The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-08 00:00:00

COMBINED EDUCATION IN

HOLLAND.

(FIIOII A CORRESPONDENT.)
Tha " drum ceciesiaritic" is beating throughout
the country to raise the people to the cry of the
Church in danger, because the Government are

seriously determined to take up the long-neglected

subject of education,—education,—religious educa-
tion, for the whole people, apart from every species
of sectarianism.

We bid them GOD speed in an undertaking, which
exposes them to hostility from the combined forces
of ignorance, bigotry, and fanaticism. They mill
deserve the gratitude of posterity for having ven-
tured to brave the phalanx in the attempt to give an
education commensurate to the wants of the great
body of the labouring classes of England.
Education, to be effectual, must commence with
the earliest infant training ; it must be based upon
the principle inculcated in the Gospels, Thou shalt
love the LORD thy Goo and " THY NEIGHBOUR
AS THYSELF."

The Government of England, now knowing no
distinction in the population on account of religious
profession, announces its determination to com-
mence a system of education which can be accepted
by all the population, providing the means of secu-
lar instruction, and leaving as a necessary condition
the religious instruction to the parent, or the pastor
to whom the parent is willing to confide the im-
portant trust, by means of which the whole po-
pulation may be trained in the knowledge and
fear of their CREATOR, and in harmony with
their fellow-creatures.

Let us look around us and see the lamentable
exhibition of degraded human nature which meets
us at every step. Let us visit the prisons of this
country, and see the mass of ignorance within their
walls. Let us walk over our lunatic asylums, and
we cannot fail to ascertain that by far the larger
portion of the inmates have been reduced to insanity
by habits of intemperance. Then again let us consider
for one moment the millions of pounds which have
been expended, and still are expending, in rearing
palaces for gaols, and princely habitations for pauper
lunatics, and let us if we can, hug the delusion
to our souls that England is pre-eminent for know-
ledge and virtue. The causes which fill our gaols
and asylums are quite forgotten in the self-compla-
cency with which we view the magnificent exterior.
But the Government has now set themselves in
real earnest to destroy the causes which fill the in-
terior of these gaols and lunatic asylums, and the
model upon which the Government plan is founded
is the religious country of Holland.
Those useful booksellers, the Messrs. CHAMBERS,
of Edinburgh, have just put forth a volume of
" The People's Edition" of Chambers's Journal,
which contains the Tour of Mr. WM. CHAMBERS,
in Holland, the countries on the Rhine and Belgium,
in the autumn of 1838. From that most instruc-
tive publication, we select a few facts as bearing
with overwhelming force on the subject of National
Education, and we are sure will tend to clear it
from many of those misconceptions which self-
interest or ignorance may endeavour to throw
around the Government proposal.
In 1806, M. VAN STRALEN, the Secretary
of State for the Home Department, issued a circu-
lar letter to the the heads of the various religious
denominations, to take upon themselves the doc-
trinal instruction of the young, belonging to their
respective flocks ; the fundamental principle of the
plan being, that " measures shall be taken that the
scholars be not left without instruction in the doc-
trinal creed of the religious community to which
they belong : but that part of the instruction shall
not be exacted from the schoolmaster."

The whole letter of M.VAN STRALEN is replete
with the soundest views of an enlightened philan-
throphy, and every way worthy of an individual
holding the high and distinguished situation he had
the honour of filling ; but it is too long for us to
give at this time, especially as we purpose to
devote the space we can afford to the answers given
by the respectable Clergy of Holland, to whom M.
VAN STRALEN had submitted his proposition.
The Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in
South Holland state, " That they give a most
cordial assent to the proposition, flattering them-
selves that the intention of the Government so
clearly manifested, and of which the Synod have
never entertained a doubt, will wholly eradicate the
prejudice against the new schools, that they would
have a tendency to suppress instruction in the doc-
trines 9f religion."
The answer from M. DE HAAS, Chief Priest in
the Roman Catholic Church in Friesland, states—
" I confess that I read the contents of your letter
with joy ; and I flatter myself that the rest of the
Clergy in this Province, as well as myself, will
heartily respond to the beneficial views of the Ba-
tavian Government, and that we shall show our-
selves worthy of its confidence. It is in my opi
Mon, very necessary that schoolmasters should
abstain from teaching the doctrinal points of diffe-
rent sects, in order that harmony, friendship, and cha-
rity may reign among them ; I would only ex-
cept the case of a master of well known probity and
ability, whose pupils all belong to one persuasion.
Unless this course be adopted, the children will
find out but too soon that they are not all of one
religious faith ; mutual reproaches will take place,
and many teachers will be at no pains to repress
that spirit. It will be at first only a childish dis-
pute, but as the children grow up alienation will
more and more increase ; rancour will take root in
their hearts, and the whole sum of their religion
w]l be a false zeal, which a truly religious mind
and Christian charity condemn and abhor."

In short the Clergy at large in Holland warmly
responded to the enlightened views of M. VAN
STRALEN, and promised their co operation.
This system has been adopted and perfected
under the present reign of WILLIAM 1., and for a
portion of the glorious results of early training a
population to love GOD and to love their neigh-
hour as themselves, we will conduct our readers for
one moment to the Central Prison of Holland in
Rotterdam. And there it will be found, in August
last, where the whole male juvenile criminals of the
country were confined, the number was 95—of
which, for the town of Rotterdam, with a population
of 80,000, the juvenile male criminals were
four ; there being 62 Protestants, 32 Catholics, and
one Jew, the proportion of Protestant and Catholic
prisoners bearing an exact ratio to their respective
numbers. Such a comparison makes one feel
ashamed of the boasted superiority of England,
while we have thousands upon thousands of
juvenile criminals in our prisons.
We began this article with the " drum ecclesias-
tic," and we terminate it with Dr. JOHNSON'S de-
finition of the word " Tocsin ;" he says it is an
alarm bell; the Priests went up into the steeple and
rang the bells backward, which they called tock-
sAine, whereupon the people of the suburbs flocked
together."

We trust that if the Priests of the Establishment
continue to 44 ring the bells backward," the peopl c
will be sure that it is not to promote Christian
charity—that it is not to promote the education of
the people that they do so, but to bind them faster
in the chains of ignorance. which a wise and bene-
volent Government are desirous of breaking.

PRESENTATION OF PLATE.—On Friday last
the West Somerset Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry were
inspected at Bridgewater-by Col. Chatterton, K. H., of
the 4ib Dragoon Guards, who expressed his entire and
unqualified approbation of the discipline and effective state
of the corps; and, on the Wednesday previous, it being
the birthday of Colonel Tynte, a splendid piece of plate,
made by Payne and Sons, of Bath, was presented to him
by the non-commissioned officors and privates of the regi-
ment, " as a testimony of their ityachment, respect, and
esteem for him, as their commanding officer"—a similar
tribute of regard having been presented to the Gallant
Colonel on a former occasion by the officers of the corps.