The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVI4]'NING, JULY 28, 1868.

THE THREE-YEAR-OLD PARLIIifENA

The Daily News, in an article tinder this heailing, note 4
that the House of Peers has been deprived by death
fifty-eight of its members. Their names are :—The
of Northumberland ; Marquises—Camden, Exeter, Lk*
downo, Salisbury, and Waterford ; Earls Ban?
Bathurst, Beauchamp, Brownlow, Camperdovrn,
digan, Chesterfield, Craven, Donoughmore, Gainsbordial
Harrington, Kingston, Kinnoul, Lanesborough,
rick, Mayo, Moray, Pomfret, Rosebery, Bosse, Rosalyn,
and Shrewsbury ; Viscounts Clifden and Gort
the Bishops of Hereford, Lichfield, and Rochester;
Lords-
Aveland, Bayning, Brougham, Byron, Calthorpe,
Carington, Clinton, Colchester, Cranworth, Dunfermline,
Feversham, Fitzbardinge, Gray of Gray, Glenelg, Kings.
down, Llanover, Monteagle, Northbrook, Plunket, Pol-
warth, Ponsonby, Rivers, Vernon, Wensleydale, and
Wrottesley. In this long list the two oldest peers
were the Duke of Northumberland and Lord Brougham,
both of whom had completed their 89th year ; the
two youngest were the Earl Brownlotv, who died at
^4, and the Earl of Harrington, whose death was
announced at the early age of 21. These, however, were
exceptions to the long life which is usually enjoyed in the
peerage, for the average age of the 58 deceased lords is 67
years. The earldom of Cardigan has become merged
with the marquisate of Ailesbury, and the following nine
peerages are extinct :—The earldom of Pomfret, and
the baronies of Bayning, Cranworth, Dunfermline,
Glenelg, Kingsdown, Lla,nover, Ponsonby, and Wensley-
dale. These have been far more than counterbalanced
by the creations, which in so short a time have not
been equalled since the days of Earl Grey and
Lord Melbourne. Twenty-five new peerages have
been added to the list, an average of eight every year.
Ten were made by Earl Russell, viz. :—Earls Dartrey
and Kimberley, Viscount Halifax, Lords Barrogill, Cler-
mont, Kenry, Meredyth, Monck, Northbrook, and
Romilly. Twelve owed their elevations to Lord Derby:—
Lords Brancepeth, Cairns, Colonsay, Fitzwalter, Hare"-
' mere, Hylton, Kesteven, Lytton, O'Neill, Ormatbwaite,
Penrhyn, and Strathnairn. Three patents have beef
issued by Mr. Disraeli :—The earldom of Feversham, the
Viscountcy of Bridport, and the Barony of Napier.
The mortality in the House of Commons has been con.
siderably less than that in the Lords. Only 22 membeie
have died, viz. :—Mr. G. R. Barry, Mr. Crossland, Mr.
Dillon, Hon. J. C. Dundas, Lord Dunkellin, Sir M. Far-
quhar, Mr. Foot, Mr. F. D. Goldsmid, Sir B. Guinness,
Mr. Hanbury, Right Hon. H. Herbert, Mr. E. James,
Colonel Lowther, Mr. Mackie, Mr. C. W. Packe, Lord
Palmerston, Mr. Lort Phillips, Mr. Scholefield, Mr. Steel,
Mr. Treherne, Colonel Lloyd Watkins, and Mr. Wick-
ham. The oldest member was Mr. Steel, 82; the youngest
was Mr. Barry, 42. The average age of the deceased
M.P.'s is 58. Changes from a variety of other causes
have been very frequent. For instance, 23 mem-
bers have become peers, either by succession or by
creation, 19 have been unseated on petition, 12 have re-
signed their seats, and 12 have accepted jidgeships. Thus
88 new members have been returned, while 50 others have
been re-elected on their appointment to office. The
numerous contests have had very little effect upon the
balance of parties. The gains, however, have been on the
side of the Liberals, and victories have been won in many
constituencies of size and importance. The Conservative
gains, fewer in number and less significant, were almost
uniformly made in small boroughs.

POLICE 11VTELLIGENCE.-THIS DAY.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

DISTURBING HOSPITAL PATIENTS.—J. Flaherty,
an Irish labourer, was charged before Mr. Tyrwhitt
with being drunk and disorderly at the Middlesex
Hospital.

Mr. Henry Custard, superintendent and secre-
tary of the Middlesex Hospital, said that, hearing a
noise in the courtyard of the hospital, he went out
and found the prisoner, who was drunk, making a
great disturbance, much to the annoyance of the
patients, and threatening and trying to strike the
porter. The sister of the hall accident ward came
out and complained that the prisoner was disturb-
ing the patients, and as he refused to go away he
gave him in charge.
The prisoner said that Messrs. Holland and
Hannen, the contractors, had some work going on
at the hospital, and he went to s:;e Mr. 11.11, the
foreman.

Mr. Tyrwhitt told the prisoner that it was shown
that he was drunk.

The prisoner said he was not drunk.

Mr. Tyrwhitt said the prisoner had no right to
go to the hospital and make a disturbance and
annoy the poor people who required rest, and he
would have to pay a fine of 10s. or seven days.
STEALING PROVENDER.—CharIes Wedge, horse-
keeper in the employ of Messrs. Ledstone and
Scarlett, butchers in New Bond-street, and Fre-
derick Simpkins and Robert Brown, the former a
carman and the latter a labourer, were charged
before Mr. Tyrwhitt with stealing a quantity of
horse provender, the property of Messrs. Ledstone
and Scarlett.

It appeared from the evidence that Mr. Scarlett,
baying noticed the bad condition of one of his
horses for some time past, and suspecting all was
not right, communicated with the police, and Fleury
Dawson, an energetic officer of the C Division,
watched the prisoners; and succeeded in detecting
them in stealing provender from the prosecutors,
which ought to have been applied to their horses.
_ _ _

Mr. Sayer, from the office of Messrs. E. Lewis
and Co., Great Marlborough-street, who appeared
for-the prisoners,declined to address the magistrate
on the prisoners' behalf, and Mr. Tyrwhitt com-
mitted them for trial.

TILE RELIGIOUS EDUCA7IO.V OF THE

1)0 01?.

Alluding to the Count-out on Thursday night,

-
the Times says :
The Cattle Market Bill was not the only piece
of important business interfered with by the
Count-out of Thursday night. The consideration
of the Poor Relief Bill was to have been resumed
in Committee, and clauses of some importance
would have been discussed. On Monday night
the Committee entered on the clauses of the bill,
which are designed to secure greater religious
liberty to the inmates of workhouses, and, not-
withstanding a somewhat vehement opposition,
the principle of these closes was affirmed, and the
first three or four of them were passed. As far as
rela'es to adult inmates, the improvements pro-
posed bi the bi 1 are probably secured. A subse-
quent cLuse, however, is intended to protect the
religious rights of children, and will probably re-
quire some watehfu'ness on the part of the friends
of religious equality. A goo 1 deal of resistance
hay been offered to similar provisions on some
recent occasions, and it may be worth white to
give a brief account of the facts of the case.
It may be remembered that some time ago Arch-
b:shop Manning, in one of his ad Ire•S2S, drew a
pathetic picture of the number of Roman Catholic
children who were forced to abandon their parents'
faith and were educated as Protestants. We ac-
knowledged that such a complaint was just in
principle, but we expressed a certain scepticism as
to the facts alleged. We confess we could not
easily believe that any body of men would find it
worth their while to create such a grievance.
Guardians of the poor do strange things occasion-
ally, but that they should deliberately transform
little Papist paupers into Protestants was a charge
which seemed to require some confirmation. We
are bound to acknowledge that this confirmation
has been furnished, and that Dr. Manning has
distinctly made out his case. A Parliamentary
return obtained last year shows that within the
preVious seven years as many as 10,000 Roman
Catholic children have been received into the
Metropolitan workhouses. Of these about 8,000
have been discharged, but the remaining 2,000 I
to quote round numbers—had been transferred to
district schools. These children, although known
to be Roman Catholic, and so returned in answer
to Parliamentary inquiries, are systematically edu-
cated as Protestants. It is probable that about
1,000 of these children are in the district schools I
at a given moment, and the Guardians are, there-
fore, exercising the proselytizing powers of Poor-
Law administration upon a thousand children in
the metropolis alone, This is one of those facts
which cannot be evaded. In the debate on Mon-
day several gentlemen laboured to show that the

present law gave all the facilities necessary for

perfect religions freedom. It was no doubt de-
signed to do so ; but it may fail in practice, and
Mr. Villiers properly observed that " as a matter
of f Act" Roman Catholic children are educated
as Protestants. The returns we have quoted
show that the law does fail; and the Roman Ca-
tholics suffer unquestionably under a material
grievance.

The reason of this failure is readily explained.
The ixesent law on the subject involves two main
provisions. The first is that Boards of Guardians
are permitted to send children to certified schools
of their own religion ; the second is intended to
meet the case of unwillingness on the part of the
Guardians to exercise this power, and provides
that, upon a requisition by parents or kinsmen,
the Poor-Law Board may interfere to compel the
removal of children to such schools. The fact of
such a power of compulsion having been granted
at all proves that the Guardians cannot be left to
themselves in the matter. In fact, four years ago
application was made to twenty-seven Boards, re-
questing them to exercise their powers under the
permissive provision we have mentioned, and to
transfer the Roman Catholic children in their
charge to duly certified Roman Catholic schools.
Out of the twenty-seven Boards twenty three
absolutely refused, and four did not even answer
the application. After such an experiment there
can be no doubt of the temper in which the
Guardians deal with this question, to whatever
cause their perversity may be ascribed. To remedy
this defect, a Committee of the House of Com-
mons, in 1864, recommended that the Poo:-Law
Board should have power to reauire the guardians
to transEr children to schoo's of their own reli-
gion, " on application made and sufficient evid nee
afforded." When, however, an attempt was made
to embody this provision iu the 8.11 of 1866, an
amendment was successfully carried which pre-
eluded any one except parents or kinsmen from
making such an application to the Poor Law
Board. But 60 per cent. of the whole number of
children arc either orphans or deserted ; and under
the peculiar circumstances of the Irish population,
to whom they chiefly belong, they have generally
no kinsmen at hand to make applications for them.
Very possibly their parents are new-corners from
Ireland, and have no relations in this country, and
when they die, or emigrate, or simply run away,
there is no one to claim relationship with the
children. The law, consequently, still remains
inoperative with regard to more than half of the
Roman Catholic children. These are still depend-
ent on the religious liberality of the guardians,
and, under such circumstances, the statistics we
have quoted above are not surprising.
An amendment now stands for discussion in the
Poor Relief Bill designed to remedy this defect,
and to enable the law to effect its evident design.
It simply embodies the recommendation of the
Committee of 1864, and allows the Poor-Law
Board to interfere on behalf of a child on the pro-
duction of sufficient evidence, even without the
application of a kinsman. Combined with the
clauses passed on Monday, according to which a
" Creed Register " of the religion of every inmate
of a workhouse will be open to the inspection of
ministers of religion, this amendment would enable
the Roman Catholics to watch effectually over the
children of their own persuasion, and in all cases
to obtain charge of them: Mr. Newdegate makes
formidable demonstrations against these portions
of the bill, but we are at a loss to see what rea-
sonable objection can be raised to the amendment,
and we cannot doubt that it will be accepted by
the House. In the first place, as we have said, it
simply renders effectual the recommendation of a
committee and the design of the existing law.
There is no reason to fear the power being abused,
since the Poor-Law Board will, of course, require
sufficient evidence in each case of the religion of
the child's parents; and, this danger being
avoided, it is difficult to understand how any one
can wish to hinder these poor children from being '
brought up in their own faith. Both English law
and common justice require that the expressed or
presumed wishes of a parent should be supreme iu
the education of children. What in the world is
to be gained by manufacturing these little half-
starved proselytes we are at a loss to conceive.
But it is done, and that, too, in many cases with
numerous circumstances of petty tyranny. The
complaint having been substantiated, it is our
duty to interfere, and we may expect that now the
facts have been made known, a keen sense of in-
justice will be roused among the Roman Catholic
and Irish poor if we fail to protect them. We
hope, therefore, that the next time this bill comes
on the Amendments in question will be placed be-
yond the reach of danger. The result will simply
be—first, that all children known or proved to be
Protestants will be brought up as Protestants ;
secondly, that all children of whose religion no
proof can be had will be presumed to be Protest-
ants ; and, lastly, that all children who are known
or may be proved to be Roman Catholics, will be
brought up Roman Catholics. No arrangement
could be fairer; and we may add that the Roman
Catholics have established a right to have these
children intrusted to them by the anxiety they
have shown for their welfare.

DUNABURG AND WITEPSK RAILWAY.—The traffic
receipts on this company's lin3 for tho mouth of Juno
amounted to 103,368 roub:os, against 72,417 roubles. for
June, 18G7, showing an incroAse of 31,951 roubles, or
nearly 31;) per OM.