The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-22 00:00:00

SCRATCHINGS.

Northumberland Plate —The Bobby and Irregularity.
Jaruac at 4.30 yesterday (Tuesday).
Knight Templar and Lady Mortimer out of all engage-
ments at Newcastle.

Trojan and Last Word our of all engagements in Mr.
Singleton's name.
Italian Gipsy out of Newcastle engagements.

DuNvILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest holders
of whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is r =mended
by the medical profession iu preference to French brand . Sup
plied in casks and cases for home use or exportation. Quotations
on application to Messrs DUNVILLE & Co. Royal Irish Dis-
tilleries, Belfast; or at their London Qfdees, 4, bottufort Buildiugti
Strand, V.E.

SPIRIT OF THE PRESS-THIS MORNING.
THE EDUCATION BILL.

The Times considers that the position of the education
question demands nothing but courage on the part of the
Ministry. The principles of their bill, as first drawn,
commanded the assent of the public, and as far as they
have departed from them they have lost the strength
afforded by this assent. All that was wanted was better
security that the principles of the bill should be faith-
fully observed by the Local Boards who would have the
charge of working them. The efficiency of an education
law must depend upon Local Boards just as the efficiency
of the Poor Law depends on the spirit and ability
of Boards of Guardians. The question remains,
What should be done now ? We answer, let us
have no more vain attempts to accomplish impossi-
bilities. Those who think that the proposition
cannot kr a moment be permitted that any man
should be taxed to contribute to the support of a system
from the working of which he dissents must be left to find
out that if they hold to this doctrine they must abandon
all dreams of providing any national system of education.
What the Gove isn't must do, discarding further efforts
to eduoate the be - . ered minority, is clear. They must
make it more plain t an at present appears in their bill
that their scheme does not contemplate, and would not
encouragel any further increase in the number or activity
of denominational schools, and that they are bent on
forming school boards having in their own composition
the guarantees of unsectarian administration of the trusts
committed to their charge ; and, having made so much as
this plain, they should at once relieve the troubled minds
of distracted supporters below the gangway by letting
it be known that they have promulgated their ultimatum.
The St lard 11,yo that yesterday's debate upon the
Education ill will Count for very little if it is regarded
from the debating stand point, but, perhaps, no sitting
the House of Commons has given to the consideration of
this host important question possesses more real interest.
And that interest, we may say at once, lies in the speeches
of two members, who represent the Radical discontent
with the original form of the bill and with the alterations
announced on Thursday evening by Mr. Gladstone.
Sir fO. B. Adderley, Mr. Cowper-Temple, and Lord
R )bent Montagu addressed the House with considerable
ability, to much effect, and, as we must add, on the right
side ; but their expressions of old, but not worn out,
truths, have under the circumstances, small importance
compared with the deliverances of Mr. Miall and Mr.
Vernon Harcourt. Mr. Miall is, oddly enough, a cham-
pion of secnlar as well as compulsory education. Mr.
Harcourt oddly enough, we may add, is a champion of
religious education, if only—and this is an important
qualification—the religious instruction can be cut after his
own pattern. Theykgree to differ, but they practically
differ to agree. Mr. Miall's secularismis really equivalent
to Mr. Harcourts unsectarianism.
The Post declares that if Mr. Miall was allowed to have
his way we should have denominational teaching in a
form which would be for more likely to delay, and
perhaps render impossible, that fusion of sects and creeds
which, no doubt with a perfect sincerity, he professes to
desire. In what was emphatically the great speech of
Tuesday's debate, Mr. Vernon Harcourt pointed out this
tendency of Mr. Miall's suggestions; and it is worthy of
remark that, so far as the discussion of Mr. Richard's
amendment has gone nothing is more observable than the
want of harmony of ideas and policy on the part of the
Liberal members who have taken their stand against the
bill. They agree to differ with the Government, but they
agree in little else. Mr. Vernon Harcourt is opposed from
first to last to denominational education, and nothing can
be more consistent than his views upon this question,
whether they are sound or not. He sees in the mental
progress of the people of England an increasing tendency
to get rid of old notions, and to arrive at a footing of
agreement with those from whom they were formerly cut
off by a widely divergent policy. Looking to what has
been said in the course of the debate it may be
doubted whether there is an appreciable difference in
the religious teaching of a Church of England school
as compared with that of the Dissenters' schools. All
the evidence goes to chew that there is not. This would
satisfactorily explain the indifference of parents as to
what school their children attend, provided only that it
is 'a school in which religion is taught, and it is a point
*hich may be recommended to Mr. Vernon Harcourt's
best consideration. He declares himself opposed to secu-
lar education. He insisted on Tuesday, in eloquent
terms, on the necessity of religious education, provided it
is unsectarian. If it is at present substantially unsecta-
rian his objections to the bill are anticipated; if it is not
altogether as unsectarian as he could wish, any objections
he may have to urge against the bill upon this ground
may be nroperly ukged in committee.