Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-09-21 00:00:00

indirect

If the Church, said 1 a 'Christian Father, were
but for one day what she ought to be, the world
would be'converted before night-fall. If for one

twelve-month or less, this poor and' distracted
Commonwealth of England were submitted to
the manipulations of Mr. BRIGHT, and these
our local aspirants, would not all the
povernments in Europe in
admiration come and lay - their portfolios
at their feet ? As for us old-world spirits, who
still pretend to love the British Constitution, and
take hut slowly .and unkindly the teachings of
the new political economy, our vision is of a
limited and feeble cast ; our sluggish faculties

a fever of

cannot rise to, the height of this great argument,

nor fully conceive all the possibilities of a Finan-
cial &former's future. Mark too ,the beautiful
division of labour which apportions the different
branches of the body-politic to these great Apos-

ties of reform. Mr. BRIGHT'S comprehensive
genius takes in all the political and theo.retical
defects in the intricate machine of government.

The other and humbler labourers are engaged
in preparing data for its new policy

As soon as

the more perfect instrument is devised by the
one, the measures it is to carry out will be placed
by the other cut and dried into its hands. Need
we add, that that 'machine of government is to
be found in the supremacy of one, and that the
lowest class in the country ; and that the policy
is to be what is called the taxing of the rich-for
the benefit of the poor? Mr. BRIGHT, therefore, and
his new Reform' League, and the Liverpool
Association, are natural allies, advancing step by
step to the same object, Often under specious dis-

guises, and always with attractive professions.
With all the inspiration of poetry, however,

we have a deal of its madness
ill-affected to the very laudable object which
is the subject of financial reform. No one Will
question the good intentions by which, in the

No one can be

SEPTEMBER 21, 159

money-power is to be the regenerator of
mankind. Where; through this night of ages,—
in what depths of the human mind, has this
grand prineieg been hidden, whileiice‘and
and pride and selfishness, have played their cease-
less and fantastic tricks before high
.heaven ?-
Surely this cannot be the waning age of the
world,:when its only secret of preservation—its
charm, we might suppose, of eternal-youth—first
discovers itself to mortals !
Now, in all this, we are more - serious thy'
satirical- We cannot look withoUt grave dis-
pleasure upon these audacious phantasies of well—
informed and practical men._ They cut both.
ways. They repel- the co-operation, and tend to
distort the- sympathies of the best-- members of
,the community ; and they attract the support of
the frivolous and enthusiastic, and propagate
among the masses of the people only delusion and
discontent.

-WE are glad to see the Tunes taking up the
subject of Middle Class Education in the spirit
in which Sir JoHN. COLERIDGE interpreted it, in
his speech at Exeter, which was copied into our
eolumns the day before yesterday. Our able
contemporary very reasonably deduces from that
speech the opinion;that hot only is such edu-
cation to be considered as an issue of Christi-
anity, but :that Christianity, in its general'
principles, treating all alike who embrace'
it, as brethren, and as 'standing, in a
Christian sense, in a position_of equality,--must
of neeessity- exert its influence in the Whole.

process that is at work,---the process we mean,
of improving the people by education, when
it is properly conducted. Tiy this term it

is not meant; of course, that the acquisition of

reading and -writing, and accounts—of history,
and geograPhy, and grammar, and logic,—that
these things of. themselves constitute education ;
to suppose so, although a very
very dangerous mistake

common, were a

To educate, is not only
to instruct, but to train up—to make those who

are brought under its operation fit for theit

respective stations in society, in
.a Christian.

. .
country, and under Christian responsibilities.
Surely that divine element, to the operation of
which it •is mainly owing that the humbler
classes, more particularly, have got to be educate&
at. all, can never be kept out of
.view in any such
consideration as this. It is quite true, that
education has the effect of raising those who are-
brought under its influences to political power,.
however lowly their condition in society may be.
But if the education itself be of the right sort,.
there is nothing to be apprehended from such a
result as this. An educated people deserves to be
entrusted with political power. One of the
greatest objections of all to universal suf-
frage is, that the people are not universally
educated. If it be Christian education, and those-
whom it trains up become Christian citizens,—
why, they are the very best materials that the

State can possibly have, with which to build up
its political institutions. Our contemporary
justly observes, therefore, that "in this sense it

" is quite true to say that the genius of, Christianity
" is democratic,"—that "it discards altogether that

"'old aspect of the mass, that old impertinence of
" supposing that a select clique, a peculiar race,
" is-mankind. It annihilates this uppish, ridicu--
" bons inflation, the frivolity of the aristocratic

dreamer; it svatters this miserable rubbish to