The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-16 00:00:00

ZORD PALMERSTON AT SOUTHAMPTON.

SOUTHAMPTON, WEDNESDAY.
The ceremony of inaugurating the Hartley Insti-
tution was performed to-day with great eclat by

Viscount Palmerston.

The Mayor of Southampton, Mr. T. Perkins, and
the Corporation assembled at the Guildhall at noon
to-day, and from thence proceeded to the Second

Common Gate, the boundary of the borough, for
the purpose of meeting Lord Palmerston, who drove
over from Broadlands, accompanied by Lady Pal-
merston. A large body of the inhabitants also as-

sembled at this point to welcome his lordship, who
was greeted with the warmest enthusiasm. A pro-
cession was then marshalled.

Upon entering the hall Lord and Lady Palmerston
were again received with every demonstration of
cordiality. The whole body of spectators rose and
greeted them with cheers, waving of hats and hand-
kerchiefs, again and again renewed. When silence

was restored, the Town Clerk (Mr. Deacon) advanced
and read an address voted to Lord Palmerston by
the corporation.

Lord PALMERSTON, who was received with cheer-
ing, said,—Mr. Mayor and gentlemen of the corpo-
ration, I beg to return you my most sincere and
hearty thanks for the address which you have just
had the kindness to present to me ; and I beg also
to thank the town for that which you have not in-
appropriately described a hearty welcome ; for a
man must indeed be insensible to the manifestation
of kindness and goodwill on the part of his fellow-
countrymen who would not be deeply touched by
the hearty reception which I and Lady Palmerston
have met with this morning. (Cheers.) It has given
me great satisfaction to be enable to assist at the
may well call great institu-
opening of this, which I
tion, of whose corner-stone I was, allowed some time
ago to lay the foundation. I trust that it will long
continue well to perform those useful and important
services which it is destined to fulfil. (Cheers.) You
have been pleased, Mr. Mayor and gentlemen, to
advert to the services which in my official capacity
during the course of my public life it has been my
lot to perform. It is an easy matter in this great
country for public men to devote their energies and
their time and such abilities as Providence may have
bestowed upon them in the service of the country,
because there is no country on the face of the earth
in which the people are more disposed to give a kind
and generous consideration to the labours of those
who, according to best of their judgment, and with
an honest desire to serve their country, devote them-
selves to the public service. (Cheers.) It is gratify-
ing to me to find that any special services which I
may have been instrumental in performing have
been kindly appreciated by the great community of
this town, and it is still more gratifying that, inde-
pendent of public considerations, I should receive
from friends and neighbours the goodwill which has
been expressed in this address towards me. I have had
the advantage not merely of being your neighbour,
but I have had the advantage of representing that
portion of the county of which you, gentlemen, are
so prominent and distinguished a portion. (Cheers.)
It is to me, therefore, doubly gratifying, both on
public and on private considerations, to receive from
you, Mr. Mayor, and from the Corporation of this
town, that testimony of approval and goodwill
which is contained in the address which you have
just presented to me. I beg to return you again
my best thanks, and to assure you that there can be
no greater encouragement to industry and exertion
on the part of public men who are engaged in pub-
lic life than the knowledge that their endeavours
will be appreciated—that their actions will be
kindly conF.sidered—and that if they do honestly
and sincerely their best to serve their country, both
in its interests at home and its character and dig-
nity abroad, their exertions will be met by those
marks of approbation which it has been my good
fortune to receive at your hands this day. (Loud
cherirs.)

The Bishop of ROCHESTER then offered up an ap-
propriate prayer, in which he invoked a blessing
upon the institution.

The International Ode was next sung, after which 1
The MA/Olt rose, and addressing Lord Palmer.
ston, observed that, having just had the privilege
of presenting to his lordship an address voted by

the corporation of the town, he now wished to re-
quest him, in the name of education and science, to
confer an additional honour upon the town of South-
ampton by inaugurating the opening of the institu-
tion. (Cheers.)

Lord PALMERSTON, who on rising was received
with renewed cheering and
.waving of hats and
handkerchiefs, said—Mr. Mayor and Ladies and
Gentlemen, I can assure you that I feel that, if
honour there be on one side or the other, the honour
has been conferred on me by being allowed to be
present on this interesting occasion. It is inte-
resting to me, because having been permitted
to assist, I may say, at the christening of this
child—(laughter)—l am now present at its confir-
mation. (Cheers.) I trust its future life will be
prosperous to itself, and will be an honour to the
community to which it belongs ; that it will be an
honour and an advantage to the country. The peo-
ple of Southampton are a great, flourishing, and
prosperous community. You have a port admira-
bly adapted to the purposes of commerce. You
have docks fitted to receive a larger vessel than even
her Majesty's dockyards can at present hold. That
superiority on your part, I trust, will be of very
short life. You will permit me without offence to
say so. (Hear.) You have an increasing popula-
tion ; you have all the elements of worldly wealth;
but hitherto you have wanted that which is the com-
pletion of that state of existence, you have wanted
an institution like this, where knowledge, where
science, literature, and art will be cultivated as
much as commercial progress in your town. That
want is now supp'ied, and with the supplying
of that want will go hand in hand to increase
not only of your welfare but of your power ;
for it is well said, ald must be felt by all, that
" knowledge in power." Not power simply in a
community, but power in every individual member
of that community by whom that knowledge is ac-
quired. We have only to look around us in this
great country to see examples of men rising from
comparatively humble origin to great wealth, to high
dignities, and to high employments in the State, and
bow ? Why, by the cultivation of mind, by the
knowledge which they have acquired, and by the
application of that knowledge to the business of life
in
which they may have engaged. Your courts of
law,your Parliament, your manufacturing communi-
ties, all abound
themselves and with' men rising to distinction for
performing great service to the coun-
try,
"initentirelyto the cultivation of those talents
with which Providence
at their birth has endowed
tandevmantTahgeerdf
by e Itt:a7, that this town will greatly be
knowledge will be institution like this, in which
choose to come and 71.7 communicated to all who
opportunities will beu drink at the fountain; where
ledge of every sort and kix7lded to cultivate know-
talenta and worldly ,adapted to the natural
seeking it. But knowledge, occupation or those who are
is not simply a source of ladiespower.v:.'d gentlemen,
the love of power is a passion duly implanted
may say that
lead to a
human mind; but that it may sometimes
emtiplanted in the
Credit of
course which may not redound to rate:
knowlede
those who pursue it. But
always a source of power. It is a source is not
purest enjoyment to those who peseta of the
there is a natural tendency, happily, it, and
11 the
human mind to pursue knowledge. it is enough
for a man to have gained knowledge to induce
him to go on learning, and every fresh addition
which he acquires to the knowledge he has gained
is an additional source of pleasure and happiness to
him, as well as
an additional element of good con-
duct in the career which he pursues. The love of
he love of accumulation, is a natural
acquisition, t
nd. When a man beins
instinct in the human
mi r
satisfied without having
to collect books, he is neve
ldThe man who col-
more than his house will ho.
lects medals fills all his chests of drawers with things
that perhaps he may never look at. The man who
collects pictures has his walls covered with the best
'
specimens of art which he can collect. In the same
way, that principle of adding to that which has
been begun applies to knowledge as well as to
everything else, and the more a man knows, the
more he wishes to learn, and
the more he is able to
learn, because knowledge of

. _
the acquirement of knowledge of another and of a
different kind. Well, then, I trust that this insti-
tution will not only be a source of prosperii y to the
town, but will be a source of happiness to the indi-
vidual members of the community. As to the effect
of knowledge upon national interests, y( ur worthy
mayor has just now pointed out that the great power,
wealth, and prosperity of the country arises from the
development of intellect, and from the progress of
science, amongst the different members of the com-
munity. Where should we be if it had not been
for the researches of those great men who have given
to the country all those resources of mechanical in-
dustry by which the wealth of the community and
the power of the country have been raised to the
position which they now fortunately hold ? In this
institution you will, no doubt, have young men
who here will acquire that knowledge and cultivate
those talents which will not only raise them to a
high position in the country of which they are
members, but will add materially to the wealth,
prosperity, happiness, and power of the country in
which they have been born. You, Mr. Mayor,
have called this building a temple. It is, no doubt
to use classical language, a temple to the Muses—a
temple dedicated to purposes more congenial to
the state of religion which happily prevails. It may
be deemed to be not only a temple of the Muses,
but a temple also for the improvement of religious
feeling amongst the people of this country. Some
persons, in other times and countries, have held the
doctrine that the knowledge and the cultivation of
science were incompatible with true religion. There
cannot possibly be a greater error and mistake than
that. (Hear, hear.) Suppose an ignorant man
takes up a watch—suppose him to look at a steam-
engine—he will naturally imagine that the watch
of its own accord tells him what is o'clock—that
the steam-engine twists all those spindles which he
sees revolving. He will never think how it is done.
He will be content with the results. He will have
no notion in his mind of the degree of talent which
must have been required on the part of those
who made those things. He will have no idea of
the wonderful mechanism even by which these out-
ward movements have been produced. He will be
content with results, without thinking of causes. But
show him that ingenious mechanism which makes
the hands move following the sun. Tell him of that
wonderful contrivance by which the steam engine is
worked, and then he will transfer to the maker of
the one and to the author of the other those feelings
of admiration which had not previously existed in
his mind. In the same way, gentlemen, the igno-
rant man sees day and night succeed each other;
he sees the seasons succeed each other ; he sees the
seed he has put into the ground rise into a profit-
able crop ; he sees all the operations of nature, and
it never occurs to him to consider how all these
wonderful operations are brought about, nor by
what power they originate. He is conscious of his
own existence ; he feels his body healthy or sickly,
as it may be; he feels hunger come at one time and
thirst at another, and knows how to satiate both,
but he is utterly ignorant of what a wonderful
mechanism he himself is, and his mind has not
been brought to that source from whence that won-
derful mechanism has arisen ; but when know-
ledge enlightens his mind, and when he sees
the wonderful effects and contrivances of that
Almighty Power by which these results have been
brought about, I say he must be a strangely consti-
tuted being indeed if the feelings of religion are
not more strong in his mind, and if the knowledge
which he thus acquires of all the wonderful laws
and contrivances of what we call nature do not raise
his mind to the Author of all these things, and
implant in his mind a feeling of religious awe and
veneration which strengthens these precepts which
he may have received from his religious instruc-
tors. I say, therefore, that this is not simply a
temple of the Muses, but it will turn out a temple
of those studies which tend to exercise and
strengthen the religious feelings of those who come
within its walls. I would only say, therefore, that
I hope and trust this institution will long prosper,
and that it will attain the end for which it has
been founded. (Cheers.) Now there are different
ways by which knowledge may be acquired. Some
contend that knowledge, to be deeply engraven in
the human mind, must be acquired by patient in-
vestigation—must be worked out by the individual
himself. No doubt that is the best way to engrave
knowledge on the mind of the man by whom it is
attained; but the pursuits of life prevent all but a
very few from following that course. It is for
those whose time is occupied in other pursuits that
institutions of this kind are particularly valuable,
You will have here men learned in different walks
of science, who will come and give you in a lucid,
plain, and intelligent manner the results of those
long and laborious studies, of those patient and long-
contkpued investigations,by which they have arrived
at their conclusions. Those conclusions may, per-
haps, not be so firmly impressed upon the minds of
their hearers as on their own understandings;
but still much will be learnt, and it would be as idle
and vain to say that much useful knowledge is not
to be gained by those lectures which will be, I
trust, delivered within these walls, as to say a man
cannot learn geography by maps, but must go over
and survey the country himself. It would be idle
to say that a man cannot acquire a deeply-rooted
, knowledge by listening to the discourses of those
who have worked out results, although he might
not be able to follow them in all those intricate
ridges into which they got before they arrived at
those useful results. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I
congratulate you most sincerely on having, in your
town, an institution of this character. lam per-
suaded that all who can derive benefit, but more
especially the younger part of the community, will
take every possible advantage of it, and that it will
tend not only to the prosperity of your town, bat
also to raise the minds of all who come within its
walls to a higher scope of intelligence, by develop-
ing those talents with which Providence has en-
dowed them, and by fitting them better than they
otherwise would have been fitted to follow advan-
tageously those different careers of life to which
their fortunes, their talents, and dispositions may
lead them to devote themselves. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. Alderman BLATCH, chairman of the council
of the institution, thanked his lordship in the name
of the corporation, the council of the institution,
and the town, for attending to open the institution,
an act which, he said, would long be cherished in
Lord Palmerston to
the T
hmee mmoAryyooßf
tthheen i
cnahl al
ebdi t
upon
formally open the building.
Lord PALMERSTON then came forward, in the
midst of great applause,;Cilthsayido:u—r :—Mr. Mayor,
ladies, and gentlemen_
Mr. Mayor, I will proceed to state a fact—l
would hardly venture to make a prophecy—that
heers.)
Ifl
this institution is now fully open. (c
were to presume to take on myself the
tgifth e of
f successpro -
phecy it would be difficult to foretell
which, I trust, will await its future career. But I
now declare that the institution is now, under the
auspices of the mayor, fully and completely open.
This announcement was followed by enthusiastic
applause.

The proceedings terminated with three cheers re-
spectively for Lord Palmerston, Lady Palmerston,
the Institution, and the Mayor.

THE DINNER.

At the dinner given by the Mayor, among those
present, in addition to the noble Premier, were the
Bishop of Rochester, the Earl of Hardwicke, Col.
Sir Henry James, Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis, the
the Right Hon. W. Cowper, M.P., Mr. W. Digby
Seymour, M.P., Professor Owen, &c.
responding to the toast of '•Her Majesty's
Ministers,"
Lord PALMERSTON said—For myself, and in the
naianmeeeroef
andrey cordialcolleagues I beg to return you my most
done us in driokin tht:nks for the honour you have
the lest toast ; and I only re-
gret that some rho
rtl colleagues
occasion, to
shou l d not
see the manly and enli il
have been present on of
thy interesting
people of this town are animatedthe in a matter of otb-
lie interest, and so conducive to the general welfare
of all those who are concerned in the institution we
have this day seen opened. I can assure you, gen-
i tlemen, that her Majesty's Ministers are deeply sen-
sible of the great importance of encourging,
by all means within their reach, the diffusion