ABSTRACT
In 1836 a public debate was arranged in Edinburgh between James Simpson and John Colquhoun, the member for Kilmarnock. The debate with Colquhoun proved that religious apprehensions over national and secular education, far from subsiding, were still rising, and similar debates held in the late forties would make this one look amiable by comparison. Simpson, whose views were perhaps even better known thanks to his appearance before the Select Committee on Education in the previous year, fell back upon the obstinate logic which he had used in the Necessity of Popular Education. Phrenologists noted with satisfaction that these reports frequently compared British education with that in Germany and America and found it lacking. There was Joseph Hume, who corresponded with several phrenologists and who valued the views of Combe and Simpson. George Combe lost no time in getting acquainted with the former calico-maker, and he began at once that warm correspondence which for twenty years marked a durable friendship.
