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extension that shall break down the distinctions of caste and creed worshipped by the Tutors' Association , and for a reform that shall render an Oxford education an object worthy of the energies of all . " What can you do with your man when you have educaterf | mn ?" asks Mr . Mansel—a strange question surely from an educator ; and he proceeds to knock , down cleverly certain hypothetical ninepins which he has grouped together . Perhaps we shall do better for all parties , than if we made an idle fellow of him . Perhaps an university testamwr will be as intrinsically valuable in
England as it is officially now in Germany . Perhaps when we have a national system of education ( though , for all the pompous announcements of Lord John , it is distant as the Greek Calends ) the Universities will be the direct instructors of the nation again . Perhaps also the results will fall short of our expectations .. At least , however , they will not be less than those which will flow from the " principle" solely recommended by the Association . JSx nihilo niJiil Jit . Enough has been said to dispose of " the principle . " " The principle" has well nigh disposed of Oxford .
The best , indeed the only satisfactory part of Lord John Russell ' s speech on Education , ( apart from the promise of a municipal rate , which will prove better in tendency than in present efficiency , ) is that which refers to the Universities . The Times , that chartered libertine , which sneers at what it commends , and praises to-day what it will assuredly condemn to-morrow , may talk of schemes of national education being as easily framed as castles of cards , and ending in general
disappointment—though Mr . W . J . Fox cited the examples of Ireland , Canada , and the United States , in proof of what is possible , —but it is lamentable to see yet another wasted opportunity for doing the State incalculable service added to the many irretrievably past . Ifc argues utter and alarming ignorance or disregard of the true wants of the country , of the very import of education , to go on stitching at this wearisome patchwork of attempts to reconcile the Church Catechism with the Protestant
Manual , and men who care for neither with both Here are hours of solemn palaver quibbled away in used-up formulas , and customary cheers about the " rules of religion and morality , " and commendations of that " right instinct of the people , " which declares that " all the great doctrines of Christianity" shall be taught in a system of national education . " What , all ? " And so the living are to be still tied to the dead , and our children shall not be taught their duties as citizens , nor instructed how best to use and preserve their rights ; shall be debarred from the thousand advantages which attend mental cultivation , while their
moral , no less than their physical , growth is stunted and distorted ; shall be kept ignorant of the natural laws on which their own physical well-being , and that of their posterity for generations depends , because we will not consent to give them over bound hand and foot to Stat « -church parsons and discordant ministers ; because in tie great name , and for the great interests of humanity , we refuse to warp their minds into the bitter secttrianism , the abject superstition of their fathers . Whdn shall wo see the last of this puerility , this perpetittl sowing of new pieces ( of very sorry texture too ) upon old garments ? How many more miserable
failures are wo destined to carry out and bury before wo havcj a Minister bringing to bear on this paramount subject honesty , courage , and common sense ? In Lord John Russell ' s circumlocutions wo see no such qualities . He has sacrificed them ( whatever intentions wo may give him credit for ) to tho Coalition , or to tho Church : and yet the matter was not forced upon him . His position is a compromise . Ho volunteers to mount tho breach , and straightway preaches that discretion is the better part of valour . Who does not wish the municipalities joy of tho
prospect lieforo them ?—they dwell together in such unity now . They had hotter jiroceed to screon oil a . corner of tho Town Hall as a vestry for tho chaplains of all denominations , whoso assistance , will bo needed to determine what are " all tho great doctrines of Christianity . " Near Hydc-piirk-squaro is a tailor ' s establishment , where Irebdomadiil expositions ( and the shop ) are advertised , " Christians" being kindly invited to attend . Proiit in ovory way may bo made , and wo endorse tho invitation . Depend on it there are " Hoctilflr advantages " in storo for thoso who qualify to dctermino " all tho groat doctrines . "
For his four propositions concerning TfnivorHity roforin , and which will bo found in our Parliamentary abstract , it is commendation enough that Lord John \ n throutonod with no support from Sir Robert IngliH . Thov embody the leading suggestion * of the Com-, ni 88 ioners , and destroy at a stroke the Report of the Tutors Association , by insisting on tho iu missionl of students unconnected with a college or hall . Mr . Gladstone , indeed , is consoled l > y tho reservation that tho modo in which these students are to bo introduced
shall not impair the present discipline of Oxford . We do not see how that discipline , administered almost absolutely by tutors and Heads of Houses , can survive the approaching changes . That a full University discipline will be established is a matter of course . None but the tutors and Sir Robert Inglis expect that Chaos is about to come again . In the mpat important and essential particular of all , Lord John fails to encourage our just expectations . This is , of course , the weak point of his speech in two out of its three divisions . The Minister admits the necessity of national education , and rejects the
sole possible mode of eifecting it . He declares his belief that the Universities were intended , and ought to be , great institutions for the benefit of the country ; and he passes in silence over the means by which their nationalization i 3 to be effected . After all , then , the Tutors' Association may take heart . Tout est perdu fors I'Eglise ; a weighty reservation , —if it could be perpetual . How little this Association appreciates or entertains the question of true University extension is shown by the concluding words of their Report , in which they disclaim the high position we challenge for Oxford . " The University seems to us imperatively called upon to take immediate steps to secure that place at the head of the Church education of the country
which is hers by inheritance—hers by the purpose of her founders—hers hitherto by the consent of the country at large ! " The country at large , we suspect , will think an extension limited to the effectual superintendence of " the Church education of the country" a very satisfactory proposition to all " Bishops and Curates , " if to none beside . Or perhaps it will ascribe a more comprehensive meaning to the words , and hold that the Church of John Bird of Canterbury , and Henry of Exeter , of Gorham and Bennett , of Denison and Gilbe , rt Eliot , of Prince Lee , of the Manchester school of Theology , and Samuel of Oxford , may yet embrace a further variety of opinions , and admit within its protecting arms all creeds , and—no creed .
That question of subscription , on which the nationalization of Oxford depends , the Commissioners were instructed not to entertain ; but less " discreet" than Lord John , from whom their instructions issued , they call attention to tho strong opinion recorded in the evidence against the continuance of the present policy . It is singular that Mr . Clough advises the abolition of subscription , partly on the ground that sons of rich Dissenters who ought to go to Oxford and Cambridge , and of whom Oxford and Cambridge might make very much what they pleased , are kept away merely by University tests ( Ev . 213 ) . Mr . Wall also ( Ev . 147 ) holds out something of a like ad captandum argument . The Commissioners advocate the abolition of the
subscription on better grounds . They express their conviction that the imposition of subscription in the manner in which it is now imposed in the University of Oxford , habituates the mind to give a careless assent to truths which it lias never considered , and naturally leads to sophistry in tho interpretation of solemn obligations . Certainly " the manner in which ifc is imposed" is sui generis . The matriculating student signs his name in a book t o which the articles are prefixed , and sometimes he is told by tho Vice-Chancellor , or Pro-Vice-Chancollor , that he " thereby expresses his assent to the articles , so far as he knows them ; " sometimes that " ho probably has not road them , but that
he has no objection to them . " Thirty-nine or ninetythree , what matters it ? It docs matter , however , to the " passed" undergraduate . On tho morning of taking bis degree ho breakfasts with the Sub-Hector , or tho Dean of Chapel , who , after a " preliminary attack on tho tea and " commons , " reads with no great affectation of solemnity , but with judicious rapidity , us many articles as will not interfere with appetite or digestion . Tho book is then laid aside , and after a necessary interval of conversation and mastication , is resumed , and ho on . Certainly in this caso it docs matter much bow many articles uro ordained in the Church , the reading of them being an essential preliminary to tho degree .
" From scones liko Uioho old Scotia ' s grandeur springs , That makes lior loved at home , rovored abroad . " But wo mean Oxford , and with a diflortmce . Thero is a higher ground of objection to these subscriptions . Did it not occur to Lord John , when ho drew his elaborate distinction between the rights of our ecclesiastical establishment and system , and tho political and civil rights of all citizens , that tho Universities tho
nro tho vory ground on which , above any other , compatibility of tho two ought to bo tested , and will bo tested ? Lot l > inso » iter . s boar this in mind now . But in all honesty and plainness wo toll them that they will merit fcho postponement of thoir expectations , tho absolute dofoat of thoir demands for tho present , if they hoeitato in requiring tho total secularization of tho Universities . It is not enough to require tho abolition of fcho subscription to the Articles , or of chapol
attendance . They must propose or permit no substitute ; no general expression of adhesion to " all the great doctrines of Christianity , " nay , nor to any , whether at matriculation or on graduating . Let the Divinity chairs remain for those who require or expect instruction in monastic and Byzantine theology . How they are to afford it is another matter . But let no stigma attach to the man who disclaims those instructions , and who dares to pursue a nobler and more religious ducation in the cultivation of studies that may " serve for delight , for ornament , and for ability . "
It is absolutely too late to talk of Oxford standing at the head of the Church education of the country . There is no such thing . No man accepts anything of the kind for his children . Quiet and pleasant places there are indeed—pi'etty numerous , too—under the shadow of the parsonage , where children are gathered together , and catechism and collects largely cultivated ; where clergymen are great , and visitors edified and interested ; and these are called centres of Church education . Many are the lambs gathered into these folds , and numerous the pence collected , to the edification of Mr . Ball ; but it is simply to commit a wrong to talk of playthings as education . Oxford has other work to do than to consecrate this delusion , and we trust before long to see that the sentimental commendations of Mt . Gladstone
will fail to protect the governing body of the University from a change absolutely subversive of the present " principle . " What avail words of farcically solemn phraseology against facts such as those to which we have called attention ? Statute s broken systematically and daily ; founders' intentions set at . naught ; University endowments diverted from their legitimate application ; professorial instruction suppressed , and superseded by tutorial teachings of such a character that , as we are informed by the Dean of Ely , 80 , 000 £ . are paid
annually for private tuition in Cambridge alone ; religious services and chapel attendance desecrated—all shams are desecrations—by their use as means of punishment ; subscriptions carelessly , laughingly , scoffingly , as well as sincerely made—such is the moral and religious education of the University . On the logic f these facts we rely . Stop an avalanche , but you will not stop the course on which we have entered now . Lord John may play the courtier to Canute , but the sea rises and flows . We have no fear that it can b stayed .
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CERTAIN TENDENCIES OP THE NEW COMMUTATION OF THE DEBT . [ Tub observations that appeared in our columns of the 16 th of April on this subject , from an esteemed occasional contributor , have elicited tho following letter , to which we subjoin the reply of the original writer , so as to present to our readers in a compact shape the two aspects of the interesting question in debate . ]
( To the JSditor of the Leader . ) Sib , — Tho remarks of your correspondent on the above subject hardly appear to have been exhaustive enough , and consequently are liable to create impressions which practice may prove to bo erroneous , but which being encouraged in the prosonfc conjuncture would unreasonably prejudice tho propositions of the Chancellor of tho Exchoquer . As tho matter is ono of interest to tho payers as well as the receivers , to the tax payer as well as tho stockholder , perhaps you will permit a few observations as an appendix to those of your correspondent . thoro ia lifctlo of tho
Ifc maybe , thai " probability conversion taking place in the now 3 } per cont . stock vvhilo tho 2 \ is open , " the first having an ultimate claim for 821 . 10 s ., and the last for IHM . por cent ., but it is probable also that there aro many stockholders of large amount who look to thoir investments for income only , and who would forego an increased ultimate claim for the present consideration of oven 2 s . i ) r / . per cent , revenue . Omitting this probability , which perhaps is not highly important , your correspondent appears to lay too inueli stress upon the assumption that tho conversion will bo into tho 52 : } per cent , stock , by which the debt in to bo increased 10 Z . per cont . at tho expiration of forty years , and the accumulations of interest aro to bo diminished by
now oxpensea or diminution of taxes . Wow , it tho pr « - Hont arrangements aro continued lor forty years , it in clear that at tho ond of that time wo shall have tho wuno capital to pay , having meanwhile paid the UH . as interest , wlioraut umlor tho proposed arrangement wo may accumulate the interest as a sinking land , and at tho end ot fort v years our debt will stand at its present amount , atlJr which , tho accumulation Htill proceeding tho expiration the ital of tho
of a second torm of forty yours would see cap debt ' actually reduced 1 < V . per cent ., and so on successively until its extinction . Allowing , howover , that diminished taxation would absorb tho remitted interest , the public ot forty years hence , if they should know tho history ot our day in its relation to that of their own , will not havo great cause of complaint . If , for instance , tho remittod interest should bo absorbed in tho repeal of tho duty on . paper , soap , malt , hops , newspapers , wine , or other things , thattno lax ui unnjr
it in vory certain , -paying powers m « ^ . will bo increased to a fur groator extent than the amount ; of tax remitted , or tho amount of interest emp loyed to effect it . Tho public of forty years henco would bo rather likely to congratulato itself upon having obtainod a really freo trade , and an increased tax-paying power at bo email
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May 21 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 495
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 21, 1853, page 495, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1987/page/15/
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