The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-05 00:00:00

BANKRUPTCY BILL.

On the mctionfor the second reading of this bill,
Mr. JESSEL rose to call attention to the various arti-
cles of the bill and to the present state of the bankruptcy
laws. He thought great advantage would result from the
law being made so clear that the settlement of the
affairs of a person in a bankrupt state might be made in
the shortest period by him. He thought it a
mistake to release future acquired property from
liability, provided a bankrupt paid 10s. in the pound—
(hear, hear)—he thought the liability ought to last until
the whole of the debt had been discharged. (Hear, hear.)
It was a matter of frequent occurrence to find a reckless
person becoming bankrupt on the failure of his
gigantic speculation, and the property given
up in bankruptcy of course was very small,
bat in a very short time after such a person's affairs are
arranged iu bankruptcy he was to be seen by his unfor-
tunate creditors driving about the town in the most
luxurious of carriages, and residing and living in a scale
of splendour that would go to show that he did not know
what bankruptcy was. (Hear, hear.) Such a state of things
was wholly to be attributed to the exempting future
pro-
perty from liability for unpaid debts. It was said that if
future property was not protected there would be no
inducement for future exertion, but he did not go that.
length ; he thought that every honest man would
.1/0_ 0.11±Y:.
too glad to make an exertion to pay in.,fluell_enitshijums-'
debts—(Hear hear)—and, therefore, lie wont
It was only
self to the utmost to do so. (Hear, hear.)
enablingui t oprosperi •
t,-• (Hear, hear.)
Id go on speculating and
A desper.,,te commercial man
tines, until at last he makes a
peopleplotect t
futureo speculate
secure half amillion
and laughsat
of
d ragsu
e tao them. ebnei .g g aHr He thought
his unhappy
throughtought
nlulcc3inieyy!ti
that
bankruptingr
nt
iutaur.ronis. fiveou
tzAtoidn
the nou-paym,
that allowing such a state of things to exist when the
bankruptcy laws were under consideration would be a
creditors, who t.lirtnorfedtuhecesdulos
T
disgrace to the law (LEFT
of te lan
E d.

THE ROYAL BUNT BANQUET.--The banquet
given to the farmers in the neighbourhood of Windsor by
the noblemen and gentlemen who ride with the Queen's
buckhounds will take place next Wednesday, at the
Town-hall, Windsor. Lord Cork, the master of the
Queen's hounds, will preside, and there will be about 150
guests.
The course of exchange at New York on London for bills
at 60 days' sight was on the last date about ICBf percent.
At this rate there is no profit on the importation of gold
from the I.IIIIIW Z:tateS.

SPIRIT OF TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

we want, at any rate for the classes whose educational
interests we have here been considering, is not more
schools, or opportunities of instruction. It is simply
required that parents should exercise caution in the selec-•
tion of these, and if only they will do this, it is tolerably
certain that the conductors of all educational establish-
ments will readily take the hint, and quickly have to put
their own houses in order.

The Standard thinks the turret-ship is decidedly victorious
the House of Commons, whatever may be the fate of
that peculiar style of craft elsewhere. By 122 votes
against 46 the House in committee has declared its opinion
that it is perfectly possible to build turret-ships which
shall be safe and serviceable as ocean cruisers. The vote
was the more emphatic inasmuch as the two turret-ships pro-
posed by the Admiralty were in every respect " thorough,"
being fitted with twin screws and having no masts. The
real strength and energy of the Admiralty have been
thrown into the adaptation of the broadside principle to
the heavyguns and ponderous armour of the new era. It
is now requisite that the same zeal should be displayed for
the purpose of making the steady platform, the all-round
fire, and the massive armour of the turret-ship available
for ocean service The " trials "we are now asked to wait
for have themselves been delayed too long. We have been
scheming with broadsides until we are brought into the
awkward predicament of seeing that what we have done is not

to be trusted, while at the same time we are not quite sure
as to what we ought to do. But the race must come to an
end, and the broadside-ship is falling into the rear. We
have been trying to make broadside-ships powerful. We
must now tax our ingenuity to make turret-ships seaworthy
and comfortable. It is the growing power of naval ord-
nance which has driven us to this pass, and which compels
us to adopt a type of war-ship having little else to recom-
mend it than its ability to give and take in the battle of
big guns and terrible projectiles.

ANOTHER MARRIAGE IN THE MUSICAL WORLD.
—A Paris correspondent writes :—" Mdlle. Nilsson, the
charming Swedish prima donna, is about to abandon
Euterpe for Hymen. The fortunate Benedict in pro-
spective is said to be a French duke, whose name cruel
Puck has not yet vouchsafed to make public."

A gross case of overcrowding a ferry steamer was
brought under the notice of the Liverpool magistrates on
Friday. Tho defendant was captain of the i.teamer Queen,
and during a trip from Eastham on Good Friday there were
nearly 300 passengers iu excess of the number which the
vessel was certified to carry. To add to the danger the
weather was rough. The captain was fined in penalties
amountitig to m arty £l5.

Mr. Henry Lee, writing to land and Water,
contradicts a statement concerning the Siamese Twins,
that "one of their medical examiners tied a ligature round
the connecting band so as to prevent the circulation
through it, and that in consequence the smaller of the two
fainted away and lust all consciousness, and there were
symptoms that the same effect would follow on the other."
The Twins say that no such experiment has been tried on
them, and that the above, which was published as "a
fact," is, on the contrary, pure fiction. Mr. Lee offers a
"friendly hint" to some new9paper reporters who write
without [remembering that their subjects have feelings. I
The coarse, flippant, and unfeeling remarks upon the
Twins which recently'appeared in a London daily paper
were read by them and by their relatives with pain and j
Indignation.

The Times, in commenting upon the Glasgow bancilFt,
says that Lord Stanley is conscious that he has been, and
is, on his trial, and hence the tone of apology which can
be discerned in his speech. We do not complain of Lord
Stanley because he desires to act in the only way in which
an English statesman can effectually act—as a member of
a party. Our complaint is that by persisting in retaining
a position which was at first unavoidable he cripples his
energies, and deprives England of the service he could
render the nation, because he is in alliance with men whose
opinions he does not share. While Lord Stanley was in
office he attended to foreign affairs, and he did his business
well, but he could do nothing else. Now that he is in
Opposition he can do nothing. He pointed out to the working
men of Glasgow many real dangers to be avoided, but as
a member of the Opposition he is nearly powerless to avert
them, while in his proper position he could exercise an
immense influence. The essential excuse for adhesion to
a party wholly fails. He must act with a party to be effi-
cient, but acting with the Conservative party he is ineffi-
cient. No one supposes that the existing combinations
can endure for ever, and Lord Stanley, still in his early
manhood, has it in his power to assume a station whence
he could control the future. Circumstances, it will be
said, are too strong for him, and undoubtedly they become
stronger day by day and year by year as each fresh con-
cession is made to their power; but we cannot admit that
the external facts of Lord Stanley's position, strong as
they are, are sufficient to explain continued submission to
their thraldom. If circumstances forbid him to betake
himself to his proper place, we must understand by " cir-
cumstances" not merely hereditary ties and political rela-
tions, we must extend the phrase to include excessive self-
distrust, a moral timidity, a lack of confidence in himself
and in his career, which, like clay mingled with gold,
destroys the strength and power of his character.
The Daily News says that in his Glasgow speech Lord
Stanley confesses practically how wide the divergence is
between himself and his late colleagues. While Lord
John Manners strains his voice in crying " No Surrender,"
and Mr. Gathorne Hardy vows resistance to the last, he
declares that the vote in the House of Commons on the
Irish Church cinestion is practically without appeal.
To attempt to reverse its decision must be vain. He
bows to the decree of the country, limiting his aspira-
tion to the hope that something may be saved out
of the fire. Lord Stanley is alarmed by what he conceives
to be the general desire on the part of the majority of the
Irish people for the repeal of the Union, and he looks
with apprehension to the influence of the Catholic
hierarchy. To do justice to Ireland is, however, the
surest means of creating attachment to the Union, and of
weakening the political influence of the priesthood.
He raises° bugbears, less, probably, because he
has any real terror, than for the sake of justi-
fying his past concessions to the party of reac-
tion, and of sustaining the character which for
the present is forced upon him of a Conservative poli-
tician. He declares, nevertheless, that the voluntary
principle is evidently gaining ground in religious matters,
and describes titular distinctions and marks of dignity
which spring from the Church's connection with the State
as not worth retaining. This is the language of Mr. Miall
rather than of Dr. Ball, of Mr. Bright and not of Mr.
Disraeli. In truth, throughout Lord Stanley's speech,
Liberal opinions are latent under Conservative phrase-
ology.
The Telegraph declares that though, in the politics of
the hour, birth, circumstances, and the balance of neces-
sities have given him to the Conservative side, Lord
Stanley belongs, as we have lately remarked, to all of us,
and is an "Englishman of Englishmen." In Britain a
man must go to one side or the other ; the habit of the
national mind demands a distinct profession of political
opinion. Thus Lord Stanley, who would have the best
and highest right to a seat by himself, if carefully-studied
opinion and sober judgment could confer it, has obviously
done a necessary violence to his convictions, and
accepted with intellectual reluctance the name
of Tory. By that adhesion his party gains, no
doubt, a weighty name, an admirable capacity, and an
influence which helps to keep Mr. Gathorne Hardy
reasonable and to make Mr. Disraeli safe. Lord Stanley
is at once the pride and the despair, the comfort and the
terror, of the Tory party. They can't possibly do without
him; but he never opens his mouth without causing an un-
intentionalpang in the bosoms of the squires. His " con-
founded common-sense " is for ever announcing to them
the dismal necessity of acknowledging accomplished
events, and looking facts in the face. Lord Stanley's
declaration, that the Conservative party must accept
"the recorded decision of the country" on the subject of
the Irish Church, really surrenders all the genuine old
Tory doctrine, which held some things to be so sacred
that, even in the nation itself, they could not find a court
of final appeal. The utterance is really that of the most
advanced Liberalism ; and in no more emphatic words
could Lord Stanley have expressed the full significance of
the immense majority by which the disestablishment and
the disendowment of the Irish Church were virtually
decreed.
The Herald is inclined to regret that Mr. Forster's
educational measure cannot be extended to imendowed
establishments, and thinks that there are many existing
schools, both proprietary and private, in which the system
pursued is superficial and unsound. In both classes there
is a strong temptation to push forward a few clever boys
who can gain the school credit in competitive examina-
tions to the neglect of the duller majority. Very
often the presiding genius of the place has himself no
pretensions whatever to be qualified as instructor,
save possibly in one or two of the least important
subjects that the pupil can take up. Ife contrives
to get together a staff of tutors and a collection of pupils.
The work that is done proceeds by fits and starts. So far
from there being any of that moral discipline which is one
of the most precious adjuncts of a school training, the
atmosphere is full of anarchy and misrule. The great
object studied is to enable the learner to pass a given
examination : education, in the true sense of the word, is
a purely secondary affair. There never was a time at
which education of one kind or another, good or bad,
was more readily accessible than at present. Precisely
for this reason it becomes the duty of all who have any
interest in the well-being of boys to exercise an
increased degree of discrimination and judgment. The
task thus imposed upon them is by no means unreasonably
heavy; and we have indicated the main principles which
should guide them in the performance of this task. What