The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Already have two branches of the Legislature de-
dared that education should be encouraged. A reso-
lution of the Commons, triumphantly carried, in op-
position to the Ministry of the day, recommended the
granting of a charter to a University of large and libe-
ral character ; and the Sovereign to whom that recom-
mendation was addressed, announced in the charter
which he accordingly gave, " that he deemed it to be
the duty of his royal office, for the advancement of
religion and morality, and the promotion of useful
knowledge, to hold forth to all classes and denomina-
tions of his subjects, without any distinction whatso-
ever, an encouragement for pursuing a regular and
liberal course of education." The progress of educa-
tion is irresistible : its friends who think that progress
slow are anxious that it should be accelerated, while
many of its enemies, who are aware that it cannot be
stopped, are willing that it should be regulated. It is
indisputably clear, therefore, that however reluctant
one Estate of the Realm may be to entertain the
subject, it will force itself on the attention of the
Legislature. Indeed, by making the annual
grant of 20,0001. for the purpose of building
school-houses, Parliament has admitted that the in-
struction of the poor classes is matter of Legislative
concern. The principle that education is good for the
people being thus settled, we think that those best
labour for its practical adoption who devote their skill
and industry to the ascertainment of that in which
good education consists, and in devising and discuss-
ing the plans, means, and working details which are
calculated most fully and perfectly to realise it. Un-
der that impression we have read with much pleasure
the first publication of the Central Society of Educa-
tion, and can assure our readers that the whole of its
eontents will amply repay the trouble of an attentive
perusal. In all, or nearly all, the continental nations
the province of education is entrusted to some
state officer, council, or board, who have a control,
more or less perfect, over all the educational estab-
lishments, and arc responsible to the Government and
the public for the due exercise of their high func-
tions. flow long it may be before those who lord it
over us will be found willing to concur in the creation
of a department in this country, as was propoied
by Lord Brougham, is mere matter of conjecture ;
but the Legislature having already interfered in the
instruction of the humbler classes, it is matter not of
doubt but certainty that they must follow up what they
hive begun, by rendering their interference effective
and beneficial. The beneficent intentions of our rulers
in aiding individual subscriptions for erecting school-
hou,es need not be doubted ; and if they had expressed
the means by which their good intentions should be
executed, and if all the officers—that is to say, some
thousand independent and unconnected Committees
aunt Secretaries, and some ten thousand teachers, mo-
nitors, and masters—were able and willing to fulfil
them, the country would have received value for the
money granted. But the Legislature has not
pointed out the means to be pursued—nor has
it clone any thin°, to secure the aptitude, or
obedience of the officers. 'What it has done it has
done more compendiously and simply by dividing the
money between sThools under the superintendence of
two rival societies, upon the supposition and confidence
that the principle of competition between them would
cfr.-ct every good that could be desired. The true
rivalry of the societies is another matter to which the
ducation they promote is confessedly subsidiary :
they are rivals in religion, and their object, therefore,
is to make proselytes, not to teach them how to act or
think. Fine prospects fur education truly ! We ad-
mire the idea of con-petition working out utility, but
in this case we suspect that if the plan works effectu-
ally, the country would have more bigots than enlight-
ened citizens, and that the competitive action will be
I,.;and rather to neutralize good than produce it. Religi-
ous instruction is highly proper, and should be ade-
quately provided for in every scheme of education ; hut
it should not he of that character which teaches men to
congratulate themselves with pharisaic complacency that
they are not as other men—Churchmen—Catholics—
Heretics. The societies calling themselves the Na-
tional and the British and Foreign School Societies
are also irresponsible and private associations, and the
schools on which the money has been bestowed are
mere voluntary foundations. The money has in fact
been sunk, and the houses erected on private property,
awl no control over the buildings or schools has been
retained. It has been a mere finance transaction from
beginning to end. No doubt the houses have been
built, but has any account been ever rendered about
them ? School-houses are primary requisites, but are
not education. Abroad normal schools (schools for
training masters) are deemed requisite, and the art of
pedagogy is cultivated. We are not aware that any por-
tion of the public money has been diverted to this
object. Indeed, the necessity of training teachers may
fairly be questioned in a country where, under the pre-
valent system of education, masters are produced end
reared in the schools with unrivalled simplicity and
expedition, and neither skill, judgment, nor dis-
cretion is required ill their composition. Nature
does all the work. Immediately that one child is
found less ignorant than others, he is ripe for the office
of teaching them I To ordinary eyes education re-
quires some time to develop itself, but there are now
thousands who, when children, were instructed on this
system. Let some Committee or Commission be ap-
pointed to examine as to what useful knowledge this
class learnt in national and other schools, when " boys
taught them." The sooner they are examined, and
the more widely they are examined, the better ; for
the sooner and the more generally will the public delu-
sion on this so-called education be dispelled. It would
be found that the voluntary and charity school system
is a miserable expedient, and Bell's plan of tuition a
failure. But wretched as this instruction is, it should
be remembered that it is only a portion of the children
of the humbler classes that obtain even anything so
good, while a much larger portion are destitute of all
moral and useful learning whatever. It is an awful
and deplorable state of things, and the reflection on it
in the minds of those who have the power, ought to
excite the inclination and prompt determination to re-
dress it.—Morning Chronicle.
It would seem, from time profound silence of the
Ministerial prints on the subject of O'Connell's letter
to the " people of Ireland," that their patrons feel
that Daniel has divulged a vast deal too much respect-
ing the compact which the Whigs have entered into
with the person who favoured them with the genteel
and agreeable epithets, " base, brutal, and bloody."
As we have already observed, the humbug of " Jus-
tice to Ireland" is at an end in England. O'Connell
himself has admitted that the measures which lie enu-
merates as constituting " Justice to Ireland" can very
well be dispensed with so long as he is paid for hold-
ing his tongue—he has confessed that he means to
clamour for them only when he is unbribed, and that
he will not suffer a Ministry " to be blamed" for not
passing them while his mouth is stopped with the
hush-money he can realise from the sale of his share of
the.patronage of Government. But what a compact
is this I—how disgraceful to the unprincipled Whigs,
how dangerous to the State ! We never thought Lord
Palmerston much of a conjurer, and did we not bear
in mind that nature in her vagaries has often inspired
fools, we could not have believed, even upon the au-
thority of Hansard's Debates, that in March, 1813,
the ci-devant jeune homme could have made the fol-
lowing speech :
" The great stand has been made upon the admission
of Catholics into the two House of Parliament, and the
danger apprehended is, that they will influence the deci.
cision of the Houses in some vote which might, directly or
indirectly, affect the Protestant establishments ofthe empire.
Show, how does this stand ? 4'ln the House of Lords their
wunbers must of necessity be too small to have any effect
upon the decisions of that body. In the House of Com-
mons the number would undoubtedly be greater, but would
still bear so very small a proportion to the whole, as to
render it absolutely impossible for them to carry any such
point by themselves. Now, I beg to say that I am in-
clined to think that Catholics coming into this house would,
much in the same way that Protestants do, range thew-
selves under the banners of the different political parties
which might exist within its walls, according as they might
he influenced by considerations of personal connexion or
political feelings ; but, supposing, for the sake of argument,
that they move in one compact mass, directly all their ef-
.l)rts to the attainment of this particular object—by them-
selves they would be powerless ; they must then bar-
with some great Protestant par ty, and barter
-'heir aid in the contest fir the concession of their object

when the victory should be gained. Now, I know well I
that, in a popular Constitution like ours, when con-
flicting parties are nearly balanced, when all the pas-
Biome of the mind are roused, and the prize to be fought for
is nothing less than the direction of the affairs of a great
and mighty empire, men may be led to make large sacri-
fices at the shrine of political ambition. The history of
the country, unfortunately, is not without such examples.
But, whatever may be the errors of individuals, I can
never bring myself to believe that there would, at any time,
be found in this house a sufficiently powerful and numerous
Protestant party, so profligate in principle, and so dead
to a sense of everything which would be due to themselves
and to their country, as to barter away the religious esta-
blishment c f any part of the empire for the gratification of
political ambition. But supposing, again, this combination
of improbabilities to occur, and such a vote to be extorted
from that House, I trust that there would still be found,
in the other House of Pailiament, in a Protestant Sove-
reign, and, above all, in the indignant feeling of a betrayed
people, barriers amply sufficient to protect the Protestant
establishments of the empire from profanation by such sa-
crilegious hands." •
Three years ago we should have been as incredulous
as Lord Palmerston was in 1813 as to the existence
of a Protestant party in the House of Commons " so
profligate in principle, and so dead to a sense of every-
thing that would be due to themselves and to their
country, as to barter away the religious establishment
of any part of the empire for the gratification of po-
litical ambition." But three years have passed away,
and we have seen Lord Palmerston—the scrub and
errand-boy of former Administrations—holding high
rank in the Ministry of a party` which, called Protes-
tant, has not only leagued itself with a Papist gang,
but declared by its chief in the House of Lords, that
it desires to give a " heavy blow and a great discou-
ragement to Protestantism in Ireland"—we have seen
Lord Palmerston one of that " great Protestant party"
which has been unprincipled enough to accept at Lich-
field-house
the Papists' " barter of their aid" for the
concession of Popish supremacy and the Repeal of
the Union, to be achieved when the Whigs shall be
triumphant over the Conservatives. But, happily, we
know what Lord Palmerston only trusted he should
find—we know that in the " other House of Parlia-
ment" and in " a Protestant Sovereign" (though she
be of " Hanoverian parentage," and has " sucked
Lutheran milk")—we know that, " above all, in the
indignant feeling of a betrayed people, barriers amply
sufficient to protect the Protestant Establishment of
the empire from profanation by such sacrilegious
hands" will certainly befound.—Times.
The plan of raising a public subscription to defray
the expenses of election petitions touching Irish seats
in Parliament is, we admit, a departure from the ordi.
nary practice ; but the case is a novel one, and extra-
ordinary evils require extraordinary remedies. When a
town is on fire, who but a fool would think of putting
it out with a bucket of water ? In such a case use
must have recourse to the public reservoir ; no private
cistern can be sufficient for the purpose. When the
contest is about a seat in Parliament on the ordinary
grounds of unqualified persons being admitted to vote,
or qualified persons being refused, or the election hav-
ing been tainted with bribery or vitiated by some tech-
nical irregularity, the parties should he left to contest
the seat upon their own private resources. But very
different, indeed, are cases of that sort from the
state of things which has originated the public sub-
scription to support the election petitions of Con-
servative candidates in Ireland. A general system
of intimidation, violence, and fraud, has been or-
ganized and acted upon in that country by a des-
perate and reckless faction, which has led to the usur-
pation of several seats, and which, if not stopped,
must extinguish altogether the freedom of election.
If the elective franchise be au important public trust,
which ought to be exercised for the public benefit, it
greatly interests the public that it should be freely ex-
ercised. But how can it be exercised in Ireland freely,
or exercised at all, by Conservative electors, whether
Protestant or Roman Catholic, if such electors cannot
approach the hustings but at the peril of their lives ?
To be beaten to a mummy, or torn in pieces by the
hands of a ferocious rabble, is a heavy price to pay for
the exercise of a political right ; yet it was at these
risks that Conservatives approached the hustings at
most of the late elections in three out of the four pro-
vinces of Ireland. The consequence is, that numbers
of them have been maimed and crippled for life, and
some have been cruelly and deliberately murdered.
Witness the horrible case of Allen and 'Kenzie,
where the murder was six days in the course of perpe-
tration—the unfortunate victims of the Popish barba-
rians having been first disabled, and then starved to
death ! Blood cries to heaven against the savages who
practised in Ireland " the skull and cross-bones system"
of violence and murder. Can the English public view
the sufferings of their Protestant brethren with indiffe-
rence and apathy ? Is not the Constitution itself, in
which every Englishman has an interest, deeply wounded
in the persons of those Protestants ? The Ministerial
journals, seriously alarmed, and with good cause, for the
existence of the Popish majority, vehemently decry the
subscription—call its promoters barrators, and declare
the proceeding to be illegal and unconstitutional. It
is no more " barratry" than the common case of a sub-
scription to prosecute felons by the inhabitants of a
particular district associated in self-defence, or a sub-
scription by the public to prosecute persons violating
the provisions of Martin's Act, for the protection of
animals from cruelty. Surely the lives and limbs of
our Protestant fellow-subjects of Ireland are at least
entitled to as much protection as those of the horses,
cows, and donkeys which the British public subscribe
to protect from the inhuman application of the whips
and bludgeons of brutal Smithfield drovers and ruffi-
anly costermongers. Should the Protestants of Ire-
land avail themselves of the legal right to defend their
lives by going armed to the hustings, and kill any of
their cowardly assailants, they will have a hostile Go-
vernment to struggle with, as well as an infuriated po-
pulace. But when the savage mobs who exercise such
violence, and the priestly and lay agitators who insti-
gate them, find that their atrocious efforts to crush the
freedom of election are unavailing, and that seats thus
criminally usurped cannot be retained, they will abstain
' from atrocities that bring them no advantage.—Morn-
ing Herald.
To those who are acquainted with the manner in
which the French telegraph is worked, so far as Penin-
sular news is concerned, no surprise will be occasioned
at the monstrous fabrication which we announced and
contradicted in Monday's publication. It was cer-
tainly a bold stretch of imagination to proclaim the
Charter at Lisbon, and to deliver the Queen of Por-
tugal of a son, particularly in the face of accounts
which might hourly be expected through the direct
channel of England. But so resolute a falsehood
shows that the directors of the telegraph are with-
out fear or shame, and that if they can deceive the
public they heed not how unblushingly it may be
, done. We have more than once cautioned the
British public against been deceived by the flying
despatches of the telegraph on Spanish affairs, and
we feel that we have done considerable good. No
one now gives credit to the first announcement of
any great event, and it is only when confirmed from
other quarters that its due effect is produced in the
Stock Exchange. We have heard some curious par-
ticulars as to the manner in which these Spanish des-
' patches are prepared, but we have abstained until
now from repeating them, lest they should not be
founded in fact ; but the last fabrication of the tele-
graph is so barefaced that no imputation on its ma-
nagement can be deemed a libel. We are told that a
well-known police-agent, employed directly by Louis
Philippe, who has a perfect acquaintance with Spain,
and of the different personages engaged in the civil
war, is stationed at Bayonne, for the purpose of ma-
nufacturing those despatches in the manner best calcu-
lated to suit the views of the French Court. All the
telegraphic announcements, whether dated from Per-
pignan, Narbonne, Toulouse, or Bordeaux are in-
vented and prepared by him ; and they are sent on
to Paris direct from him, though they are pub-
, fished by the Government as if they came from the
• respective places whence they are dated. Some-
I times these despatches agree on a given fact—more
frequently they contradict each other—the object
at that moment being to distract, and not to inform,
the public mind. They are favourable to the Chris-
. tinos in proportion to the successes of the Carlists,
except on the occasion when the truth of any event
is finally made known, and the Carlist triumphs are
held back until they are made certain through some