Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-18 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES MONDA.I., APRIL 18, 1859

wished,, indeed, that Prostestants were equally so,
But Protestant Churchmen, as they are called,
though in reality bound by similar religious obliga-
tions, too commonly care for none of these things,
but "act in opposition to the general principles of their
religion,"--in the question of education, sometimes
more glaringly than in anything else. The very first
elements of thought, in every mind, are derived, or
ought to be, from a divine and mysterious source ;
and, as an eminent Professor of Moral Philosophy
expresses it, " they bear a close analogy to those
high abstract doctrines of theology which the
Christian student learns as the foundation of his
religion." And our Corporation Schools, it seems,
acknowledge this principle, though they but partially
and most imperfectly act upon it. But it is because
they do it at all, that they are so misplaced in
the hands of a body which represents so many who
could not adopt it, who could not be a party to it,
save only as it was in connection with, and under
the control of their own Church,—which, as we all
know, could never be. Protestants may be reconciled
to the disregard of such considerations in the matter
of education—they may think lightly of the duty of
its inculcating any distinctive religious teaching
at all. But not so the Roman Catholics— with all
their faults. They . will not tolerate a scheme of
education framed expressly- upon the principle of
omitting all such instruction. And as such a system
is yet the only one that would, in the Corporation
Schools, be just and fair to a great many others,
since the Roman Catholics cannot avail themselves
• of them, the only right alternative must be to have

which includes the whole community Jews and
Infidels and all, as well as the various discordant

sections of reputed Christians

that much of this might be saved if fountains were
generally established." Some of it, at any rate,
might be saved with advantage. One would like to
find that all that is expended on spirits, and much
that is spent on tobacco was saved by the freer use
of pure water. But, in the first place, where there
is the propensity, and where there are the tempta-
tions, to indulge in habits of drunkenness, no
facilities for drinking cold water, however
great, will have any effect. Drunkenness is

one of those vices which, we are assured
on unerring because divine authority, proceed from
man's heart ; and the only effectual remedy for
them is by means which can reach that source of the
evil. And, in the next place, the confirmed drunkard
has no taste for any thing so insipid, to him, as
water, which he invariably shuns, as an ordinary
beverage. Then, with respect to beer, we are of
those who contend that the working man is well
entitled to his fair modicum of malt liqour, as that
which is capable of refreshing and strengthening
him under his toil. We do not mean that he is to
frequent the ale-house for it ; nor is it necessary that
he should. But a glass of ale at his dinner, and
another-at his supper, would do him good—would
nourish his heart, and recruit his strength ; and we
hope the day is not far distant when, the malt tax
repealed, every son of toil will be enabled to enjoy
that good old English beverage at his own table, or
his own fire-side, in the midst of his fami y, rather
than be doomed, of necessity, to be all his life a
water-drinker.