The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-15 00:00:00

DISTRIBUTION OF OXFORD MIDDLE CLASS

PRIZES.

At 2 o'clock the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered
the prizes and certificates to the successful candidates for
the honours of the Oxford Local Examination, in the
presence of an audience which filled to overflowing the
Free Trade Hall. After the distribution was concluded,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, who was received
with loud cheers, said—Ladies and gentlemen, we have
now arrived at the close of what some might be disposed to
call the formal part of our proceedings; but even if that ap-
pellation were given to the dutie© in which we have been
engaged, I would beg you to hesitate before assenting to the
proposition that those duties have been merely formal. You
who constitute this vast assemblage can only in a remote
and secondary sense have been witnesses of what has passed,
but I, who, coming among you as a stranger, have had the
opportunity of witnessing the demeanour of those who have
received in their several orders at my hands the marks of
distinction they have fairly and honourably won; I have had
the occasion, the gratifying occasion, to observe that, as
commonly happens, the merit that gains the reward of ex-
cellence as combined with the modesty which befits all per-
sons, but especially the period of youth. And, ladies and
gentlemen, I entertain the hope that all those who, having
now received certificates and prizes, will feel that this day
has been no common day in the course of their youthful
lives. Upon this platform they have appeared in the face
of you who surround us and fill the hall—of you their
fellow-townsmen, their friends—doubtless, in many happy
instances, their parents—in your presence they have ap-
peared—and on receiving the reward of their past diligence
let every one of them bear away with him the conviction
that he has been giving a solemn and public pledge of future
and continued exertions. (Cheers.) Ladies and gentlemen,
it is a consoling truth, a happy subject of meditation for us
all—for them especially, but likewise for others, their com-
panions in places of education, who have not appeared be-
tore us to-day—to know that we have not been brought into
this world without there having been prepared for us in it,
by the hands of Divine Providence, a place of usefulness
to fill. (Cheers.) Don't let us under! ate the difficulties and
chscouragemente of those youthful minds that are making
their first progress in the path of learning. The path of
learning is not, and cannot be, especially in its early stages,
an easy path. I go further, and say that it would lose much
of its real profit if it were—the difficulties which the young
encounter, and before which in some instances they may be
tempted to shrink, are not only a trial of their courage and
patience, but are the ordained,appointed,and effective means
of forming and developing their character. (Hear, hear.)
What I am now saying I address to the candidates rather
than to the audience, for it is an arduous taut fur the very
. young to look into the remote future. From us, who have
attainel maturity of life, or are descending into the vale of
years, it may fairly be expected that we should have acquired
the faculty and habit of reckoning with confidence and fore-
sight upon what is a benefit in the future—but the happy
hours of youth, the very thoughtlessness peculiar to it, the
very graces of youth connected apparently with that care-
lessness of thought, these things make it difficult for them
to prepare, as they ought to ao, for the other difficulties of
their future lives. We must not expect too much from them
we must not apply too great a rigour to the judgment of
their conduct, just as we should deprecate it in our several
stations for ourselves ; but without blaming the indisposi-
tion which may occasionally be found to study, and espe-
cially to severe study, let us award especial commendation to
those who have overcome that unwillingness, and earnestly
inculcate upon all—upon the losers as well as the winners,
upon those who have to feel upon hope and upon those
who may be tempted to repose in enjoyment ; we must, I
say, inculcate on each of them, be his position what it may,
be his dificulties what they may—that he has only to turn
resolutely to account, from day to day, the faculties with
which God has endowed him, in order to find before very
long that he has a place in the world, and that a career of
duty, usefulness, end excellence is open to him. (Hear.)
It is not necessary that I should say many words as to the
place which Manchester occupies in the system of local exa-
minations, because the statistics are sufficient to make every
one judge for themselves. I will not say that any of us
ought to feel a sentiment other than that of humility, and
even of shame, at our inadequate use of the opportunities
that we have had ; but when I address a community. it is
not exactly the same rule that is applicable to such pro-
ceedings as would be applied to an individual to the review
of his own conduct. You have no reason to repent of
having entered freely and largely into the system opened
by the local examination of the universities, You have
been told that the average rate of success is about 66j,
or precisely two candidates out of three ; but that is
the average rate of success as applicable to the whole
kingdom, You have also been told that the average rate
of success for Manchester, varying in some degree between
the seniors and juniors is, when applied to the whole num•
ber of candidates—that is to say, when applied to the same
exinciple as when we spoke of the whole kingdom—is not
only not below 661, but it is 75i ; or, in short, that while
two candidates out of three are successful from the kingdom
in general, Manchester is able to say that of her favoured,
or especially:favoured children, success is attained by three
candidates out of four. (Cheers.) And perhaps this is not
less remarkable because your aggregatecontributions to these
examinations is a large one, a large percentage of one. We
would not deserve the greatestcomm endation if it could be said
that none but the very choicest of your youth were sent into
the examinations ; but here again Manchester stands well,
because, whilst the circle of which she is the centre has
sent to the examination only one •seventh of the total num-
ber of candidates, her proportion of population to the popu-
lation of the country is very much smaller, indeed compa-
ratively insignificant. But there is another point of view in
which you ought to bear in mind she figures from the in-
structive figures that have been presented to us, and it is
the point of view offered by the progress you have made.
In 1858 you passed 36 candidates ; in 1864 you passed 111.
Nor was that a mere increase in numbers—it was still more
emphatically an improvement of proportions, for in 1858 29
candidates in 100 succeeded ; but those 29 have increased to
75, while, instead of failures per cent., you have now only
to speak of something under 25, (Cheers,) This suggests to
the mind that there is a feature eminently characteristic of
the country to which we belong. We are not perhaps the
quickest, the most rapid in perception either of the popula-
tions of the earth, but of the various counties of the king-
dom. (Laughter and cheers.) People sometimes complain of
the first aspect and address of a Lancashire man, and say he
is not as civil as he should be. (Laughter.) But, when we
look at the figures which are before us, I think we may
venture to say that they are a symbol of our condition, that
we hold "It is never too late to mend," and that progress,
improvement, constant effort to develop what is good in us,
and to amend what is amiss, whether in life and character,
business and trade, and to carry on to the very best of what
is attainable the materials that may be in our hands—that
this is a rule and a practice eminently characteristic of Lan-
cashire. I could not but be struck, on reading and listen-
ing to that report, with the amiable and graceful manner
in which you deal with the distinctions that have been
achieved by Liverpool in the local examinations. Liverpool
has achieved peculiar distinction, and to that distinction you
have given full value and generous appreciation. As long as
I recollect there has been a friendly rivalry and competition
between Liverpool andi Manchester—sometimes Manchester
and Liverpool have had their little controversies and their
little contests, but those contests aro like the quarrels of man
and wife, and woe be to him that attempts to interfere
therein. (Great laughter.) ,You have gracefully done
justice to Liverpool, and let me say you could afford to do it,
Occause I am now about to attempt to reciprocate that ge
nen. us conduct by the endeavour to do justice to you; and
if it bo true that on this occasion Liverpool has attained
special honour—in which I for one, as a native of Liverpool,
especially rejoice—yet it is true an honoured line in the exa-
mination does not altogether affect the condition of the
masses; and never let it be forgotten in examinations of
this nature that it is the extensive operation—it is the con-
dition of the mass to which you must look—nay, the very
henours which aro attained by the most excellent of them
must be considered as having a purpose ulterior to the dis-
tinction, the happiness, or the excellence of those preferred
ones themselves. Their great and final purpose is to raise

the general level and carry afterwards, and to carry upwards
if we can, those upon whom the community has to depend
for the future discharge of its great duties, and here you
stand eminently well. Liverpool was happy enough to pass—
that is, to achieve the success of satisfying the examiners on
behalf of Oxford—a fraction of the candidates; but Man-
chester was enabled to attain to more satisfactory results, as
has already been stated, of no less than 75. (Cheers.) I believe
you would have been just and generous even if you could
not so well have afforded it ; but upon a general comparison
I think it would appear that you sustain no loss even in
competition with the great achievements and the great ad-
vance of Liverpool in these examinations. (Cheers.) Well,
now, ladies and gentlemen, examination is a thing particu-
larly characteristic of the age in which we live. Examina-
tion never was, and never can be a perfect instrument. It
must always or generally be inferior to the results of that
single-minded self-devotion which, in certain periods of
the world, has irresistibly impelled excellent and distin-
guished minds towards the acquisition of learning by
a stimulus coming from within. (Hear.) But there is no
greater mistake than to misconstrue or overlook the essen-
tial condition of the age in which we live, the time of that
profound devotion to learning which now has become
rare. Those times were times when industry had not re-
ceived its present development, and when high pursuits of
the mind had not to sustain that formidable competition to
which they are now on all hands exposed. Let us, there-
fore, ladies and gentlemen, be thankful instead of grudging
the result, Let us be thankful that by the modern system
of putting into healthy play the principle of emulation, and
of offering to the young the inducements of early honours
and reward, without any stimulus applied to any vicious
principle or tendency within them, we are enabled in some
degree to keep pace with the rapid development of external
and material pursuits, and to vindicate for the higher ac-
quisition and the higher habits of the mind, in some degree
at least, that prominence which belongs to them. Depend
upon it this is a powerful instrument for evoking mental
excellence. It may be often more or less to the action of
stratagem and luck, but that is not its predominant charac •
ter. Its predominant character is this, that it holds up be-
fore the eyes of the young an object visible, palpable, not
to be mistaken, and that it directs and encourages the
young to concentrate the whole of their efforts upon a sin-
gle point. I declare, if I might venture to quote experience,
I am convinced—profoundly convinced, from the experience
of after life—that there is nothing better than this for
instructing, training, and adapting the mind to those
greater efforts which, in particular crises of difficulty, the
full grown man may be called upon to make, when he has
to combine many means for the attainment of a single end.
I say with confidence that that task will be rendered for him
easier and more profitable, in consequence of his having
gone through when he was young a discipline of examina-
tion—a discipline, that is to say, of a searching trial in a
variety of branches, with long preparation beforehand,
with deliberate adaptation of his means to his need, and
with a firm resolution to employ every power and faculty
of his mind in reaching the object before him. Now, ladies
and gentlemen, after saying so much on examination, per-
mit me to say that I do not appear before you to-day within
this hall for the purpose of distributing these prizes solely
for the purpose even, I might say mainly, as a native of
Lancashire, or as a minister bearing office under the Crown.
For many long years it has been my undeserved but heppy
lot to represent in Parliament one of the ancient universi-
ties of the country. (Cheers.) Often and long have I de-
plored and sensibly have I felt the difficulty of keeping
together in harmony and efficiency the oldest and newer
pursuits of our Christian civilisation. If we go back for
some two or three generations in this country to
what wo were ourselves at the time of early in-
ventions and manufactures, what do we see ? We
see through the rural districts an old world, ex-
isting almost unchanged. In each university everything
that belonged to tha future of society remaining almost
exactly as it had been ; and then, passing into Lancashire or
into Staffordshire, or the West Hiding of Yorkshire, we see
a new world growing up with rapidly rising towns, multi-
plying populations, all distributing wealth and gradually
calling into existence both powerful classes and powerful
faculties of mind, adapted and dedicated to the circumstances
of the present day ; but between these two we see little sym-
pathy or connection. Now, ladies and gentlemen, my belief
is that it is a happy distribution of this country that what
is new in it does not require to forswear brotherhood with
what is old—(cheers)—and I don't believe that any higher
duty, or any duty more fruitful of reward, can attach to any
one of us in our several stations than the effort, according to
onr respective means, to harmonise these two great powers
together. Much has been done in our towns for the pur-
pose; the abolition of invLious distinctions and unjust pre-
ference has opened the way between heart and heart which
was obstructed and barred up before. But as regards the
special relations of these institutions and the great commer-
cial and manufacturing districts of the country, no doubt
there was much serious difficulty in bringing them together.
Commerce and manufacture requires the period of education,
or what we call education in the more specific sense, should
be brought to its term at a time of life earlier than that
which a full literary education has commonly been judged
to require; and there is no doubt that there was almost a
want of connection between this great district and the an-
cient universities of the country. But a great step has been
made in filling up that gap. I don't think that any more
important or any wiser measure has ever been adopted by
those ancient institutions than was adopted first and
foremost, I am glad to say, by the university with which
I have the honour to be connected when under the auspices
of some of the distinguished and excellent men numbered
among its sons, it was led to make the first effort at
the foundation of this system. (Cheers.) I trust, ladies
and gentlemen, that that effort on the part of the uni-
versities will not be their last effort. I am well assured that
notwithstanding the real difficulties to which I adverted,
there is much that might be done to place the powerful com-
mercial class of the populous commercial districts of our
country into closer relations with those most venerable and
most valuable seats of learning. (Cheers.) But they deserve
honour for that great effort. It was a great innovation on
their practices, but they had the good sense to perceive that,
though liable to the charge of innovation, it bore the true
character of improvement. (Hear, hear.) They were, there-
fore, not deterred by any apprehension of invidious criti-
cism to which they might be subjected. Having claimed at
your hands the honour which is their due, let me in return
say that it did the highest honour, in my humble judgment,
to the manufacturing and commercial districts of Lanca-
shire—those very districts in which novelty and progress
were most particularly represented—that they distinguished
themselves beyond almost any other portion of the country
in their readiness, in their eagerness to close with the offer
of the old universities to make these local examinations an
important and prominent part of your educational and your
social system. (Cheers.) I anticipate with the utmost confi-
dence the continued and increasing success of this great
effort. I must add, there is not a wish that lies nearer to my
heart than to see the healthful interchonge, the free inter-
change, which belongs to the operations of commerce, ap-
plied also in all its breadth to the operations of the mind
and of the heart. There are none of us who have not much
to learn from those who are placed in other positions ; there
are none of the separate classes connected with our insti-
tutions, and connected with the power and wealth of the
country, that has not much to learn from one another,
By so learning they will lose nothing of what they have ;
they will gain much of what they have not; and surely I ,
need not tell to you, for you feel it more vividly than I do,
that the commercial, the material prosperity of this age re-
quire more than ever, more than at any period of human
existence, the balance and compensation which is afforded
by the highest civilising pursuits. (Cheers.) It is more
than e'er necessary that the powers of the Christian reve-
lation of the Christian taith should be exercised and felt
over the whole surface of society, and down to its profoundest
depths. (Cheers.) But that Christian revelation has not
been only a revelation of spiritual truth. It was a revelation
in which spiritual truth was designed to carry with it and
to draw after it the perfect development of every human
excellence—(cheers)--the soaring faculties of the imagina-
tion, the searching powers of the mind, that which has made
philosophers, artists, and poets, who are the glory of man-
kind, These things were not prescribed by Christianity—
they were elevated into a higher sphere; and when I speak
of civilising agencies, I draw no distinction for the present
argument between the beneficent purposes of the Gospel
and those other excellencies of which the Gospel, indepen-
dently of its religious aims, has been the most powerful and
fruitful agent in promoting. (Cheers.) I only beseech you
to believe that the work which has assembled us to-day is
a noble and fruitful work. I beseech you to persevere in
that course of encouragement which you long ago, and first
of any others, entered upon, and to labour for this great
end ; and that, as Manchester is the metropolis of manu-
factures, and has shown herself to abound in every human
energy and the material of all human excellency, so she
may more largely and effectually combine with her power to
increase the strength and wealth of her country the dis-
position and capacity to rear sons who shall obtain for her
every other distinction, and make her name in every other
sphere famous in the history of her country, and endeared
with a thousand little titles to the grateful recollections of
its citizens. (Cheers.)
After a few words from Mr BAZLEY, M.P., a vote of
thanks was passed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The CIaNCELLOR of the Eleenehunn, on rising to re
spond, was again received with loud cheers. He said—lt
would ill become me to detain you at any length to express
my most cordial acknowledgments for the vote of thanks
which you have been pleased to pass. In the remarks I re-
cently delivered to you I had at least the excuse that I was
dealing with an important subject. Now, I have no other
duty than to assure you of the sincerity of the gratitude I
feel, with one exception, and it is this—l did not especially
refer in the observations I have made to the nature of the
great functions discharged by the teachers of those young
persons who .have appeared before us. We cannot well
overrate the difficulty of the function discharged by the
teacher, neither can we overrate its dignity. An unworthy
teacher, indeed, has no claim to our respect. The man
who pursues his vocation as a teacher in any other spirit
than that of a pecuniary acquisition has no claim—.at any
rate he has but a secondary claim—to the feelings that
some among his brethren may expect us to entertain.
But I am bound to express this conviction, that merely
selfish desires and objects never will make of themselves a
good teacher. (near.) In order to sot about that labour