The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-03 00:00:00

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL, in his new scheme for
extenling the system of National Education, has
met with an opponent in one of the most consistent
of his supporters. Mr. ED',VAP.D BAINES, of
Leeds, who has taken great interest in this question,
has published an elaborate pamphlet, entitled
" Strictures on the new Government Measure of
Education," in which he makes the following grave
objections to the bill. He says that it will be un-
necessary, inasmuch as the number of day-scholars
now receiving education approach very near the
proportion demanded by most writers on the
statistics of education ; that in large towns the
school accommodation is more ample than the
number of scholars ; and that, in the present state
of employment, they need no greater help than they
are now receiving. It would also he an unnecessary
enhancement of the cost of education ; it would
centralize too much power in the Committee of
Privy Council, produce unseemly, contentions in
Town Councils, diminish the present amount of
voluntary aid, drive out all private teachers for the
humbler classes, have no tendency to increase the
number of scholars, and might possibly destroy
many local schools. These and many other reasons
he advances as arguments against Lord JOHN
RUSSELL'S scheme, and, it must be confessed, they
are entitled to some weight, as coming from a man
who has paid great attention to the subject. He
estimates the probable cost of these schools at not
less than £3,000,000, of wl:ich about f 2,000,000
would require to be raised by additional taxation ;
so that, supposing his calculations to he correct, the
country will be able to form some idea of what they
will have to pay, in addition to present voluntary
contributions, towards an object which Mr. BAINES
contends is already efficiently performed. The next
step will be to follow the Spartan rule, and make
all education at the expense of the State.

_GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.
IT may be considered a political axiom, that a Whig
or a Liberal is never to be trusted for adherence to
principle., as his acts are solely governed by expe-
diency, or the interests of himself or his party. It
is never a matter of the slightest consequence to do
right, because it is right ; but the only motive for
action is the exigency of the moment, and the
chance of gaining a parliamentary majority or
securing a party advantage. Such was the case in
1841, when a Whig CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE-
QUER had his fair and his foul-weather Budget;
such was the case when, to redress the grievance
of the Romish aggression, Lord JOHN RUSSELL
had a set of bills of varying degrees of strength,
according to the temper of the House of Com-
mons ; and such will be the case in the contem-
plated bill for settling the Government of India.
It will be observed that a promise has been given
that on some future day a time shall be named
at which the proposed measure will be brought
forward, leaving the Government in the mean-
time to shape their proposal according to their pre•
sumed chance?, of success. In this, as in every
thing else, there is the same truckling to expe-
diency, and principles are thrown to the wind if
they militate against the retention of office. In
domestic policy we have the loudest professions of
adherence to the Free-trade theory, or as much as
suits the purpose of the moment; whereas the
Empire of India, with its vast resources and its
immense capabilities, is to be continued under a
petfy monopoly for the maintenance of private
patronage, unless Ministerial intentions, as already
avowed, be thwarted by the expression of public
indignation. It is worse than inconsistency in the
champions of Free-trade at home to vote for India
being retained under the rule of the petty magnates
of Leadenhall-street—a monopoly more complete in
its character and more baleful in its effects than the
worst doings of much-abused Toryism in England.
All impartial writers on the subject have agreed
that India would be a mine of wealth to the mother