The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-14 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL EXPENDIIURE.

BARNSLEY, WEDNESDAY MORNING.
The annual meeting of the Mechanics' Institution
was held last night. The attendance was very large,
and the extensive hall was crowded in every part.
The chair was taken by Mr. Edward Aldam Lea-
tham, one of the members for Huddersfield. After
the tables had been removed,
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the business of the
meeting, said,—Ladies and gentlemen, I think it was
one of Sterne's observations that, when a man had
once resolved upon his subject, the text, " Cappa-
docia, in Pont us, and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,"
was as good as any in the Bible. (Laughter.) We
see the truth of this every day in our lives. People
are constantly having " Cappadocia, Foetus, and
Asia," for a text, and then, in pulpits and out of
them, preaching sermons upon every possible sub-
ject under the sun. Nor do I think that this is a
practice altogether to be condemned, especially when
there is but a small choice of texts, or when the text
chosen happens to have been pretty thoroughly
preached from already. Now, when theseinsti-
tutes were first founded, those who advocated their
establishment had excellent texts to preach from,
and very good sermons they preached. They had a
great deal to say about the advantages of popular
education, and so long as anybody doubted those
advantages they got on well enough, because there
is nothing like a little opposition for a good cause.
It is said that even steamboats make the best way
against a light head-wind—the draught gets the
steam up ; but when they had talked down all op-
position, the speakers upon these occasions began to
find that they might become as eloquent as they
pleased upon the advantages of popular education,
yet somehow or other the audience forgot to cheer,
or, if they did cheer, it was evidently in the kind-
ness of their hearts, lest the speakers should feel
uncomfortable, or should hear them yawn. (Loud
cheers.) The speakers then began to see
whether they could not get something more
out of " Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia," than
appeared on the surface, and whether they could
not use these anniversaries for something else
than the mere reiteration of sentiments such as
"Knowledge is power," which I now see before me
—very excellent sentiments in their way, but
which by constant repetition have become almost
as flat as—what shall I say ?—as charity sermons,
or the performance of street organs. (Laughter.)
We all know that " Pop goes the weasel" is a very
animated tune when we hear it for the first time,
but when it reaches the one-hundredth performance
we begin to wonder in what the charm consists;
and when a reverend native gentlemen is labo-
riously going over his twentieth sermon in aid of
the evangelisation of the Cannibal Islands, why,
some of us—l know I do, although it may be wrong
—begin to wish that his fellow-countrymen had
eaten him, for the sake of mere change, (Laugh-
ter.) But suppose that this evening we leave for a
few minutes the consideration of the advantages of
popular education, and turn to the topics which,
closely allied to popular education, lie on every
side around the educated man, and which, there-
fore, I think, ought to be interesting to every in-
telligent member of this institute. (Hear, hear.)
Now you will say I am going to talk party politics.
I only wish I could ; I only wish that most odious,
but at the same time indispensable regulation, did
not exist which excludes from our discussion almost
every question on which a human being can take a
fervent interest; but so long as the rule is there
we have but one choice before us, and that is to
obey it. When we consider how greedy a thing
party is, how apt it is to avail itself of every ques-
tion upon which it can fasten and thrive, we shall
see how limited must be the class of questions still
open to our consideration. (Hear, hear.) How-
ever, some there are which have hitherto happily
escaped being surveyed and appropriated by party,
but which probably do not yield in importance to
many of those over which it has fought its sternest
fights. Take, for example, the question of the na-
tional expenditure. (Hear.) You may say to me,
" What connexion has that question with the object
of the preserAt meeting ?" I suppose that in the first
plt_tced ought to show that it is not a question of party
-polities. If anybody wants to know that, he has only
to go to the House of Commons and mark the unani-
mity with which men of almost every shade of poli-
tical opinion troop into the lobby in order to record
their votes for the bigger sum, if any unsophisti-
cated person shall have been foolish enough to
doubt the wisdom of a particular item in the expen-
diture and propose a smaller one. (Cheers.) And if
he wants further confirmation he shall find it in the
composition of the ridiculous minorities upon those
occasions ; he will find they are composed of per-
sons taken from every part of the house. The great
function of Parliament is, as we all know, to tax
the people through their representatives; and, to
judge from the cheerful alacrity with which that
function is exercised, one would suppose that the
harder we exercised it the better every one would
be pleased. (Hear, and laughter.) But suppose that
one tithe of the intelligence and ability which
people bestow upon the accumulation of the where-
withal to pay taxes was devoted to the considera-
tion of the question of how far those taxes are just
and necessary. (Hear, hear.) I can conceive that in
that case this grand function of which I have
spoken would be performed with much less levity
than it sometimes is, and with far greater regard
to the pockets of those whose interests, by a plea-
sant fiction, we are supposed to go to Westminster
to represent. (Loud cheers.) See how vast this
question of the national expenditure is becoming.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer told us last spring
that the public expenditure had risen above the
figures at which it stood seven years ago by no less
a sum than 20 millions sterling. It is very difficult
to conceive what is meant by 20 millions sterling,
but perhaps you may form some estimate of what
must be the effect of such an additional burden upon
the resources of the country from the fact that 20
millions sterling is supposed to be the sum which
the nation lost owing to the bad corn crop of last
year. (dear, hear.) That, as you will remember,
was a season of unprecedented inclemency, and had
it been followed by another equally unpropitious it
is almost impossible to realise the disasters that
would have ensued. (Hear.) Money would have
risen to a fabulous price, trada would have been
crippled, multitudes would have been thrown out
of employment, and only sedition and crime would
have grown strong (cheers); and it is a consideration
the importance of which can scarcely be exagge-
rated
that the same figures should denote the in-
crease in the expenditure of the country during
seven short years, and the whole fall from prosperity
to comparative scarcity—the whole loss which the
the nation sustained by a season more inclement
and more untoward and disastrous than any which
the present generation can remember. (Cheers.)
You may be
into ask me what connexion
with th
these facts have the object of the present meet-
ing. Well, we are met
moral and intellectual are
wellbeingw e
not,
to promote the
of the people ?
(Hear, hear.) Now, it has been
the
that the
moral and intellectual condition
of he)
e opprl e
jboehanr
a direct ratio to their physical comfort.s
son used to say that every man was . •
a villain when
he was sick, and although I will not go so far as to
say that every man is a villain when he is Poor, I
will say that the principle of evil within him has
great odds in its favour when a man is ill-fed,
ill-
clothed, ill-housed, and overworked. (Loud applause.)
Now, by increasing the expenditure of the country
more rapidly than the resources of the country in-
creased—and this has been abundantly proved to be
the case in our own country—what effect do you
produce upon the working man ? You increase
expenditure and diminish capital, and, the popula-
tion remaining the same, the effect of the diminution
of capital is to lower wages. As far as the working
man is concerned, you are burning the candle at
both ends; you are not only compelling him to give
a larger amount to the support of the Government,
but you are decreasing the wages from which he
has to give it. (Hear, hear.) You are, therefore,
decreasing
his physical comfort; and, bearing in
mind that his moral and religious condition depends,
to .
thiuk
wrtam extent, upon his physical comfort, I
shall see that as long as this process goes
" we are re
less int Ir. uderlbg the working man less moral,
mind, th a
Ige'
ne less inclined to cultivate his
n he otherwise' would be, and

therefore less willing and able to avail him-
self of those benefits which institutions like this
place within his reach. (Cheers.) There is another
question suggested by that which I have just
glanced at, which may become, at any moment, one
of gigantic importance, because it may any moment
cease to be an abstract one. That is the question
of peace and war ; and I don't hesitate to say that
if this country should be involved in war with a
great neighbouring nation, not only all that we
have done, all that you have done here, but all that
has been done by every similar institution through-
out the country will be undone. (Applausf ) The
country itself will be arrested in its path of im-
provement and civilisation, and the mind of the
people will, in all probability, be thrust back from
all the ground which, during so many years, with
so much labour and so much patience, we have all
been struggling to win. (Cheers.) New, what is
the advantage—the great, the incalculable advan-
tage which is to outweigh calamities such as these ?
Why, the chance—for it is but a chance—that you
may prevent the Emperor of the French from ac-
quiring—by negotiation, mind you, not by force—
an island in the Mediterranean Sea, or a petty pro-
vince upon the Rhine. And it is for this we are to
go to war; and I suppose it is in anticipation of
this that eminent personages, high in the confidence
of their Sovereign, make big speeches at little ports.
(Hear, hear.) Were it not that from causes less
grave than this some of the direst calamities that
have befallen our race have sprung, it would seem
puerile, almost idiotic, to imagine the case which I
have just put; but all experience proves, however,
not only that such a case is very possible, but that,
unless the nation which is about to be victimised is
forewarned in time, it is very probable. From such
a probability, so long as his reason is undisturbed
by passion, man shrinks as from the contemplation
of some great crime; and great criminals will they
be who, knowing all these things—knowing what
must be the cost of war—knowing that the empire
the supposed aggrandisement of which they profess
to combat rests upon no stable foundation, but pro-
bably upon the life of a single individual—shall
persist in involving this nation in calamities and
difficulties from which no man living can extricate
it, and the issue from which no man living can
foresee. (Applause.) Now, my reasons for referring
to this subject are these :—The first is, because I
feel that an attempt is being made to prepare the
public mind for a policy which must eventuate in
war ; and the second is because the time is happily
gone by when it rested with a knot of statesmen
exclusively to dictate the foreign policy of the coun-
try. (Hear, hear.) Fifty years ago it would have
made little difference what might have been the
opinion, for example, of the present audience upon
questions of foreign policy, but, thanks to the estab-
lishment of these institutions, to the teaching of
innumerable schools—perhaps more than all to the
institution of the cheap press—the time has passed
away when a Parliament, a Cabinet, or a solitary
Minister, could exclusively control the foreign policy
of the country. (Loud cheers.) And thus, while
speaking as I do in the presence of persons who,
whether they possess direct political power or not,
must, in proportion to their intelligence, influence
the opinion of all the rest, and speaking as I do on
an occasion upon which we are met to commemorate
the progress of that intelligence, I make no apology
for adverting to an event, the recurrence of which
may efface every triumph which not only this, but
every kindred institution has achieved. (Pro-
longed applause.) Nor is it possible to estimate
what may be the consequences of even a temporary
debasement of the class upon whose moral and in-
tellectual wellbeing, perhaps more than upon that
of any other, the safety and glory of the empire
depend. I think it was Mr. Bright who once elo-
quenCy said that it was not in the palace, that it
was not in the feudal keep, that it was not in the
ancestral hall, but in the cottage in every age and
every country that the nation had dwelt. And I
might go further, and say that, whatever may be
the qualities of those who dwell in palaces and
ancestral halls, it is the gladness of the cottage
which in every age and country constitute the true
glory of the commonwealth. (Loud cheers.) No
doubt the splendour of a nobility, the magnificence
of the great, wise statesmen, skilful artists, great
poets, may confer a certain lustre upon the race
whose sons they are and from whom they sprung ;
but unless the national greatness be based upon
something more than this—unless, at the
same time, the heart of the people be sound and
in its right place—unless the mind of the people
be exalted and refined—unless the condition of the
people be one of independence, comfort, and self-
respect, and unless the love of God and their
fellow-men be shed abroad in their hearts, you may
have wise statesmen in your Cabinet, a noble
monarch upon your throne, pomp in your courts,
and luxury in your capitals; your fleets may tra-
verse every sea, your soldiers may triumph upon
every shore, but there is a worm at the root of your
civilisation, and the days of your prosperity are
numbered. (Protracted applause.) These are con-
siderations which we cannot affect or afford to
neglect in forming our estimate of the greatness
and permanence of States. (Hear.) But, most of
all, we should bear them in mind when, as now,
there are indications of the approach of one of those
great periodical tempests which involve the whole
civilised world, and in which nations perish or grow
strong. (Applause.) It would be a nice investiga-
tion to ascertain how it is that revolutions never
occur alone, and how it is that at points the most
distant, and among peoples the most dissimilar, a
simultaneous movement takes place, resulting in
some instances in the modification and development
of political institutions, and in others in the down-
fall of dynasties and the disruption of empires.
These periods of change are almost universally pre-
ceded by periods of restlessness and uneasiness
among the population corresponding to the area
over which the storm is about to rage. At this
moment these symptoms are making themselves felt
everywhere. In America the storm has burst already.
We know what has been passing in Italy. We turn
to Hungary and to Poland, even to Turkey and
Russia, and we see a modification of the same symp-
toms. Dues any one suppose that a country which is
the very centre of free opinion, at a moment when
the whole civilised world is beginning to tremble
with the pulsations of a new and sudden life, can
remain sleeping in indolence alai altogether insen-
sible to the universal vibration? (Hear.) If any
one thinks so he is probably misled by what is
called the apathy which upon the question of
politics appears at the present moment to have fallen
upon the people; but what if this quiesence, in it-
self so unnatural, should be but the lull which pre-
cedes the storm ? It certainly has been so on pre-
vious occasions, and all experience proves that it
may be so ; and, if there is any truth in this anti-
cipation, we are about to enter-1 do not say this
year, or the next year, but within a few years—
into one of those great periodical times of change,
and we shall enter them under very different con-
ditions from those under which we have passed
through them formerly. It is a very happy thing
that there are much less than there used to be ofi
matters which can either constitute or be construed
into grievances. There is far more knowledge among
the people now than there was either in 1832 or
1846, when they last tried conclusions with the
ptnhaitretysere .aoffetrye.sistance, and, while in that knowledge
timesw itieh that
and where
therei it
ha:
lest the arm
an agitationsfahcatsionnot always been the case in
Ttihmeer,ehh.aavveelbedeepnactrirtcioutms circumstances
which,
s vast
o t e
themselves n t t might
al
tomarpteTioomphwfiaeesttr.: at the same time there is infi-
nite
work of their own hands. rgveheptleatse ter ika
and
d andto restore,
es
shtiovreer,
vebpe moments whend the leaders of
Moreotha
nity and safety of the empire
tremble in the balance ; and if there '
aghast at the
har;t:mese the dig-
nity
to
is any man in
this company who from the recurrence of that in-
evitable agitation—for it is only a question of time
—fears peril to the State, let him apply himself to
removing that ignorance in which is danger, and
to let light upon which is safety, from the masses
of the people, from whose hearts and
rtnadtihstosu, orgh great
statesmen, more than from great poets, skilful
statesmen, proceed in crises su(Cchheaserst.)hese
lfththeiisrre-
-
sistible current of events.
our endeavour, and if our efforts be crownuepdowniuth
proportionate success, the stoon my burst

—it may shake to the foundations many things
which we admire, but which we cannot venerrAte ;
but I feel convinced it will pass away, leaving
neither desolation nor mourning behind it, but
bracing all things that were great and noble in the
character of our people, and adding new life to the
State, new lustre to the Crown, and glorious cen-
turies to the history of England. (The hon. gen-
tleman resumed his scat amid loud and protracted
cheering.)

The remainder of the evening was devoted to a
concert, which was very successful.

THE NEW EDUCATIONAL CODE.

On Tuesday, the annual meeting of the Worces-
tershire Union of the Educational Institutes was
held at Great Malvern. There was a morning meet-
ing for the transaction of business, a public dinner,
and an evening meeting.
At the evening meeting the chair was taken by
the Rev. G. Fisk, vicar of Malvern, and on the
platform were Lord Lyttelton, the Right Hon. Sir
J. Pakington, M.P., Hon. and Rev. W. H. Lyttel-
ton, Hon. and Rev. S. Best, Mr. E. Holland, M,P.,
Sir E. A. H. Lechmere, Sir H. Lambert, Mr. L.
Baker, and others. Lady Emily Foley and other
ladies were present.
After an address from the PRESIDENT,

Lord LYTTELTON moved the first resolution, as
follows :—"That mechanics' institutes are worthy of
every support, as aiding the cause of education, and
that their combination in local and central unions
greatly increases their efficiency." It had been
computed that about 800 speeches were made per
annum in mechanics' institutes ; he thought this was
a low estimate, for he believed there were as many
as 800 institutes in the country, and he thought
it a low estimate to give three or four speeches to
each. (Hear, hear.) After some allusions to the
report of the committee, the noble lord made a re-
mark or two on the new code—a subject which he
said had become so common a one for discussion
that it had begun to be spoken of almost as a part of
the alphabet, " R. C." standing now, not for "Roman
Catholic," but a very different thing, " Revised
Code." Any one who knew how this revised code
was likely to affect the interests of almost all the
schools in the country would not be surprised at the
interest which prevailed in regard to that subject.
A person who had gradually learnt to swim was not
considered in much danger when in the water; but if
a person who was floating upon two enormous blad-
ders had one or both of them suddenly removed from
under him, they would not be surprised at what
should become of him next. (Hear, hear.) That was
just the position in which they had been placed by
the revised code. If the Government had years ago
called on the country to do something in the way of
education, no doubt a good deal would have been
done in answer to that call ; but the Government
not having done that, but having given large pecu •
niary support to elementary education, considerable
alarm was naturally felt at the withdrawal of that
support. There was one particular point in this new
code which bore most directly on the interests of
mechanics' institutes, he meant that provision of
which the immediate effect would be to withdraw
children from the elementary schools at an earlier
age than they now were. This regulation had ex-
cited the greatest perplexity and surprise, and had
created a wider gulf than before between the period
when the children left the elementary school and the
period when they joined the mechanics' institute,
and it added one more difficulty in the way of keep-
ing children at school as long as they ought to be.

The Hon. and Rev. S. BEST seconded the reso-
lution.

Mr. E. HOLLAND, M.P., moved the next resolu-
tion :—" The meeting has heard with great satisfac-
tion the report of the Worcestershire Union of
Educational Institutes, and that the union
is worthy of continued encouragement and sup-
port." Mr. Holland spoke of the value of
night schools, as illustrated in his own parish of
Dumbleton.

Mr. LLOYD BAKER, in seconding the resolution,
apologised for not having taken any active part in
mechanics' institutions, and said that although he
had been so taken up with his one idea of reforma-
tory work, yet he felt a very strong wish for the
prosperity of education institutes generally.

• Sir J. PAKINGTON moved the next resolution
" That the benefits of mechanics' institutes would
be greatly enhanced by the association with them
of night schools and evening classes." In speaking
to this resolution the right hon. baronet noticed the
fact that there had been a decline of evening classes
in connexion with the institutes associated in this
union. He quoted from the organising master's
report the following passage :—" The organising
master cannot allow this report to close without
expressing his conviction that, with the exception
of Dudley and Hanley Castle, not one institution
visited is fully alive to the importance of evening
classes." What he wanted to point out in reference
to this passage was the fact that, in the whole range
of the county of Worcester, if they desired to point
out two spots directly opposed to each other in re-
spect to population and occupation, those would be
Dudley and Hanley Castle, the former being a
densely populated town, and the latter a thinly
populated rural village. He thought this report
showed that the town and rural population were
equally open to derive benefit from these evening
classes. After remarking on some other features in
the report, Sir John said it afforded him unusual
pleasure in being able to address that meeting in
terms of congratulation, because he was sorry to
say that the meetings which had taken place dur-
ing the present autumn in connexion with the
great question of education had not generally been
marked by anything like the language of congra-
tulation—(hear, hear)—but, on the contrary, they
assumed a desponding tone, and that was owing to
the R. C., which had already been alluded to, and
which for the benefit of the uninitiated he
would call the Revised Code. It arose from a
feeling of apprehension in the public mind that the
e R. C." would not be so favourable to the spread
of education as the "o.C."—he meant the old code.
This was a subject of the most pressing importance.
He had said on other public occasions, and he would
repeat it now, that he desired to avoid committing
himself to any general opinion on the revised code
until he had heard, and for himself, he• might say,
until he had taken part in those discussions in Par-
liament, to which, at an early period, it must inevi-
tably lead. (Hear.) He should be guilty of a breach
of public duty if he were now, before he had heard
the explanations of the Minister—if he were so far
to commit himself by expressing any opinion at
those meetings which might preclude him from ex-
ercising an impartial judgment, when as a member
of Parliament he should be called upon to express
his opinions in his place. (Applause.) But he did
not think that honourable adherence to that prin-
ciple precluded him from saying that so far as he
was able, without hearing the statement of the Mi-
nister, and without applying his own judgment to
what he saw in the House of Commons if he thought
proper—he had no hesitation in saying that he
shared largely in that adverse feeling and that feel-
ing of alarm which he felt to be general among the
Merida of education in this country. (Hear.) When
he heard a speech or read in a newspaper statements
made by candid speakers that they entirely ap-
proved the principle of the revised code, they were
always accompanied with a reservation. "I approve
the principle," they would say, "but condemn the
details." Why, this was altogether a question of
details. It entirely turned on detail. There was not
a principle at issue. Let them test that by that
part of the new code which excited their disappro-
bation more than another—he meant the proposal
that hereafter assistance should be rendered to
schools according to results—the principle of pay-
ment by results, as it was called—assistance being,
given to the merits of the schools as tested by exa-
mination. At first sight there appeared nothing ob
jpoebucibteilecietnasfbhulnoeuds inla this principle ; it appeared right that
gbievegnivefnoratchceorpdng
riomottoionthoefsuacsepesescifiinc
attaining that object. This was theoretically good,
and therefore the question became one of detail.
How did they apply their principle ? And here he
reserved the right of private judgment. But if they
looked to the mode by which that principle was to
be applied it was to be applied in a manner which
had excited universal alarm. And for two reasons

1 —first, it was alleged that it would create a degree
of uncertainty such ES to make it almost impossible
for any one to undertake the conduct of a school ;
and it would also prevent inferior and district
schools from coming under its operation. The second
objection was that the scale of allowances was such
that the amounts now given would be greatly re-
duced, and he (Sir John) had the authority of Sir
James Kaye Shuttleworth (who had published a
pamphlet, in the shape of a letter to Earl Granville,
on the subject) for saying that the average reduc-
tion in amount of assistance rendered to the schools
of England would not be less than two-fifths of that
which they had hitherto received. (Hear). He
could not give a higher authority than this, for no
man had so good a right to criticise the operation
of this change as Sir James Kaye Shuttleworth.
(Hear.) Then there vas another question, which
undoubtedly would have to be explained in the
House of Commons. He (Sir John) had himself
heard the Minister of Education explain in his place
in Parliament what the effect of this revised code
was to be, and he had heard him say that it would
be merely a change in the mode of assistance. Per-
haps he might be going too fir if he were to say
that this statement, coming from the lips of a Minis-
ter speaking in his official position—perhaps he
should be going too far if he said it came on his part
as a pledge; but he (Sir John) did not go too far—
and he thought any person of common understand-
ing would confirm his impression when he said he
did not go too far—in saying that England had no
right to expect after this explanation that, instead of
the change being merely a change in the mode of as-
sistance, practically it would be a reduction of two-
fifths of the amount of assistance hitherto afforded to
the schools. If he were to go into any extended obser-
vations on these propositions be should far exceed the
limits which it would be fair for him to confine himself
to on the present occasion ; but one of the proposed
changes bore on the resolution in his hand ; he al-
luded to the extraordinary proposal—extraordinary
in the absence of explanation—that no assistance
would be given for any boy after he was 11 years
old. They would really suppose from this that the
great practical difficulty in educating the people
had been to prevent boys staying too long at school,
instead of the reverse. He knew the friends of
education would feel that it would be the pressing
duty of Parliament when it met to ask what this
change really meant—whether it was meant as a
bona fide improvement, or as an economical contri-
vance; whether it was an attempt to make educa-
tion more efficient, or whether the object was to
enable the Chancellor of the Exchequer to go to
Parliament and say he only wanted so much less
money than before for educational purposes. (Hear,
and cheers.) Was it a confession that the Privy
Council system had broken down, that it was too
costly and too centralised, and that it could not
carry out the great work it had commenced ? Those
were questions which would have to be considered
by Parliament, and which justified him (Sir John)
in saying that the present moment was a very anxi-
ous one for the friends of education. (Hear.) They
must remember that their work was not half done;
they had 7,090 assisted schools, but 16,000 unas-
sisted, and they had it stated that those unassisted
schools were of so inferior a character that they
hardly deserved to be considered as part of the edu-
cational institutions of the country. He hoped, and
he believed, that this country would not submit to
or tolerate any retrograde action on this great sub-
ject. (Hear.) He believed that to be the univer-
sal feeling of the country ; but he also believed he
was speaking the sense of the nation when he said
that he wanted no extravagant expenditure, nor
did he desire to relieve altogether individuals
from the duties which devolved upon them in this
respect; and, at all events, he did want that they
should have some system of education kept on
foot which should reach every corner of the coun-
try and benefit every class of the people. (Hear,
hear.) That was no more than they had a right to
expect should be done, and he could not believe that
public feeling would submit to the arrest of that
progress which had taken place in the education of
the people. Ho would not touch on the question
whether the means that had been adopted to the
end were the best that could be devised ; but, no
doubt, they had made great progress, and public
opinion would not tolerate that that progress should
be arrested. There was a time, which most of them
must remember, when some people were afraid of
education. He had no doubt that they might find
at this moment here and there an elderly lady—he
begged pardon, gentleman—(a laugh)—who was
afraid of it, and who exclaimed, " Where is this
education nonsense to end ? Every little girl now
expects to be a lady, and every boy to be a gentle-
man, and we can get no servants." (A laugh.) But
if any of these elderly gentlemen were present, he
would ask the question of them whether they really
thought that it was a part of the design of a bene-
ficient Creator that one-half of the people of the
country should be kept in ignorance and in dark-
ness in order that the other half might have good
servants. (Hear.) Then he would also ask such
persons this question—lf they were in want of a
servant and had two applicants for the situation,
the one ignorant and uninstructed, and the other
well-bred and proportionately intelligent, which
would they take. (Hear, hear.) He thought the
answer would settle the question, but he waelappy
to say that day was
gone by when any such ques-
tion could be raised. The only question now left
was, which was tho best mode of accomplishing the
object which the country had unanimously in view?
That problem had still to be decided. Let them all
hope that it would be decided with wisdom and
calmnesss, and that there might be no more com-
plaint that the rich districts had assistance while
the poor districts were unable to obtain it.
Alluding to the fact that juvenile population
were removed early from school, in order that
they might betake themselves to profitable in-
dustry, the right hon. baronet said they had in
this fact an unanswerable argument in
favour :of these mechanics' institutes. It was
their duty to do all they could to promote the suc-
cess of those institutes, which offered the best
sustitute for continuous education, and the best se-
curity that in after-life their working population
would not find that the early training they had
received had became useless and forgotten. (Cheers.)

The Rev. W. WALTERS seconded the resolution.
Other resolutions were moved and seconded by
Sir E. Lechmere, the Hon. and Rev. W. Lyttel-
ton, the Rev. Canon Melville, and other speakers,
and the proceedings closed after 10 o'clock.

A HUNTER, AN I) HOW TO CHOOSE 11131.

In looking for an average hunter, you will have
to disregard many points which were of vital im-
portance in your hack, but will be of only secon-
dary consideration here. Amongst these may be
enumerated elegance of shape and gaudy action.
A head need not be particalatly small, so that it be
put on in the right form, and the countenance in-
telligent and indicative of good temper. A good
goer is always acceptable, and in a hunter is desir-
able, as you must have many a weary mile of road
work after the business of the day is done ; but the
action is of a different kind, nearer the ground,
less nervous, and more for use than show. It
is perfectly true that a hunter must be, for his
special purpose, quite as well shaped as a hack ;
but he need not be so adapted to catch tLe general
eye. his shoulders must be unexceptionable, his
quarters muscular and lengthy; his back should,
therefore, be short for his size, and his girth deep.
If depth and thickness go together, so much the
better ; but depth alone will carry weight, when
aided by other circumstances. Short legs are the
natural result of such formation. The hocks
should be large and flat, with as little fleshy
excrescence upon them as possible. "No foot, no
horse," is an old saying. Manners in a hunter is
the sine qua non ; you ride him in a crowd ; you
must stop him at his fences and in gateways; you
must pull him up in the height of excitement ;
you must hold him when you come to grief; and
must walk over one place, and gallop at another ;
you must blow your nose; wait for your friends;
cut down your enemies; catch gates on the swing ;
turn a hound; and avoid turning them over when
an unexpected check finds you right in their wake.
A souppon of warmth in a hack is the pleasantest
thing alive • you feel that you are up to the mark.
Such a qualification in a hunter negatives all his
good qualities, and only makes him the more
disagreeable. A hunter is essentially different
from a hack ; and you may, in a few words,
substitute length for roundness, power for
elegance, and steady business for show.—From
Hacks and Hunters in "Baily's Magazine of Sports
and Xastitnes," for November.