The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-05 00:00:00

LONDON, TUBS ),A.Y, JULY 5, 1853.

Mr. GLADSTONE last nit preserved an ominous
silence as to the course I••iiieh be would ulti-
mately puzsue with respect to the vexatice ques-
tiones on tl:, Stamp Duties. What he has dove
is tolerably clear so fal, as it goes, but not so as
to its results. He has divided the bill, which
bad been read a second time, into two distinct
portions. He has retained and carried through
committee all the uncontested clauses, and for the
time being dropped the parts about which there
existed any dispute or difference of opinion, viz.,
those relating to the stamps on supplements, and
to the duties on attorneys' certificates. These
portions are to be reserved for future discussion,
and the results, whatever they might be, are to
be embodied in another bilL This may
be all very correct, and it may be " very
desirable to be enabled to get on with the
bill on account of the penny stamps on receipts,"
and to enable them to take effectual proceedings
for " preparing the dies and securing the stamps
against forgeries ;" but we confess we cannot
understand why it is that these proceedings may
not be taken as well during the pendency of an
unopposed bill, as after it has received the Legisla-
tive sanction. There is a positive certainty that
it will become a portion of the law of the land,
and there is no reason that we can discover why
the " preparations for the dies," and for " secur-
ing the stamps against forgery," may not be car-
ried on as well before as after the bill had re-
ceived the Royal Assent. There would not be
any very great danger that the time or labour
of the subordinates who would be engaged on
these matters would be thrown away, nor would that
time or labour be so exceedingly valuable as to lead
to the adoption of any extraordinary or unusual
course, in order to avert the chance of their being
misapplied, in the event of the occurrence of a
very improbable contingency. When we con-
sider, then, the inadequate reason offered for
dividing the measure, and combine it with the
probability alluded to by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, that 1" it might be some time before
the state of publio business would put it in the
power of the Goveimment to fix a time for the dis-
cussion of any controverted point on these subjects,
and with the unquestionable fact, that, in the event
of no bill being passed, matters will remain in data
quo, without change, or alteration of any kind,
a grave suspicion :is excited, that the Right Hon.
Gentleman may he. tempted to pursue the Fabian
policy, and to defeat by strategy where open force
might prove unsuccessful. This ispeculiarlythe case
with the Attorney:' Certificates Duties, on which
Ministers have already sustained some five or six
successive defeats. This he must settle with Lord
ROBERT GROSVMIO R, the doughty champion of
the legal practitioners, who feel themselves ag-
grieved by the heavy tax for liberty to practise
their profession, when they are again charged
under the Property and Income Tax, on the entire
amount of their earnings, and that, like the Irish
landlords, whether or not they ever receive payment
of their several bills of costs—a matter by no means
certain, and which we believe requires a considera,ble
deduction for bad debts. The Noble "Attorney-Gene-
ral," as hehas facetiously been designated, will have
to considerhow far the interests of his sharp-witted
clients are involved in the division, and adopt
such measures as he may deem best calculated to
insure the success of his proposition. We should
think that so ateadfait and influential a supporter
of the Administration would have no difficulty in
extracting an assurance that the question would
be fairly met, and not
dis-ose d off by a side-wind,
or unduly shelved by delay or procrastination.
Mr. GLADSTONE has observed a similar mystery
with respect to the Advertisement D • nties ; but the
existing doubts on that sill,'
Jeet will be more
speedily removed. He has fixed the
read-
ing of the Newspaper Stamps Bill the second
rsday,
and he will at all events on that day have
de-
clare positively and unequivocally whether to
ier he will
yield to the frequently-expressed opinion of the
majority, or whether he will obstinately con-
tinue his opposition thereto. Nothing but can
excess of perverse obstinacy could induce the
Right Honourable Gentleman to persevere in his
stubborn and dogged resistance to a matter so

unimportant to himself in point of principle
(although of vast importance to the overwhelming
majority of the public journals, and to the com-
munity in general, whose interests are greatly
involved in the result), and on which the amount
at stake is of comparative unimportance. It must
not be forgotten that his colleague and leader,
Lord JOHN RTJSSELL, acknowledged clearly and
distinctly that " the preponderance of argu-
ment was in favour of the total abolition
of the Advertisement Duty ;" and that it was
" a very heavy duty, and no doubt, it was an
impediment to trade, and an obstruction to the
supply of those wants and that information which
the people would desire to have." The question
then—if these influential members of the Cabinet
are in accord—must solely rest on its produc-
tiveness to the Exchequer ; and surely 80,0001.
although only " for the first year, and followed
by a rapid and constant increase," is not of such
vital importance, that the Right Honourable Gen-
tleman should alienate his friends and risk even the
existence and permanency of the Government
itself rather than abandon one of the crotchets to
which he is so strongly attached, and to which he
has given such unquestionable proofs of his de-
votion.
There may, however, be something more in this
determined opposition than meets the eye in the
first instance. It appears, from a few ominous hints
which he let fall on Friday evening, in answer to
the Hon. Gentleman the Member for Manchester,
that he is by no means convinced of the propriety
of removing the " Taxes on Knowledge," even if
the state of the Exchequer warranted such a con-
cession. In speaking of a cheap press, he de-
clared that the question "was not by any means
so simple as he (Mr. BRIGHT) seemed to suppose ;
that it appeared to him to involve a variety of
considerations to which the Hon. Member
had not even alluded. The fiscal aspect
of the question was not the only nor even the
most important point to be considered, and it was
obvious that the question could not be disposed
oil without deliberate consideration." It would
be well to ascertain the exact meaning of this
remarkable speech, to know whether the Right
Honourable Gentleman is so exclusively devoted
to the interests of " The Times," as the unsolicited
boon which he offered to that journal and his more
recent declaration would seem to imply. And if the
surmises to which these matters have given rise
should prove to have but too much foundation
than that it should be discovered whether these
feelings are participated in by his colleagues, or
any, and which of them, that the measures may
be taken accordingly, and that we should not be
lending our aid to the creation of new restrictions
on the press generally, so as to endeavour to vest
a practical monopoly in the Leviathan.

No candid man will be severe upon any
Government for failing more or less with an
Educational measure. All our Legislators, for
many years past, have been most sincerely de-
sirous to make education universal, and to see its
standard raised and its scope enlarged for all
classes, not excepting those who enjoy University
instruction. Even the concessions to Catholics,
High Churchmen, and Dissenters, bitterly attacked
as they have been by religious zeal, to use the
mildest word, have been made, we believe,
generally with the very best motives. The
patriotic statesman, while deploring the nar-
row-mindedness to which he yielded, has thought
it richly worth while to turn the zealots
into educators, at the price of humouring some
crochet, on which they supposed the poor child-
ren's eternal welfare were to depend. The crotchet
could do, as the Statesman thought, but little
harm ; the education, he was justly confident, as
a general thing, must do good. We regret, with
Mr. WALPOLE, that Catholics should practically
exclude the Bible from the majority of Irish
schools. We regret that Presbyterians as well as
Catholics should get rid of such an admirable
compendium on that important subject, as Arch-
bishop WHATELEY'S " Evidences of Christianity."
For Religion's sake, for Education's sake, on social
and intellectual grounds, we deplore both acts
sincerely ; yet are we none the less assured that
the education itself, guaranteed as it is as to its
intellectual character by inspection, is a gain of
inealsulaue w eeila. There oan bo no doubt, if we
will not be misled by instances of occasional and
exceptional turbulence or violence, that the Irish
character and habits are rising, and that educa-
tion has much to do with it. An agrarian mur-
der, it is true, is still sometimes committed, and its
perpetrators shielded as a point of honour. Let us,
however, only remember how slowly duelling went
out of practice amongst a cultivated class, and how
all concerned, even judges and prosecuting officials,
leagued to screen the duellist, and we shall not
be surprised that barbarous revenge should,
amongst the rudest class, be but too long regarded
as the necessary vindication of public rights. As
to the interests of Popery and Protestantism, edu-
cation must ever be suicidal to the former. In
spite of the innumerable and splendid exceptions,
education will, as the rule, train to the exercise of
private judgment (the very essence and germ of
all Protestantism, and of all liberty too), even
while the pupil learns the creed which in
terms denies it. It is utterly impossible that
an educated community should not be, compara-
tively at least, an inquiring community. And,
we may say it we hope without offence, it is
utterly impossible that Popery, or any system
based on authority, can stand before free inquiry.
Popery never has done so; it knows it well, and
it therefore suppresses it. The semi-Popery of
Tractarianism does precisely the same. It is a
singular fact, too, that the entire tendency of early
education is by no means to insure the fidelity of
the pupils to the creed of the school. We
once at a stormy public education meeting
saw a shrewd-looking, intelligent infidel of the ope-
rative class gain the platform, and, having obtained
a hearing from the quarrelling religionists, he
frankly avowed his sentiments, but said he good-
temperedly, " Gentlemen, you really need not
quarrel which faith you shall teach us, if you will
but teach us at all. I have observed that a lad
will mostly talk against the creed that was taught
him when a boy. I have several children, and I
have sent them to a Church School, and a Metho-
dist School, and a Baptist School, according as I
happened to live near one or the other. I know
they won't like a creed better when they get older for
remembering that great pains were taken to make
them learn it." Who can deny that the man in
fustian told the truth with regard to all the better
class of minds which we educate, the minds which,
like his own, must influence the circle in which
they act ? and if so, may it not well moderate the
heat of the DENISONS and CITLLENS to reflect that
their zeal is frequently but sowing the seeds of
youthful revolt against juvenile cramming. " The
boy," it is true, "is father to the man ;" but if
you attempt, in proverbial language, " to put an
old man's head on a young one's shoulders ;" if
you would make, in other words, a sectarian theo-
logian of a child, it will soon be perceived that the
theology was not a natural part of " the boy's mind,"
and will, most likely, be no part of " the man's."
The disappointed priest will only find another old
motto, verifying itself for the thousandth time—
" Naturam expelles fure ; tamen us que
Et mala perrum pet furtim fastidia
In regard to Lord JOHN'S Educational Bill,
while we give him the full credit due to his 1:01.1g
advocacy of the cause of popular enlightenment,
we must think that he is not himself much dis-
appointed by its present position. Perhaps he
hardly expected that nearly all the most import-
ant towns to which it would apply, should peti-
tion against it, through the very Town Councils
which he proposed should lay the rate. The
fear of increasing municipal discords, and adding
religious to political contests in their meetings,
with the unfortunate provision that the Town
Councils were not to disburse their own rate,
but to hand it over to a Government Committee
in London, appear to indispose the mere im-
portantn boroughs to accept it. His Lordship,
however, was no doubt 616 by
surprise at re-
ceiving, on the very eve of his introductory
speech, the
ttihtee eutsitmatistics which showed that the
school
that accommodation is, on the whole, ample ;
he proportion actually at school has all but
4teddesirable number, and that the

voluntary payments of the parents themselves have
attained the esiornaous amount of half a million
sterling I It was very obvious that he felt the
need of Government aid to be much less than any of
us had supposed. There are also other considera-
tions which make us willing to leave our naturally
self-acting race to go on educating themselves and
improving the quality of their education pretty
much in their own way. One is, that the spirit
of education is now thoroughly roused. Even
the Mansion-house, the central point of the City
of London Corporation, has caught the public
feeling. The poor fagged teachers of our public
schools are honoured with civic notice, and in the
popular
vic
a underboroughs
reoducucgi
epd discuss
provincial oetrrina
rsuflrylloimneobfaellleassttuihnbegj Hatitolasnilp.icoefsmAltah;
have already met there to consider the higher
de.
partment of Artistic Education. With such a
public spirit abroad, we may well be cautious of
superseding voluntary energy and
liberality by
compulsory rates which would become
the excuse
for personal effort. Another consideration
the only class unquestionably needing some com-
pulsory intervention, is untouched by this bill.
The Census Returns show that the great mass of
children do attend some school already. The mid-
dle classes and upwards of course provide for
themselves ; pauper children are already under
Government care ; it is the children of what are
reasonably enough designated the " dangerous
classes" which chiefly need to be secured. Hither-
to, these have baffled every effort. The States-
man who can legislate for them on any plan com-
patible with English liberty, will deserve the
thanks of this and of every coming generation. We
wait with interest the development of Lord
SHAFTESBURY'S plan. Here, if anywhere, the
Noble Lord is at home, nor should he be grudged
the necessary powers, if any powers can effect it,
to turn the thousands of almost infant vagabonds
trained to be their own ruin and the plague of
society into a school of intellect, industry, and
virtue. If Lord SHAFTESBURY can succeed in
this, his will be the real Education Bill of the
day. There is a claim, too, put in by the Volun-
taries, which it will be difficult to gainsay. They
have given notice of a proviso to be exempted from
the rate to the extent to which they already volun-
tarily subscribe to any school. It is difficult for
any who, on Mr. PHruimoßE's and Lord STANLEY'S
plan, would relieve them from church rates, to
deny the reasonableness of this proposition. The
proposed rates are to enable the children to go
nearly free to the Government schools ; and it
does seem hard to rate a person who already sup-
ports schools he approves, in order to enable others
to allure children by cheapness away from his
freely-supported school. As, however, the great
bulk of the respectable people in boroughs already
subscribe to some school, the amount of exemp-
tions would perhaps render the rate a nullity. If
it be so, the proposition only shows pretty strongly
how much the proposed rate would injure that
existing voluntary support which Lord JOHN
RUSSI.LL and all of us equally desire to maintain
in full vigour.