The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The eternal question of Scriptural Education
v;as opened up last night by the Earl of Win.
chilsea in the House of Lords. The Earl of

Winchilsea professes himself a zealous Pro-

testant, and we may admit his Protestantism
without admiring his logic, Because the Pro-
testants derive great henefitcrom the unrestricted
right to search the Scriptures, and are, in conse-
quence, more advanced in civilization than thc
Catholics, the Noble Lorl.l ;-yould impose addi.

tional obstacles to the improvement •oi~ the
Ca►holics, by excluding them Iron the benefi►
of education. If we had the determining 01
what religion the people of Ireland should be,
we would, of course, make them Protestants ;

hut it so happens that six-sevenths of them arc
Roman Catholics, and we have been trying to
make them Protestants for 300 years without
success. The Roman Catholics object to the
placing the Bible in the hamis of children as a
schoolbook, and allow only of selections from
the Bible. If, therefore, we wish to place edu-
cation within the reach of these Catholic

children, who are at present without the means
of obtaining it, we must give such an education
as may be compatible with their religious Fin-
viples. Many Protestants are as much opposed
to the placing the whole Bible in the hands of
children as the Catholics are, and Earl Grey last
night alluded to the late Archbishop Magee, who
had said that it was advisable to use select portions
of the Scripture to prepare the minds of youth for
a more thorough study ofthe Scriptures in mature
age. But though many Protestants may think
that the whole Scriptures can be placed with
advantage in the hands of children, there are
none who can possibly think tflat judicious se-
lections from the Bible will be productive of evil.
The Protestant and Catholic, therefore, are so

far agreed that selections from Scripture are
good, though most Protestants have another
opinion not shared by the Catholic, that the
whole Scriptures would also he productive of
good. By adoping what both Catholics and
Protestants are agreed on, a national system of
education may be established. The question is
not between the whole Bible and a part, because
All who are inclined to place the whole Bible be-
fore their children are not prevented from doing
so, but between education and no education. It
must surely be better to place selections from
the Bible before six-sevenths of the population
of Ireland than to leave them in total ignorance.
The Earl of Winchilsea, Earl Roden, and some
other Peers, may be merely silly on this ques-
tion, though, with all their silliness, they have a
wonderful knack in arriving at conclusions hos-
tile to the general good; but there are many of
the Peers who voted against Ministers several
nights ago, for whom the apology of weak-
ness of understanding cannot be offered. They
join in the cry of the whole Bible, because they
are enemies to all education, and because they are
little scrupulous as to the means by which they
can strike a blow at a Minister. The Duke cf
Wellington, for instance, knows as well as any
man can do, that there is no choice between the
Ministerial plan of education and none. But
what does he care for the education of the
Irish ? The exhibition of his Grace on that
night alone will satisfy all men with regard to
his Grace's principles. 1-le may do good here-
after as he has done before ; but of this we may
be sure, that he will in that case have some other
motive than the mere wish to do good. He is
evidently a man not to be trusted too far. The
zeal of the Church of England clergy for the
whole Bible is not a little suspicious, when it is
recollected that a few years ago four-fifths of
them held it worse than infidelity to place the
Bible without note or comment into the hands
of children. Dr. Marsh, the present Bishop of
Peterborough, published sermon after sermon,
and tract after tract, against the Bible Societies,
and he had a great majority of the clergy on his
side. " Though," said he, in his sermon
preached at St. " without the Bible the
Liturgy has no support, yet, without the Li-
turgy men are left in doubt whether the princi-
ples of our faith should be embraced by them or
not. Without the Liturgy they want a guide
to lead them to the Established Church. With-
out the Liturree, the Bible may be misapplied to
doctrine and discipline most discordant with our
own." Here, then we have the Protestant cler-
gy blowing hot and cold almost at the same time.
But in truth the contradiction is only in appear-
ance. The object was the same then as now—
to prevent the diffusion of Education. The
Bible, without note or comment, was then cried
down just as the Bible alone is now advocated.
—Morning Chronicle.
The fury of the Ultras, with the Duke o'
Wellington at their head, is now transferred from
those who would go all constitutional lengths in
support of Reform, to those whose conscience
and honour forbid them to run the most wild
and outrageous lengths in opposition to it. We
have read nothing more rancorous or indecent
than the abuse poured out by the ostensible
organs of Toryism, upon those Lords who seem
willing to open their eyes, however tardily, to the
" pro" as well as " con." of this all-important
question. And what is, what can he, the pur-
pose of such extravagance ? Do the Duke of
Wellington's partis ins persuade themselves that
his Grace, though he had (which he has not)
150,000 soldiers at his back—or further, if he
had (what we are sure he has not) the disposi-
tion to make England one field of battle, could
arrest the cause of Reform for even a single
twelvemonth? It is impossible for the Duke,
or for any man in his right sense 9, to fancy that
the introduction of a solid Reform into our insti-
tutions can depend upon the miserable chance of
a majority or minority in the House of Lords.
Ask where is the Reform question ? What
space does it occupy ? By what power is it
sustained ? and by what force sent onwards ?
Why, every schoolboy will inform his Grace that
it exists not within St. Stephen's Chapel or the
tapestried chamber,—that it is not confined by
the walls of the old palace at Westminster,
nor will it be governed merely by what passes
there,—that it is not buoyed up or dragged for-
wards by 360 Members of the House of Com-
mons, nor will it be sunk by the pressure, nor
driven from its course, by the adverse breath, of
199 lay and mitred Lords. It is every where—
in every cottage, in evlby shop,—on the moun-
tain, in the dell, in the village, the factory, the
city,—in the breast of every Englishman, Scotch-
man, Irishman,—that it spreads over, pervades,
inflames, propels the whole community,—that
it
forms the atmosphere, and the food, and the life-
blood of Britain,—that he who destroys the na-
tion, and he alone, can rub us of a full,
effective, and permanent reform of the constitu-
tion of Parliament. " But," says the Duke of
'Wellington, " a. change so total in the represen-
tative system of Scotland amounts to an entire
revolution.' Well, my Lord Duke, and what
of that ? The overthrow of episcopacy was a
" revolution" in Scotland. Yet the nation willed