The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-30 00:00:00

WE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DMEMBER, 30, 1861

by the way, being afflicted with paralysis) have been
exiled to a town in Penn, on the confines of Siberia,
and that Madame Sierakowska is under orders to
follow them as soon as she has sufficiently re-
covered from her recent confinement. The most
shocking thing in this wantonly cruel affair is that
the wife was detained at Wilna for four months
after her husband's execution, and was not sent
forward on her sad journey until she was expected
from day to day to be brought to bed. She was, in
fact, taken in labour between St. Petersburg and
Moscow, and had to be carried out of the train at
the station near Novgorod, where she still remains.
Nevertheless, the designer of this unhappy lady's
sufferings is the only really popular man who has
appeared in Russia since 1812 ; and the only person
who, in a half-public manner, has condemned his
general conduct is made by a popular Russian writer
an object of scorn. There art a few other men of
distinction, however, in Russia who must to some
extent share Prince Souvaroff's opinions as to the
unangelic nature of Mouravieff. Thus, neither
M. Golovnin, the Minister of Public Instruc-
tion, nor M. Walonieff, the Minister of the
Interior; nor M. Reutern, the Minister of Finance ;
nor M. Tatarinoff, the Controller-General, would
sign the address in which the image of St. Michael
was offered to the archangel of Wilna. I see, too,
from a recent number of the St. Petersburg News,
that the dinner of the Moscow University, from
which complimentary telegrams were sent to Generals
Mouravieff and Berg, was not attended by the prin-
cipal professors, and that among those who distin-
guished themselves by keeping away were Messrs.
Salavieff, Professor of History; Babst, Professor of
Political Economy ; Kapoustin, Professor of Inter-
national Law; Escherfsky, Tchitcherin, and Dmi-
trieff. All these professors are known by their
published literary works, as well as by their lec-
tures, and most of them are contributors either to
the review called the Busstan Messenger, or to the
Moscow News ; which latter journal, however, has
hitherto been among the most fervent worshippers
of the Lithuanian archangel.

Sir John Pakington on Education,

At a soirde of the Kidderminster Mutual Improvemere
Society, on Monday evening, Sir John Pakington, M.P.,
delivered a long address on the general subject of education
and the beneficial influences of the English, press. He cared
not under what name they might be gathered together, and
he was happy to say that societies such as that were now
to be found all over the land, in almost every town and in
every populous district. They gathered together under
different names—here they called themselves a Mutual Im-
provement Society, in some places they werenlcalled
Mechanics' Institutions, and in other places he was told
they preferred the word " club." He owned that he did not
like the word " club," as he did not think it expressed
either the object or character of the institutions, and he
might go a step further, and be more candid than polite by
saying that he did not quite understand what was the mean-
ing of the term " Mutual Improvement Society," and that
he preferred the name "Literary Institution." But this was
a minor question; he cared not what they called themselves,
but ho did care for the object they had in view, and that
they should attain their object, and that those societies in
their several localities should be exerting themselves to
promote the one great national object of the moral and
intellectual improvement of the people. (Cheers.) lie
thought it a matter for great congratulation. He thought it
a matter of the greatest satisfaction, in a national point of
view, that the public mind was now convinced of the neces-
sity of this great object. And the public mind, let him say,
was not convinced of it ono day too soon. (Hear, hear.)
We were proud, end justly proud, in England of our free-
dom. We were proud of it, because it was a freedom more
real and mere genuine than was possessed by any other
country in the world. (Hear.) But, like other good things,
this freedom was sometimes pushed a little to excess, and
among other privileges of it in this country there was no
doubt whatever of the fact that we had lost sight for a long
period of years of the necessity for educating the people. He
said for a long pericd of years, because he did not in any
way wish to ignore—he did not ignore, he fully recognised
the successful efforts that had been made of late years—but
for a long period of time we did feel free to neglect the in-
tellectual cultivation of those great masses of the people
upon whose intelligence and character the prosperity of this
great empire mainly depended. The result of this neglect
had been, and it was, perhaps, not an acceptable fact to
dwell upon, but was a fact nevertheless—the result had been
that England was far behind many other parts of the world
in the intellectual cultivation cf the people. In the appli.
ances of education, and in the means resorted to for the cul-
tivation of the intellect of the people, we were behind at this
moment many of the nations of Europe—we were behind
the United States of America, and we were behind some of
our own colonies and dependencies. Those young commu-
nities which were now springing into active life had had the
sagacity to appreciate the liberal institutions which we had
granted them, and to know that those institutions could only
be safe if carried out by an instructed and enlightened people.
(Hear, hear.) If any one wanted proof of the fact to which
he had adverted, that we had no time to lose in pressing for-
ward national education, ho would briefly mention two pub-
lications which could be had by simply ordering them of their
booksellers. They were all aware of the fact that during the
last few years a Royal Commission had been considering this
great subject of the education of the people of England,
That Royal Commission, among other steps, had very wisely
and very prudently sent an assistant-commissioner to travel
through Europe and report on the state of education in dif-
ferent countries. The report had been published, and was one
of the books he referred to. It ought to be read by all who took
an interest in the subject, and wished to know what was our
own condition as compared with other civilised nations, The
other document, which was equally accessiblo,was the report
of the educational section of the International Exhibition of
last year. He recommended that report to all who took an
interest in the question, because there they would find in a
brief and compendious form abundant information as to the
position in which we really stood, He had mentioned not
only the progress made by the other nations of Europe, but
the progress made by the United States of America, Now,
there were two great branches of this education question—
intellectual cultivation, and moral and religious cultivation.
Ile did not hold up to them for on example the mode in
which the United States dealt with the religious branch of
the question. This was a branch of the question to which
we in England attach the greatest, and as he thought, the
most just and proper importance. We held in England that
no education could be satisfactory, or could be what it
ought to be to train a citizen for his duties even in this
world, unless with intellectual cultivation was combined full
and sufficient religious instruction. (" Hear, hoar," and
applause,) On this point ho did not hold up the United
States as an example; but he now told them, what he had
said to other assemblies again and again, that in respect to
the intellectual and secular portion of their system we had
very much to learn from them. He was tempted to advert
in alluding to the system of education which had obtained,
and certainly in many respects obtained with very great
success in the United States—he was disposed to think that
he could not occupy their time during the brief period
that he proposed to address them better than by adverting
for a few moments to a speech he read a short time
ago with great admiration, as having been made at the
meeting of the Educational Institution of Lancashire by
Lord Hartington. Though Lord Hartington was still a
young man, he occupied a position in her Majesty's Go-
vernment, and was a nobleman of high intelligence,
great promise, and great atility. Not long since he made
a tour in the United States of America, and devoted
his mind to the consideration of the institutions of that
country; and lately, in an address to a meeting of the Edu-
cational Institutes of Lancashire, he adverted, in what
struck him (Sir John Pakington) as being very just and
sensible language, to what he had seen in America. He said
—" The school education of American children is not in all
cases very judicious. There is, even while the children are
at school, a tendency to exaggerate everything, to make
them admire more what is large than what is good, and,
above all, what is American than what is anything el
But it is when the children leave school that the bad influ
ences get hold of the national character, which prevents its
being so great and good as otherwise it might be. However
wide-spread the education, I believe that after boys have left
school the greater part of the reading of 99.100ths of the
people will be the reading of the daily press ; and the daily
press in America, from reasons which it would take too long
to enter into here, is certainly not the intellectual food which
tends to make a people great, or generous, or good." In the
same speech, shortly afterwards, Lord Hartington said—
" Newspapers will always be a very great portion of the
intellectual food of the people, and our own are conducted
in a very different spirit. False and wrong their views may
often be, but in general they are advocated fairly and tem-
perately ; the arguments are addressed to the judgment of
the people, or to the best and noblest part of their nature,
and not to the base and vulgar passions of humanity." He
had referred to this point in Lord Hartiugton's speech,
which struck him much, as he thought it of importance in
respect of the intellectual cultivation of the people of this
country, which was at this moment of the greatest interest
and importance. Among the great changes which had dis-
tinnished the progress that had been remarkable in this
country of late years there were few, if any, more remark-
able or more interesting than what we might call the re.
tion which had taken place in the public press of this
country. A few years ago a newspaper might be considered
as one et the 1 •
one of the
was the pee, of En
published in
coming out once
necessitiesof the many. A few years ago what
i,__ Fiend ? It consisted of a tow daily papers,
by a few newspaZs_n, papers—for
BirMingham and ldanoilerstienr,
cities of the country, b
of' the glace where they
papers, The cast of then papers as regarded the local press,,
a weelr'::)he most part country papers—
the larger localities, such as
y some
faenwdptahpeergsretaatkainnd
the populousnam e
wore Published, but still ognly weekly
was 6d., or more. And

now what was the state of affairs at the present ? Why, the
leading journals of England—the leading journals of Lon-
don—were reduced to half that price, and there was scarcely
a town of much population in England where there was
not a paper published now at the price of one penny. Some
of the most ably conducted and some of the most influential
papers both in London and the provinces were papers which
were not only conducted with great ability, but with great
profit, at the price of one penny—a price which brought
them within the reach of almost every person in the com-
munity. It was impossible to overrate the influence which
the newspapers press must exercise on the national charac-
ter. Lord Hartington had told them how, under the de-
mocratic institutions of America, the press in that country
had sunk. He had compared it with the higher character
of the English press, and he (Sir John Pakington) knew
of few things which the friends of the people ought to desire
with more assiduity and more anxiety than that the high
character of the British press should be diligently and care•
fully maintained. The conductors of the press of this coun-
try, under the change of circumstances he had mentioned,
Were acting under the greatest possible responsibility. The
extent to which the press of this country might assist or
impede any attempts made to promote sound education could
not be exaggerated, nor the extent to which it might influ-
ence the national cbaraeter ; andiit behoved institutes such
as that the members of which he was addressing to take
care that those newspapers which were allowed to lie on
their tables, and which were the daily study of the people
as Lord Hartington said, with truth, should belong to that
portion of the public press which took care to maintain
the high character which the press of this country had
long maintained, and he hoped it would continue to sup-
port. (Applause.) He trusted that every well-conducted
institute in England would bear in mind the importance of
this subject. He wished for a moment to turn to that pas-
sage in Lord Hartington's speech in which his lordship
said :—" But it is when the children leave school that the
bad influences get hold of the national character." He (Sir
J. Pakington) thought that the system which existed in this
country might be contrasted favourably with the system
which existed in America. (Hear, hear.) That institution
was one of those designed for the benefit of the working
classes after they had left school. (Hear.) The demands
of labour in this country were such that it was impossible
that we could reasonably indulge the expectation that the
youth, of the working classes or eats country won'd be de-
tained at school beyond an early age—say 10, 11, or 12 years
of age. This was known to be practically the case ; it was
seen every day. But it was known that in other countries
of Europe where education was greatly studied, but where
different government prevailed, the education of the working
classes was made compulsory ; but here it was not consistent
with our ideas of personal freedom that compulsion should
enter into these matters. The English parent was perfectly
free to negleot the education of his child if ho was so in-
clined ; but even when the parent was anxious to educate
his child—when children were educated as well as our means
of education permitted, still the demands of labour were
such that at a very early age children must leave the tuition
of the school. Here it was that the value of such institu-
tions as that was felt. Here it was that they stepped in
to,impart to the youth of the country that moral and in-
tellectual cultivation which the children did not stay long
enough at school to acquire. For the moral cultivation of
the working classes the institutions in question have re-
creations and libraries. Ho was very glad to hear from the
report just read that the number of volumes was increased
by no less than 130 during the present year. They had
their recreations and their games, and the institute was con-
ducted under perfectly harmless circumstances for the moral
cultivation of the members ; and for their intellectual culti-
vation they had their lectures and classes. He had not fol-
lowed very closely what his rev. friend had read from the
report with regard to the lectures, but he had been informed
elsewhere that they were not so well supported as formerly,
and that difficulty was felt in maintaining them. It might
perhaps be interesting to them to hear that they did not
stand alone in this respect. Allusion was made in the report
just read to the Union of Educational Institutes now in
existence in this country, and of which that institute was a
member. lie had in his hand a report of a similar union
which existed in the south of England—" The Southern
Counties Adult Education Society" it was called, and he
found they had experienced exactly the same difficulty that
was complained of here. But they said—" Although the de-
mand for lectures is by no means so general or so great as it
was some five or six years ago, yet among the larger insti-
tution's there has been a growing desire for lectures of a
scientific and literary character; and if arrangements can be
made for having a course of lectures delivered on instructive
subjects, not only would the value of this popular mode of
teaching be greatly increased, but the best institutions
would become more eager to receive the services of our lec-
turers. It is found generally that where amusement has
been the chief object, recourse has been had almost exclu-
sively to professional lecturers; but in those instances in
which there was a desire for intellectual cultivation there
has been a constant and increasing desire for the more in-
structive lectures on our list." He (Sir J. Pakington) was
not sufficiently conversant with the arrangements of that
institute to know how far they would follow him in the dis-
tinction there drawn between amusing and instructive lec-
tures. If they had failed to keep up this supply of amusing
lectures he did not think they had suffered any very serious
loss. No doubt they were very agreeable, and sometimes,
perhaps, very instructive; but still they there nothing more
than one of the various means of recreation which formed a
part of the arrangements of institutions of that character.
But the instructive lectures wore of a different and more im-
portant character, and if there had been any failure of per-
sons willing to give instructive lectures either upon scientific
or other subjects, he hoped they would be able to correct
this deficiency, and to maintain a course of instruction
which he believed to be most important to the objects they
had in view. (Hear.) But he confessed that in his view of
these matters the question of lectures, of whichever deno-
mination, was inferior in interest to the question of classes.
(Hear, hear.) Ile was very sorry to learn that the classes
were not so well attended as they might be. Mr. Isaac, in
his report, had explained to them what the classes were. It
was by means of these classes that the loss by leaving school
too soon was to be comppnseted ; it was by these classes
that during those valuable years of early manhood ,the cul-
tivation of the intellect was to bo continued ; and he did
most earnestly hope, for the sake of the great objects which
that and all similar institutions had in view, that the
friends of those institutions, wherever situated, would do all
they could to attract the attendance of the younger members
to the classes, which were so valuable for the completion of
the education of those who found it impossible to complete
their education at school. (Hear.) On this acccunt these
mid°, and ho was happy to say were
msoacdieet,iems(mistigehffit beieent and most important for the welfare of
the population throughout the country, especially in large
towns—but nowhere were they more important than where
the population were engaged, as they were for the most part
in Kid& rminster—in manufactures, The manufacture of
Kidderminster, like that of other towns, was fluctuating in
its character. Sometimes the people were in a state of pro-
sperity--sometimes they were in a state of what he might
call adversity. It was when these changes occurred that
the influence of educational institutions upon the character
of the people became more *narked and more important.
He was happy to advert, as every one who had spoken
upon this subject lately had adverted, to the gratifying
proof of the improvement of the national character which
the distress in Lancashire had called forth. (Hear.) In
fomer times the
people resorted in days of prosperity to the
publichouse, and in days of adversity to the Poor Laws. He
was thankful to say that those times were passing away.
He could not speak of them as gone, but he believed they
were rapidly passing away ; and the greater encouragement
was given to the efforts of those who wished to uphold in-
stitutions like that, the more likely would the people
be able to bear with propriety the changes from prosperity
to adversity, or from adversity to prosperity. The savings
banks of the country offered to the people a means of pre-
paring for those changes which were inseparable from
manufacturing, and, indeed, all other pursuits. He should
not detain the meeting longer but to express his earnest
hope that the prosperity which had hitherto attended that
institution might long continue. (Hear, hear.) Under the'
guidance of their excellent president and the management
of that committee, which seemed to attend so carefully and
well to the affairs of the society, he trusted that a long
career of useful action was before them. He concluded by
expressing an earnest hope that both individually and as
members of the community the coming year would be to
them one of happiness, prosperity, and continued useful
exertion. (A.pplause.)
[se. I aoroon•••••••rda,