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    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 Kaxs we

    shotdd 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 give 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 in

    the Crimea at the express instance of the French Government , after it was known that they were essential to tlie safety of the most 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 the door of any one , that blame , so far as the published evidence is concerned , must be laid upon the French Marshal .

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    \ LORD JOHN'S EDUCATION- PLAN . ^ Tjbe way to test the xeal merit of Lord John % i 7 SSEll ' s plan of national education is , not to ( compare it with the measure which any one party , or any single individual , would propose Were tlie question commencing now , but to compare it with the actual state of things . JfJa ny may think it absurd to wrap up religious instruction with secular instruction . If we are told that temporal instruction is not all in all , and that every child in this country

    Let us , then , suppose the bill founded on 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 have 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 law upon the subject , would be all consolidated in one volume , brought into one view , and rendered for the first time intelligible to tlie public . In some districts people voluntarily- contribute , or it is known that children will attend school in

    sufficient 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 , necessarily go without instruction altogether . If we rightly understand Lord John's measure , the districts that at present possess no schools would , within less than two years , have a school furnished with competent teachers ; and in those districts that possess schools , but do not afford sufficient accommodation for the whole

    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 means of being instructed in reading , writing , and arithmetic , history , geography , and the plainer branches of instruction . We have Seen the effect of such anX institution

    in Ireland . It is a great mistake to ascribe 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 amount of purchases . The thinning of population has 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 people very much to that plan of public education which has lby 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 keeping 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 manufacturing districts , a strong jealousy of female or

    juvenile labour . Any practical restriction , therefore , upon the employment of the young in 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 school , 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 cost . The only opposition to this measure is likely to como from the masters , and even upon them , in the long run , the pressure is not likely to bo appreciable .

    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 ¦;" . and , according to the doctrine of the same party , he 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 fcneV will be careful enough to obtain their

    temporal bread , they will frequently neglect their spiritual bread ; and we should , therefore , pass a law rendering every baker " bound to distribute some form of collect and prayer 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 tread . The same division of employment would be equally applicable to education . The National church is , by the condition of its

    early existence , bound to provide instruction for the whole people ; and we soarcely kpow 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 .

    Ass at present advised , the English people is not disposed to make the Church do its duity , but is disposed to make the public schools do the cluty 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 other arrangement ; and the praotical question is , whether we shall have public education on these terms , or no public education at all ? Wo should prefer the Manchester plan to Lord John ' s plan , but wo prefer Lord John ' s plan to no pjgin at all .

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    Two objections will be raised against the compulsory provisions fox 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 he deprived of common tuition , than it is important for the district to escape the impost wMch 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 tlie 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 efficiency and completeness . It will always "be open for a very intelligent and ambitious parish to beat the Privy Council and the parish school out of the field . In like manner any " persuasion" which is discontented with the amount of religious instruction enforced by Lord John ' s plan will be able to take the matter into its own hands : it has Imt

    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 better than the State .

    A certain number of our readers -will 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 be carried without some such

    condition . But as the condition stands in 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 child will be bound to stop and 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 , lie with the community itself virtually to repeal

    this part of the measure . As we said last week , the settlement of this question is handed 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 .

    If the public are not prepared to take so much upon themselves , they certainly -will not 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 of 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 . It remains to consider one obstacle to th < teaching of the young—th « ir early attendance at business . The facilities which Lord Join

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    March 15 , 1856 . ] THE LEADE B . __ ggL

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1856, page 253, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2132/page/13/