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

CONFERENCES ON EDUCATION.

As the time for the meeting of Parliament
approaches, the questions which are ripest for
discussion, or most earnestly demand a settle-
ment, are certain to be ventilated by confer-
ences, by speeches, by letters, and leading
articles—the precursors of Parliamentary
action—

Coming events cast their shadows before.
We have had, accordingly, during the past
week, an Educational Conference at Manches-
ter, followed by one at Liverpool, in which
Mr. Lowe, the most determined, as well as the
most able adversary of denominational schools,
cautiously sketched out his plan for the edu-
cation of the future. The Conference at Man-
chester had agreed upon the following three
points :—" First, that the Bill which Mr. Bruce,
Mr. Egerton, and Mr. Forster had charge of
ought to be compulsory ; secondly, that assist-
ance from the Privy Council ought not to be
denied to schools on account of their being
purely secular ; thirdly, that all schools re-
ceiving public money ought to have a con-
science clause." Mr. Lowe, at the Liverpool
Conference, gave his hearty assent to the con-
clusion arrived at in Manchester.

The principles which' he advocated may be
summed up as follows :—First, that every
school in the country, whether called into exist-
ence by voluntary contributions or a compul-
sory vote, should be treated by the Privy
Council in the same manner, should each be
inspected and each receive grants ; secondly,
that the system of inspection should be de-
denominationalized ; thirdly, that every fresh
denominational school should be under a con-
science clause. To give practical effect to
these views, Mr. Lowe proposes to divide the
country into educational districts ; to have an
inspector sent down to each district to report
upon its condition as to education, the number
of schools in operation, and how many are
required ; and, furnished with such informa-
tion, the next step in Mr. Lowe's plan is the
compulsory levying of a school-rate upon each
educational district in which•schools are defec-
tive or altogether wanting ; the Government,
moreover, is to prescribe the kind of school
that should alone be supported by rates ;—for,
argues Mr. Lowe, it ought not to be guilty of
the injustice of calling upon the ratepayers to
support denominational schools. But does
Mr. Lowe not see the injustice,
also, of calling
upon ratepayers, who are in favour of religious
education, to support secular schools ? The
school-rate would justly cause in every district
subject to its operation an opposition more
determined and more fierce than the church.
rates were wont to excite.
Mr. Lowe goes beyond the conclusions of
the Manchester Conference. His education
scheme is nothing short of a complete revo-
lution of the whole existing system. Educa-
tion in England has hitherto been based upon
the religious principle and upon the voluntary
system aided by Government grants. Mr.
Lowe's plan proposes the establishment of
secular or irreligious education enforced by a
school-rate.
ofa etx 'airs; ina
igd
. religioushu t he psr cohpooos less,
He does not suggest the imme-
diate abolition
supported by voin !
wasthan placedA,ir.L
wherever schools are wanting to supply the
want by Government schools.
inflicted Even he, how-
ever, is forced to acknowledge that wherever a
eythewlhaottearrewoluelsds
compulsory system
yu
rs. system, tienTmffih,
bws
yi Lowe,
the
ha rebey intro-
duction side
with
sustainlinitnhede
edtdh
tbeshyoamvtpoerlteuluentdjaiui le.
of the ratepayer into the manage-
ment of schools supported by rates would not
only be fatal to the religious principles on
in England are now happily
t to the voluntary system itself.
would be covered
wlconducted, i
ncoh
long
with secular schools, presided
England
over by Govern-
schoolsh but
m e
Govern-
ment officials, in which everything would be
taught but religion. In our last number we
quoted from an able article in the Dublin Re-
view, and from the statistics which the writer
had collected from official sources, sufficient at
least to give a glimpse of the terrible state of
ignorance and moral and religious degradation
into which vast masses of our countrymen are
sunk. And the remedy proposed by Mr. Lowe
and by the Manchester Conference, as well as
by the Bill on education in the charge of Mr.
Bruce and Mr. Forster, to this gigantic evil,
is a vast system of national education, in which
religion is left out. But Mr, Lowe is not con-
tent with the establishment of secular schools
and a compulsory rate, but proposes materi-
ally to alter the character of existing religious
schools by the de-denorainationalization of
school inspectors, and by the introduction of
the conscience clause. This scheme is the most
insidious of all, since the practical operation
of the conscience clause will be to reduce the
religious teaching of the school in which it is in
force to a minimum. The fact of children being
allowed to withdraw from the school when any
religious act or teaching takes place which
may be objectionable to the creed or no creed
of their parents or di gnar ans, will most infal-
libly tend to confine religious or dogmatic
' teaching to set subjects, or chance, or spare
half-hours, instead of its b • eing interwoven—
as it ought to be,
it
if
is to have any real effect
—into every fibre of the education imparted
through the whole school course. The religi-
ous principle is still too strong in England to
permit of the complete abolition of religious
schools teaching in ; but the conscience clause
offers a compromise which, by retaining the
shadow of religion, and sacrificing its sub-
stance, is but too likelyh
to obtain the support
of politicians. E • nalis statesmen are partial
to a compromise ; and if, by the introduction
of a conscience- clause, the Government can
satisfy for a time men of extreme secularist
views on edUcation, and disarm the .opposition
of a large section of the supporters of deno-
minational schools, it is too much to be feared
that some kind of compromise will be advo-
cated, and that the "scheme described by Lord
Stanley at Bristol as being a wise, and
large, and well considered measure," will
turn out to be nothing better than such
a miserable compromise as is involved in
the introduction of the conscience clause.—
Westminster Gazette.

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2HE SCIENCE OF FOX-H UN7 MG.

(From Baily's Magazine for February.)

" A Book about Fox-hunting," with the above
title, written by " Scrutator," and dedicated to the
Duke of Rutland, is a work little suited to the age
we live in, and the writer might as well expect the
rising generation to study Beckford. Men, horses,
hounds, countries, manners, and customs have all
changed., and the clock cannot be put back. In no-
thing is there a greater change than in the hour of
meeting. Lord Blophous's hounds are advertised to
meet at eleven, at which hour his hounds are leav-
ing their kennel, on a December or January day, to
go to a meet 10 miles distant. His father's hounds
moved away from the meet at half-past 10 to the
minute, whilst his grandfather's hounds met at day-
break. But in grandpapa's days the country was
more open, and there were no gorses, enclosed as
fox covers, for a speedy find. Those ancient
sportsmen depended, therefore, upon hunting the
drag of a fog who had been out upon the
prowl for his food, and they always main-
tained that there was no such beautiful hunt-
ing as this, and nothing that could test more
surely the nose of the hound. It is certain that
in those primitive times sportmen would ride
very long distances through the night to reach
a meet at daybreak, and enjoy this treat.
Nimrod tells us that a Mr. Stubbs used to give an
account of a run with Sir Edward Littleton's hounds
with this preface —" I breakfasted with Lockley at
twelve o'clock at night." At such an hour the
hunting man of the present day is just emerging
from the dining-room on his way to the billiard-
room, and has not yet lit his first cigar. At mid-day
Lord Blophous's drag comes round to the door, but
the impatient sportsman must curb his ardour, for
at the last moment his lordship has to write let-
ters to his trainer and his lawyer. It is a maxim as
old as Beckford, that " The morning is the time
of the day which generally affords the best scent,"
and, however much men's habits and ways have
changed, the laws of nature have not. Here, then,
the best part of the day has been cut to waste, and
it gets rather dark at four o'clock about the 25th of
December, but under Lord Blophous's system of
hunting the horses will have had quite enough of it
before that hour arrives. It is the pace that kills.
"By George they have found ! Tally ho ! there
he goes !" but the hounds are upon another fox.
What does that signify ? Lord Blophous and his
huntsman mean to be after the one that has faced
the good country. An old worn-out whipper-in,
who can hardly read, and cannot write his name,
growls to himself, "Now, then, you idiot; where
are you going to ?" as Lord Cairns gathers
his horse together for a start. But his lordship is
not such an idiot as to lose his place, and sends his
horse along as hard as his legs can carry him after
the huntsman, who is blowing his heart out. Two
hundred brother sportsmen are all at the same game.
The old whip mutters something about nobody
knowing anything now-a-days, and dives into the
wood. For two fields the huntsman keeps the
fox in view, after which his skill is put to the
test. The modern system has been clearly demon-
strated by Charles Payne with the Pytchley, and
by Jem Hills with the Heythiop, to be the only
orthodox one, and as such is carried out in all
the fast countries. We want a quick step, and we
dont't want a psalm tune. People have no fancy for
rehearsing their funerals. With the decision of a
Napoleon the huntsman's mind is made up as to the
fox's point; he is confirmed by a friendly halloo on
the opposite hill, and away he goes. A brilliant
lark is the result. Every one gets plenty of jump-
ing, and not a few get down. The cleverest hunts-
man will, however, occasionally be deceived by a
false halloo—some rascally boy bird-keeping, per-
haps—and he will have gone two miles in one direc-
tion whilst the fox has gone two miles in the other.
In such a case he must clap on as quick as thought
to the nearest cover, and throw in what hounds
he has with him. He may have the luck to
chop a fox, and if so: it makes a good finish.
At any rate he will soon find another, and he
will have further opportunity of showing his talent
for beating his own horse as well as the horses of
other people. We are tempted to borrow from the
pages of " The Post and the Paddock" a descrip-
tion of a run, written by the late Sir Charles
Knightley, in which that great artist, Dick Knight,
then Lord Spencer's huntsman, had full scope for
his genius. He found a fox at Sywell Wood, and
recognised him as an old friend from a peculiar
mode of twisting his brush over his back. He had
beat him several times, and he was determined, if
possible, to have him by fair means or foul. Know-
ing the line he had before taken he did not lay the
hounds on the scent, but lifted them beyond Orling-
bury, where he viewed them, and where he laid
them ou close at him. At the first check he lifted
them again beyond Finedon, where he viewed them
again ; and at the next check beyond Burton Wold,
where he again viewed him ; and thus either
chased him or lifted them to Grafton Park, where
they ran into him. The distance was at least 10
miles from point to point, and it was supposed
the hounds were not four miles on the scent the
whole way.

Now would the great John Warde ever have
caught such a fox? If any one objects to seeing a
fox split up in this masterly style, he must be some
old Tory fogey, a retrograde quite behidd the times,
and only fit to go hunting with Jack Thomson.
But the old fogey sometimes asks this some-
what awkward question—Of what use are
the hounds ? Well, they afford Lord Blophous an
opportunity, during the summer months, of talking
about legs and feet, shoulders and loins, and of
showing for prizes at York, or some other dog show.
Old fogey says that, in his day, dog shows were
confined to Jena Burn's parlour, where bull-dogs
and fancy spaniels were shown for their " proper-
ties," but which masters of foxhounds call '• points."
Really there is no use in arguing with such an ob-;
stinate, prejudiced old man.
To return to the work before us ; its pages treat
of kennel management, of breeding and entering
young hounds, of style of hunting and peculiarities
of hounds, and of other matters about which
Young England cares not a straw. To enjoy
any game or sport it is necessary that a person
should at least know the rudiments, and to appre-
ciate it thoroughly he must understand the
niceties. But if hounds are never allowed to
hunt where is a beginner to learn anything about
the work of hounds? and the opportunities for
learning diminish every year. Verily jealous riding
has much to answer for. It is at the root of all
the evil, of which the wild lifting system is only
one of the consequences. The railways, too,
have done their share to destroy hunting, by
cutting up rural districts, and by bringing to
every meet a host of evil-doers from manu-
facturing towns, garrisons, and fashionable
watering places, to override and perhaps maim the
hounds, ruin the sport, and try the patience of the
most even-tempered masters. We shall never for-
get the speech of Osbaldeston, delivered in his
shrillest note, to a Leamington swell, who had
ridden in front. of his hounds, describing the habits
of the offender at home, and his intentions with
respect to the fox but it would not be suited to the
pages of Bally. The reason lately assigned by a
well-known sportsman for declining a handsome
subscription to hunt a country in the vicinity of
London was that he should swear more in one
day than the mat of the week spent m repentance
could wipe out.

ROYAL ACADEMY OF M USlC.—This institution
having struggled for nearly half a century to support
itself on the voluntary principle, by subscriptions, balls,
concerts, &c., has been obliged to decide on closing its
action. Tim surrender of its charter has been offered to
the Government. It is stated that the directors will cerise
to act in March next.
THE CAB STRIKE AT LIVERPOOL.--The cab-
owners and drivers aro still on strike at Liverpool, to the
serious inconvenience of the public, and more particularly
of strangers arriving in the town by sea. Cars only ply
from the railway stations, and so far there aro no signs
of any agreement being come to between the town council
and the "cabbies." Yesterday Mr. Jones, a cab-owner,
was bound over in his own recognisances of £2O to keep
the peace towards Mr. Harding, a car-owner, who had re-
fused to join the strike, and who was-fn consequence
hooted at by a mob headed by Jones on Saturday night.
Judge Wood's Court at Selma, Alabama, has
been suppressed by military authority, on account of the
refusal of the judge to recognize negro jurors. •