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    IMPMMi*** 1 _ - _ the bill founded on Tw...

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    i LORD JOHN'S EDUCATION PLAN. g?HE way t...

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    The Ka.Bs Papees.* Blttu Books, After Al...

    himself with his usual energy and skill . But it was « too late . " Winter came upon him , and Kars fell . , , , Whether the Turkish troops could have really been spared from the Crimea in . July is a military question , which we have not the data for determining . That must be settled by other evidence than has yet been forthcoming But if we were pressed to state in a few words the causes of the fall of Kars we should frame them thus : —In the first place , the well-known corruption of Turkish administration ; in the next place , the culpable neglect of Lord Stratford and the Porte to oive General Williams every aid , encouragement , and authority to put down that corruption , and provide ample stores for Kars ; and lastly , the detention of the Turkish troops m the Crimea at the express instance of the French Government , after it was known that they were essential to the safety of the rnost important frontier fortress of Asiatic Turkey . These are the causes that led to the fall of Kars ; and if blame is to be laid at . flit door of any one , that blame , so far as the published evidence is concerned , must b < laid upon the French MarshaL

    Impmmi*** 1 _ - _ The Bill Founded On Tw...

    IMPMMi *** _ - _ the bill founded on Two objections will be raised against the March 15 , 1856 . ] .... .... ^ 7 __ nsTn ^ r-===== == =--5 ,, _ , .,, » a * a nn Two obiections will be raised against the

    I Lord John's Education Plan. G?He Way T...

    i LORD JOHN'S EDUCATION PLAN . g ? HE way to test the real merit of Lord John Bussell ' s plan of national education is , not to Compare it with the measure which any one party , or any single individual , would propose were the question commencing now , hut to compare it with the actual state of things . Many may think it absurd to wrap up reli-Hous instruction with secular instruction . If we are told that temporal Instruction is not oil i « : * ll and that everv child in this country

    ought to be educated to the tenets of the prevailing faith , we may apply exactly the same arguments to any other commodity besides school instruction : " Man does not live / by bread alone ;' . ' , according to the doctrine of the same party , lie ought to observe the daily duties of a Christian quite as regularly

    as he observes his daily meals . Unless some kind of condition , however , be enforced upon the young , and upon the humbler classes , while fcney will be careful enough to obtain their temporal bread , they will frequently neglect their spiritual bread ; and we should ^ therefore , pass a la , w rendering every baker bound to ¦ i . , i _ „_„ A ,. n « / -v-F r » r \ 11 aof . eanrl nrrnrpr ¦ Jf

    OlStriDVl . ie St > m « HJJLJOJL V- wuuv-uu *«•*— . »« y — - with every quartern loaf sold . As it is , we go to the baker ' s for the temporal bread , and over the way for the spiritual bread . The same division of employment would be equally applicable to education . The national church is , by the condition of its ^~~ i . i- ^ cfan < to Vn-vrinrl tn ivrnvide instruction —¦ —

    ^ ifcX X y Vn « JiOU ^* - *^ - ' > - 'y r » * w *«*«*«* — XT r for the whole people ; and we soarcely know on what pretence the members of that establishment come before the country asking for church-rates , when they possess an enormous property as the equivalent for imparting the religious instruction to the people , yet so manage that in their school , the parish church , there is no room for anything near the number

    of people living in the land . As at present advised , the English people is not disposed to make the Church do its duty , but is disposed to make the public schools do the duty of the Church;—so we are to receive our ecclesiastical instruction from the schoolmasters and schoolmistresses of the national schools . It is an unreasonable arrangement , but the public is not inclined to make any i other arrangement ; and the practical question \ is , whether we shall have public education on li « 1 - „ _ _ i _ ~ a < m -w ^ v-v % -fc- ^ ir ^ l * * % f \ f \ iinll I' . T i ~\ Tfc fl ¥ *_ Oil r

    \ We should prefer the Manchester plan to Lord I Joiin ' b plan , but we prefer Lord John ' s plan to no plan at all .

    Let us , then , suppose his resolutions carried , and ask what would be our condition ? In the first place , the real Ministry of Education in this country is the Committee of Privy Council , which is to haye a Vice-President appointed to conduct its business in the House of Commons . If Lord John ' s bill were carried , the Minutes which the Committee has passed , constituting the details of the existing lav upon the subject , would be all consolidated in one volume , brought into one view , and rendered for the first time intelligible to the public . In some districts peop le voluntarily contribute , or it is known that children will attend school insufficient numbers for the school pence to constitute a part of the support for the school . The [ Privy Council adds a complement . The whole > expense of these districts , therefore , falls partly [ upon the nation and partly upon benevolent > individuals , while all those children whose > parents cannot afford to pay anything , neces' sarily go without instruction altogether . Ii 1 we rightly understand Lord John ' s measure , I the districts that at present possess no school I would , within less than two years , have a schoo furnished with competent teachers ; and it those districts that possess schools , but do no tor , ,

    afford sufficient accommodation xne vn « number of children , the school would be extended , and children whose parents could not afford to pay would be admitted equally with those whose parents are more fortunate . There would thus be a school opened in every district of the country , and every child would have the meaps of being instructed in reading , writ ing , and arithmetic , history , geography , and the plainer branches of instruction . . We have seen the effect of sticli an : institution mistake to

    in Ireland . It is a great ascnoe the improvement in that island entirely to the cholera , the emigration , the thinning of the people , and the introduction of English capital . The purchases under the Encumbered Estates Court , by English or Scotch capitalists , have not amounted to one-sixth of the whole n 1 rr ^ V . 4-Vvi * - » - » - » i-r \ rv rv £ W / VIWI :-. * ^ v

    amount ctt purcnases . xuc uj-uam « s * ,. , ~ lationhas not been sufficient to account for the readiness with which the people have adapted themselves quietly and usefully to a totally changed state of circumstances , and to a level of wages in many cases double the old amount . We must ascribe this adaptation of the tieoole very much to that plan of public

    education which has by this time told upon the larger number of the people . It has existed long enough in Ireland to have trained a large part of the present generation . The industry of our town districts ifow constitutes an obstacle to tuition for the young , in keepine ; the children from a . very early age

    engaged in labour . The working-classes , however , have very willingly assented to the limitation of hours for the young , if indeed the pressure of competition has not made the adult males welcome restrictions of that kind ; since there always has been , in the manufact-uring districts , a strong jealousy of female or juve- I nile labour . Any practical restriction , theretne iw juv ^

    tore , upon employment « - >» . g , *** factories would probably be supported by the great bulk of the population . Many employers already support schools of their own . Practically , t * - ost will be abstracted from wages . Loivi John Russell ' s arrangement , by which masters will be compelled to secure the attendance of their young hands in sohool , would secure for the children a much better education than they can possibly obtain at present , and will secure it at the very lowest rate of aaqi- 'Hip , nnlv onnnsition to this measure is

    likely to come from tho nuasters , and even upon them , in the long rim , the pressure is not likely to bo appreciable .

    compulsory provisions for the payment of rates , and the establishment of schools in districts whether the residents will or not . It is , however , far more important for the whole country that no district should be deprived of common tuition , than it is important for the district to escape the impost which will be so trifling in amount . However perverse a parish may be , it must stand very low in the scale of intelligence , if it cannot perceive that the advantage of possessing a school will exceed the disadvantage of any cost which the measure can impose upon it ; and the opinion of such a parish will be very properly overruled by the opinion of the community at large . On the other hand , a considerable share of local government is preserved in the election of the schoolmaster and schoolmistress . . . Indeed a perfect freedom of local administration would still remain for those parishes ¦ which should prefer to establish schools of their own , excelling the general model in efhi ciency and completeness . It will always be L open for a very intelligent and ambitious x parish to beat the Privy Council and the t parish sell ool out of the field . In like man-_ v , ™ r . T .-. r " r « vraiTSLsion" -which is discontented

    , with the amount of religioxis instruction enforced by Lord John ' s plan will be able to take the matter into its own hands : it has but to open a better school , with a more attractive course of study , on terms as reasonable , and so to arrange its religious teaching that it shall not be repugnant to the bulk of the residents . In that case , evidently , the ^ Sectarian School will be preferred ; and it will be successful on the single condition of teaching koMov 4 . 1-ia-n -J-VlA Sf ^ ltft .

    A certain ntmiber of our readers Avill object to the part of Lord Johk's plan which enforces the daily reading of the Holy Scriptures . We have already disposed of that objection ; but we are bound to confess that Lord John reduces every reasonable complaint to a minimum . In the present temper of the public

    mind it is quite impossible to expect that a measure can l > e carried without some such condition . But as the condition stands m the plan , the schoolmaster or schoolmistress is the only person upon whom the compulsion really * operates . The functionary will be bound to read a portion of the Holy Scriptures every

    day ; no cniia win we uwu . uv * ^ ^^ I listen . Any parent who conscientiously objects can withdraw his child from school at that hour , and the perusal will go on only for those who voluntarily attend . It will , therefore , he with the community itself virtually to repeal this part of the measure . As we said last I i ^ i _ . __ i . ii « ^ -r . 4- rvf tiiio nnpnt . ini ) is han ded at 5 it t \ jm * ¦^

    weeis , nitj * cjuj . c «» . w »» m ~ -. ~ over to the public itself , just as the Sunday question and the Church-rate question were referred . Should the majority of the public determine to withdraw the young from this part of the instruction , the enactment would be vain and fruitless , and it would very soon be struck out of any new edition of the bill Tf tT , « Tmblic are not prepared to take so not

    much upon themselves , they certainly wiii be able to bring any weight of public opinion to bear upon Parliament . But we believe that they will settle the matter—that the result . off this provision will be the withdrawal of the larger number of children , whose parents will reserve their religious teaching for the churches and chapels of their own proper sects And so far the measure will act as a stimulus to the proper performance of duty on the part of the clerical body in all the recognised persuasions . consiuui

    It remains to : wu vww « * v »* --teaching of tlie young—their early attendance at business . The facilities which Lord John

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15031856/page/13/