of that effort, one might be whimsically tempted to say, that, should a Government scheme be found impossible, the next best thing would be, the occasional threat of doing something! The effort referred to was a striking proof that voluntary and spontaneous are not always the same. It has often been matter of complaint, that the Minutes of Council have undergone so many changes. It is no complaint with us. On the contrary, we hope that they may undergo at least one more;-and that they will require the just condition, that every child shall be admissible to the general routine of every school that derives any of its funds from Government grants, without any reference to creed or catechism. As to the other changes in the Minutes-we regard those Minutes as tentative;-experiments instituted to see whether it may be possible to devise any methods which may unite the efforts and the suffrages of the great bulk of the people. There are two circumstances which render our impracticability as a nation in this matter, peculiarly mortifying. The first is, that, practically, there is little difficulty in the case: For there are schools among us-even large and flourishing Free Grammar schools-in which the children of Churchmen, and of Dissenters of all classes, receive education together; and in which we never hear either of infringement of religious liberty on the one side, or of the want of the Church Catechism on the other. It is only when we come to put down on paper our exquisite refinements respecting the theoretical perfection of religious liberty on the one hand, or the absolute duty of intermingling religion with all instruction on the other, that we are so hard to please. The second circumstance is, that a large portion of those for whom our educational efforts are required, do not now care one jot about either church or chapel;-they unhappily have not got far enough for that yet-and it would be an unmixed blessing to bring them under any system of regular instruction and discipline whatever. In their present condition, they are never likely to care much about either the Church Catechism or the Assembly's Catechism; the Confession of Faith or the Thirty-nine Articles; Apostolical Succession, or the Voluntary System. But they learn wonderfully soon, while we are disputing about such matters, to swear, gamble, lie, and steal; and, instead of being at school, find their way to prison. This is a fact, of which Mr Guthrie, the eloquent advocate of Ragged Schools, is well aware: and he has done as much as any man alive, to warn the public of their danger and their duty. But, unfortunately, he was not able to arrive in consequence at the same conclusion, which, from the Letter addressed by Dr Chalmers to Mr Fox Maule upon the subject, Dr Chalmers evidently had arrived at. But, whether any approach to unanimity as to the mode of remedying these evils is to be hoped for or not, we do trust that the nation will be roused to an adequate sense of the importance of the task; and distrust the fallacies which would render it impossible, by implying, either that certain classes of the population cannot be reached-or that, if they could, their education has less connexion with the prevention of crime than is generally supposed-or, in short, by anything which may encourage us to sit down in apathy. This, though not the design, is, we are assured, calculated to be the effect of some incautious representations which have fallen under our eye during the last twelvemonth. That the nation should feel intensely solicitous on this subject, is in our view much more important than the question of the mode in which the task is to be performed. It is a long way from adequately feeling its importance yet. When it does, it will be conscious that its life depends upon it; that it is not safe for a nation to retain in its bosom multitudes of neglected wretches, whose only instructors and examples are ignorance and vicewho, from a childhood of idleness and vice, pass on to a youth and manhood of crime-who, without any of the attributes or resources of a rational nature, exhibit little more than a fierce impatience of physical evil, and a fierce appetite for physical enjoyment. Shall we slumber till some great emergency-some dreadful economic or other crisis-reveals the capacities of evil which the volcanic depths of our society may now hide under but a thin crust? or shall we prosecute our ceaseless controversies on the subject, till that day comes? disputing upon the best possible mode of doing a necessary thing-till the hour of doing that necessary thing is almost past! Alas! we often fear, that, as armies have sometimes, in the eagerness of battle, been deaf to the roar of elemental strife around them, hardly the most appalling public exigencies will induce us so far to abate our bitter hostilities, as to lay to heart the grave perils of our common country-and with it, of that vital part of our religion, which, amidst all our controversies, may still, we trust, be described as our common Faith. No. CLXXV. will be published in January. 543 INDEX. A Ancillon, M., his character as an historian and courtier, 350. Archæology, study of, in the eighteenth century, 318. Arnold, Dr, on miracles, 411. Assisi, city of, birth-place of St Francis II., present condition of, 28. Austria, policy of, in endeavouring to prevent the rise of liberal go- Aylwin, D. C, on the operation of the navigation laws, 273. Azeglio, D', Marquis Massimo, on the present movement in Italy, B Bale, John, on the want of feeling of the English people in regard to Beaumont, Francis, personal history of, and of his family, 42. Beaumont and Fletcher, review of their works, as edited by Dyce, 42. Becket, Thomas à, birth-place of, note, 137. Bedford Level, account of, 458-physical structure and formation of the VOL. LXXXVI. NO. CLXXIV. 2 M Browne, J. Ross, his etchings and notes for, on whaling cruise, 67. C Canning, his political position with Pitt, 96. Charles I., his want of courtesy to the commissioners at Oxford, in Christian Evidences, views of the Anglo-Catholicism school, 397-of Coins, knowledge of, essential in antiquarianism, 316. Crime, on the punishment of, 513. Criminals, reports on the mode of disposing of, 214-maudlin senti- D D'Israeli, Benjamin, his Tancred' and other novels, 139-his Con- Donati, Corso, character of, 488. Drainage, effect of, on various soils, 443-in the fens of England, 458. Dyce, his edition of Beaumont and Fletcher reviewed, 42. E Eastlake, Charles Lock, on the materials for a history of oil painting, 188. Eccleston, James, on English antiquities, 307. Education, necessity of, 521-power of government to provide, and Emigration to America from Great Britain, 384. F Fergusson on the architecture of India, note, 325. Fletcher, John, sketch of, and of his connexion with Beaumont, 45. Foster, John, on the necessity of a compulsory system of education, note, 526. France, her patronage in antiquarian lore, 321. France, her policy in relation to the Papal States, 496. Franciscan Order, origin of, 17. Free Church of Scotland, sites for its places of worship, 503. George III., character of, 86. G German Empire, its overthrow by Napoleon, 337. Germany, from the Congress of Rastadt, to the battle of Jena, 328- Goethe, pernicious effect which several of his writings had, 342. Haerlem Lake, drainage of, 440. H Hardenberg, Prince, in his character and efforts as Prussian minister, Hearne, Thomas, his antiquarian researches, 315. Henkel, Count, his remarks on the condition of Prussia, 350. Hume on human responsibility, note, 399. I Immermann, on German literature, 346-his description of Halle. |