The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-14 00:00:00

The truth of the foregoing observations is un-
happily afforded and precisely exemplified by the
grievous want of general education that has long
been felt throughout the community. Year after year,
for a long period past, have an influential portion of
our countrymen been striving to impress upon their
fellow-beings and the Government, the duty of dis-
tributing., upon a large and systematic scale, the
blessings of a sound and moral education to the
humbler classes, and the certain and per-
nicious results that would attend a disregard of
this natural obligation. Till the accession of the
present Ministry to power every appeal of this na-
ture was made in vain. True it is, that in the next
session we are expecting a healthy move will be
made in the right direction, the Government having
pledged themselves to undertake the question of
national education in a manner commensurate with
the wants of the country. But, even if these per-
petual appeals had not been made, and we were with-
out any Government assurance, enough is transpiring
on the judicial bench to convince the Executive that
immediate legislation on this head is imperatively
demanded. Judges, as well as juries, the more im-
mediate judicial representatives of the people, are be-
coming restless under the state of the law as appli-
cable to juvenile offenders, on the one hand, and are
appalled at the fearful increase in the number of this
miserably neglected class of delinquents on the other.
Crime is committed, and the criminals are, from the
seat of justice, declared to be objects of pity rather
than of punishment. The law is enforced, and, at
the same time, denounced. Human nature is
represented by the recognised organs of justice as
being daily outraged in our tribunals. The juries
convict, but pour in their strong recommendation for
mercy. The judge applauds their sentiments, but

bitterly laments that his hands are tied, and that the
law has left him no merciful discretion. A scene of
this painful description occurred yesterday at the
Middlesex Sessions. It were a superfluous task to
capitulate the facts ; the instance is not a solitary
one. These shocking examples of our ministerial
defects in judicature, by which justice is convulsed,
and mercy, " which becomes the throned monarch
better than his crown," is stifled, are of perpetual re-

currence. We have them ad nauseam. Expert thieves
of mature years trepan children of tender age into
their vicious courses, and make their little hands the

instruments of robbery, whilst they themselves watch
their demoralised pupils committing the depredations
they have schemed, securing their escape in the event
of instant detection. Happily the tables were turned
in a case that came on yesterday for trial at the ses

sions. The boy escaped, but the prisoner, aged 20,
who instigated him to steal two print dresses, whilst
he loitered about the prosecutor's door, was secured by
the police, and has received a sentence of seven years'
transportation. But this was a fortunate incident,
purely hazardous. These youthful victims are easily
led away, on account of the idle and neglected condi-
tion in which they are at present, almost by compul-
sion and without remedy, suffered to squander the
most precious moments of their existence. Place the

means of education for his offspring within the
reach of the parent, and we may then hope
for a speedy diminution of this frightful epi-
demic of juvenile depravity, which is now
raging unchecked, and threatening to undermine
and burst the bonds of social order. An efficacious

remedy can alone emanate from the Legislature.
The disease is too wide-spread to be destroyed by
purely individual action, however humanely and ener-
. _ _ _

getically it might be deployed. May the session of
1847 not close without evincing a becoming solicitude

for the rapid extinction ofjuvenile crime!

Among the various causes which have conduced to
.he downfal of the legitimate drama in this country,
here is one, and that one the principal, which has
been, if not altogether overlooked, at least touched
on very slightly—we mean the rapacity (for that is
the proper word) of dramatic artistes themselves, a
rapacity produced by the abominable star system. This
the main cause of the decline of the drama, is curi-
ously illustrated by the correspondenee between Mr.
13uNN and Mrs. BUTLER, which we publish in another
column. Our readers, perhaps, are not aware who
Mrs. BUTLER is. She is the last and least of the
KEMBLES —the ci-devant young lady, who, as Miss
FANNY KEMBLE, some seventeen years since, appeared
with success for two seasons at Covent-garden, at
which time she was certainly a promising actress ; and
who, had she continued on the stage, might perhaps
have contested the palm of superiority even with Miss
HELEN FAUCIT. This lady, after an absence
from the stage of many years, proposes to return, and
asks (will the reader believe it ?) 1001. a night for
her services—just double the sum ever demanded by
JOHN KEMBLE, Mrs. SIDDONS, or EDMUND KEAN.
This lady, therefore, has the modesty to imagine that
she herself alone is equal to JOHN KEMBLE
and Mrs. SIDDONS together, and to double of ED-
MUND KEAN. In rating her powers of at-
traction thus highly, it would be well that
she should recollect that her exertions, supported
by those of her FATHER, Of SHERIDAN KNOWLES, Of
WARDS, Of BENNETT, Of ABBOTT, Of Miss TAYLOR,
and of a host of others, were insufficient, during the
last season of her appearance at Covent-garden, to
save the theatre from ruin. It will not do for
artistes henceforth to complain of the 'want of
public patronage, of the avarice of managers
of the decline of the legitimate drama, &c.,
unless they at the same time inform us of the amount

FERNANDA, " and in another paragraph, as we have
already observed, he alludes to the infraction of the
Vienna treaty, by saying that he has forcibly pro-
tested against that infraction. One paragraph ex-
presses indignation at the violation of the treaty of
Vienna, another paragraph expresses exultation at
the violation of the treaty of Utrecht ; so that,
to reconcile this anomaly, we must presume that his
MAJESTY regards treaties as unlike the juice of
grapes, inasmuch as the former becomes worthless with
increased age. More preposterous logic was never
heard. The compacts of 1815 are to be accounted
sacred ; the compacts of 1713 are to be considered as
the mere tunnels of diplomacy—to be passed through
with indifference.

Not a syllable is uttered by Louis PHILIPPE in refer-
ence to the coolness which has recently arisen between
his own Government and that of Great Britain. The
question was too delicate and fragile to bear the weight
of the most attenuated monosyllable. The ice was
merely skinned over the gulf, the former would have
broken in under the pressure of a mere allusion. Still
there was ample opportunity afforded for self-gratula-
tion upon " the devotedness and valour" of the French
soldiers in Algeria and upon the navigation treaty
concluded with the Emperor NICHOLAS. A sop for
the prowess and cupidity of his warlike and enter•
prising people ! With these triumphant reminiscences
the oration of King Louis PHILIPPE is completed : it
may prova a firebrand, or the reverse, among the
Governments of Europe.

The English people are not easily roused into action.
In their private as well as in their public affairs, in
the due management whereof they are perfectly sen-
sible of being deeply interested, many causes may be
at work to their disadvantage, and with which they
become fully acquainted—first, by soft rumours ; and
next, by loud complaints—still they preserve an
apathy which .no other people would evince under
similar circumstances. This indifference is, for the
most part, to be accounted for by the feeling of self-
reliance they possess, that when matters reach a crisis,
and the energy requisite to reduce them into a shape
conformable with the maintenance of their personal
or public welfare, can no longer be staved off without
imminent risk, their talents, intelligence, and indo-
mitable perseverance will overcome the difficulty,
how aggravated soever may be the height to which
it had been suffered to reach. From the innate
love of justice, too, peculiarly characteristic of the
English, they are always cheerfully inclined to bear
any sacrifices, rendered indispensable by any negli-
gence for which they are deserving of blame. This
singular trait in our national character is neverthe-
less productive of great mischief. " Prevention
is better than cure," is an apophthegm to which an
Englishman is constantly giving utterance, but
which he seldom enforces by practice. He is indif-
ferent to prevention ; he takes a pride in effecting a
cure. The consequence of this inert policy is, that
evils of a most serious nature are allowed to become
chronic, and so to engraft themselves upon the
social system, that nothing short of the most vigorous
and comprehensive remedies will effectually eradicate
them.