The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-12 00:00:00

Ein fiL.tbrrpool 'tanbarli.

FRIDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 12, 1841

In Trollope's Summer in France, we have met with
some observations, drawn forth by a personal inspec-
tion of the state of affairs in that country, which would
afford good matter of consideration to those philosophic
gentlemen among us, who are of opinion that religion
need form no essential part of national education. Our
author states it as the result of his observations, that
France is unquestionably advancing rapidly in physical
and material civilization. New roads in her most back-
ward and hitherto neglected provinces; the formation
of new companies for the. navigation, by steam, of
rivers hitherto profitless to commerce ; the commence-
ment or completion of quays, bridges, and other public
works ; the cultivation of much hitherto unenclosed
ground, and the general establishment of agricultural
and industrial societies—are manifest and easily recog-
nised proofs of the progress France is making in the
various branches of material civilization.

But he says—
" I saw, both in Paris and the provinces, enough to con-
vince me that the country is making as decided a progress
towards moral barbarism as it is towards physical civiliza-
tion."

We would beg of the philosophers to attend to this

important distinction

" The most malignant symptom," says our author, " of
this moral disease, which is destroying the nation, is the un-
usual want of faith—not religious faith only, but of faith in
anything—in virtue, honesty, and morality—in the reality of
anything not cogniseable by the material senses—in the go-
vernment, in their superiors,in their neighbours, and in
themselves. Everything but the material interests of bodily
comfort and well being, is spoken of in the same cold, sneer-
ing tone of sceptical ridicule, and the existence of any good
but that of sensual enjoyment, is deemed at best doubtful,
and therefore unworthy of pursuit. It requires but small
penetration to perceive that such a temper of mind must lead
to a degree of selfishness and individualism, which, as soon
as ever it becomes sufficiently universal, must sever the band
which binds individuals into bodies politic, and dissolve so-
ciety into its original elements."

On this head he gives some evidences taken chiefly
from the staple literature of the country; but they are
not necessary for our purpose. " I had hoped," he
continues, " that the deep-seated causes of profound
demoralisation, which I know exists in Paris, were
confined to the capital, or, at least, to the larger cities
of France; but my journies through the provinces
have amply convinced me that any estimate of the
state of the country, based on such a notion, would be
eminently fallacious. The truth is, that the country is
demoralised to an awful degree. Throughout the
whole length and breadth of the land the plague-spot
appears. The fountains of all morality and healthy
feeling have been poisoned at their source, and it is
therefore vain to expect the stream to run pure."
One solitary exception to this awful flood of demo-
ralisation, there is, according to Mr. Trollope ; but
where does the reader suppose that is to be found ?
The fact speaks daggers to the philosophers, but,
nevertheless, it must be divulged. Here it is, then, in
the words of our author :

" The only part of the nation yet free from the wide spread
contagion is the peasantry, the rural labourers of the villages
and scattered farms ; and they, alas ! are so only in exact
proportion to the darkness of their ignorance. Nothing can
be further from my intention than to advocate the continu-
ance of this ignorance. Most dangerously precarious in its
nature, and lamentably insufficient in its quality, must be
the comparative innocence which results from the benighted
condition of a large proportion of the French agricultural
population. Yet such has been the nature of the enlighten-
ment bestowed upon the people, that it results from statisti-.
cal documents, that those departments and communes of
France are most free from crime in which education—as it
is most erroneously termed—has made the least progress.
These departments are formed in the exclusively agricultural
districts in the centre of France. According to Dupin's
exceedingly interesting tables and charts, the department of
La Creuse is that in which the smallest proportion can read
and write; and it is also that in which crime of every kind
is least common."

We would humbly make it a request to our philoso-
phic neighbour of the Mercury to copy this passage
into his next number, and transmit a few copies to his
friends the operatives of Edinburgh, to whose petition
in favour of national education, "without religion," he
called our special attention in his last. We have been
always of opinion that those who want education of
this sort, may very well be left to get it for themselves
as well as they can, and that they have no sort of right
to make any application to the state on the subject.
What, indeed, has the civil ruler to do with putting a
mere power into men's hands without giving them at
the same time a needful guide and direction for its use ?
Civilisation and morality, it appears, are not synony-
We do not say that the people should be
coerced—or that some consideration is not due to the
consciences of those who object to a particular form of
religion; but we do say, that the civil ruler would be
inexcusable, who, in providing for national education,
should fail to make it primarily and essentially religi-
ous. We shall take an early opportunity of adverting
briefly to a few points connected with this important
subject, which may be found of some local interest at
the present moment.

Tuesday was a day of immense rejoicing in the me-
tropolis ; the auspicious event which took place on that
morning has since communicated its joyful presages
to the country, and gladdened the heart of all classes
in the nation. Something like a delirium of satisfac-
tion,
has been experienced on the. occasion, and we
thank God that the occasion was such as to render