A REPLY TO MR. C. J. RAE.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 185, 24 July 1869, Page 4

A REPLY TO MR. C. J. RAE.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sir, —I trust you will allow me the space in your columns to say a few words in reference to a letter, signed C. J. Rae, which appeared in your number of July 10. It is not my wish to dispute with Mr. Rae about what should be the provisions of a national education, the more especially as Mr, Rae says his opinion is based upon a mere assumption. But I must tell Mr. Rae that he misrepresents what I said at the meeting on June 30. 1 said that what is generally called education does not prevent crime ; I stated that education was a “ power” winch might be a good or an evil; that there was nothing in mere reading, writing, and cyphering to make him virtuous ; that I was an advocate for education, but not on the ground that it prevented crime, and I based my opinion on something more than a mere “assumption.” So, I leave this matter at present with Mr. Rae and his three legged dog on one side, (though I think the illustration of the dog rather in my favor), and Sir A. Alison, Bulwer, myself, and a few facts on the other. I do not attempt to reply to the whole of Mr. Rae’s letter; there is a good deal that 1 do not understand. But the following I must not leave unnoticed, Mr. Rae writes —“ The knowledge doled out to man for ages by cloistered monks and power-loving priests has scarcely burst the barrier that shut it in. ” What does he mean ? How was it shut in, if for ages it was * ‘ doled out” ? I am mistaken if Mr. Rae dtoes not mean to insinuate that knowledge was “shut in by the cloistered monks and powerloving priests,” though he says it was by them “doled out.” I have heard a similar charge before. I hope Mr. Rae has better grounds for making it, than a mere assumption ; and I shall feel obliged if he will favor me with his authority. I must say that I am surprised at Mr. Rae saying anything of the kind. It is one of those old foolish and false charges which used often to be made against catholics, and I thought it had, in this age of progress and enlightenment—as Macaulay says of the “Popish plot—been abandoned by statesmen to aldermen, by aldermen toclergymen, by clergymen to old women, and by old women to Sir Harcourt Lees ! ” This one, it seems, has descended to Mr. Rae. Let me tell Mr. Rae that this age is indebted to those cloistered monks and power-loving priests for the better part of what constitutes its civilisation ; for very much of its learning, science, laws, liberty, Magna Charta, and trial by jury ; in fact, the laws of England arose in days of “ monkish ignorance and superstition.” Europe, under the influence of catholicity, arose from chaos to order, civilisation advanced at a firm and steady pace. What contributes more to the development of the human mind than the creation of great centres of instruction, collecting the most illustrious talents and diffusing rays of light in all directions ? “ Doling out,” as Mr. Rae calls it. Oxford University was established in 895 ; Cambridge in 1280 ; that of Prague, in Bohemia, in 1358 ; that of Louvain, in Belgium in 1425 ; that of Vienna, in Austria, in 1365; that of Ingolsdat, in Germany, in 1372; that of Leipsic in 1408 ; that of Basle, in Switzerland, in 1469; that of Salamanca in 1200; that of Alcola in 1517. It would be superfluous to notice the antiquity of the universities of Paris, of Bolonga, of Ferrara, and of a great many others which attained the highest renown long before the advent of protestantism. The foundations for learning at Oxford were laid and brought to perfection not only in “ monkish times,” but, in great part by monks. The abbeys, were public schools for education, each of them having one or more persons set apart to instruct the youth of the neighborhood,, without any expense to the parents. Each of the greater monasteries had a peculiar residence in the universities; and where-

as there were, in those times, nearly 300 halls and private schools at Oxford, besides the colleges, there were not above eight remaining towards the middle of the 17th century—that is to say, in about an hundred years after the enlightening “ Reformation” began (Cobbett’s History of the Reformation). The protestant bishop Tanner, in the reign of George 11., writes : “In every great abbey, there was a large room called the Scriptorium, where several writers made it their whole business to transcribe books for the use of the library. They sometimes, indeed, wrote the larger books of the house, and the missals, and other books used in divine service ; but they were generally upon other works, viz., the Fathers, Classics, Histories, &c. John Wheathamsted, abbot of St. Albans, caused above eighty books to be thus transcribed during his abbacy (there was then no printing). Fiftyeight were transcribed by the care of one abbot at Glastonbury. In all the greater abbeys, there were also persons appointed to take notice of the principal occurrences of the Kingdom, and at the end of every year, to digest them into annals. The constitutions of the clergy in their national and provincial synods, and (after the Conquest) even Acts of Parliament were sent to the abbeys to be recorded, which leads me to mention the use and advantage of these religious houses. For, first, the choicest records and treasures in the Kingdom were preserved in them; Magna Charta was sent to some abbey in every county to be preserved. The learned William Selden hath his greatestjevidences of the narrow dominion of the sees belonging to the King of Great Britain from monastic records. The evidences and money of private families were oftentimes sent to these houses to be preserved. The seals of noblemen were deposited there upon their deaths ; and even the King’s money was sometimes lodged in them. Secondly , they were schools of learning and education ; for every convent had one person or more appointed for this purpose, and all the neighbors that desired it might have their children taught grammar and church music without any expense to them. In the nunneries also young women were taught to work and read English, and sometimes Latin also; so that not only the lower rank of people who could not pay for their learning, but most of the noblemen’s and gentlemen's daughters were educated inthose places. Thirdly, all the monasteries were, in effect, great hospitals, and were most of them obliged to relieve many poor people every day. There were likewise houses of entertainment for almost all travellers. Fourthly, the nobility and gentry provided not only for their old servants in these houses by corrodies, but for their younger children and impoverished friends. * * Fifthly, they wore of considerable advantage to the Crown : 1. By the profits received from the death of one abbot or prior to the election, or rather confirmation, of another. 2 By great fines paid for the confirmation of their liberties. 3. By many corrodies granted to old servants of the Crown, ahd pensions to the King’s clerks and chaplains, until they got preferment. Sixthly, they were likewise of considerable advantage to the places where they had their sites and estates: 1. By causing great resort to them, and getting grants of fairs and markets for them. 2. By freeing them from the forest laws. 3. By letting their lands at easy rates. Lastly, they were a great ornament to the country ; many of them were really noble buildings,’* So mnch for the testimony of the protestant bishop Tanner. Another protestant authority, Mallett (History of the Swiss, vol. l,p. 105) says : “ The monks softened by their instructions the ferocious manners of the people, and oppposed their credit to the tyranny of the nobility, who knew no other occupation than war, and grievously oppressed their neighbors. On this account the government of monks was preferred to theirs the people sought them for judges.—lt was an usual saying, that it was better to be governed by the bishop’s crosier than the monarch’s sceptre. There were in England, at the time we are speaking of, 645 of these institutions, besides 90 colleges, 100 hospitals, and 2374 chanteries and free chapels. The whole were seized on, first and last, taken into the hands of the King, and by him granted to those who aided and abetted him in the work of plunder .” (Cobbett’s History of the Reformation.) —l am, &c., Joseph Ward.

A Modern Newspaper Office. —The following appeared in a London contemporary:—Society by this time is not unaware of the fact that there is a machinery in existence, under the title of the European Mail, which is designed to throw, as it were, an intellectual girdle round the civilised world. Already are there issued from this establishment six distinct newspapers, all bearing the title of the European Mail. No. 1 circulates in the Canadian Dominions, British North America, and the United States ; No. 2 in the West Indies and the Islands of the Pacific ; No. 3 over the South African Colonies—embracing the Cape and Natal; No. 4 through the West Coast of Africa ; No. 5 goes to the Brazils and the River Plate; and No. 6 percolates the intellectual strata of the several Australian and New Zealand dependencies. The distinctive features of these journals—for although bearing the same title, JJthey are to all intents and purposes separate newspapers—are, that, while they keep foreign readers posted up on all subjects of a strictly general character, a considerable portion of each paper is devoted to matter having a special interest for the inhabitants of the particular country in which it circulates. Thus the prices of produce, or public stock, the meetings of public companies connected with those colonies and British dependencies to which the several issues of the journal are sent, are noted with a precision and fullness that make the journal especially valuable to the general reader, the manufacturer, the merchant, the shipper—for, in addition to its specialities, a record of the shipping engaged in the carrying trade of the world is given. The promoters of this gigantic undertaking seem to know what they are about, and seem to have taken a pretty accurate measure of their scheme, for we are in-i formed it is meeting with a support that may ha said to be almost unprecedented. The place in which the work of compiling these journals is carried on is certainly an exceptional model establishment. It is approached from Cannon-street, and is called Colonial Buildings. On visiting the office, the first impression that one gets is that he is entering a gigantic banking establishment. A Commisssare ushers you into a large room elegantly fitted with mahogany desks, surmounted by brass book fittings, at which are employed a number of clerks and publishers, each compart-

ment being divided and set apart for the country it represents. Thus, if you ask the Commissaire for the (Jape Department, he will reply, “ No. 3, Sir,” and so direct you to the corresponding number for the whole of our British dependencies. There are elegantly appointed consulting-rooms, divided by plate-glass partitions, and rooms for editors, sub-editors, and managers, the whole being warmed by the hot-water apparatus now so much in use in all large buildings. There is an air of business from one end of the building to the other. The clerks are busy making entries, boys are writing out the directions on wrappers and folding-papers for transmission abroad, subeditors are scanning and clipping the papers for the news of the day, editors are seen to be in deep thought, advertisement collectors hie to and fro, while the eagle eye of the manager is here, there, and everywhere. We have never seen a newspaper establishment so unique in appearance, or conducted on such a scale of liberality, and we doubt not that a large measure of success is destined to reward the enterprise of the European Main. —Mr. Collie is the Agent for Blenheim.