The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-29 00:00:00

LETTER NO IL

EDUCATION : POPULAR AND POLITE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES.

Sir,—Before I come to the polite education subject, upon
which there is much to be said, I must call your attention to
some of the most remarkable errors in the system by which
at present our leading personages in this town, and most
others, attempt the task of fastening instruction upon the
public mind. Ido not profess in this letter to deal with
more than some of the details. Even if these abuses which
I venture to point out now were remedied entirely, there
would still remain, what I shall hereafter endeavour to show,
the great defect and delusion which lies at the root of the
system, the point at which we blunder in the very com-
mencement of the work.

I object to the manner in which popular instruction is
attempted in this town, and many others, because it is mixed
up with au all-prevailing leaven of the patronage system.
This alone would for ever prevent a great body of the work-
ing.a classes from approaching the places where education is
to be doled out to them in rations. Why can nothing be
done hen unless some important individual will consent to
come and give it his countenance, and kindly patronise those
poor people ? If all this reading of books, and listening
to lectures be the great necessary of life, do you think
the people cannot find that out for themselves, without
having some eminent public, political, or municipal
character come forward and declare his approval ? Do
not imagine that I would undervalue the goodness of
some of the great thinkers of the present day
who have sometimes come from the seclusion of their studies
and stet upon the public platform as the easiest means of
transmitting to the people even a few grains of that pre-
cious dust which their patient hands have dug from the
mines of the past and the present.. This is merely the
teacher instructing the ignorant. This is not the patron
smiling approvingly upon the humble efforts of the follower,
and descending from his eminence to pat him on the back
and say "go in and win." Against this system I protest,
and I believe there is not a working man in Liverpool who,
if he had time to think upon it, would not protest against it
also. In this town you cannot even let the poor man enjoy
a pleasant evening at a concert, where his ears might be
delighted—ay, and his soul moved by music—like the
ballads of Burns; but when you have got him fairly caught
within doors you collect people to make speeches to him.
What would you think, Mr. Editor, if when you went to
enjoy the music of Mozart and the voice of Mario, I or
some one else got up and insisted upon haranguing you in
depressing platitudes about the improvement of your mind ?
Do you think the working classes are passionately fond of
hearing speeches ? If they are, do you not think the sooner
educated people endeavour to cure them of that partiality
the better? And now let me say a word to the working
classes. Let me tell them—if there aro any of them led
away by the dream—that, speaking in general terms and of
course admitting some exceptions, the noble lord, the honor-
able member, or the right worshipful gentleman who ad-
addresses them from the platform, doea not care in the
least whether they become educated or not, does
not care about anything at the moment except the
speech he is making, the cheers he is receiving, and the
full report he hopes to see in to-morrow morning paper.
And even if he were as ardent in their cause as he says he is,
let me tell them that he is not possessed of any remarkable
educational secret which he might impart. Very likely he
is just as far off, in his own degree, from education as they
are, only with this material difference, that he probably
thinks he knows everything, while they will readily admit
they know nothing. And finally—but let this be only whis-
pered secretly and with due humility—perhaps, my working
friends, this great individual, with his learning, his oratory,
and his precepts, is not so much a superior being as you
imagine. Perhaps if a metamorphosis were to take place,
you might not be very much the gainers in the long run.
There are noblemen, I venture to assure you, who ace not
virtuous, members of parliament who are not -wise, and
mayors who might have profited more by their school-
maste:s. Let me give an appropriate example. The cause
of popular education has lately gained a valuable accession
in the person of Sir Nominis Umbra, who has undertaken,
I perceive by this paper, to deliver any number of lectures
upon any or all subjects addressed to the people. Sir
Nomiais Umbra, renowned through every capital in Europe,
for his foppishness, his blunders., his ignorance, and his pro-
fligacy, lectirea upon education, temperance, and continence !
Is it because any one imagines Sir Nominis Umbra can
possibly know anything which it would be useful for any one
else to know, or say anything which one might profit by
hearing ? Nothing of the kind. But he has at least the
shadow of a mighty name; and it is not supposed that the
people ever care anything about education for its own sake,
only that they may be enticed into it by a man with a name.
And the very worst feature of the whole is, that too many
have faith in this thing, and will not even lift themselves
out of the mire unless some patronising Jupiter stoops from
his cloud to help them.
Next, let me numbly remonstrate, you make education too
formidable a piece of business. Nothing slight, trifling, or
amusing must be in any way mixed up with it. Heavy,
sombre, and dark, sits your ideal of knowledge, blinking at
the gay sunshine, liko Minerva's owl. Just think what con-
ception a poor man must form of that system which comes to
him represented by an afternoon lecture on a Sunday. I
would implore of some popular instructors to read and take
to heart a very brief paragraph which appeared in this
journal some days back, regard.ng the free library at Man-
chester. See what a system of reading these incessant work-
ing men cut out for themselves. The rod of the instructor
was no longer over them—they read what they liked, and
what was their selection ? SnAssrEnE, Scow, DEFOE, Swirr,
ay, even the Arabian Nights ! They would not read Hu=
or CLARENDON ; and made as feeble an effort at getting.

through ALISON as you, Mr. Editor, or I would have made.
Would you have wished it otherwise ? Do you think Ham-
let, Ivanhoe, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver—even at the farthest
extreme, Aladdin and the Vonderful Lamp—are not more
likely to touch some chord of thought, and convey some idea
of the happiness and the profit to be derived from books, in
the simple, ignorant, child-like brain of the working man,
than toiling through Amsow, or falling exhausted, like the
broken-down camel, amid the dry wastes of LiNaAnn ?
There is a valuable lesson, as old as the days of /ESOP, but
very little regarded, which may be drawn from the selection
of these Manchester working men. You must treat the un-
educated like children, and begin at the beginning. I heard
a reverend instructor, not very long since, gravely tell of a
little girl, seven years old, whom he had drilled into repeat-
ing a whole Epistle of the New Testament, from end to end,
Infore she could read a letter of the alphabet. Poor little
parrot. Do you think she will ever be able to appreciate
with her heart the immortal beauty of these words of
ration ? No more than you or I comprehend the
real poetic merit or or Horace. I scarcely know wile-
uue reels more inclined to laugh or grow sad at the mag-
pie chatter of the taught and the owl-like gravity of the
teacher. I protest against education being made so
irksome and so solemn—when of its own nature
it is soothing and bright. It is humble, too,
and will sometimes speak with other lips than those
of the grave historian and the sage of the mathematics.
Because there are children and ignorant men in the world,
it has condescended to appear in a lighter and more winn;ng
fo,-at sometimes. And die greatest instructors the world has
ever known have recognised and admitted this. But some
of our poor supernumeraries upon the stage of knowledge,
our candle-snuffers at the altar of science, will not have it
so. It is not long since I heard of a lecturer in this town,
speaking to an audience chiefly of mechanics, who endea-
voured to sneer away the fame which must have reached
their cars, of one who has done more to fill all hearts with
tenderness for the poor and a true knowledge of them, than
all the public platform declaimers of England. But he con-
descended to:amuse as well as to teach,and the lecturer would
have none of him. I felt pained that in an audience com-
posed of those to whom chiefly he has dedicated his genius,
a public teacher should have been found who could endeavour
to raise a slighting thought in the mind of the working man
of England, against the kindly spirit, the genial heart of
CHARLES DICKENS.

Until those defects are remedied,in van you strive to gain
the hears of the people. If education cannot come to us
unless lead by a patron's hand, we despise it : if it turns
upon us the cold, harsh aspect of a mediaeval ascetic, we
shrink ir sCnctivel7 from it. There are other teachers besides
you who now pro_23s to teach—there are men who have
thought and written for us as well as for you. We are not
so dull but we will some day find out that the books from
which the best of you must learn, are open to us also, nor so
poor but we shall somehow get at them. Perhaps, then we
may find that those bet qualified to have intodu ced their
race were not all dignitaries of the Church, the state, or
corporation,--I remain, Mr. Editor,
yours
c.,
EXCELSIOR,