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The old Diocesan School at Bristol has been converted into a "Trade School." The course of education will include, besides the ordinary sub- jects of study, the teaching of the principles of science with special reference to trades and manufactures ; and the scientific lessons will be illustrated by demonstrations and experiments. The teaching will not be wholly secular; but the religious instruction afforded will not be oonipulsory on those children whose parents raise any objection. The Bristol School was opened yesterday week. Earl Granville had consented to be present ; and a deputation met him at the railway station and escorted him to the Council-house, where a breakfast began the pro- ceedings of the day. After breakfast, the whole party inspected the building; and then attended a public meeting held in the hall of the
Merchant Venturers,—Earl Granville in the chair. Certain formal resolutions, such as the adoption of the report, gave an opportunity for speeches by Sir Arthur Elton, Mr. Commissioner Hill, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Mr. Gore Langton M.P. and others ; Earl Granville delivering the speech expected from him in reply to a vote of thanks. His discourse was somewhat discursive ; comprising the relative merits of trade and classical education, and the due proportion in which each should be carried out—" it is a question of degree " ; the difficulties in the way of education; the stimulus which could be imparted to education by the Government, who might give public places to educated men, and by the great employers of labour, who could refuse to employ persons ignorant of reading, writing, and arithmetic ; the great merits of the Reverend Canon Moseley; and the practical object before the meeting—the' Trade School.
He hoped that in this school special care would be taken to teach the English language—a subject which is too much neglected in every school of every class in this country.. There is no advantage which can be given to a man greater than to learn to speak and write his own language gram- matically. It might be trivial to mention the circumstances, but he knew a lady who was proposed to and married by a very able man, not so much because he had fallen in love with her personal charms as because he was so delighted with the letters which she wrote to a third person. .(Laughter and applause.) Lord Granville received a letter a short time since from a Person applying for a Government appointment : he did not know the writer, and had no place to give, but he was so struck with the letter that he could not resist showing it to the present Governor-General of India : Lord Canning—one of the most judicious administrators of patronage he ever knew—was so struck with the letter that he took it away, intending to make an investigation as to the person who had written it, and see if he were a fit person for a clerkship in the Post-office. In mentioning these two circumstances, Lord Granville wished to guard himself from giving the slightest hope that the future students of the Trade Schools were likely to get beautiful and accomplished wives by the excellence of their epistolary correspondence ; still less did he wish to suggest to them that they would be anything but samificing their prospects in life if they were to neglect their own business in trying to soften the obdurate heart of a Minister by grandiloquent epistles seeking for appointments. (Laughter.) As an in- stance of the value of scientific knowledge, he would mention, that his col- league the Duke of Argyll had, from his peculiar education, mastered in a great degree all the physical sciences ; and, being a Scotchman, he possessed tinge characteristics described by Mr. Commissioner Hill, and was not likely to let his habits of practical observation be entirely thrown away. Some time since, his noble friend was looking at a quantity of refuse thrown away in the working of some metals, and was struck with its appearance; he sent it to a provincial metallurgist, and was told that there was nothing re- markable in it ; not satisfied with that, the Duke of Argyll sent it to the Museum of Practical Geology in London ; when it was found that there was 11 per cent of nickel, a valuable metal, and that every ton of this refuse was worth from 501. to 60/.
The members and friends of the Polytechnic Institution, Southamp- ton, held a soirée on Monday ; when Dr. Booth, Sir Alexander Cock- biun, and the Reverend Sidney Godolphin Osborne, made speeches on the advantages of mechanics institutions as agents in the promotion of education.
A very large meeting was held in the Town-hall of St. Albans on Thursday,—the Earl of Verulam, Lord-Lieutenant of the county, in the chair,—for the purpose of considering the best means of restoring and Upholding the ancient Abbey Church of St. Albans, with a view to its being constituted the seat of a new bishopric, embracing the whole of Hertfordshire. Among those who attended the meeting were the Mar- quis of Salisbury, Lord Robert Grosvenor, Sir Edward Lytton, Lord Robert Cecil, Archdeacon Grant, and Mr. Abel Smith M.P. It was unanimously resolved that the Abbey Church is worthy of preservation ; that a subscription should be raised for its restoration and adaptation to the purposes of a cathedral ; and that the spiritual interests of the county would be benefited if St. Albans were made a Bishop's see. The sum of pool. was subscribed in the room.
The news of peace set almost all the bells in the country ringing either on Sunday night or Monday morning. In the great towns the bell- ringing was accompanied by a display of the flags of the Allied Powers. But the remark common to the reports that tell of what took place is that the exhibitions of satisfaction were "tame."
• A meeting was held on Monday in the Shire Hall of Gloucester,—the Mayor in the chair,—to consider the question of Income-tax reform. The chief speakers were Mr. Price M.P., Mr. Attwood and Mr. Par- tridge as a deputation from the Birmingham Income-tax Reform Asso- ciation, Mr. S. Bowly, and Mr. T. M. Sturgc. Mr. Attwood said, while the war lasted there was some reason for not perilling the position of the Government by moving in the matter ; but that now the war is over he would upset any Ministry to come at a proper adjustment of the tax. The meeting resolved, that "the present Income-tax is oppressive and unjust because unequal, and, from the nature of the assessments, inqui- sitorial ; and that an equitable adjustment or total abolition of the tax is necessary." A petition to Parliament and a memorial to the Chancellor of the Exchequer were agreed upon.
Mr. Spoke, one of the secretaries of the Suffolk Shrievalty Associa- tion, writes to the Times, stating that he had made public not the rules of the Association, but a "crude prospectus " ; and that the comments of Sir John Jervis were based upon this prospectus. He now supplies the rules. That one which is interesting to the public has undergone an important modification. Instead of proposing to employ the County Po-. lice to perform the duties of the javelin-men, at the expense of the county, it simply proposes that "an arrangement be made by which the County Police be employed as far as possible in lieu of javelin-men."
At Gloucester Assizes, Mary Ann Rosser, an elderly woman, was convicted of bigamy, but recommended to mercy on account of her legal husband's be- haviour towards her : he had deserted her and her children, for whisk he had been imprisoned ; he is now living with a female with whom he ab- sconded ; when he heard that his wife had remarried, he wrote to her de- manding "his goods," saving she was "now in his power." Mr. Baron Bramwell regretted that this fellow could not be punished—his crime was greater than the wife's ,- it would serve him right if he were tarred and feathered and paraded through Ledbury, where the wife lives : however, he would have to_pay the costs of the prosecution, for the Judge would not allow them. The wife's Sentence was imprisonment for four days ; but she was immediately liberated, as more than four days had elapsed since the opening of the Assizes.
Palhi, the ticket-of-leave man who was acquitted of a murder near Brom- ley in Kent, some time back, was convicted• of a burglary at Thornbury., Sentence, transportation for life.
At the Chester Winter Assizes, John Moah, Receiver of Inland Revenue at Chester, was convicted of embezzling public money; and at the present Assizes he was sentenced to be transported for fourteen years.
George Joseph Nathaniel Charlier, aged twenty-five, was clerk at the Gun-Wharf or War Department" of Portsmouth ; he had been nine year's in the service, had a salary of 1901., and a house free. It was his duty to- obtain the money from the branch of the Barth of England to pay wages, pensions, 8:c. On Friday- sennight he had a cheek for 11301.; a messenger went with him to carry the bags of coin ; Charlier made an excuse to send him away, then got the money and fled. He is a married man with two children : he absconded with a woman named Jones, who had formerly been his servant. Government offered a reward of 1111111/. for his apprehension. On Sunday night, Superintendent Leggett arrived at Portsmouth with Char- lier, Jones, and upwards of 1100/. of the plunder. Charlier was arrested in London, while disguised as a woman in widow's weeds : he and dories had posted along the old coach-road. On Monday, the prisoners were produced before the Portsmouth Magistrates : Charlier was still dressed as a widow— his " make-up " was admirable. He was committed • but as it did not appear that his companion knew anything of the robbery, the Magistrates liberated her. -
In the Manchester County Court, Mr. Gibbs has recovered 101 from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, as damages for loss of time and ex- penses arising from unpunctuality in a train. This was the_peouliar point : the delay occurred on the way to Newcastle, but not on the Lancashire and Yorkshire flue; the Company contended it was therefore not responsible. The Judge held that the Company was responsible, because it had granted a ticket from Manchester to Newcastle.
There has been a desperate fight between keepers and_poachers Olit the Earl of Ellesmere's estate at Worsley, near Manchester. Five keepers-were on the watch, -when eight poachers stumbled on them ; the poachers. &ilia: with bludgeons attacked the keepers, who had swords • both parties used their weapons bludgeons, the keepers conquered, and captured four of their opponents. When produced before the Salford Magistrates the prisoners presented a ghastly spectacle, the sword-cuts having covered them with blood. They were committed for trial.
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