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Untitled Article
it may not yet be too late to see , in her case , how , when the two great educational influences are made to co-operate favourably , education may become the mightiest of all agents for good . In France the eagerness for education has been ( as it is
everywhere , as long as die people can form wishes and make them known ) very great ; and to themselves the people owe as much of it as they have gained . The different French governments have only conceded that which they could not obviate . Napoleon attempted to direct the national desire to his own purposes ; Louis XVIII . to baffle it ; Charles X . to abuse it ; and all to no
purpose . The progress of the nation has been hindered , not stopped . They have obtained enough of direct instruction to prepare them for the discipline of vicissitude . The two together have led them on , from being the ferocious , heartless mob of 1790 , to being the principled , intrepid army of good men that they
proved themselves in 1830 . Whatever there has been since of weakness and inconsistency in the conduct of the natiojn , must be mainly ascribed to a few unqualified leaders ; and whatever portion is chargeable upon the people , arises out of the imperfection of an education which has done great things as far as it has gone .
This education is imperfect both as to extent and efficiency , though it is far beyond what England can boast . In some of the northern departments , one in ten of the inhabitants is educated ; in some of the lower , one in two hundred and fifty only . Yet , limited as has been the advantage , its effects have been apparent , not only in improvements in morals and manners , but in matters
which admit of calculation ; and this in proportion to the degree of education imparted . The value of private property increases with the spread of enlightenment , and the best educated departments contribute the largest portions towards the exigencies of the state . Wherever there are the most primary schools , and schools of mutual instruction , revenue , public and private , is on the
increase ; and instead of the anomalous spectacle presented in Ireland , of gaols full of persons who can read and write , the criminal class in France is composed of the uninstructed , while the guardians of the public order , of which we hear so much , are the children of those who demanded education as one of the rights of the social state .
England ^ in great measure free from the oppressions which have corrupted Ireland , and the internal misrule which has perplexed and tormented France , has not yet tried the experiment of education on a large scale and a secure footing . If she bad , the oppressions of Ireland might , ere this , have ceased , and Great
Sritain have been in a situation to yield moral guidance and succour to France , instead of thinking it a privilege to look on and wonder at the integrity and enlightenment of the rival nation . England is worthy of the boon ior which she i « now looking up to her rulers—worthy in all but in oot having yet obtained it .
Untitled Article
692 National Educ&lioiu
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1832, page 692, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1822/page/42/
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