The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-12-04 00:00:00

ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN BY LORD

LYTTELTON.

Lord Lvttelton attended at the Words'ey
trite, on Monday evening to deliver" An Address to
Young Men." Colonel Fletcher introduced his lord-
ship, who, after looking at the season of youth from
an ideal point, said they must acknowledge that his
ideal was often far enough from the actual fact.
Youth ought to be the season of free choice,
stiffened by habit, of the plastic or moulding process
of the mind itself; the season of elasticity, both
moral and intellectual; of resistance to discourage-
ment and apathy; of hopefulness and confidence,
tempered by modesty, deference, and teachableness;
of buoyant spirits and vigour ever new; of growth
in practical faith, spiritual insight, and definite
purpose. Whatever might be the faults, from the
most venial lapses up to the darkest sins against
which the young had to guard, the question was a
practical one, though they could not expect him to
go far into it. In one sense, no doubt, and rightly
understood, they accepted the Scriptural saying,
" The love of money is the root of all evil ;" but, for
their present purpose, and probably as much at this
time as :at any former one, if not more, he would
rather say, " Idleness is the root of all evil.' Idle-
ness meant doing—doing of any kind—much less
than they ought or could. Literally doing nothing
was a course hardly possible. The true meaning, he
conceived, of their Lord's saying about the house
swept and garnished was a warning against idleness.
A house swept and garnished meant- a house only
ready to be occupied, not yet occupied ; and the
parable meant that as such a house would be occu-
pied by some one—if not by the good, inevitably by
the had-30 it was of the mind and soul. The mind
could not lie fallow. It must produce the benignant
and beneficent crop of corn, or the noxious one of
weeds and tares. There was a curious passage in
Isaiah, supposed to be addressed to those who pre-
tended to be gods, " Do good or do evil "—at all
events do something; almost anything they could
lay hold of was better than doing nothing. Of all
the;hopeless cases, he doubted if there were any more
hopelois: than that of those who of late had been
• called, by a strange word imported from America, of
which the derivation was utterly unknown, loafers—
fellows who lounged about all day with theirhands in
their pockets. To put it on the lowest ground, they
might be very sure that those who did so were the
least likely of all men to have anything in the said
pockets worth putting the hand in to draw out.
(Laughter.) He had always told his boys, and he
thought not without good effect, "Work or play, one
or the other," understandinc, both words in a larger
sense. Either of them was understanding
than sheer idle-
ness and vacuity. Exercise for the mind of almost
any kind;was_work; and if it were for an innocent
pnrpose, it was not likely to be wrong, if it did not
take the place of some duty, for at least it strengthened
the muscles of the mind. Exercise for the body
must needs be either work or play, and in one sense
the same thing might be both. He had heard likely
a sort;of untopia delineated for the English work-
Man—. _

‘: Eight hours for work, and eight hours for play;
Eight hours for sleep, and eight shillings a day."
(Laughter.) If these eights were bona fide occupied
as described, if nature would provide the eight hours'
sleep, if the work was good, hard, and steady work,
if tli.e meals were taken out of the eight hours for
play, if the play included the cultivation of the
social and domestic affections, and some mental as
well as bodily recreation and refreshment, and if a
fair portion of the eight daily shillings was bestowed
on appliances for improvement of all kinds, he did
not much object to that symmetrical appropriation
when it was attainable; and they would not fail to
notice that it left no margin for idleness. That
advice, however, was particularly addressed to handi-
craftsmen, and many of them he wasaddressing were
somewhat above thLt. But for them, even more
than for the others, it was a matter of absolute duty
to keepitheir bodily frame well braced from exercise
He suspected that duty was not as well attended to
among the middle classes as it commonly was
amongst the upper by choice, and among the lower
by necessity. Idleness, he said, Was the root of all
or of much evil. One or two special evils might be
noted which. obviously and indisputably were its
growth. One was intemperance. It was common
place to say that, at least, one very main cause of it
was idleness, emptiness of mind, and unoccupied
morn nts. He would not dwell on the waste of time
and resources, and their own loss and that of the.
nation, of the labouring class. Bat by all classes
everywhere, and at all times, were the memorable
words of the stern old prophet to be laid to heart,
when he spoke of the worst of those sins of the flesh
among which drunkenness held a lower place—ho
al4.ributed them:to pride, fulness ofibread, and abund-
ance of idleness. In speaking of such an evil as
4runkenuess, they must bear in mind not only what
itk:was, but what it led to. There was an old legend,
an apologue of the times when men were believed to
make strange and mysterious bargains with the Devil.
The story was that some such unhappy man was
forced to choose from three kins one of which he
must needs commit. To get drunk was one of them,
and choosing this, in that state he committed the
otheritwo:trom which he had hoped to escape. Apart
from:the legend the story was of daily occurrence,
and one of the sins alluded to might he easily
conjectured. His lordship said he wished to speak
with planless on this subject, and he appointed out
that apart from moral and religious arguments, which
he left to otLef.s, one of the best of all secondary
aids to a pure life was constant occupation of mind
and body.
A cordial veto of thanks was passed to Lord
Lyttelton, (la the motion of the Rev. A. Girdlestone,
seconded by oie of the members, and the proceed-
ings closed.

NEW HISTORY OF lan.—A country which contains
two hundred and forty millions of our fellow-creatures
subject to British zule, and whose welfare is in our bands
has a rikht to command our interest, and it is time in-
deed that there should be accessible to the English po•
pie the means of knowing all about our great Indian
Empire. We are glad, therefore, to observe that Messr..
Cassell Petter & ckalpin, in view of the widespread in-
terest, aroused by the Prince of Wales' visit to the east,
are about to issue,. in Monthly Parts and weekly num-
bers, an Illustrated History of India," uniform in ats le
and price with " Cassell's History of England." With
Part I. of this work, ready on the 20Lh of December, will
be issued as a presentati,n plate a life-like Portrait ef
ktrlal Highm sa the prince of Wales, produced iu
the best form of art, and uniform in aize. style, and qual-
ity with the valuable Portrait of Her Majesty issued with
Part I. of Cassell's History of Eu4lanl," to wnich it is
intended that the Pura-tit of the Prince shall firm a
Companion Picture.
BIRMINGHAM CATTLE SHOW.—For the fourth
year in succession "Webb's -Imperial Swede" this
secured high honours in the Swede class open to the.
United Kingdom. First and second prizes being
again awarded this excellent variety. First and
second prizes awarded to Webb's Tankard Turnip.
First prize awarded to Webb's Surprise Potatoe in
in cla-s 21; White Skinned variety. Stand 83, in the
gallery, is a remarkabl centre of attraction, being
devoted to a display of prize roots by Messrs. Edward
Webb and Sons, Seedsmon to Her Majesty the
Queen. These roots have been contributed by
various customers of the firm, and grown from seo,ls
;applied by them ; and have been selected from the
prize specimens exhibited at their great annual show
at Wordsley, Stourbridge. The character of these
prizes may be estimated by a glance at the goodly
aray of silver plate in the form of cups awarded to
the principal exhibitors. A lot of remarkably fine-
4rown mangolds have been contributed by the
Queen, being the produce of Her Majesty's Norfolk
Farm Windsor. Sonic mangolds, of the Webb's Im-
proved Colonel North variety, are remarkable for
great weight; and there are several lots of Webb's
yellow intermediate., and Webb's yellow fleshed
mangold, of excellent growth and heavy weights.
The collection of Webb's Imperial Swede is a wonder-
ful display, and occupies as it deserves, a foremost
place; The popularity of this swede among root
growers is dime to its rare combination of heavy,
!lardy, and good feeding qualites. The exhibit of
t) turnips and carrots is an excAlent one, the latter
being especially fine, and for weight perhaps un-
surpassed by any in the show. TlvTe are some
novelties in the shape of Webb's Kinver Yellow ,
I hobo Mangold, a new variety, for which orders are
now being taken for next spring del:very-; and anew
kind of potato grown by Lord Windsor. This latter
has. been named "Webb's Surprise," and its high
quaiities as a tuber are the result of jnlicious selec-
tion and careful cultivation. Not the least interest-
ing part of the stand is devoted to a display. of
grail-ICH as used by Messrs. Webb :n their suprior
mixtures for permanent pasture.