The Express.
London, England, 1850-04-27 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 27, 1850,

I Vet Masse.
?AIM Usu. U. Vat
Mow,. Owe*" littant. bursa. Claatag
—...--
8 pat OWL 611 AO SS Oa 113 IS AS AO 116 SO
pre Ointa. B9 13 00 10 II 30 69 7.3: 69 26
S ds. Pau Lam u a u a
49 1092 Costa. . relo
1110 .• I*
pat Coots „ a
Cuban .. ancess: at 1.14.. 23 Ur SS da70.543
eroma.l. Igo .. 1109 . Ikon. Dapwallsosse . p 93 Marry
Da 6, 1941 l6O „ laigus Lois, .1149 799 „
Do. 46
Do. 8
Piedmont 6 PST Cada So 0 Itadt Mew .. I
2103
il lesian. —P in. sad War ii, 718 78 Mad iiaaa. as ;
Dawn aid Flaws, DO; Avignon and Its;
olsarm, Stessisant
and Inda, 1111 ; Odour and Vtars; Odom sod Dav 1•0:
Northam Of 26 ; Pons sad Nusabeam 813 ; Taws mud Manus,
222 50; Versailles (rtirtit bask),— ; Ditto (left bank), 140; Masterson
andTroyea, 100; fit. Gensain, 330.

BUMP. Aram U. Voluntary Iran, 109; National NW. US;
Beak SW= 9 •
IIOIIIA, Aram 14. —nn per Out. Metalliquee, 941; Pow
per Oat Metallattote, SIR ; Exchange as Frankfort, 1,013.

ITALY.
ROMAN SPATES.
The Prinoe and Peirce*, Borghese have given a
magnificent fête in honour of the Pope's return.
Nice cardinals, the French generals, and all nota-
bilitits were present.

Cbr Court.

Us Chan and Mice Albert, with the Prince of
Wake and the Prisms Alice, teak a drive yesterday in an
cx:theearriaie wad Aar, the Equerries to Viart,zsatrir
Pl,wroy end Lieeterant-Colonal the Hon.
00,401. *aiding en lonebeek.
The r
the oyal Awe party yesterday evening at Beekieghata
Palace inelnial Dachau or gnat, the Prises of Uinta-
nen, his Sliesilsoey Van de Weyer, Lady Anna Maria
Dawson, Buenos de S pent, M. Quatelet, and Sir Georo
Coupsr.

The Dukes@ of Kent and the Prises of Leiningen
wont to Claremont yesterday, and paid a visit to the Coast
and Coaster. de Nenilly, mid her Majesty the Qmpen of the
Belgians.
A deputation to represent the injury resulting to
the pleating of Ceylon tad other colonis from the adultenx
doe of coffee with chicory and other substasese, had an
interview with Earl °my, yesterday. at the Colimial-offiee.
The deputation ereeisted of Mr. Thomas M.P.,
Major Blacken, DI P., Mr. Archibald Hattie, /1 P., Mr.
Alexander Matheson, M.P., Hoe. J. Foresees, It P., Mr.
Sadleir, M.P. Bight Hoe,. T. Miiner Gibson, II P., Mr.
Mist/roan, M.P , Mr. Cardwell, M.P., Mr Greven, Mr.
Christian,
_Mr. Frith, Mr. Tennant, Mr. Thomas, Sir John
Wiliest, Mr. Bell, Mr. Atherton (from the Commereial
*relation of Manchester), Mr. IChnear (from the Chamber
of COIIIIIOIIO of Glasgow), and Mr. Strand (from the Wait
India Association of Liverpool).
Mr. Martin, M.P. for Pontefract, had an interview
with Sir George Grey yesterday. Mr. Spearman M.P. for
Harbor, had ohs in interview yesterday with the right hon.
baronet at the Home-offiee.
Mr. Macgregor, Chairman of the South Eastern
Railway Couplet, rad an interview with the Cumeniaioners
of Railways yesterday, at their officio in the Board of Trade.
A dzputation, consisting of Lieut.-Colonel Sykts,
Lord Robert Grosvenor, Sir Ralph Howard, Bart., Mr. C.
Gatliff, Mr. C. Fowler, Mr. Clegir, Mr. W. A. Wilkinson.
Mr. W. Laxtos, Mr. N. Ward, Mr. J. W. Tottie, Mr. W.
Hickson, Mr. W. B. Adams, and Dr. H. Gavin, bad en in-
terview with the Camomile, of the Exchequer yesterday, at
his official residence fa Dooninsustriet.
Despatch.s were sent off last evening from the
Colonial-olke for the governors of the Norm American
colonies.

mom Let night's Gazette.)
DOWNING-STREET, APRIL 23. the Queen has
been pleased to appoint Edward Griffiths, Esq., Dentinal.%
in the 110711, Navy, to be Superintendent of Liberated
Africa* at 81. Holing.

WHITznALL, APRIL 26.—The Queen hint been
pleased to present the Rev. Robert Stewart to the church
and what of Transits% in the presbytery and eounty of Red-
din/toe, vacant by the death at the Rev. John Henderson,
the Minister thereof.

THE ASSOCIATIONS OF WORKING) MEN.

NO. I.

We may more correctly trace and determine the
advancement and actual condition of the working
clean, by examining what they have done for them-
selves, than by numbering and prying into the cha-
ritable and pseudo-charitable instituuons which are
ostensibly intended to improve them. The abundant
streams of English charity h:ve not flowed upon an
unfruitful soil; the working classes have largely
benefited by the philanthropic exertions of the
' wealthier and more enlightened classes. This cannot
be disputed ; but it is nevertheless true that the per-
manent and solid advancemer t of the industrial popu-
lation is a labour which the working men must ulti-
mately perform for themselves. It is well
to show an open hand to the hungry—a re-
fuge to the to.lorn wretch, who is sick of
his evil ways—the hospital to the fainting
poor—the asylum to the desolate in youth and
age ; but 'hese charities, glorious though they be, are
neither educational nor economic. They may soothe
the fallen, but they cannot prevent the fall: they
may give the starving man a crust, but they cannot
give him that independence which his labour should
command, nor that enlightenment which will raise
him in the social scale. In truth, the need of charity
is the token cf a distressed and degraded condition :
our many charitable buildings, though they typify
the nobility of a few, betoken the forlorn poverty of
the great masses. Thus, a critical review of the cha-
ritable societies of the country wcu:d only lay bare the
extent of popular misery without suggesting any re-
medies. Such an exposure, though it might pan-
der to a morbid taste, could do no lasting
good to the community. It might bring to
light some curious processes for filtering the
bank-notes of the benevolent through cer-
tain 'pongee, called secretaries, assistant-secretaries,
under-assieteat-cemetarifs, &c., till five guinea.
subscribed to relieve distress are reduced to ten shil-
lings for the halt and bliud, the remainder being de-
posited as sediment upon the sponges, perhaps in the
ehepe of white kid gloves, or a fashionable waistcoat.
" It is wouderfel," said a we►ver to me the other
day, talking of a charitable society, " how the shil-
lings dwindle to sixpences before they come to ue."
No charitable institution is too poor to support a few
sleek officials.

It is only within the present century that men
who have had the welfare of the industrial community
11 at heart have seen that it must remain with the
11 working man to assert himself and inate his wai-
-1 tion, and es:ablish his proper share of power. The
charity of the rich may lighten the load of his
1 misery, bat he must not regard the boon as a right,
nor so far forget the dignity of his manhood as to be
content to pick the crumbs from the wealthy man's
table. His strength most be in his own right arm and
cunning brain. He must have prudence—foresight.
In his heyday he must learn to lay op for the
winter of his life. The bees of our human hive must
learn to garner up their honey for the days when the
towers are dead and the blast blows cold. They
most study the arts and sciences by the practice of
which they are to eat bread. A little knowledge will
not suffice, even to the mechanic, in this age of scien-
tific : application he must know not a little. To bear
the battle well, he wants knowledge and a sufficiency
of food to feed himself and family, and enable him to
lay by a moderate store for his helpless year.. In the
present state of matters, I fear a very small propor-
tion of the labouring population command these mo-
derate desires ; but though the needy condition of the
labourer is to a great extent beyond his control at pre-
sent, it his not been proved on his behalf that he has
arrived at a knowledge of the beat method for eco-
nomiaing and husbanding the means he has at his dis-
posaL Doe, not the Spitalflelds weaver pay more
for his ounce of tea than the Marquis of Westminster
disburses per ounce for his ? The working man who
borrows a small sum of money pays about two hun
dred per cent. interest for the loan, whereas the opu-
lent speculator raises thousands at two per cent. Ile
pays more for his coals than Baron Rothschild would
pay; and his clothes are purchased at the tally-shop.
So mach for the provision of his phyaioal comforts.

As regards the means of education which are at
the command of the industrial community, though
there is still much to find fault with, there is more to
commend and rejoice at. The foundation of
Mechanics' Institutes in 1823, by Dr. Birkbeck and
others, marked the dawn of a more general enlight-
enment. " Here," said the doctor, when presiding
at the opening of the London Mechanics' Institute,
" hereafter the charms of literature shall be displayed,
and the powers of science shall be unfolded to the
most humble inquirers; for to 'the feast of reason'
which will be here prepared, the invitation shall
be as unbounded as the region of intellect. For an
undertaking so vast in its design, and so magnificent
in its objects, (nothing short, indeed, of the moral and
intellectual amelioration and aggrsndiaemeot of the
human race) the blessings of heaven, I humbly trust
will not be implored in vain. If, in this institution,
we seek to obey the mandate which has gone forth,
that knowledge shall be increased; if we act in obedi-
ence to the injunction, that in all our getting. we
should get understanding; If we succeed in proving,
that for the existence of the mental wilderness, the
continuance of which we all deeply deplore, we otiFht
'to blame the culture not the soil;' it by rendering
man more percipient of the order, harmony, and bene-
volence, which pervade the universe, we more effec-
tually assert eternal providence, ' and justify the ways
of God to man • ' and if thus we shall be the happy
means of rendering it palpable that the immortal
essence within us, when freed from the deformity of
ignorance and vice, has been created in the express
image of God, then may we confidently hope that
omniscience will favourably behold oar rising sun•
lure, and that in its future progress, Omnipotence,
without whose asidstance all human endeavour, are
vain, will confer upon us • portion of His powers."
The design of Dr. Birkbeck and his coadjutors, in
establishing mechanics' institute., was to afford the
best possible instruction and the most intellectual
amusements to the poor man at the most moderate
cost. The idea of such institutions undoubtedly ori-
ginated with Professor Anderson, who founded the
Andersanian Institution at Glasgow some years bef fro
the establishment of mechanics' institutes. Thu

' " Andersonien Institute" gave some influential parties
in Glasgow the notion in 1823 of Amain a =esti&
association for working men under the name of the
Glasgow Mechanics' Inst;tute. Cleland, in hie history
of " The Rise and Progreso of the City of Glasgow,"
comments upon the foundation of this institution
in terms of high praise ; and it undoubtedly did
its portion of good in luring working men from
the tap-room to the lecture hall. These institutions
for mechanics, established in the first instance in
Glasgow, rapidly rose in every town throughout the
kingdom; till in villages numbering only some few
hundred inhabitants, bares were whitewashed to re-
ceive classes bent upon knowing something more than
their alphabet. The immediate success which
crowned Dr. Birkbeck's efforts showed how esger the
industrial classes were to avail themselves of every
opportunity given to them for their improvement. He
fold them that they might compass a large share of
knowledge, and they responded heartily to the good-
ness and worth of his teaching. The noble lecture
halls erected in the large manufacturing teems were
to be the intellectual homes of the working men ;
thither they were to bend their steps, after the labour
of the day, and fled amusement in the vivid exposi-
tion of scientific principles, or the refining graces of
fiction and of poetry. They were to have their singing
classes, their drawing classes, their elocution classes,
their French classes : the avenues to extensive know-
ledge were to be thrown open to them;
they were to drink deep at the living fountain. These
were high sad noble aspirations; how far they have
been fulfilkd, and how far the means adopted were
adequate to the end in view, are questions which I
shall seek to answer in the course of my inquiries.
It is certain that the experiment of Mechanics' Insti-
tutes has been extensively and vigorously tried. In
New Brunswick, Canada, Nova Scotia, the Cape, and
New South Wales, throughout England, Wales, Scot-
land, and Ireland, the institution founded by Dr.
Birk heck has been closely copied. The mechanics of
Fredericton, Quebec, Cipe Town, and Sydney share
the advantages of reading-rooms and lecture-halls
with the weavers of Manchester and Glasgow. This
wide application of a crude plan very fairly leads to
the inference that it contains at least a wholesome
germ. The query to be resolved is, has the germ
ben nursed and enlarged : has it borne its full
promise of fruit?
It is no easy matter to manages Mechanics' Institute.
Amusement must be combined with knowledge—
the powder must be offered in jelly. Whether the
late acknowledged depressed condition of these insti-
to'e sbe the result of mismanagement or the simple
effect of the dire poverty of the mechanic class, I shall
have ample opportunity of judging ; bat I may con-
fidently premise that the idea as originally conceived
by Dr. Birkbeck has been imitated servilely, and that
the managers of these establishments have failed to
adapt the principle laid down for them to the varying
exigencies of the time.. There is no authentic ac-
count of the present number, wealth, and influence of
these institutions in print ' • the only approach to such
a general statement may be found in last year's re-
pat of the committee on public libraries, in which
Mr. L aialey is made to say that the total number of
persons belonging to mechanics' institutes for England
and Wales does not exceed 13,000. If this gentle-
man had taken the trouble to write to the secretaries
of the Yorkshire, Northern, and Lancashire and
Cheshire unions of these institutions for their several
reports he would have found that the members
of the Yorkshire union alone amount in num-
ber to 13,000, those of the Northern to about
8,000, and those of the Lancashire and
Cheshire to not less than 10,000. Taking a mode-
rate estimate, therefore, of thet.ipsjitutions in the
northern counties of England, they alone include up-
wards of 30,000 members. I ,have been at some
tr.uble to arrive at a just estimate on this head, and
I should have very little hesitation in putting the
muter of till Mechanics' Institutes of England and
Wales down at 100,000. Yet the assertion has gone
forth to the world, clad in all the authority of a par-
liamentary blue hook, that the members of these most
popular institutions do not exceed 15,000 in number!
Such slovenly statements are the more mischievous,
as their exposure tends to bring the facts of accurate
witnesses into disrepute.

In addition to Mechanics' Institutes, working men
support reading cubs, political societies, and other
educational associations. I shall endeavour to ?ass
them all in review and to sift the good fr,..m the bad.
The mein object to be gained by the survey I am
about to take is the balance of economic with educt-
tional associations. The tendency of those who have
laboured for the advancement of the workir g
classes has, undoubtedly, been to furnish them
with books rather than with the knowledge
how to eke out their scanty pecuniary means
to the greatest advantage. The ir.ortil has been put
before the physical ; or rather, has almost excluded
any consideration of the physical. The working man
may meet establishments on all sides where he may
obtain learning at the most mederet'e cost; but in
their zeal for his intellectual advancement, his advo-
cates and friends have forgotten to show him how he
may economise his money, and make it produce a
larger amount of physical comforts. Trey would
send him to school without pausing to bear whether
he has had his sufficiency of food beforehand. Only
they who speak from experience can convey any idea
of the hardship of mastering the alphabet or listening
to a lecture upon an empty stomach. It is at least a
plausible argument to trace the first symptoms of
decay in mechanics' institutes to their onesidedness.
They offer cheap intellectual aliment to the mechanic,
but they ignore the economy of his stomach alto-
gether ; they tempt him with the use of a library
for a few shillings, bat if he wants cheap
physical necessities he must look elsewhere.
Where, in the present hour can he look ? Low living
and high thinking is a good sounding maxim ; but it
has yet to be proved that Chatterton world not have
written finer things than his Rowley poems had he
enjoyed a credit with his hatcher and baker.
I shall begin my inquiries in the City of London.
Within this small area are concentrated examples of
the manifold shifts and expedients devised by poverty
to make the best of its hard case. Blanket clubs, hat
clubs, shoe clubs, beef clubs, and goose clubs, are among
these associations. I shall find men reading the serials
in mechanics' institutes whose wives are starving at
home, and who look about in vain for an economic
institution that would provide their creature comforts
at a fair and liberal rate of payment. The poor man
asks for an economical larder as well as an economical
library.

THE CITY SHERIFFS COURT.—Yesterday morn-
ing, R. Gurney, E q., Q C , who was on Thursday elected
judge of the City Sheriffs' Ce.urt. took his seat, and was as-
sisted by the lste judge, Mr. Common Serjeant Beßock.
Mr. Buchanan. Mr. Gary, and other practitioners of the
wart, appeared in their gowns on the occasion.

- -
COUNTY COURTS' EXTENSION BILL.—A meeting
was he:d at the Gerard Arms Tavern, Gerard-street, filing-
on, hat evening, to take into consideration the most advisa-
ble course to pursue in support of Mr. Firzroy's bill for the
extension of the jurisdicti .n of the county courts; to en-
deavc.ur to obtain a reduction of the feet, and expedite the
prnei so, and for other purposes in furtherance of the object
proposed, Mr. Brown in the chair. Letters were readgrozn
Mr. Wakley, M.P., and Mr. Buncombe, 31. P., decLring
their nillinenen t, snoe the movement, but regretting
their inability to attend the meetiag. Resolutions were
passed expressing an opinion that the extension of the juris-
diction of county nouns to debts amounting to 501. was an
object well deserving of public eupport, and further that a
reduction of the fens paid to officers of the court was a matter
which ought to be speedily corried out. A petition to par-
liament, embodying tho resolution, was else agreed upon,
and the meeting separated.
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTERS.—Tho committee on
"official aalmies" met for the tint time yesterday, and the
other committees sitting were them on the Postal Comuni•
emoion between L .adou sod Paris, Prison Discipline Com-
mittee. Library Committee, and the Committee on the Army
and Onto .nce.

lIIBEIGUREMENT OF LONDON-BRIDOR. —ln the
Court of Common Craned, the athcr day,
. great objections
were made to the brick building now hem,: raised on the
Surrey ride of Loewe. Mee. near the Bridgc-houseTavern.
We do.,'s waist rat it. It is an ugly pile, s idly in the
way.—The Builder.
ANNIVERSARY OF SIIAKSPEARS'eI BIRTUDAY.—
Tuesday last Ming the anniversary of Shakspeare's birth-
d .y, and the weathor being bsautifully fine, a large numb*
of vidfon were attracted to Stratford•upou-Aeon, to whines,
or participate in the commetosratise feetivities of the day.
The hmasa which G the poet'. r,pute.l birthplace, and also
the church were ptomain nt ot.j:ets of attraction. A numsr-
ou, meeting a the It,yel ShOsspearean Club, under the
presidency of Dr. Thomas Tnompaen, was held at the
Torn hall, in the afterocon. The report of the committee
regretted time the Wilt from the Stratford bank for the pur-
chase of the haw* h•• 1 not yet bra, repaid, but acknow-
ledged tits don Won* of ha from Earl Aa.herst, and of
1001. from the late Mr. Verson. ltssalutions were passed
for the ad if th, report, snd for the Itielia4oll in future
of a • t.tf,f , a • • co. Toe annual dinner
of t.e •Ikho. • e•, • Mew!, took place in
the to- els,. • •• b • ,e. Jefi