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TEXT OF MR. ROEBUCK'S SPEECH OF JULY 30, 1833 (Hansard, VOL. XX, COLS. 139-166).

Mr ROEBUCK rose to move a Resolution in conformity to his notice, that the House would, with the smallest delay possible, consider the means of establishing a system of National Education; and spoke as follows:-Although the subject to which I am now about to solicit the attention of the House, can be surpassed by none in the importance of its influence upon the well-being of society; although none even at this time more imperiously demands consideration from the rulers of the people; yet all this, notwithstanding, I dare not, in the present temper of the political world, request the House to listen to anything like a complete exposition of my opinions and my plans respecting it. Men's minds are now in a ferment on matters solely of immediate import—the interest of the day, the pressing urgency of the present moment, are those alone which can command the consideration of the existing race of politicians. It would, therefore, be idle to hope, that a subject like general education could engage their favour, or even occupy their thoughts. Its results are distant-the benefits to be expected from it can only be attained by the slow operation of time, patience, and industry. There is nothing to raise the wonder and admiration of the ignorant many-no party—no individual purposes can be served by promoting it—nought can be obtained by its assistance, but the pure unalloyed benefit of the community at large-no wonder, then, that it has been so long, so steadily, so pertinaciously neglected. For so unpopular a cause I cannot hope to gain more than a brief, a very brief hearing. Amidst the jar of political warfare, I may, however, if peculiarly fortunate, obtain one moment of calm. Tired of contention, a slight truce may be agreed on by hostile parties; and for this brief interval they may be content to listen, by way of relaxation, to suggestions relating merely to the vital interests of society, unconnected with party, passion, or individual interests. I even have been too long in the stormy world of politics, and know too well the temper of this House to demand anything beyond this very slight and imperfect consideration of the great subject to which I am now endeavouring to obtain its attention. I will at once state

326

THE PRINCIPLE OF STATE CONTROL.

to the House the course I intend to pursue. My purpose is, at the close of the few observations with which I mean to trouble you, Sir, to propose a Resolution, by which this House will acknowledge as a principle of Government, that the education of the people is a matter of national concern; that, as such, it ought to be the object of the most immediate, continued, and sedulous attention on the part of the Legislature; and that, therefore, in the next coming Session, this House will earnestly endeavour to frame some plan for the universal education of the people. It may, and perhaps will, be said, that this might have been delayed until the next Session, and our time might at present be thereby economised. This, to me Sir, appears an unwise economy. If the House adopt my suggestion, one step, and that a very important one, will have been gained. It being generally understood that the House of Commons acknowledges the great principle that the Government ought to superintend the education of the people, the attention of thinking men will be directed to the subject, and various matters suggested, by which the control and aid of the Government may be rendered efficient; and thus, when we proceed next Session to the investigation of the subject by a Committee, we shall find men's minds prepared on it, and not surprised and taken unawares. The enunciation of the principle is all that we could at first attempt, and there is no reason why that should not be done at the end as well as the beginning of the Session. Let no one say, that it is an abstract question leading to no practical result. This talk about abstract questions is usually an unintelligible jargon, it would be so in the present case. In order to establish eventually a mode of general education, certain preliminary steps must be taken by the Legislature. Ours, from the nature of things, is an operose machinery-what a despot would do, by the mere force of his will, we must do by influencing gradually the will of others. Now, one of these preliminary steps, one which must `be taken, is to enunciate to the nation at large, our acknowledgement of the principle. This acknowledgement is itself a practical proceeding, and it leads also directly, and necessarily almost, to the establishment of the means of educating the people--in other words, it leads directly to, it is the necessary forerunner of, an important practical result. Such being the case, it is to be hoped that no one will, on the present occasion, feel indisposed towards the Resolution to be proposed, as not being of a practical description. In order

MR ROEBUCK'S DEFINITION OF EDUCATION. 327

then, Sir, to obtain the assent of the House to the Resolutions I shall have the honour to propose, I must make a few-necessarily a few-observations on the three following subjects-subjects indeed distinct, though intimately related to each other. I would first solicit the attention of the House to the more prominent benefits to be obtained by a general education of the people. Secondly, I would endeavour to show why the Government should itself supply this education; and, lastly, I shall attempt to trace a rude outline of a plan by which every inhabitant of this empire might receive the instruction requisite for the well-being of society. At the outset, to prevent misconception, I may be permitted to describe what I mean by education. The narrow acceptation of this term so generally received, has done infinite mischief. Education is usually supposed to signify merely learning to read and write, and sometimes, by a stretch of liberality, it is made to include arithmetic. But this is not education, it is simply some of the means of education. In ordinary conversation, when men say that education cannot relieve the necessities, or cure the vices of the people, they mean that learning to read and write cannot do this; and in so saying they are right. Putting a hammer and saw into a man's hand does not make him a carpenter; putting a flute into his hands does not make him a musician; in both cases you give him certain instruments, which if he have the knowledge requisite, he may use to good purposes, but if he do not possess it, they will prove either useless or mischievous. So it may happen with the instruments of knowledge. Unless the mind be trained to their exercise-unless the will and the power to turn them to good purposes, be conferred, not only will they be useless, idle powers, but they may be made eminently mischievous. But this narrow, vulgar acceptation of the term education, is not the correct one. Education means not merely the conferring these necessary means or instruments for the acquiring of knowledge, but it means also the so training or fashioning the intellectual and moral qualities of the individual, that he may be able and willing to acquire knowledge, and to turn it to its right use. It means the so framing the mind of the individual, that he may become a useful and virtuous member of society in the various relations of life. It means making him a good child, a good parent, a good neighbour, a good citizen, in short, a good man. All these he cannot be without knowledge, but neither will the mere acquisition of knowledge confer

328 NATIONAL EDUCATION AND NATIONAL HAPPINESS.

on him these qualities; his moral, as well as his intellectual powers, must contribute to this great end, and the true fashioning of these to this purpose is right education. Such, Sir, is the acceptation which I attribute to the term education. The actual training of the human being in his moral and intellectual being, whatever that training may be, good or bad, is education. The wild Indian, the dull and plodding peasant, and the far-sighted philosopher, are all educated. But to be rightly educated is to be made what I have just described and when I hereafter speak of education, I shall intend good education. Were I to attempt any description of the mode of training which leads to this so desired result, I should exceed the patience of this House and my own physical powers. Such a description would be a work of months, not of minutes; the labour of a life, not the effort of some hours' consideration. I shall assume throughout, not only that such a training can be discovered, but that we have actually discovered it. I now will attempt to point out one or two results from such a training not usually adverted to, though of unspeakable importance; and I do so the more readily, because they are well calculated to attract the attention of the leading classes of existing politicians. While so doing, doubtless I may incur censure from the misjudging friends of the popular cause—but sure I am, that its more enlightened and virtuous supporters will bear testimony to the truth of what I utter. I need hardly, I think, Sir, do more than suggest to this House, that of the many evils which afflict mankind as members of political societies, there are many, very many, which are utterly beyond the control of Government, no matter how wisely fashioned, how virtuously inclined. In other words, we may say, that if there were this day in our own, or any other country, established a government perfect in its form, and in its composition completely virtuous, still the happiness or misery of the people would not be completely at its command. Of the evils which men suffer, it is true, some portion, ay, and an important portion, may be controlled by a government; but there is a still larger, far more important portion, which depends solely on the people themselves. Now, one of the first, one of the most important results from a proper education of the people, would be a thorough understanding on their part of the circumstances on which their happiness depended, and of the powers by which those circumstances were controlled. They would learn what a government

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329

could, and what a government could not do to relieve their distresses-they would learn what depended on themselves, what on others—what evils resulted from evil authority, what from popular ignorance and popular vice. Of all the knowledge that can be conferred on a people, this is the most essential; let them once understand thoroughly their social condition, and we shall have no more unmeaning discontents-no wild and futile schemes of Reform; we shall not have a stack-burning peasantry—a sturdy pauper population—a monopoly-seeking manufacturing class; we shall not have a middle class directing all their efforts to the repeal of a single tax, or to the wild plan of universal robbery; neither will there be immoral landlords wishing to maintain a dangerous corn monopoly; or foolish consumers, who will suffer it to remain. We shall have right efforts directed to right ends. We shall have a people industrious, honest, tolerant and happy. We often hear outcries against education, based on its dangerous consequences to the peace of the community and the security of property. It is asserted that men will wish to leave their actual station, and be unfitted for the common duties of life, by being taught to long for a higher and more luxurious condition. This whole outcry is grounded on a gross, and, one would have imagined, remarkably apparent fallacy. First, there is a misconception as to the meaning of the term education; and next, a rule is drawn from certain peculiar cases now happening in society, to the detriment of an universal education. What, however, may be true of a peculiar case, when only a portion—and a small portion of the people receive education, will not be true, when the whole body are instructed. When the whole people are instructed education, even in the narrow sense of the term, will not, as now, be a thing of rare occurrence, and thereby a distinction-all will be alike; and no peculiar privilege will be sought by an individual because he happens not to be as ignorant as a savage. The Archbishop of Dublin in his excellent work on Logic, thus technically and forcibly describes this very fallacy:-Thus, in arguing, by example, &c., the parallelism of two cases, is often assumed, from their being in some respects alike, though perhaps they differ in the very point which is essential to the argument-e.g., from the circumstance that some men of humbler station, who have been well educated, are apt to think themselves above low drudgery, it is argued, that universal education of the lower orders would beget general