A WORD FOR LORD JOHN.
Clereden Court, 20th May. Bra—The opponents of Lord John Russell's Education measure seem to be in a state of jocose exultation at its downfall. Yet that measure was designed to mitigate a great and widespread evil, namely, the moral and in- tellectual degradation of the mass of the community. It was designed, I re- peat, to mitigate a notorious evil ; and unless we have some better remedy to propose in lieu of it, there seems small ground for triumph that this one has been contemptuously rejected. It is rather a melancholy thing to see a suffering fellow creature in the hands of doctors who cannot agree how best to treat him. It is still more and when one of the disputants, not content with passively thwarting the efforts of his brethren, exhibits his satisfaction by capering round the sufferer's sick bed in a perfect ecstasy of playful en- joyment. These remarks are suggested by the defence of Dwicedom which appeared in last week's Spectator. Hilarity in the presence of suffering and danger is rather ghastly. If nothing can be done to relieve the patient, let us at least abstain from perpetrating humorous grimaces over his weak and suffering frame. Let us rather sit still with folded hands, and " wish for the day."
Truly admitting that Lord John's measure needed large modification, it was yet a remedial measure ; it contained salutary ingredients : it would have given an energetic stimulus to education throughout the country ; it might have been rendered a blessing to thousands of the ignorant and desti- tute poor. But it was kicked out of the House of Commons, because the House thought it a bore ; because the House has not the cause of education really at heart ; because the House as a whole has a very dim notion of the wants and grievances of the million ; because it would rather shirk a ques- tion of this kind altogether, than grapple with it in a spirit of resolute earnestness. A large number of the so-called Representatives of the People do not take the faintest interest in the education of the people ; whilst of those who do take an interest, many are too much under the yoke of political partisanship to be of any real service to the cause. The ignorance and smouldering disaffection of the lower strata of society— the chasm that yawns drearily between rich and poor—are evils which certainly need other remedies in addition to education. But education M one remedy ; and the way in which politicians usually deah4ith it convicts them of unworthy torpor, or a shallow levity. They shut their eyes to what is passing round them, or laugh and whistle away their fears like children in the dark.
I am, Sir, yours very obediently, ARTHUR IL Rum.
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