The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-13 00:00:00

IRE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING' APRIL 13, 1860.

chairman, Mr. BAINES, being an out and out Free-
trader, of course would have given half a dozen votes,
if he had had them, against monopoly. We have
looked through the evidence itself pretty carefully,
and we can confidently affirm that, if ever evidence
taken by a committee bore out its report, that
taken on the Bible monopoly does so. So far as
Free-Trade principles have already operated,
through the abolition of the patent in Scotland,
and the competition of the Universities, it is in
evidence—uncontradicted evidence, that the price
fell with the opening of the trade, and that the
accuracy and beauty of editions of the Scriptures
increased while the price fell. The inference
would seem to be that perfect Free-Trade would pro-
duce the most perfect Bible at the lowest price.
But, says our contemporary, the printing of the
Bible is not a case for the application of ordinary
free-trade principles. It is an exception to the
rule. The reason is, that the " religious public
would be disgusted at careless editions of the Bible.
Religious sensitiveness conies in." Quite true. But
how could our oracular contemporary fail to per-
ceive that his argument is altogether in favour of
free-trade printing. What tradesman could be so
foolish as to print a book for religious people, at
which they would be " disgusted," and at which
their religious " sensitiveness" would revolt ? That
sensitiveness is strong indeed; but just in propor-
tion to its strength is the absolute certainty
of accuracy. Indeed, we may assume that
in Bibles printed on free-trade principles
accuracy would never be the point of com•
petition, for the simple reason that inaccu-
racy would be certain failure. The competition
would be in quality—in type, paper, binding, and
all that is included in what is termed getting up.
But we demur to what all this part of the argu-
ment of the Times implies—that because it is a
religious book, of superlative importance to Protes-
tants, therefore the State is to take its printing
into its own hands, and to delegate its assumed
charge to two universities and one printer. Who
made the State our Bible provider ? Who would
assert that, in other things, the work undertaken
by the State is performed equally well with that
turned out by private persons ? And, especially,
who will assert that those who monopolise,
or even get fairly, Government contracts,
perform their work so well as those who
manufacture for the general public ? We deny
the right of the State to take charge
of Bible printing more than of SHAKESPEARE print-
ing. A needy monarch set the monopoly on foot,
not for religious, but for pecuniary considerations ;
and now it is pretended that it is a deed of piety to
keep the monopoly in the hands of its present pos-
sessors. We are actually treated to the astound-
ing conclusion that "number does not affect the case
—that when competition begins, it is just as strong
between three establishments as between three
hundred !" Ask Messrs. COBDEN and BRIGHT—
ask the Chambers of Commerce all over the coun-
try, what they think of this doctrine; their reply
will be—yes, but two coach proprietors, or two
railways, after having half ruined each other, can,
and often will, combine against the public, and
indemnify themselves at its cost. In the present
case there is the " damning fact" that the three
monopolists did keep up their prices till the aboli-
tion of the Scottish patent, and the efforts of Dr.
ADAM THOMPSON, of Perth, in a few months
tumbled down monopolist prices some fifty per
cent. !

We have but one or two remarks to add at present.
If, after the infliction on us of an augmented income
tax, merely to make the Budget more perfectly,
indeed almost pedantically, a free trade one, Minis-
ters so grossly violate the principle of their Budget
as to saddle us with a renewal of the Bible mono-
poly, they deserve universal contempt. It will be a
piece of cowardice, or of jobbery, only to be paral-
leled by the shabbiness of the French EMPEROR
and his rag shops.
The other remark is this. The Bible, that is, of
course, not the sacred originals, but the English
translation of them, does need revision. Such a
revision all persons of sound literary taste agree
should not be a retranslation and modernising of
the style, making a new book of it, but a correction
of imperfect or inaccurate renderings, and of obso-
lete or antiquated words. Are, then, all revisers of
the Bible to be compelled to print their Bibles at the
monopolists' offices ? Or, what amount of change
is to save them from the terrors of the patent and
Chancery ? The translation of the Bible, like a
translation of HORACE, may be indefinitely im-
proved, and nothing whatever ought to stand in the
way of such improvement.
Perhaps we might suggest a compromise. Let
the Government fairly test the worth of its own
imprimatur. Let it appoint a board, not to be
salaried, but supported by the fees paid by those
who resort to it, for ensuring accuracy in editions
of the Bible. If such a board could get its living,
well and good—it would show that the public
"sensitiveness" and "disgust at careless editions"
required a Government guarantee, because they
were willing to pay for it out of their own pockets;
but in the name of free-trade, and especially of our
costly free-trade budget, let us have unlicensed
printing of the Word of GOD.

Although we have done but comparatively little
as yet towards the actual realisation of the popular
day-dream of National Education—the time, we re-
joice to think, is fast going by when any one above
the position of a Pauper can say with honest Mr.
TULLIVER, of Dorlicote Mill, " All the learnin' my
father ever paid for was a bit o' birch at one end and
the alphabet at th' other !" For the which exquisite
morceaux of wit, see one of the earlier chapters in
GEORGE ELIuT'S delightful new story of " The Mill
on the Floss." As a justification of our more hope-
ful view, we need only mention what was actually
done during the past year 1858-1859 towards the
achievement of the great work of National Educa-
tion—according to the reliable statistics authorita-
tvoiaetleydp2u4ttfhormthaiyn, tlhBesl9a tfrooffimc official report to h
the
eordsof
ftthe Queen
Com-
mitteeo
pdport
rrtinwg
eotlfhe
attCrt on ut
twnhceai o9e nm34oE,lodot uhoc, cation. From which re-
enrolled
childrenhfaodr been then,
under the inspection of the Government. Recollect,
moreover, that for educational purposes in 18.59
there was voted by the House of Commons
the munificent amount (munificent considering that
we are but now, as it were, at the very commence-
ment of the great enterprise) of £BOO,OOO
• A ny •
thing like overweening exultation, however, at
sight of these apparently encouraging numbers is
checked by the startling estimates advanced in the
remarkable report to which we have but just made
reference—the calculation, in the first place, that
additional provision will have to be made for the
instruction not of 934,000, but of as many as
3,000,000 children ! And further, that the sums
required to be advanced will have to expand pro-
portionately:soo 00 to h
fromte
et
nh
oe r
m ou sa
last-mentionednn ualoutlay
grant
o
off
£2,500,000 ! It is consolatory, however, to find
from a brief but singularly able analysis of the Re-
portmentionaend)anfarolymsis tutheeonCstoimmtiintgteeonoef
Council ( al (already dy
Education,of the most attractive papers in the newly published
number of the Edinburgh Review—it is at once

consolatory and encouraging to find that ex- •
ception is taken forthwith (and for good and
valid reasons) to the estimate that £2,500,000
will be imperatively required for the
annual payment of the education of the bulk of the
yet uneducated children in England ! Exception
being also taken at the same time (and for equally
valid reasons) to the statement officially advanced
that the aggregate of those children must neces-
sarily embrace as many as 3,000,000 ! The calcu-
lations of the Committee of Council on Education
are based, it must be remembered, among other
notions, upon the idea that the children will enjoy
an average of twelve years' instruction ! A most
fallacious premiss to begin with, as the writer in
the Edinburgh at once takes occasion to point out.
Again, the official estimate goes the extravagant
length of insisting that 80,000 teachers will be re-
quired to educate this hypothetical total of 3,000,000
children. Admitting which imaginary necessity,
one could hardly wonder, after all, that the annual
cost of such a gigantic system of National Education
as this would involve a yearly disbursement of
£2,500,000. According to the more moderate and ra-
tional views of the _Edinburgh critic, however, it will
be seen, upon the merest cursory glance down his
pages, how it comes to be estimated by him upon
mature consideration that the 30,000 teachers
" collapse by nearly one third !" How the yearly
grant of £BOO,OOO instead of increasing to between
two and three millions would have to expand (upon
the largest computation) to a maximum annual ex-
penditure of £1,600,000 ! How the duration of
say, instead of being taken at " twelve" years,
would have to be taken on the contrary at six.
And how finally the total number of children in
England between the ages of three and fifteen being,
according to the last census, that of 1851, close
upon 5,000,000, or, to be exact, 4,908,696—the
largest attendance of scholars in the public schools
that could reasonably be expected would be a
maximum of 2,000,000 ! " Indeed" observes the
Edinburgh critic upon this last point, "we shall
have fewer, because the dame and private schools
will always have a quota, though a diminishing
one." Rather a " bull," that, by the way on the
will always have a quota,
part of the Edinburg/o—u
though a diminishing one !" Decidedly a " bull,'
—unless, indeed, the diminution of attendance
here anticipated, a diminution always going
on and yet never reaching its ultimatum—
unless, we say this constant but never-ending
diminution have some mysterious resemblance to
the famous geometrical problem of the two points
perpetually approaching one another nearer and
nearer, but never touching ! To the lovers of the
picturesque, or what is pretty well synonymous,
• the admirers of SHENSTONE'S poetic masterpiece, it
may be matter of regret perhaps, for a moment,
that the " Dame's School" will probably very soon,
indeed, at this rate, be entirely a thing of the past.
True that even here, there is one solace for the
urchins of a later geleration, who may no longer
have reason to look askance beyond the threshold of
the village schoolmistress, where—(SHENsToNE
has sung fantastically, after the manner of
SPENCER)—
ic . all in sight cloth rise a birchen tree,
Which Learning near her little dome did stowe,
Whilom a twig of small regard to see,
Tho' now so wide its waving branches flow,
And work the simple vassals mickle woe ;
For not a wind might curl the leaves that blew
But their limbs shudder'd, and their pulse beat low,
And as they look'd they found their horror grew,
And shaped it into rods, and tinglsd at the Wow."
Truely—now that (in Lord BROUGHAM'S famous
phrase) " the schoolmaster is abroad"—the old-
fashioned schoolmistress will have to disappear—it
is too tempting, indeed, not to add—she will have
to cut her stick even from the old familiar birch
tree.

The Earl of Beverley is passing the season at
Torquay. His lordship will not arrive in town until June..
Viscount Campden has arrived at his residence in
Portman. square for the season.

Lord and Lady Feversham are expected in town
in a few days from Dancombe Park, Yorkshire, for the
season.

Lord and Lady Lovaine come to town to-day
from Albury Park, Guilford.
Baron and Baroness Dalloz have arrived at the
Brunswick Hotel, Jermyn-street.

The Earl and Countess of Hardwicke and family
will return to town on Monday from Wimpole Hall, for
the season.

His Excellency the Belgian) Minister and
Madame Van de Weyer come to town to-day from New
Lodge, Windsor Forest.
His Excellency the Brazilian Minister, Madame
de Carvalho Moreira, and family have left Cavendish-
square for Paris. During his excellency's absence the
Chevalier A. d'Andrada will act as Charge d'Affaires.
Visconnt and Viscountess Barrington are ex-
pected in town early next week from Beckett House, Berks.
Viscount Gage has returned to Whitehall from
a fishing excursion in Scotland.
Lord Ernest Bruce arrived at the Pavilion Hotel,
Folkestone, on Tuesday, and left the following day for
Paris.

We regret to announce the death of Mr. W. S.
Stanley, who died yesterday morning at Paultons, the
family seat, near Romsey. Mr. Stanley was for many
years well known as a zealous supporter of the turf. He
married, in 1804, Lady Gertrude Howard, daughter of Fre-
y Lady M. Leveson Gower,
first Marquis of Stafford.
seconddseerviecrka,
dfifafoutmhgihEl
tosesrr
of
fff
rCoanrkli
Granville,slaer,
e placed in mourning by the b
l
mournful event.

The Danish Government has appointed Colonel
Kauffman, curator of the University of Kiel, its military
delegate to the Germanic Confederation.

Intelligence froth Stockholm announces that the
King of Sweden presided at a Council of Norwegian Minis-
ters on the 4th inst., in which his Majesty declared that he
refused to sanction the decision of the Norwegian Storthing
relative to the suppression of the office of King's Lieute-
nant for the kingdom of Norway.

The Belgian war budget for 1861, just distributed
to the Chambers, proposes to fix the strength of the army
at 40,445 men and 8,760 horses. The total expense is esti-
mated at 32,252,630 f., being 39,460 more than for the pre-
sent year.

HER MAJESTY'S TIIEATRE.---" LaTavorita," was
performed here last night for the debut of Madame Borghi-
Mamo. The lady's voice is a mezzo soprano, and last night
she fully vindicated her claim to the lofty position accorded
to her in other countries. Her success was complete, and
she will prove one of the bright particular stars of Mr. E.
T. Smith's company. Signor Everardi, the new baritone,
was likewise very favourably received. Signor Mongini
appeared for the first time in the part of Fernando, with
much success. Signor Vialetti was the Baldassare, whilst
the subordinate parts were well filled by Madame Nardi and
Signor Mercuriali. The house was well attended.
SIR R. PEEL IN SWITZERLAND.—.& letter from
Berne, dated April 9, says :—" Sir Robert Peel, who arrived
at Geneva yesterday, is the object of great attention from
the leaders of both political camps, who, however, may now
be regarded as one, as the Conservatives display at least as
much zeal as their former opponents in maintaining the
rights of Switzerland."

-The newspapers have not done half justice to the
memory of Mrs. Jameson. It was this accomplished lady
who, when at Paris, being asked by one of the eleven the
meaning of the word gratitude, answered, "The memory
of the heart." A more beautiful definition could not have
been given.—Derbyshire Reporter.
SHOCKING GUN ACCIDENT.—On Wednesday last
Mr. Coroner Whiston held an inquest at Ilkston, Derby-
shire, on the body of Joseph Davis, a lad ten years of age,
whose death took place the previous day from the effects of
a gun-shot wound on the top of the left shoulder. It
appeared from the evidence that the deceased and a lad
named John Green, aged nine years, went into a chamber
over a stable for he purpose of getting hen corn, and
shortly afterwards the report of a gun was heard
by a man in the yard. John Green afterwards came out of
the chamber, and said to the man, " Oh, Jack, I was pull-
ing the riddle off that table and the gun went off, and Denty
(meaning deceased) is dead.'' Green was sent to tell the
deceased's father, who immediately entered the chamber
and found his son lying On his right side, quite dead, with
his head towards the door, and his feet in the direction from
where the gun was placed. From the statement made by
John Green, it appeared that ho was in the act of pulling
the gun towards him with a stick, when it went off, and
the contents lodged in the shoulder of deceased. From the
medical evidence it was proved that the gun could not have
been discharged by the deceased himself, but there appear-
ing no satisfactory evidence as to how the gun was dis-
charged, the jury returned a verdict to that effect.—. Derby
Reporter.

The funeral of M. Louville took place yesterday
at St. Koch, and was attended by a great number of emi-
nent persons, belonging to the judicial, political, and lite-
rary circles. The chief mourners were the two sons of the
deceased and his brother. The pall was held by MM.
Picard, Plociue, Desmarets, and Yairixt,

LATEST NEWS.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, APRIL 13.

The illoniteur of this morning contains the usual
monthly return of the Bank of France, which
shows the following results as compared with the
Alarch account :

DECREASED.

Cash
Bills discounted not yet due 9-
•

9 1-6tla millions.

Advances
Current accounts
Treasury balance ..
INCREASED.
Bank notes

. ... 531

32 millions,

PARIS, APRIL 13.

It is stated that the Cabinet of the Tuileries is
about to address a memorandum to the Powers who
signed the final act of Vienna.
The aim of this memorandum is said to be to
establish, by strategical considerations, the unim-
peachable proof that if France ever had an inten-
tion of menacing the neutrality of Switzerland she
could do so notwithstanding all the guarantees
stipulated in the treaties of 1815, since the military
road leading from France to Germany through
Switzerland now no longer exists, neither in the
territory of Faucigny nor of Chaublais, but at an-
other point not included in the neutralised districts.
The Cabinet of the Tuileries hopes by that to show
that the annexation of Savoy to France does not
virtually deprive Switzerland of her strategical
position, neither does it involve any of the dangers
put forward beforehand by the Federal Council of
Berne.

BERLIN, THURSDAY.

The Kreuz Zeitung of this evening says :—"ln
well-informed circles it is believed that a union will
lee effected between Prussia, England, and Austria,
in reference to the threatened interests of Switzer-
land, but it is expressly stated that no hopes are
entertained that Russia will join this alliance."

GENEVA, THURSDAY.

The Federal Council has to-day despatched a
note to the Powers, which states that, as Switzer-
land had not been consulted on the occasion of the
vote of Savoy, she protests against any violation of
her rights which may result from such vote.

MARSEILLES, THURSDAY.

A letter from Naples state that the combat at
Palermo was very bloody, most of the insurgents
having perished at the barricades. Several monks
of the convent were seized and imprisoned.
Reinforcements have been sent into Sicily. The
commercial steamboats have been put into requisi-
tion. and the army in Sicily will be augmented to
30,000 men. Prince Castelcicala has returned to
his post as governor of the island. Prince
Filangieri has arrived, in order to confer with the
King. The panic at Naples on the 6th inst. was
general, but without consequence.

ROME, APRIL 12.
The Duke of Rochefaucald has given 12 rifled
cannons to the Pope.

ROME, WEDNESDAY.

General Lamoriciere has issued an order of the
day, in which he declares that he has not hesitated
to resume his sword when required by the Pope.

He continues thus—
" Catholic Christianity is the life of civilisation.
" Europe is threatened by revolution, as it for-
merly was by Islamism.
" The cause of the Pope is that civilisation and
liberty."

The General concludes by exhorting the soldiers
to have confidence in the success of the cause which
is entrusted to them.

TURIN, APRIL 12.

General Garibaldi, in an interpellation made in
to•day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies, af-
firmed that the voting of Nice will be effected
under French pressure. He censured the action
of the Provisional Government of Nice, as attack•
ing the liberty of the vote, and concluded by pro-
posing the adjournment of the vote in that pro-

vince.

After the rejection of several orders of the day,
implying disapprobation of the conduct of the Go-
vernment, the following order of the day was
adopted by a great majority :
The Chamber, hoping that Government will
maintain the constitutional guarantees, and effica•
eious provide for the liberty of the Tote in Savoy,
passes to the order of the day.

VIENNA, THURSDAY.

Baron Prokesch, the Austrian Internuncio at
Constantinople, has demanded and obtained leave
for six months. He will be replaced ad interim
by Count Ludolf, Councillor of the Austrian Em-
bassy, who (being here on leave of absence) will
start by the next mail steamer for Constantinople.

MADRID, MARCH 12.

The son of General Ortega has presented a peti-
tion to the Queen, requesting her Majesty to spare
the life of his father.

A search is being made for fugitives in the north•

west provinces.