The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-22 00:00:00

Warehousemen and Clerks' Schools.

The annual dinner on behalf of these schools took
place last night in the London Tavern.
Mr. Cobden, M.P., presided, and was supported
right and left by Mr. William Leaf, Mr. Samuel
Morley,:Mr. J. R. Jeffrey, of Liverpool ; Mr. J. W.
Maclure, of Manchester; Mr. John Dillon, Mr. J.
P. Foster, Mr. J. Sargood, Mr. Walford Greatorex,
Mr. R. Slater, Mr. George Lawrence, and other
gentlemen. The institution has been established
eight years, during which time 110 children have
been received, and there are now in the schools 62
children--47 boys and 15 girls—who are clothed
maintained, and educated, free of all charge.
In proposing the toast of " The Queen" the
CHAIRMAN said it was a sound maxim in this con-
stitutional monarchy that:the Sovereign could do no
wrong, but that was a maxim which applied only to
the Sovereign in a political dense, for it was impos-
sible in a country like this, where habits and man-
ners descended so much from one class to another,
that the highest personage in the realm should fail
to exercise, for good or evil, a great influence on the
character of society. There could be no doubt that
the illustrious lady now on the throne had for the
last 26 years, by her exalted example, by her per.
sane( and demeetic virtues, favourably influenced
the character of this and future ages. Nay, more, she
had given stability to the throne itself, for she had
rendered impossible for the future that which was
witnessed in the not very remote past, when the
persons highest in rank and birth were among the
lowest in the scale of morality—a monstrous com-
bination, the recurrence of which would he the only
way in which the monarchical institutions could be
jeopardised in this country.
The toast was drunk with great enthusiasm.
Mr. COBDEN, in submitting the next toast—
" The Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and
the remaining Branches of the Royal Family"—
said that when we felt more than ordinarily inte-
rested in the career of the young we naturally
turned with curiosity to the parental advantages
which they might have enjoyed. If eve were to
survey our annals from the Norman Conquest to the
present reign we should not, perhaps, find an in-
stance in which the throne of these realms had been
surrounded by so pure and elevated an
atmosphere
as that which had pervaded the Court of Queen
Victoria. The late lamented Prince Consort was
edu-
cation, he also possessed great natural talents ; he
not only a man of high character and careful
had rare judgment and rare
sagaeity, and if it had
entered the political
been possible for him to have
himself in the foremost
arena he would have p'aced
rank of our public mem Besides the advantage of
having been brought uP
under the eye of such a
father, the Heir Apparenthad the great blessing of
being united to
a princess who, since her arrival in
England, had not only g
deli bted us all with her
grace and beauty, but had won our hearts by her
amiability. With such favourable auguries every
one naturally felt
confident that the Prince of
Wales, to whom, as their warm supporter and
patron,
the warehousemen and clerks' schools owed
ab s t
benefits, was destined to run a career of
s 0
happiness
T hr.
eand usefulnese.
toast was received with all the honours.
3 CoI3DEN then proposed " The Army, Navy,
exalted
and Volunteers," and his remarks were loudly
cheered. He observed that in the course of his
travels abroad he had found that our pretensions
to superiority in some things were contested, and
in others conceded. For example, the French
would not allow that we were superior to them either
in politeness or taste ; the Prussians would not ad-
mit that we were their equals in education, while
the Spaniards claimed supremacy over us in tempe-
rance. But there was one attribute of Englishmen
with respect to which he had never heard any peo-
ple in any part of the world pretend to superiority
ever us, and that was courage—courage, he meant,
supplemented with those most formidable qualities,
tenacity of purpose and manly endurance. As the
verdict of mankind had declared that we had no
superior in those qualities, it would be a sheer
waste of time if we were to dwell upon them our-
selves. Re was not sure, indeed, that it would be
good taste to do 60; and it was certainly altogether
unnecessary, because henceforth the contests of na-
tions would depend less and less upon mere brute
force. We lived in a scientific age—an age when
science assisted us to travel, to send our message.
to manufacture our goods, and to cultivate our soil.
1
In future, battles would be fought and wen byat t
the
aid of science, and hence it was necessary
th
the
be-
sides courage we should have at our command
genius.
best resources of our mechanical and chemical
He was not going to say anything that could be
controverted, because he held
it
:anitory principles,
not in accordance with approv
ederie's° subject imme.
to talk upon any difficult or ',
diately after dinner, wheno Peple wanted quiet ard
freeUom from strong emotions,
but he had a the, iry
propound shortly to the men
of business whom
which he should likeb to
e saw around him. TIo
had
alway
should er the opinion that the. Govern-
ment
their business very mach as
eunitd ciaarirn y erl
on
our largoon theirs,
merchants and espitalists carried •
n other
emwords, that when they Wanted anything
they 8-" -
should go into the market and buy it rather
than
pt to make it for themselves. It was
:n
ahtt