The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-10 00:00:00

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LONDON. MONDAY, JAN. 10.

Wounsto Men's Colleges, what are they ? Why
should we hare them ? These are qnsirtions which
two earnest•mioded men have answered for us.
The answers are significant, pertinent to the times
in which we live, and full of promise for the
future. Without explanation there is something per-
plexing, perhaps confusing, in the name of Colleges'
for Working Men. Are all working men to become
men of learning, men of literature ? Are we to re-
plenish t►e ranks of literature and science by seek-
ing ont precious intellectual ore from the rigorous
hard heads of our working classes? We might do
so with reasonable prospect of success. There are
few paths of knowledge, even the most intricate,
that have not been explored by men whose vigorous
intellects have raised them from the plough, the
bricklayer's trowel, the cobbler's bench, or the tailor'.
table, to take high rank among poets, philosophers,
and artists. This, however, is not the purpose for
which Working Men's Colleges have been founded.
Mere acquisition of knowledge, at least the mere
cultivation of the intellect, is not the only benefit to
be derived from a College. There are other, if not
better gifts to be secured by association. The heart
or the affections can be cultivated as well as the
head. Let any man who has been to College, who
fondly remembers his College as an alone gnats?, ask
himself why he does so? What charm hang, over
those early yeani, years of hard work, of struggling
manfully with difficulties? Is it the remembrance
of what he learnt, of the intellectual treasures then
stored up in his memory ? If he be a man, not a
bare intellects it Lachine, the reply will be—. There is
far more than elk Most of this, if not all, I might
have acquired in my chamber—any where; bat col-
lege days eneb:ed me to know my fellow men; asso-
ciations with kindred spirits, with those of similar
tastes and pursuits, not only expanded my mind but
my heart, taught me to respect my fellow men, and
to measure others by some other standard than
myself.

Tien are some men whose vocation is that of
bashers; do what they will they cannot avoid their
sailing. The Rev. FREDERICK Meriden is one of
tbesis—a deep-th joking, earnest-minded teacher. Ile
has many disciples, though he becks to found no sect.
Kindred spirits rally round him because he provides
the food they require. Working Men's Ciders are
a fruit which has sprung from this association. Mr.
MACILICIF. found himself surrounded by a knot of
men, of different professions. Association for mutual
improvement taught them that they could better
fulfil the duties of their several profession. if they
could realise better the relations which bound them
to one another. 'lbis step led to another. Mere
association within the narrow circles of their own
learned professions was not all that was necessary to
&apply this want. To reap any real benefit, the circle
mast be enlarged beyond this. While they were
thinking of these things Caine the awful year of 1848
--awful because it showed that a great gulf existed
between the upper, middle, and profit/Would classes
and the working classes. If this remained as it was,
if it were to be widened, there was danger for all.
How was it to be bridged over'
Whatever others may have thought, Mr. M.tratcs
and his disciples sought a solution of the difficulty
within themselves. They asked whether the class
to which they themselves belonged was blameless in
this dangerous separation of classes. They feared that
they had not discharged the responsibilities imposed
upon them by their education. "They felt that
" knowledge had been given to share it among their
" fellows, to make them sore humane, and to bind
" them more in human links one to another."

Arriving at a sense of this responsibility, they out
about for some method to enable them to discharge
it manfully. The Mechanic.' Institutes and Evening
. . .

Claimers for hard-worked clerks presented themselves
without satisfying them. They wanted some more
iatimate and humanising relationship than that
simply of teacher and pupil. While thus perplexed
the news reached them that the people of Sheffield
had found,•d a People's College. The name went
home to their mist cherished feelings. Here, at
but, the work .eem•d to present itself in its proper
form. Mere was a symptom that the people were
yearning for somethingof the same kind that they had
themselves hind so valuable. Could they not satisfy
this yearning with iiiiitusi bent fit To try the ex-
penment a Worki.ig Nlen's College was (*media Lon-
don. The teach. ra were clergymen, lawyers, artists,
member• of the profes.ional , I ...es. who had them-
selves ohtair,ed tne ads enrages of a collegiate educe-
tioo. The thing has surreeded s, wi.:l that many other
towns has.. the raampb• of London, and last
Wednesda♦ Mr. M a nice g...e the history of the
origin of the work to the hest annual meeting of the
members of the Working Men'. Colleges in Man-
chester and Salford.

What is the tes'imony of )Ir. N water. u to the
working of the wheat.' From the day of its first
prt petiou to the premint hate re has newer twee
a want of • cordial response from the working
claws to their teacher,. " The working classes had
" pushed their teachers on. urged them Into more
" f. iiiiwithin and snore teaching than they had
" thought possible, and oompellid thtm to from,