The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-08 00:00:00

THE DUKE OF. ARGYLL IN MAN-

CHESTER.

The annual meeting of the Lancashire and
Cheshire Mechanics' Institutes, of which his Royal
Highness the Prince Consort is president, was held
on Tuesday in Manchester, commencing with the
annual meeting of the delegates, at noon, in the
lecture hall of the
,Mechanics' Institution, DaTid-
street.

In the evening a public meeting was held in the
Great Free-trade Hall, at which his Grace the Duke
of Argyll presided, and distributed prizes and certi-
ficates to the 130 male and female candidates who
had been successful at the publie and private e
minations during the past year. The f 011 mug
gentlemen were also amongst those on the platfore:
—The Hon. Algernon Egerton, M.P. ; 11r. Thomas
Bazley, M.P. • Major Gray, MX. ; Mr. Hey-
wood, Mr. J. Watts, Ivie Mackie, Esq., th' Mayor
of Manchester, &c.
y theloceedin gs,
The Noble CHAIRMAN, in opening
thanked them for the honour which ticY had done
him, personally a stranger, in invit'ig him to pre-
side that evening. They all kner that the very
name of Manchester was over thrwhole world con-
sidered as the representative ofthat commercial in-
dustry and intelligence whic! were one at least of
the main foundations of our'at,ional prosperity and
power. That was one s;-e of the picture; but he
need hardly tell those .sserabled there that there
was another side. Wyat was the moral, what the
social condition of twse masses of the population
which their commercial enterprise had brought to-
gether ? Was ior was it not an improving condi-
tion ? That Ny's a question which he need hardly
say must be .ixed often ; and though he was far
from sayinrhat it should be answered in any spirit
of despond,ne.Y, it was a question which all must ask
with sore feeling of anxiety, and with respect to
which nany friends of public education in this
county' had been almost driven to despair—to
desprz at least of all mere voluntary exertion, and
to }old the opinion that nothing short of the strong
aril of the law, nothing short of a national system
o education founded on public assessment, could
/ossibly overtake the evil. Now, whatever might
be the opinion of various persons present upon the
question of public education, he at least rejoiced to
see by the working of that association that they
were determined not to wait for a system of public
education ; that they were determined by a volun-
tary exertion to put their shoulders to the wheel,
and. to do what could be done at least in the mean-
time. (Hear, hear.) He felt sure that that was a
wise resolution ; for, though he did not pretend to
predict what might be the future solution of that
great question in this great country, he was sure
that they ought not to wait for it, and that for two
reasons—first, that, should any system of public
education such as that to which he had referred
never come into operation, voluntary exertion was,
after all, the best, and indeed it was the only sub
stitute ; and secondly, if a system of public educa-
tion ever did come, it was not unlikely to be built
upon the foundation which they might lay. Ad-
dressing himself to the consideration of the relation
which mechanics' institutes had upon the present
state and the future prospects of the great question
of national education, his grace traced the failure of
the efforts which were made 17 years ago by Sir
Robert Peel's government to establish a national
system to the natural, and the perhaps in some de-
gree just, jealousy which had arisen among the
various Christian communities of this country.
Every one of those bodies was more or less inclined
to look with jealousy and suspicion upon any sys-
tem of public education which would tend to im-
pede or to fetter their future operations. He there-
fore conceived that the system of Privy Council
grants had been practically firmly established, so
that whatever system of national education was in
future to be adopted must in a great degree be
founded upon the system now established. Look-
ing for a moment at the objections which obtained
against that system, his grace confessed that he did
not concur in the objection that it had been a sec-
tarian education. There was no man who was

more opposed than he was to what was called sec-
tarian teaching—no man who would be more op-
posed, more averse, than he should be, to the teach-
ing of religion in a dogmatic, contentious, and
controversial spirit. (Hear, hear.) He thought it
would be well, too, for the churches of this country
to remember that they were now teaching and
speaking in the presence of multitudes of men who
either belonged to no church at all or whose alle-
giance to any church sat very loose upon them—
who had a very sharp eye to detect the smallest
mixture of human passion in the teaching of di-
vine things, and to distinguish between that zeal
which proceeded from pride of system and that
which proceeded from the love of truth. (Hear,
hear, and applause.) He should be glad to see in
that spirit one rule adopted by all denominational
schools of this country, namely, that they would
afford their secular education to any child whose
parents objected to the peculiar religious teaching
of that denomination, without forcing that child to
go through their system of religious instruction.
(Hear, hear.) That was a rule which all churches
would do well to adopt; and whilst just in itself,
he thought it would be in a high degree adapted to
the population amongst whom such churches might
exist. (Hear, hear.) He was very glad to enter-
tain the belief that in many schools, both of the
established church and of dissenting churches, that
rile was absolutely adopted with great advantage
and success. But with all the objections that were
raised to it he confessed he did not think they could
afford to spare the agency of the Christian churches
of this country. (Hear, hear.) He sympathised
very heartily with the feeling, which he believed to
be prevalent in this country, that the primary edu-
cation of the young ought to be connected as far as
possible with the teaching of religion, whilst he
hada very strong conviction that there was no other
security for the reality of the religious teaching
than that the education should be connected with

verified systems of Christian doctrine ; and he was
not so jealous as some others appeared to be of the
influence of difference of religious opinion upon the
habits of thought and opinions of men. (Hear, hear.)
Looking back to the past history of this country, he
could not help remembering that the liberties of
England had to a very large extent been founded upon
the results of differences of religious opinions and
feelings. (Hear, hear.) Liberty of conscience, which
was the first of all liberties, had been the direct re-
sult of religious dissent; and he was sometimes
tempted to think that the same influence which had
been so powerful in the founding of our liberties
was not wholly valueless in preserving them.
(Hear, hear.) He did not deny that religious
opinions affected—and sometimes affected most in-
juriously—the political and secular opinions of
mankind • and they saw some remarkable instances
of it at the present moment, in the apathy which
many, as capable as any of them of generous emo-
tions—men who valued liberty or who professed to
do so, and complained most bitterly when they
were themselves deprived of it—yet showed to the
struggle now being made in the Italian peninsula
—(cheers)—to effect changes which had been put-
ting an end to systems of government which had
been odious in the dark ages and among the rudest
nations, but which were doubly horrible as applied
to a refined people and in an enlightened age—
(hear, hear)—changes which were so deeply sympa-
thised in by the great mass of the people of this
country that he believed he did not exaggerate
when he said that their accomplishment had added
to the happiness of almost every English home.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) Yet they saw many men
withdrawing their sympathies from that movement
solely and entirely in consequence of the cramping
influence of certain ecclesiastical prejudices and
opinions. In spite of all the dangers and evils, he
repeated he did not think they could part with
thisor
spare the agencies of Christian churches
country ; and in allthose countries, at whereleast,hian
was
there were free opinion and free discussion,teiy
for
satisfied that that influence would be ulhtira
the best. He was not anxious to se Bch
sPhould be
aeople of
England drilled in any one system .ow
any
religious
wholly negative with referent t
the whole belief, but if ho saw any r_ geious denomination
fully occupying the field :ear thgatth,
and eau
mass he should be disposedsternto
that could iyo de-
whole, that was the bell
es- brdieved that the real
vised. (Hear, hear.)
defect of tho aeno where religious zeal was very
ational system was that in
an
unnecessary multiplication
warm, particular lecalties,
warm, it had whilst,t° on the contrary,
-Ivry often the most populous ,
of schools;
and most requiring e uca ton,but where religious
places, which were d
p ratively lukewarm, the number of
c°l°- all. That, however, which was per-
hapssmall. . a defect incidental to the system, might be
• by such voluntary exertions as to some
diminished _
extent he saw typified in the aulience he then ad-
dressed. The defect in the educational system was
not so much a want of schools as the very short
time which the working classes could be persuaded
to devote to education—the early period at which
they withdrew their children from school. The first
question which they naturally asked themselves
with regard to their association was, what was the
kind or system of education which was pursued
under its patronage ? That was a question the
more important to ask, as it was quite notorious
that there had been a very common impression that
what were commonly called mechanics' institutions
bad to a very great extent been a failure in this
country, and some of his predecessors in that chair
had referred to the well-known joke that mechanics'
institutions in this country were wholly devoid of
mechanics. He believed this bad been to a great
extent owing to the want of any system in Lbe
education which had hitherto, at least, been affor
1 in mechanics' in§titutions, and there was one Pointl

with regard to the corking of that association
which he could not help alluding to as one of the
most important fettures, namely, the comparatively
low value which was placed upon the mere system
of lectures, for though having a most valuable place
in education.! schemes, the noble duke was per-
fectly satiFled that lectures given upon incidental
subjects, wholly unconnected with any study on the
part of those who heard them, must be of the
minimum use. The unrestricted choice of subjects
upor which gentlemen were asked to lecture, his
grp;e feared, was a great temptation to lecturers
tr endeavour to show off themselves rather than
!Ale subject on which they lectured—(hear, hear)
—and he was of opinion that a much higher esti-
mate ought to be taken by those who addressed
the working classes of this country, whether
from the platform, the hustings, or upon any public
occasion, of the intelligence of those classes, and of
the ability which they possessed to judge of real
argument and of reason in what was addressed to
them. Speaking of the social condition of the in-
dustrious classes, the noble chairman admitted that
the want of habits of frugality was by leo means
confined or even greatest amongst that class, for the
want of such habits was very remarkable amongst
the highest classes of this country. ; for they con-
stantly saw men living above their income, postpon-
ing for future generations burdens which
. they
ought to take upon themselves,
great social evil in the embarrassment
estatesvery
and the postponement of agricultural improvement.
A most important feature of their association
the systematic nature of its work, so that it was
was
really teaching, and not more lecturing; and
the
system of competitive examination was a most
valuable consideration, as affording a stimulus to
the great masses 'of the population. Altogether
the results of the past year must be regarded as
most satisfactory, for of 593 of the candidates for
honours, including the females, there were only 99
persons who could not be said, in the strictest
sense, to belong to the operative or mechanical class.
After analysing and remarking upon the various
features of the association as shown in the report,
institutions
were grace concluded by saying that such
were the robust and happy growth of freeinstitu-
tions ; they were not merely the proof of a free
people, but they were the indications of a people
who knew how to use their freedom well. (Cheers.)
At a subsequent period of the evening the noble
duke urged the employers to show their apprecia-
tion of the objects of the association by choosing
for preferment such of the operatives as had distin-
guished themselves at the public examinations of
the institute.

The prizes and certificates having been distri-
buted, on the motion of Mr. C. Heywood, seconded
by Major Gray, M.P., a resolution was adopted
expressive of the value of the institute as an im-
portant means of promoting the social welfare of
the working classes ; and a vote of thanks was
passed by acclamation to the noble chairman, having
been moved by Mr. Algernon Egerton, M.P., and
seconded by Mr. Thomas Bazley, M.P.

THE GRAND T.R UNE OF CANADA IAIL WAY.

The surmise that the accounts by the Africa
regarding the Grand Trunk of Canada Rail way
had been found to be of a discouraging nature ap-
pears to have been correct. The stock, which left
off on Tuesday at 24, opened yesterday morning at
20, and, although a subsequent I.ally took place,
it was only to 201 t o 21. The bonds also expe-
rienced a decline of about 1 per cent. No single
event in the history of finance has ever caused
such widespread anxiety as now prevails regard-
ing this undertaking. Yet, thus far, scarcely a
ray of additional light can be obtained ex-
cept such as may be gathered from the biassed
articles of the journals of the province,
all of which abound in fierce invective
and wild recrimination. At Liverpool yesterday
a meeting of stock and debenture holders has been
held, which was convened to hen a statement from
Mr. Chapman of that town, a brother of one of the
English directors, and who has lately made a tour
of observation along the line. The chair was taken
by Mr. Edward Moss, and after a long statement
from Mr. Chapman, giving a picture of the causes
of the crash, a committee of five was appointed to
carry on investigations. Meanwhile, the conclusions
to be drawn from the latest articles in the Canadian
papers are similar to those previously suggested.
The Toronto Leader, au organ of the Provincial
Government, admits that a " tremendous catas-
trophe" is impending, and describes the probable
closing of the road as likely to involve a crisis for the
commercial interests of Canada which it would be
" frightful to contemplate." At the same time,
it admits that a further advance of money by the
Government is not to be thought of for a moment.
The Opposition journals, on the other hand, assert
that the Government are only deterred by terror
from entering into fresh commitments, and that
the threat to stop all traffic on the road is but a
device to induce Parliament to sanction some new
scheme. The attempt, however, it is added, will
" utterly fail." " The line is paying something
more than running expenses, and the proprietors,
so long as it does that, will not injure them-
selves by closing it up. It is not so easy a thing
to open a road after it is once closed, that
£12,000,000 should be raised on so absurd a pro-
ceeding." The my for an expose of the whole course
of the undertaking seems universal, but whenever
the discussion comes on in the Legislature it will
probably be found that, owing to the number of
persons implicated among each political party, there
will be a general desire, like that exhibited after Mr.
Hudson's break-up in England, to make compro-
mises and check revelations. Nevertheless, nothing
could be stronger than the present expressions of a
determination to have the whole affair sifted. These

intimations, however, would be serious if they were
less violent. " Swindlers," "knaves," and "des-
peradoes," are epithets hurled at all concerned, and
the circumstances connected with the recent legal
proceedings ordered from this side are denounced by
the .Hamilton Tones as having "an appearance of
rascality." Apart from this vituperation the graver
statements seem to be—first, that the amount and
nature of the advances obtained from the Bank of
Upper Canada, and the circumstances attending
them, require to be fully made known ; secondly,
that the members of the Ministry must be
forced to give a clear account of all their
recent and prospective measures on the subject;
and • lastly, that there is a general impression
among the Canadian public that if an inquiry is
properly pushed it will result in disclosures that
might compel many prominent political and other
personages to retire immediately from public life.
On the whole, it would be a happy conclusion if it
should appear that justice could be satisfied by a
clean sweep of all the parties responsible, and
that the interests of the innocent investors could
then be considered with calmness and generosity.