The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-06-29 00:00:00

TAX SHOP WINDOWS Mr. S. WonTztv
wished w from the Right Hon. Gentleman op.
posits, whither it was his intention to tontinne the
tat on wilidows s shops.
The ettawcahaon of the Ifflcittotien said, the
subject was antler consideration, and be conld not, at
Present, make any answer to the Hun. Gentleman's
question.
HAIUMMIPS ON POSTMASTERS.—Mr. S.
Wonsmos presented a petition from a numerous body
of poskaassees In the country, Gomplaining of great
hardships alleged to he suffered by them from the
modeln which the post-horse duties were levied. He
had himself witnessed many of these hardships. He
hish known LIMe in which, for triling mistakes, and
where so framl„apon the revenue was intended, post-
masters Weft anb)ected to the greatest severities. He
las& sees new bargains wine to he made with the
farm," of tMt tat, that some new mode might be
adopted to prevent these hardships...--The petition was
'then mad, and ordered to lie on the table.
Mr. Castruso,presented a petition from Liverpool,
against the Shop window duties: also a petition from
she manufacturers of tobacco at Liverpool, and pray-
ing to be allowed certain drawbacks on the exporta-
tion of that article: another from dope intere‘trd in
the trade with Ireland, praying for an alteration its
the IV per Cent. duties on roods carried to Ireland.
These were ordered to lie on the table.

Mr. LITTLETON said, that as the subject of the 10
per ring. duties was just noticed, he wished to put it
to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the ma-
nufactures of the potteries in Staffordshire, when sent
to Ireland, should be subject to these duties. There
were no potteries in Ireland : and the 10 per Cent.
duties being intended merely for protection, there was
no eccnsiou to lay them au articles which the Irish
did nut manufacture.

The Cuvicru.ui of the EXCIIIIICER made a short
answer.

The Labourers Wares Bill was reported. and or-
dered to be read a third time on Friday.
. .

the

Thr Irish Brewers Licencei kill went through
Committee.
rDucA•no IN OF THE Ptilra.—Mr. HIIOVGII.\OI,
presions to bringing forward his motion. which stood
for that eyeshot, said he should appeal to the candour
and Madness of two Hun. tit ntlemen who had give.
notices of motions fur that day ; and request that they
would allow him to bring forward his motion first.
An lion. Priced of his (Mr. Hume) hail accommodated
brut in a similar way. The anbjett he intended to lay
before the House was. one of the Impost importance;
he )tad been duet entire days preparing it; and if he
~.„sreseett oppottuuity, latooixlat sot be able
1011111,kg it ort at ail': for he expected That, during the
wlattle of nest weal, or perhaps during the remainder
of the Session, his time would be occupied iu the
*het Howie of Parliament, on the subject of a Bill
Intended to be brought forward there.
Mr. Ust.e, and another lion. Member (we believe
Mr.Cor. mcsmta)„conseuted to waive their ;notions.
Mr. Hilarious' then thanked *the toorldon. lientle-
men. and said be shottld at once enter upon the subjeCt
of leis intruded motion, which he 'conceited to he 4it-
periui in importance to all others. Tor' although there
were Math rs now before Parliament which eicited
naitersal interest for the moment, yet, lung after these
should be forgotten, the benefits which he was about
to put it in the power of Parliament to confer on.the
nation would .be felt as the greatest that ever were
bestowed u• mankind. He therefore hoped that, in
stead of sueetine with any intertuption, the Home
would as:4st kits, in effecting this most impol taut work.
Two years had now elapsed since the' inquiry into this
subject was ',tiered into; and during that tru.e it had
been carried 011 with more or lets ma ress. In the,
comm. of the inqui:y, a great mass ut ststistical
.fortuation had beau produced, stir It indeed as had rae•oti
before been known; fur, in.trad of those airy can-
nirratious of ;hick the labotirs of former statistics
consisted, • vast body of aural information was ob-
tained. He should take this opportunity of expressing
his approbation and thanks for the conduct of the
Clergy of the E,, ablished Church, in assisting this
inquiry: for they had manifested the utmost degree of
real, honesty, and ;abillty, in performing the duties
iuspottatd on them. It was due to those
tieutletnen to interne the House how they had done
that duty,. and the claims they bad us, the gratitude
of the House, A circular note was first addressed to
all ate Clergy of the Kingdom, requiring' them .to give
all tire ififorneatiois they could procure respecting the
state of educative ; anal within the first week after the
circular was issued, upwards of 600 Clergymen sent
in their statrusehts, in the most satisfactory manner.
Shortly after, upwards of '2,000 statetueuts were seat;
and out of 11,400 Clergym-n, there were only 601.1
who ware defieient is eusupliug with the ciretilai let-
ter. This was the best proof he could Kaye' of the
attentiteness which the great body of the Clergy paid
to thi subject. Bat this was nut all ; it happened
that 360 retains were missing ; they had Del come to
him, but to another Gentleman, and as it was sup-
posed that those 360 Clergysnen had neglected to
comply with the directions given them. a second appli-
cation was made rather in a sharp manner; and-the
House froght form some idea of the Christian meekness
of those Ifentlemea, when he stated, that only two of
them murmured at this second application, which was
made soinewbet in the shape of a reprimand. This
was a most valuable fart in the present case ; for it

wax a prJof of the extrema goodwill whit h the Clergy
of Fuglain' bore towards the editrAtion of the poior, fur
in numberless oases they. expressed au anxiety to
knew how they could he useful ; and the statments
they all wet were full, clear, sod satisfactory. The
ekrgyeaes he aufar alluded to were not the diguilaries of
the Charch. ter sata-reshirid Keeler., but the work-
ing Pasish Ps Was. whew Wires weft the unalbse. mad
whose Islam was the hardest. Them were tips ases
the "sat dusk arrow surd devoid their times IP the

promotion of this most until oldiet. Tile Wink of
all this was, and the digest was petspialell, am/ was is
the lamb or the Members of that Homer. 11 W oil
the information then before the House, which exhibited
the state of education'all over the kin that his
plan wet founded. The late Mr. Whit did Mice
propose a plan for the education bf the pool.; but he
Was answered by Mr. Percival, who Very properly
laid, that the first thing which Might to be done, was,
Se institute an inquiry: This uses highly Over;
because, without the information obtained by inch an
Inquiry, no plan could be perfect. In order to Show
how necessary it was to hare a previous inquiry, he
'would give an instance of the state of ign4anee on
the 'object of education, which i tevailed heels thb
torero:lft, theft un the table was procured. Hen the
Hon. and Loosed Qualm:Dan qiitstesi some ealtulatTons
Nair by Pt. Coign/trots, which proved to be altoge-
tier untrue and absurd, for that tientleman talked of
two:millions of poor children in the country. 'there
was no such number—for at that rate our populatioh
most be more tbab twenty millions. Mr. B. quoted
another passage to show the rest degree of ignorance
which this Oentlemau laboured under on many other
Statistical subjects. He should not now use the phrase
" lower orders," not out of any deference to those agi-
tators who pretended to be their advocates ; fur jf the
mass of the people were to be directed by those per-
sons, they would be very low indeed. Fur the sate.
of distinction merely, he should say " the poor." It
had been, and might still be alleged, that educat:ou
could do no good to the poor. This doctrine be would
endeavour to overterit. He should first show what
opinions were entertained on this subject in times and
in countries, in which neither liberty nor liberality
of sentiment might be supposed to exist. In the
year 1550, the States lieueral of France petitio al
the King of that country to send to them an order
that might register the same, the project of a
law for punishing all parents who did not send their
children to school. At the end of the same tentury,
similar orders were given in other countries of Europe. • '
i
lAt very remote periods the Binge of Scotland gave
particular encouragement to the education of the poor;
he had seen a charter of David the First to that erect.
Even at the time of the revocation of Me Edict of
Nam', a learned society was formed in France under
the direction of an excellent clergyman of the same of
Lasalle, for the purpose of promoting education among
the pour. After this, in the year 1704, Pope Rein-
dict issued a bull strongly recommending instruetiets
among the lower orders, and pointing out in the most
eel/stale maemer the net-ssity of such a system. The
erect of the %yews of instruction In France was Ruch,
that the Limstemust of Felice is Paris deflated ilia
sickle the establishment of the schools, the expi ace of
the Police in the Faubourg St. Antoitie.eras I, as, by
30,0000 fusses a-year, than before their establishment.
The lion. tientiessas next alluded to a book formerly
published in this country be a person of the name of
Mandeville, in which he stated, that poor children
were debauched by going to school, and by teceiving
education, because they there learned bad principles
in religion and polities.. The sniper to this was, that
the childeen`should not be tmaght atii.of Ihlenkaieiage,.. I
stbjected to. Here-Mr.. iL tillediA it a -Tinnier Well
sent by the Pope to the Irish Catholic Bishops, tail- ~
tie. int sheik to prevent Catholic Andres' Cosa a?-
tebding the sclibuls of Bible :Societies; list at the
same time liii Holiness was not unfriendly to educes '
Lion, for be -reecimuended thit evert poaslble e..te`- :
shou'd be taken to have the childreu oi pooe'Catholles
prop• rly educated. Mr. Brougham next adeerecd to
the objection against the education of the poor, on .
the •rtritnd that it would draw them away from. IP&
*setae occupations. Con duly it was not his (Mr.
Brioughion'9 intention to hire these children: in-
structed in the learned languages or in *tierce, •
still be d d not think ;hat any serious evil'coold wise
even from persons knowing something more than read-
ing,.writiog, and arithmetic. As an illastratitru of
this remark he should read a letter from a mats nom el
llilbert duns. a labouring peasant in Ayrshire, sad
the brother of the celebrated and delightful See:tech
Poet of that name. Ihe letter was written by biotin
answer to certain questions resrecting the propriey
Of allowing peasants to be too learned. He hail "that
he considered no sort of farm labour to be incoesi.t t.t
with the most refined and pleasurable state of the
mind, except threshing, which was a gent drudgery.
and disturbed the mind;" and he added, "that the man
who Invented the threshing machine ought to have a
statue erected to his memory, to be placed in a mica
next to, that of the man who was the first eultivator
of the putatoe." This was a tolerable sentiment he a
man who was a peasaid and a thresher. He would
now call the attention of the House to the- result of
the inquiries he had made upon this subset. There
we.e now educated at tusendowed schools 411tVeli
children, and to these were to be added about 11,140
for 150 parishes from which no returns had yet been
made. In the endowed schools 165,43 t child's* wen
educated ; making's total (exclusive of the 11,909) of
555,43?; so that thus there were moos of edu-
cation iu England fur one-fottrteenth part of the
popelation. In calculations on this subject, It was
weal to take the proportions of the erlpekti m '
by ages, and the French tables bad aecordinly
laid down—that all within the age of eight and 14
years, formed 1-14th of the population. With all
deference to the distinguished gentleman wile forma
the tables, be would be allowed to say, dent )is IS&
' elation did not produce the same result. The dilho-
roe between them might have arisen from the draw .
etioscr, that while time French °skeleton preageslek
*upon abstract principles, he had dumbed ble_
by the digest se die table, modilli%o7c:
gm
tomss of gm Pormio Si the
all that he was stabile' to coiled op" Ab-
be was of opinion est the Freed
wee considniinialy within die meek isdot it. vanid
ban barn mem aeon" IMAM& of 141040r4011 at.

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