The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-31 00:00:00

Jim ,§-ata.

LONDON'
MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1842.

It is observed in the Edinburgh Review, re-
cently published, in an article on the Pictorial
History of England, "As there is nophenomenon
so marvellous, and ao circumstance sr eventful
in the whole course of history as the progress of
knowledge, and especially of education in the
sixteenth century—in England, to speak more
F precisely from the reign of HENRY the SEVENTH
to the middle of that of ELIZABETH—SO it is
scarcely satisfactory to our vanity to reflect on
the very slow addition to that progress which has
been made in all the years that have since
elapsed." If this be • strictly true, it is indeed
wonderful, and not flattering. But it is not true
that the progress has not been much accelerated
since the reign of ELIZABETH. The writer ap-
pears not to discriminate between the commu-
nity and individuals. The progress ofknowledge
is in the community, and is latterly very rapid;
the slow addition subsequently is confined to the
improvement of the education of individuals. His
comparison does not apply to the same class of
phenomena. If the proposition were confined to
the " education exclusively of the upper and
middle classes," as he seems in his mind to con-
fine it, by immediately after asking whether
those classes are more educated than they were
in the days of ELIZABETH, we should not dissent
from it. In those days, ".though a new direc-
tion has since been given to education," indivi-
duals were as much trained, and their faculties,
bodily and mental, as much developed, consist-
ently with the knowledge of the community, as
they are at present. In our time compendious
processes have been found out for more easily ac-
quiring certain branches of knowledge, but indi-
viduals are not now more nor better disciplined,
consistently with the knowledge of the age, than

ey were then.
Another correction of this writer's view is
obe found- in the sort of .knowledge and dis-
cipline which were then and now extant. Com-
paring the haughty ,Baron shut up in his castle,
ignorant of letters, the prey of furious passions,
'indulging chiefly in the chase, in gaming, or in
war (such was the whole genus at the beginning
of the war of the Roses), with the polished
courtier, addicted to literature and the cultiVa-
tion "of the gentle arts of the, reign of ELIZA-
BETH, the change is undoubtedly one of the
greatest which can be traced in the character of
man in the course of such a short period.
the reign of ELIZABETH there has been nothing
like a similrar change in the pursuits of the upper
and middle classes. They have undoubtedly
gone on cultivating letters, and eloquence, and
the fine arts ever since, as they cultivated them.
in the days of ELIZABETH.
At about that period, too, was fixed the
scheme of moral discipline and education,
through the instrumentality of the Church with
the Universities, which has since undergone
comparatively little change, except in details.
Now, it is clear that there can be no extension
of the cultivation of letters corresponding in im-
portance to the change from non-cultivation to
the, cultivation by models previously established
other nations ; and no extension of a species
of moral discipline equal in importance to an
entire change in the scheme. It has been clearly
impossible, therefore, that any such vast change
in the education of individuals could take place
between the days of ELIZABETH and our times
as took place between those days and a period
150 years before.
The Reviewer seems to us unconsciously to
have given himself a very satisfactory explana-
tion of the -comparatively stationary condition of
the upper and middle classes, which is of no in-
considerable importance at the present time;
and to bring which before our readers is our mo-
tive for adverting to this. subject.. In speaking
of ~,the system which the ReforMation displaced,
it is said "the learning of the monks was worse
than no learning. at " xh fifststep.towards
the improvement of• mankind was-the entire re-
moval of that miserable mass of-superstition,
jargon, and absurdity, which pd.Sted"bY the name
of education in the middle ages ; • a system under
which advance was hopeless, learning unlovely
and unloved, and mind transmitted nothing but
the laborious barbarism which it had inhe-
rited." "It • was," he adds, " through
the teMpOrary decline of the schools, uni-
versities, and professions, such as they had
lieen;- that, the. sixteenth century was enabled -
to beCOme 'a learned age." He calls the previous
system a miserably wrong system. "It sub-
stituted conformity for truth." " The Church
enforced, instead of teaching obedience, com-
pelling%men to abnegate their judgment and
their will, instead of directing where to distrust
and control them—a system under which Con-
stitutions lived on while man was dwarfed into
moral insignificance." Such remarks are nearly
as applicable to the system which was esta:
blished at the Reformation, and has been fol-
lowed till within a few years, and is now fol-
lowed, as far as possible, in the. English Church
and Universities, in whose "hands the education
and discipline of the upper classes arc exclusively
placed, as to the system which it superseded.
The Protestant Church has carefully imitated
the Roniish Church of the middle ages, and has
substituted conformity for truth. It has en-
forced that conformity by bribes on the one
hand, in the shape of rich preferments, and pe-
nalties, in the shape of exclusion from political
rights, on the other. It has enforced, evenwith-
out teaching obedience. It liar, as far as it could,
compelled men to abnegate their judgment
and • their will, and has dwarfed them into
moral insignificance, in order that the in-
stitutions of the Church might live on. The
error which had rendered the education of the
middle ages an abortion, was repeated at the
Reformation, and a miserable mass of supersti-
tion, jargon, and absurdity, was subsequently, as
before, taught and enforced at our Universities.
There useful learning continues unlovely and
unloved, and mind transmits to mind little more
:lian the laborious barbarism which it has inhe-
rited. Conformity is still the main principle,
but whether it be ctinformity to reason or su-
perstition, is a question of Very doubtful nature.
Individual man does not fashion society ; it is
mainly determined by the progress of popula-
tion. The same portion of the surface of the
earth, for example, cannot subsist an equal
iiumber of hunters as of agriculturists; thus
the number of mankind in relation to the sur-
face of the earth, determines at all times the
Pursuits and occupations of the majority of every
society. A proper education for individuals iN
every age, subsiduary to the inculcation of the
principles of
justice, which are as old and more
indestructible than the hills, must accordingly
consist In training them, and developing their
iliculties-consistently with the mass of the occu-
pations of society.
In our country the great number of the people,

oors.

The property-tax levied during the war was
thrown off by the landed gentlemen, in spite of
the Tory Administration, because it had been
originally levied as a war-tax, and they would
not submit to it in peace. We presume that
they will not have the hardihood now to sup-
pose that the community is to submit to this tax,
in addition to all other taxes, in order to' keep
up their rents. On this subject it will not be far-
o-often that the Government and the landed
aristocracy are almost identical, the great bulk
of the public expenditure going into their
pockets and the pockets of their dependents.
Though they may contribute, therefore, some
share of the proposed new taxation, it will bear
only a small proportion to the benefit which they
exclusively will derive from it,' They cannot,
we repeat, have the hardihood now to propose
and carry a property tax, which they threw off
in 1815, because it was a war-tax, in' order to
promote their own advantage.
It is a generally received theory that an in-
crease of taxation necessarily raises the price of
commodities. That is one of the grounds on
which the landlords resist free competition as
against themselves. Ouly a few days ago we
observed a very elaborate article in a Tory
Journal based on that theory, and we can un-
hesitatingly say that it is generally adopted by
the Tories. It admits, we think, of some doubt,
particularly where competition is unfettered. We
cannot see how increasing taxation raises the
cost of production, which ultimately deter-
mines all price. It certainly takes a
portion of all the commodities taxed from
those who produce them, and leaves less to re-
ward them for their labours. It diminishes?
therefore, rent, or profit, or wages. If the tax
can be thrown on the consumer it diminishes the
Means of enjoyment, but it does not add to the
labour of producing commodities, nor in the long
run raise prices. But those who maintain that it
raises pricer, now mean, it is said, *to increase
.taxation, and, on their own theory, as'well as
on the opposite theory, to enhance the difficul-
ties which already oppress and almost over-
whelm the productive energies of the nation.
Were the additional taxation to be wholly
confined to rent and property in the funds,
it would be of little consequence, but it is
to be extended, it is said, to all property, and in-
clude capital vested in machinery as well as in
land. The consequence, of course, will be, when-
ever the produce of that machinery comes into
competition with die produce of foreigners, to drive
still more than at present our manufacturers
out of the market. On a portion of the capi-
talist's profits being taken from him by the tax,
he will,be less able than now to compete with
foreigners. Whatever explanation be adopted—
whether taxation raise prices, or whether it only
dbninishes rent, profit, or wages—to increase
it now will add, to the national embarrassments.
Should this project be seriously entertained we
presume it will be announced in the Speech
from the Throne. In that case we also presume
the Whigs would move an amendment to the
Address, as the groundwork of their opposition
through the Session, setting forth the superior
advantages of their own principle of increasing
the resources of the cottntry by reducing taxa-
tion and altering the tariff, to the Tory principle
of refusing to amend the tariff and adding to the
burdens of the country. We have some reason
to believe, and to hope, that such will be the
course. It is clear that the Whigs and the Li-
berals can effect nothing, with or through the
Parliament, by themselves. The majority of their
opponents is too great. They must make way
by operating on the public mind, and by getting
`leir own opinions backed by the people out of
. To conciliate them and win their sup-
ion, a bold, a frank, and a clear line of policy,
made known to them so that they can under-
stand it, is indispensable; and that line of policy
should be' indicated by an amendment to the