
London, England, 1847-04-07 00:00:00

tiers will come pledged and predetermined to oppose
the government, and therefore can only meet to in-
vent the moat plausible excuses which perverted
ingenuity can devise to justify their perseverance.
We do not, however, despair of some good result
from this conference ; there may be some among the
congregated deputies, who "in the very torrent,
tempest, and (as we may say) whirlwind of their
passion will acquire and beget a to nperance which
may give it smoothness." 'lsuch—if any such there
be—we make our appeal, and ask them to aid us in
rescuing the children of the operative and the labourer
from servile dependence for their education, on uncer-
tain and enpricions charity. We priy them not to
abjure the very first principles of n inconformity by
affirming that it is not a public duty to remove public
ignorance. We entreat them as Englishmen to pon-
der on the last report of Mr. BENTON, the intelligent
inspector of schools in the state of New York—a
report which we subjoin, though we cannot read it
without feelings of the deepest humiliation:
The population of the state of New York, in the roar
1845, wan 2,601,391 souls. Of this number not less ikon
897,206 children, or young people, forming almost one-third
of t/me papnlatioss, received the benefit of instruction, either
for the rrhole or for part of the year midi-mg July Is:, 1516.
Of the children or poen.: people so instr meted, 742,433 at-
tended the common or public schools of the state ; 31,2i0
attended private schosls in different- parts if the state, out of
the, city . • 8,354 attended similar schools in the city ; 11,692
attended the " Incorporated Academies," but were not
all ,wed by the regents " to be classical se!•olers, or students
in the higher branches of English educat: ma ;" and 13,481
attended the same Incorporated Academies, clad were allowed
to be " classical scholars or students of tie highest class."
Total number of children or young people v.,. ceiving the bene-
fits of education, 507,200.
The report then goes on to state—
That the number of common or public schools in the
state was 11,003. That the whole an ount of money
received by tho school trustees during :he year 1545.6,
for teachers, wages, and district I:brari• s, was 1,191,697
dollars—equal to about 260,000!. This large sum was
raised partly by rata, and partly from the revenue of
the school fund, which
it
a yearly i come of 375,387
dollars. The teachers ,4 the canoes shoo: ',both stale and
female, arc boarded at the yOlic c.epense, and, in addition
to their board, reeeire the following a-darks : —Male
teachers, during the winter term, 11 dollars 16 cents ; and
during the summer term, 15 dollars 77 cents per month—
equal to about 601• a year. Female teachers, 7 dollars 37
cents in the winter term ; and 6 dollars 2 c• ate in the sums
mer term. In some counties, however, the iverage is stated
to be as high as 20 or even 26 dollen per mo :th ler the male
teachers, and from 9to 11 fur the female. There are also
district libraries in connexion with moat of t'ie schools.

We hope that there will be those in the proposed
conference who will not be entrapped into a protest
against any plan, becauso they feel otiections to the
specific plan proposed by the ministers ; if the great
principle be preserved, that it is the interest and the
duty of every community to see that its members are
instructed in their rights as men, and their duties as
citizens, we have no fear that its practkal application
can long be perverted in the presence of an intelli-
gent public.
Mr. BAINES boasts that he has the people with
him ; it is not the first time that he has mistaken
the echoes of his own voice for the response of
public approbation. We look to the organs
of public opinion, the mctropolitat and pro-
vincial press, and if each a test have any value,
it proves that the intelligent opinion of the
country is all but unanimous in favour of a na-
tional, and therefore of a state, education. The
Leeds Mercury is the only provincial paper of great
influence which upholds the principle of non-inter-
ference to check the progress of vice, and to elevate
the moral and intellectual condition of the people.
All the other journals of large circulation, including
the Edinburgh Witness, the organ of the Scottish
Free Church, are zealous advocates hr the great
principle of the old puritans and the pi:grim fathers,
that it is both the nght and the duty of the state to
train its members in a knowledge of th, it rights and
duties as citizens. To this principle the Manchester
Examiner adheres as firmly as the Manchester
Guardian, though the former makes t rime weighty
objections to the specific details of t1..3 ministerial
measure.

It has been artfully contrived to cinifound two
very different things, opposition to all national
systems of education—and none but a state-system
can be truly national—with opposition t the specific
scheme developed in the minutes of co Inca. Now,
if the members of the proposed conferetss intend to
preserve any character for consistency or fair-deal-
ing, they will in the first place dctermi.;o on which
of these two grounds they intend to take their stand.
It would be utterly preposterous at one to demand
annihilation, and discuss conditions of , xistence—to
declare in the same breath that the state.should never
interfere, and then to inquire how it ought to inter-
fete—to declare that a system, under all circum-
stances, should be abolished, and then gravely to
investigate tinder what circumstances it should
be maintained. Should the conic: once decide
against all state interference with education,
under any conceivable circumstances, they will
at all events take intelligible gr 'ands, and
we are prepared to meet them in honest
,controversy ; should they, on the contrary, decide that
there are circumstances which would justify slate
in-
terferente in some f•orm or other, we are prepared to
show that there exists a strer.g case for interference
at the present moment, and that the ministerial
scheme is the only form of interference at present
practicable.
The semi-official pamphlet, " The School in its Re-
lations to the State, the Church, and the Conxrega-
tion," completely establishes this propositi in; all that
the dissenting friends of education complain of in the
ministerial measure was actually forced upon the
ministers by the dissenters themselves. This has been
very candidly and ably set forth in a letter ad-
dressed to the Manchester Guardian, by Mr. RICHARD
GARDNER, in reply to Dr. VAUGUAN'S letter, already
inserted in the oily News ;we can only make room
for one paragraph.
Dr. Vaughan observes that " the scheme, in its bearing
upon dissenters, is as skilful a trap as ingenuity could have
devised." I admit that the dissenters hare I Alen into a
trap,—one, however, which has not been laid far them by
the ingenuity of others, but by their own folly. If, instead
of joining in the insane and priestly cry of " Godless
education," they had, with one voice, deman led an uni-
form system of secular instruction, they would hare
achieved a perfect ectuality ; they would have compro-
mised no religious pnacirle ; they would h ve avoided
the trap into which circumstances must inetitably force
them. Could they not foresee that the expi rience alike
of our own degraded population, and of thoe countries
which enjoy educational systems, must at length forca the
state to take action in this matter; and that if the religious
basis be adopted, the church which they den st must, in
fairness, carry off the lion's share of the spoils. The friends
of education may lament lb it the odium then 'ogicum has
blinded the dissenters to this contingency, ant that they
have, in effect, affirmed the Emotion principle, by rejecting
the only alternative by which the state can act. But I feel
most acutely that nothing ran be worse than the present state
of things, in which the voluntary system has left us after a
trial of half• century ; and if the interPrence of the state in
religion. matters be, as I think, unsound in theory and
injurious in practice, still her non-interference with educa-
tion appears to me fraught with still more fatal evils to the
commonwealth.
We have seen no authentic details of the con-
stituency of the proposed conference, but we claim that
the teachers employed in the schools under the
congregational board should have a voice in the
discussion. They have in many instances addressed
. letters to the provincial papers; complaining of
the scantiness of their salaries, of the supercilious
treatment they receive from martinet members of
committees, and of the hopelessness of their prospects
to make any provision for their families. Such a
letter was addressed to the editor of the Leeds
Mercury, and refused insertion, because the interests
of schoolmasters, like the interests of the working
classes, are with that journal but as dust in the
balance when compared with some imaginary advan-
tage to the moat rigid and narrow sectarianism. Now
we respectfully submit that tho case of the school-
masters is one that comes properly under the consi-
deration of the proposed conference, ar.d a more de-
serving class of men could not depend for present
means and future hope on their coming to a right
decision.

it will be dangerous to neglect. Then, of course, will
the most alert of the German courts (perhaps that
which has the best conscience), make haste to
tarn the occasion to its own account. The chances
are at present even between Bavaria and. Prussia,
• either of which might secure a majority of votes, and
carry it against the opposition of the other, so that
• if the motion made by Count DONuore last month
be dropped, there is yet every prospect that this
s question will,before long, be seriously agitated. These
chances arc augmented by disclosures that now
• daily take place, and which tend to show many of the
German sovereigns, that the interests of their ministers
I are frequently very much at variance with their own.
• Information of this kind is daily gaining in Bavaria,
where the attempt to excite an official revolt against
the king has obliged him to reconstruct nearly all the
importar.t bureaux of the capital, while the intimate
connexion in which the discontented servants of the
crown, stood with the religious and political party,'
which pretended to be its devoted slaves, is mani-
feted by the contemporaneous reform of the univer-
sity of Munich. The chairs of ecclesiastical history
and canon law, as well as of political statistics,
have been compulsorily vacated, and invitations
have been addressed to men engaged at protestant
•1 universities, to fill the empty places. It is easy to
show that things never could have reached such a
crisis at Munich, had the press not been gagged in
the unheard of manner, that was effected by the de-
posed minister and his associates, aided by the in-
fluence of Austria.
The influence cf Austria, unlike that of another
more dreaded power, which is less thrifty of money,
is exercised through that aide of the German
character, which is the weakest point of all their
public men. The grades of distinction consist-
ing in ribbons, crosses, and stars, have a power
that even money could not exert; and amongst
these there are inducements that no stranger could
easily distinguish, but in keeping up the magic of
which, the King of Bavaria, Bentham'a hopeful pupil,
was most expert. A state with a large army, like
Austria, offers too secure and quiet provision for
younger sons ; and flattering attention on the part of
her ministers, were often effective recommendations
for promotion at home. From all those motives every
court that, like Saxony and Bavaria, stood in inti-
mate and direct alliance with Austria, or which, like
Baden, was even indirectly connected with Vienna,
possessed meens of repressing all popular influence
which, in the two former, have fully outweighed the
force of legislative assemblies. Baden itself has
breathed more freely since its indirect connexion
with Austria has of late been loosened. Now, the
dissatisfaction of Austria with the change that has
taken place at Munich has been openly expressed,
and to counteract the effect of Austrian intrigues
in favour of the deposed ministerial faction, the King
requires popular support. To obtain this he must
inspire confidence. Writers will not easily commit
themselves in kis behalf if they see no pledge given
of his sincerity; nor will they risk the chance of his
being after all foiled by men whose organised power
can only be successfully resisted by the full action of
popular opinion. Hence, if Bavaria do not support
the proposition said to have been made by Prussia, she
must take up the matter herself.
An opportunity is now presented of placing in
strong light the dangers accruing to the govern-
ments of all states, from want of the useful con-
trol of the press. A secret committee of the
chambers of Hesse Cassel, has just drawn up
a report upon a money transaction between the
Minister of the Finances and a celebrated financial
house. It relates to a railroad loan negotiated be-
tween 1844 and 1846, for the sum of 6,000,000 of
dollars, which received as far as that amount the
sanction of the chambers. Debentures to the amount
of 725,000 dollars additional have, however, been
' issued, and it would appear that the whole terms of
the loan are drawn up in such a manner as by far to
exceed the powers conferred on the Hessian minister
by the vote of the Chambers. In order to obtain pub-
licity for this report, which is of such importance for
the commercial and political world, it was sent to the
editor of a paper in a small state at a distance, as its
publication at Cassel would have been high treason to
the minister, whatever the Princo Regent might
think of the matter.

Iv lesislating on medical matters, it should be
especially recollected that the interests of the public
are more nearly connected with the intelligence and
character of the general practitioners, than of any
other class of medical men. They form nine-tenths
of the bulk of the medical profession in the country.
Raise them in education, and place them in the social
scale on a level with the physician and surgeon, and
you compel the latter, in order to maintain their posi-
tion, to apply themselves with zeal and diligence to
the study of their profession. But give either to the
physicians or surgeons peculiar privileges, and
you will have the state of medicine reduced to what
it was under the biighting influence of that most
rotten of our medical institutions, the College of
Physicians, during the last century. This body,
with the imperfect knowledge of medicine which
an exclusively classical education afforded them, arro-
gated to themselves the right of prescribing
kr all her Majesty's subjects, and used the
arm of the law to put down all apothecaries and
surgeons who attempted to prescribe. But this state
of things could not go on for ever : the College of
Surgeons, by examining ita members in anatomy, and
encouraging its cultivation, had sent forth men who
were more capable of practising physic than physi-
cians, men who sought the knowledge of their pro-
fession in what the physicians—classical men—choose
to e ill " the blood and filth of the dissecting-room."
With the surgeons, the apothecaries—who were
the medical attendants of the large mass of the
people, and even of the aristocracy—began to connect
themselves. At this time the chemist and druggist
appeared, performing the duties of the old apothe-
cary, whilst he performed the offices of surgeon and
acconcheur, and, joined in these functions by gra-
duates of Scotch and foreign universities, sought
examination, protection, and a home from the state.
The thought of interfering with apothecarydom
shocked the nerves of the sensitive Fellows in "'oil-
man. The College of Surgeons would not institute
examinations in medicine and midwifery ; and, as a
last resource, the Apothecaries Company were offered
full power to ex-mine and license medical practi-
tioners, and to prosecute those who practised without
its permission. Such was the Apothecaries Act of
1811. It bound together the elements out of which
has risen the great body of general practitioners in
the country. The Fellows of Pall-mall rejoiced at
its consummation, as the stigma of trade; and the
badge of a boding company seemed now for ever
attached to the hated yet feared apothecaries. But
the Apothecaries Company, though not competent to
institute efficient examinations, and more inclined to
use its power against Scotch graduates than un-
licensed practitioners, did not fail to keep pace with
the increasing intelligence of the general prac-
titioners, and, at the present moment, demands a
preliminary education as efficient as that of the
College of Physicians itself. Thus have the
general practitioners come to assume an importance
in the social scale which the apothecary of bygone
days could not, and which his representative—the
chemist and druggist of the present day—cannot lay
claim to : a position that ought net to be made legally
inferior to the physician and surgeon. But the late
alterations in the charter of the College of Surgeons,
the election of a few to become fellows to distinguish
them from the rest, the want of anything like colle-
giate rights or privileges, have engendered a strong
desire on the part of a very large body of the general
practitioners to have a chartered college, with rights
and privileges of their own. To effect this, a powerful
organisation, under the name of the National Insti-
tute of Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery, has bee,'
formed. This body has already memoriahsed her M-a.
jolty's government,and seeks for the power of examity jug
in medicine, surgery, and midwifery, and liner ding
their members to practise the same. One of the

bility of a cone_..et throne, and entlangerial public
order, and all social rights and interests, renderelimposeible
a convocation of the Cortes, in order that the Chamber of
Deputies might be dissolved; and: ir.was not practicable,
LOA/It these revolutionary movements, and the frenzy of
an. trchy, to proceed to an election of representatives of the
pen 'le, over whose acts serenity of mind ought to preside,
In the absence of all violent passi• ns.
it b. 'came necessary that your majesty, calling into use the
supreras ' law of public safety, should assume the ibll autho-
rity
of t. :roment, taking such extraordinary precautions
which .me neeeesary for the repression of revolt and the
speedy re-e, tahlthment of order, and for the upholding of
the 'debility of the reigning dynasty and of the political sys-
tem of the inn earthy.
To this gees 't object the government directed all their
exertions and ea.'', well convinced that without the enjoy-
ment of public sex urity nothing was to be hoped fur or ob-
tamped by any wine •mstrstivc steps, whilst the pzseessien of
the constitutional lit erties and guarantees could never be put
upon a firm footing.
But, counting upon the triumph of the law, and the re- 1
establishment of the p abbe peace, and of general hthits of
obedience and subordina ,ion, the government, in coebrmity
with the priociplei procla.;ened and decreed by your majesty,
look forward, after the ae 'ompliehment of these desirable
objects, and as soma as the !resent extraordinary circum-
stances of the country thrill cense, to call together a national
representation, in order to give before it an account of their
acts, and to offer for the approval of such congress those pro-
jects of law which may be necessary tor the re-organization
or amelioration of the several branches of the public ad-
ministrativn.

Towards the accomplishment of thts obect it be:ernes
necessary now ti frame the regulations which should be
adopted to the election of deputies. If by the decree of the
9th of October, 1846, a previous decree of the 27th of July
in the same year became without effret, which made regu-
lations in this matter upon a principle which was contrary
to the provisions of the constitutional charter, the entire
fulfilment of it in this particular cannot be carried into
effect, our previous regulations being re•established, and it
becomes necessary to mike a sensible reform in the system
of electoral privileges, which in this resrect shall fulfil the
conditions of the representative system.
The government arc anxious that the national repre-
sentatien shall be composed of citizens distinguished by
their t lent., acknowledged probity, and high intleprn-
deuce ; they desire that in the choice of representatives
there should be entire freedom of election, and yet
that precautions should be taken which, whilst they protect
this freedom of election, shall serve at the same time to
obviate and repress all factious influences and machinations,
all abuses, and whatever acts of violence or means of corrals.
lion which can be committed, to the end that a high moral
and intellectual capacity, united to a nobleness of character,
may be a reality in the assembly of deputies, and that they
may be in a condition to apply a remedy to the ills which
afflict the Portuguese nation, and to provide for the urgent
requirements of the state.
But these are labours, madam, which; should only be
undertaken by men of high intelligence, and eminent for
their regard for the public weal,—men endowed with the
same virtues which the government consider essential in the
representatives of the people; and upon this consideration
your majesty's ministers do not hesitate to submit to the wis-
dom of your majesty the annexed draft, ola decree.
Decd Secretary of State's Office, March 29.

(Signed) VISCONTI DE DUVAL
JOSE JACINTO VALENTE FARINA°.
DON MANDEL DE I'..`ICTUOAL E CR.STRO.
CONDE DE TOJAL.
BARAD DE OVAL

Then follows the decree, the first article of which is

1 .
Tbat there be formed, in conjunction with the ministry
of the kingdom, a commimion charged with the revision of
ell sets of legislation, regulations, and provisional decrees
relative to the right of election for deputies, and ulso to
propose to the government. through the some ministry, m
I reject of electoral law conformable to the provisions of the
c tnstitutional charter of the Portuguese monarchy, in har-
m soy with the principles acknowledged (consignation) in
the . royal proclamation of the 6th October, 1846, published
in tie Diario do Goterno, No. 236, and with thme which
are t wn,peunded in the memorial which precedes this decree.
TI to second article appoints the mentbcreof the cora-
misalmt. who consist of Viscount de Laborim, the Pre-
sident ot•the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, and several
members of the council. The Secretary of State for
the Homi • Department is to be the president of the
commiaion.. The decree is signed by the queen and
all the ministers.

The quee, a's cause continued much embarrassed for
want of peel tniary means ; and the arrival of the last
packet had d lapelled the last hope of a loan from
England, Ma ars. Baring having prescribed the resto-
ration of pest c as a condition precedent to any ad-
vance. After a great deal of negotiation, it has been
determined the a the British vessels laden with wine.
seized by the I doe:fading squadron on their leaving
the Douro, slia.ll uwait the decision of the commercial
tribunal. Another account says that a communication
was received by Sir H. Seymour, offering to give up
the ships, upon the condition that the claim for de-
murrage, which had been notified on behalf of the
owners, should be abandoned. They will, doubtless,
be Pptedily released.
Tae Infanta Anna de Jesus had arrived at Lisbon,
in the packet from Cadiz, with a suite of six persons.
Her journey from l'aris had been made with great
rapidity.
Since our previous accounts the queen's generals do
not appear to have made any progress. Schwalbach
was taking his case in the Alsmtejo, and Saldanha
remained inactive in his old quarters, and the only
appearance of hostility, save that already noticed, was
in the interior, where two slight skirmishes had taken
place, in which the Septembrist troops had come off
victorious. The feeling of opposition to the shipping
of grain continued strong; and both at Vigo and
Corunna riots had taken place; latterly, however,
quiet had been somewhat restored. The Madrid does
not bring any news of the Tweed. There is a fort-
nightly mail from Havannah and Campeachy to Cadiz,
bat it had not arrived when the Maclnd left.

The Oporto Nacional of the 24th of March con-
tains a note said to have been addressed by the
British Secretary of Legation at Lisbon to the go-
vernment of Donna Maria, on the subject of the
Torres Vedraa prisoners The following is a trans-
lation:

The great anxiety which animotes my sovereign for the
prosperity and welfare of her majesty the Queen of Portu-
gal, and the repeated instructions which I have received from
the principal secretary of state for foreign affairs to support
on all occasions a sound ►nd permanent arrargement of the
civil dissensions which unhappily exist in this country, and
to remind the government of her most faithful majesty of
the neceisity of following a mild and conciliatory policy,
compel ma to address myself on this occasion to your excel-
lency., affected u I am by a deep sense of duty to my govern-
ment, as well as with the ardent hope of arresting the com-
pletion of an act from whence the greatest evils may arise to
the cause of the august sovereign who occupies the throne of
this kingilom.
I am informed that it is the intention of the government
of her most faithful majesty to send to Africa the principal
personnes who were lately made prisoners at Torres Vedraa,
and who are at present on board a brig of war ready to sail
for that dreadful coast, confined in the hold of that vessel,
as if they were condanned malefactors, deserving of such
treatment.

It does not belong to me to recal to the government el'
her men faithful majesty the probable result of this cruel
measure on the actual state of the public mind of this coun-
try. I believe tbnt the government is not insensible of the
irritation which it must excite in all who lament the lot of
unhappy prisoners thus condemned to a slow and aimed cer-
tain death. or of the possibility of a similar fate twilling the
noble and faithful subjects of her majesty who are nt present
captive in the hands of the Oporto insurgent+ Th. cons..
quenCes of the said measure, and the responsibility arising
from it, belong altogether to the actual tuinistees of her most
faithful majesty ; but I feel that it is my duty to forewarn the
government of the manner in which such an act of severity
will probably be received by the most decided friends of the
court of Portugal in the kingdom of her most faithful
micesty's oldest and assured ally.
With respect to my government, I an fully authorised
to state that such pro. es-dings will cause the most profound
and *telemeter:A ; and I know too well my fellow country.
men not to believe that the banishmentof the persons alluded
to, victims as they arc of civil dissensions, prisoners with the
henaan of War under a capitulation, untried, to the un-
healthy coast of Africa, like captives on board a slave-ship.
will create but one sentiment of honor in the humane and
enliehten^d people of England, mil alienate the sympathies
which ex"st in favour of the cause of her most faithful
majesty, and indispose them to offer such succours se might
be given to this kingdom and its august sovereigns. I trust,
however, that these my reflections on the anusl circum-
stances of the country will be taken into due consideration
by the government of her most faithful majesty.
I must, moreover, say that the knowledge of this crust
mowers will undoubtedly produce in my government, not
only the deepest regret, but the greatest astonishment, be-
Musa I kuow from an elevated personage that the intentions
of her most faithful majesty towards those unhappy people
wire of the most benevolent nature. For that reason I make
this communication, not only from feeling, of humanity, but
of sound policy clemency being ever considered the principal
base of the deliberations of princes.
It is said that an attempt to escape hascausedthis locoweed
seyerily towards those prnonen; but I only know of that