The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON

amined, and, consequently, necessitates the utmost
vigilance and scrutiny on the part of the Legislature
before it be finally dismissed. Whether by the re-
tention of the former colonial possessions of Holland
in perpetuity—the Cape of Good Hope, Demerara,
Essequibo, and Berbice—England is not bound, irre-
vocably and under all circumstances, to continue her
periodical instalments upon the Russo-Dutch Loan, is
a consideration which embarrasses still further this
complicated and intricate question. At all hazards,
our fame as an honourable nation must not be sold
for gold or tarnished for convenience.

Continuing our remarks of yesterday upon the
subject of National Education, wherein we proved
from the equal admissions of the strenuous sup-
porters of the Established Church, on the one hand,
and the advocates of Voluntaryism, on the other, that
neither of these systems is adequate to provide the
needful regimen for the general education of the
people—we approach the question, whether the State
ought to be exclusively permitted to construct, regu-
late, and control efficient institutions for deve-
loping the intellectual faculties of the rising
generation. If we had to consider this proposition in
connexion with a nascent colony, or infantile state,
we should unhesitatingly support it ; but, viewed in
regard to the British Isles, we find the ground has
been already occupied to such an extent, and for so
long a period, by influential partisans of different sys-
tems, that, as a practical people, we are not at liberty
to weigh the abstract merits of the various theories
that have been, more or less, propounded and em-
braced for the promotion of national education.
If Lord MELBOURNE'S Government, when they,
ten years since, scanned the existing and future
evils derivable from suffering the humbler classes
to remain embedded in ignorance, and became
convinced that the State should take some
precautionary steps in aid of the intellectual
welfare of the people, had commenced their opera-
tions by clearing the area of every material that lay
upon the surface, the proceeding would have been
denounced as one of the most insane ever adopted by
any Ministry. Destruction is seldom the necessary
antecedent to reformation. Wherever this policy
has been sanctioned by those who, enamoured with
the beauty and symmetry of a given theory, never
condescended to reflect upon its practical bearings,
the consequences have been most disastrous. It was
the pursuit of this fatal error that stamped the
French Revolution of 1789 as the most horrible
fantasy recorded in the pages of history. Lord MEL-
BOURNE, however, carefully reviewed the different
agencies at work ; he demolished none, but prudently
determined upon fostering and encouraging them all.
In a parental spirit, he moulded everything he found
at hand. Honourable prejudices were scrupulously
regarded, and he steered a course fraught with reli-
gious toleration, and subservient to the great
end held in common by every influential sect
—a sound secular education for the people.
From the great stress which the different educa-
tional societies laid upon the importance of religious
instruction, the Minister wisely conceived that that
invaluable branch of education, according to the
favoured doctrines and forms of respective religionists,
would never be neglected ; and that, therefore, the
State might advantageously assist existing institu-
tions, upon certain conditions, and with reference to
the secular culture of the mind, without in any wise
mixing itself up with theological controversy. How
idely soever parties in Parliament formerly differed,
they are now united in their approval of the wisdom
with which Lord MELBOURNE devised his plan.
Everything savouring of interference has been care-
fully eschewed by the present and the two preceding
Governments. Public monies have been yearly
granted to those bodies- who have applied for pecu-
niary aid, and all that the Goverment, as faithful
trustees, have chiefly insisted on, in return, has been
a right of inspection, in order to guard against the
misapplication of the funds they have allocated.
Those who object to this system have, fur the most
part, their minds entangled in a twofold fallacy,
which is admirably exposed by the Rev. Mr. DUPTON,
to whose able pamphlet we yesterday referred.
The first arises from the presupposition that
there must be a single Educator. " But education is
not one single and simple process ; it is such a train-
ing of all the mental and moral faculties as will fit
the educated to discharge all the duties and fulfil all
the relations of life." The second fallacy is involved

in the question which they are constantly presenting:
" Will you separate religion from education ?"
Quoting again from Mr. DurTos, "we answer that
we will attempt no such thing, for the simple reason
that it is clearly impossible. Religious and secular'
cannot be separated in education,' properly so called,
because education includes all the moral obligations of
life ; but they may, and must be separated in
instruction, which is the instrument of education,
and like every other instrument, must be different in
its applications, according to the different nature of
the objects which it is required to accomplish." The
grievous error lies in this,—that people start with the
presumption that in the vessel of the mind there is an
inseparable union between its religious and secular
contents, whereas they are, from the first, distinctly
separate, and the grave and delicate task consists in
so combining and uniting them, that " the religious
element shall be preserved from desecration, and the
secular from perversion." Towards the conclusion of
his essay, .Ir. DUFTON offers many suggestions for
calling the powers of the State into requisition ; and
we consider that we tender him no slight praise, when
we observe, that, in the spirit of most of them, he has
been closely anticipated by the Government. We
are quite certain that both Churchmen and Voluntaries

must by this time be equally convinced, by practical
experience, that they can achieve more by co-operation
than by any exclusive privilege of instruction. In
stating this, we give the animu3 in which Mr.
DorTolv has submitted his views to the public. We
feel grateful for his effort in behalf of the intellectual
and moral elevation of the unenlightened classes of the
British community.

Notwithstanding the extraordinary and gigantic
efforts of the British Government and British people
—notwithstanding the enormous expenditure sanc-
tioned by the State, and defrayed out of the Conso-
lidated Fund, by which daily employment is afforded
at this moment to no less than 700,000 able-bodied
labourers on the public works, and provision made
for their families, who may fairly be averaged
at 3,500,000 human beings—notwithstanding the
liberal contributions of benevolent individuals,
who in the most praiseworthy manner hare come for-
ward, and from their abundance sought to relieve and
alleviate the destitution and misery under which a
considerable number of their Irish brethren were
suffering, who, from peculiar circumstances, were
unable to obtain employment or food, from public or
private sources ;—notwithstanding these unparalleled
exertions on every side, distress and wretchedness
appears still to prevail extensively in that unhappy
land, and the horrors of pestilence and famine to remain
without mitigation. The coroners of the several
counties, particularly in the southern and western
parts of the kingdom, are holding daily inquests on
the wretched victims, and the almost invariable verdicts
returned by the juries, of "deaths from actual starva-
tion," afford the strongest evidences of the continued
ravages of famine in the stricken districts, of the in-
sufficiency of all that has yet been done, and of the
necessity of increased exertion of the most vigorous
description on the part of every one who has the
means to render assistance. In such a fearful emer-
gency it behoves all to set their shoulders to
the wheel ; there should be no hanging back, or with-
drawal from the imperative duty. Every one should
give according to his means ; it is not the
magnitude of individual gifts, but the universality
of the benevolence, that is required,—pence from the
millions would be more valuable than pounds from
the few. It is not a time to inquire whether land-
lords have performed their duties, whether -the
afflicted people have conducted themselves with
perfect propriety, or what may be their deserts ;
above all, it is not a fitting time for any attempt at
protielytism, or at inculcatirg the abstract doctrines
of any sect or religion on the minds of
famishing wretches ; it is sufficient that we
are satisfied of the reality of the distress,
and that unhappily requires no additional corrobora-
tion, to induce every person possessed of the common
feelings of humanity to strive to the utmost in the sacred
cause. Tbat assistance is required as well on behalf
of our Scottish as of our Irish brethren. The great