The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-13 00:00:00

characters

In the course of the Evening, Mrs. Fitzwilliam will intro-
duce a variety of Songs, and dance her celebrated Burlesque
CRACOVIENNE. To conclude with
IRELAND IN 1690.
Mr. T . Lee.

Gerald

Boxes, 3s. ; Pit, 2s. ; Gallery, 6d. (Number to Gallery
limited.) Second Price : Boxes, 2s. ; Pit, is. Doors to
open at half-past Six, Performance to begin at Seven.
Second Price at Half-past Eight.

AMERICAN CIRCUS

ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE, GREAT CHARLOTTE

STREET

LAST SEVEN NIGHTS.
'THIS EVENING, (Tuesday,) the-13th instant, the Ile r
formance tocommenee-i'vith

A GRAND CHINESE ENTREE

Mr. Sweeney in his Negro Extravaganzas
Master R. Rivea as the Race Jockey.
Corde Floxo, by Mr..G. Smith.

„ .
A new Act, entitled, LA SYLPHIDE! ET L'ECOSSAIS ! On
Two Horses, by Mr. NORTH and Mademoiselle CAMILLE
LEROUX.
Grand Groupings, by the Rivea Family.
Mr. Buckley will appear as Ited Jacket.
Mr. Sands will appear on one, two, three, and four horses,
as the Courier of St. Petersburgh.
Mr. Decamp will introduce the Indian Pony, Osceola.
Venetian Statues, by Master R. Rivea.
Mademoiselle CAMILLE LEROUX will appear in her
beautiful Act, THE STAR AND THE FLOATING SCARF.
Mr. Derious will introduce La Tranca Hispaniola.
Mr. L. J. NORTH will appear in a splendid Act of
Horsemanship.

Sweeney with his Banjo, and Jack Vanbramer in a Long
Island Break-down.
The whole to conclude with
THE ARABS OF TILL DESERT.

On FRIDAY EVENING next, the 16th instant, for the
Benefit of the Clowns, Joe Pentland and Alick Rockwell.
*** The Proprietors of the American Circus respectfully
give notice that their Liverpool Season will CLOSE ON
TUESDAY next, the 20th instant, and that they will com-
mence their London Season, at the English Opera House,
on Monday, the 26th instant.
Mr. M. LIPMAN and Mr. J. AMAR, celebrated
Vaulters and Equestrians, have just arrived from America,
and will shortly appear.
Doors open at Half-past Six, First Music at Seven, Per-
formance in the Circle at Half-past Seven o'clock precisely.
Boxes, 2s.—Pit, ls.—Gallery, 6d.

TO CORRESPONDENTS,

" A Waverer's " doubts are quite uncalled for. Let our
correspondent ascertain that the course which the Council
are pursuing with reference to the Corporation Schools is
right and all apprehensions of injustice vanish. The same
thing cannot be both right and unjust at the same time.
The circulation of the STANDARD needs no such propping-
up as the gratuitous 'distribution of trumpery almanacs
would afford it. We have had frequent indications lately
of the decrease in the issue of some of our contemporaries,
which is, perhaps, one reason, amongst others, of the now
rapidly increasing circulation of the STANDARD.
" Disappointment " gives way to unnecessary sorrow. The
progress of the Corporation Schools is extremely satis-
factory • and so far from there being any intention of re-
linquishing their management on the part of the council,
we believe some members of the Education Committee are
strongly impressed with the opinion that more accommo-
dation will shortly be required for the children, if their
numbers continue to augment as they have done lately.

AR Effurpont &tan Darb.

TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER- 13, 1842

Before proceeding to deal with the arguments ar

I statements, put forth on Wednesday by the speakers
in favour of a " liberalised" system of education in
the schools of the corporation, we must confess that
we are not at all disappointed in the gentleman by
whom an infraction of the present scriptural system
was proposed. Mr. George Hall Lawrence has always
appeared to us to possess an unhappy indecision of
character, which is calculated to stand seriously in the
way of that career of usefulness, for which his talents
so well befit him. Surrounded, by family ties and
intimacies, with men entertaining principles directly in
opposition to those which he professes to entertain
himself, his mind is of that plastic order which allows
itself to be moulded, unconsciously to its owner, into
a shape which, if he could see it, he would spurn as
unworthy of him. He stoops to view the world, and
to look at principles through the vision of other men.
Knowing and valuing the truth, he still coquettes
with its opposite; and has imbibed the fatally erro-
neous notion that right and wrong can be made to

meet, in some imaginary midway of expediency or
accommodation.

The question of education, so much mooted in
our community—what is it viewed upon its broad
ground ? It is simply this : upon what system
of teaching can we most advantageously, and legally,
expend the funds devoted by the council to educa-
tional purposes ? To enable us to reply to this ques-
tion, go back to the purpose for which we give educa-
tion at all. We do not seek to make philosophers, or
political economists, or chemists, or mathematicians,
of the children of our indigent fellow-townsmen ; we
do not seek merely to instil into their minds a certain
quantity of abstract knowledge; but, emphatically, we
seek to render them in after life, by the seeds which
we thus sow in. early life, good men, good Christians,
and good subjects ! To effect this best object of all
education, the system of teaching which we adopt
must be one of which religion constitutes a vital por-
tion. This position Mr. Lawrence fully recognises :
nay, it is almost universally recognised. But if there
is to be religious teaching, there must be a test. We
must have some criterion whereby to distinguish be-
tween the true and the false, or we may find ourselves
engaged in teaching Mahornedanism, the worship of
Juggernaut, or the religion of the American Indian,
with the funds set apart for educational purposes by a
Christian community. Accordingly, we have provided
a test, the most universally received which we could
provide—viz. the authorised version of the Word of
God.
What more of latitude, we ask, could be allowed, in
devising a system of education which comprises, as an

indispensible requisite, religious teaching? Surely
none. To the children of dissenters we give teaching
in the truths of the Bible, without obtruding upon
them the tenets of any particular church. The chil-
dren of . members of our own persuasion we take to
church every Sabbath; the children of dissenters we
leave to be taken by their parents to their own place
of worship, and exact from those parents a pledge that
they will be so taken. Few will deny that, here, we
open the door to the greatest number of, those who
desire—what alone is worthy of being received—a
scriptural education for their children. The Roman
Catholics, however, stand aloof, and refuse the boon
which we offer them. Whey will not, or cannot—for
our present argument it matters not which—accept
teaching in the truths of the Bible, unaccompanied by
the glossing of their own priests. They cannot read
that Bible, or allow their children to read it, even as a
school-book ; and are, therefore, excluded—self-ex-
cluded—from our schools.
We deplore this circumstance as heartily, and perhaps
more heartily than some who make larger professions.
We are more the real friends of our Roman Catholic
fellow-townsmen, than all the Blackburns and Rath-

- .
bones who have philosophised and declaimed in their
behalf. We wish to give their children what we deem

;he best gift which we have to offer—the same gift

we give to our own children; but BIGOTRY steps in—
and surely this is BIGOTRY !—and denounces the gift
as an unclean thing. In this state of things Mr.
George Hall Lawrence obtrudes upon the Council a
proposition which, no doubt, he conscientiously be-
lieves is to solve the difficulty.
Mr. Lawrence propOses that " such a modification
be made in the existing rules and regulations as would

render the schools more available for the classes of the
poor professing different'religious opinions, by allow-
ing their children the benefit of the secular instruction

of the schools, the parties giving an assurance to the

Committee that their religious duties should not be

neglected." It is argued, "if you cannot induce these

children to accept your religious teaching, give them
what is the nearest approach to the whole good, which

they refwe,—Seeidai

the nearest apj

whole good

t is this,

e helieve to he the

.\s7c doubt much \viictlier it is ;

doubt our right to give i

utterly deny that it

can be given without deteriorating the Va'

lue of the

whole, which we give to those willing to receive it.
Religion; as a portion of education, should be mixed
up with it so as to be inseparable from it. It should
tem of teaching, and mingle
with every atom of the knowledge which we convey.

pervade our whok

We might patch up, it is true, a thing with a prayer at
the beginning, a hymn at the close, and reading,
writing, and arithmetic in the middle, and then dock it
at both ends for the benefit of those who desire
" secular instruction ;" but has such a system any
right to be called a system of scriptural education?
Certainly not; and we defy Mr. Lawrence or any of
his supporters to lay down a system, so divisible into
" secular" and " religious," which is anything less than
part INFIDEL arid part RELIGIOUS ! In operation
the whole scheme, we believe, would be found utterly
impracticable; and instead of a concession, only a

mockery

Upon grounds of expediency, even, the proposition
of Mr. Lawrence is indefensible. That gentleman
professes, by the sacrifice of a principle, or its sup-
pression in some cases, to seek peace; to put a stop
to the agitation which has for years existed in the
Council and the town upon the question of education,
and to allay the animosities which that agitation es-
•cites. But where, we ask, is the hope apparent that
such will be the result ? We do not find it in the
temper of Mr. Hornby's speech; still less in the ani-
mus displayed by Mr. Blackburn. These gentlemen
seek, for their party,,a position in our schools widely
different from that in which the adoption of the pro-
position of Mr. Lawrence would place them. TheY
contend, as a matter of right, for a full share of the
education provided, proportioned to their numerical
strength in the community; and to enable them to
acquire this, they would revert to the late system, or
they would secularise the system altogether. Nothing
less than this would satisfy them ; and although, for
the moment, they might accept the instalment offered
them, it would only be to enable them to point to the
principle which it would establish, and to say—and
with justice—" You concede our right to an education
which is not an education in the Scriptures as inter-
preted by the Church of England, and how can you
draw the distinction, between our right to that and
our right to instruction in the Scriptures as inter-
preted by ourselves ? You admit that the teaching of
religion, at all, is not compulsory upon you; and yet
you capriciously deprive our children of a portion of
the benefit which is their right, whilst yon are teaching

religion to your own."
View the whole question as we will, the conviction
forces itself upon us, that there is no safe middle path
between the system at present established, and such a
system as would satisfy the party of Messrs. Blackburn
and Hornby. That system, however, it must be evi-
dent, now, can never be legally carried out. Upon
this point, the opinion of the oWn-clerk himself, in
whom, at all events, our opponents ought to:place con-
fidence, is conclusive. The system of the late Edu-
cation Committee is clearly and directly illegal; and
although the Town-clerk was guarded in deciding that
the " secular instruction" contended for was illegal,
we are satisfied that the spirit of the decisions, which
he referred to, is equally opposed to the legality of
such teaching. Religious teaching there must be, ill
any system of education provided for at the public
cost ; religious teaching there must be, to render edu-
cation a boon worth receiving; and we ask—with con-
fidence that the judgment of every candid man will be
with us—can there be devised any system which satis-
fies the requirements of the law, which fulfils all the
objects which we have in view in giving education at
all, and is at the same time more tolerant to those who
differ from us upon points of interpretation of the
Word of God, than the system established by the pre-
sent committee ?
Let us urge, then, upon those Conservative mem-
bers of the Council, who have betrayed a leaning
towards concession upon this vital point, to re-examine
the question intently, before they commit themselves
to the ignis fatuus chase which they are urged to enter
There never can be a compromise upon this
question ; there never ought to be one ! It is an
amiable feeling, no doubt, which urges them to hold
out every inducement to the children of their poorer
brethren to embrace the advantages of education. It
is a Christian feeling which teaches them to sympa-
thise with the deprivation to which they are coerced by
their religious belief. But they can never, we feel
assured, satisfy their consciences that they are doing a
kindness to those children in giving them infidel know-
ledge—in giving them an education from which the
very name of God, and of the Saviour of the World,
is to be excluded. They may attempt, indeed, to
salve over the feelings of repugnance to such a course
which will sting them in their solitary hours, by re-
ferring to the saving clause in Mr. Lawrence's motion.
They may say, it is true, we have consented to bring
up these poor children " without God in the world,"
for a portion of the day; but we have taken security
from their parents that religion will be taught them
in their own homes—in the wretched cellars and alleys
in which they live, surrounded by vice and immorality
in all their most loathsome forms. But oh, what a
mockery is such a dependance !
Throw away, Gentlemen, this flimsy covering with
which you are endeavouring to exclude the light from
your eyes ! Cast off the deadening weight of that am-
bition to stand well with all men, with which you are
seeking to stifle in your own hearts the convictions of
truth ; and be, upon this great question, at all hazards,
and in despite of the sneers of the world, CONSISTENT
and MANLY !

We are quite as sorry as the Journal can have been
hat it was out of our power, by quoting his "argu-
aents for the STANDARD," to place both sides of the
uestion before our readers ; and also that it was cow-
ulsory upon us to divide our remarks, in reply to
tem, into two portions. The demand upon our space,
created by such an arrangement, would have been much
too great ; and, moreover, the public do not relish very
lengthy articles upon any subject. As we see, there-
fore, that, without such a course on both sides, our
contemporary does not think it is worth while pursuing
the controversy, we shall, at present, merely reply to a
few portions of our Let week's remarks, in which he
has a little misinterpreted us.
In the first place, then, we have not, at all, given up
the advocacy of a sliding scale; and shall not do so
until we are convinced that the present one has failed
in its objects, which were, we conceive, to combine a
regular trade in corn, with adequate protection to the
native grower. We submit that, to some extent, it
has been successful already ; but the trial which it has
had is scarcely a fair one. When it has failed, after a
'air trial, to produce the results which we anticipated
from it, we shall not hesitate to say so.
In the second place, we took exception to the Jour-
nal's entering upon a lengthy argument against a
sliding scale, because we conceived that such argument
was beside the immediate subject which was proposed
for discussion—the mode in which free trade in corn
was to operate upon the manufacturer. We may have
been wrong in restricting our opponent from entering
upon the alleged demerits of a sliding scale. In strict
fact, we scarcely did so restrict him; but we were not
called upon to enter upcn its defence. If we were
successful in showing that his expectations of advantage,
and those of his party, from such a change, were
fallacious or overstrained, we were abundantly satisfied.
And we maintain that we have so succeeded. We
have shown that, by the admission of the Journa
himself, the sum of benefit to arise is measured by the
amount of foreign corn which we shall be able to con-
sume, and an imaginary power acquired to import
regularly as a remittance for our manufactures. In
establishing this point, we conceive we have done
something for the cause of truth—something to dissi-
pate the absurdly exaggerated anticipations of free-
traders ;—for we are satisfied that the disappointment
of the fears of the advocates of moderate protection
to the agriculturist will not be one-half so great, at
the small amount of injury sustained—should such be
the result of a free trade in corn—as will be that of the
manufacturer, at the small amount of benefit derived
by himself.

With respect to the ability of the United States to
compete in corn-growing with continental nations, the
Journal has not satisfied us. The present moment,
when the ports of the continent have been drained to