The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-03 00:00:00

TIIE SCHOOLMASTER IN.CQIWWALL

- The Spectator publishes a letter dated Palvellan, Looe,
Cornwall, September 24, in which th,e clergyman of that
parish, Mr. A.. Chaplin, describes a vestry debate on the
new Education Act. The following is an extract
" The chairman announced the education question to be
the.next subject for discussion. There advances a very little
man with a very long face, our overseer; with a solemn
air he holds up certain papers and says, ' Gentlemen
(N. 8., we are very particular about being called gentle-
men, Radical as we profess to be), gen'lemen, I dunno
what these papers mean ; you'd best mind what you're
adoing when you fills 'em up ; mark my words
[here the papers are flung upon the table with a tragic air
such as an M. P. might envy], afore long you'll have to
eddicate other people's children as well as your own, and
[looking hard at me] there'll be another rate.' lip starts
then a speaker such as Dickens delighted to
describe. He enchains the vestry. ' I'll tell yer
what, I'm not adoing to be led by the nose
[movement, as the French would say]. I'm a Dissenter.
Ah. 4 and I'm a brother in Christ ! Would I go for to lay
a burden on a poor man's back—(sensation) ? 'tis a hard
matter to get bread ; let them as is rich pay
for the eddication of the poor. (Thunders
of applause.) Gentlemen, gentlemen [empha-
size strongly the `gen'] indeed ! They call
theirselves •to go for to say there shall be a rate,"
&c., &c. Then another, "I should like to tell people who
don't know Looe (the sarcastic reference is ,:made plain
by a ferocious stare at me) that there are a few John Bulls
in this place—a rate, indeed !"

INDIAN NEWS.

The Overland Mail delivered on Saistrday brings the
following news from Bombay to the 6th September :

It has now been ascertained that the actuals for 1869-70
were—receipts, home and India, £53,483,096 ; and the
expenditure, £53,422,224, leaving a surplus of £60,872.
It is believed that Mr: George Campbell would be the
Duke of Argyll's nomination for the Lieutenant-
Governorship of Bengal, and that Mr. Edward Clive
Tayley is Earl Mayo's.
' The reply to the Calcutta petition for reduction of the
income-tax argues the impossibility of immediate altera-
tion of -the income-tax, admits its undesirability under
ordinary circumstances, and promises, unless in the case
of unforseen emergency, to reduce the rate next March.
'Lord Mayo wishes to return early to Calcutta. His
advisers urge the desirability of a visit to Rapootana ; and
it is considered likely his Excellency will visit Central
India, travelling as strictly incognito as it is possible for a
Viceroy to do.

The Cashmere Durbar have summarily dismissed, the
Wuzeer of Ladak for his dealings with Mr. Forsyth's.ex-
pedition.
Following the example of the Nawab Nazim, the Rajah
of Chitpore has manufactu'red a bill against the Govern-
ment of India, and sent it in, The bill, a small affair of
several lakhs, has been sent to the Secretary of State.
Certain unpleasant rumours with respect to letting of
contracts has come under the notice of the Governor-
General, and his lordship has ordered an investigation.
Reports of June from Zanzibar shew that cholera had
entirely disappeared at that place, but that it was still
prevalent at Mozambique.
The deaths are announced of Raja Deo Narayan Singh,
K.C.S.I. ; of Mr. Charles Norman Pochin, Madras C.S.,
collector and magistrate of Salem ; and of Major W. K.
Haslewood, invalid establishment.

A NEW WAR INSTRUMENT.—The Morning Post
has received a letter frem Paris by balloon. One of its
announcements ought to cause the Germans some anxiety :
--The defence 'from within is already taking a desperate
character. The generals, as is the wont of generals, have
long insisted upon making war only according to tradition.
They, hold that, while it is perfectly fair and most honour-
able forcibly to introduce steel and lead into the vital
parts of their enemies, or to blow them up with gun-
powder., it is barbarous and disgraceful to use to the same
end any means involving. a further advance of science.
' Their scruples, however, have now been vanquished.
I have to-day seen a quite unmartial, frock-coated,
keen-eyed little chemist, who has within his know-
ledge more effectual and .terrible methods of warfare
than all the cocked hats in. Europe ever. covered. Ho
assures me that with a recently-discovered preparation—
fulminate of picrate of potass, which is ten times worse
than picrate of potass in its simple form—he can blow
the Prussian army off the face of the earth. He has
another preparation which at once asphyxiates and burns
any living creature upon which it is projected,- and ia
addition to that he declares that hepossesses the means of
decomposing water itself, and turning it"into consuming
flame. This gentleman is in the employ of the Govern-
ment, and has already prepared a most diabolical recep-
tion for the Prussians. They have, indeed, already expe-
rienced the' awful effects of his skill in the explosion of
two torpedoes, which are said to have killed 700 men, and
the exp mod points of the defence are thickly sown with
like engines of destruction.