The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOIJRNALS,

It is a singular satisfaction to the Times to be able to
agree with Mr. Bright in his ideas on the subject of edu-
cation. Mr. Bright's moderation deserves cordial recog-
nition, especially as his speech differed from the spirit of
the addresses delivered by previous speakers to the meet.
ing. Mr. Bright spoke to Birmingham artisans, who,
having visited Paris, were entertained at breakfast by the
chairman of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.
The previous speakers had, almost without exception,
the same tale to tell. Foreign workmen, Continental and
American, were running a race with English workmen for
superiority. The artisan of the Continlnt rivalled us in
the manufacture of articles of utility, old excelled us in

the domain of taste. The American workman was our
superior in ingenuity. And the conclusion was that the
Government must do something towards the education,
primary and technical, of the people, or, as some would
urge, must undertake the whole task. The museum
of South Kensington, for one thing, must be dis-
tributed among, if not reproduced in each of the
chief towns of the manufacturing districts. Mr. Dixon
declared that it was the duty of the State to establish
throughout the country the schools necessary for the
development, as we understand him, both of common and
of technical education. Mr. Bright followed these zealous
speakers. He proclaimed his disbelief in the principle
that everything should be done by the Government, and
ridiculed the feverish anxiety about education which has

been manifested since the last session. The Times con-

fesses, for its own part, some astonishment at the over-
strained energy which has been exhibited, especially by
the most advanced Liberals. It would seem as if those
who did their best to pass the Reform Bill had taken
literally Mr. Lowe's sarcasm that it now became us " to
teach our masters their letters," as if they apprehended
mischief from the new Parliament, and thought it might
be averted by teaching children their alphabet and the
rules of arithmetic. It is plain that such ideas are chime-
rical, and the question of education must be discussed on
its own merits. What are the proper limits of the inter-
ference of Government ? It is !la easy to give a complete
answer to the question, but we are clearly of opinion that
compulsory education can be enforced only upon that
class which is sunk so low as to be incapable of appre-
ciating the benefits of education ; and that with respect to
them the constant aim of the Legislature must be to raise
them out of their present degradation into the sphere of
intelligent choice and self-responsibility. We are glad to
find Mr. Bright expressing the same truth. He even ad-
duces practical reasons why the proposal to enforce com-
pulsory education thus strictly narrowed should be exa-
mined on all sides before any attempt be made to carry it
into execution. He suggests that the imposition of a great
system, supported by rates and supplemented by a police
to look after truants, upon a people unable to weit-h the
burdens they feel against the advantages they do not un-
derstand, might be followed by a dangerous reaction ; and
he recommends a gradual assault upon the ignorance of
the uneducated classes, in which all existing educational
machinery should be put to use. Having uttered these cau-
tions against feverish and precipitate action in common edu-
cation,Mr.Bright proceeded to discuss the fashionable cryfor

technical education. This phrase he understands to mean
instruction in the principles of trades and manufactures,
and his doctrine appears to be that if boys are properly
taught the means of learning in ordinary schools—if, that
is to say, when they leave them, they are able to read, to
write, and to perform the common operations of arith-
metic, they may safely be left to acquire for themselves
the principles of the work which may occupy them in
later life. We agree in the conclusion that the inter-
ference of the Government in technical education would
be an act entirely beyond its proper province. No neces-
sity exists to justify it. A temporary excitement has been
occasioned by statements of the rivalry of foreign work-
men with our own, but such rivalry has always been
manifested and has been overcome by the natural action
of manufacturers and workmen. Nor would the promo-
tion of technical education by the Government produce
the results expected from it.
A quack, according to the definition of the Post, is a
man who practises empirically—that is, without having
acquired knowledge or mastered science ; and a quack-
salver is one who cries salves or unguents. There is, it
will be perceived, some little difference between the two.
A quacksalver may be honest, a quack scarcely. Mr.
Bi ight can hardly be called a quack, for he has never yet
practised. Yet, oddly enough, he seems himself to think,
with some soreness of feeling, that Lord Stanley must
have had him in his eye when he delivered his Bristol
speech. If, however, Mr. Bright is rightly considered, he
is really rather. a quacksalver than a quack. He cries
cures with an iteration suggested probably by faith in Dr.
Johnson's aphorism, that mankind require more to be re-
minded than informed. In this phase of his industry Mr.
Bright may be perfectly honest. He is honest, no doubt,
in fact, and very likely in intention, when he tells the Irish
people that if they make themselves good farmers and are
industrious, saving, and sober, they will probably be
prosperous ; and he may be honest when he recommends
the ballot as the Holloway's ointment and pills which is to
cure all their distempers, dispel all their grievances, and
conduct them all smoothly to a good old age. But honest
Mr. Bright is not, cannot be, when he uses all the arts of
an eloquent and practised orator to rouse the passions of
the Irish people before submitting his plans for their re-
generation to the consideration of their reason.

The Daily News to some extent only agrees with Mr.
Bright in the general principles he enunciated. Our con-
temporary's sympathy with the great orator's specific pro-
posals is much less complete. On the land question, it
goes on to say, we need not now repeat the reasons which
lead us to question the expediency of the scheme which
he restates and defends. It may be a mistake to fancy
that there is, on other matters, a vague presentiment of
the future responsibilities of office in much of Mr. Bright's
language. There is good reason to believe that with regard
to the adoption of the ballot in Ireland, his language re-
f Lets the policy which the advisers and members of the
late Government on the other side of the Channel are
urging upon their leaders and colleagues here. The land-
lords of Ireland ceased to grant leases when leases ceased
to confer votes. There is nothing improbable in Mr. Bright's
conjecture. that if the political independence of the tenant
were secured by secret voting, the landlord's political
objection to leases would die out. his suggestions
with respect to the Protestant Establishment are to us
exceedingly disappointing. The proposal which he makes
does not differ in substance from those which have been
lately put forward by Lord Russell and Lord Dufferin, and
which have been indistinctly hinted at by Mr. Gladstone.
Mr. Bright is in favour of secularising the major part of
the ecclesiastical revenues of Ireland ; but, he would retain
about a third of them—that is to say, a principal sum of
three or four millions—and divide it among the three great
Churches. If we understand him, they are to receive it
as endowment, just as they might the private bequest of
an individual, and to be wholly independent of and irre-
sponsible to the State. But if a portion of the ecclesiasti-
cal revenues are to be thus assigned, why not the whole of
them? If endowments are desirable at all, the whole is
not too large a sum for the needs of the three Churches
If a gift is to be made, it should be worth having.
The Standard condemns Mr. Bright's proposals. Till
he has shewn that it would be wise, despite experience,
to renew the old state of uncontrolled tenure and long
leases without conditions, we need not debate the means
by which the renewal should be effected. But one thing
it would venture to submit to Mr. Bright. Ireland is,
save in one respect, no otherwise situated, in respect of
legal and economical conditions, than England and Scot-
land. The one exception is, that she has no alternative
industry—her population is forced to live solely upon the
land. Is it not at least prima facie probable that this one
exceptional condition is the cause of all that is exceptional
in her fortunes? And does not this prinui facie proba-
bility become something like a moral certainty when we
see that the one or two spots in Ireland—such as Belfast
which has a thriving manufacture—also present striking
exceptions to the general rule of Irish poverty? An esta
blished Church and a system of large estates leave Eng-
land and Scotland rich, happy, and loyal. Can it be these
that make Ireland poor and miserable ? England am'
Scotland have trade and manufactures ; Ireland has none
Is it not the lack of manufactures that causes the
wretchedness of Ireland? Belfast has manufactures, and
Belfast is almost the only Irish town that rivals the cities
of Great Britain? DOes it not strike even Mr. Bright's
mind that to give Ireland manufactures would be the most
likely means of bringing her to the condition of the sistez
island ?

The caution which Mr. Bright throws out against hur-
rying too rapidly in the direction of compulsory education
is, says the S/or, well-timed. In adopting any new system
popular
it is not enough that it be intended for the pular benefit.
but it must carry with it the popular sympathy. We al
know how difficult it is to a free population into anc
path different from that to which it has been accustomed,
and it must not bc‘ forgot that the ignorance of the people
sought to be benefited is the foundation of the whole move-
ment. 'There must be great care taken in the method of
laying on the school-rate. Probably it may be foun 1
necessary to place it upon those who, as owners of lands
and houses and possessors of substantial incomes, know
better the value of education, and are better able to sup.
port the local institutions.
'The Telegraph accepts the large and generous accents or.
Mr. Bright's address as the true expression of the senti-
ments of the Liberal party. Still, tile precise plan recom-
mended by Mr. Bright may not be the one accepted by
the country. At the same time it is worthy of considera
tion.

The Etra7,l r,..l,ro,Teces, for the sake of giving circula-
tion to a ,u:,.;estive fact, a letter which has just appeared.
It exposes a state of things existent in London, yet
reminding us of Indian thuggisnt under its worst aspect,
albeit that the form of the snare is changed. A gentleman,
walking in the forenoon across Trafalgar-square, was
spoken to by an individual representing himself as a
detective officer, who desired his immediate attendance at
Dow-street Police-court, as a witness on one of the
7;enian examinations. He had been seeking him,
• he said, and, ascertaining the direction in which
he had gone, hail overtaken him in a cab,
which stood ready for his conveyance to Bow-street.
The gentleman happened, for the time, to be engaged.
He promised, however, to attend before the magistrates
within an hour. To this delay the stranger strongly
demurred ; acquiescing in it, at last, with evident reluc-
tance. When, in clue time, the writer of the letter
appeared at Bow-street, it was to learn that his presence '
had been " neither sought nor needed." The Herald
asks if we are coming back to the days of the Mohawk
and the pitch-plaster, and insists upon the necessity of
rooting up the sacrets of the society which swarms
around