Thirdly, to allow the privileges of schools constituted under the Act to any existing schools which are efficiently conducted, and will allow equal opportunities of religious instruction to all the pupils, of whatever denomination. Fourthly, to make the certificate required by the child's employer, a certificate of attainment, and not of attendance; the attainment being graduated according to the child's age; e. g. reading fluently in the Gospels, at nine years of age; reading and writing at ten; knowledge of the first four rules of arithmetic at eleven, &c. We have now given the substance, and also a very considerable portion of the pamphlet in the shape of extract. We think it will not be easy to combat the reasoning and the conclusions which it presents; or, as the Bill at present stands, to reconcile its educational clauses with the principles of impartial justice and perfect religious liberty. At the same time we perceive matter for congratulation both in the measure and in the temper in which it was received by the leaders on both sides of the House of Commons, however much there may be to object to in the details. It would be too much to expect in "practical" England, where the term carries so great a charm, that any very comprehensive scheme of national education should be speedily introduced and carried. But, to use Mr. Fox's words, "the strong necessity of the case, the self-defence of the higher classes, and the manifest peril of social order, tend to ripen the public mind rapidly to a sense of what is due to humanity, though in its lowliest form." Accordingly the subject of education has forced itself upon the attention of Government. Neither the old, nor any constitution, can much longer be safely entrusted to ignorance and immorality. Anything therefore that looks in the right direction should be welcomed and encouraged. And when, as on the introduction of Sir James Graham's Bill, we witness both parties in Parliament disposed to discuss the measure with more than ordinary calmness, there are grounds for hoping that some of the details may pass into a law. Even although we should with some desponding spirits see nothing but obstruction to the early settlement of the educational cause in the Government measure, by stirring up the slumbering animosities to the Church, yet this very excitement, it is probable, will accelerate the question, and guide to a comprehensive and liberal plan, which no piece-and-piece legislation could accomplish. It is an important point to have all parties now agreeing upon the value of secular instruction; but it will take time, perseverance, and pressure to render every sect sensible, whether within or without the pale of the Establishment, that religious education should be left free of every tramel which the stronger might wish to impose upon the conscientious scruples of the weaker. In the meantime we are not inclined to regard the Bill under consideration as a measure to be denounced as incapable of such amendment as would render it a valuable boon and concession. It may be true that a Committee of the Privy Council is a body to which so much irresponsible and despotic authority as is contemplated should not be accorded; and that the public can have no security against the inactivity and mismanagement of such a board. On the other hand it ought to be borne in mind that it is a gain to have it yielded that education is a thing over which the Government does extend its eye. Besides, the Committee will be necessarily identified with the Administration for the time being; and the day has arrived, that no Ministry can stand that resists or violates the public sense, expressed as this can always be through the representatives of the people. The Committee too will come to be looked to as the board to which all educational questions are to be referred; and in course of time the country may grow familiarized with the machinery of the plan so as that it will work effectively. The factory children form but a small proportion of the rising generation. But then could you safely make the experiment upon a much broader scale; and beginning as you must somewhere, was there any other section of the nation with which you could more hopefully start? Still, while there may be much in the principles of the Bill to be gratefully hailed by the friends of national education, it is right that a vigilant eye should be directed to its details, and especially to prevent it from becoming a legal engine of proselytism. Indeed the dissenters, and the liberals in the ranks of the Church, have timeously awoke to criticise the proposed enactments, although in not a few cases with a heat that threatens to render the work of pacification and adjustment one of increasing difficulty; whereas little good can be looked for unless the subject be treated without passion and party rancour. It does not augur ill, we think, that Lord John Russell has taken the field with a string of resolutions; it having been the late Whig Ministry that took the first step in the direction of a system of national education. We copy out these resolutions, that our readers may have the better means of judging whether Sir James's Bill can be rendered acceptable to the Dissenting body, and thoroughly safe in respect of civil and religious liberty. 1. That in any Bill for the promotion of education in Great Britain, by which a Board shall be authorised to levy, or cause to be levied, parochial rates, for the erection and maintenance of schools, provision ought to be made for an adequate representation of the ratepayers of the parish in such Board. 2. That the Chairman of such Board ought to be elected by the Board itself. 3. That the Holy Scriptures in the authorised version should be taught in all schools established by any such Board. 4. That special provision should be made for cases in which Roman Catholic parents may object to the instruction of their children in the Holy Scriptures in such schools. 5. That no other books of religious instruction should be used in such schools, unless with the sanction of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the concurrence of the Committe of Privy Council for Education. 6. That in order to prevent the disqualification of competent schoolmasters on religious grounds, the books of religious instruction other than the Holy Bible, introduced into the schools, should be taught apart by the clergyman of the parish, or some person appointed by him, to the children of parents who belong to the Established Church, or who may be desirous that their children should be so instructed. 7. That all children taught in such schools should have free liberty to reso t to any Sunday school, or any place of religious worship which their parents may approve. 8. That any school connected with the National School Society, or the British and Foreign School Society, any Protestant Dissenters' school, and any Roman Catholic school which shall be found upon inspection to be efficiently conducted, should be entitled by licence from the Privy Council to grant certificates of school attendance, for the purpose of employment in factories of children and young persons. 9. That, in the opinion of this House, the Committee of Privy Council for Education ought to be furnished with means to enable them to establish and maintain a sufficient number of training and model schools in Great Britain. 10. That the said Committee ought likewise to be enabled to grant gratuities to deserving schoolmasters, and to afford such aid to schools established by voluntary contribution, as may tend to the more complete instruction of the people in religious and secular knowledge, while at the same time the rights of conscience may be respected. Now, we do not see why the most jealous Churchman should be alarmed at Lord John's amendments, or that the Factory Bill might not be made to receive them with cordiality, so as to meet the views of the friends of religious freedom. Everything for the present, however, will be hazarded, we fear, by intemperate demands on both sides; and in that case even the small experiment in the manufacturing districts may prove utterly abortive or positively injurious. But better is it that the measure should be abandoned altogether, and to an indefinite period, than that it should violate the clear principles of liberty, or tend to narrow their foundations. ART. XIII. 1. Judas; a Tragic Mystery. By DIGBY P. STARKEY, A.M. Longman. 2. The Banished Lord. A Tragedy in Five Acts. Mitchell. Mr. STARKEY stands up manfully for sacred poems thrown into that shape which he has given to his Judas,--and he also appears to think that they will yet supersede the epic and the drama. In this there is, it seems to us, a visionary hope rather than any distinct perception of tokens to the effect expected, or even of any principle that would render such a poetical revolution a positive gain. Religious subjects do not appear to be destined, in any poetic shape, to constitute a large and predominating class of literature; not that the serious would be unpopular, but because of the extreme difficulty of coming up to the standard required, or even to the elevation which every one's religious sentiments reach, whenever he retires within himself to hold converse with the Deity, or to meditate upon death, judgment, and eternity. Above all, the obstacles to success are next to insurmountable when the poet introduces Scriptural personages; not merely because they have the character of inspiration, but because the poet can hardly step out of, or beyond, the record familiar to us from infancy, without doing violence to our knowledge and our sense of what is becoming and seasonable. It is difficult also to create a thorough sympathy in the persons who figure in the Bible, so remote is the era in which they lived, as well as so feebly perceived the nature of the society in which they moved. With reference to the "Tragic Mystery" before us, and especially to the representation of Judas, there appears to be more to try the genius of the poet than in most of the scriptural characters; for baseness attaches with unremoveable weight to his name, and how can you allow him the elevation of a tragic hero, if you keep at all within the record? To be sure Mr. Starkey does by no means confine himself so strictly; but his greatest innovation offends one's feelings as something loathsome, coarse, vulgar, and common-place: for he finds a concubine for the betrayer, whose greed and extravagance tempt to theft and to selling of innocent blood. Even the other principal characters fail to touch our sympathies, and this partly from want of individuality and distinctive characteristics of humanity. The language they utter has fluency and a sort of sacred pomp; but it is rhetorical rather thau poetic, both the speakers and the speeches being abstractions. The subordinates, whether of persons or sentiments, are better, because they are more accessible and imaginable. "Judas," as a dramatic poem, though labouring under all these necessary and actual conditions, is a composition of power, and far greater than average merit. Mr. Starkey is a scholar, a man of deep thought, and imbrued with a poetic temperament. There is boldness in his fancies, and he also possesses a rich font of philosophic pensiveness and gentle emotions. He is very successful, we think, even when he attempts to delineate Christ, whom he wisely avoids introducing personally. The plot too is contrived so as to keep up a considerable degree of interest, and many of the incidents are happily conceived. The following gives us a description of the Saviour, and the miracle of the lame beggar: His eye Gleamed with a joy that seemed to scare himself, SALATHIEL. Never; but I've heard there's much Speaks in his face and mien. JACOB. Nay, 'tis not that: And weight because they're few. In converse gentle, He shakes the heart he hurts not, like the roll The next specimen belongs to the "agony" scene: For three whole nights he hath not slumbered once : I watch him close to minister relief But 'tis in vain. Hearken-when, all forespent, Our custom is at eve to cast us down |