The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-26 00:00:00

seen, to attain them. Mr. WALPOLE and others,
for instance, have drawn a piteous picture of the
hardships which might accumulate on the ill-
starred day of examination. Nervous children,
careless parents, ill-natured masters, even our fickle
clime, are eupposed to have banded together to
cheat the school of capitation pence. No one can
answer for the weather certainly, but we can all
answer for the fact, that boys and girls who can
pass an examination would not shirk it for wind or
weather, and that parents, whose children can pass,
are more likely to take them to school through the
hostile elements than to keep them at home. What
system for the nation could provide for all the acci-
dents which might keep children from a school on
any day they were wanted? But why does not Mr.
WALPOLE propose, if sincere in his objection, some
simple plan of supplementing
the chief examination
—some one which shall not be open to worse mis-
chiefs than those it professes to remedy ?
And so it is throughout. Difficulties are raised
cheaply enough, but the remedy is not offered. If
Mr. WALPOLE does not, under each of his resolu-
tions, redress this inconsistency before the House
goes into committee, it is hardly fair to go into
committee at all. Those who will not propose their
own substitute for what they object to, are scarcely
entitled to a hearing from six or seven hundred
practical gentlemen. All will end in words instead
of business; and we really do not want the House
of Commons to sink into a debating club. The
religious objection was at one time put forward,
just as we have heard of women and children being
placed in the front by soldiers unworthy of the
name, who appealed to feeling when they wanted
the courage to fight. But the trick has failed, The
religious elements, it is acknowledged, remain just
what they were. Each sect, the established one
included, has it all its own way in regard to
religion. No schools are to be aided any more than
they have hitherto been, unless the sect to which it
belongs is satisfied with the religious inspection.
Kindred again with this, is the general condition
and discipline of the school; the cleanliness, order,
behaviour, and the like ;—well, this is to be repor-
ted on, as before, and, unless it be all satisfactory,
the school is not to have a grant at all. Yes, but
the complainants reply—this general good con-
dition and order of the school is itself a result, and we
want to be paid for it as well as for the three
results so much insisted on. This is plausible ;
but will not bear consideration. Two things are
essential in any school—general good order and
sound elementary instruction. The first has
to a great extent been attained, and can be
always insisted on; the latter has been greatly
neglected, and cannot be secured without pressure.
The latter also, to a great extent, includes the

former. Clean faces and pinafores are not, indeed,
essential to learning reading, writing, and arith-
metic; but the teacher who succeeded in teaching

these would be somewhat puzzled to do it without
preserving general order and decorum ; While
what, we may ask, are the managers for, if not to
see that the standard required by inspectors on
these points is reached, or even surpassed. Besides
this, there is the possibility of measuring one result
so much more fairly than the other. Inspectors
may differ, and managers too, as to what might be
deemed an orderly, well-conducted school—on the
capacity to read intelligibly, to write fairly, and
to perform sums of a difficulty appropriate to age,
there could be no room for doubt.
We hope Mr. WALPOLE or some of his friends
will explain one glaring inconsistency in his long
speech. He represents the simple elementary tests
required as too much for the schools; yet towards
the close of his speech he dwells much on the merits

snd efficiency of the pupil teachers. He pleads
their cause and their value to the public ut length.
Now, we should like to know what they can be
worth if when the children of the poor leave at
eleven years of age, they are found unable to
fulfil the simple requirements of the New Code.
Does the much vaunted and the extravagantly

costly pupil - teacher system, after all, leave half

or three-fourths of the children ignorant of those
very elements which it is indispensable they should
learn. Are the masters and the much praised pupil
teachers to be frightened by a requisition that every
boy and girl shall be able to read, write, and

cypher proportionably to its age ? If so we should
not care how soon the whole thing were given up.
There is one reason for which we approve the
Government plan far more than any which has pre-
ceded, or any proposed modification of it. It does

concentrate attention on the elements of knowledge.
In our best grammar schools nothing appears more

clearly than that the boys who have been

thoroughly drilled in the rudiments make the best,
we might say the only scholars. As in Latin, for

instance, the boy who has mastered his grammar

and elementary exercises, if he has any ability finds
future progress pleasant and easy, so in a poor lad's
English education,if the three elements be thoroughly
acquired at school, he finds the advantage his whole
life through. He retains the power of reading
as easily as of talking. Arithmetic is con-

stsntly called into requisition, and now

hat ease of locomotion separates the working
- -

classes more widely than was formerly the case
with the middle classes, it is not likely he will for-
get how to write. But, the one condition of his
retaining all is, that it shall be easy to him when

he leaves school. The Government plan aims at

this—it will, we believe, attain it--and if, on this
ground alone, it would have our heartiest approba-

tion. We hope the Government will not swerve
from paying for the three elements only.

SHOCKING CASE OF SlllClDE.—Yesterday morn-

ing information was forwarded to Mr. Brent, deputy-
coroner, of a shocking suicide committed under very extra-
ordinary circumstances, by Mr. Henry Sporr, a brass
finisher, carrying on business at No. 7, Onslow-street,
Hatton-garden. The facts as ascertained by Mr. Cozer,
the coroner's officer, are as follows :—lt appears that the
unfortunate maa, who was of a most irritable disposition,
had some words with his wife on Monday afternoon, and
retired to his workshop, where he loaded a small model
cannon, and, placing the muzzle in his mouth, applied a
match to the touchhole, the contents shattering his skull
to pieces. The report alarming Mrs. Sporr, she rushed to
the spot and discovered her husband a mangled and dis-
figured mass. The deceased has left a widow and eight
children.

THE FIRE DUTY.—Mr. H. B. Sheridan has given
notice of his intention to move for the introduction of a
bill for a reduction of the duty on fire insurances on the Ist
prox. The hon. member, we understand, will ask the house
to effect an immediate reduction of the present duty of 3s.
per cent., to 2s. for three years, and at tho expiration of that
period to take off a second shilling, leaving the duty at ls.
per cent. Proceeding on this principle, it is anticipated that
the large increase of insurance would make up any loss
to the revenue accruing from a reduction of the duty.
According to the last official returns, 107 petitions have
already been presented during the present session, pray-
ing for a reduction of the duty, 81 of this number being
'- •

from various corporations of the United Kingdom. Sir
Minto Farquhar, Chairman of the Guardian Assurance
Company, will in a few days present a petition signed by
all the London offices.

MEXICAN AMAZONS.—The Journal du Ilavre says
that, according to private letters from Acapulco, Mexico is
preparing to resist foreign intervention with great energy.
A lady of Guadalajara, Donn Ignacia Reisch, has petitioned
the Government for leave to form a battalion of women, to
whom the honour is to be accorded of marching in front of
the first battle given to the invaders.

SURVEY OF SCOTLAND.—The following account
of money voted and expended on the survey of Scotland
during the three years mentioned is given iu a Parliamen-
tary return :-1858-9, voted £32,000, expended £32,770 13s
9d ; 1859-60 ; voted 432,000, expended £31,839 Is lld ;
1860-61, voted £30,500, expended £25,069 14s2d ; 1861-2,
voted £22,00, exPended 22,000.