The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-15 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

" How many assurances gave the Czars that they would
never occupy anything of Polish territory, and what has be-
come of Poland? How many times has the Czar sworn by
solemn treaties eternal peace and friendship to Turkey?
How solemnly has he, on entering Wallachia, assured you
that he meditated nothing against the integrity and inde-
pendence of Turkey? Did you believe him? if the
United States of America will swear that they will never
take Cuba, if Great Britain would swear that it never more will
extend its territory in India, would you not yourself call the
man a fool who would trust it? Well, just such is the case
about Austrian assurances as to Turkey. Look to the
map ; there is the answer to those assurances—no reason-
ing against geography. Yet your statesmen tell one
another gravely that they trust the assurances of Austria.
That's more than what Roman augurs were able to do when
two of them met. No ;it is sheer affectation, they don't
trust; but, to escape a little difficulty, they sacrifice the
aim. It is political expediency. Bless their five wits,
Moldavia and Wallachia given in keeping to Austria ; it is
the poultry-yard given in keeping to the fox, to keep it from
the wolf. (Laughter.) Nay, it is more: Turkey had a
purse. A highwayman came and asked the life or the
purse. Turkey whipped the highwayman away ; then came
her tardy Mends, Great Britain and France, and thus told
her : Give your purse in keeping to this honest pick-
pocket here, or else it is with us you shall have to do.
That is the case. Poor Turkey !"
Ho contrasted the speech of two principal mein•
bers of our Government with their acts, and after-
wards proceeded to describe the intervention of
Austria as adverse to Turkish interests, and designed
to shield Russia. The forces of France and England
united would be powerless, he asserted, against
Sebastopol, and he predicted the most disastrous
results from any effort directed against it :
" I don't think you can take Sebastopol by the sea.
The opportune moment of the coup de ma►n being lost, it
would cost sacrifices which you neither can afford nor
risk. And as to taking it by land; to take a fortress,
accessible by trenches, and having but a garrison to de-
fend it, that is but a matter of art and of comparative
sacrifices. It can be calculated to the hour. But to take
an entrenched camp linked by terrible fortresses and an
army for garrison in it, and new armies pouring upon your
flank and rear, and you in the plains of the Crimea
with almost no cavalry to resist them, that is such an
undertaking to succeed in which more forces are neces-
sary than England and France ever can unite in that
quarter for such an aim. Ask about it any staff officer
who has learned something about tactics and strategy.
And in that position is Sebastopol, thanks to your Austrian
alliance, which, having interposed herself between you and
your enemy in Wallachia, made the Czar free to send
such numbers to Sebastopol as he likes. You will be
beaten, remember my word. Your braves will fall in
vain under Russian bullets and Crimean air—as the
Russians fell under Turkish bullets and Danubian fever.
Not one out of five of your braves, immolated iu vain,
shall see Albion or Gallia again."
Sebastopol, he insisted, was only to be taken at
Warsaw, and the Oriental question securely settled by
the resurrection of Poland, Lombardy, and Hungary.
He concluded his long and energetic address, which,
according to the published reports, seems to have
made a profound impression on his auditory, by de-
claring that an alliance with nations would make the
war short, while an alliance with despotic Govern-
ments would make it long. Events, however, do not
yet seem rife for that " war of opinion" which, ac-
cording to Canning;—not often lucky in his political
prophecies,—would, when hostilities newt broke forth
in Europe, supersede the old dynastic and terri-
torial contests.

MATERIAL AIDS TO EDUCATION.
THE Society of Arts have recently opened an education&
exhibition in St. Martin's-hall, Long-acre,where a series of
lectures on cognate subjects is about to be delivered under
their auspices. To inaugurate this series an address was
delivered on Monday evening, before a large audience, by
the Rev. Dr. Whewell, the subject being the " Material
Aids to Education."
Dr. WHENVELL commenced by explaining the signification
of the term education in the sense in which he proposed to
apply it ; and viewing it as a means of elevating human
nature to the highest attainable standard, without reference
to proficiency in any particular art, he said the objects of
education should be to make man participate in and appre-
ciate what is rational, true, beautiful, and good. The in-
culcation of those four qualities he considered to be essen-
tial in every perfect system of education, and proceeded
to examine each one separately, to show their importance
and the means of instilling those principles into the mind.
The cultivation of reason depends essentially on the know-
ledge of language, which is the manifestation of rationality
in man, and though the acquirement of language may be
considered as spontaneous education, if the subject be
pursued further and the history of language and its
derivations be studied, a higher branch of knowledge is
opened and reasoning faculties of a higher order are
brought into exercise. Dr. Whewell pursued the subject
of language at some length, with a view to show the pecu-
liar structure of the English tongue in its relation to what
are usually called the " dead " languages. The main struc-
ture of the language is Saxon, but the superficial part, all
that gives it a living character, is derived from the Latin.
The next principle taught by education, that of truth—
especially in reference to the truths of science—is mainly
assisted by those visible aids which it is the oltiect of the
Educational Exhibition to supply. Dr. Whewell alluded
to the rude orrery noticed by Cicero as having been
constructed in his time, to show that in the earliest
days of science visual aids were had recourse to, to