The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-24 00:00:00

most likely to secure a systematic and sound education
for students of law, and provide satisfactory tests of &-
Less for admission to the bar. The hon. and learned
gentleman, however, when called upon, said that, in
consequence of a communication from the Lord Chan-
cellor, he desired to postpone it, as the subject was
under consideration.
EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND.

The LORD-ADVOCATE, in rising to move for leave
to bring in a bill to make further provision for the edu-
cation of the people of Scotland, and to amend the laws
relating thereto, said there was no doubt of the import-
ance of the subject, nor, unfortunately, was there any
doubt of its difficulty, and although the other evening
there had been a very interesting debate on English edu-
cation, it had not tended at all to diminish the difficulty.
For his own part, however, he felt that difficulties on
theoretical or abstract points ought to give way before
an energetic and earnest attempt to remove them. With
the means at hand, and a hearty goodwill for the object,
the education of the people ought to be one of the easiest
and most simple of national duties. Even looked at as
a matter of philanthropy or duty, men should be willing
to waive difference of opinion in order to rescue the rising
generation from an ignorance too often as bad as the
worst of creeds and fatal as the worst of crimes. But it
was not a mere question of duty or philanthropy—for
owing to the neglect of other generations and our own
it was now a question of self-defence. The plain fact
was, that amidst all our prosperity there was growing
up in the centre of all our great towns, at the rout of our
social system, a barbarous race—tied to us by none of
the sympathies which ought to bind together citizens of
the same state—inheriting with the blood the passions
not less than the thewes and sinews of the race from
which they sprang, but with their energies untamed and
untutored by any humanising influence, and their pas-
sions unrestrained by any sense of duty to their God or
to their fellowmen. Any one conversant as he was with
the statistics of crime knew that there was no exaggera-
tion in this, but that it was merely the statement of a
simple fact. Unless this huge evil were grappled with,
not in mere patronising sympathy, but in the conviction
of the most urgent necessity, we should too late find out
our fatal error. We must deal with the question on the
conviction that there was at the very base of society a
deep-rooted, foul, pestilential element, which in some
upheaving of the social system would sweep everything
away. The measure he had to propose was far from
being adequate to the evil ; the remedy must necessarily
be the work of time ; and the greet difficulty was, that
while the evil pressed, delay was necessary to apply
an effective remedy. For twen',y years we had been con-
tending about schemes of education, and during that
time three' generations of schoolboys had grown up hit•
men, and these were the men with whom during the
lives of those now living we should have to deal. Let
the battle of opinion rage as it might out of doors, but
let Parliament seek to apply the best practical remedy
in its power, He cared not whether his bill would meet
any abstract views ; we might wait long enough before
any measure did so ; but the great thing was to do as
much as possible towards attaining the object which all
bad at heart. (Hear, hear.) There was one great diffi-
culty which lay at the base of the question, fortunately
of a simple practical nature—the want of information as
to the amount of educational destitution. The first ob-
ject must be to meet this difficulty. In Scotland there
had existed for 300 years a system founded on the prin-
ciple that education ought not to be left to mere volun-
tary efforts, but established if not maintained by the
State. In every parish there was a school supported by
the landowners. Now this was a system that only re-
quired extension. It was the duty of the Govern-
went to provide for every member of the commu-
nity the means of education. (Hear, hear.) The
question, however, at the outset was, how far there
was a deficiency. The Government did not propose
to appoint a committee or commission for the purpose
of inquiry, but to establish under a general board a
system of school inspection on a scale larger than had
yet existed either in England or in Scotland.' The object
being to effect a complete educational survey of the whole
of Scotland, and to furnish materials from which in 1856
there should be laid before Parliament a perfect account
of the educational condition of the country ; not merely
showing what schools existed, what were required, and
how many scholars attended, but going into details even
more minute, enabling Parliament to see what was
wanting in every town or parish, in every part of it, and
in every way. These returns, he proposed, should be con-
tinued year after year. The ultimate result, he hoped,
might be, among other improvements, the establishment
of reformatory schools on an adequate scale. He also
hoped to see one day established the principle of compul-
sory attendance upon schools to this extent—that as it
was the duty of a parent to maintain his children, and the
law enforced that duty upon him, and punished him if
he neglected it, being able to discharge it; or, if he were
unable to discharge it, performed it for him—so it was
the duty of a parent not to permit his children to grow
up as savages in the midst of civilisation, and that the
law should compel him to the duty of educating them so
far as it was practicable, and if he were unable to per-
perform it, to see that it was done. (Hear.) It would
be impossible, of course, to carry out these objects, or
meet all the exigencies of the case, until the returns
were presented ; but there were certain alterations
which the Government proposed at once to introduce
in the system of parochial schools to which Scotland
had owed so much. The first improvement intended
was as to the remuneration of the schoolmasters. The
salaries were fixed every twenty-five years on the ave-
rage of the price of corn ; the last average was taken in
1828, and the maximum was 341. a-year, the minimum
251. The twenty-five years expired this year, and the
new average would give us the maximum 281., and the
minimum 191. a-year. It was impossible to allow such
a state of things to continue. (Hear.) It was proposed
to increase the salary of the schoolmaster to the uniform
rate of 501. a-year—the landowners (or heritors) still
paying M. a-year, the present maximum ;:the rest being
paid by the Privy Council out of a parliamentary grant.
Moreover, it was proposed to establish a retiring al-
lowance of not less than 251. a-year, the want of
which was most deeply felt at present —(hear, hear)—
and further, to allow the schoolmaster three rooms in-
stead of two. Next, it was intended to abolish the
religious test as •to schoolmasters, which at present
was the same as with regard to professors in the
universities—a test of subscription to the formularies of
the Established Church of Scotland. The clause framed
for this purpose would provide, "That it shall not be
necessary for the parochial schoolmasters to subscribe
any test, confession of faith, or creed." It was not in-
tended by this to diminish the safeguards of religious
belief. The religious differences in Scotland were almost
entirely confined to questions of Church govenment and
discipline ; and in regard to religious belief the people
were substantially agreed. Although no longer a mem-
ber of the Established Church of that country he was
friendly to her, and would give her advocates this advice
that they would do well to get rid of a test which only
excited rivalries and dissentions. Let the children of
Scotland be taught out of the same books, in the same
schools, and it would be time enough when they grew up
to acquaint them with differencesas to Church government.
With regard to the election of schoolmasters, it was in-
tended to leave it as at present, in the hands of the "heri-
tors" and ministers. But the present system of superin-
tendence under the presbyteries was most inefficient,
and, indeed, merely nominal, so that the schools had,
in too many instances, become debased and degraded be-
yond imagination. Still it was not designed to do away
with it at once, and it would be left to the heritors and
ministers, with the addition of inspection under the
central board, while it would he provided that if the
heritors desired to relieve themselves from the burden of
supporting the schools they might do so at once, re-
signing them to the superintending care of the board,
which would be similar to that established for new
schools. He now came to the vexata questio of religious
education. He did not think the abolition of the test
would weaken the guarantees for religious education,
and in fact, although stimulated by recent controversies,
the Church was rather vigilant now in regard to it, yet
in times of lethargy it must be, as it had been, only
nominal and nugatory. The fact was, that in Scotland
the religious difficulty was no difficulty at all. In a
country where the mass of the people were of one re-
ligion, the difficulty could scaecely exist, and only re-
quired to be grappled with to disappear. On a former
occasion an hon. member (Mr. Adderley) had quoted a
supposed declaration of his, publishedby a Rev. Dr,
Bryce as made in some speech at Leith—a declara-
tion that he (the Lord Advocate) would desire rather
that mathematics should not be taught in the schools
than Christianity should cease to be taught there.
He was certain that in no reported speech of his had
any such opinion been expressed ; and he could only
ascribe the statement to the delusion and imagination of
the rev. writer, or rather to his drawing inferences
and conclusions as to his (the Lord Advocate's) pre-
sumed opinions: He had always contended for the
union of secular with religious education, believing
that the schoolmaster would throw away his best wea-
pon if he disregarded the inculcation of religion. Sorry
should he be to see literature and science taught without
religion. Our object ought to be to make a man a

good citizen—to teach him his duty to God as well as
to man ; and in this they would not succeed if they
excluded religious teaching. (Hear, hear.) He believed
that if it were proposed to exclude religious teaching
from the schools in Scotland, not a tithe of the popula-
tion would attend them, and that an agitation would

spring up against such a system. In his opinion the
Presbyterian support which was to be found in respect
in Scotland was not a fact to be deplored. Throughout
our struggle for civil liberty we had had the assistance
of Scotland ; and he traced to that feeling much of that
love of education, and many of those habits of thought,
which had made the name of a Scotchman respected
all over the world. With regard to the voluntary
principle, he need not say much ; but he thought that
if religious instruction was to be continued with

secular teaching, all should be called upon to contri-
bute to the system. There was a strong opinion in Scot-
land that if the question of education were left in the
hands of the people, religion would be perfectly safe
but a middle course was proposed, and accordingly the
preamble of the bill provided, that whereas ordinary
secular' instruction was to be available for children of all
denominations, every school coming under the act should
set apart certain hours for religious instruction, without
any additional charge. Looking at the question, not
abstractedly, but in a practical light, he did not think
that religious instruction would be otherwise than safe
under the management of a properly constituted board,
and it was to be provided that where the inspectors re-
ported to the general board that there was necessity for I
additional accommodation, and if the board and
Privy Council approved of such accommodation, then. notice was to be given to the borough wherein the
want might exist to raise a rate for the purpose. In
country parishes a meeting of ratepayers would de-
termine whether such schools were to be provided.
With regard to the remuneration to schoolmasters, it
was prop psed that half the salary should be provided by the
ratepayers, and half should be voted by Parliament. The
ordinary management of the schools was to be in th