The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-26 00:00:00

In the observations which we made in our last, in
reply to a contemporary, on the subject of reform in
the Corporation Schools, we treated the question as
one of expediency—(for as such it is susceptible of be-
ing discussed)—a question of expediency, we shall
say, with a religious aspect; we would continue to view
it still in the same light. What a Christian parent,
roaster, or statesman would do, with regard to those
whose instruction is peculiarly committed to his csre,
is not indeed a discretionary matter, hut one of very
clear and positive duty. The question which we are
discussing is, however, not exactly that,—but how it
may be proper to act in a case where parties may be
concerned over whom we cannot exercise force. Here
there is room for the exhibition of a discretion, and we
are not bound to act uniformly in the same way : our
mode of proceeding may be essentially altered by cir-
cumstances.

In Liverpool we have to deal with a case in which
the great majority of the children are of Protestant pa-
rents, and a few comparatively are Roman Catholic;
and it is asked whether, under all the circumstances, it
would be advisable or expedient to relax the principle
of scriptural education in behalf of the latter class ?
It may be conceded that their exclusion from the school
would be an evil, and that it would he desirable, if pos-
sible, to retain them in it. This may be granted ; but
we may perceive a still greater evil on the other hand ;
and our wisdom will consist in choosing the lesser of
the two. If there be on the one side the possible de-
privation of some, of a certain amount of useful in-
formation, there is on the other the evil of a compro-
mise on a point of principle big with consequences
which it is difficult to estimate in all their extent and

weight.

Schools of an eleernosynary foundation, and de-
signed for the benefit of the humbler classes of society,
must necessarily, in their construction, be bound by
rules different from others, and peculiar to themselves.
They are not designed as colleges of learning; they
are not instituted for the purpose of adding a few
graces and ornaments to the mechanic mind—some
perhaps useless accomplishments to p,trsons des-
tined, for the most :part, to earn their bread by
the labour of their bodies ; they are e(dablished
for imparting, during a brief period, such sound
instruction as will show to the young the' way
in which they should gd, and such as, when ()Id, it
would be desirable they ;should not depart from• —in-
struction of a vital, essential character—touching the
very root of the matter--•the heart and judgment in
man, and preparing him to become a good subject and
good citizen—to fear God and honour the king. This
is the distinctive purpose, or certainly ought to he
such, of a national or municipal school designed espe-
cially for the humbler classes of society. Then it fol-
lows as an indisputable truth that the instruction of
such a school should be religious—drawn from the
purest source--and enforced by the highest sanctions.
On this head the controversy is at an end. It is no
longer disputed, first, that the highest motives and
most powerful sanctions to the performance of the
moral and social duties ought to be let in upon the
youthful mind ; and secondly, that it is the religion of
the Bible, and that alone, which supplies them. Hence
it follows that the school of which we speak ought to
ie unequivocally and decidedly scriptural.
Such being the recognized character of the institu-
ion, we are prepared to meet the proposition for a
,artial exemption of the pupils from the obligations of
s fundamental rule—to dispense with the authorita•

ve teaching of holy writ in behalf of Roman Catholics
And first, we observe that this would be a wide de-

parture from the original purport and intent of the in-
stitution, which was not, as we have already observed,
to impart some trifling portion of instruction in the

__.... ... ......,
various branches of human learning, or the less im-
portant appendages of vital wisdom ; and we are bound
to inquire in the strictest manner, and be satisfied in

every scruple, before we yield compliance to such a

demand.
We have already briefly considered the specific
grounds on which the Roman Catholics prefer their

request, and have shown that they are such as should

rather confirm us in adhering unreservedly to the rule,
than induce us to relax it ; because they rest upon as-
sumptions which directly impugn a fundamental prin-
ciple of our faith as Protestants.

We are asked to recognise and countenance the
doctrine of the Church of Rome of the insufficiency v
Scripture as a guide and rule of faith without the tra-

ditions and commentary of uninspired men ;—we are

asked to cast a stigma upon our authorised version of
the Bible, as if it were either imperfect or essentially
incorrect ; and certainly, upon. such grounds, it is
quite impossible that we should aiove. If such reasons

Cotton manufacture, whilst sustaining the vast increase
of 82 per cent. in ten years, has, in its power of afford-
ing the means of human employment, barely kept pace
with the regular increase of its own native population !
We hear it said, however, by the organs of the free
traders, " give us the privilege of exchanging our
goods for provisions in the open markets of the world,
and we will do far more than we have hitherto done in
providing for the employment of the labouring com-
munity ; give us the means of competing, in cheapness
of production, with the lightly taxed foreign manufac-
turer, and we will drive his commodities out of every
foreign market." Be it so—(which, by the way, it
never will be,)—concede for a moment that it is possi-
ble for us to displace a portion of the manufactures of
other countries by our cheap commodities, yet to what
extent can this take place ? Let us examine. From
1826-28 the consumption of cotton in Great Britain,
as compared with that of the whole world besides, was
as 100 to 76 ; in .1840 it still maintained the same pro-
portion, being as 100 to 751. That the adoption of
any policy which can be devised will enable us to se-
cure any great quantity of this manufacture, now car-
ried on in foreign countries, we do not believe. The
manufacturers themselves anticipate little more than
supylying the continental markets with their yarns and
with machine-made goods ; and how much of the la-
bour of our surplus population such an increase of
our cotton trade will absorb, may be judged of from
the comparatively unimportant extent to which an in-
creased production, during the past ten years, of 82 per
cent—or more than the amount of the whole of the fo-
reign production—has absorbed that surplus labour.
The irresistible conclusion which we draw from a
consideration of these facts and data, is, that no in-
crease of the cotton manufacture which can reasonably
be anticipated to flow from the adoption of free trade
measures, simply, can enable the manufacturers of
Lancashire to draw off largely, if at all, the surplus
population, which the repeal of the existing protection
afforded to British agriculture will create in the farm-
ing districts throughout the country. The improve-
, ment and the extension of the powers of machinery
have of themselves, for the past ten years, kept pace
with the increased production of cotton goods, or so
nearly to it, that we can scarcely draw the line of sepa-
ration. The Iron man has for the past ten years been
able to intercept from his human competitor nearly the
whole of the vast supply of labour which should have
been derived from the large increase of production
which we have witnessed; and who can say, in specu-
lating for the future, where his illimitable power is to
be arrested ? Who can set bounds to the perfection
or the increased adaptation of which this untiring and
sleepless workman is susceptible ? Who shall say
that the powers and the application of machinery to
manufacturing purposes are not capable of being in-
creased in a ratio suflicient to shut out human labour
from a participation in the largest increase of manufac-
turing production which the most sanguine amongst
us dares to contemplate ?

Let it not he said that we are endeavouring in these
remarks to direct the attention of the suffering portion
of our fellow countrymen in the manufacturing dis-
tricts to the use of machinery as the cause of their dis-
tress.

We have no such unworthy and wicked object
in view. We should loathe ourselves if we could de-
scend to the level,of anti-corn-law morality in arguing
this or any other question. But we cannot, neverthe-
less, allow it to be discussed, separate from this, its
most important feature. The subject of the increasing
application of machinery in manufacturing pursuits
must be looked in the face, steadily and earnestly; and
the statesman who should presume to enter upon any
great change of our present commercial system, with-
out fully considering its operation upon the interests of
the labouring classes of our population, would, in our
humble opinion, incur a responsibility of a fearful
nature.