The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-14 00:00:00

TILE EDI) 'CATION MIN UTE.

The Statement made last night on the " Revised
Code" and the proposed corrections is unavoidably
long; it inquires into the right principles of na-
tional aid, and goes into many details ; but never
had a Parliamentary statement a stronger claim to
a careful perusal and fair consideration. Though
it comes in the seemingly invidious form of a check
and a rebuke, a restriction and pruning of a flourish-
ing and thriving institution ; and though it boldly
takes up the gauntlet thrown down by a thousand
champions, representing some thousand schools,
many thousand well paid stipendiaries,and a million
well or ill taught children ; yet, in sober fact, it is
the first honest, careful, and philosophical account
rendered to Parliament by the Committee of Council.
For many years various reasons,often noticed in these
columns, have withdrawn this most important part
of the public expenditure from the ordinary at-
tention of the Legislature, and, so far, we make bold
to say, from the reign of common sense and right
principles. A gigantic system the mushroom growth
of a night, had arisen among us, and none cared to
touch it till the rapid strides of its expenditure, the
huge multiplication of its agencies, and, at the same
time, the growing deficiency of results, absolutely
compelled interference with a strong, if not rude.
hand. That has been the work to be done. Like
similar tasks, it was consigned for a time to a
Royal Commission, and for three years they in-
quired and reported, and the public read and
ruminated upon their Report. But the time for
action had come. That necessity was discharged
in the now famous Minute, which was simply the
solution of a difficulty which could no longer be
avoided. It had to be explained, justified, and
here and there corrected or modified. The result
is that the whole subject of National Education is
now before Parliament, as it has never been before,
in a legislative form. Our tables are covered with
pamphlets, letters, and reports of speeches on the
subject, generally by people whose ability or posi-
tion gives them some claim to our attention. But
one error pervades nearly all. It is, that nearly
every speaker or writer regards the subject just from
his own particular point of view, and considers what
he will gain or lose, how far his own hopes have
been fulfilled or disappointed, and with what faith
Government has carried out the imaginary compact
made with him alone. None of these writers put
themselves into the place of the State. None of
them takes into his equal regard the large part of
the nation that has little or no benefit from the
existing system, or considers how or to what future
consequences that system is working. Lord Gran-
ville and Mr. Lowe were obliged to take a position
above managers, above all interested parties, above
conflicting denominatiOns, above inspectors an all
other functionaries, and consider well the working
of the whole system, and how alone it could be
brought into proper working order.
This is what our readers now have before them,
and—we say it without any disparagement of many
able publications—this is the first piece of states-
manship they have had on this most important
subject. The immense clamour that has been
raised, and the utterly unreasonable character
of the remonstrances, prove themselves the
mistakes fostered and the mischief done by the
existing system, and the necessity of immediate
revision. A vested interest has grown up, a legion
of stipendiaries and expectants—all right and no
1 duty—demanding everything, bound to nothing
testifying to its impolitic character by rising at
the first check and flying in the face of the Legis•
lature and the Executive. It demands to be as-
sured of its pay ; it demands to be exempt from the
test of close examination and personal attainments
as the condition of aid. Looking with complacency
on the thousands of schools whose poverty or re-
moteness, or scanty numbers shut them out of the
system this new vested interest so tenderly cherished
by Bishops, Archdeacons, and Managers of Train-
ing Schools, demands that the public largess shall
not be stinted by any test, or rise and fall by vary-
ing merit. This is the immense and unbounded
pretension that Lord Granville and Mr. Lowe had
to meet last night. It is a pretension that could
but end in defeat, for England never could have
so bound itself hand and foot, and never
could have so passed its word and pledged its re-
sources, so tied its judgment and closed its eyes and
ears, as a host of agitators alleged it has done. On
various occasions in our history England has had to
uproot and overthrow vast institutions with every
claim of sacredness, use, and antiquity. It has
swept away castles, monasteries, Papal intrusion,
Divine Right of Kings, close boroughs, and corpo-
rations, Protection, and a good deal more. All at
once, in this year 1862, it finds itself suddenly con-
fronted by a creation not more than a quarter of a
century old, a mere emanation from the Privy
Council, a bundle of regulations, a thing of red
tape and ledgers. Mr. Lowe judiciously gives free
utterance to its cries. He invites us to let it have
its say out. It speaks with a thousand tongued, for
dignitaries, Synods, and two Houses of Con-
vocation delight to be its spokesmen. When it
has spoken, Mr. Lowe asks,— Why should it
be so anxious to assert a vested intersst? Why
should it exclaim so vehemently against the test
of
examination ? Why claim that itnmunitv even for
_ In a word, its teachers? Why should it wish for some more
confiding than cJpitation, attEndLneQ, and
actual rule
why should it object
o the progress?existing code being overhauled at all, and
t
made amenable to the vulgar rules by which, in this
day, we regulate admission to the public service?
There can be only one answer to the candidate who
refuses to be examined.
The more sensible part of our leeishstors in either
House will follow Lord s Berl) ' 6
advi ' .
y ce, and dis-
cuss the revised code in a fair and friendly
spirit. 'Nye beg to assure them that the oppa-
t bition which, out of doors, has been worked up

to such extravagant proportions will not bear
the calmer atmosphere of Parliament. The sim-
plest and most obvious comparison between what
the existing code does and what it fails to do—
bAween the plethoric nursing of the favoured
town school and the utter destitution of some
thousand poorer villages, will show what slight
ground the outdoor agita' ors have for their high& wn
remonstrances. The grant, which began under the
most exceptional circumstances, and has never had
a proper amount of legislative super vision, has
rushed over the country like a sudden inundation,
with the usual result of drowning some places, and
leaving others high and dry. It has burst the bank,
and taken a course of its own, instead of being
distributed in sufficient channels wherever it was
most needed. Lord Granville and Mr. Lowe do
not propose to diminish the grant, to restrict the
area of its application, or to exclude one child
from a share in it, or one teacher from present assis-
tance and hope of still further reward. They only
extend to this department the principles of truth,
justice, and economy that have been applied in
turn to all other departments. In the school, as in
the public office, it will be no work, no pay ; no merit,
no promotion. Only the other day a thousand
vested rights in the shape of political and ecclesi-
ascical sinecures, close scholarships and fellow-
ships, fell under the pruning hook of an age which
will not brook idleness and likes not shirking or
lagging. Everywhere you may meet the victim
of acme lost privilege, or the survivor of some in-
jured monopoly, always full of his wrongs. Every
graveyard in this metropolis is a vested in-
terest set at nought—a vested interest in the dead
disregarded for the sake of the living. That two
millions might breathe a purer atmosphere, we
reduced the fees of two or three hundred clergy-
men. The existing application of the Parliamentary-
grant for education, if it he found partial, and so far
injurious, bas as little Claim to defence, and must
yield as readily to the rule of the general good.
Mr. Lowe justly and yet kindly describes it as a
tentative and preparatory system, feeling its own
way through the country ; and an experiment,
rather than a finally settled and finally recognised.
institution. But that description, the truth of
which cannot be disputed, while it excuses the
shortcomings and errors of the system, also con
demns them.—limes.