The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-03 00:00:00

TRADES' CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION.

On Saturday a delegate meeting of the various indus-
tries represented by the Leeds Trade Council was held in
the Mechanics' Institute, Leeds, for the purpose of discuss-
ing the rival education schemes of tb e Union and the League.
Mr. E. C. Denton, a decided adherent of the League, was in
the chair. Mr. David Hurin (engineer) said the chief ob-
stacle to education was the great war going on between the
different sects of religion,—sects which could not throw
aside their prejudices. He called upon the working-men
to take their part in directing the national education move-
ment by assisting the Government to establish a compulsory
system of education. Mr. Thomas Brook (brushmaker)
argued that it was possible to have a religious, but, at the
same time, an unsectarian system of education. Mr. G.
Miller (cloth-dresser) was afraid that a system called and
actually being compulsory would lose its influence, because
Englishmen did not like compulsion. Ile advocated the
Bible as the only sure standard for education, and he was
glad to find that the League did not propose to give up
altogether the Sacred Volume.—Mr. Allen Barraclough
(cabinetmaker) said he had all his life been a secularist, a
Republican, and a Radical, and he denounced the clergy
and ministers of religion very strongly, saying that they
had always endeavoured to keep the people in the dark
The only objection he had to the League was that
they had taken ministers of religion into their ranks,
as he was sure that they meant to deceive; for,
wherever there was theology, tyranny and ignorance always
existed.—Mr. Pickles (engineer) said ho represented a num-
ber of men who were opposed to the League because it
would introduce police supervision, and that would be no
better than a spy system. After reading the speech made
by Mr. Baines, M.P., at the Union Conference in Leeds, ho
could come to no other conclusion than that the scheme of
the Union was the best. For his own part, he thought they
were overratingthe education question, because it was well
known that the most scholastic and enlightened nations
had been the most sunken in profligacy and debauchery,
and they were told that the students at Harrow, for in-
stance, had to pay foes for cockfighting and fisticuffs. There
must be moral culture, but he and his friends, in their
view of the prospects of education, had the utmost con-
fidence in the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, M.P., and
the Government. Mr. Lishman (cloth-dresser) sup-
ported the League, and shewed that the denominational
system, after having had fair play, had decidedly failed.
Mr. J. Dixon (miner) said he loved denominationalism,
but he approved the League, because it would go
lower down into the dregs of society. The miners'
children went to Sunday schools, because their parents
were a Bible-loving people, but it was only by compul-
sion that they could be got to attend the day schools.
But no compulsory system would answer unless religion
was found as a personal sentiment operating in the mind of
the teacher.—Mr. J. Roberts (mechanic) shewed that in
Prussia and elsewhere, where education was compulsory,
there was no repugnance to compulsion ; and in England
that pressure would only be applied to those parents who
would not do their duty without it. The discussion was
continued in an enlightened and temperate spirit for two
or three hours, and at its close, on the motion of Mr.
Shortland (mason), it was resolved:—" That in the opinion
of this conference any system of national education should
be free, unsectarian, and compulsory ; and the delegates
present pledge themselves to support any measure embody
ing the above three principles."

The Alliance lVeek•ly News says that Archdeacon
Sandford is recovering from Lis recent severe illness, and
that his friends are urging the Premier to appoint him to the
vacant see of Manchester.

The Cunard and Inman Steam Companies having
refused to carry the American mails at the reduced rates,
the United States Government have contracted with other
steamers o carry the Wednesday and Saturday mails.

The report is emphatically discredited " that the
Treasury authorities contemplate taking the Welsh fa sting
girl's case into their hands, and instructing counsel to con-
duct the prosecution.' There is no ground whatever for
the statement.

The subscription list of the National Education
League includes no fewer than 17 subscriptions of £l,OOO
each, twelve of which have been subset ibed in Birmingham ;
and twelve of £lOO each, five of which come from the same
town.

MORE QUlNlNE.—According to the Pioneer of
Allahabad, a new variety of chinchona, yielding a larger
percentage of quinine than any species yet analysed, has
boon discovered by Mr. Broughton, the Quinologist to the
Madras Government. It has been raised from seeds
collected in the Loxa district of the Andes.

Mn. DALWAY.—At a meeting of eleven Orange
lodges, held at Lame, county Antrim, on Saturday, reso-
lutions were passed protesting against the conduct of the
Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland in expelling Mr. Dalway,
M.P., for supporting Sir Shafto Adair at the late county
Antrim election, and expressing confidence in Mr. Dalway
as a true Orangeman.

THE LIMERICK CATASTEOPRE.—At the inquest
on the bodies of the persons killed by the fall of houses in
Limerick, several of the jury said they should petition the
Lord-Lieutenant to send down a Government inspector to
examine the whole city. The jury then found that the
catastrophe was casual, accidental, by misfortune, and not
otherwise, but that "the Corporation ought to direct their
surveyor to inspect certain houses in this city said to be
in a state dangerous to human life."
THE REPORTED STOPPAGE OF THE METROPOLI-
TAN MAIN DRAINAGE.—The statement published by the
Architect respecting the stoppage of the Metropolitan
Main Drainage Works is both inaccurate and exaggerated.
No accident of importance has taken place at Barking, and
so far as that section of the works is concerned the
Metropolitan Main Drainage is all right, and in good
working order. Through excessive working, consequent
upon the late heavy rains, a fracture has occurred in an
air-chamber, and a partial stoppage of the pumping was
the result.

A. SINGULAR, DOCUMENT.—The .Rhenish Gazette
publishes the following curious certificate, given in 1709,
by tho magistrate of Aleut :—" We attest that the execu-
tioner of Tocklenbourg, one named Joert Henri Stolheart,
brother-in-law of the executioner Dalgermann, has decapi-
tated exceedingly well, and to my peculiar satisfaction,
one named Henri Schuerkamp ; and that even when his
brother was syndic, the above-named Stolheart very gen-
teelly hung one named Koetler. He is therefore quite
expert at such functions."
AN Inisn POLICE SESSION.—The proceedings at
the Kanturk presentment sessions on Friday would give a
very unfavourable impression of the state of society in
that part of Ireland. There was a formidable list of
applications for compensation for malicious injuries—
chiefly burning of agricultural produce during the
months of September and November, and a large
sum was levied off the barony for the purpose. The claims
in respect of the fires in one night alone, the 20th of

November, amounted to about £1,500 ; and there was no
doubt that the destruction of property in each of these
cases was malicious, though it was almost impossible to
assign a cause for the outrages.
THE OUTRAGE AT EwELL.—lnformation has been
sent to Mr. Carter, the coroner for East Surrey, that
George Spooner, the proprietor of the house which ITug-
gett attempted to blow up, had died from the injuries ho
had received. Spooner, it will be remembered, alarmed
at Mrs. Richardson's cries, left his bed-room and met the
assassin on the stairs pursuing her. A struggle ensued
in which Spooner forced Huggett downstairs into the
kitchen, and was close to him when he threw the gun-
powder upon the fire. Since the occurrence on the 22nd
ult., ➢lr. George Robinson Baines, surgeon at Ewell has
attended the unfortunate man, who, however never rallied.
The proceedings at the inquest will be merely of a
formal nature, as ITuggett's admission that be had stolen
the powder and had thrown it upon the fire through jea-
lousy, rendered it unnecessary to tako Spoonor's deposi-
tion Tho evidence taken last week will, therefore, simply
bo reed over, ntl the verdict in the Me Altered.