The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-08 00:00:00

COLONIAL.

TEA.--There is very little business and prices generally
remain unaltered.
SUGAR.—Good qualities of British Plantation fully
maintain previous rates. Low and inferior descriptions of
foreign have been at slightly reduced quotations. In the
refined market a moderate amount of business has been
done at about former prices.
Corraa.—The demand for home consumption has been
more active, particularly for Plantation Ceylon, which has
realised full values. The stocks on hand compared with
those of the same period of last year show an increase of
about 1,300 tons.
RICE.-....N0 business of importance has been transacted,
and prices remain as before.
FRUlT.—There is a strong demand for medium qualities
of currants, but the dealings in raisins have been very
limited.
SALTPETRE.—A moderate amount of business has been
transacted in the private market, but little or no change has
taken place in values.
TALLOW.—The market continues you. quiet. P.Y.C.,
on the spot, and for all the year, is quoted b&. 9d. to b9s.
per cwt.

COURSE OF EXCHANGE.—THis DAT.
Amsterdam
Ditto .• 3 Months. 11 15 11 16
Rotterdam — 11 15} 11 16
Antwerp
Brussels — 25 25 25 30
Ilamburgh
Paris
Ditto
Marseilles — X2} 25 37i
Frankfort on Maine — 117 1173/4
Vienna
Trieste
Petersburgh — 33 34}
Madrid — 49! 49
Cadiz ' 50 50
Leghorn — 30 20 30 5
Genoa — 25 45 26 60
Naples
Palermo — 1211 122
Messina — 122 122
Lisbon
Oporto
Rio Janeiro — • • • •
New York — • • OUP
Foreign Gold in Bars (Standard).... per oz. £3 17 9
Mexican Dollars . •••• , 0 0 0
Silver in Bars (Standard) „ 0 5 2

THE LATE EARL OF WESTMORELAND.—An
honour seldom paid to a foreigner having no connexion
with Prussia has just been bestowed at Berlin in memory
of the late Earl of Westmoreland, so many years the
British ambassador in that capital. All the pnncipal mili-
tary bands were assembled in presence of the Prince Regent
and the most distinguished persons in Berlin, and performed
Beethoven's Funeral March, a favourite work of the late
general and diplomatist, whose compodfione are well blown
and apprecietea in the Prawn capital.

POPULAR EDUCATION IN LANCA-

SHIRE.

•
The prizes awarded by the Council of the East
Lancashire Union of Mechanics' Institutes were dis-
tributed on Saturday evening, in the Peel Institute
at Accrington, under the presidency of Lord
Brougham. There were also present—Lord Stan-
ley, M.P. Sir J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, Mr. H.
Chester, ill.. W. Fairbairn, the Rev. Canon Rich-
son, Mr. E. W. Watkin, and many influential in-
habitants of the town as well as visitors from a
distance.

The Rev. Mr. KENNEDY (Inspector of Schools),
in introducing the candidates, said, the distinguish-
ing features of the East Lancashire Union of Me-
chanics' Institutes were the considerable amount of
attainments required from the receivers of prizes,
aid the great number of teachers whose services
were engaged. (Cheers.)
Among those who received the prizes were a
number of young women and girls.
Lord BROUGHAM was greeted with prolonged
cheering on rising to speak. He a id,—l am sure I
need not say how gratifying must have been the
statement of our rev, friend Mr. Kennedy, the in-
spector, and the presentations to these pupils of the
prizes which they have so well deserved. Mr. Ken-
nedy 'has justly said that two more important
ob-
jects cannot be conceived than those of this great
association of East Lancashire Mechanics Institutes,
—apprentice libraries, and establishments of every
kind for the benefit of the working classes of the
community. (Cheers.) In the first place, as he well
observed, this is not a mere dilettante examination,
a nominal sham inquiry, to test no merits,' to re-
quire no qualifications, as the excuse for giving prizes,
but the exhibition of highly important qualities; in
fact, the most important of all, but not those which
those examinations are meant to apply to,—namelt,
good moral conduct and character. (Hear, hear.)
These are effectual, real examinations of intellec-
tual capacity and of industrial progress in learn-
ing, and this is that which first of all distinguishes
this institution. The other peculiar circumstance
is a most important point in education, perhaps the
most important of all in sem,r;,,,
ngnt discipline (without which teaching will be of
no practical avail in forming character and influ-
encing conduct)—l mean a sufficient supply of
teachers. (Hear, hear.) I do not know that I
have ever been more gratified in all my labours
connected with education than with hearing of the
large proportion of teachers which there are in these
schools—J may say not merely double, but three-
fold the number I have generally known to prevail
in such establishments. (Hear, hear.) How im-
portant this institution is, leads one to inquire into
Its history and success, and it is most gratifying to
find that, though it has only, I think, been in exis-
tence three years, it has been going on constantly
increasing year after year. The first year it in-
creased from 400 and odd to 800 and odd ; the next
year from 800 and odd to 1,200 and odd. The
number of persons attending and the number of
candidates for examination have increased in a
much greater proportion, the number in the first
year being 20, in the next year 95, or very nearly
fivefold ; and in the third year 168, or very nearly
eight times the first number. (Cheers.) I look
upon this increase with pleasure, because success is
always to a certain degree a test of merit. The
merits of this association require no test to satisfy
us of them, hut it is highly satisfactory to find that
its success has been in proportion to its deserts. It
could not have been greater than those deserts, but
it has been in proportion to them. (Hear, hear.)
I really know not why I should detain you by any
general observations, having exhausted the imme•
diate business of the evening, but I must add a word
respecting the last class of pupils who were called.
(Cheers.) Nothing can possibly be more highly in-
teresting, more deeply important to the best in-
terests of society than the education and general
training of women. Upon that depends whether
the working man shall have a good housewife for
his wife, whether his children shall have a good
mother to attend them, whether his home shall
be- made comfortable and happy to himself, and
thereby a formidable rival, and the best pos-
sible rival, raised to another place, of which other
place I will not go further for the present than to
say, it neither has the comforts of home nor the in-
nocence of home, nor the instruction, and sound re-
laxation, and refreshment of home ; but its enjoy-
ment is obtained by the sacrifice of the domestic
duties, by robbing the wife and children of the
pence which are spent there to support the indul-
gences obtained, and, in return for those indul-
gences the health of mind and body alike are un-
dermined, and ultimately are totally subverted.
(Hear.) There has been in some quarters a great
complaint, which, however, ie not founded on fact,
of my having declared myself at the Bradford Social
Science Congress a convert to the Maine Liquor
Law. I did not declare that I was a convert to
the Maine Liquor Law. I said that we were not
prepared in this country for anything of the kind,
that it would take a long time to prepare us for it,
but that the greatest care should be taken not to
encourage intemperance if we did not discourage it
—nay, that the greatest care should be taken by all
lawful, moderate, rational means to discourage it ;
and that the public mind being prepared (which I
am afraid it will not be until after a long course of
discussion and controversy for its enlightenment),
then, I did not say the Maine Liquor Law, but a
legislative repression, should be applied to the sale
of intoxicating liquors, which fill our gaols with
criminals and our workhouses with paupers. (Loud
cheers.) It is always disagreeable, as well as un-
profitable for the cause one supports, to commit any
exaggerations. It is an old saying that you dimi-
nish all you exaggerate. It is like turning the tele-
scope round the wrong way, so that, instead of
bringing near the objects of your view and making
them appear great, you make near objects appear
distant. That is the consequence of exaggeration;
therefore I would carefully avoid it ; and yet I have
very high authority on the subject to which I
have been referring—the authority of one of the
most eloquent preachers who ever appeared in
this country-1 would say the most eloquent
preacher, and I speak from having read his sermons
and from having had the advantage also of hearing
him upon one occasion. When I went with my late
lamented friend Lord Denman, the Chief Justice, to
hear Robert Hall—(cheers)—I can only gay that,
at one part of the admirable sermon which he then
preached, we both, as by one impulse and of one
accord, turned round one to the other and said,
" Plunkett !" which was comparing him to the
greatest orator of late times, who since Pitt, Fox,
and Sheridan have been no more, is the greatest
orator by much who has been known in this coun-
,
try. (Cheers.) Well, Robert Hall was applied ti
one day, by a reverend friend of his who called
upon him in the course of the morning, and who
was fatigued with his walk, to give him a little
brandy and water. " I will," said Robert Hall,
4‘ if you will give it a right name." " What is
that ?" asked his friend. " Distilled damnation."
(Loud cheers and laughter.) Now, Robert Hall is
a man of great eloquence, and may be allowed to
exaggerate a little, which Ido not. I give you this
as an instance that I might have gone a great deal
further with high authority than I did at Bradford
upon this subject. Now, I must observe that this
report which is before me contains one very satis-
factory circumstance, in showing that the attention
of the association is directed to the cultivation of
the faculties, the tastes, and the understandings of
our brethren, not in manufacturing towns, but in
the country. There can be no doubt that farm ser-
vants, with the entire consent of their masters, ought
to receive books fitted for their pursuits, increasing
their knowledge of plants, or materials for manure,
and of the effects of water and moisture in cultiva-
tion. All those subjects are most germane to the
matter of their employment. But there is no rea-
son 'whatever why they should confine themselves
to those. More general subjects are desired by
them and their employers, and I hope and trust
that they will find in other parts of the community
a favourable answer to their application and obtain
the aid and encouragement which they seek. I en-
tirely agree with what was said at a late great
meeting at Manchester by a right hon. friend of
mine, I mean Mr. Disraeli—and my noble friend
(Lord Stanley) was present at the time—that the
country people ought to be considered as well as the
inhabitants of the ()Teat swarming towns in Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire, and that those country people
are fitted to make progress and to. rise, as he justly
it)said, by the union and partnership (I think he called
a Integrity and n ute lect----h just as fit as others
(Cheewho more generallcrowd
backL cityth or the town.
rs.) When lYlookgreat changes
that have taken place all over tehigs
the subject of education I am in no little degreerYon
astonished at the difference which 50 or 60 years
have made. As an instance, I will quote the ex-
ample of Mr. Burke, than whom there never was a
man of more enlarged understanding, better exer-
cised by study of all kinds, who took more ample
and"generally
speaking, more sou views of all
subjects, from the most general to the most minute,
with one exception—perhaps I must say—in which
the soundness of his views does not appear to have
been the same—l mean the violent prejudices which
he entertained on the subject of the French Revo-
lution. Though carried much too far, those preju-
dices had a most natural and lawful origin in the

horror which was felt by all good men—indeed, by
all descriptions of men,, at the dreadful atrocities

I which marked the earlier stages of that drama. '
With that exception, a more enlarged view, a more
sound understanding, or one more practised by
study than Mr. Burke's never was bestowed upon a
human being. (Loud cheers.) Yet, marvellous
to tell, in all his productions, whether in his
speeches or in his printed discourses or in his printed
publications, we cannot find, or, at least, I cannot
recollect in the many volumes that I have read, any
one allusion to popular ignorance or the necestity of
better teaching for the people. It is clear and dis-
tinct what a great change has taken place since his
day. I will venture to say that no man, had he
lived in our time, would have more applied himself
to this subject than Mr. Burke. He might have
differed with us in being alarmed at one time, and
at another time in thinking that we carried it too
far, but that he should have been silent upon it,
that he should, to use a fashionable phrase, have
"ignored the subject," was utterly and absolutely
impossible. (Hear, hear.) We are now come to a
state of things when it can no longer be said that
mechanics institutions are of themselves fitted to
attain those great objects for which they were 25 or
30 years ago founded. They have in a great mea-
sure succeeded. They have given rise to other in-
stitutions, better adapted to some classes of the com-
munity than those. But at that time, when I was
a humble supporter of Dr. Birkbeck, the founder of
mechanics' institutes—(cheers)—l was clearly of
opinion, and strongly urged in an address which I
published, of which I have lying before me the 20th
edition—an address to employers of workmen, and
to workmen, upon education—that the establish-
ment of mechanics institutes was a necessity, where
they could be had; or lectures, where there were
the means of obtaining a lecture-room, and paying
for lecturers ; but that, where these could not be
had, a great sciod, an important service was ren-
dered by hiving libraries, reading-rooms, and
newsrooms for the people. (Cheers.) I remember
it was said that there was a great difficulty
in establishing these institutions for want of ap-
paratus. But it was singular, when you came to
consider it, how much might have been done with
very little apparatus indeed, and it is worth consi-
dering. " Great progress may be made with very
cheap and simple experiments. Indeed, some of the
most important, if not the most showy, are the
least costly and complicated. By far the grandest
discOveries in nn+nr.i .-;-- „

naraly any apparatus. A pan of water and two
thermometers were the tools which in the skilful
hands of Dr. Black detected latent heat. A crown's
worth of glass, three pennyworth of salt, a little
chalk, and a pair of scales enabled the same great
philosopher to found the system of modern chemis-
try, by tracing the existence and the combinations
of fixed air. With little more machinery the genius
of Scheele (the 'great Swedish chemist) created the
materials of which the fabric was built, and antici-
pated some of the discoveries that have illustrated
a later age. A prism, a lens, and a sheet of paste-
board enabled Newton to unfold the composition of
light and the origin of colours. Franklin ascer-
tained the nature of lightning with a kite, a wire,
a bit of riband, and a key. To say nothing of the
great chemist of our own day (Davy), of whose most
useful, perhaps most philosophical discovery, the
safety-lamp, the principle might have been traced
with the help of a common wire fireguard, even the
elements of mechanics may be explained by an ap-
paratus almost as simple. To take one instance,
the fundamental property of the lever, and I may
say of the whole science, may it not be demon-
strated by a foot-rule, a knife, and :a few leaden
balls of equal size ? The other mechanical powers,
which for the most part are resolvable into the lever,
may be explained with almost equal ease ; and
after all, it is those principles that practical men
must require to have unfolded, and their applica-
tion to mechanism illustrated by figures and in-
struments." I have been committing a plagiarism.
I have borrowed this passage ; but it is an inno-
cent theft, for it is a theft from myself. (Cheers.)
It bears, therefore, the same relation to common
theft that suicide does to murder. (Cheers and
laughter.) I have once more to congratulate you
upon the spectacle to day of these young men, chil
dren, I may say, of both sexes, in their enlarged,
promoted, and protected studies and it is a most sa-
tisfactory circumstance that they are not generally
dependance, but that, generally speaking, their
parents provide the costs of their tuition. (Great
cheering.)
Mr. HARRY CHESTER, of the Society of Arts,
gave a lengthy exposition of the system of exami na-
tion introduced by that body during the last few
years, and moved the following resolution :
"That the system of annual public examinations of can-
didates for prizes, whether conducted in provincial unions
of institutions, or as offered to the whole country by the
Society of Arts, affords a means of testing the efficiency
and stimulating the efforts of the evening classes, and of
enabling employers of labour .to select from the best con-
ducted youths attending them such as show by talent, in-
dustry, perseverance, and good conduct that they deserve
confidence."
Lord BROUGHAM, in the course of Mr. Chester's
speech, interposed to remark that the word " so-
ciology," applied to the movement of the Social
Science Association, had never been used by the
promoters of that body. (Hear.)
Mr. H. Moon seconded the motion, which was
carried unanimously.
Lord STANLEY, who rose amidst enthusiastic cheer-
ing, said,—My noble and venerable friend in the
chair—and when I speak of Lord Brougham I use
those epithets not as words of courtesy and of
course, but as expressing the universal feeling of
this country (cheers)—my noble and venerable
friend has anticipated some of the topics upon which
I intended to have touched to-night ; and you have
heard from Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Chester, and Mr.
Moore details which their long experience and
official position render more accurate than any I
could furnish. I stand before you personally as a
stranger, not indeed in this county, but in this dis-
trict. I am acquainted with the proceedings of
this East Lancashire Union of yours only through
the means of the printed report, and since we have
long ago got past the time when people felt it ne-
cessary to talk generalities in defence of the prac-
tice of giving instruction to the people; since we
have learnt for the last quarter of a century to take
all that for granted, I really feel some difficulty, in
the absence of local knowledge, in knowing whether
you will consider what I am about to address to
you worth the hearing. This, however, you will
allow me to say, before touching on any other sub-
ject, that I beg to congratulate the people of this
town upon the unexampled spectacle which this
hall affords to-night. You have here present one
who for 60 years has been the foremost champion of
the educational cause (cheers), and in days wfv_li
that cause was not, as now, a means of popularity,
but met with bitier opposition in many and very
important quarters. You have here men who, like
Sir James Shuttleworth, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr.
Chester, have, in little conspicuous, but still public
positions, given years of energy and labour to that
movement. You have here in what lam told are
numbers very unusual, the operatives of this and the
surrounding towns. You have also on this platform
for the purpose of paying due honours to prizemen
of the working class, and of promoting and extend-
ing, so far as in them may lie, the education of that,
class, and assembled in numbers greater than ever
before for any educational purpose, those who repre-
sent the science, mechanical skill, enterprise, and
capital of these East Lancashire districts. (Cheers.)
This is a sight which, anywhere and at any time,
would be very satisfactory. It is the more grati
fying now, at a time when not only in this, but in
all parts of the country, the relations between em-
ployers and employed are the subject of anxious
and sometimes, I fear, acrimonious discussion.
(Hear, hear.) It is doubly gratifying, because it
shows that, here at least, the employer on the
one hand, and the operative on the other, feel how
closely and intimately their interests are united,
and how both feel that the relation between them
cannot be one merely of bargain or contract, but
must rest upon the firmer and more durable busis
of personal interest jind example. (Cheers.) From
the able summary of the proceedings of this asso-
ciation, of which I hold a copy in my hand, I col-
lect that the object of this East Lancashire Union"
is, I don't say identical with, but generally simi-
lar to that of a kindred and perhaps rival society
established in another part of this county, with
its head-quarters at Manchester, and of which a
meeting was held no longer ago than Tuesday
last. There may be wide differences in manage-
ment and detail, but the leading fundamental idea,
I take it, of both associations, is the same—to
give strength, spirit, sold encouragement, to a num-
ber of small educational establishments, scattered
up and down the country (in your case over a circle
20 miles across), by uniting them together, by sup-
plying them with a common centre of action, by
encouraging a mutual and healthy competition be-
tween their respective members, by enabling them
to obtain the services of a better class of teachers
than they could singly and separately command
tmtandhh
majority
obpryihtbenefitsoibringingaotifh ae lsi
e.
characteristicsthe
I associatedefixn pd ir ti experience nn
stated,cos eft
tot t
fiei
suoa
rnc
tahs
are,set o bartchet
asafrom
theeor
almost necessarily must be, very small • that
they consist for the most part of evening
classes, a library, and a news-room, and, as I
learn with more than ordinary satisfaction, that
though, of course, assistance from the wealthier
or middle classes is not refused when tendered,
still these institutions are not in the habit of
relying on that aid, but are supported and carried
on mainly out of the subscriptions of those who we
them, and out of the wages of the working men.
(Cheers.) Long, I trust, may that independence

continue. It is the best and surest guarantee of
the permanence and success of the work on which
you are engaged, and it is the same spirit of inde-
pendence and preference for self- help over help
offered by others that, shown as it has been by all
classes in this Country, but more especially by the
working class, has made England what England is
to-day. (Cheers.) There is generally observed a
natural and to some extent harmless tendency in
places originally established for purposes of instruc-
tion, to become places of amusement instead. lam
told that here that is not the case ; that those who
frequent your evening classes do so with the pur-
pose of obtaining instruction, and that the kind of
instruction they seek is generally speaking of a
practical and even homely character, sought with
a practical object and fitted to repair the defects of
their early school teaching, and fitting them for
situations of confidence and trust, and so enabling
them to raise their social position. Looking also
to the class from whom the members are taken, I
find it stated that the great majority of your sub-
scribers are factory workers—that is, they belong
precisely to that class in society for whom these
institutions were originally destined. The ages of
the great majority range between 15 and 18, thus
including the times when common school teaching
is at an end, and when the mind still retains so
much of the vigour and freshness of youth as to be
most capable of acquiring and assimilating new
ideas. I trouble you with these matters of detail be-
cause it is just such points as those to which I have
referred that constitute the whole distinction be-
t wcen the efficiency and inefficiency of an institu-
t ion of this character. (Hear.) Looking at the ages
of those who are receiving instruction, the class
from whom they are taken, the generous, popular
character of the teaching given, and the willingness
of its recipients to pay out of their own, it may be,
very limited funds for the advantages they are con-
scious of deriving, I am satisfied on the evidence of
these reports that your education is founded on a
sound and solid basis, and that the work it is doing
is real and genuine work. I am still more encou-
raged in that belief by those statistics of progress
to which Lord Brougham has referred. I won't
trouble you with figures; but it is an easy thing to
recollect that whereas your candidates for prizes
two years ago were only 20, they were last year 95
and this year 168. making tau luta. cam. of that'
tagan-und in less than 24 months. The attendance
at the evening classes, moreover, has, I think, more
than doubled within the last 12 months ; and I am
particularly glad to observe that the average of at-
tendance has increased in a more rapid proportion
than the number of members, showing a great im-
provement in regularity. These are slight but, so
far as they go, real and valuable indications of pro-
gress. Of course, in such an undertaking, as in any
other, you can have no absolute security of success,
or perfect guarantee against failure; but we are en-
titled to judge of the future by comparing the pre-
sent with the past, and taking that test, the East
Lancashire Union appears to be making a steady,
rapid and continuous advance. (Cheers.) It is pro-
bably needless to explain to you the special and
characteristic advantages of that system of uniting
institutions formerly isolated which you have here
organised and set on foot. In the first place, it gives,
if one may say so, greater importance and dignity
to the work on which you are engaged. Fify or 100
small institutions collected into a single organisa-
tion fill a much larger space in the public eye than
any one of them or all of them taken separately and
singly. In the next place, it is only by bringing to-
gether a large number oupils, whether from one
place or many places, that you can obtain enough
of them, who are interested in the same class of
subjects, to secure a real and effective competition
for prizes. Thirdly, if in any place a new experi-
ment in the way of teaching has met with great
success or failure, all the other institutions in union
obtain the benefit of the experience so acquired, in
a manner which, but for this connexion between
them, would be impossible. Lastly, and it is to
this perhaps that I should attach importance most
of all, a dozen, or still more 100 institutions in
union are able to afford that which no one of them
can, to pay for first-class teachers, to retain their
exclusive services, to bring them, if necessary, from
distant parts, and to employ them, as I understand
is your practice here, in going round from one in-
stitution to another, teaching, perhaps, on one, two,
three, or more days in the 'week, and so not only
directly instructing the pupils themselves, but
showing the local teachers, whom you must call in
to assist on other occasions, how instruction may
most effectually be conveyed. (Cheers.) That
being the system which you adopt, there can be no
doubt that it simplifies, so to speak, your means of
action, and enables you to produce a very consider-
able result with a comparatively small outlay. If
this experiment of yours succeeds, and the progress
you have made during three years of your expe-
rience is destined to continue, not only will yon
have given a great stimulus to the educational move-
ment in these parts generally, but you will have
applied it exactly in the manner most required.
(Hear, hear.) Something has been said to-night
about the provision made for teaching in schools.
Whatever may be the faults or merits of that sys-
tem of school teaching—though I don't think it all
perfect—l wish to do it all justice, and Ido not
think that in the actual constitution of society it
gets fair play. Parliament votes about three-quar-
ters of a million for schools for the instruction
chiefly of the children of the working class. Nearly
twiee as much, or perhaps a million and a-half more,
is contributed for the same purpose, partly by the
parents themselves, and in much greater measure
from the benevolence or sensibility of those inte-
rested in this cause. Now, what happens ? A very
large number of our working children go to school,
they attend while there pretty regularly, and they
learn to read, to write, and to cipher with tole-
rable ease. But if you take the average of Eng-
land through, the schooling of children ceases
between the ages of 12 and 10—I am afraid nearer
10 than 12. (Hear, hear.) They read or learn no-
thing more ; what they have picked up at school is
apt to be quickly forgotten ; and probably I should
not be overstating the case if I said, speaking per-
haps of the agricultural districts rather than these,
that of every three, or perhaps every two lads who
at 15 are able to read and write, with tolerable
comfort to themselves, only one can do the same
when he reaches the age of 25. (Hear, hear.) Now,
what is the effect of that ? Why clearly that of this
large sum voted by Parliament, and of .the vast
sums added by private exertions, a large proportion
is, for all practical and ultimate results, as absolutely
wasted as if it had been thrown into the sea. (Hear.)
To some extent, you cannot prevent that state of
things. Young men and lads who have their bread
to earn ma.y or may not study, but they must work.
(Hear, hear.) From a very early time, their days
are taken up with their daily work, and if any in-
struction is to be provided for them at all, it can
only be by the means of the evening school. It is
precisely that form of instruction which you provide
here, and beyond supplying the school, you afford
an incentive and inducement to attend it by your
system of examinations, the competition for prizes,
and the public honour and respect which on occa-
sions like the present you pay to intellect, industry,
and culture. (Cheers.) These honours are, if I
may so say, a sample and a foretaste only of the
more substantial distinctions which later life pre-
sents to those who are competent to obtain them.
You whom I address are Lancashire men, you know
the conditions of life in these swarming regions of
the north, where every man, be he rich or poor, is a
worker, and where fortunes are made with hardly
less rapidity than in America or Australia. You
will own, therefore, how false and foolish is that
belief, sometimes entertained in ignorance, sometimes
it may be professed to be entertained with no good
purpose, that England affords no scope for the so-
cial ambition of the working man. I believe that
one of the most interesting volumes that could pos-
sibly be written, which when it is written,' ought
to find a place in every hamlet, and almost in
every cottage, would be a biographical record of
a few select instances, at least, of those eminent and
illustrious persons who, in various occupations and
departments of life, have raised themselves from
the ranks. Many a story might be told in such a
volume that would buoy up the courage and cheer
the heart of the struggling operative in his most
distressed hours. (Cheers.) But you need no such
volume to recall to your recollections the fortunes
and the fame of the elder Stephenson, you do not
require to be told of the rise end of the wealth of
Arkwright, and, above all, you in these districts,
and meeting in this hall, know well, and history
will record, what was the origin of the family of
Peel. (Cheers.) You may say, no doubt, that these
are remarkable instances. Remarkable instances
they are, exceptional instances I believe they are
not, I believe that there is net one town, westward
from here to Liverpool, or if you look eastward,
over the hills, there is not one town in all the West
Riding where you may not find at least some one
or two men who are wealthy and powerful, men
who are large employers of labour, men who per-
ihtei
nnhaa
early
hhsyo
eeawirvinsefeoeemrci.eisaea.gtmrnyistrates, and men who are looked up to
which
1h 11
which
shh.
eetoryhre
e2riyose
:s.itdai reside,
afterwards
ee
fewhook therefore,
t became
maybeseaacvyae i
ane
chance for alli(leilhindlCreotweafh.rhe7lt is but a chance, no doubt.
Many competent men must doubtless fail, and by
no fault of their own, while in the uncertainty
of
human affairs it may happen that some who riave
not equally deserved fortune unaccountably, and
even undeservedly, succeed. But whatever may be
these uncertainties of fortune, it is something at
least to know that to educated and intelligent men
the door stands open, and the course is.cleared. It
is something to know, as was lately said at Man-
chester, that to every man the opportunity comes
once in his life—(cheers)--and something still to

be assured, as t am confident are many of those
whom I address, that if the opportunity comes it
will not be missed through ignorance, or apathy,
or sloth, while, unhappily, if it should
fail to come, we -at least have had the
consolation of knowing that the failure arose-
from causes above and beyond your con-
trol, and that you have not been unfaithful to your
own destinies. (Loud cheers.)
Lord BROUGHAM—There is a circumstance which
I must state in justice to Professor Craik, of Belfast,
and -it is the more fit that I should mention it,
because he is now a candidate to succeed Sir David
Brewster, at St. Leonard's College, St. Andrew's.
My noble friend, Lord Stanley, has very naturally
suggested a work which I think ought to be pub-
lished under the title ho suggests, and no longer,
under the title of Mr. Craik's work—" The Pursuit
of Knowledge Under Difficulties." It was pub-
lished under that title 35 or 40 years ago by the
Useful Knowledge Society, and the consequence .is
that many persons are not aware from reading the
advertisement of it merely that it really is a bio-
graphy of self-raised men. I was then president
of that society, and I suggested that title, and it
would have been better, and more descriptive of
the thing to have called it, " The Biography of
Self-raised Men,"—men who were the " architects
of their own fortunes." It applies to all countries
as well as to England, Scotland, and Ireland. My
opinion is, with my noble friend, that it would be
much better to cull out of that work the biographies
of self-raised men—the Watts, the Arkwrights,
and so forth, belonging to this countrv,and to have
them in a small separate volume under that title,.
which is more descriptive of the thing than the
title which Professor Craik's work now bears.
(Cheers.)
The Rev. Canon RICHSON, on presenting a prize,
which was the gift of Mr. Adderley, M.P., said,
he must explain why he felt especial pleasure in
being on this oocasion the medium of that gentle-
man's generosity. Eight years ago Sir J. K.
Shuttleworth and himself (Mr. Richson), with a
number of influential and leading gentlemen of
Manchester. were very earn nativ ene.aAa I—^ -
deavouring to secure the sanction of Parliament
for an educational measure. " What," it might be
asked, "could the people of Manchester see
nothing being done but they must interfere
in this matter, and concoct a scheme of their
own ?" They were quite aware that much
was being done, and he could not now
stand up in the presence of Lord Brougham
without acknowledging his efforts. A summary of
his lordship's actions was described in the words of
the noble lord's own preface addressed to Dr. Birk-
beck :—" I have many times endeavoured to bring
the subject of elementary education before Parlia-
ment; but the lukewarmness of some, and the
honest—and by me ever to be respected objections"
—he (Mr. Richson) believed " objections' was the
word,—
Lord BROUGHAlll.—Prejudices.
Mr. RICHSON.—" Of others have been the impe-
diment to my desire." Nor could he (Mr. Richson)
forget the labours of Sir J. K. Shuttleworth and
others in the same cause. Indeed, when he was told
upon the authority even of the Registrar-General
that we had increased in education from 1 in 17 in
1818, to 1 in 11 in 1833, and 1 in 8 in 1851, it would
seem preposterous that he should deny that great
progress had been made. But he regretted exceed-
ingly to find such a statement endorsed perpetually,
and even in the House of Commons. It was no such
thing. It was very well known, as the Digest of
1818 declared, that a great proportion of the private
schools were not returned at that time ; and the
education of that period, such as it was, was the
education of the private adventure school. There-
fore, the comparison of 1818 with 1851 was most
unfair. (Hear.) The same might be said of 1833.
No doubt great progress had been made. We had
destroyed the dame-schools and adventure-schools,
and gathered the children from those wretched
places of instruction into schools well systematised
and under capable teachers. It was a glorious thing
to see the vast number of schools of all denomina-
tions springing up in every direction, and we were
encouraged to believe that there was an apprecia•
tion of education abroad which would produce yet
more gladdening results. But in Manchester they
had looked at what was still left undone. They
might be supposed to know something of their
own locality; and they calculated the almost in-
credible number—he forgot it exactly at this
moment, but he believed it was nearly 30,000—0 f
children between the ages of 3 and 16 who were
neither at school nor at work, but receiving their
education in the streets. Seeing that state of
things, they arranged, under circumstances of a
most extraordinary character, a measure to be pre-
sented to Parliament. It was using very strong
terms, but he believed there never was seen in this
country such,
in a committee, composed of such ele-
ments, favour of a measure, as was seen then in
the committee-room at Manchester. It comprised
persons of every considerable religious denomina-
tion or shade of political opinion, except, he be-
lieved, only two classes of their townsmen, who
were not sufficiently able to co-operate. However,
theT had certainly a large majority of the people in
their favour, and their principles were such as to
commend themselves to every person desirous of
promoting education, and such as he believed would
be accepted and acted on when, as Lord Stanley
remarked at Manchester, the working men agitated,
themselves, for their own advantage. First, there
were to be local rates, to supplement and stimulate
the Parliamentary grants and voluntary contribu
tions ; secondly, there was to be local management,
co-operating with but not subordinate to central
administration ; thirdly, the parent was to choose
his own school, and wherever the child went the
rate was to go with it ; finally, in the erection and
constitution of schools the founders were to deter-
mine the religious instruction, provided they did
not insist on any dogmatic religious teaching of the
children of parents who objected. Those being the
principles of the most equitable measure (as he be-
lieved) ever presented to Parliament, its promoters
were anxious to have it fairly and fully discussed,
not only in the house but in committee, believing
that certain points would there be settled which
could not be exactly agreed upon between them-
selves and others. But their great difficulty was,
among the fi iends of education to find any one who
would take the matter up and introduce it, though
backed by the support cf 40,000 rate-payers. Who
was the person that came to their aid on that occa-
sion ? Mr. Adderley. (Cheers.) Mr. Adderley
was, therefore, the working man's friend in that
matter, and this he exhorted the working men pre-
sent to remember, while endeavouring for their
own sakes to carry out that for which he and Sir
Sohn Pakington and many others had laboured.
(Cheers.)
Mr. E. POTTER moved the second resolution :
" That the School of Art established at Burnley, and
having drawing classes established in Accrington and Has-
lingden, tends to promote that taste and skill in design
which are essential to the highest success of the manufac-
turing enterprise of the district."
He had been invited by Sir J. Kay Shuttleworth
to be present, not only as an old friend, but because
he was told the people of Accrington would wel-
come him on the two grounds of his being a calico-
printer and a promoter of the Manchester School
of Design. (Cheers.) Speaking from that platform,
he was unable to omit referring to a man who had
been the great ornament of the print trade, the late
James Thompson of Clitheroe, a scholar and a gen-
tleman, and a thoroughly benevolent man, from
whose lips he had heard 30 years ago all the senti-
ments uttered on this occasion, and who essayed
himself on a small scale the schemes now carried
out by this association. (Cheers.) Mr. Thompson
put up notices that he would take no apprentices
unless they had some education, His (Mr.
Potter's) friend, Mr. Wrigley of Bury, would even
go so far as to try to obtain a legal enactment to
the same effect. He (Mr. Potter) resided in a neigh-
bourhood similar to this, in that most critical pet iod
of transition when the town was emerging from a
village, and he observed with great satisfaction tho
efforts making in such places to promote intelli-
gence and morality, not only by elementary educa-
tion, but by encouraging young men to oleVated
tastes and pursuits. (Cheers.)
The resolution was carried unanimously.
Sir J. K. SHUTTLEWORTH proposed, amid loud
cheering, a vote of thanks to Lord Brougham for
presiding. He knew very well that they were too
tnhe
aatr
theythe
eoni)facdtttoicehtoiaflaiutdsoeesteguaehriaraochdobnt
uip:ngittagnhrnt itvrlouhyiidtamteiresp h over slavery
which the West Riding of Yorkshire aellieted Itl
his election not to give its hen, a hearty welcome
if he once came among them again.
patriarch
illeorrtofkeee,
raticdnrhkeungianvpseteesoter
natnvi
wanogslntNisel.
htoEyh:st.
mtsoo
hufneebl
meat. (Cheers.)
subject
thisht
warmeste (
great
hmiddlepepublic
rbgasr.
Iht to
ea
nbhceaacipst.aeilsrseeontti:n bvdieoteeanduos
nee
mohuiern
etwishno t reoedrpdrt
ehseena trai
Brougham;st aristocracyof its
lot (
sif
s ci
ande nccoeuandry epn
et
oe
pr pi
er i
os
fe atiiiidiscagir)ietaatl tdoimsterie.ctttohfe town
and country people of this great district of East
city, every
Lancashire,which
valley
street,t become
a population
uo
lnaet
igo rne
soot
sul.erabundant that they might andw well tremble as to
its destinies—he had asked them all to meet there,
iLnangeraeasht
irreelathtiaotnsthee a
f capitalist
the abstract principles Lord
indif-
ferent
nd
Brloaubgohuar,intohraedpresent
advo-
cated all his life, and to
show the working men of
to their progress, butrecognised the elevation
of their intelligence, it uhehonesty of their efforts,
and a common interest which he trusted would issue