The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-16 00:00:00

. - . ~~

SPIRIT OP TILE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times observes that the Endowed Schools Bill
having passed its second reading and been remitted to 3
select committee, it may be assumed that its principle is
conceded. We believe the bill deserves approval, but we
confess that the ends sought by the bill are more open to
discussion than the adaptation of the means proposed
under it to the ends. It is, for example, very easY
overrate the efficiency of any method for discovering and
educating the best minds of each successive generation tg
the winnowing of competitive examinations. The ill•
tellectual powers of boys ripen at such different 110'
and in so many cases a full development of fanni;
ties merely perceptive gives such appearances of
promise never capable of being realised, that under
the best system boys who prove eventually to be the
leaders of their generation will be neglected, and boys wit°
as men will never rise above the work of routine will be
pushed forward. But this objection applies as much t°
the existing application of educational endowments as t°
that contemplated by the bill, and, simply stated, it
amounts to no more than this—that though the bill, sae°,
put into operation, might vastly improve the character 0'
our national education, it would still leave it imperfect in
its application to some minds. A more substantial cti•
ticism on the scope of the bill will be found in the danger
of uniformity of national education in developing 3
monotony of national character. No impartial person
who has examined the facts will deny that this danger 19
a real one, for it has been realised in those countries
where national education has been best promoted. ILt
New England, where we find a race most nearly akin t:
ourselves, and a system of graduated popular education
long established, a certain common level of character can
be distinctly recognised, and traces of a similar result 0
not hard to discern in France and Prussia. The greater
diversity of English life would, indeed, go far to check the
tendency to a similar phenomenon among ourselves, sn
it is certain that private and auxiliary schools will 10135
flourish to control thepredominance of one type of education'
The danger itself, however, though sensible enough t°
noticed, is insufficient to affect the value of the refers
proposed by the Endowed Schools Bill, and we hope
measure will return from the committee to which it has
„bI eureebled by its raanirld
lation.

The Standard says that the question with which the
measure concerns itself is in no sense a party questi°,l;
As Mr. Beresford Hope pointed out, no one takes uP the
ground of positive resistance to change in the manage'
ment of the endowed schools. No one asserts that the
present state of things is one which can be defended or
maintained. It is admitted on all hands that the abuse'
revealed by the royal commission report constitute ;
scandal which must be vigorously and promptly dell
1.
with, and the only points in issue between the author 0
the bill and its critics on Monday night are those affectivg
the mode in which it is proposed to remedy evils the e:4is.
tence of which is recognised and deplored in all quarterg.
We are all working for the same end. The (Plestig
raised by Mr. Forster's bill is whether we approve his
methods of remedy and can work with him in aPPIYI
them. The reception accorded to the bill on the 011 iv
sition benches must have satisfied the right hog gentle'
man that he has nothing to fear from a " dead earth'
kind of resistance, On the other hand, he can 1131.870
be surprised at finding that the provisions of a Ilae°llt-ii
so wide in its scope, and dealing so trenchantly wit
interests of the highest importance, are jealously scrub'f
nised and closely sifted. Above all, it will be the duty
°,4
the select committee to decide whether the powers vested
in the Government through their commissioners are cr
not excessive. Do they or do they not enable the Educ33.B
Con Minister to upset and cancel every school trust la s
kingdom? Would it not be in the power of a l33iilef
filling that post to obliterate the Church character
Church foundations, or of a Fawcett or a Dixon to make
them the vehicles of purely secular teaching? it raftiso
not be forgotten that the bill finds its warmest suPP°,r,'"eit
amongst the Secularists and the Dissenters, and should
al on careful inquiry that they have such specs
reasons for approving it as we have hinted at,
out
trust the select committee will not hesitate to take 0'
its sting.
The Telegraph considers that a load was lifted off tibe
minds of many honourable and right honourable gentile'
men by the time that Mr. Forster had explained what he.
meant to accomplish through his Endowed Schools ,11.
All sorts of horrors had been conjured up by the first brie
statement of its provisions, and a hasty—a very basti,Yo-;
glance at the measure itself. His bill is temporary
in making it so he has done wisely. A year or two heed
a great measure of national education must be frame :
and it will not do to block the path of reform with sec',
tional machinery. Better for us to wait until schools
shall be placed under some authority, imperial or loci;
Finally, comes the task of examining the pupils-3 t3is
which Mr. Forster commits to a body of twelve gentle,
men, six elected by the Government, and the remainder
the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and IfiLlu,°;
That body is to carry out the plan of raiddle-ci3,-r
examinations. In words of remarkable force, Mr. Fers:he
said that he wished to execute the intentions of 'be
founders. But that can be done only by attending t°
.t,BO
spirit of their bequests, and not to the letter. Thin is
have changed since the Tudor times ; the new Engla'noy
unlike the old ; and, as Mr. Forster observed 011 -M° they
night, if the founders had been present in the House,t to
would have been the first to applaud a bill which seeks
_
rescue magnificent educational endowments from the gr;
of sloth and bigotry, in order that the money milled
devoted to the teaching of what our fathers justly cal
the " humanities."
favour
The Post thinks that the strongest argument inthe
of the Abolition of University Tests Bill is supplied are
fact that the disabilities which it is intended to reraew`iive,
incompatible witn the spirit of the age in which weisTou.
It is simply an anachronism, when not only ordirialioiest
conformists, but even Jews, are eligible for the '',:taref
offices under the Crown, and for seats in the Legis;all's
that the University of Oxford should insist on 311vber
signing the Thirty-nine Articles if he desires to take:l,2,ord
degree than that of Bachelor of Arts ; that both v
too
and Cambridge should exclude from the Senateble to
otherwise entitled to sit there, because they are 111113,2isbed
pledge themselves to be members of the deny
Church Church ; and that the colleges of both glitreirajaineiolv;
fellowships even to the most distinguished of
hers. If a college devoted itself exclusively to the trsist
of clergymen, it might then with great proprietY ix! _ for
the observance of rules in respect
eratioll.•
reej
office no less stringent than those now in op
if a college invites all comers, irrespective of their:dopt
and their ultimate vocations, then it is bound tc)s „ct to
those principles of justice and impartiality in re.oPncittent
the distribution of its rewards, and to the apportl
rester
of legislative authority, which, on a much college
scale, are acted upon by the State in which that
to qualificatioui3tit

- ..
amongexTi shtse.
IriDailyeh newspapers,Neu, srem arhs
athat o Sir John Flay, bti rrroifil 05
certain Reverend ,isesr .
Mr. Shanahan, in whom he recog
foeman worthy of his steel. This 1 n who OP° :
gent ema ,
to be a Roman Catholic
eta
Limerick in which according to Sir John fray, he °,,P cot,
avowed
himself
a sympathiser with the Fenian illave;
know what a Fenian is, but if it means „._, ctii
concluding • '
with the followingwords "I do not - for
:
me upon the traceD -
lova
men
Ireland, Ireland for the Irish, and that frvisb,ill3.o
ought to be able to govern themselves, I am a j'e-id "
in my heart, and so is every prist in Reit° •
The meeting, it is said, broke up Nvi th cheers f•
taeßepublic, President Grant, Stephens, and Pigott. In bat
her rr terrible
Majesty's conjuncture
Ministers Sir Johnin
den d
ed Hay
to
d wished
o
f
Fortescue'sreply :ClN,}l'iocbtielis)thSe;
was brief and to the poMinr;
We doubt not that the*Rev. Mr. Shanahan, who, as ''' .0
Chief Secretary explains, did not say preciselY what-ribev's
alleged to have said, is better pleased with Sir John P-3.'
glory of being the subject Next to the
question than with Mr. Fortescue's answer.
thedelight of making a violent speech to an excited raeeting'
• tarY inqudieria
of a parliamentary
would probably be most gratifying to a vain and bot-hea
ev ')
man. As to the meeting, which seems to have been thee
chief offender, it cannot be arrested or prosecuted, or

dispersed, for it bas dispersed itself.
The Herald says that forty-nine of the Fenian convti_'''at:
are to be unconditionally released. It is with regret
a.b.o
.
we must decline to look upon this act of grace rs one Iv_.
gether of justice or policy. It certainly does note ePer:,
sent the principle by which the Government, Itb
cise of its prerogative, professed to be guided. The state. ,ivrt
ment put forward was that a distinction would be drat
between the young and inexperienced, who bad bdper4
misled by worse conspirators, and the rialea_t;io
who had entrapped them to their ruin. But Ivl3',
we find? Either that the judges of the realm w—
ere
recklessly indiscriminate or inhumanly severe
assumption which would be monstrous—or that the Prei
tended principle of all this clemency has been lost sighv i°o
entirely. For among the individuals pardoned thi„tb,
the first instance, were actually condemned to
tea cl",to
though their sentences were subsequently commu thitt
penal servitude for life. And what happens ? WhY' ig
a sentence of death signifies just such a penalty al
often inflicted for an ordinary theft ; that Pc%
servitude for life is a penalty at which a prisoner aaa'ej'i
mock, in the confidence that he would bave„,bliee
far more stringently treated had he assaulted a. r„-idect
man. Let us repeat, we c
begrudge the irilsg-1,- Joh
and ignorant herd of the Fenian convicts the liberty
we hope they will not again abuse, and we, trust t
example of leniency may have its moral' effect in leso,
btutas for some of those who have been chosen for favour
does appear preposterous that their punisliment,.stelf
madebe a jest of, and that the law should codes.
to be insincere when it dares to deal with treason.
Fors
might almost be said, in spite of Mr. Chichester
Wardles thAt CaPtAin hArtAsight_to-c°1311213°-