The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-10-01 00:00:00

inning in

that ley should be permitted to do so is desired
both by themselves and their parents, is an ascer

'hose paren

s are not a

cniaren's souls being endangered by their being
taught the elementary truths of the Christian reli-
gion. Nay, so far do they prize the excellent edu-
cation given to them, that we do not think any

considerable number would object even to their
being taught the Church of England Catechism,
which is enforced upon none. We arrive at the
conclusion from the fact that of the 350 children
attending a Church of England Ragged School, in
a street which we could name, if necessary, seven
out of ten are Roman Catholics, and are receiving
religious instruction eagerly.

We have little apprehension of the success of the
motion; and perhaps the mover of it himself anti-

cipates it as little

THE discoveri

of science, and the inventive
tiAnnl

away by our legislature. English statesmanship
is, practically, behind the age. It omits to avail
itself of opportunities when they occur; and, when
it subsequently attempts to remedy its own error,
every interference seems doomed to result in added
blundering. It was thus with the railway system.
We saw one of the most important discoveries of
modern times carried out to a successful result,
upon a small scale at the first, it is true, but suffi-
ciently to prove its applicability to the wants of
society. Yet we had no statesmen possessed of
grasp of mind sufficient to set about devising a
comprehensive scheme of railway communications,
to be nationally advantageous and nationally remu-
nerative. We jobbed legislatively in schemes,
which being for purely individual profit, should have
been strictly divested of every feature resembling
monopoly. We allowed the country to be cut up
at the caprice of engineers and projectors, each
anxious to serve their private interests ; and, at
the last hour, when we had permitted the growth
of an interest capable almost of dictating to the
most powerful government, we set up the farce of a
railway commission, to dictate fares, which have
proved unremunerative, and to render "confusion
worse confounded." As the result, we see on every
side capital wasted, and public advantage and con-
venience unachieved.

Worse even than our blindness in relation to the
railway system is the use which we have made of
the discovery of the applicability of the electric
telegraph for the purpose of transmitting commu•
nications from place to place. Here, at least,
government ought either to have stepped in, or to
have ensured to the public the fullest amount of
convenience. Government takes upon itself the
charge of conveying our ordinary written commu-
nications, and performs the duty tolerably well,
and at the lightest cost ; but it has granted to a
company the virtual monopoly of conveying those
more important communications, which require to
be transmitted with even greater speed and preci-
sion than the railway train can effect. The result is
that, whilst the electric wire is seldom resorted to,
by individuals in extreme emergency, and by our
own order, the press, at a vast expense, the com-
pany which has been allowed to set itself up, as the
medium through which it was to be made available
for the wants of society, is deriving a minimum
amount of profit from its monopoly. The London
Times, at length, although favoured somewhat, as
we have reason to know by them, confesses that
the company is not giving to the public the advan-
tages which the telegraph is affording to other
countries. Our contemporary, on Friday last,
remarked :

"As a mere mercantile adventure the electric telegraph
has in England proved comparatively a failure. Its prac-
tical results have disappointed expectation, and thus the
most wonderful discovery of modern times is to us almost
without utility, and serves, indeed, for the most part
simply to excite wonder at the marvellous feats achieved
by modern science. It is talked of, wondered at, and
neglected." . . _

The Times proceeds to contrast with this state
of things the extensive and the cheap use made of
this " most wonderful discovery of modern days"