Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-11 00:00:00

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alarmingly ill, and one of them died yesterday
though it is hoped the others will

morning

recover

There - are' two shocking railway' accidents to
report this morning. On Saturday, a"Plategayer
on the.:Greut Northern Railway, was repairing the
line about five miles from Doncaster. He observed
an up-train approaching, and stepped On one: side to,
allow of its passing. At the same moment a doWn-
train appeared, but the poor fellow did not 'notice
it, and 'although the driver of the engine let offhis
.whistle, and endeavoured to stop-the train, he was
literally cut to pieces. .On :Friday. afternoon, a
young lad, about sixteen years of age, who was
travelling on the Bristol amt Exeter Railway, was
so foolish as to put his body half-way •out of
the window of the carriage—though. warned of..the
anger, he repeated the 'experiment three . or four
times. At leagtb, his head,came in contact witha;
'bridge, and lie WAS killed on the spot.•;, • _
The South Staffordshire colliers have held seve-
ral meetings lately on the subject of an increase of
wages. They now state that the masters are in a
condition• to_ grant au...advance of 6d. per clay, and
they that if such is not done by-tieertain
time, they will strike. for an .advance of ls. per
day. . .
To-day, a Cabirtet Council, and a Privy Council;
Will settle the time for the ensuing session of Par-
liament to begin its sittings. It is to,be hoped the.
earliest possible day will be decided. upon. Mean-
while, Ministers are.coming up to town, and Lord
Derby is expected-from Knowsley in the course Of
this day. The Aforning Herald, which gets infor-
mation from the Treasury, has reason to believe
that the session will commence in the first week of
February, and probably on the first day of. the
month.

At a weekly meeting of the Water Committee
yesterday, the engineer stated that' the total
'supply of water to the town, or the week ending
Saturday was 7.5,514,(y3 gallons, of which
47,766,756 gallons were from . the- vingtun
works. In answer to Mr. Bennett- the engineer
stated that the falling off in the. supply of well
water was owing to the several pumping
apparatuses being. out-of order; in addition to'-not
pumping on the' Sundays.

THERE are still 'great differences of opinion on
the subject of education. The antiquated and
illiberal and unintellectual ideas about the danger
of educating the masses are all, of course, by, this
time, exploded. The great wonder now is, limy
such barbarous notions ever came to be entertained
by people who had themselves had some, sort of
education, and who were citizens of a civilised

They must have known and felt, one
would have thought,' something of the advantage
of being educated, in whatever degree, themselves ;
and yet they would deny it to others with similar
faculties to theirs, similar means of profit-
ing by it, and as good opportunities, perhaps,
as theirs of being made more useful thereby, in
theirday of generation. But all this error and
prejudice, we, day, is now exploded, and scattered
to the. win 1s: No one, now-a-days, dare stand up
and acknowledge an objection to the extension of
education to all classes—the very poorest of all.
Nay, we believe that the opinion is now 'a very
prevalent one, in all directions, that the educ'ation
of the people, how poor soever some of them may
be, is a national concern,—not only a matter in
which the nation is to take an interest, but one
which the nation is bound to provide the means of
accomplishing, wherever the people to be educated
are unable to do so themselves.

country

This question, and in these very aspects of it,
has within the last few days been discussed bi- the

Vice-President of the Committee of Council on

Education, Mr

ADDERLEY, M.P., on the occasion
of the anniversary Celebration of the Library and
Museum at Saltley, near Birmingham, of which
the right hon. gentleman was the founder. His
principal object seems to have been, to explain
what were the limits of National Education—at

what point the State ought to interfere, and the

point beyond which it ought never to go
considered this," says the report of his address,

most important part of the question in this country
at this moment, because he had had sufficient
knowledge and experience, short as it had been, to

show him that at all events, on one side, namely,

towards the higher limit which that institution

represented, there was a perpetual tendency and.

inclination in the State to interfere too much,

whilst on the other hand he was not at all sure
whether, from carlessness on the part of the lower

class of parents there was not a. point where the
State did not, interfere soon enough." We believe

there is a great deal of truth in this remark

higher and middle classes are quite 'capable of sup-
porting their own respective educational institu-
tions, and the State therefore has nothing whatever
to do with them. But it is quite a different thing
with thoa for the poor. In the first place, they
must have schools provided for them—since they
are unable to provide them themselves ; and, in
the next place, there is among them, too often, an
indisposition to send their children for any lengths
of time to school, particularly if they can find any
profitable employment for them without, and
instead of doing so. And here it is that the State

does not interfere enough. The evils of ignorance
are public evils. The State must, therefore, take

measures to remedy them. And one of the fore-
most of such remedial measures is that of providing
for, and seeing to, the education of those who are
unable, arid perhaps, unwilling also, to do it them-
selves
Mr

ADDERLEY was anxious to disabuse the
minds of those who are interested in this important
question, as to the examples of other countries
being applicable to the case of England. " They
were continually meeting with speakers," he
observed, "in and out of Parliament, who cited
Prussia,. Austria, and France in this manner. Well,
these countries had autocratic Governments, where
the sovereign power did everything for the people,
and the people did nothing for themselves. Other
orators threw in our teeth the institutions of
America, but in that country there was a tyrant
of another description equally fatal to individuality
of action : he meant the will of the masses. England
did not present either the one or the other of these
phases—but something between the two, and to
his mind something vastly superior and preferable
to either. Here the rule was that the State should
in no case interfere, except where it was absolutely
necessary." And certainly this is a good rule,
provided it be acted out,—that the State, that is,
did always interfere when it was absolutely neces-
sary to (19 fs9• Ignoranee must zKot prevail