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Leader (1850-1860), 5th April 1851, Edition Country of 2, Page 19, April 5, 1851.] ffftC &£&&£?« 327

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      April 5, 1851.] Ffftc &£&&£?« 327

      April 5 , 1851 . ] ffftC & £ && £ ?« 327

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      V , [In This Department, As All Opinions...

      V , [ IN THIS DEPARTMENT , AS ALL OPINIONS , HOfflVER EXTREME . ARE ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , THE EDITOR NECESSABILY HOLDS HIMSELF RESPONSIBLE FOB NONE . ]

      There Is No Learned Man But Will Confess...

      There is no learned man but will confess he hathmucli profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and bis judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to -write . —Milton .

      Cation, Has Drawn A True Picture Of The ...

      cation , has drawn a true picture of the condition of the Prussian people even under their much-dreaded scheme . He says , " education , properly so-called , is closely associated with change—is its pioneer—is the never-sleeping agent of revolution—is always fitting men for higher things , and unfitting them for things as they are . " ( C . 26 , § 7 . ) Now , has not the education of Prussia done this ? In the last attempts made there to gain a free constitution and to force the craven king to keep his oft-broken promises , were not the chief agents and actors men who had been educated in these very schools which our author so much deprecates ? And is it not one of the arguments made use of against the establishment of even

      similar institutions , to say nothing of a true system of national education , in this country ; that they unfit men for the daily labour of life ; make them discontented with things as they are ; fill them , full of revolutionary ideas ; in short , do all that Mr . Spencer says is the work of " education , properly so called ? " Now , if in Prussia , with its censor-ruled press , its want of any of the elements of popular government , such is the effect of the system , there established , how much , are we not justified in expecting from a freer and better system being established in this country , in which the press is comparatively free , and popular opinion one of the chief ruling powers ?

      One fatal mistake seems to pervade the whole chapter . National education is made synonymous with state-imparted education . Now , this is not necessarily and consequently the case . The one may be without the other . It by no means follows that because the state permits the people to tax themselves for the education of their children , that it shall be the schoolmaster , take up the ferule , and become a pedagogue . Further on Mr . Spencer asks , rather triumphantly , 11 What is education" ? The difficulties of furnishing a definition seem to have a sufficient argument for repudiating a national system . He continues , " what peculiar quality is there in reading , writing , and arithmetic , which gives the embryo citizen a right to have

      ' HERBERT SPENCER ON NATIONAL EDUCATION . Edward-street , Birmingham , March 10 , 1851 . * *" SrB , —In a work recently published by Mr . Herbert Spencer on Social Statics , a chapter is devoted to the important question of national education , in which the author advocates the continuance of the present ineffectual no-system , and deprecates any interference on the part of the state whatsoever . On this chapter I would beg to make a few remarks , prefacing them with , my thanks to Mr . Spencer for his very valuable addition to ethical science , and with the heartiest concurrence in most of the conclusions to which he has arrived , though almost entirely differing from him in this .

      them imparted to him ; but Avhich quality is not shared in by geography , and history , and drawing , and the natural sciences" ? ( C 26 , § 2 . ) I answer nothing at all . Education should embrace all these , and many more things . There may be , and is , great difference in respect to what a good education means . But all are agreed that each and every art and science are a part of education . In a national system I would include all the arts and sciences , leaving to the pupils the choice , after a good general primary education had been given , of learning those most to his taste , or most in accordance with his future association . Hut to me it seems a strange conclu aion that , because we differ in the definition , of a good education , the people shall not receive any .

      Our author next alludes to the narrow continental system , and endeavours to show by example the ill effects of national education . Here the mistake of confounding national with state education is ugnin made . But , without demurring at this , let us see if the facts adduced make out the case . France , and Austria , and Prussia , and China are given as exampleH of its power for destroying freedom and establishing kingly despotism and priestly rule . He says , " , from the proposition that Government ought to teach religion , there springs the other proposition that Government must decide what is religious truth , and how it is to he sought : so the assertion that Government ought to educate necessitates the further assertion that it must say what education is , and how it shall be conducted . " ( C . 2 ( 5 , $ 3 . ) Tho inference

      from this is , that Government will train upthe future population according to its ow n pattern , making in future generations a subservient and obedient population , ever ready to be the instrument of their rulers ' will , tho tools of their rulers' caprice . Tho condition of t he peoples of the continent is a dduced in proof of this . Now , I affirm thut experience ; is against our author here . Austrian people are not willing slaves to the despotism which rules over them , and whose rule ia canker to their hearts and wormwood to their tastes . The mighty standing armies required to keep them in subjection is proof of this . Tho attempts made to throw off the yoke uro proof of thin . Again , the people of Prussia are not willing slaves to the weak , vacillating , dishonest Frederick William . Mr . Spencer , in stating the natural results of free , in opposition to stute , or , us ho calls it , mitional

      edu" How unfriendly , " says Mr . Spencer , " all ecclesiastical bodies have been to the spread of education , every one knows . " ( C . 26 , § . 7 ) . Is not the opposition which such bodies ever presented to the establishment of national education in England , and the great obstacles they have ever thrown in the way , a strong reason in our favour ? There are many other things in the chapter , concerning which , did space allow , I should have been glad to have said a few words . The utter forgetfulness of the solemn unity of a national life , and the consequent importance that every member therein should be educated , and the duty of society to see that such duty be fulfilled , manifested throughout

      the chapter is strange . The necessity laid upon the author to make every conclusion agree with his own beautifully simple premise , that " every man has freedom to do all that he wills , provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man" ( p . 2 , c . 4 , § 1 ) , has obscured for his mind the fact that the ignorant man almost necessarily infringes upon the equal freedom of other men , and that to educate him is one of the chief means of making him capable of carrying out this our author's first principle . And also that it is idle to tell an uneducated man that he has liberty to freely exercise all his faculties , when in such a state of ignorance it is impossible for him to do so . Trusting that in your proposed notice of the work of Mr . Spencer , to whom I again tender my thanks , you will more fully discuss this important question , Believe me , dear Sir , yours most truly , John Alfked Langfohd .

      Government Not A Superfluity. Cambo Morp...

      GOVERNMENT NOT A SUPERFLUITY . Cambo Morpetli , March 20 , 1831 . Sin , —In your review of that original , humanizing , and excellent work , Spencer ' s Social Statics , in No . 61 of your truly independent and highly intellectual paper , you say " as we think the function of Government is large , and that it is needed to govern society , as well as protect it . " Now , it appears to me that in the act of protecting society governing necessarily follows ; justice is the source of protection ; people inclined to injure their fellow-creatures will be prevented from doing so hy just restraint , which restraint implies governing ; thus no explanation is needed to " govern society , " as it naturally follows protection . Yours faithfully , Ahtjiuh Tukvulyan .

      The Wood Pavement. March 2g, Ls. R )L. S...

      THE WOOD PAVEMENT . March 2 G , lS . ) l . Siu , —Ah the feeling of noble indignation against cruelty to animals seems to be dormant , if not entirely extinguished , in the society for its suppression , and as the parishes in which wooden pavements are laid are prevented by certain contracts from ridding themselves of that most perfect of all snures laid for that most useful of all animals , the horse , it is but just that persons who are neither vestrymen , nor exoflicio sympathizers with the suffering animals , should take tho eauae in their hands , and either , like Mr . W . G alia way , point out the evil , and complain of tho existence of such a pit-fall as the wood pavements become hi frosty weather , or suggest memiH b y which the evil could be avoided in spite of tho said pavement being preserved . Allow me , Sir , to suggest , through your valuable Open Council , a remedy generally adopted in Poland , where —as is well known—the horses are frequently obliged to cro ; -H frozen rivers , lakes , or travel for several hundred inilcK on snowy roads , which are rendered ho slippery by thti traflic of sledges , that they become- as smooth as glnHH , and yet the horses never fall , because in winter they are differently shod to what they art ) in summer . The difference between the summer and winter shoe in , that the latter has , besides tho two heel-crooks , a , a , o , a tooth , b , b , at the top of the

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      The Wood Pavement. March 2g, Ls. R )L. S...

      shoe , having almost the shape of an eye-tooth , which , with the two heel-crooks , forming a regular tripod , gives a firm footing to each of the four legs of the horse ; and , moreover , the sharpness of the tooth b prevents them from slipping .

      The Wood Pavement. March 2g, Ls. R )L. S...

      There are some people in this country who think that the horses thus shod would wound themselves with the tooth of the shoe ; but that could only happen with horses who forge , i . e ., whose toes of their hind hoofs reach the fore-heels whilst trotting ; and , in such cases , which are exceedingly rare , the Poles only furnish the fore-hoofs with tooth shoes . The French winter shoes are riveted to the hoofs with nails having pointed and more protruding heads than those used for the summer shoes , a remedy which is scarcely less inefficient than is the English roughshoeing" . I am , Sir , your most obedient servant , A Pole .

      7, John-Street, New-Road, March 25, 1851...

      7 , John-street , New-road , March 25 , 1851 . Sir , —In the Morning Advertiser of yesterday , I find the following gratifying piece of intelligence , which , if you please , you may add to my last communication : — " St . Marylebone Vestry , Saturday , March 22 , 1851 . — A report was brought up from the Oxford-street Committee , recommending the immediate removal of all the wood paving from that thoroughfare between ltegentcircusand Wells-street , on account of its disgraceful and dangerous state , and the substitution of granite cube paving . The report was unanimously adopted . " Singular enough , this is precisely the spot where so many accidents occurred , and to which I referred in my letter to the Morning Advertiser of Dec . 21 , and reprinted in your Journal on the 15 th instant . What makes the matter worse is , that there happened to be several of the St . Marylebone vestrymen residing in the very street in front of whose doors so many animals lay stretched and damaged vehicles scattered . The common dictates of humanity , as well as a proper sense of business as public men , one would suppose , would have induced the gentlemen , eyewitnesses as they must have been of the evils of this now universally admitted dangerous roadway , to have token public notice of it at their meeting on the following day ( Saturday ) . After a lapse of only three months , we at length behold these parochial M . P . ' s bestirring themselves in right earnest . Yours , & c , W . G .

      Eii'ect Op Emotion Upon Sknsks.—I Rememb...

      Eii'ect op Emotion upon Sknsks . —I remember a lady whose mind is not very collected under excitements , at Ascot Races , looking anxiously to see the Emperor of Russia driven past . lie drove paat a few yards from us . We had a cupitul sight of him ; but this lady saw nothing . She might as well have been at home . If emotions ao blind the sense , how much more do they obscure the understanding ! When any interest or prejudice is stronger than the love of truth , truth will suffer . The blindness , b'ith as regards the sense and the mind , often arises from our looking for something different from the fact . And , again , we oft-n invest an object with a form it has not , or evidence with conclusions forgone . How careful we should be to keep the mind steady and clear — Atkinson and Martineau ' s Letters on Man .

      Iikaltll Of London During The Week. (Fro...

      IIKALTll OF LONDON DURING THE WEEK . ( From the Registrur-Clencrara Report . ) The deaths registered in the Metropolitan districttTin the Jim three weeks of March were succi . 'SHively 12 i 7 , 1401 , und 1412 ; and in the last week they were 1418 . If the ten weeks of 1811-50 , corresponding to lunt week are taken for cninpuriuon , it apneurs that the lowest number occurred in the corresponding week of 1812 , and whb 8 . '> 2 ; and that the highest occurred ia that of 1818 , und was 129-1 . The average of the ten weeks was 107 < l , which , if corrected according to tho assumed rate of increase in the population , namely 1 * 66 per cent , annually , becomes 1171 . Lust week ' s return , therefore , exhibits an excess on the estimated amount of 247- Hut it is HiUisfactory to observe that this apparent increase is not due entirely to the complaints which have recently swelled the weekly contributions of mortality . A number of cases on which coroners' inquests have been held have been ullowed to accumulate for some weeks , and now ut tho end of tho quarter appear for the first time in the re ^ isterbookn . Suuill-pox continues to grow lesn fatal , and only 12 cases were registered last week from this diseuse . The births of 1 ) 47 boys and 8 . KJ girls , in ull 1780 children , were registered in the week . The average of 0 corre-Bnonding weeks in theyeura 1846-60 , was 1610 ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 5, 1851, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05041851/page/19/