The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 12, 1869.

nation of his MAJESTY as to the alternative on the one
hand of what is called Personal Government, other-
wise an Autocracy, and on the other hand of Govern-
ment henceforth by means of a Constitutional Sove-
reign and Responsible:Ministers. A disturbance in Ire -
land leading—unless effectually guarded against by the
authorities—to possible bloodshed and eventual perse-
cution ! A collision, here, in England between the
Lords and Commons, resulting, it may even yet be,
unless evaded by concessions on the part of the Go-
vernment, or on the part of the Opposition, or on
the part of both, in radical changes in the character
and in the working of the complex machinery of our
Constitution! A contest in France, first of all within
the Legislative Chamber, afterwards, it may be, in
Paris, and in the larger towns, and more orless through-
out the whole country, between the opposing forces of
Imperialism on the one hand, and on the other of
those new Revolutionists the champions of a system
of purely Parliamentary Government ! Critical as
the juncture, here, in the midst of us, yonder to the
right hand and yonder to the left hand, undoubtedly
is, we cannot, for an instant, ourselves, regard it,
whether in England, in Franc; or in Ireland, with
anything whatever of anxiety. In each instance it
is grave, no doubt, but, in our view, at least, not
likely to result in anything disastrous. We say this
out of our own earnest and deliberate convictions,
and because we are neither optimists nor pessimists.
Legislation upon this matter of the Irish
Church may be delayed, probably will be
delayed until another session. But that, as
we conceive, will be the worst that can happen, as
the result of the antagonism which has sprung up
between the Lords and Commons of the United
Kingdom. Eventually the Lords will have to yield,
the Commons will carry out their determination, the
Opposition will go to the wall, the Ministerial mea-
sure will be carried. But, as to all this being only
effected by means of a Radical Change in the Con-
stitution, we do not for one instant believe it. Par-
liamentary Reform was carried without its involving
a Change in the Constitution. So was Catholic
Emancipation. So was Free-Trade. So will this
equally great and just measure for the disestablish-
ment and disendowment of the alien State Church,
hitherto maintained, as it were, by main force, cer-
tainly in defiance of the will of the nation, in Ireland.
As to Civil War being kindled, as the result of all
this, in Ireland herself between the wearers of the
two opposing colours of Green and Orange, we are
equally incredulous. We regard it as about as
likely as this long-talked of collision between the
Lords and Commons, as the result of which the Lords
ought long since, as a political institution, to have
disappeared altogether. Equally satisfied are we that
the Emperor NAPOLEON will prove himself, at this un-
doubtedly grave juncture, possibly the gravest junc-
ture that has yet occurred in the annals of his reign,
perfectly equal to the emergency. Ile will no more
withdraw at the hand of his body guard, and with
flying colours, like King CHARLES X.—hewill no more
skedaddle without an affectation of dignity or a pre-
tence of courage as did Louts PHILIPPE, than he will
meekly lay his hand upon the hollow overhanging the
basket of the guillotine, as did Louts XVI. No—we
repeat it—he will show himself, and that betimes,
perfectly equal to the emergency. It is out-
rageous to talk of the autocratic power of NAPOLEON
111., as though it were some grinding and pitiless
despotism. During the reign of this tyrant Free
Trade, for example, has been established. And if
the Edifice yet remains to be crowned—freedom of
speech and freedom of writing are matters of every-
day occurrence over in Paris, as the reports of the
discussions in the Legislative Chamber, and as the
printed columns of a score of different newspapers,
clearly enough demonstrate.

IN the summer of 1803 the French Minister of
Agriculture appointed a commission to inquire into
the state of education—especially technical—in Ger-
many and Switzerland. The results of this Commis-
sion's labours have been translated for the
information of our own Parliament, and are
now published in the shape of a Blue-book.
The facts are certainly as well worth
knowing in England as in France; and it must be
confessed that they are as humiliating as they are
remarkable. No one questions that we are behind-
hand in education, both elementary and technical ;
the superiority of the German States passes un-
challenged ; but we are apt to forget how far we are in
arrear unless constantly reminded of our deficiency
by these stern figures and averages. Whilst we have
been botching at our educational system for the last
quarter of a century, with a result far from satisfac-
tory at the best, the Germans and the Swiss have long
enjoyed an organisation under which ignorance is
positively impossible. Throughout these diverse
States, from Republican Switzerland to Imperial
Austria, almost every child goes to school,
and almost every grown-up person can read and
write—many can do much more. In England many
thousands of children never receive any instruction;
Not one-half grow up with a fair education. Very
different is the case with the Germans and the Swiss.
Even in Austria the average number of children
who attend school is seldom less than 95
per cent, of the whole. In Prussia 974 out of every
1,000 children between the ages of 5 and 1 are
receiving education. In Saxony there are appa-
rently no absentees whatever. Equally striking are
the effects of this universal system of instruction.
In Baden it was found that of the lowest class—the
offenders condemned to imprisonment—ninety-
seven per cent. could both read and write. In Prussia
and Saxony the result is the same. In Bavaria the
average is a little, but very little, lower.
The reports of the English Education Council
never contain any figures like these. It is doubtful
if the average attendance at English schools much
exceeds one-half the number of children who ought
to be found there. Nor are the results more
satisfactory ; for of the pupils who leave
school at the full age, it is a melancholy fact
that 40 per cent. are inefficiently educated. Such a
remarkable difference can be owing only to •some
great superiority of system on the part of
the Germans and the Swiss; and the French Com-
missioners, who have to deplore the same inferiority
in France that we find in England, attribute it with-
out hesitation to compulsory attendance. In all the
German States and the Swiss cantons, what-
ever the form of government or religion,
law and custom make primary instruction
compulsory. " Nowhere is it admitted that fathers
have the right, to the prejudice of society, of with-
holding from their children this nourishment of the
mind any more than they can deny them that of the
body." Special supervision is exercised, in order to
see that this great duty is properly performed, and it
is further secured by penalties—first warning, then
a fine, and lastly imprisonment. In some cases bad
roads and difficult mountain country require some
relaxation of these rules, but everywhere are they
accepted in principle. Indeed, no attempt is made
anywhere to evade them on other grounds. The
ipnetnoa
al t ihe
as
bairt a
nr rarely
public
opinion
cpted,
inio for
npr
rtehve law e
ntsit has ai
ns
frpassedinfringe-
ment. e
ment. In one case an army colonel had a contingent
of 800 recruits sent to him, of whom it was found
that four could not read. The circumstance
was deemed so extraordinary that an inquiry was
held to ascertain the cause, and the parents who had
thus neglected the education of their children were
strongly censured. The French Commissioners, like
our own school inspectors, hold that compulsory
attendance is the sole cause of the difference
between bad and good education. Not only
do they recommend that the principle should
be at once adopted in France, but they
see no aifilcultyin doing so. In Prussian Poland and
other provinces where the compulsory principle ha

been introduced of late no obstacle nor inconvenience
whatever has been experienced. These facts are
indeed well worth consideration. When the supe-
riority of one nation over another is thus marked
it is impossible to be certain that the difference will
not some day have the most serious consequences.
The French authorities are convinced that no expen-
diture of money, no progress in morality and civili-
sation, will of themselves suffice to make education
general. Our own experience is rapidly establishing
the same conclusion.

WOMEN are of some use after all. True, HELEN
lost a city, and EVE a world ; but a woman,
name unknown, has saved a Ministry. On Thurs-
day night Mr. LAYARD put his foot into a very
awkward scrape. He, the First Commissioner of
Works, had entered into a contract with some
workers in mosaic for a job in the House of
Commons without having previously obtained the
sanction of that House. It was undoubtedly a most
improper proceeding. One member after another
get up full of virtuous indignation to denounce this
infringement upon the most cherished privilege of
the Commons, the Power of the Purse. Ministers
made but a lame defence, and had much better have
made none. Altogether there was no reason why
some modern 11A3IPDEN should not propose and
carry a vote of impeachment against Ministers for
violating the Constitution. Things looked very
ugly indeed. The journals were fulminating,
the Governor of the Tower was prepar-
ing apartments for the Cabinet, Ministers
were shaking in their shoes, CALCRAFT was
practising decapitation upon cats. There was every
prospect of a grand tragedy within sight of that very
Trinity House where only a few days before Mr.
LowE waxed merry, to the indignation of Mr.
DisnAELI, when a deliverer appeared in the person
of a fair anonymous letter-writer. That letter at
once changed the whole position. Ministers no
longer quaked, and even Mr. LAYARD, the arch-
offender against whom the thunderbolts of parlia-
mentary wrath were hurled on Thursday, was on
Friday night the hero of sympathetic cheers and
laughter.

His deliverance was wrought in the following
manner. Mr. HERBERT had proposed that the
grating in front of the Ladies' Gallery should be
removed, and he gave it to be understood that he
was asking that change in the name of those
whom it would affect. The House was placed in
some difficulty by this proposition. On the one
hand, hon. members did not like to give
an ungracious refusal to a moderate request ; on the
other, they could not but fear the results which
would attend so grave an innovation. It was, in
fact, the thin end of the wedge. If ladies once
obtained admission within the House, even of
that qualified sort which is granted to " strangers"
and reporters, who could tell where they would stop ;
whether, in fact, they would stop at all until
they got possession of the SPEAKER'S chair ? The
matter was a serious one; and for Mr. LAYARD,
a new-made bridegroom, decidedly embarrassing.
A happy thought struck him. Perhaps, after all,
Mr. HERBERT was wrong; perhaps the ladies did not
wish to have the grating removed. At all events,
he would inquire. He did so ; he asked two
hundred frequentresses of the House, and found
that only two of them desired the altera-
tion, only one per cent. that is. This was
reassuring, and he determined to fortify himself
with a written letter from one of these female poli-
ticians which should express the views of her friends.
That letter the First Commissioner read, amid
loud cheers and laughter. The writer declared that
it would really be a serious injury to the ladies if the
gallery were thrown open. At present they could
hang up their bonnets and shawls, and lie about in
deshatille,and go to sleep while the bores were prosing.
Once remove the grating and all that happy abandon
would come to an end. They must wear all their most
costly costumes, they must preserve the most staid
decorum, they must feel conscious that they
no longer came to see, but to be seen,
and—was it vain to think so ?—their pre-
sence would often disturb the eloquence of their
dearest male friends below. These arguments were
so conclusive that Mr. HERBERT withdrew his pro-
posal. The grating is, therefore, to remain until
such time as Mr. MILL has the pleasure of introducing
Miss BEcuER to Mr. DENISON as member for Man-
chester.

LATEST INTELL IGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION IN
IRELAND.

GALWAY, Monday Morning.

Captain Thomas Eyre Lambert, of Castle Lam-
bert, county Galway, was fired at and wounded,
but not fatally, within a few yards of his house,
last night about 10 o'clock. Three shots were fired,
and the last lodged some slugs in his head. The
extent of injury is not known. One man has been
• arrested on suspicion in the mail train at wood-
Station.

AMERICA.

NEW YORK, July 10.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times considers that the ultimate fate of the pro-
posal to grant houses and glebes to the religious ministers
of Ireland must depend upon the growth of the feeling of
equity in the English nation, and upon the readiness to
recognise this feeling by the English Ministry. Should
it be rejected it is quite plain that the Lords will abide
by their determination to postpone the question of the
trusts of the surplus funds of the Establishment. Al;
other occasions of possible difference between the two
Houses will admit of settlement, but we are per.
suaded that it would be a delusion to hope that this point
will be relinquished. the postponement of the destination
of the surplus is, no doubt, an evil, even though it be true,
as it certainly is, that no real surplus can accrue for many
years ; but to pass a clause providing that the fund when
realised shall be wasted, unless Parliament steps in during
the interval to alter its uses, would be a greater evil. The
proposition of the Government for the application of the
fund may be said to have combined almost everything that
is bad. So far as it offered a choice of purposes, it was
an invitation to jobbery. So far as it proposed to exonerate
the county cess it was an offer of a bonus to the land.
lords of Ireland. The remaining uses were not
inaptly described by an apologist as forms of legalised
charity, and we have been surprised to hear the language
used in defending them. The experience of our own
parishes under the old Poor Law, the lessons of our local
charities, go for nothing. We are seriously invited to
establish organisations which have been tried and found to
be simply demoralising. It is in Ireland, a country
already suffering from the evils most vigorously generated
by such causes, that it is proposed to put them in opera
tion on an extended scale. If the surplus cannot be uti
Used it should be saved from being wasted, and it is
probable that the bill will become law, amended in this
if in no other particular.

It is said, observes the Standard, that Mr. Gladstone
will reject the Lords' amendments, and pitchfork into the
Upper House a number of new peers sufficient to give
him a majority there. But that is very improbable, and
nearly impossible. To ensure the success of the scheme
these new peers must be at least fifty in number, and even
if we suppose that the peers who now support the Govern-
ment submit to this cheapening, this degradation of their
nobility, where is Mr. Gladstone to find the raw
material out of which he is to manufacture his noble-
men ? Would any man with an atom of self-respect con-
sent to accept such a peerage, and to bear it always in his
mind, and know that the public bore it in mind, for what
he was created a peer ; not for any merit of his own ; not
for any services to his country ; not by any favour of his
Sovereign, or even for services to his party ; but solely to
vote as Mr. Gladstone bid him, and to degrade and destroy
the great assembly of which he had become part. Of
course there are the eldest sons of Whig peers, whose
calling up to the House of Lords would not he so repugnant
to those peers themselves ; but the eldest sons of Whig
peers are many of them members of the House of Com-
mons, who desire to remain there, and whose seats, more-
over, might, in the event of vacancies, be lost to the party.
We do not believe in this wholesale creation of peers.
It is a menace which, it is hoped, will frighten some of
the Conservative peers, who, it is fancied, may be weak
enough to prefer to remain members of the House of Lords
with the brand of surrender at discretion to the House of
Commons upon it, to being members of a little more
numerous body, and still preserve, at least, the show of
independence. It is not the Church or the Conservative
party which has anything to apprehend from the rejection
of the Lords' amendments. The consequences of that step
will be full of disaster to the Government and the Liberal
majority of the House of Commons.

The Telegraph refers to the case of a milkmaid in
Devonshire who has just been sentenced to seven days
imprisonment for stealing half a pint of milk from her
employer, a local clergyman. Theft is theft, whether the
criminal has purloined a bottle of milk or a bag of cove.
reigns. Nor is it easy to believe that the case in
question was the woman's first offence. A country
gentleman, even if he be in holy orders, may
reasonably object to being robbed by his servants.
Nevertheless we have surely a right to expect at
least as much kindness and consideration from a clergy.
man as from a layman ; and we cannot affirm that we
know many laymen who would have acted like the hero of
the story, as it has been related to us. We may not
believe that it was the woman's first offence ; but it was,
at any rate, the first that had been detected, and a
Christian gentleman might surely have told the woman to
go and sin no more. Yet the same stern magistrates who
gave Mrs. Lock seven days' imprisonment for " convey-
ing" a pennyworth of milk can, under other circumstances,
be marvellously mild. Just above the narrative, which
wo have repeated from it local newspaper, stands the
record of an offender tried at the same time, and by the
same justices, who had fastened an ounce and
three-quarters of lead to his flour scale—against the cus-
tomers, of course--after having disarmed suspicion by
the ingenious expedient of sending ether scales to be
tested by the authorities. Allowance will be made in
weights and measures for reasonable wear and tear; but
as we never yet heard of a case in which an ounce and
three-quarters of lead had been fastened to the scale in
favour of the consumer, we fear that the tradesman was
as familiar with giving false weight as Mrs. Lock was
with helping herself to her employer's milk. Under these
circumstances, there must be, in the public view, a very
ugly discrepancy between the sentence of a ten-shilling
fine and that of seven days' imprisonment. We don't say
it is against the law, nor that " Oke's Synopsis" will not
hear their worships out ; but we do say it is "hard lines"
for the elderly female purloiner, and that, if one be wicked
at Luppitt or Ottery, it is better toa be very wicked while
you are about it.
The Daily IVews declares that we should not degra:.
music from being an art into a mere fashion. There ars
numbers of people who attend concerts simply to see
others and to be seen, who are utterly forgetful of the
performances. Like other arts, too, music, to be duly
appreciated, must in some degree at least he understood.
A good deal of trouble is taken by parents to have their
children taught a technical acquaintance with an
instrument, and it frequently happens that pupils
are put to such hard practising at an immature
age that they afterwards get a distaste, if not a
disgust, for the accomplishment it was proposed
to teach them. Then, again, it is utterly a waste
of time, temper, and money to endeavour to make a child
without a musical ear fond of music. It is as foolish as to
try and teach a thick-headed boy to write poetry, except
that in the latter case a step may be made in facility of
expression. Yet it is rare, indeed, to find people who are
destitute of thcfaculty. Lamb humorously described
himself as being without an ear for music ; but in his
further explanation and apology lie clearly shews that he
was deeply sensitive to the impressions of the art. It is
almost impossible to believe that a man of genius could be
deaf to music. We know what Shakspere said With refe-
rence to bins who bath no music in his soul. Pythagoras
was represented by the modern poet, who told us—
" There's music in all things, if men had ears;
This earth is but an echo of the spheres." -
" When she had passed it seemed like the ceasing of ex-
quisite music," writes Longfellow. Byron speaks of the
music breathing from Zuleika's face ; Mr. Tennyson of a
woman " musically made," and so on and on. We should
bear a few of those notions in mind when attending many
of the tempting music feasts that go on around us. Nor
should we be ungrateful to the artists who bring to us
gifts from the masters. Singers or players sincere and
accomplished in their respective vocations are worthy not
only of patronage but of esteem, and should not be still,
jetted to the flippant inattentions which so often mortify
and disturb them in the concert-rooms.

The Herald, in commenting on the chief features of the
Bankruptcy Bill, says that, as was remarked by Lord
Chelmsford on Thursday night, the present inclination of
the commercial mind seems towards keeping the adminis-
tration of bankrupt estates as much as possible in the
hands of the creditors, leaving a court only a minimum
of power to supervise their proceedings. In harmony
with this, trustees have been clothed with discretionary
powers so wide that they would be more than men
if they should remain proof against all temptation to abuse
them,nor can we help fearing that the supervisory powers
of the court will be pretty frequently called into
requisition. However, there will be very much less
scandal in creditors asking the court to keep their own
deputies in order than in continual complaints that the
court itself is so cormorantic as to eat up whatever mis-
fortune or mismanagement has left in the debtor's pos-
session. On the whole, though the bill cannot be con-
sidered by any means a perfect measure, it represents a
great improvement upon the present law, and, as such, we
trust it will pass safely through such parliamentary perils
as yet await it, receiving, it may he, such further amend-
ments as time and opportunity may permit.

The Star, in referring to the recent emigration statistics,
says that they supply information on an interesting point
—the occupations of the immigrants; but hardly suffi-
cient information, as the occupations of nearly three-
fifths of the number are " not specified." Bo far
as they go, however, the figures confirm previous
impressions as to the people who are most at-
tracted by a country like America. Out of a million
accounted for, Wi,ooo are labourers, 26-I,COO farmers,
1116,000 mechanics, 71,000 miners, 68,000 servants, 13,000
clerks, and the numbers of any other class, whether
tailors, or shoemakers, or lawyers, are quite in-
significant. There are entries, it is tru,, of
138,000 "merchants," and 21,000 "mariners, " but
these seem unintelligible, as not quite consi.stent with
what is known of American needs. "Merchant,"
however, is an elastic term, and America receives *many
who change their trade. It is plain that the people
wanted, as a rule, are labourers and farmers--there being
fewer openings for miners and mechanics,and almost none
at all for other trades and professions. The more agree-
able occupations are perhaps as keenly competed
for in America as elsewhere, and it is only a
large and sudden emigration which can absorb a
iew of those who follow them. The circumstances
which conduce to emigration are probably, therefore, no
lasting. ltrale labour and farming are daily and rapid!!
diminishing in proportion to other departments of human
industry ; and with that diminution the attractive force
of America will cease. The social problems of the Old;
World must be settled in the end, without any reliance on
evaigriktim • • .

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC 1318.TIDPS AND
CONCURRENT ENDOWMENT.

The Earl of Denbigh told the House of Lords on Friday
night that the Roman Catholic bishops had refused to
accept glebes. This has caused a great deal of comment.
The Earl now writes that he was under a mis-
apprehension. He " finds on more precise
inquiry that the meeting was one of the 'National
Association of Ireland,' a body which can in no sense be
held to represent ecclesiastical authority." The Earl adds
that though compelled to vote against the Duke of Cleve-
land, yet he concurs in the plan proposed, as a matter of
justice, and hopes that if it be not now acceptable to all
parties, the day is not far distant when, both as a matter
of justice and policy, it may be found possible to carry
such a measure into effect.