The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-30 00:00:00

sally acknowledged that such an institution was
required, and, indeed, greatly to be desired, and so
far back as 185-1 a meeting was held concerning its
establishment. It has been extended from time to
time, and finally it was settled to erect the proposed
building. The affair passed off very well, and a
numerous company assembled to do honour to the
proceedings. The secretary of the institution read
an address to Lord GRANVILLE, which fully ex-
plained the purposes of the thing, and set forth the
desirability of conducting the matter. Six children
were elected in the October of 1854. The increas-
ing number of children admitted since then has
rendered it advisable for the committee to have an
institution of their own, and place the children more
immediately under their control and supervision.
Accordingly, in 1861 the premises now in use were
taken, but the number of children presented to them
for election continually increasing, and the very
crowded state of the schools in 1861, rendered it
desirable for them to appeal to the friends and sup-
porters cf the institution for aid to erect schools
that could contain at least one hundred children.
Lord STANLEY presided over a public dinner in
furtherance of this scheme, and a sum of £4,000
was subscribed. Further on a bazaar was held, in
the Free Trade Hall, at which a further sum of
£4,000 was received. Arrangements have been
made on a large scale, and a suitable building is to
be erected, of which the foundation-stone was laid on
Wednesday. Some farther sums will be required,
but there is no doubt of their being obtained.
Lord GRANVILLE made some suitable remarks as
to the interesting nature of the occasion which
brought them together, and made special reference
to the speech of Lord STANLEY, whom they had
bad the good fortune to select as their exponent—
" one of the best business men of the country, and
a countryman of their own." The noble lord had
said that while there were objections to " eleemosy-
nary aid—nay, institutions—this ought, then, rather
to serve as a stimulus to what might be called a
high class of insurance very admirable in itself."
Lord GRANVILLE alluded to some circumstances
which gave him great satisfaction, one being that
they contrived to admit twenty-five per cent. more
children to the advantages of the institution, and
the annual subscriptions have also greatly increased.
He entirely agreed with his lordship that if the in-
stitution is to succeed, it must do so through the
efforts of those who were interested " with the pos-
sible fate of their own children, and still more with
the actual fate of a small percentage of their num-
ber." The education of the various classes of the
community is a subject which has of late earnestly
engaged the attention of many ; and Manchester
deserves credit for the energetic manner in which it
has taken up the matter in this instance.
Referring to this important question of educa-
tion, Lord GRANVILLE aniu3ed his hearers by saying
that it would be very unbecoming for him, whom
they had kindly asked to meet them that day,
having lost his place, bat he trusted not his
character, to take advantage of his position by
saying a word on party politics. All parties nowa-
days possess numerous educationists in their ranks.
Without touching upon dangerous topics, the noble
lord went on to mention that an act of Parliament
bad been passed which gave great extension of the
suffrage to boroughs and counties in this country;
but he added that he did not share the belief of
those who feared the result of such political
power being conferred. The good of the change
would far outweigh the evil wrought by it ; and
one good which was already produced was the
way in which education was spoken of. This is
very true, for on all sidee we find that it is consi-
dered advisable to extend the educa►ion of those
admitted to the franchise. No one of expe-
rience or iatelligense can deny the import•
once of doing this, and so fitting the classes
upon whom the privilege is conferred more freely
and completely for the responsible task which lies
before them. Lord GRANVILLE put the case very
fairly when he said that great improvements had
been made during the last quarter of a century in
the quality of the education afforded, hut with re-
spect to the number of persons the matter was
different. At present, unhappily, there are huu-
dreds of thousands who desire no benefits for these
places of education. As one of the chief
hindrances in the way of remedying this evil,
Lord GitsswinnE thinks that the Conscience
Clause should be extended to children, and expressed
his confident opinion that the present Government
would not object to it ; and as they will have great
advantages now in dealing with such matters, he
was sanguine as to the results of the experiment.
There is a great deal of force in the argurnentof the
noble lord, that those few who have scruples in the
matter will be more ready to make cone ssions to
the present Government than to the late one. The
noble lord's speech was well calculated to ad-
vance the cause of education generally, as well
as the prospects of the institution then immediately
under consideration. Mr. BAYLEY, M.P., in a few.
appropriate remarks, called attention to the fact
that the Emperor and Empress of the FRENCH had
lately received several hundred schoolmasters at a
levee; and, after rejoicing that education was held
in such high repute in France, he trusted that it
would not be long before the " same degree of honour
was paid to it in this country." Altogether the
proceedings at Manchester were of the most inte-
resting kind, and worthy of the occasion.

The proceedings and exertions of the House of
Commons, during the recent session, have been so
amply discussed during the time of their labours
that it seems at first sight that there is little left to
talk about during the recess. Mr. GRAVES, M.P.,
however, in addressing the half-yearly meeting of
the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, finds some-
thing to say. He looks upon the subject from a
new light ; and, certainly, in one of our first com-
mercial cities, the relations between commerce and
the national representation form a very apppro-
priate topic. Mr. GRAVES thinks the commercial
interests of the country are inadequately represented
in the House of Commons. His experience in the
House leads him, he says, to that conclusion, and if
he looks to facts he finds the same result. " Within
the last few years," said Mr. GRAVES, " ten or
fifteen, we had almost doubled our exports and im-
port.l. We were now approaching very close to
500 million per annum of both imports and exports,
and he did feel that the extent of representation in
the House of Commons which other classes and in-
terests enjoyed did not bear a just proportion to
ttiat possessed by the c nnmereial interest, and he
trusted that tinier the new constitution it would be
materially strengthened." There is, however, a
reason to be tuund for this in the engrossing
nature of commercial pursuits. To succeed in com-
merce as in politics it is necessary to devote time
and thought and energy to the cause, and the very
men who might be best fitted to represent the in-
terests of their order are too busy in the pursuit of
their vocation to turn their attention to politics.
Mr. GRAVES, however, showed in his speech that
commercial matters are not altogether overlooked in
tha House of Commons, for, although he admitted
that the past session had not been very fruitful of
practical legislation, he alluded to one or two acts of
great importance. One of these, the Companies
Amendment Act, he declared, was nly second in