The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-26 00:00:00

was bequeathed. Referring to the question of compulsory
education, he said—ln this country • all laws require the
co-operation of those for whose benefits they are framed.
While there is nothing in direct compulsion to induce
parental co-operation, there is much in the indirect plan
to do so. If the law firmly rule that employers shall not
give work to uneducated children, every motive of the
parent is enlisted for their education. The prudent lovine,
parent will always be an ally of the State ; but the sordid,'
selfish parent will be so also, when the education becomes
the only tool through the possession of which wages can
be earned. Speaking of the value of an intimate connec-
tion being kept up between the people and the Universi-
ties, Dr. Playfair said that it was believed that about 500
workmen, or sons of working men, are now in attendance
at Scotch Universities. Many that I have personally
known have worked hard during the summer as plough-
men, fishermen, masons, carpenters—in one or two cases
which I happen to know—as gillies to young English
university students during grouse shooting, in order
that they. might save money enough to pay their
moderate fees, and live on porridge and milk
during the winter sessions of the universities. I have just
left a Scotch town in which I was at, a parochial school,
and many a friendly grip of the hand did I get from work-
ing men and tradesmen who were schoolfellows with me.
Neither of, us had lost our respect for the other in our
different careers in life, and it was a very hearty thing to
feel that your old schoolfellows had an honest word of
congratulation, if you happened to be in a more conspicu-
ous position than themselves. I have alluded to this
_ _

mixture of classes in Scotch schools, in the hope of seeing
it arise in England as a consequence of rate-supported
schools. Every contributory ratepayer has a right to
their use. The poverty of a Scotch school renders a poet
like Byron an impossible conception, but it makes a natural
one like Burns. I would not have alluded to our Scotch
experience in regard to higher education for the poor,
except as an encouragement for the English
poor to follow up the paths opened up to
them by the Endowed Schools Act of last year.
This year is memorable because, for the first period in
our history the State has been brought into national rela-
tion to education, and has accepted large responsibilities.
If you believe that this Act has settled the scheme of
national education, even for a few years, I trust that
you are much mistaken. It has just touched the outskirts
of the subject. The great object before us is to establish
an efficient organisation of public intellect. Now, the
national relations to it are in a state of chaotic con-
fusion. There is the Committee of Council with two
departments running side by side on parallel rails, yet
never touching each other lest disagreeable collisions
might result. The elementary school department
will have no aid from the science and art de-
partment ; and yet both are under the same masters—
the President and Vice-President of the Council.
Again, you have a third body, the Endowed
School Commissioners, tacked on to the same committee
by a loose sort of thread, but not bound to co-operate
with either department. Then you have all sorts of
Government schools outside the education department
altogether. Union and workhouse schools under the
Poor-law Board ; military and regimental schools under
the War Office ; naval and ship schools under the Admi-
ralty ; factory and industrial schools under the Home
Office. Some of tbe universities receive large sums from
Parliament, but are responsible to no public department
for their proper use. In fact, we have educational mate-
rial in abundance, but no architect to make a national
edifice out of them. We have not even decided which of
them should be selected for the building of the future.
Brick, stone, wood, iron are all useful in building ; any one
will do, yet all• united would answer the purpose better.
But we quarrel among ourselves as to-which should be
used, so a substantial building is not even begun, and our
castle is in the air. Her humanists, realists, religionists,
and secularists contend for their separate views, and
refuse to co-ordinate them for the public good. In this
confusion the pubic call for a Minister of Education; in
the hope that he may be a nt:cleus round which the
various education materials may crystallise in a definite
form. In the competition of nations, both in war and in
peace, their position for the future will depend upon the
education of their peoples. Local advantages or practical
aptitudes may give them pre-eminence to-day, but, unless
supported by knowledge, these will vanish to-morrow.
The competition of the future will be one of public intel-
lect. The Act which I have criticised is our first effort
to elicit order from disorder. But it is the mere beginning
of a mighty work, which this country must perform, if
she is to escape the sentence passed on the Church of
Sardis—" Thou hast a name that thou livest and art
dead."

The subject of cruelty to animals engaged the attention
of the section devoted to discussions on the repression of
crime. Mr. John Bollam read a paper which strongly
urged the necessity of legislation in reference to the ques-
tion being greatly impeded ; the difficulty of conviction of
those guilty of cruel acts being pointed out. A prominent
feature of the paper was that it vigorousiy reprobated the
unnecessary multiplication of experiments on live animals
for the purposes of science. Reformatory Schools' and
Elementary Education Act of 1870 was another subject
discussed in this section. A paper was read by Mr. D. D.
Main, who was of opinion that little could be done unless
the compulsory attendance on the part of all children not
otherwise recognised instruction was insisted upon.
Referring to the difficulties that might lie in the train of
securing the attendance of a certain class of children the
author threw out a somewhat novel idea that arrange-
ments might be made to feed them. The health section was
in the main devoted to the consideration of subjects
having a local bearing, such as the water supply of
the district, and the public health of Newcastle. A paper
of a more general interest, however, was one on the sani-
tary changes necessary for the health of the people,
insisted
that by Mr. Alexander Hay. In this it was
that one of the most necessary aims of a
builder should be the purifications of the foundations
of the houses he erected, the ill effects produced by
dwarfed rooms, inefficient fire places, flat pitched roofs,
the practice of stacking bricks in muriate of soda, and
underground workshops being made the subjects of com-
ment. The paper further urged the great advantage that
would accrue from proper facilities being afforded for
river bathing, and the extension of window gardening in
towns, and it deprecated the practice of extending towns
up to the very walls of cemeteries.
The " Education of Miners," having a special local re-
ference, was the subject of a paper in the Education Sec-
tion by the Rev. W. A. Scott.
_ _

In the International Law Section a paper on colonisa-
tion was to have been read by Sir William Denison, and
one on the " Relations between England and her
Colonies," by Mr. R. A. Maofie, M.P. ; but neither of
the authors being present the Section was adjourned.
" International Coinage " formed the subject of
a paper by Professor Leoni Levi in the Economy
and Trade Section. The Professor also read a
report on the best means of obtaining uniformity of
weights and measures applicable to the sale of grain and
other agricultural products. The " Law •of Mortmain "
was the title of the paper presented to the Municipal Law
Section by Dr. Waddilove.