The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-13 00:00:00

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at a meeting of a single department, and was not

pressed.
A conversation followed, in the course of which
Mr. D. M'Laren, of Edinburgh, expressed himself
favourable to a modified form of direct taxation.
Mr. L. Heyworth spoke to a similar effect. Several
gentlemen from Liverpool supported the views of
the Financial Reform Association, and the meeting
did not break up till 11 o'clock.
To-day, as already stated, Mr. Adderley,
delivered an address on education in the great hall,

Lord Shaftesbury in the,chair.
Mr. ADDERLEY began by dividing education into
three branches or stages—that of boys, which
prepared for manhood ; that of youth, which pre-
pared for the business of life ; and that of adults,
which included the business of life, and fitted
them for the life to come. Leaving the third
stage, which was not within his province, he alluded
only to the first and second, which he distin-
guished by the terms " general education" and
" apprenticeship" for the business of life. General
education bore a triple division. It extended to

21 years. The first or rudimentary,stage reached
to the age of 10; the second, the education of boy-
hood, to 18 ; and the third from 18 to 21. Up
to 10 years of age all classes were enjoying the
same instruction. After that age those who lived
by the profits of trade sent their children to com•
mercial or proprietary schools, while the poor made
use of the National schools. The richer classes

sent their children at this stage to large private
schools, or to such establishments asEton, Harrow,
and Rugby. In the third stage, from 18 to 21,
the richer classes enjoyed the Universities, and then
their apprenticeship for life commenced. The
middle classes, when they had finished their second
stage, usually began their " apprenticeship" of life
by entering on the business of their fathers, be-
coming merchants or farmers, or devoting them-
selves to some art or profession. The poorer classes
habitually left off their general education at the
end of the first stage. He described general edu-
cation as: tending to make a man—the apprentice-
ship as making a man of business. When general
education ended the-business of self-education com-
menced, and this he was happy, to say was greatly
facilitated by libraries, mechanics' institutes, and
a cheap, sound, healthy literature. The question
for the Assoniation to cousider was, whether legis-
Ilation was called for in connexion with any of
these classes of education; and, if so, where? At
what point was the pressure of legislation required ?
It was not required in the case of the Universities.
Legislation had lately taken place in the way of
leading to an improvement of the internal govern-
ment of the Universities, and giving ,them the
power to reform abuses and extend their powers of
usefulness, and they had so far shown symptoms
of extending their sphere of usefulness by those
middle-class examinations by which they
tested the progress and raised. the standard of
education in our middle-class schools. He would
only say that he thought one of the first and most
practical forms of extending the usefulness of the
Universities would be by their cheapening the pro-
cess of education, by reducing the expenditure, both
collegiate_and yrivate, of students, so as to admit

persons of moderate means, to obtain the advantages
of a university education. (Cheers.) Then, again,
legislation was not required in the schools of the
upper classes. With regard to the great public
schools, they ought also to cheapen the process of
education, and indeed the country was already
teaching them to do so, for they would have to
cheapen their process in order to hold their own
against public schools, now being carried on at a
much less cost, and he would mention as instances
the school of Marlborough and the High School of
Edinburgh, of the excellence of which Lord
Brougham was the highest illustration. In the
case of endowed and commercial schools used by the
middle classes he would say legislation was neces-
sary. On this point he appealed to Lord Brougham.
He hoped they would see him there as their per-
manent president for many years to come ; but he
would appeal to him not to lose one of those pre-
cious years that remained of his valuable life with-
out rendering the valuable endowments which we
had in this country for the education of the middle
classes more availablethan they now were. (Cheers.)
He appealed to him that he should be ready, even
at the commencement of the ensuing session of Par-
liament, to set about the completion of the great
work which he had begun on this subject. (Cheers.)
Let greater power be given to the Charitable Trusts
Commission to deal with those schools—power to
introduce easy, inexpensive remedies, to take mea-
sures in non-contentious cases to introduce re-
forms without application being necessary to the
Judges or the Attorney. General. (Hear..) These
schools were of great advantage to the middle classes.
The upper classes had both the means and the
pride that would lead them to thoroughly edu-
cate their children. The lower middle class, as he
might term them, had been deprived of the means
of education intended for them. The upper classes
were sure to look to their children; the poorer
were provided for out of the public Treasury; and
hd hoped, therefore, the funds connected with the
schools to which he referred would be made avail-

able for the middle classes. (Hear.) With regard to
the case of the humbler classes educated at the
National schools, be would use no coercion ; he
would not violently induce parents to keep their
children at school when they found they were fit
to earn wages. At ten years of age their general
education usually ended, and then ley were left to
the short intermitting education of the night
schools and of institutions of various kinds. Night
schools, so far as they were bona fide schools for
the poor, had legitimate claims on the funds of the
country; but he would not give encouragement to
schools for the higher class of artisans obtaining
State support. (Hear.) They had lived to see the
evils of physical pauperisation in this country ; let
them net run the risk of encouraging the still
worse moral pauperisation of the people. (Hear.)
The most important point for their consideration in
the programme he had laid down was the educa-
tion subsidised by the Treasury. We had been 20
years subsidising education. The sums granted bad
reached £800,000., and it was increasing at the
rate of about £lOO,OOO annually. • Yet there ,had
been no reluctance on the part of Parliament to
vote these sums, and he believed it would be ready
to give double the sum if a way could be found
rightly to spend it. (Cheers.) The present system
had, no doubt, its defects as well as its advantages,
and an exceedingly clear and succint statement
both of the advantages and defects of the system
was given by Mr. R. Lowe in the very admirable
speech which he delivered on moving the educa-
tion estimates for this year in the House of
Commons. Was it possible to remedy any
of those defects by legislation ? On this subject
something might be learnt from the free States of
America and the Continent, though he thought
nothing could be learnt from the autocratic States
of Europe. (Hear.) It was not to France or Aus-
tria, or even to Prussia, that they were to look.
In those countries they were labouring to prop up
old systems and seeking to stereotype the past ;
but we were looking to the future. We saw tha,t
the great mass of the people were passing into
power. We saw it not only without dismay, but
with pleasure, as a development of the greatness of
this nation. (Cheers.) We said to those masses,
" So far as you are prepared for power, have it at
once; and so far as you are not, we will facilitate
your preparation for it." (Cheers.) The autocratic
Powers may develope best the machinery of edu-
cation, but freedom developes best the spirit of
education. (Cheers.) England is the only civilised
country in which the system of education has no
element of compulsion. Even in the New England
States the State Legislatures look into the affairs
of the townships, and compel the initiative to be
taken by any township'which is found deficient in
education. Now, he thought we might take this
hint, and so far supplant the system of subsidising
as to provide that, when the inspectors reported a
want of education in any part of England, the board
in London should have the power to send to that
locality, and to require them to make provision for
the education of the people. Let them have time—
twelve months, say—to elicit voluntary action, but
if that was not done, then let the central power
direct that the ratepayers should provide a school,
and decide among themselves what kind of a school
it should be. (Hear.) Many were afraid of too
much centralisation, but it was, in truth, impossible
to succeed without a mixture of the central and
local influence. (Hear, hear.) In the United
States they had eliminated religious instruction
from their schools, and there was a preva-
lent notion that they conducted it cheaper in con-
sequence, but the fact was that the cost of educa-
tion in New England was very nearly the same as
in England, where the religious teaching was be-
lieved to cause an enormous cost. (Hear.) He
hoped they would go on for ever discouraging them-
selves by disparaging what was 6.7ointi on' in Eng:.
land and exaggerating what was' going on in fo-
reign countries. (Rear.) In preparing for this
occasion he had been astouaded at tl}e exaggera-
tions of which the description'of education in fo-
reign countries mainly consisted. (Hear.) In the
case of the United States he found from their own
' writers that there were great defects in their mode
of teaching; and in Canada loud complaints were
heard of the inferiority of the school commissions.
: in point of education. Looking to the continent of
Europe, they found the strongest symptoms of im-
- perfect education. They heard of the grossest su-
perstitions, and in times of . constitutional trial of
- violent agitation. In England it was found that
the social struggles which were inseparable from a
free community, and even expressed its health,
were conducted without violence. They had seen
a great struggle between employers and employed,
and he asked whether in thatstruggle; there had