The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-30 00:00:00

DR. CHALMERS ON THE EDUCA-
TIONAL QUESTION.
The following paper, the last composition on any
public matter which emanated from the pen of Dr.
Chalmers, will be perused with deep interest by all
our readers, both from the vast importance of the
subject discussed, and the sad consideration that the
voice which could so wisely enunciate regarding this
and every other topic of practical bearing on the well-
being of man, will be heard among us no more for ever.
The paper originated in a conversation which took
place in London on the national education scheme,
between the lamented deceased and the Hon. Fox
Maule, when the latter, struck by the breadth and
general applicability of the Doctor's views, urged him
to commit them to writing. Dr. Chalmers did so
whilst at Whitfield, Gloucestershire, on his way
home ; and the following valuable document—emi-
nently practical in its nature, and suited, we should
think, in a country such as Scotland, to unite the
suffrages of the majority in all denominations—was
the result. For our own part, we regard it as a
legacy of sound, well-weighed advice to our Church
and country, to which both would do well to serve
themselves heir
" It were the best state of things, that we had a
Parliament sufficiently theological to discriminate be-
tween- the right and the wrong in religion, and to en-
courage or endow accordingly. But failing this, it
seems to us the next best thing, that, in any public
measure for helping on the education of the people,
Government were to abstain from introducing the
element of religion at all into their part of the
scheme, and this, not because they hold the matter to
he insignificant—the contrary might be strongly
impressed in the preamble of their Act; but on the
ground that, in the present divided state of the
Christian world, they would take no cognizance of
sect, because they would attempt no control over
the religion of applicants for aid—leaving this matter
entire to the parties who bad to do with the erection
and management of the schools which they had
been called upon to assist. A. grant by the State
upon this footing might be regarded as being appro-
priately and exclusively the expression of their value
for a good secular education.
" The confinement for the time being of any Go-
vernment measure for schools to this object we hold
to be an imputation, not so much on the present
state of our Legislature, as on the present state of
the Christiah world, now broken up into sects and
parties innumerable, and seemingly incapable of any
effort for so healing these wretched divisions as to
present the rulers of our country with aught like such
a clear and unequivocal majority in favour of what is
good and true, as might at once determine them to
fix upon and to espouse it.
"It is this which has encompassed the Govern-
ment with difficulties, from which we can see no
other method of extrication than the one which we
have ventured to suggest. And as there seems no
reason why, because of these unresolved differences, a
public measure for the health of all—for the recrea-
tion of all—for the economic advancement of all—
should be held in abeyance, there seems as little rea-
son why, because of these differences, a public measure
for raising the general intelligence of all should be
held in abeyance. Let the men, therefore, of all
churches and all denominations alike, hail such a mea-
sure, whether as carried into effect by a good educa-
tion in letters or in any of the sciences ; and, mean-
while, in these very seminaries, let that education in
religion which the Legislature abstains from pro-
viding for, be provided for as freely and amply as
they will by those who have undertaken the charge of
them.
" We should hope, as the result of such a scheme,
for a most wholesome rivalship on the part of many in
tne great aim of rearing, on the basis of their respec-
tive systems, a moral and Christian population, well
taught in the principles and doctrines of the Gospel,
along with being well taught in the lessons of ordi-
nary scholarship. Although no attempt should be
made to regulate or to enforce the lessons of religion
in the inner hall of legislation, this will not prevent,
but rather stimulate, to a greater earnestness in the
contest between truth and falsehood—between light
and darkness—in the outer field of society; nor will
the result of such a contest in favour of what is right
and good be at all the more unlikely, that the families
of the land have been raised by the helping hand of
the State to a higher platform than before, whether
as respects their health, or their physical comfort, or
their economic condition, or, last of all, their place
in the scale of intelligence and learning.
" Religion would, under such a system, be the
immediate product, not of legislation but of the
Christian and philanthropic zeal which prevailed
throughout society at large. But it is well when
what legislation does for the fulfilment of its object
tends not to the impediment, but rather, we appre-
hend, to the furtherance of those greater and higher
objects which are in the contemplation of those
whose desire are chiefly set on the immortal well-
being of man.
" On the basis of these general views, I have two
remarks to offer regarding the Government scheme of
education. •
"1. I should not require a certificate of satis-
faction with the religious progress of the scholars
from the managers of the schools, in order to their
receiving the Government aid. Such a certificate
from Unitarians or Catholics implies the direct sanc-
tion or countenance by Government to their re-
spective creeds, and the responsibility, not of allow-
ing, but, more than this, of requiring, that these
shall be taught to the children who attend. A bare
allowance is but a general toleration, but a require-
ment involves in it all the mischief, and, I would
add, the guilt, of an indiscriminate endowment for
truth and error.
" 2. I would suffer parents or natural guardians to
select what parts of the education they wanted for
their children. I would not force arithmetic upon
them, if all they wanted was writing and reading ;
and as little would I force the catechism, or any part
of the religious instruction that was given in the
school, if all they wanted was a secular education.
That the managers in the Church of England schools
shall have the power to impose their Catechism upon
the children of Dissenters, and, still more, to compel
their attendance on Church, I regard as among the
worst parts of the scheme.
"The above observations, it will be seen, meet any
questions which might be put in regard to the ap-
plicability of the scheme to Scotland, or in regard to
the use of the Douay version in Roman Catholic
schools.
" I cannot conclude without expressing my despair
of any great or general good being effected in the
way of Christianizing our population, but through the
medium of a Government themselves Christian, and
endowing the true religion, which I hold to be their
imperative duty, not because it is the religion of the
many, but because it is true.
" The scheme on which I have now ventured to
offer these few observations I should like to be adopted,
not because it is absolutely the best, but only the best
in existing circumstances.
" The endowment of the Catholic religion by the
State I should deprecate, as being ruinous to the
mingeiritiiiacllhriit.stiiztietrresotra.theS,petilol,plledboutnot throelook h fother
medium of the Christianityirciffst=
r;
by swi:
a lesson taught historically
read there of the influence which the personal cha-
racter of the Jewish monarchs had on the moral and
religious state of their subjects—it is taught experi-
mentally by the impotence, now fully established, of
the voluntary principle—and last, and most decisive
of all, it is taught prophetically in the book of Reve-
lation, when told that then will the kingdoms of the
earth—(Basileiai, or governing powers)—become the
kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ; or the Govern-
ments of the earth become Christian Governments.
(Signed) " THOMAS CHALMERS."

ZENON, BY THE REV. R. COEBOLD.—The author
of this work is already favourably known to the public,
by the Histories of Margaret Catchpole and Mary
Anne Wellington. These works have become exceed-
ingly pupular, and have earned for their writer a well-
deserved reputation. He now appears before the public
as the author of an historical narrative, selected from an
era and a class of people whose manners and customs are
less known than those of modern nations. The scene of
his story is Rome, and the age, that of Domitian. His
leading object is to pourtray the sufferings of the early
Christians under the persecutions of the Roman Em-
perors. His secondary purpose is to describe the man-
ners and picturesque early life of the Romans. In his
double capacity of a clergyman and a scholar, he appears
to possess the necessary talents and information to ac-
complish both these ends in a manner very pleasing and
satisfactory to the general reader. The incidents of the
work are at once various and striking, and moral and
religious truths of great importance are both simply and
powerfully expressed. The work has afforded us so
much pleasure that we can sincerely recommend it to
our readers.—Messenger. _ _

NOBLE CONDUCT.—T he Adventurers in Wheal Ruby
Mine have ordered their workmen to be supplied with
best bag flour, to the amount of 251. per week, at a dis-
count of 25 per cent. on the cost price. The adventurers
have also agreed to take payment for the flour at such
times as the earnings of their work people will permit.—
Devonport Independent.
The Faubourg St. Germain has been thrown into
consternation by the resolve of the young and beautiful
Princess La Tremouille to appear on the stage ! Every
effort has been used to dissuade her—but in vain. She
persists in her determination to make a debut at the
Theatre Francais, in one of Rachel's parts, on the day
that she becomes of age ; and if, through the influence
of her family, the doors of the Francais should be
clpsed against her, she has declared her intention to ap•
pear at the French Theatre iu London or St. Peters-
burg.—Brighton Gazette.
JENNY LIND.—The Aftonblad, a Stockholm paper,
contains a letter purporting to be, from the Swedish
Nightingale, and contradicting the statement made by
some of the Scandinavian journals, that she is to re-
ceive bank-notes to the tune of 12,000/. in exchange for
the silvery notes she warbles forth during the present
season. The real amount is given in the letter as 2,0001.