The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-27 00:00:00

GOLFERS' PLATE.

Projectile (Owner) 1
Camperdowu (Bride) 2

Dermout Asthoro

Stiff, Now York, Emperor, Fascination, Souverain, and
Cottage Girl also ran. Betting-3 to 1 agst _Delmont
Asthore, 4 to 1 agst Fascination, 5 to 1 agst 'Cottage
Girl, 7to 1 agst others. Won by a length. The winner
objected to on the ground of crossing.

FOURTH EDITION.

The Earl of Earrowby on Mechanics'

Institutes.

The winter session of the Midland Institute at ,
Birmingham was inaugurated on Monday evening
by an address from the Right Hon. the Earl of Har-
rowby, president. The Lecture Theatre, in which
the proceedings took place, was crowded.
The Earl of HARROWBY, who was received with
cheers, said—Ladies and Gentlemen,—When it was
first proposed to me to assume the office, for the year,
of president for the Birmingham and Midland In-
stitute, I was startled at the suggestion, and said to
myself—What have I to do with assuming such a
position in Birmingham? Have they not among
them men more fitted than myself for such a post—
fitted by knowledge of practical and abstract science,
by the successful cultivation of literature, as well as
by influence among their fellow-citizens, for giving
an impulse to the useful and ornamental studies
which you pursue or foster, whether by influence or
example? Surely the town which nearly a century
ago could boast of a Hutton, a Priestley, and aWatt
among their fellow-citizens, cannot need to bring a
country gentleman from 30 miles off to tell them of
the importance of education, to give them lessons as
to the best methods of promoting it, or to stimulate
them to fresh exertions in its cause. When, however,
I found that my immediate predecessor in your chair
was my very noble friend Lord Wrottesley, the old
companion of my studies in the University of Ox-
ford, to whom I mainly owe whatever progress I
may have made in the exacter sciences in that seat
of learning, I felt that however incompetent to tread
worthily in his footsteps, yet I could not be doing
wrong in following his example, and giving to the
capital of the Midland Counties an evidence of my
goodwill by acceding to the wishes of your commit-
tee, and placing myself at their disposal. And now
that I am here, what shall I tell you off ? You
know your work better than I do—that you have
two, nay, three departments, besides your museum
—one, the general department, consisting of the
news-room and public lectures, less distinctly educa-
tional than the others, though we shall say that the
intelligence of the day and of all the events which
agitate the political, the scientific, the social, and
the religious world, and the discussions which arise
upon and out of them, do not furnish education and
training of the highest and most essential and most
influential character to the citizens of this great
country—this self-teaching, self-governing, self-ad-
ministrating country. Again, the lectures in this
department, though not strictly educational, yet by
awakening or reviving interest in subjects of general
literature, history, or science, are of no mean im-
portance in preventing a busy town from devoting
all its energies exclusively to immediate business, and
forging those graceful as well as useful experi-
ments which elevate while they adorn the existence.
To this you have lately added classes for the instruc-
tion of ladies in English language, literature, and
history, in French language and literature, in geo-
metry, in geology, and in experimental physics.
Of the success of these I am not yet able to
speak, as they have been in operation so short a
time. I can only say that I wish God may speed
them, for there cannot be a nobler or more useful
work than that of giving a sound, solid education
to the future mothers, wives, and sisters of the
rising generation, and adding to the graces which
we all feel they already possess, the advantages for
guidance as well as influence which a trained and
disciplined intellect provides. But, after all, I
imagine that you pride yourselves most upon your
industrial classes, which furnish to 800 or 1,000
students already engaged in the most active indus-
trial pursuits of life the means of acquiring know-
ledge and training their understandings in almost
every branch of useful acquirement, in the French
and German language, and, above all, in the
language and literature of our country. Now,
this is indeed an excellent work. In a
busy world like ours, young men, nay boys,
must, not only from the necessity of earning a
livelihood at an early age, but also because in
many industrial pursuits success is not to be attained
but by very early devotion to them—l say they must
at a very early age give up direct schooling, and go
into work of either head or hand. It is in vain that
educationalists and philanthropists remonstrate and
enlarge upon the advantages of prolonging the years
of school. The necessities of life are too strong, they
prevail over all general reasoning, and the boy or
young man goes to work or into actual business with
little more in his possession than the implements by
which knowledge is acquired, and these often but im-
perfectly—but as to knowledge itself, in most cases
with absolutely none ; and it is well if iu the pro-
cess of acquiring possession of those mere imple-
ments disgust of knowledge itself has not been
created, which prevents these implements being
well applied subsequently to their proper purpose.
Now, how is this difficulty to be met ? How are
these contending claims of mental cultivation and
the business of life to be reconciled ? Neither
ought to, or can be rejected. Now, in regard to
ordinary handicrafts, when great numbers are as-
sembled together at an early age, or of the tenderer
sex, the Legislature has attempted a solution by the
half-time system, begun among the factories of
Lancashire and Yorkshire, and kindred establish-
ments elsewhere, and progressively excluded the
smaller establishments and other trades, as you are
aware by your own experience, and I believe every-
where with the happiest results. The lad or the
girl has been allowed to help the family, and ac-
quire the use of crafts, to some of which their
tender touch and slighter forms and lower wages
are specially adapted, and at the same time their
mental training has been continued with a success
most astonishing. It has been fully established
that the half-timers, as they are called, fully keep
pace in acquirement with those who give the whole
day to school. Now, this is very well as far as it
goes ; but compulsory legislation can only be applied
to certainclasses of labour and to certain ages. Can-
not something be done for those who have either
emerged from the age to which legislation must be
limited, or have been employed in kinds of
labour to which it cannot well be applied? Well,
now, this is what you attempt by your industrial
department, and in which you have attained
considerable success, as the numbers, reaching, as
have said before, from 800 to 1,000, pretty well
demonstrate. This is not all you could wish for, but
it is a good deal. In so busy a community we must
not expect too much. It is not every youth who,
after having spent a busy day, engaged in manual
craft, or behind the counter,. or at the desk, with
the bodily powers or the mental faculties pretty
well exhausted, is prepared to find his repose rather
in mental exertion than in mere recreation or in '
society, innocent or vicious, as the case may be.
The temptations to each of these, Heaven knows,
powerful enough to make us thankful that so large
at number have been found willing and able to resist
them, and to walk in the severer paths of study which
your institution has opened to them. I know the
insufficient success of mechanics' institutions, and
institutions stra' ilar to yours, has often been lamented
as disappointing the expectations of their founders,
and sometimes not without reason. The causes have
been often looked for, and I have already suggested
some, but I do not think that one cause has been
sufficiently considered, upon which—although I know
the ground to be delicate-1 will venture to touch.
The founders of such institutions, in their anxiety,
partly to quiet political and religious apprehensions,
and partly with a view of conciliating a more ex-
tended support in the midst of a society which is
much divided upon those subjects, are apt to banish,
whether from their libraries, their lectures, or their
discussions, all allusion to religion and politics—and I
imagine you do the same. Now, I cannotou
b tbfuuti
think that this is a timid policy, and of d
success even for its main object. (Hear.) Pure
instruction for the sake of instruction, for the sake
is rarely popular in itself,
merely of knowledge,
and belongs to a peculiar class of minds always in
a minority in all classes of society. The number
of those who desire knowledge for the sake of in-
tellectual exercitation is limited in all classes, and
cannot be expected to be excessive among those
who have had fewer advantages of early education
than their neighbours, and have been very early

plunged into work and business. There are eminent
exceptions, no doubt—an Isaac Milner is found
• studying Newton and Tacitus over his loom a

Hugh Miller is found philosophising on the history
to be read in the quarries which he is breaking up
with his own hands, or an Elihu Burritt—(cheers)
—is found'storing his mind with the lessons of an-
cient and modern history over the anvil. (Cheers.)
But these exceptions must be rare. The two things
which the busy or working man does care about over
and above his business are politics and religion—the
study of his own rights and duties as a citizen, of his
own individual duties here, and his hopes hereafter.
(Hear, hear.) These he likes to hear and talk
I of, and yet these are thought to be of necessity
excluded from such institutions as these. The
question that arises is, is that necessity as
real as is generally supposed? Now, there is no
doubt that if such institutions as these were made
the instruments of disseminating merely party opin-
ions, whether in politics or religion, they might be
made very mischievous, as conveyingin unsuspected
forms dangerous views.in both, and, by stirring up
animosities amongst the members, might make it
impossible to secure co-operation for objects of com-
mon and neutral interest. But even in politics, is
there not some neutral ground to be discovered ?
might there not be subjects selected which are re-
moved by certain distances of time from the politics
of the day, but which, by leading to an increased
knowledge of ancient and modern history, might
interest and inform those who are attracted by the
public affairs of their own times, and enable them to
form a better and maturer judgment with regard to
them ? (Hear.) And with regard to religion, is there
not some common ground for all Christians ? With
regard to matters of faith, there are too many points
of difference to allow us to enter upon them ; but
could not the evidences of our common faith be made
matter for most interesting and common instruction?
—(hear, hear)—a subject which can be studied
equally in the works of the Unitarian Nonconformist
Lardner ; of the English Churchmen Butler, Paley,
Jenner, Whately, and Daniel Wilson ; of the Pres-
byterian Chalmer, or the Roman Catholic Abbe
Fraypinon, without awakening the jealousy of sects
or churches. (Hear, hear.) And as attendance at
your lectures is voluntary, I don't see how any one
can be offended by the introduction of such topics.
(Hear, hear.) It is a great defect of the present
time that no such instruction is to be found iu
courses of education for any class. (Hear, hear.)
It has everything to recommend in itself—it is most
attractive as a study, it leads to a reference to
ancient and modern history, a discussion of the laws
of evidence, and an inquiry into the reasons for con-
viction upon subjects of the highest interest to the
human mind and the human destiny. It cannot
well be taught in schools to the very young, for
they have not the materials available, and it
would be out of season with the habits of thought
desirable for their age. But when the youth is
already engaged in the concerns of life, he finds
much to try the simple faith which he has imbibed
as a habit from his early instructors. He has pas-
sions within, bad companions without ; the current
and lighter literature of the day, even occasionally
severer science itself, infuses doubts, to combat
which he is armed with no sufficient weapons. He
lives in an age in which everythingisquestioned, and
where is he to ask for answers ; where is he to learn
that, if there are sometimes difficulties in the way of
belief, there are still greater difficulties in the way
of a man who knows what the strength of evidence
in favour of religion is, in the way of his coming to
unbelief ? How completely he must abandon all
those reasons for conviction which would guide him
in his decision on other questions before he can yield
to the minor doubts and difficulties which have sug-
gested or suggest themselves, and abandon for a
mere negative position the settled faith which he had
early imbibed. (Hear, hear.) He cannot learn that
from his companions, his parents, or his employers ;
even sermons do not furnish the fitting occasion,
because they must be mainly exhortations to con-
duct rather than logical deductions from evidence.
Is it not a great defect in a great country that,
unless compelled by absolute necessity, we should
undertake so much, and yet exclude this most ne-
cessary of all knowledge? (Hear, hear.) Is there
not great reason to believe that, leaving to the
teachers and ministers of religion to raise their
several superstructures upon the general four da-
tion of the truth of natural and revealed reli-
gion, that foundation might be laid within
your walls, not only without offence, but with
additional concurrence from both students and
subscribers ? (Hear.) I have taken the liberty of
making a bold suggestion, and it is for you to con-
sider it. The result of my own observations and
experience is in favour of its adoption, and I think
you will do well to consider whether by its adoption
you cannot, and the directors of other similar insti-
tutions cannot, cause them to be not only more
useful, but more popular and better frequented.
(Hear, hear.) Of course it will require much care
and consideration, if adopted, because you know,
" we walk upon the ashes under which fire is lurk-
ing at every step ;" but, at the same time, where
so much is at stake, where we have to rear citizens
in a country like ours, where every man may be
called upon to exercise such important responsibili-
ties„ it is a great question whether we cannot find
out means of conveying information upon points so
important without raising up such jealousies and
such difficulties among themselves as to make the
work impossible. Now, it is for you here assembled,
in whatever capacity, to consider whether you can-
not do more in the way of influence in favour of an
institution like this ; whether everybody would not
feel more reliance upon a man wbo is sedulous in
following courses of this kind than upon the one
who has a total indifference to the cultivation of his
understanding. (Hear, hear.) I cannot but think
that, although there are dangers no doubt in all
power, whatever it may be, it is well to extend the
knowledge and information of Englishmen as much
as possible. (Hear, hear.) For whether or no it be the
destiny of the working classes of England—especially
those of our large towns—to be, in fact, the governors
of her destiny, they will certainly have great influence
upon her welfare and prosperity, and it is of the
highest interest that they should be fitted in the
best way to exercise that power and that influence.
(Applause.) The responsibilities are enormous of
every man who takes a share, no matter how small,
in the Government of this country. (Hear, hear.)
For what is this country ? It is not a poor, petty,
Peddling
State, a miserable island, fenced in by
these seas, confined to the narrow population we
find in our ow,
limit ; but whatever is done or said
within her border„
is re-echoed and vibrates through
the whole civilised world, and has an effect upon
every train of thought and action. (Cheers.) Let
_
me advise one thing. There is much good in gene-
ralabo
v science
all e ad
ng and
s in
le h
m e acquisition iasltim of languages, but
You not to neglect the
cultivation of your own language.
thitt
(bear, hear.)
There is no language that contains se much noble
thought, so much beautiful sentiment, so much
knowledge ; and yet, to a great proportion O. f
our
educated classes, the beauties of our English lan-
guage are almost totally unknown—
I believe un-
known to an extent which exists in no other country.
I believe no Frenchman would be considered fit to
be allowed to pass out of school without having read
the first French classical authors, and there is no
German or Italian who does not stand in a similar
position ; yet how many pass out of our schools,
high and low, without having read a word of Shak-
spere or Milton, or of any of our great prose writers.
Is it not a scandal that this should be ? (Hear,
hear.) I feel very glad, on looking over the table
of the different lectures, to see that above all almost
in popularity are those for the cultivation and study
of the English language. I hope every effort will
be made by readings, by prizes, and by stimulus of
every kind, to bring to the knowledge of the popu-
lation of th;s town, and of the rest of England, the
great treasures that lurk within our own literature.
I hope the time has
now passed when there
shall be that preference for the learned lan-
guages which prevailed—and naturally so—at a
time when they contained almost all the knowledge
and certainly all the cultivation ; and that we
shall not neglect thegood to be found within the
limit of our own tongue.anth I thank you for having
(Applause.) I have no-
thing more to say thlistened to me, and that I
to
insti-
tution prosperity, a continued extensiyour noble
ope-
rations, and, though last, certainly.
on of its
not least, an ex-
tended influence to its various classes, (The noble
lord resumed his scat amidst warm expressions of
approval.)

RAILWAYS AND OTHER COMPANIES.