The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-11-04
PRUSSIA AND FRANCE.
The Education OF the Two Coun-
tries Results oe the People.
nv ppov r. - erovTr

since the Lutheran reformation, to Sc
forth the Prussian school system. estab-
hshed half century since. as designed
solely and chiefly to teach men to kill, to
train the young men of Prussia to be hu-
man butchers. The papers Of stein, and
Hardenberg and others. the originators OF
the system itself, as seen in the books and
as illustrated in the schools by the actual
teaching, alldemonsrate the essential false
hood of such an assumption. 1t was
from the first an endeavor to give full de-
yelopment TO the whole man, to call forth
and cultivate all the faculties, intellectual
and moral, of all the youth of the king
dom, to the greatest possible extent, and
utilize them in the most efficient manner,
to make good agriculturists, good artists,
good miners, good mechanics, good civil.
ians, good citizens in every walk of life;
and not merely to make them good SOL
diers. Perhaps such an idea might, with
some justice. be attributed to Frederick
Il, but not at all to Frederick William III.
and the authors of the present system. II
is true that very effective military system
was grated on to the school system as a
necessary sequence. as an unavoi dAble in
cident The first Napoleon had given a
terrible lesson which it was impossible for
them to forget in the recognizing of the
nation; and the situation of Prussia,
country made up of fragments, and
lying without natural boundar es in the
midst of Jealous rivals, made good mill.
tary system an essential of the national ex.
istence. But any one who has been in
the farms, in the workshops, in the mines,
at the merchants desks, in the courts, in
the pulpits, in the studies of the literati, in
every branch of human effort
The system has had from the first wide
and solid moral basis; the Bible has beer
faithfully and thoroughly taught in all the
schools; and whatever men may think oi
the Divine origin and plenary inspiration
of the Bible, they caunot fail to see that n
is most wonderful educator of the com.
mon mind. Our Abolitionists. in the late
snti-slavery struggle, were not all of them
very scrupulous believers Of the infalli.
bility of the Scriptures; yet not even the
Oromwellians themselves relished the sub
lime denunciations of the grand old He.
brew prophets more keenly than they did,
OF used them more effectually. If there
are in Prussia many unbelievers, in all the
walks of life, they have none of them es-
capped the influence of the Bible; the educa
ton was universal and compulsory.
But the Prussians are not perfect, that
is true; and the system is not perfect, ali
human things are imperfect; but now, and
in Consequence of this half century oi
training, Prussia is the first among ma
tons. In self defense other nations will
be obliged to adopt a system of training,
and have an educated common people.
This is one of the chief glories of the whole
movement.
But the Prussians drink beer and smoke
tobacco. Unhappily they do; but this isno
new thing among them; it was not intro
duced by the school system, nor is il
maintained by it; nor do they drink OF
smoke more than their neighbors
than the Americans even. 1t is not one
of their virtues. nor is an element OF
strength among them. Luther drank beer;
tea and coffee were In his time unknown;
beer has been the national drink from all
Time. Tacitus calls it wine made of bar
ley, in his "Germanis;" it was something
astonishing to him. but the Germans
even then liked 1t. 1 have seen it
stated by some very respectable writers,
that Luther loved good tobacco; but if so
it must have been 10y prophetic snticipa-
ton, as the weed was never known in Eu-
rope till some years after his death But
this is the loose way many great men have
of talking sometimes; as Thackery and
some others speak of women having been
burned for witchcraft in New England,
when no such incident ever occurred, at
least have never seen any proof of il, and
shall not believe it till have. presume
the ridiculous stuff quoted as stanza from
3 school hymn now in use in Prussia,
IL. a.. IL g. --rwsr. -,
a similar source. Let us see the original
of that stanza, and let us know the school
book in which it is found, and then we
shall class it in the same category with
Luther's tobacco, and the burning OF
witches in New England.
1t is said that the Prussian school sys-
tenn has been deteriorating of late years.
1 cannot tell about that. as it is more than
thirty years since visited the schools;
but at any rate the nation does not seem to
have degenerated much, and the men ct
the head of affairs there have too much
sagacity to see so good thing as that
school system fall to ruin. / suppose we
must take such representations in rather a
non-natural sense; as we must take the
representations of the World newspaper.
in New York, respecting the sayings and
doings of Gen. Grant. II the old King of
Prussia is reactionary, his son, who must
soon occupy the throne. is not; and
Bismarck has roo much of good,
hard common sense to expect to play
the medieval despot over an educated peo-
pie. Give Germany unity and she will
have liberty; and the unity of Germany is
one of the chief of Bismarck's aims. am
sorry that there is so much of unbelief and
irrsligion in Germany, as there is In every
other nation; but there is also much OF
faith and of real, beautiful, unaffected
Christian piety. The time has now come
when Kings must work themselves clear
by natural development; unrestricted free
dom OF thought has got to be tried through
out Christiandom; and 1. for one, have no
fear in regard 10 the final result
As TO France, she has always had an ig-
norant people. She crushed out the
Huguenots, and the common people had
no educators. The rural population es-
peciaIly are entirely destitute of literary
culture; the policy of the Papal Church has
always kept them so. While the nations
around her were as ignorant as herself,
she was not comparatively at disadvan-
tage on this account. She has played q
conspicuous part in the tLeater of the
world, and has been one of the foremost oi
nations. But nov, that the nations around
her are educating ther common people,
she must do so too or fall irretrevably be-
hind. Her old civilization can no more
stand in the face of the new,
than bows and arrows could main
tain the conflict against firearms A large
portion of even the officers who surrender.
ed to the Prussisns could not write theil
names; while scarcely q Prussian private
could be found go ignorant The French
in all this war have gasconaded, the Prus-
SLAMS have worked; the French have talked
Of doing great things. the Prussi9ns have
done them. With the French nothing has
ever been ready at the time it was needed
with the Prussians everything has beer
found perfectly ready rs soon as it was
wanted. Contrast the miserable brags o.
Napoleon and the silent efficiency o.
Won Moltke. Poor 'Louis and L" they
were like rat and mouse in the clutch
of a terrier. There was everywhere
among the French faithlessness and mora
defect, as we'll as intellectual weakness
How different among the Prussians. Witt
them everything was faithfully done. And
the grandiloquent nonsense of Victor Hu
go's address to the Prussiansl Nothing
mas been seer like it since the Chinese sta,
toned great fellows on the banks of tn,
river to frighten away the British fleet b,
means of monstrous masks and horriC
grimaces. That is sit-masks and grimacel
against powder and shot. Surely the French