The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-29 00:00:00

THE. SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 29, 1860

13 UCKLEY'S SERENADERS TO-NIGHT
at 8, Saturday Afternoon at 3, at ST. JAMES'S HALL.

*** Full Programmes and Books cf the Words may be ob-
tained at the Ticket Office. open daily from 10 till 5, 28, Pic-
cadilly. Stalls, 3s. ; Area, 2s. ; Gallery, ls.

TIKAHN'S ANATOMICAL MUSEUM,
opposite the Haymarket. OPEN DAILY from 12 till
5, and from 7 till 10.
PROGRAMME OF LECTURES FOR OCTOBER.

Three and Eight o'clock—lll effects of various avocations
upon Health, with Pictorial Illustrations shown by the
Oxyhydrogen Light, and the Oxyhydrogen Miscroseop%
Nine o'clock—Half an hour with the Mediums and Spirit-
Rappers, with numerous experiments.
Admission, ONE SHILLING.
- -

Dr. Kahn's "Philosophy of llarriage," and his new work
on "-Woman, specially considered in her relation to the
Married State." Published by J. Allen, 20, Warwick-lane,
Paternoster-row, RC., price One Shilling each ; or either
sent free by post for 18 stamps direct from the Author. Ad-
dress, 17, Marley-street, Cavendish-square, W.

ARGYLL ROOMS, Windmill-street, Piccadilly
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The Original Band, established ten years. Conducted by M.
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Admission, ls.

LORD STANLEY AT WARRINGTON.

The first annual dinnei in connection with the
Warrington Mechanics' Institution took place on
Saturday evening, when amongst others Lord
Stanley and several other members of Parliament
were present. After the preliminary toasts had

been disposed of,
Lord STANLEY rose to give the toast of the even-
ing, and was very warmly cheered. After some in
troductory remarks his lordship said—ln speaking
of the position and prospects of popular education
in England, and especially in these districts, there
are two difficulties to be encountered. In the

first place, a speech on educational matters is not
usually very attractive either to hear or to read.
One reason of that is the very importance which we

all feel attaches to the subject.

It is not a new

thing to anybody, but one on which most of us have
thought and read—on which all of us have heard
something, whether we wished it or not, and on
which members of Parliament, generally speaking,

have heard much more than they desired. (Laughter,)
Consequently, when people open their newspaper,
and see a column beaded " Lord So-and-So on

Popular Education," the chances are that nine out
of ten of the readers turn the sheet over, remarking
perhaps that the editor must be badly off for news.
(Laughter.) In the next place, not merely educa-
tional matters, but all questions of home adminis-
tration or concern, occupy at this moment in men's
minds a comparatively subordinate position. There
are before us at this time questions of momentous
European interest, of which the next year or two
may witness the solution, and it is perfectly natural,
and not unreasonable, that people of all classes
should be drawn rather to speculate whether Italy

can be united, the Turkish empire hold together, or
the desolating wars of half a century ago must be
repeated in this generation, than to attend much to
the humble, homely, commonplace affairs of their
county or parish. Now, gentlemen, both these things
must be so, and lam not disposed to complain. It
is rather an advantage than the contrary, that a
subject which to those who are really zealous for
the common good presents the deepest interest,
should not be one which lends itself most easily to
the convenience of those speakers who only wish to
make out of it what is called political capital. Also,
whatever internal improvements be imperilled or

delayed, it is well for the power and influence of
England abroad, and even for our safety at home,
that the English people—never really in earnest on
more than one subject at a time—should have given

their minds to military preparations and national
defences, with a unity and a determination such as
the oldest among us can recollect to have witnessed
before, and which leave comparatively little time or
thought for matters less pressing at the moment.
Perhaps the cause of education does not really lose
by being less prominent in men's thoughts than it
was a few years ago. We have time to reflect more

calmly, ana therefore to judge more fairly upon
many points which were formerly involved in con-
troversy and dispute; and with every year that
passes we get a little at least of that practical expe-
rience, that invaluable teaching of facts, of which I
believe most Englishmen agree in thinking that a
very little is worth all the speculation and theory
ever spun from the ingenious lamina of men. (Hear.)
There are one or two conclusions on the subject of
education which appear to be universally come to.
The first is that on whatever system or principle
you establish what are called primary schools—
whether set on foot by the landowners individually
or by ratepayers as a body, whether assisted by
Government or left alone, still we must expect that I
a very large proportion of those who attend them,
leaving them at the age they do, will acquire
nothing beyond the bare rudiments of knowledge—
the power to read, write, and cipher. Of course
there are many exceptions, but that I believe is the
general rule. These schools are not places in which
education can be given, they are schools in which
opportunities are given to those who attend them—
if at a later period of their lives they so please—to
educate themselves. That fact being once admitted,
I think this consequence follows—that the impor-
tance which has often been attached to the particu-
lar system on which schools are conducted is very
greatly diminished. Provided you can get the chil-
dren to attend them, that the masters are compe-
tent, and the discipline good, I for my own part
care little on what system the schools are estab-
lished, believing' that they do not give education,
bat only give the means of acquiring it hereafter ;
and the direction which the studies of the man will
take is very little determined by the accident of the
school he has attended. (Hear, hear.) The other con-
clusion in -which I think people have come gene-
rally to agree is, that what we have to complain of
in educational matters is not so much the number
of children who attend any school at all, inconsi-
derable as it is when compared with the population
as a whole, but rather the irregular attendance of
those who do frequent the schools, and the early
age at which they leave, with the consequent liabi-
lity to lose altogether in later years even that small
portion of knowledge which may have been ac-
quired. If you could ascertain—which you cannot
—the proportion of young men who can read and
write well at the age of 17, and the proportion of
these same persons who can read and write well at
30, you would find the falling off between those
two ages far greater probably than almost any of
us have an idea of, even among those who have at-
tended closely to the subject. Now, neither the ir-
regular attendance nor the early leaving can be alto-
gether remedied, as both are attributable mainly
to the desire—natural and honourable in itself, and
more prevalent, as I believe, among the working-
classes of England than in any other country, except
perhaps the United States—which every lad has to
get his own living as soon as he can, rather than re-
main a burthen to his parents. We very often com-
plain of parents taking away their children from
school, but I believe in many cases the children
have quite as much to do with it as the parents, be-
cause a lad feels himself more of a man, and has a
natural pride on the first day he begins an indepen-
dent existence, and can carry home the earnings of
his own labour. If, then, the time of school attend-
ance must be short, and the attendance itself irre-
gular, and if at the same time there exists, as is un-
doubtedly the case, a very general desire among at
least a part of the working classes for the means of
further instruction; we are inevitably led to the re-
quirement of some institution holding to the
ordinary school a similar relation to that in
which the universities stand to the public
schools of England frequented by the higher
classes. Hitherto the attempts to supply that
want have been many, and their success vari-
ous and unequal in different parts of the coun-
try. In some of the great towns, as Liverpool, Man-
chester, and, I believe, Leeds, mechanics' institutes
are really flourishing, and accomplishing the ends
for which they were set on foot. It is sometimes
.
objected that persons frequent them who are of a
wealthier class than those for whom they were in-
tended, Well, so long as working men are not ex-
cluded, or don't exclude themselves, I see no harm,
but rather good, in this mixture of classes, provided
it take place naturally, and without any affecta-
tion. And while the son of the mechanic is learn-
ing it is quite right that the son of the small trades-
man should not be remaining idle. As a general
rule, however, these institutions, while supplying
a want throughout the country which is generally
felt, and while accomplishing much good, have un-
deniably fallen short of original hopes and expec-
tations. Sometimes the libraries on which they
chiefly relied for attraction were scanty or ill-chosen
—very often the lectures, being desultory or incon-
imparting real infor-
ms e
ac ut
itoi
nv e: , wersometimese n o t c a pab e
politicalof
or sectarian feeling
crept in, and of course ruined everything; and
even where none of these causes operated, the public

could have no sufficient guarantee for the efficiency
of the teaching in the evening classes. Of late years
there have been great efforts at improvement, which
I have not time at present to do more than glance
at. The principal and most effective has been the
associating together of various institutions, with
the three-fold avantage of attracting greater notice
of and publicity to the union than the small insti-
tutions could have commanded singly, of obtaining
competent teachers to organise and direct local
efforts, and—most important of all—of establishing
a competition for prizes and certificates, taking in
a sufficient area of country and number of candi-
dates to make it a real and not nominal competition.
In East Lancashire and Yorkshire the experiment
has been attended with marked success. In Man-
chester, also, the principle of association has been
acted on, though the details are not precisely the same.
Another step in advance has been the establishment
of local examinations, such as those of the Society
of Arts, by which young men more than ordinarily
proficient are brought under the notice of employers,
and they and their parents enabled to feel that some
practical good will come out of the time and
trouble they have . bestowed. (Cheers.) It is im-
possible to say how far these plans may succeed,
they have only been tried within the last few years,
but whatever may be the result, I am quite sure
they promise better than anything otherwise
attempted with the same object, which is one that
we should do our best to promote. (Hear, hear.)
So much, gentlemen, as to the machinery of educa-
tional institutions. I am not going to waste your
time by talking of the pleasures and advantages of
knowledge, that is a subject which, however •in-
teresting, is worn so utterly threadbare that nothing
can be said upon it which you have not often heard
before ; but one remark may be allowed me, not as
from any theories I have heard or read, but from
such small extfrience as chalice has thrown in my
way. For four years and a half I have acted as
chairman of the
.Kirkdale quarter sessions. In that
time some hundreds of cases have come before me of
the kind usually dealt with by inferior tribunals,
and nothing has struck me more in the course of
their investigation than the utter stupidity—l can
use no other word for it—the utter absence of intel-
ligence and common sense, and utter inability to
calculate or comprehend the consequences of what
they were doing, which seems to me to mark by far
the greater portion of habitual offenders. (Hear.)
It is quite the exception, so far as my experience
goes, to find any man brought up as an habitual
criminal who is not in point of understanding very
far below the average of his class. It is equally an
exception to find one who is not more or less given
to intemperate habits. (Hear, hear.) The intel-
lectual and moral deficiency appear to go together,
and surely from that it is a reasonable inference that
the more you can do to increase men's intelligence,
and give them other interests and employments,
since idle habits are those which lead to drunken
habits, the more you will do to lessen the amount
of at least the grosser forms of crime in this
country; and it is that gross and vulgar form of
crime which constitutes nine-tenths of the whole.

I don't mean to say that the mere power of
reading and writing will make that difference ;
what will make the difference is the thoughtful
habit of mind, the wider range of interests and
ideas, the habit of looking to the past and future as
well as the present, and the having some other
pleasures besides mere physical excitement—some
other ideas besides those suggested by the routine
of daily life. (Hear.) Turning now to your local
affairs, I may congratulate you on the great exer-
tions you have made here in the cause of education.
I have had the pleasure of seeing your museum and
free library, which are supported, I am told, by
subscriptions from all classes ; you have also schools
abundantly sufficient for the wants of the town,
and amply maintained; you have the School of
Art, with 170 pupils, and likely, if I may judge
from samples, to turn out pupils who will do hon-
our to this place; and you have two other instita-
tions=one of them being that on behalf of which
I am now speaking—acting together, on somewhat
different principles, but in friendly co-operation,
and by no means in antagonistic rivalry, to perform a
work that is arduous enough to overtax them both.
(Cheers.) Like most other establishments of this
character, your mechanics' institute has had its ups
and downs. The number of subscribers had of late
years fallen off, and it had almost ceased to be avail-
able for working men, when its promoters adopted
a measure which had certainly the merit of courage,
and which seems to have answered its purpose. The
rate of subscription has been reduced to a point at
which, I apprehend, it can hardly, in the long run,
cover the expenses. As a temporary measure, it is
proved that you were right, because the result has
been to add 900 members to the previous 400; and
you anticipate an ultimate increase to 2,000 or 3,000.
The first thing to do is undoubtedly to create an in-
terest—to show that the institution is living and
doing good—and then you may rely on support
from various quarters. But when matters settle
down a little, and when the crisis is over, I hope
that it will be found possibe to place the insti-
tution, not merely in a condition of prosperity
as regards the numbers who attend it, but
absolutely and fairly self-supporting. When I say
self-Supporting, I mean that it shall be maintained
by the subscriptions of those who use it, and not
merely by contributions or subsidies, however libe-
ral, from other quarters. It is a poor story, if
working men, fully employed, and for the most part
well paid, are not able, in a town like this, to keep
up an institution intended for their advantage, and
which, by entering it in such numbers, they have
shown that they really value. (Hear, hear.) If I
know anything of working men in these towns,
one of their strongest feelings is an honourable and
almost jealous sentiment of independence and self-
respect, and nothing goes nearer to their hearts
than an appeal to them to keep up the honour of
their class. I hope, therefore, in a year or two we
shall hear that this institution is at length main-
tained by its own regular subscribers, and does not
stand in need of casual donations, however libe-
rally intended. One thing I must say in praise of
those who have had the management. They have
been under great temptations, considering the
former position of the undertaking, to sacrifice the
future to the present, and embarrass themselves by
contracting debt. Those temptations they have
altogether resisted, and at this moment I am told
there is not a shilling of debt upon the institution.
(Hear, hear.) Just one thing more, gentlemen, and
I have done. Whatever you do, or leave undone,
let me entreat you to keep these questions of educa-
tion from becoming party questions in this town.
I have no reason: to suppose that here they have
ever been so, or that they are likely to be so ; but I
have for some years taken an interest in these
matters, and in more than one place I have seen
plans that in themselves held out every prospect of
success break down simply because their promoters
had suffered them to get mixed up with some petty
local dispute. In this country, as in every free
country, we shall always have political parties, and
certainly the tendency at the present day is rather
to multiply than diminish the number of religious de-
nominations. But ignorance is no help to any party
or to any sect, it is merely a common danger and com-
mon enemy ; and if we understand our interest aright
we shall all unite, whether conservatives, liberals,
churchmen, or otherwise, in the same spirit and
with the same energy as we should rally to resist
invasion. (Hear, hear.) I beg to propose to you
the toast that has been given to me—" Success to
Mechanics' Institutions. (Cheers.)
The toast was responded to by the Rev. Mr.
JACKSON, and
Mr. MACKIE, who said he trusted that Lord
Stanley, by this visit to Warrington, would be
found to have bridged a moral gulf existing there
between Lancashire and Cheshire, as one of his
ancestors had 300 years ago been the first to bridge
the river Mersey at that place. The fact was, that
all the rising employers of labour showed a strong
desire to escape from Lancashire and become
Cheshire squires—(laughter)—and there was the
greatest difficulty to get them to attend lectures or
meetings like the present, whoever might be the
lecturer or chairman. It was earnestly desired
that they would not cease to give support to such
an institution as this, and although as Lord Stanley
urged upon them, it was imperative that the pro-
moters should make both ends meet for the future,
they might ask for assistance at starting, as reason-
ably as a young couple who began housekeeping—
(laughter)—especially when they could point to
unmistakeable evidence of having striven to help
themselves. (Hear, hear.)
Several other toasts were afterwards given and
responded to.

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LETTER FROM M. DB .111ONTALEMBERT
TO M. CA VOCTR._

The number of the Correspona'ant which has
just appeared contains the following letter from
M. de Montalembert-to M. Cavour ;—;

M. Le Comte,—l read in the report of the pro-
ceedings of the Turin Parliament of the 12th of
October these words, spoken by you :
" I believe that the solution of the Roman ques-
tion must be arrived at by the conviction, which
will spread more and more in modern society, and
even in the great Catholic society, that liberty is
highly favourable to the development of the true re-
ligious sentiment. My feeling is that this will soon
triumph. We have already seen it admitted by the
most impassiond defenders of Catholic ideas. We
have seen an illustrious writer, in a lucid moment,
demonstrate it to Europe, in a book which has made
great noise, that liberty had been very useful in
exalting the religious spirit."
I am assured that you intended this allusion for
me. If your words implied merely praise, I should'',
not permit myself to take them for me ; but they
contain also an insult, and my modesty cannot put
up with them.
You call upon me before the public; you, there-
fore, give me the right to reply to you in the same
manner. Yet Ido so with a repugnance which I
can hardly surmount. French blood has been spilt
by your orders. Catholic honour has been insulted
by your lieutenants. The ancient seat, the last
shelter of the common father of the faithful, is
menaced by your words. Not one of your acts but
wounds and r ks--mor and now you. strike -a fresh
blow on all I love by masking your perverse designs
under the veil of a false accord between religion
and liberty, and in support of your assertion you
invoke my testimony. I owe it to myself to protest
that on no point am I with you. Thank God your
policy is not mine.
You are for great centralised States ; I am for
small independent States. You despise local tradi-
tions in Italy ; I love them everywhere.
You are for Italian unity ; I am for federative
Italy.
You violate treaties and international law; I re-
spect them because they are between States what
contracts and probity are between men.
You sacrifice your object, engagements, promises,
oaths; I answer you with the noble maxim, "Means
which the moral sense reproves, even though they
should be materially useful, kill morally. No victory
deserves to be put in the balance with the contempt
of oneself."

You destroy the temporal power of the Sovereign
Pontiff; 1 defend him with all the energy of my
reason and my affection.
You denounce the policy which produced the
French expedition to Rome in 1849, and I consider
it a glory to have supported it. In spite of the
cruel and inexcusable contradictions it has since
met with, I am still thankful for it, for it is the
last and vacillating consequence of that expedition
which even at this day forces France and Piedmont
to meet face to face before the Capitol.
You give to the heroes of Garibaldi the piaises
which I reserve for the mercenaries of the immortal
Pi modan.

You arc with Cialdini • lam with Lamoriciere.
You are with Father Gavazzi ; I am with the
Bishops of Orleans, Poitiers, Tours, Nantes—with
all those Catholic voices which in the two worlds
have protested, and will still protest, against you.
Above all I am with Pius IX., who was the first
friend of the independence of Italy till the day
when that cause passed to the hands of ingratitude,
violence, and imposture.
On our side, I dare to say it, is conscience. On
your side, I believe, it is success. Piedmont dares
everything, France permits everything, Italy ac-
cepts everything, and Europe undergoes everything.
Your success, I repeat it, appears to me certain.
Two obstacles, however, rise still before you—
Rome and Venice ; at Rome is France, at Venice
Germany. They are strangers, to. be sure, but they
are strong. At Naples the Italians have not ar-
rested you. At Castelfidardo you were ten against
one. You had, without doubt, to overcome rights,
treaties, engagements, honour, justice, weakness;
but these are abstract things, which cannot resist
grape shot. At Rome there are some French bat-
talions, and at Venice rifled cannon. You disre-
garded right and passed on, but you hesitate before
force.

This force, I admit, does not cover causes that
are equal. 4
At Venice you support a cause which is just.
Venice was odiously betrayed by us in 1797 ; sadly
delivered up by you in 1849, unjustly abandoned
by you, and by us, in 1859. Her deliverance is just.
At Rome you support a cause which is unjust in
every point of view, and even, as you well know,
in an Italian point of view. We Frenchmen, we
Catholics of the entire world, we make a great
sacrifice to the independence of the Pontifical
Power by accepting that, placed in Italy, it be
habitually served by Italian hands. But you,
Italians—and you have been told so a hundred
times—what would your country be without the
Papacy ? What sort of figure would your petty
Piedmontese Majesties cut in the centre of Catho-
licity turned into your Ministerial offices ? Do
you imagine that mankind would continue their
pilgrimage to the foot of your Sovereigns' thrones ?
You have the incomparable glory of possessing the
capital of 200,000,000 of souls, and all your ambition
is to reduce it to be the chef lieu of the last corner
of the kingdoms of the earth.
You pretend to conquer Venice by persuading
Austria and Europe. We shall see. I sincerely
wish you success. It is'thus by persuasion, by the
example of her prosperity under the shadow of free
institutions, that Piedmont since 1847 should have
and might have secured the triumph and the
honour of her policy. And it is this which, of all
the criminals among whom has to be divided the
responsibility of the evil which is worked in Italy,
makes you the greatest. For you had all that was
necessary to carry out your work well, with the
sympathy of honest men in all parts of the world.
Neither patriotism, nor eloquence, nor audacity,
nor perseverance, nor skill was wanting to you.
One thing only you had not, and that was con-
science, and respect for other men's consciences.
You now pretend to resolve the Roman question
by proving to the world the benefits of the alliance
between liberty and religion. What do you mean ?
I have served this alliance for 30 years. I believe
its triumph to be indispensable to the salvation of
society, and it is for this I combat you, for no policy
has ever rendered this triumph more difficult than
yours. Your words, which I accept, are absolutely
belied by, your acts, which I reprove.
I remain more than ever faithful to the convic-
tion that you have remarked in my writings. All
the civil and political liberties which constitute the
natural regime of civilised society, far from being
injurious to the Church, aid its progress and its
glory. It finds rivalry, but at the same time rights,
struggles but arms,and those which suit it more than
any other, language, association, charity. Liberty,
however, is not suited to the Church, except on
one condition—that is, that she herself enjoys
liberty. I speak here in my name, without mis-
sion, without authority founded solely on a long
experience singularly enlightened by the state of
France for the last ten years. But I say without
hesitation—a free Church in a free State is my
ideal. I add that in modern society the Church
cannot be free except where everybody is free.
That, in my eyes, is a great blessing and a great
progress. In any case it is a fact. Let not any-
body reproach the Church with not accepting all
the liberties granted by the State. In all countries
she accepts them, and, what is more, she makes
use of them—in England as in the United States,
in Prussia as in Holland, everywhere, in a word,
where she is not gagged nor impeded by fetters
specially invented for her.
The accord would be complete if in their turn
Governments would accept all the liberties of
which the Church has need, instead of cheapening
them by obsolete laws as in France, confiscating
b
them by odious annoyances as in Russia, or iny
trampling them under foot by brutal iniquity as
Italy.
all, on the absolute liberty of its chic
has had for
guardian of the faith, and that libertyte
mporal bove-
its shield during ten centuriesa
independently of all States. It
Now the independence of the Church rep
all,
reignty constituted ioi of each State on
reposes, moreover, in the
the
es
the liberty of charity; rights
beingsimplysubjected
man can pretend to reserve the liberty of association,
if they are met with
fl
oi liberty e
whichr
ht ye ocf
Church
unn
rs
et
sensible
c t
alone,i o n ,
but which are not rights
pre-
ventivenals with publicity
and
the power of appeal.
c icied
h y obstacles instead
independent
These are the guarantees for the liberty of th®
Church. Now, you violate them all at the same
to repression in cases defined by the laws, and do.
time—first, by suppressing the temporal power of
the Pape; second, by dispersing communities; third,
t ri
bouf