The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-10 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI.

THIS EVENING, at 7, MY P RECI6IIS BETSY: Mr Atkins and
Miss iohnstone. At 8, THE SERPENT ON THE HEARTH:
Mr R. Phillips, Mr E Atkins, Mr Stuart. Sirs M. Eburne, Mrs L.
Murray, Bre. And DOMESTIC ECONOMY: Mr Atkins and
Mrs Leigh Murray.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manageress, Mrs. SNvanborough

THIS EVENING. at 7.30, A-SION4 THE BREAKERS: Mr
Clarke. THE TOODLES. JOAN OF ARC: Messrs. Thorne,
James, Fenton; M esdamea Goodall. Lydia Maitland. Bufton. To
connlude with THE CHOPS OF THE CHANNEL. Mr. D.
James,

ROYALTY THEATRE.
Under the Management of Miss M Oliver.

'furs ErENING, at 7.30, -A
ROVING COM lIISSION. After
which CHECKMATE. Followed by THE MILITARY BILLY
TAYLOR. To conclude with IN FOR A HOLIDAY Mr
Dewar, Mr. Danvers. Miss M. Oliver Miss Saunders, &c.

PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manager, Mr. Vinini,

THIS EVENING, at 7, PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE. After
which, Aril AND GAL AT EA : Herr Formes, Mr V. Rigby, Mr
M. Smith, and Miss Blanche Cole. To conclude with A QUIET
FAMILY.

PRINCE OF WALES'S ROYAL THEATRE.
Under the Management of Miss Marie Wilton

THIS EVENING, SCHOOL: Messrs. Hare, H. T. Montague,
Addison, Glover, and Bancroft; Mrs. Buckingham White, Miss
C. Addison, and Miss Marie Wilton. After which, A WINNING
HAZARD. And A LAME EXCUSE

CHRISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. THREE BALLETS
Promenade Concert. Band of 60. Begin at 8. ls. Box-office
open from 11 to 4.

ZOOLOGICAL chkRDENS, Regent's-park, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission, is.; on Mondays, 6d. Children
under twelve, 6d

a .
att Sult.
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LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1869.

The biggest of the innocents was last evening
massacred in the House of Lords very deliberately
and in cold blood. The Scotch Parochial Schools
Bill— on the question as to when the House of Com-
mons' amendments should be taken into considera-
tion—was rejected. Forty-three contents pronounced
in favour of its consideration to-day—fifty-five non-
contents, headed by Lord REDESDALE, pronounced
otherwise, in fact relegated the bill to the Par-
liamentary Greek Kalends of three months
hence. The consequence is that the bill, as a
remedial measure was lost, most inopportunely
and most disastrously. Their lordships had not
time for the due performance of the required task of
Legislation ! That was the argument. It mattered
nothing that his grace the Indian Secretary of State
11 virtually reminded the malcontents that, even suppos-
ing such an argument on the part of their lordships
to be sound, they had only to thank them-
selves. As regarded the lateness of the session, the
Duke of ARGYLL maintained, with some show of
force, that the contrast presented to view by the
labours of the two Houses ought, in simple justice, to
be borne in remembrance. For every ten hours that
their Lordships had sat, he insisted upon it that the
House of Commons had sat, at the lowest compu-
tation, forty or fifty hours—adding thereupon, that
to refuse to consider the amendments of the Com-
mons on the ground that there was not time,
would scarcely conduce to the enhancement
of their Lordships' reputation. All remonstrance
was in vain, however.. The Peers were sick and
weary, one may presume, of any more of the childish
tinkering or pottering with which they had been
taunted. The grouse-shooting season was altogether
too near at hand for any such superficial keeping up
of appearances. It mattered comparatively little to
them, to the non-contents, that is, who sided yester-
day with Lord REDESDALE in rejecting the Scotch
Parochial Schools Bill, that the rejection of that
measure involved the delay, for yet awhile longer, of
all care for the education of some 90,000 children
throughout Scotland.
The incident is regrettable, but in one sense
it is also opportune, as a reminder, at the very
close of the session of the really formidable cha-
racter of the great question now looming up in
perspective before the two grand rival parties—be-
fore the Government and the Opposition—within the
walls of Parliament. The land question of Ireland is,
there undoubtedly, in the future, first and fore-
most among all the more important problems, to
the task of discovering a solution for which the Lords
and Commons will have next year energetically to
address themselves. That—of course. But—beyond
the land question—close upon its heels, all but jost-
ling it, there is that far more delicate, and difficult, and
urgent Educational Question, which will have, as soon
as possible, to be taken earnestly, and solemnly,
and comprehensively into consideration. The land
question is a question of property. The educational
question is a question of morality and of social well-
being—of the morality and social well-being of the
next and (indefinitely) of succeeding generations.
Bound up with that educational question, moreover
is the religious enthusiasm of vast masses of
the population. Protestant England, Catholic
Ireland, Presbyterian Scotland the Dissenters
throughout the United Kingdom—Anglicans and
Nonconformist—each and all of these large bodies
lof men, regard with profound solicitude the scheme
which the Government may (when the right time
comes) have to propose to the Legislature as the one
selected by them for application to the educational
wants of the whole population. The decision which
will have to be arrived at by the responsible ad-
visers of the CROWN in this matter—a matter
of such vital importance to the whole com-
munity—is not only certain to be momentous in
so far as it will affect themselves ; it is certain to be
momentous yet more, in so far as it must affect the
fortunes of the whole commonwealth. The alternative
will be one between an education. religious or lire-
ligious—a National Education, Godless or Denomi-
national. Against what is called a Godless Educa-
tion the whole strength of the Catholics, the whole
strength of the Dissenters of the 'United Kingdom, will
be directed, unanimously and enthusiastically. Very
many among the Anglican party will sympathise
in that view with an almost kindred enthusiasm.
It remains to be seen with which side the strong
Liberal Government of th,e day will ally them-
selves—will identify themse.'ves. If they go in for
the philosophic view, they will inevitably, as we
conceive, run the hazard'. of disintegrating their
own powerful party. Th 3y will waken the now
dormant antagonism of k erri ed masses of their
fell ow-ccun trymen. They will introduce the
Eceds of disunion a m.7ng themselves. They
will introduce the " little rift within the lute" that
will, in the course of time, ine, ritably, destroy all har-
mony in the Cabinet, by—im perceptibly, it may be,
but surely and steadily—wide ning and widening.
Everything, or almost everythii wg, in this matter, we
cannot but feel, is dependent non the decision at
which the Prime Minister hims elf may arrive, in his
heart, in his mind, in L is conscience. Let
him however be but as true I`.o his liberal pro-
clivities in his mode ,31 dealing with the
Educational Question, as Ely is likely to be in his
mode of dealing with the Irik Laney Question, as