The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-28 00:00:00

Mr. C. Lewis- Do you know what officers subscribed in
that way?
Mr. Richardson—l have no certain information.
Mr. C. Lewis—Have you any belief ?
Mr. Richardson -Yes ; I believe the remembrancer was
one.

Mr. C. Lewis—Have you any belief as to any other
officer ?

Mr. Richardson—l believe that Mr. Scott himself also
endeavoured to support the paper, with the object I have
mentioned—that is, the furnishing of reports of the pro-
ceedings of the corporation.
The Chairman—How long did this paper continue in
existence ?
Mr. Richardson—l think only ten numbers appeared in
all, and eight of them, I believe, were published after Mr.
Scott and Mr Smith purchased the copyright.
Mr. C. Lewis— You say that Mr. Smith was applied to
to act as the editor, and you say that he was also one of
the parties who originally purchased the paper. What
was his object in purchasing it with Mr. Scott?
Mr. Richardson Mr. Toulmin Smith had given much
attention to the subject of municipal institutions. He had
entirely gratuitously, previous to this, taken up various
matters connected with the City, and he was desirous of
doing that in the most effectual way ; and I think upon the
strong representation of Mr. Scott of the utility of this
paper in advocating his own general views, as well as Mr.
Scott's, he was induced to become a purchaser.
Mr. C. Lewis—What was the reason why the paper was
discontinued ?

Mr. Richardson—l think the reason was this—that Mr.
Smith's views as to the management of the paper did not
accord with those of the officers of the corporation who
were interested in its establishment.
The Chairman—Have you any objection to state what
the amount was that was given for the purchase of this
paper ?
Mr. Richardson—l think, if you will pardon me, that I
would rather refer that question for Mr. Scott himself, who
said that he had not the least desire to withhold the facts.
The Chairman—Very well.
The witness then withdrew.
Mr. Sidney Waterlow examined—He was a liveryman
of the Stationers' Company, and wished to call attention
to the practice of electing some score of inquestmen
every year in the various wards of the City. This
election was an annoyance to the citizens, and was per-
fectly needless ; because the duties of inquestmen have
now almost entirely lapsed into the hands of paid
officers of the corporation. The hardship is, that al-
though the inquestmen have no longer any duties to per-
form, they are yet compelled to waste their time in attend-
ing the inquest meetings. The inquestmen are solemnly
charged, for instance, to assist in maintaining the Queen's
peace--duties which the City police now discharge. They
are required also to see that the common ground of the
City is not encroached upon ; but the City surveyor looks
after that matter much better than they could do. They,
are also formally required to examine all weights and mea-
sures ; but there is a hired inspector to do that duty in-
stead of them also. They are directed, further, to see that
no parties open shops in the City who are not freemen ; but
the Court of Aldermen, by requiring the ward beadles to
give a list of all such persons, have relieved the inquestmen
of this duty likewise. The whole thing is, therefore, an
antiquated and empty form, which is only troublesome and
annoying to the citizens, who are elected to an obsolete
office, and who, if they do not serve—that is, attend the in-
quest meetings —are liable to a fine of five guineas. Witness
knew of seven or eight cases this year in which this fine
had been enforced, and with the proceeds of which those
inquestmen who did serve claimed to do as they pleased.
The only part of the duty of the inquestmen which was
not an idle form was this : they went about at Christmas
time collecting money, and in the ward of Bread-street
about 4001. a year had been collected in this way for some
years past.

Mr. W. M. Christie and Mr. Benjamin Steel also pre-
sented themselves to the commissioners as witnesses, but
their evidence, although generally condemnatory of the
corporation, did not add any material fact to the testi-
mony already adduced, and the chairman repeatedly in-
formed them that he would not trouble them to enter into
any detail.
The commissioners then adjourned till Tuesday next.

BURY ATHENAEUM STRIKES.

( From the Times. )

Fortune, which the poets tell us delights in contrasts,
presented us the other day with one as surprising and
unaccountable as her lawless caprice ever imagined.
What contrast, we say, can be greater than that between
the inauguration of the Bury Athenaeum and the present
unhappy position of employers and operatives in that
borough ? On the one hand, we have the philanthropy of
the higher classes exhibited, not only in large subscrip-
tions, but in careful inquiries into the proper management
of such institutions, in able lectures, and eloquent ad-
' dresses. On the other hand, we have the relations of capi-
tal and labour reduced to an apparently hopeless entangle.
ment. On the one hand, there is such a flood of
illumination—so we are told—that former centuries were
night in comparison with it ; and, on the other hand,
we have an unparalleled example of popular ignorance.
Now is the time, exclaim lords and bishops, to teach, to
lead, to train, to ennoble the people ; to disabuse them
of antiquated error, to show them who are their proper
guides, to raise them from sensual enjoyment to ma-
terial knowledge, from material knowledge to spiritual
apprehension, and from that to the graces and amenities
of Christian life. The people to whom they appeal, and
to whom they have reiterated this appeal now for a
whole generation,—the populace, that has successively
passed from the Infant School to the National or
the British, and thence to the Mechanics' Insti-
tute, are suffering a thraldom from which they can
neither escape nor be delivered, except by that fell
necessity that cuts all knots in time. It is said that
out of every hundred operatives now on the strike in
Lancashire ninety-nine would gladly return to work if
they saw only the way; but that the remaining hun-
dredth part of the class possess so thoroughly the key
of the present position of affairs, and are so interested
in its continuance, that nothing can be done. Talk
of despots and emperors, talk of Councils of Ten,
Inquisitions, Carbonari, Whiteboys, and all the forms
of religious, agrarian, or industrial conspiracy, what
can be worse than a system which robs ninety-
nine men of their independence, ties their tongues,
and dries the very brains in their heads, in order to
swell a few rogues or sots, the very brambles of the
forest, into well-paid and consequential agitators and
rulers ? Yet, so it is at Bury and other parts of Lan-
cashire. The ninety-nine are chained like a convict
gang, and some public-house charlatan, whom they all
despise in their hearts, is leading them at his will. This
takes place in the middle of the nineteenth century,
when the worthy son of an able and eloquent statesman
is addressing himself especially to the absent operatives
of Bury, and his generous appeal is as ably and as fruit-
lessly seconded by one of the most distinguished educa-
tionists of his time—the first Bishop of Manchester.
No wonder that, under these circumstances, a certain
mixed tone of encouragement and caution should pervade
noble and episcopal harangues. " Elevate yourselves,"
we hear it emphatically urged ; "rise a step over the last
generation, and raise the next above yourselves ; learn,
go on learning all your lives, till death alone stops the
flight of your new-winged intellect ; look to the United
States, that tax themselves heavily and right gladly, not
for admirals and field-marshals, but for schoolmasters
and lecturers ; do something more than flock to an
occasional lecture ; read, study, select your own lines,
and follow where your tastes lead you ; learn to soar
above material and utilitarian knowledge ; love literature
and science for their own sakes ; follow the noblest instinct
implanted in you b. y the Author of your being, and be
assured that will bless the result." The people to
whom this vision of glory is thus unfolded were not
there. They for whom it is chiefly designed, as the class
whose manual employments leave them little time for
study, and much
.to do in that little time, are moping in
cheerless homes, listlessly sauntering in lanes, idly crowd-
ing thoroughfares, or drinking at public-houses, to drown,
if possible, the sense of their perplexities. Hence the re-
actionary expressions that obtrude themselves even in the
fall flow of these glowing anticipations. "You must read
as well as listen ; you must think as well as read ;
knowledge, without common sense, is folly ; without
religion it is death ; without kindness it is fanaticism ;
without method it is waste. Educate your children, or
they will do no good in libraries and lecture-rooms.
Refine your taste, and seek a higher learning, or you
will never be more than mechanics, copyists, and
drudges." The Bishop of Manchester looks for his
people at church and in the Schools of Design, and finds
them equally wanting in both places. What is more
immediately to the purpose, they are not even present
to hear these expostulations. What a lesson on the
vanity of even the noblest designs ! And yet it is
not vanity, unless we are to fall into the morbid tone
of those who think to build up society as they would a
house or a steam-engine, and are then disappointed to
find the material has a will of its own. In nothing
human are we to expect the entire success of the arith-
metician, who makes his calculation and finds it comes
true. It is true that Athenaeums, institutes, and all the
new means for bringing science within reach of the work-
ing man, fall miserably short of the ideal success their
projectors desired. But where is the perfect success of
our universities, of our public schools, of our church
establishment, or of the Legislature itself ? The most
staple class of this country, and the rude material out
of which Providence creates and fashions the great fabric
of British society, is the native peasantry. Can their
condition, under a patriarchal and religious regime a
thousand years old, be called a success ? We fear it
cannot.

There are savage tribes that are said to worship their
implements and arms. They deify an axe, offer sacri-
fices to a canoe, propitiate a net, avert the caprices of a
bow and the spontaneous aberrations of an arrow. The
shortcomings of the tool they ascribe to the wayward-
ness of some spirit within. Now, what are the most
elaborate and pretending institutions of civilised society
but so many passive instruments, the success of which
depends on the zeal and address of the user ? It may be
assumed as an axiom that whenever a thing is really
good it will be appreciated and sought for, unless the
approach to it be rendered disagreeable or difficult.
A book may be a good one, but in a cramped style
or an unreadable type. A preacher may be well
informed and wise, but his delivery thick and unem-
phatic. But a book or a preacher that is good both in
matter and in style is sure to be popular and useful, and
we cannot see what hinders that an institution for the
improvement of the people should be as widely popular
as a man or a book. There are books that nobody rends,
and there are preachers that nobody would listen to but
from a sense of sacred obligation. What of that ? It is
no discouragement to those who think themselves
capable of teaching and pleasing. Mechanics' in-
stitutes have been worshipped in their time, like
the nets and bows of the above-mentioned savages.'
They have been invested with a sort of sacramental
efficacy for the regeneration of mankind. As
savagrs who have long worshipped in vain some-
times beat their idols or break them in despair, so these
institutions have been given up by many a man who is
di 'tressed to find they cannot work miracles. Miracles
are not the order of this day. It is as vain to expect
an immense and entire success from any human scheme
as the cure of an inveterate disease or the restoration
of a limb at the prayer of faith. For our part, we
are ready to accept these institutions, among many