POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY NIGHT.
A long and peculiar discussion took place in the House of Commons last night on the motion for the second reading of the Factories Bill ; one of the joint measures of the Government education scheme. In reply to Mr. LABOUCHERE, Sir JAMES GRAHAM stated that it was pro- posed to go into Committee before Easter on the clauses regulating the labour of children and " young persons" in factories, but to postpone the education clauses until after Easter. Mr. EWART. Mr. HAWES, Mr. MARK Pamirs, and several other Members on the Opposition side now started objections to the education clauses, as giving too exclusive management of the schools to the Church of England, to the injury of Dis- senters and Roman Catholics : "it was an attempt," said Mr. Hawes, " to place the education of the great mass of the country in the hands of the Church of England. The question was, whether consent to the second reading would pledge those who voted for it to the details ? Sir JAMES Gaemam explained that the vote would only determine the question, whether or not the funds of the State should be devoted to the purposes of education the details of the method and management of education, and even principles involved in those details, would be open to future discussion. Lord JOHN RUSSELL admitted that ; but he thought a dis- cussion of the objections to the education part of the measure would be useful in limine.
Accordingly, the question that the bill be read a second time having been formally put, the House launched into the discussion, and the objec- tions already indicated were more specifically stated. The principal were, that although Dissenters form a majority in the manufacturing districts, and the Catholics are an increasing body, they would be practically ex- cluded from the benefits of the measure, by the composition of the school- trusts, the appointment of a clergyman as chief trustee, and the approval of masters by the Bishop of the diocese; the power of inspection, which it was assumed would be exercised on behalf of the Established Church, and the " teaching " of the Scriptures in the schools, which would in- evitably be an exposition of doctrines offensive to Dissenters. These objections were insisted on as fatal to the measure in its present form, by the Members already alluded to. Mr. Eviewr suggested, either that the Irish plan should be adopted, and only such portions of the Scriptures used as different denominations could agree upon, or that the system should be altogether freed from its theological part, and confined to secular instruction, religious instruction being left to the various ecclesiastical bodies to which the scholars might severally be- long. Mr. HUME strongly supported that view. Sir GEORGE GREY and Lord Joan RUSSELL argued for proceeding with the measure, in the view of affording opportunity for such objections to be obviated. Mr. COBDEN, admitting the gravest objections, rather supported the measure, as a step in the right direction. The Earl of SURREY, as a Catholic, generally approved the measure, but wished details objectionable to Catholics altered. On the other hand, Sir ROBERT INGLIS took the lead in objecting to the bill, that it did not "tend to
place the Church in so prominent a position as from the character of the Church it deserved ;" but he thought that, if well worked, it might more benefit than injure the Church. From these conflicting opinions Mr. GALLY KNIGHT inferred that the Government plan was the juste milieu, the golden mean. Mr. COWPER declared it the best practical measure of the kind which had ever come under discussion. Mr. MANNERS SUTTON, Mr. Dean; and others on the Ministerial side, fully supported the bill. Such is a general view of the various opinions expressed in a debate which was upon the whole remarkable for its deliberative and really discussional character. Sir JAMES GRAHAM spoke rather early in the course of it, answering some objections. He doubted the applica- bility of the Irish system to England ; and he explained that the dreaded " teaching" of the Scriptures would be like that described by Mr. Dunn, the Secretary of the British and Foreign School Society, in evidence before a Committee on the education of the poorer classes, in 1838: the teacher would explain the sense of the passages read, and also doctrines so far as they were involved in that sense, but be would not inculcate sectarian dogmas. Masters offending against such regulations would be liable to removal by the Privy Council. Sir James deprecated the heaping of difficulties in the way of the measure, and urged its imperative necessity :
the events of the last autumn showed that not a moment was to e lost,-the youth of the parties generally engaged in the outbreak was a remarkable fact ; and it was his firm belief, that if a measure of the kind had been carried ten years ago the outrages would not have taken place. The object the Government had in view was to supply a measure of education extensive in its operation, consonant with the principles of the Established Church, and at the same time go to the utmost extent consistent with the honest principle of toleration. The arguments respecting the necessity of the measure were earnestly en- forced by Lord ASHLEY. Alluding to late inquiries, he said-
" Without remorse we have disclosed our disgraceful position—displaying the positive filth that lies on the moral surface of this our land. What a figure shall we then cut among the nations of the earth, if, knowing what we do know, seeing what we do see, and feeling what we profess to feel, we fail to remove the abominations and corruptions which are festering in the very heart of our population !"
Eventually the bill was read a second time ; to be committed on Fri- day next.
More contesting about the Dog-carts Bill terminated in its third read- ing, and with some amendment it passed. Mr. ROEBUCK brought in the " Aerial Transit Company Bill," for establishing a rapid mode of travelling through the air ! It was read a first time, amidst much laughter, and ordered to be read a second time.
In the House of Peers, Lord BROUGHAM gave notice that he would, before Easter, introduce a bill for the more effectual suppression of the Slave-trade.
Lord CAMPBELL laid upon the table a bill for facilitating the trans- mission of real property.
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