The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-08 00:00:00

U USES.—Messrs. TOPLIS and ROBERTS said here—" Even after all that has been
TA
have numerous furnished and unfurnished TOWN, done that drainage, and water supply, and
fiuburban and Country RESIDENCES to LT or SELL.
Particulars LE
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forwarded for three stamps, upon stating exact wide streets, and parks can do, urban
sreaueifeamnent snd rent Al. Offices, 2, conduit-street, Regent-
d Southa Kensington, facing the Museum. life is never so healthy as that which is passed
in the pure air and active pursuits of the country.''
nvioauses of this difference it is wise to consider,
and we shall find a very good definition of them in
this comprehensive address. The class of labourers
and artisans is not that with which the gymnasium
has to do, but those above them. The clerks, whose
time is passed for the most part in offices that are
close and crowded, are greatly in need of some im-
provement. The absence of muscular exertion is
very injurious to the constitution, and depressing
to the energies. Notwithstanding the diffe-
rence of constitutions there will still remain
much to consider as deleterious in a general view of
the case. It must appear evident to all who take
the time and trouble to dwell on such matters
that a life thus passed in continuous work in a close
atmosphere, from one week's end to the other, can-
not be otherwise than bad, even to those least cal-
culated to feel its effects or to suffer from the con-
finement. In a word, such an existence is not
healthy, and, as Lord STANLEY says, "by
healthy' we ought not to understand merely
the capacity to get on with the day's employ-
ment, or the absence of disease, but rather that
perfect condition in which life is an enjoyment in
itself, in which all simple and natural pleasures are
appreciated, and the little every-day anxieties of
our business sit lightly upon us." It is a mistake
very generally made in this generation that every-
thing should be subservient to making money.
While some never use their brains, and all run to
muscle, others never use their muscles except, as is
here quaintly put, to walk to business, to drive a
pen for hours, and to handle knives and forks at
dinner. The habit of life which these pursuits en-
gender is not likely to make, physically speak-
ing, the stuff out of which we wish the
middle classes of Englishmen to be made."
For these, then, this Gymnasium will be a
great boon, and ,the numerous class for whose
benefit it is provided is far more likely to profit by
it than they are to take a simple walk for exercise
and amusement ; besides people can go to these
rooms in the evening when outdoor exercise is not
so good or so attractive for many months of the
year.

QOUTII KENSINGTON, HYDE-PARK,
Queen's, and Rutland Gates, Queen's-gate and Peters-
ham Terraces, Queen's-gate, Cornwall, and Princes Gardens,
-Elvaston- place, Cromwell-road, Onslow and Thurloe Squares,
Boltons. &c. Messrs TO PL Pi and ROBE itTS have RE
DE N CES to SELL and LET in these and surrounding
localities. Offices, 2, Conduit-street, Regent-street, and
Bout h Kensington, facing the Museum.

ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVtNT-
GARDEN.
(Opera Company, Limited.)
FIRSC APPEARANCE OF MDLLE IDA GILLIESS.
FIRST NIGEIT OF MASANIELLO.
THIS EVENING, and Friday, will be performed Auber's
Grand opera,

Lord STANLEY concluded his admirable discourse
by giving some advice to the promoters of this
undertaking, which it is to be hoped that they will
profit by. lie said, " Don't ride a hobby too hard;
the object of this kind of training is not to make
athletes out of men who have not to live by their
muscles, but to develope sound health and manly
constitution." It is to be hoped that a success com-
mensurate with its deserts will attend this
undertaking, so that others may follow the
wise example set by Liverpool, and so we may
find that the engrossing claims of business (have
not been allowed to sap to its foundations that
public health which is so great a blessing, and for
the loss of which all the pleasures of the world can-
not compensate.

Just at the close of the present Lord Mayor's
,enure of office he has distinguished himself by be-
coming associated with a very useful and practical
movement. The condition of our middle-class
education has long been felt on all hands to be very
unsatisfactory, but all the efforts which have been
made to remedy it have as yet proved inadequate.
Many of our grammar schools and academies have
been raised in character and rendered more efficient
by the system of university examinations, but the
class below this are not yet well supplied. In the
great City of London the want is very apparent, and
according to the reports of those best qualified to
judge, the consequences are extensive and injurious.
Accordingly it has been suggested by a gentleman inti-
mately acquainted with City affairs, that some of the
surplus funds in the hands of the trustees of charities,
&c., should be devoted to the foundation of a school
or schools for the benefit of the lower middle classes.
Mr. ROGERS, the originator of this scheme, has long
busied himself in the education of the poor in a
populous part of the City, and has become familiar
with the wants of the class above them. He con-
sulted the LORD MAYOR on the point, and his lord-
ship immediately convened a meeting at the Mansion
House, with the view of giving practical effect to
the proposal, of which he heartily approved. There
was a goodly company of influential citizens
' present, many of them trustees of funds
whose purposes have become altogether ob-
solete, and the general feeling of the meeting
was decidedly in favour of the suggestion.
It seems quite time that some project should be set
on foot which may turn those surplus funds to good
account. London is rich enough, but it is also poor
and populous enough to have plenty of unsatisfied
wants ; and when we remember the wretchedness,
and ignorance, and sickness all around us, we can-
not but feel regret at sums of three, or four, or five
thousand a year lying idle in so many directions.
At the same time the gentlemen who occupy the
position of trustees are awkwardly situated. They
hold the money in trust for purposes to which they
cannot possibly put them at the present day. Some
funds are for the repair of the roads and streets ;
but though the ratepayers might have no objection
to allowing the trustees to pay their rates for them,
such a proceeding would be, to say the least of it,
somewhat Quixotic. One fund is held in trust for
burning heretics, but it cannot exactly be put to
that use in the present day. In several instances
the trustees have devoted some of these surplus funds
to educational purposes, but there remains so very
much to be disposed of, and so large an amount of
ignorance to deal with, that it is no wonder that
many gentlemen should think of forming one
comprehensive plan, which, under due manage-
ment, might turn all this idle money
to the practical benefit of the country
by supplying a want which every one must acknow-
ledge is a very great and important one. It must
be observed that the scheme of Mr. ROGERS only
refers to a temporary appropriation of the funds,
for it is confidently believed that schools founded
on his principles would be chiefly self-supporting.
The Lord Mayor, in introducing the subject,
remarked that the national, parochial, and ward
schools in the City furnished education to the poor,
and the old endowed schools for those of the higher
classes, but there was a large class which came
under neither head. The children of the small
tradesmen, clerks, and respectable mechanics have
not the means to obtain admission into the endowed
schools, while the parochial schools do not give
them the education which their circumstances re-
quire. The mere rudiments of knowledge are not
enough for boys who are to grow up to take part
in the busy trading and commercial life of the
centre of English activity, and yet, according
to the statements made by gentlemen who
should be well informed, they do not, in many cases,
even acquire these rudiments. The revelations of
the night schools have surprised those who believed
in the universal spread of education among the bet-
ter classes. Mr. ROGERS, who, as we have said, has
long taken an active part in promoting popular
education, declared that the City merchants would
ibnegs7howrin by surprised to know the want of elementary learn-
those who came to be taught in the