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

Sir John Pakington on Education,

At a soiree of the Kidderminster Mutual Improvement
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 werealcalled
Mechanics' Institutions, and in other places he was told
they preferred the word " club." Ho 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 he 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.) He
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 one day too soon. (Hear, hear.)
We were proud, and 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 of the people. In the appli•
antes 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 bad 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
be had adverted, that we had no time to lose in Dressing for-
.eeee aekzeani ea....a.., Le e euta 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 consideringthis
great subject of the education of the people of England.
That Royal Commission, among of her 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 whotook
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 accessible,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.
He did not hold up to them for an 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 lea to train a citizen for his duties even in this
world, unless with intellectual cultivation was combined full
and sufficient religious instruction. (" Hear, hear," and
applause,) On this point ho did not hold up the United
States as an example; but he now told them, what ho 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 ability. Not long since lee.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 else,
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 foodwhich
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 aro 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
bad referred to this point in Lord Hartiegton's speech,
which struck him much, as ho 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-
tinguished 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-
apnedron, aided,
Zol2lt.iele which had taken place in the public press of this
as ea A few years ago a newspaper might be considered
as c'te et the luxuries of the rich, but now it had become
one of the necessities of the many. A few years ago what
was the piers
of E
by a few new.published ii,
coming
Birm ~ ngland ?It consisted of a few daily papers,
as regarded the local press,
out ohee a Z-fkor the most part country papers—
ingham and
cities of the country,
of the Manchestere in the larger localities, such as
bysome,fand the great and populous
1 lace
where they
v,
pre
putelNies yea p e rus t takingn
it h owneLaoml e
papers, Tin co,'zt of these papers it
d b
Was 6da or naorye. And