The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-13 00:00:00

version.

The question of education has, at length, begun to
occupy that share of the public attention which right-
fully belongs to it, and it is no longer necessary to
expatiate on the advantages which attend the cultiva-
tion of that nobler part of man, his intellectual facul-

ties. It had long been received as a truth that it was
allowable, and almost a duty, to cultivate the clod of
the earth : it is now all but universally admitted, that
the immortal soul of man, to whom dominion over the
earth, and all that it contains, has been committed by
the Author of all, is also susceptible of being rendered
more fit, by careful training, for fulfilling those high
and glorious ends designed for it by its beneficent
Creator. We rejoice to perceive in the Liverpool
Collegiate Institution the dawning of that day, which
it is our hope we may yet live to see in its fuller splen-
dour, when not only the advantage resulting to the
community from extended education may be, as it has
begun to be, distinctly acknowledged, but also that it
may be solemnly recognised as one of the first duties
of every nation that calls itself Christian, not to allow
any of its children to pass from the cradle to the grave
with their minds one uncultivated sterile waste, but

that instruction shall be aftbrded to all, and that all
shall be brought up in the knowledge of such things
as may be needful and advantageous to each, and es-
pecially in the nurture and admonition of religion.
The question whether education ought to be gene-
rally diffused or not, may be compressed into a very
small compass. Ask any man of sense and feeling,
who has learned to read and write, for what sum of
money, duly told down in pounds, shillings, and pence,
he would consent to surrender, for ever, those means
of acquiring knowledge and communicating it to
others—of expressing his wishes, his wants, his dis-
tresses, and—dearest privilege of all—his affections.
Can there be a doubt but that the prompt answer
would be, that he valued the power of reading and
writing beyond all price—that no recompense could
induce him to part with it ? And, were it possible to
do so, would it not be cruel and unjust in the extreme
to deprive him by force of a faculty he estimated so
highly ? Now, where lies the difference in moral guilty
we would ask, between forcibly depriving another of
the advantages and blessings of education, and neg-
lecting to communicate them ?

It is sufficient for us to remark, with respect to the
character of the religious instruction designed for the
youth who may enter the Institution, that the decision
at which the Committee arrived on this point was
formed after much and anxious deliberation, and seems
to us to be liable to no serious or solid objection.
standard of belief has been recognised,—that of the
Established Church,—and nothing can be taught

which is not contained in her Articles. At the same
time, it is not required that every pupil should be

instructed in the Church Catechism. - Gross errors
are thus avoided, while the rights of conscience stand
in no danger of being outraged. Every man of can-
did mind, who has calmly considered the subject,

must allow that it was absolutely necessary to come at
once to some definite and explicit arrangement on the
all-important subject of religion, or it would have beet►
impossible hereafter to have guarded effectually against
the introduction of any of the fanciful doctrines of the
day, however foolish or mischievous they might be•

The walls of the town are again covered with Oa;
cards, announcing that petitions for the abolition n'
the corn laws are lying for signature at the usual f"
dical places of resort. We feel, therefore, once more,
called upon to state our reasons why the people of Li"
verpool should not sign these petitions, or, in other
words, why the corn laws should not be abolished.
The corn laws should not be abolished, because it
is utterly impossible that any country should long pros'
per if its agriculture is depressed. Now, the 1110'0.
ble tendency of a free trade in grain would be to in"
jure the agricultural interests of Great Britain and
Ireland, inasmuch as it would be impossible for the
farmers of these countries to compete with those i
foreign states, burdened as the former are with a Or
greater amount of taxation than the cultivators of the
soil in any other part of the world. Competition is
thus rendered utterly impracticable, and the declension
of agriculture in this country must be the consequence
of a free trade, calling such competition into exisit.
ence. A protective duty on foreign grain is the onc
way in which such a national calamity as the ruin °f
our agriculture can be averted.
The corn laws should not be repealed, because the
landed interest is the greatest and most stable in d'e
state, and therefore claims the first consideration to be
protected by legislative enactment. Any measure
tending to the permanent injury of this important Closs
e
must necessarily injure every subordinate class in tie
community. With their interests are bound up die
interests of the whole population.
The corn laws . should not be abolished, because
their repeal would involve a wholesale robbery of vest
capital. It may be taken for granted that the caPl
invested in land in this country and Ireland anioun.o
to upwards of two thousand millions of pounds! lb'
is exclusive of the capital of those who are engaged vi
the cultivation of the soil. What should we think °of
the honesty of a proposition to rob the landlords ,
one-third or one-half of the above enormous amount's
Yet such would be the proximate effect of a free vane
in grain. A reduction of one-third or one-half on die,
rental of the land would be equivalent to the abstrilei,
tion of the same proportion of capital. The lun,A.
holder would not be the only one that would stoveri
from the perpetration of so flagrant a robbery. SY,
nj
one who has invested his capital in mortgagee on I'o
would ultimately suffer. The reduction of rents °Ol
lands and tenements in the country -would be folloivor
by a corresponding depreciation of household Poi
perty in the towns. Cheap living,7conjoined with leo
rents, in the country, would operate as an induconar
to draw thousands of the more respectable and Only
pendent classes of society from the towns. The °to
effectual preventive of this sort of emigration 014
be a reduction in the rents of town houses. $
holder of fixed property, whether in town or coon'.
would thus be subjected to spoliation.
nlihe
The cultivation of land being a slow process, 11
ted
the operations of a manufactory, the capital inves.,o,
requires years for its full development, and it w° i•
therefore, be highly unjust that the interests of 106
an
culture should be unnecessarily disturbed. Any a
who knows anything about the rotation of crops of
other agricultural matters must recognise the force
the preceding remark. t'°
Laws enacted for the protection of property ought
possess the element of stability, especially if the ciltrie
tal invested in such property is not easily convert/ I
to other purposes. No man would be induced to erec
tk°
a manufactory, build a ship, or unite with others in ier
construction of a railway, if he were to labour -
the apprehension that there was no seentity that be
laws affecting the value of such prAiertiee would be
permanent. On the same pritlincip, Ipeu;,7o,4rseeocreelcitsges
. ,
expected to lay out money in are
or the improvement of the soii,-11- the
, expensive P
VIP
cess of draining, marlingLijuteing,-1*.c.3_41 he less rOf
convinced that the laws which have No :envoy

sq. 4111 \-.i3-1
br,ttrOw
Nlll°s
.10,d

eaZ
v344c-,ID