The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-14 00:00:00

the winter before last. The result was an over
whelming defeat.
There was hardly one of the resolutions which
was not the subject of deservedly hostile criticism,
but the grand points of attack were the compul-
sory rating and attendance, and the religious
teaehing. What, evidently stung his Lordship
more than anything else was the evident leaning
of Sir JAMES GRAHAM and Mr. GLADSTONE to
voluntaryism. He taunted Sir JAMES as he did
Lord STANLEY in the Church-Rate debate,
with the logical bearing of their argu-
ments, if carried out, against all religious
State Establishments. His Latter-Day Saint-
ship seems specially concerned to upheld what
bishops and statesmen now begin somewhat
to tremble for. Church Rates and the Crown, he
thinks, must stand or fall together ; yet even
Tory speakers repeated the argument which was
employed frequently in the debate—that an edu-
cation rate, with religious teaching in the schools,
would increase the intolerable contests by which
Church Rates are so injuriously distinguished,
and with even greater bitterness, this rate being
a new infliction., Sir JAMES and Mr. GLADSTONE
both avowed their concurrence with Mr. MILNER
GIBSON in his position—that "a compulsory rate
and secular education must go together." They
both also strongly asserted their opinion that such
a rate would be the "death-warrant of voluntary
education."

~~

A somewhat careful attention to this long de
bate inclines us decidedly to agree with the two
statesmen we have just referred to. We have had
occasions enough of difference with them, but in
this debate they appear to have been inspired
afresh by the spirit ofFree Trade. They reasoned not
as special pleaders, in which character they have
appeared so much of late, but with the freshness
of cleared up doubts and decided conviction. Of
late both have been in opposition to the better
instincts of the country, but now they were the
advocates of that personal freedom, and those self-
governing arrangements which are so dear and so
natural to Englishmen. Lord JOHN was spread-
ing a continental—a German net for the nation,
they were tearing it to pieces before the eyes of
those whom it was designed ultimately to enfold.
The evidence adduced to prove that the nation
was advancing rapidly to as high a state of edu-
cation as that of any country was quite conclu-
sive. It is needless to weary our readers with
statistics, but partisans only, we think, can now
refuse to acknowledge that voluntary education is
doing its work with such extraordinary rapidity,
that it were madness in a Statesman to hazard in-
terference with it. What the Council of Educa-
tion are now doing is the utmost limit to which
Government aid can be carried without endanger-
ing spontaneous exertions. Indeel, authentic evi-
dence is adduced of its having already induced
wealthy subscribers to lessen their subscriptions.
Sir JOHN PAKINGTON asserted that the " ques-
tion to be decided was whether England should
be educated or not." We beg to differ entirely
from the worthy member—it was not " whether"
but " how." All agree in the desirableness of
'universal education ; but the majority, we be-
lieve, of thinking persons, are becoming aware,
that education can no more be healthily forced
than trade and commerce. An artificial unifor- ,
mity of school attendance and lesson-learning
might be attained by taking a lesson from Prussia
or Austria, but an Englishman who cannot read
a word is generally a nobler fellow than the duly
trained German. He has a courage, an indivi-
duality, and above all a self-reliance and hatred
of Government interference with his freedom,
which raises him fax above the ignoble races
drilled by the schoolmasters and police of despots.
Contrast the English peasant and the German
bauer duriug the Russian War, and who does
not feel proud of even the illiterate part of his
counttymen.

One fundamental objection to Lord Joules
whole scheme is that it must end in universal
compulsion of parents to educate their children,
and that Englishmen will not be compelled by Lord
JOHN, or by any of their Lordships. It proposes
at once to enforce on agricultural employers of
labour, as on manufacturers, the education of their
children. One is, of course, as equitable as the
other ; but Lord SHAFTESBURY worked his philan-
thropy through the hatred of landlords to manu-
facturers, and the latter were thus made to edu-
cate their children. There certainly ought, on
the same grounds, to be inspectors entering farm
houses, and country gentlemen's seats and model
farms, examining all the children employed in
connection with agriculture ; but, as Mr. GLAD-
STONE observes, one qualification for such inspectors
ought certainly to be "robustness," and even then
the vicinity of the pump and the horsepond would
have to be carefully avoided. To all compulsory pro-
jects, except as applied to some devoted class, one
answer is sufficient--" We were born in England,
not in Saxe-Coburg-Gotha." There are coinci-
dences, certainly, which have no casual connec-
tion, but it is a singular fact that from the time
the Whig Ministry introduced his Royal Highness
to her MAJESTY, Lord J. RUSSELL has declined
more and more from the liberal measures of his
earlier days. Whether it was that he took fright
at his own Reform Bill, or that he had reached
the Conservative age, or that the Bishops seduced
him, or that German Courts impregnated his
policy with their own, it is not easy to say. Per-
haps all these causes co-operated. Certain it is
that the Lord J. RUSSELL of the Test and Cor-
poration Acts is now behind Sir J. GRAHAM, Mr.
GLADSTONE, Lord STANLEY, and frequently be-
hind more extreme Conservatives.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert will, it is said, pay
a short visit to Paris in the course of the summer. The
object of the Prince Consort's visit will be to represent
her Majesty at the baptism of the Imperial infant son of
the Emperor and Empress of France.
The Cunard steamer Persia was announced yesterday
with 117,0001. from New York, and is stated to have
performed the passage in 9 days, 12 hours, and 7 minutes,
being six hours less than'the fastest ever made.
The following hoax appears in La Palma, a Cadiz
paper :—" Most people will, doubtless, be surprised at
learning that the celebrated English Minister, Lord Pal-
merston, contemplates retiring into private life, and fixing
his future residence at San Lucar-de-Thrrameda. We
learn on,good authority that a negociation is going OD
for the purchase of a magnificent property, on which the
opulent lord intends settling with his family, and where
he hopes to spend the last days of his agitated and cele-
brated existence amid the perfume of orange groves and
under the shade of gigantic olive trees."
CABINET CouNCIL.—A Cabinet Council was held on
Saturday afternoon at the Foreign-office. The Ministers
present were Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chan-
cellor, Earl Granville, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the
Earl of Harrowby, Sir' G. Grey, Mr. Secretary Labou-
chere, Lord Panmure, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Sir C. Wood,,the Right Hon. R. V. Smith, Lord Stanley
of Alderley, the Right Hon. M. T. Baines and the Duke
of Argyll. The Council sat four hours.
PUBLIC INCOME AND EXPENDITURE.— An account of
the public income and expenditure for the year ended
the 31st ult. gives the total receipts at 65,704,4901., and
the total disbursements at 88,428,3451., leaving a defi-
ciency, or excess of expenditure, amounting to the enor-
mousesuin of 22,722,8541. Of the receipts the sum of
21,788,7701. accrued from Customs, 16,636.6691. from
Excise, 6,894.307/. from stamps, 2,953,6261. from
taxes, 14,814,7561. from the income tax, 1,171,696/4
from the Post-office, 281,515/. from Crown lands,
527,3771. from sale of old stores, 472,0291. from miscel,
laneous receipts, and 98,471/. from unclaimed dividends:
Of the expenditure, 28,112,8241. went towards the in-
terest and management of the public debt, 1,723,4191.
to the charges on the consolidated fund, and 58,592,1001.
to the supply services, including 17,395,059/. for the
army, 19,654,5851. for the navy, 10,411,5431. for the
Ordnance, 4,200,0001. for the vote of credit. (add itional
expenses, war with Russia), and 6,930,912/. for "mill..
cellaneous civil services." The balance in the Exchequer
oA tho,3lst Mar.;l4 1856, amounted to 5,600,6214