The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-04 00:00:00

time till this have been eminently satisfactory. There
are now more than 700 boys at the school, and, were there
necessary accommodation, this number could readily be
Increased to 1,000. This enlargement will not be practi-
cable, however, until the new schools in course of erection
are completed. The boys no receiving education are
drawn from a stratum of society ranging from the lower
section of the middle-class to the upper portion of the
artisan class—in short, from the section of society which
nas furnished pupils to the 'numerous " private academies
for young gentlemen," down to that which had been
driven to seek its highest education in the national
schools. In addition to obtaining at an almost nominal
charge an education far more solid and substantial than
can possibly be gained at either of the representative
establishments quoted, the boys at the Aliddle-class
School enjoy the advantage of being under a
master who is independent of parents' whims,
and whose object is not to make things smooth
and pleasant, and at the end of every half-year
to dismiss each scholar with a prize, but who has
the strongest inducements to render his scholars really
efficient, and thus to win a name for his school. The sub-
jects taught are English, reading, writing, arithmetic,
geometry and perspective, history, geography and elemen-
tary astronomy, algebra, technical instruction, including
mechanism and practical architecture, drawing, French,
physical science, physiology, botany, and music. This
comprehensive list proves what can be done with boys'
time and founders' money when those expensive luxuries,
the classics, are dispensed with. Nor is this omission
tho only innovation sanctioned in the Bath-
street schools. The time-honoured, but otherwise
unsuitable text-book of geometry, Euclid, has been
publicly discarded, almost for the first time in England,
though for years it has on the Continent taken its place
among the good but obsolete authors of antiquity. 'On
the other hand, great attention is paid to drawing in all
Its branches. As in many art schools, the study of it is
made to go hand in hand with that of writing. Free hand,
object, and geometrical drawing are first taught. To these
are subsequently added model drawing, shading, drawing
from memory, prospective and architectural drawing ; and
thus the study is at once made a mental exercise and a
manual practice.

INSUFFIEIVCY OF THE METROPOLITAN
POLICE.

--o--

A deputation, consisting of about one hundred gentle.
men connected with the local government of the metro-
polis, waited upon the Right lion. H. A. Bruce, the Home
Secretary, to present a memorial, respecting the inefficiency
of the metropolitan police, adopted at a recent meeting
Mr. Harvey Lewis, M.P., Mr. John Locke, M.P., and
Mr. Holms, M.P., introduced the deputation.
Professor ...r.tm:s having addressed the Home Secretary
at some length in support of the memorial,
The Hour. SECRETARY said that in receiving the depu-
tation he was rrepared to hear a discussion and to profit,
by it. Ire had heard statements and considerations well
worthy of consideration, many of which were already

'der the imiLediate consideration of the Governmen.

It was not expected, he supposed, that he should express
an opinion then upon each of the points raised. The
memorial had stated many defects in the metropolitan
police which really existed. There was at great deal of
exaggeration in them owing to misconception. One of
the charges was that the force had assumed too
much of a military character. That was quite
possible. No one would deny the necessity of a
certain amount of drill, in order to enable men who
►•ere called on to act in great numbers, to act with
that cohesion which was so valuable in dealing with

a mob. But there was a great misconception as
to the amount of time devoted to this matter. He had
made inquiries, and found it did not amount to more than
one hour a week, at certain seasons only. Last year, for
19 weeks there was no drill at all, whilst the remainder
of the year the maximum was one hour per week. With
respect to one suggestion made as to the gentleman to suc.
ceed Sir Richard Mayne, all he would say was, that the
choice would be directed by the conviction that the gentle.
man who was best acquainted with the habits of criminals
was best able to guide the detection and suppression of
crime, and best able to preserve the public peace. bug-
gestions had been made as to the mode of dealing with
crime. One of them was that a piece of land should be
'purchased to be used solely as a depot for criminals. He
doubted very much whether the gentleman who made
the suggestion was at all acquainted with the horrors
of a penal settlement. It would be an improvement
to have a system by which the convicts would be trained
to join the ranks of honest labour at the end of their term.
Transportation, under these circumstances, had been not
only an advantage to the country, bnt to the man him,
self ; but transportation without any hope of joining the
ranks of honest men at the end of the period of confine-
ment would lie a very different thing. Ile thought, there-
fore, they would perceive the inexpediency of renewing
transportation, except to colonies where the majority
were persons of good character. They had to see what was

the best discipline to expose criminals to, in order that they
might prove the least possible injury to society. He believed
that during the last few years the ticket•of-leave system
had been conducted with great wisdom and with a regard
to its real object. He considered the system itself a good
one. It inspired a hope in the convict that by good beha-
viour he might shorten his period of confinement. Their
speaker had adverted to the measures taken, and about to
be taken, for the prevention of juvenile crime, and he
quite agreed with him that it was a very important ques-
tion. It was not, however, merely an affair of police, it
arose mainly from the defective state of national educa-

tion. It was alleged that there was a great in-
crease of crime. If, however, they looked back
thirty or forty years, they would find that, when the
population was one-third less than at the present time, the
amount of crime was as great as at the present day. There
had been no real increase of crime. Crime was on the
the decrease. For instance, he found that with respect
to vagrants, thieves, and receivers, whilst in 1867 there
was an increase of 141 as compared with 1866, if they
compared 1867 with 1865 they would find a decrease in
favour of 1867 of 2,473. Since 1865 the number of known
thieves and receivers had decreased by 369. At the same

time no one could deny that there was an enormous amount
of crime in the country, and the attention of the Govern-
ment was directed to it. They had already under their con-
sideration the best means to make the police force more
efficient and of making the laws more stringent and more
effective. They were not inclined to spew false humanity
to the criminal classes, as theyknew that it would be false
not only to society but to the criminals themselves. lie
trusted, therefore, that the deputation would suspend their
judgment for a few months, until the Government had
arrived at some conclusion on the subject.

Another fatal explosion near Newcastle is re-
ported. A boiler cxplcded yesterday at Usworth Co:Eery,
the property of Mr. George Elliot, M.P. A man named
William Benjamin was Mike!, and four others seriously in_
jut cd. Benjamin was b:own over a joiner's shop, a distance
of sixty yards.
- -

PAI/PERISg AND CEINIE IN THE METROrOLTS.—
An important conference will be held on Thursday next,
under the auspices of the Association for the Prevention
of Pauperism and Crime in the Metropolis. Persons
interested in the administration of London charities,
official and private, aro invited ; and the conference will
take place in the rooms of the Society of Arts. The
Archbishop of Canterbury hae commuted to preidde. The
object of the conference Is not to find fault with what way
have been done or not done in tI4Q put, 4 t 9 takA
frlegtUy ottnovi filtute 1141DfAVOltat.