The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-26 00:00:00

THE SUB, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENT M, OCTOBER 26, 1865.

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCT. 26, 1865.

The hard and unscrupulous policy of Austria and
Prussia is being worked out with all the malignity
and malevolence that generally distinguish those
arbitrary Powers. Herr VON BISMARCK'S last Note
is almost unparalleled for its effrontery, and its
tone throughout is arrogant in the extreme. It is
addressed to the Prussian Envoy in the free -town
of Frankfort. If tho two Powers :we allowed their
way the term " free" applied to this city will soon
be a /ucus anon lucendo. A clear insight
has been gained by the Berlin Minister
into the discussions of the " Delegates,"
held at Frankfort on the Ist instant. Thereupon
Herr BISMARCK goes on to state that up to the last
moment " we" entertained hopes that the Senate
would prevent this meeting. Tfie reasons for this
expectation were that the Senate should have been
conscious of its engagements towards the two
` great German allied Powers," and should also
`
have remembered the remonstrances that were made
on "previous and similar" occasions by Austria and
Prussia. Tin • s is a very significant commencement,
and the continuation of the Note fully realises
the ideas that are entertained by its opening. Herr
BISMARCK speaks his mind pretty plainly in no very
measured words or courteous phrases. He regrets
that the ruling Powers have been disappointed, and
that they are compelled to believe that the Senate
is " willing for Frankfort to become the source of
all senseless schemes." This last epithet is a relative
term, and can be applied according to the pleasure
of the speaker. How or why it was more sense-
less" for the Delegates to meet at Frankfort than for
the Emperor and King of the allied Powers to hold
a Convention at Gastein, or for the redoubtable
writer of this Note to rush off to Biarritz in pur_
suance of his tortuous scheme of policy, is neither
here nor there, However, it 13 nits the purpose of

some people to arrogate all possible rights to them-
selves, and to refuse others any latitude at all.
Judged by the standard of Herr BismAncK, no other
State or Principality has any business to express an
opinion of its own, or to make any demonstration s
of a public or domestic character. They shout d
keep profound silence until they had the mandate
of the august representative of the Sovereign ruler
of Prussia.

At any rate there will be no further excuse for
such mistakes being made, for Herr VON BIS-
MARCK does not mince the matter, but announces
his intentions in these unmistakable words—" We
can no longer tolerate such indulgence to revolu-
tionary tendencies." Nothing can possibly be
more explicit than this outspoken declaration, and
it will, of course, be readily understood by those to
whom it is addressed. Still, however successful
for the present may be the efforts that are
strenuously made by both Austria and Prussia,
those who watch events cannot but speculate upon
the ultimate consequences of such manceuvres.
When it comes to " we cannot permit" it is serious
indeed, and matters are approaching a crisis. In
this state Herr BISMARCK as good as says that they
will proceed to extremities if due care and attention
be not paid to the intimation now given. The
crime is indeed a dreadful one, which
would undermine the " authority of the two
first German Powers," and it appears that
the late demonstrations at Frankfort have that
appearance iu the eyes of the sapient judges of
Vienna and Berlin. The Senate of Frankfort is
blamed in an unsparing manner, and no hopes aro
held out that any more lenity and toleration will
be shown if a renewal of these offences takes place.
On the contrary, Herr VON BISMARCK goes on to
declare that the Berlin tioverrument agrees with
that of Vienna in the opinion that the " recurrence of
such a public scandal, even in the form of a discus-
sion, leading to no result, cannot be permitted."
This Note, so replete with virtuous indignation,
and so full of righteous scorn for wrong-
doers, concludes with an earnest exhortation
to the Prussian Envoy to impress upon the Mayor
that in this matter his superiors are acting quite in
concert with the authorities at Vienna, and there-
fore that he must so order affairs in Frankfort that
there may be no necessity for the interference of
the two great German Powers to " prevent the
further consequences of an indulgence which
has already been carried too far."
The Austrian Government, of courses follows suit
in this untoward affair, and the Envoy of the EM-
PEROR is duly apprised of his duties in impressing
upon the recusant Senate and the Mayor of Frank-
fort the intentions of his Government respecting
the late course pursued in that city. Count MENS-
DORFF is as usual more moderate in his expressions
than Herr VON BISMARCK, but, at the same time,
he leaves no room to doubt the meaning of his re-
marks, and doubtless he will be duly appreciated
by those whom he addresses through his circu-
lar. He, also, like Herr VON BISMARCK,
concludes by expressing a hope that the Senate
" will relieve us from the necessity of delibe-
rating upon other steps to prevent in future such
illegal attempts as have hitherto been made
at the seat of the Federal Diet." Can
any courso be more inconsistent than that
pursued by the two Great German Powers, as they
so delight to call themselves, or more subversive of
their true interests in the end ? The fact is, that,
disguise it as their partisans may, the day of liberty
is over for the present in the varied divisions of the
Fatherland, and it is useless to expect that any
satisfactory tidings can reach us from either Vienna
or Berlin. The wily Ministers who rule the coun-
cils of the Sovereigns at these places are
determined to crush out all hope of liberty,
and already they are succeeding beyond their hopes.
Never was wrong-doing more speedily avenged than
in the instance of the minor States of Germany
joining heart and soul in the crusade against
Denmark. They have gained nothing but shame
and obloquy, and now their own privileges are
being mulcted away from them. In time this
oppression must react on its perpetrators ; but for
the meantime Europe must be scandalised at the
attacks made on constitutional rights by Austria
and Prussia.

The Oxford Local Examinations are annually
rising in public interest and importance, and the
yearly distribution of the prizes obtained by the
successful candidates at Manchester, with the address
delivered on the occasion, is consequently growing
more and more a matter of general instead of local
attraction. As it happens, the committee who
manage these affairs have been peculiarly happy of
late in the selection of the President on the occa-
sion, having last year invited the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and this year the Bishop of Oxford, to
distribute the rewards, both of them being especially
qualified for the office, both as Oxford celebrities
and as speakers of the very highest order.
The address of the Bishop of Oxford
on Tuesday last will be read with interest and
profit by every one who is concerned in that impor-
tant question, the education of the youth of our
middle classes. It is becoming more and more
valued, because it is felt that the education of the
middle classes will have an abiding influence on the
future of England—that out of these youths, whose
attainments are sifted, and whose mental training
is tested, at these examinations, the Parliaments of
the next generation, the municipalities, the leaders
of thought and of feelings, the thinkers and workers
of their time, will be most probably recruited.
There can be very little doubt that till within the
last few years the education of the middle classes
has been, as a whole, imperfect and superficial.
The instruction given in the private academies and
grammar schools was too often conducted only
with a view to the temporary gratification of the
parents and the immediateprofit of the schoolmaster;
so that, as the Bishop of OXFORD justly observed,
when the time came for the lad's attainments to be
tested in the busy world of life it was too late to
remedy the error. The higher classes who send
their sons to the various Universities have the
guarantee of the searching examinations con-
ducted by highly educated and experienced men.
The lower ranks, though perhaps themselves in-
different to its value, receive a sound educa-
certified by the
acquirements, con-
ducted for their children, as
careful examination into their
ducted periodically by duly qualified and totally
impartial persons. But the middle classes, those
classes who furnish the very bone and sinew of our
country, arc, or rather were, left hap-hazard "to the
chance of their schoolmaster being an earnest and
intelligent instructor, a mere plodding machine,
or a specious impostor. It is only fair to a highly
honourable and very laborious profession to con-
clude that the latter class furnished at all times
a small proportion of its members, but with the
best intentions many instructors are not them-
selves sufficiently well-informed to be able to test
their pupil's deficiencies or acquirements, and are
not qualified to impart that deep and comprehensive
knowledge which it is perhaps within his capacity to
obtain. The Bishop of OXFORD did not spare those
instructors who sought rather their own profit than
their pupil's advantage, and with graphic humour
he showed up the system pursued iu tome schools,

where the schoolmasters either conduct the exami-
nations themselves, or get a friendly rival to do it
for them, for whom they are ready when wanted to
discharge the same office. Dr. IVILBERFORCE
amusingly described the surprise and delight of the
family circle of the SMITHS, when Master Smmr,
who was never thought anything wonderful, comes
home with a prize, bearing an inscription lauding
his mental and moral attainments to the skies.
Happily these admiring relatives are not aware that
Master JONES bears a similar volume, inscribed in
equally flattering, though not precisely similar,
terms. Of course, all the friends of the family
think highly of a master and an establishment which
have converted dunces into prize scholars, and so
the end is gained. From beginning to end in the old
system there was no searching test, and the really
efficient masters of local schools aro delighted
at the opportunity now given them of
proving, beyond dispute, how thorough and how
conscientious is their method of instruction. " I
think," said Dr. WILBERFORCE, " that I may as-
sume that this, which was a few years ago nothing
more than an experiment, has now proved itself to
be a great success." He added that such a result
was no less satisfactory to the universities than to
those who profited more immediately by it, since
nothing could be worse than for the old universities
to be severed, as it were, by a gulf from the great
middle classes. The Bishop, indeed, goes further,
and looks forward to a day when it shall be a
recognised thing for the sons of the great princes
of commerce to study at the University
itself as it is for the sons of the great princes of the
soil. " I desire to see the lords of these great physical
manipulations of matter sending their children with
the lords of the old soil of England to learn, and
study, and compete together, and to go forth from
the common discipline to serve a common master
and to bless a common country." Such an identity
of training, and such a fellowship in youth, would go
far to break down those barriers between the classes
which are productive of so much that is hurtful and
binding. The advantages of a first .rate education
to the mercantile classes would undoubtedly be
great, and, as the accomplished orator who on
Tuesday addressed their representatives justly said,
"It is impossible to give too much either of
intellectual or of moral greatness to the
mighty interests of increasing the physical
riches, and with them the physical efforts
and strength of such a nation as this, of England."
It is satisfactory to find that the advantages offered
by these University Examinations are becoming
more widely appreciated among the commercial
classes, and that, according to the report, the
amber of candidates who presented them-
selves for examination this year was greatly
in advance of the two previous years. The per-
centage of those that passed was also very high,
proving that the local educational system is based
on a satisfactory footing. The Bishop's able and
eloquent address, suggestive alike to old and young,
was attentively listened to and frequently applauded,
and the claims of the Local Examination system
have seldom received a more powerful or more
impressive advocacy.

LINCOLN ELECTION EXPENSES.—The expenses
incurred by the three candidates at the Lincoln
election have just; been published. Mr. Seeley's (Liberal)
election cost £1,826 2s. 4d., £450 being for professional
services, while printing, stationery, and advertising amount
to the formidable sum of £394 14s. 4d. A curious item
occurs for messengers, doorkeepers, and " watchers"—
£239 13s. The " watchers" were engaged to look after
suspicious characters on the other side, and to prevent their
buying up voters. Mr. fieneage's (Liberal) expenses
amount to £1,342 14s. ld., of which sum agents and can-
vassers received £493 17s. 9d. ; printing and advertising,
£l7O 108. bd. ; committee rooms, £l2B 10s. ; messengers,
" watchers," &c., £255 lls. Gd. It cost the unsuccessful
candidate, Mr. Brarpley-Moore, £1,271 ss. 10d. ; agents,
canvassers, and clerks received £589 133.10 d.; messengers
and "watchers," £2Ol. It will thus be seen that the legal
expenses amounted to .£4,440 2s. 3d., and as the number of
voters on the register is 1,800, the cost per vo.':e was about
£2 10s. Really, however, the election cost about £20,000,
as much as £2O being given for a single vote, and: one
leading tradesman, who declined to promise either party,
received an order for goods to the amount of £227 2s
(which item is published), and his vote was thus secured.

THE CATTLE PLAGUE AND INSPECTORS.—Many
farmers are now beginning to doubt whether the
system of inspection authorized by the Orders in Council
is not productive of more harm than good. Since the
panic about the rinderpest arose, as soon as a beast droops
its head and leaves off eating for an hour, the owners of
cattle get alarmed, and send for the veterinary inspector
appointed under Government. In country districts such
inspectors have a wide field to travel over, and many
farms to look after ; and it is feared that, in coming
from a diseased stock, they may often carry the infec-
tion to a healthy farm. Besides the calls made upon
them on account of this mysterious malady, they hare
their ordinary practice to attend to ; and this may—in-
deed must—often necessitate their visiting at steadings
where no disease exists. With a large practice and an ex-
tensive range of country under their care, it is thought that
it is not possible for veterinary surgeons on all occasions to
disinfect themselves so thoroughly es;the contagious nature
of the disease requires. Indeed, we have heard of instances
where inspectors have passed from a diseased to a healthy
stock without any change of clothing or use of disinfecting
agents whatever. But, whether this occurred or not, it is
clear that there is much danger in the present method,
which not only permits, but ordains, that an inspector,
known to be constantly engaged among diseased animals,
should be sent for as soon as any ailment in a beast—which
may not be the plague at all—is noticed by a stockowner.
It is considered that it would be much better that the far-
mers, under the direction of the Sheriff or other legally
constituted authorities, should have the privilege of calling
in any veterinary surgeon they choose, Government paying
the expense. We believe that some such proposal as this is
likely to be urged upon the commissioners now taking evi-
dence on the plague in London. The present system is
certainly not giving satisfaction to stockowners in Scot-
land.—Scotsman.

THE HOUSE OF BARING AND COMPANY.—They
came to Exeter from Bremen, and Matthew.fixed
himself at Larkbear (the Larrochbere of Saxon times), to
carry on the woollen trade with foreign lands—a trade of
which in the west of England Exeter was the centre. The
reputation and success of the house of the Barings was
mainly owing to the business habits, the prudence, and the
activity of the wife of Matthew, whose name was tradi-
tionally known as Madame Baring. The ladies in those
days took an active part in the management of their hus-
bands' affairs. They superintended the labours of the
women engaged as burlers, who pulled the " goods" over
benches, and with burling-irons, a sort of large sharply-
pointed tweezers held in the right hand,picktid out the
blacks, the knots, and other defects left by the weavers,
which, with a whisk in the left hand, they swept into open
bags at their sides. It was one of the duties of the mistress,
now and then, to go from one end to the other of the long
line of burlers, encouraging the diligent, and reprehending
the lazy. Matthew Baring fully appreciated the services
of his wife, and' built for her on the banks of the river a
handsome fishing-house of brick, from whose windows
she could uninterruptedly and comfortably indulge
in piscatorial amusements. Pollutions have driven
away the fish, the fishing house has been razed to its foun-
dations, the fisher lady has been long slumbering under
the roof of St. Leonard's cemetery, and the memento raised
over her burial place by her eldest son John, the senior
partner of the great house of John and Francis Baring, has
wholly disappeared. Most of the members of the family
are interred in the churchyard just described, which was
separated from their domicile of Mount Radford Only by a
bridge thrown across the public road, but some of them
repose in the " Saint's Rest" of the Exeter Presbyterians,
and others in a very pretty but obscure burial place at-
tached to a Unitarian chapel a few miles from the city.
John and Francis Baring wore both men of singular saga-
city. Perhaps they foresaw the decline and decay of that
staple trade upon which their father had laid the founda-
tions of his own and their prosperity—at all events, they
sought a wider field than Exeter offered. I had in my
which
ti oerea oft house
possession a copy of a tender for part of a loan to the Bri-
tish Government,
the
an
in
theo th reign George
of the
the
Third, in
Brothers
Baring was limited to the adventure of £3OO sterling. Two
peerages and a baronetcy, and what millions upon millions
have since been associated with the name !—Dickens's
"All the Year Round."

RESIGNATION OF DR. GUTIIRIE.--It will be learnt
with regret that the Rev. Dr. Guthrie has tendered his re-
signation of the co-pastorate of Free St. John's. We believe
that a letter conveying this announcement was presented
to the kirk session in the early part of last week, and that
a similar communication will be made to the Free Presby-
tery of Luburg4.—Edinburgh Daily Review.

LATEST I NTELLIGENCE.

(REU7ER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AUSTRIA AND GERMANY.
VIENNA, OCT. 25 (Evening).

An official denial has been given to the rumour
that all soldiers of the garrison in Venetia now on
furlough has been called in.
The Abendpost (evening edition of the official
Wiener Zeitung) publishes a leading article explain-
ing that no change whatever has taken place in the
position of Austria in Germany, and in the relation
between Austria and Germany.
The Abendpost recalls that the intimate connexion
between Austria and Germany reposes on an his-
torical basis, and Ktys :--" A separation of Austria
and Germany would offer the most serious
dangers to boa parties. Austria considers
her connexion with Germany as the vital
condition of her existence. The relations
between Austria and Germany can never be dis-
solved, as both parties are dependent on the other."
The Abendpost also publishes an article on the
Frankfort affair, in which it points out that Austria
has followed the path of Federal right in the steps
taken by her in this question, and that she will not
abandon it whatever further progress the affair
may take."

VIENNA, OCT. 26.

The identical note which has been addressed by
the Senate of Frankfort to the two great German
Powers energetically rejects the demands made by
the latter. The Senate cites the Federal Constitu-
tion, which allows to no member of the German
Confederation an arbitrary intervention into the
sovereign rights of the other German States.
The Vienna papers state that the reply of the
Senate has, not only on account of its forms, which
are said to be at variance with diplomatic usage, but
also on account of its contents, greatly surprised and
offended the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs.
It is asserted that Austria and Prussia have already
agreed about certain propositions to be submitted
to the Federal Diet on this question.