The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Mr. Slaney made an excellent speech last night in mov-
ing the appointment of a Committee on the education of
the lower orders ; it was full of convincing details, intro-
duced without any of the ostentation of oratory ; and al-
though Sir George Strickland stated his objection to the
proposed, or rather suggested, rate of sixpence in the
pound, he highly approved of the general object ; and Mr.
Brotherton bore strong testimony to the want of education
in Manchester and its vicinity. Lord John Russell ob-
served—and the cheers of the House showed its concur-
rence in the remark—that no system of education could
succeed which did not consult the peculiar religious feelings
of the country. He was most favourable to the increase
of education by the enlargement of the means, but he was
not yet prepared to say what those means ought to be.
Inquiry was therefore important in the first instance ;
but he was nevertheless impressed with the convic-
tion that it would be the duty of Parliament, when
duly informed, to take some decisive steps upon the
subject. The Committee was then appointed without
further discussion. We have elsewhere noticed at some
length the extraordinary discussion to which Colonel Per-
ceval's motion gave rise. The second reading of Mr.
Baines's Municipal Officers' Declaration Bill was the last
business of the evening. Mr. Warburton and Mr. G. F. Young
argued that its provisions were not sufficiently enlarged,
and that it ought to include Jews as well as Quakers and
Moravians. On the other hand, Sir Robert Inglis was
shocked at the boldness of the proposition, and
thought that the measure went too far already. He
warned the House how it admitted Jews ; for if they
were not excluded, what was to keep Hindocs or Ma-
hometans out of our corporations ? The danger of any
concession always was that it led to still greater de-
mands. Mr. Hume, however reminded the House that
the Church of England exposed itself to the only peril by
which it was threatened by its want of liberality. Mr.
Baines owned that he only confined the Bill to Quakers
and Moravians, because he wished it to be carried. To
nolude Jews would be to risk its rejection. The second
reading was carried without a division. It is to be re-
marked, that when the Speaker called upen Colonel Ver-
ner, in pursuance of his notice for the production of the
correspondence on his exclusion from the cornmiss:on of
the peace of Tyrone, he was not forthcoming, and his ab-
sence at the early hour of half-past nine on such an occa-
sion produced a good deal of cheering and laughter. The
Honourable and Gallant Gentleman will now have to give
another notice for a future day, if indeed he mean to perse-
vere in his motion. It i 3 very posssible that he has taken
this method of getting red of the question, impressed by the
reception which the exhibition of his friend and brother
Orangeman, Colonel Perceval, experienced, of the truth
of the good old maxim; that discretion is the better part
of valour.—Morning Chronicle.

An important petition, on the subject of education, is to
be presented this day in both Houses. The pressure of
Parliamentary matter prevented us from giving more than
an incidental notice of a reprt which appeared last week
in the Morning AdveTtiser of a meeting at the Mechanics'
Institetion, under the presidency of Dr. Birkbeek, for the
purpose of petitioning Parliament for the free admission of
the people to the public monuments and works of art for
which they pay in taxation. But an addres.i to her Ma-
jesty, and petitions to Parliament, founded oa the resolu-
tions carried unanimously at that meeting. are no-' to be
presented, by Lord Brougham in the Lords ; and the
ercumstance supplies us with the renewed opportu-
nity of a few general remarks. Our readers are aware
of the importance which we have always attached to
this subject, as involving one of these means of edu-
cating the people which are absolutely necessary for
the proper enjoyment and appreciation of an en-
larged coed lion of liberty. The education of the public
eye is one of the departments of education in the enlarged
sense of the word for which we hare so often contended.
There are still many obstacles in the way of the accom-

plisliment of this great object ; and the Government (and
the Board of Trade especially) deserve high credit for
having brought forNard one effectual ihstrument fhr
the purpose—we mean the establishment of those schools
deign, which we were among the foremost to suggest
and to support. The principal object of the diffusion of
educational refinement by a familiarity with the great
works of art is, that it raises the people from debasing
pleasures to intellectual pursuits. It will render the gift of
universal liberty, which of rifyht to them, a safe and
profitable boon, instead of being a mischievous gift, as it would
be to them in an uninstructed state. A familiarity with the
best models of art and science purifies and elevates a people.
It refines manners, heightens enjoyments, and nerves the

manly spirit of freedom, When was human liberty in the
highest state of exaltation? When the highest degree of
educatienal refinement was diffused in republ.can Athens
and free Greece ; and when those unrivalled monuments of
tote were preduced, from the siAlat of avVela the free Eng-
lish people are slavishly and absurdly debarred. It has
been alleged against the English people that acy are inca-
pable of appreciating the monuments of taste which are
open to them ; and they hare been charged with mutilating
and ill-using them. That charge, which might have been
made formerly, cannot be made now ; or, if made now,
it is rather against the upper classes than the lower that
it can be justly made. Greece, Italy, and Egypt bear
witness to this charge against the former. Who has
forgotten Lord Byron's bitter denunciation against the
" modern Goth" who despoiled the Athenian monuments
which Marie had spired ? The truth is, that the pri-
vileged classes fear lest the humiler el-asses should
overtake them in the career of knowledge, and parti-
cipate with them in that power which is one of its ele-
mentary attributes. In France, in Italy, and Germany,
the accessible character of the public galleries, museums,
and monuments is productive of the best effects on the

morals, manners, and conduct of the people. It raises
them in the political as well as the social scale ; for the ap-
preciation of truth in taste is intimately associated with the
just estimate of truth in politics. The democratic equality
preponderant in France is fed and sustained by the equal
diffusion of knowledge produced by daily familiarity with
the best models of art. Again, the best ernest of the re-
viviscence of the tree of liberty in Italy, notwithstanding
the baneful and repressive atmosphere of Austrian domina-
tion, is the ardent estimation of the people for the im-
mortal monuments of their past glories and refinements.
Under these circumstances no individual living is better
calculated than Lord Brougham to present such a petition.
At a recent meeting of Reformers, at Liverpool, when
his Lordship's health was drunk, Dr. Larduer justly
said—" Whatever djfference of opinion might exist re-
specting him as a politician—and it should not be
forgotten that he had contributed, by his advocacy for the
extension of municipal privileges, to produce such meet-
ina, 4 as the present—every friend of humanity must award
to him the most disinteretted praise for the continued ex-
ercise of his talents to advance education among the people.
If there were one individual more than another who had
produced the greatest results by unwearied and anxious
labour for the advancement and education of the lower
classes of his countrymen—on which their social and mo-
ral happiness so much depended—that individual was
Lord Brougham. The richness of the fruit which his ge-
nius and philanthropy had planted, was now beginning to
appear, and the cause of national education had received
an impetus which could not be withstood." No tribute of
praise was aver more deservedly awarded to marl. Yes ;
if Lord Brougham has contributed, by his political exer-
tions, to widen the basis of human liberty, he has equally
contributed, by his advocacy of the sacred cause of edu-
cation, to sink its foundation into materials of a steady,
solid, and unfluctuating description.—Morn. Advertiser.

Mr. Wentworth Beaumont and family have left
Boulogne for Paris, Mrs. Wentworth Beaumont's health being
much improved since she left England.
'EARLY ft IS I NG.—Poets talk of the charms of early
rising—the cheerfulness of nature—and the joy of man com-
mencing his daily labour, &c. As Mr. Burchell used to say, g. its
all fudge." Nature (that is to say, hogs, dogs, and pigs) may
be very brisk at the return of daylight, but biped animals who
pass the night in feather beds and pillows (men going to be
hanged, or persons in love, or out of their minds always ex-
cepted), feel differently. Look at the poor washerwoman
sneaking through the street, whom not even the expected glass
of geneva can comfort ; or the early chimney-sweeper, sighing
over his half-pint of purl. Do they not look as if they had
been dragged into the streets by the hair of their heads ? Let
those people who walk abroad early in the morning (which in
my life-time I have done on one or two special occasions)
observe the labouring husbandman going to work—that fa-
vourite type of happiness among the poets. So far from dis-
covering anything like joy in their countenances, I have seen
them winking and blinking, yawning, and drawling along, and
rubbing their eyes, to ascertain whether they were really
awake. Experience and observation tell me that very few
Christians rise early. Man is a creature delighting in sleep.
Even the savage who rises with the sun, takes eTeci 11 care to
lie down with that luminary, and where he is neither hungry,
nor in danger of being scalped, he is always ready to take a
nap. In short, man is always engaged in the pursuit of happi-
ness, and happiness is sleep.
" Hac iter Elysium riobis."
'Tis sleep alone that real pleasure yields,
And wafts us mortals to the Elysian fields.
From the Literary Bouquet.
The Earl of Dartmouth and his family have this
year got up a yrnnastic cxe:Tises at West Bromwich, which
were eery well attended. The objeet of the Noble Lord was
a most craiseworthy one—to put an end to bull-baiting and
other barbarous practices in the colliery and mining districts
of that part of the country. With this view prizes exceeding
~..:111friflue 50/. were given for competition. The substituted
" ortiilp.ere foot-races, leaping, quoits, elirnbinz a pole, f00t-
,.;. ,". T;-7Nerialift'tts ack-jumping, &c. The Earl and Countess
' airiki_treo of?,
, tie children were on the ground, as well as
-ittarly•ill th<ge try of the vicinage, who helped in rais:ng the
.tic
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