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

Commence at 7.

poYAL PRINCESS'S THEATR.E.—
Logee and Manager. Mr. A. Harris.
THIS EVENING. the performances 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 Lind
of the Carfbbe Islands : in which Monsieur Espinosa and
Mdlle. Marie Dumilatre, of the principal cantinental theatres,
will appear. Clown. Kr. A. F. Forrest.

THEATRE - ROYAL LYCEUM.
So',a Lessee and Directress, Madame CELESTE.
TATS 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. Rouse.
Atter which, the Lyceum Christmas Comic Extravaganza,
CRYSTABELLE : or, The Rose without a Thorn, showing
THE visioNT OF A ROSE. ITS FADING AT EVE,
AND THE MAT-BLOOM OF THE WILD BRIAR.
To conclude with MORE BLUNDERS THAN ONE.
Lazry Hoolagan, Mr. John Drew.

0-11. A DETJPTIT, NEW THEATRE-ROYAL,
SoTe Pmrrletor and Manwer, Mr. BeAL Wehmter.

THIS EVENING, AN UGLY CUSTOMER. Messrs. J.
L. Toole, C. Selby, and Warde ; Miss K. Kelly, and Miss E.
Thorne.
After which, THE COLLEEN BAWN. D. Roncicault, D.
rsher, Billington, Falooner, Stephenson. C. J. Smith. Romer.
Miss Agnes Robertson, Miss Woolgar, Mrs. Billington, and
Mrs. Chatterley.
To conclude with a new Burlesque Extravaganza, entitled
BLUE BEARD FROM A NEW POINT OF 1113 E.
Messrs. J. L. Toole, P. Bedford. C. J. Smith ; Miss Woolgar,
R. Kelly, Laidlaw, and v. Thorne.
Doors open at half past e--Commence at 7.
Box-office open from 10 till 6.
No charge for booking.
Private boxes, £2 2s. ; Family BOXPS. XI.
Orchestra Stalls, gs. ; Balcony, 4s. ; Front Circle Stalls, 2g, ;
Pit Stalls, 2B• • Pit, Is. Bd. ; Amphitheatre. is ; Gallery, Ed.
Acting• Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.

•
A STLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.-
Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Wx. BATTY.
Immense success of the Pantomime.
me-engagement of Mr. J. Crockett and the Trained Lions.
A Grand Juvenile Fete will take place on Fridap, Jan. 25,
commencin, at two o'clock with the Pantomime, concluding
with the Lions.
This Evening, a new Spectacle, entitled 'ME LION
CONQUEROR ; or, The Death Jungle, expressly for the
introduction of the Wonders of the World, " The Gronpe
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 Betty's Prize Equestian Comic Panto-
mime. for Good Little Boys and Girls, by T. L. Greenwood,
entitled HARLEQUIN AND THE. WONDERFUL
TrOfiSE ; 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 comle scenes Batty's Prize Equestrian Harleouinade,
and the celebrated Old Bob Ridley, and Brandon Ledger.
Loors open at half-Fast 6, performance commence at 7.

CANTERBURY-HALL PANTOMIME.
"THE ENCHANTED HASH,"
EVERY EVENING.

ENTERTAINING PEOPLE.
Mr. 3L&BSITALL and Mr. BELL.
GOOD TEOPLE.
W'ildrose, 1 Fairieg, with the usual ELOOOM- 1 Mr. Marshall
Primrose., plishments. f Mr. Bell.
COMMON PEOPLE.
Farmer Thickhead (a husbandman. with a Wife
and Child. who make a fool of him) Mr. Bell.
Giles Gosling (the mysterious Orphan. who runs
after every Miss, and afterwards Harlegnin)Mr. Marshall.
Dame Thickhead (who. having worn out the
breeches, takes to Pantaloons) Mr. Bell.
Doll(the bell of the village, which Giles in-
tends to ring the—changes to Columbine).. Mr. Marshall.
BAD PEOPLE.
Howleygrowley, ) Demons ofthe blackest dye Mr. Marshall
Growleyhowley, 5 and brightest Magenta. Mr. Ball.
COMTC PEOPLE,

Harlequin
Columbine
Clown. ... • Mr. F. MARSHALL.
Pantaloon .. Mr. F. BELL.
Scene, CANTERBURY (that's) HALL!—Time A.D. 1861, at
half-past nine.
Mr. B. A pack Of nonsense!
Mr. M. What we want—
Mr. B. Pooh! pooh!
The Idea! a Pantomime played by two

- -
HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIe DAY.—Morning, Oh. Om.—Afternoon, 12h. 19m
To-mottnow.-Morning, 12h. 50m.—Afternoon, lh. 15m

THE WEATHER.—Sum OFFICE, JAN. 24, 1561.
VIEEMOMETER, IN THIS SHADS.
44 —highest since noon yesterday.
34—lowest this morning and during the night.
44 —this day at :Loon.
BAnomwrntz-30.04; falling rapidly.
WIND South-Westely light ; with fine sunshiny
weather. The finest day this year.

LONDON, THURSDAY, lAN. 24, 1881.

One of the most important meetings that has
been held anywhere in England of late years upon
the subject of popular education—of what is, in the
best measing 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

Kingdom.
The meeting referred to, and of which we pub-
lish a copious report elsewhere in our impression
of this evening, was avowedly and explicitly an
Educational Conference, for the purpose of discus-
sing the question of providing for the education of
neglected and destitute children ! Surely the class
of little ones most needing instruction in all our vast
population—surely, surely, those whose education
one might have expected to have seen most eagerly
cared for among all the various sections of the
community, both by the Legislature and the
Government. Yet actually this identical class is
least thought of, least regarded, by both one and
the other. Common sense would seem to dictate
at once a suggestion of the adaptability, rather, we
should say, the absolute and imperative necessity
of—at any rate in regard to education, if in reference
to nothing else—beginning with the beginning. It
was the appreciation of this great need which first
of all incited the benevolent WILDERSPIN to set
cm foot 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-
tually harmonized systems of juvenile instruction
suggested by BELL and LANCASTER. Higher yet
in the graduated ascent towards merely the lowliest
and humblest approaches to the remote Parnassian
heights diversified in the far distance by the great
public schools, and crowned at the loftiest summit
of all by the ancient universities—modestly in
advance of the juvenile seminaries of BELL and
LANCASTER, as those were also modestly in advance
of the infant schools of WILDERSPIN, came
those ingenious and alluring academies of
the untutored adult population, the admirable
"Mechanics' Institutions founded
y Pr. JARCKBECK.
It was not to there, however—greatly as he prized
;them, earnestly as he promoted their multiplication
11.nd development—it was not to these later, and in
any rate more ambitious
mule respects loftier, at
i nstitutions, that Lord BROUGHAM referred in that
I 'w"us apostrophe of his, in which, during one of
I is great speeches upon the subject of Parliamentary
?Reform, he enunciated the grand truth that the
-schoolmaster was aVoad ! Lord BROT.IGHAM, in
that ever memorable burst of eloquence, referred
neither to the juvenile schools in which were being
thumbed the grAinmar 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
ofsetteira-wocitty 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
very purpose of insisting upon the urgent need for
its recognition, there was assembled together that
important 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
two gentlemen 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 JoAN
PAKINGTON, as about the clearest and shortest
declaration that could 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 matter 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 ender 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. LOWE—certainly not,
unhappily not 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. Lows
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 gamine 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
settlement. FRANCIS 11. and his 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 i
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 Wiedmontese 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
CIALDINI, it may be even weeks yet, before we hear
of operations meant to 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 stilt
continuing—the Royalist disturbances in the
Abruzzi especially. 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.
We 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
. c9nllive At all this brigandage. They cannot call

it non-interference, eince 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, and 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
1 disturbances there.

It is evident to every one that he thus makes
troublesome work for the Sardinians. We
read that 2,000 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 GOYON, are doing all they
can to keep up uneasiness 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 perpetual 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 quiet to Italy at once—and those
the easiest in the world, for he has only to let Italy
quite alone, and no one doubts that in six months
from the Alps to the hills 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 disturbers, and give confidence to
agriculture and commerce by the certainty of
peace, and the grand result would soon be a com-
plete social renovation 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 former amount; they tell us that
it was more than five times that of the Two Sicilies,
although it had 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 effect of freedom, peace, settle-
ment, and security under the same government
throughout Italy we may easily conjecture. Already
the towns of the Romagna and other provinces
which have united themselves to Piedmont are
feeling the difference in their growing trade and
business. Nor can it be doubted, that if Louis
NAPOLEON would terminate his own unrighteous
intervention in Rome, and notify to Austria that
she too must quit Venetia, 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 troops 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 NAPOLEON 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 Europe that he desired to see

Italy settle down into a united and strong kingdom,
proves that but for our Mediterranean fleet, and
another in the Channel, he would have done some-
thing more than prevent the blockade of Gaeta,
bad as that was. If Italy ever become free, it will
be because England is strong—to that she owes a
great part of all the freedom she has acquired
south of the Po.

The time must, however, soon come when Louis
NAPOLEON will be called to account at Rome. He
may keep Austria in the Quadrilateral as long as
he can, as the excuse for retaining possession of
Rome, but it may be hoped that events will bring
the Arch-Intervener to account. Should Austria
escape this year, both in Hungary and in Italy,
she cannot well survive another year. A united
and settled Italy will be too strong for her in
March, 1E62, if it be doubtful whether it be strong
enough in 1861; and what 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 cases 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 foresee where and when a spark
may fall, which would change in a moment the
whole political aspect of things. Come what may,
however, LOUIS NAPOLEON must not be allowed
for ever to curse a whole province of Italy by en-
slaving its inhabitants to the butchers of Perugia,
merely to gratify Imperial ambition and French
vanity.

His Excellency the Sardinian Minister comes to
town to-day from Broadlands.

Viscount Palmerston will give a Parliamentary
dinner on the 4th proximo to the leading supporters of the
Government in the House of Commons. The noble vis-
count and viscountess come to town to-morrow.

Lord and Lady Saltonn and family have arrived
in Hereford .street from Ness Castle, N.B.

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

REPRESENTATION OF SOUTH WILTS.—The con-
test is fairly begun, and the canvass is being prosecuted
with great activity on both sides. Mr. Grove has issued a
second address, in the course of which he states that "the
result so far has been of the most encouraging and gratify-
ing character, and that with the prospect of almost cer-
tain success, he has determined to afford to every elec-
tor an opportunity of recording his vote." Backed as
they are by a requisition signed by upwards of 1,200 elec-
tors out of a constituency of little more than 3,000, the sup-
porters of Lieutenant-Colonel Bathurst are equally san-
guine; but it is somewhat doubtful whether the whole
of those who signed the requisition consider them-
selves pledged to support the Conservative cause on the
day of election. The contest undoubtedly will be severe,
the present Lord Herbert not having polled more than 1,500
votes in the contest of himself and Mr. Wyndham with
Lord Henry Thynne in 1857. 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 mule 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
standaid 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 104/ to 1051 per cent., which, as compared
with the Mint par between the two countries, 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
transmission of gold to the United States,

L A'IEbT NEW S.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

PARIS, JAN. 24.

General IVillisen was received yesterday by
the Emperor, to whom he remitted a letter from
the King of Prussia announcing the death
of his brother and his own accession to the
throne.

NAPLES, JAN. 23.

Troops have been despatched to the Abruzzi
and Calabria, where they were cheered by the
inhabitants. The reactionary movement has been
everywhere suppressed.
The batteries of Gaeta have slackened their

fire.
The Official Gazette of Naples publishes a
declaration of the blockade of Gaeta.

NAPLES, JAN. 22, A.M.
The batteries of Gaeta opened fire against the
Sardinians this morning.

The latter are actively working at the new
batteries.
The blockade of the bay is being rapidly carried
out.

MOLA DI GAETA, JAN. 22, P.M.

At eight o'clock this morning the batteries of
Gaeta unexpectedly commenced a very heavy fire.
Our batteries promptly replied, and compelled
the place to remain silent.

The fleet placed itself in line at twelve o'clock.
The fire of the besiegers continues.

TURIN, JAN. 22.

The bombardment of Gaeta commenced to-day.
Fourteen vessels are stationed before Gaeta. The
reactionary bands in the Abruzzi have recrossed
the frontiers.

COPENHAGEN, lAN. 22.

The Minister of Marine has ordered the equip-
ment of a steam squadron of 22 vessels, including
gun-boats and mortar boats.

A reserve force of 890 sailors is ordered to
assemble on the Ist March.

A large popular meeting has been held at Oden-
see, when addresses were voted to the King for the
entire exclusion of Holstein and Lauenburg from
the joint State.
A committee has been appointed for the purchase
of gunboats.

SAN. 23.

The Minister of Marine has announced that
a certain number of captains of merchant vessels
can be received into the naval service, if they
are prepared to undergo a course of instruction
in the Government training schools, which will
be opened at the beginning of February.

PESTH, JAN. 23.

The General Assembly of the Comitat of Gran
has voted a reply to the last imperial resolutions
communicated by the Chancellor of Hungary to
the Government at Buda. The following is a sum-
mary of this reply :
The permanent conflicts with the Government
have rendered Hungary distrustful.
The imperial diploma of October 20 is in con-
tradiction with the pragmatic sanction, which is
binding on the King as well as on the ration.

The oath taken by Charles 111. is binding on

his successors.

Taxes not sanctioned by the Hungarian Diel

are illegal.

The Comitat demands guarantees for the right
of the Diet to sanction or to reject taxes, and wishes
that the King (Emperor of Austria) should reside

407 ,
sc
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1,14) ',ROI C 6
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THE SUN.