The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-26 00:00:00

it, or by superintending or forming establishments for
the promotion of education, in some shape or other, I
have been connected with, very actively and zealously,
for about 38 years—(Cheers)—and I presume that those
who have done me the honour of calling upon me to ad-
dress some observations to you this evening, have done
so from the thought, perhaps, that I should have to com-
municate to you some of the results and observations
emanating from my own experience. I shall do so, but
very briefly, begging you, in the first place, to bear in
mind that when I said that I had been for 38 years con-
nected with eduction, I did not mean that I had been
occupied in making speeches upon it.—(Laughter.) I
have been engaged in the practice of it, and not in
haranguing upon it ; and therefore it is not to be ex-
pected that I can address you with the same eloquence
that others may do who have not seen and done so
much as I have.—(Cheers.) In spite of all the dangers
threatened by, and objections raised to, the diffusion of
education, still, upon the whole, I am more and more
convinced that the wide diffusion of knowledge will al-
ways tend more or less, in the end, to the diffusion of
every othergood.—(Cheers.) I have spoken of the dangers
attending it, and dangers there are; do not disguise it.
I believe that on this point I do not differ at all from the
Noble Lord who has so eloquently addressed you, when '
he spoke of there being no dangers in the diffusion of
knowledge ; I believe that he meant, as I do, that the
dangers are not to be put in eomparison with the dan-
gers of ignorance.—(Cheers.) It is impossible, by
keeping men in darkness and ignorance, to secure them
from temptation. It is impossible to guard men against
evil ; though you were to shut them up in the cells of
hermits, they must be exposed to temptation, in one
shape or another. Men are liable to be deceived and
misled; but it is in darkness more than in light, in twi-
light more than in full sun, that error is liable to be
mistaken for truth.—(Cheers.) I should be ashamed to
dwell at any length, especially before such an audience
as this, on the advantages of knowledge ; but I would
have you be well assured, for I can say so from my own
convictions and experience, that the advantages of dif-
fusing knowledge are not so generally admitted as might
be supposed from people's professions. I know for a
fact, that there are some persons who deprecate the
diffusion of knowledge, but yet they will give in to it,
and profess to favour it, merely because they find that
they must swim with the stream, and cannot oppose
it. I am continually meeting with persons who are
for embarking in the vessel of education, in order
that they may be able to retard its career. They
are deprecators, above all things, of too great
a diffusion of knowledge, too much education for
the people, too much knowledge for their station in life,
which, they say, is likely to " puff them up." Something
may be given, but not too much. Why, of course, no
one is an advocate for too much of anything—(A laugh)
—but if all mankind, down to the lowest peasant who
follows the plough, were to obtain as much knowledge as
was ever possessed by the most learned man that ever
lived, I should still say that it was very far for being too
much, provided that it was a well-digested knowledge,
and there was a well-balanced cultivation of the faculties.
—(Cheers.) I suppose there are comparatively few
who apprehend danger to loyal principles, submissive
obedience to the Government, and all the other social
virtues, from the sort of knowledge diffused in this place
among the middle classes of society, any more
than they apprehend it from a diffusion of the
same sort of knowledge amongst the peasantry.
The same argument, in fact, will apply to both classes.
If the mere knowledge of his letters tends to make a
man less contendedly submit to his lot as a labourer, one
does not see why more extended knowledge should not
unfit him for some other subordinate station. Why
should not knowledge, if that be its tendency, make all
men try to rise above their station, all but in the highest?
I believe that the danger lies here, that where know-
ledge is very rarely and scantily communicated, the one
who, by some good luck, happens to get above his fel-
lows, will think himself fitted to be removed to a higher
class. But communicate the same knowledge to all that
class, and they will not be raised above it. One of the
greatest Conservatives that ever lived—all would agree
with him Dr.Jehnson was so—used to say, when speak-
ing upon this subject, " Why, sir, if a man has a laced
hat, he thinks himself too good to go to the plough ; but
if all men wore laced hats, we should see men ploughing
is laced hats."—(Cheers.) But, then, there is this
objection, and it may lie against all communications of
all human good of every kind—an educated man, of
cultivated intellect, but a bad man, which he certainly
may be, is more dangerous than he was before. It is
very true. A man who possesses the use of his limbs
is more dangerous, if he be a bad man, than the cripple.
—(Cheers.) A man who who has the use of speech and
of his eyes is more dangerous, if he be a bad man, than
a blind or deaf mute ; but, unless the tendency of the
cultivation of the mind is to make man worse, we are
rebelling against the dispensations of Providence to re-
fuse any good to our friends and countrymen, to those
above and below us, on the ground that it may be
abused.—(Cheers.) This, however, I wish particularly
to point out, though it must have occurred to most of
you, wherein does consist the great danger to the com-
munity of a man of cultivated intellect and great powers
sharpened by exercise, if he happens to be a bad man?
What is the chief danger to be apprehended from him?
Why, that he will act as a demagogue on the unthinking
multitude. He persuades the ignorant to receive his
statements, to adopt his fallacious conclusions, to follow
in all his wild schemes. He makes them his instru-
ments. He may incite them to rebellion, to all sorts
of mischievous and dangerous conduct. Take away
these instruments, by making those men good judges of
truth and falsehood, and he nes no longer anything to
work upon.—(Applause.) The agitator, the dema-
gogue, the partisan leader, all the mischievous men
who turn their talents and acquirements to such an
account as that, are a kind of quacks. It is well
known that if a man has a certain knowledge of
chemistry and medicine, he may play on the credu-
lity of the ignorant by persuading them to swallow
his mischievous drugs; but if all understood medicine
there would be none to take his quack medicines.—
(Cheers.) Let all men, therefore, be so educated as to
be capable of distinguishing the true from the false, and
then, however ill-disposed a man may be, he will not be
able to mislead others. I cannot conceive of such a
thing as a lawless and violent mob consisting of well-
instructed men, even setting aside moral instruction.
Supposing that they were all bad men, there would be
more generals than soldiers; but they would not be so
ignorant as to allow one to mislead the rest. I conceive
that the best way of guarding against the danger of
putting power into the hands of bad men is to diffuse as
widely as possible that power which knowledge confers.
—(Cheers.) But lam convinced also that the tendency
of knowledge is not necessarily to secure good moral
conduct and character, but to further and promote it. If
our religion was a system of blind superstition, people
would be the more religious the more blind and unthink-
ing they were. If our Government were an unjust and
oppressive despotism, men would submit to it more
readily the more they were reduced to the state of brutes
and children. But if the conduct which we recommend to
them as men and Christians be conformable to right
reason—if our religion be based upon solid evidence—
if our Government be founded on just and fair principles,
those persons will be the best Christians and subjects,
other things being equal, who are best able to distinguish
between truth and falsehood.—(Cheers.) I wish to be
distinguished from those persons who consider that the
mere diffusion of knowledge constitutes the whole of
education. I say that it is a good thing, but I do not
say or think that it is the whole of education; and I wish
no one to go away with the idea that I consider every
man the wiser, or likely to be the better, or the better
educated, for all the knowledge he may have obtained,
unless it is well regulated, and a judiciously balanced
cultivation of the faculties. But I say that knowledge,
as it goes, is a good thing, and the people should be
merely warned against the danger of ill-balanced
knowledge. The man who entirely devotes himself to
the cultivation of some faculty, to the neglect of the
rest; the person who devotes his attention to the culti-
vation of the intellect, to the neglect of the moral facul
ties, all these persons may be advanced in their own
particular way, but it is a narrow, ill-balanced,
injudicious, hurtful education. What I maintain and
contend fur is, that it is not in that case the knowledge
of something that does the harm, but the ignorance of
others. It is not the cultivation of this faculty, but the
neglect of that. The same church, or other place of
worship, that may be sufficient for a small populatian,
becomes utterly inadequate for a large population. In
like manner, the same degree of moral and religious
education which suffices for a young child, or a person of
very limited attainments generally, becomes deficient
when he has acquired a great deal of secular knowledge.
The church, in his own mind, has become too small for
him ; but then, the evil is not in the increase of the po-
pulation, but in the want of other churches—not in the
cultivation of his intellectual faculty, but in the neglect
of the moral part of his nature. My argument may be
illustrated by reference to the growth of the human
frame. In the case of children who are ricketty, we are
accustomed to say, that the head is too large for the
body, or the limbs too large for the trunk ; but we find
in this case, not that the head or the trunk has grown
too much, but that the limbs have not kept pace with it
—that the growth has not been even and well-balanced.
And it may be added that, when a child is growing, it is
not only far better, but far easier, to encourage the
growth of the defective parts than to stop the growth of the
body altogether. The latter is impossible ; the former
may be accomplished by medicine and diet. I say, then,
that when a community is advancing in mental culture,
it is not only far wiser, but far easier, to give that cul-
ture the right direction, so as to prevent a dispropor-
tionate and ricketty growth, than to stop altogether the
progress of the human mind.—(Cheers.) There are
some who look back with regret to the times of our
simple-minded ancestors, who were content to believe
what they were told and do what they were bid, who
sought for no knowledge beyond their humble sphere ;
and we are taught to consider that those were the days to
which we should look back with the greatest admira-
tion, and with pity for the present generation, in which
it is supposed there is too great a diffusion of light. But
it is in vain that we should endeavour to clothe the adult
in the swaddling- clothes of childhood. Even though
that were a good thing, we cannot do it. We must
make the whole system keep pace, if possible, with the
unavoidable advance, and then, instead of remaining
children, we should grow up into well-formed adults.
Others there certainly are whose views are not
more enlightened, although they are more
cheerful. They hail with rapture any kind of
advance, and utterly overlook all the dangers
which I have been dwelling upon of disproportionate
andill balanced advancement. But I would exhort you
to keep clear of both of these—to consider advance as
both necessary and desirable, but to keep in mind the
importance, as much as possible, of having in your-
selves, and in those under your, control, an equable and
well-balanced and proportioned advancement. Listen
not to those who sigh vainly and look for the restoration
of infancy, nor listen to those who exult in the growth
of a distorted maturity; but endeavour to keep up an
equal and well-balanced advancement, and then advance
as far and as wide as you can.—(Applause.) I hart had

great difficulties to encounter in that department of the
diffusion of knowledge which has chiefly occupied ma
for the last fourteen years. You will understand that I
allude to the introduction of national education into
Ireland—(Cheers)—and, sympathising so warmly and
so strongly as I do in this place and in this institution, I
cannot feel a doubt that you also feel some, sympathy
with what is going on in the sister country, and in the
difficulties and exertions of those who have been labour-
ing to enlighten and improve it.--(Applause.) I can-
not suppose that you look upon the Irish as aliens, and
as persons unworthy of your regard.—(Loud cheers.)
I cannot suppose that you grudge them the know-
ledge which you say you are eager and anxious to
diffuse among yourselves.—(Renewed cheers.) I cannot
suppose that ycu would wish them to be, or consider
that they must necessarily be, irreclaimable barbarians.
I sympathise warmly myself with all your exertions,
and am delighted to hear the manner in which you have
manfully met and overcome the difficulties which threat.
ened this institution in its infancy. I have also had
great struggles on the other side of the water, and I am
happy to say, than with the blessing of Divine Provi-
cieme, the Irish national system of education will prove,
when there has been time to make itself thoroughly felt
—that is, when the generation brought up under it shall
come into activity—l do trust that it will prove one of
the greatest boons which has been conferred by Govern-
on any part of her Majesty's dominions. And I think
that I should be wanting, not to myself merely, and to the
Government which has been supporting that system, but
I feel that I should be wanting to the cause of education,
should be wanting to the rights and claims of the poor
Irish, if I neglected to take this opportunity, if
you will so far indulge me, of giving a contradiction to
some of those calumnies with which our Irish national
system has been assailed.—(Loud cheers.) I would not
hear this Manchester Institution assailed with any ca-
lumny in Ireland, or elsewhere, when it was in my
power to repel it—(Loud cheers)—and I believe that
none of you here would willingly listen to any calumny
that tended to disparage the merits, or to defeat the ob-
jects, of such an institution as ours.—(Applause.)—
Ours, ladies and gentlemen—l mean the national system
of Ireland—is not a godless and irreligious system.
We do not undertake to teach the whole of their religious
belief, to give the whole of their religious education to the
children of different denominations—because we could
not possibly do that for all of them together, without
violating the consciences of some of them. We do not
propose, therefore, to give a complete education. The
system is to leave to the parents of each child the reli-
gious education of that child, the right of religious educa-
tion in that mode, be it right or wrong in my opinion,
which they themselves think the best.—(Much cheer-
ing.) We give to the children jointly, and in friendly
intercourse with each other, all the instruction which
they can conscientiously receive together. And so much
of that instruction, I am happy to say, consists of the
knowledge of sacred history, of those great truths of
our common Christianity in which, thank Heaven, we
all agree, much as we differ upon other points. I could
produce from many of the national schools, where the
children, to the extent of more than seven-eighths,
are generally Roman Catholics, children who would
stand an examination, not only in secular learn-
ing, but in knowledge of the Scriptures, with any
school that you may select in this country.--(Cheers.)
But the denial of the Scriptures to those willing to read
them, you have often, I dare say, heard charged against
the system, and I would put it to you, as plain English-
men, whether it is right to force upon children any re-
ligious instruction which their parents may disapprove.
I never can believe that the Founder of our Religion,
who, when he was apprehended and dragged away to an
ignoble death, declared that he could call on more than
twelve legions of angels to his rescue, and who told his
over-zealous disciple to put his sword into its sheath—
I never can believe that it was his intention or desire
that his sacred word should be forced upon any one
against his will, inclination, and conscience.—(Applause.)
I will only notice onemore point, which I give not as the
only one that I could produce, but as a sort of specimen
of the falsehoods and misrepresentations by which our
system has been combatted, and which I think will, in
the end, tend rather to strengthen than to weaken it, be-
cause falsehood and misrepresentation would not be re-
sorted to by opponents it' they had facts and truths on their
side. What I allude to is the report which has been often
circulated, that although it is allowable, it is said, for
the children whose parents do not disapprove of it, to
read portions or extracts from the Scriptures, yet, if any
one child should object to the reading, that precludes
others from the benefit, and shuts out the Bible from the
whole school. lam bound to believe that those who
circulate that report do not know its falsity. If they
have taken any means to ascertain the truth of their
statement, they must then be repeating an utter, and
deliberate, and calumnious falsehood, for it is totally
without foundation in truth. But I cad only acquit them
of the wilful falsehood by supposing that they have
utterly neglected to make any inquiry from the many
hundreds of persons perfectly ready and able to give
them the information.' There is no shadow of founda-
tion in truth for this scandalous story, and I wonder how
any one, not overwhelmed with prejudice, should give
credit to anything so absurd. If, at the appointed hour
for religious instruction—for an appointed hour there
must be ; there is, I believe, in every school, and there
is in ours—any child is forbidden by hisparents to attend
religious instruction, what is the consequence, do you
think ? That all instruction is at a stand ? No ; you
would say, " The child withdraws." The child whose
parents disapprove of particular religious instruction,
whatever it may be, that commences at a fixed hour,
say from two to three o'clock, withdraws ; but it would
be absurd and ridiculous to say that the whole school is
thereby excluded from that religious instruction. Why,
any person who may object to what I am now saying
would not thereby be able to prevent all who are pre-
sent from giving their attention. He would only have
to withdraw himself.—(Laughter and cheers.) No one
needs to stay, if he does not like it. But I am happy in
being able to add, that although the parents of many of
the ch;ldren have objected to send them to schools where
religious instruction has been forced upon them, the
children of all denominations have in a vast number of
instances remained when it was left optional, because
they saw that no fraud nor force was intended against
them. And you may be sure that this is the only way
in which any people, and more particularly the Irish,
can be enlightened. You may reason and expostulate
with the parents ; but never attempt to kidnap their
children and to make proselytes of them. This is not
a fair mode of procedure. But offer them that which is
good, and in most cases you will find, if it is offered in a
spirit of frankness and conciliation, it will be willingly
accepted.—(Hear, hear.) I ought to apologise for
having detained you thus long in what may be con-
sidered a digression from the matter in hand ; but I
felt assured that the sympathy I have towards this
place and institution must be in some degree
responded to, and that you would feel the same sympathy
with the wants, and with the efforts to relieve them, of
the poor Irish, as I do with your efforts and success.
With respect to the institution that is now occupying
our principal attention, of course you cannot need any
instructions or suggestions from me, because you have
experience to guide you. It is not an institution formed
for or calculatod to give a complete education ; but it
does seem to me, from all the reflection I have been able
to bestow upon it, and from all the inquiries I have made,
to be best adapted for the wants and circumstances of a
busy, populous, thriving place like this. It is only a
small portion of time—that portion which comes under
the denomination of leisure—that the young persons
in this place, or the elder ones either, can devote to
the cultivation of their minds. That portion, how-
ever, may be very profitably employed—if merely in
innocent amusements, if there was no enlargement of
the faculties, no improvement of the character, no eleva-
tion of the man in the scale of social life, I should
say that, being merely innocent, it- would be a great
recommendation ; for we know too well the leisure
hours of those who are occupied for the greater part of
the day is likely to be devoted to anything but innocent
relaxation. But I believe that the lectures, together
with the library of this Athenaeum, are as well adapted
to meet the wants of relaxation and mental improvement
as anything could he in such a place. Lectures alone
give but imperfect and crude sort of notions to those who
have not access to books. Books, again, are a sort of
spacious sea, on which an unpractised student, without
any tutor to direct him, might be apt to be lost. But
lectures excite the desire to read, and point directly to
the way in which the best course of reading can be
taken. The books supply the want which the lectures
have created. The lecturer will not have taught his
pupils all that they feel desirous to know, but he will
have taught them where to seek for knowledge and
where to find it. And I consider that this Athenaeum is
analogous to those great engines of your industry which
excite the wonder of all strangers, and which bring
wealth from all parts of the earth. A single individual
who used merely his own books, would require a large
library to edutate himself tolerably; and he would re-
quire the care of a tutor, or an instructor of some kind,
to guide him. A single weaver at the loom will accom-
plish but little. But you have got machinery by wnich
thousands and thousands of spindles can be turned at
once. You have got machinery by which one person
can perform the work of tens of thousands; and you
can thereby produce a quantity of the best commodi-
ties at a small expense and with the greatest ease.
The Athenaeum is analogous in character to
that machinery. One library and one lecturer
will serve at the same time to instruct hundreds and
thousands of persons, almost as well as if each one had
the library and lecturer to himself. For this reason, it
is an institution particularly suitable' for a large, popn-
lons, wealthy, and thriving place like this.—(Cheers.)
Let not the cultivation of your minds be in such a state
as that you shall be put to shame by the wonderful
machines you have constructed for the spinning of cotton
and of various manufactured goods. Continue in this
course, and may the blessing of Providence further your
endeavours 1 Continue to work this great and mighty
engine ; and whatever dangers you may have to en-
counter, by care and diligence you will surmount them,
and the benefit will be incalculable. For my part, I
come from a city far less wealthy than yours ; but, I
shall keep in mind, most tenaciously, all that I have seen
and learned here, and I shall apply, so far as I am able,
all the principles and the practical maxims I have
learned towards the accomplishment of an object which
for years I have had in view—the extension of the
benefits of an improved education beyond the labouring
classes of Ireland, to whom my attention has hitherto
been confined, to the middle classes of this country, that
they may not be surprised and overgrown by those who
are their inferiors in station.—(Cheers.)
After a long oration from Mr. DAWSON, one of the
lecturers of the institution,
Lord EBRINGTON addressed the meeting. His ob-
servations were mainly directed to prove that, so far
from being incompatible with mental refinement and
elegant accomplishment, the honourable pursuits of trade
and industry had done more to promote them than all
the much vaunted glories of war, or the pursuits of
ambition.

Mr. W. CHAMBERS, of Edinburgh, gave an interesting
sketeh of the difficulties he had encountered in his early