The Express.
London, England, 1868-08-08 00:00:00

A RAILWAY REFORMER.

TO PARENTS AND GUARDIANS.-A
WARNING.

Wu° are the first persons to profit by any new
demand that springs up ? The deliberate quacks,
who seek to impose upon you, and the ill-qualified
presumptuous, who impose upon you with-
out seeking to do it. These people obtain a hear-
ing for what they have to say, and a market for
what they have to offer, simply because the
majority of those to whom they appeal are either
too little instructed, or are too careless. That
those to whom the appeal is made should
be too little on their guard is especially likely
to be the case in matters in relation to which a
long-continued and at last overmastering cry has
created one of those half-feverish, half sheep-like
kinds of demand which it is hard not to call by the
name of panic. That Education should be conver-
sant in things more, and, if that were a necessary
consequence, in words less (the antithesis between
wordk and things is not perfect, but it will serve),
is an idea which can quote high authority for very
many years back. Recently, schoolmasters here and
there have not neglected to work it. At last, the
injury which our manufacturing interests are said
to suffer, or to be about to suffer, from want of
skill is applying science to common processes and
common material, makes itself heard as a fresh
and alarming topic among our middle classes.
And there are signs that whatever else may
happen in consequence of the new outcry, one
thing will not fail us ; that, namely, which we
briefly indicated in the first sentence or two. We
express no opinion here upon the general question
of science education for the young, or the methods
of providing it. Much lees do we, as Musixtre
did in one of his improving conversations with
Bonus, denounce with but little affectation of
reserve one schoolmaster in particular as " that

" infernal quack ;" and why iattnems has never
been sued at law for a libel is beyond our under-
standing. But we shall not be performing a
useless task if we warn parents and guardians
against all professed teachers whose pretensions
in the direction of science instruction have any air
of cottoning to an educational panic. We say,
scrutinise all credentials, and especially all quota-
tions in school-prospectuses. Make yourself ac-
quainted with the considerable, however insuffi-
cient, means which already exist, at least, in
London, for communicating scientific knowledge.
And do not—by hurriedly taking up with quacks,
or half-quacks, eager to trade upon a new cry and
• raw demand—accomplish what in you lies to
discourage the less eager, but sincere and thorough
endeavours of competent persons to All up' the
gaps of which ihry do not exaggerate the size,
having been honestly at the pains to take their
immure:

The Times comments upon the elevation of the
Marquis of Abereorn to a dukedom. Hitherto there have
been two qualifications fora dukedom, and the only two
—prodigious merit or overwhelming power. If a man
beats the French we snake him a duke; so much the
more if he beats the English by bringing the minister to
his knees. The latter has been the more fre-
quent claim ; but how stands Lord Abereorn's CAM in
respect to these two modes of acquiring the rank ?
If the deed be at all questionable, is it fully guaran-
teed and authenticated by the greatness of the doer ?
That is the turn which thought will take, and will ponder
well the spectacle of Mr. Disraeli making dukes. We
can almost hear people saying, " Let him make as many
as he pleases ; it matters not." But that, in the opinion
of the Times, is about the most unfavourable opinion that
could be pronounced on the matter.
The Daily News speculates on the probable composition
of the new parliament. The money-bags are not likely
to be more numerous than before ; and as to local nota-
bilities, men familiar with local questions can scarcely be
dispensed with in the House of Commons. It will be
the fault of the constituencies if a new element of youth-
ful earnestness, of carefully-acquired political knowledge,
and of trained political thought, does not find its place in
the House of Commons in such strength as to form an
appreciable ingredient in it.
The Post hopes Mr. Gladstone's expectation that the
Lords will give way on the subject of the Irish Church to
the ascertained wishes of the country, may prove correctt
for, if the attempt now making to reform the least defen-
sible of establishments should fall, the ground of attack
may be shifted, and all establishments together may end
themselves exposed to attacks of a very different kind and
force.

The Telegraph: maintains that in no single instance has
legislation been the sole cause of any railway disaster—
that no case can be given in which any injury thus occa-
sioned could not have been easily neutralised by prudent
management on the part of the railway company itself.
What reduced the Brighton line from prosperity to the
brink of bankruptcy ? Not a rival main line, but a number
of paltry astensiorm involving an enormous and unprofit-
able outlay—branches promoted by tha company itself, or
by speculative persons whose rights the company bought.
The Star' referring to the election contests at Dundalk,
points out that for three years past Sir George Bowyer,
retaining the name and position of a liberal member, has
helped lir. Disraeli to climb to power and to stay there,
by votes as steadily tory as, for trample, those of Sir
Joseph Neale N'lCenna. II these sins against the prin.
ciples which he was pledged at his election to support do
not justify the liberals of Dundalk m ejecting Sir George
Bowyer from the representation of the borough, the Star
is at a loss to know what amount of defalcation will be
sufficient to reuse the anger and overcome the patience of
an earnestly liberal constituency.