The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-21 00:00:00

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

The Duke of Marlborough gave notice, in the
House of Lords on Monday evening, that on
Tuesday next he would bring under the notice
of their lordships the question of the state of
elementary education in England and Wales,
and at the same time lay upon the table a
bill upon the subject. No more important
question as regards the whole of the people of
this country can engage the attention of Par-
liament. Nor can it be objected that the
materials for forming a correct opinion as to
the wide-spread prevalence of the grossest
ignorance among the working classes in this
country are not within the reach of every
member of the two Houses of Parliament.
Commission after commission has reported
upon the ignorance of the poor in our large
towns, in our rural districts—in workshops,
in factories, in mines, and in agricultural
gangs. That ignorance far exceeds in dark
and soul-destroying density any that could
exist in any Catholic country. There never
was, and there never could be, anything at all
resembling it in Catholic Ireland. There, in
times past, hundreds of the thousands of the
poor were ignorant of the enlightening myste-
ries of the alphabet. They could neither write,
read, nor spell, and of the.circle of the arts
and sciences their conceptions were crude
enough in all conscience. But the least in-
structed among them were never without re-
ligious education. Catholic parents, however
poor, and however unskilled in the use of
books, cannot themselves comply With the

ligations of religion, or live in Catholic society,
without habituating their children from their
earliest infancy to practise such of the duties,
and commit to memory such of the precepts
of their religion, as to give them claims to be
regarded as having a tolerably exact know-
ledge of their duty to God, and of their respon-
sibilities as members of His holy Church. In
this respect there is an immense difference
between the ignorance of Catholics who can
neither read nor write, and the. ignorance Of
such of the Protestant rural peasantry of this
country "as are shut out from any religious in-
struction but such as is obtainable from a Book
which they cannot read, and are incapable of
comprehending. While the want of school-
learning excludes Protestant peasants from
access to their only source of religious instruc-
tion—the Bible ; the most unlettered Catholics
have as ready access as the most learned to that
everlasting, ever overflowing fountain of di-
vinely wise and most salutary instruction, the
confessional--rendering it virtually impossible
for them to be ignorant of any of the great
truths of the Gospel.
That the position of Catholics is exceptional/
as regards the moral density and irreligious
description of popular ignorance in England
and Wales, is proved by the reports of the
Children's Employment Commission presented
to both Houses of Parliament, in which abun-
dant proofs are supplied of the actual mental
and religious condition of the labouring popu-
lation and their children. Mr. Kay, travel-
ling Bachelor of the University of Cambridge/
reports thus :—" The great majority of the
people in the great towns of this kingdom have
no religion. . . . About one-half of our
poor can neither read nor write, have never
been at any school, and know little, or psi'
tively nothing, of the doctrines of the Chris'
tian religion, of moral duties, or of any higher
pleasures than beer or spirit drinking and the
grossest sensual indulgences. . . . TheY
live precisely like brutes, to gratify, as far as
their means allow, the appetites of their uncul-
tivated bodies, and then die, to go, they have
never cared, thought, or wondered whither.
How religiously, or even morally, to educate
a creedless people is so difficult a matter that
we are not in the least surprised at the great
disinclination of former Governments to at-
tempt it. And this difficulty will be found to
constitute an impossibility if it be now at-
tempted to frame a system of education under
which parents of every and of no religious de-
nomination are required to send their children
to be instructed in the same common schools.
Upon this question the Rev. Herbert Vaughan'
D.D., Superior of St. Joseph's Missionary° Col-
lege, has just published an excellent and well'
timed pamphlet, which we strongly recommend
i
to the immediate attention of the Duke °f
Marlborough and the other members of lief
Majesty's Government. It is entitled "
lar Education in England : the Conscience
Clause, the Rating Clause, and the Secular
Current," and treats the whole question in .5
comprehensive, enlightened, and patriotic
spirit. Dr. Vaughan is strongly and wisely
opposed to the substitution of any school se's'
Lem for the denominational system at present
in operation in England. After a careful eo'.
mination of the whole school question in all its
bearings, and after fully considering what
would be the effect, not as regards Catholics
alone, but as regards civil society, and the
great great mass of the English people, of the seve
systems recommended by Dissenters and seen
lariats, Dr. Vaughan asks that the existing cir
nominational system, under the Privy Council'.
be retained and energetically developed througe
out the country. He asks Parliament, so real
to vote millions annually to repress and punl'
crime, and hitherto so niggardly in voting .
hun-
dreds of thousands for the prevention of crime"
nality, largely to increase the national expel',
diture for education ; providing for the rent °'
school-rooms as well as for the cost of the
..
erection of school buildings, and payment 0
results in education, whether the teachers 1-w,
or be not certified. There are thousands ei
excellent and competent persons in England
who would gladly devote their time to the
education of the children of the poor, 'cavil*
the efficacy of their teaching to be tested 131ci
results, but who under no circumstances wool
submit to a public examination as to the.fei
right to possess a Government certificate.
he had a choice, Dr. Vaughan would pre'f..er
't
trained masters and mistresses of schools ; 111. a
with a million of untaught children, 0
neither schools to receive, nor teachers
instruct them, he would willingly pay !De
rent of rooms, and pay for the results in
case of all undertakings to communicate to thei
the rudiments of a combined scholastic se
religious education. We have read this partici
phlet very carefully and agree with every 'Or
al
of it, and heartily commend it to the peres
of all who bake an interest in the educatl°ol
question. As regards the Education Bill e,
the Duke of Marlborough, we are not app
hensive that it will propose to interfere y'Llie
the present denominational system. of
system of common, or purely secular schoovlOci
which finds favour with many worthy ere
excellent men among Dissenters, all we lor
to say is, that no plan could be adopted
the ultimate destruction of Christianit9,4
England, more likely to prove efficacious, tir,
to establish by the authority of Parliataenuo
national system of education, 'excluding. fr°or
the teaching in all schools every doctrine ,
tenet the teaching of which would be objecto
ii,
able to one or other of the religious den°oo
nations constituting in the great aggregate
people of England.—Westminster Gazette.

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Births. Aords
HILL—On the 19th inst., at St. Columb's, Londoo-
the wife of Sir John Hill, Bart., of a daughter. var.
LAY—On the 19th inst., at 89, Gloucester-torrace,
park, the wife of R. N. Lay, C. 8., of a daughter.
PEEL—On the 19th inst., at Pinner, near Watford
►
wife of Laurence Peel, Esq., of a daughter.
Marriages.
LOOMES—PALMER—On the 19th inst., at St. 111819 of
lington, David, eldest son of John Loomes, Benp",,lise't
lington, to Charlotte, youngest daughter of J•'
Esq., of St. James, W.O. , room
PILKINGTON—SINCLAIR —Oa the 19th inst., at 6ttadl
R.chard, second son of R. Pilkington, Esq. of 'A
Hall, St. Helen's, to Louise, eldest daughter' of
Sinclair, Esq., of Dale House, Garston.
Deaths. port°,
AYTOUN—On the 18th inst., at 4, Melville-plaee,, too
belle, Mary, widow of the late James Edo3oo°
Aytoun, J.P. for the county of Fife, aged 80.
BunNETT —On the 13th inst., at Hornsbury
Somerset, Mrs. Burnett, aged 76. O-
COLLINS —On the 19th inst., at Southborough, 13e2iirtt.
bridge Wells, Harriet, widow oh Win. Collins, 1' bor
HALL—On the 16th inst., at 5, Waterloo-place, Rgutilieeth
ton, Lieut.-General Lewis Alex. Hall, Royal v
aged r
MACNAMIITAN —On the 17th inst., at Glen Park, Grevo 11)
Agnes, widov4 of the late Malcolm Macuaugh`3
merly of London, aged 88.
WnisLow—On the 19th inst., at Thame, Oxfordsliire,
Winslow, Esq., aged
London : Printed and Published by WILLI/01" /40 et
of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tan SUN oalee,cooti
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the
Aliddleen....W4tUrthlf, March 21, 1868.