The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-24 00:00:00

EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN.

A voluminous blue book, containing the annual report
of the Committee of Council on Education for the year
1867-8, was published on Thursday.
From this document it appears that during the year to
which the report refers there had been an increase on the
return of the year previously in the number of schools, or
.iepartments of schools, actually inspected, amounting to
1,00, and iu the number of children amounting to
103,496. There was also an increase of 742 certificated
teachers, 163 assistant teachers, and 564 pupil
teachers. A [r2at d:vergence is pointed out
between the provision made for normal training and the
employment of it, and this is said to be a question of the
utmost gravity. It does not arise from want of
funds, but from want of suitable candidates ; and
the commissioners do not seem to be inclined to relax the
stringent regulations which are felt to be neeessary. The
inspectors report almost uniformly ill of the scholars
visited for simple inspection. The average attendance of
lay scholars at schools in England and Wales actually
inspected and aided with grants for their maintenance
during the past year was 911,681, which is only 4.2 per
cent. of the population, roughly estimated; and it thus
appears that, of every eleven children of the labouring
classes at school, the average number of those attending
in the past year was about four. A further examination
chews that out of every 100 children present daily,
22.3 are disqualified, either by age or the number of
attendances, for individual examination ; that of the
remaining 771, the number actually presented for exami-
nation was 66'3, and of those who passed without failure
in any one of the subjects, 42.6. If, moreover, atten-
tion be confined to the scholars over ten years of age,
and therefore approaching the end of their school time, it
appears that out of every 100 of those scholars examined,
only 62.4 passed without failure, although 45 were examined
in the three 'paver standards, and those who passed without
failure in the three higher standards were only 31.3 out
of the 100. The commissioners remark that these
unsatisfactory results lie occasionally with the schools
themselves, especially in the suburbs and other quarters
of large towns where the poor are congregated under
a clergyman struggling single-handed ; in an over-
whelming greater proportion it lies in the irregu-
larity of attendance. The commissioners speak of
the unnecessary multiplication of schools in some districts.
When this is the case, the means of efficient education are
dissipated, and proper control of the scholars is sacrificed
in the competition for them.

THE ALLEGED CASES OF CHOLERA.—The re-
sult of our inquiries has induced us to doubt the authenti•
city of any of the " undoubted cases of Asiatic cholera " re.
ported this week in London. We have seen the case, with
the house-surgeon, reported from the Royal Free Hospital
on Thursday, as the" first decided case of Asiatic cholera,"
and may state that it never had any of the characteristic
symptoms of that disease. There is, of course, a good deal
of diarrhcea at all the hospitals ; but, considering the
extraordinary heat of the weather, it is by nq means of a
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HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, July 23.
The Queen, accompanied by the Duchess of
Coburg, drove out yesterday afternoon.
The Queen, accompanied by Prince and Princess
Louis of Hesse, Prince and Princess Christian, Prin-
cess Louise, Prince Leopold, and Princess Beatrice
walked in the grounds this morning.