The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-11-20 00:00:00

THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE ON
EDUCATION.

The Lord Chief Justice Cockburn delivered prizes
to the successful candidates of the Birkbeck Institution
in London, last week.

His Lordship, who was received with loud cheers, in
the course of his suitable and encouraging remarks said:
—lndustry, application, diligence, and intellectual
power are the best assurances of future success. Intel-
lectual power without application and industry is only
apt to lead men into bye paths in which they do no
good; but when intellectual power is combined with
such industry and diligence and application as are
evinced by the success of the candidates for honours
in this institution, we may look forward with con-
fidence to persons doing well in the several depart-
ments of life which they may be disposed to enter.
(Cheers.) And it is not merely that from their
success in the different lines of study to which they
have thus far devoted them.:alves we may augur
their future advancement and well-doing in life. This
intellectual and moral training leads to a result no
less important as regards their future happiness and
enjoyment in the life that is before them. It is not
merely that knowledge is the means of power, in other
words affords to every man who possesses it a means
of pushing his way in the particular department of
life to which he may devote himself; it also ensures
to him the means of independence and happiness in
a totally different point of view. Whatever may be
before him, he has the resource of intelligence, thought,
knowledge, and literature upon which to fall back.
For him there will never be the tedium of ennui;
for him there will never be the loneliness of
solitude. He may enjoy social happiness so long as
it presents itself to him; but if anything should cut
him off from it, he will have his own cultivated in-
telligence to fall back upon; and, if he should be cut
off from social communion with the living, he will still
be able to hold communion with the immortal dead.
(Cheers.) Therefore it is that these great educational
institutions, which afford not only the means of
scientific instruction but also opportunities for
acquiring literary attainments and knowledge. are of
such immense benefit to those who come within the
sphere of their operation. They not only afford men
means for promoting their interests in the various'
departments of professional life to which they
devote themselves, but they enable them to lay up
a store of happiness and enjoyment for the
future, of which, so long as life remains, nothing
can possibly deprive them. (Cheers.) I think I may
venture to say that among all the institutions
which have been established for these useful and
excellent purposes there is none which exceeds in its
beneficentloperation the Birkbeck Institution. (Cheers.)
When you see the varied deyartments. of scientific
knowledge and literary attainment in which these
students have distinguished themselves—especially if
you happen to have turned to the subjects of examina-
tion, and to have examined yourselves in them—(laugh-
ter)—you must feel that those who have achieved success
and gained prizes in this institution may well challenge
equal, and particularly superior, excellence in the
scientific instruction and attainments presented in any
rival institution in this country. I looked through the
heads of examination with great interest and great care,
and while I rejoiced to think that there were so many
who had achieved distinction and eminence in different
studies, I congratulated myself that I was not one of
those who had been uncle' examination. (Laughter.) To
be sure, time makes a vast difference, and that which
at the age of twenty, coming fresh from school, one
might have been competent to grapple with, when you
have passed through several generations beyond that,
you cannot be equally capable of dealing with. But
this advantage remains—and let it never be forgotten
—that when the cask is once imbued it still retains the
flavour up to the last stage of its existence. (Cheers.)
These young people, who have just gone forth, crowned
with success, distinguished by the honours which they
have achieved, and which have been handsomely and
liberally awarded to them, shouldneverforget that they
have launched themselves on a, career of scientific and
literary acquisition, in which it will be their duty for
their own sakes to persevere, and endeavour to progress,
up to the last hour of their existence. (Cheers.) I wish
them success, and so do you all (Cheers.) But do not
let me leave this subject without a word to those who
have not been equally successful. (Cheers.) "The
race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong," and it is not because you may not have suc-
ceeded in a particular examination that you are to sup-
pose that you have not added to your stock of know-
ledge, or laid the foundation of future eminence. We
all know that as in the race of life there is more or less
of good luck contributing to success, so in examinations
the run of questions may be in favour of A, and not be
altogether propitious to the success of B. (Hear, hear.)
Don't be discouraged because you have not succeeded,
but toil on diligently and industriously in seeking to ac-
quire knowledge and scientific information. Dig the
field, and though you might not find the treasure you
looked for, it will be more productive for the cultivation
you have bestowed upon it. (Cheers.) And, depend
upon it, that all that is done on behalf of education,
all that is done under the advantages that education
affords, cannot do otherwise than morally, intellec-
tually, and in every point of view in which it can be
regarded, contribute to the well-being of man in the
race of scientific advancement and excellence, and,
what is far more important, it will operate beneficially
in humanising and softening the human mind, and
bringing forth all the good that it is capable of doing
for this world, and in view to the world to come.
(Cheers.)
In response to a vote of thanks for presiding, his
lordship spoke of the advantages of the study of the
English language and literature, and offered for com-
petition a prize of 20 guineas for the best essay upon
the claim which Dr. Birkbeck has upon the country as
the founder of that institution.

In connection with the foregoing, the Standard, in a
leader, remarks :
Buffon once observed that "genius was industry."
Something of the same kind seems to have been in the
mind of Sir Alexander Cockburn, in his speech to the
students at the Birkbeck Institution. Fully one-half
of his pleasant and sensible address at the distribu-
tion of prizes was taken up with a laudation of steady
and systematic work. Apart from the abstract
excellence of the advice thsre can be no ques-
tion of the fact that the preacher has practised
his own doctrine. It is perfectly well known that
the Lord Chief Justice of England has taken his
pleasure from time to time, that his vacations have
been passed in wholesome and healthy relaxation,
and that when the duties of his high position have
permitted he has found his rest in physical exertion of
a somewhat strenuous kind. At the same time it is no
lesg notorious that his devotion to his profession has
been unremitting and exceptional. He has his reward.
"Honour, love, obedience, troops of friends "—even
amongst those who know him only in his professional
capacity—have been and are his. He is confessedly at
the head of his profession, and when such an one
speaks to young men of the value of industry he
does so with double effect, inasmuch as he is
able to show the value of his precepts by
their practical exemplification in his own person.
It is true that he displayed an admirable modesty
in professing his satisfaction that he had not been
forced to undergo the examination which the young
men of the Birkbeck Institution had successfully
passed through; but those who know what his abilities
and attainments are will probably take his expressions
at their real value. Such as they were however, they
were admirably adapted to the double object of en-
couraging the winners and of consoling the losers in the
competition over whose results he presided, as well as to
stimulate them to f urther displays of that industry which
it is the object of such institutions as the Birkbeck to
assist. For those who have failed, too, it must have
been satisfactory to be reminded that the race is not
always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, and
that even one who has been so successful in the battle
of life as the Lord Chief Justice of England has a
kindly sympathy with honest effort, and a friendly
word for these who have been less fortunate than him-
self.