The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-02 00:00:00

NEW WRIT.

On the motion of Mr. C. BRUCE, a new writ was
ordered' for Renfrew in the place of• Col. Mure, who has
accepted the Chiltern Hundreds.

PETITIONS.

Petitions were presented by Sir J. Trollope, from Lin-
coln, praying for the closing of all public-houses on the
Sabbath ; by Mr. Hadfield, from Independent ministers
in Lancashire, against grants fur any religious denomi-
nations ; also, a petition in favour of education on the
voluntary principle ; by Lord H. Vane, two petitions
from Darlington, for the abolition of church rates ; by
Mr. Walpole, from the Switch Presbyterian Church,
London-wall, against the Marriage Bill.
EDUCATION (No. 2) BILL.

. .
On the order of the day for the second reading of this
bill,
Sir J. PAKINGTON rose and said he had not in-
tended to offer ar.y observations on this stage of the bill,
but be believed the object of the bill was very much
misunder,tood, and he therefore hoped he might ask the
favourable attention of the house to a measure which it
might be thought presumptuous in him to hring in, but
which he had at all events introduced with singleness
of purpose. His great object was to provide extended and
religious education to the population of this country on
the most com plete system of toleration with regard to the
great principle of liberty of conscience. The machinery
of the bill would be conducted by grants of public
money, to be expended by local boards duly responsible
to this house. He had to make one earnest appeal to the
house to give their vote for the bill on those great prin•
ciples without respect to matters of detail, which could
be only fitly discussed at a subsequent stage of the bill.
All the existing schools in this kingdom were connected
either with the Church of England or the great denomi-
national bodies of the country. The population bad
during the last halfcentury increased wonderfully ; but
it was undeniable that the Church bad failed to keep
pace with their religious instruction, and if the
dissenting denominations had not stepped in that
population would be in a far worse state of igno-
rance than unfortunately they now were. (Hear.)
He did not think it necessary now to detain the house
further than to move that the bill be read a second time.
Mr. HENLEY rose to move an amendment that the
bill be read a second time this day six months. It was
because he felt most deeply that if the house were to
affirm this bill, the result would be not only that it
would not extend education at all, but most of all that

it would not extend religious education. (Hear, hear.)
,He believed the question they had now to decide was
whether they should foster the great principle of volun-
tary education in this country—(hear)—or by an experi-
ment ot, this sort throw back indefinitely the progress
already h; :de by that system. The bill would,
moreover, be attended with an enormously increased
amount of taxation. (Hear, hear.) He thought there
,was one evil at the root of this question, which was not
sufficiently kept in view. He did not think that was
education which merely taught, a person to read and
write, to do some suing in arithmetic, to tell the reign-
ing sovereigns of the world, or the geographical position
of various countries. What he regarded as education
was a system that would reach the heart ; that would
teach a person to know and do his duty to God and man,
and thereby be enabled to go through life as a good
Christian, and a good citizen. (Hear, hear.) He be
lieved that, comparing the people of this country, in re-
spect to education and morality, with any other people
in the world, short as had been our means, they would
be found at least equal if not superior to most other na-
ions. He believed there never was a time when they could
look with greater satisfaction to the state of our institu-
tions than the present. He did not deny that there was
much ignorance and crime that he could wish to see re-
moved ; but he believed that, do what we would, there
would be always some crime and some ignorance, and
he also 'oelieved that this bill would not be effectual in
removing either crime or ignorance. The first point in
which he differed from his right hon. friend was as to
the number of children attending schools. By the census
it appeared that there were 2,140,000 children attending
day schools, and about 2,400,000 attending Sunday
schools. Mr. Horace Mann said there ought to be
3,000,000 of children attending school ? The real ques-
tion was, why were not those children attending
school ? He believed it was not for want of schools.
(l-lear.) Mr. Mann had omitted one important element
in his calculations, and that was owing to the great
distance at which many of them lived from school.
The next difficulty was the indifference of the parents.
How was his right hon. friend to deal with that? It
could not be done by compulsory means, and therefore
they should be still in the same position. (Hear.) The
next point was as to the poverty of the parents, and he
believed as to that the bill could afford no remedy, ex-
cept that it proposed to make the schools free. So far
good. If the bill proposed to make the new schools
free, it might do some good ; but if the bill proposed to
make the existing schools free also, it would stamp pau-
perism on the whole population of this country. (Hear,
hear.) His right hon. friend had on a former occasion
adduced Austria as being one of the be-t-educated
countries in the world ; but he (Mr. Henley) maintained
that, although education in Austria was entirely corn-
pulsory, the number of children who could be brought to
attend schools in that empire was not equal to those
attending schools under the voluntary system in this
! country. (Hear.) He came now to the quality of the
education proposed to be given by this bill. His right
hon. friend had omitted in his speech all notice what-
ever of Sunday-school teaching, which was a most valu-
able element in the education of the people, and without
which we should be in a much worse state than we were
at present. His right hon. friend had referred to Austria
as being one of the best-educated countries in Europe ;
but it appeared front a statement published by Mr.
Kiy, that while in England, in 1846, the number of
persons convicted was 60,000, in Austria, with a popu-
lation of 33,000,000, the number of detected crimes—he
begged the house to observe the word—was '419,492. Mr.
Kay's work referred to 1837-8, as wellas 1846, and the dif-
ference between those years was trifling. It appeared then
that the whole population, excepting Hungary, which was
not included, was 23,652,000. The total number re-
ceiving education was 2,338,985, which gave a propor-
tion of the whole population of one in 10 and a fraction ;
while in our own country the nu:nber gave one in 8 and
a fraction. With regard to crime, the number of crimi-
nals was 29,492, or as nearly as possible one in 800 in
the population. As to morality, the number of births
was in the whole Austrian empire, in 1846, 976.495,
while the number of illegitimate births was about one in
every nine and a fraction. (Hear, hear.) His right
honourable friend had also referred to America, as
affording a good illustration of the benefits of national
education ; but he (Mr. Henley) believed the house
would not much value any national system of education
which did not also include a religious education. (Hear,
hear.) He knew his right hon. friend condemned the
religious system set up in America. (Hear, hear, from
Sir J. takington.) His right hon. friend cried " hear,
hear," but lie would remind him that the American na-
tional schools were originally set up to teach a religious
education, but had gradually slipped down to be a purely
secular system. (Blear, hear.) The right hon. gentle-
man (Mr. Henley) then referred to the evidence of Mr.
Baines before the Manchester and Salford Committee,
of which his right hon. friend (Sir J. Pakington) was a
member. Mr. Eaines stated that he wished to
speak with great respect of the American schools
as to their secular cl,aracter ; but he felt bound
to add that they were not what they were origi-
nally intended to be, as originally they were intended
to give a religious education, whereas the teaching cf
religion was almost altogether banished from them.
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in the American schools tended to loosen all definite
ideas of Christianity in the winds of the people. (Hear,