The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-07-04 00:00:00

offered to the instructors of youth were quite inadequate.
Then, with reference to the plan of edffcation itself, it
had been fully established that the monitorial system was
a perfect failure. He next referred to the sad igno-
rance of the agricultural population, and to the tens of
thousands in large towns who had never been baptised in
the name of Christ. It was amongst such masses of ignor,
ance as these that the firebrands of sedition were piled.
with effect, whereas amongst a Scripturally-educated
people these firebrands could do no more evil than if they
were thrown into the river Mersey. Now, how was this
evil to be met, except by the government system of educa-
tion ? First and foremost, the government allowed male
and female pupil teachers to receive an increasing annual
salary, and by means of these pupil teachers the number
of masters was increased in every school; and since this
system had been introduced upwards of 1,000 pupil tea-
chers had been apprenticed to masters and mistresses.
Then the pupil teachers must go to training schools ; six
only of which were in the country at present. But part
of his duty was to impress upon the Christian public to
have training schools in every town in the kingdom; and
let them bear in mind that they would and must have the
grant from the government for the support of these schools;
and hitherto the whole of the government grants had been
given, and given only, to those schools which used the
authorised version of the sacred Scriptures. The loudest
objectors to the government grant were the Anti-Church
and State party; and indeed these were of all others the
most consistent objectors. Then the Tractarian party—
strange to say—were also objectors to it, upon the ground
that the system admitted of lay influence; but he (Mr.
Close) upheld the system simply because the Tractarians
opposed it. Then the Romanists, the Unitarians, and
the lovers of ignorance throughout the land, opposed it ;
but, in opposition to these objectors, he contended that
this was the time for the evangelical clergy to stand for-
ward and demand Scriptural education for all ranks and
classes of the people. Let them make this demand and
not leave the education of the people in the hands of the
ignorant and malicious, and let them guide the masses in
the way of truth and usefulness. The present system was
first established in Cheltenham, not at the seeking of any
of the evangelical party. On the contrary, he (Mr. Close)
reluctantly supported it, and it was not till after he had
had several interviews with the Privy Council that he be-
lieved the system to be founded on strict doctrinal princi-
ples; and upon this the system must either stand or fall.
It was Protestant, Evangelical and Christian ; and from
the first the government had behaved most honourably in
the matter, for they had said, "We are delighted to sup-
port an evangelical training school on distinct Church
principles." The first token for good the system had in
Cheltenham was a grant of £2,750 from an unasked lady;
and Mr. Kaye Shuttleworth was satisfied with this ; and
now these Church of England training schools at Chelten-
ham had completed their first year's operation. There
were 29 masters and 15 mistresses in training, each of
them paying £2O per annum towards their own mainte-
nance. A grant of £4,000 had been made to the institu-
tion by the Committee of Council on Education, and
above £6,000 had been realised in voluntary contributions,
towards erecting a building and maintaining an establish..
ment accommodating eighty masters. Fully £2,000 more
must be collected to enable the committee to take full
advantage of the government premium. When this was
accomplished. or after three years, the enlarged institu-
tion might be carried on et an expense of less than £l,OOO
per annum. He then explained how by means of this
institution immense good would be done, and much greater
good when their new building at Cheltenham was com-
pleted ; and he concluded by urging upon all classes of
Evangelical Christians the manifest importance of extend-
ing these most valuable training schools to Liverpool and
all other large towns, and so to avail themselves of the
valuable grants which government are most willing to
grant. The reverend gentleman concluded a most able
speech amid great applause.
A liberal collection was here made.

The Rev. T. NOLAN being called upon to move the
resolution, was received with much applause. He said,
that but to produce some practical result from the great
meeting then before him, it had not been necessary to
add another word to what they had already heard. But
it was needful to form a Corresponding Committee in Li-
verpool, to open a channel through which the tide of their
practical sympathy should flow in response to the clear
and convincing, learned and luminous statement of their
friend from Cheltenham, who had in his own person,
from the first word he uttered, been signally illustrating
the great principle with which he sought to impress them,
the power of imparting information on any subject, con-
ferred by a thorough acquaintance with that subject by
oneself. Listening, as he always desired to do, with a
deep and deserved attention to the opening remarks that
fell from the lips of their dear Chairman, he could not
help transferring what he said from the schoolroom and
the schoolmaster, to the still" higher association of the
church and the pastor. And as he (the Chairman) pro-
ceeded to delineate the superior attainments of the man
really competent to instruct others, he (Mr. N.) was
picturing an ideal to himself of a Church of England
clergyman, a " workman that needed not to be ashamed,"
and as with graphic touch and truthful hand the Chairman
added each fresh feature-to his portrait, the picture gra-
dually shaped itself into the similitude of some one that
he knew; but when he concluded, associating intelligence
with modesty, there was no mistaking any longer, the
resemblance was complete—that of their revered, but
alas ! departed,. Dr. Tattershall. You all knew him ;
some of you doubtless were privileged with his intimacy
and friendship ; and though none of U 3 could reach as
high as the soarings of his vast mind, or fathom the depths
of his profound erudition, yet any of those who have ever
him, roust have heen_mLnaugh charmed with
his kindness as enlightened r.ith his learning, while under
his lucid statements what bad appeared abstruse was made
so simple, that one was almost beguiled into imagining
he had fancied a difficulty where none existed. (Loud
cheers.) Whence did our valued and lamented friend,
who bath left such a fragrant memory behind him, be-
come possessed of this high capability ? From his own
thorough and intimate acquaintance with the subject
under consideration. This was the great secret of the
ease with which he conveyed his meaning to another, and
with such gracefulness and an urbanity of manner pecu-
liarly his own, that you almost fancied you had disco-
vered of yourself, what you only had received from him.•
(Cheers.) This is precisely what we aim at producing in
our training schools, masters intelligent themselves, that
they may be intelligible and instructive to others. Nor
is this a task easy of accomplishment. Take a young
man, for example, that has just graduated, not after the
manner of the A.B. of the Sorbonne, described so humo-
rously by our Chairman, but who has improved to the
utmost the opportunities provided for him in those dis-
tinguished
seats of learning, Oxford, Cambridge, and, I
must be pardoned for including—l dare not pass on
without offering the humble tribute of affection, the
homage of a grateful heart, from a devoted though un-
worthy alumnus, who feels that all he is, or all he may
ever hope to be, is owing, under God, to the fostering
care, of the honoured Alma Mater, that nourished him-
self and his father before him—l mean, Trinity College,
Dublin. (Continued cheers.) Take a graduate, even
such as I have described, from one of these universities,
and however learnedly he might write upon the iEolic
Digamma, or work out the equation of the parabola, or
explain the aberration of light, you would possibly find
him scarcely intelligible to a poor man, in delivering the
simple message of the Gospel. Why ? Because he bath
not been.taught to teach—he bath not learned to be sim-
ple ; . for the power of being simple, as the great author of
" The Sublime " has said of the art of criticism, is " the
latest offspring of prolonged experience." This evil also
is to be remedied in our training schools. The question
is not now whether there shall be education on an en-
larged scale or not ; that has been answered long ago, and
in the affirmative ;—but the question is whether the
Church of England will take the- lead for good, else be
left behind and forgotten in the race. The flood tide has
set hi too powerfully to be resisted. We cannot, or ought
not to attempt to resist it. 'Tis not now too late. The
Church, placed in the responsible position she occupies
by the mercy of God in this country, has now the option
(which may not remain to her very long unless she avails
herself of it at once) of either riding in triumph at the
top of the wave, else she must be crushed and over-
whelmed under its violence if she disregards present op..
portunities. There is, sir, with churches as with nations,
no less than with individuals,
" A tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat."
Let us then " take the current whilst it serves,' and (b
God's blessing) we will not " lose our ventures.".
I have much pleasure in moving the resolution.—The
rev. gentleman resumed- his seat amidst an unusual burst
of enthusiastic applause from the meeting.
The motion was seconded by the Rev. Dr.. CARPENTER.
It approved of the principles and the plan of operation of
the shools. A corresponding Liverpool committee, with
the acting committee in Cheltenham, was then appointed.
On Wednesday. evening, the Rev. Mr. Close preached
an admirable sermon in aid of the society, and we are
glad to find that. several donations have been received by
the treasurer, H. J. Webster, to whom, or to the Rev.
ThomaS Nolan, all communications are to be addressed.