COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

Press, Volume XI, Issue 1374, 3 April 1867, Page 2

COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

The " Morning Post " doubts whether compulsory education would be submitted to by the class it is intended to benefit. That is merely half of the difficulty; still it is the half which, if multitudes are to dictate or to govern, should be carefully examined. The obligation which would be recognized by compulsory education is comprehensive, and, as the Germans express it, many-sided. If the State provides for the instruction of the people, the State may require service in return, and on the same system. It is right enough to argue that this is in the nature of democracy, inasmuch as pure and uncontrolled democracy is the inclined plane on which a nation proceeds to the despotism which is its corollary ; but the education that might include conscription would, however unreasonably, be regarded with suspicion. "VVe cannot in this country venture upou experi-1 ments which in other countries, with a highly centralized form of government, are deemed inexpedient. It is only not irrelevant to set before us the example of Prussia. Even the laboring classes in England, whether educated or not, are brought up in the faith of freedom, which is not the case in Prussia, and will not be the case in Germany when universal suffrage in established. We have to consult feelings, and to defer to prejudices. It is no use kicking against the pricke. As things are, so must they be taken. We could wish that they were otherwise, but it remains for U3 to make the beat of them ; and, as regards education, there ought to be no insuperable obstacle to an arrangement which might work beneficially on the

basis of existing to purchasing public in*lr U di un '? ( f 3 price proposed, the eoi,,lj f j *" Ul ° which tho transaction woul.n ° a bo completed a carcdyrcvl.'. l l| t !,!lV0 to tieance ; and if any scheme of Jf" character is to bo contemplate! „ a ot'UieiiwlfruiUof aredU o ,,;j7 franchise, it is manifest tlmt th o i° ing classes are marching i v th o ,uS an end which, if foreseen, avoid. } ou 'v