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Jan. 14, I860.] The Leader and'Saturday\...
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THE SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD. THE schoolmaste...
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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.
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M. Bastiat. It Has Lung* Ngo Been .Remar...
proving the mechanism of which he is a part . Newton , it is said , « fter he ascertained the great law of attraction , never pronounced the name of the Deity without uncovering his head . Agreeing entirely with Dr . Whate ^ T ; M . Bastxat says : " In proportion as intelligence is superior to matter , so is the social world superior to -the world-which Newton admired , ' forthe celestial mechanism obeys laws of which it is not conscious : How much more reason then have we to how our head before the eternal wisdom , when we ascertain the consequences of the social mechanism ? In it the universal idea prevails , mens agitut molem ,- but in it , moreover , is this extraordinary phenomenon , that every atom is an animated beihar , endowed with that marvellous energy , the principle of all morality , of all dignity , of all progress—Libeety , the exclusive attribute of man . " Not endorsing " every word in this passage , believing that we are not entitled to say positively that matter is not conscious of the laws it obeys , we quote it as indicating the leading object of M . Bastiat ' s great work . . . ' . /
, ., , „ ,.. , His political economy has a much wider scope than the political economy of our writers . It includes all wants , all exertions , and all gratifications , except those which fill the delightful regions of sympathy . At the same time , the principles which prevail in it are few . Want gives birth to exertion , and the gratification is the reward . Want , exertion , and gratification all centre in the individual , and as the exertion is only made to have the gratification , if this be intercepted the reason for making- the exertion ceases . This shows the origin of property , which , as Mr . M'Gulloch says , has a deeper foundation than the law of the land . A parent makes exertions to supply his offspring ' s wants as well as his own ; hence property ( not including land ) without the intervention of law , passes from parents to children . But parents and children form a family
which has common wants and a common means of satisfying them . Families'form . ¦ a community , communities make up the whole of human society . As the individual is born in a family or makes part of a family , so all the individuals of the race are born hi society , and all have a common means of satisfying wants . Born in a family men cannot be otherwise than gregarious . All are subject to similar wants , which stimulate exertions common to all . They begin in a family , extend to a community , and from one community t . o another . We are thus all created to help one another , and what is called division of labour shows how the kuv operates . It is the natural
results of man being born in a family . Now observation has taught us that the consequence of the Common exertions dictated by common wants , is that a vast abundance of things are produced which an isolated man could not possibly produce * and each one now con :-sunies more , or obtains riiore in a single day , than ,, by his unaided -exertions , he could obtain in ten centuries . Population , however , is continually increasing ; the help or services of the mass tor each individual increases as the mass increases , and so , helping each other , the power of multiplying enjoyment increases with population . This is another great harmony , the result of painful wants prompting to individual exertion . .
Throughout society the wants and exertions common to the most distant people lead them , in process of time , by trade or exchange to serve each other , just as the members of a family and of a community serve each other . Their mutual services are every day paid or rewarded by their mutual Exchanges of one commodity—the representative of one service- !— for another . All are served ; and remark * that great as is unfortunately the destitution of many individuals in our political societies , from political causes , the poorest beggar , the merest pauper , unless absolutely starved to death , has more gratifications than any isolated individual , or even than sparsely-scattered savages , can command . Throughout society one design is apparent ; it is carried out in all its parts by similar motives , or one and the same exquisite mechanism .
Such is a brief notice of M . Bastiat ' s principles , and we are glad to see that a translation of his work is announced by Mr . Murkay . Though the author did not live to complete it , the translation , if reasonably well executed , cannot fail to improve our political ^ cpnomy . It will enlarge the views both of writers and readers . M . Bastiat ' s great merit is to substitute man in his dissertations for commodities , an # to represent all exchanges to be of services , not merely of money—a mere measure of services ; nor of goods , a mere means of gratification . Wo doubt , however , whether M . Basttat is quite true to his own principles , when he speaks somewhat slightingly of the English philosophers for attending exclusively to wealth . If that be considered as it ought to be , merely as an index to well being , in a system so harmonious every single part must bo ; like any one bone of an animal in the hands of an Owen , a clue to the whole .
Jan. 14, I860.] The Leader And'saturday\...
Jan . 14 , I 860 . ] The Leader and ' Saturday \ Analyst . 39
The Schoolmaster Abroad. The Schoolmaste...
THE SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD . THE schoolmaster , wo all know , is abroad . The object howovcr of his peregrinations at this particular period , is not tho destruction of ignorance , but tho acquisition , of scholars . The pnpilhunting" season is at its height . When we behold a group of young-• children disporting themselves merrily at spino Christmas party , wo look upon thorn with tho same foulings of pity as wp watch u bovy of young partridges whirring through ' tho air , on souio Into sultry August tiny . . Poor hapless imiocents , little do thoy wot of their impending 1 / ate , pf tho snart-s . that surround their infant lootstops . In tho ignorance of chijdhood thoy novpr dnmim that a hundred hungry pedagogues » ro prowling around , thorn , seeking whom ' thoy may devour , that whole columns of Tho Times arp ( Mod . with snares laid for their capture and undoing , and that at this very moment , contracts are boing 1 made with butchers for tons of
ehinbeef , Latin grammars are being bought wholesale'at trade prices , and birch twigs are boing collected in the fields , all for their especial benefit . . We have heard a great deal of late about the dignity of tuition , and the high moral purport of an educational career . We have had valedictory dinners , congratulatory speeches , enthusiastic letters , elegant articles in academic journals graced with classical allusions , and to crown all , a serious discussion in the public * prints as to the exact degree of moral turpitude of some score of lads some fifteen years ago , and the consequent amount of credit due to the Educational Caesar who came , and saw , and conquered the Harrovian savages in the year of grace 1841 . The worst , however , that caii be said about this demonstration , is _ that it lias something- of the " teapot and tempest" eharacfei \ if , in like manner , our tailor chose to send us a sentimental circular , informing us that he was about to retire from business , and that when he first took up the
scissors he had firmly resolved to lay them down at the expiration of a stated period , following therein the rule which his great predecessor , Stttltz , had set before himself , but . had been prevented by fulfilling by a premature fate : well , we should think the exhibition rather a : i absurd one , and i £ we did not subscribe to a testimonial to his sartorial merits ^ we should most confidently expect this gush of sentiment to be followed in a few days by a lawyer ' s letter , asking for an immediate settlement of our small account . Still , in this world , it is always well to look upon the actual as well as the aesthetic view of things . There is a material and monetary side to the educational question , which " parents or g-nardians " especially are painfully conscious of . By some twist in our moral nature , we never hear of " religious , moral , and classical" instruction , without thinking of the mystic figures £ s . d ., and a schoolmaster ' s account . Classics stand for pounds , morals are the shillings , and religionpoor religion—is the copper penny .
This base utilitarian view or ours is always confirmed at this season of the year by an inspection of the advertising columns in our daily papers . At first sight , everything seems so pleasant . We wish that we were boys again , to enjoy the delightful intercourse of one : of . the thousand happy homes that would then be standing open to receive us- The royal road has , indeed , been discovered to ; 'learning , if not to Wealth . Our wonder is no longer how any one acquires knowledge , but how any one escapes acquiring it . ' We have often thought that the " Curiosities of Edueational Literature " would form an instructive volume . The most wonderful reflection about all these scholastic advertisements is , that they
are intended for the eyes , not of children , but of parents who have been to school themselves , who have been in their own day crammed , and bullied ; and birched . One would as soon expect a clown to believe in a transformation scene , as . imagine that the father of a family could believe in an establishment which " unites scholastic discipline with the tender nurture of home , " Our scepticism cannot , it seems , be generally admitted , or else this class of school advertisements would not be inserted ; and , inconsequence , a somewhat curious light is thrown upon the character-of the English middle classes , by the kind of announcements which induce them to commit their children to the care of strangers .
We happen to have a copy of a recent Times before us . ; and merely casting our eyes down the columns of school advertisements , we take two or three at hazard , , We have altered the names , not to inflict an unintentional injury on any particular . establishment ; but any of our readers may convince themselves that our extracts are fair ones , by taking up any paper he likes at this season of the year . "At an established school , in a delightful locality , " we learn that " young gentlemen are boarded , and instructed , in the classics and French , with alj the branches of tuition calculated to form the ' man of business , ' and essential to tho accomplishment of a sound , useful , and commercial education . " Tho grammar of the above sentence is not very correct ,
and tho phraseology somewhat indistinct ; but then the charge for all this is . only twenty-six guineas a year ; and one really cannot expect to have everything . Tho next advertiser goes in for cheapness . His terms are fc 20 , ( pounds not guineas ) . His school is highly respeetable . his grounds ' are spacious , his diet liberal , and his instruction " includes tho essentials of a first-rate education . " Balaclava Lodge , in spite of its martial name , appeals to the sympathies of mothers . Here , wo are delighted to learn , that " tho pupils enjoy tho benefit of maternal care , as Mrs . Bushy undertakes the superintendence of tho domestic arrangements . Constant attention is paid to hoalth and comfort , and the ease and pleasures of homo are combined with the regularity
of school life . " Omkcu informs anxious parents that- " Ins system of education is emulative , and such as to ensure a desiro to improve , without the droad of correction ; " and also that " omnibuses run three tinK ' s adaypfrom the " Groen Man and Still" to within five minutes' walk of his academy . " A clergyman who educates a 'linked number of gentlemen ' s sons , " has happily a few vacancies . The situation of his school , or rather homo , is beautiful , remarkably hoalthy , and possesses advantages rarely to bo met with , " A solid education , based upon sound religious principles , parental cure , ana tho comforts pf home miiy bo relied on . " Wo aro not surprised to observe that this opening is peculiarly recommended to the attention of widows having- hous to oiluoato . Wo fuolm suspicion too , ot the ( rentlomnn who makes " nmendH for lost time , " and can in Jus own ioi
language " receive a few pupils or introduce a vituting tutor , u system , which by . the , highest , ru / broucus , wins the inUiroHfc oi tho least willing , securing success for a proposed examination . Uur wunxration , however , is most of all exoitod by the wondrous proinwofl of Mi . HiaiirjciaiiT Iliaos . tho owner and master ot Aruuuei uouege .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1860, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14011860/page/11/
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