The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-03 00:00:00

TIIE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 3, 1863.

man be carried on without their voice being raised
in protest or their energies exerted in its uprooting.
These are the real friends, and the kindest bene-
factors to their race, and it is to be regretted that
such are so few.

One of the distinctive marks of a highly civilised
community is the value placed on education. Long
after the rough and illiterate manners of a young
state have died out and the love of war in its rulers
few
has become changed into the science of Government,
there is
divides usually
the a lon
g
r
memberslapse ofthe privileged
during
which
agreat
gulf eat
classes from the ranks below them. It is thought
enough if the very rudiments of education are con-
fined to the better sort of people, and the masses
have commonly not even the desire to learn. Book
learning, as it is scornfully termed, is looked upon
with much the same disfavour as the good old Earl
DOUGLAS expressed when he felicitated himself en
the fact that only one son of his "could pen a
In countries where the principles of constitutional
government have not been established, there is very
often a feeling on the part of the rulers that it is
safer for the people not to be too learned, that the
less they trouble their heads about such matters the
more submissive and quiet they are likely to be.
This ides,like many others, is both right and wrong.
There is no force so unmanageable or dangerous as
an ignorant mob when once its passions are fully
roused, and it is urged on by wily and designing
leaders. On the other hand a superior mental
training, while it renders men amenable to all just
laws and disposed to support law and social order
for their ownsakes, makes them unwilling to submit
to tyrannical and unjust measures, and qualifies
them for offering that firm and prolonged
resistance to despotism which has so often
fought the battle of our English liberties.
The difference has been admirably summed up by
one who has been one of the great pioneers of
popular education in our own day. " Education,"
says Lord BROUGHAM, "makes men easy to lead,
but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible
to enslave." It is, therefore, a favourable sign of
the times that in most parts of Europe great efforts
are being made for the extension of popular know-
ledge. In parts of the Continent, indeed, education
is in some degree compulsory; but such a system is
contrary to the spirit of English rule. All that is
done among us must be based on the voluntary
principle; the people themselves must wish for the
blessing before they can be made to receive it. At
first sight the application of this principle to the
case in point might seem of rather doubtful result,
however admirable it may be in other matters.
Ignorant persons are by no means the most likely
to appreciate the blessings of knowledge. There
are few children who would not prefer a game at
play to their school-books, and in later years the
disposition to learn, uncultivated in childhood,
grows still less. By the time the untaught child
has reached man's or woman's estate, not only has
he lost the little aptitude he possessed for acquiring
didactic information, but he has begun to think he
can do very well without it, and to look with some-
thing like contempt on those who talk much about
the advantages of education. But, notwith-
standing all difficulties, the principle, sound
in theory, works well in practice, and,
thanks to the encouragement and facilities now
offered on all sides, there is no lack of students to
come forward not only from the idle and untrained,
but from the desk, the workshop, the manufactory.
At a meeting recently held in Hertford with the
object of distributing the prizes and certificates
gained by the successful competitors at the late
examination of the local board, in connection with
the Society of Arts, the Right Hon. W. COWPER,
M.P., delivered an address on this subject. He ob•
served, in commenting on the occasion that had
brought them together, that it was impossible to
help those who would not help themselves, and that
it was, consequently, a source of gratification that
so many young men availed themselves of the op-
portunities offered to them by the Society of Arts
and other institutions. He said very truly that the
certificates obtained by the successful students would
be doubly valuable to them ; they were not only
proofs of their abilities and information, but they
were testimonials to the steadiness, self-control, and
perseverance which had enabled them when their
day's work was over resolutely to turn aside from
the amusements of their age to cultivate their minds
and pursue their studies: Knowledge thus acquired
is not easily forgotten, and the very effort made to
apply the mind to such objects, is in itself a species
of mental training. According to the recently de-
veloped theory, that as much may be learned by chil-
dren in three days a week as in six, it would
not be surprising to find that many of these young
students who probably lament the impediments in
their way, have learned more, and in a surer fashion,
than a large proportion of our college students.
The highest prize given by the Society of Arts has
been won by a clerk in a London office, and we may
be sure that such a distinction has not been won
without long hours of tedious and unwelcome labour.
" A certificate," said Mr. COWPER, " bearing such
testimony to the patience, the industry, and the
self-control of those young men must have great
weight with all those who are seeking to employ
persons of their character, and will be to them as
good as the title deeds of an estate, for they are title
deeds of those mental and moral qualities which it
is a blessing to them to be able to show." The future
opening before a young man of such a character,
possessed of sound faculties properly cultivated, is
truly a very wide one. Industry, knowledge, and
resolution are the chief steps in the upward ladder
to fame and fortune, and many a self-taught man
has climbed to the very top. The future of our
country, as Mr. COWPER justly observed, rests
mainly in the hands of the middle classes, and the
best security we have for the maintenance of our
public rights is to be found in their mental and
moral training. The lessons of history serve to
point the moral of the scenes going on around us ;
the teachings of science are in every way valuable,
the love of aTt and literature is a refining and ele-
vating influence that brings countless blessings in
its train. Such advantages are now, thanks to the
efforts of the wise and good, placed within reach of
all classes, and we trust the youth of England will ,
never fail to do honour to the adoption of the volun-
tary system in education, as in all other spheres of
our social and political existence.

LATEST IMELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

M. FOULD'S FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
PARIS, DF.C. 3.

M. ncialstatement has been published
today. d
statesaa that the total amount of the
oul
It's fi
deficit is 972,000,000 francs. It is neeeessary to
consolidate part of the floating debt. The produce
of a loan will be employed to redeem the Treasury
Bonds, and will put in circulation an amount
corresponding to that which it will demand.
M. Fould proposes to the Emperor to fix the
amount of the loon at 300 million francs. The
expenses in Mexico will amount to 210 million
francs at the end of 1863. M. Fould says

" It was hoped that a Mexican loan would lead
to the repayment of our advances. But notwith-
standing the confidence we have of seeing a regular
Government reestablished in Mexico at no distant
future, we must not allow the security of our
finances to depend upon the liquidation of the debt
of Mexico to France.

"We hope
and
when, by the reduction of
the
improvement
in the receipts,
it will be possilsle to resume the operation of the
expenses
fora
an dap
Sinking Fund.

" If in the future the equilibrium of the Budget
be maintained, if the generous efforts of the
peace and the State prosper, our
to reduce the taxes and
Efinmapnecreosrwaisllsupreermit
ui
realise the wishes of his 11Injesty."
The Nation lately published the project of a Con-
stitution, which, it is stated, had been submitted by
Prince Couza to Great Powers.

This intelligence has been officially contradicted.

THE PRINCIPALITIES.
BUCHAREST, DEC. 2.
The members elected to form the Committee on
the Address all belong to the Opposition.

SPAIN AND MOROCCO.

MADRID, Nov. 29.

The Gazette of to-day publishes a short account
of the events which led to the complaints of the
Spanish Government to the Salim of Morocco
against the Riffs and the mission of Senor
Merry to Melilla. The Spanish Government
insisted that, in order to effect the fulfil-
ment of the boundary treaty concluded between
uApbobna s t
ht
eo
inhe
el
ht
ta— en
ttsh,ehiifluence of this Prince
sn
the two countries, the Sultan should send Muley
position and thorough
knowledge of the engagements entered into with
Spain by his sovereign, pointing him out as the
fittest person to reconcile adverse interests.
This proposal of Spain was favourably received,
and a sufficient number of Moorish troops was col-
lected to accompany Muley Abbas, and ensure the
fulfilment of his mission. The Sultan further
delivered to Muley Abbas the amount ne-
cessary to indemnify the indigenous pro-
prietors of the territory ceded to Spain.
These preliminaries affected, Muley Abbas pro-
ceeded to the neighbourhood of Melilla—Senor
Merry, resident Spanish Minister in Morocco,
having also gone to Melilla, in order to discuss and
arrange with the Caliph all the difficulties that
might arise.

Muley Abbas and Signor Merry finally agreed
upon, and signed the following treaty on the 14th
November, 1863.
1. Stakes will be placed at the points specified
by the Spanish and Moorish engineers in the In-
ternational Act, concluded in 1862, in fulfilment of
Art. 2 of the Convention of 1859, confirmed by Art.
5 of the treaty of peace of Tetuan.
Those who may remove or destroy these stakes
will be severely punished, and the stake so de-
stroyed will be replaced by the Baja of the Riff, in
presence of the Governor of Melilla, or his deputy.
2. The Sultan of Moroeco having resolved to in-
demnify those of his subjects who hold property
within the territory ceded to Spain, his Majesty, in
order to effeet the delivery of the said territory to
the Queen of Spain, to whom they belong in full
dominion and sovereignty, has stipulated that all
those of his subjects who may be in this case shall
quit the Spanish territory and abandon their property
which will become the property of the Spanish na-
tion. The said Moorish subjects will be imme-
diately expelled from the Spanish territory. The
Spanish authorities of Melilla will not allow them
under any pretext to re-occupy these properties,
since this might give rise to disturbances on the
frontier. On this point matters will remain at
Melilla in the same state as at Ceuta.

3. In order to avoid the questions which would
be raised by the entry of Moors from the camp to
visit the mosque within the boundary, in the place
named Santiago, the said mosque will be destroyed,
and the trees surrounding it ' levelled with the
ground. The destruction of the mosque and clear-
ance of the adjacent ground will be effected by the
Moorish troops and the members of the tribes.
4. Moorish subjects will not be allowed on any
account to enter armed into the Spanish territory
bordering Melilla. The Spanish Minister declares
that he who may contravene the regulation after
the present treaty comes into execution will lose
his arms, which will remain in possession of the
Spanish authorities.
From the intelligence forwarded by Senor
Merry, it results that on the day of the signa-
ture of the treaty, Art. 2 was fulfilled by the
expulsion of the Riffs by the Moorish troops from
the land comprised within the present limits of the
place, a measure which was confirmed the same
day, the troops preventing the holding of the usual
fair on this land.

In the same manner on the 16th November the
placing
of the stakes were effected on the frontier
line in conformity with Art. 1 in presence of the
persons deputed by the two countries.
Finally, on Nov.
19, was executed Art. 3, the
troops destroyiug the mosque mentioned in this
article, and levelling the trees as the Riffs had done
with their houses before abandoning their homes.
In view of this result, which corresponded with the
expectations of the Queen's government from the
loyal procedure of the Sultan's Government and the
sending of the Caliph Muley Abbas to Melilla, the
Spanish Minister using the authority in him, and
yielding to the reiterated request of the Prince, did
not hesitate to pardon in the name of the Queen of
Spain, and to deliver to the Moorish troops the
RiLS
confined in Melilla in consequence of the late events
as hostages or supposed criminals.

MEXICO,

PARIS, Dec. 2.

Advices received here from Mexico gate that
the movement for the concentration of the troops,
in view of approaching operations in the interior,
commenced on the 15th Oct., and lasted until the
24th. The Commander-in-Chief, however, had no
intention of assuming the offensive until the be-
ginning of November.
The command of Mexico city was to be entrusted
to Gen. Neigre, with 3,500 men of all arms. The
approaches and defences of the capital have been
fortified, so as to render it easy to be held by a
small number of troops.

Works of defence between Mexico and Vera
Cruz bad been executed at Catubrone to protect

communications with the seaboard and cover the

rail ways.
Jalapa was occupied on the 23d October by 2,200
allies, under the Mexican General Liceaga, who
was at the same time to hold Perote and Puente
Nacimal.

The health of the troops continued excellent upon
the high plateaux.
__ _.

Perfect order prevails at Vera Cruz.
The yellow fever had almost entirely disappeared
in the city, as well as in the Tierra Caliente.
The arrival of a convoy of convalescent men,
which left Mexico on the 21st October was expected.
The climate of France being requisite for their
complete recovery, they were to be embarked on
board one of the transports leaving Vera Cruz for

Europe.
TOUCHING THE RUSSELL RESIGNATION.—We
knew it was all nonsense. A Whig is like the Old French
Guard—he dies, but never surrrenders.—Punch.