The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-29 00:00:00

deco a measure iammeisteat to
with the Bane Beentary's 1111111.1111.1=
obi:hist and quailiscbstore the ierm of gime.
M.t@ of which Ms. HOPALIN es bitterly, as yet
Co.-
ministers Weed to do with ths
mat swim ie. et esems, se yet saltairena. 'Sat a
miaow is abroad that their pka era atill fall sheet
of the committee's memmendatious is the mkt I
Weigh to ens partials: their swears will, as spokes
et. be as improvement themes. Fee report speak' et
a lay prosit of the Beelesiastkal Commiesion,
who shell be la the House of Comma
Ni eseregy them mash the same patties as the Presi
dent d the Poor-4w Board. This, it taut heat
owe ninitted, maid be a great impeovemest ; bat it
welsh ast of itself be a mespeamation for the omission
in the gennislat unseen ef all or aayet the atter
moommendations et the solemnities. We mast bare
them all. mod as mash more as we can get, bat ser-
ials): within km. And at all mato we 'street
selistemas
they mks their obarasters, to avoid next
widen dee trifling and the insincerity on this tom
tioa whisk no unhappily characterised their sandlot
bat sessiss.

A TREY important sad cheering manifesto on the
satgeet of education has teethed as from
lithalsergh. We have re-printed it in essithiessiams,
Sad sessIMINIA it to the attention of the Minds of
'animism is the south. It speaks strongly he the
Pais' and Usual views taken of that alislera
=by the religious riblio of lands ea
pospratiss for a concentrated pmelissi
gamma Is it by leaden of many valid
A.
Am the sessilisto is to be kept open he
M cease
the 31st instant, we moist yet atcursretialinty as to the number and sharactse the
names that may be appended to it. Bat theammit-
tes who peepared it (a committee appoints& at a
recent conisamos of the friends of national etintaths
in Edinburgh), and upon whom have devolved the
charge of receiving signatures, is a remarkable ans.
There areupon that committee aders among the ens-
gelkaldissenters of Scotland, and two of the most ase
complishod and earnest leaders ot the free church. Their
presence ought to he a sufficient guarantee to men of
deep religions oonvictioas, while the names of Mann.
WILLIAm CHAMBERS (of Chambers' Journal), J. H.
Bona( (author of the "Life of Home*), BLACK
(late Provost of Edinburgh), CaattrUan (Sheriff of
Perthshire), and WHISTSB (Deputy Commissary Ge-
neral), show that the iodepadent thinkers =
the laity are aim fairly represented. We are
that the armatures will not fall short of 600, and that
their " universality * is most remarkable. We may
add that the parties with whom this movement has
originated, and who have by great maims imparted
it sufficient organisation to warrant a simmins
pectation that it will be waived in, have mash
practical experience in the work of educatiour through
their conaexion with congrerational, industrial,
ragged, and other schools. They are no mere
dilettanti theorists.
These men proclaim their conviction that "while it
might be difficult to describe with a near approach to
statistical precision, the exact condition of Scotland
at this moment in respect to education, there can be
no doubt that es a people we have greatly sunk from
our former elevated position among other nations,
and that a large proportion of our youth ere left
without education to grow op in an ignorance miser-
able to themselves and dangerous to smutty." This
lamentable state of affairs they attribute to the inade-
quacy of the parish schools of Scotland to the wants
of the country ; and this inadequacy they trace to
" the smallness of the class invested with the patron-
age, the limited portion of the community from which
the teachers are selected, the general inadequacy of
their remuneration, and the system of manage-
ment applicable to the schools, inferring,
an it does, the exeusive control of church
smarts. " In other words, the friends of
education in Scotland, from whom this manifesto'
emanates, have learned from experience that the
parochial
system of schools, to which Scotland in
days owed so much, is no longer applicable to
the altered circumstances and relations of the cow
menity. The same experience his taught them that
issaltory.uncombined efforts to supply the deficiencies
of the existing parochial system are u Wog, and
that in consequeaoe, the manufacturing and mining
districts, on the one hand, and the Highlands sae
Islands on the other, are rapidly analog in the seas
of intellect and morals.
As the only available counter-agent to this daager-
stts the signers of the manifesto recommend
a national system of education. The system which
they contemplate, however, is one which the
veriest alarmists, on the score of national
education among liberals and reformers, can
scarcely, we should think, object to. It is
really a national, not merely a government system.
It has the further recommendation of being amply
an adaptation of the existing system to the altered
condition of society in Scotland. It is proposed that
" the power of selecting the masters, fixing the
branches to be taught, and managing the schools, at
present vested by law in the }writers of Scotland and
the presbyteries of the established church, be trans-
I fared to the heads of families" in each parish or
school district It is proposed that normal schools for
the training of tuckers should be established ; that
the possession of a licence or certificate of qualifica-
tion should be namesary t.) entitle a teacher to be-
come a candidate for any school under the national
system; and care having been thus taken to ensure
the competency of the teachers, it is recommended
that they "should not be required by law to sub-
scribe any religions test." It is added, es necessary
to the calling into existence of a superior class of
teachers, that adequate provision should be made far
their remuneration.
This disclaimer of a religious test, when regard is
had to the names of those who constitute a majority
of the committee, is most important. They proclaim
their confidence in the national character that among
other .. .roue... 01, education the important subject of
religion will not be neglected. They uaressrvedly
give in their adhesion to the suggestion mai by the
late Dr. CHALMERS, "That in soy public mum be
helping on the edecatim of the people, government
should abstain from introducing the element of reli-
gion at all into their part of the scheme, and this not
because thew hold the matter to be insignificant—the
contrary might be strongly expressed in the preamble
of their act—but oa the ground that, in the present I
divided state of the Christian world, they would take
no cognisance of, just because they would exert a
control over, the religion of applicants for aid."
The framers of the manifesto to which we have
I called attention, have not rested satisfied with elabo-
rating sound general principles. They hare the
waking details of their national system fully ma-
ttered. They recommend :—" Ist. That local boards
timid be established, the members to be appointed
ltagyealmlar election, on the principle of giving the
to all male beads of families being base-
Midas; and with these boards should lie the rake-
tisa of musters, the general management of the
misesis, and the right, without undue interference
with the meter, to direct the breeches of education
is be taught. 2nd. That there should be a general
anprintending authority, so constituted as to secure
public confidence, and to be responsible to the public
through parliament, which, without supersed-
ing the local boards, should see their duties
are not neglected—prevent abus. • from being
perpetrated by carelessness or d. sign—check extra-
vagant expenditure—protect the interests of all par.
tit s—collect and preserve the general statistics of
education—and diffuse throughout the country, by
communication with the local boards, suet knowledge
on the subject of education, and such enlightened
views, as their authoritative position end their com-
mand of aid from the highest intellects in the country
may enable them to communicate."
The great recommendation of the scheme hem
chalked out consists in its catholicity, or its ember
sing the whole population of Swaged ; in its pop-
lar 'gamy, or bang worked by the people themselves;
and in the wide latitude of free action, it leaves to
the Individual insight and temperament of the
hadisre. Ws believe that Scotland is rips for it; and
we would his regard the gre.tleinsa who have signed
the manifesto as an organised perranent com-
mittee for urging a meteore based upon their
principles on the adoption of the legislature. If they
an obtain for their part of the empire the establish-
ment of such a system as they contemplate, they will
have secured for It a boon unequalled minor the first
introduction of the Scotch parish schools by the great
fathers of the reformation. And this system, once
firmly established in Scotland, will room the emula-
tion of the southern pert of the island.