The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-18 00:00:00

APRIL.

Grand National Hunt I Knighton
(Bedford) 2 Abergaveuny
Rey.Artillery(Woulwich) 3 I Hainbledun
Bromley
Aldershot
I
Hendon

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Before the two Houses adjourn for the Easter recess
the subject of national education will, the Times remarks,
have been fully brought before them. The Duke of Marl-
borough has given notice that on Monday next he will lay
the Government bill before the Lords, and we have little
doubt that he and his colleagues will have studied the
shortcomings and failures of their predecessors sufficiently
to prevent the introduction of any feeble and half-hearted
measure. In the meantime a scheme, competitive with,
though not hostile to, the forthcmiaing Government scheme
has been submitted to the House of Commons by Mr.
Bruce. By this bill it is proposed to enact that an order
for bringing the Act into force in any district may be
made by the Committee of Council. An application for
such an order may be made by not less than one-
tenth of the persons who are or would be electors
of the district, and then the Committee of Council,
"if they have reason to believe that, by reason of the
deficiency in any district or place of the means of obtain-
ing elementary education, such an order would be expe-
-lient, may appoint a commissioner in manner directed by
this Act with respect to applications for an order of the
vJommittee of Council." This commissioner shall examine
and make a report on the subject, and the report shall be
published. Should it prove that a school is really required,
then the district shall be allowed three months to adopt
the Act ; should the inhabitants not avail themselves of
this term of grace, it shall be lawful for the Committee of
Council to make an order that the Act shall be in force in
the district in question, and at the expiration of one
month from the date of such order, the Act shall
have the force of law in the district just as if it
had been voluntarily adopted. Such is the leading
principle of this measure, and it is, we think, one
which, though, perhaps, a necessary evil, the country must
at last make up its mind to adopt. It need not neces-
sarily involve any overthrow or supersession of the exist-
ing system, which would be nothing less than a national
misfortune. If worked prudently and moderately by the
Privy Council, it might be made effective in carrying the
benefits of education to the more neglected regions of the
country ; and to some such provision we must come at last,
*f ever there is to be a general system of public instruction
in England. We trust the forthcoming Government
bill will not fall short in this respect, for though we may
be unwilling to adopt compulsory education in the sense
.)f driving in the children to school from the highways
and hedges, yet we may fairly demand that the school
itself shall be provided, and, if necessary, by compulsion.
There is, of course, a conscience clause, to the effect that
no scholar shall be required when attending the school to
learn any catechism or religious formulary to which the
parent in writing objects, nor to be present at any lesson,
instruction, or observance to which such objection has been
made. This principle also the Times hopes to see main-
tained in the Government bill. With these two features
)f the measure its approbation must cease. The bill of
Mr. Bruce appears to us in other respects too elaborate,
too meddling, too despotic—in a word, too official. It
breathes the atmosphere of the Committee of Council, which
it would make supreme over all schools present and to
come. The object of legislation should be, while pro-
viding for the establishment of new schools to assist and
encourage those already existing, whatever their machinery.
But the conditions and regulations imposed by this
measure would, we think, tend to throw voluntary schools
more and more on the rates, and to bring them one by one
into strict dependence, first on the local school committees,
and then on the central board. Thus, though we fully
accept the main principle of Mr. Bruce's bill, we shall
hope to see in the Government measure a more simple
machinery which shall allow a more free and spontaneous
working.

The Daily News discusses Mr. John Abel Smith's bill
for preventing the sale of liquors on Sundays. The bill of
Mr. John Abel Smith does not appear to our contem-
porary well adapted to fulfil its end. It permits the sale
on the Sunday of liquors to be carried away by the pur-
chasers—which is precisely the kind of trade which might
have been forbidden with least inconvenience—and it alto-
-ether forbids the publican to supply the pedestrian with
a glass of ale during his evening walk, except in London,
and then only on condition that he takes a bond fide meal
with it. This is beginning at the wrong end. That which
the customer consumes at home on the Sunday he might
possibly buy on the Saturday ; but the refreshment he re-
quires as he goes on his way he can only get by drinking
it on the premises where it is for sale, and this it is pro-
posed to forbid. While pointing out this and other defects,
we hope that at least, on account of its objects, this bill
will. receive the earnest consideration of the House of
Commons, when it may not be difficult so to modify its
provisions as to make it a measure of public utilit'.

The Telegraph calls attention to the notice given by Mr
VT. E. Forster that on Friday he will call attention to the
-ffect of the law regulating the allegiance of the Queen's
'subjects who have emigrated to foreign countries, and
especially to the United States, and will ask Lord Stanley
whether the moment is not opportune for attempting to
arrive at a mutual understaniing between the Cabinets
of St. James's and Washington respecting the right of
expatriation. The question is one of considerable interest.
'Prussia has already agreed to allow a summary process
of denaiionalisation, by which German, subjects
shall promptly become American citizens, w
allegiance transferred to the Republic ;
cousins would have England follow the e:cample
set at Berlin. Negotiations, we believe, are actually in
progress, and it is understood that no political difficulties
of any kind stand in the way of a broad and equitable
settlement, the difficulties being all of a purely legal and
technical kind. And it is obvious that the questions which
have to be considered do not bear solely upon the two
countries specially contracting,
.but they have a bearing
also on the relations of the empire with all foreign nations.
Hence the subject is one that peculiarly demands an
ample allowance of time for its effective treatment. But
Mr. Forster is rendering valuable service in securing for it
a full share of that public attention which is the best
guarantee for administrative efficiency.

and our

Should the telegraphic system of the kingdom pass into
the hands of the Government, the Standard points out
that the consequent unity of management would effect an
enormous saving as compared with the present disjointed.
duplicate, and half-employed agencies. There is also the
important fact that the State possesses a machinery which
may readily be adapted to the purposes of the new under-
taking. In all respects there would be an economy of
resources. Telegraphy would be much cheaper and more
general ; it would be ready when wanted, and where it
was wanted. The habit of using it and relying upon it
would be developed, and its revenue would be enhanced
accordingly.

It is already pretty evident to the Herald that the pro-
posed law on the right of publlc meeting, the discussion of
which has just been commenced by the French Legis-
lature, will have much the same history and fate as its
immediate predecessor, the new Press Bill, now finally
voted, after all but endless debates, by the Corps L6gis-
latif. It is but natural that such should be its destiny.
Like the Press Bill, it, too, had. its origin in the famous
letter of the 10th January of last year; and, like it again,
it is designed by the Emperor to extend those political
liberties of which, according to the general view of the
matter, he has for so many years been obliged, as a dis-
creet ruler, to be somewhat chary. There is, therefore,
nothing wonderful in its meeting with a like mixed recep-
tion from those for avhose benefit it is intended. One
party exclaims that it is far too liberal ; another party
avers that it is dangerous because it is not liberal at all :
whilst a third contends that, though it is a moderate, it is
an amply sufficient concession to the exigencies and capa-
cities of the nation for whose use it is designed ; that if it,

be in some respects a, slightly perilous measure, the fault
lies in the sanguine generosity of the brain that conceive(
it ; and if in others it be a slightly cautious and restricts(
one, to the invincible prudence of the same patient min(
must the defect, if defect it be, be equally assigned. I
our contemporary is compelled to choose among then(
three contending opinions, it will have no difficulty is
declaring for the third.

The present famine in Russia, the Post declares to be
the immediate consequence of the emancipation of the.
serfs. This is rather an awkward admission, but it is
nevertheless strictly and literally true. About twenty
millions of agricultural labourers have been suddenly freed
from compulsory toil, and by far the greater majority
have refused to work at all. Many have emigrated from.
the rural districts to cities where wages are high and tin-
ployments easy and numerous. 'They have become porters,
night watchmen, droshky drivers, and eagerly embraced
any occupation which freed them from their old hard work
behind the plough. Some, a very few, have remained in
the rural districts, and vegetated on their. acquired lands.
The first necessaries of life have been always plentiful
hitherto in Russia. The wants of the peasantry ar„
indeed very few and cheaply satisfied. They fast about a
third of the year, and many of them never taste meat from
the cradle to the grave. A little mushroom and cabbage
broth,

, a little maize porridge, forms their ordinary noni
went. Thus, no sooner did the law permit them to
idle than no inducement could tempt them into nctivit3

A conference is to be held on the subject of the
improvement of the condition of the agricultural labourer,
at Willis's Rooms, on Saturday, the 2Sth inst., at which
the questions for consideration will be : 1. What are the
causes of the unsatisfactory condition of the agricultural
labourer? 2. What are the means best calculated to im-
prove that condition? 3. If by the formation of a society,
then, upon what plan should such society be constituted,
and what steps taken to form it? Among along list of noble.
men and members Of ParliaMent who are to speak we find
2the name of ",.George Potter, Esq."