The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-16 00:00:00

le PURL/812D

EVERY EVENING.

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 16.

A NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUC.4TION
FOR SCOTLAND.

THIS question of national education in Scotland,
which will soon be brought before the House of
Commons by the Bill the LORD ADVOCATE is un-
derstood to have prepared, makes a larger claim
upon general interest than is usually accorded to
the intricacies of Scottish politics. The welfare
of the nation is profoundly involved in the pre-
vention of a retrograde policy in educational legis.
Wien for any part of the Empire ; and it will be
a grave misfortune if the Liberal members of the
Rouse of Commons relegate a Scottish Education
Bill to the uninteresting category of purely local
schemes. There is in Scotland a broad, deeply.
mated, and widely spread liberality of thought,
having really a strong hold upon the higher life of
the nation, and capable of affording adequate support
to a statesman sufficiently wise and courageous to
submit an enlightened measure. If the LORD
ADVOCATE is ambitious of rising above the position
of the shrewd lawyer of a party and proving him-
self a Statesman, his Education Bill furnishes an
opportunity which may not recur for a generation.
Difficulties, which in England obstruct the organi-
sation of an unsectaiian nationalsystem, in Scotland
scarcely exist. Denominationalism in schools is not
thesubject of agitation on thepartof any Protestant
party whatever. Out of 136 persons who gave
evidence before her Ma-re.l/4rv's Commissioners,
99 were of opinion that a national system for
Sootland was both expedient and possible, while
only 22 took the contrary view, 15 giving no
opinion on the question. Practically the parochial
schools have furnished a national system in a
rudimentary form. In dealing with this question
in the House of Commons, English mem-
bers may be in danger of concluding from
the well-known compactness of her ecclesiastical
organisation, and the curious rule of inverse pro-
portion which appears to connect the bitterness of
their controversies with the minuteness of the poilits
at issue—that Scotland, of all places in the world,
would demand denominational schools. The
facts establish, beyond all doubt, a precisely
opposite position. Of 76,493 scholars in the
parish schools, 47,161 are returned as belonging
to the Established Church, 14,486 to the Free
Church, and the rest to other denominations. In
the General Assembly Schools, out of 33,000
only 18,000 belong to the Established Church ;
while out of 48,000 in the Free Church Schools
20,000 belong to other denominations, and out
of 6,202 scholars in Episcopal Schools only
1,929 are Episcopalians. The remarkable statis-
tics collected by the Commissioners further show
that the Roman Catholics in Scotland will not
require any special denominational provision
for the protection of their rights of conscience. No
less than 7,343 out of 12,572 Roman
Catholic scholars attend Protestant schools.
Ai a matter of fact, iu the most intensely Pro-
testant of all communities, the school has not been
tirade an instrument for proselytism; and Catholic
parents have been entirely satisfied with the
fairness and good faith of the parochial school-
sueter. The " religious difficulty " (as it is very
profanely called), which might Le expected to
scour in Scotland at its maximum, is thus really

at its minimum. The reason of this _
Seotchmen have one creed (an assertion

farcical to those who know the extremes
ticism and superstition and every int.
position existing beneath the veil of one
ikon), but that schools have been conducted
Fibiblished Church for centuries, so -
and so honourably that no child has
doctrines of which its parents disapproved.
went has simply to legalise the ancient
wont of the country. There are

mans, indeed, who would take advant-
lation to render the old freedom nobl3

by the Established Church practice.%
and who wish to procure the insertioa

science clause framed so vaguely u to be power-
less to restrain the indirect inculcation of disputed
dogmas. The leaders of this extreme sectarian
party, who are urgently pressing the Loan ADVO-
CATE to adopt their views, have openly declared
their desire to render the teaching in national
schools, during the hours unprotected by a con-
scious clause, unacceptable both to Catholics and
those Dissenters not connected with the larger
denominations. Against this reactionary policy the
Liberal members of the House of Commons
must stand upon their guard. The Scottish
11 nation is far larger in its sympathies than the

sectarianism which too often endeavours to repre-
sent it, and will welcome a national system
unsectarian in the broadest sense of the term.
There is no objection raised by any party in
Scotland against a local rate. Local rating has
been several times proposed in previous bills, and
has never been made a point of resistance. The
general opinion of the country is entirely in its
favour. If the LORD ADVOCATE would boldly pro-
pose at the general management of the schools
should be vested in a board appointed by the
Government, security being given by the con-
struction of the board that it should be strictly
educational, and not political or ecclesiastical,
and leave their local working in the hands
of the ratepayers, he would receive the sup-
port of all the great centres of population.
A strong national party is rapidly gathering
strength in Scotland, comprising representatives
of all classes, sections, and sects ; and if the
House of Commons can escape from the enfeebling
discussion of minute traditional difficulties, and
rise to the height of a great occasion, a system of
national education may be established, as complete
and satisfactory in relation to the wants of the
present age as the parochial system has been to
those of the past.

over too large an area. A paper read about the
same time before the Framlingham Farmers' Club
tells us that the ordinary cottage provision for
labourers' families in that neighbourhood
consist of one living room and one sleeping
room. Among the particular instances quoted,
out of some hundreds, are one in which a
man and his wife with seven children, boys and
girls, aged from 2 to 18 years, sleep in a space
ten feet square. In another cue, a room 12 feet
square is occupied by the two parents and nine
boys and girls. In another, a still smaller room
contains a father and mother, three sons from
16 to 18 years old, two daughters aged
21 and 25, and three small children,
two of whom are the• bastard offspring
of one of the daughters. Another case gives us
eleven of both sexes in one room, and another
thirteen. If the landlords and farmers of Suffolk
see nothing objectionable in such a state of
things as this, we must suppose that, in their
judgment, religion does not include decency, and
devotional habits in infancy are perfectly com-
patible with the foulest sexual degradation in
youth.

CLERGYMEN are usually regarded as bad men of
business, though we have known some who pos-
sessed in an eminent degree a knowledge of the
principles of success in the world, as well as in the
church. But there is one thing many preachers
cannot do. They are unable to appeal for money
without violating good taste. Bethnal-green seems
to have more than its fair share of the class. To-
day the following appears :

THE PEOPLE'S CHURCH.—Foster Monday it wu
crowded with roughs, and welcome. Whet is a
church for, if they are all driven away? Women
bring their children with them when they come
to be married. One broke looms, and wu playing
about the Communion. What did I do? Gave them my
stool to sit on. "Go ye and learn what that menneth."
I shall be very thankful for SUBSCRIPTIONS towards
permanently establishing the Free Church, the greatest
boon which this age has given to the poor.-41. F. COKE,
M.A., St. James's Parsonage, Bethnal-green.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

THE Will 11:1101768.

Referring to the depressed state of the public
securities in Francs, and the gloomy forebodings which
have recently bees entertained, the Doily News proceeds
to examine the articles in which the semi-oßicial journals
and the Dtbata have explained the rumours that
have prevailed. The pacific assuranoes of the
Debate are regarded as having the merit of pro-
bability and the recommendation of sincerity. Never-
theless, they do not entirely *over the ground
of the alarmists, nor, however satisfactory it is
to find M. Baroche announcing the presentation of a legis-
lative measure for the construction of pariah roads, it
will not be forgotten that this work of pesos was an-
nounced ten years ago by M. de Persigny, before the
Italian war and the Mexican expedition, and that it was
resuscitated a year age by • letter from the Emperor
for the purpose of silencing " those cries of alarm"
which, M. Earache complains, " either error:or male-
volence reproduces with a kind of periodicity." As M.
Emile de Girardin, with his usual acute and vigorous
good sense, remark., " Words speak peace, but facts
speak war." If the Minister of Public Worship could
point to • single fact of peaceful tendency in the policy
of the Second Empire, he would do more to reassure the
public mind than by celebrating, h /a Dalcamaia, the
painleas operation of " parish roads."
The Tines regards the scheme of rural bye-roads as pos-
sessing both political and economical importance, though
it is to a certain extent neutralised by the bill for the re•
organisation of the army. In • country which cannot spare
a single emigrant, in • ooantry where the aeduotionsof the
town have a tendency to wean the labourer from the
plough, in a country where the births do not keep pace
with the deaths, the yearly drafting of 100,000 youths for
the army, and the interference with the pursuits of 50,000
others, for however short • season of the year, must in the
long ran produce disastrous results. However, the
money to be employed in the construction of rural
roads will not, ai least, be squandered in breechloaders
and ironclad'. The Emperor has been, and must be, ac-
knowledged as the roadmaker per excellence.

The beet hopes of peace of the Star are based upon the
very proper respect which both nation feel for their
neighbour's proves. War between Prussia and France
would lead to huge slaughter, and could never end in the
permanent subjection of either. The present gust of
warlike feeling will therefore probably blow over, as
others have done, without doing much greater damage
than causing the ruin of some of the sanguine speculators
on the Bourse.

The Daily Telegraph, referring to the subjects discussed
at the Manchester Conferenoe, insists that until the
system of proxies is radically altered, the half•yearly
meetings of railway companies cannot become the real in-
quests which parliament meant them to be. At present
they are little better than legal fictions. It is neither ne-
cessary nor desirable that the general sh►reholders should
be continually meddling with every detail of management.
The directory ought to be invested with ample powers, and
• real responsibility for administrative purposes. But, in
all good government, whether of • state, • municipality,
or a joint-stock enterprise, there must be • distinction
between the administrative and the legislative power.

ME MBE CEITICII 1160LUTIONS.

The Tines urges that when Mr. Gladstone bas obtained
from the ocoaraietor a resolution that the Irish Church
must as an endowed establishment oesse to exist, it will be
well to ory " halt." The determination of the HOUMB of
Ominous will bare bola made manifest, and no moral
effect *Aube prodased by attempting more. The Opposi-
tion will act windy if it then abstain from arming the
house to further and, in all moral certainty, unfruitful air-
tion,andincistinsleadripoureverlinglotheappropriatebnid-
-1111/ of the session. If we pressen** the diaestahliabment of

the Irish Church directly, we fail in it, and we rake ship-
wreck of the reform hill for the sister ldegdoora. We do
more. To postpone the Bereft and Irish Reform Bills la
to postpone the operation of the English Relearn Aot. We
should postpone the politinal privileges of those who have
been solemnly declared qualified to porous them.
The Telegraph armee that Lord Rumen has given up
his project of endowing the three peat arts of Ward,
and now comegforward to support the policy of Yr. Glad-
stone. In Pitt's time, such a phis as Lord Russell's was
practicable, and, had the rapid bigotry of Gorge lIL set
intervened, it would !ore bier entered ; say, ern fa
year ago it might have been proposed with some chance
of Grow ; bet in our tiro* the natter has set Its face
agaird cresting new establidsinents, and will hardly eon-
is at soya to diners a seireso for riding to their;amber.
Seeing this fart, Lord Buell has wisely sunk his own
preferences, and taken his stand by the side of Dir. Glad-
stone.

The Daily Beira says it is fee the Hems Of COOlllllllll
to consider whether, after the speech of Friday week,
they have eonfidsuce la Mr. Disraeli as the add ems.
seller of the Crown. TIM asassews at which all the
world is laughing would diadem be as se harmless If
whispered in the royal closet se when declaimed in the
House of 00111i001214 The good sense of the Sovoreiga

Irks Lauri.

WINDSOR CASTLE, Aram 15.

The Queen, accompanied by PrinCene Louise,
Prince Arthur, and Prince Leopoltl, went to AL:kerb**
Camp thin morning. attended by Lady Waterpark, lady.
in-waiting, the Hon. Lucy Kerr and the Hon. Emily
Cathcart, maids of honour, Major-General F. H. Sey-
mour and Colonel H. Ponsonby, equerries in waiting,
and Lieutenant Pickard, in attendance upon Prince
Arthur.

Her Majesty travelled in an open carriage-end-tour,
esoorted by detachments of the Lt Life Guards and tha
lit and 4th Dragoon Guards.

On arriving at the camp her Majesty wea received by
Lieut.-General t►e Honourable Kr Jamie Yorke Barlett,
'E.O.M., commanding the troops, Lieut.-Gesaral Lord
William Patriot, 'E.O.M., adjutant-general, and their
respective staffs ; after which her Majesty was conducted
to Hungry Hill, where she inspected a portion of the
troops on outpost duty. From thence her Majesty drove
to the hill near Caesar's Camp, where the troops marched
part•

The Queen then proceeded to the Pavilion to luncheon,
and at four o'clock her Majesty left the /asap for Windsor
Castle, having previously driven through the lines of the
South and North Camps.
Her Majesty honoured Sir James Clark with a visit at
Bagahot Park on her return.
Prince Arthur, attended by Lieutenant Pickard,
returned to Cireenwich•park from Aldershot.
Yesterday being the birthday of Princess Beatrice, a
party of children were, by her Majesty's command, invited
to a dance at the Castle, which took place in the red
drawing•room. Princess Louise, Prince Arthur, Prince
Leopold, and Princess Beatrice were present, sad her
Majesty remained for a short time.
Refreshments were afterwards served in the dining-
I room.

Yesterday was also the birthday of Prince Christian
Victor, and the Queen and the Princes and Princesses
visited Prince and Princess Christian at Frogman in
the morning.

VISIT OF THZ QUZIN TO ObBORNZ. —Her Majesty
the Queen, with their Royal Highnesses Princesses Louise
and Beatrice, and Prince Leopold, attended by the ladies
and gentlemen of the court, will, it is expected, lam
Windsor Dulls to-morrow for Osborne.

The DRAMATIC COLLIG2—The Prince of Wales
has, it add, expreseed a wish to Mr. Sothern that one of
the old comedies should be played for the benefit of the
Dramatic College, the out to include all the principal
artiste in London. Mr. Sothern is understood to be busily
engaged in making the necessary preparation.

THE LITZ lIIIINITIS OP SALISBURY, K.G.—The
funeral of the late Marquis of Salisbury will be most
simple and unostentatious, and is appointed to take place
at 3 o'clock on Monday next.

His Excellency the Prussian Ambassador and
the Countess Bernatorff, and Countess Therese and
family, have gone to Brighton to pass the Faster
holidays.

The Earl and Countess Spencer, accompanied by
Lady Sarah Spencer and lady Cecilia Nolyneux and party,
are expected home towards the end of the month from
their tour in Spain.

The Earl and Countess de Grey and Ripon return
to town on Monday next from Studley Royal, Yorkshire,
for the imam.

Mr. W. T. Crawahay, son of Mr. R. T. Craw-
shay, sad heir to the bllllllOO2lll estates of the Cyfarthfa
family, attained him majority yesterday, the event being
duly celebrated.

The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of London
arrived at the Mansion Howe, Dublin, yesterday mornin,s,
on a visit to the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress.

Sir Win. Abdy died at his residence in Rill-
street, Berkeley-square, yesterday. The venerable baronet
was in his 90th year. The baronetcy becomes extinct ►y
his death.

THE THAMES EMBANKMENT AND THE
METROPOLITAN DISTRICT RAILWAY.

The sward of Mr. Hawkshaw, relating to the
matters in dispute between the Metropolitan Board of
Works and the Metropolitan District Railway Company,
was publiahed this morning. It vnui provided by the rail-
way act that the embankment and road to be formed
opposite to the City of London (height and Coke
Company and the WLitefriars Dock, should be
so constructed as best to snit the formation
of the railway and works attached, the embankment
and roadway themselves, and the convenience of the pa
works
sad dock, the details of construction being left with
the engineers of the two bodies. In the event of disagree-
ment between them, the disputed points were to be re-
ferred to an arbitrator ; and it so happens that a difference
did arise between them with respect to the construction of
this portion of the embankment of the roadway, and hence
Mr. Hawkshaw's award. The details of the award are not
stated in so many words, but are explained in a map which
accompanies the document.

MR. GLADSTONVR RLBOLI7TIONII.—The Mayor
of Birmingham is to be presented with a requisition to
convene a town's meeting in support of Mr. Gladstone's
resolutions.

Tas 111811 CHURCB.—A meeting of Fellows
al Sion Collage bas been summoned fa next the
21st instant, at 2 o'clock, upon the question of
thelrish
Church. A large attendance is anticipated.
• - -

nes Queer's UstrassrrY. meeting of the
°invocation of the Queen's Univeesity in Ireland weeheld
in Dublin on Tuesdey, when Dr. William Naeecirmae,
ILA., Belied, was anaaintocuily sleeted a member of the
Senate, in room of the Late Lard Roma. Itemilations
were moved pro forme condemning the eitablialuisent
of a denominational university, and declaring that
" religious equality in MAWS of education is to he
songlit, not by umbering a charier on a eitholie
university in Ireissil„ bat by egising all university
powers sad privileges equally to the number of all 00.1.
umber
An ansembeent, eimielain a elm* &elms-
Son in favour of the }wet ode= el Piled education,
was, however, ad ; ani as fig been substituted for
the above rese we =Mims* speed to. A re-
solution in femur of the repessetatim of the Queen's
University in parthatest wee also paned unanimously.
Giosoi W.'. Tour Itunatro.—How much
modern science has dose for the union of the two Wand"
may be judged hem the sestraid between the of
the Prime and Primer of Wales sad the !Mara of
=IV. is Mi. The Kim left the huhour of Duals's'',
then remind the same el Ilaptown, on Wedneeder
September 5 ; but, owing to 'estuary winds, the squadron
wee forged Mpat be* spin. `lt sailed," sari the
Animal Ikeister, "on the flaiarday following, and arrived
at Milford Haves on Sunday, the 9th, where is was &-
tanked by contrary winds until Monday night. The
squadron sailed next day
(Tasiday), with intent to beat
up the Chemnel Pertiesoath, and bad readied to vials
30 adios of the Land'rend, when, the boisisimmi
slate of the weather, it was wee to pat sheet and
return to INlferd Haves, where t sielved at
es Wednender At gm next morning his
leaded amid the chews of thousands of gpserie
Thu, after having been eitnito days on the passige be-
tweet the two islands, the was obliged pest to
Leedom from the remotest poen of Weise. No eresiler
that peat personages travelled little in these dip.
George IV. told the Dahlia people that hie heed
had always been Irish, sad that from the day
It Art best he had loved Ireland, " Sank, elsibm,
beemors," said the Bing, are asamtzliet
feel Pei Nve the hearts of lAA • is to me
te
W met I hoppiesim." Yes with all Assist
essliment be siesirwest tow them again, mid see new
tad min Pesos fur hiss when we remember that his rf
tan *item was as low m a voyage from New Took in
the preemil dn. Bel DO melt obstashs miwoprom2s.
and wi lisp. that Ireland will often have the Y
of neseivias a British prisoe with the "awe emdiet welcome
ai was elrhihi ed ymterday.— Timm

- Pa
Lancers

~tt-
•lowly for

1111110 -
Princess

of
the city, where the crowds became denser, and
the cheering more vociferous. Every available
standpoint from which a view could be obtained
war now occupied, the windows along the route
being almost exclusively in the possession of ladies,
who, by the way, were no niggards in their ex-
pression of welcome."

In the Dub/in jailing Post we read :—" The
royal party were loudly cheered whilst passing, and
nothing whatever occurred to mar the proceedings
or to cause the slightest censure or any unpleasant
feeling. The royal oort4ge reached Dublin Castle
at about half-past 1 o'clock. As an evidence of the
good order and peaceful demeanour of the thou-
sands assembled to witness the entry of their royal
highnesses, the military were dispensed with—
there was no lining of the streets with horse and
foot soldiers, and from Kingstown to Dublin
Castle, a distance of over seven miles, the only
force present was the metropolitan police, assisted
by the Kingstown police and we have not heard of
the slightest breach of the peace. Notbing could
have been better than the police arrangements, and
indeed it might be truly said, their occupation was
gone, so far as the public were concerned."
DUBLIN, WEDNESDAY NIGHT.
A large dinner party was given in the Castle to-
night. The illuminations in the city, though not
general, as the authorities did not deem it right
to encourage them, were numerous, and of a very
grand and imposing character.
The royal visitors leave town at half-past 12
to-morrow by special train for the Punchestown
races.

'moo, . ‘ustivg**
THE .XPRESS, . THI34,DAY WA :0 ? , APRIL 16, 1111861 '>
1..... . i
is net that all i tan West Suffolk Chamber ' lure M. se_ dais to illellate - hilahlistieht, or . THE
r.lt
11:Niir D PRINCESS OF
Lineal* uses, is osidelled. , t the suspicion that Priest ir
ration almost lately been dboussing the. Gov
ALES' DUBLIN.
none of sup-. Bill. The riesling wan . by 4.6 miaitrai4agal" a.. • . deaignewa P7sialsit:::: gilt "ri •, ...
calumnies car i politioal rival, the leader of a treat
, intermediate prudent conviction thin to 111-iefeseures -of
. The second edition of the Dublin Evening Mail
of one conies- the kind now might only provoke a terse thing sad ik. chief ey a majority in the House of owaraces and tf SaI:VA gays, in its account of thereception of
?ducted by the herestter. But It protested with all its might la idis, cosakyodi. by „Aiwa and the persifir ..k. the
yesterday : "The royal party
secular education, and waxed eta' friralPrierwrathefitureeminierientrwthsfrerircuiramhixf• were prece ecrirdty • squadron of the 12th Lancers,
The idea that the Queen Is possibly advised by her chief and attended by an escort of the 10th (Prince of
so generously
gagazuen•
nittllmpoeirate sacred influences of those rural
ea been taught - the Ent word a child is idolater in the ewe of his last speech may, though soot Wales's) Hussar. After
passing e
Bnwet4
coved. Parka- homes in which_ treat.
unjustly, communise wore than hoe counsellor. To drop, bridge, the carriages were driven slowly for indent use and taught to lisp is a prayer, and the first journey in the hearing
et the
heir
apparent,
the
charge
that
the some distance amid the cheers of the ams
extreme sects- from the mother's lap is to the infant schooL We leader of the oppodtion was at the head of a combination bled crowds. His Royal Highsees and the Prin ra
stage of legis- confess to having supposed that the hind of infant which ix as the Point. as li thinks, of seising the supreme of Wales repeatedly acknowledged rho heart]
iobly sustained school most prevalent in Suffolk was the agricul- authority of the realm, and that his polio,. touches doss- acclaim with which they were greeted. The
we
1 inoperative ; rural gang ; and uto the sacred influences of home Wanly the tenure of tho Grown, is to betray the futile I tige then proceeded at a more rapid pace througl
Hon of a con•
Yforce is certainly not diminished by diffusion hors of finding • Haruki of Caraboa In the Prince of Lower Etzwilliam-street, into the central parts o
their
__ •_ i__ __ - ---- • n lava. an 11•Ol A nano,. pawl ahaaf +ha Was& the city. wham +h. webe•m•A. 1............ ..-