The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-24 00:00:00

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA,
COVENT-GARDEN.
Under the Management of Miss Louisa Pyne and Mr. W.
Harrison, Sole Lessees.

THIS EVENING. Mellon's Opera of VICTORINE. Miss
Louisa Pyne, Miss Thirlwall, Mr. H. Corrie, Mr. H. Haigh,
Mr. A. St. Albyn, and Mr. G. Horneastle.
With the Grand Pantomime, BLUE BEARD ; or, Harle-
quin and Freedom in her Island Home. Clowns, Messrs. H.
nolo.), H. Payne, Ilildyard, and Lilliputians. Harlequins,
Messrs. Milano and F. Payne. Pantaloons; Messrs. Barnes
and Tanner. Columbines, Mdme. Boleno and Clara Morgan.
Sprites, the Zelinski Family. Mr. W. H. Payne, Mlle.
Lamoureux, dm
Conductor—Mr. Alfred Mellon. Commence at Seven.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Baekstone.
THIS EVENING the nerformaymes will oornmenae with
(bY desir SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. Miss Nardcastle,
Miss Fanny Stirling ; Tony Lumpkin, Mr. Buckatone.

After which, a new Pantomime, QUEEN LADYBIRD
AN!) HER CHILDREN. The Pantoraimists by the un-
rivalled Lec'ems, Herr Cole, and Fanny Wright.

Commence at 7.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.-
Lessee and Manager, Mr. A. Harris.

THIS EVENING. the nerformances will commence with
THE CORSICAN BROTHERS. Messrs. Fechter, Harris,
Meadows, Mrs. Weston, and Miss Murray.
After which, a new Christmas comical pantomime, entitled
ROBINSON CRUSOE ; or, Harlequin Friday, and the King
of the Caribbe Islands : in which Monsieur Espinosa and
Mdlle. Marie Dumilatre, of the principal cantinental theatres,
will appear. Clown, Mr. A. F. Forrest.

THEATRE - ROYAL LYCEUM.
Sofia Lessee and Directress, Madame CELESTE.

THIS EVENING, a new Drama, entitled THE. IRISH
EMIGRANT. Messrs. G. Vining, J, Johnstone, T. Lyon.
Forrester, and John Drew; Miss Kate Saville, Miss Stuart,
and Mrs. J. Rouse.
After which, the Lyceum Christmas Comic Extravazanza,
CRYSTABELLE : or, The Rose without a Thorn, showing!,
THE VISION OF A ROSE. ITS FADING AT EVE,
AND THE MAY-BLOOM OF THE WILD BRIAR.
To conclude with MORE BLUNDERS THAN ONE.
Larry Hoolagan, Mr. John Drew.

A DELPHI, NEW THEATRE-ROYAL.
Role Proprietor and Manazer, Mr. Bent. Webster.
THIS EVENING, AN UGLY CUSTOMER. Messrs. J.
L. Toole, C. Selby, and Warde ; Miss K. Kelly, and Wiss E.
Thorne.

After which, THE COLLEEN BAWN. D. lloncicault, D.
Fisher, 13iHine:ton, Falconer, Stephenson, C. J. Smith, Romer.
Miss Agnes Robertson, Miss Woolgar, Mrs. Billlngton, and
Mrs. Chatterley.

To conclude with a new Burlesque Extravaganza, entined
BLUE BEARD FROM A NEW POINT OF RUE.
Itfes,,rs. J. L. Toole, P. Bedford, C. J. Smith; Miss W.V.Agar,
K. Kelly, Laidlaw, and E. Thorne.

Doors open at half past 6—Commence at 7.
Box-office open from 10 till 5.
No charve for booking.
Private boxes, £2 2s. ; Family Boxes,
UrnTteatra Stalls. ss. ; Balcony, 4s. ; Front Mille Stalls, •
Pit Stalls, 25.; Pit, is. 6d. ; Amphitheatre, Ir, ; Gallery, ad.
Acting Manager—Mr. Win. Sraith.

ASTT;EY'S ROYAL AI.IPWITHEATRE.-
Proprietor and Manager, M!'. Wm. BATTY.
Immense success of' the Pantomime.
Re-engagement of Mr. J. Crockett and the Trained Lions.
A Grand Juvenile Fete will take place on Fridap, Jan. 25,
commencing, at two o'clock With the Pantomime, concluding
with the Lions.
This Evening, a new spectacle, entitled THE LION
CONQUEROR; or, The Death Jungle, expressly for the
introduction of the Wonders of the World, " The Groupe
of Performing Lions." The Lion Conqueror, Mr. J. Crockett.
To be succeeded by Scenes in the Arena, supported by
talented Parisian and British Artistes.
Concluding with Batty's Prize Equestian Comic Panto-
mime. for Good Little Boys and Girls. by T. L. Greenwood,
entitled HARLEQUIN AND THE WONDERFUL
HORSE ; or. Percinet and Grociosa, the Ugly Duchess and
the Greedy King, produced with Gorgeous Scenery, by Mr.
Cuthbert, new Costumes and Appointments, and introducing
In the comie scenes Batty's Prize Equestrian Harlequinade,
and the celebrated Old Bob Ridley, and Brandon Ledger.
Doors open at half-. Fast 6, performance commence at 7.
___

dr`IANTERBTIRY-HALT, PANTOMIME
"TFIE ENCHANTED HASH,"
EIVTARY EVENING.

ENTERTAINING PEOPLE.
7,4 r. MARSHALL and Mr. BELL,

GOOD TEOPLE.

Wildrose, '1 Fairies, with the usual azeom- ) 3fr. Marshal
Primrose , plishments. j Mr. Bell.
•

COMMON PEOPLE,
Farm er Thickhead (a husbandman„ with a Wife
tn(l Child, who make a fool Of him) Arr. Bell.
Gibes Gosling (the mysterious Orphan. who runs
after every Miss, and afterwards Harlequin)3lr. Marshall.
ame Thickhead (who. harin,:, worn out the
breeches, takes to Pantaloons) .Mr. Bell.
Jolly (the bell of the village, which Giles in-
tends to ring the—changes to Columbine)..Mr. Marshall.
BAD PEOPLE.

Trowleygrowley, ) Demons of the blackest dye) Mr. Marshal
Cirowleyhowley, S and brightest Magenta. j Mr. Bell.

COMIC PEOPLE.
harlequin
Columbine
Clown Mr. E. MARSHALL.
Pantaloon. Mr. F. DELL.
Scene, CANTERBURY (that's) HALL !—Time A.D. 1861, at
half-past nine.
Mr. B. A pack of nonsense!
Ilfr. M. What we want—
Mr. B. Pooh ! pooh !
The idea! a Pantomime played by two !

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Vita Diy.—Morning, Oh. Om.—Afternoon, 12h. 19m,
Ta-mcoulow.-Morning, 12h. 50m.—Afternoon, lh. 15m

THE WEATHER.--Sun OFFICZ, JAN. 24, 1861.
THERMONEM ER, IN TiE SHAD%
44—highest since noim yesterday.
34—lowest this rooming and during the night.
44—thin day at noon.
BAROATETER-- 30.04 ; falling rapidly.
Wrxn South-Westerly light ; with fine sunshiny
weather. The finest day this year.

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tit .~

THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSDAY, JAN. 24, 1881.

Dne of the- most important meetings that has
been held anywhere in England of late years upon
the subject of popalar education—of what is, in the
beset meaning of the phrase, really and truly
National Education—was held yesterday at one of
the great hotels (DEE's Hotel) in Birmingham. It
would have warmed the heart of old JOHN POUNDS,
the Cobbler. It cannot but gladden every one of
the now happily numerous supporters of the
Ragged School System throughout the United
Kin3dom.

The meeting referred_to, and, of which we pub-
lish n copious report elsewhere in our impression
of this evening, was avowedly and explicitly an
Ed ucational Conference, for the purpose of discus-
sin g the question of providing for the education of
neglected and destitute children ! Surely the class
of I attic ones most needing instruction in all our vast
poi lulation—surely, surely, those whose education
one might have expected to have seen most eagerly
car ed for among all the various sections of the
con xsaunity, both by the Legislature and the
Go• rernment. Yet actually this identical class is
lea: rt thought of, least regarded, by both vac and
the other. Common sense would seem to dictate
at slice a suggestion of the adaptability, rather, we
Rho ,uld say, the absolute and imperative necessity
of- -at any rate in regard to education, if in reference
with the beginning. It
to ) aothing else—begilan in g
was" the appreciation of this great need which first
of till incited the benevolent WILDERSPIN to set
on Loot the Infant School System—that lowest
rung in the ladder of the intellectual improvement
of the general multitude. A little higher in
this.. wise and instructive gradation coming the
humane scheme born of the at first rival but even-
tua. tly harmonized systems of juvenile instruction
aug gested. by BELL and LANCASTER. Higher yet
in the graduated ascent towards merely the lowliest
and humblest approaches to the remote Parnassian
hei. gilts diversified in the far distance by the great
put filo schools, and crowned at the loftiest summit
of all by the ancient universities—modestly in
ads since of the juvenile seminaries of BELL and
LA' OCASTER, as those were also modestly in advance
of the infant schools of WILDERSPIN, came
tho go ingenious and alluring academies of
the untutored adult population, the admirable
Me ehanies' Institutions founded by Dr. BIRCRBECK.
It • was not to these, however—greatly as he prized
then,, earnestly as he promoted their multiplication
and. development—it was not to these later, and in
some respects loftier, at any rate more ambitious
inst itutions, that Lord BIot:GUAM referred in that
fair tons apostrophe of his, in which, during one of
his peat speeches upon the subject of Parliamentary
Rc!l>rm, lie enunciated the grand truth that the
schepolinaster was abroad ! Lord BRAJUGHAM, in
that ever memorable burst of eloquence, referred

neith cr to the juvenile schools in which were being
thumbzd the gratmar and the dictionary, nor

yet to the adult schools where the mechanic
And the artisan, after their daily toils were
over, could turn to the popular treatises
of such a society as the Society for the Diffusion of
Useful Knowledge: " Field-Marshal the Duke of
WELLINGTON might appear," he said, " at the head
of his victorious battalions, but—the schoolmaster
armed with his primer would prove stronger than
the soldier with his bayonet !" National Educa-
tion, in fact, ought, in reason, to begin ab initio.
The calloW knowledge must be cared for, warmed,
and fostered ab ovo. The first consideration should,
in truth, be among the promoters of the great
cause of popular instruction, the imparting of that
instruction at the earliest period, and to
the class most in need of it, anywhere
discoverable throughout the community. It
is so manifest all this, so clearly obvious, so glaringly
apparent, that the mere statement of the fact sounds
like a truism, the simple enforcement of it reads,
when we come to put it on paper, like little less
than a succession of platitudes. Yet that even this
notorious and transparent necessity, this necessity
meeting us upon the very threshold when we go
forth, any one of us, to the discussion of the grand
and vital question of National Education, even this
plain, initial truth has remained until now so far
overlooked and neglected—certainly by the Legis-
ture, certainly by the Government—that for the
vary purpose of insisting upon the urgent need for
its recognition, there was assembled together that
impa•:tant meeting, yesterday, at Birmingham—
a meeting, as we have seen, expressly convened for
the purpose of its enforcement.

As the Chairman of this great and good assem-
blage, there appeared in that post of responsibility,
one no less admirably qualified to preside over any
meeting of the kind than the Right Hon. Sir JOHN
PAKINGTON. Around him on the platform were
grouped men of wide and varied reputation
among the zealous advocates for the better educa-
tion of the masses-. Ecclesiastics and laymen, peers
and commons, humane and earnest men, gifted and
benevolent women, all bent upon aiding, so far as
might be practicable upon an occasion like this, in
bringing the truths they have so dearly at
heart vividly and recognisably before the general
community, before the Legislature, and before the
executive Government. Conspicuous among those
present was the Rev. Dr. GUTHRIE, of Edinburgh,
the honoured Father, as he may with perfect jus-
tice be designated, of the whole of the great Ragged
School Movement. There, too, beside Dr.
GUTHRIE, close beside the Chairman, were the two
chief originators of yesterday's demonstration—
Mr. CHARLES RATCLIFF, the able and devoted Sec-
retary of the Conference, and Mr. M. D. HILL, the
warm-hearted, clear-headed Recorder of Birming-
ham. It was in answer to the joint initiation of these
twogentlemen last-mentioned that those who yester-
day attended the meeting were assembled together.
The particular object they had in view in thus
assembling together being succinctly expressed in
that pithy quotation from a paper relating to the
subject, that lucid and sententious passage read in
the course of his speech to the meeting by Sir JOHN
PAICINGTON, as about the clearest and shortest
declaration that cella well be made of the policy
and opinions held in view by the originators of this
particular Educational Conference at Birmingham.
The quotation putting the mat ter thus forcibly in the
words subjoined :—•" The welfare of society requires
that all its members should be educated. There-
fore, it is the duty of the State, both as regards
' society in general, and each individual composing
it, to provide education for those who cannot obtain
it for themselves. This duty is recognised by the
State, since it provides education for those who are
in gaols and reformatories, and therefore come
compulsorily under its care, and for those who
are thrown on society for support, i. e., paupers.
The same duty exists, but has not been discharged
by the State towards children who are not as yet
either criminals or paupers, but whose natural
guardians will not or cannot provide for their
education. It is the object of the conference to lay
before the executive government and the legisla-
ture, as a consequence of the principle above stated,
the imperative duty of its providing education for
this portion of the community." Who will not
subscribe to the perfect reasonableness of this argu-
ment ? Perhaps not Mr. Low E—certainly not,
unhappily net Mr. LowE, or any of that eccentric
political clique who pin their faith to the Right
Honourable Member the Chairman of the Board
of Education. And yet the truth that Mr. LOWE
contravenes lies absolutely in a nutshell. It is
expressed with all the force and lucidity of a
syllogism in the foregoing quotation. Denying it
however to the last, the Legislature and the Exe-
cutive Government leave the poor little gamins of
the streets without a hand to help them out of their
native slough of ignorance, until they can matri-
culate through crime into their only one college of
education—the Reformatory !

At last there is news from Gaeta—rather meagre,

to be sure, still it tells us what line things will
take for a little while—it may be for rather
longer than we think. The ex-KING does not mean
to flee at once. He gave full notice to that effect on
the morning of the 22d by renewing hostilities.
After hearing nothing of movements by either side
for three days, some hope began to arise that the
Royalists were preparing to give in, and that pre-
liminaries might be in course of arrangement, or
that, at least, something like an understanding
was established which should lead to some pacific
sottlamont. FILANOIR 11. and hie advisers have
dispelled that hope. They saw the fleet, fourteen
vessels in all, drawn up in line to enforce the
blockade, and to do something more, too, at the
proper moment ; they knew that the Piedmontese
had already 150 pieces of artillery ready to com-
mence with, and were yet preparing new batte-
ries ; but, nothing daunted, they opened a vigorous
fire on the besiegers, who, we are told, promptly
replied, and so effectually, that the fire from the
garrison soon ceased. As the Piedmontese are
Working hard at new batteries, they appear, how-
ever, not to purpose beginning their grand fire yet.
They probably mean that it should be a conclusive
attack when it does commence—a fire which shall
leave little for the assaulting. companies to do but
to March into the place, If this be the plan of
yet, before we hear
CIALDINI, it may be even, weeks
of operations meant lo be decisive ; and then,
should these fail, nothing will remain but to reduce
the place by regular approaches.
The worst injury to Italy of the fortress holding
out is that indicated by other telegrams, as still
continuing—the Royalist disturbances in the
Abruzzi esiecially. These districts lie conveniently
for the POPE to retaliate on his Sardinian Majesty
for accepting the Government of his revolted
provinces. We cannot well be surprised
that his HOLINESS and ANTONELLI should enjoy
a little of the pleasure of revenge when so tempt-
ing an opportunity offers itself, as some thousands
of disbanded Royalist troops of a class ready for
any mischief, wanting nothing but arms, a little
money, and a free pass through the Papal territory.
I\re may well be indignant, however, that the '
French, who now occupy the whole of the States of
the Church yet in the hands of the POPE, should
connive at all this brigandage: They cannot call

it non-interference, since but for their presence at
Rome, VICTOR EMMANUEL would long ago have
been the elected King of the Pontifical States as
well as of the rest of Italy. If therefore Louis
NAPOLEON choose to hold the Papal territory in
his own hands, an .d yet to permit the collection and
passage of armed bands into the still unsettled
territories lately the Kingdom of Naples, he
must be held distinctly responsible for all the
disturbances there.

It is evident to every one that he thus makes
troublesome work for the Sardinians. We
read that 2,0000 Piedmontese troops had been
disembarked at Civita Nova, and were march-
ing on Teramo ; and that they had put down
disturbances at Ascoli. The meaning of this is,
that in the Northern Abruzzo and the March of
Formo, which joins it, both of them not far from
Rome itself, though on the Adriatic coast, the
Royalist emissaries, aided by the POPE, and con-
nived at by General GOTON, are doing all they
can to keep up uneasiiness by petty insurrections.
A process we quite understand in English his-
tory—indeed, almost within living memory—
expelled dynasties or pretenders, having . always
local adherents ready for any mad attempt
to reverse by foreign aid what the vast majority of
the nation has fully accepted. We are told that
this sort of work continues, and that numbers of
Royalist officers, and Roman peasants continue to
enter the Abruzzi in this way. The better part of
the inhabitants and the Piedmontese have been,
indeed, too strong for the reactionary bands which
had already entered, and they have had to recross
the frontiers; yet, the EMPEROR manages in
this way to keep a p erpetual blister on the side of
Italian unity. We 'can, indeed, attribute his con-
duct to nothing else than the unworthy desire to
see Italy unsettled. He has the means in his
hands of giving quint to Italy at once—and those
the easiest in the wo7cld, for he has only to let Italy
quite alone, and no a ne doubts that in six months
from the Alps to the h ills of Calabria, order and pros-
perity would soon be. universal. The Piedmontese
soldiers and the great body of well-affected inha-
bitants, with their national guards, would soon
rout out the distw:bers, and give confidence to
agriculture and commerce by the certainty of
peace, and the grand result would soon be a com-
plete social renovatif )11 of the country.
Italian Statisticians inform us, giving full
details of it, that the trade of the eld State of
Piedmont, during the twenty years of Constitu-
tional Government subsequent to 1848, rose to more
than double its fornaer amount ; they tell us that
it was more than five times that of the Two Sicilies,
although it bad but half the population, a compara-
tively infelicitous soil: and climate, and nothing like
the same advantages' of coast line and harbours.
What will be the of feet of freedom, peace, settle-
ment, and security under the same government
throughout Italy we n iay easily conjecture. Already
the towns of the R, amagna and other provinces
which have united t themselves to Piedmont are
feeling the difference in their growing trade and
business. Nor can it; be doubted, that if Louis
NAPOLEON would ter urinate his own unrighteous
intervention in Romu, and notify to Austria that
she too must quit Ven etia, we should soon see such
a commercial state in, Italy as would abundantly
requite this country for all our efforts on
her behalf. Italy may remember, too, that
these efforts have not cost us nothing;
if we have not sent trc lops and ships to her aid, our
enormous naval and military expenses for the last
few years, have been , we fully believe, the real
reason why Louis NA YOLEON has not vexed them
ten times more. The temper he has shown in spite
of all our remonstrances, and after having pro-
claimed to us and Eu rope that he desired to see
Italy settle down into a united and strong kingdom,
proves that but for of tr Mediterranean fleet, and
another in the Channel, he would have done some-
thing more than prey( nit the blockade of Gaeta,
bad as that was. If It ily ever become free, it will
be because England is strong—to that she owes a
great part of all the Eceedom she has acquired
south of the Po.

The time must, howe vcr, soon come when Louis
NAPOLEON will be call ;d. to account at Rome. He
may keep Austria in th Quadrilateral as long as
be can, as the excuse for retaining possession of
Rome, but it may be b toped that events will bring
the Arch-Intervener to account. Should Austria
escape this year, both in. Hungary and in Italy,
she cannot well surviv © another year. A united
and settled Italy will be too strong for her in
March, 1862, if it be dou 'dui whether it be strong
enough in 1861; and whi t may come of Hungarian
determination to be free, , and of GARIBALDI'S pro-
ject of attacking Austria Through Hungary, it is im-
possible to conjecture even for the present year.
Movements in such case is as the present are fear-
fully sudden. When a whole empire, as is now
the case with Austria, is but a mine of combustible
materials, none can fores 0; where and when a spark
may fall, which would change in a moment the
whole political aspect of things. Come what may,
however, Louis NAPOLI MINT must not be allowed
for ever to curse a whole t province of Italy by en-
slaving its inhabitants t 0 the butchers of Perugia,
merely to gratify Impe dill ambition and French
vanity.

His Excellency the Sa r linian Minister comes to
town to-day from Broadland. o,

Viscount Palmerston a rill give a Parliamentary
dinner on the 4th proximo to the loading supporters of the
Government in the House cif Commons. Tho noble
vis-
count and viscountess coin. Co town to morrow.

Lord and Lady Salton ri and family have arrived
in Hereford •street from Nest c Castle, N.B.

Lord Ashley, M.P., ar rived in town on Tuesday,
from Torquay. His lordship has since left for Northampton.
Her ladyship remains at To rquay.

REPRESENTATION OF SOUTH WILTS.—The con-
test is fairly begun, and t he canvass is being prosecuted
with great activity on both aides. Mr. Grove has issued a
second address, in the tour se of which he states that "the
result so far has been of th(a most encouraging and gratify.
ing character, and that wi ftla the prospect of almost cer-
tain success, he has deter mined to afford to every elec-
tor an opportunity of raco 'riling his vote." Backed as
they are by a requisition e igned by upwards of 1,200 elec-
tors out of a constituency of : little more than 3,000, the sup-
porters of Lieutenant-Col onel Bathurst are equally san-
guine; 'but it is somewl eat doubtful whether the whole
of those who signod the requisition consider them-
selves pledged to support. the Conservative cause on the
day of election. The conicest undoubtedly will be severe,
the present Lord Herbert r Lot having polled more than 1,500
votes in the contest of himself and Mr. Wyndham with
Lord Henry Thynne in Wii7. The latter polled between
1,200 and 1,300. Lieut. -Col. Bathurst's expenses have
been guaranteed by his supporters, and between £2,000 and
£3,000 was subscribed at a meeting at Salisbury on Tuesday,
some of the leading agriculturists of the district putting
down their names for £5O and £lOO each. The nomination
will not take place until after the meeting of Parliament, so
that both parties will have ample opportunity for a trial of
their strength.

PRICE OF GOLD.—The quotation of gold at Paris
is about 2 per mille premium, and the ;short exchange on
London is 25.221 per £ sterling. On comparing these rates
with the English mint price of £3 17s. 101 d. per ounce for
standard gold, it appears. that gold is at about the
same price in Paris as it is in London. By advices
from Hamburg the price of gold is 424 per mark ; the short
exchange on London is 13.51 per £ sterling. Standard gold
at the English mint price is, therefore, about 3-10ths per
cent. dearer in London than in Hamburg. The course of
exchange at New York on London for bills at sixty days'
sight is about 1041 to 105/ per cent., which, as compared
wiLli the Mint par between.' the two coun!ria, shows that
the exchange is against England,. The loss of interest oc-
casioned by the delay in receiving back gold from the
American Mints leaves, little,' if any, profit now on the
trownigoion of gold to the 'United States,