, 1875-09-22

position OF those DOQleS, ana IN all but
seven departments the same presidents
were r~e-appointed. This is the more note
worthy, because these Councils-G General
will have to help the Communal represen-
tatlves to elect the senators. A majority
of the Councils are still more or less Con-
sentative, but it is noted that in several
departments the Conservatives Joined the
Republicans, rather than Bonapartists
should get in. The opening speeches
were of little Importance, the rule which
forbids the Councils to discuss politics be-
ing readily obeyed. In fact, there appears
to b. for the moment a decided decrease
of partisan heat throughout France, per-
haps owing to the natural heat, which, in
the South especially, has been terrible,
but has revived all the hopes Of the vine
growers. NJ. Gambetta is shortly to deliv-
er an important address, but it is postpon-
ed until he has decided whether it had
better be delivered in Paris Or the pro-
vinces.
Earl Russell has published a new pam
phlet on IN ,tional Education," which
cOntain> some curious "reminiscences. So
recently a. 1889, Lord Melbourn, doubted
the value Of ducati, ~ as a means of adj
Vancing men in the world, pointing to
many uneddcated men who had got on
the Bishop of Durham believed it would
make no way among the poor the Arch
bishop of Canterbury said that when he
was rector if he had proposed to educate
the poor the farmers would have laughed
at him /; and at Milton Abbott, in Devon
shire, when the Duke of Bedford proposed
to set up a school, a farmer asked It any
body supposed he was going to send his
son t. school TO please the Duke Of Bed
ford" Eve, the late Bishop of Exeter
thought instruction in geography should
be confined t. the geography of The Holy
Lauh, apparently under some impression,
widely shared by Sunday school teachers,
tina that was somehow a sacred" study.
The pamphlet is intended apparently to
advocate gratuitous instruction, to
be paid for out of a sixpenny income-tax,
ius cad of ont of rates, which fall on 90 poor
Widows" but its only value consists in
these stories, which show now the minds
OF men have changed III a single generation.
In 1889 it was almost impossible to obtain
100000 a year for national instruction.
The cooperative manufacturing compa-
MES of Lancashire are doing a very re-
markable sort of business. A large crop
of these enterprises, owned in 9IO or IS
shares, chiefly by the workmen to whom
they give employment, has sprung up all
through the central and eastern districts
of Lancashire. In Oldham alone there are
some eighty of such establishments, prin-
cipally engaged in the cotton manufacture.
Up to the present the profits appear to be
both large and secure, but whether these
concerns would weather the storm if
another period Of disaster were to open
for the trade has been questioned. These
enterprises, at any rate. have added enOr-
mOu>ly to the income as we'll as to the
independence of the working-man, and the
dividends are astonishingly 'arse. The
way in which these dividends are obtained
is simple. A number of wOrkmen take
$4,000 worth of shares and the remain
der OF the necessary capital, say 100000
is borrowed on loan at 5 per cant, other
cooperative societies being always ready
to- lend the money. IF Is per cent. profit
be made upon the whole capital and s per
cent. only paid on the loan, the sharehol.
ders can divide IS per cent. The risk
that darkens this agreeable prospect is that