The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-25 00:00:00

T FIE SUN, LON DON , THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, F-36

the See of London or Canterbury—not for his know

ledge of divinity or his knowledge of human nature, or
his moral character—but for his knowledge of heathen

plays, or scholastic disquisitions on the Greek cho- I
ruses, or on difficult passages in the tragedies of lEs-
chylus and Euripides. Injurious as the system is
in this point of view, it is still more injurious when we
regard its effects on the mind of youth, and the stamp
which it gives to their character for life. Few me❑
are better qualified to judge on this subject than Pro-
fessor Pillans, both from his intimate knowledge of
the English system, and the opportunities which he
has had of judging of the beneficial results of a plan
which he has so successfully carried into effect in his
own country. Every impartial person who has attended
to the subject, will admit that the following account is
any thing but overcharged :
" In the great schools, he says, of England—Eton,
Westminster, Winchester, and Harrow,—where the
majority of English youth who receive a liberal and
high professional education are brought up, the course
of instruction has for ages been confined so exclusively
to Greek and Latin, that most of the pupils quit them,
not only ignorant of, but with a considerable disrelish
and contempt for, every branch of literary and scientific
acquirement, except the dead languages.
" In this general neglect of all knowledge but clas-
sical, it would be some consolation to be assured that
Greek and Latin, at least, were acquired ; although h
cannot be denied, that the most perfect mastery of these
tongues would be but a poor return for a term of ser-
vice comprehending, (if the pupil go through all the
gradations of Eton school), ten of the most docile and
valuable years of human life. But it will scarcely be
pretended that any such security exists. The gram-
mars, and other initiatory books, are so unphilosophical
and repulsive—the methods of instruction so technical
and uninviting—and the temptations to idleness and
dissipation so numerous among youths removed from
the eyes of parents and friends, that we need not be
surprised to find a result which has furnished plausible
grounds for many an attack on classical discipline.
The result may be stated thus :—A few quit the great
schools of England with scholar-like acquirements ; a
greater number, without being much of scholars, shew
a refined taste for the niceties and elegancies of Greek
and Latin poetry ; but a majority, we will not venture
to say how great, leave school with a slender enough
stock of classical attainments, and no disposition to in-
crease it, and in a state of ignorance of every other de-
partment of science and literature, foreign or domestic,
which would be ludicrous, if it were not lamentable, in
the case of young men to whom, from their station in
society, independently in a great measure of their talents
or acquirements, the destinies of this great country ate
likely to be committed."
Such practical errors form the ground work of nearly
all the arguments against classical education, and have
induced many to jump to the conclusion, that no
great injury would be caused by its abolition, or at
least by making it secondary to the study of arithmttie,
geometry, geography, and modern languagec. The
fallacy of such arguments are pointed out with great
and convincing force by the author ; and while he ad-
mits that for some mechanical employments a course
of classical education might be misplaced, and that it
would be desirable to have institutions formed which,
without attempting ornament or variety, should profess
to give no instruction beyond what an education
strictly mechanical or commercial might be thought to
require—he at the same time regrets that a disposition
should have sprung up to preclude the sons of the
middle class of easy and respectable citizens from all
chance of that general cultivation of the intellectual
powers, and that humanising influence of ancient lite-
rature, which result from a well-directed course of clas-
sical education. By making this admission, we think
he goes too far. Classical education, when conducted
in a proper way, not only calls into active exertion the

powers of memory, judgment, and reflection—it not
only tends to improve the intellectual powers, but it
affords the only secure method of becoming acquainted
with the customs, laws, and institutions of antiquity,
and of successfully comparing them with our own—
and it also inspires a taste for geography and history,
which no one who is not opporied to all education for
the lower classes would deny even to the son of a

mechanic. We are not to presume that because a
man is a blacksmith or a weaver, his son is to be
chained to the anvil or loom, as in China. The high-
est offices in this country are open to the lowest
classes, and more particularly since the passing of the
Reform Bill, the highest honour which can be conferred
on a citizen, that of representing in. Parliament the
wishes and interests of his fellow-citizens, has been
conferred on men who were originally warehouse por-

ters, or who, according to their own accounts, in learn-
ing their trade at the spinning jennies, have had their
skulls cracked by billy-rollers for skulking behind the
machinery. Those men would now give half of their
fortunes for the possession of those intellectual quali-
ties which they might have acquired in their youth at
a trifling expense and without loss of time. It is ab-
surd to talk of loss of time. Everybody who has time
and means to acquire that species of instruction de-
nominated school-education, has time to acquire, if not
a thorough knowledge of Latin, at least such a know-
ledge of the rudiments as would enable him, in after
life, to_ become master of it. The advantages arising
from even this defective classical education are well
pointed out in the following words :
"In attending such a course in a public seminary,
they have got, it may be, but an imperfect knowledge
of Latin ; and the little they once had, may eventually
be lost. But they have gone through the drill, though
they have forgotten their exercise ; and it has given
them a firmer step and a more graceful carriage. They
cannot, perhaps, construe a classic on opening in it ; but
they have sat on the same benches with the best of the
land ; they have learned to respect themselves ; they
have read and dwelt upon the noble passages, stamped
as they are with the authority‘of ages, in which the
free and manly spirit of antiquity is embalmed ; and
they have heard them commented on and illustrated by
their teachers, till the sentiments they contain have be-
come part of their nature, and continue to influence
their character and conduct long after the words, and
aven the language in which they were first conveyed,
have faded from their memory."

CASE OF MR. BUCKINGHAM.

TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC.
London, Feb. 24th, 1836.

FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,
By a decision of the House of Commons, which was passed
last night, by the votes of 125 to 81 of its Mcraber2—justice
was substantially denied to me ; as, after sr, Select Commit-
tee of the House, appointed in the Session of 1834, had una-
nimously resolved that compensation ought to be made' for
the wrongs inflicted on me in India ; after a Bill had passed
a first and second reading in the Session of 18357—giving this
Resolution the sanction of the whole House, which Bill was
interceptel in its progress only by a technicality which re:
quired that it should be introduced as a private instead of a
public Bill: after such private Bill was introduced its the
Session of 1836, with every requisite formality, and read a
first time within the prescribed period-125 Members re-
fused to let it go to a second reading, and thus closed the
door entirely against its being discussed in Committee,
where alone its details could be fairly examined.
The facts of the case are so clear, that no one can mis-
understand them, unless he be wilfully and purposely blind.
They are these :
In the year 1818 I established a daily journal in India, on
which 20,0001. of capital, and five years of labour were ex-
pended ; and in 1823 it produced a clear profit of from 6,0001.
to 8,000/. per annum ; and one-fourth of it was sold for 10,000/.,
the purchasers realizing 35 per cent. per annum of dividend on
their shares.

In the year 1823 I was banished, without having violated
any law, either Indian or English—without any legal proceed-
ing, trial, or hearing—merely for having expressed my disap-
proval of a public appointment, by which a Presbyterian minis-
ter was made a Clerk of Stationery at a large salary, and for
having contended that this union of the and the secular
duties in one individual was incompatible and improper.
On my arrival in England I found that this very appoint-
ment had been so disapproved of by the Court of Directors,
the India Board, and the General Assembly—the Iliree great
authorities who had power to annul it—that each of them had
passed a much more severe censure on the appointment than I
had done, by ordering it to be revoked, on the very ground of

its impropriety.
A few weeks after my banishment from India, and while I was
wholly unconscious of what was going on in my absence, the Go-
vernor- General, by his mere will and pleasure, without any con-
viction of even an alleged offence, without any legal process of
form of law—suppressed this journal entirely, and not merely
extinguished a property which it had cost so much labour and
expense to create, but decreed that even the types and mate-
rials should never be used by any other person, so long as I
was to derive any proprietory or pecuniary benefit therefrom.
Seeing this general wreck, I humbly asked leave of the
India Company to allow me to return to India for ever so short
a period, to gather up the fragments that might be left, wind
up my concerns, and leave the country for ever.
Even this favour was killed to me ; and the consequence of
the whole of these arbitrary and tyrannical proceedings was,
that I was utterly despoiled of three-fourths of a property of
the actual saleable value of 40,0001., and involved in debt and

liabilities to the extent of 10,0001. more.
If this had been done by a Russian Government towards a
Polish subject, all England would have rung with denuncia-
tions of the tyranny of the act. Is it the less tyrannous be-
cause perpetrated by one British subject towards another?
If it had been done by a Prime Minister of England towards
any journalist in London, every village in the kingdom would
have had meetings and resolutions denouncing the atrocity.
Is it the less atrocious because it was performed in Calcutta ?
I may add, that if it be tyrannous and atrocious to banish,
plunder, and despoil men, not for their private vices or their
public crimes, but fur their private virtues and their public ser-
vices to the community and the State, can it be otherwise than
tyrannous and atrocious to uphold or defend such conduct, as
some have done, or to do every thing to oppose the granting
of redress to the victim, which has been the conduct of others ?
But it is contended that the freedom of the press, though
useful and safe in England, is dangerous in India. Ask Lord
Hastings, Lord William Bentinck, and Sir Charles Metcalfe—
three of the ablest Governors, of recent date—and they will

answer, that the freedom of the press is even mare useful in
India than in England, and quite as safe in the one country as
in the other.

It is said, too, that though the particular article for which I
::as banished and ruined was a harmless one, and even just in

its censure, yet that the general tendency of the journal was
inflamatory and immoderate. Ask Lord John, Russell; the
present Leader of the House of Commons, and he will answer
in his own words :—" For my own part, having lately had an
opportunity of reading all the articles published in Mr. Buck-
ing-ham's Journal, which were particularly found fault with by
the Indian Government, I can undertake to say that there is
not one of those articles, although they must all have been
written and inserted in the hurry inseparable from the publica-
tion of a daily paper, which not only does not reflect the
slightest stain on the character of the writer, but aro such as
would do honour to any man possessing an honest zeal for the
welfare of the community in which he lived, and such as there
is every reason to believe were written and published with a
perfect conviction, on the part of the author and publisher,
that he was serving the cause of truth, and was therefore
entitled to the thanks of his fellow-subjects, and the approba-
tion of a wise and benevolent Government."

This opinion Lord John Russell still entertains up to the
present hour.
Mr. Cutlar Fergusson, who was at the bar in India during
these transactions, characterised them there as " more suited
to the meridian of Madrid or Constantinople than to that of a
British Settlement ;" and be has both spoken and voted in
favour of my claims, at the India House and in the House of
Commons since.

Sir John Hobhouse, before he was made President of the
India Board, also expressed his indignation at the tyranny of
the Indian Government, and even after his appointment to
office, and up to the week before the Bill of 1835 was brought
in by Mr. Tulk, he expressed himself ready to vote for the
Bill, if Lord John Russell should do so; and this, indeed,
might be naturally expected, as the whole of his public and
private professions have always been in direct opposition to
those which could sanction or defend such acts of oppression
as there described.
Mr. Lawson objected to my having sent printed circulars to
different parts of the country, requesting -the assistance of
Members to forward them to their constituents, in order to ob-
tain the expression of public opinion in the case, for this was all
these circulars solicited. Why, how are the facts of any case
to be extensively known, but by giving them wide circulation?
And how can they be circulated more unobjectionably than by
Members sending them to their constituents, as they do daily
for every variety of object? The parties were merely asked to
express their opinion on the case, and whathas been the result?
Why that while hundreds of petitions and thousands of signa-
tures infacour of my claims have been sent up from places and
persons whom I had never visited or seen, not one unfavourable
answer has been returned, nor a single petition sent up against
the case. Y did no more than every man does who has a
grievance to complain of; namely, to spread the knowledge of
it far and wide. The sympathy with my injuries, which was as
spontaneous as it was universal, was created by the facts of the
case itself. I had no means or influence but this to make
my wrongs known ; I did so, and the response was universally
in my favour.
Mr. Roebuck objected to making the people of Hindostan
pay for the losses incurred by a " violation of the law." This
objection is founded in entire ignorance of the facts : as, first,
no law was violated, either Indian or English, and no legal
process or conviction was ever attempted ; and, secondly, the
people of Hindostan would not pay one farthing more than they
do at present, whatever amount of compensation might have
been awarded me. _ _

Mr. Robinson thought the people of England would
readily sign petitions for any compensation provided they had
not to pay the sum out of their own pockets, and he also
contended that it was unjust to make the people of
India pay for losses incurred by the conduct of their rulers.
But it is remarkable that Mr. Robinson himself has taken great
pains to induce Parliament to compel the India Company to
grant compensation to the officers of their China ships, merely
because the cessation of their monopoly has caused an inter-
ruption in their employment. If, then, Mr. Robinson thinks
that the revenues of India may be justly drawn upon to give
pensions to those who never had the slightest claim upon the
natives of that country for consideration, what must be the in-
et,nsistency of mind that can object to the same resources being
applied to compensation for property destroyed by those among
whom the whole of that revenue is divided ?
But, in truth, it is the greatest of all delusions to suppose
that the natives of India would be taxed a farthing more than
they are at present, if 'any compensation were to be paid.
They are taxed to pay the dividends of 10i per cent. on East
India Stock, to proprietors who never saw their country ; they
arc taxed to pay the President and Commissioners of the India
Board, Sir John Hobhouse and his colleagues, the Court of
Directors and their Establishment ; they are taxed to pension
officers of every class who are out of employment ; and the
surplus of the revenue, when all this is done, is appropriated to
the payment of their debts. From this surplus alone, any com-
pensation awarded to me must have come ; and if ever the Com-
pany owed a just debt, and one that ought to be paid in full,
and even with interest, it is the debt due to me for property
destroyed, and for twelve years of unjust resistance to a just
demand.
This, then, is a brief, but faithful summary, both of the
facts of the case, and the arguments urged against my claims.
Before a fair and impartial tribunal, they would have had due
consideration. But, in a House of Commons, where, of the
658 Members, there are rarely even more than a third in at-
tendance, and their proportions are altering ever hour of the
evenin—sometimes the one party being most numerous and
evening
sometimes._sometimes
the other ; where the utmost uncertainty prevails
as to the exact hour when any subject is coming on ; where
questions are rarely decided upon their merits, but often on
purely party grounds • and where baste, and confusion, and
misapprehension, and accident all concur in turn to defeat
the best arid most just of causes, due consideration of any
minor or personal case is almost impossible.
From these untoward combinations—namely, the uncer-
tainty of the time at which the question would be put to the
vote—the accidentally-full attendance on the Tory benches,
and the slight attendance on the Liberal side—the close and
compact discipline of those who are opposed to Reform, and
the loose and disunited bonds of those who are its professed
advocates—which caused the absence of many whose presence
would have cast the balance in my favour, had their weight
been included in the scale, my claims were rejected ; and
justice, through the present Parliament at least, has been thus
y
finally and irrevocably denied mo.
I have no remedy at law, and this it is which aggravates
the cruelty of m
case ; that while the evidence is indis-
putable, the damages capable of proof, and the wrong un-
doubted, the only Jury before which I can bring my case is
that composed of 'the unfavourable materials above described ;
and their course has been, by this decision, to prevent the

1 case going to a Committee, and thus effectually to prevent its
impartial hearing.
To you, then, the BRITISH PUBLIC, it is right that these
facts should be known ; and as you have shown, by the most
unequivocal proofs, your deep interest in my cause, by sending
up petitions from nearly two hundred cities and towns of the
kingdom—embraing England, Scotland, and Ireland—With
many thousand signatures of the most respectable individuals
in each, praying that the I-louse of Commons would vindicate
! its own dignity, maintain public justice, and amply redress s:),
w"r"ongs, it is right that you, at least, should know—fii-st, that I
an-deeply sensible of your kindness, and grateful for your
syMpiatliy, which I shall remember as long as I have memory
or life ;; and next, thatinothiug has been omitted which could
be done; either by me or by the real friends of justice in the
House or in ,the country, to Secure the fulfilment of your wishes
to their utmost dctent.
For myself, I feel, that while the Parliament is constituted
as at present, all hope'of Legislative relief is vain,;: and tint it
would be self delusion to indulge it for a moment longer, I
have now been twelve years'Eluggling against the power that
oppressed me—and hitherto I Issue struggled is vain—l. have
tried solicitation, entreaty, influence, argument, appear, and
have wasted a large and valUable period of my life, and ex-
pended all the produce of my labour in the pursuit ; but all
has been fruitless, and my wrongs are still unredressed.

It is tree that I have beaten down the DeSpoiler, so
fat' as to deprive him of his power to inflict the same injury
on others. I have roused the people of this kingdom—from
one end of it to the other, to demand the extinction of the
monopoly of trader and irresponsibility of power, heretofore
enjoyed by the India Company ; and they are happily abolished.
The rich provinces of I-lir2doostan are uow opened to the free
settlement of British subjects ; and no man can henceforth be
banished, as I was, without the violation of any law. The
Trial by jury is established, and no man can now be despoiled of
his property, as I was, without a verdict of his countrymen.
The liberty of the Press has been recently confirmed, and no
man can now be made a victim, as I was, for advocating its
establishment. _ _

The trade with China has been opened, by which it has
been proved that more than two millions a-year has been already
saved to this country, in the purchase of its Teas. The trade
with India has been greatly extended, by which, probably,
another million annually is gained in the increased export of
every branch of British manufacture, and the increased em-
ployment of British shipping.
All these are national benefits, which I laboured humbly,
but succersfully, to accelerate and accomplish. But, in doing
this for others, I have been trampled under foot myself; and
now, after a career of as much industry, zeal, and public
utility as it is permitted to almost any man to achieve,
instead of enjoying the autumn of life in possession of that
moderate competency which I had honestly and honourably
earned, I find myself despoiled of all, without either legal or
constitutional redress.

I have, however, this great consolation, that I have done all
that man could do to obtain justice from my oppressors • that
I have served my country faithfully under every vicissitude and
every change ; that my private honour remains unsullied, and
my public principles and public conduct are unimpeached.
These, I trust, will ever be in harmony with that love of liberty
which I hope to cherish to the end of my days : and whenever
that end may arrive, I shall have no self-reproach to dread in
casting back a retrospective view over the sacrifices I have
made, and the. sufferings I have endured, in the great cause of
political and commercial freedom, which I have happily lived
to see triumphant over despotism and monopoly, though I may
be suffered to perish in the wreck.
I am, Fellow Countrymen,
Your faithful friend and servant,
London, 60, Piccadilly. J. S. BUCKINGHAM.