, 1875-04-10

Lawson has yet made was delivered on Mon
day evening, in relation to the Army Estimates,
and in support of q motion that o reduction
in the land forces of the British Army was war.
ranted by the assurances Of friendship We re-
ceive from all sides. He began by apologising
for venturing in that House to talk politics.
But he must talk politics If he was to show
that England was not likely to be attacked.
If call nations we're friendly to us, of whom,
he asked, were we afraid What nation was
it that was not included in "all nations 2" Was
it France2 Why, France is so terribly tasked
by the effort to get herself organised at all.
that a rich Frenchman, instructing his valet,
specified it as one Of the chief Of that func.
%tionary's duties to tell him with his hot water
under what form Of government he was living.
Was it Prussia and Russia, with whom we had
Royal intermarris ges; or Spain, whose King
bad to be backed into a tunnel to avoid the
shots of his subjects No, there were only
two invading powers to be at all feared, the
Pope and the Colorado beetle. Now, the Pope
might safely be left to Mr.. Gladstone, and d
Conservative Government could surely be
trusted to secure us from the efforts of a
noxious Republican insect to Americanise our
institutions. Our Fleet was no more a phantom
than the right honorable gentleman the First
Lord of the Admiralty ,-himself a gentleman,
y II NuJS 10 q tO'ANASA"H OhSO NSH~
cribed him "of elephantine proportions and
elephantine sagacity the only authority
who had ever declared the British Fleet to be
d phantom. If we kept up our present army,
we should be obliged some day to use it, for
the same reason which induced the African
chief to declare war,-nameiy, that having got
a barrel Of gunpowder, 40 must go to war
before it began to spoil. Sir Wilfrid did not
say war was wrong, because, though that
opinion was held by the early Christians, he
knew he was not addressing early Christians,
but advanced Liberals. And 80 he went on,
rafting out all the delightful nonsense of his
jocund heart, which was so persuasive, by the
way, that he got 81 members to vote with him,
besides the other Teller.
Yesterday week, Mr.. O'Reilly made an ex-
c~eedihgly able speech in the House of Com
mous in drawing attention to the low condition
of primary education in Ireland. The number
of trained teachers in Ireland is not much more
than one-third of the whole number, and of Ro-
man Catholic teachers less than one-third have
been trained at all. OF course, as q natural
consequence, the teaching is bad and the edu-
Cational results Wretohed. Mr.. O'ReilIy ad-
vocated the plan suggested by Lord CARING
ford, of allowing denominations houses to be
affiliated to the non-sectarian training-schools
in Marlborough Street or elsewhere, and of pay
ing these training schools on the results,-ae e..
in proportion to the number of efficient secular
teachers whom they train. he wanted more
residences for teachers to be attached to the
primary schools, and thought ef10O would usu-
ally build such a residence; and the Irish Sc
cretary afterwards suggested that the money
for building teachers residences might be bor-
rowed under some modification of the Land
Improvement and Globes Loan Act, and the
capital, in part at least, repaid by grants from
the National Commissioners of Education, so
long as the residences were really used for
teachers houses. Mr.. O'Reilly also urged
grants of pensions on easy terms to teachers
who had themselves shown forethought enough
to buy deferred Government ~annuities for their
old age,-grants to be made, of course, only on
condition that they had been a certain time
in the service, a larger pension being allotted
to the man of longer service. But on the
whole, what Mr., O'Reilly chiefly relied on. for
the improvement of Irish education was State
payment by results estimated on secular
teaching and training. Sir Michael Hicks.
Beach, after deprecating wisely enough too
exclusive an application of the principle Of
payment by results to the case Of the Irish
teachers, showed real anxiety to get more
and better teachers. and bis promises, though
they were somewhat inadequate, were all in
the right direction. 1t is time something was
done, when we know, as DR.. Playfair tells us,
that in some Trish conntiaa nnf{ unohi rropa