The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-29 00:00:00

THE s UN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVESING, JUNE 29, 1870.

OPERAS, THEATRES, AND AMUSEMENTS.

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA, Covent-garden.—La Figlia del Reggi•

niento. 8.30 p.m,

(TAMAN OPERA, Drury Lane.—To-morrow, Don Giovanni. 8.3 ,

OLYMPIC -At Seven, Music hath Charms. Little Em'ly. Old
Gooseberry.

HAYMARKET—At Seven, Married Life. Home. Family Jars.
A nET,pnr—At Seven, The Robust Invalid. Free Labour.
VRINCE OF WALES'S—At 7.30, Quito by Accident. M.P. Dearest
Mamma.

/47,4_ ,
-A) s
\-zoun (1-pg

EVENING EDITION.

the Peers were prepared to accept this fact they
should have rejected the Land Bill on the second
reading. Having accepted the bill it is im-

possible that the amendment now in question can
be maintained, even though Lord CAIRNS'S right
hand should have to suffer amputation. That, we
admit, would be a melancholy incident; but if, as
his lordship said, it will occur should the original
clause stand, then it would' be well for him to pre-
pare for the operation. It is a consolation to think
that laughing gas will render it painless.

The Education Bill has fared better than the Land
Bill. Amendments have been improvements. Such
especially is the new clause under which the
managers of voluntary schools will be enabled to
transfer these into rate schools. This is but fair.
There is many a man who has hitherto given
largely for the support of a school because
if lie did not, the children around him
would grow up in ignorance. But when edu-
cation has become a national matter, and there
is machinery in existence for the establishment of
schools out of the public purse, he may think that
the time is come when other persons should do their
duty and relieve him from the burden of doing both
his and theirs. But there is no compulsion in the
matter. If the present supporters of the voluntary
schools think that religion will not be taught
in the rate-aided schools, it will be at their option to
continue the present system. Some members saw in
this permission a sacrifice of principle, some went so
far as to call it a third bill. It is neither the one nor
the other. The Government still adheres to its
resolution not to destroy the existing schools for the
purpose of obtaining a questionable symmetry.
At the same time it is not fair that a
man should be compelled to pay twice over
—for the voluntary school, and then, again, for the
rate-aided school, which may be established in the
same parish. They ought to have full liberty of action
on this point. The time-table conscience clause is
not an expedient for which we can feel any
enthusiasm. Theoretically it is open to the
objection which Mr. 110 MM-A N urged against
it with so much force. It will make
religious teaching in the eyes of the
children penal by subjecting them to longer school
hours than their schoolfellows who are allowed to

" turn their backs upon the Bible." Practically, how-
ever, we expect that this objection will not arise.
The great majority of children will no more bo
withdrawn from the religious lesson under the new

than they have been under the old conscience clause.
There is every reason to suppose that the Education
Bill will pass through Committee at an early date.

IT is now nearly five years since the attention of
this country was forcibly and painfully directed to
one of its oldest colonies. A terrible outbreak of
the coloured population against the white planters
had occurred, and it was suppressed with ruthless
rigour. After the controversy respecting the conduct
of the Governor on this occasion had subsided, the
condition of the colony became the subject of inquiry,
and it was found that an island so fertile that it sup-
plied all the primary wants of man without the labour
of cultivation, was on the very verge of ruin. Year after
year there had been a growing deficiency in the
revenue, and the credit of the Colonial Government
was almost destroyed. The social was no better than
the financial condition. The various classes and
races were bitterly hostile, education was miserably
neglected, and justice was almost unattainable by
the poor. It was under these circumstances that Sir
JorrN PETER GRANT was sent out to govern the colony
of Jamaica, which, under the rule of Governor Eyre,
had fallen into the lowest depths of despondency. It
chews how much the condition of a country depends
upon the conduct of one man that in three
years Jamaica has now become more prosperous
than at any time since the emancipation of the
negroes. Governor GRANT'S report, which has just
been presented to Parliament, refers to 1868, and by
the end of that year he had succeeded in converting
the yearly deficit into a surplus, had reformed the
law courts, the police, the church, the medical staff,
and the schools; largely diminished serious crimes at
the same time that the number of convictions was
decreased through the greater vigilance of the police;
and had restored harmony between the landed and the
labouring class. There is reason to believe that the report
for 1869 will be even more favourable than that of
the preceding year, for the modest surplus in 1868,
of £423, has in 1869 expanded into £50,000„ a fact
that will appear all the more satisfactory when we
bear in mind that even so late as 1867 the Colonial
Government was obliged to borrow £20,000 from the
Colonial Bank, in order that the Treasury might be
spared the discredit of st )pping payment.
Referring more in detail to Sir J. P. GRANT'S re-
forms, we find many incidents of interest. The staff
of clergy, who were far too numerous for the wants of
the people, has been reduced by omitting
to fill up vacancies as they arise. The Treasury and
the Audit Department have been reorganised and
made efficient, at the same time the cost of them
has been diminished. The district courts of insol-
vency has beeri reformed, and that this step was
needed may be inferred when we mention that out
of the three late official assignees in Jamaica, all of
whom were bound to pay the moneys arising from in-
solvent estates into the public treasury, one
died insolvent, owing money to the creditors
of bankrupts, and another was found to be
£2,000 short, and absconded. The extrava-
gant expenditure upon gaols has been curtailed.
There was one gaol, for instance, which had on an
average only ten prisoners, and of which the salaries
of officials alone amounted to £44o—a perfectly use-
less expenditure, as there was another gaol only
twenty-two miles off. While it was necessary to ,
impose fresh taxation in order to meet the yearly
deficiency, the equilibrium has been restored Much
sooner than was expected, because the taxes have
been much more punctually collected. At
the present moment the finances "have
sprung up from a state of imminent insol-
vency, in which unquestionably they were three
years ago, to a state of unexampled prosperity," and
there is every reason to hope for an early repeal of
the least popular taxes. In a country like Jamaica
where so large a portion of the area is very thinly
populated., it is necessary that the Government
should be much more paternal than it is with us.
Sir J. P. GRANT has therefore had to organise a
proper medical service. Formerly " over a large
part of the island, except in the case of a
person of means, such an accident as a
broken leg was fatal, which, near a town, would have
been cured in a few weeks." Now a Government
medical officer is entrusted with the care of a speci-
fied district, and in that district he must live, and
bestow his services and his medicines at settled
charges. The advantage of another change effected
in Jamaica under the new regime is more question-
able. New district courts of law have been established,
and all of them " have done a considerable amount
of civil business of a legitimate character, none of
which, or a very minute portion of it only, would
have been brought to trial at all, ,but for
• the existence of these courts." Two thou-
sand and ninety-one common law cases, 10
equity cases, 86 land cases; and 348 criminal
trials were decided by these courts in the course of
• . about one year: It is possible that this increased
facility for litigation may not be abused, and it is
certain that no country can be said to be properly

governed in which it is not possible to obtain justice
cheaply and speedily. The criminal statistics shew
an increase of convictions, but this is easily explained
by the fact that the constabulary have been reorga-

ised, and that the crimes have been promptly

detected. The improvement in education has been
as marked as the improvement in the finances.
Formerly Government grants were given to the
schools in the most indiscriminate manner.. There
is now rigid supervision and examination; neverthe-
less the grants are larger than they used to be.
Under those changes the coloured population have

become much more loyal and orderly. They have learnt
to understand that all parties and classes will obtain
justice, and thus the only case in which a disturb-
ance threatened to arise out of that formerly prolific
source of riot, land disputes, the calamity
was averted by a timely display of force accompa-
nied by a clear explanation of the circumstances.
Altogether, Jamaica may be said to have passed from
death to life, since the outbreak in Morant Bay. This
is another illustration of the old proverb that " when
things are at the worst they are sure to mend ;"
another reason why, even though things may appear
desperate, we should " never despair,"

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

can be taken oft' indiscriminately and hap-hazard on the
bare chance that a defect might be found out. Still,
something might be done beyond everlastinglyhammer-

ing the cars at different railway stations. The wheels
of this waggon, said the chief engineer of the Man-
chester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Company, 44 had
been in use for eighteen years—eleven and a half
years to my own personal knowledge." Surely after
the lapse of a certain time a waggon ought on a
regular system to undergo a thorough testing.

TEE C UItItAGH OF KILDARE.

The Government having made up their minds to

enclose the great plain of Kildare, known as the
Curragh, the extent of which covers 5,000 acres,
a bill has been introduced by Mr. Chichester
Fortescue for the purpose. For many years past
the pasture lands have been used by landed proprie-
tors in the county Kildare as grazing grounds for
sheep. Latterly, however, the farmers in the neigh-
bouring counties finding that but little restriction
was offered to anyone who drove a flock of sheep to
the plain of Kildare, resolved to mingle theirs with
the rest. In consequence of this step the Curragh
soon became flocked with the ovine species, and in
1867 things went on so comfortably that owners of
all sorts of cattle led their animals out to the paiture.
In a brief time the grass disappeared, and the incon-
venience to the troops, who, when firing at the butts,
were always shooting down mules, asses, goats, cows,
or sheep became so annoying that the Government de-
termined to exercise their prerogative to the Crown pro-
perty, and to enclose the whole lands,, in the centre of
which the Curragh camp is situated. Commissioners
were appointed to inquire into all claims of pastur-
age and rights of way, and the bill now prepared is

meant to confirm their award and to make their deci-
sions supportable by law. The Government,
although they will vastly improve the appearance of
the plain and the quality of the pasture, by enclosing
it, and by only allowing the rightful parties to use it
for grazing purposes, and that, too, for sheep alone,
will be at considerable expense in the matter.
The compensation to be awarded for rightS
of way, to the numerous small and large
proprietors round the Curragh will be serious,
but the sums of money that will have to be given
to the owners of racehorses, in lieu of their privilege
to exercise any number of steeds on the soft turf of

the Curragh Edge will form a far more lugubrious item
in the State's accounts. Irishmen will certainly have
reason to be grateful, if the Executive will consent
to improve the 5,000 acres of spare land in. Kildare,
as Mr. Fortescue hopes they will do.

INTERNATIONAL COURTS OF ARBITRATION.

The Peace Society publishes some remarks by Mr.
Elihu Burritt in favour of international courts of
arbitration. He refers to the tribunal which has
jiist been established in Egypt, in substitution for
the highly unsatisfactory consular jurisdictions, as a
model. " This is a kind of miniature High Court of
Nations, to adjudicate upon cases of difficulty, or dis-
turbance between individuals and interests in Egypt,
pertaining to different nationalities. This court is to
consist of judges belonging to different nations. In
composition, character, and object it is a goodly-
sized model of that High Court of Nations which
the friends of peace have advocated so long for the
settlement of international difficulties." But Mr.
Burritt must not forget that this Egyptian court
was established only after much trouble, so jealous
were the different nations of the privilege of
having their own subj eats tried by their own consuls;
and that, now it is established, it can decide only
questions between individuals. The experiment of
a " High Court of Nations " has been tried in the
shape of conferences and the like, and it works well
under certain conditions. It answers capitally when
some of the parties are so strong that they can safely
override another, as the Powers did Greece a short
time ago. It turns out well, too, when the parties
are afraid of each other, as France and Prussia.were in
1867. But when the desire of gain is strong and the
chance of success is greater than the risk of failure, it
is little use talking of arbitration,