The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-01 00:00:00

LIEUTENANT BROMHEAD,

The Army and Navy Gazette says :—Those who have
been struck by the gallantry displayed by the small
band of 80 men under Lieutenants Bromhead, 24th,
and Chard, R. 8,, who kept the enemy at bay for a
whole night after the massacre at Rorke's Drift, will
perhaps be interested in reading the following account
of the principal actor, written by one who knows him
well, and who, as adjutant of a regiment, must neces-
sarily be aware what the qualifications are which go
to make a good regimental officer
I feel sure that all those who have the pleasure of know-
ing Grnville Bromhead must feel delighted at his success—a
success to nobly deserved. I was with him for some time at
an army tutor's at Croydon some twelve years ago, and it is
interesting to look back upon him as be appeared to us at
that time. About 5 feet 10 Inches in height, so well built
that he did not look as tall, he seemed to me to be quite the
beau-ideal of an English officer. It was our custom of an
evening, as soon as 'study' was over, to indulge in bouts of
wrestling, boxing, and singlestick in the gymnasium
outside; and Bromhead was so expert in all of these
that he invariably beat every one opposed to him.
With all this he . was. so - kind and genial that the
youngsters among us could chaff him and play tricks 11D011
him with impunity, and without fear of retaliation. Quiet
and most unassuming in his demeanour,' he nevertheless
often showed by friendliness to those who happened to be
unpopular, by kindness to new-corners, and in a thousand
other ways, the thorough worth and goodness that were in
him. It is to be hoped that the lonely fight out at Rorke's
Drift may only prove to have been the means of bringing
him to the front, in order that by his future services he may
prove still more useful to his country."

PRINCE .4iOPOLD ON EDUCATION.
In London on Tuesday nizht, Prince Leopold presided at
the 65th anniversary and distribution of priees in the
beck Literary Literary and Scientific Institution, Southampton-
buildings, Chanceryalane. There was a large attendance of
supporters of the institution and friends of the students.
Among those on the platform were the Earl of Aberdeen;
Lord Henry Lennox, M.P , Sir Robert Phillimore, D C L.,
Mr. Thomas. Cave, M P., hr Frederick PoilockMr. W. Loyd
Birkbeck (president of the institution), Mr. W T. Caa.rley,
Mr., Mr. C. 11. Hopwood, bl P., Ibr,dessor Corfirld,
honorary examiner in hygiene, and the Rev. G. Hellslow,
professor of botany.
The Prince, who were the star and tiband of the Order of
the Garter, was greeted with loud and prolonged cheering
on entering and again on rising to speak.
The proceedings began with th, presentation of prizes and
certificates to many of 400 stedents who had successfully
tcaoumgphrtteidn itnhethine
satnitnueatioln.exapreazineastioorn
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Science and Art Department were gained by 244 students,
Niesrrs. G. Goodwin wad L. H. Owen gaining medals, and
Mr. H. J. Webb a studentship.
Prince Leopold then rose to address the meeting.
His Royal Highness said : My Lords, Ladies, and
Gentlemen,—lt gives me great pleasure to stand here
to-day in the place wh the Duke of Sussex occupied
at your first distribution of prizes, more than half a
century ago—(cheers)—and so feel that during that
half-century the progress of sour institution has been
one ef such unmixed success that, from its small and
struggling beginnings, it has ramified and increased,
till England is covered wita institutions after the
same pattern, and your owl central institution has
grown to the importance 1), which is represented
by the company of its friends whom I see
around me now, (2), by the Het of honours which we
have heard iead, and (3) by the reports which testify
to the large number of studests who are entering under
your auspices into the work of science and of culture.
(Rear, bear.) No one who reads the distinguished
names who form your list of honorary examiners; no
one who notes the long roil of schol trehipe, prizes,
certificates, obtained by your students during the
past year can doubt that 6e work done has been
done under the most able ph:lance and has been of a
thoroughly solid and satisfactory kind. lam par-
tieularly glad to see the stress which your programme
lays on technical education, (Hear.) We English-
men may be justly proud of the character for mental
and physical strength and capacity which our artisans
bear all over the world ; but our pride is
sadly dashed by acoompenying criticisms on the
; ignorance and the indiffereace to anything which needs
thought, which too often render that native vigour of
intelligence a comparatively useless thing. Properly
instructed, I believe that our British artisan need
fear no rival in the world (hear, hear) ; but if he
goes out untaught and ignorant into the battle of life,
he is in danger of being outdone by the more care-
fully trained skill of foreign workmen. Against
this danger your institution offers a bulwark whose
importance it would be hard to overrate. I am
glad, too, to see the eagerness with which modern
languages are learnt in your classes. Foreign nations
are not merely our competitors, but our friends,
and nothing, I believe, is like' to create so true
a feeling of friendship and sympathy between one
people and another as a practical knowledge of each
others speech, Sometimes, perhaps, as the proverb
says, we take what is unknown to be magnificent,
but oftener, I think, we take it to be something un-
friendly and distasteful to us—something which if we
did know it we should net like. But we find that with
every real increase of underetanding of our fellow men
of different races some pnkindly illusion disappears;
we learn to realize their likeness to ourselves, to
sympathize with their national character, to co-operate
in their efforts after the common good. (Hear, hear.)
But I need not go at length into the advantages to be
aerived from each of toe sabjects which your curri-
culum embraces; there is not one which may not be
of great service to the practical career or to the
mental development of the zealous student. And there
is so much similarity in the conditions of all effort
and success, that even the studies which seem most
remote from active life may always furnish a moral
which life can adopt and employ. For instance, I
notice that in what is called the " Miecellaneous De-
partment" of yair curriculum you provide instruction
in the game of chess. This is not the most obviously
practical of. your subjects; but it has struck me
that even those, if any there be, who desire to limit
their educaticn to this branch alone may learn
some not uumportant lessons of life from the
manner in wlich you teach it. "Particular atten-
tion," I see your programme says, is paid to the
study of the openings. Now, is it not true that in
life, as in chess, it is often the opening, and
the opening only, which is under our own control?
(Hear, heat) Later in the game the plans and
wishes of others begin to conflict unpleasantly
with our ovn. Sometimes it is as much as we can
do to avoii being checkmated altogether. But for
the first few moves we are free. We can deploy our
pieces to tie best advantage; we can settle on the line
of action vhich best suits our powers; and we some-
times fine that it will repay us to sacrifice a pawn or a
piece so as to gain at once a position which may give
us a decided advantage throughout the whole game.
Does no: this, too, remind us of early life? Must we
not often be content to sacrifice some pawn of present
pleasure or profit to gain a vantage ground which may
help us to supc.essee which self. indulgence could never
have wca ? I am sure that among the bright young
faces witich I see around me there are many who have
,known what it is to labour against the grain; to begin
a lesson When they would rather have gone to the
theatre, to finish it when they would rather have gone
to bed. And lam sure that such efforts of self-denial
and conscientiousness form at least half the real
benefit of education (hear, hear); that it would do us
little good to wake up and find our heads magically
stocked with all manner of facts, in comparison to the
good which it does us to fight for knowledge, to suffer
tor her, and to make her at last our own. In great
things as in small, this principle of self-help is a pe-
culiarly English spirit. How much has been accom-
plished in this country by private initiative, by
spontaneous growth! We have trusted that men
ike Dr. Birkbeck would arise (cheers)—men who felt
he needs of others as their own, and 'could not rest
without spreading widely round them the privileges'
which they had themselves enjoyed. We have trusted
that such men would arise, and they have arisen. (Hear.)
No nation, may I venture to say it? has produced
larger proportion of such philanthropists than our
own, No nation, lam sure I may assert, has been
more eager to aid those philanthropists in life, or to
honour them when they have 'passed away. And when
the good work has taken root and flourished, the Uni-
versities and the State herself step in and give their
invaluable sanction and guidance to movements which
have grown to national importance and national extent.
I am glad to see how wisely your Council and your
students avail themselves opfrsuecs whdoirn by
em t theiotnhandaaid. l
am
glad to see the long
li ex-
aminations of the Science and Art Department at South
Kensington. I am glad to see that others have matricu-
lated ha the University of London. And as in this con-
nexion I cannot forget the assistance which my own
University of Oxford is anxisus to render to the
classes for whose benefit your institution is designed
(cheers), I will just remind you of the lectures recently
started in many parts of London by the syndicate fur
the extension of University teaching—a scheme in
which the three Universities of Oxford, Cambridge,
and London have combined, and which offers a more
advanced instruetion in many of the subjects in which
your students have already laid so sound a
foundation. I need feel no hesitation as to speaking
in your presence of educational efforts ether than
your own. All these will help and cannot hinder
you. Learning is a commodity the demand
for which grows with the supply. We need
not fear a glut of science or of intelligence as
we might fear a glut of cotton goods or of indigo. All
the knowledge which we who now live can gain can
assuredly be made useful both to ourselves and to
tkose who come after us. It was his firm conviction
that a amid education can never be ton Wiciely spread
or too eagerly enjoyed which was the source of Dr.
Birkbeck's claim to the gratitude of posterity. He saw
that the knowledge of truth was not meant to be the
.privilege of a class or of a set. In an age when the
strongest prejudice existed against the education of
the poor, he, as far ae in him lay, threw open to the
poor an education as sound and, extensive as his
own. In an age when the strongest prejudice
;existed against the education of women he earnestly
claimed for women their fair share in the educational
privileges of men. (Cheers.) He was for spreading
the banquet of knowledge before all alike, and he
trusted that Nature would see that the Benjamin's
papss fell to the lot of those who had the keenest
appetite and the strongest digestion, (Hear, hear.)
And if all these seem common-places now, we must re-
member that, as it has been said, "the commonplaces
of one generation were the paradoxes of the last,". Row
could they ever have become commonplaces but for the
ardour of conviction which inspired a few far-seeing men?
And how far greater a thing is this spirit of personal,
practical, rational benevolence than any mere gifts of
money can be? Dr. Birkbeck—and in speaking of
him I speiak also of his friends and coadjutors and of
the son who now 80 worthily fills his father's place—
(cheers)—Dr. Birkbeck was, no doubt, even in the
mere matter of money a most generous man. (Hear,
hear.) But it was not his pecuniary generosity which
has caused his name to become the household word
which it is to-day. It was because he gave to his
great work something far more precious and rarer
than money—the intelligent and single•hearted devo-
tion of a life. We honour him, not so much because
he helped others from without, as because he touched
the chords, he evoked the impulses which enabled
them to help themselves from within. It is not for
his endowments that we thank him most, but for his
high
example
as, indeed, for any institution its founder's
is the best of endowments ; and the most
enduring legacy which a man can leave to his country
is a memory which impels the men who come after
him to strenuous efforts and to exalted aims.
, (Cheers.)