The Press.
London, England, 1856-04-12 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Not much ha 3 been done towards the cheapening
of foreign postage, except in regard of France; but
new conventions are in progress with Belgium, Ger-
many, and Spain.
The official staff of the Post-office includes 22,547
persons ; of whom 10,314 aro messengers and car-
riers, 10,498 postmasters, 1,511 clerks. Of this
staff 2,800 are attached to the central office in
London.

The number of inland post-offices has been in-
creased by 525 within the last twelve months,
making the total 10,498. The experimental use
of pillar letter-boxes is held to have fully succeeded.
Difficulties are found to arise in distributing
letters from the enormoustextent of London. These
difficulties it is proposed to meet by dividing the
metropolis into ten districts, each of which will have
its own chief office, and be treated as in every re
spect a separate town. When this plan is fully
carried out, a delivery will take place every hour.
Within the United Kingdom mails are conveyed
every week-day, over a distance of 59,000 miles. Of
this distance 27,000 miles are performed by rail,
and more than 31,900 by coach, cart, or other con-
veyance.
Of the increase of 13,000,000 last year in the
number of letters, about 300,000 were letters from
Australia, 310,000 from France, and an equal num•
her nominally from Prussia, but really from the
Baltic fleet. The correspondence with the United
States fell off, owing to diminished communication,
by nearly 500,000.
The gross revenue of the Post-office amounts to
2,717,0001.; the expenditure to 1,591,0001.; the net
revenue to 1,126,0001.

Between 7,000 and 8,000 letters were last year
posted without any address. Those returned from
the Dead-letter-office were 2,400,000, or nearly one-
half per cent. on the whole number posted.
Various plans are suggested for the improvement
and comfort of the subordinate officials in Post-office
employ ; among them that of establishing, by the
agency of private enterprise, but with the aid of a
Government subsidy, lodgings for the accommoda-
tion of letter-carriers and others, on the most im-
proved sanitary principles. This scheme is most
creditable to the Duke of Argyll, and deserves to be
imitated in other departments of the public service,
such as the Customs and Excise.

RUSSIAN IMPERIAL MANIFESTO ON
PEACE.

ON the Ist instant the following Imperial Manifesto
upon the conclusion of peace was published at St.
Petersburg:—

The obstinate and bloody struggle which has distracted
Europe for nearly three years at last has ceased. It was
not Russia that commenced it. Even before it burst forth,
my late august father, of imperishable memory, solemnly
declared to his faithful subjects and to all the foreign
powers that the sole object of his desires and efforts bad
been to protect the rights of our co-religionists in the East,
and to cause the persecutions of whtch they were the vic.
tims to cease.

A stranger to any selfish view, he could not believe that
his just claims would have the scourge of war for a conse-
quence ; and regarding its calamities with a profound sen-
timent of sadness, he did not cease, as a Christian and as
the father of the people confided by Providence to his care,
to manifest his disposition in favour of peace. But the
negotiations which opened a short time before his death,
upon the subject of the conditions of that peace which was
the necessity for us all, remained without success.
The Governments which had formed a hostile coalition
against us did not discontinue their armaments: during
the progress of the negotiations they even increased them;
the war had to take its course, and we continued it with a
firm hope in the grace of the Most High, and with a firm
confidence in the unshaken devotion of our beloved sub-
jects. They have justified our expectation. During this
period of painful trials our brave and faithful soldiers, as
well as all our people, without distinction of class, have, as
ever, shown themselves worthy of their high vocation.
Throughout the extent of our emgire, from the coasts of
the Pacific Ocean to the borders of the Baltic and the Black
Sea, one thought, one impulse, has inspired every soul,
and led it to spare neither fortune nor life in the defence
of the country. Labourers quitting the plough and their
fields have hastened to arm themselves for our holy cause,
rivalling our veteran soldiers in courage and abnegation.
New and brilliantly striking feats have signalised this last
contest with powerful foes. _ _

The enemy has been repulsed from the coasts of
Siberia and from those of the White Sea, as well as
from the ramparts of Sweaborg; the heroic defence for
eleven months of the fortifications of the southern part of
Sebastopol, erected under the eyes and under the fire of
the assailants, will live in the memories of the most distant
posterity.
In Asia, after the glorious victories of two previous
campaigns, Kara was compelled to surrender with its
numerous garrison, composed of the entire army of
Anatolia; and the elite of the Turkish troops who went to
the succour of the place were forced to retreat. In the
meantime, by the salutary and impenetrable decrees of
l'rovidence, an act was preparing which harmonised with
the wishes of our august and beloved father, with our own
wishes, and with those of entire Russia, and which realised
the object of the war. The future condition and rights
of all the Christians of the East are henceforth gueren•

SATURDAY,

■

teed. The Sultan solemnly recognises them, and i❑ eon.
sequence of this act of justice the Ottoman empire enters
into the concert of the European States.
Russians ! your efforts and your sacrifices have not been
in vain ! A great work has been accomplished, although
by other and unexpected ways, and we can to-day, in the
calm of our conscience, put an end to these efforts and
sacrifices, and restore our dear country the invaluable
benefits of peace. In order to hasten the conclusion of
the treaty of peace, and to dispel for the future even the
thought of ambitious views, or projects of conquests,
which might be attributed to us, we have consented to the
adoption of certain measures of precaution destined to
prevent a collision between our vessels of war and those
of Turkey in the Black Sea ; also to the establishment of
a new line of demarcation in the southern part of Bess.
arable, nearest to the Danube.

The concessions are without gravity {gracile), if we put
them in the balance with the expenses of a prolonged war,
and the advantages tranquillity holds forth to the empire of
which God has confided to us the destiny. May these ad-
vantages be completely attained by our efforts united to
those of our faithful subjects ! With the aid of the
Almighty, who has always protected Russia, may its in.
ternal organisation be consolidated and perfected! May
equity and clemency reign in its councils! May the
impulse towards civilisation and all useful activity spread
itself everywhere with new force, and may every one enjoy
in peace the fruit of hie labour, under the shield of laws
equally just and protective for all ! Finally—and this is
the most important, the dearest of our wishes—may the
saving light of faith, in enlightening souls, in fortifying
hearts, preserve and improve more and more our social
morality, which is the surest pledge of order and hap-
piness.
Given at St. Petersburg, March 19 (31), and the second
year of our reign.
(Signed) ALEXANDER.

THE FUSIONIST SALONS IN PARIS are St present
completely absorbed in discussing an important event
which has lately occurred. The Count of Paris has
addressed a letter to the Duke de Chambord, ex.
pressing sentiments of great affection, and also a
desire to perfect the reconciliation between the two
families. But there is one knotty point upon which
it is feared no compromise will be made. The Count
of Paris desires to retain the tricolor, while the Duke
de Chambord refuses to renounce the blanc drapenu
and fleur-de-lis of his family. This letter of the
young Count is regarded as a certain homage to the
elder branch of the family, although his obstinate
adherence to the tricolor, it is feared, will prevent
any agreement upon the question of a national flag,
and at the same time affect the unity of the family.
Le Nord states that the flotilla being equipped
St. Petersburg is for the purpose of conducting the
Empress Dowager to Stettin, from whence her Ma-
jesty will go to the baths of Wildbad. The Em-
press Dowager will probably assist at the coronation
fetes at Moscow, and at their conclusion leave for
Palermo.

Binfium, the great American—it is difficult
to exactly decide what Mr. Barnum was, but he is
a bankrupt! All his ill-gotten wealth,—from Feejee
mermaids, woolley horses, Joyce Heths, Tom Thumbs,
buffalo-hunts, and impostures of every description,—
has been swept away by a false speculation in clocks.
Mr. Barnum may yet find out. that honesty, after all,
is the best policy.
A CURIOUS EPIDEMIC lately broke out among the
English artillery horses stationed at Galata. One
morning they were taken to water as usual, and, a
short time after their return, they became restless,
broke out into a sweat, were seized with violent trem-
blings, tore themselves away from their stalls, rolled
on the ground in terrible agony, and in a few hours
twenty of them died in convulsions. Their bodies
were opened and examined, but nothing was found
in the intestines. It is believed that the water was
poisoned. One driver deposed that, of the two
horses in his charge, one which seemed very thirsty
and drank a great deal was one of the first dead;
while the other, having tasted the water, refused to
drink, although repeatedly brought to the trough,
and this horse never was ill. The symptoms remind
one very much of strychnine. Every measure has
been taken to clear up the case.
THE VISIT OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON to Algeria
after the ratification of the treaty of peace is very
generally talked of at Paris. Instrwtions are even
said to have been already given to expedite the com-
pletion of the electric cable from Cagliari to Algeria
without loss of time, with this view, and to prepare a
small squadron for escort.
THE POPE, it, is said at Rome, intends to testify
his satisfaction at the conclusion of peace, by cele-
brating the Anno Sante, or Holy Year, from May
1857, to May 1858, which the political state of
Europe prevented him doing in 1850, the fixed
period for the recurrence of this solemnity. The
Catholic countries of Christendom will be officially
informed, if the plan is carried into execution, on
Ascension-day, when his Holiness will put forth the
requisite announcement to the faithful, in order that
they may have time to prepare for a pilgrimage to
Rome next spring. The Romans themselves are
rather aghast at the prospect of twelve months' ex-
hortations and fasting, without carnival or theatres,
but with friars and pilgrims in lieu thereof.

EDUCATION.
tons having, on Thursday,
littee upon education,

)bserving that Mr. Cobden was
affliction from attendance in
it is expedient to extend,
minutes of the Committee
i.ucation."

an amendment, that the
leave the chair. Dealing
iheme proposed by Lord John
iticised at much length the
ived, and the machinery by
were to be worked out. The
auld, be con-
division of the
,e parochial
the existing
would im
iuestion already
to the levy
found much
the mode in
and secular
ions before
compulsion
loyers to pay
.>ir employ-
id result in
of juvenile
ldren from
neither at
contended,
of private
the estab-
, aided by
anticipated
could be oh-
conclusion,
J. Russell
iucation, he
question—

passing the first
al rate, as
promoting a
le he could
be imprac-

extension
means of carry-
desired. He

'he scheme

charities,
proposal would
extension and
. entertain-
pleasure the

them Mr.

the others

proceeded to
speech. After
this ques-
preceding
tperinducing
'iad come to
ived for the
attitude and
The volun.
educate the

,lisconcerted
timidity of the
applying a
The volun-
-1 was doing
iorant and
moment. What
ntary system
same time,
in the same
no conceiv-
The object
benefits of
the co-opera-
not strong
t contained
either the noble

Lpporter of
a atruggle

system. They weresupplement the deficiencies of that
quicker in its operation and more
it could be standing unaided

us first see what VMS the
action of the existing system,
-perfection, correct, it. Allu-
'arren recommended Lord
the proposal on the sub
charities ; and, in conclu-
appealed to the house that

THE PRESS.

something should be done; that the State should
remember it had duties which were based upon reli-
gion, and when it saw that no education existed, or
would exist, unless it interfered, it was not only its
right, but its bounden duty to interfere.
Mr. EWART gave his most hearty and sincere sup•
port to the resolutions.
Lord R. CECIL replied to Mr. Adderley's argument
in favour a local rating, which he insisted would
extinguish voluntary aid. It was unjust, he said, to
charge upon one part of the community, as tl.e reso-
lutions proposed, a burden which ought to fall upon
the whole. A compulsory local rate, in connection
with the provisions for religious teaching, was not
only unjust, but would be unmanageable.
Mr. MONCKTON MILNEs examined the objections
urged against the scheme, and observed that the fair
and moderate character of the resolutions was ob-
scured in the criticisms passed upon them. They
prescribed a tentative mode of proceeding, merely
permitting ratepayers, under certain circumstances,
to tax themselves for maintaining a school. The
large proportion of the population unable to read or
write was a great and palpable danger as well as
grievance, there being no greater enemy than
organised ignorance.
Sir J. GRAHAM expressed his satisfaction that this
could not possibly be regarded as a party question,
and observed, in reply to Mr. Warren and Mr.
Milnes, that it -..wits not moral suasion which these
resolutions contemplated, but direct legal compel•
sion, and that, so far from being tentative, the step
was a most headlong one. In the first place, he
objected to the form of the proceeding, which was
exactly the reverse of a bill. It began with details
and ended with the principle, some of the details
involving the principle ; whereas in a bill the prin-
ciple was first affirmed and the details were adapted
to it. Then, some of the resolutions were super-
fluous, not requiring legislation. Passing in review
the resolutions, previous to considering them as a
whole, the right hon. baronet commented upon each.
He maintained that the scheme was unnecessary.
Quoting the statistics contained in the pamphlets of
Mr. Baines and Mr. Unwin, he asserted that no
country had made so great progress in educational
appliances within the last forty years as England
had. He objected to the scheme as most expen-
sive; according to Mr. Unwin the annual expense
would be 6,300,0001.—a sum equal to the poor rate
and the county rate together. The plan, moreover,
was inc )mplete, vexatious to the poor, and oppres-
sive to industry. It was constitutionally dangerous,
inasmuch as the vast patronage invested in the
Government might be turned to political pur-
poses :

It is proposed (observed the right bon. baronet) that we
should at once hand over to an inspector, aided by a sub-
inspector, the appointment of some 3.1,000 or 35,000
schoolmasters, and all the influence which such a patron-
age cannot fail to give. The patronage is enormous; but
there is also another objection, there is a French word
surveillance which I can hardly translate into English,
but which implies an inspection of, a watching of, a pry-
ing into private affairs by Government servants—( Hear,
hear)—and something very like that system will be created
if the present resolutions are carried out, for it would be
necessary to go into every farmhouse and make inquiries
with respect to every boy under the age of fifteen. This
is the admirable machinery proposed by the noble lord.
(Hear, hear.) My right hon. friend the Secretary to the
Treasury slumbers quietly below me—( loud laughter,
which disturbed the slumbers of the right hon. gentle-
man )—but, if such a thing as a general election should
take place, this machinery of the noble lord, this appoint.
ment of inspectors, of sub inspectors, and of school-
masters, all holding their places under the direct control
of a governmental department, will give him more to do
than flesh and blood can stand. ( Loud laughter.) If we
allow the use, or it may be the abuse, of such machinery,
he will not slumber then. (Renewed laughter.) That
which is now proposed for the best of purposes may he
prostituted to the worst, and we may, if we agree to these
resolutions, in the endeavour to attain an end perfectly
legitimate and proper, narrow or suspend the boasted
liberty of the people of this country. (Hear, hear.)
In conclusion, quoting an opinion of the late Sir
Robert Peel, upon the report of the Massachusetts
Board of Education, and the opinions of M. Guizot,
M. Cousin, and M. Bunsen, that voluntary associa-
tion in education was the only safe and true principle,
Sir James Graham observed that the resolutions
were really neither religious nor secular, and hence
lay the extreme danger of the proposition :

Having established a rate, the majority of ratepayers
would year by year be fluctuating. The majority of one
year might be the members of the established Church ;
the majority of the next year might be Wesleyans, and of
the third, Roman Catholics ; and with each variation of
the majority the schoolmaster would be changed and the
religious teaching would be changed also. What would
be the effect of this? If the education were secular only,
the discord to which i am about to advert would not arise.
The chance majority would fix the religious teaching, and
the children of the minority must go to the school where
a master is chosen precisely of a creed to which they are
opposed. There will then be not only the chance of con-
fusion in the secular education from the peculiar opinions
of the master, and the minority will not only have to con-
tribute their money for the sahn of that master and for

341

his secular teaching, but also for his religions teaching in
a creed to which they most object. Surely this will give
rise, on the ;art of the minority—a minority, it may be,
turned only by one—to the most angry and bitter feelings,
arising front a sense of injustice in respect to a most
sensitive point—religious creed, and that sense of injustice
will create a state of anger and discord—l hope not of
tumult--which I scarcely venture to describe.

Sir J. PAKINOTON said he joined issue with Sir J.
Graham in the appeal to proofs, and proceeded to
reply to his objections to the resolutions. To main-
tain the parochial boundaries was, Sir John said,
simply impossible. He met the objection of Sir
James, that the scheme was unnecessary, by assert-
ing that the right hon. baronet was positively wrong
in his statistics; and to his opinion that the scheme
would be oppressive to the poor he opposed his own
opinion, that it would be directly the reverse. The
epithet " unconstitutional," applied by Sir James to
the scheme, was, be said, a common term of reproach
employed to express a vague dislike. The sugges-
tion that a school rate would encounter the same
opposition as a church rate wag a mere opinion, and
incapable of proof; the two rates were essentially
distinct. Sir James Graham bad asserted that th•
voluntary system was sufficient; that England was
educated; he (Sir John) affirmed the contrary:—
On that subject the right hon. gentleman quoted st atis-
tics, showing that in 18.51 the rate of education was higher
than in any former period ; but the right hon. gentleman
did not state that the progress from 1833 to 1851 was less
in proportion to the population than from 1818 to 1833;
neither did be advert to the centesimal proportion of the
attendance at the schools, which would have shown that
the attendance was not so great now as formerly. The
right hon. gentleman then made a comparative statement
between the state of education in this country and the
Continent. I beg to tell him that on that subject he was
positively wrong in all he stated. His statement was tho-
roughly ernmeous. I understood him to say that, as
compared with foreign countries, England was only ex-
ceeded in the centesimal proportion of attendance by oue.
This is contrary to my knowledge, and the right hon. gen-
tleman is altogether misinformed. In Sweden the cen•
tesimal proportion of attendance at schools is 1 in 4 ; in
Russia lin 7; in France 1 in 6. In Saxony the propor-
tion is 1 in 5 ; in Denmark, 1 in 7. What it is in
Holland I don't know. There is only one country which
exceeds England in this respect. The right hon. gentle-
man must allow me to refer to the United States of
America, and to the State of Massachusetts. On this
question I think the superiority of the United States in
several of the States, especially in Now England, is unde-
niable, the proportion being generally 1 in 5 and 1 in U.
Instead, therefore, of England having only one country
better than itself in this important respect, there are not
above three or four countries in Europe which are in a
worse position than that in which England stands at this
moment.

The right hon. baronet, denying that he desired to
displace the voluntary system or underrate its exer-
tions, adduced a mass of documentary evidence and
statistical returns, showing that from thirty-six to
ninety-eight per cent. of prisoners in gaol could
neither read nor write perfectly; that the means of
education were meagre and inefficient, thus proving
that the voluntary system was icsufficient, that it
does not educate the people, and that some auxiliary
system must be adopted. He asked how it was pos-
sible, in the face of these facts, gravely to assert that
the education of the people of this country was in a
satisfactory state. Instead of being progressive,
there were parts of England in which education was
retrograding. He denied that the resolutions were
open to the charge of being opposed to the spirit of
liberty ; they proposed a system of local taxation
under local management and control. The rate he
advocated because no other practical mode had been
suggested whereby the deficiency of funds could be
supplied. If any other satisfactory expedient could
be devised he would cease to advocate a rate.

Mr. BROTHERTON moved the adjournment of the
house.

Mr. DISRAELI did not feel authorised in opposing
the motion, but the hour was not so late (a quarter
past twelve), nor was the house in such an excited
state as to prevent an expression of opinion from her
Majesty's Government—(laughter)—and before as-
senting to the adjournment of the debate they were
therefore entitled to hear what were the views enter-
tained by the Ministry as to the policy that ought to
be pursued on a subject of such vast importance as
this, which now engaged so much public attention.

Lord JOHN RUSSEII, hoped, after the statement of
Sir James Graham, made evidently under a total
misapprehension of the facts, that the debate might
be continued on the ensuing night.

After a brief discussion, in which Mr. DISRAELI
protested against the thoughtless manner of the
Government first fixing Friday night for supply, and
then in a highly inconvenient manner putting off
the Committee of Supply till Monday,
The motion for adjourning the debate was agreed to .
OATH OF ABJURATION BILL.

Mr. M. GIBSON, cn Wednesday, moved the second
reading of the bill for abolishing the oath of abjura-
tion and the assurance which accompanied it. The
measure, he said, was practically the same as that
introduced in a previous session by Lord Lyndhurst

APRIL 12, 1856. •
Trouthings zn arlianttnt
NATIONAL EDUCATION.
The House of Commons having, on Thu
resolved itself into a committee upon education
Lord J. RUSSELI, observing that Mr. Cobde
prevented by domestic affliction from attenda:
the house, moved—" That it is expedient to e:
revise, and consolidate the minutes of the Copts
of Privy Council on Education."
Mr. HENLEY moved, as an amendment, thi
chairman should at once leave the chair. D
with the educational scheme proposed by Lord
Russell as a whole, he criticised at much leng
principles which it involved, and the machint
which its several objects were to be worked out
pr • oposed Government inspection would, be
sidered, excite much hostility; the division •
country into districts would break up the pat
system, and the proposal to deal with the e]
charitable trusts for educational purposes wou
port additional complication into a question a
beset with difficulties. He objected also to tt
of a compulsory rate for education, and found
that was dangerous and censurable in the m
which the controversy respecting religious and:
instruction was dealt with in the resolutions
the house. He objected also to the comf
which it was proposed to lay upon employers
for the education of juvenile persons in their el
ment, a measure which he believed would re
the employment of adults in the room of jt
labour, tend mainly to keep young childrer
school, and augment the numbur of those nei:
school nor at work. The scheme, he cont
would also interfere with the exercise of
benevolence and individual exertions for the
lishment of schools,. from which sources, aic
the Privy Council in special cases, he antic
much more satisfactory results than could I
tained by any general measure. In colic'
thinking, he said, that the scheme of Lord J. I
had a strong tendency to secularise educati
moved—equivalent to moving the previous ques
that the chairman leave the chair.
Mr. ADDERLEY was in favour of passing th
resolution. He approved of an educational ri
the best and most effective plan of promc
national scheme; but at the present time he
not advocate that plan, believing it to be it
ticable. He believed that a revision and exti
of the existing plan afforded the best means of
ing out the object which all so much desired
would oppose Mr. Henley's amendment.
Mr. ELLICE objected to that part of the at
which related to the appropriation of the cite
and spoke of the hardship which the proposal
inflict upon the people of Coventry.
Mr. LIDDELL was in favour of an extensioi
improvement of the existing system, and ente
Mg that opinion, he anticipated with pleasui
appointment of a Minister of Education.
Several members here rose, and among thet
WARREN. On the cry of " New Member" the
resumed their seats, and Mr. Warren proceet
address the house in an able first speech.
noticing the many difficulties which beset this
tion, he observed that the speeches of prec
speakers had the fault of prematurely superind
details. Upon the main question he had co
the conclusion that the time had arrived fc
Legislature to assume a more resolute attitud
a more authoritative tone than hitherto. The
tary system had not and could not educat
nation :
Men of all shades of opinion began to be discon
and discouraged when they considered the timidity
Legislature, its imbecility and cowardice in appl
remedy to the crying exigencies of the case. The
Lary system had done well and admirably, and was
at now. He should show himself most ignoran
ungrateful if he questioned that fact for a moment.
he said was this—let the friends of the voluntary e
continue their disinterested efforts, but, at the same
let
(l them meet the efforts of a Christian State in the
ection in a friendly spirit. There could be no cc
able motive in extinguishing those efforts. The
wi.s rather to strengthen them, and to carry the bent
education into those quarters where, without the co-
tton of the State, the voluntary system, was not
enough to convey it. In that he thought was con
the pith of the noble lord's resolutions. Neither the
lord nor the rig ht hon. barronet, nor any suppo
their plans, intended fora momentl to enter into a at
with the friends of thev unt system..
.They
rather intended to supplement the. deficiencies
and
system—to make it quicker in its operation. an
effectual hilts results than it could be standing in
and alone.
We wanted education ; let us first see what we
extent and mode of action of the existing sy
datiindewherewediscover imperfection, correct, it.
to details, Mr. Warren recommended
John Russell to reconsider the proposal on the
ject of the alienation of charities ; and, in CI
hi", the hon. member appealed to the house