The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-10 00:00:00

Stttings.

SIR JOHN M'NKIL, G.C.B. (lately one of her Ma-
jesty's Commissioners to the Crimea), on Friday
evening last, at the introductory sessional meeting of
the Philosophical Institution of EDINBURGH, deli-
vered an address upon the subject of the working
classes and the war. In exposing the present un-
satisfactory state of the social position of the working
classes, arising from the want of instruction and
example to guide them in the management of their
ordinary affairs, Sir John M'Neil proceeded to show
that the existing minute division of labour tended
too much too limit the sphere of action of every
worker, render him dependent and helpless in a
certain degree, and inevitably contract his intellect,
unless this tendency were carefully and systemati-
cally counteracted by education. What was true of
the manufacturing population was also true of the
army, and to this cause Sir John attributed many of
the serious sufferings of the soldiers in the Crimea
last winter :

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A part, and not an inconsiderable part, of the sufferings
of the British army in the Crimea during the last winter
arose from this very circumstance. (Cheers.) The manner
in which both officers and men endured the hardships and
privations of the last winter was, perhaps, even more
heroic than their conduct in action. (Applause.) Yet,
with all their indomitable courage and energy in action,
and all their fortitude and high moral beanng, most of
them were in some respects very helpless fellows. Few
of them could handle a spade or a mattock with any dex-
terity—fewer still an axe or a saw, a hiuniner or a trowel.
Few of them could even mend their own clothes, and
fewer still could mend their own shoes ; they were bad
cooks, and all, except the old soldiers, bad hands even at
lighting a fire. In short, they could hardly turn their
hands to anything except fighting, and that, it must be
admitted, they could do as hardly any other men could.
All this helplessness among the soldiers Sir John
attributed to the same cause as exists among the
manufacturing classes, a want of more general in-
struction, and that system of restricting a man's
daily occupation to certain routine duties and no
more. Upon the subject of the war Sir John made
a few concluding remarks, that the reverses which
Russia has met with in the Crimea would, he hoped,
convince her that universal dominion was not to be
her destiny, but
that her true mission is to subdue herown vut deserts,
and to civilise her own numerous population—that the
intellect and energy which ham hitherto been directed to
the means of overturning other Governments will be more
advantageously employed in improving her own; and that
her only wise and safe course of foreign policy is to respect
the rights and liberties of other countries and the publics
laws of Europe. (Loud cheering.) It is for her to tell us
when she has arrived at those convictions, and, as soon as
her actions have convinced us of her sincerity, we shall
rejoice at her success in cultivating the arts of peace as
truly as we now rejoice at her discomfiture in war. (Re-
newed cheers.)
THE ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMERS held a meeting
at GLAsoow on Friday evening last, on which occa-
sion a deputation from the society in Lonilon
attended. Mr. Lindsay, of Austin Friars, explained
to the audience the meaning of Administrative
Reform, and stated that he was of opinion Parlia-
mentary Reform must also be insisted on. Mr.
Jacob Bell and other gentlemen addressed the meet-
ing at great length, amid roars of laughter, hisses,
and the most determined uproar upon all sides. At
length the motion of a Mr. Buchanan, that a " full,
fair, and free representation of the people in Parlia-
ment be secured," was carried, and the petition
which gave rise to the meeting, "urging the neces-
sity of Administrative Reform, and proposing a plan
of co-operation throughout the emplre," was finally
adopted, when the proceedings terminate&