The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-29 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1857.

AmsoN has said—" Fear is the chief cause of
Cruelty." Sir ARCHIBALD might have added
that the next is Hatred : and the third (and the
most usual) the lust of ♦engcance, or as we might
otherwise almost venture to term it, the instinct
•f Retaliation. y Combine those three terrible in- ,

centives, and you have the utmost conceivable '
provocative to inhuman outrage and massacre.
It is precisely in this combination of motives that
we may dicover the true source of these frequent
and bloody insurrections in Hindostan. Fear—
Hatred—Vengeance : these are, in truth, the ac-
tuating emotions of all the Asiatic rebellions against
our Inglo-Indian Government. It was so at the
very first rising against our authority. It is so
at the very last—at the one now immediately I
contemporaneous. Fear of our might—Hatred
of our rule—Vengeance for the long and grind-
ing aggravation of our Mis-Government. it is a
terrible truth that it is so—but it is so neverthe-
less. The conquered races of the East have
learnt alas ! from our erroneous system of admi-
nistration to dread what we ought to have taught
them rather to look to with affectionate reliance—
to abhor what we ought to have tutored them to
love and reverence. And having done this, we
have sown broadcast amongst them the seeds of a
yearning for retaliation. This—remember—
when the two boons we had to offer them, in the
right hand and in the left, were Civilisation and
Christianity.

Additional intelligence in regard to this lass

Indian mutiny happily mitigates, in a great mea-
sure, the anxiety not unnaturally awakened by
the first brief announcement. Our Overland
Correspondence, if it does bring an antidote for
the bane of the evil-news flashed to us in the first

instance by the Electric Telegraph—conveys to
us, at any rate, a very appreciable anodyne or
assuagement. It consoles us with the knowledge
that the insurrectionary movement is, for the most
part, restricted to Delhi and its immediate neigh-
bourhood ! Sir Joux LAWRENCE, we now learn,
has adopted every available measure of a precau-
tionary character throughout the Punjaub—so
that there at least the spirit of subordination will
be sustained. At Meerut the rebels had met with
the most signal discomfiture. And so complete
and thorough had been the military system of re-
pression already employed against the murderous
insurgents that our troops were rapidly advancing
(when the last advices left India) were rapidly ad-
vancing from all sides upon Delhi—the one sole
remaining stronghold of the mutineers. Unfor-
tunately, it does still appear that at Meerut, while
the rebels were for a while predominant, the mas-
sacre recorded in our impression of Saturday actu-
ally did take place—the 11th and 20th ltegiments
of Native Infantry and the 3d Cavalry murdering
every officer they could lay their assassin-hands on
While at Delhi—men women and children were
indiscriminately butchered. However, at Meerut,
as we have intimated, the mutineers have either
been dispersed or exterminated ; while to Delhi
and its vicinity the Rising is already almost
entirely confined. And there it is manifestly
fated to be very speedily avenged—and avenged
thoroughly. Our forces were not only, as we have
said, advancing upon Delhi from all directions,
but their advance threatened, when the intelligence
left, to be all the more terrible, from the fact of
its being the result of a preconcerted and syste-
matic combination. The Commander-in-Chief was
hastening forward from Umballa with the Queen's
75th Regiment, with the Ist Fusileers, with the
9th Lancers, with two Regiments of Native In-
fantry, and two troops of European Horse Artil-
lery. He would find considerable reinforcements
awaiting his arrival at Meerut—and, thus rein-
forced, would advance directly, and without any
further delay, upon the doomed city of Delhi,
the head and heart of the insurrectionary move-
ment ! Auxiliaries all the while pressing for-
ward to our aid from Agra, where the Sepoy
troops remained faithfully by the Lieutenant-
Governor, and (besides other places) from the
respective provinces presided over by the constant
Rajahs of Gwalior, Bhurtpore, and Putteeallah.

Everything, indeed, portended the easy and

Ispeedy suppression of a revolt as brief as it was
at first alarming, and, as it has been un-
questionably, during its short-lived continu-
ance, sanguinary. But—this will surely not
be ail I The suppression of the revolt—will--
assuredly be only precursory. Something better
than the punishment of a handful of assassins
and traitors must follow. Prudence--Justice—
Common Sense—alike demand that it should be
as we are implying. These periodical risings
show that there is "something rotten in the
state of Hindostan !" Let us bethink ourselves
at last how it may best be rid of the gangrene.
The Duty devolving upon us is imperative. Let
it be obeyed without further prevarication,
promptly, energetically, and thoroughly. Upon
the manner in which it shall be obeyed depended
the allegiance of 100,000,000 of the human race
—and much more than their allegiance, their
misery, or their happiness !

The Ballot—to-morrow evening—will be for-
mally brought under the consideration of the new
Parliament. It is the " Momentous Question "
of the Session—the Test of the recently-elected
House of Commons. From the result of the
Division upon Mr. BERKELEY'S annual motion it
will be seen how far the cause of Reform has really
benefitted by the last General Election. Let all
thorough-going Reformers in the House be true to
their principles and to their promises, to them-
selves and to their constituents, and we do believe
that the supporters of this First and Foremost
of all Reforms will be found to have been very
considerably multiplied in numbers within the
walls of the Legislature. Without those walls
their name is Legion. Within them, we believe,
as we have said, that their numbers have been
recently very considerably extended. However
this may be—" We shall see "--and that before
many hours have elapsed. Of course, if some Hon.
Members shirk the Question by Non-Attend-
ance, and others turn tail at the last moment,
and give the lie to all their fair words when they
stood upon the hustings in the beseeching attitude
of candidates for suffrages then appearing to be
dubious—of course, we say, should both these
courses be pursued, the numbers we are calcu-
lating upon will be very deplorably diminished.
But the division list will afford proof positive how
far, in this particular, our hopes and fears may
have been realised. Again, therefore, we most
strenuously urge the Reformers generally through-
nit the country to look well to that divi-
sion list—to examine it closely, scrutiuisingly,
microscopically ! Marking its deficiencies and its
blots—the deficiencies of Non-attendance, and
the blots of Recantation ! Again, however, we
would here reiterate our former appeal to our
liberal provincial contemporaries entreating
them to reproduce in their columns, as conspicu-
ously as possible, that same Division list with tke
names of the local representatives, whether of
borough, city, county, cinque port, or uuiver-
sity, marked w,th an asterisk, is CIPITALS, or
italicised ! Accordingly as they shall have evaded
the difficulty by Non-Attendance ! Fulfilled
their Promises,
• and stood firmly by their prin-
ciples!
Or—either
ratted or remained obdu-
rate ! It
is—remember this—the solitary test of
the Session. The Premier has postponed his pro-
miseduntil 1858—so that every-
lng else
eforra Bill
saving
and excepting the Ballot (and
thanks to Mr. BERKELEY for that exception 0
has heal coolly givell the go-by far 1857 Evers
-

-thing but the Ballot. And to-morrow that one
test will be deliberately applied by the Hon.
Member for Bristol to the New, and so far as fine
Speeches—Hustings' Speeches—go, the Ballot
Parliament. A preliminary meeting of the Ballot
Association will be held this evening, in anticipa-
tion of what may occur to-morrow in the popular
branch of the Imperial Legislature. It behoves
those Hon. Members, who are heart-and-soul in
the good cause to be in attendance to-night as
well as to-morrow—Faithful to the Ballot to the
last, Without as well as Within the walls of
Parliament.

The Educational Conference completed its task
according to programme last week. Much was
not expected of it of a practical kind ; it was
chiefly intended to advertise the wants of educe.
tionists, leaving it to all whom it may concern to
send in their tenders afterwards. Its object is,
in a certain sense, a popular one, yet, if we are
not mistaken, there is a feeling creeping upon us
that National Education may become a bore ; that
while the importance of having the people educated
as well as possible, is now acknowledged by all, we
may yet be over-talking the subject, or at least we
may be wasting Parliamentary time upon it. Per-
haps discussions like those of last week may be the
best plan foreliciting the knowledge and opinions of
those who have given much attention to the sub-
ject. In the House of Commons, a great deal
which is stated must be at second hand. Last
week we had many practical educators telling us
their plans and their difficulties.. The Conference
was a convocation of which no one is jealous ;
and, which though it had no legislative authority
and could transact no business, yet will command
the respect of Legislators, and guide the thoughts
of those who can aot.
The presence of his Royal Highness was at once
an indication of the acknowledged importance of
the subject, and of the very limited field over
which the discussion must range. The position
of the Prince, his known interest in education in
all its branches, and the good sense he has gene-
rally shown in his recommendations respecting
higher class education, pointed him out as the
most fitting person to inaugurate the proceedings;
and probably none who have perused the reports
of the meetings will deny that he acquitted him-
self unusually well. His speech was indeed the
most complete of all reported, but pro-
bably we have it reported most completely.
Scarcely, however, had his Royal Highness
adverted to tne vast increase of our
population (how vast it must appear to the native
of a small stagnant German Duchy!) before he ad-
verted also to the very narrow ground which the
speakers must occupy; a restriction, but for which,
he could not have presided. He enumerated not
fewer than four pairs of hostile parties by whom
"the common object has been contemplated from
the most different points of view, and pursued
often upon antagonistic principles." One party
seeks the aid of Government, another that of the
Church—a third demands that the State should
provide elementary instruction, while its opposite
holds that State interference checks spontaneous
election—a fifth party asks for compulsory
education based upon local self-government, but
is balanced by another which advocates the volun-
tary system in its widest development—a seventh
party strenuously demand the separation of secu-
lar and religious instruction, but is met by an
eighth, which maintains that religion is the es-
sential in education, without which all the rest is
valueless. It cannot be denied, therefore, that
mere prudence required the prince to insist ou
the limitation of the discussions to the neutral
topic which had been previously selected. He
oould not, of course, preside over a conflict of
political or religious parties.
The faot of the little time spent at school by
the vast majority of those who are counted as at-
tendants is, unfortunately, bnt too well established.
The number of children in England and Wales
between the ages of three and fifteen is, in round
numbers, nearly five millions; of these, rather more
than two millions attend some school. Of the
vast majority who are not at any school between
those ages, nearly two millions and a quarter are
absent from no assignable cause, and not more
than about six hundred thousand from being at
work. Proof enough that the indifference or po-
verty of the parents, no doubt the former in the
vast majority of cases, prevents the children
from being kept at school. Here is a
subject indeed for our educational phi-
lanthropists. Why do not the poor care for
the education which is provided for them so much
more largely than it is used by them ? In addi-
tion to this question, another, the question for
this Conference, arises, —why are the children
actually sent to school kept there so short a time ?
, Of the two millions who attend school, not more
than six hundred thousand are above nine years
of age ! Looking a little more at the details, it
appears that 42 per cent. attend less than a year I
22 per cent. during two years ; 15 per cent. only,
complete two years ; but 9 per cent three years,
and only four per cent. obtain a four years' edu-
cation. Thus nearly a half—between eight and
nine hundred thousand—of those who go to school
do not stay there-a year, and about another half
million do not complete two years 1

This is certainly a rather humbling result
for all the time, thought, labour, and public
and private funds expended on popular educa-
tion. It would seem to prove that there must be
a serious mistake somewhere. Apparently, educa-
tion has made very great strides ; school-
houses strike our attention everywhere, and we
all know that the clergyman or some of his
active coadjutors, female or male, do not forget to
request our subscriptions to his school. There id
no lack of effort, yet if we believe the PRINCE
and the Conference—and we do believe them
—we give an education worth having to but
a miserable fraction of the people. The schools
and the teachers are there, but they are
only half filled ; the people have the cup of
knowledge brought to their lips, but refuse to
drink, or to get their children to drink. What is
to be done ? Compulsion is tolerably sue- I
cessful, says the Right Houourable W. COWPER,
in Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, and nearly all
Germany. Children between the ages of three and
fifteen must there be at school ; no one, however,
over suggested that such an interference with
liberty would be tolerated in England. Wo are
thrown then upon purely moral means. Persua
sion is the only method which can, here, be ap-
plied to the parents, unless, indeed, the very chil-
dren are to be bribed.

Of all means, however, we think that of direct
pecuniary inducements, whether to children or
parents, the very worst imaginable ; even the
material charity, which is sometimes worked iu
favour of the schools, is of very questionable
expediency. Interest large employers of labour,
say Lord BROUGHAM and others ; and the
value of their aid was admirably exemplified by
the deeply-interesting statements of Mr. ACKROYD,
Member for Halifax, and Mr. I. F. WINFIELD, of
Birmingham, in the schools established by thorn in
connexion with their works. Certificates of school
attendance, which it was stated were highly valued
by the patents, and a system of examination