The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times considers Bishop Ullathorne's arguments were
vitiated by inexactness of statement. It is not proposed
that workmen shall be compelled to send their children
to secular schools. The proposal is, that unless parents
send their children to some school or other, they shall be
compelled to send them to the common school to be opened
for them. The liberty of choice is in no degree infringed.
The licence of neglect is the only thing proposed to be
taken away. But the Bishop seems not to understand
the views of those who differ from him, and his argu-
ments, positive and negative, are necessarily wide of
the mark. Take, for example, his essential position,
that education without religion is necessarily imperfect.
We assent to this unreservedly, and we know of none who
would reject it. But, admitting it fully, the question is
whether such education is not good as far as it goes. Are
not the knowledge and the use of letters and figures, or,
as the Bishop calls them, the instruments of education,
;ood as helps towards a fuller development of the powers
of the pupil ? And is not this limited education the alter-
native, under exi3tin3 circumstances, of entire neglect?
If these questions be answered, as we believe they must be,
in the affirmative, the positive part of Bishop T_Tllathorne's
address fails as completely as his criticism of his oppo-
n:nts.

The Standard thinks it is one of the most hopeful features
of the movement in favour of secular education that it
almost necessarily enlists against it the strong sympathies
and earnest opposition of the religious communities.
Granted all the fundamental differences which keep them
apart, and the rivalries which incite them to an attitude
of mutual jealousy and antagonism, it seems reserved to
the secularist agitation to prove that they hold at least
one doctrine in common, and have at lest one bond of
union. Dr. Ullathorne's statement of the grievance of
the Roman Catholics might be accepted identically as
that of the rest of the religious bodies, and we are certain
that his protest will be enaorsed with similar unanimity.
Can they consent that the schools which are to be exclu-
sively supported by the State, and at which attendance is
is to be made compulsory, " shall have no religion taught
in them—that there shall be no faith, no creed, no cate-
chism, taught to any of the children in them?" Rome
can gain nothing by the spread of infidelity. She
has even an object in co-operating to defend a
system which, at least, proceeds upon the basis of
Christianity, and thereby saves her the trouble of con-
structing the approaches and covered ways by which she
proceeds to the assault; whereas in dealing with an infidel
one has to begin at the beginning. We believe the Roman
Church is perfectly sincere in holding fast tothe denomina-
tional system in this country, because if it turns against it
it will in all probability fare worse, and hence we see no
reason why the summons to united action, which it has
impliedly addressed to the religious bodies all over the
kingdom, should not meet with a ready and courteous
assent.

The Telegraph takes leave to draw Dr. Ullathorne's
attention to the main point of this great business—me
which must be settled before any of such interesting bye-
problems are discussed. The ingenious Bishop will have
his labour for his pains, if he does not first of all recognise
two broad facts : Firstly, that the people of England,
being come to power, are determined to have themselves
educated; and, secondly, that the denominational
system—the system which now exists, and which
the Bishop is compelled to embrace as his only
refuge from the League—has failed to educate the people.
Here, then, arises the only question worth debating—
whether there is any other except the compuLory and
" non-sectarian" way of educating the whole people of
England? The League says "No," and formulates its
four-cornered plan, with the Bible pure and simple for a
class book. The Roman Bishop and some of the Tories
answer " Yes," and name—the denominational system! The
country points to the figures of the educational reports,
which demonstrate that the system is an utter failure ;
and thus Dr. Ullathorne and the Birmingham priests will
only strengthen the hands of the League, until they point
us to a third resource which nobody has yet thought of.
Neither we nor Parliament have any objection to Catholic
teaching for Catholics ; only, the children of this kingdom
must all be instructed. That comes first ; and anything
which renders such Universal instruction impossible must
be done outside the forthcoming measure.
The Times highly applauds the resolution of the Central
English Amnesty Committee to dissolve. A grateful
public will know how to appreciate their forbearance when
it reflects that such an association would probably have
involved a chronic interruption of traffic; a wearisome
reiteration of semi-seditious speeches, now too common to
be at all amusing or exciting; and last, but not least, the
temporary transfer of the care of person and property from
the ordinary police to an amateur force of ragamuffins and
" roughs." We can only hope the committee may find
strength to persevere in their most laudable resolve. That
those who are themselves Fenians at heart should keep up
a ceaseless agitation en behalf of the prisoners is intelli-
gible enough. A rehabilitation of this kind is sorely
needed for a cause which, just dangerous enough to inspire
general uneasiness, but not general alarm, and hitherto
associated with Clerkenwell explosions in the dark and
burlesque rebellions in the open day, has had the rare
fortune to incur at once both hatred and contempt.
The amnesty agitation also procures fur the Fenian
cause what before it had above all things wanted—
the countenance of men of some influence in social
position, in lieu of the shopboys, bankrupt publicans, and
military filibusters, described by Justice Keogh, who at
first formed its vanguard. The Irish people, when they see
respectable men invoking mercy for Fenians, naturally
enough conclude that they sympathise with Fenianism.
The Amnesty movement of the genuine Fenians is, accord-
ingly, as we have said, perfectly intelligible. But what are
we to say of the credulous folk who allow themselves to be
thus made cat's-paws of treason, and who lend themselves
to a prolonged agitation which cannot possibly attain the
only object they themselves have at heart, though it
admirably promotes a policy they detest?

"I came, I saw, I evicted." With such Caesarian brevity,
says the Daily iVews, might many a landlord describe the
political campaign of 1863, or his part in it. The abuse of
territorial influence was not confined to any part of the
United Kingdom ; but it was least signal probably in Scot-
land, and most remarkable in Wales. The independence
and intelligence of the farmers north of the Tweed, and
the two facts that they are men of capital and hold on
lease, enable them as a rule to call their opinions their
own, and to give effect to them by their votes. In Wales a
different state of things prevails. There the tenants are
without this double protection; and in the case of a
division of sentiment on any public question between
themselves and their landlords, they are apt to find
a political conscience a very costly possession. Some lead-
ing members of the Liberal party, in and out of Wales,
have resolved that this state of things must and shall come
to an end. During the present week a Conference has
been held at Aberystwith, in Cardiganshire, and subscrip-
have been set on foot in order to supply the means of com-
pensating voters who may have suffered pecuniary loss in
consequence of their political honesty. The need of some
such organisation as that which has been called into exist-
ence is proved by the attitude of a few Liberal landlords,
who are landlords in the first place and Liberals in
the second. While the Conservative landlords of Wales
take as their maxim the Duke of Newcastle's claim to do
-what he liked with his own, some of the Liberals are too
prone, like the late Lord Grey, to stand by their order,
right or wrong. They would not coerce, but they think it
a very graceful thing in the tenant to defer to the supe-
rior intelligence of his landlord; and without approving
the wrong-doer, they do not like to see him too rudely in-
terfered with. All this proves the necessity of a radical
change of sentiment and action ; and the movement which
has been Set on foot at Aberystwith, in abating a local dis-
order, may be the beginning of a general reform.

The Post hopes that the anxiety felt and the otfurti
put forth by Mrs. Gladstone to supplement the provisions
made by the Metropolitan Asylums Board to meet the.
present demand for' increased accommodation for\ the
treatment of the poorer classes affected with tho
relapsing fever will find sympathy and obtain
efficient co-operation among the well-to-do classes
of this metropolis. The case is one of urgency, and
specially calling for help on a large and generous scale.
The duration of the attack is ordinarily about six weeks,
but when the attack is subdued there are many cases
which must go out of hospital with a moral certainty of
their return, unless a sort of probationary stage can be
prescribed, consisting in a simple transfer to such an
asylum as that over which Mrs. Gladstone presides with
so much experience and practical benefit—the
Clapton Convalescent Home. The country has a
right to expect, and it will expect, that the
Special Committee of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, to
whom well nigh unlimited rowel-4 have been entrusted
for this very c n(1, will be able to render a good ac?.eunt cf
their stewardship, and that no delay will be allowed to
occur between the warning they have received and the suf-
ficiency of the remedy they provide. One paramount duty
is before them ; their one care must be that it be fulfilled
Nothing is so unpardonable in public life as indecision and
moral cowardice.

Mr. Somerset Beaumont, the member for Wake-
field, addressed his constituents on Tuesday on public topics,
including the Irish land question, the difficulties of which
be recognised, remarking, among other things, that though
the Liberals had many excellent clergymen on their side in
the matter of the Irish Church, there would be very few
landlords who would favour any scheme for disestablisli:Ag
laud.

LORD SHAFTESBURY ON THE CHURCH
AND THE PEOPLE.

The Earl of Sharcesbury has been taking the chair at a
religious meeting at Wimborne, in Dorset. Certain reflec-
tions, he said, had lately been cast' upon him for lending
the right hand of fellowship to a man with whom on one
point ho could agree, while fn, ethers he could
not agree. But if the Pope himself came to
ask for his assistance to maintain the integrity
of the Gospel he would take his hand or his arm, and they
could help each other on to a certain point, although they
might be at loggerheads immediately afterwards. Instead
of fighting one another, L. unite toge'her to the help
of the Lord against the mighty. A new system of
evangelisation was wanted—a system under which
men would dive into the dens of iniquity and drag
the inmates to the light of day—teach by house-to-
house visitation. Of the working population of London
only 2 per cent. attended places of worship. Impure
literature must be suppressed, and this not by the iron
hand of the law, but by other means. The fact was the
ministers of the day did not do their duty. What the
masses wanted was not Ritualism, not Broad Churchis.m,
but evangelical religion, and if they could not get it of the
Church of England they would go to the Nonconformists
for it.