New-York daily tribune., 1851-05-29
CHANCES AT EUROPE. .. VI.
British Progress.


Editorial Correspondence Of The Tribune.
LONDON, Thursday, May l5 1851.
APART from the Great Exhibition, this Is
season of intellectual activity in London. Par
lament is Qanguidly) Is session; the Aristocra-
cy are in town the Queen is lavishly dispensing
the magnificent hospitalties of Royalty to the
privileged cast, who are invited to share them !;
and the several Religious and Philanthroplc So
cetes, whether of the City or the Kingdom, are
generally holding their Anniversaries, keeping
Exeter Hall in blast almost night and day.
propose to give a first hasty glance at lntelectu-
al and general progress In Great Britain, leaving
the subject to be more fully and thoroughly
treated after shall have made myself more con.
ve1sant with the facts in the case.
A spirit of active and generous philanthropy is
widely prevalent in this country. While the Brit
ish pay more In taxes for the support Of Priests
and Paupers than any other people on earth,
they at the same time give more tor Religious
and Philanthropic purposes Their munihcence
Is not always we'll guided but on the whole
very much is accomplished by II IN the way Of
difusIng Christianity and diminishing Human
Misery. But will speak more specifically.
The Religious ANNIVERSARIES have mainly been
held, but few or none Of them are reported-in-
deed, they are scarcely alluded to-in the Daily
press, whose yaunted superiority over American
journals in the matter of Reporting amounts
practically 10 ths-that the debates In Paria-
ment are here reported vsrbafim, and again pre-
sented in a condensed form under the Editorial
head of each paper, while scarcely anything else
beside Court dongs) is reported at all | am
sure this Is consistent neither with reason nor
with the public taste-that if the Parliamentary
debates We're condensed one-half and the space
so saved devoted TO reports Of the most interest
ing Public Meetings, Lectures, sc. after the
New-York fashion, the popular interest In the
daily papers would become wider and deeper.
and their usefulness as aids 20 General Educa-
ton would be largely increased. To a great ma
lority of the reading class, even here. Do
htical diScusslons-and especially Of cues
tions so trite and so unimpoF,ant as those
which mainly engrosS the attention of Par.
liament-are Of quite subordinate interest,
and think less than one reader IN four ever ne
ruSes any more OF these debates than Is given in
the Editorial synopsis, leaving the verbatim re-
port sheer waste Of costly PRINT and paper-I
believe. however, that IN the aggregate, the col
lecuOns Of the last year for Religious purposes
have Just about equaled the average Of the pre-
ceeding two OF three years; some Societies hay-
ing received less, others more think the pub
lic interest IN comprehensive Religious and Phi
lanthropic efforts does not diminish
For Popular Education, there Is much doing in
this Country, but in a disJointed, expensive. IN
efficient manner. Instead Of one all.pervadlng.
straightforward State-directed system, there are
three or four IN operation, necessarily conflicting
with and damaging each other. And yet vast
majority really desire the Education of All. and
are willing to pay for il. John Bull Is good at
paying taxes. wherein he has had large expe-
perience, ard If he grumbleS a little now and
then at their amount as oppressive It Is only be
cause he takes pleasure IN grumbling. and this
seems to afford him good excuse for it. He