The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-20 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, DEC. 20, 1859.

IT is manifest that, however great may be the una-
nimity of the Liberal party with respect to the Irish
land question, and pace Mr. COGAN, we believe such
unanimity to exist, there is anything but unanimity
with respect to education. When men like Mr.
BAD.-Es and Mr. BUXTON, Liberals of the Liberals,
deprecate the programme of the Education League,
and affirm that the present system has worked
meat good, and ought to be supplemented
and perfected rather than abolished, it is
not surprising if Ministers hesitate about
bringing in a measure whose fate must be very
doubtful in the present uncertain and unformed con-
dition of public opinion. Delay, of course, is very
undesirable, if it can be avoided. But a delay, which
will not be for more than a year or two, would be
better than mischievous legislation. It must be
remembered that both the League and the Union
are agreed on the most vital points. Both admit
that the present system is insufficient, that parents
ought to have a right of veto with regard to the reli-
gious training of their children, and that there is
need of a great development of education among the
especially in agricultural districts. It is only

poor,
with

regard to the machinery that there is any differ-
ence of opinion. The distinction between them is, as
Mr. BAINES has pointed out, that while the Union
wishes to maintain and improve the present
machinery, the League wants to substitute a new one
which shall supersede the present partly voluntary
system by one which shall be compulsory. Theoreti-
cally we have not, and never have had, any objection
to compulsory education. The State has as much right
to insist that every child shall be educated as it has
to demand that every child shall be fed. The objec-
tion that compulsory education involves throwing the
burden upon the already over-burdened rate-
payers, is one that always seemed to us with-
out force, for education is one of the most profitable
investments, and the money spent upon it will be far
more than repaid in the diminished cost of justice.
The school is not only a more Christian and humane,
but also a cheaper institution than the gaol. Still,
when all is said, is it wise to do away with the
present machinery, and substitute one that has not
yet been tried in this country, and in the United
States has been tried with only very partial success
The advocates of the League say yes, because
the present system has failed to educate the
whole people. The Leaguers say there are so many
thousand persons who sign the marriage register with
a cross, so many thousand children who do not
attend any school at all, so many thousand of those
attending who are so imperfectly taught that they
cannot pass even the fourth standard. We do not
care to quote the figures, because they seem to us not
wholly relevant. The only fair way of calculation is
to ascertain how far the present system has improved
the national standard of education. Mr BAINEs
asserts that there is at the present time an average
schooling of nearly six years for every child in Eng-
land ; that whereas in 1846 the number of men who
signed the marriage register with a cross was 32 per
cent., and the number of. women 48.2 per cent. ; in
1867 the numbers were only 21.2 and 28.8 per
cent.; and there is no doubt that ten or
fifteen years hence, when the children now
under education come to sign the register, the
proportion of cross-signers will be found to have
diminished still further. During the forty years,
1818-.58, there was an increase of 276 per cent. in
the number of day scholars, and during the same
period the number of Sunday scholars increased three-
fold even in proportion to the increase of population.
It is manifest that when the Leaguers talk of nothing
having been done, they are both inaccurate and
ungrateful. Perhaps all has not been done that
might have been accomplished, but there is
no reason to suppose that if the system
of the League had been in force, it would have
been more successful, and there is no reason why the
present system should not be supplemented and
improved so as to be wholly adequate. For instance, '
compulsion of some sort may be both advisable and
necessary. And this compulsion should not be per-
missive on the part of employers, but should be absolute.
IVith this proviso why not make use of the existing
machinery, and extend it from the manufacturing to
the agricultural districts ? It is an indirect compul-
sion; it does not need the intervention of the police.
It simply says of a child, If he will not learn, neither
shall he work ; and the argument will have infinitely
more weight with the parents than the longest
homilies about the "pleasures, objects, and advar.-