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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
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BICHARD COBDEN AND NATIONAL EDUCATION . When Peel was brought to see that the time was ripe for the abolition of the Corn Laws , every one knew that they would soon be abolished : we may as confidently assert that , now Richard Cohden has identified himself with the great and truly
statesmanlike scheme of Public Education put forth by the Lancashire Public School Association , the movement has passed from that of a mere agitation into a national necessity , which cannot long be postponed . Last week he appeared as the inspiring leader of men of thought , men of influence , and men of action , all earnestly pledged to the realization of a noble scheme . His accession is almost
tantamount to a national sanction . Not only is he master of all the effective tactics of agitation , but the influence of his name will in itself be an agitation . He brings to the subject great sagacity , unusual power of elucidating a question , of so massing its facts , as to drive his convictions with irresistible momentum home to the English mind , and he also brings that invaluable fortitude so nobly described by one of our old dramatists , as
" Not the appetite Of formidable things , nor inconsult Hastiness ; but virtue fighting for a truth , Derived from knowledge of distinguishing Good from bad causes . " One evidence of his sagacity is seen in the very alteration he suggested , which converts the Lancashire Public School Association into the National Public School Association , thus giving a dignity and extension to the movement without in the slightest degree weakening it . His speeches , both
at the Conference and the meeting , are weighty with grave thought , and eminently adapted to conciliate and to convince . He pointedly calls to mind the superiority of this agitation over that of all other great questions in the fact , that nobody opposes it on its merits , nobody says Education is a had thing , on the contrary , all are now agreed that it is a good thing , perhaps the best of things ; nor can any one declare that we have Education
enough . " The community , " he says , " admits the object you seek is desirable ; nobody has a plan opposed to yours on which people will unite ; the existing system which the Government has put forth , as a proof that something is doing , is such an utter failure that all parties are ready to repudiate it . " This certainly does clear the field for action . Collect your troops , and the day is won .
The great obstacle to the scheme is religious alarm . The Church , with canine infelicity of temper , will not educate the people , still less will it suffer any other body to educate them . It declares that secular education is godless , and will propagate infidelity . The pitiable weakness confessed in this alarm , the contempt of all logic , the monstrous perversion of the plainest notions of common sense we scorn to examine . If reading , writing , arithmetic , geography , and the broad facts of history and science cannot be
acforward and tell us we are going to give an irreligious education ! " Nothing can be clearer than this : either the Church fund is a school fund , and it is the duty of the Church to educate the Peoplein which case it has grossly neglected its duty—or the Church has only to concern itself with religious teaching , and must leave secular instruction in other hands . We leave the Church to choose the horn of this dilemma on which it prefers to be spiked .
Another argument Cobden used is very striking . Alluding to the Catholic demonstration , he shows that in a Protestant community it is indispensable for men to be able to read , at least , the Bible , for the assumption that man has a private judgment and indulges it , is the foundation of Protestantism , so that " the sincere Protestant , the religious man ,
who opposes us for wishing to teach the children of the universal church to read , is standing in the way of the progress of those very religious doctrines which he is bound by his own conscientious convictions to defend . " " Help us , at least , " he exclaims , " to give the People the power to read the Scriptures in their mother tongue . " We do not see how the Protestants can get over that .
There was one sentence in the speech of the American visitor , the Reverend Dr . Bacon , which was a flash of light . Referring to his country where education is universal , he said , " We depend there upon the ministers of religion to make the People , if they can , be a Christian People ; and , then , we have no fear but the common schools will be as the People are , for whose use they are
intended , and who have the control over them . " Indeed , the speeches were all full of interest and good pith ; but the great triumph was the hearty adhesion of Richard Cobden . The movement has now a noble cause , a powerful army , and an accomplished leader ; let the throbbing thunder of the drums startle into earnestness a Government that only moves upon pressure from without !
cessible to the people at large without involving , as a necessary consequence , the rejection of religion , we must think a religion so weak unworthy of preservation . But foolish as the religious antagonism is , therein lies the real obstacle ; and Cobden is right in boldly facing it , grappling it , and even welcoming it , that he may " drag the hideous monster into day . " Some of his thrusts are those fact like
of a master of fence . No one can use a he . Give him a pebble for his sling , and Goliah soon feels it dash against his forehead . Thus he recals the fact that in this country we pay eight millions a-year to the teachers of religion , yet , when a scheme is set on foot to teach grammar and writing to the neglected people , and to teach them without taking from the Church one shilling of its eight millions , " they have the effrontery to come
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GUY FAWKES . Maudlin philanthropists preaching about " tolerance" have of late years endeavoured to put down the national pastime and religious demonstration of Guy Fawkes ; to the indignation of all rightminded boys . Fortunately the Pope has interfered , and by an atrocious usurpation of all England , has reinstated Guy in his pristine favour .
I see no reason why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot . Is not Guy a symbol at once of our religious earnestness , and of God ' s loving care for England ? The execrable monster had his powder barrels ready , but the eye of Providence was upon him , and now he blazes aloft amidst squibs and Roman candles , while jubilant throats howl at him ! Put down Guy Fawkes ! It would be a pact with Antichrist . The Fifth of November is an
evermemorable day , and , by making it a recurring pastime for British youth , we keep alive their attachment to the glorious principles of the Reformation , and a Christian uncharitableness towards the scarlet enemy . Archdeacon Bentinck does not hesitate to say that God ' s favour to his chosen Israelites was paralleled in his guarding us from the Popish Plot—and he ought to know . Never in our remembrance were the Guys so magnificent as on Tuesday last : they formed quite a national pageant , and brought home to the least
reflecting a sense of the iniquity and ridiculousness of Rome , with her " wafer gods" and red stockings . The mind naturally contrasted the fopperies of Catholicism with the " purity of the Gospel" as manifested in our church ; red stockings so absurd , and lawn sleeves so respectable Cardinal Wiseman made a superb " Guy , " and the Protestant heart of man yelled out its scorn at the symbol of an ambitious theocracy . Accordingly
wanted a memento of victory . And this is what maudlin philanthropy would do away with ! Contemplate a Guy as he is borne under your windows : is he not a perfect symbol of Popery ? In the first place he is a sham . He is stuffed with shavings , rags , and refuse , — fit representants of Popish doctrines . He is a spectacle to captivate the ignorant and wondering crowd ; he is supported only
by a basis of ignorance and loud voices . There is no pulse of life in him , no speculation in his eyes ; he is a mere remnant of past superstition . The only light he carries is a dark lanthorn—symbol of untranslated scriptures!—while the pipe in his mouth typifies the sensualism of his nature . Around him shout and dance a crowd of
mercenary devotees , demanding money in his name to spend in " indulgences" and fireworks . If that be not the Pope , who can it be ? And seeing how the masses are affected by symbols and instructed by them , is it not madness to talk of abolishing such concrete philosophy as we find in Guy Fawkes ? We tell the British Protestant that unless Guy be held sacred as " an institution" Protestant babies will be roasted in Smithfield—nothing less ; and let the Mothers of England reflect on that !
showers of pence " remembered the Guy , " glorious bonfires wafted him to the clouds . Ah ! it was a great day for England : it brought out the real British feeling : it showed our attachment to Protestantism and our love of fireworks . If precipitate ambition did ever hope to Romanize England , Tuesday last must have given it a lesson . It showed plainly enough that if Pio Nono ever place his foot on our shores the brewers will Haynau him .
A boy of our acquaintance remarked with great sagacity that he should have been sorry if Guy Fawkes had not attempted to blow up the House * of Parliament , " because then we should have had no Guys . " That is to say , youth would have wanted a noble pastime , and Protestantism have
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" FOR GOD AND THE PEOPLE . " The unanimity of the unenfranchised in demanding the Suffrage is one great and cogent reason why it should be conceded to them . On other questions they may not be united . They may differ as to the policy of mixing up demands for Social Reform with those which they are making for the restitution of their Political Rights . Their feelings may vary with regard to the question , whether Church and State should be connected or
severed ; whether Education should be secular or sectarian , voluntary or governmental . They may hesitate to pronounce in favour of sanitary centralization , albeit fully and painfully aware of the necessity of reform in that direction . Between Free Trade and Protection , Association and Competition , they may be divided or indifferent . On matters of detail " they may be uncertain or undecided : but on those which concern their political
emancipation , Universal Suffrage among the number , they are united and determined . Ask any intelligent , earnest man o £ the working classes his idea of the means by which the wrongs of his class may be redressed ! Run over to him all the subsidiary reforms which men are now seeking in different spheres and in different manners 1 He will tell you these are all very well in their way , but that his class would be sure of them , and of much more than them , if they had but the Suffrage .
So far , indeed , has this conviction prevailed among the People , as to be made a matter of reproach to them on the part of their opponents . They are changing their policy , it is true , and combining with their agitation for the franchise and its attendant measures , efforts for social improvements in which many of their best friends are deeply interested ; but their estimate of the former is not affected by their recognition of the value of the latter . Political privilege is still paramount in their hearts .
And that which is paramount in the hearts of a People , who shall dare deny them ? This conviction of prevalence so universal as to be cherished by a whole class , is sufficient earnest that the claims of that class must be sooner or later conceded . And why not concede these frankly and cordially at once , rather than wait until you are compelled ; until enmity , jealousy , and ill-will , repay your compulsory surrender , instead of the fraternal mutual trust and good understanding which always follow
timely and generous recognition of rights , and abolition of unjust restrictions ? What folly to halt at the threshold of Reform , when to cross it would feet you at one with the masses who now distrust you ! Why stand still and prate about " household suffrage , " which is but exclusiveness in another form ; when , by making" universal suffrage " your watchword , you would at once win the millions to your side , and make the possession of immortal mind the test of citizenship rather than that of dead , material , brick and mortar ?
This universal prevalence of the suffrage idea , justifies and ensures that idea ' s fulfilment . It is the intuitive sense of their own rights and their own power to gain them which animates the many against all opposition and under all discouragements . This is God ' s work among them , and work that nrvor is in vain . Difficulties rise in its path , the idea overleaps them all . Ignorance stands dull and darkling in the way ; tho idea
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SATURDAY , NOVEMBER 9 , 1850 .
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There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to Iceep things fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation m its eternal progress . —Dr . Arnold .
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Nov . 9 , 1850 . ] qzfye VLeaitev . 779
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 9, 1850, page 779, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1858/page/11/
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