The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-04 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 4, 1853

MIL COBDEN, M.P., AT HOLMFIRTH.

Iday, when I was in Hnddenfield, I went over • warehouse
there, and saw every kind of chock and pattern for pante-
' loons and waistcoats. But these thiugs, as I am informed,
did not come from Holinfirth ; for here you have been
sticking too much to the old style of drah kersep, and that
sort of thing. (Applause and loud laughter.) Now, gen-
tlemen, believe ner it will never do to persist in going on in the old beaten trick when the world is bent upon going
out of it. (Hear, hear.) The world is obstinate, and not
only obstinate, but capricious; and if you do not follow it
in its changes and requirements, and that very quickly, it
will be of no use dreaming of remaining in business with
I any success in these times.. (Hear, hear.) Well, then,
gentlemen, that being ii, bear in mind the next fact—that
there is no one so obstinate in resisting change as the
ignorant man. (Hear, hear.) Eduiate the man, and he
is as pliant and as plastic as possible, and most readily
accommodates himself to the charges of eir.umstance in
the world around him. So long, however, as men are
ignorant, they will not change ; they will turn upon you
I one sly—" It did for our fathers and grandfathers, and it
shall do fur us." (Hear, hear.) But, gentlemen, this
society not only gives youth an encouragement in the pur-
suit of knowledge, and stimulates their minds with motives
for seeking further knowledge, but it expands and elevate*
their ideas, and stimulates them to ascertain in their respec-
tive callings what is wanted in the world in the way of
novelty. In this way the world's craving for variety may
be satisfied by ourselves. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, I
have heard since I came into this room something about
persons who are opposed to these institutions. Well, I
listened very attentively to the speakers who dwelt upon
that topic, as I wanted to find out who these people were,
end where they sprung from. (Hear, hear.) I wondered
what Feet or denomination this person could be long to
who felt ir.elined to brand these institutions and tho.e who
belonged to or supported them with a sort of infidelity. I
was really curious to discover the man who could now be
found to quarrel with these institutions. I felt curious to
see the religious sect which held such a doctrine. But
really we have had one reverend gentleman after another
praising these institutions, and denouncing this objector to
them, until at last, I believe, we have had to night the
adhesion and active support of representatives of every
religious denomination that is to be found amongst us.
(.. Hear, hear," and anpleuse.) And from the first of these
reverend gentlemen I heard as liberal a sentiment as ever
posed from the lips of any loan breathing. (Hear, hear.)
Ile said that if the mum could only afford the time and
money, he wished that every poor man's child were as well
educated as the children of the richest. (Applause.) No-
body can deny that such a state of things would be a
blessing, not only to the poor, but to eve limy in the
country, from the highest to the humblest. (Hear, hear.)
It h is; I know, been objected, that the poor may be too much
educated. Why, gentlemen, you may just as well be afraid
of all the poor riding about n their coaches and four, or
playing the piano, as fear that they will be too well edit-
cated. (Hear, hear.) Admitting that it would be unwise
to educate the poor so well as the rich are educated—ad-
mitting it, for argument's sake—there are too great and I
fear wholly insuperable obstacles to that state of things
ever arriving: the one is the want of time, the other the
want of means. (Hear.) So long as these obstacles exist
the rich need be in no fear that the poor will he better
educated than tl.ey are. (Hear, hear.) I remember wait-
ing with a person holding this doctrine in Manchester about
16 years ago, where I and others were engaged in the
work of starting the Manchester Athens= I was em-
ployed in waiting upon the principal merchant., manufac-
turers, and tradesmen of the tewn, asking for subscriptions
towards establishing the Athenaeum. One gentlemen met
me with this objection—" I think the people are • good
deal too much educated already. I don't think we shall
be safe if they are to be educated any more ; and our
property will be in danger if this goes on." (A laugh.)
%Well, I met him by putting to him this question—. Will
you tell me in whet period of the world's history you would
rather have lived than the present, in order to have had
ycur vast fortune safer than it is now ?" Well, he could not
answer me. (Hear, hear.) I urged him to point out the
period lie would have selected—" Would you have pre-
ferred the last reign or the reign before, or the reign of
George 1., or the reign of Queen Anne, or that of Queen
Elisabeth, in order to have lived in greater security both
as regents your persin and property 1" (Hear, hear, and
laughter.) Why he could not tell me. (Hear, hear.) And
so I answered my own question by saying—.. You would be
much safer if you lived 30 or 40 years hence ; but not if you
were to go back to any time however remote." (Applause.)
This is the tendency of these institutions ; and yet peo-
ple are to be found who charge against them that they
produce disaffection, disloyalty, and revolution. Now
disloyalty and revolution come to the people from mis-
goverement ; and misgovernment is more likely to be
attempted upon an ignorant than upon an educated people.
We have been well told that "oppression makes wise men
mad." (Hear, hear.) And I remember this being very
well applied by a man who was lecturing upon the Corn
Laws at Bury—a man perhaps not highly educated, yet by
no means destitute of shrewdness. The lecturer said—
"' oppression maks wise men mad.' If It maks wise men
mad', what men it do wi' fooils then ?" (Laughter and
loud applause.) I think, gentlemen, you will agree with
the inference which the leceirer left his auditory to draw,
that whatever effect misgovernment or oppression had upon
wise men, it must produce worse and more disastrous effecta
when the ignorant and the fools come to deal with it. (Ap
please.) Therefore, you cannot do a worse thing than to
encourage ignorance. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, will you
allow nes to offer a practical remark upon a subject which I
think is of some interest and some importance. While
your chairman and secretary were. stating the course of
instruction given at your institution, I think, I missed
any allusion to iastruction in geography. Now, I would
suggest to those gentlemen who have taken so great an
interest in this society, that geography and maps
be added. You may get some capital large outline
maps from the School Society. I wish you to instruct your
youth in geography. Yen know there is just now a great
mania for emigration ; and people are losing their fnends
—not losing them altoether, because from the increased fa-
cilities in travelling you may easily go to the other side
of the world, and yet hope to come back to see your
friends and relations again. Now, it is a sad thing when
a youth has a friend who has gone to Australia If he should
want to follow bins, that he should have no idea where to
find him. Bat if he knew a little of geography he could put
his finger on the map and tell exactly where to find him.
It is also • serious disadvantage to a person who desires to
emigrate. The other day I heard of a man who wanted
to go to the diggings at Victoria, and booked himself to
Syuney. When he got there he found himself several hun-
dred miles from the end of his journey, and had to ship
himself again several hundred miles arther. AU this
would have been avoided had he been taught geography.
These are days in which geography is all-important. As
I tame along to-day I was reading • Scotch newspaper,
the Dusuiss Advertiser, and found this expensive idea
alluded to in these words—" When all the world over are
beginning to think less and lee of themselves as subjects
of this or that government, and more and more of them-
selves u citizens of the world. The printing press, first of
all, then the steam-engine, and more recently the electric
telegraph, have mightily conduced to this still progressive
change. The literature of one nation is now the literature
of all nations; • voyage round the world in only a pleasure
trip ; London converses with Paris lit • moment of time.
By books, by travelling, or by electric communication, we
know, see, or speak with all mankind. We are more
neighbourly with the antipodes now therewith Europe • cen-
time age, and the state of the continent is better known to us
to-day than was that of this kingdom to our grandfathers."
This urges the people to strive after • higher state of edu-
cation than was attained in former times; for as all are
now interested in what is going on in Melbourne, in the
United States and in Canada, and as we make the great
topics of conversation, the triumphed' steam and naviga-
tion, men are not for society in the present day odes, they
have a more enlarged knowledge of all these things than
their fathers had. Take the meehanie ; he reads that in
New York there is a new invention being applied, called
the caloric engine, by which it is proposed to propel ships
without steam engines or boilers. But when an uneducated
man reads about these things in New York, it is to him
just the same as if he read about something going on in the
moon; he does not know whether the people there are
black or white. In fact, an American went to a respec-
table inn in York, the son being told that he was from
America, the landlady in surprise said, " You are from
America! dear me, I always thought they were black."
(Laughter.) And there are many people, dare say, who
do really suppose that the Americans are black. This
arises from neglect in not teaching people geography. I
want to see the mass of the people read these things to
which I have alluded with advantage. The people have
read of these things is your news-room. I am glad to
hear of this new feature, the news-room, and have no
doubt but it will be one of the most attractive features
in your institution. (Hear, hear.) This has been
found to be the ease in other places. For many years
these institutions could not have a news-room,
because they were objected to by influential parties as
being political. But there is nothing less political than •
news-room, if the newspapers admitted are fairly selected,
because they will have papers of all kinds. (Hear, hear.)
You will find that people will resort to news-rooms, not to
read the leading articles ; for, with all respect for the
talented writers for the public press, I regard the leaders
as of far less importance than the article@ of news in the
paper. Take a newspaper up, and you will find news
brought from all parts of the world. Nineteen-twentieths
of the whole paper consists of news, and only one-twentieth
part of original articles or leaden; therefore with all
respect to the editors of these newspapers, I believe these
original articles, so far as guidance end direction are con-
cerned, are the least useful and interesting parts of their
papers ; facts and intelligence being more *ought after by
readers. There are far more newspapers in America than
here ; but they have less political influence ; people there
go to see what is the last news from Europe, 'brought in
by the last steam-boat which has arrived. I wish, there-
fore, that people could be disabused of the idea that the
reading of newspapers can be of the least injury to these
who like to read a newspaper for the ;appose which most
of us like it for. There is one other point upon which I
wished to have made a remark. Somebody mentioned to
me when I came into the room that you had made an ap-
' plication to parliament for grants of parliamentary papers.
(Hear, hear.) We publish, as many of you know, every
year, • mass of parliamentary papers. I am afraid that a
great deal of these papers, in the ease of nineteen-
twentieths of the members of parliament to whom they are
open, go very speedily to the bu'ter-shop, not being much
read or used. It has been asked that these papers should
be given to societies of this kind. (Hear, hear.) Now, I
have presented petitions to this effect to parliament, and I
' think one from this institution in favour of granting
you these papers. My own impression is, that if the
statistical department of the Board of Trade would
analyse all these papers, and give us at the end
of the session a good digest of them in a ample form, it ,

HOLMFIRTH, Fan. 3.
Lost evening the annual Soiree of the Holmfirth
Mechanics Institution took place, when Mr. Cobden, M.P..
for the first time addressed the inhabitants of this obscure
but important nook of Yorkshire. About WO persons
took tea together iu the Wesleyan School Itoom, and after-
wards adjourned to the Town Hall, where the speeches
were delivered. The assembly included all the leading in-
habitants of the neighbourhood, toaether with ministers
belonging to the Church of England, the Independents,
the Wesleyan., and the Unitarians.
Mr. J (AIN limos, President of the Institution, officiated
u Chairman.

Mr. WIMPINNY, the Secretary, gave • detailed account
of the state of the institution, which ha said had suffered
greatly by the dreadful calamity of las: year, when the
bursting of the Bilberry reservoir caused such a destruction
of life and property. FIJI' some time the 'Tat' of the di-
',eters were paralysed, but the institution was beginniog
to gain strength again, and the number of members was
now greater than before the flood of bat February. More
suitable rooms have also been fitted up in the centre of the
town, with a news room attached ; and, with the continued
aid of the influential inhabitants, it was hoped that the in-
stitution would be placed upon a sounder footing than it had
ever yet been.
Mr. Conutoe, M.P., on being called upon, rose to address
the meeting, and was received with loud and vociferous
cheering. lie spoke as follows: —Mr. Chairman, ladies,
and gentlemen,—When I heard you, sir, speak of war, I
could not help feeling how much better it would be if we
could have some one to fight with here, for where there is
perfect unanimity, where there is nobody to oppose us ex-
cept that phantom which has been conjured up that there is
somebody opposed to education, it tenders it exceedingly
difficult for those who have to address you to engage your
attenzion and interest your feelings. And my difficulty is
much increased to-night in hissing to follow a successi-m of
speakers who, I will say, without fiaWry, have equalled
any speakers that I have ever listened to at • meeting of
this kind—(hear, hear)—speakers who have given you
practical arguments, cogent reasoning, and strong declama-
tion. Now, gentlemen, shall I confess the truth to you,
and tell you • secret. I am • very bad hand indeed at
speaking—bad at all times, but especially bad when I have
nothing to prove, nothing to disprove, and nobody to op-
POW. Everything here is admitted, and we are all of one
mind. Sometimes in_ the House of Commons—confessing

secret. again—where I feel myself obliged to somelhing
on questions before the house, and where there it not much
occasion to speak, my friend Bright, who perhaps site
beside me, sometimes says to me, as an indication that I
wenn(' something to excite me, Would you not like
somebody to kick you now ?" (Laughter and applause.
)
Members of parliament—again secrets—(laughter;
—members M parliament call these anniversaries of me-
chauies' institutes at which they are obliged to give
their attendance, political treadmills—(loud laughter)—
, becawe they say, " You are obliged to go, you are
' laid hold of and forcibly imprisoned, and when you are
there you are always obliged to move to a certain ate-, and
Lou must nut step out of it." (Hear, hear, and applause.)
ow, gentlemen, I will act say I am here by coercion, be-
cause my friends around me will bear testimony that I am
• willing and a delighted visitor here, but still there is
something in the simile of a " political treadmill" alter all,
because when I came into this room filled by constituents
and friends, and probably by men who sy with my
views on general public questions, one feels naturally du-
posed to talk about those things which would be likely meat
to interest my audience, and those topics on which their
thoughts and feelings may be often running. But lam
forbidden, and I would he the last to infringe on those rules
laid down by these societies. If there be one man in this
ball who differs from me in political opinions, even if there
be but one, he shall find me respect his opinions by the
observance of that strict neutrality which we all claim and
afford at meetings of mechanics' institutions. Now
gentlemen, I come here to Holmfirth for the first time in
my life, not for the last time I hope—(applause)—hut I
came I must say, vary much attracted by the painful fame
to which you attained during the last year, about which I
read so much, and had the opportunity of seeing a great
deal that was done, to meet and mitigate your awful cala-
mity. I naturally felt that as your society here might
have suffered from that calamity to which your whole dis-
trict had been subjected, that it was the duty of every one
who possessed any connexion, whether political or other-
wise, with this locality, to be here to-night to aid your
institution on its entering upon another year of its use-
fulness. (Hear, hear, and applause.) And now let me
tell you that Holmfirth has acquired a great reputation from
what has befallen it. Towns sumetimes are celebrated for
calamities as well as celebrated for great blessings and
distinctions of another kind : Lisbon, for instance, is never
spoken of except in association with the dreadful earth-
quake of the last century, and Holmfirth is now urually
spoken of in connexion with the fearful calamity
which last year betel it. You have become a marked
pl.ce, the couatry are interested in you. A great portiun
of the benevolent population have interested themselves fur
the benefit of Holmfirth, and, I must say, I think that the
outpouring of hearty benevolence and philanthropy dis-
played last year in all parts of the kingdom on the occa-
sion of your suffering, was such as was calculated to raise, not
only our countrymen, but humanity itself, in one's estima-
tion. (Applause.) And lam bound to admit also that the
great probity, and moderation, and strict integrity with
which you have ndminietered the relief awarded to yuu, and
the way in which you have made a return of a large propor-
tion of that whish had been contributed, stands unparalleled
in the annals of philanthropy. (Applause.) I have said to-
day already I wish you had been more generous towards
yourselves with what you had to dispose of. I wish you
had not only contributed relief for past sufferings, but had
anticipated a little the distress which may hang about you
in consequence of last year's misfortune. However, if you
have lost something in money, you have gained immensely
in character and reputetion, and I think that is quite equal
to the cash. (Loud applause.) Now, I have heard some-
thing to-night of the particular details of your institution.
I understand you number 150 members. It is not so many
as it ought to have been, and it is not so many, I think, as
you will have if we meet again next year. But, considering
the populatior, and comparing you with other towns which
I will not mention, and bearing in mind the circumstances
under which you are situated, I do not think we have any
right to complain on the present occasion. (Applause.)
But recollecting the advantages of your position, and hear-
ing all that I have heard of the benefit to be derived from
your institution, I do hope next year will mark an increase
in your numbers. (Hear, bear.) A great deal has been
said, to exhort young people to belong to this institution.
I do not see • good many young people, but those who are
bald and like myself grey a little, are in considerable num-
ben before me. Now, I should like the people to try the
Chinese mode of regulating family matters. In China, if
boys are found idling in the streets and picking and steal-
ing, they do not do as we do, take these young, untutored,
sad unreasoning creatures before the magistrates, but take
them home to their parents and apply the bamboo to the
soles of the
_parents' feet. (Laughter.) Now, though I
would not indict corporeal punishment, I think we should
lay it at the door of the parents to be obliged to send their
sons and daughters to an institution such as this. For
what ars the advantages they confer ? I have heard the
programme of your education hers, and it is almost
equal to what used to be given is the public schools and
in dot-date bonding schools. Yon may learn almost
anything here. Where are the excuses for being igao-
rant when Is. 3d. • quarter, or 3d. per week, gives
you the advantage of all this variety of instruction ?
(Applause.) Now, this being so, how is it brought to
bear on the prospects of this people ? I cannot see how
any maa can have • chance of being anything twenty
years hence except a navigator er • ploughman, except he
has learnt reading, writing, and arithmetic, because the
standard required for superior employments shuts out all
who have not got superior instruction. I have been engaged
in getting employments for persons, and whether I have
applied to a railway company or the London police, I
have exposionced the greatest difficulty in trying to serve
those people who had not got the education fitting them
for the employment ; so that putting it on the ground of
self-interest, tt a; .pears to be the pre-eminent interest of
parents to see that their children are educated, in order
that they may get some respectable employment and
Isere you have instruction made especially suitabib to
I the callings of the different parties who attend this insti-
tution. (Hear, hear.) It has been stated that you have
received • number of models for drawing famished by the
Board of Trade, or by the Committee of the Council on
Education, in London.: I think to have made a supply of
models of this kind from • central society is very good. I
an not the friend of centralisation myself with reference to
anything which implies management, bat to bring to a
centre in Manchester, Leeds, or London, these models of
art, or to offer what are considered the best rules and
arrangements, and to diffuse those models and rules
throughout the country as a means to enable localities to
Improve by them in the best way they can—that, I
think, is unexceptionable and to be commended. These
models are sent from the Board of Trade, but I
think I heard the remark, that along with those
models there came from the Society of Arts information
and Instruction as to manufacturers' patterns, or something
of that sort. Now, I have no faith in that. I have no
faith in your learning anything connected with your parti-
cular branches of manufacture from the Society of Arts—
whether you shall have stripes or checks, botanical forms,
hieroglyphics, or Chinese figures; whether you shall have
roses or lilies. The Society of Arts cannot teach you these
things half so well as Mr. Schwann, or those who buy
them from you. (Hear, hear.) You would never think of
going to London for designs for your patterns; but you
will get the best models of art—get these beautiful flowers
which I see around me on the walls, and the best bouquets
of flowers, and let your boys with pencils and paper, or
with slates, as the cheapest material, draw the outline of
them. Never mind the colour ;if • boy can do the form,
he may afterwards paint it any colour, for it will always be
beautiful if he can get the form accurately. Then with re-
gard to the human head. If you have a model of Apollo,
for instance, whether a statue or a drawing, let the youth
take a pencil or pen and copy the outline, and then he will
eventuall become a draughtsman, and will draw well.
Now, it Is notorious that we are very much behind in art.
I had a letter the other day from a gentleman, • large
agricultural implement manufacturer, who asked if I knew
any Frenchman—he wanted some one as a designer—as a
draughtsman, and he asked me if I knew any Frenchman
for that purpose. Now, he wanted • Frenchman. That
is a scandal that he should think of asking me to recom-
mend a foreigner to do work of this kind. You must
make use of the models of art you get from London, and
your youth must be trained In the beautiful in design.
Now, you want something of this sort in Holmfirth. Holm
firth, I fear, has rather been going back, because you have
adhered a little too much to the old style of things. To-