The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-23 00:00:00

was no great harm in such a proceeding on my part.
It might give me some little trouble in coming
here. It might give you the pain of hearing a tire-
some speech. But beyond that there seemed nothing
very improper or wrong in that proceeding of mine.
But I find that in a newspaper of great local circu-
lation, not only are you, the members of the Athe-
naeum, attacked, but I likewise am the subject of
blame for venturing to come here to support your
institution. (Shame.) I can well understand that
if I had come here to inaugurate a gin palace—
(laughter)—or to preach sedition against the Throne,
it would have been a proper subject for censure, but
I am somewhat at a loss to discover why the heavy
censure of the gods should fall upon me for my at-
tendance on this occasion. (Laughter and applause.)
There is, at least, this benefit in it—a benefit which
I think we are appreciating more and more—that
different parts of the country, and persons engaged
in different situations in life—some political, some
literary, some industrial—are induced to meet to-
gether, and to express goodwill and fellowship to-
wards each other. (Applause.) We have in this
country a great deal of attachment to our private
life. We boast of our affection for our homes very
justly. We have not the public life which was com-
mon in some ancient republics, nor that sort of
public life which I understand now exists in some
of the United States of America. And the more we
are attached to private life, to our homes, the more
necessary it appears to me that we should now and
then mingle together and exchange good wishes for
the pursuits in which we are engaged ; and when
that is a pursuit such as that of education or litera-
ture, in which all can take an interest, the warmer
is the sympathy and the more general the concur-
rence of opinion. (Hear, hear.) I trust, therefore,
now, even though I have not gone into a very long
defence—and there are other arguments that I

might use—that I stand acquitted in your eyes of
doing anything wrong in presenting myself before
you. (Hear, hear, and applause.) Now let me—
although I am unwilling to go over ground which
my noble friend in the chair has so well trodden
—let us consider the purposes of the institution
which we come here to support. I find in the first
place that newspapers are read, next that books
are taken out very largely from the library and
perused by the members. 'With regard to news-
papers, it is quite obvious that there must always
be a great interest attached to the matter contained
in newspapers. Take any occasion in which we
feel an interest—take the war in India. Who would
not feel a warm interest in the men who were be-
sieging Delhi—in the brave men and. heroic women
who defended Lucknow ? (Applause.) Then, if you
take again any great social question—any question
concerning an amendment of the law, or a further
progress in sanitary improvement, who would not
take an interest in any debate, whether it took
place in Parliament or in Liverpool, or elsewhere,
in which those subjects are discussed in a manner
worthy of the occasion ? Therefore, the matter of
the newspapers must always be a subject of great
concern and interest to any persons who meet toge-
ther and have the means of reading them. But I
find some people are a good deal struck with the
fact, first, that the newspapers are a great object of
attraction, and next, that novels and works of that
description are very much read. It has been my
fortune to be in the country houses of persons who,
possessed of great fortunes, had magnificent libra-
ries. But when. I have found a party assembled in
these houses of some 20 or 25 persons, I have always
observed that the first object of attraction was the
newspapers, and that the next was a novel ;
and that out of the five-and-twenty if there were
five who looked at other works, who studied his-
tory, or attended to works of science, it was as
much as you could expect. One class, I believe, is
very much like another in this respect. And in
examining lending libraries, such as there are in
this town, I find that the result of the cursory exa-
mination I have made is that in this society, of
about 28,000 books taken out to read, there were
about 17,000 or near 18,000 of novels, and about
10,000 of works of history and of all other descrip-
tions. I think that is a very creditable account.
So far from being shocked at the quantity of novels
that are read, I really do not wonder that men who
have occupations that give them a great deal of care
and anxiety should resort to those delightful fic-
tions which usually go by the name of novels, and
that they should seek in those pages relaxation
after their harassing employments. But I think
that number of 10,000 is very considerable. So,
looking, at another institution, the Free Library of
this town, there were about 40,000 novels to about
23,000 books of other descriptions—a somewhat
similar proportion, and, as I say again, a propor-
tion which I think does great credit to the readers
—(hear and applause)—becanse it elurrre that
' there is a very fair proportion—upwards of one-
third—who do read books of that informing and
instructive kind. (Hear.) And now let us con-
sider a little what is the matter of some of these
books to which they do attend ? A great portion
of them consist of history, and, if there is any
kind of instructive reading which concerns an Eng-
lishman, I think it is to know the history of his own
country. (Hear, hear.) I was delighted, therefore,
in that Free Library to see that there was an excel-
lent collection of English histories. Let me here say
to those who wish to know English history—to
those who wish to know the history of a people
who must be as famous in the world as any of the
great States of Greece, as famous as Rome itself, that
it is by studying the documents and the particular
histories of England that the knowledge of the
history of their country is to be acquired. Every
day, I am glad to say, an addition is made to that
knowledge. Only the other day, that most interest-
ing portion of our history, the reign of Charles 1.,
the period in which, in fact, the question was de-
termined whether this was to be a free or slavish
country—that period has been illustrated by Mr.
Forster, by extracts from the journals and debates
of Parliament of that day, which had not hitherto
been known to the world. Then, I say again, that
any institution which gives information of that de-
scription, which has in its rooms books of that de-
scription, by which its members and readers can
attain a knowledge of that kind, is most valuable for
the improvement of the education and the extension
of the knowledge that the people of this country
ought to have. Now, let me say what I think will
be the result of these attempts that are making—
attempts of all kinds—how I wish they may all
speed !—from the improvement of the Colleges of
Oxford and Cambridge to the extension and diffu-
sion of our Ragged Schools, taking all the interme-
diate institutions and societies between them—what
will be the effect of this increase of knowledge and
instruction. I cannot but believe that it will make
the persons who possess it the happier, and the in-
stitutions of the country safer than they were before.
(Hear.) In the first place, the wearisome operation of
continuing in one monotonous employment is but a
dull way of passing through life. And if a man, or
a woman either, can abstract his or her attention for
a portion of the day fro:it t:ii., p:.!.3eitt, care.? and
anxieties, and can look into the past, or be inte-
rested in some tale, or, still more, be raised by
I
the sublime songs of our poets, say much is
gained for that person's happiness, much is gained,
not only for the improvement of his mind, but for
the elevation of his moral nature and the happiness
of his daily existence. (Applause.) A very foolish
. alarm prevailed many years ago—an alarm almost
as foolish as that which has lately prevailed respect-
ing the port of Cherbourg—that people who were
engaged in daily toil, especially the labourers of
the country, if they were well informed, would
cease from their daily business • or if they conti-
nued it that they would be rendered unhappy by
it. There is no reason why any such consequence
should follow. That they should not abandon their
daily toil is a matter of necessity, because a man
who has no other means than that which is before
him of gaining his bread would not give up the
gaining of his bread for any, even the most delight-
ful, treatise he could read. But as to his being un-
happy, on the contrary I think his toil must be
lightened by the advantage of knowing more than
he did, and having matters to think of of which he
formerly knew nothing. And then comes again
the question as to what is to be the result to the
country at large and the State, and I may almost
say—seeing the importance this country is of in
the world in which we live—to the world at large.
I believe this is a matter of the very. greatest im-
portance, and perhaps you will forgive me, though
it is a dry matter, if I say somewhat of the nature
of the institutions under which we live. A long
while ago it would have been a very trite and com-
monplace thing to praise those institutions. But
of late years there has arisen a sort of fashion, whe-
ther by way of paradox, or by way
.of, exalting
other nations, I know not, of depreciating those
institutions. Let me say, shortly, the first object
of any Government must be to protect life and pro-
perty. That is generally done in the countries of
Europe, with the exception, perhops, of three or
four—Turkey, Greece, Naples, and the States of
the Pope. But then comes the next question, that
in order to have good institutions everybody ought
'
to do that which he chooses, provided he makes no
attack and aggression upon the life and property
of another. (Hear.) And in that consists our
difference from most of the Governments which
now exist. We find it perfectly possible to protect
life and property. There is no
country in Europe
where order is so well preserved—no- country in
Europe where the police finds its duties so light
and so effectually done. But at the same time
there is the greatest liberty of opinion—the utmost
power given to every one to capress his opinions—
to do that which a Roman historian declares was
the rare happiness of his time—for a man to form
any opinion that he -chooses, -and -to express that
which be thinks. If that is the case it gives an ad-
ditional importance to all these societies for litera-