The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-04 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1871.

THE LONDON DEMOCRATS AND THE
EDUCATION BOARD.

THE ATTACK ON MARSHAL PRIM.
MADRID, December 20.

On Monday evening the various sections of London
democrats held a remarkable gathering at the Hole-in
the-Wall, Kirby-street, Hatton-garden, to celebrate, with
feasting, speech-making, and other joyous observances,
the return of Mr. Lucraft to the London School Board.
Mr. W. Odger, the late " labour" candidate for South-
wark, presided, and among those present were many well-
known members of the organizations which have existed
since the Reform League agitations. After the dinner the
chairman said they had met to celebrate a successful effort
on the part of the working classes of Finsbury in a most
serious contest—that of the London School Board election,
when they succeeded in returning the only representative
of labour returned to confer and judge respecting the edu-
cation to be given to the future generations of Londoners. It
was a matter for reflection, he said, that no other working
man had been sent to that Board from other parts of Lon-
don ; but still the degree of success attained was something
which could not have been foreseen even at no distant date.
He proceeded to speak of Mr. Lucraft's consistent political
life for a time extending over a quarter of a century, and
Mr. Lucraft's first action on the School Board, in opposing
a paid chairmanship, he held up to the admiration of his
hearers in contrast to the general action of the House of
Commons in such matters. He said with some pride and
amid cheers that Miss Garrett and Professor Huxley
' adopted the same views as Mr. Lucraft. It was a laudable
ambition onlithe part of Mr. Lucraft to serve his fellows
on the School Board, and, in conclusion, the speaker
said the working classes ought to be in the position not
only to return Mr. Lucraft himself at the next election,
but some other real working man as well. Mr. Lucraft, on
rising to speak,was received with loud and continued cheers.
After some general remarks, he said the success attained in
returning him to the Board was mainly to be attributed to
the working men themselves. He felt the great responsi-
bility of the position he had attained, for he knew that if
he made a slip it would redound not only on him alone,
but on the whole working classes. He had no right,
therefore, to be careless, seeing the interests at stake, and
he would do all in his power to enable the working classes
to say that their representative was no disgrace to them.
There was work for half-a-dozen working men to do on
that Board, as, for instance, when the officers were pro-
posed, it was said that a gentleman could not live for
less than £l,OOO a year in London, and this even when
£BOO a year was proposed as that officer's salary ; but
nobody thought of the messenger at 255. a week, and it
never seemed to strike any of those who were so anxious
about the £l,OOO a year for the clerk whether a messenger
could live at all on his 255. a week. Those who adopted
the salary foi the messenger did so because messengers
could be obtained at that price, and he held that they should
adopt the same plan for the gentleman. This early
feature of the Board shewed that there was a necessity for
working class representatives to point out the true wants
and the position of the class in all questions in which they
were interested, as they were interested in all that con-
cerned Englishmen. Taking the Board as a whole, he said
it was a capital Board, and he had no doubt much good
would come of it. For his own part, he said, though some
of the working classes were against compulsion, not know-
ing
how the children were to live, the Education Act must
be enforced. It was sometimes pointed out to him that
Prussia, as an educated nation, was not a free one ; but
he held that England, which had won her freedom,
notwithstanding the want of education among her
masses, would not be likely to forego that freedom when
better cultured, and he declared that no one living could
estimate the advantages which the working classes of the
country would reap from the labours of the Board. He
advised the working classes not to allow their success to
end with his election, but to strive to elect representatives
to Parliament, to municipal Boards, and such like bodies.
After other remarks he said, amid loud cheers, that one
work which the School Board must undertake was to look
into the charities left for education. Other speeches fol-
lowed, and Mr. Osborne, in speaking on behalf of the
Reform party in this district, said a new agitation was on
the point of starting, for the people were determined to
have manhood suffrage. Mr. Roberts and Mr. Davis were
among the other speakers.

The one great topic of the day is the attack on Marshal
Prim last evening, which engrosses all thoughts. The
Epoca, the organ of the Prince Alfonso party, expresses
the prevailing sentiment when it speaks of the attempt as
one which no party and no honourahle man can do other
than emphatically repudiate. The Gazette of this morning
merely stated that the President had been slightly
wounded in leaving the Cortes. but that the shots had
been extracted without mischance, and that there was
nothing unusual or complicated in the wound. The
Epoca, however, observes, that the resolutions taken in
Governmental spheres in consequence of the attempt,
indicates the gravity of the case, and renders
the result doubtful. The writer in the I mparcial
after declaring he has never taken up his pen under a
more painful feeling, or with more profourid indignation,
than at the news that the President of the Ministry had
been assailed in his carriage in one of the most public
streets of Madrid, says—" If as Spaniards we inquire
what can account for an act of savagery inconceivable
among a civilized people, as politicians, we are
dismayed to think it may be believed these infamous
assassins were the instruments of some political party.
No ; the crime and the conditions under which it was
committed belong to no particular opinion, to no
political party. It was the exhibition of ferocious
instincts, of vile spirits who perhaps expected to derive a
fatal celebrity from it. It is to be hoped that the assassins
will be captured, and that such a crime will not have been
committed with impunity." The details are as follows :
—The President of the Council of Ministers, on leaving
the Cortes, proceeded in his carriage to the
Ministry of War, accompanied by his two
aides-de-camp Senors Naudin and Moya. On leaving the
Calle del Turco (a narrow street), the carriage encoun-
tered two coaches which impeded its progress. The
carriage of the General, being detained by this impedi-
ment, which seemed to be a casual one, Senor Moya
went to the window, between Marshal Prim and Senor
Naudin, to see in what it consisted. He saw
three men dressed in blouses with guns in their
hands, and had only time to exclaim, "Down, my
General, they are firing on us ! " when three shots were
heard, and the men fired, one on the left, and the other two
on the right. They were so close that Marshal Prim felt the
grains of powder in his face. The coachman, finding what
was passing, lashed his horses on, and overturning,
one of the coaches, no doubt an intentional obstruc-
tion, he made his way into the Calle Alcala, and
speedily reached the Ministry of War. In answer to the
Aide-de-camp Moya, Marshal Prim said he was
wounded in the right hand and in the left
shoulder. Marshal Prim went up the stairs of the
Ministry with great fortitude, supporting himself on the
balustrade with his wounded right hand. Meeting his
wife, he told her affectionately that he was only slightly
wounded. The doctors were immediately on the spot,
and dressed his wounds, performing the necessary oper-
ations. The two coaches which had blocked the way
had disappeared. One of them had been behind that
of the President of the Council. Senor Mora, after leaving
his chief in the hands of his wife, met his companion,
Senor Naudin in the antechamber. He asked if he
were hurt, and discovered that his right hand,
which Senor Naudin had enveloped in a handkerchief,
was completely destroyed. It has since been amputated.
Great and universal complaints are made in all quarters
of the i*efficiency of the police. The deplorable dis-
organisation of that body is severely commented on in tile
press this morning, and the escape of the assassins cer-
tainly justifies the reproach, eepecially if it be true as
is reported, that three hours after the commission of the
crime the inspector of the district intimated what had
occurred to the Governor of Madrid. The Pais thins it
inconceivable that in one of the most public thorough-
fares of Madrid there should not have been a single
spectator, who could, on the overthrow of the inter-
cepting coach, have had time to capture the driver, who
might doubtless have been able to throw light on the
affair. The Pais, the Epoca, and other journals are pain-
fully convinced that the whole affair betrays premeditation
and concerted preparation. It could scarcely have been
by accident that these coaches so opportunely blocked the
way in such an extremely narrow street. The place and
the season gave every opportunity for the criminals, who,
no doubt, reckoned on the want of management
and promptitude of the police, and the confusion
natural to such an event, for the assassins, having done
their work, got off unmolested, and the coaches disap-
peared as if by enchantment. It is gratifying that all the
press unite in condemning the outrage, which they hold to
be at once an attack on public liberties and individual
safety. The Eco de Espana has a vigorous article reprobating
in the name of the party, of which it is the organ, this
barbarous crime, "with the same indignation as when
our friend and chief, the illustrious General Narvaez, was
the victim of a similar attempt, andiThis noble and un for-
tunate aide-de-camp, Baseti, perished by the hands of the
infamous assassins."

The Nacion maintains that Prim only received two balls
instead of eight as said by the Imparcial, which gives the
fullest narrative of the disaster. The Nacion, suspects the
reactionary party of having employed this crime to
destroy the work of the revolution. Other
papers, notably the Epoca, the organ of the ex-
queen's party, maintain that this is a calumny, and that
they will not do any political party the injustice to attri-
bute it to them without evidence. The Iberia
thinks the crime one of elaborate preparation,
and comments on the number of provincials
present in Madrid, and other attendant circumstances
favouring the assassins. According to one account these
had horses stationed on the Prado, by which they made
their escape. The Discussion, a Republican organ, laments
the action, while it condemns the crime, inasmuch as evil
means can never, it affirms, lead to good ends.
No sooner was the news of the attack known in
Madrid than all men of political distinction of whatever
party, and all the civil and military officials, as well as
many others, hastened to the Ministry of War to inquire
after the wounded President. The Regent was
one of the very first, and, perceiving the gravity
of the situation, he immediately summoned a
Council_of Ministers, calling all the leaders of the Liberal
monarchical party together to consult as to the perplexities
of the moment. It was not only necessary to find a
substitute for Marshal Prim as President of the Council
and Minister of War, but also for his intendod
journey to Carthagena to receive the new king. The
Imparcial in speaking of this Council says from the
first moment the general opinion pointed out Senor Topete
as the person to preside over the Cabinet and to receive
the King, but the illustrious Admiral had some scruples
on the subject, and it was only the solemn appeal of Senor
Riss Rosas, and other of his friends and co-religionists,
that finally persuaded him. It was finally announced
that Senor Topete should take charge of the portfolio of
State, and per interim of the Ministry of War, giving the
Colonial Office to Senor Ayala. By this means the
Ministry was completed until the arrival of the King, for
whose reception Senor Topete starts this night for
Carthagena. The Pais mentions among those present at
the Council General Cordova and Jose Olozaga, whose
brother, Don Salustiano, was prevented attending by ill-
ness. Topete, says the same journal, yielding to the
appeals of his friends, sacrificed his personal wishes to
the necessities of the State in such grave circumstances.

The Queen ba3 fixed Wednesday, the 29th of
March as the day on which she proposes to open the
Royal Albert Hall at Kensington.

The Sheffield Independent says a son of the late
Abraham Lincoln is being educated in a private school
at Tulse-hill. Mrs. Lincoln has taken up her residence
in this country.

A DARING ROBBERY OF £2,000 WORTH OF
JEWELLERY.—A few days back the shop of Mr. Burling-
ham, jeweller, of Peterborough, was broken into and
goods worth nearly £2,000 taken. It appears a police-
constable saw two men about three o'clock in the
morning, and, from their suspicious movements,
tried to capture them. One was captured. but the
other managed to escape until Sunday. The man
captured had upon him goods worth £l5O, including
twelve geld watches and a great number of rings and
lockets. The burglars completely cleared several glass
cases. They effected an entrance frem the rear by means
of a rope ladder ; they then tried to bore through a door,
but a sheet of iron prevented it. A hole was then cut
through a lath and plaster partition, and the men
commented their work of plunder. They had provided
themselves with a bag of some thin material, and whilst
making off with their booty the bottom of this
bag fell out, leaving the property on the roof
of one of the outhouses. Fifty. gold rings, 56
silver watches, several hundreds of pins, rings, lockets,
and other articles were found on the roof. The man first
taken was known as Thomas Henry, alias Stripes. On
Sunday Detective-Sergeants Ham and Ranger; of the P
division, proceeded to Wood's lodging-house, Kent-street,
Borough, where they found William Pain, alias Nutty, in
bed. Ham told him he was wanted for being concerned
with the other man, when he said, " I little thought
Stripes would round on me." At the station he said he
was done for, and if he had the chance he would kill
Stripes. He would confess all about the robbery, for he
knew he was "settled for life" at the trial in March next.
BREAKFAST.—EPPS'S COCOA.--GRATEFUL AND COM-
foRTING.—The very agreeable character of this preparation has
rendered it ageneral favourite. The Civil Service Gazette re
marks :—" By a thorough knowledge of the natural laws which
govern the operations of digestion and nutrition, and by a
careful application of the fine •properties of well-selected cocoa.
Mr. Epps has provided our breakfast tables with a delicately
flavoured beverage which may save us many heavy doctors'
hills." Each packet is labelled—JAmEs Epps (tr, Co., Homeo-
pathic Chemists. London. Also, makers of Epps's Cacaoine, a
very thin evening beverage.—Advt.