Punch (71.1876)

48 PUNCH, Oil THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [August 5, 1876.

Pell asks powers to dissolve School-Boards by local vote. The
Government has, ill-advisedly, accepted the clause, and avowed its
preference for Voluntary over Compulsory Educational Machinery,
for Schools over School-Boards, for the system as it'was before
1870 to the system 1870 established. Now, apart from the merits
of the matter in dispute, there is nothing England dislikes and
distrusts so much as harking back in legislation. " Liter a scripia
manet" and " Vestigia nulla retrorsum" are among her favourite
mottoes. Even when she doubts the wisdom of the step taken, she
feels there may be more mischief in retracing than in sticking to
it. Much more when she has no such doubt. 1870 settled too many
burning questions, to have their ashes now relighted by the Pellian
firebrand. Unluckily, Lord Sandon has thrust that incendiary
instrument into his Bill, and thereby wasted a week, set the Opposi-
tion in a blaze, and brought about two explosions of Me. Beight's
Nonconformist dynamite, which, dangerous at all times, seems
fraught with ten-fold power in the present state of the weather. As
if the House hadn't been hot enough for the last fortnight, without
these smouldering fires of Church and Dissent being blown up again !

Lord Sandon seems to have seen his error, and to have.done all
he could to allay the conflagration, by such wet blankets as Me.
Dodson's Amendment (that there should be no dissolution of a
School-Board without the sanction of the Education Department),
and so forth. But, the spark had been set to the dry wood. Bbight
blazed forth. A. Mills kindled his Church Beacon on the other side.
The Fiery Cross was sent round to summon the champions of the
Church. Sle John Jaennaway and Me. Stoeee struck into the melee
to the slogan of " Church-School and Catechism" ; while Lowe and
Playfair, Mundella and Dodson, Beistowe and James, Jacob
Bright and Whalley, charged to the cry of '' School-Board and no
Creeds."

" Aurora prcelium diremit."—The House rising at ten minutes to
three, after one of the hottest nights of the season in every sense.
" Que (liable allait-il faire dans cette Pell-ere ! "

Tuesday {Commons),—Morning Sitting. The fire kindled by the
pestilent Pell-Clause still raging.

Me. Forster moved to exempt from the operation of the clause
School-Boards compulsorily formed.

Hot passages of arms between Mr. Mundella and Lord Sandon,
and Lord Sandon and the veteran Roebuck.

Lord Sandon showed his readiness to take advantage of all the
buffers offered him, by accepting Me. Shaw Leeevee's Amendment
of Wednesday.

Then Mr. Bright made the most furious onslaught this Session has
seen on the Bill and the Church Party, reopening every old Non-
conformist raw, and pouring oil of vitriol on the stormy waters of
the Debate. He moved that whenever a School-Board was dissolved,
the local authority shall have aU its Powers under the Act of 1870.
Lord Sandon declined to introduce new elements of polemic strife
into Boards of Guardians and Town Councils, but showed good taste
in declining to take up any of the shower of gauntlets flung down
by Mr. Bright.

At last, after a hot fire pro and con., Mr. Bright's Amendment
was rejected by 120 to 63, and Mr. Pell's Amendment was voted
part of the Bill by 122 to 81. Lord Sandon's dwindling majorities
should teach him and his prompters what the more sensible section
of his supporters think of the policy of reopening closed strifes.

The same lesson was read to Me. Hall—who tried to enforce pro-
vision by School-Boards for the religious instruction of children
if their parents desire it, and as they desire it—by a Division of 190
to 96. But the House has not yet reached the end of the Bill; and
till it is got rid of, no other business can be done. And here we
are within a fortnight of the Parliamentary Last Day!

Friday {Cornmons).—Morning Sitting for Education fight. Great
cry, and little wool. The House agreed to sit on Saturday, to clear
the road for the Eastern Question on Monday.

Discussion of the riots in Barbadoes. Governor Henessey
acquitted of aught worse than indiscretion in promising too much
good from Confederation. On the whole, the Governor oom.es out
of the mess with less discredit than the planters.

THE WAR.

{From Our Special Correspondent. Belgrade, July 27.)

here has been a
great battle, but as
it is not yet known
when, between

Lord Sandon accepted an amendment requiring-a vote of three- g I^N \V\ / £ I ' ^4yME= wnoni> ar}~ .,^7

„-*v„ ___j* ° ' •., '!' f- ,1 • '>mA£s. ■v.KJflKEEE:: what result it has

fourths of the ratepayers for dissolution

Me. Shaw Lefevee moved to limit application for dissolution to
within three months of the expiry of School-Boards, that is, to once
in three years.

The Chairman left the Chair at seven. The super-heated House
had not cooled down for the transaction of business by nine, and
was Counted Out.

The waste of that night, too, may be scored to Pell.

Wednesday.—Two Bills for Second Reading. One a Burial Place
Bill of Me. Talbot's, which had, with singular infelicity, combined
in opposition the paladins of Church and Chapel, Beresford Hope
and Osborne Morgan, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and
Mr. Ramsay ; the other a bold Bill of Mr. E. Ashley's, for allowing
accused persons to give evidence in their own cases, which Mr. Rod-
well described as a return to the dark ages—but which seems to
Punch to tend in the direction of more, light rather than more
darkness.

Mr. Serjeant Simon, Sir T. Chambers, Me. Knatchbull Hu-
gessen, Sie E. Wilmot, and the Attoeney-Geneeal united in
opposing Mr. Ashley's innovation. Recorder Russell Gurney
was equally emphatic, and, as it seems to Punch, more reasonable,
in.recommending it. Lawyers differ as yet, The time may come
when the weight of even legal opinion shall be as decidedly on Mr.
Ashley's side as it now seems against him. And yet if there were
a " balance of opinion," as there is, nominally at least, a "balance
of power," query, which of "Wednesday's testimonies—that for
Mr. Ashley, or those against him—would kick the beam ?

Thursday {Lords).—The only thing that occurs to us, in the
present state of the weather, is that the "Nullum Tempus Bill "—
whatever that may be—went through Third.Pleading in no time.

{Commons.)—Sir H. Wolff asked the Prime Minister whether
he had reason to think the Servian plans had [iailed, and that the
time had come for' a Congress on the Eastern Question ?

Mr. Disraeli, not knowing what the Servian plans were, could
not say if they had failed. As for the rest of the question, the
Eastern Question was about to be discussed in, the House, and he
would prefer to keep his powder for that.

After a desultory talk about the business, the'Bills blocked, and
the questions hung up—Mr. Disraeli declaring he would and could
settle nothing till the Education Bill was got out of the way ; and
a laugh raised by a fervent wish of Mr. Ward Hunt's, in answer to
an interrogatory from Mr. Goschen, that he saw his way to the end
either of the Session or of the inquiry into the explosion aboard the
'Thunderer—the House went again into the Education row, pell-mell.

been fought, I de-
lay sending par-
ticulars.

{From Our Special
Correspondent.)

Constantinople,
July 25.
It is officially
announced that the
Turkish Army, un-
derB u nkum Pasha,
have achieved a
glorious victory
over the Servians
in the neighbour-
hood of Tchsntiza.
The Servians, who
were under the com-
mand of General
Yvwztks, num-
bered 40,000, and
had twenty cannon. After a long day's fight, in which the Turks
accomplished prodigies of valour, the Servians were compelled to
evacuate all their positions. They left 20,000 dead on the field,
15,000 of them, were taken prisoners, and the rest of the 40,000
are now in full flight. Bunkum Pasha took eighty cannon, and
is confident of capturing the remainder. The Turkish loss is but
slight; and it is generally considered that the war is virtually over.

{From Our Special Correspondent.)

Ragusa, July_ 28.
Colonel Xnitiskwi is marching on Scutsloklics. This is im-
portant, and may be decisive. The movement is creating much
excitement.

[ {From Our Special Correspondent.)

Belgrade, July 29.
I mentioned in my last telegram that a great battle had been
fought, and I am now in a position to give you all particulars. On
July 26th the Servians, 5000 strong, under General Vvwztks,
attacked the strong position which the Turks held at Tchsntiza.
After two days' incessant fighting, the fortunes of war inclined to
General Yvwztks, and the Turks were beaten along the whole line.
This virtually finishes the war.