The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 19, 1868.

arrived at last night. What with the anxiety of
some of the Opposition to defeat the Government
at any cost, and the impatience of others who would
neither take the trouble to understand the particu-
lars of the case themselves nor let others do so either,
there seemed no choice given to the committee but
to rush to a division.

All this having been duly considered, it follows
that the position of the Government is not so mate-
rially affected as some would have made out that it
was. No doubt animated by the best motives, but
following the example of the committee, by being in
too much of a hurry, several members rose and urged
upon the Prime Minister the necessity of immediate
action, resignation or dissolution. Had they fol-
lowed their own inclinations in all probability the
Ministers would have dissolved before this time,
but it must be remembered that a great
responsibility rests upon them, and that
they cannot neglect the business of the house
or sacrifice the interests of the country to suit their
own convenience or satisfy the morbid notions of
candid friends and considerate foes respecting their
honour. We should imagine that those statesmen
are the most deserving of respect who are not
always thinking of themselves, but rest their claims
to renown upon the skilful performance of their
work and the honest intentions with which they
carry out their purpose. In the present case the
committee may agree to reconsider the hasty deci-
sion arrived at yesterday, and until they have re-
fused to do so, or to allow some alteration to be
made in the extreme view taken by them, it
cannot fairly be said that the Government need
adopt one of the two extreme proposals offered to
them. If another division be taken with the same
result the Government will then be compelled to
resort to extremities, and an immediate dissolution
would most probably take place. This would be a
circumstance to be regretted on many accounts ;
first, because of the impossibility of the new Par-
liament being then called together; and next on ac-
count of the inconvenience thereby created. We
hope for the general interest that this will be
avoided, but if not the Opposition will have to
take the responsibility, and onus of an unsatis-
factory and vexatious issue A more factious
course than that now being pursued has sel-
dom if ever been seen, and the public will have
a quick eye to see where the blame rests. As for
those who so kindly declare that the Government
cannot remain in their places any longer, they seem
to forget that a dissolution has been commented upon,
and that only those factious delays and unnecessary
obstacles that aro here made prevent the speedy
settlement of affairs with a view to that end in a
collective form. Sir C. RUSSELL said very truly
that the country thoroughly understood ehat the
question now in dispute was not the Irish Church,
but merely a struggle for power, and this
is a very good definition of the matter. We believe
that the general feeling this day experienced will
be that of disappointment at another of these com-
plications having arisen, but the Government must
not be disheartened, but fight on with a good
grace, for there is no occasion whatever why they
should give in to a system of persecution like that
which the eager aspirants for place are carrying on,
and which neither deserves success nor is likely to
get it, except at the expense of Parliamentary in-
dependence and public opinion.

Among the many delays and inconveniences now
thwarting the course of public business, for which
we have to thank the restless impatience of the
Opposition to return to their old seats, we must
now include the postponement of the Education
Bill. It could not, of course, be expected that
either House could, in the present unsettled condi-
tion of affairs, give due attention to so weighty and
momentous a subject. The education of the people
is a matter of the utmost importance. Looked at
in the abstract, it is of more consequence than
even Parliamentary Reform itself. A Reformed
Parliament may indeed be necessary to secure
the liberties of the people, but an uneducated
people would not know how to use its privileges.
The subject is indeed less within the pale of legis-
lation than popular representation. An act of
Parliament may define the number of members, the
conditions of the suffrage, the manner of voting,
the duration of Parliaments, and from these land-
marks the results may be pretty accurately guessed.
But no enlightened statesmanship, no ingenious
wording of the statute, can insure that the educa-
tion of the people will be carried on according to
rule and measure. There must always be countless
variations, numberless exceptions in a free country,
even under a system which is nominally com-
pulsory. We see this in America, where
the compulsory system is nominally adopted : the
attendance is, according to the official reports,
nearly as irregular as in England. Still, however
limited may be the direct influence of legislation
upon public instruction, it is acknowledged by com-
mon consent that our existing system is very de-
fective. An improved system of national educa-
tion has long been talked of, and it was part of the
programme which the present Government laid be-
fore the country on assuming office. Before such a
measure could pass into law, however, its clauses
would have to be carefully considered, and some of
them might doubtless provoke a good deal of
discussion. An education bill is not a
thing to be hurried over in a night
or two, nor does it belong to the category of neces-
sary financial measures which must be passed
before the session is over, and which, therefore, all
parties agree in allowing to proceed. Under these
circumstances, the Government had Lo choice but
to withdraw their measure, and accordingly last
evening the Duke of MARLBOROUGH announced to
the Upper House that they had determined upon
this course. The bill stood for committee on the
22d instant, and notice had been given of several
amendments, which, if adopted, would consider-
ably alter its character. The President of the Council
himself expressed his belief that the bill after some
modifications would have beenaccepted by the IL-use
and favourably received by the people, since it had
in its earlier stages been generally approved as an
honest endeavour to deal with a difficult question.
He should have been glad if, in this session, they
could have made some advance on a subject of
such great national importance as education, but
when he considered the state of business in the
other House, " it was impossible for the Govern-
ment to retain the slightest hope that a measure in-
volving discussions of a very intricate character had
the slightest chance of passing into law this
year." The Government, however, had aban-
doned their measure with the more regret,
because in the Commons a bill on the same subject
had been introduced, which contained some provi-
sions of usefulness. However there was no choice
left in the matter, and the noble lord accordingly
moved that the order be discharged. Lord G RAN-
VI L LE, who spoke at somo length, was very anxious
to induce the Lord President to lay• before Parlia-
ment a minute embodying the amendment which
the new bill proposed respecting the adoption of
the Conscience Clause. Lord GRANVILLE is a
strong supporter of the principle embodied in this
clause, and one of the features iu the Government
measure which he unconditionally approved of
was the amendment above referred to. Lord

GRANVILLE wss evidently desirous of securing
the ground alreadygained by embodying the amend-
ment in a minute, but he said he would not have
suggested such a course bad the amendment been
of a novel character. " There was, however, no-
thing original about it. It only made building and
annual grants conditional, on the managers making
rules for or adopting in practice the obligations of
the claims of the Endowed Schools Act." How-
ever, the Duke of MARLBOROUGH, perhaps, wisely
declined to make any alteration in the existing sys-
tem ad interim, and informed the noble earl that
until the sanction of Parliament had been ob-
tained the educational department intended
to adhere to the " principles by which
they had hitherto acted. The Government did not
feel that they had either the opportunity or the
power of legislating during the present session on
the subject of education, ar4l thus another session
must be added to the long list of those which are
frittered away in political disputes and party
jealousies, while matters of real national importance
on which the attention of the Legislature is impera-
tively demanded or thrust aside or receive but su-
perficial notice.

Some years ago our present Premier, in one of
his sparkling political novels, commented upon the
melancholy and monotonous condition of English
architecture in general, and suggested that our
authorities should pay au architect, pour encourager
les autres, after the fashion of our predecessors who
hung an admiral from the same motive. Mr. Dis-
t:AEU has now the opportunity of putting his re-
commendations in practice, and the pretext is
readily afforded him by the difficulty about the new
Law Courts. Year after year goes on while the
long-talked-of undertaking remains a theory and
not a fact. We may not, indeed, feel called upon
to waste much pity upon lawyers for some tedious
delays and disappointments. Possibly some persons
may be malicious enough to hint that it is well the
legal profession should experience, in propria per-
SO7IM, some of those pleasures which they are so
fond of treating others to, but the interests of their
clients, the witnesses in cases, the householders in
the neighbourhood of the selected site, and others
are involved in this perpetual postponement. The
work is not begun, for a very good reason—the de-
sign is not yet determined upon, and last night the
vexed question of the choice of a site was re-opened,
some members suggesting its removal to the Thames
Embankment. We are glad to find that the Go-
vernment has no idea of making such an alteration,
and Carey-street site was generally approved of, as
in every way the most convenient and suitable, and
acceptable to the profession generally. It seems
that the present deadlock is due in a great measure
to the architects, who are terribly afraid of not
being sufficiently considered. None of the designs
submitted to the commission came up to their re-
quirements, but they advised the combination of
two designs, one for the exterior and one for the in-
terior. The two architects
agreed to work to-
gether, but the other nine competitors object on
the ground that they were only called upon to com-
pete against solitary designs, not against combined
merits, and it seems there is a legal difficulty about
their rights in the matter. The common-sense
view of the case appears to be that the eleven com-
petitors sent designs for a specified thing; none of the
designs were accepted, and the competition was
consequently at an end. The designs after this
must remain the property of the individual archi-
tects, and if any of these like to use part of their
projects they have surely a right to do so, and the
Government, whose judges have not been satisfied,
may consult the public interests rather than the
professional jealousies of individuals. We agree
with Mr. GLADSTONE that it is desirable no further
time should be lost, and if there is really a serious
obstacle to the combination of the schemes already
under consideration the list of competitors must
be enlarged, and we must try if it is, indeed, iru-
possible for English architecture to furnish a
design which shall fulfil all the requirements of a
national undertaking.

LATEST INTELL IGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

ACCOUCHEMENT OF THE CROWN
PRINCESS OF RUSSIA.

ST. PETERSBURG, May 18.

Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Marie
Feodorowna (nee Princess Dagmar) gave birth to a
Prince to-day. The name of the young Prince is
to be Nicholas.

1011RESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, MONDAY, May 18.

There have been some very long and animated discussions
in the Council of State during the last few days respect:.
ing the Budget. The Commission of the Budget persist
in urging that reductions should be made in all the depart-
ments of State, and though the Council resisted for a long
time, it is now, I learn, decided that such reductions shall
►take place in all departments save that of Foreign Affairs,
ind that the War Budget shall be spread over two or more
rears. This is very important, and is one of the most
peaceful symptoms we have beell favoured with for a long
time past.

There have been fresh rumours of Ministerial changes,
this time affecting Marshal Niel, who is, so the report
;oes, to be sent to Algeria as governor in the place of
6larsha.l M`Mahon, and who would he succeeded at the
War Office by
,General Lebrun, one of the officers in whom
the Emperor places most confidence. I do not attach
much importance to this rumour. Marshal Niel has
rcpressed himself so decidedly against the Archbishop
A Algiers in the quarrel, between him and the
Kovernor, that harmony certainly would not be restored
by sending the one marshal in place of the other. The
quarrel is just now being discussed by the Cabinet Council,
which finds it a very delicate matter, since it involves a
lecision on conflicting elaims on behalf of the civil and
religious power. The archbishop is supported by the
clergy almost to a man, and about a dos", bishops have
written to him congratulating him on the stand he has
made in insisting upon the right to bring up Arab children
in the Christian faith against the consent of their friends.

The election of a deputy to the Corps Legislatif, which
has just taken place' in the first district of Ariege, has
resulted in the rettin of the Government candidate by an
immense majority. He polled nearly 17,000 votes, 'while
his three opponents together polled only about 10,000.
This is the fourth Government candidate who
has been returned within the last few weeks,
and the Etendard enlarges upon the fact to
provo the successful administration of M. Pinard,
Minister of the Interior. The Etendard forgets that in
svery case, I believe, the number polled by the Government
candidate was smaller, and that pulled by the Opposition
candidate larger, than at the general election of 1863.
However, the result is so far encouraging that I am
assured to-day the general election will take place at the
close of the present summer, instead of waiting until ..,rf
May, when it is due by the effluxion of time.
It is reported that the Minister of the Interior will
shortly address a circular to the prefects of departments,
written in a far more liberal spirit than has generally been
the case with such documents. There is much need of this.
To-day the papers are commenting with much vehemence
upon the fact that, in defiance of the new Press Law,
General Deligny, commandant of the Algerian pro-
vince of Oran, has issued a first warning to the Avenir
Atgbien, and that an Algerine prefect has warned the pro-
prietor of another paper to abstain altogether from poli-
tics. Thosircular is the more needed because new journals,
chiefly of democratic politics, are starting in every direc-
tion. There is likely to be at least one new journal for
every department.
The Emperor is expected at Rouen on the 30th or 31st
inst., and he will then go on to Havre and open the Inter-
national Maritime Exhibition in that town.

The affairs of the Compagnie ImmobiliZze have been
submitted to a council of reference, composed of the lead-
ing jurists of France ; and it is asserted by the Journal
Financier that perfect agreement exists between the old
and the new board of directors.

The Society of Authors (Socitit4. des Gens de Lettres)
held a general meeting yesterday, at which M. Jules
Simon was elected president by a large majority. One of
the votes was given for a lady member, of whom the
society now numbers eleven.
Contrary to general expectation, M. Itouher did not
speak to-night on the great Protection v. Free Trade
debate. He merely said that the Government was prepared
to defend its statistics, but that in order not to appear
to monopolise the discussion at the present stage, he
would reserve his remarks until a later stage. Baron
Lesp6rut gave a most glowing account of the iron trade
in Lorraine and Burgundy. He did not attribute the de-
pression to the Commercial Treaty alone. The octrois, the
slowness of internal improvements, and the traffic in permits
of re-exportation free of duty, which give rise to much specu-
lation, but ruin the small manufacturers—all came in for a
share of blame. M. Pagtszy told quite a different story.
He declared that this was a time of prosperity, and that
though certain peculiar interests might suffer from special
causes, the country could not be sacrificed to those in-
terests. Ile mentioned that the wine-growers re-
ceived forty million francs a year (21,600,000) more
than they did before the Liberal policy was
adopted. lle contrasted the working of the two
systems as exhibited in England and the United States,
and said that in the latter country, where Protection pre-
vailed, working men, though they earned 16f. a clay, de-
clared that they could not subsist, so high was the price of
necessaries. The shipping trade of the United States had
been almost swept from the seas, for while it cost only
$4O a ton to build a vessel in England it cast $1.09 in the
States.

Under the new Telegraph Bill the whole of the empire
is to be divided into seventeen districts, the central sta-
tio's of which are to be, respectively, Paris, Lyons, Mar-
seille;, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Havre, Nantes, Rennes,
Caen, Lille, Tours, Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Dijon, Cler-
mont, Ferrand, Limoges, and Montpellier. Thanks to
recent scientific discoveries and a general improvement in
the apparatus, &c., there will be no necessity for
employing underground lines, except in passing through
large cities and in some particular localities where the
wire is specially exposed to atmospheric influence. The
expense incurred by the proposed extension of telegraphic
facilities is estimated at four millions of francs, instead of
twelve, which a complete system of underground lines
would have cost. After the Ist of November, 1869, a
despatch between the two extremes of the empire—as
from Calais to Marseilles, or from Strasbourg to Bayonne
—will cost one franc, whereas sixteen years ago it would
have cost from 17 to 18 francs.

We have received important information from Berlin to
the effect that the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha has offered
to abdicate in favour of the King of Prussia, andthat nego-
tiations to this effect have progressed so far that they need for
their completion only the assent of Queen Victoria. Her
Majesty-, of course, acts as guardian and representative of
the interests of her son, the Duke of Edinburgh, who is
the heir to his uncle's dukedom. The reigning sovereign,
Duke Ernest 11., is 50 years old next month, and he has
no children. The area of his duchy is 816 English square
miles, and the number of his subjects 159,431, of whom
all but a very small number are Protestants.
The Berlin correspondent of the Times gives some
interesting particulars of the attempt which is now being
made in the German Customs Parliament to find resources
for meeting the heavy increase of military expenditure.
This during the last ten years has been 100 per cent., and
there is a threatened deficit of 5,000,000 thalers (about
V 50,000) Bismarck is very anxious to levy a duty on
tobacco. The German, who loves his pipe, not wisely, but
too well, does not at all like this proposal, even though
tobacco is far less lightly taxed than sugar and tea. How-
ever, the Parliament, though it has rejected the tax, will
probably not resist the proposal altogether, but adopt it
in a modified and less irksome form.

The friendly reception given to the Prince of Prussia
in Italy has caused a very unfavourable impression at
Vienna. It is considered that the Italian .Government
purposely availed itself of the recent opportunity for pro-
claiming the Prusso-Italian

All the world knows that England possesses by treaty
with the various States of Europe the right of searching
vessels bearing the flags of the respective Powers, in order
to see if those ships are carrying slaves. Lord Stanley
has recently communicated w:th Count Bismarck, and
asked if there would be any objection to the right being
conferred in connection with the new German Federal
flag, and the Prussian Minister has given a favourable
answer. A new treaty will therefore be arranged forth-
with.

The King of Greece, or, as he is called, "of the
Hellenes," has just opened his Parliament in person. He
referred to the Cretan insurrection, for which he is in no
small degree responsible, as follows : " Several causes—
amongst others the assistance afforded to an un-
fortunate sister race for whom the sympathies of
the nation are inexhaustible—have affected in an
extraordinary degree our financial situation, and have
disturbed the balance of the revenue and expenses
of the State. We must exercise foresight, and lam per-
suaded that you will co-operate with my Government, in
order that, on the one hand, by wise economies, and on
the other by the consolidation of the public credit, we
can attain a new financial situation in the State before the
public ; and, giving life to our productive power, we may
combine, by developing them, to further the means of our
future development."
An influential meeting of the Liberals of East Cornwall
has been held at Liskeard, to select a candidate in succes-
sion to Mr. Agar Robartes, who retires from the repre-
sentation after a service of 21 years. The choice fell
upon Sir John Trelawny, who sat for Tavistock from
1843 to 1852, and again from 1857 to 1865. Confidence
was expressed in the strength of the party to carry two
Liberals, and Mr. Robartes, jun., son of the sitting
member, was named as the second candidate. Mr. Kendall
would, however, prove a formidable antagonist, although
the position which be has lately taken on the question of
county expenditure has ost him some of lomfl
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