The Express.
London, England, 1847-08-05 00:00:00

IT is a great pity, that the Committee of Council
on Education did not commence where it seems to
have ended. It would have spared much heart-
burning and jealousy and schism, might have spared
the wbigs much unpopularity, nay, might have al-
lowed some of their estimable followers to retain the
confidence of their electors and their seats in parlia-
ment, instead of being idly sacrificed for principles
which seem destined to be given up as soon as they
have done all the harm possible, and explained away,
after having frighted the isle from its tranquillity.
We do not so much blame the committee of educa-
tion for this, as we regret its having been reduced to
play the fable of the old man and his ass in a vain
endeavour to please everybody. Its first idea of in-
spection was a good one. That idea has been twisted
and perverted, now to this side, now to that side,
ever since, but at last bids fair to come straight.
It was originally planned that inspectors should
examine into the state of schools and report upon them ;
their report, liable to be made public, of course
might influence the public in its patronage, as the go-
vernment in its grants. It was a question of exist-
ence, of life and death to schools. And the managers
displayed jealousies, and raised difficulties, set down
to the score of religious scruples and niceties, but
which in reality were not necessarily religious at all.
Churchmen felt that the chief excellence and efficiency
of their schools lay in their religious instruction ; and
insisted that this should be made matter of examina-
tion and subject of report. This was set down to
bigotry, which was wrong. But its consequences were
pernicious, for, perverting the lav functions of the in-
spectors to ecclesiastical ones, it.led to the veto of the
bishops, in the appointment of the inspectors, to the
necessity of inspectors of different creeds for church
schools and dissenting schools, and steeped the whole
system in the troubled waters of schism.
Now, this inferior kind of inspection and report is
rendered of far minor importance by the examina-
tion into the merits of those members of the school
aspiring to the different grades and rewards held
forth by the educational minutes. It is from these
examinations and their results that the public and the
government will judge. And as in these examinations
proficiency in religious learning, and excellence of
moral conduct are completely to be set aside by the
inspector, it follows that this officer, in the perform-
ance of his chief function, is brought back to that
completely, lay or secular character. which was the
grand and liberal desideratum with respect to
hits. Some may think that the church has
been chonsed out of the religious inspection,
that it first 'tickled for. But we repeat, the mana-
gers of church schools did this, not in bigotry, but in
self-defence, in order to the just appreciation of the
then existing school.
But, whilst approving that approach to the purely
secular nature of inspection which is the univer-
sal desire of liberal men, we cannot but point
out some inconveniences, and serious ones, too. By
the present system, although the inspector does
not meddle with religious prof ciency, the masters
or managers of the school retain a complete
veto on the advancement of any of the scholars, in
case they do not approve of his religious or moral state.
Whilst tome are striving to do away with the CA-
chism in national schools, and with those parts of in-
struction which keep the children cf dissenters away,
how will it be if they succeed ? The managers of the
national school will still be judges of the religious
proficiency of the dissenting scholar, and may place
their veto upon his promotion. The present system,
of an inspector charged with ascertaining intellectual
capacity and proficiency, joined with the certificate of
religious proficiency to be procured from the
managers of schools, leads to no amalgamation or
junction of the children of different sects in the same
school, but, on the contrary, furnishes additional rea-
sons for separation. In so far it errs, and must prove
far lees liberal, free, and efficient, than a scheme for
raising preceptors from schools founded after the Irish
fashion.
One may make these objections without being at
all able to point out how government could have ob-
viated them. The attempt to organise any system of
education, or any class of preceptors in a population so
intersected by religious ilifferences, is an herculean
one. And as to introducing a purely secular scheme,
that would have been the most difficult of aIL But
continued trials and discussions, with what wisdom
and temper different parties can command, will,
no doubt, bring, one day or other, a general
agreement about essentials, and a ridding of all
but honest and vital prejudices. The recent minute,
and the present explanatory letters, show the govern-
ment to be anxious to meet religions scruples, and to do
away with religions incapabilities. But more re-
mains to be done. The more noisy of the noncon-
formists having failed both in their opposition to the
educatin scheme and in their efforts to avenge it, the
rational and liberal portion of the dissenting body are
but the better entitled to consideration. The success of
national education itself depends, in a great measure,
on their distrust being removed, and their scruples
pacified.

TILE Times and a correspondent of that journal
will have it that the return of Mr. COWAN for
Edinburgh is void. The anonymous correspondent
asserts that Mr. COWAN is a government con-
tractor, and asks whether Mr. M ICAULAY may
not, on this account, at once take his seat?
The Times, not quite so ignorant of law, re-
plies that this is out of the question, but suggests
that Mr. COWAN may be unseated and Mr. MACAU-
LAY returned at a new election. Every sincere
admirer of the reputation of Mr. MACAULAY, and
every friend of representative legislation, however
they may lament the result of the late Edinburgh
election, must deprecate any attempt to set it aside by
such a palpable pettifogging trick.
The act 22 George 111., c. 45, the aid of which is
invoked by these worthies, was, from the beginning,
one of those sacrifices to external decorum, by which
a corrupt legislature seeks to divert attention from
real abuses. Even in a time of war, parliamentary
corruption by means of government contracts was
necessarily of very limited extent and influence, and
therefore the proprietors of places like Old Barton, and
the purchasers of venal burghs by wholesale, con-
sented to pass a law against it, bemuse opposition en
their part might have provoked other and awkward
inquiries. The law was a nullity in 1762, when go-
vernment had war contracts to bestow, and when
government contracts did not constitute so very
trifling a proportion of the national business
as at present. Now, in these piping times
of peace, when there are so many better
customers than government, it is a mere trap for
gentlemen in extensive business, who may easily
forget some bargain with government of as little,
or even of less, consequence to them, than any one of
threescore bargains with as many private customers.
If Mr. COWAN has any contract with government
(and that he has rests as yet on the bare assertion of
A B and C, of the 71Mes), we will risk a wager
that it is neither more nor less than an order for some
paper of less amount than he has from many pro-
vincial stationers and newspaper publishers, and that
the only reason why he did not get it cancelled before
the election, was, that in the hurry and excitement of
the canvass its existence escaped his recollection.
Be the choice of the Edinburgh constituency wise or
foolish (and to us it appears foolish in the extreme),
it is a deliberate and unequivocal choice, and not to
be set aside by resuscitating the inapplicable provi-
sions of a more than half-forgotten statute. Mr.
COWAN polled 200 votes more than Mr. GIBSON
CILAIO, and 600 more than Mr. MACAULAY ; there can
be no doubt that he is at this moment the deliberate
choice of the electors. His contract with government,
if any exist, can only be of a kind that, by a forced
construction, can be said to fall under the statute.