The New=Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 453, 17 August 1850, Page 2

The New=Zealander.

13c just and fear not: Lei all tlie ends thou auns'l at, bo thy Country's, I'liy Goj)'h, mid Tmth's.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1850.

The extent to which the subject of Education now occupies the public mind and enlists the the attention of the wisest and best men in all grades of society, cannot be otherwise than giatifying to all who believe in the certainty of human progress, and desire that the progression which is sure to take place should be conducted on principles of sound and practical knowledge. Unhappily, however, there are many false theories afloat on the subject, and sectarian views have but too generally been permitted to influence men's minds in relation to it- When we say " sectarian " we do not mean to confine the term to religious denominations ; — the narrowest and worst sectarianism we have ever seen in connexion with Public Education has been on the part of some who have made little or no profession of any religion, and who therefore bigotedly opposed the plans and objects of those who did believe that | such a thing as religious truth really existed, and that it was worth any effort that could be made for its maintenance and diffusion. Our recently received English files contain numerous evidences that the question is still a vexed one, and warmly agitated at home. England, Scotland, and (of course) Ireland, are more or less in termoil respecting it. We shall endeavour to state their respective cases as matters of intelligence with all impartiality, accompanying the statements, however, with comments which will not be haphazard or latitudinarian, for the subject is one which circumstances have led us to consider deeply for many years past, and on which we have principles that we are ready on every suitable occasion to declare and defend with no hesitating or time serving voice. The Tractaiian party in the Church of England seem determined to throw every possible obstacle in the way of the Committee of Council on Education. One of the most extraordinary meetings ever held on the subject was convened in Willis's Rooms in London on the 7th of February. A Queen's Counsel, Mr. Talbot, occupied the chair, and the Bishop of Ciiichester, the Bishop of Glasgow, Lord Nelson, and the celebrated Rev. J. A. Denison took part in the proceedings. The last named reverend gentleman was, however, the principal speaker, and much as we dissent from his views, we cannot but admire the straightforwardness and above-board boldness with which he stated the views of the sect in the Established Chnrch with which he is identified. There can be no mistake about such language as the following :— •" The question of education has been from the first between the maintenance or the surrender of the creed and doctrines of the Church Catholic and of the Catechism of the Church of England. All education flowed from and necessarily depended on the doctrine of regeneration in baptism, — that doctrine which had of late been made the subject of appeal to a Court not necessarily composed of Churchmen, and having necessa^ rily no spiritual character. On all sides, by the piety of Churchmen, churches and schools were being raised ; but if the principle of the the Committee were admitted, those churches would probably become devoted to the outpourings of socinianism, the schools to its inculcation." Mr. Denison, amidst the loud cheers of his audience, went on to declare, " they would have no latitudinarianism introduced under the name of comprehensive education ; no legislating for the Church by the Committee of Education ; no Minister of Public Instruction in England, or what would be more dangerous, the office without the name ; no Godless Colleges. The seed of these might be sown, bnt it should be crushed under foot before it became a plant " This, at all events, is plain speaking. Let us see how far it is warranted by facts.

The Committee of Council on Education was constituted with a care commensurate with the magnitude of the subject to which its duties would refer, and we have ample leason to believe that the most anxious efforts were made by the Government to frame it on such principles as would be likely to reconcile the conflicting opinions of the various classes who took an interest in the great question. Two parties, however, weie nearly or altogether impracticable, — the extreme Churchmen and the extieme Dissenters. The former claimed it as the chartered nnd sacred right of the Established Clergy to be the sole educators of the people (so far at least as religious instruction was concerned), and the latter carried their Voluntaryism to the length of a total rejection of State aid for Schools, — unless indeed, it could be obtained on the obviously impossible condition of exemption from Governmental inspection. There was also the socialist or infidel element in operation, which would exclude religion altogether from the Slate system, and banish all reference to eternity from the arrangements for time. Notwithstanding these and other difficulties, however, the creation of a department to he specially charged with the superintendence of whatever means the Government might employ for the promotion of education had become a matter of public expectation, and demanded by public opinion. The fundamental principles on which the scheme was to be regulated may be gathered with sufficient clearness from the following sentence or two extracted from the Letter in which Lord John Russell communicated to the Maiquis of Lansdowne, her Majesty's intention to create the Committee of Council on Education :—: — " Much may be effected by a temperate attention to the fair claims of the Established Chuich, and the religious freedom sanctioned by the law. " On this subject, I need only say that it is Her Majesty's wish that the youth of this kingdom should be religiously brought up, and that the rights of conscience should be respected." The soundness of these principles must command the approbation of every impartial mind ; but Mr. Dbnison and his sympathisers in the ultra section of the National School Society cannot expand their minds to so much catholicity. Their great grievance just now however seems to be the introduction of a measure of lay control in the management of schools supported by Government giants. The Committee of Council require that the Tiust Deeds of Schools under their patronage shall be invested in a Committee including lay-gentlemen a power of management. It is true indeed that these laymen must be bona fide members of the Church of England, and, moreover, that the control of what is purely religious shall be given to the Clergy and the Bishops of the respective dioceses ; but the Tractarian sect will not submit to these conditions. According to Mi. Denison and his friends, " all education flows from and necessarily depends on the doctrine of regeneration in baptism." Unfortunately for this party, however, the highest authority has judicially determined that Baptismal Regeneration is not an essential tenet of the Chuich of England. Mr. Goriiam who repudiates it (in common with the whole body of the Evangelical Clergy) has made good his title to his benefice in spite of the vindictive opposition of his diocesan. It is undoubtedly a hard case that a Judicial Committee composed chiefly of lawyers should have power to decide absolutely on so grave a theological question ; but the advantages of an establishment must be paid for in one way or another, and the exclusive claim of the Tractarian clergy to be (as they style themselves in their recent memorial to the Queen) u the Divinely appointed teachers of the English nation," is not likely to be recognized by Parliament. Our next English arrivals will probably show how the Legislature has treated this pretension. Meanwhile some hint on the project may be inferred from the language in which the Times (notwithstanding the Tractarian influence which Mr. Walter brings to bear on its columns) alludes to the Meeting at Willis's Rooms elready refer/ed to :—: — " It is not the fault of the speakers at Willis's Roams, if the hostility of the State to the Church is not something more than a dream. If the orators of Thursday could really persuade themselves and their hearers that we are tending to a system which must inevitably destroy in the created being veneration for the Creator, in the child love for the parent, in the pupil respect for the teacher, in the subject obedience to the State ; if they gravely thought that the Committe of Council was attempting to exclude God from the government of the world, and to separate Providence from man j if, while with great logical acuteness they could discern the dependence of all education on the doctrine of regeneration in baptism, they could not perceive that the Queen's colleges in Ireland, and the Minutes of Council in England, and the Universities in France, so far differed in principle that what is true of one may yet be false of the other, and that the triad are not fair objects of indiscriminate abuse, we can have nothing to say to them. All this may be highly intellectual, but it is not common sense. If we listen or read with respect it is because of the authorities, not of the matter.

We fear it would be nonsense from ordinary lips. What is when uttered by Mr. Nvmjlju, Mr. Sewell, and Mr. Gkorce DunisonT 1 Theie is also considerable agitation in Scotland upon this subject. That country has generally been regaided as standing especially high in educational progress, but recent investigations and reports by sonic of its own sons show only too cleatly a paucity in the number of schools, and a low state of qualiucation on the part of the Masters. It is to be regretted that, instead of — even religious parties — joining heart and hand, to remedy what now seems to be an acknowledged evil, sectarian disputes and jealousies are largely intermingled in the discussion. The Free Church and the Established Church have le-produced all their old hostilities here, and some of the contending champions manifest a thorough willingness to fight their battles over again, and once more to slay their slain. The most portentous element in the movement, however, is the apparent strength and organization of the latitudinal ian party, — the party which would, under the hypocritical pretext of illuminating the mind, leave the heart of the rising generation to rankle in its wildness or depravity. But we have little doubt that Old Scotland will place its socialist pseudo-educators in their proper place before long. Its sound-hearted men will still sacredly cherish " The big ha' Bible, ance their father's piide," and will remember •' From scenes like lhc\c old Scotia's grandeur springs, Thcit makes her loved at home, levered abroad." Ireland has its own full share in the educational controversy. Sir Robert Incus's denunciation of the " Queen's Colleges " as " a gigantic scheme of godless education" has found many responsive echoes. Dr. MacTHle, wonderful to lelate, is working In the same direction with the unflinching Tory and Protestant Member for Oxford University. With a difference, however — Dr. Macllale wishes to have Colleges to inculcate Romanism, and Romanism exclusively. Sir Robert Harry fears that the door is thrown so carelessly open that Romanism or any other ism may come in at its free pleasure. A College, the creed of which will be the tenets avouched by the Council of Trent, is in embryo, and a very 'large contribution to its annual support is promised by one of the Roman Catholic Bishops, fiom a fund placed at his disposal by a charitable donor. But, is this the right way to promote the well-being of the rising generation of Ireland ' 2 Is the cuise of sectarian stiife so bound upon that country that her Bishops and her Curates, her Protestants and her Papists, her Orangemen and her Repealers, seem to have little thought — even upon such a vital question as Education — but how they may most damagingly tear others eyes out. Public Education has not, up to this hour, had fair play in Ireland. Lord Stanley's scheme, which is now the "National System" in Ireland, had, in our humble judgment, some serious defects. We, however gave it such support, as, in the position we then occupied, we were aole to render. It was not the best conceivable system, — not just such a system as we would establish in our own. Uto:tia — but it was a system adapted with most statesmanlike prudence to the circumstances of the public occasion which elicited it. We (with all respect for the judgment of some of those who opposed that scheme, and who were amongst our personal friends) think that the members of the Established Church, and of the Wesleyan Conference who took so decidedly hostile a part against it, missed their way. We have evidences in our hands that they themselves now see this.

The " St. Patrick's Band." — We had the pleasure of listening to a full rehearsal by this J3and on Thursday evening. It is simply justice to say that it was ci editable to all concerned, and that it afforded fair promise of a good entertainment at the concert which the Band announce for Monday night, at the Mechanics' Institute.