The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-29 00:00:00

THE LATE JOSEPH LANCASTER

(From the Congregational illagazine.)
Died at New York, October 23, 1836, Joseph
Lancaster, the philanthropist, and founder of the
British System of Education, in the sixty-ninth year of
his age. This eminently useful man was the son of
humble but pious parents, his father having been a
a soldier in the Foot Guards. Under the influence of
personal religion, the natural benevolence of his son's
mind was excited on behalf of the poor neglected chil-
dren that surrounded their residence in the Borough-
road, Southwark. He resolved, therefore, to open a
school for their benefit ; his father gave the school-room
rent free, and Joseph fitted up the forms and desks
lime elf, and before he was eighteen he had ninety chil-
dren under his care, most of whom were so poor as to
require gratuitous instruction. This was in 1798, a
period of scarcity as well as ignorance ; and necessity,
that fruitful mother of useful discovery, prompted him
to m ake experiments in education with a view to its
economical extension.
He early attracted the notice of the Duke of Bedford
and Lord Somerville, and in the year 1805, George the
Third, with his Queen, Charlotte, gave Mr. Lancaster a
long and gracious audience, on which occasion the King
uttered the most patriotic sentiment that ever fell from
his lips. " I wish that every poor child in my dominions
may be able to read his Bible." Mr. Lancaster's princi- 1
ples, as a Quaker nonconformist, were not overlooked
on this occasion. .. The highest door of hope," says he,
.‘ was opened to me by the highest hands, if I could
conscienciously join the Church of England ; but no good-
will
to the wish of my beloved sovereign and patron,
George the Third, could induce me to sacrifice con-
science, nor did he wish it at such an expense, nor did
he take the least umbrage at my unhesitating choice."
1 This was demonstrated by the liberal subscription of
1001. per annum from the King, which was followed by
her Majesty's subscription. and that of twelve other
members of the Roy al family. Mr. Lancaster's new
system of mutual instruction was now before the public,
and general attention was awakened to the subject of
popular education by his labours.
In the short period of four years, from 1807 to 1811,
he travelled, in various parts of the kingdom, nearly
7,000 miles, and lectured to nearly 50,000 persons, and
gave such an impulse to public benevolence, that
23,000 children were provided with instruction. Such
efforts were likely to arouse the slumbering Church,
whose champions had hitherto maintained, that educa-
tion was not needed by the lower classes ; but as the"
judgment of the country was against that strange posi-
tion, it became necessary to establish, at the close of
1811, " The National School Society for promoting
the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Es-
i tablished Church."
But while the cause of liberal unsectarian education
had made such progress through the labours of Mr.
Lancaster, it must be confessed that some peculiarities
of his character greatly impeded its progress ; he enter-
tained very exaggerated ideas of his own ability to ma-
nage everything pertaining to the Royal Lancasterian
System ; and, by his determination to administer the
financial as well as the educational department, he at
length compelled his friends to quarrel with him, and,
to secure the object, to remove the instrument who had
been so eminently useful in founding the new system of
general instruction.
Thus, while the Dukes of Kent, Sussex, and Bed-
ford, etood by the object, and with their eminent asso-
ciates, Lord Brougham, Mr. Hume, Mr. Whitbread,
Mr. William Allen, &c., founded the British and
Foreign School Society, Mr. Lancaster ima-
gined that he could conduct a seminary for
the education of the sons of the wealthy
in the higher walks of learning, upon the same princi-
ples. He therefore, in 1812, took Salvador House,
Lower Tooting, for his new establishment, and issued
advertisements that were sufficiently pompous and
inflated. As might be expected, the project failed, a
bankruptcy ensued, and the man who had been the
favoured associate of Princes was, from his uncompro-
mising spirit, in want of bread.

After spending several years under this humiliating
cloud, he left England for the United States in 1818,
and he was received by our American brethren with
great distinction, so ghat a vote was moved by Mr.
Basset, in the house of Representatives, " That Joseph
Lancaster, the friend of learning and of man, be ad-
mitted to a seat within the House of Representatives."
During the ten years he resided in the Republic,
many opportunities of usefulness opened to him, and
much good resulted from his labours ; but his habitual
want of prudence was a sad hindrance to the cause to
which he had devoted his life. In 1829 he visited Ca-
nada, cod was received with marked kindness by the
authorities, Lord Dalhousie, Sir James Kempt, Lord
Aylmer; and the Canadian Parliament voted him seve-
ral successive grants to carry forward his experiments in
education. In 1883 he became involved in an election
quarrel with Mr. Speaker Papineau and sonic of his
" liberal" friends, who threatened Joseph Lancaster
with the suspension of the annual grant, unless he
would break his promise, and not vote for the loyal
candidate. This involved him in a controversy, which
compelled him to suspend his Institution for want of
funds.

Great pecuniary difficulties were again suffered by
him, but some of his old friends in England united to
purchase for him a small annuity, which rendered the
circumstances of his declining days more easy than they
had been.

His lamented death was the result of an accident in
the streets of New York, where he was run over on the
2.2 d of October, and having had his ribs broken and
his 11,•ad severely injur, d, he died the next day, in the
faith and hope of the Gospel. Observant friends testify
that his character had rapidly matured for a change of
worlds. There had been an angelic devotion about him
for some weeks, so that when the accident was likely to
prove mortal, he rejoiced in the love of God, and died
full of faith in the blood of Jesus.
Although he had great defects of character, to which
we have referred, yet he was doubtless an instrument
raised up by God to accomplish a great work, which
will render his name fragrant when his foibles and weak-
nesses are forgotten. He had great penetration into
influence
over characters of others ; exerted a powerful
over the affections of his friends, and possessed an en-
thusiasm for right principles, well adapted to carry the
multitude with him.

KING'S COLLEGE.—On Saturday a meeting of
the Proprietors of this Institution was held in the Theatre
of the establishment, for the purpose of receiving the
Annual Report of the Council, and the despatch of other
business. The Archbishop of Canterbury in the Chair.
The Secretary read the Report, which announced the
continued and growing prosperity of the College.
Mr. Joseph Burke, the recently appointed As-
sistant Poor-law Commissioner is a younger brother of
Mr. Burke, the author of the " Peerage."
HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT.—If it be true
that there is no good quality of a woman which is not ne-
cessary to perfect housekeeping, it follows that bad women
are necessarily bad-housekeepers.
THE LATE J. CRESSETT PELHAM, ESQ.—
The anticipated death of this gentleman is now placed be-
yond a doubt ; a letter arrived at Shrewsbury on Monday,
announcing Mr. Pelham's death, and desiring to know his
heirs. Mr. Crossett Pelham had been M. P. for the
county of Salop, and also for the borough of Shrewsbury.
His death took place in India.—Salopian Journal.
HYDROPHOBIA IN SHEEP.—The Veterinary
College of London having seen the paragraph in our late
Chronicle respecting the violent cases of hydrophobia,
communicated to the sheep of Mr. Bailey, of Norton, by
the bite of a rabid dogs have obtained one of the bitten
animals alive, and are taking measures to investigate the
nature of this most distressing calamity. The College
has decreed, in consequence of occurrence, that in fu-
ture it shall be a necessary part of the education of a
f-Pritv, t' at he shall have studied the comparative anatomy
mob of ()awl- dom-stie animals, as well as the horse.
—Shrewsbury Chronicle.