The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—If we have lately in these columns some-
what shunned the subject of the re-organisation of
the Austrian empire, it is not because we deemed it
at any time destitute of interest, or because it did not
earnestly, and we may almost say painfully, engage
our attention. It is only because we saw no appa-
rent progress in the question—none, at least, which
we couldfeel justifiedin confidently reporting. There
are threads in the web of human affairs which all our
boasted foresight, as grounded on experience, will
hardly enable us to unravel ; changes which it, is as
difficult to trace to their first causes as to follow up
to their ultimate effects. It is not enough in some
cases that " Providence should shape our ends ;" the
mere task of " rough-hewing" them is above our
powers. It may not be difficult, for instance, to dive
boldly into the future so far as the West of Europe
is concerned. Happen what may, we need not anti-
cipate any material alterations in the present inter-
national arrangements. The Gaul and the Teuton,
the Latin, the Iberian, and the Briton, will, in all
probability, -within a century be found within their
present territories. Some trifling squabbles about
border lines, the extinction of minor Stotes, much as
such events ought to be deprecated, would not per-
manently disturb the balance which makes the west-
ern nations all so many members of one family. But
foreknowledge is at fault when we turn our eyes to
the East. It is difficult to look forward to the inde-
finite continuance of the Turkish empire, nor can
one be free from misgiving about the stability of the
Austrian monarchy. How those two States may
stand or fall, and, in the latter event, what new
edifices may be reared in their stead, are the pro-
blems of the age—problems for which there is not
even any attempt to volunteer a solution. To
limit our remarks to that part of the subject from
which we took our start, on what policy, home or
foreign, is Austria about to settle after the disas-
trous struggle which shut her out both of Italy and
Germany ? Some of the German Austrians seem
indisposed to acquiesce in the disposition of the
Treaty of Prague, and to look upon their es-
trangement from the Fatherland as, at the ut-
most, a temporary arrangement. For what concerns
the German provinces the existence of the Empire
must be based on that supremacy of their own race
over the other nationalities on which it has ever
stood. They have in their favour the seat of govern-
ment, the military and bureaucratic organization of
the Monarchy, a superior culture, powers of combi-
nation, gregarious instincts. They will be sure to
do stout battle for their precedence, but were they
worsted, they would always have their brethren of
North or South Germany to fall back upon. In
antagonism with the Germans the Magyars aspire
to absolute independence of their kingdom on the
footing of mere personal union, failing in which,
they threaten a dissolution of the Empire, with some
vague prospects of the formation of an Eastern
State, with its centre at Pesth. They have on their
side the old traditions of their kingdom, their signal
services performed in behalf of the Hapsburgs, their
high metal and dash in battle, and a certain apti-
tude for political broil and intrigue. The Magyars,
however, can do more than demolish. Did they even
succeed in cutting Vienna and all the German Pro-
vinces adrift, and in making Pesth the seat of em-
pire, they could not by their numbers, by their wis-
dom and real valour, govern all the non-German
Austrian Provinces, or even the old dependencies of
their own kingdom. The first law of the Empire is
existence, and this must needs be bound up with
that capital and those German Provinces with which
the Monarchy has always been identified. The
Magyars could at the Utmost only reproduce 1848,
and that year, if it had not ended with their subju-
gation, would have led to the dismemberment no
less of their kingdom than of the whole Austrian
Empire. The Magyars seem to be aware of this fact
and the moderate party, headed by Deak, have just
put forth a draught of an address which they would
fain represent as conciliatory. The main point in
dispute is, however, of the simplest. These so-
called Moderate Magyars demand the immediate
re-establishment of their Constitution, the con-
tinuity of their right as claimed in 1848, the
sanction by a constituted Government of con-
cessions wrested from a Government overthrown
by revolution. Such demands may well be
grounded on old rights and privileges ; but
the practical question is, are they compatible with
the existence of the Austrian monarchy ? The
Magyars are so convinced of the difficulty of recon-
ciling their own with the common Imperial interests
that they profess themselves ready to enter into all
desirable compromises. But they must have their
demands admitted to the full in the meanwhile;
future arrangements are left for negotiation and
discussion, which may as easily lead to nothing as
anything. Should this draught of the address be
voted by the Chamber ; should the terms be ac-
cepted by the Emperor, the Magyars would have all
they ask for, and their Sovereign would get back
only what they, in their magnanimity, might f el
inclined to give up. The admission of the Magyar
claims, as at present preferred, would lead to a
dualism, -reducing Austria to the conditi'm of
Sweden and Norway; with this difference, how -
ever, that the two Scandinavian kingdoms consist
of two compact and homogeneous nations, while in
Austria each of the component parts would be an
aggregate of hostile races which either sheer force
or mutual jealousy has hitherto kept together, and
which would be amenable to no other cohesive
policy. General events may, indeed, sweep on
with such irresistible strength as either to crumble
Austria or to give her a decisive bias eastward ;
but even if, either under the Hapsburgs or under
any other dynasty, the Empire were to look for a
new centre in the Lower Danube, it would hardly
gravitate upon Pesth, or ground its power on
Magyar supremacy. The German element being
eliminated from the Austrian community, there
would be a struggle among the other races,
which, however it might begin, would scarcely
terminate in favour of the Magyar. The new agglo-
meration of races on the Lower Austrian Danube
could hardly take place without a simultaneous stir
among the other tribes further down on the banks
of the same stream. The Austrian atoms would
come into collision with the Turkish atoms, and
some new birth would struggle into existence, of
which it would be difficult to pre-conceive the na-
ture, but in which a' Roman, and not a Magyar,
element would in all probability preponderate.
There is nothing that we are less disposed to indulge
in than any idle speculation on remote contingent ies.
We deem it more profitable to deal with Austria
and Turkey as they are than to cast about for what
may happen when they cease to be. From any im-
mediate apprehension of danger from abroad we
believe both those empires perfectly free. Austria's
policy at the present moment should not look be-
yond the limits of her own territory. Her dispute
just now is not with Prussia or Russia, nor should
her hope rest on France. The great point is the
settlement of the Magyar claims. Concession or
resistance may be equally fraught with peril ; but
no sacredness of Magyar rights
should prevail upon
Austria to cut her own throat. No fair words of
M. Deak and his colleagues should induce the Em-
peror to put himself at their discretion. Restore
the Constitution of 1848, and you pull down Aus-
tria without building up Hungary. So long as
Austria is what she is, her real element of strength
lies in her German provinces. It is in that element
that, in extreme cases, she must seek her salvation.
POST.—The education of the people is a matter
of the greatest importance at all times, but in these
days, when a general demand is being made for their
admission to a larger, and even to the largest, share
of power in the State, and when there seems so
much probability of at least a part of the demand
being conceded, it is of the first importance that
attention should be drawn to the means of fitting
them, so far as can be done by education, for the
discharge of political duties and the comprehension
of political responsibility. It is unquestionable
that our present system—that is to say, what there
is of a system—of national education is so deplo-
rably defective that the mental state of our lower
classes is a reproach to us among the nations of
Europe. The recruiting returns for the year 1364,
which have just been issued, show that in that year
one man out of every three who presented them-
selves to the recruiting officer was unable to read
or to write, while one out of every five was unable
to do more than read. Considering the classes
from which recruits are drawn, they may be taken
not unfairly to represent what are called " the
masses," and, considering that the recruits do not
include women, who are generally worse instructed
than the other sex, it is probable that it would be
understating the case to say that of the lower classes
only two out of three are able both to read and to
write. Such a state of things is hardly creditable
to our state of civilisation, and the disgrace of it
has long been recognised by all who have thought
upon the question ; indeed, the whole history of it
is a record of the independent, and often misdi-
rected, efforts of private individuals to accomplish
what is properly the business of the State, but what
the State has hitherto failed to do. The personal
opinions and religious tendencies of those who thus
have from lime to time come forward to promote
education have naturally been very apparent in what
they have done, and the presence of so many anta-
gonistic elements has indeed always been one of the
greatest sources of difficulty in bringing the power
of the State into beneficent action upon the question.
If it were a question of funds supplied by the State
alone, it would not be difficult to devise a plan of
general education ; but, under the present system,
the principle followed is to acquire a certain control
over the expenditure of money provided by private
persons, in consideration of a smaller sum provided
by the State ; and even this has awakened much
jealousy and distrust, and given rise to the most

interminable disputes. The difficulties of carrying,
out such a system to the extent requisite to make
available for the education of the entire population
be increased a thousandfold, and it i 3 obvious
that, if a complete national system is to be devised,
it must be upon some other basis, including some
further elements, than that now in existence. An
attempt to sketch out a system which would sue'
plement and harmonise with the present was made
on Monday last at a meeting in Manchester, where
the matter seems to have attracted much attention,
The chief feature of the proposal is that the matter
should be left to the management of the local
authorities and be supported by local rates. There
are, however, some objections to this plan, ant
one of them is that as long as it is held t.ue.
secular education should be connected with relig,i"
ous instruction there would always be great difh
culty in inducing ratepayers to tax themselves •,
the support of a school as to the merits of which ne,
two of them would be agreed, and the result would
_
very probably be rather more quarrelling and ru,
more education than is produced from the present
system. • Another feature of the plan is that pewcr
,
should be given to enforce attendance at school of
all children within the jurisdiction of the local autho-
rities referred to. For this part, if it were clis,
severed from, and could be carried out without, the
other, there is undoubtedly a great deal to be Eaul'
In Mr. Kennedy's report to the Educational Depart,
ment for 1865 is this passage :—" Amongst the
many defects connected with the education of the
poor which come under my observation in the large
towns which I visit, tile most sad is that such large
numbers of children are still receiving either ll°,
schooling at all, or so little as to be worthless ;"an('
he goes on to say that the result of a house-to-holl,se
visitation in Manchester, in November, 1865, vt
to show that " out of fifteen children between the
ages of three and twelve, one was at work, suc„
school, and the remaining eight totally neglected i
regards education." " Two , main causes of this
evil," he says, as regards the parents of the chil-
dren, are poverty and carelessness." Such is the
strength of the latter cause, indeed, that positively
nothing short of actual compulsion will induce many
-here
is, to send their children to school. abere
is, it is true, a great dislike of the word " comPili:
;
w an," especially with regard to education, which
is truly said should be looked upon as a blessloo
conferred and not as a duty imposed. But, as 3-11'
Bennett remarked at the meeting referred to,
" We are all being compelled every day of on:
lives in one way or other," and if ever there were.
a case for the interference of authority it d
that of parents who, either through apathy at
carelessness, or positive brutality, refuse to
their children to obtain the educational advantagr
within their reach. Besides, the principle has al-
ready been recognised and enforced in the Factory
Act, which absolutely does make it compulsory tO
give every child employed for wages at least r
many hours of instruction as are employed in vforr
Whatever reasons can be advanced for this regula-
tion are equally strong in favour of its further ex.
.
tension. It is, unhappily, but too clear that poverty
and ignorance react upon this question to such an
extent that nothing short of a system of compulsory
attendance at school will ever be effectual to pro"
it
o,
duce general education. And as the importance of
becomes every day greater, it is to be hoped that
those who take an interest in this question will n°
let it rest till either by this or by some other means
,
provision has been made for the elementary instron
tion of every child throughout the kingdom.

f carrying
to make It
population
is obvious
be devised,
ding some
;nee.