The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, IV ONDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1869.

if the Strand be relieved only in the ❑orth by Carey-
street than if it be relieved in the south by the Thames

Embankment. Everything points, as we still con-
ceive, to the latter as the far more preferable site of
the two for the new Palace of Justice.

DunING the interval between the introduction of
the Irish Church Bill and the discussion upon it
three great questions have been brought forward in
Parliament, each of them more important than,
though none, perhaps, so politically pressing as, the
measure which will be debated this week. Crime, pau-
perism, and ignorance are the three great evils which
weigh down the British nation, and any one of these
might be the subject of the leading measure of a
session. With the first and the second Government
is prepared to deal during the present year. Lord
KIMBERLEY, in the Upper House, and Mr. GOSCIIEN,
in the Lower, have brought forward measures which
will, it is hoped, palliate the two evils against which
they are directed. But more important than either,
because it is to a large extent the source of both, is
that which Mr. MELLY brought forward in a very
able speech on Friday night—the ignorance of
our juvenile population. The facts which he
stated, and which were supported by Mr.
DIXON and other members, are simply dis-
graceful to such a country as ours. For
instance, in the three towns of Liverpool, Man-
chester, and Birmingham, 29,128 children out of
94,502 were found to be neither at work nor at
school. They were for the most part in the !streets,
serving their apprenticeship in crime. So far as these
and other great towns are concerned, this lamentable
fact is certainly not due to any want of educational
provision. In Liverpool there were about 8,000
places vacant in schools intended for the working
classes. In the rural districts the position is, no
doubt, very different. For instance, it was stated by
the Royal Commission of 1861 that out of 14,800

parishes 0,700 did not receive one farthing of assist-
ance from the Government, which is only another
way of saying that they were inefficient. It is need-
less to go through the statistics of education on the
Continent. It is sufficient to say that whereas in
most of the German States and in Switzerland it is
rare to find a child who cannot both read and write,
in England the percentage of the ignorant is fear-
fully large.
When we come to discuss the remedies we find
considerable difference of opinion upon the main
point, shall education be made compulsOry ? One
large class of objectors no longer exists. The
voluntary party have frankly confessed that volun-
taryism cannot be applied to secular education, that
the State is bound to assist in teaching its subjects,
because, to use Dr. CHALMERS'S old argument in
favour of Established Churches, the supply must
precede the demand. Those person who objected to
any infringement of the liberty of the subject have
also become silent. The principle of State inter-
ference was admitted in the first Factory Act. It
has been extended to print works, potteries, and
numerous other manufactories; it will, in all proba-
bility, be extended to agriculture. But hitherto we
have stopped short at this point. The law has
stepped in to protect children against the greed of
masters and parents, by ordering that children who
earn wages at work shall receive a certain amount
of education. But the law does not protect
children against the neglect of parents, does not
come to the relief of the children in the streets, far
worse off than the children in the factory. For these
no one cares ; no one is responsible. They will not
be sent to school unless the State sends them; they
will grow up to burden us with heavy rates, and to
inflict far more serious losses, in the shape of stolen
property, unless the State will take them in
hand and convert them from dangerous into
useful members of society. As Mr. MELLY
well said, the question is no longer what
shall we do with them ? but, what will they do with
us ? They will be our masters if we do not master
them. It was argued that compulsion had failed in
the United States. The " failure " was merely this,
that there was no need to resort to compulsion. Of
late, however, the large immigration of ignorant

Irish has led American statesmen to consider is

they must not use this weapon. In Germany and
S witzerland there is almost as little need for compelling
a parent to educate his child as there is fur com-
pelling him to clothe it. Ignorance would be thought
as disgraceful as nudity—the nakedness of the mind
as disgraceful as the nakedness of the body.
Of course, compulsory education means non-
denominational schools and local rates. No Govern-
ment could undertake to compel the attendance of
children at school if it were met by the " religious "
objection on the part of the parents. The objec-
tion might be a mere excuse, but it would not the
less have to be admitted, and it would be fatal to any
great scheme of national education. This by no
means implies that religious teaching is to be
neglected. It will be left to proper times and per-
sons. Hitherto religious education has, no doubt
unintentionally, stood in the way of secular educa-
tion. There is no reason to fear that secular
education will stand in the way of religious. Hitherto
children have too often not been taught at all be-
cause rival theologians could not agree by whom
they should be taught. Let them once learn to read
and write, and the theologians will be able to teach
them theology. A knowledge of the Church Cate-
chism or the Westminster Assembly's Catechism
must follow—not, as we have hitherto supposed,
precede—a knowledge of the alphabet. The
rating difficulty is not likely to prove so chronic as
the religious. It is true that there is just now a
great and a just outcry against a large increase of
local burdens. But an education-rate will, so far from
increasing, decrease them. It will prove one of the
best investments ever made. Every shilling spent in
teaching our ignorant childr€ n will come back to us with

compound interest in our diminished gaol and poor
rates. No doubt secular teaching does not necessa-

rily keep the taught from crime ; some crimes, in
fact, require a very high education ; but it does this—
it takes the child from the streets, where h is being

trained for wickedness, where he is enlisted
and drilled for the Devil, and places him

among other associates, under other influences,

where he has at least the chance of going right. The

street Arab has no chance. This is so well known,
the numerousness of the class is so fully established,

that, agreeing with all Mr. MELLY said, we do not

. _
see of what use could be his proposed committee. It
would simply delay that which must be close at
hand, which is merely a question of months, of this
session or the next—a comprehensive scheme of
national education introduced by a responsible
Ministry.

A contemporary says :—" Though the Bishops are
almost unanimously opposed to the Irish Church Bill, it is be-
lieved that when the division is taken in the House of
Lords they will not record their votes, being content with
simply speaking against the measure. One or two of the
right rev. prelates are opposed to this course, but it is ex-
pected that they will yield to the wishes of their colleagues.

The 7 cadet says, with reference to the fiftieth anni-
versary of the Pope celebrating his first Mass, that every
diocese in this country is sending addresses of congratula-
tion, and that the magnificent gold medallion of the Imma-
culate Conception, designed by Vichtd, and engraved by
Messrs. hunt and Rookell, the largest gold medallion in the
world, is being purchased by them for presentation to his
Holiness upon thy, same occasion.

Mr. Bentiuck will ask the First. Lord of the Trea-
sury on Monday next uhether he will lay upon the table an
est;mate of the sum of money w hick will be rt quired to pur-
ehat e the sites of the ecclesiastical res'denet s t.nder the pro-
visions of .the 27111 clause c f the Irish Church Lill. Aud
whether he will also lay upon the table a return of the num-
ler of ecclesiastical residences referred to in the said 27th
clause, specifying the buildir:g charges affecting such resi-
dences respectiv ly.

The new district superiritendents of the Aletropo-
iit,,, pale° began the performance of their duties on Friday
Their salaries are fixed at .C6OO rising to .£BOO per annum.
Their chief duties will be to hear complaints against
the constables, which have hitherto been adju-
dicated upon at Scotland-yard by the Commissioners, and
to visit the stations in their districts. They will supply the
missing links between the commissioners and superinten-
dents, and hold a rank somewhat similar to that of majors
in the army.

CORRESPONDENCE PROM PARIS.

(FROIVUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, SUNDAY, March 14.
Of the Belgian railway difficulty the chief news is that
it has given birth to a lively infant. A Dutch railway
difficulty has arisen. The Dutch Government, says the
Public, refuses to ratify the provisional treaty concluded
between the French Eastern Company and the owners
of the continuation line to Amsterdam. According to the
letters received by the Public, the directors of the Eastern
Company have received notice of this rejection, which,
like the Belgian affair, will produce " explanations "
between the Governments of France and Holland. As to
the original difficulty—that with the Belgian Government
—opinions are divided, some believing in the remedy
of a commission, others in that of arbitration. It
will be strange indeed if the Brussels Cabinet
refers the operation of one of its own internal
laws to a commission ; but the world has seen stranger
things, and perhaps the expedient may ward off trouble
until the next difficulty—there seems to be an average
of one a week now—arises. Since the Turco-Greek
affair we have had a Persian difficulty, a question about
the neutrality of the Sporades Islands, a Belgian quarrel,
and now the phlegmatic Dutchman becomes the subject
of a dispute. It cannot he said that war is averted by not
stirring up the sediment of European politics.
The Pope's letter in M. Emile 011ivier's book is not yet
ctone with. The book, like everything in Paris, has lived
its day, and is now amongst the things of the past; but
the effects of the letter, we are told, remain. It is asserted,
on what I must accept as good authority, that the French
Government is seriously disquieted by the Absolutist doc-
trines put forth in the epistle to Mgr. Darboy. The
letter chastises the Archbishop for treating the supre-
macy of the Pontiff with less consideration than is
demanded by extreme doctrines. The French Government,
on its side, is alarmed because the supremacy of the
Holy See is put forward too strongly. The Emperor, it is
said, through M. de Lavalette, has desired that no question
likely to cause division amongst the French clergy should
be brought up at the Council. As this question between
his Holiness and Mgr. Darboy, is likely, perhaps, to
divide the French clergy, this despatch by M. de
Lavalette is evidently directed at the letter in II
011ivier's book.

The abduction case to which I alluded in my last has
been concluded. An old woman, aged 81, was indicted
with Plovicr as an accomplice. It transpires that Plo-
vier was in embarrassed circumstances, and had offered to
be married to the elder girl in order to obtain
her fortune. The parents rejected him, owing to his having
been twice bankrupt and leading an immoral life.
Plovier then, by presents of money and promises of future
aid, interested in his behalf the woman Millet, who was
then the inmate of an asylum, and who, as a distant
relative of the parents, had access to the young girls.
This old wretch induced both girls to leave their parents,
under the pretence of placing them in a convent
until the consent to the marriage could be obtained.
Mdle. &lie being decidedly attached to the fellow,
Plovier, however, instead of placing the girls in a con-
vent, took them to different hotels, and basely endeavoureo
to compromise Znie, so as to render a marriage necessary.
In this attempt he happily did not succeed. The girls,
after three weeks' romantic wandering,were found with
the man. Plovier has been condemned to two years'
imprisonment, and the old woman to one.
There is a budget of horrors of various degrees of magni-
tude. At Lyons a gentleman nearly cut his wife's head
off, walked quietly -out of the hotel where he was
staying, and is now " wanted." In Paris a man
discharged the contents of a revolver a fellow-
tradesman who had seduced his wife, and lodged
enough lead in his victim to kill two or three
people. That the injured husband will get off scot free
is almost a matter of course. M. Marais, Councillor of
Prefecture in the Ain, has been killed through his horse
taking fright at a velocipede. Finally, there are one or
two items of the old familiar character, which had bette.'
be passed over in silence.

world."

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times discusses at some length the financial per-
plexities which threaten the new Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer. It may, perhaps, be safely assumed that next
year would shew a surplus of a million of normal income
over normal expenditure, supposing the deficit of the
expiring year could be neglected, and that no further
demand on account of the Abyssinian War should arise.
The deficiency of 1868-0 must, however, according to the
calculations to which we have referred, be taken at five
millions in all, and the unsatisfied balance, after applying,
the receipt of arrears of income tax in discharge of Ex-
chequer Bonds, at four millions, and we have intimated
that it would be wise to anticipate another Abyssinian
vote. Mr. Lowe might thus be called upon to supply
from three to four millions by extraordinary means.
The exact sum would be four millions, the balance
of last year not provided for, plus the further
Abyssinian vote threatened, and minus the one million
surplus of normal income. Continuing the war income
tax at sixpence in the pound would be insufficient to
provide .this sum, and there is a substanti,4 reason why
the deficiency of the Exchequer, if it prove so large as
we have reason to apprehend, should not be met by an
aggravation of the existing income tax. The resolution of
the House of Commons last year that the cost of the
Abyssinian war should be paid by an additional income
tax, and by that alone, was one of doubtful policy. We
protested at the time against a course which formally
threw the cost of the war on one half of the community
to the exoneration of the other, and subsequent
reflection has confirmed our assurance of the justice
of the protest. A. proposal now to increase the
income tax still more in order to get rid at once of
the balance of Abyssinian liabilities would aggravate
the original error. It is easy to see how such a
proposal would work. The tax would be levied, the cost
of the war would be paid, and the Chancellor of the Ex-
chlequer in April 1871, and again in April 1572, would have
a surplus to give away. That surplus would infallibly be
applied in the diminution, if not abolition, of some items
of indirect taxation. In other words, the income tax
would be swollen this year in order that indirect taxes
might be taken off next year. According to the alterna-
tive plan, the payers of income tax would have paid an
additional twopence in the pound for the two years and a
half from October 1867 to April 1870, and the rest of the
cost of the war—a comparatively small proportion—would
be met by deferring the reduction of indirect taxation.
Some recognition of an equitable adjustment of national
burdens would be thus secured, though it would still be a
matter of regret that the expense of an expedition in
which the whole nation was deeply interested had not
peen visibly charged from the outset upon all classes of
the people.

The Standard thinks that Mr. Chichester Fortescue has
been sufficiently condoled with on his ill-luck in being
selected as the special recipient of Lord Russell's epistolary
confidences. We are inclined to think it a still hardat
grievance that the right hon. gentleman should be utilise4
by Bishop Moriarty as the medium for promulgating the
views and requirements of the Roman Catholic hierachy,
in regard to the Irish Church Plunder Bill. We have
very little doubt that this is the light in which Mr. Glad•
stone and his colleagues will regard this well meant but
most unfortunate demonstration on the part of Bishop
Moriarty. One can readily understand that the Roman
Catholic prelates are delighted with the bill as it stands,
but why say so publicly at a moment when it is especially
important not to alarm the susceptibilities of Protestant
England ? It is equally a matter of course that, being hugely
pleased with what the bill gives them, they should desire
to appropriate still larger advantages ; but where is the
use or the good sense of putting forward their new claini

when Mr. Gladstone is about to be taxed with Laving

given them infinitely too much already ? The game on
hand requires wary playing, and neither Mr. Gladstone
nor the Roman Catholic bishops can afford to shew their
cards at the first round. And this is the sort of blundet
of which Bishop Moriarty has been guilty. Can anyone
suppose that the Irish Church Bill will stand a better
chance of passing the House of Commons for being
weighted with the publicly-expressed enthusiastic apprA
bation of a distinguished member of the Ultramontane
prelacy. Yet here we have Dr. Moriarty shouting across
the Channel to the unhappy Chief Secretary that the bill
is " a message of justice and peace," that " it satisfies the-
mind of the country," that " it keeps the promise within
the power of _performance," and that " we all have good
reason to rejoice in hope." Was it wise to proclaim all
this by sound of trumpet in the ear of Protestant
England?
The Daily News says that a Scotch member on Friday
night propounded an etymological theory. A faggot, h*
informed the House, was a bundle of sticks tied together
for the fire ; and faggot voters, by analogy, were a-number
of men bound together by a political tie in order to carry
fire and destruction into bona fide constituencies. The
dictionaries tell us that in the time of Addison the name
faggot was applied to a person hired to take the place of
another at the muster of a company. A faggot voter
is, therefore, a fraudulent voter. The word implies
personation and duplicity. The spirit of this etymo.

logy suits the system of faggot-voting in Scotland
to which Mr. Craufurd on Friday night called the atten-
tion of the House of Commons. An attempt was made
to find a parallel for the action of the Conservative party
in the matter in the conduct of the Anti-Corn Law
LNiguc. But Mr. Bright very clearly pointed out the
distinction, and exposed the subterfuge uuder which
things so different were confounded. The Anti• Corn
Law League advised and promoted the purchase of real
properties, conferring a vote under the 40s. freehold
qualification. In the case of the Scotch faggot votes,
there is no real purchase or possession of property at
The whole transaction is an evasion of the law. The
true parallels of the faggot-voters in Scotland must be

looked for across the Atlantic, in the enterprising citizens
who were known as the Border Ruffians of Missouri,

These gentry used at election time to sally across the
frontier of their own State into Kansas, take possession

of the polling-booths, and elect the pro-slavery candidates,
The conduct of the non-resident faggot-voters in alb
Scottish counties differs from this only as the trickery

which evades the law differs from the violence which

openly breaks it. Political honour ought to bring this

pettifogging system to an end.

The Telegraph complains that on behalf of England not
a word is spoken. The Thistle and the Shamrock aro
having it all their own way. The Rose is at a sad discount.
Can we obtain a moment's audience for the most ill-used

nation on the face of the earth? The people of England
are the victims for whom we plead. They are not Scotch-
men ; or else, of course, they would have several bills

brought in by the Duke of Argyll and the Lord Advocate

to improve their condition. They are not Irishmen ;
if they were, voluminous leading articles and speeches
four hours long would be devoted to conciliate

them and to arrange their affairs.

They are onll

Englishmen and they can wait. We hear of meet-
ings of Scotch members in tea-rooms to "represent"
this, to " discuss" that, to " insist " on the other conces-

sion. We hear of deputations of Irishmen to pro;

test against this grievance, to demand that loan. But who

hears of anybody's standing up to propose a reform, or
loan, or a grand measure cf justice for England? Wehavl
all been writing and talking for years, and very urgentls
during the last year, about national education ; and when
Parliament met we all expected something great from a

new Liberal Ministry ; we predicted new schools blos-

soming like the desert rose in the dark places of our l.nd.
But, instead of any such measure, we got on Friday night

a mere debate on the lack of education in large towns. On
the other hand, the session had not long begun when up rose
a Scottish duke to propose a splendid scheme of education'.

for Scotland ! What comfort is that to us ? Because
barefooted lads and lasses in the Highlands will have

learning brought to their doors, is that any solace to us

English as we see our poorer children grow up in an..
ignorance felt alike in overcrowded towns and rural disi
tiicts? Mr. Gladstone has a magnificent majority, and.
we hope that no new election will for years disturb the
even tenour of our lives ; but whenever that event recurs
the hustings cry must be "Justice to England," the Irish

and the Scotch yoke must be broken, and, emancipating
itself from the thraldom of Dr. Cullen and Dr. Candlish,

the Parliament of this country must teach us how to read,
must give us the means of punishing our rascals, and must
endow with some measure of rational manhood those

docile hinds of .Dorsetshire, " the finest peasantry in the

The Star examines the details of the two bills just sub-
mitted to Parliament by Mr. Buxton and Mr. Hughes
for the reform of the local government of the metropolis.

Of the principle of local ancl municipal organisation upon
which both measures are founded it heartily approves,
and it considers the practical methods employed by the
authors of the bill to carry out their theory both well.
directed to attain their immediate ends, and open to few
strong objections. To al the detai's of the bills it would •
certainly be unwise to give an unqu-Llitied approval
until we have heard what may be urged by the various
interests hostile to the scheme; but the measures,
as they were entrusted to Mr. Mill by the asso•
ciation of v.hich Mr. James Beal has been the
most energetic promoter, and as they were bequeathed
by Mr. Mill to Mr. Buxton and Mr. Hughes, were care.
fully framed, so as to combine the largest liberty of,
efficient action for the new niunicipalities with the smallest
shock to vested interests. It will be seen that the rights
and prescriptive privileges of the City are tenderly dealt
with ; and though we anticipate not a few objections in
matters of detail, we hope these may be removed by
judicious compromise and negotiation. The principle of
these bills is a wholesome and logical one, and its adoption
will go far to introduce something like decency and order
into the worst administered of European capitals. We
have much confidence in the representation and working
of municipal institutions in London. It is better to reform
our metropolitan government by that expedient than by
.lie Cu; and dangerous process of Haussmannising ; and .
, ~,, , r ~ther of these methods of reform we must make
:.• • •.,• :::iiiil to come at last.