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May 18, 1850.] QL%t &£&fr£?* 1W
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" Copies of this address, for distributi...
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THREE DIVORCE BILLS. On Friday and Monda...
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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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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Lancashire Public School Association". W...
large portion possesses only the scantiest instruction . The existing means for popular education is , for the most part , poor in quality as well as insufficient in amount . « ' Our gaols and our poor-houses are full . Our cities , our towns , and our villages contain , in a large proportion of their inhabitants , persons who are vicious , criminal , or destitute , because they are untaught . The ranks of this large class are constantly recruited from the great numbers of young persons of both sexes , for whom no educational provision exists ; fcr while the population is rapidly increasing , little comparatively is doing for the extension or the improvement of education .
" Such is the state in which the country has been left by those in whose hands has been the care of popular education . These parties may be classed under two heads—1 . The E stablished Church ; 2 . The Dissenters . The Established Church of this kingdom is the most opulent and the most powerful corporation in the world . It claims the right to educate the people , but for the most part has neglected the duty , for the people are not educated . The Dissenters have by their voluntary efforts effected something for the education of the people . The joint operations of the Established Church and the Dissenters have proved insufficient , for the people are not educated ; the joint operations of the Established Church and the Dissenters have left us , with si small modicum of intelligence , a preponderating mass of ignorance , crime , pauperism , and wretchedness . Something else is necessary .
*'• One thing is clear , namely , the religious bodies of the country have not educated the people . The failure must have arisen from a want of either will or power . Both will and power have been wanting . On the one side there has been an absence of will , on the other side an absence of power . Our ecclesiastical corporations , in their wealth , their leisure , and their social and political influence , have had at their disposal means sufficient for the education of the people , but they wanted the will to apply their resources to the purpose . The resources of voluntary benevolence have been strained to the utmost , without producing the desirable result . Hence we are
taught that it is not to the religious bodies that we must look . They cannot , or they will not , educate the people . " The efforts which the religious bodies have actually made , are in themselves unsatisfactory . The essence of these efforts is charity . They make education a favoursomething that might be justifiably withheld ; something to be bestowed or not , as pleasure , convenience , or pity may suggest ; a sort of social superfluity , vouchsafed to the meritorious . In reality education is a right on the part of those who receive , and a duty on the part of those who give it . Education , as it is , has gone far to pauporize the people . _ . .
" Education , as it is , has another fault—it is sectarian . The school is the battle-ground of rival sects ; and while this creed seeks ascendancy over that creed , by gathering the young in greater numbers under its standard , the young learn to dislike , distrust , and misrepresent each other ; and their parents come to feel either a jealousy of the relig ious denominations , or an ill-will to such persons as are of a communion different to their ovvn . ^ ** By the combined influence of charity and sectarianism in popular education , large numbers of the population have been led to the perverted notion that they confer a favour by allowing thiir children to receive the offered education ; while many others of a more honourable character have been repelled , and now refuse to allow their children to come within what they regard as a contaminated atmosphere .
" The ' something else , ' then , that is required cannot be supplied by the religious bodies . The religious bodies have been weighed in the balance and found wanting . " The evil is coextensive with the nation ; coextensive with the nation must the remedy be . Hence the instruction we require is national in its extent . If national in its extent , national also must it be in its spirit and tendencies . Now , in this land of ours there is the greatest variety of religious opinion . Many of the diversities are mutually incompatible and destructive . What this Denomination enjoins as indispensable to salvation , that Denomination brands as fatal heresy . All the religious bodies cannot , in consequence , be recognised ; and if not all , then none should be employed as the instruments in a trulnational system of education .
y 11 The religious sects , therefore , must be left to make such rxertions as their brnevolence may prompt , and their resources support . But , in excluding the direct agency of the religious bodies in our system , we are very far from intending to disown the importance of religion in education . A thorough education we know involves a careful religious training . Such a training is , however , the work of the parent . "Would that the fostering influence of a Christian home could be had for every child . , " Religious instruction is nearly the utmost that others ran bestow . Now , religious instruction consists of two
parts-1 . Moral ; 2 . Theological . Moral instruction comprise * great truths , duties , and hopes which are recognised by all our religious parties . Such instruction is eminently fit for children . Such instruction we purpose to communicate in our schools . Theological instruction we leave to its professional teachers , the clergy of the several denominations . . , . From these premises it appears that a provision lor education , in order to be national , must be unsectarian . Jiut ' unsectarian , ' you see , does not mean ' irreligious . The morals of religion we not only admit but require . It i » only distinctive doctrines , matters of disputation , and metaphysical speculations that we disallow . £ 1 Ifcrf ¦ » " ^ ------ |
*~ ¦¦ . 111 1 / If « t- >* ¦•» "t" | * - - *^ »*» » ' ^ --- — - " A national education may be supported either outo the general taxes or the supplies furnished by a special rate . If the provision is made by the former means , the iiiilinnco of the Government will ba paramount , ami then will ensue all the evils which come from political partisanship and ecclesiastical domination . If the provision is made by the latter , the people , in directly
supplying the funds , will m truth educate themselves , and so they will be aided in rising to a manly independence of character befitting the English name . " A national educatian may be administered by either the Government or local authorities . If the administration is in the hands of the Government , opportunities will be had for making education a political engine . If the administration is in the hands of the people , adults taking part in that administration will promote their own education , while they superintend the education of their children ; and the watchful eye of popular control will prevent improper outlays , or detect abuses in their commencement .
" Hence the national provision tor popular education must be made out of local rates , and be managed by local authorities . In order that the good here contemplated may be fully realised , the local administration must be based on a representative system , involving the action of the rate-paying population of the country . " We recapitulate the qualities of AN IMPAHTIAIi SYSTEM OF NATIONAIi INSTRUCTION " , which should be—I . Unsectarian and Comprehensive . II . Independent of the Government . III . Supported by JLocal Rates . IV . Managed by Local Authorities . V . Based on the National Will .
• ' Such , fellow countrj'men , in substance , is the plan which we have proposed for adoption , not only in Lancashire , but in the country at large ; and which has already fonnd a degree of support far beyond our most sanguine anticipations . The p lan we submit is national not only in its aims , but also in its spirit . As such , it will tend to substitute a sound national feeling , for the divisions , narrowness , and heartburnings which prevail at present . Educated on the broad ground of a universal system , they oung will grow up with friendly feelings one toward another , and in time form what may properly be called A People , namely , natives of one soil , having one heart , and living under equal laws and institutions . «« Yst the proposed system has in its nature elasticity enough to adapt itself to local peculiarities , and admits of the development of the several advantages which individual character and various views of social and political
life may present . " The plan , while unsectarian , is favourable to the cultivation and the spread of religion . As a part of its machinery , it will secure a suitable portion of time for instruction in the distinctive tenets of the several religious communities , to wuose ministers it will consign the office of communicating the knowledge , and conducting the discipline , which in each case they may think desirable . Relieving the religious teacher from the task of communicating secular instruction , it will enable him to concentrate his energies on his own specific duties , And instead of pupils of dark minds and gross affections , it will secure to the religious teacher instructed and intelligent scholars , who will bring a good and prepared soil for the seed of the heavenly Word .
" Fellow countrymen , —Study this plan . If a better can be devised , we are willing to withdraw it . If the plan gives a fair promise of removing from our common country the foul blot of ignorance , crime , and pauperism , lend it your best support ; form a local association for its furtherance . At all events , be not content with the present condition of popular education , for very great are its actual evils , and it is pregnant with incalculable mischief .
May 18, 1850.] Ql%T &£&Fr£?* 1w
May 18 , 1850 . ] QL % t & £ & fr £ ?* 1 W
" Copies Of This Address, For Distributi...
" Copies of this address , for distribution , maybe had at 25 s . per thousand , of Mr . R . W . Smiles , Secretary of the Lancashire Public School Association , No . 3 , Crossstreet , Manchester , where also may be had copies of the plan of the association and other publications , illustrative and confirmatory of its views . " Manchester , May , 1850 . "
Three Divorce Bills. On Friday And Monda...
THREE DIVORCE BILLS . On Friday and Monday the House of Lords sate specially to hear the evidence in support of the second reading of Cautley ' s Divorce Bill . Colonel and Mrs . Cautley were married in 1838 , in India ; the age of the colonel being thirty-eight , that of the ladv twenty-eight . In consequence of the weakly health of their child ( since dead ) Mrs . Cautley came to England in 1843 . On the 30 th of October , 1845 , Colonel Cautley rejoined her in England , and on the 20 th of June , 184 G , Mrs . Cautley gave birth to twins . The husband ' s suspicions were roused , and on searching his wife ' s writing-desk he found letters to her from a Major Morse Cooper , which left no doubt as to the terms they were on . Other inquiries confirmed the letters . An immediate separation
ensued , an action for damages was brought against Major Cooper , a verdict obtained , and then followed the usual steps to procure a divorce . The subjoined are some of the most remarkable passages of the letters : — " You must remember that you have laid two imputations , or accusations , to my charge which are utterly unfounded , and which I have indignantly denied—you have taken no pains to unsay them . When passion has its swav and gratification much maybe submitted to ,
but when that is denied , and sobriety is the order ot _ tne day , the same submission is not to be expected , iwo years' experience has shown you what I am in my natural character ; what I am while enacting a part foreign and repulsive to my nature you are now gradually developing . Itemrmbor r . lso , Fanny , that U i am— ' and such . i » the ia .: t—different , you ha ve made me so ; you reiterated , daily , your complaints of my exi glance , '—you insisted upon the change . 1 tola you I would endeavour to assume the conduct you professed
to prefer * ( for I did not , nor do I , believe you do prefei it ) , and , having done so , surely you are not the person to upbraid me for that conduct ; on the contrary , you ought , if you were sincere , to have assisted and applauded my reluctan and tardy compliance with your expressed wishes . Before you compelled me to give up my own way of loving you , you should have been certain that your method would have been more palatable to yourself , seeing that it was distasteful to me . I repeat distinctly that which you before distorted to my most serious detriment and dishonour ; I repeat , that the withdrawal of a certain ingredient ' in the bond' is fatal to our compact . The distinction you have formerly drawn between
* liking' and « loving' is utterly inconsistent with my idea of security or confidence , —leaving me quite unprotected , yourself irresponsible . ******** " If ever affection—devoted immolation of self—was offerefl up at woman's shrine , it has been to yours by me . But instead of cherishing that offering , you have , when vexed or irritated by extraneous causes , spurned with your foot the self-bound victim , forgetting that he was as well nurtured as yourself , moved by the same impulses , moved by the same feelings , but with the one weakness which with all other women , and with yourself for some months also , had always been considered a compliment and gratifying proof of attachment .
" But I , like yourself , ' have written more than I had intended . ' " God bless you , Fanny . " My dearest Fanny , —My feelings were too strongly tinctured with indignation and irritation to suffer me to write one single line in reply to the letter you placed in my hand this afternoon before I left London . * * * " On Saturday you asserted that I had said that my acquaintance with you had but one object , & c . I purposely avoided noticing this , as a thing you had written more heedlessly than seriously , and without considering the indelicacy it involved . " You repeat that assertion in your letter of to-day ,
and accompanied it with some remarks which astonished as much as it offended my perception of delicacy and gentlemanly feeling : I therefore feel called upon in the most positive and solemn manner to deny its truth . * * «* You know well what I did say , and have said a thousand times— I know not Platonism ; ' but that is widely different , and 1 am perfectly certain I never implied that my pleasure existed in one thing alone , ' although I have always insisted upon its being a component and indispensable part of an agreeable and perhaps fascinating whole . I see no indelicacy in this , but your version is as insulting to me as degrading to yourself , and as undeserved as
untrue . You must , upon reflection , see that you never could have allowed me to utter so injurious and insulting an assertion , and it is quite clear you have misunderstood totally what I may have said , for you are far above a wilful perversion of the truth . " But , Fanny , after suffering me to press your lip ( I fancied you returned the pressure ) , you should not have allowed me to read that letter . I , too , had a letter in my pocket ( as I told you ) , but , as I never needlessly wound or irritate you , I mentally cancelled that letter because the kiss of peace had been given ; but I fear the excitement of strife has more charms for you than peace , at least it would appear so in my individual case .
" You do me and my feelings the greatest injustice ; there are moments , even when smarting under contumely and wrong , that , rather than quarrel with you , I would throw my arms around you and strangle strife ; but that emotion is quickly suppressed by a cold and stern unyielding temper which throws back my heart ' s best feelings upon themselves in tumultuous confusion . Oh ! Fanny , how much we have been to each other , and ought still to be—liow little we are . I have read your letters twice , and each time my blood boils with indignation , but soon yields to gentler feelings . I will not do so a third time , but I shall , contrary to my usual custom , retain them in my possession as a reference until I see you again . Keep mine , that at some leisure moment , if unfortunately your spirit is disinclined to an unconditional peace the means of
justification and explanation may be in existence . " There are other points in your letter which annoy me , but I forbear . I have written this to-night to be sent up for the post to-morrow , as I heard that you leave town too early for Wednesday ' s post . I shall expect a letter ( short it may be ) in reply , but let it be void of irritating matter , and let your better qualities take the place of those you have lately suffered to gain the ascendancy , to the grea t injury of both of us , and my most especial misery and vexation ; think of June , July , and August , and the hours so happily passed then ; resolve to renew them , and rely upon the ardent , anxious cooperation , coupled with the consideration and tenderness always felt by ' M . "
From the evidence of the servants it appeared that Major Cooper was a constant visitor at Mrs . Cautley ' s house while she resided in Hertford-street , Mayfair , and that he frequently slept in a small dressing-room beside Mrs . Cautley ' s bed-room . The lady's-maid while in the latter apartment , had frequently heard Mrs . Cautley ' s voice and that of the Major in the dressing-room . On various occasions , also , when the Major and Mrs . Cautley were both in the drawing-room , if the bell rang and she went to answer it , she was not allowed to go into the room to her mistress , tho Major met her at the door and told her what she must do . Once when the Major called ho went up into Mrs . Cautloy ' s bedroom when she had newly risen , and hud nothing on but her chemise and drawers . lie called sometimes as oarlv as seven
or eight in the morning , at which hour Mrs . Cautloy « at and chatted with him en deshabille , having only a petticoat on , and her feet without stockings in simpers . At the time when Major Cooper slept in the
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 18, 1850, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18051850/page/5/
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