The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-13 00:00:00

that result is wilfully or wickedly perverted, by means
not necessary to be here recapitulated, but easily to
be conceived in connection with " corruptors of youth
and teachers of false doctrines") ? This natural ten-
dency is now to remove, and hereafter to obviate, the
brutalizing effects of ignorance. To exalt the intel-
lectual faculties of our- fellow=creatures above the at-
posphere of dangerous error sand sordid prejudice--
to_raise their physical condition biyond the degrading

influence of that prejudice and error—these are the
eleinentary principles and objeets of education, in its'
largest 'sense. It follows„-._tbat the.true-welfare of a
State must be identified with the application of such
principles, the attainment of such objects in‘respeet of
the greatest possible number of its subjeets.
In fact, then, we find, accordingly, all men of all
shades and divisions of opinion, moral. or political,
concurring in the doctrine " that it is expedient to
provide education for the people." But the instant
you .prepose any organised scheme of instruction—
any working plan to regUlate and define the nature of
the tearning- to be taught, and to provide for the mode
and means of communicating it—all this unanimity
appeals to :dissolve: The .general. proposal; which'all
hen& are eagerly extended to receive, is like a
globule:Of quicksilver. 'Once touched, it falls into an
uncertain-number of molecules,—all equally globular
and shapeable to the eye, but diverging in twenty or
thirty different lines; and caught up and manipulated,
each 'according to the fancy of the individual .operator
by whom it has been.seized-nall chance of applying
the original -globule•- to-its- destined purposes is lost.
In the same way :'a 'lat.& and, Vi',ll.COnceived plan of
instruction for the peopleseems fated, in this country,
to fall in pieces; the instant it is brought inteactual
contact-with the. forms of-practical Administration.
One party-runs off, -with- his :little scheme of exclu-
sively Scriptural education ; another with a project of
exclusively ."
-economic instruction; a- third With a
theory of purely•technicilinitiation ; a fourth, with
proposals for acourse of tuition devoted entirely to the
acquisition of practical acquaintance with manufac-
tures; or Ihe processes of particular trades. Ail this
has been so visibly shoWn in recent 'examples, niemo-
rable-- for . the.. important bearing of . Ihe proposals
brought forward,- and for the signal failure of those
proposali,:that we need not insist upon the point. The
FaCtory - Education Bill was a signal exemplification
of the certain method for defeating a great and
good:object-by the attempt to Retire a minor one, in
the 'Shaped patronage to a party. ' Its failure has ne-
cessarily'left -an ineredible number or-young persons,
Who are incessantly engaged in Ihe•pursuits of manu-
facturing labour, without any education at ; all, pend-
ing the ultimate fate of a graceless squabble about
the " sort"- of education to be giVen,•and the " exclu-
sive control" over it which h!ii • been claimed
on behalf of "ministers of the Established Church."

In the meanwhile what, appalling evidences does
every day's experience present to us 'of 'the' "necessity
for u general' scheme of sound, moral, uiertil 'educa-
tion, not limited by th.e defeetive scale 'of the so-
called "national" system adopted in Ireland,--
(which is' no more than a mere Board 'monopoly)
—noryet -to the halting progress of our parochial
system in England, which, though better, is very, in-
complete, 'and badly superintended ! The multipli-
cation of crimes, and the increasing intensity of their
character, against order, property, and life, are ter
rible indications of the volcanic- evils that are in
active combination, as it were, beneath the surface of
society. 'We are unwilling to particularise in order
to corroborate this assertion; for we deeply feel the
responsibility of all journals in these days, in giving
publicity to frightful excesses. and enormities of
sanguinary guilt that operate (we greatly fear) to
encourage in the more ignorant, masses of our popu-
lation, a hideous monomania. With the habitual
contemplatio of great • crimep, even cultivated
mirlds lose .the--..hearthrul. instinct of involun-
tary repugnance . and disgust, which only gives
place, fitrt, to a species of morbid curiosity as to
details ; then to an apathetic toleratiOn of their
horrors ; finally,- to a mysterious excitement of
teflon. ' Tn'proportiori to ,the, uneultivated character
of the'-mind to which such descriptions thus address
themselves, is the feebleness of, the innate and original
principle of abhorrence they should be calculated to

•
The recent cases at Taunton--the, suicides and
excite.
murders that have still more recently occurred in' one
family 'at Deptford—but we must close the dismal
list we have but half unfolded, with that which yes+
terday added to the bloody record, the overwhelming
tragedy at Whitwell, in Norfolli, with its four infant
victims to the brutal frenzy of a father (!)—these are
cataitrophes that appeal, with the solemnity and force
of voices issuing from the tomb, for preventive legis;
Cation. Let those who imagine that the duty of edu
Cathie the peopte'li accomplished by a strict, ad 4.
herence- to this or that particular canon of
it is called, learn
as
just enumerated, the
ferovemn
:i•heeviaangsteaitircocariitytewacehhinafe,•
absurditY of supposing that such a course of training
necesiarily cocstitutes all that it is indispensable pi-
ths poorer classes to learn. We run no risk: of: pre.-
judging the case of -FROST, with the evidence of the
aticainsam!talsainy
witnesses and own-confession before us; in:4liying
tmhoastth perpetrated one of the
crimes which ever
inconceivableisaw ful

itained'ale annals of civilised sobiety... Who will vent
tune to'predict that it may not be proved nereafter•
thatwith thisoutone of the "Bible-
who have long.
been claiming infallibility for their " one " and
all-sufficine educational dogma ? It appears that
-nvvotree-tecrh:cddincmuttl 18731)0,4,
the man was originally a Methodist Ranting preacher;
afterwards ' a minister of a new sect 'called' the
"Revivalists ;" and that after slaughtering his four
innocent- children---the eldest of them but five
years old, the youngest ten NN •ee sk—" he was eon-
v singiizg psal' the whole
ese.ad t° N
!" It is Norwich Castle,' psalms'
necessary to add, what
our readers will have anticipated, that the miserable
man, in answer to those•who questioned-- him, ex-
pressed 'his Conviction that " he had done well in
What hi had done;" for this• is but an ordinary Otase
of fanatical prepossessio'n in perpetrating crimes, Ikom
Josr of-Munster down to NAYLOR, the Quaker. But
we do hope and trust that those into whose hands the
business, or direction, or control of a large and bene-
ficial scheme of popular education may hereafter fall,
will feel RIO be their first duty to.inculcate in'the minds
of the-young the primary duties of man to his GOD,
-and to his fellow-creatures, to his family or kindred,
and toAociety ; the reciprocal duties of obedience and
protection= between a parent and child,—and State
and parent. Let these elementary principles of cha-
•rity and goodwill be the first and chiefest moral les-
son impressed on every pupil. The 'internecine
struggles and atrocities related of til.eJewish people,
in the earlier periods of their histo7f and their in-1-
placable- Opponents, maybe better be 'taught when
the pupil's mind is sufficiently matured to note the
difference between the tiaditional authority for dread-
ful facts—unquestionable as it is,—and their applica-
tion as any rule of duty or conduct.
•

The Madrid journals of the Sth are chiefly filled
with details of the religiouti ceremonies observed on
Good Friday. The- Cabinet, it. appears, has had a
meeting reliti'4tO the proposed alterations concerning
the press, and it "Was understood that an ordonnance
on the subject would be published forthwith, and
also for declaring martial law at in end. Tke Depu-
ties, who had betn imprisoned now for three months,
had been allowed to receive the, visits of their friends,
and great crowds took advantage bf the circumstance
•
to reave their names at the prison.
The Bourse remained closed.

The affairs of Otaheite again occupy the. attention
of the Paris journalists. The arrival of an officer
with dispatches from Admiral Duran THOUARS has
excited considerable curiosity ; and, as the Govern-
ment appear anxious to conceal their contents, some
of the. Opposition papers, infer that the intelligence
from that quarter .is not favourable. The Siecle,
however; asserts the contrary, and states that the
delay in publishing the documents arises from the
embarrassment into which the Government is thrown
I)).'"disolYning so -hastily. the sets of a public func-
tionary, who had merited well of his country. "The
officer :arriVed from Otaheite," says that journal,
" with dispatches from Admiral PUPETIT .ThOUARS,
and who. is said to have bronght a most favourable
account of the colony since thaestablishment of our
sovereignty,• must have been in- no slight degree as-
tonaed at the; rricpption Met with, He ex-
pected:congratulations, and perhaps an ovation ; but
fetid . f,hat =a.sentence -of disavowal been: pro-
nounced, even without that .W9il44tiQU P'S to Cir.