THE

BRITISH MAGAZINE.

ON THE TWENTIETH AND LAST NUMBER OF THE "QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EDUCATION."

A WRITER in the last " Edinburgh Review," from whom truth occasionally drops with the air of an indiscretion, laments that no respectable class in society is favourable to the party now in power. "The church, too," he adds, "is against them, and regards them, most absurdly, and most wildly, as the source of all its perils."

Without inquiring into a point, not desirable to discuss here, and certainly with the earnest wish to believe that whoever is minister of this great country, is not hostile to its church,-it may still be permitted to observe, that it is much to be lamented that ministers allow the church to be spoken of as it is, in quarters which they publicly countenance. Let us look at a publication of the most elaborate and imposing pretensions, entitled "The Quarterly Journal of Education," issued under the sanction of a committee, including the names of Lord Brougham, Lord John Russell, Lord Denman, Lord Spencer, Lord Ebrington, Lord Nugent, Right Hon. J. C. Hobhouse, &c.

It is, perhaps, one of the few favourable symptoms of the time, that this farrago has failed to attract sufficient attention to make it pay its way; for this is the plain English of the concluding article of the last Number, and is probably also the existing cause of the concentrated malice in its final volley. But can the committee just named be in the slightest degree aware that the Church is arraigned in such terms as the following, in a work which they countenance ?

"The early friends of general education (mark, not religious education)-were the seceders from the orthodox mother-church; probably they had in view the ultiVOL. IX.-Jan. 1836.

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mate increase of their own sect-(qu., sects? how will their dissenting friends relish this unparliamentary imputation of motives?)-by instilling into the rising generation their own principles and religious tenets. Be this as it may, the church took the alarm, and seeing that there was some danger in remaining passive, the clergy belonging to the establishment, almost simultaneously, actively promoted the cause of education throughout the country."-(No. xx., p. 323.)

"The knowledge of reading and writing is no more education than feet are walking, or eyes seeing; they are the organs by which these acts are performed. [Is this one of the discoveries of the nineteenth century?] If we turn out hungry boys, unskilled in simples, into the woods to suck their food, where for every edible plant there grows a hundred of a poisonous nature, who would express surprise at their falling a sacrifice to their ignorance? If we substitute the mental appetite for that of the stomach, [this, surely, is precious stuff!] such is the condition of the nationalschool children when they leave off what is termed their education. Still the nation proudly boasts that she gives her children education.

"Knowledge she gives enough to make them know
How abject is their state, how deep their wo;

The worth of freedom strongly she explains,

While she bows down, and loads their neck with chains.'
Faith, too, she plants, FOR HER OWN ENDS IMPREST,
To make them bear the worst, and hope the best;
And, while she teaches, on VILE INTEREST'S PLAN,
As laws of God, the vile decrees of man,

LIKE PHARISEES, of whom the Scriptures tell,

SHE MAKES THEM TEN TIMES MORE THE SONS OF HELL.

"It is incontrovertible that the children of the poor derive no moral instruction, (strictly so understood,)—[what is meant by a strict understanding of moral instruction?]-and no mental training that exercises their reasoning powers from the national schools. The system is tiresomely iterative and monotonous: the mind, when it is sequacious-wax to receive and marble to retain-is wholly neglected; it goes into the school ductile, and capable of being moulded, but comes out stupified and hardened, in a condition to receive only the worst impressions.”—(p. 324.)

The writer goes on to ridicule, with surprising wit and vivacity, the school questions "about Joseph and the Virgin Mary," subjects, of course, in his estimation, utterly devoid of moral or mental edification; and he censures the conductors of national schools, in no mild nor measured terms, because they cease to educate lads exactly at the time when the controul of education is most needed,-when "they are cast upon the great sea of life, with all their passions growing into full power;" but he does not inform us by what authority the clergy-the principal managers of national schools-are to "bow down and load with chains the necks" of young men, who, at this dangerous age, become their own masters, refuse to submit to discipline, and, to our deep regret, quit our schools, and plunge into all the temptations of humble life.

"But we shall be told by the directors of these schools, that they inculcate both religion and morality, besides teaching the Catechism and making children acquainted with the Scriptures; and then they will ask if this is not education? We reply by referring to our previous remark, that education, to be effective, must draw out and expand the reasoning faculties: the encumbering the memory with matter UN

* In the name of goodness, what chains?

SUITED TO THEIR YEARS, and the teaching of religion or morality through the medium of terror, [qui, as opposed to the greatest-happiness system?] will either depress and cramp, or ultimately render young minds daring and reckless.”—(p. 326. )

So! the defect of moral education is to be supplied by omitting THE CATECHISM AND THE SCRIPTURES as being "unsuited to the years" of children; and the sanctions of religion are not to be enforced by terror, by the fear of present or future punishment, lest it should depress or cramp young minds, but to be inculcated on the intelligible and convincing plan of moral calculations-e. e. g., Come here, my dear; you are now nearly seven years old, and though it will be a great many years before your mind can be mature enough to understand the catechism or the Scriptures, which must be left for your adult and voluntary consideration, you ought now to comprehend the simple principles of moral calculation, which, if properly worked out, will prevent you from ever doing wrong; for the only object of a good education is to teach you what actions conduce to your own greatest happiness; all such actions are right, and accord with your moral duty; whereas all actions which injure your own greatest happiness are wrong, and the result of moral miscalculation. Learn then, my dear, to practise moral calculation.

Certainly, after this, the catechism would be unnecessary, and the Scriptures might safely be laid aside until the faculties (and the inclination?) become suited to their reception.

But enough of this trash. Let us turn to the concluding article, (happily the concluding article of the work itself, as well as of No. xx.) and see whether members of Government can be justified in supporting writers who entertain views so hostile to the existing constitution in church and state.

"If there were a general and profound conviction of the importance of education, rightly understood, and of the improvements which are requisite in the education of all classes, in order to give them the best opportunity of attaining happiness, SUCH A JOURNAL AS THIS, and many more having the same object, would be easily supported. But such a general conviction does not exist. As in matters of religion, so in education, many assent to doctrines and principles, but few are in earnest about them. If such a conviction cannot be produced among the middle classes in this country, we can hardly expect, under our present constitutional forms, ever to see education assume the rank due to its importance, and receive all the ameliorations of which it is susceptible. Though our constitutional forms are such as to prevent much good from being accomplished, whenever the change that must precede the attainment of this good is opposed to the interests or prejudices of a small number in the possession of political power, it must also be admitted that the many often mistake their own real interest, and would resist measures which every thinking man [viz., every member of this committee] knows to be for the interest of the whole community."-(p. 8.)

"In this country the matter is not so simple, owing to the distribution of sovereign power; which distribution, while it may prevent some bad measures from being carried, is constantly opposing obstacles to good ones It would appear to a careful and unprejudiced observer, that our constitutional forms are, at present, extremely ill adapted to promote measures tending to the general interests of the country. The various members of the sovereign power, and the various interests, as they are called, which exert their influence on the sovereign power, are continually elbowing and jostling

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ON THE 66 QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EDUCATION."

..

one another, like people in a crowd.
here rightly described, can do no good, if it attempt at once an entire reformation
Such a government as this, if it is
of education."-(p. 9.)

The remedy for this deplorable condition of our "constitutional forms," appears to be in simplifying the constitution by vesting the entire sovereignty in the House of Commons. Of course. But then the present House of Commons is not sufficiently enlightened to meet the views of the committee. undergo a purgation, and be defocated of all those indiviIt must duals the clog of whose prejudices disables them from keeping up with the progress of the age. informed men who are zealous to do all that is practicable for "It now contains many wellthe general improvement of education; but a majority of such men it certainly does not contain." (p. 10.) But we must hope to see this House of Commons so improved, by some process not very clearly intimated, as to be "strong enough to carry into effect all undoubtedly useful measures, in spite of any opposition from the other members of the sovereign power." Thus we are to have members of the sovereign power who are not to be allowed even a controlling efficacy in the constitution, provided the measures of the House of Commons are " undoubtedly useful!" Here is wisdom. And lest there should be mind of those who are panting and toiling after the strides of the any doubt in the committee, how the undoubted usefulness of measures is to be ascertained, it is pretty clearly insinuated, that this expurgata editio of the House of Commons must be directed by nistration" consisting, it may be presumed, of persons imme66 an admidiately connected with the writer of this article.

The great panacea for all the evils under which our PRESENT constitutional forms doom us to groan, is, however, a charter to be granted to the London University, with the power of conferring degrees! This GREAT ACT "of the administration" will "take away all unfair advantage on the part of the graduates of Oxford or Cambridge," (p. 22;) and, in plain language, will prevent any bias in favour of the church or of the old constitution in the system of education throughout the country.

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To secure this desirable object, " to be excluded altogether by statute from taking any part in persons in holy orders" are education; they are to be declared incapable of holding any mastership or ushership of a grammar school;" and thus not only will education be placed in safe and proper hands, but the church itself will be purified from a fearful desecration. To wit

"There is at present a considerable temptation to a man to be ordained in the established church, even if he dislikes its discipline, and disbelieves its doctrines... It is well known that many grammar-schools have suffered grievously from having had clergymen for masters. such places will be incomplete," &c. &c.—(p. 22, 23.) Any measure which does not exclude them from

There is abundance in the same strain, and, in truth, these quotations have been made almost at hazard, but they are amply sufficient to justify the regret expressed at the commencement of these remarks, that members of Government should give any countenance to a work so directly hostile to the religious institutions of the country.

J. H. B. M.

THE LATE BISHOP OF FERNS.

(Continued from vol. viii., p. 510.)

THE Bishop, anticipating rest after the fatigues of the provostship, immediately proceeded to reside at Limerick, but his vigorous mind was not suffered to remain inactive. Never did any city, or any diocese, want more the superintendence of an active bishop. No man fitted for such a station had been promoted to that see for upwards of a century, and the charitable institutions of the city wanted some guide to direct and animate individual exertion. The Bishop remained but two years at Limerick, and one of them was a year of disturbance, the other of famine. In the dreadful winter of 1821, his firmness and intrepidity were of signal advantage; and the English military officers gladly availed themselves of the Bishop's advice, when such a panic had seized the magistracy that in their application for the Insurrection Act they endeavoured to shelter themselves under the protection of a round Robin. The Bishop soon gave a practical proof of his courage, for he set out on a tour of visitation before the disturbances had terminated, lest he might increase the panic in the country by putting off what had been long officially announced. In this tour he visited parts of the united dioceses where a bishop had not been for sixty years. In the time of famine, not only his personal exertions, but his purse, was ever ready to give assistance with a liberality* which considerably entangled himfor now what he studiously kept concealed may be told-he expended in the two years at Limerick more than 30007. above the income of his bishopric.

In the latter end of the year 1822, the Bishop was translated to the extensive and important bishopric of Leighlin and Ferns. How he conducted himself in that see may best be proved by the universal dismay which the account of his death occasioned. Though requiring a strict observance of discipline in his diocese,

* How necessary this was, one anecdote will be sufficient to shew. A landlord, whose rent-roll exhibited as many thousands as the Bishop's did hundreds, and whose wretched tenantry were the chief objects calling for relief, desired his agent to contribute to the general fund whatever sum the Bishop did!