The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 7, 1868.

STATE EDUCATION.

Three or four weeks ago we drew attention
to the fact that Liberals are fast abandoning
their old incredibly shallow theory on the
function of the State. They no longer say that '
a civil ruler transgresses his province when he
aims at prOmoting the people's religious wel-
fare, but, on the contrary, agree with Catho-
lics that such is his very highest office. Error,
however, is always in extremes ; and Liberals,
accordingly, are now leaping into a wild ex-
treme on the opposite side. The Pall-Mall
Gazette is in this respect a characteristic repre-
sentative of their views. Half a year or so
back our contemporary maintained in set terms
that the State should form a religious creed of
its own, and should base all its acts on the
assumption that this creed is indubitably true.
The despotism of Liberals is a bye-word ; and
we pointed out at the time that such a view as
this, if consistently carried out, must lead to
the most systematic and unflinching persean-

tion.
In its issue of February 23, the Pall Mat,
Gazette returns to the charge, apropos of the
Archbishop's recent pastoral, and claims in
effect for the State a power to supersede alto-
gether the parental office in children's educa-
tion. We cannot do better than insert here that
whole passage from the Pastoral, which has
given occasion to so singular an outbreak :
" It is evident the State has no authority to
deprive children of the education which their
baptism gives them a right, nor to interfere
with' the authority of parents in determining
the education of their children. The State has
no commission, either natural or revealed, to
educate ; and no jurisdiction over the rights of
parents or of the Church in the education of
its children. Here we are at a direct issue with
the erastian and latitudinarian politicians. The
wisest policy of the State, for its own sake, is
to assist both parents and the Church in the
work of education. The public revenues can-
not be better applied than in preventing igno-
rance and crime ; nor more unprofitably spent
than in punishing what it ought to have pre-
vented. It is true, indeed, that the State may
protect itself. If parents, through criminal
neglect of their offspring, suffer them to grow
up in ignorance, and thereby to commit crime,
society in self-defence may punish the parent
and endeavour to reclaim the child. But even
then it has no rights against the faith and con-
science of the parents or their children ; for
these things are of a higher order, over which
the State has no control. Nay, more than this.
The State not only has no parental duty to
educate, but it has not itself the power nor the
faculties to do so. The formation of the mind,
will, and conscience demands the action of
moral and religious influences which lie beyond
the limits of all civil authorities. It has, no
alternative but either to call in the aid, of
parents and of the Church, and to assist them
with the material means necessary for tliis
work, which lies beyond its reach; or to reduce
education to instruction. liet these never be
confounded, even for a moment. A Minister
of Public Instruction is intelligible; a Minister
of Public Education there cannot be: The
office is not vacant. The Church has received
this commission from its Divine Head."
The Pall=Mall Gazette admits that the Arch-
bishop has here expressed himself with " sin..
gular point and clearness." For ourselves we
must further maintain that his doctrine is both
undeniably true and inappreciably important.
We have no right, of course, to constitute our-
selves the Archbishop's interpreters ; yet we
will venture to draw out in our own way that
general doctrine which we understand him here
to express. In a future number we will con-
sider the truly surprising objections to that
doctrine which our contemporary has brought
before the public.
A considerable number of English parents
are Catholics ; and there is a very large class
of non-Catholics who have firm religious con-
victions of their own up to a certain point.
These persons are (it may be presumed) invin-
cibly ignorant of Catholicism ; at all events,
they sincerely accept the Bible as the Word
of God, and believe certain doctrines as being
those taught in the Bible. Consider the case
of one of these persons. By becoming a parent
he has brought into existence certain immortal
beings, whose eternal destiny must greatly de-
pend on their clinging firmly to moral and
religious truth. No obligation can be more
formal and more indispensable than that of
securing for them the possession of what he
accounts to be such truth. Better for him
that he had never been born than that he
should betray the eternal interests of those
whose existence he has caused, and whom God
has so specially entrusted to his care. If he
is a Protestant, he acts more laudably in pro-
portion as he uses more earnest efforts that his
children should receive what he regards as true
religious education. If he is a Catholic, the
case is far more simple. He knows that the
Church is the divinely-appointed guardian
of religious truth, and the divinely-appointed
educator of her flock ; it is she who teaches
him what is his full duty towards his chil-
mdraetnt,era
itsnbdywhehoro own peculiar
ministrations.
To in the
To such a parent the State presents itself,
offering
peculiar creed, and claiming
to educate in that creed. Now, there can be
no legitimate conviction generated in the
parent's mind by this offer. No one alleges
that the State has any peculiar insight—still
less any divinely-implanted insight—into reli-
gious truth. If the Protestant has hitherto held
that the Bible is the Word of God, and teaches
certain doctrines, he cannot cease to think so,
because the State tells him that the Bible is
not the Word of God, or that it does not teach
those doctrines. Still less, of course—immea-
surably less—can the State's voice have any
effect whatever in shaking a Catholic's faith.
The State does not act on the people's convic-
tions, but only on their corrupt interests and
on their fears.
In fact, when the State desires to promote
this or any other educational system, it has
but two recognised means at its disposal : per-
suasion and compulsion. Let us consider these

successively.
Firstly, then, it may avoid compulsion ; and
may merely seek to recommend its plan by
making it far more - easy for every parent's
temporal rest to accept it than to reject it. In
this case it simply performs the devil's work ;
it tempts a parent to the formal commission
of mortal sin ; it pursues its aim by corrupt-
ing his moral conduct, deadening his conscience,
ruining him for this world and the next.
But let us suppose that, impatient of failure,
the State resorts to compulsion. It requires
the parent under heavy penalties to abandon
his children's education to its tender mercies,
and to give them up to be trained in what
he accounts religious error. Straightway,
every sincere Christian minister of every de-
nomination impresses on his flock the absolute
duty incumbent on them of obeying God rather
than man ; of refusing all obedience to this
unjust and tyrannical command ; of forming
an organised moral resistance against such
intolerable tyranny.
We are very confident that the religious feel-
ing of England is amply strong enough=strong
enough with much strength to spare—for the
triumphant overthrow of every scheme which
may be attempted for promoting latitudina-
rianism in education : our only doubt is,
whether this feeling will do justice to itself,
and put forth its full strength. Let all Chris-
tian denominations unite politically against
the common enemy—let them wage an inter-
necine war against the detestable aggression
which is threatened—success is certain. We
cannot feel equally confident, on the supposi-
tion that the respective denominations allow
their mutual differences (most serious un-
doubtedly in themselves) to paralyse . their
united external action, in the political sphere.
But on this issue—more (we believe) than on
all others put together—the future of England
depends.
The State's office in the work of education
is, at least, no unimportant one, though subor-
dinate. It if 3 simply this ;to give the greatest

available material help for securing to all citi-
zens an education, religious and secular, which
shall be in full accordance with their religious
convictions, and to take full precaution that the
secular part of that education be given with
thorough effectiveness.
Such is our own doctrine. In a future
number we will consider the doctrine of the
Pall Mall Gazette and the reasons adduced
---
in its support.T6stminster Gazette.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
The great news of this week is the progress of
Impeachment. The article adopted by the House
charged the President with having violated the
Tenure of Office Act by his order removing Stan-
ton, and appointing Lorenzo Thomas, without the
consent of the Senate. Another article was adopted,
wherein Andrew Johnson was charged with having
violated the Army Bill, by inducing the Adjutant-
General to obey orders not sent through General
Grant, the proper channel, as the Commanding-
General of the Army. This was last Monday, but
on Wednesday the House decided on the further
count, in which the President is charged with high
crimes, in having denounced and denied in public
speeches the legality of the action of Congress. On
that day the Articles of Impeachment 'were pre-
sented by a committee to the Senate ; and on Thurs-
day that Chamber was organized as a Court of
Impeachment to try the charges—with Chief Jus-
tice Chase, in accordance with the Constitution,
presiding.
The Hon. Benjamin Wade surrenders his chair
as President of the Senate during the time that
body is engaged in the trial of Mr. Johnson —the
Chief Justice of the Supreme Cond presides. The
Vice-President is as officio President of the Senate,
and succeeds, in Case of the vacancy, to be Presi-
dent of the United States. The Hon. Benjamin
Wade will discharge the duties of President in
either 'of these two events. If the Senate can within
a short period decide the case, and that decision be
against Mr. Johnsonwhen he will cease not only
to be President, but will become ineligible for any
public office, and liable to the ordinary tribunals of
the country to be prosecuted for the infringement of
the law of which the Senate will have convicted him
—or, if Congress' finding the trial to assume the
proportions of the great State farce which the
brilliant oratory of Burke and .others of England's
most eloquent speakers 'rendered famous--;-the pro.,
mention of Warren Hastings.:—when the" bill will be
passed suspending from his official flinctions any
public officer during Impeachment. - Some-English
journals imagine that Andrew Johnson's trial will
resemble that of Warren Hastings ; but times have
greatly changed, and the event will be decided, if
we do not greatly err, with a rapidity that would
startle the torpid mind of the venerable 'John Bull.
7:l:4•Aetaiblican, Convention in Ohio and the
Deinoc aic Convention in \Penn, Ivania, have
passed reMlutions in favour of paying the hoods in
currency. This is not 'a bad text for the sermon of
a European Conservative on the Government of a.
Democracy. `A mob, they
might well observe, from
this is essentially foolish—is essentially dishonest—
has low selfish instincts not ranging •beyond the
wants of the hour. Contrast the Treasurer of
Massachusetts financial report with the resolutions
of the great and rich States of Ohio and Penn-
sylvania. Massachusetts, comparatively rugged,
cold, and barren, pays in gold ; Pennsylvania,
rich in agriculture, and teeming with mineral
wealth, to use a plain word, defrauds first the State
creditiors, next lends its weight to affix the stigma
which attaches to itself on the national name. But
Massachusetts finds that honesty pays, and Penn-
sylvania will learn, indeed it has been taught, if it
could recall the lesson—that a financial taint is
hard to obliterate, and is damaging to the value of
the thing soiled. Massachusetts rings with the pure
metal and shines like polished silver, and even as
an article of barter—putting morality and high
character aside—it would make a poor bargain by
exchanging the State's good name for the value of
Pennsylvania's Debt.
The Senate has passed the Army Appropriation
Bill. It was drawn up by General Grant, and re-
trenches the expenditure on the army to $33,000,000,
being an estimate far below that of M'Culloch.
The bill when introduced prohibited the appoint-
ment of civilians to military office, and was so
severely attacked on this point by Butler, Logan,
Schenck, Banks, Paine, and Washburne, that the
clause was struck out, and volunteers now stand
the same chance as West Point graduates. Mr.
Logan, of Illinois, introduced a facetious amend-.
meat, which was, of courss, declared out of order;
and words having failed him, amidst much laughter
he kissed his hand to an ally on his side of the
House. The following are the appropriations for
the fiscal year, beginning the Ist of next July :
Army, $33,082,093 ; navy, $18,096,045 ; pensions,
sA3cado,oe3mo,y, 00$03;03,oInot ; debt Indians,
interest, $130,000,000 ;,
$3,000,000 ; West Point
Executive i v 4 $
e 50 Department,ooo ; D
$17,119,478; Post-Office
deficit,
Diplomatic List, $1,261,431 ;
xec
0 p
Bounties, $25,000,000; miscellaneous, $14,000,000
—a grans
appropriations for the next fiscal
yearof $n totals
For the current year the
012 of
050.
Appropriations amount to $393,269,226, which
shows an estimated saving during the ensuing year
of over $118,000,000.
On Thursday night, in the House of Commons,
in discussing the Metropolitan Tramways Bill, Mr.
Seeley said, in support of the measure, that in New
York there were 160 miles of tramways, and, ac-
cording to the sworn testimony of the coroner there,
accidents were far less numerous through tramways
than through omnibuses. In 1866 in New York
5,500 horses conveyed 70,000,000 passengers on the
tramways, while in London, in the same year, the
London General Omnibus Company conveyed only
41,000,000 passengers, with 6,600 horses. The
tramway cars as compared with omnibuses were
much more roomy, wider, easier to get into, sooner
stopped, sooner started, quicker in travelling, and
more convenient to the public, and they were used
by all classes of society. Colonel Mellor and Mr.
T. Hughes also supported the measure, which was
strongly opposed by Mr. Lewis, Mr. Crawford, and
Mr. Pease. The motion for a second reading was
negatived without a division.
The Springfield Republican quotes a case of
despotism in discussing the new Army Regulations
prepared by General Sherman, and about to be
submitted for the sanction of Congress. Last year
engineer Sawyer, of the Navy was tried, ,convicted,
sentenced, and punished for saying in a political
discussion that Congress ought to Impeach the Pre-
sident. Mr. Sawyer was not convicted of disre-
spectful ladguage towards the Commander-in-Chief
as such, but of approving a resolution presented in
the Legislature which the law allowed him to help
in electing, supposed to represent him in common
with the people, the resolution being aimed at
an officer -for whom by law he was allowed to
vote—his Executive servant in fact. The
right of voting carries with it the right of
criticism and complaint. It may be a mistake
to permit army and navy officers to take part in
elections ; but, permitting it, it is clearly a mistake
to punish one of these voters for expressing au
opinion on the acts of the elected. The Regulaticins
of the Service enforce, officially, a respectful de-
meanour and obedience towards the Commander-
in-Chief, without barring an officer's privileges as
a citizen. It was certainly a high-handed proceed-
ing, which could not occur in aristocratic England.
The Republican calls it a gross outrage upon Ame-
rican citizenship, more deserving of impeachment
than any other act -of the present Administration.
Such acts, like straws on the current, show the drift
of the tide, and warn Americans to be watchful,
and not foolhardy in their confidence.
The Philadelphia correspondent.- of the Tim.es
devoted his letter of the .18th February to an expo-
sure of the Negro conventious sitting in the
Southern States. The_report is not- just, for if the
proceedings of any deliberative assembly were
given verbatim not one would fully bear the-test:
Considering .the circumstances, these negro Con-.
ventious have done as well as could be looked for.
Indeed the Nation, a fair authority, although
strongly favouring.' suffrage to the .freedmen,
de-
clares the constitution, drawn up by the Alabama
Convention, to have been an able State Paper, ',Cho

account of the Richmond Despatch and Register•
of the Virginia Convention is amusing, although..
costly to the State. They cannot afford in the:
Old Dominion to pay so highly for fun.
A new route to the Pacific is proposed, starting
from Collingwood on Georgian Bay, and passing
by river and lake navigation over 2,400 miles, out
of the 3,200 from that town to Vancouver Island.
Collingwood is connected by rail with Toronto,.
therefore the communication from the Atlantic to►
Ge

;orgian Bay, which leads into Lake Superior, i s
complete; and the Canadian Government has agree
to open the communication between Lake Superic 'r
and Fort Garry on Lake Winepeg, a distance of son-le
500 miles, of whick 300 are navigable. Briti sh
Columbia will facilitate the work by grants of laid.
Mr. Alfred Waddington, of Victoria, Vancouxer
Island, the projector of the route, describes the. en-
terprise as easy, comparatively small in expense, :and
not requiring more than two years for completion,
when the transit could be made in about is days.
He will discuss the subject on Monday next, at a
meeting of the Geographical Society, giving full
details of the nature of the pass through the "Rocky

Mountains.
The Supreme Court, on the 17th Febr awry, re
fused Mr. 'f rutnbull's motion to dismiss the MArlle
case for an error of procedure, and the question of
jurisdiction remains to be settled before the merits
are reached. The difference between the Georgia
injunction case and the M'Ardle case is that the
former does not involve a point affecting person or
property, whereas the latter does, and the court has
not jurisdiction except under such circumstances.
Mr. Trumbull has introduced a bill to meet the
contingency of an adverse decision. The case was
to have been argued last Monday. The Court is
to adjourn on the 6th April, and it is thought that
a decision will hardly be reached by that time.
It is stated that his Excellency General M. Clay,
United States Minister at St. Petersburgh, has re-
signed, which will make the fifth vacancy in first-
class missions. We trust this may prove incorrect.
If the English Tory Administration has been em-
barrassed by the amount of legal patronage caused
by vacancies in so many of the highest posts, Mr.
Johnson's Government has had a rainfall of diplo-
matic resignations—Mr. Adams in London, Gen.
Dix in Paris, Gen. Clay at St. Petersburgh, Mr.
Hale at Madrid, all pending ; Mr. Motley at Vienna
resigned, but no successor confirmed ; Governor
Wright at Berlin deceased, Mr. Bancroft being his
successor ; General King at • Rome, whose post is
abolished. This relates only to Europe. At Peking
Mr. Burlingame has left a vacancy. At Mexico
no Minister. General Asboth, Minister at Buenos
Ayres, the friend and countryman of Kossuth, died
on the 23d January. These relate only to the
highest grades of the diplomatic service, and in
themselves furnish strong evidence of the Govern-
mental lock at Washington.
'',7111 ho'Kenttieky Legislature, has elected Thomas C.
*.c-•Ory, :of 'Davis County, a prominent Demo-
'Crat: •United States :Senator, in- place of Guthrie,
xeSigned frona 'health. .;.Crovernor Swann will
prObably be elected by the Maryland 'Legislature
'in place of Mr. Thomas, whom the Senate rejected
for disloyalty, but the Governor's loyalty is far more
cluestionable than that of Mr. Thomas.
A bill has been prepared for Congress by Mr.
Baldwin, of "Worcester, relative to an international
copyright law. It proposes to give authors residing
in foreign countries exactly the same privileges in
America as those countries accord to American
authors publishing there ; that books copyrighted
in America in favour of foreign authors must be
manufactured by American publishers, and that
original translations in America can still be pub-
lished as original works. The bill limits the time
in which foreign authors can copyright a book in
America to within three months after its original
publication abroad, and contains other details and
provisions which will doubtless make it practical
and efficient. The right and the mutual advantage
of an international copyright law have long been
agreed on by authors, and Mr. Baldwin will merit
liberal thanks if he has framed a bill which will
meet the wants of literary men. At present, as
Trubner, in his Monthly Register, states :--" The
American Copyright Law confers on American
citizens only copyright privileges ; or, in a few
words, foreigners may hold copyrights in England,
but no foreigner can hold a copyright in the United
States." The proposed bill will not only change
this, but it will enable residents in England to hold
copyrights in the United States, provided the edi-
tion for sale in America is brought out by American
publishers.
_The Quartermaster-General of the United States
army complains that the transport of troops and
stores from Omaha over the Union Pacific Railroad
costs a third more than over the Kansas line, and he
desires Congress to take action, and to regulate the
tariff. This Congress has refused to do so. The
public must submit to whatever charges the Corpo-
ration sees fit to impose, which, as a matter of
course, will be the highest obtainable. Some day,
considering the great future before this highway,
Congress will be compelled to control the tariff, or
the road will become a monopoly.
The Pall Mall Gazette stated last Tuesday even-
ing that " the Irish papers publish a letter from
John Mitchell's New York journal,.the Citizen, to
Mr. John Martin, of Dublin, in which Mitchell de-
scribes the American Irish Fenians as having been
systematically deceived by the organizers as to the
men at home." We were aware that Mitchell had
written to his old friend Martin, but not through
the columns of the New York Citizen, and, in sur-
prise at the assertion, we searched through a file of
recent numbers in vain to discover such a letter.
John Mitchell is a bold man ; he has the influence
that a strong belief in his patriotism, backed by
ability, gives, but we doubted whether Mitchell
would have published in the Citizen, that is in the
face of the Fenian organization in New York, a
letter describing "the Fenian Republic, with its
farce of a Government, Secretaries of State, army,
navy, Government bonds, and so forth, an jive-
rim in iniperio, excessively repugnant to the Ame-
rican people." It is not the less disagreeable be-
cause it is undoubtedly true—a truth which we, not
having the fear of Fenians before our eyes, were
not barred from again and again asserting. The
case, however, is the reverse with Mr. Mitchell, and
we are only surprised at his " pluck" in writing
such a letter at all. It will certainly go back to
America and tell the Fenians some wholesome
truths. The organization, according to him, was
established on a wrong basis by that wretched
Stevens, i.e., the design of immediate insurrection in
Ireland while England was at peace, to be aided
by force and arms from the United States contrary
to their laws. The project, he adds, was in itself
wild, " and could only be made to look feasible by
systematic delusion and imposture." False pre-
tences have been the main machinery of the orga-
nization from the first ; but Irishmen were " deli-
berately cheating each other from the two opposite
sides of the Atlantic." The Irish in America were
taught to believe Stevens's Fenian army was for
ever on the point of fighting the British army, and
" the men at home were carefully taught to believe
that in America there was a great and powerful
Irish nation, with unlimited resources, and army
and navy, both willing and able to give their im-
portant aid in troops and arms, with the connivance,
or even in spite of, the United States Government."
The patriotism of the Irish cannot work in the
United States, as the Government of the country in
which his fellow countrymen and himself reside
will not suffer that, and is able to hinder, and
bound to hinder that." The American Govern-
ment, he further states, " has its hand firmly upon
the whole movement, but it has made use of it by
holding it up iia terrorein before the eyes of Eng-
land to induce her to be more compliant in the
diplomatic discussions which are going on between
London and Washington." No doubt Mr. Mit-
chell will have brought a hornet's nest about his
ears if his letter obtains general circulation among
tshe Fenians of New York.
Above we have noticed a subject not in the
Citizen, but ,now we -turn to a subject really dis-
cussed in: that journal by one of its best-known
correspondents. Miles O'Reilly writes from Wash-
Ington, 18th Feb., and heads his letter, " The great
Conspiracy." " Shall our next PreSidency be de-
termined by a fight or an election ?" 5411 or