The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-16 00:00:00

ST. GEORGE'S THEATRE, REGENT STREET.

THIS ErENING. at S. THE ROYAL ORIGINAL CHRISTY'S
MINSTRELS' Ethiopian Entertainment: and the Burlesque
Extravaginza, THE VERY GitAND DIiTCH—S

CHRISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8
Wednesdays and :_:aturdays, at 3 o.nd 8 all the year round.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. THREE BALLET,
Promenade Concert. Band of 60. Begin at S. Is. Box-office
open from 11 to 4.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Regent's-park, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission, ls.; on Mondays, Gd.; Children
under twelve. 6d.

_ r
tal
is*
41 INe •

L 011; DOS, T UESD.IY, MARCH 16, 1869.

-ter--

' As Vice-President of the Committee of Council on
Education, Mr. W. E. FORSTER is certainly, for once,
the right man in the right place. If any new demon-
stration of the fact that he is so had been required it
could not have been afforded more conclusively than
through his elaborate and exhaustive speech last even-
ing on moving the second reading of his Endowed
Schools Bill. Of that bill his speech was the trium-
phant vindication. It demonstrated as clearly as
the working cut of the simplest sum in arithmetic
the urgent need there is, and has long been, for a
measure precisely of this very kind. It illustratel
the wide-spread evidences of that necessity by a
series of the most painfully amusing iucidents—re-
lated with poignant effect by him anecdotally. A
single instance, here, will suffice. Such an instance,
let na say, as that drawn by the right hon.
member for Bradford from the Report of the Charity
Commissioners. The Report in question had only
been issued a day or two, but already the keen eyes
of Mr. FORSTER had spotted the fact that, there, in
that authentic record, is, for example, " SMITH'S
charity, of £16,000 a year, a part of which
is given to poor relations who appear to be dis-
covered year after year, though SMITH died
two hundred years ago." No wonder the House
laughed with a sort of derision. But, apart from the
lighter and airier portions of Mr. FoRSTER'S speech
last evening, there were others of a weightier charac-
ter, that, while they evidently impressed the Rouse
itself with the imperative necessity for that legisla-
tive interference which the Vice-President of the
Council of Education was insisting upon in the
name of her MAJESTY'S Government, cannot possibly
fail of impressing the country at large, as we conceive,
with the nature of the bill now before Parliament,
and with sanguine expectations of the practical
good likely to result—not instantly, of course, but
gradually, and before long, as we ourselves are firmly
convinced, very appreciably—from its operation.
According to Mr. For.sTEH's lucid explanation last
evening, the number of schools which will fall within
the k cDpe of the Bill's operation or influence will be,
in round numbers, three thousand. Of there 3,000

—there are 782 that are Grammar schools; the rest,
to the number of 2,175, being foundations, mostly
elementary foundations. While the gross income pro-
posed to be applie I will be £592,600, or only £7,400
less than a mind sill of £G00,0;)0-- h. nett
income directly applicable to educational pur-
poses will be £340,0.)0, an amount which he
justly declared would " if well bestowed," have
done much for the cause of education. Yes, truly—if
well bestowed. That proviso, however, is all-essential.
Hitherto, as Mr. FORSTER showed only too plainly the
enlowments have been more or less shamefully