The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-01-19 00:00:00

-~ ~...

NATIONAL EDUCATION.

SIR,—As the subject of education is likely to occupy
the attention of her Majesty's Ministers for the ensuing
session of Parliament, I deem the present a fitting oppor-
tunity to submit to your consideration a mode of providing
for the national education, and for securing, at the same
time, religious instruction, without wounding the feelings
or prejudices of Churchmen or Dissenters.
I propose that every religious denomination shall have
schools of their own, and maintained at the national
expense ; and in order that I, as a Churchman, may not
have my money applied to extend and disseminate religious
opinions at variance with my own, or the Dissenters in
like manner to 'disseminate religious notions adverse to
theirs, I propose that a tax be levied upon all parties
assessed to the poor, and that the money paid by the
different denominations of Christians be applied to their
special use. I would make it compulsory on all to pay ;
and the collection of this tax would be easy and simple—
it would incur no additional expense by new machinery to
bring it into operation ; and the scheme solves the diffi-
culty of giving education and religious instruction at the
same time, which can never be accomplished where all
denominations are taught together.
Where all denominations of Christians meet together it
can only be on the neutral ground of secular education, and
a purely secular education I hold to be a great national
evil.

The mode of levying the education tax would be as fol-
lows, by an additional line or column on the poor-rate
paper, and each person to declare his religion :

"nuke
Assessment. pound. Amount.

£ -d. .t, sd:
John Goodman, Church of England , 100.... 21., ...1 oto
John Goodfellow, Baptist 5O. ?, .010 5
This could be accounted for, to a commission in every
town or district of sufficient importance, and applied ac-
cordingly to each denomination. '

The details are so obvious and simple that I forbear to
dwell on them.

One great good to result from this plan would be, that
party strife about schools will cease ; all will be provided
for, and the rising generation taught religion. All classes
rated to the poor will have to contribute according to the
station they occupy in society, Gentlemen who talk so
loudly in favour of enlightenment and education, but who
contribute nothing, will be silenced, and the few who now
have to give so largely, wouldbe able to direct their bene-
volence into other channels.

The tax on the community would be trifling, the ad-
vantages and gain to the nation incalculable ; by training
up children in the way in which they should go—by mak-
ine them rood hnshanda_ fahpr. and

bers of society, instead of a curse to themselves and
every body else.

With regard to the tax.—A rate of 21d. in the pound
would more than maintain all the schools now open in
Liverpool.
In the corporation schools, the numbers on the books
are 1709, but the number in actual attendance is 1221,
and the cost of maintenance amounts to £1244, or about
£1 per head.

According to the evidence of Dr. Collins, (corporation
inquiry, p. 462), the number of children attending the
Roman Catholic schools in Liverpool, was 1478, and the
cost of the whole amounted to £798, or rather less than
Ils. per head. At this inquiry it was shown the number
of children deriving instruction from all the public schools
was 9484 ; if we estimate them, therefore, now to amount
to 12,000, and the cost to be 13s. per head, we should
require a gross sum of £7BOO for their maintenance, with.
good and efficient masters.

The number of assessments in Liverpool being 65,471,
and the rateable value £1,368,652, would produce, at 2d}.
in the pound, £14,255, but the actual amount realizable,
according to last year, at this rate, would be £9540; this
gives such an excess as to leave ample margin to increase
the schools beyond my estimate.

Such a scheme would throw the burden equally, and
the tax fall so lightly, that none but " born grumblers "
would complain ; it would secure the rights of all classes,
insure religion being taught, and not be a " Godless "
system of education. These are important points to com-
bine, and which can never be accomplished when all sects
and denominations meet together ; it is a fallacy to sup-
pose that the duty of man is or can be successfully incul-
cated where only secular education is afforded, and to
look for blessings being showered on the nation, where
our rules exclude religion from the national schools,
would, indeed, be to gather grapes from thistles.
Before I conclude permit me to give you a practical
illustration of the fruits of secular and religious education.
I might quote several of the Judges, the most learned
men, clerical and lay, to prove the danger of giving
secular instruction only to the rising generation, but I
will confine myself within smaller limits, and first shew
the state of crime, at two distinct periods, in this county,
say 1836 and 1843, which are the latest in my possession
Committed Neither Im-
for trial in read nor per-
Lancashire. write. feetly
1843.. 3677 1423 1952
1836 .. 2265 980 1111

Superior
Educa- Not
Well. tion. knowr
205 10 77
122 10 3

1ncr.1412

93

451), cent. 5'6 ct. 76v- cent.
From these returns you will- perceive, that whilst the
increase of crime in those who can neither read nor write
amounted to 45 per cent., it is swelled to 76 per cent.
among those who can read and write " imperfectly" and
" well ;" or, in other words, crime has increased at a ra-
tio of 31 per cent. with those who have received the spu-
rious education of the times, over and above those who
have received no instruction whatever.
I have compared other years, and find the balance in
every case I have examined, to be against those who can
read imperfectly" and " well."

I cannot resist quoting the following from one of Mr.
Justice Coleridge 's charges : it is brief, and is much to the

" There appears to be a very great increase among the
prisoners of persons who are able to read and write ; but
this shows that such an education is not sufficient, and
that it was of no avail unless the persons who received it
were taught to employ it properly, and that it would be
of very little use to improve the physical education of the
people, or to give them education, unless the education
was founded upon morality and religion,"
I will conclude by giving one more illustration of the
effects of secular and religious instruction, and refer to the
evidence of Mr. Cook and Mr. Huish, given before the
Poor-law Commissioners as regards the begs in the work-
houses of St. Clement Danes and St. George's, South-
wark. It would be too long to quote the evidence, and
sufficient to state the fact, that in St. Clement's, where
there was no religious instruction, nearly all the boys
turned out bad, whilst on the other hand, the boys from
St. George's, who received religious instruction, turned
out generally well ' • and of those apprenticed to different
tradesmen, about 80 per cent. of them obtained pre-
miums and rewards.

I think I have sufficiently shown the advantages of a
sound religious education over one merely secular; and,
as the former is more easily to be obtained, by my plan of
a general tax, and without trenching in any way on the
rights and liberties of the most scrupulous in religious
matters, I venture to commend it to your consideration.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
• Your very obedient Servant,
(Signed,) J. BRAMLEY MOORE.
To the Right Honourable Sir George Grey, Bart, M.P.,
&c., &c., &c., Secretary of State, London.

MR. COBDEN'S PRIVATE REASONS FOR NOT
COMING FORWARD AS A CANDIDATE FOR
MANCHESTER.

Our readers will probably remember a passage of co-
quetry which took place when the announcement was
made public that Mr. Mark Philips did not intend to pre-
sent himself again as a candidate for Manchester„between
the Reformers of that town and Mr. Cobden. The latter
had " private reasons," he said, for declining the honour
offered him of being brought forward to fill the vacant
seat. Our contemporary, the Manchester Courier, gives
the following hints for a guide to the real state of affairs :
hparovevoca
" What were the reasons of a private nature that prevented
Mr. Cobden from condescending to be put in nomination ?
We have promised to keep our hands off Mr. Bright's
private affairs and transactions. We oweweillthe man n
keepthatolll-
will, although he essayed a
pro-
mise literally, because, privately, w
puny effort to oto injureth eretaliate
conclusionus i n
then, our
property. There was fair
After much reflection, we
gt a
that we have too long refrainedfrs to arrivedtioam a private transaction,
askingprovocation
nons
(theM cause Bsrieh from
question, which
swahiscehrireeslaotfepsrte t
relates,
iivnadeed, transactions
long hesitation), but which, on reflection, appears to us
to assume rather a public than a private complexion, since
it relates to the reason why Mr. Cobden has hitherto
refused to stand in the way of Mr. Bright's known designs
upon the constituency. We shall put the question with
sufficient plainness, if we ask Mr. Bright (as we now ask
him, and expect an answer too), whether Mr. Cobden is
not, or has not been under PECULIAR obligations to him ?
We can assure Mr. Bright we have heard all about this
business, and that evasion or subterfuge will not serve
Mm."

A "forcible appeal was made oriii,Sunday morning last, at
St. Michael's Church, Toxteth-park, by the Rev. Wm.
Hesketh, the incutt►bent, on behalf of the unhappy suf-
ferers from destitution both in Liverpool and in Ireland,
and the very handsome sum of £B2 14s. was collected ;
which collection will be divided equally between the funds
for Ireland and those of the District Provident Society.
The preacher stated that the chief motive for suggesting
this division had arisen from the circumstance that the
town of Liverpool had become the city of refuge to the
starving Irish, and that of 1,080 persons who had received
relief from the district Provident Society within the last
few days, 765 were Irish.

PRAISEWORTHY GENEROSITY OF WORKING MEN.—
The Liverpool Mercury, which seldom omits an opportu-
nity of throwing out dirty insinuations against parties to
whom he is politically opposed, referring last week to a
collection for charitable purposes made by the men in the
employ of Messrs S. and J. Hohne, stated that such
collection had been made under the coercion of their
employers for a Church of England Society. Of course,
those who know the character of these gentlemen will be
prepared to find the Mercury's assertion a spiteful inven-
tion. The , collection, which amounts to £22 55., was
made voluntarily by the men, unknown to the Messrs.
Holme ; and it has not been foengr theive uri
nstoirtehencghs of their poorer
church society, or
any society as yet. We believe, as it emanated from the
m
sympathy felt by there:
fellow-countrymen, that it will be given, one half to the
District Provident, and the other to the Liverpool Chari-
table Society. The effort does honour to a body of men
who, themselves in the employment of good masters,
although in this severe weather many of them must be
temporarily out of work, can recognise the claim of
others who are less fortuagtely situated.