The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-23 00:00:00

TO Fr SUN, LONDON, MQ.,ZDA 17, DECEMBER 23. 1839

material results, which it contained. In the town
of Cambridge, presenting so many facilities for the
education of the poorer classes, in its excellent charity
schools, and in the exertions of its parochial ministers,
aided by other members of the University, the number
of children receiving systematic instruction in the Na-
tional, British and Foreign, and other schools, was about
one-fifteenth of the entire populatior i'the number of
children attending the Sunday schools • amounted to
one-ninth of the population—a most satisfactory result,
and highly creditable to the exertions of the clergy.
If we examine the returns received from 121 parishes
in the county and Isle of Ely, we shall find about one
in thirty receiving daily and regular instruction in Na-
tional, parochial, British and Foreign, and infant
schools, or about one in twelve, if we include those
who attend Dames' schools, whilst one in ten
will be found to attend the Sunday schools He
had hitherto spoken on the state of education in
this county and the Isle of Ely, as correctly represen-
ted by the returns which had been received ; but it was
probable, and almost certain, that they generally repre-
sented the greatest number who attended those schools
at any period of the year, and not their average condi-
tion. And he thought he should not be wrong if he
confined the proportion of those receiving daily instruc-
tion in this town, to one-eighteenth of the population;
and in other parts of the county, and in the fen districts,
to one-twentieth, or a still smaller number. Now if we
consider three and tifteen to be the limits of the ages of
children who are the proper subjects of education, and
that two out of every nine living persons arc included
between these ages, it would thus appear that not more
than one-fourth of those who were in a condition to 7C,
ceive education, were simultaneously enjoying its be-
nefits.

That is the state of education in the district of
Cambridge, and let the reader contrast that with
the general state of education, as mentioned by
the Dean, in Switzerland and Germany :
He would beg to call the attention of this meeting
to the admirable syStem of secular education pursued in
some of the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland, in Prus-
Wurtemburg, and other parts of Germany, where
one-sixth or one-seventh of the population were receiv-
ing daily instruction, amounting to more than two thirds
of all the children between the ages of three and fifteen ;
their schools were established on better principles ; the
school-books better selected and better composed ; the
masters more carefully and systematically taught ; and
the whole conduct of the system subject to a more vigi-
lant inspection and superintendence. He was induced,
from considering the superior organization of some
foreign schools, and the careful education of their teach-
ers to express a hope that the establishment of a normal
school in thi University, where so many able and zea-
lous instructors may be found, and where so many op-
portunities are offered of teaching the practical discipline
and administration of large schools, may sooner or later
arise out of the institution of this board.
Thus the average of the system in Ger-
many, where the priesthood are poorly paid,
is twice or thrice as advantageous as edu-
cation in the crack district of Cambridge. In
the diocese to which Cambridge belongs, the
Bishops, and the sons and nephews of Bishops,
have carried off hundreds of thousands of pounds,
and at the same time the people have been left, in
the remote rural districts, in a state of ignorance
amounting to semi-barbarism. Such is the testi-
mony borne by the Dean of ELY to the results of
that conduct in our squires and parsons which the
I-lon. Mr. HERBERT expounded and the assem-
bled clergy applauded. Yet we are told by the
Post, and such Journals, that the squires and the
parsons are the friends and benefactors of the people,
and that the manufacturers, who have established
schools in almost every one of their mills, and began
the education of their workmen at least as early as
1810, are the enemies and oppressors of the people.
But the time is coming when justice will be done
to these different classes.

We are authorised to contradict a statement
(which has appeared in some of the London
Papers, copied from the Gloucester Chronicle)
that it is the intention of Sir BENJAMIN HALL
not to come forward as a candidate for the Borough
of Marylebone at the next election ; and to state
that, whenever a dissolution of Parliament occurs,
the Hon. Baronet will most certainly solicit the
support of that constituency which he now repre-
sents with so much honour to himself and satisfac-
tion to his Liberal and patriotic supporters. There
is not a more consistent or independent man in Par-
liament than Sir BENJAMIN HALL.

The Supreme Civil
.Court of Scotland has
granted an injunction against the parties appointed
to" Vito effect the late resolution of the Corn
mission ,of Assembly, and ordered them to appear
within fourteen days, if they intend to question the
decisioni of the Court. Meetings have been held
in the-parishes of the suspended ministers. The
inhabitants in general evinced the strongest feelings
of sympathy on account of the treatment to which
their clergymen had been subjected, and their firm
determination to support them in the continued and
conscientiols discharge of their duties. This dis-
pute between Law and Church has caused great
excitement throughout Scotland.

Our Government is not the only one which is
made to feel the ascendancy of Russia at Con.
stantinople, or the exclusive privileges enjoyed by
the Flag of the Automat in the waters of the

osphorus and the Black Sea. The following
extract from the German Papers received last
night, will test the truth of the assertion so often
repeated by the Tory Journals—namely, that the
Whig Cabinet is the only one in Europe capable of
submitting to the dictation of the CZAR. Count
SERCEY has been subjected to a much greater hu-
miliation than Lord DURHAM, as no suggestion
was made to him by the ' Porte for evading
the establishment of a mortifying precedent ; it
being admitted by the writer in the Ger-
man journal from which the
.following account
is extracted, that Russia secretly prompted the
Porte to decline having recourse to any such
evasion. We think we can sec clearly the design
of Russia in this proceeding. She wants to pro-
voke a quarrel between France and the Porte, and
by inducing the former to declare unconditionally
for MEHEMET ALI, acquire a pretext for assuming
alone the protectorate of the SULTAN. She does not

herself strike directly at the flag of France, but she
directs the weak and irritating blow in the hope of
profiting by the substitution of national revenge for
the dictates of sober and widely-calculating reflection.

If she can make Frenchmen feel that the national ho-
nour has been stained by Turkey, she knows that they
will not stop to consult their judgment before pre-
paring to wash it out in Mohammedan blood. This
would be to play her game completely. But where
does the necessity exist for the longer maintenance
of such delusions ? Why not drag aside the veil
of flimsy diplomatic subterfuge, and at once boldly
charge the real offender with the offence ? But
we will not anticipate events. We shall rest con-
tent with having called our readers' attention to the
subject, with a view to a future contrast or com-
parison, as the case may be, of the relative pro-
ceedings thereon of the London and Paris Cabi-
nets

steam boat in
• -
CoNSTANTINoPLE, Nov. 28.-1 spoke in a former
letter of a failure of the French Diplomacy in the
undergoneEas t .
which Count Sercey is embarked did not obtain a fir-
seeemheswthhatemthielietliereen. ch
The
eal
fir-
man to proceed to Trebizond till some difficul-
ties were overcome relating to a recognition
of the dominions of the Mareclausum of Thrace
and of the Euxine. The points are (as it is ex-
pressly stated in the firman that has been delivered),
the taking down of tho flag, and the withdrawing of
the guns, &c. This would be regular, and France itself
has latterly and repeatedly declared the dominion of
Turkey over these seas ; but the circumstance that the
Russian ships of war traverse the Black Sea without
taking down their sag, or placing their guns in any but
the usual manner, is the more mortify' -"_.5, as France
does not recognise either the dominion of Russia on the
Black Sea, or the closing of the Byzantine Straits, as a
measure for the advantage of the Russian establish-
ments. It is generally believed that the Porte would
not have thought of throwing these obstacles in the
way of the French men-of-war, but that a secret hand
directed the whole, in order to make M. de Sercey ac-
quainted with the difference that exists in these seas
between French and Russian men-of-war. M. de Ser-
cey is accompanied by six officers of all arms.—Afige- 1
melee Zeitung, Dec. 17.

Madrid Journals to time 16th instant hive been
received, but their contents are of little moment.