The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, SE

of affairs. For the first time we have had the at-
tention of Parliament fully directed to the subject
of Education ; attracted, no doubt, by other mo-
tives than the mere zeal for popular improvement—
led by sectarian animosity—whetted by factious
rage—yet still pointed, for whatever reason, to this
great question,which, as it never before had obtained
any share of Parliamentary favour, so, I presume to
think, never henceforth can, with its prodigious in-
trinsic merits, cease to occupy the Legislature, for
its own sake, until it is finally and satisfactorily
disposed of by some great national measure becom-
ing the law of the land. It is thus that the
wisdom of an overruling Providence, bringing ge-
neral good out of partial evil, orders so as some
superficial irritation, some flying ache, shall excite
our attention to the deep-seated mischief that is
preying upon our vitals, lead us to probe its hidden
source, and enable us to apply the needful remedy,
long after the superficial feeling that first gave us
the warning shall have passed away and been for-
gotten. The ignorance of the people, the origin
of all the worst ills that prey upon our social sys-
tem, has become at length the object of Legislative
regard ; and I defy the constituted authorities of
this free country to delay much longer in applying
the appropriate cure, by eradicating a disease, as
easily cured as it is fatal if neglected."
After adverting to the temper of the present
Government, as favourable to a liberal system
of education, he thus continues, assuring those
who have long laboured with him that he will fight
still as valiantly in the great cause for which they
have so long contended—the Education of the
people !
" For my own part, I can feel no doubt or hesi-
tation whatever. The Legislature is at length, no
matter how, roused to the subject of Popular Edu-
cation. The existing Government is perfectly
friendly to our cause ; nay, adopts our views not
only regarding the necessity of a great exertion to
teach the people, but regarding the manner in
which the efforts of the State should be directed.
The time, therefore, is arrived when the com-
paratively feeble labours of individuals should
give place to the work which stronger hands
can better do. You and I had better stand
aside and let the Government bring forward
the measure as their own, with all the weight
which a Government is sure to have, and the
support which no individual can command. In
adopting this course, of resigning my favourite
scheme into their hands, I felt that I was doing the
best for its success. I knew that I was gaining for
it an accession of strength which it never could
have while it remained in my hands. I was aware
that many who were lukewarm, and were jealous
or even hostile towards it, as long as it passed
for my progeny, would see a thousand beauties
in the bantling, as soon as the Ministry, the
parent of so many good things, by the act of adopt-
ing it, made it half brother to patronage and
place. 'Tis true I was not introducing it
into a very powerful family ; and all their foster-
ing care might fail to establish it successfully
in the world. But every thing is by comparison.
A cottager's child is thought lucky to be adopted
by a poor curate. I was wholly without the means
of providing for my offspring ; and its fortune was
made if the Government would take it off my hands.
I followed a great and a successful example. too,
that of Mr. Wilberforce, who, as soon as our friends
came into office in 1806, resigned the great cause
of the Abolition into their hands ; and by their
hands the good work was finished.
" I believe I need hardly have said even so much
to convince you that this is our wisest course by
far. Suppose the Government should fail, as there
is but too much reason to fear they may in the
present state of parties both in the Lords and
Commons,—still we are not worse than if we had

failed ourselves. Nay, we are a very great deal
better ; for, depend upon it, we shall have received
much valuable support from those who on party and
on personal grounds now hang back. The Educa-
tion of the People upon a great and comprehensive
plan, will have been made a Government measure ;
and whatever influence the executive power has
either in Parliament or in the country, will have
been added to the support which our cause already
has obtained from both. Shall we as individuals
relax in our exertions, because we are backed
by the weight of place and power ? Will those
efforts be less effectual than when we were ill
supported, if not actually opposed by both ? Of
myself I should not speak, were it not that to my
amazement some (they are but a few) friends of
Education have talked as if my services would now
be lost to the cause which has occupied my life !
Does any one know human nature so little as to be-
lieve that the prospect of success is calculated to
abate hope, and damp zeal, and lull to inaction ?
Is any one so ignorant of even the less respectable
portion of our common nature, as to imagine
that there is no pleasure in the pride of see-
ing ,the tree flourish which our hands have
planted, though others may have watered it,—
no savour in its fruit, though others may pluck
it and commend it to our lips ? lam somewhat
amazed, indeed, to see one good friend, but one
only, so simple as to imagine that I shall get lazy,
and rest while others toil. I should have thought
nobody who knew me at all, could know my nature
so very little as to suppose I could rest quiet one
moment, when any cause to which I had devoted
myself was labouring. I should most probably
not wish for such repose if I could take it ; but
very certainly I could not take it if I would.
The signal sounded by the Government would
pierce my 'heart with rapture, and call me in an
instant to their standard ! No toil, no suffering,
no patience, would be found too great ; all I could
do or attempt would be at their absolute dis-
posal. They would have all the glory of the great
achievement, for, suecessful or not, the enterprise
would he an achievement ; enough for me to have
the satisfaction of witnessing their good works---an
ample reward for years of anxious labour. Nor
would it be the least part of my gratification, that
so old a friend as Melbourne had signalized his
public life by earning before its close a distinction
among the very few worth living for."
" Now there are some among us of so hot a zeal,
that they will not consent to see how entirely we
have been discomfited, nay, are somewhat impatient
of being told the truth. Nevertheless, I have always
made it a rule to keep the eyes of such worthy and
thoughtless persons as wide open as I could to the
real state of things, well knowing that the operation,
though painful to them, is salutary to the cause they
so manfully esti( us 3, prevents them from throwing
their pains away in the pursuit of impossibilities,
and secures them from the dangers which beset the
walk of the blind. But why do I so confidently
affirm that we never can rally with any effect round
our beaten colours ? Because I can see not the
shadow of a chance that the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal should be converted to our faith. For, ob-
serve, the Commons are substantially of nearly the
same opinion with the Lords. All that the Govern-
ment plan could there obtain was a majority of four,
and that on a question where all the minority were
strongly of the opinion expressed by their votes ;
while many of the majority, who agreed with them
in their hearts, gave their voices to the Government,
rather than turn the Ministers, including some of
themselves, out of their places. I know myself at
least a score of men, who disliked the Government
plan on its own merits, yet voted for it to keep the
Government in; I don't know one who voted against
it in order to turn them out, and yet approved of
the plan."

" It is certain, that as things now stand, the two
_HE ,LECTION AT CLERKENNVELL.—A Cor-
great parties into which the community is un- respondent, who writes from Clerkenwell-green, says it is
happily split upon this mighty question, are re- absurd to suppose that Dr. Dillon would give 'up 1,000/.
solved that we should have no system of Education a-year for 6001., the income of the Rector of Clerken-
,w,etill, and, declares the assertion,,Th D.osrtfr.eoeutr. Correspondent
at all,—no national plan for training teachers, and
Dillonh receives a
thereby making the schools that stud the country
n
willingly place both statemceanptselb'e'
thousandmo a-year from thea Charlottte
fotorebteh
the
all over, deserve the name they bear,—no national calumny. We
plan for training young children to virtuous habits, reader, being in nowise interested either for Dr. Dillon
and thereby rooting out crimes from the land. And or Mr. Faulkner, though we feel some interest in such a
severe contest between two parsons and their friends for
this interdict, under which both parties join in lay- severe
of a church.
ing their country, is by each pronounced to be ne- possession
CHARGE OF HORSE-STEALING.—At Guild-
cessary for the sacred interests of religion. Of hall, on Friday, two countrymen, named Wilson and
religion I Oh, gracious God ! was ever the Chandler, were brought before Mr. Alderman Kelly,
name of thy holy ordinances so impiously pro- charged with stealing two valuable horses. It appeared
fatted before ? Was ever that the prisonersl calledh eon Thursday afternoon at the
onrsCeow-Tcrhoisrs, Smithfield, and
before, thy best gift
man, his reason, so bewildered by blind bigotry, or .
to ' house of ohfima hotorsep-slaughterer
h*
nt
thty shillings were
savage intolerance, or wild fanaticism—bewildered offered and agreed to be taken, b e s aug term.an, so as to curse the very light thou hest caused to aware of its being of far greater value, instead of paying
shine before his steps—bewildered so as not to per- the money, gave the custody on suspicion of
prisoners in
ceive that any and every religion must flourish best being horse-stealers. It was afterwards found that they
in the tutored mind, and that by whomsover in- had another horse in their possession, which also they were
structed in secular things, thy word can better be desirous of disposing of to the slaughterer. The prisoners
were remanded until Monday next, to give time for inquiry.
sown in a soil prepared, than in one abandoned The Bishop of this diocese has declared his in-
through neglect to the execrable influence of the tention to enforce the Act of the Ist of Victoria, cap.
evil Spirit ?
106, as soon as he can obtain the requisite information.
full services
son each Sunday will be
"But how long is the country to suffer, that its formed by the Incumbent regardless of
best interests shall be sacrificed to this polemical
obliged to be per . .
_..0
By this Act two
the size of the par hls .--1 V ttinghant Mercury.

strife ? Rather let me ask, how long are we, the
Friends of Education, to betray our duty, when we
have it in our power, easily and extensively, and
with a very little self-denial, satisfactorily to per-
form it ?
" You and I, my excellent friend, have long la-
boured in this vineyard--and it is barely possible
that we shall hereafter be found, when we render up
an account of our stewardship, not to have la-
boured in vain. It is, I say, barely possible ; but
I must add, that I cannot feel at all certain on this
momentous particular. A strict, a most rigorous,
reckoning will be exacted of us."
" But it will be said, Why should not the Esta-
blished Church listen to all this doctrine, and show
her zeal for Education by waiving her claims ?
No one feels the force of the appeal more strongly
than I do ; none has more constantly urged it
than myself upon the late great discussion.
Upon this subject I can have no doubts at all.
Thus my plan embraces religious instruction ; the
Bible is ordered to be taught in every school of
every description, founded, or extended, or visited,
or in any way holpen under the proposed Act. But
if the Scriptural teaching were objected to, rather
than the people should not be taught, I should in-
finitely prefer a merely secular Education to none
at all ; and prefer it with a view to religious in-
struction itself ; nay, even if no religious instruc-
tion were to follow ; because who can doubt that
it is far better the people should be taught some-
thing good than not at all ? Therefore I am
clearly of opinion, that the Church is altogether
wrong, even with a view to the attaimnent of its owownobjects, the bringing up children in Church princi-
ples ; and that she is far more likely to spread her
own doctrines and discipline, by encouraging mere se-
cular instruction, without any intermixture of spi-
ritual, than by leaving children wholly untaught.
But I have maintained this doctrine in vain ; and
we plainly see that the Church and the Legislature
are firmly resolved to reject it. Then I turn to
the friends of Education among the Dissenters;
and to them I now, through you, a liberal Church-
man, and the Dissenter's tried friend, make this my
last appeal.
" First of all, we are to conclude that the ques-
tion is decided against us, and that the only alter-
native which remains is a Church school Bill, or
no National Education at all. Being thoroughly
convinced, both by private communications, and
by the whole turn of the debate, that no one will
ever dream of proposing any clerical interference
which can violate the sacred rights of conscience,
but that whatever schools are planted, must be open
to all classes of the community, without the exac-
tion of any religious observances, a compulsory at-
tendance at any religious tuition contrary to the
principles of the parents, I am not prepared to
embrace the alternative of refusing all National
Education, rather than allow some preference, some
interference to the Church, where I perceive such
preference, such interference to be harmless.
" But next,—l conceive that a reason why we
should give up our principles of perfect religious
equality, sound as they are, and why the Dissenters
should join in the surrender, is to be plainly drawn
from the fact of the Church being in possession :
She is established by law; she refuses to adopt
our scheme ; if the question is who shall yield to
the other, it seems no dishonour for us to yield, the
other patty being already master of the field."
After adverting to the vast advantages of educa-
tion, even though taught by Jesuits or Romish
zealots, he adds :
" You car, no more nourish the mind with ' the
food that is convenient for it,' and stunt its powers
of self-liberation, than you can feed the body and
prevent it from waxing strong.
" So thought my late Rev. Friend Dr. Lindsay,
a man whose life was spent in the honourable office
of a teacher. So thought and still thinks my
learned and able Friend Dr. Shepherd, who long
exercised the same most useful profession. Both
conscientiously dissenting from the Church ; both
jealous to the extreme of all clerical influence ;
both regarding Prelacy as only less to be repro-
bated than Popery ; yet both held in the con-
troversy of 1821, that the power given by the
Education Bill, and which so many of their bre-
thren would not admit, was harmless, and might
well be offered as the price of so great a boon to
mankind. I attended the Conference with the
Three Denominations in the Red Cross-street
Library, when Dr. Lindsay made the memorable
declaration to his Dissenting brethren, the last
words he uttered on any public matter, for within
four-and-twenty hours he was suddenly taken
to his great reward, by the Master whom, in all
singleness of heart, in all purity of living, he had
so faithfully served : lam a Presbyterian, as you
all well know, and no man more abhors the errors
of Romanism ; but such is my faith in knowledge,
and such my fear of ignorance, that rather than
men should not be educated, I would pray to have
them taught by the Pope of Rome.' I too say—
as a Friend of the People I say—as an enemy to
superstition, an advocate of the Protestant religion,
a firm supporter of the right of private judgment
on all matters spiritual and secular, I say,---as a
sworn antagonist to the worst craft of the priest,
his temporal power built upon the abuse of his
sacred office, I say, and devoutly, and from the
bottom of my heart I say,—Amen to that enlight-
ened and pious prayer !"
His Lordship thus concludes :
" And shall civilized, shall free, shall Christian
rulers, any longer pause, any more hesitate, before
they amend their ways, and attempt, though
late yet seriously, to discharge the first of their
duties ?—Or shall we, calling ourselves friends to
human improvement, balance any longer, upon some
party interest, some sectarian punctilio, or even
some refined scruple, when the means are within
eur reach to redeem the time and do that which
is most blessed in the sight of God, most beneficial
to man ?—Or shall it be said, that between the
claims of contending factions in Church or in State,
the Legislature stands paralyzed, and puts not forth
its hand to save the people placed by Providence
under its care, lest offence be given to some of the
knots of theologians who bewilder its ears with their
noise, as they have bewildered their own brains
with their controversies ?—Lawgivers of England
I charge ye, have a care ! Be well assured, that the
st n compareds which
,h atch t
nhl l
e w
mankind
gate,tlha ilk
ihned v
in loud
acontempt lavished for centuries upon the cabals
of Constantinople, where the Council disputed on
a text, while the enemy, the derider of all their
texts, was thundering
will
be
l Is h asa
oo
es
otc)fkuenniv°efrsarl c respect
will send up against you, if you stand still and
suffer a far deadlier foe than the Turcoman—suffer
the parent of all evil, all falsehood, all hypo-
crisy, all discharity, all self-seeking—him who
covers over with pretexts of conscience the
pitfalls that he digs for the souls on which he
preys—to stalk about the fold and lay waste its
inmates—stand still and make no bead against
him, upon the vain pretext, to soothe your indo-
lence, that your action is obstructed by religious
cabals—upon the far more guilty speculation, that
by playing a party game, you can turn the hatred of
conflicting professors to your selfish purposes !
" Let us hope for better things. Let us hope
it through His might and under His blessing who
commanded the little children to be brought unto
Him, and that none of any family of mankind
should be forbidden ; of Him who has promised
the choicest gifts of His Father's kingdom to those
who in good earnest love their neighbours as
themselves!"
E