The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-29 00:00:00

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PROFESSOR FAWCETT AT BRIGHTON

In addressing his constituents at Brighton, a day or two
ago, Mr. Fawcett stated the chief danger which threatened
popular institutions was the great and increasing cost of elec-
tions. The House of Commons will, he thinks, lose its
prestige and its influence, if it becomes simply a rich man's
assembly. With respect to education, Mr. Fawcett said : " I
emphatically entreat you to watch carefully the educational
legislation which will be attempted for the rural districts ; for
if we are not on our guard, it will be enacted that children
who are employed in agriculture shall be exceptionally
treated ; that they shall be at school half the year and at
work the other half : or, in other words, they shall be per-
mitted to forget in one six months what they have learnt
in the previous six months. I have a very decided opinion
that compulsory attendance must be inseparably asso-
ciated with compulsory educational rates. I should be
perfectly willing to have a school-rate levied on me if I
thought that the money would build and maintain schools
to which neglected children would be sent, who, as they
run to ruin in our streets, are often being prepared either
for pauperi.ni or for crime. If we could feel sure that in
this way a portion, at least, of the educational rate would
be spent, then we should know that the increase in rates
would only be temporary, for crime and pauperism would
be diminished, and they cause a heavy burden both of
local and general taxation. lam quite certain that the
building and maintaining of schools will not educate the
nation ; there must be some power to enforce the attend-
ance of children at these schools. If parents are too poor
to send their children to school, the condition of these
parents must, by emigration or by other means, be
improved. If parents wilfully neglect their first duty to
their offspring, the State ought to protect the child
against the irreparable injury which is inflicted upon him
if he is allowed to grow up in a state of ignorance." He
thought the evils which had been generated in Ireland
by four centuries of misgovernment were too deep-
seated to be immediately eradicated. The expedition to
Abyssinia he described as leading to a war more miserable
than any we have yet waged. A great part of his speech
was occupied with a discussion of questions raised in his
recent lecture upon the future of our agricultural classes.
A vote of confidence in both members was passed. The
following resolution was also passed :—" That, inasmuch
as the abolition of compounding for the payment of rates
has been in this borough attended with needless incon-
venience to the authorities and great hardships to many
of the industrious ratepayers, and whereas it is now ad-
mitted that individual personal payment of rates is not an
essential qualification for the possession of the franchise,
it is, in the opinion of this meeting, most desirable that

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the ratepaying clauses of the Reform Act should be repealed;
and that the members of this borough be and are hereby
requested to use their utmost endeavour to obtain such
repeal."

THE BISHOP OF OXFORD ON EDUCA7 lON

On Tuesday afternoon a meeting of the clergy and laity
of the diocese of Canterbury was held at the Royal Sussex
Hotel, Tunbridge Wells, to consider the question of
Church education in connection with the National Society.
The Archbishop of Canterbury presided.

The Bishop of OXFORD proposed the second resolutiolk
which affirmed that the maintenance of the National Society'
of three metropolitan training colleges, and the assistance
it rendered to the various dioceses of England and Wales,
tended to the improvement of Church schools by sup-
plying duly qualified teachers. No one could doubt, he
believed, that the efficiency of a school depended alto-
gether upon the capability of the master ; for they
might as well have a blunt razor to shave with as a bluil
master to teach a school—and every one knew what a
dreadful operation that would be ; except, 'ndeed, gentle.
men like Mr. Beresford Hope, who was sitting by his
side, who had thrown aside boy-razors altogether.
(Laughter.) Here and there, he admitted, men seemed to
be born schoolmasters—born with a rod in one hand and
primer in another; but such men were exceptions to the
general rule, and if they wanted a good schoolmaster that
must get him by training him steadily to his work. He
thought that training colleges were really the mode in
which alone they could hope to have a good supply of
masters, because they must teach the men thoroughly
what they had to teach their pupils if they were to
teach to good effect. A teacher who was only a lesson
ahead of his class must of necessity be an exceedingly bag
teacher. They could not make water mount higher than
the spring from whence it came, and in like manner,
unless they made the teacher replete with that which was
to come from him, they would never get his information
spread widely amongst the little mouths which were
waiting to drink in his instruction. The moral
and intellectual training imparted by the collegiate
system he believed to be of the 114 :hest value tc-
schoolmasters. The fact of living together kindlcu
amongst them a spirit which induced them to do honour
to their profession, and raised the profession in their
minds to one of dignity. It was such a feeling that
animated the members of the English bar, who were
conscious that they belonged to a mighty class, and who
felt that anything that was below the dignity of the class
was unworthy of the individual man. By raising the
temper of the whole class of masters they incidentally
raised every one of them to a far higher conception of
what he ought to be, and made him better qualified to
discharge the duties required of him. If any one wished
to realise the full value of this, let him look about to some
school or another with which he must be acquainted,
where the master was a teacher because he could not suc-
ceed in anything else ; let them look at his shabby and
careless dress, his violent temperament, thinking every one
under his charge a nuisance, and only tolerating the little
nuisances because he knew that if he did not do so he
must starve. What sort of an estimate as a Christian
should have could such a man have of the young children
committed to his care? He had no faith whatever in
making it a condition of a Government grant that a school
should be taught by one of those people. He did not think
that a good housewife would consider that she was bound
to use a broom because it was manufactured in some par-
ticular place, but because it swept clean ; and he was sure
that there was no more effective way of imparting►
dullness to a school than by sending to it one at
these incompetent certificated persons. What he con-
tended for, therefore, was, that they should create the
best mode of making the best masters, and then they.
should he flung out in order that they might shew that
they were the best men, and so hold their own, not by
their certificates, but by the daily renewed certificate at
their success in school. (Hear, hear.) He had a suspir
eion of men in all professions and all trades who founded
their claims to be dealt with on the ground of their
certificates. He would not buy a penknife of a man
who preferred such a claim, because he should know
that the knife would not mend a pen, but would
be very likely indeed to cut his fingers. In like manner
he would net take a man simply because he had a govern-
ment certificate, but because he was competent to teach
his school. It would be impossible to introduce a
compulsory system of education into this country. If they
had not thought much about it, they would find the
matter worth looking at a little in detail. It seemed at
first sight a very charming thing that by a little gentle
compulsion every parent should be made to educate his
child. He should like to see anyone who was at all
acquainted ►vith country parishes attempt to go through
the process. They would find, for example, a boy, an utter
lout, who hated learning. The parents were to melte the;

boy learn. Were they to be pill in prison if they could
not compel the lout to take to his lessons? Few, he sup'
posed, would go as far as that ; but the farmers were
not to be allowed to employ the lout, and if tlip
parents did not teach the lout they would not be able to
send him to work in the fields. But did it ever occur to
these philosophers of Laputa, who so strenuously advo-
cated this system, and who worked out all their schemes ll-
a sort of trigonometrical process, that the lout might care
just as little for work as he did for learning, and that, when
he was told that he must not work, he would probably sa)
he would do and play at marbles, which, no doubt, would
suit his temperament a great deal beiter t The lout,
therefore, would learn nothing, while he would lose
that more active education which he would have gained
by following the plough or doing other work in the
field. The effect of the system of compulsory edtitlit•
tion would, therefore, be this That the hoy became
a terror to his family, a harm to his schoolmaster, a
nuisance to the farmers and a totally useless member
of society ; and that seemed to be the grand paradisaical
result of this ;le* system of compulsory education.
(Laught:::.r and cheers.) Then, as to the system of corn;
',misery rating, he thought there would be a great objecr•
tion to it throughout the country ; for directly they
introduced the ratepayer they must give the ratepayer the
real direction of the education which the rates he paid
provided. Now, they knew, as a matter of experience, that
on the question of religion England was a divided nation ;
and the ratepayer would, in the first instance, ask what
religion he was about to pay for—not that of the greater
mass of the population, because that would be an injustice
to the smaller number, but a religion from which everything
to which anybody objected was cut oil, until it became a
mere caput mortuunt, which looked something, but was
really nothing.

THE PRINCE IMPERIAL —The Prince Imperial,
who has on several occasions gained first place for his com-
positions among his youthful fellow students of the 7th
class a the College Bonaparte, will take part in the ap-
proaching banquet of St. Charlemagne. The Emperor
has, it is stated, already sent a quantity of game wad
ericral bmicets of champagne to; th 4 ,

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON BRIGHTON AND SOUTH COAST.

The directors of the London, Brighton, and
South Coast Railway Company have issued their
report in anticipation of the meeting. They state
that since coming into office their efforts have
been constantly directed towards winding up
all outstanding liabilities so as to arrive at a
closed capital account, and the result is that the
amount of these, which was formerly estimated
at £2,323,177, is now £804,320. Of this,
£275,000 consists of disputed liabilities for the
balance of alleged subscriptions to the Surrey
and Sussex and Chichester and Midhurst Railways,
leaving the balance admitted to be £529,320.
The assets of the company at present consist of
£326,572 cash at the bank, nearly the whole of
which will be absorbed in paying debenture and
preference interest ; balance of old debenture
power on the Ist of January, £43,000 ; balance of
existing authorised stock, £235,000 ; and debenture
power accruing in respect of the last issue and
otherwise, which the directors are advised amounts
to £392,000, but which they think it right to
I defer exercising for the present. The position
therefore, is that, irrespective of disputed liabilities,
the existing powers of raising capital are just about
sufficient to meet the admitted claims. The report
goes on to state that the directors ate advised the
subscriptions to the Surrey and Sussex and Chiches-
ter and Midhurst Companies are invalid, and they
have had no alternative but to file a bill in Chan-
cery to assert the legal position of the company and
claim back the moneys which they are advised have
been improperly applied in payment of those sub-
scriptions. This was also necessary in order to re-
strain the action of creditors of those companies
who sought to prosecute their claims against the
Brighton Company. The directors, however, con-
sider that the question is oue which ought to be
settled by compromise rather than contested upon
strict legal rights, and they will be glad to deal
with any proposal which may be made in a liberal
spirit, and to avoid pressing too severely on the old
directors. The total expenditure on capital account
during the last half-year has been £199,226 17s.
Id., which consists entirely of expenditure on new
lines in progress or in winding up the accounts
of those recently opened. The gross revenue
of the half-year has been £709,651, showing an
increase of £53,896 over the corresponding period
of 1866. The expenditure, however, is much above
what had been anticipated, the old system of
accounts, which charged to capital much of what
should have fallen on revenue, having completely
misled the board. The directors express their
belief that, if all proper expenses had been charged
to revenue, the real rate at which the Brighton
line has been worked for some time would have
been not less than 75 per cent., and that during a
great part of the time while dividends of 6 per
cent. were being paid on the ordinary stock, the
company was not really earning enough to pay its
preference interest. The balance shown of revenue
over expenditure is £309,525, including an amount
of £6,805 brought forward from last half-year.
This sum, after paying debenture interest, just
suffices to pay interest on all preference stocks
created prior to 1865, carrying forward a small
balance of £l,OOB. At the ensuing meeting it will
be proposed to reduce the number of the board
from nine to eight, and if the report be adopted
the present directors will remain in office, with
the exception of Sir Charles Jackson, who retires.