The Press. — London, England, 1856-06-21 00:00:00

the country. The Guards regiments would be re duced from twelve to ten companies of 700 men each. The eighty three line regiments (exclusive of those in India) would be reduced from sixteen to twelve companies, each regiment to be 1,000 strong. This, with the 12,000 commissioned and non commissioned officers, would give a force of 95,000 men, while it was proposed to take a margin of 10,000 for the loss the army would sustain next year from the Limited Enlistment Act coming into opera tion. The army would be divided into 105 regiments, forty•one at home, forty in the colonies, and twenty four in India. These regiments would be separated into eight service companies and four depot com panies. The service companies would be formed in seven divisions and fourteen brigades, three regi ments and eight service companies to a brigade, each with a full complement of staff o ffi cers. The depot companies would be formed into consolidated depots, three regiments in eaoh. With respect to the cavalry and artillery, no great reductions would take place. In cavalry regiments for the future 400 men would be maintained for every 300 horses. The artillery would be employed on garrison duty, but 140 guns, divided into field batteries of four guns each, would be permanently maintained fully horsed and equipped for immediate service. The foreign legions would ba disbanded before the autumn, when a twelvemonth's gratuity would be paid to the privates and three months' to the officers. The land transport corps would be kept as a nucleus for an establishment, and the commissariat and medical corps reduced to the extent of the acting junior officers. The vote was then agreed to. On the supplementary vote for 101. on the 1,000,0001., Mr. F. PEEL, in reply to a question from Colonel Dunne, said that the Army Works Corps would be disbanded immediately, the officers obtain ing one year's pay and the men one month's as gratuity. The vote was then agreed to, and the house re sumed. The Annnitie 4 Redemption Bill and the Transfer of Works (Ireland) Bill were read a third time and passed. ST. JAMES'S PARK. On the report of the Committee of Supply being brought up, the vote of 3,5001. for a suspe nsion bridge over the ornamental water in St. James's park was opposed by Lord ELcilo, who objected that the beauty of the park should nit be sacrificed to public convenience ; but, if that point were overruled, that the expenditure of public money should not be intrusted to the Board of Works for this purpose until the plan or design had been previously seen. Sir J. PAXTON said the plan for a bridge had been changed several times already ; and thought if a bridge were necessary some well-digested plan should be first p roposed. Sir B. HALL said it was in consequence of repre sent t ions made to him by inhabitants on both sides of the water that he had proposed this bridge, which woul be of the lightest possible character consistent with durability and with the weight it was to bear. Mr. DISRAELI thought it would be more prudent, where so much doubt existed, to pause until a sounder opinion as to these changes could be ob tam ned. Lord PALMERSTON thought such a bridge over the ornamental water would be a great public con• venience. Mr. BARROW and Mr. K. SEYMER having spoken against, and Sir J. SHELLEY and Sir T. ACLAND in favour of a b►idge, the house divided, when the resolut►on of the committee was affirmed by 119 to 93. EN, ESTATES COURT (IRELAND). Mr. HORSMAN, in reply to Colonel Higgins, said the Government had taken into consideration the recent decision of the Court of Queen's Bench in Ireland upon the case of Errington v. Rorke, with the view of obviating all alarm on the part of the purchasers of property in the Encumbered Estates Court. BARS AND ISMAIL. Sir DE L. EVANS wished to ask the first Minister of the Crown whether he had heard a rumour that the fortifications of Kars were to be blown up by the Russians Lord PALMERSTON replied : No authentic information has been received by her Majesty's Government, but a report has reached us through the usual channels of information that a part of the fortifications of Kars are to be blown up, and that some parts of the fortifications of Ismail will also be destroyed. :NT AT HANOVER. DIPLOMATIC EST. Lord PALMERSTON, in answer to Mr. Wise, stated that it was not the intention of the Government to act upon the recommendation of the select com mittee on official salaries in reference to the vacancy in the mission at Hanover, occasioned by the retire ment of Mr. Bligh, and withdraw our diploma is Minister from that Court. Such a step would not be conducive to the public interests. THE PRESS. SARDINIAN LOAN. On the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the Ex- CHEQUER, thu house resolved itself into committee, and it was unanimously resolved to advance a second million to the King of Sardinia. MEDICAL RELIEF TO THE POOR. Mr. BouvEnrE, in reply to Sir J. Trollope, said that, in accordance with the recommendation of the committee of 1854, the medical districts were from time to time examined with a view to limitation ; that the medical appointments were now permanent; and that their salaries had been revised and increased already to the amount of 18,000/. UNION OF ABERDEEN UNIVERSITIES. The LORD ADVOCATE, in reply to Mr. Thompson, said, if the business of the session permitted, he should bring in a bill to effect the union of the two universities. HOUSE OF LORDS-TUESDAT. IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. Lord ST. LEONARDS presented petitions from the civil prisoners in the gaols of Manchester, Durham, Cardigan, and Carnarvon, praying for the consolida tion of the laws of bankruptcy and insolvency, and for a relaxation of the law of imprisonment for debt. The Lonn CHANCELLOR acknowledged that it was a subject of great importance, but it was one also of great difficulty. He should, however, be very glad if any improvement in the law could be effected. HAMPSTEAD HEATH. Lord Sr. LEONARDS presented a petition in favour of the Leasehold Settled Estates Bill. Lord MONTEAGLE thought that the present was the time for securing the heath to the public by an equitable settlement with Sir T. Wilson. If it were not done now the public would find themselves left in the lurch. The public interest was no doubt paramount to the interest of an individual, but when one of the colleges of Oxford, to which Primrose bill had belonged, sought by a private bill for power to build on it, he, being then Chancellor of the Exche quer, purchased it for the public. Lord CAMPBELL observed that without doubt in a few years there would be a lord of the manor of Hampstead seised in fee of the estate, who would be able to do of his own uncontrolled authority what Sir T. Wilson now sought to obtain authority from Parliament to enable him to do. Now, there fore, was the time for the public to enter into some arrangement with Sir T. Wilson. The Reformatory and Industrial Schools Bill passed through committee. The Excise Bill was read a second time. The Joint stock Companies Bill passed through committee pro fornul. Sir William Fenwick Williams' Annuity Bill passed through committee. The Whichwood Forest Bill was read a third time and passed. The Commons' amendments of the Oxford Univer sity Bill were agreed to. HOUSE OF COMMONS-.TUESDAY. EDUCATION (IRELAND). Mr. WALPOLE, pursuant to notice, rose to move : That an humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying that her Majesty will he graciously pleased to direct that such modifications may be made in the rules of the national system of education in Ireland as will ex tend the advantages now enjoyed by non•vested schools to any other than vested schools now existing, or hereafter to be established, whatever their regulations may be as to the mode of religious instruction; provided that no children shall be compelled to learn any catechism, creed, or for mulary to which any parent or guardian may object; and provided that the patrons shall be willing to place such schools in connection with the board, to permit the board's control over books to be used in general instruc tion, and to receive officially the visits of the Government inspectors. He asked the house to assent to this address, because upon the points which justified him in proposing it the house was already agreed. It had agreed firstly, that the education of the people must depend upon private benevolence and public grants ; it had agreed that these funds were to be disbursed evenly and without favour ; and, thirdly, that education to be worn► anything must be based upon religion. He appealed now on behalf of those who, in opposition to these principles, were the only class precluded from receiving a portion of a grant of public money, because they required that, in carrying on the great purpose of education, the Scriptures should not be excluded from their teaching. The only objection he could anticipate was that his object would destroy the combined system of education in Ireland ; but he denied that this combined system existed in the national non-vested schools, which were almost entirely secular, hut that, on the contrary, it did exist in the church schools, and quoted the evidence of Archdeacon Stopford and the secretary of the National Board before a committee of the House of Lords in support of this view, by which it appeared that out of the 4,600 Roman Catholic and Protestant schools in Ireland, only forty-eight were under joint SATURDAY, management ; and, from the difficulty of unitirg parties of various religious communions, those scho,,ie were admitted to have given more trouble to the commissioners than any others. In carrying on ti great work of education, while respect was properly paid to the conscientious convictions of Rom n Catholics, the same respect, he insisted, should 1 shown to the conscientious convictions of other classes. What he proposed was, not to interfere with the vested schools ; and, with respect to the non. vested schools, he did not propose any alterations which would deprive the Presbyterians or of era of any advantages they now enjoyed; but he asked that such modifications might be extended to these non- rested schools as would enable members of tle Church of Ireland to educate their children there in their own way, under the conditions proposed. The motion was seconded by Sir W. HEATHCOTE, who observed that its object was little more than to enable the National Board to cover ground in Ireland upon which it could not at present set its foot, while it would get rid of a crying injustice, which irritated many and benefited none. Mr. KENNEDY cpposed the motion, which, if adopted, would, he said, overturn a system that was working satisfactorily, and revive religious discord in Ireland, for the sake of one-seventh or one-eighth of the schools. Mr. HORSMAN resisted the motion. He agreed with Mr. Walpole that religion should be the basis of education in Ireland, but differed from him when he supposed that religion did not enter very largely into the instruction given in the national schools. The national system of education in Ireland had been embraced by nine tenths of the population, and was rejected by only a part of the clergy and laity of the Established Church, who thereby excluded them selves from the grant. Since 1833, when the na tional system commenced, the number of its schools and pupils had increased yearly, numbering in 1854 5,178 schools and 551,000 scholars, comprehending children of all denominations, who associated in har mony as if they had been all of one creed ; and, al though there were 20,000 teachers there had not been a single religious squabble nor a single case of prose• lytism. He denied that the united system had failed— even supposing it had failed as a united system, the first object was to give a good secular educatio 1---for he could prove that in Ulster, and in different parts of Ireland, eighty and ninety per cent. of the schools were taught on the united system. The system had failed only in conciliating a part of the clergy of the Established Church of Ireland, who had set them selves in hostility to it and to the Legislature, and who, to the regret of many of their friends, called for a relaxation of it by the adoption of a plan repeatedly condemned, and repugnant to the principle of per fect religious freedom. Mr. G. A. Harm:rots supported the motion, which he thought, by removing a sense of injustice which prevailed among Protestants in Ireland, would have the effect of settling this question, and rendering the system which it would supplement, not subvert, efficient by enabling all parties to avail themselves of it. He read statements from the census of 1851 showing the state of education in all the districts of Ireland, rural and civic. It appeared that education reached its highest point in the period between 1817 and 1837, and fell between 1837 and 1842. Educa tion thus seemed to have reached its highest point an& r the systemwhich preceded what was termed "the na tional system." It appeared from the statements of the commissioners that, on a comparison of the census cf 1841 with that of 1851, there had, at the latter period, been a considerable increase in twenty-one counties in the proportion of males between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five who could neither read nor write. It turned out, therefore, that in the ten yea s from 1841 to 1851, notwithstanding the establish ment of the national system of education, which was said to have produced such marvellous effects, igno rance had been progressing in Ireland among the male population between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. He found that in the county of Wexford the increase in the number of illiterate males in 1851 as compared with 1841 was four per cent., whits the number of national schools, which was 44 in 1841, was 108 in 1851. In Wicklow the increase of ignorance within the same period had been four per cent., while the number of national schools was 39 in 1841, and 72 in 1851. The increase of igno rance in Clare bad been one per cent., and the num ber of national schools in that county in 1841 was 33, while in 1851 it was 130. In the twenty one counties to which the commissioners referred there were 1,505 national schools in 1841, and 2,971 in 1851. He thought, then, it could not be maintained that education in Ireland bad progressed in a degree at all commensurate with the increase of national schools. It had been admitted that education should be based upon religion ; for this put pose religion must he taught in the schools, and the Bible should in a Protestant State be held out as containing the revealed will of God. The national system, however, did not do this, but ignored this principle, and was t herefore defective.