The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-29 00:00:00

invented those wonderful things, not to mention men of
science arid of lit. rature, who have never since been
surpassed, yet in those times knowledge was confined to
a few. Now, however, happily, knowledge is at the
command of all, and books for improving instruction of
every kind are accessible at prices which place them
within the reach of all ; whilst also these mechanics' in-
stitutions enable the working classes to profit by the
exertions, bodily and intellectual, of those who are the
investigators and acquirers of knowledge. (Cheers.) The
workman now, without going many yards from his home,
may acquire a knowledge of distant countries which was
gained by adventurous travellers who had traversed the
burning desert or encountered the stormy ocean—who
had visited the Arctic regions, or gone to the extreme of
the southern hemisphere. The mechanic has now an
opportunity of acquiring the results of these painful
exertions without stirring from home. He has now
also the means of applying to his own purposes all the
knowledge which men of deep science have gained by
laborious processes, whether in chemistry, in mechanics,
or any other branch ; and he is enabled easily to
profit, at a small expense, from the investigations
which have been so arduously pursued by others.
The mechanic is also, by these institutions, initiated
into the secrets of nature, the contemplation of which
tends to elevate the mind ; and while, on the one
hand, it teaches every man how insignificant a por-
tion he is of the great universe which science un-
folds to him, it must also, on the other, render him
more contented with his lot, and more resigned to bear
those individual evils which Providence in its wisdom
may have ordained him to suffer. The mechanic in his
small room, by the library which is placed at his com-
mand, is enabled to know the wonderful contrivances
by which insects too small to be seen by the naked eye
are yet formed with all the artificial conformation of
larger beings—that although you cannot perceive them,
yet that they have joints, and limbs, and veins, and
blood that circulates, and lungs that breathe—that they
are endowed, although in minuteness hardly conceiv-
able by man, with all the elaborate contrivances which
we find in the larger objects of creation. The me-
chanic also by these institutions is enabled to carry his
mind to the more elevated and distant regions of the
universe ; be is enabled, not merely to understand the
wonderful mechanism of that system of which this
earth forms a part, but he can carry his views further,
and learn that there are visible to those who have the
command of the telescopic improvements of the day,
eighty millions of suns, all of them probably as large,
though some may be larger, than ours—all of them sur-
sounded by planets like our sun, and containing pro-
bably an indefinite number of beings, all the creatures
of the same inscrutable Power which made this world—
the contemplation of which subject must, I think, raise
the mind of the mechanic from earthly, low, and vulgar 1
considerations, and tend to direct his mind with fer-
vent devotion towards that great and mysterious Being
from whom he derives his present existence. (Cheers.)
Well, then, if these institutions are advantageous to
the middle age of man, so also are savings banks valu-
able establishments for the benefits they confer upon
declining age. There is no maxim of life more
important than this, that a man should make
the day conducive to the morrow—(hear, hear)—
that he should be willing to forego enjoyments,
the temptations, the allurements of time present, for
the purpose
in timeposeof t
layingo come
e ; a
a stoined the observance which shall ensure
ofetohim
comfort that
maxim is no less productive of comfort and happi-
ness in this world than essential for our well-being
hereafter. Those who act upon that maxim will find
themselves comfortable, wealthy, and respected. Those
who, on the other hand, are careless of to-morrow, and
think only of to-day, and waste and riot in extravagant
and needless pleasures those means which ought to be
laid up in store for their future support they will lose
the respect of all their neighbours, and, what is still a
greater loss, they will lose all respect for themselves.
(Hear, hear.) Well, gentlemen, nothing can be more
calculated to encourage the habit of forethought and
providence than these savings banks ; and I trust that,
the good effect of the establishment of one in this town
will be as great as it has been proved to be in other
places where similar institutions have been founded. I
trust that the workman who by his industry and skill is
now in the receipt of ample wages, instead of squan-
dering (as perhaps many may now be tempted to do,
by the want of any proper means of accumulation) in
dissipation, in drunkenness, or in other momentary in-
dulgences a large portion of his earnings, will be in-
duced to lay by that portion for the future support of
himself and his fathily ; and depend upon it that, if
once the habit is acquired, and a man begins to feel that
by providence and forethought, by saving up a little
day by day and week by week, he is accumulating a
store which will stand him in stead when a rainy day
comes, when age and infirmity prevent him from labour-
ing with the same activity as he has been able to do
heretofore—when once that habit is gained, he will find
it a source of pleasure as well as of advantage—he will
find it a source of honest pride to himself to know that
he has been collecting together a little stock for himself,
and he will be a far happier as well as a far more re-
spectable member of society than he would have been ii
he had dissipated in daily and weekly riot and extrava
gance those means which ought to be otherwise and
more advantageously applied. (Cheers.) I look, I
therefore, upon this institution as one of perhaps greater
interest than any that has ever been placed under a single
roof, because it combines a care for man from his in-
faney to his most advanced age—it provides those means
which the improved civilisation and greater knowledge
of the times have pointed out as useful to all classes of
the community ; and I trust, therefore, that this day
will be one auspicious to Melbourne—that every man
and every child who now hears me will reap in the future
career of this institution benefits far greater than perhaps
many have anticipated, but benefits which have always
attended institutions of the like nature wherever they
have been founded, and wherever they have been ade-
quatelyansudppgoenrtteledm.
gentlemen,
neeweb
rsblTpheerrbeaipseolnemoatyhebretopic,
ladies
per-
mitted to address to you a few words. There is one
thing, I think, still wanting to complete the institution
of this town. I mean a school for the education of girls.
(Hear, hear.) There is an excellent boys' school, but
there is not
it is w
yet aseirl
kowilnaresn that
tshte mbeendtufooartgioirn ofwomen
girls. Now,
gentlemen,
is of the greatest importance to society. Men maybe in-
deed the rough stones of which the fabric of society is
built—they are the strength and the resting portions of
that fabric ; but women are that finer cement without
which these rougher ingredients would not find order or
consistency, and without which there can be no beauty,
no form, no lasting endurance. (Hear, hear.) We all
know the important influence which is exerted by women
upon the welfare of man, whether it be in the capacity
of daughters, of sisters, of wives, or of mothers ; and
therefore, independently of any further regard for the
fairer sex—a regard, however, which lam persuaded all
whomlaugh)—the
ugb )
—I
tnboewmaodsdt reeesisfi
efbe e
ol 0
nin s i
dt
ehrea
tsi
ot rno,n gae sst degree—(a
i n
gle regard
for ourselves, a mere regard for man, abstracted tiom
and independent of woman, ought to lead us to endea-
vour so to mould and educate the rising generation of
the female community that they may be as well fitted as
it is possible for good training and instruction to make
them to perform the various duties of life in the capaci-
ties of daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers. I there-
fore commend to your consideration—though it forms
no part of the institution now about to be esta-
blished, I commend to your anxious and earnest con-
sideration the establishment also of a girls' school at
Melbourne. (Cheers.) Ladies and gentlemen, I can only
again express the high gratification it has afforded me to
take part in this most interesting ceremony, and I
conclude with wishing every possible prosperity. not
only to the institution itself, but to the town of Mel-
bourne, to which it is destined to be both an ornament
and an honour. (Loud cheers.)
The ceremony concluded with the National Anthem,
in which the whole of the company joined.

The party then relic'.
OeaLLtAoTtlhoeN.Nat. h
t
National s c 001-room,
where a collation was served under the presidency of
Mr. J. T. Cantrell. Lord and Lady Palmerston, Earl
Cowper, the Hon. Mrs. Lamb, the Hon. Mr. W. Cow-
per, M.P., Mr. and Mrs. Moss, the Rev. Mr. Dean,
Messrs. Moxley, S. Fox, Sandars, Heywood, ite., were
present on the occasion. After the repast the usual
loyal toasts were duly honoured, when
The CHAIRMAN rose and said—Ladies and gentlemen, I
now propose to give a toast more immediately connected
with the proceedings of this day, and in proposing the
health of Lord Viscount Palmerston—(loud and con-
tinued cheering)—l feel it would be as presumptuous in
me as distasteful to him that I should enter upon any
statement of his claims to public admiration—(hear,
hear)— and it would be equally unnecessary for you.
All of you know that he has long occupied a most pro-
minent position in the councils of her Majesty and her
predecessors, and that he has long filled the highest
position in the State—that his name is not only known
to England—not merely to. Europe, but to the whole
civilised world—(cheers)- -that wherever the name of
England extends—and where does it not ?—the fame of
the noble lord has accompanied it, and that wherever an
Englishman has planted his foot upon foreign ground,
he has always walked erect and proudly, knowing that
if he conducted himself properly, he had a champion at
home, in the person of the noble lord, who would pro-
tect his liberty and redress his wrongs. (Cheers.) But
it is not to his position, however brilliant, and almost if
not altogether unequalled, that I have now to direct
your attention. It is rather to the obligation which the
noble lord has conferred upon us by his presence here
ahmigalin
amongst
fit ce
us,, haen should otuol d
testify have
to-
day—that amidst the cares and anxieties, the toils
snatched the first day when the slightest cessation oc-
curred, to co
his interest in the institutions of this place by his and responsimbielitdiea
pre-
sence here to-day ; and the admirable address which we
have heard, and the also equally admirable precepts
which he has inculcated. (Cheers.) To him I feel that
responsibilities
hereh is
our deepest gratitude is due, and when I tender him, on
your behalf and my own, our sincere thanks, I feel that
I must not confine myself to that only, and merely t
discharged my duty, nor duly represented your feelings, halffor, considering the manner in which the noble lord
him alone, otherwise you would say that I
allied to this place, and looking to the de is
which Lady Palmerston has always taken deep interest
since she has been connected with ]Melbourne,—(ch) and that
she has testified that interest by her gracious
presence at
the ceremony which we have witnessed
room, showing that she does in reality, and also in this
interest in all that concerns this l take a deep
')
ace—l feel that to
her, as well as to Lord Palmerston, we owe a deep debt
of gratitude—(cheers)—and, therefore,when I p
the toast lam now about to give, I ' urthatropose
am
s
will accompany it with the heartfelt wish that sure you
Lord and
Lady Palmerston may long live in health and happiness
to reflect with F attsfacti on upon the proceedings of this
day, and to witness what we are sanguine to hope will
be the beneficial results which will emanate from them.
(Cheers.) The chairman concluded by giving " The