The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-25 00:00:00

DOWNING-STREET, JUNE 23.

The Queen has been pleased to appoint Colville Arthur
Durell Barclay, Esq., to be Colleetor of Customs for the
Island of Mauritius.

BANKRUPTS.

Notice of Adjudications and First Meetings of Creditors.
To surrender under the Bankruptcy Act, 1861.
In the Country.
Jeremiah O'Brien, late of Ann-st., Greenhill, Swansea,
Glamorganshire, haulier, July 6, Swansea.
To surrender under the Bankruptcy Act, 1869.
In London. _

-- -----.
Sidney Bennett„ Queen-st., Mayfair, orthopcedic prac-
titioner. - -- -

•••,••• •••••••••• •
James Cherry and Samuel Fletcher, Paul's-alley, Red
Cross-st., City, general printers.
Thomas Harradine, Birchin-lane, City, discount broker.
John Harris, Goldsworthy-place, Deptford Lower-road,
Rotherhithe, carpenter.
F. L. Hiller Hiller, and Joseph Hart, Jewry-street,
Aldgate, city, merchants.
Samuel Hume, Kilmarsh-road, Hammersmith, glass
dealer.
George Henry Prince, Cross-street, Frampton Park-
road, Well-street, Hackney, builder.
Joseph Robinson, Southampton-street, Camberwell,
stonemason.
William Winter, Lower Marsh, Lambeth, cheesemonger.

The Bit tningliam Post says that a decided improve-
ment has taken place in Mr. Bright's health. It learns
from the best authority that the last reports are the most
favourable that have been received, and that Mr. Bright
is really getting on well.
Two men were killed by railway trains on Thurs-
day. One met his death at Ditton, on the Great Northern
line ; another deliberately stood on the line between
Sheffield and Masborough, and was run down by an
,express.
The first Fenian trial in the American courts
arising out of the recent Canadian raid begins on Monday
text at Canandaigua, New York, in the United States
District Court. General Starr will then be indicted for
violating the neutrality laws.

DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest holders
of whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky Is r ommeuded
by the medical profession in preference to French brand . Sup
pited in casks and cases for home use or exportation. y:otations
on application to Messrs DIJIN VILLE & k,0., Royal Irish Dis-
tilleries, Belfast ; or at their London Uttices, 4, Beatuort Buildings
Strand, ‘l,.te.

SPIRIT OF THE PRESS—THIS MORNING.
THE GOVERNMENT EDUCATION BILL.
The Telegraph says that the House of Commons has de-
clared that it will not forcibly divorce the religious
element from the primary education of the people ; that
it will not demolish the existing educational machinery
of voluntaryism ; that it will not shut the Bible out of the
rate-aided schools by Act of Parliament ; that, in a word,
it holds the Government bill to be the only measure
of education within reach of the country. Although
much time has been wasted in making that affirmation, the
Telegraph does not regret the length of the debate.
The most difficult part of the work in committee has,
to a great extent, been already discounted. The House
will not endure renewals of the fight when it has to pass
under review the precise phrases of the bill. And it will
be the less inclined to sanction any such waste of time
after hearing the emphatic declaration of the Prime
Minister yesterday evening that the Government is de-
termined to use all its strength in order to push the bill
through both Houses this session.
The Government, and the great bulk of the Liberal
party (says the Standard), seem to be quite of one mind
with the Conservative party in declining to regard the
mere reading of the Bible as in any way equivalent to
" religious teaching." Thus the largest measure of
grace which the League was willing to grant to the
Church schools has been rejected by the Government and
the Liberal party as insufficient in the case of the rate-
provided schools. It would be a mistake to assume that
the division was a complete triumph for the Church and
the denominational cause. On the contrary, they have
both to look forward to some stubborn contests in com-
mittee; but in the meantime they may derive comfort
and courage from the fact that the League has sustained
such a crushing reverse as can hardly fail to paralyse its
parliamentary action for some time to come.
The Daily News thinks the Government has every
reason to be satisfied with the vote. So far as the amend-
ment is concerned, it cannot now be maintained that they
have called in the enemy to defeat their friends. The
Opposition, of course, voted in the majority, and the
small minority contained some of the chief Liberal repre-
sentatives of the great urban populatic ns ; but the
Opposition members merely swelled a vote which would
have' shown the same result had been actually
confined to the Liberal side of the House.
The Daily News believes there is reason to hope that the
measure may emerge from committee in a form which
will satisfy the moderate expectations, if not the highest
hopes even of the 60 members who, in the division
of yesterday, expressed their desire for a bill which should
in no way extend denominational influence in national
education.
The Morning Post says that never was a battle more
earnestly or more conscientiously fought than that in
which the representatives of the League have sustained a
conclusive but not an ignominious defeat. They main-
tained their ground manfully, and with a sincerity of
conviction which must have won for them the respect of
their opponents on both sides of the House. But, even if
it had not been evident from the beginning that they
would be defeated, a shrewd suspicion to that effect must
have entered their own minds as, one after the other, they
disclosed in their speeches to the House the utter absence
of a common policy or coherent principles in the views
for which they contended. In this respect it must be
owned they have been most unfortunate, and the Post re-
gerds the fact as an augury that their defeat is not one of
those reserves through which a truth must sometimes pass
before it can convert the world to believe in it.
The Yorkshire Post of this (Saturday) morning thinks
that, unless Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues are hope-
lessly and impenetrably obtuse, the important result of
the education debate, added to its previous course, must
have convinced them that they perpetrated a useless and
monstrous blunder in altering their original scheme.
Like the dog in the fable, Mr. Gladstone has dropped
the substance to grasp the shadow, and now finds
himself with a huge majority indeed, but without the
hearty support of all on either side of the House. The
bill, as originally framed, was not a bad measure, and when
it reaches the peers their lordships' task of modification
need only take the form of restoration to convert it into
a useful bill. The responsibility of rejecting a measure
for the promotion of popular education will then rest with
Mr. Gladstone and his Liberal majority in the House of
Commons.