The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-03 00:00:00

MR. LOWE ON EDUCATION.

Mr. Lowe having been set down as the future Minister
of Education—when that office is created—anything from
him on the subject with which he is so well acquainted
will be read with interest. A pamphlet has just been
i ,sued which is attributed to him, in which the position
assumed by the Commission on Education is forcibly
combated. He contends that the view of the com-
missioners is that private schools resting on the " com-
mercial principle " may be tolerated for some time
longer, hilt that their duty is limited to filling up the
blank left by the liberality of founders and benefactors in
endowed education ; and therefore that, while private
schools should be improved as far as possible, it is on
endowed schools that we must rely for the education of the
middle class. This proposition he combats mainly on the
ground that it assumes the ordinary principles of political
economy to be quite as applicable to the education of the
middle and upper classes ; that the people of this country
are not to be trusted with the education of their children ;
that it is the duty of the State to determine for them what
that instruction should be, and then to bribe them, by
pecuniary inducements, to accept the instruction so
provided. He argues against endowed schools on
the ground that they are confessedly incompetent. He
points out that though the endowed have had money
and every such like advantage in their favour, yet
private schools have competed successfully with them.
"In private life the rich elder brother lives on his for-
tune ; in education the rich school not only enjoys its own
wealth, but takes by its competition the bread out of the
mouth of the poor one. Had the management of
endowed schools been less glaringly and notoriously
inefficient and negligent, it seems difficult to conceive
Low private schools could have continued to exist beside
them. There is hardly any fault that can be found in the
instruction given by private schools which is not to be
paralleled by a corresponding defect in endowed. We have
two competitors ; but while to the private school com-
petition with endowment has been a crushing and
unequal struggle, to the endowed school such rivalry
is a most valuable and useful stimulant. Private schools
benefit endowments ; endowments injure private schools.
Private schools would be sure to be kept alive and active
by competition with each other, which has a tendency to
spring up wherever it is wanted. Endowed schools may
monopolise and abuse the education entrusted to them
for centuries, with no chance of encountering a competi-
tion carried on with equal resources and on equal terms.
It is justly said against private schools that they
are too sensitive to the opinions and wishes of parents ;
but it is said, with at least equal justice to endowed schools,
that from a systematic disregard for the wishes of
parents, from teaching what they do not want, and not
teaching what they do want, they have lost the confi-
dence of the classes for whom they were designed."
To remedy the state of things somewhat in endowed
schools Mr. Lowe proposes as follows :—" So long as
endowed schools exist, they ought, as the most effectual
check on indolence, and test of diligence, to be inspected
and examined by the Privy Council, every year in what-
ever they profess to teach, and the results of such
examination and inspection published. The expense of
this might fairly be charged on endowments. As long
as it is considered right that masters should be paid by
endowments, I would suggest that their remuneration
should be regulated by the results of examination as well
as by the number of pupils, by quality as well as by
quantity ; and that endowments might well bear the
expense of examining such private schools as were willing to
submit to examination. Money paid directly for efficiency
in teaching is spent in counteracting, not in increasing,
the evils of endowment. From the publicity of the exact

state of teaching in each school I look for the most bene-
cial effects on the minds of the. parents whom it will
enlighten, and on the schools which it will stimulate."

?ARCHBISHOP LONGLEY'S LAST CHARGE.

We are enabled to give our readers some of the
particulars of the last charge of the late Primate. There
is a paragraph on the Irish Cnurch, unfinished and
imrevised by him, which is placed in an Appendix.
The introductory portion of the charge will be
found to have some bearing on the subject, which
is being mooted at present, of removing the residence from
Addington. He shews how much the Primate's work lies
in London, and implies unconsciously how necessary it is
for him to be near the metropolis. The main subject of
the charge is that of Ritualism. He had spent much labour
upon it, though he had by no means finished with it. His
Grace bad, we believe, at one time some thought of re•
ferring to Mr. Keble's book on the subject, speaking of
his affection for the man and disagreement with his book.
But whether he would have done so must remaiu doubt-
ful. The many books left on his writing-table after his
death, with passages marked for reference, sbew how much
more elobratc heintended this portion of the charge to be.
The Primate pronounces emphatically against vestments.
Of the innovations in the ritual of the Eucharist, the
Archbishop says : " I would observe (what you are all
doubtless aware of) that the use of these vestments is in
the minds of many intimately connected with the idea
that an essential element in the Holy Communion is the
offering to God a sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ,
which abide with the elements in a mysterious manner
after the act of consecration. The minister wears the
vestments at that time as a sacrificing priest. Accord-
ing to this view it would seem that the most
important part of this holy sacrament is what we
offer to God, not what we receive from Him." This
.view is not recognised by the Church of England.
Our Church seem most studiously to have avoided any
expression which could countenance the notion of a per-
petual sacrifice of Christ, while, on the other hand, it
speaks of Christ's death upon the cross as `His own obla-
tion of Himself once offered as a full, perfect, and sufficient
sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.' No room is left for

the repetition of that sacrifice, or for the admission of
any other sacrifice for sin. Meanwhile it cannot be
denied, on the other hand, that the doctrine of the Real
Presence is, in one sense, the doctrine of the Church of
England. She asserts that the Body and Blood of Christ
are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful
in the Lord's Supper.' And she asserts equally that such
presence is not material or corporal, but that Christ's
Body is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, only
after a heavenly and spiritual manner' (Art. XXVIII.).
Christ's presence is effectual for all those intents and
purposes for which His Body was broken and His Blood
shed. As to a presence elsewhere than in the heart of the
believer, the Church of England is silent, and the words
of Hooker therefore represent her views—' The Real Pre-
sence of Christ's most Blessed Body and Blood is not to be
sought in the Sacrament, but in the worthy receiver of the
Sacrament.' " The Archbishop proceeds to discuss other
difficulties. "But there are dangers in an opposite
direction. We are threatened with great changes
from those who long to banish, as far as possible,
all dogmatic teaching, and to open the doors of the,
Church of England so wide as to embrace all
-who call themselves Christians who desire that
everything, save the bare truth of the historical statments
of the New Testament, should be banished from our for-
mularies. Those who firmly believe in the leading
doctrines of Christianity, as now held by our
Church and by the chief Dissenting bodies could
never consent to acknowledge themselves members of
such a Church. There could be no principle of coherence
in a body so constituted. It would fosteJ divisions rather
than obviate them ; and in the vain attempt to found
national Church, it would finally issue in being no Church
at all, no such Church as its Divine founder could
recognise as His own, when He returns in power and
glory. It is to be a Church which `the law court and
the Legislature can be relied upon to rid of any doctrine
which the slow judgement of the nation has pronounced
dubious or untenable,' the nation consisting of Churchmen,
Nonconformists, Jews, Unitarians, and Infidels, When it
is acknowledged by the propounder of this scheme for a
national religion and a national Church, that the whole
tendency of modern civilisation is from dogmatism towards
nationalism, we may well ask ourselves what shreds of
truth would remain uncondemned ? They tell us, indeed,
that they are willing to leave the doctrine of the
Incarnation as a dogma which they cannot surrender ;
but if the voice of the people is thus to supplant the voice
of God, who can tell how soon that also may not be
demanded as a surrender to their peremptory decision ?"
Many other subjects are dealt with, but these are of the
greatest present interest.

An official investigation into the circumstances at-
tebding the continued prevalence of small-pox in Sheffield
is to be made.

THE SUNDAY SACRED CONCERT MOVEMENT.—
A soiree was held on Wednesday at the Freemasons'
Tavern, the object being to celebrate a recent decision of
the Court of Common Pleas, to the effect that the opening
of finch places as St. Martin's Hall on Sunday evenings for
concerts of sacred music was not contrary to law. The
chair was taken by Sir Josl Uti Wahnsley, who was sup-
Ported on the platform by Mr. Baxter Langley, Mr. 11-.. T.
Slack, Mr. Clapham (Leeds) and one or two other gentle-
mem, The chairman strongly denounced the proceedings
of the Sabbatarians, which he compared to those of the
Protectionists previous to the repeal of the corn laws
Mr, Clapliam detailed the struggles which had taken place
la Leeds between the Sabbatarian magistrates of that
town and the working classes, on the subject of Sunday
sacred concerts, resulting in the success of the
movement. Mr. Conway addressed himself to the
history of the Sabbath, contending that to 01: ke it a day
of gloom was contrary to its original int( ration, ala that
the. restrictions now imposed on the English people were
the result of an ignorant and imbecile superstition.