The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-07 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Yesterday the 28th comny of Royal Engineers,
the order for the departure of which for Ireland
was received at Chatham on Wednesday, was in-
spected on the general parade ground at Chatham-
barracks by Major-Gen. Sir Robert Walpole, K. C. 8.,
and in the afternoon left head-quarters, Brompton-
barracks, and proceeded at 4 10 p.m. by special train
on the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway to
Holyhead, via Kensington. They were to embark
at an early hour this morning for Dublin, whence
they will be despatched by special train to Cork.
The strength of the company numbered 96 men of
all ranks, with two officers.
Yesterday Lieutenant W. Wilmot, and a de-
tachment of 25 non-commissioned officers and men
of the Royal Marines, left ::head-quarters,
Chatham, and embarked on board the paddle-
wheel steamer Virago, 6, 220-horse power, Com-
mander Bingham, ordered for special service in Ire-
land. A detachment of 25 non-commissioned officers
and men left head quarters at the same time to join
the Liverpool, 35, 600 horse power, Capt. J. Sec-
combe.

On Wednesday evening the officers of the Chat-
ham division of Royal Marine Light Infantry enter-
tained Major-Gen. J. 0. Travers, C. 8., late Com-
mandant of the Chatham division of Royal Marines
Light Infantry, at a farewell dinner at the head
quarters of the division, on the occasion of his re-
linquishing the command of the division on his
attaining General's rank, and receiving the appoint-
ment of Inspector-General of the Corps of Royal
Marines. The attendance of officers on the occa-
sion was exceedingly numerous, and included not
only those at head quarters, but a number of officers
serving away from Chatham. Col. G. Lambrick,
aide-de-camp to the Queen, the Commandant of
the division, presided, and among the officers pre-
sent were Lieut.-Gen. A. B. Stransham, late In-
spector-General of the Royal Marines ; Col. W. S .
Aslett, Second Commandant at Chatham ; Col. W.
F. Foote, Second Commandant at Woolwich ;
Lieut.-Col. G. B. Rodney, Assist. Adjutant-Gen.,
together with several of the principal officers of the
garrison.

Her Majesty's armour plated 26 gun iron screw
steamship Northumberland, 6,621 tons, and 1,350
horse power, Staff-Commander R. B. Batt, at pre-
sent in charge, is ordered to be hauled out of the
Victoria Dock on the 22d inst., and to proceed to
Sheerness, to be navigated thence to Devonport.
The War Department steam storeship Lord Pan-
Inure, Mr. Spriddle commander, yesterday com-
pleted shipping a cargo of war stores at Woolwich
for Devonport, consisting of Palliser and other shot
and shell, wrought iron gun carriages and slides,
small arms' chests, &c., and will sail on Saturday
morning by the early tide, after filling in her ma-
gazine at Purfleet.

The Right Hon. G. J. Gosehen, rd.P., on

Education.

Last evening the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen pre-
sided at the distribution of Society of Arts prizes to
the successful students at the Halifax Mechanics'
Institution. There was a large attendance. The
Chairinan said he doubted whether the progress of
mechanics' institutions had been sufficiently rapid
and general to enable the promoters to point to them
as a feather in their cap, and show how rapidly the
country was progressing in education. That edu-
cation had been progressing there was no doubt,
but not at that rate to which Englishmen were
accustomed in everything else. While our com-
mercial wealth advanced from million to million,
education laboured forward so slowly as almost to
appear that we were either standing still or going
back. Compare a sudden speech on the budget with
a speech on popular education. One was a history
of triumphs achieved, and the other was a chronicle
of an advance by inches, with constant and most
serious checks. Commerce, finance, and manufac-
ture all knew how to burst through every obstacle,
no difficulty was able to block their course, but the
course of popular education seemed always to be
blocked, enormous difficulties stared its friends in the
face at every stcp,and..there did not seem to be that
energy to remove them that Englishmen showed in
every other department of life. If that was so, it was
clear there was something deeper than the radical
difficulties with which legislators and administrators
had to contend with ; perhaps they might be con-
nected with the prejudices of the people, and deeply-
cherished traditions and habits which the country
could not easily get rid of. But before he inquired
further as to those difficulties he would ask whether
it was true, as the critics said, that all classes of
this country were behindhand in appreciating intel-
lectual pleasures. With immense modifications that
assertion could not be denied, but he thought that
those critics missed a point of our national character
of which we were exceedingly proud, and which had
led to immense results—the possession of animal
spirits. England could not be England if she
ceased to possess in the fullest measure high
animal spirits. That it was which made us
such a robust nation ; but it might, on the
other band, make it more difficult to advance in in-
tellectual tastes ,as other nations which had not
those characteristics. (Hear, hear.) In our public
schools, in the universities, and in Parliament itself,
there could be no question as to the rank assigned
everywhere to high animal spirits. The " jolly fel-
lows" ruled the day, and they were not the enemies,
but more or less the rivals, of science and education
wherever their dominion extended. They had this
danger about them, that they might lead mental
work to be considered unfashionable. At the pub-
lic schools the " jolly fellows" used opprobrious
epithets towards those who worked too hard ; they
were the swells in the society of boys ; and they
exercised a similar influence at the universities.
They had, however, this advantage—they were pro-
tections against pedantry, and took all the nonsense
out of prigs; though, on the other hand, they might
exercise too absolute a dominion, and show consi-
derable vigour in putting down any literary or in-
tellectual insurrection. In the army and navy one
gloried in finding that characteristic in its fullest
force ; it was an element of great national strength,
but as elsewhere there was this danger, that the
"jollyfellows" might pooh pooh science, and decree
that even military study should be unfashionable.
It would be a matter of great regret if military
h
oh pe
eivo
en should become
d thoautl h
rsin s cold
as
well
ell oa r s hostileeeur a g
et o
mtadoes e
arms
o
r ms
victorious and nations strong. (Applause.) He
alluded to those characteristics not to depreciate them
but because he thought he saw in them a cause of
some of the difficulties we had to contend against
in developing our intellectual tastes. The difficulties
that beset popular education among the working
classes in the first rudiments of knowledge were of
course of a different kind, though there might even
there be
feesloinmgethhg,
einhadidn a
ezcrfiebwedr.esTpheect a
difficultieslittle they
the very surface were so numerous and
sitiolereittohueosn that they need not look beyond them to
account for the slow progress the country was mak-
ing in popular education. As to the cause of those
difficulties, there had been blue hooks on blue books,
and inquiry after inquiry, to get at the facts, but
the upshot was that we could not arrive at any ge-
neral agreement of principles ; nay, the principles
were all so hoplessly conflicting that unless one side
or way there was no hope of
anything thehing otherhe3 would,d a
give
deadlock. Some men argued
ton
that education was of such national importance
that the State must take it in hand, the other side
maintained that would destroy voluntary effort. One
side said there were plenty of schools but the poor
would not send their children to them, and there
must therefore be some compulsion ; but it was re-
plied that if that was done the State would inter-
fere with parental authority. Another party held
that the religious difficulty was the great difficulty,