The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-03 00:00:00

structed during more than eleven months, or suffer
the garrison to take possession of or to destroy our
lines, the produce of so much toil, and which
cost so many precious lives. If the army be de-
spatched to Eupatoria as suggested, the whole
must be given up to the enemy. It would be a
virtual raising of the siege, which would materially
damage the prestige justly belonging to. France
and England, which would elevate the spirits of
the Muscovites, and render them more obstinately
bent on pursuing the aggressive policy which they
have steadily maintained under various Czars for
a long succession of years. No ultimate triumph
could compensate for a course so damaging, the
effects whereof would be so completely misunder-
stood. The issue of the Russian War depends on
the fate of Sebastopol ; and we cannot abandon
our trenches while there is a reasonable prospect
of success.

Is that prospect so very remote ? We believe
not. The conditions of the siege are completely
changed. The naval operations in the Sea of
Azoff have cut off that fertile channel of supply.
There are no longer 1,500 waggons per diem
despatched from Kertch. Sebastopol and the
surrounding country are completely denuded of
provisions ; and the power of communicating with
the army in the open country ceases to be valu-
able when that army is itself undergoing the
most serious privations. Admiral BRUAT, in
his excellent despatch, declares " the attack of
the 16th so weakly followed up, is a greater
symptom of discouragement than of daring.' It
proves the straits to which the Russians, without
as well as within the walls, are driven, and affords
strong evidence that their last effort has been
nearly made. Whatever, then, be our views of
the original plan of action, it must now be steadily
and unflinchingly pursued. We must persevere
to the end, and we feel unbounded confidence
that the result will more than justify our antici-
pations, and possibly may be more speedily attained
than is now deemed probable, or even possible.

In the absence of a comprehensive system of
education, of which all classes of the community,
whatever be their religious views, may conscien-
tiously avail themselves, every well-considered
scheme to lessen the amount of national ignorance
is deserving of encouragement, and more parti-
cularly such as are to be applied to quarters
wbere the results of ignorance are known to have
been of the most deplorable nature, and the ne-
cessity for instruction is, consequently, the most
urgent.

In this category we are disposed to place the
scheme propounded on Thursday last at an influen-
tial meeting of coal-owners, and coal-viewers, and
others interested in the education of the children
of the miners in the counties of Durham and
Northumberland. Greatly improved as the
moral and intellectual condition of this pecu-
liar class of labourers is when compared with
the past, it is still very unsatisfactory, while
the strongest motives exist for its improve-
ment. Our readers generally are aware of the
frightful sacrifices of life which have long charac-
terised mining operations in the north, and were
doubtless gratified by the passing of the Coal
Mines Inspection Bill, designed to prevent, as far
as possible, their continual recurrence. That
this bill should fail of complete success, as it un-
doubtedly must, need not be wondered at, since,
however certainly it may insure care and atten-
tion to the safety of the men on the part of the
owners, it by no means guards against the greatest
danger—viz., the ignorance and foolhardiness of
the men themselves, who, it is well known, have
quite as often fallen victims to their violation of
known rules and contempt of ordinary precau-
tions as to the culpable neglect of their employers
or any other cause whatever. The adequate in-
struction of the children of these men who, in
the course of things, will succeed them in their
employment, has naturally, therefore, become a
serious consideration, and no measures, it will be
admitted, can be too prompt to be effective in
insuring such a result. Fortunately the miners
themselves, many of whom are highly intelligent
men, and, as a body, are susceptible of perhaps
more than average cultivation, are desirous to
have their children educated ; but, unfortunately,
the remuneration derivable from the labours of
children in the mines, who are employed there at
an early age, interposes a formidable obstacle to
instruction, and the consequence is they are taken
from school so young that when they arrive at
manhood numbers have forgotten all they had
learnt, and are unable to read or to sign their

names to an agreement. •
In such a state of things an educational scheme,
holding out inducements of a countervailing na-
ture, and not likely to offend the religious views
-of any section of the miners, appears ex-
ceedingly desirable ; and of such a nature
appears to be the scheme to which we
have referred, which has the positive merit
of having been tried with success in Stafford-
shire. According to the statement of the Rev.
Mr. MONCRIEFF, Government Inspector of Schools,
it is as follows :—" In the first instance a prize of
1/. was proposed to he given to every boy and
girl under 10 years of age (this limit being only
fixed for the present), who should bring certifi-
cates showing that he had attended school for two
years, and certificates of good character, and who
should be able to pass satisfactorily an examina-
tion, which would be of a very moderate amount
of difficulty indeed, only including subjects of the
ordinary elementary character. Along with this
prize would be given a card or ticket, as a kind
of testimonial to the pupil's good conduct and per-
severance. At the end of the next year the same
child might again come up, and, if again success
ful, receive a prize of W., and so on ; and they
might, after having left school, again present
themselves for a larger prize, on producing evi-
dence that they had attended a Sunday School,
and some other school during the,week, and thus
kept up their education."
No particular school, it will be seen, is speci-
fied, every parent being left to exercise his own
discretion in this respect ; and what with this
liberality, and the combined effects of emulation
and pecuniary reward, we are disposed to anti-
cipate equally good results in Northumberland
and Durham as in Staffordshire, where, we are
told, the prize-money has been very satisfactorily
expended, and the cards have been carefully pre-
served as honourable testimonials of merit.
Whether, however, our anticipations with regard
to the scheme are verified or not, its originator,
the Hon. and Rev. J. GREY, and its promoters,
including the Earl of DURHAM, Lord RAVENS-
WORTH, Mr. T. E. HEADLIM, M.P., Mr. INGHAM,
M.P., in addition to several of the local clergy
and authorities, and a number of influential coal-
owners, are deserving at once of public sympathy
in their exertions and gratitude for their good
intentions. The scheme, we may add, is also
,intended for the manufacturing districts.

• -
PLYMOUTH, SUNDAY,—The`Gambia, screw steam-ship,
Captain Dolt, sailed last evening with the mails for the
-west coast- of 'Africa, Madeira, ecc.
WOOLWICH, SHPT. I.—During the past month, about
650 recruits have joined the Royal Artillery, and above
100 to the Royal Sappers and Miners. Between 400
and 500 of these men have volunteered from the

vention of the Austrians, been again placed at the
mouth of the Sulina. The port of Varna has been
enlarged and fortified, awl can give shelter to ves-
sels of the lino in stormy weather. The placing of
the submarine telegraph from Varna to Constan-
tinople is being rapidly carried on, and military
roads to Silistria and Rassowa are being made."

-

TBE SUN, LONDON, MONDA37 EVENING, SEPTEMBER 3, 1855.

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SUN OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

TA TTERSALL'S.

(THIS EVENING.)

aLEAMINGTON STAKES.
10 to 3 agst Shoreham (taken)
6to 1 agst Chicken (taken)
10 to 1 agst King of Trumps (taken)
33 to 1 agst Le Juif (taken)
ST. LEGER.

5 to 2 agst Rifleman
7 to 2 agst Lord of the Isles (taken)
4 to 1 aget Oulston
10 to 1 agst Grculus Esuriens (taken)
20 to 1 agst Marchioness (taken and offered)
40 to 1 agst The Herald (taken)
GREAT YORKSHIRE HANDICAP.
5 to 1 agst Midsummer (taken)
CESAREWITCH.
20 to 1 agst Scythian (taken freely)
20 to 1 agst Elvaston (taken)
33 to 1 aget Mortimer (taken)
40 to 1 aget Kaffir (taken)
50 to 1. agst Neoptolemus (taken)
1000 to 10 agst Calarous (taken)
DERBY.
25 to 1 aget Rogerthorpe (taken)
WARWICK Cur.—Wild Dayrell is scratched.

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