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

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 30,000 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 Edinburgh_<,
,hough a diminishing one !" Decidedly a " bull,'

—unless, indeed, the diminution of attendance
here anticipated, u 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 SIIENSTONE'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 geßeration, 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)--
" . 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 ita waving branches flow,
And work the simple vassals micklo 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 tingled at the view."
Truely—now that (in Lord BROUGPIAM'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 Duncombe Park, Yorkshire, for the

season.

Lord and Lady Lovainc 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 Hard wieke and family
will return to town on Monday from Wimpole Hall, for
the season.

His Excellency the Belgian' Minister and
Madame Van do Weyer come to town to-day from New
Lodge, Windsor Forest.
His Excellency the Brazilian Minister, Madame
de Carvalho Moreira, and family have loft Cavendish-
square for Paris. During his excellency's absence the
Chevalier A. d'Andrada, will act as Charg6 d'Affaires.

Viscount 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 Itornsey. Mr. Stanley was for many
years well known as a zealous supporter of the turf. He
married, in 1801, Lady Gertrude Howard, daughter of Fre-
derick, fifth Earl of Carlisle, by Lady M. Levcson Gower,
second daughter of Granville, first Marquis of Stafford.
Several families of rank are placed in mourning by the
mournful event.

The Danish Government has appointed Colone'
Kauffman, curator of the University of Kiol, its militar)
delegate to the Germanic Confederation.

Intelligence frou, 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 THEATRE.—" La Favorita," was
performed here last night for the debut of Madame Borghi-
Mamo: The lady's voice is a mezzo soprano, and last nit ht

she fully vindicated her claim to the lolly po'sition 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.—A 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
bo 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 eleves the
meaning' of the word gratitude, answered, " The memory
of the heart." A more beautiful definition could not have
been given. _TJerbyskil e 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 demised and a lad
named John Green, aged nine years, went into a chamber
over a stable for the 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-
in the riddle off that table and the gnu went off, and Den ty
(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
tthhee
( ginutetn eNtvsalreddsge laii
thi
his head towards the door, and his feet in the direction from
in
where the gun was placed. From the statement made by
John Green, it appeared that ho was in the act of pulling
and
Net hshaotsiltdicekr stick, hen
dheecneaistedw.en}coofirA
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
11(porter.

The funeral of M. Louville took place yesterday
at St. 'tech, and was attended by a great number of emi-
nent prisons, 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, Plocque, Desmarets, and Vavin•