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

NATIONAL EDUCATION,

Six,—A.4 the PQM of education is likely to occupy
the attention of her' Majesty's -Ministers for the ensuing
session of Parliametit, I deein 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 :

Assessment. pound. Amount.

John Goodfnan, Church of England 101
John Goodfellow, Baptist . 50.

s d.
1 0 10
0 10 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, would be 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-
ing them good husbands, fathers, and in a word valuable
members 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
lls. 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 assessment in Liverpool • 'Thg 65,471,
and the rateable value £1,368, 52, would produc ,at
in the pound, £14,255, but the cunt r
according to last year, at this rate, would th_, ; 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 thistl
Before I conclude, permit me to give you a practical

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- Superior
for trial in read nor per- Educa- Not
Lancashire. write. fectly. Well. tion. known.
1843.. 3677 1423 1952 205 10 77
1836 .. 2265 980 1111 122 10 3

1ncr.1412

451, cent. 76 11), ct. 76 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
point :

" 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. Iluish, given before the
Poor-law Commissioners as regards the boys 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 cett. 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 thlyhonto be, Sir,
Your ver3obedient 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 :
" 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 will keep that pro-
mise literally, because, privately, we owe the man no ill-
will, although he essayed a puny effort to injure us in our
property. There was fair provocation to retaliate then.
After much reflection, we have arrived at the conclusion

that we have too long refrained from asking tur. prignt a
question, which relates, indeed, to a private transaction,
or perhaps a series of private transactions (the cause from
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. Brig ht's known
designs
upon the constituency. We shall put the question
sufficient plainness,
if we ask Mr. Bright (as we now ask

au aMWer 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
him."

A forcible appeal was made on Sunday morning last, at
St. Michael's Church, Toxteth-park, by the Rev. Wm.
Hesketh, the incumbent, 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. Holme, 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 given to the church society, or
any society as yet. We believe, as it emanated from the
sympathy felt by the men for the sufferings of their poorer
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 claims of
others who are less fortunately situated..

4n: 19, 1847.

BURN'S COMMtkiAL GLANCE,

At a late hour last night we received this document#
which, at the present crisis of the cotton trade, is of unit:
sual importance. We therefore hasten to give a few of
the most important statistics which it contains, and which
we regret to find are not calculated to impress us with a
very favourable opinion of the operation of our commerce
during the past year, or of our prospects for the year to
come.

The article which ranks No. 1 in Mr. Burn's tables is
that of cotton yarn, one in the manufacture of which the
least amount of industry is employed. Yet this is one of
the only articles of importance in which we find an in-
crease of exports during the past year. In 1845 we ex-
ported of cotton yarn 131,937,9351b5. ; and in the past
year, 157,130,0251b5—an increase of 25 millions of pounds,
or nearly 20 per cent. over the exports of 1845. The in-
crease of that year over the preceding was short of two
million pounds. The increase this year is principally to
Belgium, the Hanse Towns, Holland, India, and China,
(from 16,518,987 lbs in 1845, to 24,502,908 lbs.) Napier!
and Sicily, Sweden and Norway, Sardinia, Tuscany, &c.,
Trieste and Austrian ports, Turkey and the Levant. To
Russia there is a considerable and continuous falling off.
Our next article of importance is that of plain calicoeS
—a staple of our manufactures—which exhibits a very
slight advance, the exports being, in 1846, 618,839,18 f
yards, against 613,138,645 yards. The slight amount of
this increase may be judged of by the fact that the exports
of this fabric in 1842 were only 366,040,519 yards ; that it
rose 150 million yards in 1843, and nearly 50 millions more
yards in 1844.

-In printed cottons—a more advanced manufacture—we
have a falling off, the exports being, in 1846, 267,084,797
yards, against 310,850,697 yards in 1845, being a falling
off of 15 per cent. The year 1845 exhibited a very slight
falling off as compared with 1844.
There-is a falling off in the exports of cotton thread,
damasks and diapers, cambrics and muslins, counterpanes,
quilts, cotton and linen mixed, ginghams-(nearly 50 per
cent), hosiery, shawls and handkerchiefs, tapes and une-
numerated goods ' • and a slight increase only in the unim-
portant articles of dimities, lawns and lenos, cords and
fustians, nankeens, lace, and ticks.
The total weight of yarn in manufactured goods, yarn
and thread, exported in 1846, was 354,291,749 lbs.,
against 336,866,327 lbs. in 1845, the increase being
more than accounted for by the additional exports of
yarn. The value of the cotton goods exported in 1846
was £23,475,941, against £22,063,898 in 1845. The con-
sumption per week in 1846, Mr. Burn estimates at 31,793
bales, against 30,933 in 1845. The quantity of yarn spurt
in 1846 he makes 495,033,109 lbs., against 494,766,487 iba..
in 1845. Deducting from these respective amounts the
yarn exported, we have manufactured into goods in 1846,
337,903,084 lbs. of yarn, against 362,828,552 lbs. in 1845,
being a falling off of 25,000,000 lbs. of yarn, the ma-
nufacture of which into goods has been lost to out
working population. Deducting the total weight ex-
ported in yarn and goods from the total yarn spun, we
have 140,741,360 lbs. manufactured and consumed in
1846 by the home trade, against 157,900,160 consumed
by us last year—a falling off in our home consumption of
17,000,000 lbs of yarn.