The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-06 00:00:00

ME. LOWE ON EDUCATION.

The Times, returning to Mr. Lowe's late speech, says
it is very hard that the noblest literature existing in the
world, the source and foundation of our own, the only
abiding vestige of a mighty past and a mysterious origi•
nal, is to be held up to public shame like a worn-out,
threadbare, musty garment, fit only for a scarecrow,
merely because it would encumber the carpet bag of a
Scotchman crossing the Tweed to make hie way in the
world. By all means let him and his English congener
learn that which will answer his purpose, enable him to
get a good place, and do its duties well ; but we cannot see
why his needs are to circumscribe the loftier aspirations
hitherto fostered at universities and public schools.
The Standard is very angry with Mr. Lowe for saying
that the generation which is coming will be worse educated
than the present one, unless we alter our existing system.
He knows as well as we do that there is nothing to raise
in his mind any such presumption. More than that, he ie
thoroughly aware—how, after the official position be has
occupied, can be be ignorant ?—that the entire body of
information and statistics on the subject point with cer-
tainty to a diametrically opposite result. Disappointment
has made him not only a political cynic, but a malicious
cynic. Of such stuff are the worst citizens made. Ho
cuts himself adrift from himself and from all his former
associations simply in order to harass his opponents; and
he does his utmost to injure the interests of his country,
in order that he may not again be proved a false prophet
through their remaining intact.
The Telegraph remarks that if Mr. Lowe only works at
well as be speaks, the public will have no great objection
to help him also to believe that we should have been ruined
by the Reform Bill had we not been eared at the eleventh
hour by the bill for national education.

MN TOPICS.

The Dade News, pointing out bow much, in certain
districts, the oostermonger system of stalls and trucks
suits the people, asks if it be not possible to allow
the commissioners of police a discretion as to the streets
in which the Metropolitan Streets Act shall, at
any time, be enforced, or ma to its enforcement at
all? This measure would at least bridge over the coming
season, which is likely to be severe enough without the
legislative creation of distress and pauperism through the
destruction, by act of parliament, of an established mode
of trading. The creation of new channels should take
place simultaneously with the closing of old ones. If we
drive costertnongers and hucksters from the streets, it
would be only prudent to open public markets, to which
they may have access, in the districts which they supply.
The Tinter argues that there ought lobe constant visitors
at a workhouse, and that all the practices of the estab-
lishment should be as well known at least as those
of an hospital. ♦ workhouse is now more like a parish in-
firmary, a refuge for the decrepit, the sick, or the bed-
ridden. The plausible arguments, therefore, which were
urged in past times against milking a workhouse too cont.
fortal.le for the indolent or improvident at the expense of
the industrious no longer apply, and the inspection needed
is something very different from that framed upon the
original traditiofts of the Poor Law Board.

Premising it to be generally known that the settling for
the late meetings of Newmarket has been anything but
satisfactory, the Post proceeds to put on a level the gen-
tismen who lay money on a horse when they know they
eannst meet the liability if they love, with the bookmaker
who being deficient and absent on settling day is called •
"welcher." Racing, with the betting and financing which
accompany it, is approaching the position which gambling
formerly held till • salutary meuure put an end to hells.

We hear of sums of gigantic inagnitude wagered as readily
as they were of old on the throw of the dice. We see fine
old family properties dwindling away or passing into the
hands of strangers, by the defeat of • favourite or the
failure of • "good thing," as before they have done by the
turn of a card. The horse has taken the place of the
roulette table. Nor is this all. A less scrupulous
nicety than in the days of cards or dice has come in,
and the morality of the turf when compared with the
rules which used to be observed at the green table is more
that of the sharper than of the player. Betting is be-
coming a trade among the amateurs as much as among
professional betting men, and what is done by the man
who has fifty, or sixty, or • hundred thou•tnd a year
is in a smaller way imitated by those who follow him.
Overtrading is the explanation of the many accounts
which are left unsettled in betting-books this season.