The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-19 00:00:00

EVENING, DECEMBEft

THE PEOPLES-COLLEGE, SHEFFIELD.
(From Eliza Cook's Journal.)

We had heard much of the Sheffield College, and
were not amongst those who expect to find the minis-
' try of the people's self-earned learning housed in a
palace, and therefore found more than we looked for.
That was fair sized, cleanly, well lighted, and well
ventilated rooms, in the heart of where the people
work and dwell, where exist the social relations
they may exalt and carry onward, and
where the knowledge so acquired will best bear
its fruits. But there was an earnestness in all we
saw which would have graced a college of Alassa-
chusetts, or our own more aristocratic institutions,
though many of the students were no other than the
young men and apprentice lads we had seen at the
forges, at the grinding wheels, and in the workshops
that morning ; and their studies no profounder, or
more abstract, than plain rules of arithmetic, and
lessons in writing. But no learning, however rudi-
mentary, can be separated from this condition of
earnestness;- if it is, it ceases to be truthful; and
this is why the mechanics institutes of this country
have proved to so large an extent failures. The induc-
tive link, between the working mau's l4our ar.d his
intellectual needs, was not clearly seen, even by insti-
tutors like Lord _Brougham and others; wbo were the
early promoters and patrons of the Society for the Dif-
fusion of Useful Knowledge. The thing is, as we have
elsewhere said, the moral and physical nature of man is
in one respect in opposition ; exhaust either by labour,
and it becomes a matter of absolute rest to bring its
opposite into action ; and therefore to those wearied
by physical labour, the solution of a rule in a:ith-
tnetic, the study of history, or a geometrical lesson in
relation to design is, if the paradox may be allowed;
the most stimulating and satisfactory' of repose, whilst
at the same time conducive to the need of sound
and pregnant knowledge. But the contrary to this,
was on- two material points pursued by the earlier-
promoters of mechanics' institutions for the work-
ing classes. It was conceived that, because the
artisan had been in his workshop all day, that
knowledge must be made seductive ; and however
profound the subject chosen, he must be treated with
it as children with physic—that is sugared. He was
favoured with what was called "a popular" elucida-
tion of astronomy, "a popular dissertationon heat,"
"an entertaining analysis of the stearn engine ;"
but once these entertaining facts worn threadbare,
and his interest wearied by reiteration, he
__ _

found himself as ignorant as before, or in posses-
sion of just that smattering of scientific knowledge

which disclosed the difficulties which attend the ac-
quirement of all truth; and thus disgusted by the
very knowledge which he needed, his support and
interest were no longer given. This shows that we
cannot invert the processes of truth. Support thus
withdrawn, and popularity lessened, a new stimulus
was Fought by managers and committees ; and
concerts and lectures on every-day subjects,
were b'rought into operation, with no other re-
sult in innumerable instances than that of attracting
another class who, occupied more by mental than
physical labour, were glad to procure amusement at
a cheap rate. Hence mechanics' institutes have
notoriously passed into middle class bands ; and a
very able report which now lies before us fully bears
out this fact.

But the people, the handicraftsmen of this country
want knowledge; they want that species of know-
ledge which possesses the stimulus of being connected
with the duties and interests of their daily life;
they want instruction in that class of knowledge
which is truth based upon induction; namely,
knowledge which grows out of a considera-
tion of their peculiar local needs, as design in rela-
tion to me:allic art for Sheffield and Birmingham, to
textile art for Norwich and Manchester; they Kant
instruction in the teeming facts of the history of this
great country, and to be taught that its principles of
liberty are sterling, its laws noble, in spite of much
error and need of reformation; and they want finally
to be taught that the greatest reformation wanting, is
of men, not things; and that the exercise of their own
individual temperance, prudence, and forethought, is
what this country and this generation require. As the
noble Pestalozai beautifully said, " The amelioration
of outward circumstances will be the effect, but can
never be the means of mental and moral improve-
ment." Now if people's colleges be ably carried
onward, such needs may be fully satisfied ; but there
must be no attempt to make a royal road to learning,
by pleasant ledatives, for knowledge possesses within
itself the sweetest and most attractive allurements ;
and what attractions may be needed, let them be
found apart, at the concert and lecture room, and
not as mere matters for amuEement in connexion
with the institution intended to carry out the
purposes of a college. But we must not be sup
posed to condemn all curses of lectures; those in
inductive connexion with the branches of knowledge
taught, form a desirable method for the able
teacher; but it is when unconnected, when out of
the line of all method, when mere persiflage, that we
oject to them. The lecturers in the hoApitals of Lon-
don and Edinburgh do not entertain their students
with an essay on comic actors, or a digression on
architecture; and the same rule holds good, though
the students be but handicraftsmen, and the studies
but rkidi.nentary.
_ . .

In this institution of Sheffie Id, as in others organised
on the same principles, the chief class hours are in the
evening, between half-past seven to nine, and the
best attendance is secured at tl.is period. Whilst,
it is observed, that with all the students, more or
less, the signs of the day's toil have been effaced before
the hour of meeting, and an air of decency and clean-
liness is the usual characteristic. Indeed, as respects
the females, we particularly noticed that they were
cleanly and well dressed, and far more earnest
students than some philosophers who conceive woman
has no other vocation than to darn stockings and
make puddings, might like to have witnessed;
and so far from being as such philosophers
would imagine, the attendance of females has been
found highly conducive to the order and respectful
deportment of the other classes. One thing appears
to us wanting in this department of the " People's
College," namely, a class of instruction that might
tell upon the progress of domestic life. And here
it is in a department of this kind that the females
of the middle and higher classes ought to prove
serviceable; and, through lessons or written
discourses on cooking, housewifery, and the
management of children, conduce to a most needful
and most important public and social end. If
extraneous and separated from the ordinary duties
of rudimentary learning, no efficient committee,
especially one formed of young and able men like
that of the Sheffield College, who have not been
hardened by half a century of routiue, into a
fashion of domestic life, far from being productive
either of comfort or happiness, would refuse a
separate room for such classes; and we do hope
at this hint thrown out of what is needed, that
some will be found willing to become teachers of this
character. Many a plate-burnisher, many a file
scourer, many an apprentice girl, might be, by such
method, taught a hundred different lessons, the effects
of which would, in the next generation, be grave
enough for the consideration of the philanthropist,
the moralist, and the physician.
Through the forthcoming year we shall turn our at-
tention to this class of topics ; and, in the meanwhile, we
cannot press too earnestly upon the consideration of
this and similar institutions, the noble and earnest
work there is for them to do both in the relation of
monitor and student; and whilst it is in the power of
the former to show both ministers and. people what
can be done by the force of co-operative, earnestness,
it is in the power of the latter, to demonstrate that
true education is no fallacy in its connexion with
manual labour, and to show, in perhaps another in-
stance, that the heights of Wharncliffe can inspire
anew, and the soil of fiallamshire be not destitute of
the noble in their generation.

SILYBRPEN.

THE MAN.
Is the man a bit the better
For his richest, golden gains,
Fur his acres and his palace—
If his inmost heart is callous,

•
Is the man a bit the better?
And if the man's no bit the better
For his coffers and his mines,
For his purple and fine linen,
For his vineyards and his vines,
Why do thousands bow the knee
And cringe in mean servility,
If the man's no bit the better?

Is the man a bit the worse
For a lowly dress of rags,
Tbo' he has no lordly rental,
If his heart is kind and gentle,
Is the man a bit the worse ?

And if tho man's no bit the worse .
Fir his poor and lowly stand,
For an always-empty pocket,
For a dusty, working hand,
Why do thousands pass him by
With a cold and scorning eye,
If the man's no bit the worst?
JOHNSON BARKER.

D.c., 1849.

THE COURT.—Her Majesty and the Prince Con-
sort, with the youthful members of the Royal Family,
will, it is said, leave Osborne on Saturday next for
Windsor Castle, where they will pass the Christmas
holtdas s. Owing to the recent demise of the Queen
Dowager, the dramatic performances at the Castle
have, by her ➢lajesty's command, been deferred, and
the Court will remain at the Castle in comparative
retirement, until the assembling of Parliament in
February.
It is rumoured in the Court circles, that his Royal
Highness Prince Albert will be appointed to the Hanger!.
ship of Bushy Park, vacant by thu demise of her late
m,,jeaty the Queen Dowager.
The fine estate of Summerhill Park, near Tun-
bridge Wells, has just been purchased by the Rev.
Owen; of Pettlys, Uputpuierysliire.