The Express.
London, England, 1862-09-24 00:00:00

IHOD WATNR AT LONDON BRIDOR_

TWA DAY Idorniug, 2t. Lm.....Miarnooo. 2h. 20m.
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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24.

THE people of Stockport have shown a quality
akin to fortitude in opening their new Mechanics'
Institute at this season. No doubt they do very
wisely ; no doubt they have now especial reason to
be thankful that so much has been done during the
last thirty years to diffuse knowledge among the
many ; no doubt, too, the sad enforced leisure of
the workpeople gives additional value to every means
of adult education. AU this is true ; but in many
places it would not have been perceived and acted
on. It is most satisfactory thus to note from
day to day the most various proofs that in the
depths of their distress our people are neither
losing head nor heart. We remark with plea-
sure, too, the presence of Lord STANLEY
among them. The desire is general, we
believe, in the upper classes of English society
to do something to show a humane sympathy
with those who are displaying such noble patience
under a calamity which they have done nothing
to provoke. Money contributions express th4s
feeling in a limited measure, but much happier are
they who, at a time like this, can add to the
demonstrations of benevolent compassion, the
evidence of a true community of heart with the
people.

Lord STANLEY'S speech was that of a man who
has studied well the character and condition
of the industrious classes, and he sets a
high value on the means of adult edu-
cation which institutions like those of Stockpot t
afford. He refers to the mistakes that were made
by their originators. This is a very common re-
ference ; and yet can it be said that more mis-
takes have been made in this matter than in eve- y
other where • true-hearted attempt has been
made to carry on the cause of human
advancement I The authors of Mechanics' In-
stitutes were men bent on working out new
and untried capacities of soc;ety. To resolve to
walk simply by the light of past experience was to
consent that the dreary past should be the measure
of the future. They could not admit this. They
aimed, it is said, too high ; they expected too
much : but if they had hoped for less, probably
they would not have achieved what they did.
There are some people always so wise that they
never make mistakes, and yet the world might not
miss them if they were gone. Lord STANLEY, how-
ever,does justice to the founders of Mechanics' Insti-
tutes when he says that their principles were
sound, and that they have effected a great amount
of good. What those disinterested and hopeful
men desired above all things was, not so much the
multiplication of associations of the particular type
which they had constructed, as to arouse apathy,
break down intellectual barriers, and give an im-
pulse to the popular mind ; and this they accom-
plished. Lord STANLEY, in designating the cause
of the partial failure of Mechanics' Institut:l, spoke
in deprecation of the spirit of party. And this
is of an operation much more general than we
might at a first glance suppose. After all the
fine things which are said on platforms about the
blessings of knowledge, it is surprising how much
distrust of it we find in practice. Knowledge
is often watched as if it were a disease, or coun-
teracted as if it were a poison. This feeling leads
to tampering with the management of reading rooms
and libraries, and soon, the frequenters, find-
ing that they are treated as children or
patients, withdraw. A system of surveillance,
carried beyond • care for the interests of mora-
lity, is fatal to the confidence without which there
cannot be the co-operation necessary to the suc-
cess of popular institutions. And not only so, but
the very interests which the over-zealous desire to
serve are prejudiced in the winds of lookers-on
by the attempt to withdraw them from that
collision of opinion by which in the end
the truth must always profit. If we want
a confirmation of this maxim, we may find it in
the noble patience of the population of the cotton
districts. As long as the working classes were
kept ignorant of the laws on which material wel-

are depend—as long as teaching respecting their
outward lot was limited to • mere declaration,
made as of authority, that the causes of pro-
sperity and distress were insertitable, and that all
they had to do was to be satisfied, whatever might
happen—when trouble and distress came, men
were full of dark suspicions, and broko out into
acts of violence, which were moat frequently
directed against those very persons who were
doing most to lighten their burdens—against
the dealers in provisions, for example. Some
of the speakers on Monday evening had painful
recollections of such scenes, ending in capital exe-
cutions. But in these days, when the contrasts
between poverty and wealth are even more striking,
the constitution of society is one of the commonest
subjects of discussion among the industrial classes.
Men are not told that it is their duty to believe this
and that on the subject without inquiry, but the laws
which contract the sources of prosperity are un-
folded before them. The result is that, seeing
their working, they rationally acquiesce in the
order of nature and Providence.
Lord STANLEY finds another cause of the seem-
ing failure of institutions of adult education in
the false standard by which some men insist on
trying the instruction given. It is very difficult'
for persons who can dispose of their time
to decide what those who must labour with their
hands all the day should learn in their leisure.
Yet it is attempted, and because here and there
a youth conscious of great natural powers has
been stirred up to great efforts by the hope which
that knowledge inspires, straightway it is as-
sumed that all others may do the same. We may
be sure that • high example will not be lost on
those who are capable of following it, and with this
we should be satisfied. Those who have influence
with the young would do more wisely to show
them the advantages sure to follow from virtuous
conduct and an industrious cultivation of ordinary
gifts, than in teaching them indiscriminately to
hope for the rewards which are only for eminent
merit. The best stimulant to intellectual exertion
will bo found in that sense of deficiency which
arises on an extending knowledge of the world
and society, and the vocation of the individual in
both. This not only gives reality to studies,
but fosters a habit of self-reliance which the
Englishman needs more than any other European.
Our self-respecting young people, whether they
engage in the battle of life at home, or go out
to tho colonies or to strange countries, must be
manly, and for this purpose they must be free.
Let those who would help the young labourer to
acquire knowledge, have confidence in his intel-
lectual liberty. We see the tranquillising effects of
knowledge in this present crisis, and if there are
other trials in store for the nation, we may be sure
that they will be all the easier to bear for every
honest effort that is made to promote the enlighten-
ment of the people.

Thor Duchess of Inverness has returned to Ken-
sington Palma, [ram Richmond.
His Excellency Mirror Hussein Khan and suite,
on a special mission from the court of Teheran, has arrived
at Claridge's Hotel.

The Earl and Countess of Craven and family will
leave Coombe Abbey on Saturday, for Ashdown. Park,
Berks.

The Earl and Countess of Mount *mambo
have arrived at the Earl of Durham's residence in Grosve-
nor- quare for a few days.

Lord and Lady Lianover have been entertaining
• succession of visitors atLlanover Court., Abergavenny.

. _ .
Lord Herriea and family have returned to
Thomas's Hotel, Berkeley-square.

Lord Schoenberg Kerr has left Claridge's Hotel
for Frankfort.

Mr. Beaumont, M.P., and Lady Margaret Beau-
moat have been entertaining the following company at their
amt, Bretton Park, Wakefield, during the past week :
Maris Marchioness of Aileabury, Lord and Lady Cecilia
Bingham, Viscount Chilies, the Earl Annesley, Lord Dun-
kenin, Mr. and Lady Elizabeth Adeane, Mr. and Lady
Augusta Skirt, the Hoe. Mr. and Mrs. Francis Stow; the
lion. Mr. and Mrs. Carson, Sir Robert Brownrigg, Re.
Sir F. Graham and Lady Moon have left Port-
man-square for their marine residence, Brighton.

The deanery of Ferns has been given to the
Rev. Dr. Atkins, ex-Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin,
rector of Tullyapish, a college living worth 8001. a year. Dr,
Atkios is the author of a work entitled the " Donnellan
Lectures on Pastoral Duties."

The number of emigrants who left Ireland from
the Ist of May, 1851, to the lst of August, 1862, including
males and females, was 1,273,609. This is a large number.
But many of them went only to Great Britain, and would
return again. The number of persons who stated it to be
their intention to leave the country permanently during
the first seven months of this year was 45,899, being an
increase of 391 over the number who emigrated within the
same period in 1861.

Mr. James Sharp, the Southampton meteoro-
logist, has published the results of his daily observations on
the weather in that town for the lut fourteen veers. The
prevailing wind there is the south west, the next is the
north east, ►od the least prevailing is the Treat wind. The
mean yearly depth of rain and melted snow in the first 10
years was 27.21 inches, and during the last four years
13.28 inches.

The Prince and Princess Royal of Prussia will
leave Reinhanltabrunn in a fortnight oil a tour to Baden,
Switzerland, and Italy.

The Kiug of Hanover has oouferred the large
gold medal of arts and sciences on M. Methfeesel, Chapel
Master at the Court, and the oldest of the German com-
posers._

_
A Cronstadt journal states that the Japanese
ambassadors all suffered from see-sickness in going from
Swisemumle to St. Petersburg. The First Ambusader, is
particular, was exceedingly ill, notwithstanding the strange
remedy he employed, which consisted of soup made of hone.
radish end rice, seasoned with red herrings and sardines cut
into small pieced. When eating this singular compound he
took a little champagne after every spoonful.
A few days ago, at a sitting of the Lower House,
at Vienna, the President was on the point of concluding •
debate, when • female voice from the strangers' gallery
requested to be heard upon the subject. " Gentlemen,"
said the lady, " I wish to makes speech. Being the queen
of all the telegraphs in the world "—here she was inter.
rnpted by an official, who vainly tried to induce her
to leave the gallery. Her glowing cheeks and the rest-
-1 less glances of her eye leaving no doubt as to the
state of mind iu which she was, some of the other
Managers advised her to go down and deliver her speech
; from the tribune. The unfortunate lady immediately
I caught at the proposal, and, leaving the hall, began to
MA her feelings in the ante-room before she could be
Sealy removed. " I ant • Rus.ian," she said, " and in
Rossi• everything is permitted. I mar talk wherever I
I like. It is my mission to teach the people of Austria that
I. there is no God but God, and no Emperor but the Emperor
of all the Rummies. As bog as the Austrian charter hu Dot
been signed by Alexander IL, the work of the reicbarath is
vain, and nothing can come of ik"—with much more to the
lame effect. The name of the political lunatic has not been
allowed to transpire.

M. Berard, the political economist and inde-
fatigable advocate of free trade in France, publiabei an
article in the Areltir Commercial showing the immense
progress made by the French mercantile navy since the
removal of some of the restrictions with which it was
impeded under the pretence of protection. Official returns
show that in the year 1860 the tonnage of all the ships
engaged in trading with France increased by 86 per cent.,
and the tonnage of ships trading under the French flag
increased by 50 per cent. This great improvement has
taken place since the prohibition has been removed by
which the muter of a French merchant ship in a foreign
port was forbidden to embark a cargo for another foreign
port. It is hoped that the success obtained by this tint
reform will induce the government to remove all the re•
maiuiug impedimenta.