The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1856.

It is impossible that the important informa-
tion recently elicited respecting the untoward
events connected with the fall of Kara can be
quietly shelved without leading to very decided
action. The causes of that deplorable calamity
are now palpable—the whole series can be dis-
tinctly traced—the incapacity and corruption of
the Turkish officials—the grave misc)nduct of the
leaders who were desirous of obtaining opportu-
nities for private peculation and scandalous dissi-
pation, rather than of discharging the duties
confided to their charge, was the primary evil.
As we have already stated, had these " robbers
and traitors" been in the actual pay o!
Russia, and seeking to advance her interests,
they could not have better played her
game. Under the most favourable circumstances
the task of General Winraara was of a particu-
larly arduous and delicate character—one that
required the most strenuous and unflinching sup-
port from the British Ambassador and all those
connected with the diplomatic service at Constan-
tinople. It was beyond all things essential that
it should be thoroughly understood that his repre-
sentations would insure the punishment of those
who misconducted themselves, and that ho had
the sanction of the Ottoman Government for the
reforms which he might feel it necessary to intro-
dace. As British Commissioner, it was his especial
duty to watch with peculiar vigilance the conduct
of those who had tolerated abuses seriously prej udi •
cial to the great cause for which the Allies had been
compelled to enter into the War, and any sup-
pression of the facts would have been a gross
.
dereliction of duty on his partlt was impera-
tive on him to tell "the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth ;" and, in so doing,
he should have enlisted the sympathies of every
true-hearted Englishman on his side.
But, unfortunately, he was not indebted to
Lord STRATFORD for his appointment. The
Foreign Secretary was well aware of his high
qualifications, and nominated him directly to the
post without the intervention of, or even any
reference to, Lord STRATFORD. 110DCO the
grievance. Hence the determination, coolly and
deliberately formed, not to sustain the obnoxious
official. General WILLIA3I3 reached the scene of
his arduous labours. His despatches prove how
anxiously he endeavoured to fulfil the expecta-
tions formed by the Government ; but fifty-four
despatches, each accompanied by a private letter,
were coolly consigned to the recesses of the Am-
bassador's office—probably unread, certainly
unanswered. Even the recognition of the
SULTAN'S Government was not obtained. The
Ambassador " forgot" to ask for it. His
difficulties were Ulna enormously aggravated,
and the delinquents who, under different circum
stances, would have licked the dust before his feet,
could afford to treat with contumely and insolence
the man who had no tangible warranty fir the

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authority which he assumed. Well might he
have cons: idered that the Army was " doomed to
destructia a at the Seraskierate" when all his
energetic and laudable efforts in the right direc-
tion wen) thus dealt with.

Nor vas it from parties at Constantinople and
in Asia only that he received this injurious treat-
ment. The anxious desire of OMER PACHA to ren-
der the much-required assistance was counter-
acted by the Allied Generals in the Crimea.
The array that might have rendered suck ines-
timable service in Asia was uselessly detained at
Eupatoria. The Turkish General demanded a
conference, in order that he might obtain the
necessary permission to save Kars. But all the
French and English officers refused to assent to
any withdrawal of troops, and General SIMPSON
wrote to Lord STRATFORD "to use his powerful
influence with the Porte to cause the opinion of
the conference to prevail over that of the Pacha."
The suggestion came to one ready and willing to
give it the utmost force ; and although Lord
CLARENDON backed the Pacha, and telegraphed
to Lord COWLEY to remonstrate with the French
Government, and afterwards to Lord STRATFORD
that OMER might go to Kars, the great object was
not effected until the fatal and stereotyped " too
late " was stamped on the proceeding.
The delay in forwarding the proceeds of the
Turkish Loan was another formidable impediment
in tie way of the much-required aid. For that
the accursed red-tapist system was mainly respons-
ible. The notorious rapacity and peculative pro-
pensities of the Turkish officials, no doubt, re-
quired great vigilance ; but the precautions taken
were such as to deprive the fund of its utility,
and to prevent it from becoming available for the
objects for which it was obtained. Caution is a
very good thing in its way, but it may be carried
too far, and there seems to be no reasonable doubt
that such was the case in tie instance under
notice.

Quite sufficient is disclosed, and that on unques-
tionable testimony, to justify prompt and im►ne-
diate action. We fear that there can be no second
opinion as to the conduct of Lord STRATFORD, or
the necessity for his instant recall. He has much
to answer for, and should have the opportunity of
forthwith preparing his defence. Nor should a
person lying under such grave accusations, and
so serious a bill of indictment, be suffered
again to abuse his authority and allow
his petulance and irritibility a gain
to conquer every principle of justice and equity.
and to overrule the feelings that should have the
greatest weight with every statesman and patriot.
Lord STRATFORD should not, under any circum-
stances, be permitted to remain a single day her
MAJESTY'S representative at the Sublime Porte.

On the great question of National Education
which has just occupied the attention of tlae
House of Commons it would be a relief indeed to
pronounce an unhesitating opinion. Even Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, however, with All his natural dog-
matism, and addressing an assembly which would
gladly have accepted any practicable solution of
the difficulties of the case, was, for him, quite
diffident. The preamble every one grants. Every
one would preface a bill with the assertion, that
" whereas a large portion of her MAJESTY'S juve-
nile subjects who do attend school receive but a
very imperfect education ; and whereas a large
portion which might attend, from various causes
do not ; and whereas, in some districts, there is
a deficiency in school accommodation, be it en-
acted," &c.
But it is in the enacting part of the mattter
that all the difficulties arise. There is, first, the
previous question to be disposed of, whether, tak-
ing England as it is, politically, socially, and re-
ligiously, education is not advancing as rapidly as
is compatible with the national habits, opinions,
and prejudices. A point by no means so easily
disposed of by a candid man as it is by the san-
guine abettors of some of the plans for national
education. Next arises the important inquiry,
whether day-school education shall omit direct
religious instruction or not. In other words,
whether it shall rely upon Sunday-school teachers,
ministers of religion, and parents for this, or
seek to impart it in the day school. The pro-
posed modes of effecting the latter are two—to
select the book in which nearly all agree, the
Bible, to be read without note or comment, and
to let each sect teach its own peculiarities in the
school partly supported by it ; in neither case
permitting compulsory attendance on the religious

teaching.
When we arrive at the pecuniary part of the
question, the grand point of discussion is the com-
parative ad►antage of local rates and Government
grants. The latter is what we are living under ;
the former is unquestionably more English, and
more consistent with the genius of a free people.
One pleads a short prescription and a large staff
of officers already having an inconvenient pecu-
niary interest in extending the system on which
they live ; the other, that it approaches mast
nearly to the voluntary system, which has been
the mainspring of nearly all yet achieved, and
would most interest the residents in a locality in
the proper expenditure of the money.
The difficulty of difficulties still remains—what
to do with the class whose parents should send
them, but will not. The pauper class are compa-
ratively in our hands. It is easy to connect at-
tendance at the parish school with receipt of re-
lief ; but the quarter of a million children
" neither at school nor at work," what are we to
do with them ? Persuasion has been largely
tried—are we to eompel them to learn ? Vaga-
bondage, idleness, and parental indifference are
the general aspects of the case. Shall parents be
finable for not sending their children to some
school ? Shall Government open ragged schools
in numbers sufficient ? If it makes the attempt
can it find the teachers qualified for the task ?
one which more than any other of a similar kind
requires special tact and some enthusiasm for the
object.

We have adverted to the principal and well-
known points on which opinion is so diverse, or on
which the difficulties are confessedly so great ;
and having done this it seems almost unfair to
propose no means of overcoming these difficulties.

If indeed we had a theoretical England to deal
with the task would be easy enough. We c3uld
adapt to it with ease either the secular or religious
plans, and support tie schools by local rates.
But we must take England as it is—with all its
sectarian differences, all its aversion to centralisa-
tion--all its too well-founded distrust of Go-
vernment administrative Inspectors and .Commis-
sioners, all its antagonism between the claims of
the State Church, and those of Dissenters, whose
numbers surpass, but whose wealth and power
fall se short of what the Establishment can claim.
The Popish element in the Church, Popery itself,
and even Unitarianism and infidelity all interfere
with the well-fitting of any homogeneous arrange-
ment.

Could we persuade tho nation to adopt the
principles which we think most important—as-

alining that State education is necessary, or
that since the appointment of the Committee

of Privy Council it is inevitable—we should

paint to Recular education and to local rating as

the corner-stones of any national system. Much
of the talking against the first is, of course, mere
cant, and deserving no answer ; but with a vastly
greater number it is the deep-rooted conviction
that religion ought to be the guide, and its mo-
tives the foundation of human action : a convic-
tion we fully share with them. We believe,
however, that all who do net want to use schools
as the instruments of sectarianism rather than
religion, will soon' open their eyes to the facts
of the ease. It is day schools, not boarding
schools, which are under discussion—places where
children are kept but a few hours each day, in
which they do not spend their mornings and even-
ings, nor their Sundays, unless the room be also
used on that day for entirely religious purposes.
There is no conflict between the secular and re-
ligious systems. One does not negative the ether ;
en the contrary, the secular institution is the
handmaid of the religious teaching. in Scotland
learning to read in a Sunday school was, and we
hope still is, unknown. The proposition is that
what is paid for by rate or grant should be the
secular part of the teaching. Reading, writing,
and arithmetic, and we should say even history,
geography, and the sciences are strictly or sub-
stantially worldly studies. Time must be spent
in teaching them, and for that time only the secu-
lar system would pay, leaving the religious tuition
to the tans of thousands of willing instructors,
from the Sunday-school teacher upwards to his
Grace of CANTERBURY.

The preference of local rating to Government
grants would seem inherent in Englishmen. At
present the Education Committee of Privy
Council, or rather its Secretary, is quite irrespons-
ible. Its administration and its highly salaried
inspectors, which Lord JOHN proposes so largely
to increase, may be immaculate, but there is no
proof of it. There may be the greatest jobbing
and favouritism. If so we have no means of
knowing it. We only know that the funds they
demand are rapidly increasing. The most remark-
able of Lord JOILN's resolutions—to place all em-
ployers of children under the same regulations as
manufacturers—would merely remedy a gross in-
justice to which we have more than once adverted.
If the employer of town-children is required to
to have them educated up to a certain age, why
net the farmer and the landlord also ? It will
not be pretended that self-education is most pro-
bable in rural districts.

Iu our present impression will be found two
remarkable, not to say astounding, instances of
Justices' justice—the one occurring at the Dorset
Intermediate Sessions, and the other at Holt, in
Norfolkshire.

In the former case, it will be seen, a poor cot-
tager, named BYLES, his wife and daughter, were
charged before the Rev. H. F. YEATMAN and a
full bench of Magistrates with stealing two
bushels of wheat and a sack, the property of
THOMAS HOMER SAUNDERS, at 0 wer Moigne, on
the 18th ult. The prisoners were undefended.
From the evidence it appeared that the father and
(laughter were in the employ of the prosecutor,
who allowed the former, as part of his wages, a
supply of grist insufficient for the support of his
family. Conscious, doubtless, of this the prose-
cutor lent a ready ear to an allegation made to
him that more grist had been sent by the prisoner
to the neighbouring mill than could have been
honestly come by. He repaired to the prisoner's
cottage, and found in the pantry the wheat and
sack in question. Asking the prisoner's wife
where she got the wheat, she replied, " It is some
of the lease corn," viz., the grist referred to.
Unfortunately for her voracity and honesty, it
contained wild oats, whick were mixed
with the wheat in a field belonging to
the prosecutor, but not with the grist al-
lowed to the male prisoner. On questioning
the latter he denied all knowledge of any wheat
having been in his cottage, and called the prose-
cutor's attention to the fact that the grist allowed
him was insufficient, and that, as the prosecutor
knew, his wife, ELIZABETH BYLES, had been in the
habit of purchasing flour at the mill. On further
inquiry the prosecutor ascertained that some five
sacks of wheat in all had been conveyed by the
daughter in the dusk of evening to the mill for
grinding, and these, it appeared, she had received
from her mother, who, on being further interro-
gated, declared she had picked the wheat up after
the mows and ricks had been put into the barn--in
other words, "gleaned." This may or may not
have been the case, but there could be no doubt
the wheat and the sack were the prosecutor's pro,
perty, and ELIZABETH BYLES the younger had op-
portunity to steal them ; while, on the other hand,
not a tittle of evidence was forthcoming to im-
plicate the male prisoner.

The result of the trial was, Vue daughter
was acquitted, and the father and. mother were
alike found guilty of receiving, and sentenced
respectively to nine and six months' hard labour !
This was on the first) day of the sessions ; on the
second the Rev. Chairman urbanely drew the
attention of the jury " to one of the most remark-
able circumstances that during his experience, ex-
tending over twenty years (good Heavens !), he
had yet met with." In brief, the jury having
convicted BYLES, and the Court in its unimpeach-
able wisdom and mercy taking into consideration
the notorious fact that every owner of a house
ought to know what was in it, haing sentenced
him to nine' months hard labour—down cane the
unconscionable prosecutor on the presiding magi-
strates with a declaration that in his belief the
man was innocent. Under such startling circum-
stances, the court was desirous, so far as it was
able, to reconsider their sentence ; but, careful of
its heavy responsibility, would, before altering
that sentence, put to the jury " the snore or less
guilt or innocence of the prisoner." The jury,
thus challenged, recommended Joseph Byles to
mercy, and his sentence was thereupon commuted
to three months' hard labour ! The reader is in-
credulous ! It is, nevertheless, the fact. The
unfortunate man was aware of the wheat and
sack being there or he was not. If he was aware
he was guilty; if not he was innocent. If he was
guilty no extenuating circumstances were forth

coining ; if innocent--and the party most inte-
rested next to himself in the fact, viz., the prose-
cutor, pronounced him to be se--he was entitled
to nothing short of an acquittal. Yet, after an
anomalous reference to the jury, he was on their
unwarranted recommendation to mercy resen-

tented to three instead of nine months' hard
labour !

Hardly less memorable is the Rabbit case at
Holt. An honest and poor man, in the exercise
of an hitherto undoubted right, 'is collared on a

public heath by a gamekeeper, and brought before
a bench of magistrates for having poached on his
own domains ; in other words, bagged a couple of
his own rabbits. The magistrates meet once,
twice, a third time—when, by the aid of a strange
justice, they are enabled to come to a decision

and convict the prisoner, who is fined a week's
wages, and sentenced, in default of payment, to

one week's imprisonment ! Yes, in this free
country, individuals are to be found entrusted

with the administration of justice capable of
min led absurdities and atrocities like
~these.