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JSurope will be her opportunity , and we trust the universal aspiration for independence will be found in the hour of need to triumph over all disintegrating and disuniting factions . ; . . , Poland , again , stands on a footing entirely different . " There were anti-popular defects in her constitution "—but what country had them not when Poland was parcelled ? Had ( Germany none , or Prance , or Ireland , or Scotland ? " Nations are bound to defend themselves "—true ; but Poland sank under
a conspiracy of powers . " She has become Bussianised , and is unfit for freedom now , would not even wish it" —a sad warning , if the statement be true , as to the fate of other nations upon whom Russia has been marching . But let us try . Other nations have been enslaved , and have yet survived : Hungary still lives , Spain is not Moorish , Flanders is not French or Dutch , nor is Holland Spanish . When last Poland stood alone , she was one of the best bulwarks of Europe ; and
Austria owes her a heavy debt . Moreover , while Russian , she is a fort for the Czar , of enormous scale—a kingdom fort , overawing Prussia and threatening Austria . Sebastopbl is far less important than Poland as a Russian stronghold threatening Europe ; is it possible to convert the Russian stronghold into a bulwark against Russia , with a resident and a native guard animated by all its old military fire , and a new gratitude for its restorers ?
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THE PAKINGTON NATIONAL . _ — SCHOOLS . " Whatetee may be the fate of Sir John Pakington ' s Bill , the fact of-its introduction by him , its welcome by Government ,-and its reception by the House of Commons , constitute great facts in the progress of education , and of all things which have hitherto been obstructed by religious bigotry it offers a mode by which those who have been at war on the subject of religion may escape from the conflict and agree upon , measures of practical utility for the people . Hitherto while all
admit the necessity of general education * refuse to agree upon any one plan . Voluntaryism is despair ; Secular education has appeared to be inost in ~ advance ; but the Secularists go violently in the teeth of the mass of public opinion in this country ; and even if it were quite desirable to divorce religious instruction from temporal instruction ,, under the circumstances of the country as they are likely to exist for some time to come , it would be simply impossible . The measure which Lord JonN Russell intends to introduce is
not explained , but hitherto it has been , properly speaking , not national at all , it has only consisted in some State patronage for schools of particular classes , and is so far an extension of the British and Foreign or National School systems . Sir John Pakin gton ' s plan combines the principles of voluntary initiation , followed by compulsory maintenance of schools . He proposes that the country shall be considered in towns and districts coincident with the Poor-law divisions ; that a majority of the ratepayers shall determine whether or not a school shall be established , the school once
established to be supported by a compulsory rate , but to receive an auxiliary contribution from Government . Existing schools would qualify themselves to receive the rate , upon complying with a certain condition quite in harmony with the condition in the new schools . The creed to bo taught in the schools would be determined by the same majority of the ratepayers ; but all schools enrolled under the system , and receiving aid from Government ,, would be required to admit any children for instruction , whatever the persuasion of the parents , and to abstain
from forcing upon those children the creed taught in the schools . This plan , therefore , leaves the promoters of all existing schools undisturbed ; permits them to become national on easy conditions ; and secures public education for all creeds , wherever any public school exists . It creates a minimum of disturbance , while securing a maximum of improvement . ion in this
The treatment of relig plan strikes us as beiug an event of the highest importance for the future of this country . It indicates an advancement of liberal feeling in the party to which Sir Join * Pakington belongsj and a fortiori in the country at large . It distinctly recognises absolute freedom of conscience for all creeds whatsoever ; absolute equality of the right to be taught for the children of all persuasions ; absolute freedom from any authoritative dictate of a belief . If
the Church , or any number of churches in the country , were efficient in their duty , and were publicly to explain to pupils in the presence of parents , and under the surveillance of public opinion , the fundamental truths and general beliefs on the subject of religion , there would be no necessity to supply that branch of instruction in the schools . The Church would be the school in that behalf . But the Church does not do its duty ; its professors are engaged , not in enforcing the
fundamental truths of religion , but far more in enforcing the definitive dogmata of creed , and in defending , the property of the Church as the property of the servants of the Church . The parish church has thus become , not the spiritual school of the parish , but the close property of ^ -particular sect , often a minority in the parish ; and its scholastic duties are entirely in abeyance . Now we-do not think that it is for the" advantage of mankind that religious ideas should remain absolutely
untaught even to the youug . _ It is true of ^ rehgion , as it is of all vital truths , that it is received by the instinctive perceptions ; and however the adult mind may crave more specific definitions , even the youthful minds will ask for some explanation . It is well , therefore , if the explanation can be such as the intelligence of the community can furnish , and not the crude conjectures of ignorance or p . uerjlity . ___ If _ mu _ cb . of error is mixed with truth , as a great deal of inert useless matter ia mixed up with the mass of our usual food , it does not follow that
the truth should be entirely withheld , any more than starvation would be better than feeding upon adulterated nutriment . Thus , on abstract grounds , we recognise the duty of including religion amongst the things taught . The necessity is clenched by the fact that the great bulk of the people of this country will not permit education to be given without religious teaching . That we take to be a great fact . In the meanwhile , then , until a purer idea of religion can be refined from the dross , the public will persevere in taking dross and truth together , and both with educational food .
But Sir John Pakinoton ' s Bill constitutes an advance , we believe , in the refinement of religion , and in the emancipation of this country from anti-religious sects . In proportion as the country is elevated , in proportion as it is enabled by intellectual culture to compare the dogmata of ignorance with the " common things" that are beat appreciated
by the highest philosophers , and best illustrate the great laws of the universe , so will it be strengthened to discriminate between the purity and dross of religion . Tho children taught at Sir John Pakjlngton ' s schools would , upon the whole , entertain a purer faith than their progenitors , and would transmit to their descendants' a yob purer faith than their own .
There is an important ecclesiastical principle laid down in this Bill . It is that the local majority shall determine the local doctrine . The Church has parted with its power over the minds of the people , by neglecting its school-keeping and school-teaching duties . The funds intended for that purpose have been impropriated to the ostentation or luxury of the clergy ! Sir John Paexngton has discovered the means of a just but not a vindictive retribution , upon the Church for
that dereliction of duty . He has admitted the principle of a sound spiritual commonwealth—that the doctrine taught shall be that of the majority . But a community taught a particular doctrine will hardly tolerate a local Church repugnant to that doctrine , and the children taught in Sir John Pakington ' s schools will one day learn their
right to extend the principle of the school to the Church , and the doctrine taught in the church of the parish will be determined by the religious belief of the majority . We shall then have the true Church of the people of England , for which JSir John is preparing the way by offering to us the school of the people of England ; the rights of the minority being amply respected in the absolute freedom given to dissidents .
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NOT THE LEAST DIFFICULT OF THE FOUR POINTS . We have reason to hope that the present Ministry will be compelled to abandon that ruinous system , half war and half peace , which has paralysed the operations of armies and confounded the * perverse ingenuity of diplomatists . - Whether we have war or peace , whether midst
the war be a contest of giants , in the of which the rights of the people of Europe will be sacrificed , or the peace be merely a truce for a few years , during which Russia will more fully prepare her strength against Europe , it is certain that the independence of the Ottoman Empire , which was the first pretext for the conflict , will be secured for the moment , at least in the treaties , by the Allied Powers . But what will be the case in
the interior of that Empire ? It will be easily perceived that , while armies are fighting and negotiations pending , while " clTplomatiBts - agitate and statesmen discusSjWhile the conscientious friends of rational freedom hope , and conspirators ( regal or patriotic ) i > lot , Turkey , that apple of discord thrown four centuries since into the midst of Europe , exhausts her finances and wastes her vitality to preserve an empire , which no ' human efforts can sustain , unless those barriers , which oppose the irresistible march of civilisation , be overthrown . Now , this is precisely the difficulty in
Turkey . It is a political and social question , each side of which has its importance , and reacts on the other . Every thinking man must be aware , that to base the reform of Mahometan society at once on the system of civilisation established in Europe , would be as tyrannical as to impose the government of the Poi > J 3 on England , and quite as difficult as to construct European society on tho systumoi the I lmlansteries of F oubijsr . If the Ottoman limiire were composed of one race only , whoso
p manner * and belief wore similar , then a civilisation aui generis would have been possible , and , though far removed from tho loim it has taken in Christendom would perhaps have been equal to it in its results . But tho question now i » : Can Islaimsm engraft the principles , of Christian civilisation , or reconcile itself to Christianity without an act of suicide ? Can the various races exist together with ¦ equal rights , and powers without destroying each other ? Theso quea-
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March 24 , 1855 . ] THE LEADER . 277
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 24, 1855, page 277, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2083/page/13/
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