The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-20 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

he first pet them on that they would be produced for the
amusement of a tea-party at the Wilton heading-room.
In his pleasant speech he highly eulogised the
devotion of the lady nurses, and, in conclusion, ex-
pressed the pleasure he felt in witnessing the spread
of such educational institutions as that at Wilton.
The tea•party broke up with cheers for the army
and navy.

THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE delivered a
lecture on " Colonies and Emigration," at the
Hawarden Institution on the 12th instant. The right
hon. gentleman, after examining the various reasons
which induce men to emigrate from their mother
country, entered upon the question of the value and
benefit of colonisation, and stated as his opinion that
the idea that a country depended for its greatness
upon its colonies was being fast dissipated, and that
her greatness depended, nct upon the number or
extent of her foreign possessions, but rather upon
her own internal resources :
England (observed Mr. Gladstone) must look to the
industry of her own sons—their intelligence, perseverance,
patriotism, and virtue—to maintain and perpetuate her
greatness and her glory. Those are the qualities that have
secured for her that distinction among the nations of the
earth which she at present occupies; and the same powers
that have developed her arts, her manufactures, and her
commerce ale sufficient for their perpetuation.
By colonisation, Mr. Gladstone remarked, we
made sure markets for our manufactured goods, in-
creased the demand for ships in the transport of
those goods, and of course improved the shipping
trade ; while its moral benefits, he assured his hearers,
arose out of the influence which attaches to the
spread of our language and English habits and tastes
over the distant parts of the world :
To have the scions of our families planting themselves
in the colonies, rearing their offspring, and extending the
area occupied by the sturdy Anglo-Saxon race, is to increae
the moral influence of Old England, and maintain in a
natural and legitimate manner the prestige of her name.

LORD STANLEY, M.P., on Tuesday evening ad-
dressed a meeting at the Temperance•hall, Bolton,
on the occasion of the opening of the new mechanics•
institute at that place. His lordship, referring gene.
rally to the condition of operatives and of the advan
tages now enjoyed by all classes of the labouring
population, stated as his opinion that no town should
be without certain public buildings :
There were some public works which no well•ordered
town ought to be without. Be would indicate what he
considered were necessary. No place ought to be without
accommodation for public worship. That was obvious,
and be passed it by. There ought also to be room in our
schools for every child between the ages of five and fifteen,
and not only room, but some effort ought to be made by
the philanthropist and the wealthy to get the children sent
by their parents; and there should be local superintendence
to see that the teaching was good in quality. There,
again, there could be no ground of dispute. Thirdly, it
was wrong that 30,000, or even 100,000 as in some places,
should be cooped up, without something in the nature of
parka or public grounds, where working men and their
families could take the benefit of air in the day. Practical
Manchester had set a good example in that respect. Liver-
pool intended to follow it up, and Preston had already
made up its mind not to be left far behind. Fourthly,
they required a free public library in a good central posi-
tion, with means of selection commensurate with the
wants of the town in which it was situate. On that point
the people of Bolton had displayed a largo amount of pub-
lic spirit. Fifthly, public baths and washhouses. Upon
that he would not dilate, for they were already established
in that town, and he earnestly hoped they might be suo-
cessful. Sixthly, they required places of amusement and
recreation for working men—a kind of poor man's club,
where he could find those comforts which be now unfor-
tunately sought at the publichouse, which would be
cheaper, and where he would not be exposed to those
temptations to which he was now subjected. Such places
of entertainment bad been established in various parts of
the country, both urban and rural. That would be an
effectual plan to rival what he was afraid was our national
vice—intemperance. Lastly, no urban community could
be complete whiih did not contain some institution for
the promotion of education amongst adults, such as that
institution the opening of which they had met to celebrate.