The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-24 00:00:00

for the task. It will not satisfy the judgment of any
reflecting man, and ought not to satisfy the con-
science of any sincerely moral one, to say, as Lords
ASHLEY and STANLEY say, that the Church of
England is the Church of Truth, and therefore its
pastors are qualified to teach the rising generation
their duties. For the Legislature to come to
such a conclusion is most contemptible, but
to maintain it after the evidence has been poured
in on it from all sides that the education given by
the priesthood is most lamentably deficient in all
useful qualities, is highly culpable. Before the
State ern with safety entrust the education of
the people to the priesthood it must educate
them. It must found a normal school
for this purpose. It must not trust the Bishops
nor the Colleges, for experience has proved that they
can neglect their duties and teach erroneous doc-
trines. The more strenuously the Tories contend
for leaving the education of the people in the hands
of the priesthood, the more urgent does it become
the duty of the State to take on itself the education
of the priesthood.
We have no suspicion that Mr. BULLER
exaggerates the danger which threatens the com-
munity, and we ask Lord STANLEY, we ask
Lord ASHLEY, and the rest of the opponents
of improvement in education, whether they can
for one moment believe that the instruction
given by the priesthood is at all calculated to lessen
that danger in future, or check it at present ?
We find in the Manchester Guardian of Saturday
the following account of the instruction given at
the National Schools in that neighbourhood, and
we put it to every sensible man whether such a
system—and the public money now goes to its
support —is not as likely to alter the tides as to lessen
the evils which Mr. BULLER described ?-•—•
NATIONAL SCHOOLS, MANCHESTER AND SALFORD.—The
half-yearly examination of the children educated in tho
schools in Manchester and Salford, connected with the
Church Establishment, took place yesterday, at the Salford
school. The children in the first class of the two schools
Granby-row, Manchester, arid of those in the Salford
school, were successively examined by the Rev. Isaac Rob-
ley, one of the secretaries, and the Rev. C. D. Wray, in
reading in the New Testament, in the Church catechism,
and in spelling. The children exhibited a fair degree of
biblical knowledge. There was no examination in arith-
metic, grammar, or geography. Indeed, the Committee
appear to think that grounding the children well in a know-
ledge of the Scriptures is all they are called upon to do;
for, though writing, arithmetic, grammar, and geography
are not wholly negnected, and there were some good speci-
mens of writings shown, yet we believe, the attention
paid to those useful branches of education is small com-
pared to that paid in instilling into the minds cf the chil-
dren a knowledge of the Scriptures and of the doctrines of
the Established Church. The children appeared clean and
respectable, and we understand there are between eleven
and twelve hundred in the two schools.

Now, whatever else may be said of the Scriptures,
it is not irreligious to affirm that they refer wholly to
a condition of society totally different from the pre-
sent ; and we doubt whether that particular distri-
bution of the annual produce into rent profits, and
wages, which now prevails, was known at that
period. One part of the Scriptures prohibits com-
merce, and condemns all friendly connection with
foreigners ; maxims which, however suitable to the
Jews, would be utterly destructive of England.
Since any part of the Scriptures was composed so-
ciety has undergone a complete change, and
to make a knowledge of them the chief instruction
given to youth may possibly drill the next genera-
tion into ductile instruments of priestcraft, but it
never can fashion them into useful members of the
community. Now the half of the expense of these
schools, which are confined to instilling into the
minds a knowledge of Scriptures, is paid by the
State, which thus makes itself not only responsible
for the education of the priesthood, but for what is
taught at these schools. The opposition of the
Tories to the Ministerial scheme went, however, to
deny to the State the right of even appointing in-
spectors to see what is taught in schools supported
in part by the public money, and where they now
teach little or nothing but a knowledge of the
Scriptures.

We hear, with some regret and more surprise,
that Mr. SPRING RICE proposes to renew the
Charter of the Bank of Ireland in its present form,
without imposing any conditions on that body other
than a reduction of the interest on the money which it
has lent the State. We cannot sec a single reason
to justify such a proceeding. The Bank of Ire-
land performs none of those functions on perform-
ing which the Bank of England monopoly is de-
fended, though it cannot be justified. It has
already pocketed a large sum of the public
money, and inflicted a large quantum of mischief on
Ireland. To renew the Charter is equally con-
demned by sound principles of political economy,
and by considerations of what is due to the sister
country. We consider the renewal of the Charter
so unwarrantable that we can scarcely believe Mr.
RICE contemplates it. At the same time we think
it our duty to mention the report, in order to put
parties interested, and the public at large, on their
.guard. If it should be necessary, too, we hope that
the public will bestir themselves in time to prevent
the consummation of the supposed plan.

It would be difficult to find in any debate for the
last ten years such marked proofs of the ignorance
and concomitant prejudices of at least one portion of
the community, as those evinced during the three
nights' debate on the question of education. The
leaders of the Tory party seemed so convinced of
the stupidity and credulity of their followers, that
they advanced assertions, we will not call them
arguments, which none but the most benighted
and prejudiced of mankind could hear without scorn
and contempt. Need we wonder, therefore, that the
Tory leaders throw every obstacle in the way of
any measure that would strengthen the intellects
and improve the judgment of those on whom they
chiefly depend for support ? This impression per-
vaded the speeches of every Tory member, from
COLQUIIOUN to PEEL, and of the fact any one
may convince himself, who will look over them
with an impartial eye. We shall be satisfied with
adducing two instances. Mr. GLADSTONE,
ridiculing what he called the shifts of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL to live from day to day, talked
in the same breath of the " short and bril-
liant Administration" of Sir ROBERT PEEL ; and

the Right Hon. Baronet, not, to be outdone by his
lieutenant, ventured a little further, and expressed
his astonishment that the Noble Lord should press
the vote with such a small majority. What !
wonder at this, when during his short and brilliant
Administration he never obtained a majority on any
one question—was shamefully beaten on the
Speakership and the Address, and still persevered
for weeks, nay months, to press his measures on
the country, till he retired from the dread of being
overwhelmed with unversal ridicule, for attempting
what all rational persons saw from the first
division was impossible ! With what exultation
he would have welcomed a majority of five, and
how he would have been cheered on by the
SIBTHORPS, and SCARLETTS,and BORTHWICKS,
to " live from day to day by any shifts !" These
remarks, it is true, were received in the House with
shouts of laughter, but the speakers heeded them
not, because they were addressed not to the House,
but to the ignorant multitude in which these ene-
mies of national education live, move, and have
their political being. Lord JOHN RUSSELL has
latterly been but too much inclined to favour the
doctrines and practices of Sir ROBERT PEEL,
but if he will imitate them in one instance
more, he will make atonement for the past, and
cover a multitude of sins. In the present state of
parties he must be satisfied with small majorities,
or legislation must cease. The House of Com-
mons is not now as it was in the days of Old Sarum
and Gatton, when any majority that had not three
figures was considered a defeat. The cause is a
good one. Success will, to a certain extent, pro-
mote the education of the rising generation, and
if he persevere and be defeated, he will have the
satisfaction of reflecting that the blame lay not with
him, but with a party that hates the Whigs and
education alike with perfect hatred—the Bench of
Bishops, and the selfish portion of the aristocracy.

We have extracted into our columns of to-day
:he opinions of some of our able Sunday Contempo-
raries, respecting the attempt made by the CHAN-
CELLOR of the Excir EQUER to thwart the resolu-
tions of the House of Commons respecting the
shipping class of the claimants for losses in Den-
mark.

The case is one of such flagrant injustice that we
must again recur to it, as it cannot be too strongly
impressed on the minds of our readers and the public
at large, that these sufferers are not seeking the
public money, as Mr. RICE bas so ingeniously
put it, but a portion of the large proceeds
of the sale of the Danish property in this coun-
try, for which the property of the claimants