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

education

We have ourselves but one objection against it.
We recognise the principle that a Christian Go-

vernment (

religious educa-

tion for the peo.

e present state

_ illy in the present lax
state of our legislative principle, we cannot hope
for the full carrying out of our views as to the duty
of the Government of this country. Probably the
best settlement to which we can come of a question
upon which so many bitter heart-burnings exist
amongst religionists, is that proposed by Mr.
Bramley-Moore. Its adoption can offend no man's
conscience! and it arnrda. --,1

opinion, howev

straight-forward in its working, by which every
friend of education for the masses can be assured
that his money is expended in accordance with his

own religious views.
We feel bound in candour to state that a plan,
similar in its main principle, was brought before
our notice some years ago, which only the fact of
its being forwarded to us anonymously prevented
our publishing. We subsequently were informed
who was the author of it—a gentleman whose
sound Protestant principles would be acknowledged
by our readers, if we were allowed to refer to his
. His communication, however, did not con-
tain the practical directions for its working, and the

name

same valuable statistical facts, now given to the
Public by Mr. Bramley-- -

THE speech addressed by Lord Lincoln, on
Tuesday evening, to his committee and friends in
Manchester, is an important one on many accounts.
In the first place, the talent which it displays is
undeniable; and marks out his lordship as one
who must at some future, and perhaps an e trly,
day, occupy a distinguished position amongst his
fellow-countrymen. By those who had the fortune
to be present, we are told that its effect was
heightened by the graceful and gentlemanly ease
of manner with which it was delivered. The chief
importance, however, which attaches to it, is
derived from the fact that we may regard Lord
lincoln as an almost authorized exponent of the
views of a considerable portion of the Conservative

and that the candid and open manner in
which those views are laid down enables us to
)le accuracy, the direction in
which that party is progressing. We propose here
to lay before our readers the views in question.
But first we may offer a remark or two upon some
passages which refer to the past.

with toler

HiS lordship is at some Pains to refute a charge
brought against him, that he has been all his life
an opponent of reform ; and in doing this, he lays
himself and those with whom he has been acting
in Parliament, open to a charge of something very
like duplicity.
" in the first place," he s

objection that I have "b(
and that I am therefore

let me deal with the
anent of all reforms,

nutted to be a member for Man-
hat has been the course pur-
„Led during the whole time-I held office in Sir Robert
Peel's government? Did not that government, from the
very date of its formation, commence that great econorni-

Why, gentlemen, N

cal-reform-which terminated in the repeal of the corn-
laws last year ?—(Cries of " Yes, yes," with some excla-
mations of " No.") I say, gentlemen, that this reform—
that this great economical reform, was not of recent da!te,
but that it commenced in the year 1842; and, although
occupying an inferior situation in that government, I gave
to those measures my most earnest and most zealous sup-
port. (Great cheering from all sides.)"

Clearly Lord Lincoln would not have it to be
supposed that they " commenced" their measures
without seeing their.probable termination. Rather,
he takes credit for the conclusion—the Repeal of
Corn Laws—as having been precipitated by
Bill of 1842. But whilst urging forward
nat measure, how closely was the secret kept by
Lord Lincoln and his colleagues that it was only
the " commencement" of a " great economical
reform !" Whilst amusing the agricultural mind
with visions of cheap silks and cheap gloves, how
energetically the charge was denied that the appli-

the T

Akin of the same principle would ultimately give
us cheap corn ! There is something tricky ad-
mitted. The Protectionists have been tickled
blindfold to the edge of the precipice—baited to
their fall by sugar-plums and cheap bijouterie ;
but his lordship and his colleagues were all along
particularly wide awake, and perfectly aware of the
gulf into which they were leading them ; for he
in proof of this foreknowledge, a passage
from his Address to the Electors of South Notting-
hamshire last spring, in which he thus scouts the
notion " that one fine morning he suddenly awoke.
and found himself a Corn-Law Repealer :"
This change has not come suddenly upon me. Three
ago, my confidence in the principles of protection
reatly shaken ; last year I felt they had become in-
-'- Still, looking to the mischief of any violent
attachment (not for the sake of the leaders

;hock to part
A that party,

public confidence), and

conscious of the peculiar circumstances under which the
present parliament was elected, I felt anxious that, if pos-
sible, this great but inevitable change should be post-
boned till after the next dissolution of parliament. This,
however, I had firmly resolved—that I would never again
appear before you on the hustings, without an express
stipulation that I should be free to vote for the repeal of
the corn-laws."

high

not of a
Lincoln's

s clearly not Lord

than need hoist his
true colours. For three years he was a member of
a government pledged to protection of native
agriculture ; he voted with that government
against every motion for the removal or the miti-
don of that protection; yet he was all along
olved never again to appear upon the hustings
tion that he should be free to

without a sti

ke a directly opposite course !

But, to leave this p, , let us examine
as much of his lordship-s views with respect to the
future as he is willing at present to permit us to
see. With respect to the question of free trade,

iful subjec

is anxious to see it carried out, as far as is com-
patible with the preservation of the revenue at its
necessary amount ; and it is not obscurely hinted
that in order to effect his objects, he would not
oppose an increase of the income tax. He is
opposed to an abolition of the malt duty, on the
ground that it is impossible- to raise the five mil-
lions per annum, which it brings in, by any tax
h would be less sensibly felt by the community.
he is ready to see reduced to Is.
per pound, if the Chancellor of the Exchequer can
hat no material loss of revenue would result.
bject of education his lordship enters
es his conviction that
inoperative to fill up
%nt existing, and that the duty of filling
up that -want must be performed by the state.
It is not sufficient, he says, that schools may be
Provided; the quality of the education supplied
'must be looked after.
" Gentlemen, he remarked, you may point to the schools
extending throughout the land ; you may prbve to me that
in almost every parish in this country a school or many
schools exist ; but I must declare that you have not con-

The duty on t

tarn et

vinced me, by that assertion, that the education is suffi-
cient ; nay, even if you prove to me that those schools are
well attended, and that a large per centage of the popula-
tion is instructed within them ; because I should state
what is the course of education within those schools, and
what is the class of -teachers within them. I believe if
you look to both one and the other, the quality of the
education is most inefficient, and the character of the
teachers most inadequate. Reading and writing, Gentle-
.men, are but the means to education, not education itself ;
they are but the instruments, and unless you teach the
youth of this country how to use those instruments, you
will indeed have effected but little in the real and genuine
spirit of a Christian education."

It is clear, from the above, that his lordship
places considerable faith in the result of the
training schools for teachers. What is the precise
system which would meet his approbation, or how
far it would be a system of scriptural education,
can only be gathered from the preceding quotation
and the following reply to a question asked by an
elector—" Will you support a system of national
education unshackled by the trammels of secta-
rianism ?"

" Lord Lincoln said that this was a question of far too
general a nature to be answered in a tangible and distinct
shape. He could only say he was most anxious that any
promotion of education by the state should be national in
scope, in object, and in effect. (Applause.) He believed
that the systems of education in Holland and Prussia,
however good, for those countries, were by no means
likely to be beneficially engrafted upon our system here ;
and he doubted whether even the national system of
education in Ireland was practically applicable to this
country."

His lordship advocates the endowment of the
Romish priesthood in Ireland on the grounds,
first, that it is unjust to place men having the
spiritual care of a community in a position of
dependence upon that community, and subject to
the temptation of pandering to, instead of reproving,
the vices of their flocks ; and secondly, that placing
the priesthood under the pay of the state, and
independent of the people, would induce them to
train up the people in habits of loyalty to the
sovereign. He is of opinion, however, that nothing
can be done towards bringing the question to a
settlement in the present state of opinion here, and
whilst objections continue to be urged against the
endowment by the Irish' priesthood themselves ;
and he informs us that it will not be attempted by
Lord John R --
declaration w

prooarmy oe, to lose mm tne support
of a large number of Protestants who might other-
wise have voted for him in preference to a Whig-
Radical. The following circular is being exten-
sively issued amongst the constituency :

"TO THE ELECTORS OF 111 ANCHESTER

" FELLOW-PROTESTANTS,—Having called forth from
those who ask your votes an expression of opinion on
what we consider to be the vital question at issue—viz.,
whether further concessions are to be made to the Church of
Rome (" Concessions" we say, for we hold that the entire

course sof truckling policy latterly pursued towards that
church, has been nothing else but a series of concessions
won by agitation, and yielded by weakness) we now think
it our duty to inform you, that we look upon all the re-
plies as so unsatisfactory, that we cannot advise you to
support any of the present candidates—least of all Lord
Lincoln. We did fondly hope that we should be able to
support his lordship as a member of the National Church,
and as the son of one whose name :is illustrious for his
uncompromising Protestantism ; but we have been bit-
terly disappointed. However we may admire the candour
of his lordship's avowal, we are obliged to say, that we
should deeply deplore his success, because it would be
looked upon as a sanction on the part of this great con-
stituency of a measure which we regard as alike false in
principle, and fatal in policy. For our own part—if such
the al'

were. _ .ternative—we would rather be rnii-represOnted
by an avowed Chartist, than hy a man who hoists Conserva-
tive colors only to betray them. The good sense of the

nation wo

" (Signed on belialf of the Protestant Committee
" HUGH STOWELL, President

His lordship is opposed to a ten how's' bill, and
thinks that millowners and their operatives could
come to an arrangement amongst themselves. His

.guments upon thisquestiona. re of the thorough

free-trade sort, and will him with the employers
of labour, although not with the employed. Upon
the other topics remarked upon in the speech, and
in reply to the numerous questions put to him, his
lordship expressed the usual opinions entertained
by the Conservative party. Upon Irish policy,
however, he sails as steadily in Daniel 'O'Connell's
wake as that gentleman could desire. He is for
granting to Ireland " an equality of civil rights,"
which, of course, means the more complete transfer
of all corporate and other power into the hands of
the Popish faction; and intends trying to put down
discord and sedition there by " depriving" the
disturbers of "any excuse for such conduct !"
I'he old tale. The genuine Peel policy. Give a
sop to the seditious, coax him, flatter his vanity or
his avarice, in order to convert him into a good
subject. But the loyal man—the quiet and orderly
subject—what of him ? He is disregarded, and
perhaps visited with " heavy blows and great
discouragement," because he is loyal, quiet, and
orderly. Lord Lincoln's plan of putting down
sedition is much the same as putting down bur-
glary by leaving your goods arid chattels in the
front of your premises, in order to -deprive the
burglar of " any excuse" for breaking your door
open to get them.
On the whole, the impression made by his
lordship upon the constituency is said to have been
a most favourable one ; but we must confess that
our opinion of his chance of being returned is not
advanced greatly by it. Lord Lincoln is too much
a mere Whig to create any very deep attachment
towards him in the minds of the mass of the
Conservative party, especially those of the middle
and operative classes ; and the aristocratic Whigs
of Manchester can do little without their own
operatives and middle classes, who are, apparently,
admirers of the Rochdale Quaker.

A MOST important meeting of the peers, repre-
sentatives, and gentry of Ireland was held in
Dublin on Thursday last, the result of which, and
of the feeling which it proves to have been excited
in the minds of our Hibernian fellow-countrymen
by their present disastrous position, will, we trust,
lead to measures of rational and practical improve-
ment of the social condition of the population.
For years—nay, for centuries past, Ireland has been
distracted by her contending factions. Her people
have.been afflicted with all the evils of feudalism,
whilst they have enjoyed none of the solid comforts
which that system, in countries differently situated,
has produced. The dependence of her poor upon
the owners of the soil for protection or support has
been a mere figment. Her middle classes, con-
sisting of an unnatural body, holding a position
between the owners of the soil and the poor, have
intercepted the benefits derivable by each from the
just connexion which exists in other countries
between the two extremities of the social fabric,
draining and impoverishing both, reducing the
landowner and the noble to a condition little short
of permanent insolvency, and crushing the small
farmer and the peasant into one which is scarcely
a remove from pauperism. Religious strife has
furnished another ingredient in the bitter potion of
ill which Ireland has had to swallow ; and agrarian
disturbance, superstition, ignorance, and the indo-
lence of her people, partly constitutional and partly
arising from the absence of all encouragement to

continuous industry, have filled up the number of
instrumentalities by which her sum of misery has
at length become too great for endurance.
The object of this gathering of her landowners
and leading members of parliament, and the tern-
porary fusion of all differences, religious and poli-
tical, which appears to have been satisfactorily
accomplished, is to direct the energies of the Intel-
ligence and property of the nation to some effort,
in the first place, to overcome the dangers of the
present crisis, and in the next, to provide for the
permanent elevation of the Irish character and of
the social condition of the Irish people. The land-

lord class see before them, as theresult of continued
neglect of their duties and continued dissension,
the confiscation of their property in the soil and
the depopulation of the country by famine. The

measures of the Imperial Parliament to meet the
evils of the n

doubtless ill-judged, they
wasteful, and inefficient for

objects in view; and at length the necessity of an
attempt to help themselves is forced upon them.
Some men would have seen all this long ago, and
acted with promptness upon their convictions.
"Better late than never," however, is a wise maxim;
although "A. stitch in time " is a more homely
and a more wise one. We shall not complain,
however, that Ireland's nobility and gentry are late
in their efforts, if they are henceforth persevering
and in earnest.

The proceedings of the meeting throughout are
most creditable, although we could have spared
Mr. O'Connell's furious abuse of the London Times
and other members of the British press. Men, in-
formed at the last hour of their duties, ought not
to find fault with those who have for years been
dinning those duties into their ears. Had the no-