The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-12 00:00:00

1

writing, and arithmetic. If a child should pass in
the whole the full capitation grant will be given ;
but if he fail in writing, for instance, one-third of
the grant will be withdrawn ; if he fail in both
reading and writing two-thirds will be withheld ;
while if he fail in reading, writing, and arithmetic
no portion of the grant will be paid. Thus, the
House will see that we shall never pay anything
for a child unless we have been satisfied—first, that
he has attended above a certain number of times ;
secondly, that he has attended a school which is
under a certified master; and, thirdly, that he has
satisfied an inspector of his capacity in reading,
writing, and arithmetic. I hope the change we
propose may have some effect in correcting the evils
in the teaching which have been complained of.
Our object is to secure, as far as possible, that the
attention of the master shall not be confined to the
upper class of his school, but shall be given to the
whole, and we endeavour to effect that object by
making the payment of the capitation grant depend
upon the manner in which he has instructed each
child."

We respectfully suggest to the Government, to
inspectors, to managers of schools, and to all whom
it may concern, that if we uphold a system of edu-
cation out of the public taxes its first object ought
to be a comparatively humble one. As in poor
law relief, we must think of educational necessaries,
not of educational luxuries. The three elementary
subjects of education we want every child to study.
Beyond that we wish every child to be a geo-
grapher,a historian, a mathematician, and so
forthto
the extent to which his tastes, time, and
ability enable him to be so. But great has been
the error of more ambitious efforts. We most of
us know from early recollections, perhaps from
parental experience, how easy it is for
a teacher to furnish a few crack boys
whose performances shall be reported as what
has been achieved in his school ; while five-sixths
of the boys have received, perhaps, but a very
slender modicum of his attentions. Both his own
credit, and the labour of drilling common-place
lads, combine to induce him to throw his strength
into the best possible cultivation of the few minds
which will pay for it. The Commissioners very
properly call attention to the greater importance of
teaching all well, than a few superlatively well.
We add that it ought to be the main object. The
great majority of the working classes will never
need more than elementary teaching ; they have no
use for more. And, we may rest assured, that
wherever there is ability and taste for fur-
ther knowledge, the lad who can read,
write, and cypher will never fail to
teach himself—the most valuable teaching of all.
It is moreover a great injustice to the great body
of the poor, if the teachers are selected from a class
who will not feel a thorough interest in teaching
those elements which are essential to all. We
have no right, at the public expense, to furnish
instruction of a kind wanted by the less needy
classes, when it leads to the neglect of that which
the poorest need, and which none can do without.
The Government does not propose to make any
alteration in the denominational system. The
national education is still to be carried on through
the agency of the sects. We cannot blame them
for this. It is a miserable device to be sure, but the
mutual intolerance of the various denominations
leaves no alternative. There is a better system of
Government education in Ireland, but it is assailed
on all sides from year to year. Nowadays
" Christians so love one another," that they cannot
have their children taught common school subjects,
except with an addendum of some creed, catechism,
or worship, which shall be a magic security against
the evils of knowledge_ A catechism is like the
horseshoe nailed in the door-way. That superstition
has pretty nearly vanished, we may hope in due
time the other will follow it. We do not imagine
it would last long if laymen were the advisers—we
should be content, thankful, for such religious les-
sons as all sects would agree in ; but our profes-
sional leaders will never submit to this. They seem
to think the virtue of Christianity lies in the points
in .which Christians differ from each other ; hence,
logically, not to teach the children these differences,
is to omit Christianity altogether. When better
days will come we cannot tell. Till they do we
must often be compelled to bear the cost of two in-
ferior schools in one parish, when we might have
one good, or, perhaps, first rate one.

The time has at length arrived when we may
venture to exult—without (while so doing) any
appearance of precipitation—in the fact that the
Volunteer Movement has now taken its place, to all
appearance, securely and permanently among our
national institutions. A couple of years, neverthe-
less, we have seen to be alone requisite for the
accomplishment of this great achievement. For
that it is essentially an achievement in itself, and
an achievement, too, of a resplendent character,
who shall gainsay ? 'Within two years the man-
hood of England has spontaneously, and among all
classes of society, organised a force, a self-support-
ing force, numbering very little short of a round
aggregate of 200,000 skilled Riflemen. And this,
recollect, has been done not under the incitation of
any hasty panic, but calmly, resolutely, and it may
be said quite accurately, and in the literal mean-
ing of the words, with a rapid deliberation. Sixty
years ago the musters of the Volunteers through
England took place under very different circum-
stances indeed. Then there was barely time for
reflection. Then the emergency was one of the
r most urgent kind well imaginable. We were at
war with France. We had been at war with
France during several years continuously—for the
most part (by reason of our insular position)
upon the ocean. And there, upon those confront-
ing coasts of the French Republic—there, almost
within view of our shores,
upon the opposite
side of the British Channel—a formidable arma-
ment was being collected, -ander the banners of
the greatest Soldier the world has ever seen (Sir
IWILLIAM NAPIEIL—the English Historian of the
wars that took place long afterwards in the Penin-
sula—has said it)—a formidable armament was
there being collected together under the First Consul
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of Boulogne-sur-Mer. This was the posi..
sixty years ago, that is in
tion of things now exactly
the year 1801, when NELSON was striving with the
most heroic enterprise to destroy the flat-bottomed
boats there gathered together under the protection
of the French batteries, to be in readiness when-
ever the opportunity might occur for putting Gene-
ral BONAPARTE'S project of an invasion of England
to the test by conveying over an army of 100,000
veteran Republicans, to march upon London with
fire and sword.

The illusory Peace of Amiens came soon
afterwards—as a postponement. England and
France, for one brief interval in the midst of
their great war of a quarter of a century's dura-
tion, enjoyed a halcyon breathing time, during
which—at any rate at the commencement of which
—a permanent reconciliation of the two coun-
tries appeared to be just barely possible. Then
it was that our Liberal statesmen flocked
over to Paris ant were formally presented to NAPO-
LEON at the " Court" of the First Consul in the
Palau of the Tuileries : conspicuous among these