Vrouintint.

Sir John Pakington made a progress to Manchester on Monday. His host was the Mayor, Mr., James Watts, who resides at Abney Hall, in Cheshire. The object of his visit was to discourse to the Manchester, people, at the Athenmum, on the question of National Education, and, it is said, to confer with the friends of public education in Manchester, with a view to the settlement of points of difference. On Wednesday evening,--Sir FJkanah Armitage presiding,—Sir John Pakington delivered a aPwel on education at the Athenaeum. He met with a warm recep- tion, and his address was frequently interrupted by plaudits and morn- ment.

Sir John set himself to deal with the statements of Mr. Edward Baines, and Mr. Unwin, President of the Homerton College, both stout champions of the Voluntary system. Incidentally, be protested against an idea put forward by Mr. Laing in his electioneering address, that the rejection of Lord John Russell's resolutions had practically decided the question for the next tweritYyears. Sir John could only explain this language by the fact that it was written by a Scotchman to Scotchman ; for any Scotchman might look .vrith contempt on England, struggling to obtain a system of national educe- uon-stinilat in principle to that enjoyed by Scotland for two hundred years. Having disposed of this point, Sir John turned to Mr. Baines and Mr. Unwin. In their controversial pamphlets they said nothing of the " quell,. ty " of that education which they affirmed had increased. Mr. Unwire said that parents ought to educate their own children. Nobody over denied it. But practically, it is found that parents are not able and are not expected to educate their own children. Mr. Baines said that public schools would violate liberty. Would not the argument equally apply to the poor-law and the criminal law ? Then as to practical results, Mr. Baines and Sir James Graham said that our progress is satisfactory. How is Manchester getting on ? Not a bit. From a table submitted to a Committee of the House of Commons it appeared, that in 1834 1 in 10 of the population were at school, and in 1851 the proportion had descended to 1 in 1 lf . The pro- gress was in the wrong direction. He could not accept as an excuse the rapid increase of population. Is it right, decent, or consistent with our character, wealth, and generosity, that we should have such a mass of de- gradation around us ? Two days ago he received a begging letter from Chatham, asking him to subscribe to schools at that place, there being none: and he sent an indignant refusal. It is monstrous that in a garrison town, where the Government has great arsenals, they cannot establish a school without begging of Worcestershire country gentlemen. It is time to put. an end. to such a system as this. Mr. Vaughan, the Diocesan Inspector of Bath and Wells, said that education in So- mersetshire was "advancing though very slowly." The Dean of Here- ford said that three-fourths of the population in that county were totally uneducated. Mr. Baines said that education was advancing, very, very rapidly. But who was the best judge as respected the county of Somerset— Mr. Vaughan, who lives in the county, or Mr. Baines, who resides at Leeds? As to Herefordshire, who was best qualified to decide—the Dean, who saw what was going on, or Mr. Unwin, whose time was occupied with his own college ? Touching on other branches of the question,—the masses of children em. provided for, the ability of the na. ion to bear the expense of an education- rate, the inequality with which educational institutions are distributed through the land, often depending on the activity of a clergyman, or the character of a landed proprietor,—Sir John contrasted the zeal and pa- triotism shown in New York and Canada in the advancement of education, with the state of the question in England. What we want is the adoption of the half-time system, local organization, and a more certain supply of money ; and we should not attempt to supersede, but to assist, completn, and to supplement the existing state of things; Lid further, that ought to be done with the utmost possible regard. to existing feelings and facts. I should be open to misconstruction if I concluded these observations without referring to what we hear so much about--namely,, what is called' the reli- gious difficulty. Whatever the extent of that Mi.e ulty may be, I wish in the strongest terms to express my deep conviction that that difficulty is not insuperable. I believe that the true, moderate, and wise view of that part of the question, is to consider, as I do• consider, that there may be two mein points connected with it which we cannot and must not lose sight of. The first is, in looking to the education of the youth of England, every child ought to be duly and properly instructed in this first and greatest branch of knowledge. The second is, in giving this instruction, we must so arrange it as to adhere moat strictly and most rigidly to the principle of perfect toleration, so that no violence shall be done to the religious belief of any denomination of Christians. Provided these two conditions are strictly and securely guarded', I confess that I am myself disposed to adopt whatever system I thought would be most generally acceptable and the most likely to procure general public support. No doubt, there are difficulties in this and in other parts of the subject. But can you mention to me any question of great public interest within your recollection that was free from difficulty ? The emancipation of Roman Catholics was full of difficulty—but it was done; Parliamentary Reform was full of difficulties—but it was done; that question in which you took so much interest, the adoption of Free-trade and the repeal of the Corn-laws, was full of difficulty—but that was done ; the reformation of our laws for the relief of the poor was a matter of ex- treme difficulty, and it baffled Parliament for years—but it was done ; and so must this be done."

Sir John spoke for two hours, and he received a hearty vote of thanks when he had sat down.

Sir John Pakingto n on Wednesday met a number of gentlemen in- terested in the di e rent schemes for public education which have origin- ated in Manchester; and after a conference, the parties present agreed upon five resolutions to this effect.

• 1. That it is desirable to impose a rate for the support of popular in- struction in Manchester. 2. That all schools deriving aid from the rate shall be subject to inspection ; but such inspection shall not extend to the religious instruction given in such schools. 3. That all schools shall be eix. titled to aid, provided the instruction, other than religious, shall conic up to the required standard, and that no child shall be excluded on religious grounds. 4. That the distinctive religious formularies, where taught in schools connected vrith.the different religious denominations, and receiving aid from the rate,..shall be given at separate hours, to be specified by the managers, to facilitate the withdrawal of objecting children. 5. That there shall be no interference with the management of the schools." At a public ideeting convened by the High Sheriff and held last week at Bridgend, it was resolved that a Reformatory School should be esta- blished for the county of Glamorgan. It was estimated by the High Sheriff that there are no fewer than 700 juvenile offenders in Glamorgan- shire. The meeting subscribed 3001. on the spot.

The Society for Promoting the Employment of Additional Curates in Populous Places held its annual meeting at Chester ore Tuesday. The Bishop of Chester took the chair, and Mr. Gladstone was the principal speaker on behalf of its objects. There were, it appears, 254 clergymen receiving grants from the Society. Among these was divided, in round numbers, 16,000/. ; they received in addition from other sources 7000/. ; in all 22,000/. ; which affords to each an average stipend of 87/. 68. per annum, or 33s. 7d. per week—smaller than the earnings of a large eta& of artilrana. The Society is poor ; it can find plenty of men, but not plenty of money. This has led to the withdrawal of 72 grants, one- fourth of the whole. Mr. Gladstone's object was to urge on the publig the necessity of supporting the Society.

The Shropham Agricultural Assooiatino celebrated its anniversary at Aarling last week. The proceedings are chiefly noticeable from the Eget that the Earl of Albemarle, who had been for some days confined to his room, left it to be present among his friends and neighbours, not likiheir tolose one of the opportunities so rarely offered for meeting the various cWapa, connected with agriculture." Lord Albemarle, in return.. ing thanks fur' his' health, dwelt for the most part on the question of the solvency of benefit societies ; and repeated the opinions he had ex.- pressed at Diss, that the present rates of contribution are inadequate to the obligations incurred by benefit societies to their members.

Sir Alexander Cockburn, having finally made up his mind on Satur- day to become Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, the liberals of Southampton were instantly besieged by candidates. Mr. Edwin James transferred his affections from Hull to Southampton, and issued an address. Mr. Sergeant Pigott offered himself to the notice of the constituency, by similar means, as a liberal candidate, but shortly after- wards withdrew. Among other gentlemen, Mr. Weguelin, Governor of the Bank of England, and Captain Mangles, Chairman of the West India Mail Steam-Packet Company, are talked of. The Conservatives threaten to propose Sir Edward Butler.

On the 13th November, three societies annually celebrate at Bristol the anniversary of the birth and death of Edward Colston, a local bene- factor. One of these societies is named the Grateful ; it occupies a neu- tral position in politics, and its members subscribed this year Md. An- -other is called the Anchor; it is supported by the Liberals, and its sub- ascription-list showed a total of 4901. A third is the Dolphin, a Conserva- tive society, and it subscribed 3361. At the annual feasts last week, Mr. Henry Berkeley and Mr. Langton, the City Members, attended and spoke at the meeting of the Anchorites, while Mr. William Miles repre- sented the Conservatives at the Dolphin. The Liberal Members took occasion to explain their views on things in general ; and Mr. Miles fol- _lowed the same course. Mr. Berkeley occupied much time in denouncing the "No Popery" cry raised by the Tories, and in proving that to obtain administrative reform the House of Commons must be reformed and the voter protected. Mr. Langton dealt chiefly with our foreign policy ; dis- couraging interference in Italy, but advocating "the abatement of the Papal power" as the first step towards the happiness and prosperity of that country. The strongest part of Mr. Miles's speech was a protest against interference in Naples.

M. Kossuth has delivered three lectures in the Free-trade Hall at Manchester, and they have excited some discussion in the newspapers. In his first lecture, he urged that Italy could alone be set free by a po- pular insurrection. In the second, he described the joint interference of England and France in Naples as a scheme in which " Bonaparte " had engaged in order that he might step between the Neapolitan people and their King, and prevent a revolutionary war. The third treated of the Austrian concordat with Rome. At the first of these lectures, Mr. Phil- lips High Sheriff of Lancashire, presided; at the second, Mr. George Wilson ; at the third, Dr. Vaughan. We extract a few specimens of the orator's utterances.

It was not necessary, M. Kossuth said, that he should express his opinion of Great Britain's relative position in this alliance ; but, while Mr. Roebuck said " England is going wherever her big brother chooses to lead the way," the leading Minister of Austria, a couple of weeks ago, referring to general European politics, said, " Of England it is not necessary to speak, as she is no longer a first-rate Power ; but with the Government of France Austria is in very good accord." However, M. Kossuth trusted that the English lion would yet show that he is a lion still : but this inference might be justly drawn when we saw the British Government and Louis Napoleon Bonaparte acting together in matters of European policy—that the case must be con- sidered from a Bonapartist rather than from an English point of view, in order to arrive at a correct estimate of purposes and aims. The bickerings about Naples might then be intended, in the first place, to divert the French people from pondering too closely on their own domestic concerns. We must not measure French affairs by an English standard. In England., we may want reforms, but we do not want revolutions. Revolutions are no- where possible except where they are necessary; and Englishmen, happily, are not in this predicament just now. Therefore it would be eternally ridi- culous should the British Government resort to the political jugglery of di- verting public attention from domestic national concerns by holding out the ,prospect that something was about to " turn up," Micawber-like, in foreign parts. But with Bonaparte the case is different. Sprung up like a toad- stool on a swamp of blood, he can fix no roots in the soil of his country : an anomalous incident in the history of our age—a whimsical anachronism of chance—his government, at the best a passing dictatorship, not onlypan have noluture, but there is even no imaginable reason why it should exist and things that have no reason to exist are doomed. Such is the eternal law ever revealed in history ; and when the French people are once allowed leisure to reflect on their own condition, the present occupant of the Tuile- ries has but to pack up and make off while the moon is shining and the roads are dry. The French are a curious people. At ten o'clock they go to the opera; at twelve they take a gay supper; at one the Gallic cock be- gins to crow at three barricades arise and at four the Ecole Politechnique is in the street; at six the throne and the empire are overturned, and all the vain dreams of dynasties have passed away. Louis Napoleon has reason to dread revolution, not only from within, but from without likewise. Europe is like a barrel of gunpowder, to which the igniting spark may come from any quarter. Bonaparte is well aware of this, and well aware, in particular, that Italy is a volcano ready at each moment to explode. To prevent the explosion is therefore the real object of his solicitude. The po- pular movement is likeliest to take effect in Naples and Sicily, but not because the Government of Naples is the most wicked, cruel, and tyran- nical; for the Austrian courts-martial certainly, do not yield the palm of atrocity to the Neapolitan judges ; and besides, the Neapolitan Government is at least Italian, and therefore less hateful than the Austrian. Even comparing with Bonaparte himself—remembering the manner in which he swore an oath of fidelity to the constitution of his nation, the way in which he broke it, the massacre in the streets of Paris, the wholesale proscriptions, incarcerations, and deportations to Cayenne—the conclusion would arrive, that King Bombe was six and Bonaparte was half a dozen. Therefore it is not the shocking tyranny of the Neapolitan Government that makes Louis Napoleon Bonaparte fear that the volcano may explode soonest at Naples ; his reason for fear is that the Neapolitan Government is weakest in means of resistance to the popular movement ; and therefore he seeks to interfere to prevent revolution, but on pretence of "protection '" because the word has such a good sound, and the world likes to be imposed upon. In the opening of his lecture on the Concordat, M. Kossuth explained, that he, as well as the Chairman, was an advocate of the principle of nonintervention—

It had never occurred to his heart to expect or to desire that Great Britain should fight the battles of freedom on the Continent—that it should e upon itself to act the part of the knight-errant for European liberty. at

he wished was to see the great principle of nonintervention protected by such great powers as the British empire. He drew an Must:x.1113.es from the con- duct of Canning. In the case of the emancipation of the Spanish American colonies, and in that of Portugal, Canning declared to France, then the executioner of the Holy Alliance, that if she interfered against liberty, then England would interfere for nonintervention. And did this declaration in either case involve England in a war ? On the contrary, war was pre- vented ; the uplifted arm of the united despotisms of Europe went down be- fore Canning's words, and the sacred principle of nonintervention. Then he came to the Concordat. The present Austrian Concordat was, so far as he knew, the first instance in history when a temporal sovereign was seen submitting to, even courting such an infliction, without the shadow of any compulsion or any plausible pretext. In the dominions of the bigoted house of Austria, the interests of the Romish religion stood in the most flourishing condition of security, prosperity, and even splendour. The Kan_ garian nation, Catholic in its majority, yet never until now had allowed herself to be visited with the infliction of concordats. Having described the provisions of the Concordat, M. Kossuth said, he now came to the inquiry how it was that the present Emperor of Austria, who had recoiled not from crimes innumerable to arrive at arbitrary dominion and unlimited despot_ ism, had now voluntarily abdicated his ill-gotten power in favour of the Pope, and in favour of such a Pope as Pio Nono, whom history had proved to be nothing better than an untuned harp in the hands of malignity. The strange fact was very easily, explained ; for we had but to remember the se. eret treaty of Verona, dated 22d November 1822, concluded between the Russian Czar, the Catholic Emperor of Austria, the Catholic King of France, and the Protestant King of Prussia from which treaty. he begged to quote the third article, as follows—" Convinced that the principles of religion con- tribute most powerfully to maintain nations in that state of passive obedience which they owe to their princes, the high contracting ppartiesdeclare, that it is their intention to sustain in their respective dominions such measures as the clergy may adopt for the strengthening of their in. threats, intimately associated as these are with the authority of princes. The high contracting parties offer, in addition, their common thanks to the Pope, for all that he has already done for them, and for his continued cc. operation with their views to effect the submission of nations." It was nothing less than a conspiracy between priestcraft and kingcraft for the subjugation of the nations. Without a timely outbreak in Europe, it is impossible to break the forces that are about to muster against the civil and religious liberty of the peoples. He said it with sorrow, that as far as Hungary is concerned, the time for this conspiracy was well chosen, because, if asked how they had so long maintained their independence, he would say it had been by the free words resounding in their halls of Parliament, and their numerous municipal assemblies, now extinguished through the Rus- sian intervention. Now was the moment or never to make Hungary a slave, and give the Papacy an opening that would make it dangerous to civil liberty. He believed Europe is on the eve of a great political crisis that will destroy this convention; but it was a great thing for the Pope that his dictates were eleirated to temporal authority throughout the whole land.

At the conclusion of his lecture, M. Kossuth said, before they parted he had one duty yet, as a patriot, to perform.

He called on that numerous and distinguished assembly to say whether it was true or not that the late Hungarian struggle elicited a manifestation of British sympathy throughout the land ; that the public throughout Great Britain in most unequivocal language condemned the atrocious, tyrannical character of the house of Austria, and had branded it with the stigma of general reprobation ? (Loud deers, and three groans for Austria.) He begged to say, that he held in his possession one hundred and thirty ad- dresses of towns and corporations, which handed down to history the fact that the British people had most unequivocally expressed their detestation of Austrian cruelty and injustice ; and his presence here on this occasion. not by uncalled-for obtrusion, but on invitation, and the reception he had met with, was another proof of that sympathy, not for himself but for his country's cause. He had visited Liverpool, Leeds, Darlington, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other large towns, and he had requisitions to visit upwards of a hundred other towns, several of them bearing thousands of signatures, and all of them full of expressions of sympathy for Hungary and of reprobation of the crimes of Austria. Now, all this gave him the right to say that the opinion of the British people was as decided now on this subject as it had been these five years past : yet, with these facts en- tered.= the records of history, he had the deep mortification .to learn that the British Government was about to complete a new alliance with the murderer of Hungarian and Italian liberty. The meeting resolved, on the the motion of Town-Councillor Fildes, seconded by Mr. Rawson—

"That this meeting cordially sympathizes with Louis Kossuth in his con- tinned protest against the usurpation by the Austrian Government of the constitutional rights of Hungary ; and views with detestation the conduct of Austria towards Hungary, Italy, and Poland ; and repudiates any further affiance on the part of this country in relation to the affairs of foreign states with a Power which stands preeminent in Europe for acts of betrayal to those who trust her, and for hostility to freedom wherever-her influence is felt."

" Murders" form a chapter in the news of the day. At Embrook, a village near Wokingham, Charles Forrester, a Dissenting preacher or tract-distributor, has killed his child, a little boy of five, by ela- ting his throat, in the early morning, after his wife had left their bedroom. Forrester quitted the house without speaking to his wife, and hastened to a constable's, where he gave himself up as a murderer. No motive for the crime is at present known, and of course surmises of insanity are ready. But the prisoner's conduct did not appear that of a madman. He has been committed on the Coroner's warrant.

At Erith, Mr. George Carter, a young man, son of a late florist in London, has been murdered under circumstances at present involved in mystery. His body was found in a copse about a mile from the Erith station ; there were many stabs in the heart, and the skull was fractured ; a carpenter's gouge was in the deceased's hand, but it was clear that he had not killed himself with it—it had been placed in the dead man's hand to mislead. The deceased was about to emigrate to Australia, and had a considerable sum of money in his possession—of this he had been robbed. Government, the vic- tim's family, and a society for prosecuting felons, have offered rewards amounting to 2501. for the conviction of the murderer.

At Worcester, Lucy Tredw ell, an inn-servant, has been found dead in a 'canal. A surgical examination showed that many cuts and blows. had been inflicted on her, sufficient to cause death ; and a surgeon stated that the young woman fiad not perished from drowning, though she might have been thrown into the water before she was dead. She was last seen at night re- turning to the inn from an errand. Several officers of the American ship Ocean Monarch have been fined by the Liverpool Magistrates for assaults on the seamen of the vessel while she was in the Mersey. It is said that American officers are in the habit of mal- treating seamen. Wilful fire-raising is showing itself in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. No fewer than five cases have occurred, four within a fortnight, in the neighbourhood of Nottingham.

The inquest on the two persons killed on the Newport and Hereford Rail- way—Mr. Hands and Mr. Hinds—was begun last Friday. : nearly the whole sitting was occupied by the examination of Nathaniel Sergent, who drove the express-train ; and his statements created great excitement, from the charges against the management of the line which they contained. Though Sergent drove the express, he was not a regular engine-driver ; this was only the fifth time, at long intervals, that he had driven a train ; he is a fireman ; his employment as the driver of an express-train seems to have arisen from slack of drivers—he was sent, apparently, because there was no one else. Perha economy had something to do with the matter : Sergent receives 11. week, but a driver's wages are 7s. per day. Two of the springs of the en- gine were broken when he set out with the train ; he knew it ; he had re- ported it some time before, but the springs were not repaired or replaced. Ie alleged that it was not uncommon to send out engines in this state ; and it was quite customary for reports to be received and not acted on. In his own defence, Sergent had surreptitiously torn from a book the entry of the complaint he had made, and he produced it to the Jury : across it was writ- ten "Examined, Williams." When the engine left the rails, it was on the side where the springs were broken : at the scene of the disaster the rails were too low on one side ; the witness ascribed the accident to the depression of the rails and the broken springs. Sergent was not provided with a watch when placed on the engine ; he had no tools on the engine—he was told he must go without.

On Wednesday, Bement was further examined. He stuck to his state- ment about the shameful management of the railway. Of five engines em- ployed, three had broken springs. He had a book of instructions--but he could not read. Mr. Sturrock, locomotive engineer to the Great Northern Railway, was called to invalidate some of Sergeut's statements ; but in the end some of his evidence did not turn out very forcible in that regard. He said that engines were frequently worked with broken springs ; he ad- mitted that running an engine fast with broken leading springs— the case here—would be dangerous ; he ascribed the accident to the broken springs not being "packed." The driver ought to have refused to travel with such an engine. Drivers are generally made from firemen—the post of fireman is the best school for a driver. He would not employ a driver who could not read or write, but there are many good drivers who can do neither.

Some Whitstable fishermen have made a strange discovery and a hand- some prize. They found a brigantine on the Girdler Sand ; the corpse of the master was on the cabin-bed, with a piece of canvass over the face; no living being was on board. The fishermen got the vessel to Whitstable. It is Danish ; and, with the cargo of wheat, is worth some 3000/. It seems that the vessel was abandoned by the crew after it went ashore, during bad weather : the master was killed by a breaker dashing him against a ladder.