The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-10 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 10, 1852.

L.AITRENrS GRAND CASINO.

ARGYLL ROOMS, Great Windmill-street,
St. James's,
Lessee, Charles Emile Laurent, Onslow House, Brompton-road,
Licensed pursuant to Act of Parliament, of 25th George 11.
Open every evening with Laurent's Celebrated Baud. Principal
oniet-d-t Won, 51. Bouicour.
Admission—ONE SHILLING.
Doors open at Half-past Eight o'clock. Daneing to commence at
Nre and terminate at Half-past Eleven precisely.

PROVIDENT CLERKS' MUTUAL LIFE
ASSURANCE ASSOCIATION.
Established 1340.
TRUSTEES.

Thomas Baring, Esq., M.P. IW. G. Prescott, Esq.
Thomson Hankey, jun, Esq. Baron L. De Rothschild, M.P.
Treasurer of the Benevolent Fund —John Abel Smith, Esq., M.P.

;very descriptimof assurance granted with or without Profits.

lea Tnrimediate and Deferred

Endowments for Children.
NINE-TENTIN of PROFITS divided amongst the Assured every
live years. on Policies of three years' standing. The last Division
was equal to 33 per cent. on the premiums paid.
Policies may be made absolutely payable to the WIDOW,
WIDOWER, and VIIILDREN of the ASSURED free of PROBATE
and LEGACY DUTY. _

Loans to the full value of the policies.
Folieies indisputable, except in cases of absolute fraud.
Clerks assuring with the Association will derive very great advan-
tages from the Benevolent Fund attached thereto.
Full particulars of which may be obtained at the office, or at the
agents of the Association.

PHILIP HENRY BYRNE, Secretary.
42, Ifoorgate-street, Dec. 1, 16152.

METROPOLITAN LIFE ASSURANCE
SOCIETY.

No. 3, Princes-street, Bank.
The Directors hereby give notice to Members whose Premiums fall
due on the sth of January next, that the same must be PAID
within Thirty days from that date.
The Premiums are paid Yearly, Half-yearly, or Quarterly, on
the sth of January, sth of April, sth of July, and sth of October,
either of which several days con,stitutes the commencement of the
year to Members. Persons, therefore, desirous of entering the So-
ciety as Members on the sth of January next, should appear or lodge
their proposals at the office on or before that day.
This Society, for Mutual anti "Geiteral Assurance, appropriates the
whole of its profits to the benefit of parties assuring their own lives
for the whole term of life as Members of the Society.
For the year ending the sth of April, 1853, an abatement of 51 per
cent. has been declared on the Premiums of all Members of Five
Years' standing and upwards.
RICHARD HEATHETELD, Superintendent.
Princes-street, Bank, Dec. 8, 1852.

ECONOMIC LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY.
6, NEW BRIDGE-STREET, BLACKFRIARS.

Established 1823.
Empowered by Act of Parliament, 3 William IV.

DIRECTORS.
CuAtastAx—Right lion. Sir T. FRANICLAND LEWIS, Bart., M.P
Dreurx CHAIRMAN—HENRY FREDERICK STEPHENSON, Esq
A. Kingsford Barber, Esq. Sir Alex. Duff Gordon, Bart.
Arthur Kett Barclay, Esq. Archibald Hastie, Esq., M.P.
Henry Bcrnett, Esq. John Mendham, Esq.
Robert Biddulph, Esq. Charles Morris, Esq.
Thomas Edgar, Esq. William Routh, Esq.

AUDITORS.
Edward Charrington, Esq. Captain Robert Gordon, R.N.
Francis Dumergue, Esq. John Gilliam Stillwell, Esq.
PHYSICIAN—John Ayrton Paris, M D., Cantab., Hon. D.C.L. Oxon.
F.R.S., 27, Dover-street (President of the Royal College of Phy.

siCians).
SURGEON—Belnjainin Travers, Esq., F.R.S., No. 54, Green-stree

Grosvenor-square.
SOLICITOR—henry Young, Esq.. No. 12, Essex-street, Strand.
_tenuity—James John Downes, Esq., F.R.A.S.
The advantages offered by this Society are :
ECONOMY combined with Security, and Lower Rates of Premiums
than those of any other office, which entitle the assured to participate
in the profits, and considerably lower than those of any other Mutual
Assurance Society.
The WHOLE of the PROFITS are divided every fifth year among
the Assured, and a Bonus is added, after the payment of the Fifth
Annual Premium to every Policy effected on the participating Scale,
if a claim accrue thereon prior to the next division of profits.
The BONUS declared in 1849 (arising from the whole of the pro-
dts), upon the Mutual Principle, averaged 62% per cent. on the
Premiums received.
LOANS granted on such Policies as are purchasable by the Society.
Number of Policies in force on the Ist January, 1852, 5,950.
The Assurance Fund exceeds 1,200,0001. Income 200,0001. per
Annum.
Service in the Militia or Yeomanry Corps will not affect the vali-
dity of Policies.
The subjoined Table shows the advantages offered by this Society,
resulting from low Premiums, and a division of the entire profits
among the Assured :

Terrace'
Pier.

7%
*tB l 4
t9IA

W EWE DAYS

Direct Trains from tb
Omnibuses from Few
every quarter of an hou
BRUNSWICK WnA it
following Trains

WEEK DAYS

'6' -

Time.

le Boats marked t
Lchurch-street Station to all parts of London

IT.
IILACKWALL, on the arrival of the
from the Fenehurch-street Station.

SUNDAYS.

JOHN MERRITT'. CEASED,
PURSUANT to an 0 ER, of the HIGH
COURT of CHANCERY, mad 1 a cause GILLIARD against
51'DOWELL, the Creditors of JOHN ERRITT, late of Edgehill,
near Liverpool, in the County of L aster, who died in or about
the month of April, 1845. are, by th i Solicitors, on or before the
25th day of January next. to con and prove their debts or
claims at the Chambers of JosaP umpianv. Esq., one of the
Masters of this Honourable Court, thampton-buildings, Chan
cery-lane, in the County of Middles' or, in default thereof, they
will be peremptorily excluded the be tof the said order. Friday,
the 28th of January next, at eleven o lock in the forenoon, at the
said Chambers, is appointed or heart ' and adjudicating upon the
claims.
Dated this 3d day of December, 185 .
By order,
C IPES and STUART, Gray's-Inn, Loudon,
Agents for
Messrs. FROST, Hull, Plaintiff's Solicitors.

PLYMOUTH, TAyISTOCK, OKEHAMPTON
NORTH DEVON, add EXETER RAIL IVAY.—TIie AL-
LOTMENT of SHARES will, take place on WEDNESDAY, the
15th instant. No app leaton for Shares will be received after
uesday, the 14th instant.

C. L. RADCLIPFE, Secretary.

PLYMOUTH, TAVISTOCK, OKEHAMP-
TON, NORTH DEVON, and EXETER RAILWAY.
Provisionally Registered.
Capital £500,000, in 25,000 shares of £2O each.
Deposit £2 per Share.
PROVISIONAL DIRECTORS.
THOMAS Etq SHILSTON CALMADY HAMLYN, Esq., Leawood, Devon,
Massey Lopez. urisystoC.,,h, Plymouth,apinnevaoin Chairman.
Chairman.
.E..
Albany Bourchier Savile, Esq., Oaklands, Devon.
James Ilaycroft, Esq., Plymouth,
Isaac Nichols, Esq., Plymouth.
James Crotch, Esq., Okehampton.
Edmund Pearse, Esq., Tavistock.
• Wm. Burnell, Esq., Plymouth.
Peter Adams, Esq., Plymouth.
BANKERS.
Messrs. Barnett, Hoare, anti Co., London.
The National Provincial Bank orunglaucl, Plymouth, Devon-
port, and Okehampton.
Messrs. Hodgo• and Co., Devonport.
The West of England and South Wales Banking Company,
I Exeter,

ENGINEER.—Mr. T. C. Bell.
CONSULTING ENGINEERS —Messrs Locke and Errington.
SOLICITSU.
Messrs. Crowder and Maynard, Coleman-street, London.
Mr. Bi idgman, Tavlstoelit I Mr. Burd, Okehampton.
Mr. Radcliffe, Flymouth. Mr. Fulford, North Tawton.
Mr. llawk,s, Okehampton. Mr. Barton, Exeter.
SECRETARIES (pro tem.).—Mr. Bridgman and Mr. Radcliffe.
smascsaexsus.

London—Messrs. Hichens and Harrison, Threadneedle•street.
Mr. E. N. Bryant, :6, Throgmorton-street.
Plymouth—Mr. T. B. Tyeth.
Mr. H. Luxcombe.
Exeter—Mr. Thomas'lSandfford.
Prospectuses may be obtained from, and application for shares to
be made to, either of the Solicitors or Secretaries, or to the Share-
brokers,

LORD JOHN RUSSELL IN LEEDS.

The annual soiree of the Leeds Mechanics' Institution
and Literary Society was held on Wednesday evening
last, when Lord John Russell, who was in the chair,
spoke as follows : " Ladies and gentlemen, your ex-
cellent president having conveyed to me a wish that I
should preside at this meeting of the Leeds Mechanics'
Institute, I had great pleasure in complying with his
request ; for since the first institution of Mechanics' In-
stitutes, I have had the greatest satisfaction in seeing
how much they have contributed to the instruction of
those who belong to them, and to the general knowledge
and the general welfare of the country. I had the plea-
sure of assisting Dr. Birkbeck in the beginning of these
institutions. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I wish now, as
far as I am able, to address you upon some points of
general concern, My ignorance of the particulars
and details relating to this institute, would make
it an impertinence on my part, if I were to
attempt to go into those details to which your
president has referred. lam glad to see, by the last
report of the institute, that the various objects to
which it is intended to minister—the schools, the classes,
the instruction of various kinds, and the library—have
been all well supported, and that there are no less than
2,000 members belonging to this institute. It occurs to
me, however, that if I could address anything to you
worthy of observation, it would be rather upon the gene-
ral state of knowledge at this time, and the prospect of
what is before us, than upon any particulars relating to
the institute ,sitar kith. am. new presiding:- Let us
observe how very different the present state of affairs is
from the time when the great foundations were made for
the purpose of education and instruction. Before the
Reformation and immediately afterwards, great sums of
money and broad lands were given for the purpose of
endowing academies, colleges, and schools for education.
Our ancestors thought, and I believe wisely thought, that
the best plan that they could adopt was to promote or to
provide the means of teaching the science and litera-
ture which had been derived from ancient nations ; for
in those days those sciences and that literature contained
all that was known that was really worthy of study—
contained the most perfect works upon subjects of geo-
metry and science, and contained the best model of
li-
teary writing. lam far from thinking, therefore, that
our ancestors committed an error, either when they di-
rected the education of the young almost exclusively to
those objects, or when they desired that a great length
of time should be given to that knowledge. But we
have to consider that, in the present day, we stand in a
totally different position. Not that we ought to forget
what advantages we have derived from the science
and the literature of ancient nations. Upon the
geometry delivered to us from the ancients has been
founded all that increase of knowledge which ended
in the discoveries of Newton. From the writings of
the poets of antiquity the great poets of modern times
have derived the best models they can imitate. From
the jurisprudence of the Romans are derived the laws
by which most of the nations of the Continent have been
ruled. But while this tribute must be paid, it is a para-
mount object of attention, that we, in the course of more
than three centuries and a half that have elapsed from
what is called the revival of literature, have added to the
stores that we have received immense stores of our own
—that by the side of that rich mine we have opened other
mines which, if not of as rich ore, are more easily worked,
and are more abundant in their product. (Loud cheers.)
It was Lord Bacon who first pointed out that the mode
of the pursuit of science for modern nations ought to
be different from that mode for the discovery of truth
which had been pointed out by some of the greatest
philosophers. (Hear.) It has been much questioned
whether Lord Bacon was an exact guide by which other
discoverers have been able to pursue the track of
knowledge and of invention. And upon that point I
think it is certainly clear that it was not Lord Bacon
that enabled a Galilo, a Pascal and a Tycho Brache, a Co-
pernicus 'and a Kepler,' to make the great discoveries
which have immortalised their names. (Hear, hear.)
But what is true is, that he at a very early period laid
down the rules by which all modern men of science' have
guided themselves. He pointed out the road which
they have followed, and laid down more clearly, more
broadly, more ably than any one else, the great me-
thod iby which modern discovery should be pursued.
You will find, I think, if you pursue this subject (if
those who belong to the Mechanics' Institute should even
study the works of Lord Bacon, one called the
"New Organ," the other on the augmentation of
science), that the latest discoveries, the latest inven-
tions, have been made according to that mode which
he pointed out. In a work that was published but a
year ago—Mr. Fairbairn's account of the experiments
he adopted under the direction of Mr. Stephenson, by
which he was enabled to construct the tubular bridge at
Conway, and over the Menai Straits— you will find that
all those experiments are according to the rules which
Lord Bacon had laid down. (Applause.) Take another
instance—a work on geology (and a most interesting
work it is), by Mr. Hugh Miller, called " The Old Red
Sandstone." You will find that an interesting work,
and as remarkable for the beauty of its style, as for the
importance of its matter. And you will find there that
Mr. Hugh Miller, being at first a mason working in a
stone quarry, pursued in his method of investigation the
same rules which Lord Bacon more than three centuries
ago laid down, and which have thus become the founda-
tion and the law, as it were, of modern science. (Cheers.)
And now, gentlemen, having said thus much with regard
to the original method, let me beg leave to say that, inte-
rested, as no doubt the members of the Mechanics' Institute
must be in the various sciences which of late have made
so great a progress—that interesting as are those disco-
veries which have given us a power of rapid locomotion,
and have been the cause of the discovery of the electric
telegraph that wonderful and extraordinary as all
sciences are, by which such discoveries in the study of
the means and methods by which they are made must
be to you, I would earnestly press upon you that there
is one science which, though its practical use is rather
upon the sea than upon the land, yet is worthy of the
deepest study, on account of the magnificent results
which it unfolds. The science to which I allude is as-
tronomy, (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Whether those
who, having begun their mathematical studies with the
simplest problems of geometry, wish to pursue them to the
end, and follow the works of Newton himself—(and no more
interesting works can be perused by the mathematician)—
with a view of seeing how it was that he discovered that
great law of gravitation by which his name will be for
ever known ; or whether contenting themselves with more
popular accounts of astronomy, given in many of the
works of the day, written by Sir John Herschel and other
eminent men ; whether, I say, you pursue the one track or
the other, you cannot fail to be struck with that great
magnificence of the heavens which is unfolded to that
in astronomical speculations. (Applause.) And that
course of discovery, be it remarked, is still open, is still
persued ; and it is but lately that it has been found that
those parts of the heavens which seem to be mere collec-
tions of luminous cloud, devoid of anything like form of
worlds or form of suns, are full of small—small in ap-
pearance to us, but, in fact—stars, perhaps of very great
magnitude, but at immensely remote distances. So that, as
it were, a new heaven is open to sts ; and it appears that to
Him to whom a thousand years is but as a day, a thousand
worlds are but a speck. (Applause.) Ladies and gen-
tlemen, I certainly will not attempt to detain you, and
to occupy your time by speaking of any of those other
sciences which also have their delight and their utility.
Let Me only say, that there cannot be a greater mistake
than that which prevailed a number of years ago, I may
say, when I first visited this district. lam sorry to say,
that it is now 40 years ago since I came into this dis-
trict ; and in company with a learned and amiable man
(the late Professor Playfair,) visited your factories and
workshops. I was struck, I could not fail to be struck, by
the ingenuity that was displayed, and the wealth thatwas
obtained. (Hear hear.) But I own that I left the
manufacturing districts with somewhat of a painful
feeling, that no greater means were used to spread
and obtain knowledge, and that a theory seemed to pre-
vail,—false and unfounded theory, I am sure it was,—
that those who are continually occupied in toiling and
spinning, in hammering and forging, could not obtain
the time, or have the means of penetrating the recesses
of science and literature. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I
believe that no doctrine was more false. (Applause.)
And experience indeed has proved that while science and
literature add to the skill, add to the ability by whi,
the artizan conducts his trade ; on the other hand, his
toil is sweetened by the comfort of thinking that he
can read and instruct himself when his hour of leisure
shall arrive. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, most sanguine are
the hopes of youth ! In a journal that I kept at that
time, in which I mentioned the various manufactories
that I had visited and the inventions that I had seen, I
ended with a few observations on the moral and intel-
lectual state of the manufacturing districts, and expressed
a confident hope that great improvement would be made
in these respects. (Cheers.) And I come now, after
this long period, to rejoice in the prospect that that
hope is being fulfilled. (Applause.) And now, gentle-
men, I will turn for a short time to the subject of litera-
ture. That subject again is so vast that if I were to
attempt to go over any one of its numerous fields, I
should not find time enough to enable me to do so ; but
there is one leading remark that I will venture to make,
and which I think it is worth while for any person who
studies literature to keep in view. There are various
kinds of productions of literature, of very different
forms, of very different tastes—some grave and some
gay—some of extreme fancy—some rigorously logical
but all, I think, demanding this as their quality, that
truth shall prevail. (Hear, hear.) A French author
has said that nothing is beautiful but truth—that
truth alone is lovely—that truth ought to prevail,
even in fable. I believe that that remark is per-
fectly correct, and I believe you cannot use a better
test even to works of imagination than to see that
they are true to nature. (Loud cheers.) Now, perhaps,
can better explain what I mean in this respect by
giving you one or two instances than I should be able
to do by precept and explanation. A poet of very great
celebrity in the last century, and who certainly is a poet
distinguished for much fancy and great power of pathos,
but who has not the merit of being always as true as he