The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-02 00:00:00

PETITIONS.

Petitions were presented by Sir J. Trollope, from Lin-
caln, praying for the closing of all public-house! on the
Sabbath ; by Mr. Hadfield, from Independent ministers
in Lancashire, against grants for any religious denomi-
nations ; also, a petition in favour of education on the
voluntary principle ; by Lord H. Vane, two petitions
from Darlington, for the abolition of church rates; by
Mr. Walpole,• from the Scotch Presbyterian Church,
London-wall, against the Marriage Bill.
EDUCATION (No. 2) BILL.
- -

On the order of the day tor the second reading of this
bill,

Sir J. PAKINGTON rose and said he lad not in-
tended to offer ary observations on this stage of the bill,
but he believed the object of the bill was very mile!,
misunderAood, and he therefore hoped he might ask the
. . .

favourable attention of the house to a measure which i

might be thought presumptuous in him to bring in, but
which he had at all events introduced with singleness
of purpose. His great object was to provide extended and
religious education to the population of this country on
the most complete system of toleration with regard to the
great principle of liberty of conscience. , The machinery
of the bill would be conducted by grants of public
money, to be expended by local boards duly responsible
to this house. He had to make one earnest appeal to the
house to give their vote for the bill on those great prin•
ciples without respect to matters of detail, which could
be only fitly discussed at a subsequent stage of the bill.
All the existing schools in this kingdom were connected
either with the Church of England or the great denomi-
national bodies of the country. The population bad
during the last half-century increased wonderfully ' • but
it was undeniable that the Church had failed to keep
pace with their religious instruction, and if the
dissenting denominations bad not stepped in that
population would be in a far worse state of igno-
rance than unfortunately they now were. (Hear.)
He did not 'think it necessary now to detain the house
further than to move that the bill be read a second time.
Mr. HENLEY rose to move an amendment that the
bill be read a second time this day six months. It was
because he felt most deeply that if the house were to
affirm this bill, the result would be not only that it
would not extend education at all, but most of all that
it would not extend religious education. (Hear, hear.)
He believed the question they had now to decide was
whether they should foster the great principle of volun-
tary education in this couritry—(bear)—or by an experi-
merit of this sort throw back indefinitely the progress
already made by that system. The bill would,
moreover, be attended with an enormously increased
amount of taxation. (Hear, hear.) He thought there
was one evil at the root of this question, which was not
sufficiently kept in view. He did not think that was
education which merely taught a person to read and
write, to do some sums in arithmetic, to tell the reign-
ing sovereigns of the world, or the geographical position
of various countries. What he regarded as education
was a system that would reach the heart ; that would
teach a person to know and do his duty to God and man,
and thereby be enabled to go through life as a .good
Christian, and a good citizen. (Hear, hear.) He be
lieved that, comparing the people of this country, in re-
spect to education and morality, with any other people
in the world, short as had been our means, they would
be found at least equal if not superior to most other na-
ions. He believed there never was a time when they could
look with greater satisfaction to the state of our institu-
tions than the present. He did not deny that there was
much ignorance and crime that he could wish to see re-
moved ; but he believed that, do what we would, there
would be always some crime and some ignorance, and
he also believed that this bill would not be effectual in
removing either crime or ignorance. The first point in
which he differed from his right hon. friend was as to
the number of children attending schools. By the census
it appeared that there were 2,140,000 children attending
day schools, and about 2,400,000 attending Sunday
schools. r. Horace Mann said there ought to be
3,000,000 of children attending school ? The real ques-
tion was, why were not those children attending
school ? Me believed it was not for want of schools.
(Flear.) Mr. Mann had omitted one important element
in his calculations, and that was owing to the great
distance at which many of them lived from school.

(LEFT SPEAKING.)

ARMY BEFORE SEBASTOPOL COM-

MITTEE.-(21.111S DAY.)

The committee re•assembled this morning at the usual
hour.

Mr. Grant, late Comptroller of the Victualling and
Transport Departments, was the first witness called, and
wag examined by Lord Seymour.
Re stated that he had held the latter of the above-men-

tioned offices until the formation of the transport board,
having retained it up to that time since the year 1851.
He had been in the service of the Admiralty for 40
years. He then proceeded to point out the mode in
which tenders were received and examined by the
vic-
tualling department. When the tenders were opened
in the board-room, the samples sent in were in-
spected, and the best were selected without any
consideration as to the lowness of the terms
proposed, the quality of the goods being taken
as the criterion of preference. After the samples
had been selected they were sealed up by. the proper
officers and were afterwards compared with the bulk.
It was not the duty of any particular person to examine
the salt provisions. The mode was to examine one or
two casks, and if found to be sweet the whole cargo was
retained ; but if it was discovered on inspdetion of one
or two casks that the contents were in the slightest de-
gree tainted, the whole was condemned and rejected.
Of all the supplies forwarded by the victualling depart-
ment to the army in the Crimea, he had never received
a single complaint. If a complaint had been made to
any person in authority at home, he must have heArd of

_ .
it. This remark applied to the provisions. Tne first
supply of port wine sent out, however, was complained
of.._The quantity consisted of 100 dozens.

Mr. LaYard—ban you state to the committee what
quantities of provisions you sent out to the Crimea ?
The witness replied that he could, and proceeded to
read an account of the various items of the provisions
supplied to the army since the 26th April, 1854.
The principal of them were :—Salt beef 4,000,000
lbs., salt pork 5,000,000 lbs., roasted coffee
216.000 lbs., raw coffee 2,139 lbs., sugar
1,250,000 lbs., rice 7,000 lbp., port wine 2,400 dozens,
brandy 971 gallons, sago 6,732 lbs., oatmeal 1,434 lbs.,
Scotch barley 16,479 lbs., preserved beef 470 tons, dried
vegetables 1,650,000 lbs., lemon juice 46,943 lbs.
By Lord Seymour—The port wine he referred to as
having been complained of was landed, he believed, at ,
Varna. The medical officers found fault with it, and it
was returned home. He at once sent down to the Cap-
tain Superintendent at Deptford, who reported to him
in reply that the wine was good. That officer had the
sole control and authority in purchasing wine, and he
stated in the report in question that the hun-
dred dozens complained of was "sound and
fruity," and he could not account for the
cause of its condemnation. No wine was purchased
until a sample of it had been submitted to Dr. Andrew
Smith. The amount paid for the wine was not less than
255. without the " drawback." As much as 40s, per
dozen had been paid for it, but then it should be remem-
bered that the wine was good and old. Before the ship-
ment of any supplies proper care was taken to ascertain
that the quantity agreed with the sample and contract.
The master of the vessel required a receipt for the goods
and a certificate that they had been put on board, both
of which documents were transmitted to the Admiralty,
and afterwards to him (witness). Since the war it had
been found requisite to appoint a store-receiver at Ply-
mouth and Deptford, and those officers were responsible
for all the expenditure relative to the contracts for pro-
visions. He constantly kept the Minister fur War in-,
formed what contracts bad been entered into, and w hat
ships were employed to carry them to the East.
[LEFT SITTING.]