The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

E.:swam:l4om tAo Pr.choco of At Stole; or, Mo flat
af a I. rathcal Systeh% for Ms Ertemiois of Aot.
By J. Bourn, LL.D., Chard otu Obi
the Margo,. id , late Phaid:tat of Bridal
Colle/olte. J. w•. Parker.
Dr. th has been for some years known as •
vigorous advocate of a system of education which
lays down as a leading principle that no system can
be perfect which is not constructed with a view to
the wants of the state of society in which it in to be
brought into operation. Ho would sestet, doubtless.
that these wants arc, at the present time, different
both in kind and degree from those which influenced
the minds of the founders of the great public schools'
in the lleh century. In the present case he
comes forward as the proposer and advocate of a
plan by which not only may the whole character of I
our education be imptored, but the extent of this
education he immensely enlarged. Ile first points I
out the remarkable anomaly visible in England that I
while during several years past most energetic mea-
sures have be-eu taken to provide fur the education of I
the poor, the results of these measures having been
shown in the production of a method of study and a
set of school books, far superior to those of which the I
middle CIOVICS avail themselves, nothing has been
done of a similar nature fur the benefit of the latter.
While private wealth, ancient endowments, and
time-haliewed institutions provide amply for the
education of the upper chases, and state
assistance has been lavishly bestowed on that
of the lower, the educutien of the middle
classes is abandoned to its present uncontrolled in-
comin teney. And yet, in spite of the growling% of
taw foreign democracy, it is the middle classes who,
in the last instance, pessiss the political power in
this rountry. The conclusion is ohs ions; these classes I
should he wisals• instructed and curt fully trained, so
as to qualify them in every way for the judicioue per-
formance of their dittice. Now the direct interfer-
ence of government in the education of the middle
chimes is nut to be thought of. All the powerful
arguments which may he used in favour of state in-
n:Hl:retire in the ease of the poor are inapplicable
here. The middle classes are not unable to pay fur
education, the fact tieing that they spend vast
sung
:tinily Inc this purpose.- They are not, like the poor,
auseesilde to the value of education ; their an::itty to
obtain it is proved by the avidity with which they seise
and pee largely fir any educational nostrum which
brought before them. What, then, is to be done?
Compulsion is not to be thought of; and yet as long
as the present NVsti•nt or no-system exists we shall
have to witsess tile curious plictionwnon of the two
extremes of etwiay being brought into actual cons-
munication with the state by means of the strongest
of all ties, while the most important class be-
comes more and more estranged from it.
Booth proposess a remedy. Although the state
cannot instruct, it (1111 examine. Examination is
its province. How examination is to be brought
to bear upon the evils to lie remedied, lie shows in the
plan which he suggests in the pamphlet. This plan
may be considered by some too 1)01.1; but we are
bound to say that it bears thorough evidence of'
having been well considered. The objections are
met honestly and vigorously, and those who may dis-
sent from wane of the de.tit% will not foil to be
struck with the remarkable coherency of the whole
and the ability with which it is recommended. Our
limits will nut allow us to do more than extract
from the pamphlet the mere outline of the plan :
these who wish fiir larther iafortuation on the sub-
ject are referred to the work itself :
Let the goy, rnment establish a rule, or the legislature, if
neeneary, mewl a I.lw, that no pence, after the shall
be admissible into any employment under the crown, or be
eligilde to iliediarge the Ouch, of our public tali. sal iop•
ponitment, who shall not (I) have taken a degree in some
university of the United Kingdom, 09 (2) passed through
ere of the military eulleg. s, or (3) obtained a certificate from
the goverouteut board of examite (le-reattee more
fully referrol to.) Let the effect of such a certificate
be to piece the holder in the class from which
all official appointment must necessarily be filled, and not
to renter an• individual right upon the ponessor. It would
thus constitiote him one of a clan—a very numerous one,
indeed—endowed with certain Frio :es, but would give
him au piTonl.4 chins to such. • •
The ml being eatablisliml, h t us further suppose that the
wlsole country were divided into educational districts or
citeuits, of sueli magnitude as the state of education and the
amount of populatimi might requite ; and that a board of
examieers, app doted hy the crown, who should Auld
at scene ions, central Once, within each cir-
cuit, au al.aual es units:item of candidate,' t
in a course of
subject+ by then, previously appointed. A this examina-
tion all pei cos should he po rmitti d to present themselves,
whether educated in public schools ur humble 91.111111aTiVA;
whether taught by private tutors or self-instructed. This
boanl shonld be empowered to issue to succosafoil candi-
dates three clines of certificit,e. • • The tint elan
should be or anted only to Cow who in addition to the
knowlo der and answaring which would qualify them to
obtain the .scot clan eertdicates, should undergo a volute- '
tary examination in the higher departments id 90011: MUM
of literature or 99.10 CV (10 be sleeted by 9114-11PCITCA Muir
certain redrietions), and prove their knowledge of times
sesteects to Le leach , memoir.: and accurate. • •
These examinations are to he amtlucted partly in
writing partly rim ewe, by at last three examiners.
The hand It examiners. should be obliged to publish
its a chtup and accessible form full accounts of their
proismilio ga. Year are to i.e charged upon eertifl-
cote*, but the examiner* are not to receive any mos
husent frsnt them.
This is the hate outline of the scheme. author
presumes that the advantages would be that the
crown would be enabled to socket its employiu from
the tides: and (situation of the eauntry ; that nearly
the evhole a the youth of the middle classes would
after a shirt tulle pm-sent themselves for examina-
tion, for althowsh few would rum to themselves any
expectations of obtaining a government appoint-
ment, few nevertheless.* would vuluntari'y erect a
hornet-against such a contingency; that tlwse certifi-
cates would come to be the best passport for lucrative
employne tit at the eittninte, into life; that
the exertions of schoolmasters would he stimulated,
in enler that their pupils might distinguish them-
eelvess and that thus the tone of education would be
improved—that public education would, in the end,
come to be modelled upon the plans of the most
competent men in the country, the members of the
Board of Examiners. &e., &e. One of its greatest
advantages. in the eyes of economnits will be that it
will be eelfsupp Tung. I)r. Booth leas shown %%Lilt
accuracy that a moderate fee on each certificate will
defray the whole expense of the examinations.
t)! the argurte nts with which this scheme is amp-
ported, we have not time to speak ; but they are
worth (Imelda-ration, even by such as will be opposed
to its intruthicti.,ll, inasmuch as they are deduced
both from them- and practice. All merely general
object' are well sitiewerml by 1)r. Booth himself,
in the extract with which we shall close our
notice :
It will olmabtlen be said that plans of this kind are
novelties -that users is no preeedmit for them—that it is
an useless and centralising innovation—that people who
"tend in need of education will find means to procure it
—and that society can lie kept well enough together, lei it
has ever beeadoy eanctions of pee esh meld without hiving
recount to those of r. ward, which lie beyond its sphere.
Yet if we would only raise our thoughts above the mists of
prejudice, and look at things as th. r really are, and not
through the get:ss medium of conventionalities and fragments
of inconsistent principles, it would In hard satisfactorily to
explain wits the •• Avenger " rather than the " Asorter' of
evil should so long have been the object of our worship. Nor
would it be moy to show—whether we take our stand on the
absolute and immutable rule of right, or seek our maxims in
the ever changing policy of a shifting expediency—why the
promotion of education should be an object less worthy
of the aomails 'solicitude of the state, than the
suppressiou id crime. If we deduce our principles from
high conceptions of religion and morality, and not simply '
from low hut pre- Cam cousidemtione of palpable utility, we
may uncoubt. illy affirm that if the air we breathe untiolst
the eongteg Sod 019.114.11 of the poor he so loaded with pesti-
lence and noxious exhalation, as at length imperatively to
demand the interference of legislative autherity in the
shape of •• sanitary reform," so also should the purification
of the moral stinosphere around us be at least equally an
object of Christi .io coacem. May we not ask, why should
a general school delivery be It ,+1 an object of interest to a
civilised people than a general gaol delivery? How is it
less consistent with a wise and benevolent public policy to
send forth memo:mimeos of education than COlll9O 69i009111
of bankruptcy ?

DEATH Or JACOB, ESQ.—We record with
!erect the d.mise in London, on the 17th inst., at the ad.
minced age ot a.J, of William Jaeob, Esc., a gentleman
whose industry, in collecting and epitomising returns and
averages couriecuml with the corn law question. will be ie.
wiembersd with respect. Mr. Jacob held the appointment
of Cumptroll..r of torn Returns in her Majesty's Board of
Tee le, uhivls ..r r.,unw has become vacant by his death.
11.. was also a Fallow of the Royal Sociiry
v .Nt.ttt.... tor the towns on the South Western
line will be de-patched from the General l'ust-office this
day the Fame as on others, but in consequence of the South
Western !tails ..y arrangements being the same to-day as
on Sundays, there will be no up raid•day mails from the
south ot England, and consequently the communication
between the south and the north of Faigland by means of
those mails wits be cut off oa this (Christmas) day.