The Sun.
London, England, 1825-07-08 00:00:00

IRE LONDON JOURNALS.

DAILY
Extract; from, the Morning Papers, J:112/ 8, 1825.

tMORNING HERALD. j

Shoold the -design of establishing a great semi-
nary or University in London succeed—of which
there is the strongest probability—it suggests
some curious and not uninteresting reflections.—
One of these is the vast advantage which it gives
the metropolis over every other city and popu-
lous town throughout the kingdom. This advan-
tage is inevitable hi either of two ways. It gives
a monopoly of cheap and valuable education to
those who are resident and established in London,
or it draais away the youth of these towns and
cities by shoals into the metropolis. There is,
however, an alternative escape from these conse-
quences. The populous towns and cities may
have each its University—and this is a most pro-
bable, indeed, a morally certain result of the suc-
cess of the London Institution. There is a case
precisely in point—the rapidity with which" Me-
chanics' Institutions" have sprung up, in imitation
and emulation of the parent one, throughout the
country. There will most undoubtedly be as
rapid and prosperous a growth of cheap Univer-
sities for the middle orders, as of institutes for the
labouring mechanics. One of the most cogent—
perhaps the most cogent argument, brought in
proof of the necesssity of the London Seminary,
is, that the strides made and making by the work-
ing ar'i,ans, obliges the middle classes to make
a corresponding advance, in order to preserve
their social place and influence. The employers
should be at least equal in knowledge and intel-
ligence to the employees. But supposing the
working and industrious classes initiated in ge-
neral literature and science, surely some provi-
sion should be made fur the upper classes—for
those who live only to consume the fruits of the
earth, and the inheritance of their fathers. They
have, it will be said, Oxford and Cambridge.—
But let it be recollected, first, that they do not
all visit the Isis and the Granta ; next of those
who do, how many walk over the course, or
devote themselves to their amusements, and come
out as innocent of all knowledge of the chorusses
of Sophocles, and the Prindpia of Newton;
as they went in. The learned professions, so
called, too, are they not, or will they not be
placed in rather an awkward predicament ? It
is not too much to say, that even of these, many
receive at present-something of undue credit and
reverence for their scholarship from the new
comparatively illiterate condition of those who
are engaged in the various occupations of un-
learned industry—this on the supposition that
" the Learned Professions" will not condescend
to patronize the London University, or any of
it's probable offspring. " Knowledge," we are
often told of late, " is power." In that case, un-
less these latter classes seek education more
generally, and attend to their studies more
closely, it is easy to see in what class of soci-
ety there will be most power. We shall see
the hitherto ignorant, like Caliban in the play,
discovering their mistake, and treating those
who were before their worshipful superiors
as no be.tter than sots and blockheads.—There
is no. great novelty in predicting a new era--
some one or other has been predicting a new era
every generation since the deluge, whether it was
really coming or not. But it may be safely said
that a new era in the diffusion of knowledge is
coming, or indeed has already begun. It is at
present known to many•—and the London Uni-
versity will soon make it known in triviis—that
light travels with surprising speed, taking but a
very few minutes to pass from the satellites of
Jupiter to this planet upon which if is our for-
tune to vegetate. There seems a close analogy
in this respect between the physical and moral
systems—in the amazing rapidity of diffusion,
which is the property of intellectual light, as well
as of physical.