The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-22 00:00:00

LORD BROUGHAM A 7 SCARBOROUGH.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Right Hon. Lord
Brougham delivered an address in the Music-hall,
Spa-saloon, Scarborough, in behalf of the Mechanics'
Institute of that town. Mr. Henry Walker, the
President of the Institution, occupied the chair, and
introduced to the audience
Lord BROUGHAM, who, on rising, was received
with loud applause, which having subsided, the
noble lord said—l believe you are aware of what
has given rise to my meeting you to-day, About
eighteen months ago, or rather less--in May last
year—l was to have attended and presided at the
union of the Mechanics' Institutes of Yorkshire, and
also, I may add, to have accepted of the kind hos-
pitality of your worthy fellow-townsman, Mr.
Woodall, the late president of the Scarborough In-
stitution. Unfortunately, I was taken seriously
ill, and for three or four days it was perfectly
impossible that I could leave my home. I
was therefore obliged—l believe for the only
time in my life—to send medical certifi-
cates to account for my absence. That illness,
though severe, did not last long, and I was
the only person who lost by the circumstance, for
my place was supplied by my learned and excellent
friend, the Lord Advocate, who happened to be in
this neighbourhood, and who, I have no manner of
doubt, from all that I have seen of him, discharged
the duties of the office most admirably. (Applause.)
I never had an opportunity of hearing my learned
friend in the House of Commons, he having within
the last thirty years become a member ; but I know
his talents, his learning, and his experience, from
the great abilities he displayed as a presiding officer
at a Congress meeting in Glasgow of the Social
Science Association, the year before last. There-
fore, I have no manner of doubt that I alone was
the sufferer by the accident to which I have adverted,
for a better president than the Lord Advocate you
could not possibly have obtained. (Hear, hear.)
But the consequences of that disappointment to me
were, that, when I arrived here last week, I was
asked to meet the friends of the Mechanics' In-
stitute that most useful and important estab-
lishment—and I could not, after what had hap-
pened the year before, refuse to comply. But in ad-
dition to the pleasure I have in meeting you now,
I have very great pleasure in seeing in you some of
my old Yorkshire constituents and friends. (Loud
applause.) In my connection with them, though
it was short, there arose what I reckoned the
greatest honour of my life—to be elected for this
county before it was divided into three ridings.
(Renewed applause.) Whilst inZthat circumstance
I am afforded great pleasure, I have also happiness
in meeting them when attending here on behalf of
a mechanics' institution, one of those establishments
in which for very much above 30 years I have taken
the warmest, the deepest interest, and in which I
with my late friend, Dr. Birkbeck—also a York
shireman—exerted myself. And I find the greatest
possible gratification from the fact that this Me-
chanics' Institution at Scarborough can well vie
with some of the most successful institutions of the
kind. (Applause.) It has been crowned with very
great success, and of late that success has resulted
in a large extension of its premises, in the erection
of a new building, which was opened somewhere, I
believe, about a year ago. I have had occasion to
look ,into its proceedings. Not only have I care-
fully examined its reports and that most important
feature of it, the catalogue of the library, but I yes-
terday morning went over it and saw the rooms,
which I find are devoted to lectures, to meetings,
and to reading; and I particularly looked into the
library, and was much gratified to find that the
books were thumbed in a manner beyond any de-
scription of mine—(applause)—convincing me that
they are constantly in circulation and are constantly
read by the members. I myself had great pleasure
in presenting to that library this morning some 11
or 12 volumes of my own publications, not on ac-
count of any value I attach to them, but as an ex-
pression of good will. (Applause) Now I have to
consider in the first place the teaching part of the
institution, the classes which are attended by boys
and young men under 21 years of age. When a
great and celebrated King of Sparta, Agesilaus,was
asked what ought boys to be taught, he replied,
" Teach them that which will be useful to them
when they become men," Now that King of Sparta
was no doubt a great warrior, a very eminent man
in his age, but he had a particular love for children,
and it is recortled of him that when some of the
Spartans—men rather grave in their habits—found
him riding about on a stick, and laughed at him for
it, he said, " You may laugh now, but you will not
laugh when you have boys of your own." (Cheers.)
That puts me in mind of what an eminent poet in a
neighbouring county said, when he was giving his
opinion rather strongly of one who was at the time
renowned as a great man, but who the poet consi-
dered a great curse, viz., the first Napoleon. The
poet's expression was, " Wisdom is found with chil-
dren round her knees." The King of Sparta was of
that mind, and took pleasure in attending to his
children. Nothing could be more judicious, nothing
could be more sound, than the advice he gave—to
educate boys in that which will be of use to them
when they become men. In regard to another
branch of the Institute, I found the adults were also
most ably and satisfactorily provided for. For its
size, and for its amount, I never saw a better collec-
tion of bdoks than there is mentioned in the cata-
logue of the library of this institution. (Applause.)
It has been with singular and excellent judgment
that the choice was made, combining as it does
all that is instructive, that is interesting, and
that is entertaining. There are books of every sort
that can be useful to men of business, whether me-
chanics, shopmen, clerks, or persons engaged in any
other occupation_ It is hardly possible to exagge-
rate, to overrate the benefits conferred on the people
by such institutions. Those men by assembling in
the reading-rooms, and studying at home the books
which are lent out—by conversing among them-
selves, and by attending the lecture occasionally,
gather that knowledge and information which is
most adapted to their station, and which will be
useful to them in after life. Their station, too,
may be thus improved; they may rise from it to a
higher station according to their diligence and ac-
cording to the knowledge they acquire. I have
named two great men, Agesilaus and Napoleon.
But there is a much greater man of later times than
either of them, I mean my illustrious friend the
late Duke of Wellington, who I have heard once
and again declare that the great superiority of the
constitution of this country over that of all other
countries was, that every man, however humble
his pursuit, may rise to the highest office of the
state. In the list of lectures to be delivered in con-
nection with the institute, and also in the catalogue
of subjects taught at the classes, I observed that
design was particularly mentioned, and that there
are books, drawings, maps, and plans provided to
assist those who are learning to design. Now, since
I saw these at the institute I have seen a prize
essay, written by a working milliright of Derby-
shire, of the name of Briggs, who shows conclu-
sively that there is not a thing in which greater
progress can be made than in design. It is, there-
fore, by improving our design, by architects and
students improving themselves in design, that we
must hope to rival our neighbours on the continent
(Applause.) I have alluded to this essay as an en-
couragement to all students of design. I may per-
haps be allowed_to mention a lecture on " Rome
and its Times," by my learned friend Mr. Forsyth,
a Queen's counsel, practising on the Northern Cir-
cuit. Tnere is a rule in mechanics' institutes to ex-
clude from discussion all subjects of a controversial
nature, whether of politics or religion; and there-
fore I will not add a single word as to the risk Mr.
Forsyth would have run had he alluded to modern
instead of national Rome, to which his lecture ap-
pliPcl, for I think he could not have mentioned that
subject without expressing some discontent that
Rome is not annexed to the kingdom of Italy.
And I should not have wondered to hear him

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mention that that State was more remarkable
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