The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LON DON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 21, L 69.

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)4ri,7
Glit
tvi.f

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 1869.

We all seem to be at cross purposes. Her MA-
JESTY, even, to begin with, when she is most
wanted, must needs go off at a tangent as far
as she conveniently can from London, at the
height of the season, in the midst of this critical
juncture, away from 'Windsor Castle, down to
Osborne in the Isle of Wight. The Lord Chan-
cellor, again, a gentle hearted and profoundly
religious man, must needs—immediately,beforea most
anxious division, upon the result of which the whole
political situation is clearly dependent—spring from
the woolsack and, losing his temper for once com-
pletely, indulge in the most violent language of taunt
and vituperation. The Prime Minister, himself,
strong in power, with an overwhelming majority at bis
back—having introduced to Parliament one of the m ost
just and generous measures ever proffered by Pro-
testant England to Catholic Ireland—must needs,
also, in his turn, put himself clearly in the wrong,
and his antagonists as clearly in the right, upon a
mere matter of Parliamentary courtesy or legislative
consideration, by sweeping aside, as with a haughty
wave of the hand, the whole of the more important
of the Lords' Amendments. The Lords, being men,
and naturally enough resenting a studied con-
tumely, insist—not by any means as curtly as
Mr. GLADSTONE insisted the other day upon the
rejection of all their graver Amenitnents, but
firmly, and deliberately, aed spite unhesitatingly
upon the restoration of their Amendments to the
Preamble. After a debate of six hours' duration,
last night, the restoration of the Lords' Amendments
to the Preamble,, was carried by 173 against 9:5,
otherwise by a clear majority of 78 in a House of
268, or by more than three to one. The debate
which preceded this momentous division was cer-
tainly, from first to last, one of extraordinary inte-
rest. It seemed to illustrate once more, in a rather
remarkable manner, the intellectual capacity of the
leading members of that very Branch of the Legis-
lature which, only very recently, had been vulgarly
taunted with " unwisdom," and with " childish
tinkering," by one of the most cmspicuous and
distinguished of the responsible Ministers of the
Crown. Allowing that the result of last night's
division is about as grave as it well could be —involv-
ing in it, as it does, the falling through of the Irish
Church Bill, for the time being, altogether, and con-
sequently the utter waste of the session, so far as
that Bill is concerned—matters have been so arranged,
not by the Opposition, let us say, but by the Govern-
ment, that the responsibility of having brought about
that most grave result devolves, not upon the Lords,
but upon the Commons! It being traceable, in fact,
to nothing else than the contemptuous decision to
which the Commons were invited in words of as scant
courtesy as could possibly have been—the rejection
in other words en masse, almost en bloc of the Lords,
amendments. Several considerations spring to our
mind at once immediately thereupon—considera-
tions illustrative, one is nearly tempted to say by the
reductio ad absurdum, of the fact we are chiefly desi-
rous, here, of insisting upon, namely, that this sudden
collapse of the Bill, this abrupt failure of the session,
this lamentable fiasco, or anti-climax, or however
else we may term it, might, as we conceive, have
been readily enough avoided by an exceedingly
moderate display of a little more tact and a little
more temper. A little more, do we say ? Might
we not rather, in the light of these later incidents
in the history of the session, might we not far rather
have said, just now, point-blank—" an exceedingly
moderate display of any tact or of any temper ?"
Supposing, then, for the sake of argument, that this
Bill, that any important Bill, had been introduced,
not as the Irish Church Bill was, in the House
of Commons, but had originally been introduced
in the House of Lords !• And supposing, then,
having been introduced in the House of Lords, and
passed through its various stages, there, and then
sent down to the House of Commons, it 'had
there (in the House of Commons) been carefully
considered, elaborately manipulated, and after a series
of brilliant discussions and important divisions, modi-
fied, here and there, at this:point and at that, by a
variety of amendments of more or len importance !
And supposing after having been thus, at any rate
most painstakenly, interlined by the Commons'
ansendments,ithe Bill bad been, thereupon, sent back
again to the House of Lords—to have the whole of
those amendments scratched out as by one angry
sweep of the pen, and the Bill thus restored to its
original shape sent back again instanter for accept-
ance, upon second thoughts, and to be swallowed
holus-bolus, at one nauseated gulp, by the House of
Commons ! Would not, we ask, the House of Com-
mons, in that extraordinary contingency, act pre-
cisely as the House of Lords acted only last night,
namely, by declining, by an immense majority, to
accept that offer, to swallow that bitter pill, to eat
that leek, to obey that haughty mandate, and to
do this in the most public and in the most igno-
minious manner possible? Why, as a matter of

dead certainty, put the House of Commons in
the same position, subject the House of Com-
mons to the same treatment, and they would,
infallibly and undeniably, go and do likewise !
We say this out of the bitterness of our chagrin at
the waste of this session, at the failure of this great
measure of justice and beneficence to Ireland—the
falling through of which, upon.the verge of its trans-
formation into an enactment, we cannot, in reason,
hold the House of Lords responsible for under the
actual circumstances. Fling the amendments back
in the face of the Lords, and the Lords naturally re-
sent it. They decline to stoop down, and pick them
up, and meekly accept what they regard as a
wanton and a most uncalled-for outrage upon
their dignity as a great legislative assembly.
The Lords are utterly wrong, as we conceive, in their
amendments. But in declining to allow those amend-
ments to be flung back in their face, they are acting
in no way whatever, as we think, unreasonably. They
are acting in obedience to the dictates of their ow❑
sense of self-respect. The Bill is a noble Bill, accord-
ing to our view of it. It is simply delayed now.
Eventually it will be passed into a law. But, mean-
while, the responsibility of its postponement rests not
upon the Lords, by reason of the decision they arrived
at overnight, replacing their amendments upon the
preamble, but wholly and solely upon the course
pursued by the Government in so casting back their
amendments in their teeth, as to leave the Lords no
alternative, but simply to decline to be treated thus
contumeliously. With such a Bill carried so far
towards completion as an enactment—with a Session
so memorable and so laborious, closely approaching
the natural term of its existence—with a Prime
Minister, as gifted, as popular, and as powerful as
Mr. GLADSTONE at the head of her MAJESTY'S Go-
vernment—with the Liberal Party in their serried
ranks at his back in such overwhelming numbers—
and yet with the necessity of awakening after all
this, to the fact that the Bill is lost, that the Ses-
sion is wasted, that the Premier is denied the glory
of accomplishing in full his one great promised
achievement, and that the dominant Majority is, in
this matter, as helpless as the most contemptible Mi-
nority could possibly have been—awakening, after
all this, we say, to the realization of these most
unwelcome truths, cannot but render the result for
us--how shall we express it ?—a baulk, worse than a
defeat ! 'What is, in fact, worse than a crime, ac-
cording to TALLEYRAND'S witticism—a mistake !
What is for ourselves, as Liberals, a source—we con-
fess it—of bitter and of angry disappointment.

THE Times is too hard upon the Peers. Having
led them into a quagmire, the leading journal is now
shouting at them with a vehemence that might have
been more advantageously displayed earlier in the
day. It is not only with regard to the chief measure
of the session that the limes is now threatening their
lordships with all kinds of condign punishment if they
venture to do what the Times was ten days ago
recommending them to do ; the same threat is
held up to them for rejecting the University Tests
Bill. Now let us consider the facts with regard to
this measure. In the first place, it is not a Govern-
ment measure at all, though it is brought in by a
member of the Government. It is simply a
private bill concerning which the Cabinet has
so little made up its mind that it will not
undertake to place upon it the Ministerial
imprimatur. Therefore, to talk about the
Lords being disrespectful to the Commons for
postponing the consideration of the subject for
another year is sheer nonsense. In the next place,
it must be remembered that the bill had never been
before the _House of Lords until Monday night.
True, a measure bearing the same name has
been rejected by the Peers previously; but that
was fundamentally different from this. That
dealt only with the universities ; this deals with
the colleges. That the Lords would be willing
to pass at once ; this, they say, requires at
least some consideration. Surely the most extreme
Radical cannot expect the Peers to give way at the
first summons, and without having had any oppor-
tunity of counsel or parley. A legislative body
which did that would be simply an effete institution,
whose extinction should be instantaneous. The
very essence of the Upper Chamber is that
it should give time for the consideration
of great and important changes. This is the
more necessary at a time like the present,
when we are moving with a vastly more accelerated
pace than we ever moved before. No doubt the
Lords will always have to give way when its pro-
posals have been rejected by the nation. But to take
away the power of making amendments is prepos-
terous. In the third place, the Peers have not
rejected Sir Jonx COLERIDGE'S bill ; they
have simply postponed a decision upon it
till next year. The Earl of CARNARVON, who
undertook to recommend this course, has devised a
compromise which, he believes, will satisfy both
parties. Whether it will or not is nothing to the
question; he and many other peers believe that it
will, and as this is the first time they have had the
opportunity of offering it they have a perfect
right to make it. Lord CAMPERDOWN'S objec-
tion that Lord CARNARVON'S amendments were not
before the House would have been valid if Lord
CARNARVON had moved the rejection of the bill;
but it had no force when he simply moved the pre-
vious question in order that there might be time to
develope his scheme, and lay it before the country
next year. To speak frankly, we do not think this
scheme has the least chance of being accepted ; but
the majority of the Peers think differently, and they
have a perfect right to try the experiment.

A GOVERNMENT of economical spirit is a useful
novelty worthy of every encouragement ; but though
a policy of retrenchment must, with certain restric-
tions, meet with approval, there are certain reductions
which can be regarded only as calamities. The
estimate for the cost of national education
for instance, is an item which we are always
glad to see creep up from year to year.
The education vote cannot well be too large so long
as the money is well spent. And we have at least
the assurance that, though the increase is not large
and though it is very gradual, it nevertheless repre-
sents substantial results so far as it goes. A few
years ago public money was granted to schools in
proportion to the average number of scholars who
attended, and not according to their efficiency. Thus,
though the yearly estimate went up with admirable
perseverance, it did not appear that we got much in
return for the ever-augmenting expenditure. The
new system inaugurated by Mr. LOWE, though
by no means perfect, did at least rigidly
enforce the principle of paying only for
results. It is not now a question of how many
children attend a school ; the number who can read,
write, and cipher determine the amount of the
grant. It is, therefore, safe to conclude that the
additional £OO,OOO which Mr. FORSTER asks for this
year represents a considerable increase in the number
of British boys and girls who are proficient in the
elements of education. So far, then, there is real
ground for satisfaction at the progress of the esti-
mate. It represents the progress of national intelli-
gence. But, judged relatively, our annual education
account appears in a much less favourable light.
Though the estimate rises from year to year, it
is yet a trifle compared with the millions invested
in the army and navy. A very small order for rifled
cannon would swallow up the small sum, and it would
do very little indeed in the way of ironclad ship-
building. If our status as an educated nation were
satisfactory, if the money voted effectually accom-
plished the work to be done, the dispro-
portion between our investments in the
means of combating ignorance and in the
means of combating our fellow men would matter
little. Unfortunately, if we are to accept the almost
despairing accounts of Mr. MUNDELLA and Mr.
MELLY—andth.ere is too much reason to fear that they
mud be accepted—our intellectual. progress is very

small, and the net result deplorably bad.
Mr. MUNDELLA has been consulting the reports of
the school inspectors, and he comes to much the
same conclusions as those we have already expressed.
Small comparatively as is the English education vote,
it is as large or larger than that of any other
country. The education grants in Great Britain
amount to one shilling per head of the whole popu-
lation. In Saxony the cost is only sevenpence, and
in Prussia fivepence per head, and yet the result in
those countries is far superior to anything that we
can shew. In Germany a youth beyond a certain
age who cannot read and write well is a phenomenon.
Here half the population is in various degrees of
intellectual darkness. Mr. MUNDELLA quoted a case
where of 1,094 youths above the age of 15, only
080 had been to school for more than three years ;
not half could write moderately well ; not much
more than half could read fairly. More general
statistics bear out this proportion.
Other authorities in the House of Commons dis-
puted this mode of calculation. Mr. BUXTON and
others maintained that we were making gradual
progress—of which there can be no doubt ; but
nothing was brought forward to repel the hard facts
which establish the conclusion that the present
system is inadequate. It works well, so far as
it goes, but it is simply not large enough for
the wants of the country. There can be no doubt that
the improvement shewn year by year is very con-
siderable; but, unfortunately, the progress, though
substantial, is not nearly sufficiently rapid. It is
doubtful whether the existing system can ever—im-
prove as it may—be fully equal to the wants of the
nation ; but it is quite certain that, if it
ever is the present generation will not
live to see the happy consummation. This is the
plain conclusion which was established by the con-
versation in the House of Commons on Monday,
which, indeed, has been established over and over
again. The yearly trifle of improvement ought
not to blind us to the immensity of
the work which remains unaccomplished. For
these reasons we sincerely trust that nothing
will be allowed to interfere with the bringing
forward of the Government Educational Bill
next year. No question can be of equal
importance. No question, therefore, ought to be
allowed to stand in the way. So far as the interests
of the nation are concerned, no more flagrant injury
could be inflicted than that of delaying this much-
needed reform any longer. As far as political con-
siderations go the Government could :not perpetrate
a greater mistake. The country has clearly set
its heart upon a great educational change, and its
forbearance in waiting until another great difficulty
is got out of the way deserves no little praise. The
present Ministry has shewn its ability to deal with
great political questions. It has yet to win its laurels
in the field of social reform, it vndcannotpossibly
have a greater opportunity.

PARIS CORRESPONDENCE.

TUESDAY.

The one event of the day is the resolution of the
Emperor to continue the prorogation. This resolution is
final. It is not quite certain when the deputies will see
the inside of the Corps Ldgislatif again—in all probability
not before the end of October. The deputies themselves,
however, believe that their services will not be required
very soon, for they are all getting ready to leave Paris.
Soon the " Parliamentary Chronicle" will vanish from
the columns of the newspapers.
In order to make our political situation, which is
assuredly a grave one, quite clear, I think it well to
resume the facts up to the present time. The new French
Parliament was called together towards the end of last
month for an extra session, to be devoted to the "verifi-
cation of powers," or confirming the elections. You in
England take every member's return for granted,
unless a petition is presented against him. Here
there are no petitions. No deputy is accounted
a 10;41 fde member of the House, no deputy is
allowed to vote, until he has been" confirmed." In order to
do this, the whole House is divided into nine committees,
and these report on the various seats. If a return is not
disputed, little difficulty arises ; hut if the invalidation of
an election is claimed, lengthy examination, often involv-
ing a row between the different parties, is the result.
This time the Chamber had got through all the undis•
puted returns, and had come to the fifty-five deputies
whose seats were contested, when the Emperor's INlusag
came announcing divers const:tntional reforms. Tv.%
things were necessary in order to carry colt
these reforms. There must be a change of Ministry.
and a session of the Upper 1101130 or Senate -
for it is this body, the members of which ore
nominated exclusively by the Emperor, that examines and
settles all constitutional changes. The Corps Ugislatif
cannot diScuss the Constitution. Well, the Emperor
set the work upon the first of these ess.-eitia7e—recon.
stituting the Ministry. In the meantime, he prorogued
the Corps L6gislatif, on the ground, apparently, that
the House ought not to sit whilst a Ministerial crisis was
going on. This decision caused loud complaints. The
deputies—and especially those who had not been " con-
firmed "—were greatly discontented. They pleaded that
the Chamber was not doing any regular business, it was
merely deciding upon the election:,, and this work might
be done without Ministers.

.... -
However, the prorogation was passed over with much
grumbling, on the understanding that the Chamber
would soon be convened again. Now we learn that it is
to be dismissed altogether—with fifty-five elections un-
settled—until next October. The Emperor has got his
new Ministry, and it is now necessery that the Senate
should be assembled to discuss the reforms. His Majesty has
determined that the Corps L6gislatif shall not sit whilst
this discussion in the Senate is going on, and the proroga.
tion is, therefore, continued until October. No doubt
the Lower House might have proved troublesome,
and no doubt the Emperor, by shutting it up, will
save a good deal of comment on what the
Senate may do. But is it right that the elected of the
people should be thus hustled out of the way because they
•
may talk Is this in the spirit of a new reform policy ?
It is argued, and very justly, that the Corps Ldgislatif
was convened for a special purpose, and that its mission
ought to have been fulfilled before it was dismissed.
Scarcely any journal attempts to defend this proceeding
Most of them furiously condemn it. The Temps, one of
the most moderate and able of the Liberal papers, says
that "Personal Power " consents tomake concessions, but
he will not allow the chosen of the people to shave any
share in their elaboration, "He 'wishes it to be seen that
he alone rests master of the nature and extent of
these concessions. He does not wish any dis-
cussion. He does not even care what the majority
think, that majority which he has caused to be elected,
and which his agents and his organs present to us as the
**pre:salon of the national will." This is bold writing ;
but not unnatural. The Emperor has clearly succeeded
in undoing the good work of his message.
The Moderate Liberals are holding a meeting this
svening to decide upon the measures to be taken
in consequence of this continued prorogation. It
is believed that the party will support the
Government, and make no movement until we see what
the Senate will do with the Emperor's reforms. The Left
is contemplating a manifesto in the newspapers, protesting
against the prorogation. This party is very angry indeed,
and well it may be, for the Moderate Liberals carried off
all the honours of the session so far as it went. The
Moderate Liberals, with their demand for Ministerial
responsibility, drew forth the Emperor's Message ; but the
members of the Left have accomplished nothing beyond
eating dinners, of which these irreconcilables dispose of
more than any other political section.
Young men do not find much favour with French con-
stituencies. Reds may be chosen, but they are invariably
Reds of experience. The oldest man in the new
Corps L6gislatif is the most revolutionary. It
is Bence]. Fifty-six of the deputies are over 60 yearEcof
age ; 104 are between 50 and 60; 89 between 40 and 50.
Only four are under 30.
The Empress and the Prince Imperial have made a
journey to Berck, for the purpose of inaugurating a
hospital for children. They met with a reception of
remarkable enthusiasm. Twenty triumphal arches
adorned the road from Montreuil to Berck.
Some of these were very substantial affairs. Real
live fisherwomen, engaged in making nets, were
posted on the top of one, whilst facing them, in endearing
attitudes, some of the best specimens of the young men of
the district were supposed to be paying their court to the
netmakers. Berck is a fishing village near the sea,
recommended for the purpose of this hospital by its
great healthiness. Eight hundred children can be accom-
modated within the walls of the new institution.
The eccentricities of an Italian countess resident here
are just now the talk of Paris. This lady is a rich and
')eautiful widow, dwells with her son in a very fine hotel,
and amuses herself with an endless variety of extrava-
gances. She is fond of breakfasting at caf6s, and not
seldom has a meal brought to her in her carriage, where
she solemnly eats amid the wonderment of the passers by.
Bhe recently paid a visit of ceremony in a pair of Albanian
with a VantriilYer:iliitgiAZZCZAUCk..th-thaidarta.