The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-17 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 17, 1855.

AT LIVERPOOL—By order of the Trustees.
—On TUESi) the 27th instant, at One o'clock, at the
Cotton ale Room, Exchange Buildings, unless previously disposed of
by private treaty, the undermentioned Ships lying at the port of
Liverpool :

people free of ail charge, except that imposed by the rate in
aid. The formation of an educational district is not com-
pulsory upon t! c ratepayers, but it rests in their discretion
whether in each union the act shall be operative or
a dead letter. Once adopted, however, the observance of all
the subsequent and attached provisions becomes, of course,
compulsory. The schools are to be subject to Government
inspection, as at present, and the central educational govern-
ment is to be vested, as now, in the Committee of Privy
Council, which, however, is to be subjected to a good deal of
remodelling, and is to be represented in Parliament by a re-
sponsible Minister of the Crown. There is to be no inter-
ference exercised in respect of any existing agencies for
education.

Such, in the main, is the machinery which Sir J. Paking-
ton proposes, not to substitute for, but to superadd to, that
which he finds at work. We should have strongly protested
against any proposition which involved the abrogation of
the numerous establishments which voluntary efforts and
private benevolence have constituted, and are now maintain-
ing throughout the land, and which, although it may be con-
ceded that they fall short in extent, and in some degree in
form, too, of the present and prospective requirements of the
community, have clone a vast deal more, we are disposed to
think, than Sir John Pakington gives them credit for, to in-
crease the knowledge and advance the social condition of the
people ; but_ we see no objection to this scheme being imposed
upon the existing system if the imposition can be effected
without material disturbance. And we do not see why it
should not. Coalition, we should think, may be compassed,
even though amalgamation may not be possible. We are quite
ready to admit that the machinery which we have in operation
now is not adequate to the work which ft is called upon to
perform. We are ready to admit, withoutdispnte or cavil, a
great, the greatest part of the statements which Sir John
put forth ; and of the opinions which he advanced with re-
gard to the prevalence and degree of- ignorance among the
masses of our population. We feel strongly,--and we- have
urged our conviction, over and over again;'-upon the public,
that a very large proportion of the educational acquirements
which our population is reputed to have attained—whatever
chew and appearance they make upon paper, and in statistical
returns —have no reality ; and thatthe system which makes such
a display in report,produces comparatively trifling results, and
excercises but ephemeral influences. This is but the natural
consequence of educating men—whose destined occupation is
that of teachers of peasants living by manual labour—as if
their present object was to take high honours at the univer-
sities, and their contemplated career that of the statesman,
the barrister, the physician, or the Churchman, and of these
men attempting with similar mistaken views to pour--just
as you would pour water into a pail—into the mind of a
child who, at the utmost, is to be two years under their ma-
nipulation, as great an amount and as great a variety of ac-
quirements as is attainable, and attained by a clever and in-
dustrious sou of a man in easy circumstances, who is able to
devote absolutely to mental cultivation at least twelve years
of his life. This is one of the chiefest evils of our present sys-
tem as conducted by the Committee of Privy Council, and
we have observed, with much regret and apprehension, that
several of the cleverest and most zealous of the Government
inspectors have given encouragement to its growth, and have
forced the directors of some of our training establishments,
from year to year, to a perpetual ascent in the scale of educa
tion applied to candidates for the masterships of schools. It
is a practice which is objectionable not only because it defeats
the object for which the training schools are specially estab-
lished, but because it, moreover, has a tendency to create,
and that at the public expense, a class of men in whom is
generated, by the unwholesome and unfitting stimulus applied
to their minds, an ambition without a distinct object or a
tangible resting place, and a large proportion of whom, con-
sequently, will probably pass their lives in wandering to and
fro through society restless and discontented, seeking a posi-
tion and. linuilig none, and the ready ins,ruments o every
political agitation that the turmoil of life in large towns may
send forth.

It is evidently impossible in the limits of a single artiole to
give an opinion upon the variety of important questions to
which a. itation is given by the great scope of Sir J. Faking-
t m's scheme, and we, therefore, prefer to reserve, till we
see the bill in print, any positive expression of our views
with regard to a large proportion of its contemplated provi-
sions. The policy or impolicy of free admission, for instance,
will depend considerably, iu our opinion, upon the extent of
the area to which it is proposed to apply the rating. If it be
extended so as to embrace all families really capable
of paying, and it is found 'capable of producing, with
the aid of the Consolidated Fund, a revenue suffi-
cient for the maintenance of the school in each
district, we see no reason for requiring the payment
of pence from individual children; the education of those
who have the ability having been, in fact, already paid for
by the contribution of their families to the rate ; but we
would beg Sir John Pakington and the house to bear in mind
that the great danger to be guarded against, in all plans for
giving good and cheap education to the poor, is the natural
and almost inevitable tendency of the class above them to
press into the establishments and elbow them out—a tendency
which we doubt will always be found active at all times and
in all places, so long as the private schools to which the
middle classes resort are so miserably constituted and admi-
nistered.

The last and greatest difficulty with which Sir John pro-
poses to grapple, namely, that of religious teaching to all
classes and sects, presents such a large field of consideration
and discussion, that it is impossible to enter fully upon it
within the limits of this article ; and to touch upon it, with-
out going completely into it, would only, be to do injustice
both to ourselves and the subject. We postpone, therefore,
to a future occasion the expression of our views, and will
only add, that whatever may be their individual opinions
with regard to Sir John Pakington's proposition, there can be
but one feeling of respect and admiration for the tolerant and
Christian-like spirit which he evinced in treating that com-
plicated and momentous question.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

The Colossus, 80, screw, 750 men, Captain R. S.
Robinson, is refitting at Devonport with the greatest
dispatch. She is ordered to Spithead, and will be ready
to sail on the 21st.

Yesterday the Amphion, 34 guns, screw steam-
frigate' was put out of the fitting basin at Sheerness
under her own steam power. Just as she got to her
moorings her weigh shaft broke. This defect will re-
quire until Tuesday next to be repaired.
The Cossack, 20 guns, screw steam-corvette, Captain
Edward G. Fanshawe, arrived at Sheerness yesterday at
12.30 p.m. from Leith Roads.

The Driver, 6 guns, steam-sloop, shortly after getting
up steam to leave Sheerness, on Thursday, when off the
garrison-point, broke her main shaft. She was obliged
to make fast to the buoy off the point, where she re-
mains waiting for a new shaft.

The Odin steam-frigate Captain James Wilcox, left
Woolwich yesterday for the rendezvous of the ships of
the Baltic fleet at Spith.ead.

The Lightning steam-vessel, Lieutenant Commander
James C. Campbell, left Woolwich yesterday afternoon
for Spithead, having been appointed as a tender to the
Duke of Wellington, 131, flagship of Rear-Admiral the
Hon. Richard S. Dundas, C. 8., Commander-in-Chief of
the Baltic fleet.
The Pelter, screw-gunboaf, was docked again yester-
day to have another screw applied, and some further
alterations made in her lee boards to keep her from rol-
ling ; this vessel has been on the doctor's list ever since
she arrived at Portsmouth. The Ruby, steam-gunboat,
is also to be brought into dock to have some alterations
made.

The Port-Admiral, Sir Thomas Cochrane, K.C‘l3.,
struck his flag on board the Victory yesterday, and
went on leave, owing to indisposition. Dear-Admiral
Martin is senior officer pro tem.

Notices have been posted at Woolwich Dockyard that
letters for the Black Sea fleet will be despatched by her
Majesty's steam-vessel Weasel, at Devonport, if posted
on or lefore March 21, 1855. Letters for seamen, ma-
rines, and boys will be forwarded by this opportunity if
posted in time and marked on the outside "By her
Majesty's steam-vessel Weasel."

OFFICIAL DESPATCH FROM FIELD-
MARSHAL LORD RAGLAN.

(Front last Night's Gazette.)
WAR-DEPARTMENT, MARCH 16.
Lord Panniure has this day received a despatch and its
enclosures, of which the following are copies, addressed to
his lordship, by Field-Marshal the Lord Raglan, G.C.B.

My Lord,—Some Breefos
since I wrote to your lordship on the 27th. lam not cer-
rheip Sebastopol,saresaid to March 3,
3tain of this ; but, according to my observation, the new
barrier across the harbour appeared yesterday evening to
more beenl 85
sunks
have been extended beyond the point at which I had seen
it two days before.
..

The enemy is busily occupied in establishing a work
considerably nearer the French batteries on the extreme
right than that which was attacked by our allies on the
morning of the 24th.

The enemy seem to be increasing their force in the neigh-
bourhood of Sebastopol, both to the northward and upon
the Tchernaya.
The railway continues to progress satisfactorily, and we
already raake considerable use of it in the conveyance of
store; hutting materials, &0., as far as Kadikoi ; and the
electric' telegraph is completed between that village and
my head-quarters.
The weather has again become extremely cold, and there
was a fall of snow yesterday, and some little this morning.
I inclose a return of casualties to the Ist inst. inclusive.
I have, kc.,
RAGLAN.
The Lord Panmure, be., &c., &c.