The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-16 00:00:00

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

DB. COOKE, OF BELFAST.

The death of Dr. Cooke, a member of the Synod
of Ulster, removes from us a remarkable man. In
the Irish controversies of twenty or thirty years ago
his name was almost as familiar as that of O'Connell,
whom he steadfastly opposed. It was Dr. Cooke who
headed the orthodox party in the Presbyterian
Church in Ireland, and finally compelled the Arians
to form themselves into a separate body. Offshoots
from the dimenting Presbyterians of Scotland
joined the orthodox Presbyterians of Ireland, and
thus both the parties became entitled to the.
Regium Donum. Over this Church Dr. Cooke's
influence was immense. As an orator and a thinker
he was equally remarkable. It was through him that
the Presbyterians espoused the Conservative cause.
A celebrated trial, in which it was discovered that a
marriage by a Presbyterian minister was illegal,
nearly dissevered this connection,' but the law was
placed on a footing to assuage discontent. Both he
and O'Connell opposed the introduction of the Poor
Law into Ireland. It will be remembered that in his
extreme old age, and when he concluded that he was
on his death bed, he addressed a solemn letter to the
Protestants of Ulster, calling upon them to maintain
the principle of Church and State.

OUR CRIMINALS.

Mr. C. P. Measor, who writes to the Star, thinks,
with many another one, " that the time has arrived
fora great change in the treatment of the criminality
of the country." So he proposes for our edification
a system for suppressing crime at a small cost. He
seems to be much afraid of increasing the
powers of the police, preferring, it would seem,
to let the mice play than to give the cat power which
she might use against,the canary. He also fears that
by telling the police to mark out a criminal class,
few members of that class would be able to obtain an
honest livelihood. He would spew favour to the
wicked in the hope that they would learn
righteousness. He has, too, an unaccountable
faith in the reformatory power of our prisons
over the convicted. He cannot understand why some
plan is not adopted to lessen the cost of our prisons.
At Alnwick it costs £ll4 a year to take in and do
for a prisoner. Altogether it costs something like a
million and a quarter to keep our convicts. He pro-
poses, say, a dozen large establishments for those
who have previously served out two convictions. Here
he would utilise the prison labour, saving, as he
thinks, many thousands to the country.

EDITATION.
In a paper read by the Rev. Canon Norris to the
Social Science Association, on Monday, direct com-
pulsory education was declared to be out of the
question; and yet it was advisable that every child in
the country should be taught to read. The rev. canon
therefore advocated the extension of the system of
indirect compulsion—the plan adopted in the Facto-
ries Act. In this way the whole pale of our labour-
ing population might be brought under a system of
indirect compulsion, which has proved practicable,
does not alienate the parents, and leaves untouched
the constitution of the schools.
Rather a curious plan has been adopted in Phila-
delphia. The teachers and officers are very anxious
that the children shall become acquainted with
passing events. They have resolved to elimi-
nate all reading-books from the public schools,
and substitute daily newspapers for the use
of the schools. By this means, they say, the
rising generation will be made acquainted with
a congressional debates, State affairs, wars and their
causes, accidents, floods and fires, great public im-
provements, &c., subjects upon which the youthful
mind will feed much more profitably than upon
beautiful orations or pathetic fancy writing." Will
the leaders in the papers be read F If so, the parents
will want a political conscience clause.