The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-20 00:00:00

ADDRESS TO THE LORD-LIEUTENANT.

The following address was presented yesterday to hit
Excellency Earl Spencer, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland:—
" We, the Vice-Chancellor, Doctors, and Masters of the
University of Dublin, desire to approach your Excellency
with the expression of our respectful congratulations or
your appointment of the high office of the representa-
tive in Ireland to her Most Gracious Majesty the
Queen. Our university has an historic life and cherished
traditions. Founded by Queen Elizabeth, its privileges
have been graciously confirmed by our Queen Victoria.
It has endeavoured to fulfil its duty to the State by dif
fusing those influences which emanate frcm well-ordered
and liberal education, from religious literature, and
science. It has thus sought to be the ally of the State, in
promoting social order, self-reliance, and peaceful progress
in Ireland, objects which we doubt not that your Excel-
lency has at heart, and the encouragement of which, as
iustitia prxveniens, non punicns, will be regarded by your
Excellency as of paramount importance to our national
prosperity."

Earl SPENCER, in reply, pledged himself to study well
the questions pressing on the attention of the Govern-
ment, and assured his hearers that the question of the
amnesty should receive his anxious consideration.

MIR. CARTER, M.P., AND MR. ILLING-
WORTH, M.P., ON EDUCATION.

Mr. Alderman Carter, M.P., and Mr. Illirgworth,
M.P., have been addressing the members of the Idle
Mechanics' Institute, at their annual meeting. Mr. Carter
said he did not like the present system of education in
England, which he held to be unjust, because
it helped those who helped themselves, and would not help
those that could not do so. He objected to it
also as being denominational, since he held that
national education should be purely secular, and
that religous education should be given by the
Efferent sects with which school children were con-
nected. If the English system were applied to Ireland,
the result would be that £300,000 of the money given
annually to Ireland would go to teach Roman Catho-
licism. We were doing very little for national
education compared with what was being done in
other parts of the world, especially in Massachusetts,
where one-fifth of the population attended day-schools,
each scholar costing the State £1 ss. 9d. yearly, while our
scholars only cost 15s. per head. Mr. Illingworth, M.P.,
was more sanguine about the prospects of
England, and held that though her system of
national education was defective, there were traits in
her national character which kept the people from falling
behind their neighbours. Like Mr. Carter, he hoped to
see a new system of national instruction,in which relsgious
teaching should be left to voluntary effort.

DISCHARGED PRISONERS' AID SOCIETY.

The annual general meeting of the Manchester and Sal-
ford Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society was held on Mon-
day, in the Town Hall, Manchester. The meeting was
largely attended, it having been announced that Lord Stan-
ley was to take the chair, but a telegram from Knowsley
informed the secret•rry that the noble lord had missed the
train, and desired that his apologies be made to the meeting.
fir. Birley, M.P., was voted to the chair. Letters of
ipology were read from many influential persons, among
them the RecJrder of Manchester, who said he considered
the subject of the association a most important one, and
that the repeated conviction of so many criminals was strong
evidence that the present system of dealing with them had
tailed. The chairman moved the adoption of the report, and
declared that our legislators had not yet solved the
problem of the eoundet mode of dealing with
the criminal classes. The cessation of the trans-
portation system bad greatly increased the difficulties
of the affair, but ho would rely upon the efforts of such
a society as this, and a better administration of prisons. Mr.
Hibbert, M.P., as chairman of the visiting justices of the
Salford prison, expressed his sympathy with the objects of
the society. The time had come when they must see that
their duty to the' criminal population did not cease at
their discharge from gaol.; IMr. Thomas Dickens said that
it had been remarked of the society that it attracted
rogues and vagabonds to Manchester, but, looking at the
question in a national point of view, he did not regret the
circumstance. Criminals were attracted to Manchester by
the fact that they would be assisted to gain an honest living
if they were so disposed, and it must be borne in mind that
they were under the surveillance of the police, and some clue
was given to their whereabouts.