DEPLORABLE IGNORANCE ON THE SUBJECT.

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"Examiner. My girl, can you tell me who was Jesus Christ? Answer. The devil. E. Come, this is not a subject to be trifled with; think again, and tell me who was Jesus Christ? A. The gospel. E. Well, that is nearer to it, but still not right; guess again. A. Satan. E. You surely do not mean what you say; do you not know that Satan is the devil? A. The synagogue. The catechist tired out was at last obliged to give up the attempt in despair. Now I beg it to be kept in mind," Sir Arthur goes on to say,. "that this was a confirmed child of the church. In my own parish, the children that I examined were either mute, or gave the most absurd answers. I must beg any one not to fall into the mistake of supposing that these are isolated instances, invidiously picked out; I will be answerable that they are not the exception, but the rule."

I have not the least doubt of the truth of this remark, appalling as it may appear. I could fill a pamphlet with similar cases; nay, I blush to own it, but I have had as bad from adults in some of the agricultural districts, and much worse in many parts of Ireland, where I have met with individuals who firmly believed that a human being could change them into a goat, or any other animal.

I think the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer, ought to be taught in every school, without exception, by the master or mistress, and as much Bible teaching as possible; but let the pupils get doctrine at the proper times and places. Schools ought not to be made the mediums for teaching dogmas and sectarianism; nor is the young mind fit to judge of the truth or error of the various and conflicting opinions entertained by each party, and still less should the young mind be stultified with the squabbles of polemical strife. The less girls know of these things the better; let them be taught to act the Christian part, and leave the debateable points for other opportunities. The other day at a public meeting at the Music Hall, Liverpool,

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DEPLORABLE IGNORANCE ON THE SUBJECT.

I heard a clergyman read from a report, of an infant four ycars old learning the four first chapters of Genesis, and afterwards repcating them off by heart. Now I would say, however plcasing this might be to the hearers, it was no good to a young child, who could not possibly understand what it said Simple passages of Scripture it might be desirable for a young child to commit to memory, but not to the extent here mentioned. If we treated the body of an infant in this manner, by giving it strong food, and in such quantity, we should soon send it out of this world; and the irreparable injury that is done to the young mind, by well-intended, though mistaken, individuals, is dreadful to contemplate; and I am sure that many females, whose imaginations are generally excitcable, may date the loss of their reasoning powers to treatment of this description; I have conversed with several in different lunatic asylums, who have had to lament that they are doomed to draw out a miserable existence in such places from a similar cause; and I believe that a great number of suicides are fairly traccable to an over zcal, not guided by prudence, in this important part of female education. It is in vain that medical men, and those that have spent a whole life in studying the subject, and experimenting upon it, raise their voices against it. In too many cases they are met with scorn, and set down as irreligious characters, if not infidels This last weapon is but too much used in the present day by those who ought to know better, and to act differently, and the bigot and the ignoramus, even in theological knowledge, finds this a deadly instrument, and uses it in his unholy warfare against the cause of truth. It is casier said than proved, and some of the greatest men of former times, and even some of the wisest and best and most holy of the present day, have been stigmatized as infidels, most cruelly and unjustly, by those who call themselves Christians, and who wish to be thought such. The Scribes and Pharisccs did so in former times, and they

have had their reward. The minds of the rising generation must be made free; the public voice has declared it; the signs of the times demand it; the Great Creator will raise up instruments to accomplish it; and it is vain for those who are interested in keeping the species in mental bondage, with such weapons to oppose it. Truth is omnipotent, and will shine forth in rays of splendour, so as to captivate the young mind, and to penetrate into its inmost recesses. The rising generation are anxious to receive truth; they grasp at it with avidity, and happy will it be for them if all that is offered to them under that title partake of its purifying qualities.

The books introduced into the Liverpool Corporation Schools, in which I laboured for nearly twelve months, if properly used, contain matters which will enable the teachers to convey much useful information of a religious kind to the pupils; but unless they are more used, and the interrogatory system is brought more into play, the results cannot be so encouraging as, under other circumstances, they would be. Once or twice a week is quite often enough for the pupils to say the catechism. When this was written, a portion of the catechism was said every day, which made the pupils disgusted with the work, and defeats its own object.

In the infant schools, particularly connected with these institutions, they have no catechisms, and I hope they never will; but sound information is given the infants through the medium of Scripture plates, by questions and answers on the lessons connected with them, and both questions and answers are taken from the context, without note or comment, so that real Bible knowledge is communicated, suited to the capacity of the young minds for which it is intended, without troubling them with any peculiar doctrine.

From the great anxiety manifested by the Education Committee of the Liverpool Corporation Schools, that

every thing should be taught in the most effective manner, I may venture to assert that the defects alluded to above will not long exist under their management.

Much has been said and written with respect to these institutions; and a great portion, I regret to say, has not bccn founded on fact. I have no connection whatever with those schools, and can have no interest in misleading the public mind one way or another; but truth and justice demand that I should state, that the Holy Bible is read by every child that can read it, belonging to them, whe ther he is a Protestant child, or a Roman Catholic. There is, however, this distinction made between them, the Protestant child reads the authorized version, the Roman Catholic child reads the Donay version; and it is strictly to be noticed that the Bible is not excluded from the Liverpool Corporation Schools. I have examined the children myself, I have seen them examined by clergymen of the Established Church, and also by Presbyterian ministers, and other orthodox churchmen and dissenters, and in every case the children proved themselves possessed of sound scriptural knowledge; which shows that the Bible is not only read but taught, and reflects grcat credit on themselves and their teachers, and I may safely say I never met with children in any school, or under any circumstances, who were better taught than the children in these schools. Although it is not my intention to write a history of the schools established by the Liverpool corporation, yet a few brief observations concerning them may not be entirely uninteresting to the reader.

When the new town council of Liverpool came into office, they found four excellent school rooms, which had been built by their predecessors from the corporation funds, two schools for boys, two for girls, and, subsequently, two for infants, making in all six schools; these had been exclusively in the hands of members of the Established Church, and were conducted upon the well-known prin

ciples of the late Dr. Bell. Many of the town council being magistrates, they had an opportunity of witnessing the class of juvenile delinquents whose education had been most neglected, and it was found that the children of the lower class of Roman Catholics formed a considerable majority. They therefore concluded, that as the schools had been built from the corporation funds, and as the corporation funds were derived from the inhabitants of Liverpool, without distinction of sect, that it was but an act of justice to throw those schools open to the children of all parties, and try if they could not have a system of education without offering violence to any. They have, to my certain knowledge, succeeded; but then it has been by much tact and talent on the part of the Education Committee, and great personal attention from every member of it; and it should be added, that they spared no pains to get suitable teachers, and, most honourably, to pay them suitable salaries. They deserved success, and they obtained it. So far what is called the mixed system has been attended with success, and it may succeed in Manchester, many parts of Lancashire, some parts of Yorkshire, and some districts of London, where the Roman Catholics are numerous but I am certain from what I know of the opinions of the clergy, and others of my countrymen who have thought deeply on this matter, that it never will answer for a system of national education either in England or Scotland. In both these countries we must have the entire unmutilated Bible; no system of education that is not based on this, will, I am sure, in my day at least, ever be received by a majority of the British people, and I for one must say that I entirely am of their opinion. This involves a principle of such mighty importance that it must not be trifled with. Even the Roman Catholic professes to draw his doctrines from the Holy Scriptures; why then should he object to their being read except by the clergy? This, however, is a matter for the clergy's de