menced such a movement as the Christian; a great doctrine to have accomplished this, the most profound and wondrous revolution in human affairs. We must conclude that these writers would describe the main features of his life, and set down the great principles of his doctrine, its most salient points and his most memorable sayings, such as were poured out in the highest moments of inspiration. If the teacher were true, these sayings would involve all the rest of his doctrine, which any man of simple character, religious heart, and mind free from prejudice, could unfold and develope still farther. The condition and nature of the Christian records will not allow us to go farther than this, and to be curious in particulars. Their legendary and mythical character does not warrant full confidence in their narrative. There are certain main features of doctrine in which the Evangelists and the Apostles all agree, though they differ in most other points." * The character of the record is such that I see not how any stress can be laid on particular actions attributed to Jesus. That he lived a divine life, suffered a violent death, taught and lived a most beautiful religion,—this seems the great fact about which a mass of truth and error has been collected. That he should gather disciples, be opposed by the Priests and Pharisees, have controversies with them, this lay in the nature of things. His loftiest sayings seem to me the most likely to be genuine. The great stress laid on the person of Jesus by his followers, shows what the person must have been;-they put the person before the thing, the fact above the idea. But it is not about vulgar men that such mythical stories are told. (To be concluded next week.) DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE.-The strong barriers which confined the stores of wisdom have been thrown down, and a flood overspreads the earth: old establishments are adapting themselves to the spirit of the age; new establishments are rising; the inferior schools are introducing improved systems of instruction, and good books are rendering every man's fireside a school. From all these causes there is growing up an enlightened public opinion which quickens and directs the progress of every art and science, and through the medium of a free press, although overlooked by many, is now rapidly becoming the governing influence in all the affairs of man.-Dr. Arnott.-Elements of Physics. WORKS OF THOMAS COOPER, To be had of JAMES WATSON, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row. THE BARON'S YULE FEAST. A Christmas Rhyme. THE PURGATORY OF SUICIDES. A Prison Rhyme. In 10 Books. s. d. 3 6 5 0 THE MINSTREL'S SONG AND THE WOODMAN'S SONG. The Poetry and the Melody by In 1 volume, sewed,.. 1 6 06 Two Orations against taking away Human Life under any circumstances,. 1 0 06 Eight Letters to the Young Men of the Working Classes. (Collected from the Plain Speaker,') PART II. of" COOPER'S JOURNAL," containing the 4 Nos. for February, 1850, and Part I., containing the 4 Nos. for January, stitched in a wrapper, Price, each, 44d., may be had of the Publisher. Also, now Publishing in Weekly Numbers, at One Penny, CAPTAIN COBLER; THE LINCOLNSHIRE INSURRECTION:" An Historical Romance of the Reign of Henry VIII. Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 are now Published. No. 1 of the Romance is still given away with No. 9 of the Journal. London: Printed by WILLIAM SHIRREFS, 190, High Holborn ; and Published by JAMES WATSON, 3, Queen's Head Passage, Paternoster Row... OR, UNFETTERED THINKER AND PLAIN SPEAKER FOR TRUTH, FREEDOM, AND PROGRESS. "AND though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple! Who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?"-Milton's Areopagitica. THE shadow on the dial-plate of the Age, is now telling the Church of England that the sun of her supremacy is fast sinking in the political horizon. All who can read the signs of the times, written as they are in broad text-hand on the walls of the holy temple within and without, cannot deny that the constitution of the Church is on the eve of important changes. The High Priest party, or, as they may justly be styled, the Romanizing section of Protestantism, see the revolution advancing, and are inclined to hail it with rejoicing; the low Church or self-dubbed 'Evangelical' party of the Establishment, perceive the gathering clouds, and tremble for the consequences. The iron is growing warmer and warmer every day, and will soon be ready for the anvil, when the Anti-State-Church Association must awake from its lethargy, and assist in hammering out the consummation of its hopes. Extremes are often said to meet, and on the question of the separation of Church and State, Democratic Dissent will probably be aided in its efforts to liberate religion from political control, by the most bigoted advocates of Hierarchy. Differing on every other point, these two parties at last agree that the civil authorities have no right to regulate ecclesiastical doctrine and discipline. At all events, the ultrachurch party says so now, because the secular arm has lately inflicted rather an ugly blow on the dignity and fancied independence of Mother Church. When, however, the question of church property comes to be overhauled, perhaps this unanimity will be turned to discord. When tithes, church-rates, the taxing one creed to support another, and some other little privileges enjoyed by the Act-of-Parliament Clergy, are brought under investigation, war will certainly be proclaimed. The Church will say then, as it says now, "if we are disunited from the State, we shall not give up our property; we must still retain our tenths, and enjoy the privilege of mulcting dissenters to maintain the true worship." But the champions of religious freedom will say that they understand by the phrase 'separation of Church and State' no less than this, viz.: the appropriation of the tithes for educational and national purposes, the abolition of Church-rates, the abrogation of the royal supremacy in spiritual matters, the expulsion of the Bishops from the House of Lords, the abolition of the Ecclesiastical Courts, and, may be, the repeal of the statute which now precludes men in holy orders' from sitting and voting as Members of the House of Commons. To bring all these things to pass, we shall no doubt have to sustain a hard fight; but ultimately realised they must be. The recent trial of the " Gorham and Exeter" case, has imparted a powerful impetus to the wheel of church reform. In a religious point of view, the decision of the Privy Council on that case was as unimportant as if the question to be decided had been the average number of hairs on a tom-cat's tail. In spite of the solemn judgment of the royal court, some folks will believe in 'baptismal regeneration,' and some won't; some of the clergy will continue to preach the spiritual influence of baby-sprinkling, and endeavour to excite reverence for the damp finger of an ordained priest, while others will regard the ceremony as necessary to be performed, but having no effect on the infantine soul. Men of free thought will treat baptism and no-baptism as subjects unworthy the consideration of an enlightened mind, except as matters of history and antiquarianism. In a political point of view, however, this 'Gorham business is not to be despised. It is fraught with vast results. It has brought to a crisis the divisions that have long been fermenting in the ministration of the Church. Look at the frantic protest of the Rev. G. A. Denison, and other clergymen, against the decision; look at the meetings of the clergy held to express their feelings against the authority of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, declaring it an illegal tribunal; look at the number of pamphlets advertised on both sides of the question; read the two sermons just published by the Rev. W. Bennett, of Wilton Place Church, Knightsbridge, entitled "The Crown, the State, and the Church," in which the Church is made to lament its crushed position, cries out for liberty of conscience, and deplores royal dictation; and then who shall say that the Church is not really in danger of a rupture with the State? Time was when Mother Church trampled on dissenters with unrestricted foot; time was when she ruthlessly struggled to keep down the growth of freedom, and sought to smother every voice but her own; but circumstances have altered; truth and justice are more and more recognised, and are shining more and more unto the perfect day. The Church of England is no longer a compact body; external influences, direct and indirect, have succeeded in changing her relationship with the governing powers of the realm, as the feelings of those governing powers toward her are also changed, and now she is a House divided against itself." The rock on which she once stood is crumbling beneath her foundations, and ere many years the Establishment' must give place to a system of voluntaryism and congregational discipline. LAYMAN. THE PEOPLE'S DUTY REGARDING NATIONAL EDUCATION.' Mr. Fox, in the spirit of real enlightenment, has renewed the demand in the Legislature it now remains to be seen what the People without are inclined to do. It is surely high time that something should be done. Thousands of children are daily growing up into men and women, without receiving any proper moral or intellectual training to qualify them for the discharge of the great duties of citizens. What we designate crime, is only the necessary result of our own greater criminality-and the fitting punishment upon us for the wicked neglect of our duties to those who, by this very neglect, become criminals. It is surely wiser and better to provide schools, than to build prisons, Crime is not dangerous, but very expensive. In this, as in other respects, education is the "cheap defence of nations." We scour the world in search of objects of benevolence; we expend hundreds of pounds daily for the enlightenment of the Heathen at the Antipodes, while, if we would only venture into the courts and back slums and blind alleys in our immediate neighbourhood, we should find, at least, equally deserving objects for our philanthropic zeal: Heathens quite as ignorant, and requiring as much instruction, under our own pious and charitable noses. Is it not scandalous, that with all our vaunted civilization and intelligence, onehalf of the population, according to the report of the Registrar-General, should be unable to write their own names,-while it also appears that only one child out of thirteen is receiving the benefit of School instruction? And how much even of this is altogether unworthy of the name, Education is not only deficient in quantity, but miserably defective in quality, The education of the children of the poor has chiefly been left to the benevolent zeal of the different bodies of religionists. All honour to them for the good they have accomplished--for the kindly feeling and excellent motives by which I believe they have been, generally, actuated! But it is a fact notorious to all who have made any enquiries into the subject, that with them in the great majority of instances, instruction is not only made subordinate, but subservient, to the work of Proselytism. The School is made a supplement to the Chapel, It may be regarded as a sort of theological manufactory; and children are the raw material, to be wrought up into Churchmen, Methodists, Baptists, Independents, Catholics, as the proprietors may determine. They are educated, not for this world, but the next. They are drugged with creeds, collects, catechisms; they are loaded with all sorts of unintelligible ignorance; they are made to parrot forth a belief in the abstrusest mysteries, which have baffled the comprehension of men of the profoundest learning, and largest calibre of intellect; and to all this "intolerable deal of" theological "sack," there is scarcely furnished one "halfpenny worth" of " the bread" of secular instruction. For, according to the evidence of the Government Commissioners, secular instruction, even in its "most elementary form," is very scantily administered. Need we wonder that the opponents of education should be enabled to quote jail statistics, to prove that such instruction has failed to elevate the moral character of those subject to its influence? Our present system of education displays neither faith in God, nor trust in man. We are guilty of the blindest, saddest idolatry-the worship of ourselves. We seek to perpetuate in our children the mental image of ourselves. We must raise the standard of instruction. We must familiarize the public mind with a higher estimate of the true purposes of education. It is not education, to load the child's memory with words and doctrines the relations of which it does not perceive -the meaning of which it cannot comprehend. It is not education, to cram into the child's mind as much as we can, as if it were a trunk, or a carpetbag, made to carry luggage. I apprehend that the object of education should be to educe, to draw out the best qualities and tendencies of the child's own being; to develope and strengthen its powers of observation, reflection, and memory; to cultivate its kindly sympathies, its love of goodness, its reverence for truth; to make it, in short, not what we will not a stereotype impression of our own imperfect natures, but that which God intended it should become. We may be a long way off this yet; but I believe the plan proposed by Mr. Fox is an approximation towards it. He is doing his part; and now we have ours to perform. Let me appeal to those of my own order. Working men, if you desire that your children should be well and freely educated, by competent Teachers, without the degradation of receiving it as charity, and without having it contaminated by sectarian influences; if you love your country, and desire its freedom; if you are proud of its truest glory, and seek to elevate the character of its people, I call upon you to be up and doing instantly and earnestly. Indifference will be criminal. Be determined to do your utmost to prevent any portion of the people being hoodwinked or deceived, by an appeal to, and a misuse of party watchwords! Be resolved to defeat the narrow-minded, who have already commenced their war-cry. Commence public meetings in every locality. Let every real Mechanics' Institution, every Mutual Instruction Society, every Working Man's Association, send in Petitions in support of the Bill for the Secular Education of the People. And where this cannot be done collectively, let it be done individually, and immediately. There is no time to lose. Government is waiting for your response. Let it be prompt and decisive. Tell the Legislature "that there can be no wise and efficient Legislation while the People are suffered to remain in ignorance; that it is injustice and cruelty to punish men without previously instructing them; that it is a mockery and an insult to withhold from men their political rights, on the plea that it would be dangerous to intrust them to an ignorant people, and yet to perpetuate that ignorance, by refusing them those means and facilities necessary for its removal." Above all, tell them that you "claim education as the birthright of your children; of every child born into a civilized community,-a birthright from which none, under any pretext whatever, should be debarred." Tell Legislators and Statesmen, that this is a right which no sophistry can destroy, the practical recognition of which can neither be evaded or delayed, without incurring the most fearful guilt. Say to bigots and fanatics, "Stand out of the sunshine!-God hath said, and the people re-echo-let there be light!" THOMAS SHORTER. NOTES, WHICH THEY WHO RUN MAY READ. FRANCE.-Every succeeding number of the morning papers shews, more and more, how fearfully the volcano is gathering for another and more tremendous explosion. The situation of the humblest mechanic in England is enviable compared to that of the President-Pretender. Any slight and unlooked-for incident may create the outburst that will engulph him in ruin; and he lives in the hourly consciousness of it, amidst all his tinselled splendour. Thousands of the soldiery have voted for the three Socialists who have just been returned to the National Assembly, by triumphant majorities; and crowds of shopkeepers joined the workingclasses, in voting for them. Socialist unions exist in activity throughout the provinces, circulating tracts, and employing missionaries; and, every week, the papers record the dismissal of schoolmasters for spreading Socialism. The cabinet formed a short time ago, so resolutely, by Louis Napoleon, is found to be so incompetent that he would willingly get rid of it--but cannot get men of brains to take their places: Thiers, Molé, De Broglie, and Berryer, consent to give him advice, but declare that they dare not become ministers-so that there is an imperium in imperio-a government within the government. The body of Red Republicans, meanwhile, manifest such perfect discipline, that they obey the injunctions of the Democratic press with the greatest unanimity, and preserve a sternly defensive attitude which alarms their opponents. A law is projected for making the publication of newspapers impossible unless by depositing a large sum with the government, as security;' another scheme is on foot for curtailing the suffrage; and the rumour continues that the term of the Presidency is to be extended for the present holder. But the truth is, that not only he, but the long-headed reaction |