The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-02 00:00:00

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egg -Fa2j SUIT.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1864.

It is scarcely realised, Even now, we believe, in
this country, how very low the name of England
has sunk in the general estimation of the Continen-
tal Geeern:nents. Day by day we have recently
published certain significant exemplars of the senti-
ments expressed by some among the leading organs
of public opinion on the other side of the Channel.
To say that the maijrity of these commentaries
upon the foreign policy o. our Government have been
l
derisive and contumelious in the extreme, would be
to speak of them in the language of moderation.
Their sarcasm has an intolerable bitterness—a bitter-
ness altogether intolerable, heesnse admitting, as it
does, of being perfectlyust— ifie' ill every particular.
All but the Government hacks and Ministerial
bangers-on in this country are galled and depressed
under the painful consciousness of the contempt, let
it be said at once, of the perfectly natural contempt
with which the once puissant influence of England
has come to be regarded, alike among the great
powers and among the minor Powers of the Elm.
peso section of Christendom. The House of COre.
mons itself has manifested the poignancy of its esti.
mate of this unwonted situation of affairs, time and
again, within the last few days, and that, more-
over, in a manner strangely at variance with the
usages of Pariiamentary etiquette. Our meaning
when saying this will be understood upon the
instant when we recall to mind two incidents that
haze but very recently occurred in the midst of the
agitated proceedings of the popular branch cf the
Legislature, One of these incidents—who can fail
to remember it ?—was that of the scornful laughter
greeting the entrance into the House of Commons
of our octogenarian Prime Minister upon the
evening when the House first looked to him for the
tardy explanation of the Ina' failtirs3 of the Latin

conference. Remembering his advanced age and
his illustrious career, his great name and his great
pesition, the fact of Lord PALMERSTON'S appearance
being greeted with laughter, and that, too, at so mo•
mentous a juncture, we take to be an incident of a
very extraordinary kind, and one having about it a
most painful significance! The other occurrence, one
yet more significant, as we conceive, than that just
now mentioned—the other incident we are here
desirous of alluding to, precisely by reason of its
insignificence, was the circumstance of Lord
PAT MERSTON'S allusion towards the end of his
speech on Monday evening to the possible capture
of King CHRISTIAN, being received with an out-
burst expressive of scornful derision. The Spec-
tator of to-day speaks of the noise that then broke
forth in the House of Commons as—half laughter,
half hooting ! " The House half laughed, haY
hooted at him," says our contemporary.
At whom ? At whom is it that the House
of Commons is thus half laughing, half hooting ?
Why, at Lord PALMERSTON ! We take an
incident like this to have about it, indeed, a very
weighty significance ! It augurs but darkly—on
the eve of such a discussion as Parliament has not
had for many years past—it augurs but darkly for
Ministers that upon the eve of the commencement
of this great Debate upon their Abortive
Foreign Policy, their Leader should have been thus
interrupted in his general explanation of that
policy and of its failure by—hootings! An English
Ministry mast surely be on the brink of disruption
when the Prime Minister is hooted in the House
of Commons—that Prime Minister being (of all
men to be hooted !) Lord PALMERSTON !

Education is always one of the most difficult
subjects to discuss—so many things have to be con-
sidered in relation to it, and so many prejudices and
partialities come into the way of its operation. The
debate the other night on the questign proves the
many difficulties that environ it, but at all events it
is satisfactory to find that, some efficient persons are
giving their attention to this momentous topic. We
are more likely to arrive at a satisfactory solution
if care and attention ere used than if matters are
allowed to continue in their present inert state.
Although this case seems particularly one which
may be said tot homines tot sententice, yet good may
accrue to the interests of the cause from the com-
bined effects of discussion and research. Mr.
WALTER'S remarks are well worthy of attention;
he generally has same valuable information to im-
part relative to this question, and on the occasion
referred to be said that the inequality of the Par-
liamentary grant was very great, and the attention
of the house ought to be called to it. The hon.
member referred to the effects of the pupil-teacher
system. Mr. WALTER very truly complained of
the rule of the Revised Code which made "the
employment of pupil teachers compulsory, or sub-
jected the managers to loss of the grant if they d!d
not employ them." Several examples were given
and instances cited respecting the effects of this
system, which does net seem to answer at all. From
a statement made by one of the inspectors about
these teachers it seems that their knowledge of
grammar is very imperfect, and that they have not
improved,notwithstanding the complaints that have
already been made concerning their deficiencies.
Indeed, the report referred to declares that these
pupil teachers are unable to make any simple
statement in a clear and grammatical way. It is
very deplorable to think that those who are con•
sidered by some as absolutely indispensable for the
proper education of the country should be so faulty
in their own acquirements ; but there is a still worse
view of the question to consider, and that is, that
the plan is failing from the physical incapacity of
the younger experimentalists. Mr. BRODIE, the
inspector already referred to, gave a list of those
who had been attacked with sickness, and it was a
very extensive one. Out of 542 who were referred to,
no less than 214 had been ill, and many of these
had died. It is the opinion of many who are com-
petent to judge, and who have opportunities for
forming an opinion, that there is too much required
of these young people, and that the pressure of
overwork has the most injurious effects upon them.
Among those dissentients to the practice are
physicians and some managers and teachers of the
system. One of these avers that she considered the
constitution of the girls had been very much tried
in the institution, and some of them who left quite
strong have come back completely worn out in
mind and body. It stands to reason that young
persons are not fit to hear so much fatigue as older
ones, and the combined effect of learning and
teaching is very likely to prove most injurious to
the system. Nor can it be expected that in either
capacity the overworked individual will be likely to
succeed. He cannot possibly be animated during
his task of teaching, and he cannot apply
himself with enough industry to learning if he is
exhausted by preview, overwork. The sooner this
system is given up or altered the better, and it was
at the outset an unwise thin,; to make the obser-
vance of it compulsory in the manner described
before. It is always a dangerous thing to overtask
youth, and it is one of the greatest mistakes made
at the present day. The evil results to health and
strength are most numerous, and the overzeal which
prompts the teacher or parent fails in effecting its
chief aim, for a distaste to learning is acquired, and
the young person so overtoiled and disgusted with
teaching is not likely to use much effort or seize
many opportunities to acquire the self-knowledge
and culture which are so much more important
than any that is taught. It is perverting a glen-
ous thing from its destined end if, in attempting to
force knowledge upon those unfit, perhaps, to re-
ceive overmuch, we injure the vital energies, and
crush the life from out young hearts. Education
is a great privilege, but, like all other privileges, it
must be used and not abused, or it will certainly
fail in effecting its aim and object. It is abanrd
also to try to cram so much learning all at once into
the minds of the young, because a little that they
thoroughly understand is better than an avalanche
of information that is confused together in their
bewildered brains. No teaching that affects the
health can be profitable or salutary to the mind,
and hence, doubtless, the failure of these overworked
pupil teachers. It is not going the way to en-
courage the unwilling to send their children
to school, if they see such deleterious effects
resulting from it in others, and therefore
the sooner a change takes place the better for all
parties concerned in the affair. Mr. WALTER
announced bis intention to move on a future occa-
sion for a committee to inquire into the best mode
of bringing all the unassisted schools within reach
of the Government grant. This will be a very
desirable object to effect, and it is to be hoped that
it will be successful, for upon it depends much of
the beneficial result of the efforts at education
made throughout the country, often so sedulous,
and often, unfortunately, so
unequal in their
attainments and result®.

The news from India is not.of a kind to awaken
any uneasiness, notwithstanding tho dark hints
that were given not long ago of the existence of a
formidable Mahommedan conspiracy in the North-
West. The mast exciting news that Calcutta caf-,
find to discuss is the temporary remo7al of Govern.
ment to iml, or the proceedinEa of tha new

Sanitary Commission. The vexed question of the
removal of the seat of government from the fatal
City of Palaces has been settled for the time being
in a very original fashion, Sir CHARLES WOOD, as
we know, peremptorily declined to sanction any
such change, and thereby gave an example of his
sublime indifference to the life, health, and well-
being of subordinates, and even to the efficiency of
the Administration itself, compared to the main-
tenance of the strict laws of nature. Such an alte-
ration as a change in the seat of government is
certainly not often wished for—much less made—
and therefore it is not easy for the Indian Secretary
to find a precedent to countenance such a proceed•
ing. It would not, unhappily, be difficult to find
evidence of the necessity for change of some sort if
we look no farther than the gist of the viceregal
dignitaries themselves. Matters have grown rapidly
worse of late years, since at one time few complaints
were made, and the mortality of Calcutta certainly
appears to be on the increase. The fact is that the
sanitary areangemente of the city are so totally
inefficient that year by year the evils increase, and,
being often of a nature to multiply themselves, the
consequences are frightful. For instance, the
interior of the great Calcutta gaol is a standing dis-
grace to our Administration if half the official
description of it be correct, and as a natural result
the poor wretches, naked and half-starved, thrust
into small and filthy cells where fresh air is a thing
unknown, and beaten and ill-used by the native
keepers for the sake of bribes, die at a rate which
defies calculation. The medical officer could not
say for certain what the mortality was when inquiry
was at last made into this appalling state of things.
What that gentleman was about not to exert him-
self a little in the matter is not very easily guessed,
The President of the new Sanitary Commission,
who is likely to have no sinecure if he fulfils half
his duties, may reasonably be supposed to be
tolerably hardened to such investigations; but he
states very decidedly that Calcutta Gaol is the acme
of all the atrocities he has encountered have
never in my life seen any rooms used for human
habitation in which the state of the atmosphere
was so offensive." It is a pity that a little of the
superfluous humanity wasted on the ticket-of-leave
met at home is not spared for the miserable pri-
soners of Calcutta! But a necessary consequence
of this ill treatment is the great mortality of the
prison, and as the bodies of those who die in the
gaol have hitherto been thrown into the river, the
horrors of the prison have indirectly contributed
largely to the propagation of pestilence. The
corpses from the hospitals have shared the same
fate, so that Government itself has been answerable
for a large proportion of the floating horrors so much
denounced of late. But, happily, there is at least
a charge for the better, for since the
issue of the order respecting the disposal of the
dead, the corpses under Government control have
been burnt, and the consequence is that a consider-
able difference, we are told, is already perceptible
in the river, even though the Governor. General,
with his accustomed sagacity, has declined to
enforce the hasty order which had set the whole
native mind of Bengal in a ferment. Hasty legis-
lation is always to be deprecated when so many
interests are involved, and it is never wise to run
violently counter to the religious and traditional
prejudices of a people, especially when we have
ourselves countenanced the practice daring so long
a period. The stoppage of such hideous, revolting,
and unhealthy practices is of course to be earnestly
desired, and surely no effort should be spared to
bring about a pacific solution of the difficulty by
providing the Hindoos with some other means of
observing their immemorial obligations, until such
time as civilisation and knowledge shall enlighten
their .minds on the point. But the Government
can at,least take care that none of the bodies under
their control are added to the number, and mean-
while there are other reforms urgently needed
which will meet less formidable opposition. The
state of the gaol urgently needs attention,
and we are not surprised to learn that Sir
JOHN LAWRENCE has visited it in person.
Matters should not be trusted to native con-
trol, but European inspectors should be appointed.
It is by no means surprising that the whole staff
of Government, unwilling to sacrifice their health,
and, perhaps, life to Sir CHARLES Woop's official
prejudices, should gladly escape to Simla during
the hot months, and a very wholsale " flitting"
has consequently taken place. Some grumblers
complain that official representatives should have
been left in Calcutta, but as yet no great evil has re-
sulted from the abandonment of the seat of Govern-
ment. The Secretary of State may forbid the tea
moval, bat he cannot prevent the officials from
taking a temporary holiday, and so the mutter for
the present rests. Whether it will be allowed to
remain on this footing, or whether a wiser and
more enlightened administration will not recognise
the advantages of a total change, remains to be
seen. At any rate it is quite time that something
was done to improve the salubrity of a city so long
the chief seat of the English rule.

Grievances of the Indian Army.