The Sun.
London, England, 1831-11-03 00:00:00

SITTING O 1 OCTOBER. 31.

In this sittinz, after several members had spoken, pat ti-
cularly IU. A. Rodenbach and M. de Harrill', against the
,reaty, it was resolved that the general debate should be
declared _closed. Several amendments were 'hen proposed,
of which were r,jected, and, after an animated debate,
it was resolved that to-tn-rrow (All Saints' Day), at noon,
Chamber should meet in a public sitting to vote on
'he twenty-four articles.

The Air»titeur Beige, Journal de let Belgique, &c. did
not appeir on Wednesday, on account of the holidays of
the preceding day.
WARSAW, Orr. 18.—His Majesty the Emperor and
King has appointed M. Anthony Rostorowski to the
office of President. The Fiel,!-Marshal, accompanied
by the Grand Duke Michael, reviewed the two regiments
(4. Yagers belonging to the Imperial Guard, when they
left the capital to return to Russia.
The Imperial Guatds, which, since the taking of War-
easy, 11,ve been in garrison here, with the exception of a
shot interval, and have been distinguisl,ed by their
di,cipline and good conduct, left the city this afternoon,
and go to take up their winter-quarters in the governments
of Grodno and Wilna. The regiments of Grenadier:,
under Prince Seliachoff,koi, will form in their stead the
g irrisan of W'arsaiv.
The mann'actories b..,gin to work again, but twiny ar-
tich s are still wanting ; among other thin is there are
complaints that no cotton yarn is to be had.
Yesterday we had frost for the first time this autumn.
Large supplies of corn art ived yesterday from the en-
virons of Breeze-Litewski.

BERLIN—CHOLERA.
New cases. Recoveries. Deaths.
Oct 2:1
24
.); 3l
26

ST. PETERSBURG!!, SEFr.ls.—The Journals contain a
lang- report from Field-Marshal Pat kewitsch,of h is operations
to 7th October, when Medlin and Zamose were the only
places still in the bands of the Polish troop>. Up to tl:e
13th October, 1559 ships bad arrived at Cr,nstait, sailtd
1363.

(The Paper., by the Dutch mail, are of the same date as
those brought by the steamer on Tuesday. )

The accounts received by the Dutch mail
this morning, respecting the cholera morbus in
Russia, is more unfavourable than by last post.
The letters from St. Petersburgh are to the 16th
October. In a communication addressed to the
Governor of the Russian Company, dated the
15th ult., it is stated that, since the writer sent
his last letter, the cholera had again broken out
among the shipping at Cronstadt ; that on the
28th ult. (old style) there had been fourteen
new cases and six deaths ; on the 29th, six cases
and three deaths ; on the 30th, ten cases and five
deaths, and on the Ist inst. nine cases and five
deaths. The letter further states that though
the report by authority mentions that there were
no sick in private houses, such was not the fact,
as a Custom-house officer, a sailor, and a Cron-
stadt merchant had died ; the last, after having
recovered, had had a relapse. The mate and a
sailor of the Loyal Briton, Captain CouLsmi,
had died ; the former on the night of the Ist,
and the other on the following day. Iwo men
belonging to an American corvette had also died.
In St. Petersburgh the number of sick kept
nearly as before ; but this equality proceeded
not from the recoveries, but in the deaths of the
persons attacked.

The Bill. for the establishment of elementary
schools throughout the Communes of France, of
which the details have already been give❑ in this
Journal, is a measure that can hardly fail to
rouse attention in • this country to the necessity
of introducing amongst us a law of a similar
character and object. The need of such a mea-
sure may be somewhat less urgent here than in
France ; for there education is so notoriously
and shamefully defective in the rural districts,
that of 40,000 Communes, 13,000 are wholly
without any establishments for the purposes of
instruction ; but there is still great want in Eng-
land of means of knowledge, and the sense of
that want is felt every day more deeply by
enlightened persons. We have not been visited,
it is true, by such a- monopoly of instruction
as the Bill of M. DE MONTALIVET proposes
to take away from the University of Paris,
but we are afflicted by an apathy—nay *lost
an hostility to the general diffusion of know-
ledge, proceeding chiefly from those very Col-
leges and Clerical Corporations which were
' founded with the express object of its advance-
ment. Both here and in France the great body
of the Clergy are opposed to the instruction of
the mass of the people, and much indifference to
it exists in the wealthy classes, though there is.
the clearest evidence of the constant tendency of
ignorance to produce riot, disorder, and crime
among the lower orders. At the present moment,
when political excitement is so strong, the
evil of ignorance becomes more serious than ever,
and it has been urged upon the Government
that it has become its policy, if not its imperative
duty, to take the subject into consideration, with
a view to the providing schools for the whole
mass of our youthful population, together with
parochial libraries for supplying the people with
the materials of knowledge. A Bill for the
establishment of libraries is, it would seem, al
ready under consideration, and we confidently
hope the Government will see the propriety of
introducing as soon as possible an Education
Bill, on the plan of M. DE MONTALIVET'S. The
protraction of the Reform Bill is an impediment
to all measures of public utility ; but the time
cannot now be far distant when Ministers will
be able to turn their swords into plough-shares,
and we trust that the establishment of a regular
system of public education will be one of the
first of their peaceful labours.
In the new number of the Foreign Quarterly
Review there is an article on the Diffusion of
Knowledge in France, which contains informa-
tion not generally known here, o❑ what has been
effected by the Societl" des Modes d'Ensiegne-
meat, and by the benevolent exertions of indivi-
duals in Paris. The art of conveying informa-
tion in a familiar and popular manlier would ap-
pear to be better understood in France than with
us ; for the deficiency of popular works in this
country is, with deference to the Useful Know-
ledge Society, quite lamentable. We subjoin
the remarks which conclude the article referred
to, and shall be glad if they prove any stimulus
to the Government, either in the promotion of
education,'or.the removal of the taxes on know-
ledge :
" Having now given some instances of the interest
which is felt in France for the welfare of the lower orders,
we take leave to add a few words upon the state of things in
our own cc,untry in this respect. Every one must be sen-
sible of the lamentable deficiency of useful books written

' .4

w 'th sufficient plainness and familiarity - and sold
at prices cheap enough, to spread information widely
amongst our poorer el isses. The Society for the
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge has, by its own
arlothsion,. failed to fulfil its original intention, though
it has been the means of brim. big so many and
so excellent publications into the world. What has been
,lone by individuals, such as Mr. Limbird of the Strand,
amounts to but very little; and although there are
books in existrnce more or less calculated fur popular
u,e, many of which, such as the volumes of the Dublin
Kildare-street Society's Tracts have already been, in some
de.;ree, mild, available, still the prornot,rs of education are
c instantly at a 10-s what books to provide, or what to
recommend. It is obvious that there is wanting some
maehinety for the regular and systematic dill-1.140n of in-
formation upon a scale fir more extensive than has
hitherto been att,mpted. There is need of some uniform
and comprehen•ive plan, that should operate with a steady
f,rce throng-bout the country, for the enlightening the
minds of the people.

"It is possible that, by association, mucl: might be done
li,tii towards the ciliation of cheap publications, and
the formation of popu'ar libraries. The existence already
if societies for medic instruction (originally called Poll-
tival Unions), in various parts of the country, affords a
o,if of the increasing desire of knowledge, and a foundr-
lion on which an edifice of still greater good may be
reared. The friends of order and peace should regard it as
high importance that the views of these Political
Unions should be turned from the exclusive consi-
deration of politics, to the comprehension of literary
and scientific objects within the scope of their in-
stitutions. Nothing is less humanizing than the con-
stant habit of 4bsorbing the mind in the political
discussions of the day. Persons of education cannot be
insensible to the ill iffects of such absorption ; and it must,
theref -re, he doubly mischievous to the ignorant, whose
polemical violence is not likely to be controlled by the re-
flection,
" How small, of all tile ills mankind endure,
That part which kings, or laws, can cause or cure 1"

"But the great point7i;, whether the cause of education
is not entitled to ask something at the hands of the Go-
vernment, or rather of the Legislature ? The evil of igno-
rance is one of the greatest that can afflict hurnanity, and
is to be feared that such evil cannot be averted without
the aid of a law, whereby education may te rendered com-
pulsory. In the United States, in the Prussian dominions,
and elsewhere in Germany, the law does not suffer parents so
-ar to neglect the interests of their children, and consequently
of society, as to suffer their minds to remain in a state of
barbarism, after the manner of savages. So it ought to
he with us. Provision should be made hr affording the
benefit of schools to our whole population, and it should
be a penal offence in any parents to neglect to send thither
their offspring. If Government be instituted for anything
more than a mere engine of police, it ought to be invested
in a special department, with the care of the public in-
struction. Should there he any who deny that the Go-
vernment ought to be charged with such a care, we beg to
ask them why it watches over the public health—,vhy it
interferes for the protection of trade—why it executes
public works and buildings—why it upholds an estahUshed
religion,—why in short, it interposes in a thousand ways
when by it is anticipated that the general welfare may be
advanced? To the extent of supplying the defteieney of
primary schools, and enforcing their use, as well as of the
estalilishment of popular libraries, it does appear to us that
the interposition of the legislature is imperatively called
or by the necessities of the country, and the result of such
interposition would, we are convinced, be a happier one
than could he produced by any other measure of social
amelioration.

" It is undo rstood that a Bill has been prepared by direc-
tion of the Lord Chance'lor, for the setting on foot,
among us, of Parochial Librarirs, to be charged on the
parish rates. A well-digested measure of this kind, when-
ever it may be brought forward, will assuredly tend to
strengthen the Whigs in the confidence of the country,
but would do still more if accompanied by an Edu-
cation Bill. The Ministers are, we trust, aware
that much disappointment has existed at the slow
progress of the promise 3 relief from the taxes
that impede the diffusion of knowledge, and they
should, above all things, beware of allowing an impres-
sion to get abroad that they are somewhat indifferent to
the whole subject of public in4ruction. A Government,
whose tenure of office depends on popular favour, ought
not to be slow to take the lead in measures of so decidedly
a beneficial, as well as popular character. The tide of pub-
lic opinion is flowing so strongly against the ancient sys
tern of closing from the people the avenues of truth,
that those who govern either England or France in the
nineteenth century, cannot safely carry le juste milieu'
as their motto, but must in this respect drink deep, or
taste not, of Reform. The work of destruction is likely to
proceed with rapidity ; but it is the mission of Govern-
inents not only to destroy, but to fulfil. What task can be
more nAle—what ought to be more grateful—than that of
dispelling the mists which blind the eyes of the ignorant,
and opening upon the people that pure and steady light of
knowledge, which is so inexhaustible, and continually in-
crea-ing, a source of human happiness ?"

Despatches were sent off this morning by
Lord PALNIERSTON to Paris.
Despatches were received this forenoon at the
Colonial-office from Bermuda.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE-(THIS DAY,)

FROM LLOYD'S.

DEAL, Nov. 2.—Wind W. S. W.—Part of the squadron,
under the command of Rear-Admiral Warren, have re-
turned to the Downs, and remain, viz., his Majesty's ships
Stag, Tribune, Galatea, Curacoa, Tweed, Imogene, and
Brisk.

PLYMOUTH, Nov. 1.---Wind S.W.--Arriveil his
Mj.-sty's ship Vigilant, from the Mediterranean.
STA NDGATE CREEK, NOV. 2.—Arrived the Diana,
Johns, from Z trite; Maria, Gull, fretn Leghorn ; and
Prince of Brazil, Waugh, from Archangel.
RAMSGATE, Nov. 2.—Arrived the Kitty, Stott, from
St. P. tershurgh.
DovEn, Nov. 2.—Arrived the Erato, Carter, from
Palermo.

lloLvitre.An, Nov. I.—Arrived the Pacific, from St.
John's, N. B.
LIVERPOOL, Nov. I.—Arrived the John, Adair, from
Laguayra.
HARWICH, Nov. 2.—The James, Hanningtin, from
Sunderland to Portsmouth, put in here, reports that the
buoy off the Rou•2h has broken adrift.
DARTMOUTH, Nov. h—The Fortuna, Offerson, from
S►ntos to Hamburg, has been surveyed, and found ne-
cessary to discharge her cargo.