The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-31 00:00:00

this trade school had been promoted either by parties hos-

tile to the Church, or, if promoted by the Church, it had
been promoted in' an- illiberal, spirit, which would be
likely to drive from the school laymen etud those who
did not-. agree in the doctrines of the Church. Bue when,
on the contrary, he 'found- overt' elites --sinitedi-41nvely:
grade of the Church connected with it, including that vene-
rable and sight rev. prelate whose unavoidable absence they
all so-much regretted, including the landed sentry of the
neighbourhood, including some of the greatest commercial
men and manufacturers in this city—seeing all this, he felt
that it was indeed an honour to himself to accept the invi-
Lion which had been given to him. The question of educa-
tion itself, of what it is, and what.the educator ought to
teach to the person to be educated, had been mooted, more
or less for a thousand years. Latterly, iee Europe, there
was a fueling generally spread with regard to the upper
classes, that their education had been too exclusively con-
fined to classical attaintments. In this country that feeling
had been often expressed, and he was happy to say that a
considerable improvement was now taking place in our
universities, public and grammar schools, in this respect.
In Germany the feeling had been so strong in that direc-
tion, that what were called real or trade schools•ha.d risen
somewhat in opposition to the excellent classical schools
they already possessed. In France the opposition was
curious to watch. On the ono hand, some of the extreme
Catholic party—those who took the most narrow-minded
view with regard to the interests of religion—while they
thcugbt the latter an absolute necessity to be taught, yet
objected to the youth of that country being taught Latin
• from the works of Pagan authors, and proposed that they
should learn their Latin from the latinity of the Christian
fathers of the Church ; and on the other hand, some of the
most eminent political economists of that country raised
flair voices most indignantly against the necessity that now
existed fortheinselves and their children to learn that which
they did nut consider a requirement of the 19th' century.
• They complained that their children wore taught citations
from classical authors, and from the examples of great
men of antiquity ; they learnt their notions of order from
the conduct of the Gracchi and their notions of liberty
from the sanction given to the institution of slavery ; that
glory consisted in detestation of peace and love of war,
even without a just cause, and in the contempt for la-
bour, which they considered simple work, unworthy of free
men. Lastly, they complained th tt they should learn that
patriotism consisted in detesting and injuring all other
nations as much as possible. Now, there was immense ex-
aggeration in these objections. It was impossible for any
one to consider the subject and not believe that an accu-
rate knowledge of dead languages was of great use in
strengthening and refining the intellect—(hear)—and that
the learned and sublime things spoken and written by the
greatest poets, historians, and orators of the world, must
tend to humanise and elevate the mind. (Applause.) Still
he did not think that it was wrong, in pursuing those clas-
sical attainments, to exclude that knowledge of the uni-
verse in which we lived—of the living languages spoken by
living teen. The sole question was one of degree, and he
was sure those whom he now addressed would feel that if
this trade school was as successful as they hoped it would
be, a gentle but certain pressure would be exercised up-
wards upon schools of greater and higher pretensions. A re-
cent review in the Times stated that, " as every Bavarian
was able to read, the greatest prison punishment that could
be inflicted was to take away books from the prisoners."
Now, it was melancholy to reflect what was the proportion
of prisoners in our gaols upon whom such a punishment
could possibly have the slightest effect. It was a singular
fact that in England and Wales on 69 per cent. of the men
who were married signed their names to the marriage cer-
tificates, and that there were only 56 per cent. of the wo-
men who were able to do the same. The city of Bristol was
cast between Sumersotshireand Glocestershire, and he ob-
served that in the Glocestershire part of the city the percent-
age of education was above the average, because it was to / e
found la the 10 foremost counties in that respect in England
and Wales. On the other hand, the Somersetshire portion
of the city was not in thelo worst counties, nor in the 10best
but it was below the averageof the whole counties of England
and Wales. He-fouud the average of the men able to read
and writein that part of the city was 66 and a fraction per
cent., while of the woeuen it was as high as 61. Now, the two
difficulties in this question were—first, the want of school
accommodation ; and secondly, the want or appreciation of
the advantages of education. With respect to the first, it
was stated, and with some truth, that no such want exist-
ed. Without going into this point (which he was not pre-
pared to admit), ho thought it gave a fallacious view of
the point in dispute. It was an admitted fact that both
in the poor and populous districts of towns, and in some
remote rural districts, there was a want of proper school
accommodation. No one knew better than himself the
efforts which had been made to increase that accommoda-
tion, but ho did think that on this question some misap-
prehension existed as to the extent of the pecuniary means
required. Ho (Lord Granville) ordered a calculation to
be drawn up in the Privy Council-office, the result of
which was that, taking the worst case of a village school,
where no school existed at all, where they had to begin
from the beginning—if
any person could collect 1801. or
less—if he could get the site and cartage gratis (which was
generally the case),
and could reckon on an annual sub •
scription of 81. over and above the school fees of the chin-
dren—he could provide a school for 50 children, not an
mcellent one, but one sufficiently good to meet all the re-