The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY FENING, MARCH 16, lc 69.

wasted by carelessness or wilful misdirection
Ilenceforth the endeavour will be to ensure their
being wasted no longer. With the Good Schools,
those well and wisely conducted, the Government
propose in no way whatever to interfere. The Bad
Schools alone are aimed at by the Bill now
passing through the Legislature. And the aim
is so true and so deliberate, besides which
it is directed against those Bad Schools with
such hearty goodwill, that we feel as absolutely
assured as we can feel upon a matter of this kind,
that.there will be no escape whatever for the delin-
Tient establishments. As the Vice-President of the
Council insisted very judiciously, the strongest
argument of all for reform of some kind
being adventured upon iu regard to the distribution
and application of the educational endowments is the
proved certainty, that where an endowment does no
good it does positive harm. His enforcement of this
truth went so far, in point of fact, that he
maintained that if those schools—the Bad
Schools—could not be reformed, they must
be set aside altogether. Away with them, say we,
in that contingency. The mere remembrance of them
ought to be scattered and dissipated. Maintaining
the Good Schools and Reforming such of the Bad
Schools as admit of reform, and getting rid of the
others as entirely useless, as simply cumbering the
ground, the endowments, such as they are, or
rather such as they are proposed to be, will then, but
only then, be properly utilized : and by their proper
utilization Mr. FORSTER anticipates that, while the
number of boys educated will be largely in

creased, the private proprietary schools will bc
wholesomely stimulated. The proper use of

an endowment, Mr. FORSTER describes very
much as Mr. EDMTit'ip VgsdruhricsavAdevyt
uu wt.' (Tem p r

now appearing week by week in Mr. CHARLES
DICKENS'S All the Fear Round. Thera in
those earlier chapters of " Wrecked in Port,"

as last night in Mr. FORSTER'S speech in the
House of Commons, the judicious application

of au educational endowment is described to be

the providing of School Buildings and the insuring of

a small income to the master just to start with—

leaving him, the master, to look for the bulk of the

remuneration from the success achieved by the

school under his management.

Than which

production more scientifically man), and the means
of transit have greatly improved. he want of rain
may do considerable injury to this y's crop, but this is
an accidental interruption. Theoof that India
may be made a great cotton-produg country may
be accepted as complete. But iorder to bring
about this result, many of the greworks which are
needed for India generally must undertaken for
this special object.
Most of these improvements ere urged upon
the Government by the depution from Lan-
cashire which waited upon the Ike of ARGYLL ;
and the Indian Secretary, for ;he most part,
gave a reassuring reply. A commcial element in
the Indian Council would be Elio to give more
attention to necessary reforms tan the Board
as at present constituted. The .eans of transit
both by land and water are imprdng, but much
more needs to be done. Most vortant of all,
the great work of irrigation stands almost
where it did. In this branch c improvement,
the most essential to the develornent of India's
resources, comparatively nothing Is been effected.
Alike necessary for the proper culivation of grain
and cotton and the preservat)n of human
life, the work of irrigation preents an almost
boundless field for the energies pf the Govern-
ment. The supply of water is not yet sufficient to
prevent a periodical recurrence of famine, still
less to ensure the general cutication of the
cotton plant. It is now foul or five years
since it was decided by competent authorities
that irrigation alone was required to pro-
duce Indian cotton of the best quality. But the
country yet remains almost wholly dependent upon
chance, not only for the success of its crops, but for
the prevention of the most dire calamity which can
attack the human race. The necessary work, if done
at all, must in this instance be done by the agency
of the Government. The Duke of ARGYLL. though
a department which has hitherto been famous chiefly
for its obstructive genius—regretted that private
capital had done so little, and that everything had
been left to the. authorities. The regret is natural,
but unavailing; Private enterprise is not likely
to be attracted to India. The colonist who
leaves England takes his labour and capital
to unoccupied territory, which our Asiatic Em-
pire is not. The climate is unfavourable, the
country populous, and, moreover, the empire exists
already for the people who inhabit it. So far, the
Anglo-Saxon has not exhibited the slightest disposi-
tion to attempt a settlement. Private native enterprise
might be greatly encouraged by a better land tenure.
Under the present system the land is let and sublet
until it reaches the ryot after five or six removes.
The peasant works only for the _benefit of
those above him. After the land passes through
their hands there is nothing left to the ryot,
and there is, consequently, no improvement
either of the soil, or of the method of agriculture.
If the waste lands which now cover many thousands
of square miles were let directly to the peasant, the
benefit to cultivation of all kinds would be great and
immediate. But, like all other Indian reforms, this
has been talked of and proposed, and yet remains to
be done. The work of improvement, however, even
after this, must be essentially a paternal undertaking,
corresponding to the nature of the Government.
There can be no doubt that it would repay in the
end.

let"")141

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, March 15.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise,
walked and drove this morning.

LAIEST INTELL fGEN CE

(REU'"ER'S TELEGRAMS.)

SPAIN.

MADRID, March 15.

In to-day's sitting of the Cortes a motion was
introduced in favour of the establishment of civil

marriage.

b e marriage,aee ep
The Minister of Justice opposed the motion, and
said that although the Government did not con-
yet its establish-
ment n
btyhelawact
of other measures. The motion was then with-
drawn. ouogfhteitvoil

The Cortes then resumed the debate an the pro-
positiun brought forward by the majority relative
to the appointment of four Special Committees for
the more expeditious despatch of public business,
which was postponed on Satureay, and which
will be continued to-morrow.

The religious question is now before the commis
sion on the Constitution. Senor Olozaga received
at today
the
ha
ey
meetingthe
of
who to-morrow will be present
the
Commission deputed to re-
present the ecclesiastical interests.

PORTUGAL.

LISBON, March 15.

The Portuguese Government has taken formal
possession of the South-Eastern of Portugal

Railway.

CORRESPONDENCE PROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, MONDAY, March 15.
Politics are not particularly lively to-day. The Corps
L6gislatif has been employed upon the vote of money
(only £720,000) for the Luxembourg and the 'fro-
cadero, but there is very little in this debate to
interest readers beyond the limits of Paris. The Belgian
affair presents no new feature. The Dutch difficulty
seems to be chiefly a creation of the Public; and as to the
Belgian dispute, nothing positive is known beyond the
fact that England has intervened and proffered her ser-
vices, with good effect. This is an important
step on the part of the English Cabinet, and
I can affirm that it is regarded as such
In diplomatic circles here. The prominent part
which England took in the late Conference, and her
prompt intervention on this occasion is accepted —I might
say throughout Europe—as an indication that the
laissez faire policy is no longer to be continued so rigo-
rously, and that England will watch events on the Continent
more closely than heretofore. The Prussian papers have
been amongst the first to point out this change of attitude.
This is the most positive, and, to English readers, the
most interesting feature of the Belgian question as it
stands at present. What effect the intervention of England
will produce, and how the peaceful solution which is deemed
so certain is to be brought about, are, so far, open ques-
tions. £he balance of evidence as to the probability of
refer ring the dispute to arbitration or to a mixed commis-
sion inclines now in favour of the latter course.
The Emperor and the Empress, who is quite better,
have paid a visit to their sister "out of business," late of
the Pavilion Bohan, now of the Hotel Basilewski, in the
Champs Elysees. It is stated that the Empress will pass
the summer season at Enghien.
The twenty-seventh volume of the correspondence of the
First Napoleon has just appeared, and is one of the most
interesting of the series. It comprises the year ISI4,
that is, the period of the last convulsions of the Empire.
Some of these letters bear witness to the anarchy that
was fast spreading throughout France when the fortunes
of the Emperor became more and more on the wane ; one
tion of hiS intention to take up his abode in the Isle of
Elba ; another is his address to the inhabitants on quitting
the little empire at the commencement of the Hundred
Days. He says to General Lapi : "I am leaving the Isle
of Elba. I have been extremely satisfied with the conduct
of its inhabitants. I leave to them the care of this
country, to which I attach great importance (!)."

The weather has been very cold here of late, and we
have at length been favoured by a very tolerable fall of
mow, which, however, speedily disappeared. The sudden
change will not do harm to most kinds of agricultural
produce ; the authorities indeed affirm that it will do
good in retarding the too precocious vegetation. The
fruit trees may suffer a little injury, but this will be by no
means irretrievable if fine weather speedily supervenes.
The Prefect of the Seine has become the defendant in an
odd suit. The exotic flowers with which the public places
of Paris are ornamented in the summer are placed in
greenhouses belonging to the city in the winter,
but are, nevertheless, often lent for decoration purposes
nt the Tuileries' balls, as well as at the Embassies,
Ministries, and churches. The florists of Paris complain of
unfair competition, on the ground that the Prefect by
lending these flowers is doing much injury to their trade.
Surely the florists cannot have a very good case. The
Emperor and his Ministers have a right to economise
if they can, and if the flowers sustain no harm, they
might as well serve for ball decorations as lie idle in the
greenhouses.

An inexplicable paragraph appears in the Independent
of Pau. It states that great indignation has been caused in
that neighbourhood by an attempt to do bodily harm to
the troops there by introducing dangerous substances,
such as crushed glass, &c., into their bread. One
soldier has died from swallowing half a needle, which per-
forated the intestines. The cause of this horrible pro-
ceeding remains to be explained.
The Journal Officiel is a decided " improvement for the
worse" upon the Moniteur. It is badly printed, badly
edited, irregular and erroneous. It seldom appears at the
proper time, and its conductors evidently think that a
delay of twelve hours is a matter of no great moment. It
is full of mistakes. Only this morning it came out with
an erratum of no less than three columns, this trifling cor-
rection being intended to give an intelligible account of a
debate in the Corps L6gislatif, which had been previously
represented as a conglomeration of sheer nonsense. But
its special sources of information give it an occasional
value. One very interesting communication from Florence
has just appeared. It seems that the Minister of King
Victor Emmanuel's household has just made, at Hercu-
laneum, a discovery of very great importance in an
archxological sense, in the excavations which he
himself directs, near Orvieto, on his own estate.
He has found numerous Etruscan vases of all forms.

and many of those known as Greco-Roman. They are in
raised work of the same kind as the famous one of Cumze,
belonging to the Campana Museum, for which the Russian
purchaser paid the large sum of £2,000. Tlle-,e articles
are remarkable for the elegance of their form and the
purity of the drawing. The subjects, which are in baq.

relief, are mostly devoted to the labours of Hercules. It
is clear that a mine of historical wealth lies buried under
the deep ashes of Herculaneum.

A LADY PREPAI?LVG FOR THE

MILLENIUM.

During the past week the contents of the residence of

the late Mrs. Thwaytes, in Hyde-park-gardens, London,
notable for her eccentric belief in being herself the ordained
earthly spouse of the Third Person in the Trinity, for
whose descent to earth to claim his bride and to live with
her through a millenium of love she perpetually
watched, has been sold by public auction. The
dispute as to the validity of her will, which occupied the
Court of Probate and Divorce for ten whole days, startled
everyone by the glimpses it gave of the private life of the
strange inhabitant of this dwelling, a woman possessed
with the idea of communion in body as well as in spirit
with the Deity. She had left her whole property to a
stockbroker and doctor, the latter the only visitor
admitted to her house, and then only on the bed of
death, and the claim of these two worthies was success-
fully resisted by Mrs. Tebbitt, the sister of the deceased.
It was proved that she regarded her husband as the devil
incarnate, and had refused to honour his memory with
mourning. Beyond this and her extravagant illusion,
which influenced every act, she deported herself as a
highly refined and cultivated lady. She was uniformly
dressed in the richest attire, as became her imaginary
destiny, and without any melancholy tinge of sadness
in her reveries, any misgivings of the realities of
her belief, enjoyed the good things of life. Her means
enabled her to give effect to her illusions in substantial
form. The apartments she prepared for the Divine
visitant were furnished most sumptuously, and, so far, to
adopt the language of Byron respecting Rousseau, she
" knew how to make madness beautiful." The announce-
ment that the furniture of Mrs. Thwaytes's mansion was
to be sold excited more general interest at the West-end
than any private sale for years. Hundreds upon hundreds
of the aristocracy took advantage of the visiting days to
inspect the contents of the chief rooms. It was impossible
to discover in these rooms any trace of the peculiar idio-
syncrasy of Mrs. Thwaytes, except, perhaps, in the symbol
of the dove hovering here and there. Conspicuous
amongst the jewellery was a regal tiara, composed of
curiously-intertwined lilies, roses, rosebuds, and con-
volvuli, a tiara destined by Mrs. Thwaytes to deck
the head of the heavenly guest. She appeared to have
selected all the rest of the jewellery to deck herself
worthily as a bride. As appropriately corresponding to
the regal tiara, were two bracelets of exquisite workman.
ship, composed of 52 graduated stones. A large and, as
reputed, a matchless emerald, surrounded by brilliants of
the purest water, and capable of detachment, was to form
the centre of one or other of these necklaces. Her hair
was uniformly decked with an elegant spray, com-
posed of flowers and leaves of brilliants. These, with

three magnificent brooches en suite, and four small pendant
sprays, with a very beautiful Maltese cross and a buckle
in scrolls of perfect brilliants, formed a garniture de corsage
that could not fail to have excited admiration, if not envy,
in every fair beholder, as, arrayed in spotless white, she
waited, thus adorned, the celestial coming. The sum
netted by the sale was upwards of £lO,OOO.

Mr. Bass, M.P., is recovering from his severe
'ness.

Le Figaro says that a "scandal at Pan"
has been created by a well-known lord having loft his wife,
eu route for America, with a young lady of Now York for his
guide.

On Sunday Police-constable Pearse was on duty in
Charles-street, Drury-lane, when four well known thieves
whom ho had requested to move on set upon kim, knocked
him down, and k7cked his head. They also seized Ws
truncheon and beat him so soverely with it that he is
dangerously injured. The culprits have for the present
escaped.

Mr. Locke King's Bill to remove doub's as to the
qualification of persons holding Civil Service pensions, as
receiving sul.erannuation allowances, to sit in Parliament,
has just been printed. It enacts that pensions granted
under 4 and 5 William IV. c. 24, or 22 Vict. c. 26, or under
any other Act or Acts whatever, shall not disqualify th 4
holders kat sitting in Parliament?