The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-08 00:00:00

GOLD ME DAL.

A gold medal to the exhibitor, for the best pen of pigs in
any of the classes, to Major-General the Hon, A. N. Hood,
Cumberland Lodge, Windsor.
JUDGES OP SHORTHORNS, SCOTCH, WELSH, AND EXTRA.
STOCK CATTLE.—Messrs William Sanday, John Brown,
and Thomas Parkinson.

JUDGES OF DEVONS, HEREFORDS, SUSSEX, NORFOLK,
LONGHORN, IRISH, AND CROSSBRED CATTLE.—Messrs.
Robert Smith, John Buckley, and John Coleman.
JUDGES OF LEICESTERS, COTSWOLD, LINCOLN, ROM-
NEY MARSH, CROSSBRED, OXFORD, AND MOUNTAIN
SHEEP.—Messrs. Marshall Hanky, John H. Phillips, and

Francis Spencer.
JUDGES OF SOUTH-DOWN, HAMPSHIRE, AND SHROP-
sitrRE SHEEP.—Messrs. Henry Webb, J. S. Turner, and
C. Handel'.

JUDGES or PIGS.-11Tessrs. George Mann, John Moon,
and John Waters.

Extra Parliamentary Utterances.

LORD HARTINGTON.

On Saturday evening the annual meeting of the East Lan-
cashire Union of Mechanics and Literary Institutions and
Evening Schools Was held at the Town-hall of Haslingden
—Col. Patten, M.P., presiding. There were present Lord
Hartington, M.P., Sir J. Kay-Shuttleworth, and a large
assemblage of persons of influence in the district. More
than 1,000 people attended. Prizes were distributed to
about a score of young women and girls and about 100 young
men and boys belonging to the institutions of the union. It
was stated by the chairman that the books awarded as
prizes were selected by the recipients, and that the choice
was most creditable to their intelligence. After an opening
speech from the chairman,
Lord HAUTINGTON, M.P., was called upon to move the
following resolution :

hthicehuhnaisope;evnaeitlweditdhustrainngditehge
ytehaersunthp6r2e--
~ That the number of scholars attending the evening
°aunwtt proof of the permanent attraction which
ct3ci el:wdaseeffsnleol tsreodtdr: bnBuuti rgsneeis and efficient system of instruction has for
the young men supported by manual labour iu this district."
In the course of his speech he said it would not be more
eoslo old, than
who would to looks seriously
within
nsly the
contest limits
theo of this
proposition country
idle and Quixotic to clothe oneself in an old suit of armour,
and ride about in search of adventures, as used to do the
for
rat that
knightsaof
rtp
education should be as widely diffused as possible.
(Applause.) But it has happened to me to travel in a
country where I have heard clever and educated men
throw grave doubts en the benefit which is conferred upon
a country by an extended system of education. In no
country
popular education more widely diffused
than in the
nothe New England States; but I have
heard
irasi a
sen good
enemies, certainlv—elever leaders
it
of the Confederacy, gravely argue that a great many
of what they consider the faults and vices of the Northern
population have arisen from this so widely spread system of
superficial education. I hope it is needless for me to say
that I utterly disagree with those persons, or with any who
can argue that popular education, if not productive of all
that was hoped from it,
can have been productive of evil.
Still, the fact remains that popular education is more com-
pletely diffused in the New England States than in any other
country; and yet, without saying or wishing to say any-
thing hostile or which could be taken amiss, I think there
are very few Englishmen whose opinion is that the
national character of New England is exactly
what a patriot would wish the national character of
his own country to be. The people are extremely clever
and energetic ; but with the rapid and wide-spread civiliza-
tion of those States all travellers there who have taken the
trouble to make themselves acquainted with the condition
of society, have found that, while there is much to praise,
there is also much to regret and to blame. Ido not wish
to bring a bill of indictment against the people of the
Northern States. Nothing could exceed their kindness and
hospitality to me, as I believe to all strangers, aid I ac
knowledge that there is much to admire and praise in that
people. But there is no doubt that in the Yankee charac-
ter—Yankees they call themselves, and Yankees we may
be allowed to call them—there is too great a tendency
to think too much of money-making, and to carry perhaus
a little too far the cleverness and acuteness required in
trade. The people undoubtedly;possess a somewhat exagge-
rated idea of th,, merits, not only of their own country, but
of all the people who dwell therein ; undoubtedly they are
somewhat arrogant, somewhat intolerant of opposition, and
also they have not in this hour of their trial developed all
the virtues—such as stedfastness, patriotism, and spirit of
self-sacrifice—which have been sometimes found in other
less cultivated nations when put to' a similar trial.
But Ido not for a moment believe that the widespread
popular education is the cause of any of these detects.
(Applause.) I think we may find the causes if we look for
them. 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 Amercan than what is anything else.
But it is when the children leave school that the bad in-
fluence gets hold of the national character, which prevent
its being so great and good as otherwise it might. be.
However widespread the education, I believe that
after boys have left school the greater part of the
reading of ninety-nine hundredths 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. I be-
lieve, then, it is because really the education of the people
has not gone so far as to lay a solid foundation of good sense
and good taste that they are, as a people not vigorous enough
to reject the unwholesome intellectual food whicltthesenews-