The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-19 00:00:00

cheering.) len the cheerit rid subsided, Sir Wil-
liam again rose and proposed t. aealtla of Mr.. Murray
and the landlords of the Stewartry. The to ast was
drunk with all the honours amidst thunders of :op plause,
the words " Broughton for ever" being heard ;tinging
above the shouts of four hundred men.
Mr. MURRAY briefly returned thanks.
ALEX. M‘Dowas.n, Esq., banker, proposed " Health
and long life to our Noble Chairman, the Right Hon.
the Eari of Stair."
Lord STAIR retutoed thanks.
Mr. Hoasmax, M.E. then rose amid loud cheers,
and spoke nearly as follows :—A toast has been put
into my hands, which I give with the more pleasure,
because the subject of it, when partially touched on in
the speech we all heard with so much pleasure from the
chair, was received with so much approt. ation, that
am assured you will meet me with a corn )al bumper.
I allude to what Lord Stair said about sch ools, and
my toast is " The Education of the People." It is a
subject in which we cannot take too great interest.
There are many ways in which a proprietor ni ay pro-
mote the comforts and raise the condition of those about
him ; and as far as their mere physical state is• COO_
cerned, these must vary when applied to the tenant, or
the labourer, or the pauper, according to their diffth•etit
conditions and their varying wants. But in the de
partment of education, a benefit conferred on one.
is a benefit to all. All are interested in the pre
serration of social order ; and they who are them-
selves rich and comfortable, have still an interest
in their poorer neighbours being trained to habits
of sobriety and peace—adding to their security as
,harmless neighbours, instead of being feared and sus-
p.ected as discontented and dangerous depredators.
This, then, is the highest walk for any man's am.hition,
not merely to study the bodily wants of those ar lurid
him, but to administer to those still higher necessities
which ennoble the character and elevate the standard
of the man. And in these days, whe❑ the conviction is
so very universally admitted, we may be allowed to woo-
-1 der that so many successive generations should have
passed away, each boasting itself, and most correctly, an
improvement on those which went before, without the
wisdow of our ancestors discovering this great truth,
t hat a people become better as they are wiser, and that
tl ,eir condition is ameliorated in proportion as their in-
telligence is increased.—(Applause.) I believe there is
no country in which this truth was so early tested, and has.
been so well established, as in the country where we now
.stand—in Scotland, where the peasant has been as well
educated as the man of gentle blood—where education
is so universal, that it has levelled many distinctions--
for you do level distinctions, even between the peer
and the peasant, when you make them susceptible of
•the same impressions—capable of enjoying the same
pursuits—habituated, after the day's labours, to seek
for relaxation at the same fountains of intellectual de-
light—the one in the ball which he may have inhe-
ric d from a long line of ancestors—the other, per-
chance in the hovel, from which he may be turned out
next day if he does not pay his rent—different in lot,
but assimilated in feeling—united by common sympathies
—possessed by similar influences—made kindred by
the same associations, as they pore over the volumes of
their native authors, or fire at the pictures their own
historians have drawn of those glorious days, when the
well-taught peasantry of Scotland, the men of pious in-
telligence, and humble but wise devotion, poured forth
from the cottage and the field, and ranged them selves
on the wild hill side to do battle for the worship that
their fathers loved—to vindicate the faith in which
their fathers died—and shrunk not, quailed not,
yielded not in their resolution, even while they were
trampled beneath the hoofs of their oppressors, and dyed
their native heather with their blood.—(lmmense cheer-
ing.) There was a time when each parish in the island
held only two wise men—there was the squire who could
write his own name with the assistance of the priest—
and there was the priest, who could read Latin prayers
without making a single blunder that the congregation
could detect.—(Cheering and laughter.) The multi-
tude looked up with admiration and awe to those
gifted men, and did them homage, not for their
station as the distributors of their comforts, but
for their attainments; as oracles of wisdom.
Such, even in the dark ages, was the influence
of mind over matter. The change from this state of
things was slow, gradual, almost imperceptible ; but the
discovery of printing furnished a sort of railroad for the
mind to travel on ; and as a beggar who now rides in a
common steam-carriage goes faster than the nobleman
in his chaise-and-four, so, by the airl of this new inven-
tion the boor began to run the squire very bard, and the
clerk, without difficulty, gave the go-bye to the parson.
The race of improvement then began in earnest ; and it
it is even now going on after it has advanced you to
that state where you have an aristocracy which, for the
higher qualities of character, and the generous exercise
of every manly virtue, is superior to any aristocracy in
the world ; and when you have a peasantry whose intel-
ligence makes even their poverty respectable, and a race
of farmers and tenants who, under the garb of husband-
' men and rustles, bear hearts which nohles must respect.
—(Cheers.) There was a time, but it is passed, and
it seems to me a dream, when a few were found to
believe, that this instruction of the people was a dan-
gerous and pernicious doctrine—(Hear, hear)—but
the creed was short-lived, and its disciples very few ; for
their argument meant only this—that a man who
could not read was more likely to study his Bible
than one who could ; that it was better his creed should
be a matter of credulity than founded on conviction;
that it was better to be blind and believe on the bidding
of another than to sec and believe your own eyes. But.
now this nonsense is exploded, and all feel that ignorance
is the greatest of all evils, and the most formidable or
all dangers ; for it is the parent of fanaticism in religion,
and of anarchy in politics. It is our duty, then, as it is
our interest, to promote the education of all about us. ;
and equally so, whether we are actuated by the high er
motives of contributing to their enjoyment or she more
selfish one of providing for our own security ; for, depe ad
upon it, there is no policeman half so efficient as the
schoolmaster, and no such tamer of the bad passions of men
as the simple goose quill. Therefore, I plopose that we
drink "To the education of the people." The toast
was drunk with all the honours, and the speech through.
out was loudly cheered.
After a number of other toasts the company broke up
and proceeded to the ball-room, where at least 1,200
ladies and gentlemen assembled, and kept up dancing till
5 o'clock in the morning.