The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-11-28 00:00:00

THE QUEBEC INSTITUTE.

The first annual meeting of the above promising
Institute wai held on Tuesday evening in its Theatre,
Lower Seymour-street, London (Lord Lyttleton pre-
siding), when Mr. Walter, M.P., delivered a most
interesting and practical address, from which we make
the following extracts :
... The remarks I have to make are intended solely for
those who are bond fide members of this institution, and
who, as persons beginning what I may call their second stage
of education, are only desirous of knowing what is the
opinion of a plain person like myst If as to the best means of
availing themselves of the benefits of au institution like
this with a view to their own improvement Now, I must tell
you that even in the rural districts tile labourer is not left
without the means of self improvement. (Cheers.) Though
not dignified with the name of Institutes, the night schools
in many of our villages; afford during the winter months
both a refuge from temptation and a means of instructi
to thousands of our country lads, who, from the necessities
of their calling in life, are compelled to leave school at a
much earlier age than is happily the case with the children
to our towns. Nor are volunteers wanting to aid the school-
master in the work in which his single energies would ulten be
overtaxed. There does not exist u more hardworking or meri-
torious body of men than the teachers in our public elemen-
tary schools (cheers) ; but, like other mortals, they require
rest, and the machiiiery of night schools, like that of this
Institute, would be in danger of breaking down, were
It met sore loathe.; ii oy teat cnoitory sgetety to aloof,
cation in this country owes so much. IC was stated by into
of the school Inspectors under the Duke of Newcastle's com-
mission that at Wells he found the Bishop himself teaching a
class of navvies to read and cipher. (Cheers.) I witnessed,'
he says, 'with admiration those brawny men corning bite
the room with clean smockfrocks, and newly washed hands
and faces, having walked a distaxce of more than two miles
from their cottages to pursue their studies. Everyone had
his reason for coming, and one of the most intelligent had
the ambition of rising to no an engine-driver. The fart is,
as Mr. W iglam, the superintendent of locomotives at Bristol,
said, these men know that some of the richest contractors
have risen from being mere navvies; but that such a posi-
tion is impossible to reach without a knowledge of reading,
writinz, and arithmetic ; but especially the last, in order
that they may be able to measure work.' (Cheers.) Read-
ing, writing, and arithmetic ! What an educational outfit
for such an enterprise ! Yet sordid as may have been the
motive to exertion, one cannot but admire the courage of
these poor fellows in facing the difficulty of acquiring these
rudiniente of knowledge so late in life, and we may hope that,
If they did not all attain to the desirable position of 'rich con-
tractors,' they may yet have gained soine distinction In their
calling, while they con hardly have failed to inquire a
greater degree of intelligence and self-respect. Lice the
old man's sons in the fable who were told that ff they
dug in a certain field they should flint a treasure, and
who, after much labour, were rewarded, not, Indeed,
with the treasure they expected, but with abun-
dant produce, and an excellent moral lesson into
the bargain ; so may these men have found not, indeed,
the gold they were seeking, but something far more
calculated to do them good, and to make them better mem-
bers of society. (Cheers.) But though our night schools in
the country are comparatively a an elementary character,
and offer no such choice of studies as we find in the Insti-
tutes of our great towns, nature Itself provides the agricul-
tural labourer with some compensation for the want of these
advantages. Agricultural labour, in its various operations,
presents a wider field of observation, said calls into play more
of the mental as well as bodily faculties than perhaps any
other department of industry. 'The man,' says Adam Smith,
wits works upon brass and iron, works with instruments
and upon materials of which the temper is always the same,
or very nearly the same. But the man who ploughs
the ground with a learn of horses or oxen works with in-
struments of which the health, streegth, and temper are
very different upon different occasions. The condition of
the materials which he works upon, too, is as variable as
those of the instruments which he works with, and both
require to be managed with much judgment and discretion.
Ile is less acenstomed, indeed, to social intercourse than
the mechanic who lives In a town. His voice and lan-
guage are more uncouth, and more difficult to be
understood by those who are not used to them.
Lis understanding, however, being accustomed to con-
sider a greater variety of objects, Is generally much
superior to that of the other, whose attention from looming
to night is commonly occupied in performing one or two
simple operations' The Bishop of Manchester—no mean
authority on educational subjects—observes that the epithet
of unskilled labour' is wholly misapplied hi the case of
the man who knows minutely the habits and manner of
treatment of four or five different kinds of animals—horses
beasts, sheep, swine, poultry ; who can hedge, ditch, thrash,
mow, reap, plough a furrow, drive a drill, FOw a tleid broad-
cast, as straight and true as though the line were chalked for
him—this man wants seinething more than mere Views and
nmscles ; he nmst possess cleverness of the hand and n e ;
and the first-rate farm labourer is as truly skilled as the
first-rate mechaiiic or anti... It would seem, then, that
In respect of that kind of education—and all life is an edu-
cation, which results from the exercise of a Miles daily
calling—the countryman enjoys some advantages which ale
not shared by the inhabitants of towns, the general sub-
divisien of labour, the concentration of the mind day after
day upon the same minute details, cannot but tend to nar-
row the range of the intellectual vision, and to promote
the growth of special faculties at the expense of the
healthy development of the whole. It was observed
by Lord Bacon—and I have no doubt the remark will be
harne out by the best modern authorities—that even in the
sciences of law and medicine the too great sabdivisiou of
labour is fatal to depth and sufficiency of knowledge, and
the so-murk will apply with greater force to those depart-
ments of industry in which the sulelivision of labour is car-
ried to a much greater extent. How. then, is this evil to
be remedied? How is this tendency of modern civilization to
be counteracted' How are man's higher faculties and tastes
to rise above the level of his daily drudgery? First and
foremost, no doubt, by means of that early training, whether
at home or In school, which the nation has at length recog-
nized as the birthright of every child in this e .entry.
(cheers.) The education of a people is a plant of slow growth
alai some time must elapse before it yields its fruit in per-
fection ; but we may hope that in the next generation an
uneducated child will be looked upon its a solecism in Nature.
NO &lII,t ton, by that time, the benefits of our Endowed
Schools and Universities will be accessible to a far larger pro-
portion of our population thee at present. But Its the mean-
time it is to institutions like this that we must chiefly look
both to supply the deficiencies of early education and to
extend and improve it where a goad foundatien has
already been laid. (Cheers.) This, then, is the real
object of the Quebec Institute—to furnish the young
people of this part of the metropolis who have the
heart for such an enterprise with the means of self-im-
provement, by supplying them with almost gratuitous in-
struction suited to their wants and capacities, and by
enabling them to test their progress by means of examina-
tions conducted by the London University and the Society
of Arts. (Cheers.) This is all that it professes to do, and I do
not see how it could be expected to do more. (Cheers) Let
no one regard it as the navvy did the night school—as a
kind of educational lottery, in which prizes might be won out
of all proportion to the toil bestowed on them. No such
Ides could possibly be sanctioned by the friends of this In-
stitute, nor, if entertained by its members, could it lead to
anything but disappointnient and disgust. The affair, of
the world, the business of life, all that vast and compli-
cated system of trade and industry upon which modern
civilization depends, and the uninterrupted flow of which
is as necessary to the health of society as the circulation of
the blood is to that of the human body, will continue to
go on in their appointed order, and remain subject to
the laws imposed upon them by the Supreme Governor of
the world, Much as has been already done, and much as
will, no doubt be done hereafter, tolighten the toil of manual
labour, to simplify the processes of manufacture, and to re-
duce the powers of Nature to obedience to the will of man,
there will still remain the same need as heretofore for those
various departments of labour, in some one or other Of which
every man is allotted his pla,e. and In which, when onee
placed. the vast majority are destined to abide. I am far
from denying, of course, that there are exceptions to this rule.
The attribute of genius, however that quality be defined. is
000 which attaches to no rank or condition of life and
there is no trade so humble, no condition in early life so un-
promising as not to furnish examples of men who have risen
from the ranks, and either created new branches of industry
or raised theniselves to the highest position in Church or
State. (Cheers.). But, in reading the lives.of such men, and
you will And plenty M them recorded In such books at Mr.

--
Smiles ' 'Sell Help,' you must be careful not to mistake the
lesson they are intended to teach. They point a moral quite
as much as they ad..ri, a tale. (Cheers.) They exhibit, in-
deed, a catalogue of marvellous SChieVeltletitt won by a
combination of extraordinary qualities and rare opportuni-
ties hut withal they show plaihly enough that such achieve-
ments are not within the reach ox ordinary men." . • •

After referring to the special attractions which the
In,titute presents to those who enter its doors, Mr.
Walters went on to say :
" Next to the choice of friends, the choice of books •
exercises, perhaps, the great,. infl once over a man's I
character, and in early life require. the greatest care
(Cheers.) I mu not proscribing what is called light reading ;
but I would advise the young of either sex not to lay the
foundation of their literary taste in se tisational novels, and
works of that class. I would advise them to build upset a
more solid foundation. We have the fittest literature in the
world, and where good authors are as cheap ci bad ones,
why not choose the best? (Cheers) It is not with books as
with penis which you buy itt the shop, where,!! a man wants
the beat article, he must consult his pocket tel see whether
he can afford to pty for it But here, as in the still
higher school of Divine knowledge, the Pt,pheta
Innita-
tiesi holds go el—. Do, every OM` that thirstetli, esinte
e to the wattle, and he tird tenth IP, motley C. PM",
buy, and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and mdli whimut
money sod withoat price.' (Cheers.) Why not then
!ARM with Shakt secure (cheers' the foremost name in Eng-
lish literature—to the Btu:ly of chose matchless works a place
Is assigned by itself among the el.ses of this Institute? What
a store of observation and experience, what a treasury if
practical wisdom, what a scarlet of Imagination and fancy are
comprised within the compass of stew small volumes ! What
a variety of characters are reflected in that wondrous mirror
(Cheers.) 'The work of a correct and regular writer,' says
Dr. Johnson—no fanatical admirer of Oar great dramatist—
'ls a garden accurately formed and diligently planted,
varied • ith shades and scented with flowers; the compost-
Mu of Shakespeare Ins forest, in which oaks extend their
branches and pines tower in the air, interspersed sometimes
with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelter to
myrtles and roses filling the eye with awful pomp, and
gratifying the nand w ith undless diversity. Other ports
display cabinets of precious I whim, minutely finished,
wi ought into shape, and polished w iili brightness. Shake-
speare opens a mine which contains gold and diamonds in
inexhaustible plent)', though clouded with hicrustatiou, de-
based by impurities, and mingled with a mass of meaner
materials.' (Cheers.) In attothr place he says t—' Shake-
speare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers,
the poet of Nature; the poet that holds up to hist readers a
faithful mirror of human life. His characters are not
modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised
by the rest of the world, by the peculiarities of studies and
profession's which can operate upon small numbers, or
by the accident of transieht fashions or temporary
opinions; they are the genuine prcreny of common
humanity, such as the wqrld will always supply, and
observations will abssys fluff Ills persons act and speak
by the influence of those general passions and prin-
ciples by which all minds are agitated, and the whole sys-
tem of life is continued in motion. In the writings of other
poets a character is too often an individual ; lii those of
Shakespeare it is commonly a species.' To attempt on an
occasion of this kind to illustrate the genius of Shake-
speare, by quotations from his plays would be a fruit-
less task ; you must search out his treasures for
yourselves ; and. the longer you do so, the more richly
will you be rewarded. Read them from beginning to
end, and read them without note or comment, except 50
far as may be necessary to explain verbal difficulties.
Of course, they are not all to be read with equal atten-
tion or frequency. There is great inequality in them as in
all ether human composition.. But with respect to such
plays as King Lear and Ilamlet, Othello, and Macbeth
Julius Cereal. and Coriolanni, the Merchant of Fiume and
Romeo anti Juliet, and all the historical plays, I am sure
that mine of yon could better employ a leisure hour than
In keeping one of them always open before you, not only
• for the sake of enjoying their dramatic beauty, but for the
sake of keeping your mind stored with the maxims of
wisdom and prudence which are scattered like diamonds
through every sceae, end enriching your own vocabulary
with the splendid language in which they are conveyed.
But perhaps I have said enough about Shakespeare 'there
is another poet whom I Would commend to your notice as
worthy of special study -an author, indeed, of far hderiur
, calibre to Shakespeare, hut still second to none In the Eng-
lish language in the power of expressing and illustrating
; homely truths and weighty maxims, in verse of unqualified
• terseness and elegance. Here I may perhaps be excused for
• quoting a few lines as a sample of this great author's pe-
I culiar power ; -
'Order is Heaven's first law ; and, this cent emit
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest,
More rich, more wise ; but who infers from hence
•
•
That such are happier, shocks all common sense.
• Heaven to mankind impartial we confeas,
If all are equal in their happiness t
But mutual wants this happiness increase ;
All natures difference keeps all nature's peace.'

. . .
'Honour and shame from no condition rise ;
Act well your part, there all the honours lies.'