31 MAY 1856, Page 11

Itttni in 01 Chita. •

SIR ARTHUR ELTON AND EDUCATION.

S1R—I regret not to have been solemn enoughtfor the taste of Sir Arthur- H. Elton. I grieve to labour under the imputation of hilarity and jocose- new. Yet though I am unable to share in your correspondent's sympathy for Lord John's discomfiture, I am unaware of having said-aught to deserve the reproach of being blind or indifferent to the evils of popular ignoranoe. The scheme of Lord john is not, I conceive identical with the 'cause of edu- cation itself, nor has Lord John any specideommisaion or peculiar privilege as the champion of light against darkness. Whatever respect I may have for education, and whatever regret for ignorance, it does not follow that I am.bound to extend my respect to all the projectors of educational schemes, and my regret to all their failures. "it is a inelaneholy thing," says Sir Arthur Elton, "to see a suffering fellOw creature ihi the hands of doctors who cannot agree how best to treat him." This is a melancholy way of putting it ; and I agree with Sir Arthur Elton, that the practitioner who, under the above distressing circumstantial, should. "caper round the sufferer's sick bed in an ecstasy of playful enjoy- ment," would be guilty of a gross breach of professional propriety. But I am at a loss to know how or when I have so offended. It will be observed, that the patient in fir Arthur Elton's affecting figure is the ignorant pub- lic, and Lord John one of the incompetent doctors. Now, surely it may be permitted to a friend of the patient's, disgusted with Doctor Russell's mode- of treatment, to express his sense of quackery in general, ancl, of the quack in particular. And does not such a line of conduct display a greater regard. for the patient's welfare than, with Sir Arthur H. Elton, to"sit still wills folded hands and wish for the day"