The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-14 00:00:00

EDUCATIONAL PERPLEXITIES.

The Pall Mall Gazette finds some serious difficulties in
the supplementary programme of the National Education
Union. The eighth resolution declares that " the general
principle of parental responsibility " should "be maintained
by the payment of school fees.' The theory of parental
duty held by the Education Union is certainly peculiar.
They will not hear of the parent being compelled
to send his child to school ; that object is pro-
vided for by a complicated system of " indirect " com-
pulsion applied to employers of labour. If, therefore, a
father can afford to dispense with his child's earnings,
he may let him grow up in absolute ignorance without
parental responsibility sustaining any injury. But if
he sends him to a free school this tender flower of re-
sponsibility will at once wither and die. It is as if the
law were to determine that though parental responsibility
does not oblige a man to give his children necessary
food, it does oblige him to refuse them leave to eat
food which is gratuitously provided for them.
The twelfth resolution, when read in the light of the argu-
ments commonly used against free schools, is hardly less
remarkable. It declares that " provision shall be made
to meet all individual cases of real poverty, as
distinct from pauperism, by the payment of
suitable school fees by the local anthorities."
The theory of the Education Union seems to be
that it will pauperise a man to send his children
to a school supported by an education rate ; but that it
will not pauperise him to send them to a school supported
by school fees, although an education rate has to be levied
all the same to give him the means of paying the fees. If
we have failed to make this reasoning clear to our readers,
it is because we ourselves are unable to appreciate its sup-
posed force.
DR. TEMPLE'S SERMON.

The Telegraph declares that Bishop Temple's sermon at
the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, was the sensation of Sun-
day. Although the most regular of churchgoers might
have been tempted to stay at home by one of the bitterest
north-east winds which London has felt for years, the
great banqueting hall of Charles was filled to
overflowing. Ministers of State had come, with
less known worshippers, to hear the prelate
whose name has for months been ringing through-
out England as that of an heresiarch. Perhaps
there was an expectation that the Bishop of Exeter would
say something about his own position in the Church. If
so, the anticipation was disappointed ; for he kept close to
the purpose of his discourse ; which was an appeal for
pecuniary help on behalf of the poorer clergy. In-
stinct with homely force, intensely earnest, filled with
direct appeals to the heart and conscience, and
occasionally rising into pathetic eloquence, the
discourse threw a vivid light on the secret of
Bishop Temple's personal influence. But it naturally
said nothing about " Essays and Reviews," or Convoca-
tion, or the theological aims of the Broad Church party,
or the grounds of the Bishop's disagreement with the
ecclesiastical teaching of Archdeacon Denison. For
light on these subjects we must go to the last discus-
sions in Convocation ; which have, indeed, been so im-
portant as to mark an epoch in the history of the English
Church.

The American papers are filled with accounts
.of Mr. Peabody's funeral and Prince Arthur's move-
ments. His Royal Highness was present during the final
ceremonies, -which took place at the village of Peabody
last Tuesday, and are thus described in the telegraphic
rep :rts —" The remains were removed from the Peabody
Instilute, where they had Lin in state since the 2d inst.,
to th Congregational Church. ILre, after the usual re-
ligious ce:mnonies, the Hon. Ruben C. Winthrop delivered
an eloquent address, highly eulogistic of the vii toes of the
deceased. The coffin was then borne to the Harmony
Grove Cemetery, near the town, followed by the relatives.
Prince Arthur and suite, Mr. Thornton (the British Minis-
ter), Admiral F.it:ragut, Captain Commerell, and other
British and American naval officers, the Governors of
Maine and Massachusetts, the officers of numerous edu-
cational institutions endowed by the deceased, and delega-
tions from several State Legislatures and municipalities.
The funeral procession comprised over 200 carriages and
5.000 persons on foot." Mr. Robeson, Secretary of the
Navy, congratulated and thanked Captain Commerell by
letter for having performed the task allotted to him by the
Queen in conveying the remains to America, and ex-
pressed his regret that the arrival of the Monarch five
days earlier than expected had prevented the assembling
of a larger fleet for her reception.