The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-03 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

DR. SLEIGH—THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,
AND THE CORPORATION SCHOOLS.
(From Me Liverpool Courier.)
The Corporation School question, we had thought,
was well understood and settled. We were mistaken.
A gentleman from the other side of the Atlantic,—
whence, indeed, if the extent of the humari capacity is
to be inferred from the exalted effects it is capable of
producing, scythes, we are told, in that country, being
brought to such perfection of edge as sometimes to
take off a leg by their shadow, we should be justified
in looking for any degree of intellectual acuteness,—
this gentleman has discovered, that the opposition of
the clergy and friends of the Established Church to
the new mode of instruction introduced into those
schools was entirely factious, and their objections false ;
and he has consequently come out in a pamphlet, de-
tailing the results of his personal examination into the
actual facts of the case, to the complete removal, as he
doubtless imagines, of the ignorance, and triumphant
refutation of the slanders, previously prevailing in re-
ference to the subject.
The individual we allude to is Dr. Sleigh, who, on
the recent revival of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD, be-
came its editor, but held the post only for a very short
period. The circumstances under which the connexion
was broken off have been related by himself. A cen-
sorship was exercised over his writings which he did
not approve of ; and on one occasion, in particular,
having prepared an article against the Corporation
School system, to which was appended a note intimat-
ing his intention personally to inspect the schools, and
if he found himself wrong, at once to recant all that
he had said, he was surprised to find, on perusing the
paper the next day, that the whole of the qualifying
paragraph had been struck out. His resignation fol-
lowed. But though the immediate purpose for which
the schools were to be visited was thus set aside, Dr.
Sleigh was induced, in compliance, he tells us, with
the pressing request of a gentleman with whom he was
personally unacquainted, to redeem his pledge. He
accordingly visited the schools—we will not be uncha-
ritable enough to say, though the supposition would
be. far from improbable, that he visited them less with
the simple desire for information, which had before ac-
tuated him, than with a desire to find the party in the
wrong who had used him, as he conceived, unfairly.
The person interrogated in the following dialogue is
the head master :

Is the BIBLE, the actual Bible, taught in this school? Yes,
every day.
During, or after school hours ? During school hours.
May we be present during the examination ? Most cer-
tainly ; and you may examine the children yourself.
Are all the children taught the Bible ? All, except Roman
Catholics.

How many Bibles have you got in this school ? Some
dozens : I don't remember the exact number.

May we be permitted to see and examine them ? Most
certainly.
Accordingly, we accompanied him to the place where they
are kept, and we found there SIXTY-TWO BIBLES, well
thumbed in the New Testament !—actual Bibles !—authorised
version, " CUM PRIVILEGIO," with the royal arms thereon!
We then visited the girl's school, in which we observed
great decorum and order. A course of discipline and in-
struction similar to that in the boys' department is here
adopted.
From the girls' we proceeded to the infants' school. Here
we found children, also, of all religious denominations, and
to them all, without exception, the Bible is read every day.
We heard them examined, and were much gratified with the
order and knowledge of the little infants.
In the afternoon we revisited the school, in order to exa-
mine the boys in the Scriptures. A class of twenty boys,
from ten to fourteen years of age, was presented to us. They
first proceeded through their daily exercise,—that of reading
a chapter in the New Testament, and being examined in the
same by the head master. Each boy read a verse : when the
chapter was finished, the master examined them in it. They
read and answered remarkably well, considering their ages,
&c.

Upon the second question in the above extract we
have a note, informing us that " the writer was very
particular in ascertaining this fact, as he had been led
to believe, that the reading of the Bible took place only
after school hours, and that only occasionally, as a
mere ruse de guerre to deceive the public."
Now it is really ludicrous to see these stale matters
of fact put forth as something that was never known
before, and is something of immense importance, while
the truth is, that they were. all known long ago, and
that they signify nothing. It would have been but
creditable modesty in Dr. Sleigh, to have supposed
that persons who have been all their lives resident in
the town should know more of its affairs than one who
has just come over from America.
It is not denied that the Bible, " the actual Bible,"
is taught in the Corporation Schools. It is not denied
that it is taught there during school hours. It is not
denied that the Roman Catholics receive " Scriptural
instruction" out of the Scriptural lesson books. It is
not denied that the "version" of the Bible, about
which the doctor makes so much foolish parade, with
his emphatic typography, and accumulation of epithets,
is the authorised version,—that it is printed " cum pri-
vilegio," and even stamped with "the royal arms.'
But does Dr. Sleigh know, or does he not, that on
the Corporation Schools changing hands, a certain re-
solution was passed by the new directors, the reformed
Corporation, to the effect that the books of the com-
missioners of education in Ireland be adopted, and
that they have a fair trial previous to the introduction of
any other ?" Does he know, or does he not, that these
lessons are garbled extracts from Scripture, made fur-
ther dishonest and mischievous by Popish renderings
and Popish glosses ? Does he know, or does he not,
that a certain other resolution was passed, to the effect
that " an hour in each day be devoted to the religious
instruction of those children whose parents do not ob-
ject, and that such hour be in the afternoon, AFTER THE
SCHOOL HAS CLOSED ?"

These were the original grounds of the controversy.
We appeal to any man of honesty and common sense,
whether, supposing these resolutions had been carried
into effect, the Bible would not have been absolutely
and authoritatively excluded . from the schools during
school hours ; and whether, in other respects, such,
for instance, as the prohibition of joint prayer, and
the introduction of unsound translations of Scripture,
and the renunciation of all right to enforce any system
of religious instruction whatever, there was not just
cause for alarm and opposition on the part of every
one anxious for the maintenance of pure Protestant
truth in connexion with the established institutions of
the land, and for the diffusion of the principles and
practice of Christian morality and devotion among its
population ?
We ask Dr. Sleigh what he would have supposed to
be the meaning of the resolutions we have just quoted ?
Would he have concluded, that when it was said, the
books to be adopted should be the books of the Irish
commissioners, and no other, that in reality "the Bi-
ble—the actual Bible"—was to be taught in the schools,
and that " every clay ?" Would he, when it was said
that the hour devoted to religious instruction should
be an hour in the afternoon, after the school was closed,
have thought it necessary to put the question whether
the Bible was to be read " during or after school
hours," and taken without surprise, as the expression
of consistent sincerity, the answer, " During school
hours ?" Whatever may be the case with Dr. Sleigh,
we humbly confess, that we have no other avenue to
men's meaning, generally speaking, but their words;
and the words we have quoted, mean what they may,
are the recorded resolutions of the education commit-
tee of the Town-council. They were sufficient for
those who deemed it their duty to resist the proposed
remodelling of the schools on such a plan, and, if he
had been informed of them, as we are willing to be-
lieve he was not, they ought to have been sufficient for
Dr. Sleigh. If we are not to take language in its sim-
ple and obvious meaning, we may as well interpret
backwards all that Dr. Sleigh has written, and suppose
him to have given-us a report altogether unfavourable
to the Corporation system.
The cause of so much seeming contradiction, how-
ever, next to the superfluous meddling of Dr. Sleigh.
is the want of candour on the part of the Corporation
School committee. The schools, in fact, are not the
schools contemplated in the above resolutions. The
ustem at work in them is a widely different system.
But no thanks to the Corporation. Thanks to the
prompt, bold, decided, and energetic manifestation of

indignant public opinion in a Protestant community, I
that compelled them to abandon their intentions. And
had the school committee been candid enough to have
acknowledged their error, or at least their weakness,
and have declared the abandonment of their scheme
as openly as they declared its adoption, much confu-
sion, and misapprehension, and contradictory asser-
tion would have been avoided, the Corporation would
mot have needed the assistance of such a champion as
Dr. Sleigh, and Dr. Sleigh would have been saved the
trouble and mortification of running his head against a
post. The Corporation relinquished their design of
banishing the Bible during shool hours; but so did
Napoleon relinquish his design of ruling France, when
he had been beaten at Waterloo : and it would equally
accord with truth to praise Napoleon for his modera-
tion, his sense of justice, and his unambitious spirit,
in exchanging empire for exile, as it would to give the
Liverpool Corporation credit for, admitting the Bible
into their schools 'during the ordinary hours of teach-
ing.
With the disagreement between Dr. Sleigh and the
proprietors of the Standard we have, of course, no
concern. As, however, the ex-edifor has put forward
a specific instance of what he considers improper in-
terference with him in the discharge of his duties, as
a ground of appeal to the public, we have a right to
express our opinion upon the merits of the case thus
submitted to us ; and we think that the proprietors
exercised a very sound discretion, and performed an
act of kindness to Dr. Sleigh, by the use they made
of the pruning-knife on that occasion. Their object,
as they state it themselves, was to prevent the doctor
" making a fool of himself" through the medium of
their journal. There are times when friendship should
break through rules : and though an understanding
may have existed that the doctor was to be uncon-
trolled in his editorial office, yet opportunity may have
been wanting for consulting him respecting the medi-
tated " rape of the postscript," and, as a reasonable
man, he could not, on subsequent explanation, have
refused to acquiesce in the propriety of the "mutila-
tion." Others knew, if he did not, the jesuitical sub-
tlety of the assertion that " the Bible had never been
excluded from the schools, either north or south, from
the very day they came under the direction of the re-
formed Town-council." Others knew, if he did not,
that this did not matter one straw to the argument,—
that the opposition originally raised was raised against
the schools not as they now are, but as they were in-
tended to be,—and that there is still sufficient reason
for all who value the Protestant Church Establishment,
and sound Scriptural education, to stand aloof from
them, though not on the plea, which every one knows
would be contrary to fact, that copies of the Scriptures
are not to be found, in actual black and white, within
the walls of the building. If Dr. Sleigh was such a
stranger that he did not know the entire history and
real merits of the school question, his ignorance may
be excused, but not his arrogance in pretending to
enlighten others not so young in local experience as
himself. The gist of his complaint against the pro-
prietors of the Standard is, that he was not allowed to
stultify himself by an admission that he had been con-
demning what he did not understand, but that he
would take the earliest opportunity to ascertain whe-
ther he was right or wrong ! The more sensible way
would certainly have been to have informed himself
first, and written afterwards.

SELECT EXTRACTS.

An old lady, down east, recently slept so sound that when
she awoke in the morning, she didn't know who she was.

GENTLEMANLY DISCIPLINE.—How would English offi-
cers like to be mast-headed ? At the very time we were
passing though the Russian fleet, two officers of considerable
standing were sent aloft, disgraced before the whole ship's
crew, for some trivial misapprehension of orders.—Bremner's
Russia.

SERFS IN RUSSIA.—Some families, such as Cheremetieffs
and Strogonoffs, possess between forty and fifty thousand
serfs. One hundred thousand is the largest number we ever
heard ascribed to one family. These, however, are the most
colossal fortunes. Even one thousand is looked upon as a
very respectable share.—Bremner's Russia.

If we would but deny ourselves sometimes in uunecesary
desires even when it is in our hands to humour ourselves, and
gratify our desires, it would be of excellent use ; for we must
remember, that as long as the things of this world are empty
and finite, our trouble will not end by satisfying, hut by
ceasing our desires.—Bishop Patrick.
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.—If paper, linen, tow wool,
cotton, mats, straw, wood shavings, moss, or soot, be imbued
slightly with linseed or hempseed oil, and placed in contact
with the sun and air, especially when wrapped or placed in a
heap, they very soon become spontaneously hot, emit smoke,
and finally burst into flames. If linseed oil maganese be
triturated together, the soft lump so formed will speedily be-
come firm, and ere long take fire.—. Dr. Ure's Dictionary of
Arts, Part VIII.

An humble man is like a good tree ; the more full of fruit
the branches are, the lower they bend themselves.
FACE-PAINTING.—Lady Coventry, the celebrated beauty,
killed herself while painting. She bedaubed herself with
white, so as to stop the perspiration. Lady Mary Wortley
Montague was more prudent ; she went often into a hot
bath to scrape off the paint, which was almost as thick as
plagter on a wall.

NEW FACT IN ENGLISH HISTORY.—Henry the Eighth
died at Westminster, on Friday, the 28th of January, 1546-7,
at two o'clock in the morning. Parliament was then sitting ;
but the king's death was kept secret for nearly three days.—
Tytler.
BOARDING SCHOOL EDUCATION.—" She had in most
things a natural good taste, and notwithstanding having been
at school, was not, in reality, vulgar, except inasmuch as the
least approach to affectation of any kind is vulgar in itself."
—Mr. James's " Charles Tyrrell."

HOUSEMAIDS IN THE MORNING. - " Those lazy jades
of yours are never up before six o'clock in the morning, so
that when I come down sometimes, to seek for a book in the
library, I find them walking about with their brooms in their
hands. like the apotheosis of a March wind enveloped in a
cloud of dust."—lbid.
THE WORLD FAIRLY DIVIDED.—'• There are two classes
of consummate fools in the world : the fools that cannot
open their eyes, and the fools that connot shut them. The
first are very annoying to every body else, and themselves
too."—lbid.

'bipptng inttUignft.

TUESDAY, APRIL 30.—Wind N.W.

ARRIVED.—AIecto, Ayshibrd, rrom Laguna; sailed 15th March—
Sea, Fisher, and Madison,Wood, from New Orleans—Queen, Jones,
from Charleston—Gov. Troup, Butman, from New York—Joseph
Porter, —, from Mobile—and James Hunt, M'Donald, from
Rotterdam.

SAlLElL—Standard, Watts, for Demerara—Venture, Wilson, for
Quebec—Fergus Cornforth, for Apalachicola—Allegro, Phelan, for
St. John, N.H.—Royal Saxon, Atkins, for Calcutta—Jamaica, John-
stan, for Jamaica—Portsmouth, Wilson, and Katherine Jackson,
Dorry, for New York—Richard & Ann, Way, for Dordt—and Fisher,
Sewell. for Newfoundland.

Feyens, Kruse, hence at St. Thomas
Eliza Killick, Waugh, sailed from St. Thomas for Cape Hayti 4th
March
W. S. Hamilton, Brown, from Siam, at Sincapore
Swiftsure, Tyack, hence at Beirout, and sailed 7th March for
Alexandretta

LIVERPOOL CORN EXCHANGE, APRIL 30.

The imports of Grain, Flour, and Oatmeal, from Ireland, Coast-
ways, and from foreign ports, have been very small since Tuesday
last; and although the languid demand then noticed continued on
Wednesday and Thursday, at our market, on Friday, there appeared
a much better feeling in the trade generally, and sales of almost
every article were effected to a fair extent, at the prices of last
Tuesday, which were fully supported—more easily obtained—and
in some instances a little exceeded. In the Yorkshire and Lanca-
shire markets of the past week there was also an increased demand,
though little alteration in prices; and at Manchester, on Saturday,
there was a better demand for Grain from this port, particularly for
foreign free Flour, of which a very considerable quantity has found
sales during the past week, but a small reduction en last quotations
has been submitted to.