Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-01-31 00:00:00

NEWSPAPER CON TR A S-'TS.

One finds endless materials for thinking in the
columns of the newspapers,—and strange contrasts
among them, ever and. anon. Well• has the Poet
said of such a sheet,—

" What is it, but a map of busy life,
Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns I"
It.certainly is all this, literally and truly; ancUt-
is a great deal more. It is a, valuable popßiar,
intelligencer, and therefore a great public instruc-
tor. Its news, again, is often, more than matched
by its admonitions. As a great moralist has with
only too much truth observed; of it,—" the follies,
vices, and consequent miseries of multitudes, dis-

played in its pages, are so, many warnings,somany
beacons, continually burning to turn others from,
the rocks on which they have been shipwrecked.'
Happy, indeed, must it be for society if they
prove so.

But at present we would speak more immedia-
tely of its contrasts. As well as " a map of busy
life," it is a picture, a panorania of the world in
which it appears, and whose chronicle it is ; and
one with its lights and shadows,, and its varieties,
and its contrasts. It presents a group of objects
which combine to make it just such a picture as one
of which it has been said that, " to form it right,
the figures of the groups must not bo all on a
side, that is with their faces and bodies all turned
the same way, but must contrast with each other
by their several positions." Such, we say, is the
picture or panorama of the world which the news-
paper furnishes day by day.
For example,—we had, in scanning the columns
of one of them but yesterday, met with many
painful records and representations of poverty, of
destitution, of misery,—of much that appealed to
the charity, of a Christian people—of much sad
distress which their liberality could release— of a
great deal of varied evil which, were the pecuniary
means but at hand, could be removed—much, very
much, in different ways, in which one that had
money
might realise the sacred record, " the bless-
ing of him that
Was ready to perish came upon me,
and I caused the
Widow'sNvas heart to sing for joy."
Money, we repeat
with a alone wanting, by its dis-
tributionliberalyeet judicious hand, to
in on
minister effectually,
shape or another, to
much of the ills, and many of the sorrows, and
• most of the mischiefs At which the feeling heart

can scarcely refrain from bleeding, in the daily
intercourse with the world. And this money, on
the other hand, in some cases, was plentiful enough
in various directions, could they who had it, and
so liberally squandered it, but direct the distribu-
tion of some reasonable portions of it to those
urgent objects.

We had just read, for instance, how much the
National Life Boat Institution was doing, in the
humane endeavour to preserve life in cases offihip-
wreck on our coasts,—how that it had lately
expended upwards of £B,OOO for that purpose, and
had been involved thereby in a debt of more than
£3,000. Money, therefore, was pressingly re-
quired ;—and, " its objects being so truly national
and philanthropic, it did not hesitate to recom-
mend it earnestly and on all occasions to the
support of those who are able to render it,"—and
this support was never more needed than at
present, when, through the extraordinary exer-
tions the Society has made within the past few
years, it has now eighty-one life boats under its
management, —since "'to maintain these boats in a
state of thorough efficiency a large permanent
annual income is absolutely needed, if its humane
mission is- to be perpetuated." There was no want
of money in, the country, we say,—the evidences
of that were. irresistible in the very columns where
this appeal appeared.

Two of these evidences let us. now adduce, as
'forming, in fact, two of the coittrasts—two of the
shadows to the lights—to which we have been
referring. The• first was an intimation, that the
duty paid on tobacco' and snuff in one year (ending
the• 31st March last) was £5,272;474 ; and the
second, that the spirit duties in the•year ended`
March, last. were £l-1,263,638. Here,• then, we-
have an expenditure for duties alone upon only
two descriptions of articles of luxury—too often of-
baneful luxury, both: morally and Physically—
amounting to upwardS, of sixteen millions and
a-half sterling in a single year !—a sum. which
would go. a long way towards relieving all our
poverty, and destitution.; and misery, and provi-
ding means, of relief for almost every variety of
distress and trouble, that is to. be met with in the
kingdom, and of which scarcely a newspaper is
ever issued that does not contain some painful
records. Here is the money—the people have it,
and ins such abundance that they squander it' by
the million, and tens of minions, upon mere
sensual, and often most pernicious self-indulgencies,
—while they see their brotherrhas need, on every
hand,. but thus. shut up their compassion from
him. Such, then, is one of those Newspaper
Contrasts of which we have been speaking, and
which constitute, as hath been shown, "so many
warnings and so•many beacons,"` would men only
give heed to themes they ought to do.

EDUCATION, SCIENCE,. AND ART.
ALTHOUGH we have a great deal to do yet, in

this country, ere it can be said thatwe have done our
duty to the people—as regards their-education;- still,
it is satisfactory to find that we • are making con-
siderable progressin. the work, and making it, too,
although too desultorily, perhaps,Yet to a tolerably
efficient purpose.. •

The expenditure in the matters of education,
science,. and art,_ daring the pastyear—that is, the
amount of grants,from the public, exchequer that
have been expended—is set down, we observe,. at,
£1,126,607. Of this sum, more than one-half is
denominated as for Public Education in Great.
Britain by itself, and rather more than a fifth of
it in. Ireland, and this almost entirely for the
schools provided for the poor.. About £17,000-
more is appropriated, we perceive, to those
Universities which may be said to belong more
especially to the people at large, such
as. the University of London, the Univer-
sities in Scotland, and the Queen's Univer-
sity and Queen's Colleges in Ireland. The great
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge do not, of
course, participate in anywise in.such grants—are
not supported in any degree out of the public-
exchequer ; their Regius Professorships being:, the
only state contributions they receive. Oxford bas
its twenty-four Colleges and Hulls, and Cambridge
its seventeen, which have severally their, own
independent revenues,. mostly arising from endow-
ments made in the periods. of their respective
foundations. So,that it' is,, as it ought to.be, for
those, and those only, who are unable to-provide
themselves with the means for their. education,
that the public-- money is expended. And. there
has been a very_ great increase in the amount- of
these education, grants. within the last few years.
It is not more than twenty years, ig we remember
rightly, since a grant of £30,000; was thought
sufficient for the purpose in Great Britain. Now
it is upwards of £660,000. This is the sum
granted last year, and it is an increase upon the
former year of more than £lOO,OOO.
The details of this expenditure for Public
Education show that the work. is going on at
no laggard rate. For instance, nearly £120,,000
has been expended in the year in building,
enlarging, repairing, and furnishing Elementary
Schools, and an equal amount for the same
purposes on Normal Schools. Then another large
proportion went for books, maps, and diagrams,
and also for scientific apparatus,—all indicating
practical progress in the great business of
national education. The salaries of teachers
and assistant teachers for the grants to Training.
Colleges, and to Refornntory .and Industrial
Schools,—all these outlays have required greatly
augmented means ; and their having done so is one
very decided proof that the education that is being
promoted by these public' grants is of that sort
which is most urgently needed in the present cir-
cumstances of the country. There is one depart..
ment we should like to see have more atten-
tion paid to it,—that of the Ragged Schools.
The Committee of Council on Education now
recognise them, and to a limited extent they
participate in the grant the Committee are empow-
ered by Parliament to dispense. But we think
might, with incalculable advantage,
receive much greater assistance than they have
yettthat
they
atdone.

It is not to be wondered. at, that the Schools of
the Established Church should obtia the greater
proportion of this wawa' Parlialugntary grui.