The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-14 00:00:00

their power with those below them as the
aristocracy of the last generation were to
admit them to any portion of their privileges.
In education the deficiency of the middle class has
chiefly concerned themselves. Thanks to the great
and continuous efforts made of late years on behalf
of the working classes, the mechanics' institutes, the
national schools, and kindred institutions, the demon
of ignorance is being rapidly scared away. But
hitherto, from one cause or another, very little has
been done towards securing a really good educa-
tion for the middle ranks. There is no probability
of any one in a decent position remaining abso-
lutely untaught, but the question is whether the
general knowledge, the mental training, the cultiva-
tion of the taste of the middle ranks is commen-
surate with their important social and political
position? Our great schools and colleges were, for
the most part, designed for their benefit in days
when they occupied a far inferior rank in the social
scale ; but owing to the gradual changes of time and
circumstance, they have altogether ceased to profit
by them. The aristocracy and the higher ranks
have adopted them as their own, and certainly there
is no chance of a man of the commercial class, the
tradesman, or clerk, or small manufacturer, sending
his boys to Eton or to Harrow. Yet upon the edu-
cation that these boys receive a great deal may de-
pend, and in these days of intelligence and learning
it will not do for England's staple ranks to be
ignorant, narrowminded, unsympathetic, and half
taught. Yet a deficient education will produce
these defects—it will not only fail to give the boy
those rudiments of learning always more easily
acquired in early youth, but it will deprive the man
of those powers of reasoning, of mental discipline
and self-control, of intelligence, and comprehension,
which are such valuable weapons in the battle of
life. A great part of our insular narrowness and
intolerance, our impatience of any manners and
customs but our own, has been, due to the lack of
an enlightened education. The higher ranks,
who learn more, study more, and travel more, are
usually much better able to understand and to
appreciate the merits of other countries and other
races than their own. If a man only knows France
or Germany as a name on the map, he will take
very little interest in its people or their doings ; but
if he has read something of their history—if he is
familiar with the names and the works of their
great men—if he has read travels and sketches of
domestic life among them, he will understand some-
thing of a Frenchman's ways of thinking and acting,
and not be disposed to believe religiously that there
can be nothing good said, done, or thought out of
England. The efforts to extend the benefits of uni-
versity education and the establishment of schools
Of art, &c., are all steps in the right direction ; and
on 'Thursday last the inauguration of the Surrey
County School betokened another important move-
ment. At the breakfast given on the occasion, the
Earl of CARNARVON made a sensible address, in
which he observed that the higher classes owed the
middle ranks a debt for having unconsciously stepped
into the enjoyment of their rights. The new esta-
blishment is intended very wisely to add to a sound
commercial education some classical instruction,
by this means opening to the boys a wide range of
knowledge, which they can profit by if they like,
while it gives them that cultivation of taste and
mental training which only classical instruction can
As Lord CARNARVON wisely observed, in
many branches of commercial life a knowledge of
Latin is most valuable, and in no case will the
study fail to be of service. At the same time
something of scientific learning is indispensable in
these days, while a knowledge of French at least
should be inseparable from a sound commercial
education. Mr. BUXTON, M.P., made some sen-
sible observations on the study of English litera-
ture, though he was disposed to underrate classical
study. He justly said that it was a great mistake
to make the course of study too humdrum and too
tedious, for such a course disgusted the boy with
book-learning instead of stimulating him to fresh
effort. If the Surrey County School keeps up to
the spirit of its inauguration, it will supply a great
blank in our educational establishments, and de
serve an extended success..

give.

We are glad to find that Earl RUSSELL has re-
solved to prevent any misunderstanding of his pro-
posal to Mr. ADAMS respecting the appointment of
a Commission to consider the claims for injuries
committed during the war. It bore at first some-
what the appearance of a verbal refusal and a
practical concession, but the noble earl, it seems,
does not intend it to be taken in that light. The
Commission which he proposed, was only to consi-
der those claims " which the two Powers shall agree
to the Commissioners." Under this head the cases
of the losses inflicted by the Alabama and kindred
vessels are not included, seeing that the Government
intimates that they would be excluded from its juris-
diction, as it does not admit any responsibility regard-
ing them. This is certainly more consistent with the
language held by Earl RUSSELL and with the dig-
nity of the English nation, though at the same time
it is only shifting the dispute from one ground to
the other. The battle will have to be fought over
again, -since the Americans will wish to bring the
claims for these losses before the Commissioners,
and Earl RUSSELL will object, so that we shall have
another diplomatic correspondence ad infinitum.
We are glad, however, that the noble Earl has as-
sumed a decided position, and we trust he will not
flinch from the responsibility of maintaining it.