, 1877-04-21


asNoilcd at public meetings, ~bukcd hy
the Conservative press, criticised in Par.
lament, and calumniatcd in every Tory
household But for six years it has
stcodjly pursued it, arduous labor until
already in every part OF London fine
school houses have risen up-thmgs
never seen in the great capital before
So costly and 50 complete to surpaNs
in convenience and propricty the best
school bindings OF Boston or New York.
Land is cheaper in London than with rs,
and these schools are all provided with
the means of perfect ventilation, and
also extensive play grounds. The out.
lay las been great, and the tavOritc
theme of the Nssaiants of the Bonrd is
it, cNtravagNncc. But at the recent
election the taxpayers Of London con.
tirmcd hy great majority all its acts,
and returned as their members only
those who had been the faithful friends
of the education of the people. Sir
Charles Reed, the active chairman, led
the polls, and Messrs. Lucralt, Potter
the Rev. j. Rodgers, and Others, with
several Indies, were almost equally Tor
tunatc, The people admitted the su-
prcme value of knowledge.
In the other English cities the change
has been equally remarkable, From the
most ignorant they are rapidly becoming
the hest educated of communities. In
Leeds nearly every child is at school
In Birmingham the system Of education
is already admirable. The example of
England shows with what rapidity
knowledge may he ditfused, and how
readily the 100000 illitcrtcs who op.
pear in our census reports might be re.
ducrd to a small and insignificant array.
Within five years it would be possible,
within ten it would be easy. to educate
every child from ocean to ocean,
Even France will soon be before us in
educational progress The Republicans
have seized upon their first moment of
power TO project II new scheme of public
instruction. Gambetta Simon, Thicrs
and Raspnil, unite in uttering the pco.
pies cry for knowledge. The Minister
of Public Instruction, NJ. Waddington
has Just brought in his bill for universal
education, tree, compulsory, unsectarian.
The ultramontanes will apparently OPP
pose it in vain. The Republicans gov.
ern France; they will reform and renew
the life Of the nation.
Thus all Europe is moving onward
intellectually. while we--the chct of re.
publics-shrink from the most impor-
tant of all our duties, and leave 5000,
600 of cur countrymen in hopeless deg
radiation. Fifty years aga we should
have had national education, and by
its aid what dangers would we not have
escaped, what civil disorders avoided
The want OF knowledge has led to po
litical corruption and decay, to rebellion
and sectional jealousy, to the triumph of
the rash and violent, to n mad and
dreadful civil war. Our cities grOan
with taxation wherever foreign igno-
rance controls them. Life, liberty and
property are only secure where knowl-
edge rules and the common school, and
vet we hesitate to press upon the whole
nation that simple remedy for many Of
its sharpest ills; we are less bold than
England, less republican than France.
The proper time has come--it has, in
fact, always been at hand-to discuss
and carry out this important measure.
The State governments have failed in
many sections TO educate their people
Even in some Of the older States of the
North the teachers are badly paid, the
schools indifferent. A confused, indef
mite idea of what education should be
prevails over the Union. A mass of Sec
tartan schools, charity schools, monastc
schools, and places where knowledge is
only family inculcated or diffused,
spreads over us an imperfect teaching.
We are asked to adopt the medieval
system of restricting knowledge and en-
feebling the intellect. But the recent
success Of the Republican policy among
US, the prospect of new period of ma.
- 1 49, H.. IL.