The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-10 00:00:00

ELECTION EXPENSES.

Mr. CRAVEN BERKELEY obtained leave to bring
in a bill for further diminishing the expenses of elections of
members to serve in parliament.

TYNEMOUTII ELECTION.

Sir B. HALL moved for an address for a commission to
inquire into the corrupt practices at the late election for the
borough of Tynemouth.
Mr. MOFFATT objected that there was no cue of
bribery made out. There was treating, but the house had
never gone to the extent of withholding the writ when
treating only was proved, nor of addressing the crown for a
commission.
The motion was then agreed to, and a conference to com-
municate the address to the Loris was agreed to.
On the motion of Sir B. Ham. it was then ordered that
no new writ should issue for the borough of Tynemouth be-
fore the 2nd June next.
Mr. MITCHELL moved for a select committee to in-
quire
into the circumstances attending the prosecution of
the petition against the late return for the borough of Ber-
wick. Tho hon. member stated the circumstances under
which the late member, Mr. Forster, was unseated. Be-
fore the trial of the petition an offer of compromise was
made by Mr. Hodgson Hinde, and in this respect
the statement made by the late Attorney-General was in-
correct, that the proposal came from Mr. Forster. The
proposal was made by a third person, formerly a member
of that house, from whom the hon. member read a letter,
confirming his statement. There was a direct admission
front the petitioner's brother, Mr. Hodgson Ilinde, to the
labe sitting member, that he would withdraw the pe-
tition on payment of 2,0001., and that before
any expenses fir witnesses or otherwise had been
incurred. And he held that this was a strong
parliamentary ground for the appointment of a com-
mittee to devise means to put a stop to a system by which
petitions were brought, not for the purpose of prosecuting
inquiry, but to obtain money as e bribe to withdraw them.
It was due to Mr. Forster to soy he utterly repudiated the
proposal.
The motion was agreed to, and the house adjournd at 10
minutes to 2 o'clock.
PAIII.-Mr. Pugh paired in favour of Mr. Palmer's
motion, with Sir John M'Taggart against.
Mr. Charles Forster was accidentally shut out of the divi-
sion on the issuing of the Harwich writ ; he in•ended to
vote with the majority in favour of its postponement.

,be ra3reols.

TO CORKISFONDRNTS.

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LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 10.

Tue Annual Meeting yesterday of the British
and Foreign School Society offers many features of
interest. This Society, it is well known,hu for a great
number of years past taken a very active part in the
education of large masses of the poor of the kingdom.
If its labours have not been on so extensive a scale
as those of the National Society, this has simply
been the effect of the field of its operations being
more contracted. Tho National Society invites the
co-operation of the members of the largest and the
most wealthy corporation in the world, the Church
of England. The British and Foreign School Society
opens its doors to the children of those who are not
included in the organisation of well defined, exclu-
sive denominations. The Weeleyans, for instance,
and the Roman Catholics, as a rule, eschew their
teaching. Nevertheless, as a proof of the energy
with which the managers of this Society, have con-
ducted the business entrusted to their charge, it may
be noticed that in the list of certificated teachers
employed in schools assisted by grants from the
Committee of Council on Education the female
teachers of the British and Foreign Schools are
equal in number to those of the Wesleyan' and the
Roman Catholics united, whilst the whole number,
both of male and female teachers, is not far below
the total of those sent out by the two aforesaid deno-
minations. The statistics of the certificated teachers
at Christmas last were as follows:
Males. Females. Total.
Church Schools 1,196 668 1,8.54
British and Foreign 103 38 141
Wesleyan
Boman Catholic 4l 22 63

Total 1,429 734 2,133
These numbers will show that the Society in ques-
tion is doing no small share of work in the education
of the people of England.
It is a great sign of the times that this fact is re-
cognised in quarters where, twenty years ago, we
might vainly have expected a recognition. The ap-
pearance of the Bishop of MANCHESTER and the Rev.
Mr. CLOSE of Cheltenham on the platform shows
clearly enough that we are drifting towards a period
when all differences of opinion as to the ,node of
communicating education will be merged in
the grand determination to accomplish the thing.
GEORGE ANTHONY DENISON, the Archdeacon of
Taunton, may scold to his heart's content at the
thought of severing the multiplication table from
the Catechism; the " Lion of Judah," Jous, Arch-
bishop of noun, may howl, with a volubility that
Maniocs himself might envy, all those who re-
fuse to believe that reading, writing, and arith-
metic are gifts of the devil, unless connected with the
Holy Roman Catholic Church—nevertheless, in spite
of the ravings of the bigots on both sides, the
meeting of yesterday is sufficient to prove that
between the " childish treble" of the English
high Churchmen, and the senile impotency of the
Irish Catholic, there is a vast interval in which the
good and the wise of all denominations may labour
for the advancement of the education of the poor
without interference.
Much, however, as we are inclined to lay great
stress upon the important fact of the simultaneous
appearance of Bishops and Clergymen of the Estab-
lishment,
Peers of the Realm, and Dissenting Minis-
ters upon the same platform advocating general edu-
cation, we cannot but lament that the majority of the
speakers concurred in clinging to mere shadows of
outworn formulae, after having long abandoned the
reality. Lord JOHN must be cited as the most promi-
nent example of this tendency." Some question," said
his lordship, "has been raised to-day as to the best
mode of promoting education. Now, we (the
British and Foreign School Society) have always
endeavoured to promote it in connexion with religion.
That was from the commencement our principle, and
will, I trust, continue to be so. But, at the same
time, as many reflections have been thrown out
against those who promote secular education, I
may, perhaps, say, without being an advocate of
' opinions from which I differ, or of a scheme
from which I entirely dissent, that in some instances
the mode in which religious education has been
given has given some advantages to the arguments
and some plausibility to the scheme of those who
promote merely secular education." Lord Jouti
then gives his opinion as to the faulty mode to
which he alludes—consisting, as be states it, in a
neglect of the purely secular elements of education
and an undue direction of the mind to the discussion
of dogmatic differences in religion. How-
ever, after admitting the justice of the ob-
jections of the secular educationists to this mode
of proceeding, he continues I think that we who
belong to the British and Foreign School Society
have always dune our best to avoid that error, and
I believe that in the future education of the people of
this country it will ho much more avoided than has
hitherto been the case."