The Northern Guardian. — 1895-04-02 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

GENERAL SERVANT. fond of children.—Apply, Mr t ISiwn, 10, Rium Terrace.  TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 1895,  on the spot. To find a scapegoat in a fanatical pasha for misdeeds for which the , whole Ottoman system is responsible, and to I minimise to the smallest possible compass the lust and carnage that it permitted to ' find a vent, has been the time-honoured custom of the Sultan and his advisers always. The pledges offered in treaty I after treaty by the Turkish Government, the promises to deal justly and I mercifully with the Christian populations I living under Ottoman rule, have been broken every time a difficulty or a revolt has arisen. The authorities seem to have discovered a simple method for the extermination of the Christian subjects of the Sultan. In Armenia they incite the Kurds to murder and rob the Armenians. From a distance the confusion and riotings assume the aspect of a fanatical fight between opposed religionists. In the disturbances leading -up to the recent massacres at Sassoon the Kurds, even when armed by the Moslem authorities, were unable to " wipe out" the offending villages. On several occasions they were defeated with loss and driven off the field. It now actually appears that the Armenians were massacred by the regular troops because they refused to submit to being slaughtered by their hereditary Mohammedan foes. After the indictment of Turkish misrule, brought by the three leading London papers (one of which was anxious to pooh-pooh the atrocities, had it been possible), the Porte will hardly succeed in concealing all the truth from the Commission it was compelled to appoint. Something more than the joint representations of England, France, and Russia is needed to protect Christianity in Turkey. Surely, after the report is issued, some better plan than the exaction of promises will be adopted by the Powers.  It is scarcely streprising Education. that the extent of the demand which the West Hartlepool School Board makes upon the local rates this year should have called forth somewhat indignant protests from discontented , and already overburdened ratepayers. How far the Board itself may be to blame is another matter, for School Boards really have but little power of their own. They are controlled by the Education Department just as strictly as Boards of Guardians are by the omnipotent Local Government Board. And the policy of the Education Department seems to be dictated by faddists, who are entirely free from scruples about the cost of putting their peculiar educational theories ' into operation. School Boards throughout the country take their cue from this central authority, and the Voluntary schools are regarded rather in the light of rivals and competitor* than as partners in the great work of education.  Although pheasants are A Stray Pheasant. comparatively tame birds, especially when they are reared as so many of them are practically under the same conditions as chickens, it is not often that they venture so near the haunts of man as to be found in the midst of a busy town. Yet a correspondent writes that a hen pheasant was sees the other day on a housetop near the Lynnfield Schools, where it remained for fi7e niinutee, despite the fact that a number of persons tried to dislodge it with stones. The probability is that the strange visitor was simply a stray bird from Wynyard Park.  The revenue returns show Hall-a-Million. that the Chancellor of the  Exchequer in framing his Budget will have at disposal a surplus of about -1,500,000 instead of the 000,000 he calculated upon. Hilf-a-million is a good deal of money, but it is a long way short of the amount necessary to enable a Chancellor to gain favour by remitting taxation upon any considerable scale. With so small a margin to play upon the task :of Sir William Harcourt in endeavouring to 'profaitiate the many claimants seeking a share ;of the money is not one to be envied.. The era duty on beer and spirits was originally -imposed for one year only, but it is scarcely 'likely to be taken off again in this, year's 'Budget ; nor does there seem much prospect that the extra penny on the income-tax will be -removed.