The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-02 00:00:00

THE WAR IN BHOOTAN.

Sir M. FARQUHAR asked the Secretary of State.for
India what inforniation he could give the house concern,
ing the war in Bhootan.

Sir C. WOOD said certain posts were occupied during

the winter ; one had been attacked and disgracefully
abandoned. They had retaken it, but it was not thought
desirable to re-occupy it. Another post had been aban-
doned, but it also had been retaken, but it would not
be reoccupied during the rainy season. The information
he had received enabled him to comprehend but very im-
perfectly what had been done. The whole of the Euro-
pean troops, with the exception of a small body of artillery,
had been withdrawn, and every precaution had been taken
to meet the rainy season. . .
PIERS AND HARBOURS BILL.
In reply to Mr. WALDEGRAVE-,LESLIA
Mr. M. GIBSON said the undertaking was quite the
same as it always had been in the department referred to.
With respect to the bill he could not say whether the
promoters would proceed with it.
CONVOCATION.
In answer to Mr. SHAW LEFECHE,
Sir G. GREY said no licence had yet been granted by
the Crown to the Convocation of Canterbury to alter the
form of subscription now taken by the clergy. It having
been intimated to Government that Convocation contem-
plated some alteration with reference to clerieal subscription,
the Government informed that body that if they applied
to her Miljesty for a license to do so no opposition to such
a step would be offered by the Government. The Convo-
cation of the province of York had asked the same privi-
lege as Canterbury.
BANK NOTES OP ISSUE BILL.

Mr. BENTINCK asked when it was proposed to pro-
ceed with the further consideration of this bill.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said it was
not the intention of the Government to proceed further
with that measure during the present session.
SUPPLY.

The house went into committee of supply, and agreed to
several votes on account of the Civil Service.
On the vote of £518,017., the remainder of the grant for
public education,
Mr. H. BRUCE stated that the total exeenditure on this
account during the last year amounted to £655,041; of
which £23,305 was for building grants and the•enlarge-
ment and improvement of schools, £451,000 for elementary
education, £96,000 for training schools, and £74,000 for
the cost of inspection and the office in London. The
average daily attendance of scholars had been 794,000, the
number of schools inspected, 7,891, and the number of
children inspected 1,133,000, as against 1,092,000 in the
plevious year, showing an increase of 40,000. The number
of scholars presented for individual examination was
523,713, being equivalent to two presented for every three
attending school. The number of failures amongst those
examined was, in reading 12 per cent., and in arithmetic 24
per cent. This was a slight improvement as compared with
the percentage of the preceding year. The estimate for the
current year would include £73,000 for Scotland, £430,000
for England, £30,000 for building grants, £BO,OOO for
normal schools, and £76,000 cost of inspection and manage-
ment.
Mr. SELWYN expressed surprise at the omission from
the statement of the right hou. gentleman of all reference
to the question raised by the innovations of the Committee
of Council, contrary to the regulation, wish respect to
grants made to schools in connection with the National
Society. The subject was one which ought to be met in a
conciliatory spirit by both sides ; but he could not help
saying that in his opinion the proceelings of the Council
were open to exception, because without the knowledge or
sanction of the house important alterations hadbeen intro-
duced, involving a question of principle.
Mr. BRUCE stated in explanation that he had omitted
to refer to this subject, because it was still under the con-
sideration of a select committee.
The vote was then agreed to.
A proposal of Mr. POTTER to reduce the item of L 36,500
in the vote for the Department of Science and Art by the
sum of £l,OOO in respect of the National Art Training
School led to some discussion, in the course of which the
project of the Government to coneentrat3 the natural his-
tory collection at South Kensington was severely criticised
and condemned on all sides, as a measure that would effec-
tually shut out the great mass of the working people of
London from visiting the exhibition.
Mr. DILLWYN complained of the item of £lO,OOO for
the purchase of specimens of art for the South Kensington
Museum, and observed that that institution was not con-
ducted by persons of distinction either in science or art,
and that it was little more than a collection of odds and
ends resembling Wardour-street on a large scale.
Mr. BRUCE,in defending the vote, produced statistics to
show that the working classes availed themselves largely
of the museum.

• Other members described the contents of the museum as

"a collection of rubbish," and

Mr. COX excited great laughter by pronouncing it an
exhibition of warm:ng-pans and hurdygurdies, and stating
that for the purpose of making it appear that the institu-

tion was popular the officials at South Kensing'.on kept
persons dressed as mechanics to pass in and out through
the turnstiles all day long, and afterwards paraded them
in the statistics as working men from Whitechapel and
Bethnal-green.
Mr. LAYAIID dilated on the beneficial influence which

the Kensington Museum had excited in stimulating in-
'ention and improving manufactures. There was not a
country in Europe that did not resound with praise of our
great institutions, and especially of the Kensington
Museum. (A rema:k which provoked a general cry of
" oh.") He was ashamed of the terms in which Mr. Cox
bad spoken of that institution.

Mr. SCULLY observed that if the museum at Kensing-
ton was dezigned for the benefit of the working classes it
ought to be established in the neighbourhood where they
chiefly abound.
Mr. WHITE said ho had visited the miniature collec-
tion at Kensington that day, and the visit had done his

heart good ; but upon inquiry he was told that a sum of
ss. was charged for the catalogue, and he !thought that

anything more Barnum-like or so little characteristic of a

Government collection it would be difficult to parallel.
Mr. COX intimated that he was just as much ashamed
of Mr. Layard as a metropolitan member advocating the

Kensington Museum in the interests of working men as
that gentleman could be ashamed of him for condemning
the removal of the costly contents of the British Museum
to a site where access to them woald be almost exclu-

sively limited to the " Upper Ten Thousand."
Mr. GREGORY admitted the value of the South Ken-
sington Museum as an educat:onal insatution, but com-
plained that unauthorised and incompetent persons had
made purchases, which had afterwards turned out to be

undoubted forgeries. He contended that no purchase
ought to be made until it had been first reported upon by
the officers within whose jurisdiction it came.

Mr. BRUCE remarked that the museum at Kensington
was the only public exhibidon which was kept open at
night for the working classes. With regard to the cata-
logue, arrangements were being made to place a descrip-
tion upon every miniature in the course of a few days.
Upon a division, the motion of Mr. Potter was nega-
tived by 80 to 16.
Mr. DILLWYN next moved the omission of the item of
xi,;, 000 for the purchase of specimens of art, ancient and
modern,
for the South Kensington Museum which he
added had beeL; got up by
stealth and grown,by fraud.
A short discussiOn ensued, and the committee again
divided, when Mr. Dillstryn's proposal was rejected by 81
to 24 ; and the vote of £116,1'341 for the general manage-

ment of the Department of Science and Art, and the esta-

blishments connected therewith, was agreed to. The

house then resumed.

The Record of Titles (Ireland) Bill was committed, and
some progress made with the clauses.
The remaining orders of the day, numbering upwards of
forty, were then gone through, and the house adjourned at
ten minutes past two.