The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-18 00:00:00

MARSDEN MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

ht R. BRIGHT ON EDUCATION, NEWSPAPERS,
THE UNITED STATES, AND THE WAR.

On Friday evening last a meeting was held in a room
of Messrs. W. Eckroyd and Son's new mill, Lombes-
hayes; Marsden, near Colne, to promote the interests of
the Marsden Mechanics' Institute. There was a large
attendance of working men ; and the principal residents
in the neighbourhood, together with many ladies, were
present. John Bright, Esq., M.P., was amongst those
upon the platform. Mr. W. F. Eckroyd occupied the

*flair.
Mr. Bft/GHT said that from the invitation he had re-
ceived from the chairman to be present and say a few
words, he was by no means prepared for so important a
meeting ; and although he felt as if he had been to some
extent entangled in a trap, he still felt, also, grateful for
the pleasure afforded of being present. He presamed
their object was to stir one another up; not that those
upon the platform should stir up those in the meeting—
for he had no doubt that, considering the difference of
station, they upon the platform equally needed to be
stirred up. Speaking for the one he knew the most of,
he could truly say that he should feel quite condemned
if he were to go into anything like a lecture of anybody
then present, knowing how great were his own short-
comings with regard to this matter of self-improvement.
Owe thing was very satisfactory in looking at the ques-
tion of the mental, intellectual, and moral growth of
the peeple—that a great number of obstacles that existed
for our grandfathers, and still more for theirs, were in
our Cl3B removed ; and that although there was no royal
roal tolearning, yet that the road had been somewhat
maeadamised, and that on the whole we might get on
fa: ter than our forefathers did in travelling in the same
direction. This brought strongly to his mind one result
which we saw around us—the equalising influence that
appeared to act upon the world as the world grew older.
E.:ery invention in science, and every discovery in art,
due sernethieg to break dawn the inequalities and the
ineonveuiences of society. However poor a man
might be, if he could get inside a railway carriage,
he made his way to his journey's end just as fast
as a, duke ; while in former times the one would
have bad to trudge weer7ly on foot, and the
other would have dashed past in a splendid carriage,
with at least 4 horse-. As regarded books, the change
wan-just as extraordinary. Not long ago (in the history
of a country), books were very scarce indeed. A. fear
rich men had them, as many had now, for ostentation
rather than for use—(laughter)--but certainly as re-
g-- -
led persons of moderate means, or those who
lived upon wages, very few books were found in their
beresee The great man who introduced printitee into
this country once wi,bed that in time his art might be
carried to so extravagant an extent that a Bible would
be found in every parish in England. Now one con!,l
probably be found in almost ()eery house; or, at least,
their absence could not result from their not being cheap

E 7erybody now might have a library at a very
snail cost. Cobbett said that nobody required more in
the-way 4•l' a library than the books he had written. He
()Ir. Bright) would not say that ; but still with books
not more in number than those Cobbett wrote, a man
might have as many as, if he would really read, under-
stand, and remember, would make him every bit as un-
pleasant, a fellow to meet in argument, and a good d. al
more useful and practical than were many of those who
fancied they had read whole libraries through. It was
not the number of books read that made a man power-
ful ; it was the really mastering a few good books, un-
til ha became, as it were, part of tic spirits of the
great men who wrote them, thoroughly imbue]
with their feelings, and capahle of enjoying the
wisdom they had left to The Teen see how much
had been done with regard to newsplpers. En- a
penny or twopence, we could no .v get really admirable
newspaper, especially i i Lancaliire and Yorkshire.
Let any man take one of those newspapers in our large
towns, and try to ri:alise what there was in it, and what
had to he done to get it there. Why, there was not
a quarter of the globe, not a country of importance, from
which the penny or twopenny newspaper did not publish
i iteresting intelligence weekly or daily. Sixty or seventy
years ago, the Times was not above a quarter as big as
or,e of the newspapers now. It then contained mere
scraps of intelligence, beginning—" We bear from Hol-
land," or elsewhere, the news being a month old at
leaq, with the additional advantage that no one cool!
ever tell whether it was true or not, and that you could
rarely comprehend the meaning even of the words that
were printed, so incomprehensibly bed was the style of
writiee. Some few pare Ago we had to pay 4d. for the
i=tainp on every newspaper—a monstrous :eel seemingly
iiicredible thing. Not only were bread aed newspapers
then taxed, but so was light ; and he believed that the
seeie people would have taxed air also if they could have
-sell their way to a profit. After the hawing of the -Re-
form Bill, there was a great agitation against the 41.
stamp, and it was reduced to 1.1. Our rulers did not
cure so much about lowering a tax—what they always
warted was to keep on a little; they knew that if it
once disappeared it could net he restored ; but that while
any existed, there was always a chance to increase it.
(Hear, hear.) The Id. stamp remained from 1535 or
1833 down to the present year. It required several
years' agitation in a small way to get rid of it. The Go.
vernmeut said it was needed for revenue, but the oppo-
nents of it knew a ereit deal better. It was intended
simply to prevent cheap newspapers, because the Govern-
ie;Tit end others thought—judging most foolishly and
imwisely—that the appetite of the people was for some-
thing bad ; that there were those who were ever ready
t r pander to it ; and that cheap newspapers would make
the country scarcely worth living in. It was in the days
of 4!ereen Anne, some 150 years ago, thst the stamp was
put upon newspapere, avowedly for the purpose of rnak-
lug it impossible that they could exist to so great an ex-
tent as they bad done. A stamp was imposed upon
pee,phlete, because many, and no doubt violent ones,
were written against the Government of that day ; for
when a dozen gentlemen—or no gentlemen, as they were
---got to be members of a Government, they would have
nothing published, if they could help it, to prevent their
remaining so as don; as possible. He recollected the
substance of a despatch sent home about that time by
the governor of Virginia. That gentleman said he was
very much disgusted with the clergy—with the preachers
generally ; that it would be a great deal betterif they would
preach less and pray more, for they taught things that the
peep'e should not know. Thank God, they bad neither a
school nor a printing press there, and he hoped they never
would While he lived, for then the colony would be in peace.
(Rear.) That was just the spirit out of which arose the
newspaper stamp ; and disguise it as you would, that
was precisely the spirit under which it was maintained.
No one could have read the newspapers for 20 or 30
years, without seeing that although they were cheapened
20 years ago, and again recently, cheapening bad not at
11 deteriorated their quality— their moral quality, he
meant. He thought they were as well written as ever—
as regarded the matter of powerful writing ; that they
were as good in their tone generally ; and far less per-
a teal and libellous than at that period. All the grounr's
upon which the stamp was professedly maintained were
thus destroyed ; and it was to be hoped that as the peo-
ple improved themselves the mental food administered
to them would also be improved—that the people would
be improved by the greater wisdom of the newspapers,
and that the newspapers would be improved because the
people liked wisdom more than ever. (Hear.) The
chairman had referred to the education of children . and
he (Mr. Bright) did not believe that there was anything it
would be more profitable for a man to consider deeply,
than the value to themselves of a good education for
their children ; and when he said " good," he did not
mean classical, or anything extraordinary, but that sort
of education which monlded a child—which, as ho
grew up, led him to useful and pure enjoyments—which
would give a chance, in fact the greatest probability,
that as he grew up he would do what was right, and
be a credit and a comfort to those who bad the greatest
concern in him. He had been mixed with many bun-
dredS of persons employed in mills, ever since he was a
boy ; and it had always seemed to him most grievous
that so many of those who worked for weekly wages
should see their children so often disappoint what one
might call just and reasonable expectations on the pa-
rents' parts. (Hear.) He was satisfied that this was
because children's minds were not trained to occupations
and enjoyments which would lead them from bad com-
panionships, and preserve them from the thousand temp-
tations thatlbeset young persons in every class of life.
Until recently, when children left school, they had very
little opportunity of continuing their education ; and he
always advocated the abolition of the newspaper stamp,
the more strongly with a view to an improvement on that
rint. He thought that if newspapers could be sold for
one penny, every working maw would be surd to havo
one, if not every day, at least every week ; that if the
working man could read well himself, it would not be at
ail difficult for him to give his child a little exercise
and practice in reading from this chart of the world's
history, so cheaply within his reach, and that by these
means, there being so much greater inducements for
young persons to read, the period between leaving school
and settling in life would have some chance of being
occupied in pursuits of a better character than was now
10 often the case ; that the habit of reading commenced
tt school would be continued and strengthened, and be-
come a positive appetite with the growth of the body.
And when we enneidered what a really perfect kind of
enjoyment —so far as this state of being almost allowed
--there was to be derived from the gaining of kaowdege
by reading good books, it seemed to him a proof of the
beneficence of Providence that now, more than at any
time else, this vast enjoyment was conferred upon al-
innst
everybody. Whenever he could
workdo s
of so, he
epent 3 or 4 hours of an evening
reading n
history or biography ; and he never went to bed with a
m-in.,3 perfect feeling of enjoyment, or of being strength-
ened, than when he had so spent an evening. But.that
was not an enjoyment to him simply because ho was
better off than others might be ; because the cost to any
11150 of providing
himself with
Tirs.upehrigrhetrenvg.i, for
enjoyed
it,
least as many evenings as be (
would be so trifling that the smallest abstinence from any
needless gratification would secarc the means. The cost
of so much beer as was taken by a man who drank it,
and yet was never drunk in his life, would supply him
with mental food which would- strengthen his thoughts,
nerve hire to meet the trials of life, make his home far
recre comfortable, enable him to give to his children
tasted
which would do much to guard them from inevit-
able temptations and as his head few grey to see those
children rattled
tit n the care creditably around him, anxious to re-
aniTneyand affectionwhich he had bestowed upon
them during i
childhood. Another great rea-
son why men should read and think was, that we were
net P'acP(l upon this earth merely
a to weave and sell
eliite, There were our duties scitizens and members
of a great community, connectedindissolubly—unless
we chose to einigrete---withthe a
prixperity and destinies
ei a great empire. He
was to extentito things
inthe
„roe m
ion of the an who said there werert On
worth ta.,lking about—religion and politicsy w
;but tE
discussion of these was always supposed to be