The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-22 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING ADVERTISER

Sir,—l solicit the assistance of your widely-spread
Journal to bring Wore the reflecting public a few facts
and arguments on the much e)ntroverted question of edu-
cating working men, and on a kindred subject upon which
I hope the. e will be no controversy at all, the propriety
and necessity of providing a benevolent fund or institution
for decayed and destitute men of science.
Having seen the operation of the Andersonian Institution,
and had something to do in preparing the laws of the Me-
chanics' Institution in Glasgow, I felt a desire a few years
ago to form a similar institution in Lincoln, for the city and
count:. Having sketched out a plan for a library, museum,
lecture-rooms, class-rooms, &c. , excluding politics and pole-
mics from perusal or discussion, and resting the management
of the whole in an annually elected committee of twelve
working men, paying ls. 6d. per quartet etch, and in
twelve gentlemen, subscribing ono guinea or more per an-
num each, assigning the whole of the property to trustees
for the benefit of the operative classes for ever, I laid it
before several leading gentlemen of all shades of opinion,
and received from each a promise of cc-open ation. In a few
weeks many hundreds had come forward to support it, and
between 600/. and 600 L per annum, besides large donations
of boas, Sm., bad been contributed. With tbe.e elements
of success it was opened, and the first election of the Com-
mittee and the officers took place by written lises prepared
at home, and destroyed by scrutineers after they were in-
spected. The result I adduce as a proof that the tendency
of those institutions, when properly organized, is to decrease,
and not increase, party animosities. The first honorary
officer, Sir Edward French Bromhcad, Bart., who is the
leading Conservative of the county, receiving, out of 212
voters, 198 votes. The second honorary officer, who was
as notoriously a Whig, received 208 out of the same 212
voters; the former became the Hon. Baronet was known
by the working elJsses to be their practical friend, and
that nearly his whole life had been one consecutive contr.-
bution of time and zeal in their behalf, and the latter be-
cause he had been mainly instrumental in forming the in-
stitution. Shortly afterwards, on a resignation from want
of leisure taken place, an extreme Radical was unani-
mously elected in the room of the Whig, and tie institu-
tion was carried on most harmoniously and most efficiently
under a Whig pat.-on, a Tory president, and a Radical
secretary.
Nor was this all. A few months afterwards the Whig
patron, the Earl of Yarborough, delivered an elaborate
ard argumentative address to a crowded hall of working
men, on the mischievous effects of trades' unions upon
their own members. Not only was this address, upon
which the audience might be naturally expected to be
both sore and sensirive, heard with patience, but with re-
peated plaudits; and many a working man went away
with the conviction that to attempt to fetter or control
voluntarily invested capita!, was to ruin the best market
, for his own labour ; prejudicial it might be to the master,
I suicidal it must be in the long run to the man.

Why were unpalatable doctrines like these thus favour-
ably received ? Simply, because the Nobleman propound-
ing them had made great contributions fcr the Jost': u_
tion ; and the working melt knew him, as well es Sir Ed-
ward F. Ilrornhead, to be tittle friend. 'I hey aro shrewd
enough to know that those who intend to oppress them
will never Login by enlightening them—inasmuch as such
erlightenment must ever be best protection against
such oppression.
Shortly Efterwards La!f a dozen similar icstitutions
sprung up in vat iuus towns cf the county, affiliating with
their parent; and hundreds, I may ear, thousands, c f
walking men have been induced to exchanga tl7e tar-
room for the lectorz-room—clebaue! cry end ribaldry, for
reading and reflection. That reasoning must be very in-
genious which would represent results like these as inimi-
cal to religion and the good order of society.
I am satisfied, front experience, that the more the diffe-
rent classes are vandyked into one another, the better it is
for all. It is a mistake to ircag;ne Oast the poor arc not
gra'.efut for the attentions of the rif7h—tbey ive flattered

A nation famed for song and beauty's charms ;
Zealous, yet modest, innocent, though free ;
Patient of toil, Serene amid alarms,
hflexille in faith, invincible in arms."
Anc'ent tat;ons, as well as modern, may be adduced as
proofs of the great advantages of diffusing knowledge.
What enabled the Greeks to combat and annihilate the
mighty armies brought to crush them ? At the period
when philt gophers walked with princes, Miltiades de-
feated the hosts of Xerxes, and Leonidas and his self. de-
toted 300 made a rampart with the'r bodies against hun-
dreds of thlusands. Every one Greek may be said to
have conquered twenty Persians. Why ? Because,
" Knowletige was power .because intelligence gives
vitality to patriot;sm--because every city of Greece was
mote or less a " Mechanics' Institute." It has been, and
it ever will be, that the most intellectual will be the most
powerful people,
As Phcelus to the world is se'enee to the soul.
If there be any philosophy in Conservatism, I should
say to the Conservatives—Educate the people. If you en-
franchise ignorant men they may " turn again and rend
you." Tint was the chief argument against the Reform
Bill—act upon it. The Reform Bill is carried, and can-
not be repealed. The law has beat lifted up to the
wishes of the people, lift the people up to the law. You
h,ve said " There is darger from popular ignorance."
Get rid of it. The poor melt you assist to learn " Bacon's
Natural Philosophy" will gradually imbibe his pulifeal—
and tvitile they read in his profound page; that " know-
ledge is power," they may also read that " All changes are
evils only to be justified by getting rid of greater evils;"
and that pol t;cal changes, to be least dangerous, " should
be like those of time; imperceptible in their progress, but
felt in their effects." Could there be much danger in im-
bibing sentiments like these? And where will they find
in the works of the greatest writers opinions of an opposite
tendency ?

It is wise to educate the people ; the stream that is
gently led, irrigates and fertilizes the country around ;
obstruct it, or attempt to dam it up, and it becomes a tor-
rent and an inundation, and calm and sincere men
" htld their breath' with amazement at the mighty eweep
it takes.

It is wise, too, for good men of different opinions to
have some neutral ground on which they can meet for one
common object—what ground so beautiful, what object so
benevolent, as to join in weaning the poor from animal to
intellectual gratification? Look at the mighty good which
the diffusion of knowledge has already occasioned. Let
Catholicus," be he who he may, otherwise account Lr
the glorious Reformation, than by the spreading of know-
ledge through the newly-discovered art of printing. I
will set the philessophy of St. Psul against all that he has
written. " Read all things, prove all things—hold fast
that which is good." Religion has nothing to fear, but
much to gain, from science and inquiry. Protestantism
stands upon the basis of free discussion and free opinion.
It owes its very name to the " protest " against the oppo-
site; and when the mind is once led earnestly to love
knowledge, it
Disdains to rest its heaven-aspiring wing
Beneath its native quarry
I now come to the second object of the letter, on which I
trust there will be no difference of opinion, and that is, on
the propriety and necessity of providing a benevolent fund
for decayed and distressed men of science.
Several years ago I was requested to draw up a memo-
rial of the case of Henry Bell, who had been declared, in a
report of a Select Committee of the House of Commonsi, to
have been tire first to successfully apply steam to naviga-
tion in this kingdom. He had conquered vast obsta-
cles by great perseverat co. The Lords of the Admi-
ralty, when he commenced, ridiculed the notion of ap-
plying steam power to any tele extent. Nevertheless,
he went upon his own poor resource. After a hng or-
deal, the Comet was buil., and tailed up the Caledo-
nian Canal, to the amez,,ment and dismay of the sin--
phi Highlanders. Now that the success was cer-
tain, Companies arose and built better vessels than his,
havit g more capital, and as he bad taken out no patent
for his invention, competed with him, and not having to
go through the sane ordeal, defeated him at a much
smaller expenditure of time and money. In the mean-
time, in his ardour for improvement. a boiler burst, and
he became a cripple for life. Under these circumstances,
at GB years of age, involved in debt, with a prison in
prospect, this conqueror of the winds and tides, this creator
of the wealth of millions, aged, c,ippled, and destitute ap-
plied to Government for relirf, and his memorial was
signed by many Members of Perlinment, Provost;, and
Chief Magistrates of maritime towns. After dancing at-
tendance fcr several months be was then told that nothing
could be done bim ; that he was too infirm for a country
post-office, and that he could not be placed on the Scotch
pension list, probably because his services had not been of
that Parliamentary" nature which were generally so re-
warded. Poor old man l—he went home and died of a
broken heart. _

Anoth&r case is more recent. An ingenious man, who
invented a printing-press that bears his name—discovered
a mode of curing a great natural defect., and had taken
out a patent for an improvement in travelling of very great
importance, which I heard admired and praised by Lords
ougharn and Lyndhurst, with other Members of the
13, ivy Council—was unsuccessful in getting capitalists to
aid him in carrying out his projects. Railways had super-
seded high-roads, and those who could best assist in adopt-
ing his improvement were interested in preventing it. He
got ints debt—was cast into prison ; his wife while there
died of the horrors of destitution and a broken heart ; his
child died from the absence of maternal care—he, the
prai,ed, the admired by Lords and by Judges, was at
length !et cut a wifeless, a childless, a homeless man !

is it right ? 13 it wise? Is it just? If England be,
as the la..e Mr. Rothschild described her, " the workshop
of the world," is it right that the unfortunate among those
who hove raised her by their science to riches and to re-
nown should be thus left to Fetish ? All trar'es have
benevolent asylums, why should not science? The mimes
of the crams have t' eir " Funds"—the sons of Parnassus
:brie " Literary Association"—the very chsesemongers,
poulterers, and even chimney-sweeps—why should not the
unf. rtunatc (for there are unfortunate as well as fortunate)
Arkwrights, Peels, Boltons, Watts, and the creators of
mighty results, have also their protectirginsti.ulion—their
temple at once of scieFee and benevolence ? Well, in-
deed, might Moore say--
" In the land cf the north, there are insects that prey
On the brain of the elk tik iti very last sigh;
On, genius, thy patrons, more cruel than they,
First feed on thy brains and then leave thee to die."
I throw out these few hints for others who have more
time and greater means to promote them, and have tho
honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
W. S. NORTH HOUSE.
Storey's Gate, St. James's Park, 13 March, 1841.