The Express.
London, England, 1856-03-07 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, MARDI' 7.

), •

LORD JonN RUSSELL'S Resolutions relating to
Education embrace too wide a scope and too many
details to be all discussed at once, and on the spur of
the moment. They are so framed u rather to sug-
gest than prescribe action. And this world seem to
have been the object the noble lord bad in view, from
his simply laying them on the table of the House.
without asking for a decision on them.
What most pleases us about these Resolutions is
that their aim appears to b 3 to encourege and stimulate
local action, not to increase the direct and immediate
action of thu Central Government in matters of edu-
cation. Lord JOHN referred in the course of ►is speech
to the bill sow before Parliament for the appoint-
ment of a Vice•Presideot of the Committee of Council
on Education. Indeed all his suggestions must be
regarded as having for their object to impart greater
Matey to the working of that Committee. An en-
aggerated notion appears to have gone abroad, of the
powers that are intended to be oonferred upon the
new Vice-President. We believe that we may take

upon us to state confidently that he is not by any
aseans to stand in the same relation to the Pre-
sident of the Council that the Vice-President
of the Board of Trade does to its President.
The authority of the Vies'President of the
Hoard of Trade is almost tonal to and
so-extensive with that of the President; and
this arrangement has certainly sot added to the effi-
ciency of the department. Warned by this, we un-
derstand Government propose that the Vice-President
of the Committee of the Privy Council on Educa-
tion shall stand in the same relation to the President
that the Under Secretaries of State do to the Principal
Secretaries. His business in the Hones of Commons
will be in great measure limited to the carrying the
money votes for education through the Hones, and
affording, while they are under discussion, and at all
time, any information or explanations respecting the
educational action of Governmen. that may be de-
manded. It is not intended to depart from the existing
system of discharging such functions in relation to
education as have been entrusted to Government by
the agency of the Committee of the Privy Council.
In the existing experimental stage it is found most
expedient that these affairs should be under the
direction of a committee, of which all the Cabinet
Ministers are members. Many things an be amen-
plished more simply and efficaciously by the Warm
mentality of such an executive committee than by
calling into play on all occasions the cumbrous
machinery of the Legislature. At theism* time it is
felt that the control of the Legislature over the Exe-
cutive should be preserved intact, and to this sad a
Vine-President of the Committee with a neat I. the
Hones of Commons has been deemed the most ears-

Mous channel of frequent and full communication with
the representatives of the people on all matters
educational.

One very important suggestion in Lord JOHN
Russues Resolutions relates to what may be
called the codification of the minutes and regu-
lations of the Committee of Council on Educa-
tion. These documents have, indeed, multiplied
to an appalling extent. They are also entirely
devoid of classification or systematics arrangement.
They contain much valuable master, but, like the
same in GEATIANO'II voluble speeches, the valuable
seater is to the whole mass es two grains of wheat in
a bushel of chaff. The most ardent promoter of educa-
tion who can devote his whole time and attention to
the subject will find himself unable to muter these
athletes and regulations. As forth' members of the
Legislature, the annual accumulation of educational
aloes Books serves only to hide from them what is
doing. Lord Jour; Ressiu proposes that a staff of
eighty Sub-Inspectors should be attached to the
twenty-four Inspectors of Schools already in exist-
ence. We Wave that this is no more than is re-
quired r but we trust that the principle of condensation
and classification will be applied to the reports both
of Inspectors and Sub lospectors. And surely these
morn might be published much earlier than at
present. Last night Lord JOHN could find no more
moat reports to rest his arguments spot' that' those
for the year 1831. And in the very valuable weal
report of the Warrington Educed= Society, whisk
we received yesterday, we notice the following re-
mark :—" It is to be regretted that the Committee of
Causal delay the publication of the Impede's' Re-
ports so cog. The latest published is for October,
1833."

We have stated above, our approbation of the
prisaiplo—which we understood to be advocated by
Lord Joao Ituassm—that, with ramose to edu-

cation, Government aught rather to encourage and
stimulate local and individual action than to set
directly itself. It is in conformity with this principle
that grants in aid have bean given to schools in which
aortae' proportions of the unavoidable apeasse are
defrayed by individual sootribetimaandwhia abaft
to sustain regulations ; and that 111 osicipslities hays
born permitted to impose rates for iduatiosal par-
pass. This is 'swagging loaf and individual pro-
motion ol education. One of Lord lons Ittlaszu:s
proposals contemplates going a step farther. sod
Mandating nod and individual ozerdia, by molting
the lents, of a school rate oompalsory in districts
where the proportion of the shildmi at saga to
those who do not attend ay abed falls below sear
bat ratio. This appals to us a wise and warraat-
able sompasion. We would apply the Isms remark
to the proposal that all who avail [homages of the
labour of children below dhow years of age should
allow the children a certain samba of haws daily
to attend school, and pay for their instrustion. The
tints tha deducted, and the nisa.ey thee expended,
would lir taken iota aosow_t la istisaatiag the
oecommy of imployisg the labour of the young,
and would prove not the lead vanish!" part of their
remensration.

Ow Tsry important eugenics of the lineations

relates to the practiosbilit7of rosaries the feeds et
the charities under the control of the Charitable Trust
Comadeniasers more available for the promoting of
elnantary instruction. At present a ammiderable
alumna of these fonds is tither entirely locked up,
• very injudiciously expended. This is s pretty
isoosiderable reservoir that might be tapped with
great advantage.

In these remarks we bast confined ourselves to
thole portions of Lord JOHN Restates Resolutions
which relate to the improvement of the administra-
tive organisation far exteading instruction. 7'ke
dimenesions sad recommsndatioes which be intro
dactyl into hie speech and Resolutions relating to the
kind of instruction to be alluded. we mauve far
Ranee coulderation.

A anmorit has reached us that an intention is
dertaintd in certain quitters of making a dead
c at the most important and valuable MOS-
ire the erasion has produced—the Partnership Bill

of Mr. Lows. Now this is one of those measnres on
which the country won't bear trifling. Amon g all clung
of intelligent men a firm and unalterable conviction
prevails that the time hu come for abolishing for
ever that absurd law, made not by the British Legit,-
lattice, but by the English Judges, which has too
long interfered, and interfered most mischievously,
with the freedom of commercial association. The
good 111118 of the country has revolted against the
absurdity of the role that the mere fact of sharing, or
being entitled to share, in the profits of a business
shall in itself subject a person taking no part in its
management to any liability beyond the limits of his
advance. Upon this plain principle the country has
made up its mind. All we ask is to be let alone in
this matter; oar prayer is to be allowed to take care
of ourselves; our petition is to be freed from a re-
striction which, under the pretence of protect-
ing us from frauds, against which we an our-
nelves fully competent to guard, has rendered
our capital less productive, and our industry Ins
remunerative; has checked the rim of talent, im-
peded the development of enterprise, and sought in
the ruin of the many a vain atonement for the fraud'
of the few.

That the great eapitalists—in other words, the
great money lenders—ahoald encounter this measure
of justice with all the resistance of alarmed self-
in. treat, we can well understand. When small apt.
talists can make advances on the terms of sharing
the profits, with no liability beyosd the extent of
their loans—the great capitalists will be deprived of
their present monopoly of lending upon fixed rates of
interest. To use the language of the mosey market,

Lombard-street will be etadiscount whirr Limited
Liability is the law. That the formidable interest to
which we refer has been mustering all its forces
tor the parliamentary strife—that it will spin put
forth all that influence which, in the House of Lords
last session, so lamentably defeated the jest expecta-
tions of the country—is what we are well prepared
to believe. Nothing is so active as self-interest—
nothing more formidable than the alarmed self-inte-
rest of the lords of loanable capital. This is all fair
parliamentary warfare, and calls for nothing more
than increased vigilance on the part of the suppor-
ters of Mr. Lows's Bill. Bat, unless we have been
much misinformed, other and less creditable influences
have been at work in this matter. For some reason
or other, Mr. Lows, it is understood, has the mis-
fortune to be personally unpopular in the House of
Common/. We care not whether this be the cans or
not ; and we have no curiosity to ask the reason why.
But we maintain that the Bill ought to be judged on
its own merits, entirely without reference to any
likings or dialikinp ;of which Mr. Lows may
be the object. Be he what he may, an
amendment of the Partnership Law is one of those
measures on which the country has set its mind, and
which it will not allow to be converted into an en-
gine for 'observing the interests of party, or pan-
dering to the paltriness of personal rancour.

lt*amr.