16 FEBRUARY 1856, Page 12

MINISTER OF EDUCATION.

TEE Government appoints a Minister of Education, though it refuses a Minister of Justice. At last, then, long refusal melts into compliance. As justice is more urgently wanted than edu- cation—since men can be wronged or righted sooner than they can be educated—it follows that Government will hold out longer ; the most essential things always taking the longest time to do— officially. Lord Fllenborough fears that labour and literature are mutually destructive, and he would not sacrifice the labour of the country to make a literary peasantry. Who would ? But education is not learning. The people of the United States are better taught than ours : the persevering labour of the Whites has set going a White colonization of some Slave States : the education of the Americans enables them to supply the Patent Office at Washington —a Ministry of Agriculture—with information on experiences, new products, &c., which diffuses each man's practical observation over the whole Union.

Education destroy labour ! Why, it is—teste Lansdowne— cookery. Testibus etiam Milton et John Keats. It is for our half- civilization the " Paradise Regained " of the peasant's home. " No fear lest dinner cool." It is thrift, economy of homely means, neatness of household, pleasure prepared by the wife for the good man, nutriment for man and child, coarseness redeemed, faculties improved. For all these things attend on healthily- prepared diet, and cookery itself may derive light and love from the uses to which it ministers. Wanted, by the bye, a good report on the better feeding of Ministers and Members.