The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-28 00:00:00

OXFORD LOCAL EXAMINATIONS.

The titles and certificates awarded to the success-
ful candidates at the Oxford Local Examination, held
in Birmingham in June last, were distributed yes-
terday—the Rev. Dr. Temple, of Rugby, presided.
The Rev. CHAIRMAN, prior to distributing the
prizes, addressed the assembly. He said he should
follow the usual practice of the chairman on previous
occasions, of say ing a few words upon the general
subject of the success or failure, prosperity or ad-
versity, that might attend the examinations. He
need not go into generalities, because that had so fre-
quently been done before. It was one of the great
difficulties in education, which both learners and
teachers constantly met with—so constantly, that it
was very remarkable they should need to be so fre-
quently reminded of it, and yet, being himself a
teacher, he often needed to be reminded of it, and

he was certain it must be the case of others also—
one of the great difficulties in all education was to
secure sufficient attention to the beginnings. The
beginnings of all learning always ran the risk of be-
ing run over too rapidly, and the original purpose of
those examinations was to lay great stress upon the
elementary subjects which are in perpetual danger
of being hurried over by the teachers and learners.
To the learners there always will be the very
strongest temptation, if they wish to learn at all,
to go ahead ; they will always want to get at the
new knowledge before they have made themselves
really roasters of the old, and this temptation also
infects the minds of the teachers. Therefore, in
these examinations great stress from the beginning
was laid upon the elementary subjects, upon the pre-
liminary part of the examinations, and of all the
work that had been done by them there was no part
so sound or good as the steady progress which had
been made in these preliminary subjects from the
•beginning., The Doctor remarked upon the striking
improvements 'Which the candidates had evinced'
with regard to their arithmetic. He added that
when the present scheme was started the
.Universi-
ties had no means of knowing, except by report,
what would be the best for the different schools.
He had no doubt that the time would come for im-
proving the organisation of the scheme, and then, of
course, all suggestions from persons capable of judg-
ing would be entertained. Upon this subject, how-
ever, there was such a divided state of opinion
that he should advise them to let the subject go on
in a tentative way,feeling how things worked before
they were accepted. Now, the progress made by
the examinations, besides the soundness of the work,

was al3o visible in the numbers of candidates. Ln
this district the numbers were diminished, but if
they took England over the numbers were very
mach increased. Of course it was impissible that
any organisation could be devised to suit everybody
at once, and therefore what arrangements might be
best for England would not be best for Birming-
ham. But it was not merely the case that the num-
bers for the whole of England had increased, but
more than this, those who had come in were satis-
fied the thing was good. lie concluded by briefly
addressing the successful and unsuccessful candi-
dates, congratulating the former, and urging the
latter to increased exertions. (Applause.)

EXTBAORDINARY BULLION ROBBERY.

On Tuesday afternoon between 3 and 4 o'clock,
Messrs. Rothschild despatched a covered van from
their banking establishment in St. Swithin's-lane,
Cannon-street, City, with 24 cases of bullion for
shipment to Hamburg and Rotterdam. The van be-
longed to a carrier who has been many years em-
ployed by
them. The custom of the house in for-

warding or receiving bullion or specie from any part
of the metropolis is to make a person in the employ
accompany the vehicles. On the present occasion the
24 cases (weighing about 2cwt. each) were to be
shipped on board two steamers lying in the river.
Twelve of the cases were for the Waterloo, Captain
StrAnack, bound to Rotterdam, and the other 12 for
the John Bull, bound to Hamburg—both belonged
to the General Steam Navigation Company—the
former then lying alongside the Harpy revenue cut-
ter, off the Tower, and the John Bull off HOrsely-
do wn. All the cases were marked and lettered, and
the perion dent with them was provided with two

lists or tallies of the marks on the cases, in order
that he might tick them off in shipping them, per-
sons representing the steamer being furnished with
a duplicate list to do the same as they received them.
The van proceeded to Nicholson's Wharf, where the
bullion was taken out and placed in a boat belong-
ing to Mr. Gray, lighterman, in Water-lane, which
was lying off the wharf, and then pulled off along-
side the Waterloo. The steamer had been taking in
cargo, and was in charge of the chief mate. The
moment the bullion boat came up he attended to
the shipment of the cases. They were hauled up by
the vessel's crane, two at a time, and immediately
lowered into the fore hold of the vessel, the repre-
sentative of Messrs. Rothschild ticking them off his
list as they left his custody, and when the 12 had
been put ou board he received from the chief mate
a receipt of their safe delivery on board and left.
The chief mate went into the hold with the boat-
swain and saw them securely stowed away, and as
other goods came down these were placed round the
bullion cases so as to fill up the 'tween decks. The
hatches were then put on and fastened with iron
bars ; these were secured by a padlock, locked by
the thief mate, who kept possession of the key.
There were on board at this time ten hands of the
crew (Capt. Stranack was not ou board) and three
Custom-house officers. The latter came on board the

IVatErloo at Gravesend on her last homeward trip,
last Saturday, and, in accordance with the Custom-
house regulations, would remain on board till the
steamer had cleared Gravesend on her outward trip.
At night time they kept watch and watch the same
as the crew did, and during the whole of Tues.lay
night and yesterday morning there were always two
persons on deck keeping watch ; indeed, if they are
to be relied on, they never quitted the deck for a
moment, and yet, by some unaccountable means,

two of the cases of bullion were abstracted from the
hold, and the thieves got clear off with them. The
intention, no doubt,was to carry off the whole of the

12 cases, as the thieves seem 'to have had a lighter
alongside the steamer to receive them, but they were
disturbed and made off. The robbery was not dis-
covered till 6 o'clock yesterday morning,, when the
chief -mate 'unlocked the padlocks- and removed the
_bars for the men to remove the hatches. It was at once
seen fiad been dlittlibed'iluring the night,
and 'upon the mate examining the cases two were
found to be gone, and from appearances it was
quite evident that they had passed outward up
the hatchway, and that the hatches had been re-
moved. It is impossible for one man to have passed
the cases up on to the deck on account of their
weight-2 cwt. each—the distance being some 10ft.
or 12f t. ; and the conclusion arrived at is that the
thieves must have hauled them up with a pulley
rope attached to the top of the steamer's crane, and
by the same means lowered the cases into a lighter
alongside, but how this could have been done with
one of the crew and a Custom-house officer on deck
on the look-out is the most extraordinary part of
the affair. As soon as the discovery was made the
Thames police were called on board, and strict
search was made by them among all the vessels lying

near the Waterloo for the stolen cases, but without
avail, and during the day the officials of the General
Steam Navigation company were engaged making
a searching investigation into the whole facts of the
robbery ; but, with the exception of showing that
a lighter which was moored alongside the steamer
the night previous had disappeared in the morning
without the consent of its owner, nothing has trans-
pired. The affair has been placed in the hands of
the city detective force in conjunction with the
Thames police, and every means will be taken to
apprehend the guilty parties. The cases contained
bars of silver, and their value is estimated at up-
wards of £2,090.

SUICIDE OF A JEW THROUGH BEING SWINDLED.
—Ou Tuesday an inquest was held at St. Mary-at-Hill,
City, on the body of Mr. Jacob Loed, aged 50 years, a
Prussian Jew. On Friday !naming he almost succeeded in
destroying his life by chloroform, and on Sunday morning
his dead body was taken .out of the Thames near Fresh
Wharf. It appeared that his mind was greatly troubled by
a loss of £7O which he lent a friendlor an hour, but which
the friend never returned. The jury returned a verdict of
oSizirdido whilo in a Ado of Temporary Inanity."