The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-04-20
wealth is pagan ono, derived from ieathen

wealth is pagan ono, derived from heathen
Sparta and Plates heathen republic, and
connected by regular, logical sequence with
legalized prostitution and the dissolutionof
the coniugal tie. The dispensation OF Die.
vine Providence determines the social grade
and the culture OF children on their reach
ing adult age by the diligence and faithful-
ness OF their parents, Just as the pecmliary
condition OF children at that epoch is deter
mined. The desire OF procuring for their
children desirable condition In all these
respects is the grand stimulus which Provi-
dence has provided for the efforts Of pa
rents. It is His ordination that youth shall
inherit the status provided for them by
their parents, and inaproue 1t by their o,en
exertions, as aided by the Christian philan-
thropy of their fellow-men. Now, by what
apology does the State, mot an evangelical,
nor an n 'eleemosynary institute by its nature}
| Justify itself in stepping in to revo-
lutionize that order? BY the plea that
il (the State) is so vitally interested in the
intelligence OF the citizens that this entities
| her TO take eifectual means for preventing
their ignorance. See, now, whittier this
ASSUMPTION leads. The morality OF the
citizens is far more essential to the welfare
OF the State; and the only effectual basis
| for morals is the Christian religion. There
fore the State would be yet more bound TO
take order that all youth be taught Chris
tianity. And this is just the argument by
which Dr. Chalmers and Mr.. Gladstone (be-
fore his political somersaults began) strenu-
ously defended church establishments.
1rain. physical destitution o: the citizens
is as dangerous to the State rs ignorance;
therefore the State would be entitled to in
tcr:cre for her own protection and repair that
calamitous condition Of dcstitution which
: their own and their parents vices and iaZl-
ness have cntailed on u part OF the people
by confiscatinc, for their relief, the honestly
earned property OF the Yirtuous and thrifty
and their children. The last two inferences
; are precisely as fair rs the first. Principles
always bear their fruits; and the friends OF
this principle will in due time become con-
sistent, and claim at least the last inference,
along'with the first. They are not likely to
adopt the second, because the culture and
ethics OF the "common school" will leave
them, after time, too corrupt and atheistic
to recognize the value Of morality or lis
source-thc Christian religion.
We often here this apology for the States
wholesale intrusion into education adj
yanced with the exactness OF a commercial
transaction. They say: cit costs less
money to build schoolhouses than iails."
But what il if turns out that the States eH-
penditure in school-houses Is one OF the
things which necessitates the expenditure
in iails? The fruits OF the system show
that such is the result, and hence the plea
for the States intrusion is utterly delusivc.
4 The regular result OF the kind OF education
which alone it can give is to propagate
crime. Alison's History OF Europe states
that forty years ago two-thirds OF the in
habitants of France could neither read nor
write. In Prussia, at the same time, the
Government had made secular education al
most universal by compelling parents to
send their children to school from seven to
fourteen years OF age. Statistics OF the two
countries show that serious crime was at
that time fourteen times as prevalent
in intelligent Prussia as in ignorant
France-volume ", page Is. Again, it
has been found from the official re-
cords of the eighty-six departments OF
France that the amount OF crime has, with
out single exception, been in proportion
to the amount OF scholastic instruction given
in each. Again. we are told that much the
largest number OF the lewd women Of Paris
come from those departments where there is
most instruction. In Scotland the educated
criminals are to the uneducated as four and
half to one. M. De ToqueTille remarked
OF the United States that crime increased
most rapidly where there was most instruc-
ton. The ancients testify that the moral
condition Of the q Rarbarians " was COM
paratiyely pure beside that of the Greeks
and Romans, and that the most refined
cities were the most corrupt. But let us
bring the comparison nearer home. The
northern States OF the Union had previously
to the war all adopted the system OF uni
Yersal State schools, and the southern States
had not. In 1850 the former had thirteen
and half millions Of people, and twenty
three thousand, six hundred and siXty-four
criminal convictions. The South (without
State schools. had nine and half millions,
and two thousand, nine hundred and twen-
ty-one criminal convictions-that is to say,
, after allowing for the difference Of popula-
ton, the ''edncated " masses were something
more than six times as criminal as the "un-
educated" The same year the North was
, supporting ia, 700 paupers, and the South
20 500. The Eunintelligent' South was
something more than four times as well
qualified to provide for its own subsistence
as the "intelligent" North! But Massa-
chusetts is the native home OF the public
school in America. In Boston and ats ada
cent county the persons in jails, houses OF
correction or refuge, and in almshoEses bore
among the whites the ratio Of one to every
thirty-four. (Among the wretcbeG free
DlackS 1t was one TO every siAtocH.J III
t Richmond. the capital OF 'benighted" Fir-
ginia, the same unhappy classes bore the
ratio OF one to every one hundred and
) twelve. Such are the lessons OF fact. In
deed, it requires only the simplest ocular
, inspection to convince any observer that the
!, economical plea for State schools is lllusory.
In the South. State school-houses were uE-
known, and consequently jails and peniten-
tiaries were on the most confined and hum
; bic scale. The North is studded over with
grand and costly public school-houses, and
her iailS are.eHen more ''paatial" in extent
and more numerous than they.
All such premiscuous efforts to educate
) the whole masses by any secular authority
must dissppoint our hopes and result in
mischief for second reason. 1t finds its
illustration in the homely proverb that
"while one man may lead horse to water
q hundred esnnot make him drink" True
education, taken in any extent OF its mean
ing, broad or marrow, is so greatly a moral
process that certain amount OF aspiration
and desire ia Its subject is an absolute pre-
requisite. The horse may be drenched, but
that is not drinking; and the drench is not
nourishment TO be ;assimilated, but medl-
cine. So, knowledge OF letters may be
exhibited (as the medical men phrase lt)
to the resisting Or apathetic mind; but
there is no assimilation Of the mental pata-
lun., and Ee recruitment OF splrltuRl