The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-15 00:00:00

the nations of the earth. (Loud cheers.) Well,
but education cannot be carr ed on with advantage
without instructors, and there again is a great im-
provement in modern times ; for among the modern
arts which have been carried to perfection is the
art of teaching, and depend upon it, it is an art
just as much as any other; and in propor-
tion as a teacher knows that art and its
theory, and is acquainted with its practice, so in
proportion will he turn out a large number of
well-trained pupils. Many people have a notion
that the lower classes may be over-educated—that
they may be taught things which would discontent
them with their position, and render them not such
useful members of society as they would have been
if they had been less instructed. Now, I admit that
objection may be urged against some systems of edu-
cation which endeavour to teach the lower classes
things far beyond anything they can have occasion
to practise in the relations of life. Bet the arrange-
ments of the Privy Council have a tendency to lay
a stress upon matters which some persons consider
too elementary, but which other persons regard as
the foundation of all knowledge—viz., reading,
writing, and arithmetic. If a young man cannot
read, he is unable to instruct himself; if he cannot
write, he is unable to carry on the communications
which it may be his business to make ; if clumsy at
arithmetic, he may be apt to be overreached by a
more skilful and unscrupulous person. But if we
recollected at what age children go to these country
schools, and at what age they are carried away by
their parents to go bird-keeping and on agricultural
pursuits, we should find that the number of years
they can devote to study are very few. The age at
which they are carried away is SD early that it is next
to impossible they can learn too much, and it is ten
to one they don't learn enough. Let any one here
carry his mind back to his own studies, and recol-
lect what he had learned when he arrived at the
age of 12 or 14, and then suppose that his education
was stopped, and that he went to manual labour,
to rural occupations, and that he learned nothing
but what he picked up; I think he would arrive at
the conclusion, that if the labouring classes learnt
elementary things they would learn that which
would be useful to them through life, while if they
sought for higher attainments they would learn
neither one nor the other, and their time at school
would be entirely lost. (Hear, and cheers). The
object for which we have met to-day is of the
highest interest to the country. An proportion as
the lower classes are taught the rliNtlhilents of know-
ledge, so in proportion they will ire better able to
perform those industrial occupations which belong
to their class in life. (Cheers.) The noble lord
concluded by proposing the health of the clergy,
coupling with the toast the names of the Bishops of
Winchester, Oxford, and Salisbury.

The Bishops of Winchester, Oxford, and Salis-
bury replied.
Lord PALMERSTON next proposed " The three
Corporations of Winchester—the Civic, the Eccle-
siastical, and the Collegiate."
The toast was responded to by Mr. Wright (the
\iayor of the City), the Dean, and the Master of
Winchester College.
The noble VISCOUNT, in giving the last toast,
said—My lords and gentlemen, I need not say that
we are highly indebted to the ladies present for
having graced our board with a display of beauty
that makes every Hampshire man proud. (Cheers.)
If any man present has any doubt as to the
motive which ought to animate him in drinking the
health of the ladies, I would request him, if he has
the good fortune to sit by a lady to look at her, and
if he is between two to look at both, and I feel quite
sure that the first glance will convince him that he
cannot do better than pay homage to beauty by
drinking the health of the ladies. (Cheers.) But
there is a higher consideration I beg to press on
your attention. We are met here to-day to pro -
mote the education of the people of the land. We
have opened to-day a college for teachers, and I
may be permitted to say that the best as well as the
earliest instructors of the people are the mothers.
(Cheers.) They are the best instructors for many
reasons. They are the first instructors, and the
lessons which they teach of good conduct, of dis-
tinction between right and wrong, are the first
which are implanted in the mind of a child, and
therefore are likely to last the longest in their lives.
They have another advantage. The precepts of a
mother must be felt by the child to spring from affec-
tion. When he is instructed by a schoolmaster
who may have a rod at hand to punish the indolent
or the stupid, the instruction does not come with
the same grace, and the same sentiment of grati-
tude which accompany the instruction given by a
tender mother. Well, then, I say that the ladies
of the land are entitled to homage from a society
met for the encouragement of good education, and
I was very glad to hear an account given by the
Bishop of Salisbury of the system pursued in the esta
blishment in Salisbury for the education of female
instructors. I have no doubt that course will give
to schools female instructors who will turn their
minds not simply to the ornamental but also to the
useful, and tend to bring up the girls submitted to
their care to earn their livelihood honestly and
well. I beg, therefore, on the ground of gratitude
to the ladies who have partaken of the hospitalities
this evening, and also from a high sense of the im-
portance of the ladies in educating the people of
the land, to propose with all honours " The health
of the ladies." (Loud cheers.)
The company shortly afterwards separated.