The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-04 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

I
but you will get the best models of art—get these
beautiful flowers which I see around me on the walls,
and the best bouquets of flowers, and let your boys with
pencils and paper, or with slates, as the cheapest mate-
rial, draw the outline of them. Never mind the colour ;
if a boy can do the form, he may afterwards paint it any
colour, for it will always be beautiful if he can get the
form accurately. Then with regard to the human head.
If you have a model of Apollo, for instance, whether
a statue or a drawing, let the youth take a pencil
or pen and copy the outline, and then he will eventually
become a draughtsman, and will draw well. Now, it is
notorious that we are very much behind in art. 1 had
a letter the other day from a gentleman, a large
agricultural implement manufacturer, who asked if I
knew any Frenchman—he wanted some one as a de-
signer—as a draughtsman, and he asked me if I knew
any Frenchman for that purpose. Now, he wanted a
Frenchman. That is a scandal that he should think of

asking me to recommend a foreigner to do work of this

kind. You must make use of the models of art you get
from London, and your youth must be trained in the
beautiful in design. Now, you want something of this
sort in Holmfirth. Hohnfirth, I fear, has rather been
going back, because you have adhered a little too much
to the old style' of things. To-day, when I was in Hud-
dersfield, I went over a warehouse there, and saw every
kind of check and pattern for pantaloons and waistcoats.
But these things, as I am informed, did not come from
Holmfirth ; for here you have been sticking too much to
the old style of drab kerseys, and that sort of thing.
(Applause and loud laughter.) Now, gentlemen, believe
me, it will never do to persist in going on in the old
beaten track when the world is bent upon going out of
it. The world is obstinate, and not only obstinate, but
capricious ; and if you do not follow it in its changes and
requirements, and that very quickly, it wilL be of no use
dreaming of remaining in business with any success in
these times. Well, then, gentlemen, that being so, bear
in mind the next fact—that there is no one so obstinate
in resisting change as the ignorant man. (Hear,
hear.) Educate the man, and he is as pliant and
as plastic as possible, and most readily accommodates
himself to -the changes of circumstances in the world
around him. So long, however, as men are igno-
rant, they will not change ; they will turn upon you
and say—" It did for our fathers and grandfathers, and
it shall do for us." (Hear, hear) But, gentlemen, this
society not only gives youth an encouragement in the
pursuit of knowledge, and stimulates their minds with
motives for seeking further knowledge, but it expands
and elevates their ideas, and stimulates them to ascer-
tain, in their respective callings, what is wanted in the
world in the way of novelty. In this way the world's
craving for variety may be satisfied by ourselves. (Hear,
hear.) Gentlemen, I have heard since I came into this

room, something about persons who are opposed to these
institutions. Well, I listened very attentively to the
speakers who dwelt upon that topic, as I wanted to find

out who these people were, and where they sprung
from. (Hear, hear.) I wondered what sect or denomi
nation this person could belong to who felt inclined to

brand these institutions and those who belonged to or
supported them with a sort of infidelity. I was really
curious to discover the man who could be found to quar-
rel with these institutions. I felt curious to see the re-

ligious sect which held such a doctrine. But, really, we
have had one reverend gentleman after another praising
these institutions, and denouncing this objector to them,
until at last, I believe, we have had to-night the adhe-
sion and active support of representatives of every reli-
gious denomination that is to be found amongst us.
(Applause.) And from the first of these rev, gentlemen
I heard as liberal a sentiment as ever passed from the
lips of any man breathing. (Hear, hear.) Ho said that
if the poor could only afford the time and money,
he wished that every poor man's child were as well

educated as the children of the richest. (Applause.)

Nobody can deny that such a state of things would be a
blessing, not only to the poor, but to everybody in the
country, from the highest to the humblest. (Hear, hear.)
It has, I know, been objected, that the poor may be too
much educated. Why, gentlemen, you may just as well
be afraid of all the. poor riding about in their coaches
and four, or playing the piano, as fear that they will be
too well educated. (Hear, hear.)- Admitting that it
would be unwise to eduCate the poor so well as the rich
are educated—admitting it, for argument's sake—there
are too great and I fear wholly insuperable obstacles to
that state of things ever arriving : the one is the want
of time, the other the want of means. (Hear.) So long

as these obstacles exist. the rich need be in no fear that

the poor will be better educated than they are. (Hear,
hear.) I remember waiting with a person holding this

doctrine in Manchester about 16 years ago, where I and
others were engaged in the work of starting the Man-

cheater Atheneum. I was employed in waiting upon

the principal merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen
of the town, asking for subscriptions towards establish-
ing the Athenaeum. One gentleman met me with this

objection—" I think the people are a good deal too much
educated already. I don't think we shall be safe if they

are to be educated any more ; and our property will be
in danger if this goes on." (A laugh.) Well, I met
_ _

him by putting to him this question—" Will you tell me
in what period of the world's history you would rather
have lived than the present, in order to have had your
vast fortunes safer than it is now 1" Well, he could not

answer me. (Hear.) I urged him to point out the period
he would have selected—" Would you have preferred the
last reigrf or the reign before, or the reign of George 1.,

or the reign of Queen Anne, or that of Queen Eliza-
beth, in order to have lived in greater security both
as regards your person and property ?" (Hear, hear,
and laughter.) Why ho could not tell me. (Hear,
hear.) And so I answered my own question by saying
" You would be much safer if you lived 30 or 40 years
hence ; but not if you were to go back to any time
however remote." (Applause.) This is the tendency
of these institutions ; and yet people are to be found who
charge against them that they produce disaffection,
disloyalty, and revolution. Now disloyalty and revolu-
tion come to the people from misgovernment ; and mis-
government is more likely to be attempted upon an ig-

norant than upon an educated people. We have been
well told that " oppression makes wise men mad."
(Hear, hear.) And I remember this being very well
applied by a man who was lecturing upon the Corn
Laws at Bury—a man perhaps not highly educated, yet
by no means destitute of shrewdness. The lectuirer said
" oppression maks wise men mad.' If it maks wise
men mad,' what mun it do wi' fooils then ?" (Laughter
and loud applause) I think gentlemen, you will agree
with the inference which the lecturer left his auditory
to draw, that whatever effect misgovernment or oppres-
sion had upon wise men, it must produce worse an,d
more disastrous effects when the ignorant and the fools
come to deal with it. (Applause.) Therefore, you
cannot do a worse thing than to encourage ignorance.

(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, will you allow me to offer
a practical remark upon a subject which I think is of
some interest and some importance. While your
chairman and secretary were stating the course of in-
struction given at your institution, I think I missed
any allusion to instruction in geography. Now, I would
suggest to those gentlemen who have taken so great an
interest in this society, that geography and maps be
added. You may get some capital large outline maps
from the School Society. I wish you to instruct your
youth in geography. You know there is just now a
great mania for emigration ; and people are losing their
friends—not losing them altogether, because from the
increased facilities in travelling you may easily go to the
other side of the world, and yet hope to come back to
see your friends and relations again. Now, it is a sad
thing when a youth has a friend who has gone to Aus-
tralia, if he should want to follow him, that he should
have no idea where to find him. But if he knew a little
of geography he could put his finger on the map and tell
exactly where to find him. lt is also a serious disad-
vantage to a person who desires to emigrate. The other
day I heard of a man who wanted to go to the diggings
at Victoria, and booked himself to Sydney. When he
got there he found himself several hundred miles from
the end of his journey, and had to ship himself again
several hundred miles further. All this would have been
avoided had he been taught geography. These are days
in which geography is all-iniportant. As I came along
to-day I was reading a Scotch newspaper, the Dundee
Advertiser, and found this expansive idea alluded to in
these words—" When all the world over are beginning
to think less and less of themselves as subjects of this or
that Government, and more and more of themselves as
citizens of the world. The printing-press, first of all,
then the steam-engine, and more recently the electric
telegraph, have mightily conduced to this still progressive
change. The literature of one nation is now the literature
of all nations ; a voyage rqund the world is only a pleasure
trip ; London converses with Paris in a moment of time.
By books, by travelling, or 'by electric communication,