The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 4, UM,

France to Europe, that the chief Powers of the most
populous and highly civilised of the four quarters of
the world have agreed together upon an immediate,
general, and simultaneous disarmament. It was
only the other day, down at Watford, that the Earl
of CLARENDON, who among all the Cabinet Ministers,
is the one especially responsible to the Crown for the
friendly maintenance of our Foreign Relations,
declared his conviction that never in bis remem-
brance have the nations of the earth been more
amicably disposed towards each other than they
are to all appearance at the present moment,
and that everything gives promise just now
of the maintenance intact of the exist-
ing tranquillity. Immediately prior to those
heartening declarations on the part of the oldest, and
therefore most experienced among our principal
Administrators, the immense warlike organisation
which has for three hundred years been flourishing and
in full force at Woolwich, is closed by order of her
MAJESTY'S Government. Simultaneously the nation
realises the fact that the grand old Maritime Hospi-
tal at Greenwich has become vacated, and that the
question forces itself upon our consideration as to
what we are to do with it. The popular art writer,
signing himself " FEux SusiMEßLEY,"—otherwise
that bite noire of the Saturday Review, Mr. HENRY
COLE, C.B.—steps forward, in the midst of the
general bewilderment as to the new purpose, if any,
to which Greenwich Hospital is to be applied. "The
answer I would make to this," says he, " is, 6 Apply it
to the education of the children of seamen of all
grades in both the Navy and Commercial Marine.'
Admit the child of the poor lieutenant, or even
post captain, at cost price, say 120 a year for
teaching, maintenance, and clothes. Admit also
the child of the common seaman at half this cost, or
less. Admit two, three, or four thousand children,
with even infant schools, according to the extent
of the accommodation. With such numbers, the
best education that can be given may be given.
You may have religion taught, not by a worn-out
schoolmaster, but by a chaplain. Yon may teach
the English language, with reading, writing, arith-
metic, drawing, drilling, and vocal and instrumental
music. You may teach French and other languages,
and the elements of science. By a proper distribu-
tion of time and intermixture of intellectual and in-
dustrial occupations, you may accomplish both head-
work and handwork, better than only intellect is
trained at most public schools." That is Mr. COLE'S
proposition in regard to the future purpose to which
to apply what " FELIX SUMMERLEY"—with a sin-
gular disdain for the interior of St. Stephen's,
Walbrook, to say nothing of the whole glorious
structure of St. Paul's Cathedral—is pleased
to designate "the masterpiece of "WREN." Whatever
we may resolve upon doing with Greenwich Hospi-
tal, there remains at auy rate very clearly before us
these happy auguries of a protracted, if not a perma-
nent, pacification of the world by means of a simul-
taneous disarmament. Towards a prospect, or hope,
to say the least of it, of some such disarmament, two
things have been especially and quite appreciably
conducive. First of all, the spread of Free Trade
Principles. And, secondly, the astounding, and
some of them appalling, advances made by science
in the improvement, or rather it should be
said, the absolutely transformation of our
warlike missiles, defences, and implements. The
hideous contrivance of what are known as explosive
bullets led not long since, it will be remembered, to
an agreement among the Great Powers never to em-
ploy them in time as projectiles. llTHrrwoßnr, ARM-
STRONG, SNIDER, and the like, we have long since
come to look upon as among the most practical
and efficient of the world's pacificators.

THE Rev. Canon WiNGSLEY'S able and enlightened
address on Education, at the Social Science Congress,
is well worthy of attention. Seldom indeed have the
salient points of this great question been so clearly
appreciated and so fearlessly dealt with. It

must be confessed that though the labours of
the English clergy in the cause of educa-
tion have been of incalculable value, they
have not hitherto been ready to acknowledge the
increased necessities of the age. But Canon KINGS-
LEY, whilst giving voluntaryism its full meed of
praise, finds it unequal to its present duties, and un-
hesitatingly discards it in favour of some more effec-
tual system. The nation can no longer, he thinks,
depend upon charity for the instruction of the
masses ; it must bear its own burdens. There
is much to be said on behalf of the existing
plan of education—a combination of State payments
with free contributions ; but it is open likewise to
serious objections. Charity, when applied to such a
purpose as that of national education, is after all a
tax—a burden upon the generous in favour of the
covetous. The liberal giver towards the support of
schools contributes not merely his own share, but in
a measure the share of some other person who
evades this public duty. A tax presses equally ; but
voluntaryism burdens the worthy and sets the un-
worthy free. Further, charitable education is ill-
distributed. In the case of endowed schools it is a
decided grievance that whilst some counties enjoy
abundant bequests, education in others is starved
through the want of them. Elementary instruction is
injured by a similar anomaly. Some landowners
wholly and efficiently maintain the schools in the
neighbourhood of their estates ; in other districts the
burden falls for the most part on the clergy. Worst
of all, the sum total of voluntary aid falls far
short of the requirements of the nation. Hundreds
of thousands of children who ought to be
attending school are wandering about the streets
and lanes supplementing their ignorance by the
learning of vice. Canon KINGSLEY states—and there
can be no doubt of the fact—that there are in England
1,280,000 children who ought to be at school, but
who are not. At Birmingham nearly one-half the
children are absent. At Manchester the voluntary
and freewill system bears similar fruit. In the
rural districts many hundred parishes are desti-
tute of schools. And the explanation is simple :
the voluntary system is deficient, not in quality, but
in extent. The exertions of the public, and especially
of the English clergy, have been most laudable, but
they are not equal to the whole task. Doubt-
less it would be better that the fine organisation which
now exists should be preserved and supplemented,
rather than that it should give way to something entirely
new. But the addition must be extensive, the
improvement thorough. The country must prepare
to pay a greater sum for its education, since it is
impossible to get more work out of the existing
materials. Voluntaryism will go no further, and all
that is done henceforth must be paid for by the State

in the shape of rates or taxes.
Canon KINGSLEY has another reform in his pro-
gramme. He bluntly desires to give parents the
choice of sending their children to school or of getting
themselves in gaol. The alternative is rude, but the
evil is grave. The nation suffers not only from
the deficiency of educational materials, but
from the unwillingness of parents to avail
themselves of such materials as are within
their reach. The million and a quarter of

children who are vagrants instead of scholars,
are not all shut out from school through the want of
accommodation. In Birmingham, for instance, of the
21,000 absentees, there is room for at least one-
half. Similar neglect on the part of parents
is complained of by the inspectors of every

district in England. In some cases stern
necessity prevents mothers and fathers from sending
their children, but hi great part the omissions arise
from sheer indifference. It may be questioned how
far it will be wise to increase educational facilities
when those which exist are not fully used ; but the
fact is that the two reforms must go together.

The million and a quarter children need instruction ;
it must be provided, and they must be induced to
avail themselves of it. In the opinion of Canon KINGS-
LEY there can be but one resource—compulsory atten-
dance. He finds that the voluntary system is a failure ;
but there is no hope that any system will succeed
so long as ignorant, careless, and vicious parents
have the option left them in the matter of attend-
ance. At present the clergyman has to be " a judge
and a policeman." He must coax parents, persuade them,
threaten and sometimes punish them. The Rev. Canon
thinks it hardly fair that these duties should be
added to the sufficiently onerous labour of teaching,
and many eminent authorities are coming round to
the same opinion. The remarkable fact that many
of the school inspectors pronounce in favour of
compulsion is the more noteworthy, since a very
short time ago there was scarcely one. Indeed, the
compulsory-attendance party promises soon to com-
mand a decided majority of those most intimately
connected with national education.

Mn. GLADSTONE seems likely to equal Lord
PALMERSTON in the part of bishop-maker. One after
another the English sees are falling vacant. This it
might be thought is but the natural effect of the
passing of the Bishops' Resignation Bill. But while
two of the vacancies are caused by this circumstance
three of them are caused by decease. In one of these
advantage would have been taken of the Act had not
death stepped in and converted the voluntary into an
enforced surrender of office. .In the two other vacan-
cies of the same kind death has been premature. The
Bishop of EXETER was more than four score years
and ten. The Bishop of SALISBURY had but just
passed three score years. The Bishop of CARLISLE,
whose death we have to announce to-day, was but
52 years old. Thus within two months five
dioceses have lost their chiefs, and as there is
little doubt but that one of them will be filled by a
translation, Mr. GLADSTONE will have had no fewer
than six appointments to make. We doubt if so
large an amount of patronage has ever fallen to one
Minister in so short a time. We are sure that
no Minister has ever felt the responsibility
involved thereby so keenly as Mr. GLAnsTone.
He is the first Premier who is by educa-
tion and mental bent a theologian. He began
life as a theologian, as the author of the essay
on Church and State. He is still a theologian,
and during his short absence from office wrote a
criticism on " Ecce Homo." His selections will,
therefore, be guided by higher motives than
have influenced many Ministers. They have
often looked upon mitres as a means of
rewarding political services, or at the best
as a way of obtaining popular applause. Mr.
GLADSTONE will consider before all things the good
of the State Church.
Paradoxical as it may sound, it is this very con-
scientiousness which gives rise to anxiety. Mr.
GLADSTONE has definite religious opinions, and he
may think that the welfare of the Church is identified
with the promotion of those opinions. The danger is,
therefore, that he may choose men of one school.
At the same time we do not think that he
will fall into this mistake. He cannot fail to recog-
nise the fact that the Church contains three distinct
schools, and that they all ought to be represented in
the episcopate. It would be a grievous blunder if he
were to repeat the policy of his former chief, and
select from the High Church school, as exclusively as
LO/11 PALMERSTON did from the Low. The only three
appointments which Mr. GLADSTONE has made, or is
believed to have made hitherto—Dr. JACOBSON to
Chester, Dr. MOBERLY to Salisbury, and Dr. WILBER-
FORCE to Winchester—indicate a tendency to favour
one school rather than the others, which it would be
wise for the PREMIER to guard against. Of course a
regular rotation settled without regard to the dioceses
would be most inexpedient. It would be highly un-
desirable, for instance, to appoint a Low Church-
man to Exeter or a High Churchman to
Carlisle just because it happened to be
the " turn." The stamp of men that the
country desires to see is those who are not very
pronounced in their opinions, but who are known as
good organisers rather than decided theologians. A
Bishop's individual "views " are of very little impor-
tance if he works his diocese efficiently, and is

thoroughly impartial in the distribution of his patron-
age. A Bishop who will bring men of all schools
together, who will soften the sharp lines of
party, is the kind that we need in these days
of dissension and division. Such were Lord PAL-
MERSTON'S later appointments, made after public
indignation had. been aroused by the succession of
avowed partisans whom he had promoted ; such were
the present Bishops of GLOUCESTER and ELY. Such,
too, were many of Lord DERBY'S and Mr. DISRAELI'S
appointments, notably Bishops SELWYN and MAGEE.
We heartily trust that Mr. a
...,LADSTONE may be as
successful in this matter as his two last predecessors
in the Premiership.

THE IMPERIAL GU.A RDIAN LIFE OFFICE

A petitionfor the winding-up of the "Imperlal guardian
Assurance Company" is to be heard before ViCe-Clian-
cellor James on the first day of petitions: This office
was established in 1867. According to a recent parlia-
mentary return, its nominal ca'ntal was £lOO,OOO, of which
£12,450 was subscribed and £2,810 paid up.

GOVERNMENT AND LIFE. ASSURANCE.

We understand, from good authority, that her Majesty's
Government have at last seriously considered the question
of regulating the proceedings of the assurance offices by
legislative enactments of a stringent character. Publicity
of accounts of the most complete character will form a
part of the scheme. Whether a special department of the
Board of Trade will be organised to carry out the law
remains in abeyance at present. We can only say that
the sooner the question is settled the better. Delays arc
ruinous under present circumstances. Although the Ma 33
of the offices are sound, yet the proceedings of a few con-
cerns, which ought to be shut up, are damaging the busi-
ness of all. The vast majority of the solvent offices are
most anxious for the question to be settled at once. The
business of life assurance meanwhile seems to be paralysed.
—The Review. _ _ _

There can be very little doubt that Government will in
the next session of Parliament introduce a bill to afford the
public greater security in their dealings with assurance
companies. The Government at present insures lives to
the amount of £lOO, but now that life assurances by public
companies has been proved so hazardous, thousands would
gladly, if they could, avail themselves of such security as
State Assurances would afford. If the Government would
issue policies up to £l,OOO, it would open its advantages to
the bulk of the community, without creating any greater
monopoly than actually exists in the Post Office Savings
Banks.—Advertiser.