The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-05 00:00:00

FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW.

As the subject of national education is now
growing in interest with the public, the Editor
of this periodical has wisely selected it for his
opening—or to speak professionally, his lead-
ing—article, which is founded on " Cousin's
Report of the Prussian System of Education,"
and strongly advocates the necessity and practi-
cability of some such System being introduced
among us. The public education of Prussia
consists, it seems, of three degrees. Ist. Pri-
mary, or elementary instruction, destined for
children of the lower and middle orders. 2d.
Secondary instruction, communicated in schools
called the gymnasia. 3d. The highest instruc-
tion communicated in the universities. Com-
petent masters are selected to superintend each
of these separate branches of the system ; and,
in order that they may discharge their duties
with zeal, they are handsomely remunerated by
the State. It is gratifying to read of the length
to which education is carried in Prussia :
" All parents," says the Reviewer, " are bound by law
to send their children to the public elementary schools, or
to satisfy the authorities that their education is sufficiently

provided for at home. The obligation in question eaten d
not only to parents and guardians, but to all persons w
have power over children, such as manufacturers and
masters of apprentices, and applies to children of both
sexes, from their seventh to their fourteenth year complete.
Twice a year the school committee and the municipal
authorities make a list of the chil.lren in their district
whose parents do not provide for their education, and
require the attendance of all who are within the prescribed
age. This attendance is dispensed with if satisfaction is
given that the children will be properly instructed else:
where ; hut the parents are, nevertheless, bound to contri-
bute to the school to which their children would naturally
belong. Lists of attendance, kept by the schoolmaster, are
delivered every fortnight to the school committee."

We hope shortly to see some such system as
this introduced into England, for it is humiliat-
ing to the national vanity to think, that a country
which boasts itself to be the birth-place of
freedom, and the very fountain head of European
civilization, should be so far behind one of the
most despotic kingdoms in the world. No honest
Government need ever be afraid of over-enlight-
ening the community. It has everything to
hope from a well-instructed people—everything
to dread from an ignorant one. In fact, the
zeal with which they encourage a system of
national education, is one of the surest tests the
governed can have, of the uprightness and sa-
gacity of their governors. Lords Brougham
and Durham are both warmly in favour of such
a system, which, notwithstanding the difficulties
with which—as the Edinburgh Review some-
what too lugubriously assures us—it is beset ;
notwithstanding the opposition it bids fair to
encounter from the two extremes, of Church -
men on the one hand, and Dissenters on the
other, cannot but be eventually successful.
" History of Modern Italian Freedom," at the
very first glance, reads very much like a bull.
0 Modern Italian Freedom !" Where is it,
when Austrian satraps ride rough-shod over the
country, from one extremity to the other ?
Where even thought is enslaved, and free
speaking is a sure passport to the dungeon, and
perhaps the scaffold ? But the " Modern Free-
dom" of Italy closes with the eighteenth
century, and it is in this light the Reviewer has
regarded it. Baron d'Haussez's " Great Britain
in 1833" is severe, but just. The poor Baron
has been sadly mauled by his English critics.
His frequent flippancies and misstatements have
drawn down on him such rigid castigation, that
he may almost cry out with Cain, " My punish-
ment is greater than I can bear !" The essay on
" Egyptian Antiquities" displays much research,
on a subject hacknied, indeed, but apparently
inexhaustible.

The article on " Animal Magnetism" is an
able, unflinching exposé of one of the most
whimsical humbugs ever yet palmed on public
credulity as science. It is, we are informed, as
old as the clays of Cromwell, being first practised
by a Mr. Valentine Greatrakes who performed
" marvellous cures" merely by the " stroking of
his hands." Hell, a Jesuit—a somewhat hete-
rodox name for a priest !—revived the system in
the year 1774, since which time it has lan-
guished, and is nearly, if not quite, extinct•
Mirabcau," though the periodical journals,
Quarterly and Monthly, have nearly worn the
subject threadbare, is full of interesting matters.
In point of style, the article is far superior to
the generality in this Review. It is the choice
handy-work of a practical and accomplished mind.