The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-08 00:00:00

THE EDUCATION MANiFESTO.

The following amusing article we copy from the
Church and State Gazette " knife-to-the-death"—a
supporter of Sir H. Peel on the fall of the Whigs :
" Lord Wharncliffe has certainly a great aptitude for
surprising people. We have scarcely recovered our
breath at the astonishment into which we were thrown
at his late extraordinary exploit in the House of Lords,
where of an assembly of judges he made a society of
dupes, than we are again the victims of an excited sen-
sibility, and stand confused with wonder, amusement,
and indignation at his Lordship's provincial perform-
ances at Barnsley.
" This noble and astute Peer is undoubtedly the Judas
of diplomatists : he betrays under an affectation of an
exceeding measure of love. He cajoled the amazed
Peers into a desertion of their duty, by anxiously assur-
ing them that it would be for their own unspeak-
able benefit, if they permitted the law mice of Whiggery
to free the lion of agitation from the healthy toils which
bound him. The noble dupes of this crafty counsellor
obeyed in the very unconsciousness of their ignorance.
Without well knowing what they were doing, they did
that of which they neew pretty well know the conse-
quences ; and Lord Wharncliffe, having been so mis-
chievously successful in deluding the Peers, carries on
his vocation of arch deceiver by trying to mystify the
people. He has for ever destroyed the efficiency
of the House of Lords as a last court of appeal ;
and so vivacious is he in his evil doing, that,
having bruised the coronets of the peers, he
turns restlessly to an assault on the duties and
privileges of the clergy. He is so well pleased at having
rendered the Lords ridiculous, that he has attempted to
strip the clergy of their dignity and usefulness. Having
stabbed the State he assaults the Church. May he find
in the latter an antagonist more powerful than the mul-
titude whom he cheated into a dereliction of duty. May
his assault on the Church be less successful in its issues
than his attempt on the Peers. The latter was effected
by a species of petty larceny, and succeeded mainly
through the ignorance of those whom he designed for
his victims; the former partakes more of the old, yet bad
spirit, of the old highwayman. We trust the clergy will
neither be alarmed by the boldness, nor deceived by the
coolness of their aggressor. Forewarned is forearmed ;
and if they are not speedily arrayed in all their panoply,
after such a note of warning as that sounded in the
Barnsley speech, and reported in our columns of to-day,
a too tardy arming will not only not prevent their fall,
but that fall itself will fain to win sympathy for those
who faltered, when they should have stood firm.
"It is needless for us to point out to our clerical readers
the portions of that speech which appear to us to be
pregnant with prospects of danger to the Church. We
confine ourselves to directing attention to it, and leaving
!he least suspicious of our readers to form at leisure his
own opinions thereon. We are satisfied, however, that
with us he will see in this Barnsley manifesto a species
of charge to the clergy, made by one assuming an
authority above that of the highest dignitary of our
Church. This charge will be seen to be replete with a
deceitfully affectionate persuasion to the clergy to be
confederate to their own wrong. It will be seen that
there is an already cut and-dry design to deprive the
ministers of the Church of their right, privilege, duty,
and office, of being the irresponsible religious teachers of
the young. It would have been little had Government
declared that the ministers of each sect might be the
Mentors of their own peculiar followers ; but it is much
that that same Government should be preparing a plan
which is to deprive the clergymen of the Church of Eng-
land of their right of being the uncontrolled counsellors
of that Church's children. The new Government plan
is evidently one of those centralising ['rejects which is
quietly to transfer the education of the people front the
clergy, who are their natural instructors, to the equi-
vocal superintendence of a General Board in Downing-
street. The real design is. well etivelopedein a very spe-
cious colouring, but it is clearly discernible nevertheless.
The very fearseepologies,explanationeond remonstrance s
which, notwithstanding the boldness of the plan, mark
the speech of him delegated to demonstrate it, form
alone a sufficient ground of suspicion. But, stripped
of all the sophistries which enwreathe it, and by which
it is intended to delude and mystify the clergy, it
amounts to simply this, that the latter shall be no fur-
ther the superintendents of the education of their
flocks, than as they are the deputies of a mixed com-
mittee in London. The freed3al that is promised them
is nothing more than that granted to a man confined to
a room, with the liberty of not leaving it. The heads of
our Church are the only true and natural guardians of
her sons. To the former the education of the latter
may be safely entrusted ; .but here is a despoiling power
abeve the Church, and that power is now directed to the
effecting of a grievous injury. and striking at the privi-
legesuf that Church. Lord Wharncliffe talks of securi-
ties ;but, granting them as undeniable now, they may
be made a means of further assult hereafter. We pro-
test, then, against this new Government plan, which, by
giving the direction of the entire education of' the youth
of England to the Government Ministry of the day, places
it in the possible keeping of Arians and Atheists. What-
ever we may think of the orthodoxy of the present
occupants of power, what is to ensure us against the in-
fidelity and heresy of future Ministries ? Some future
Lord Melbourne might make an educational superin-
tendent of some hereafter-to-be Mr. Owen ; and the
Church would in such case protest in vain against the
Socialist doctrines of the teachers whose instructions
they are bound to obey. The possibility of such a thing
must not be for a moment permitted. In this matter the
Church must be the master—the Government its aid.
On this question, the latter must look up to the Church
for instruction, and not down upon her to transmit su-
percilious directions that are expected to be silently
obeyed. Lord Wharncliffe, from his speech, evidently
conceives the whole affair to be arranged by the mere
announcement of his plans ; and the " hear, hear I" of
a portion of his auditory to be the recognition of the
Government's condition as rulers, and the clergy's posi-
tion as slaves. But this is an undue hastening to an
ill-
founded conclusion. The clergy aro forewarned, and,
as we said before, forewarned is forearmed !" 1