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Globe, Volume IV, Issue 385, 6 September 1875, Page 4

The Belgian Minister of Justice has intro duced into the Chamber of Deputies the Government Bill for preventing offences like that of Duchesne ;—“ Any person offering to commit or become an accomplice in any crime punishable by death or penal servitude, and any person accepting such a proposal, shall be liable to be sentenced to a term of imprisonment not less than three months and not exceeding five years, unless there are extenuating circumstances in the case. If, however, the offer be made verbally only, it will notbe punishableby lawunless contingent upon some payment, or gift, or promise of reward.” There seems no objection to that law, but it should be confined to offers in writing. Otherwise every Ultramontane in Belgium may be liable to attempts to extort money, by threats of accusing him of having proposed to murder Prince Bismarck or Minister Falck, Mr Dixon has brought forward his motion for extending compulsory education, by the agency of school boards, to the whole country, and received some valuable support in the shape of very emphatic testimony from Mr Ramsay,—somewhat demurred to by Lord Sandon, —as to the beneficial working of the compulsory system in Scotland, Mr Hamond, the Conservative-Liberal and Home Rule member for Newcastle on-Tyne, took the lead in opposing Mr Dixon, and Lord Sandon’s tone was certainly much colder towards compulsion than last year. He said that out of 14,080 civil parishes, only 1214 school boards had hitherto been formed, and, even of these 1214, only 734 had been formed voluntarily. If compulsion were enacted, 12,800 places which had hitherto shown no desire for school boards, would be forced to elect them, while 843 school boards which had not hitherto adopted compulsion in their bye-laws would be forced to adopt it.