The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-31 00:00:00

THE EARL OP CARLISLE AND THE

BISHOP OF OXFORD.

YORK, WEDNESDAY.

This afternoon an influential meeting, in aid of
the Yorkshire School for the Blind, was held in the
Festival Concert-room in this city, under the presi-
dency of his Grace the Archbishop of York. There
were also present his Excellency the Earl of Carlisle,
K.G., Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, the Bishop of
Oxford, Viscount Falkland, the Right Hon. T. S.
Estcourt, M.P., Mr. R. Monokton Milnes, M.P., Sir
J. B. Johnstone, MT., the Hon. E. Lascelles, M.P.,
the Hon. and Rev. the Dean of York, Canon Vernon
Harcourt, the Rev. W. Wilberforce, Mr. Childers,
Mr. G. Leeman, Lord Mayor of York, Lc. Lord
Brougham, who was prevented by indiposition from
being present, addressed a note to the Archbishop,
in which he stated, " I need hardly say how I
lament my inability to go to York. The subject is
most interesting. Indeed the name of the school
commands my most fixed regard. It remains ever
in my bosom one in which veneration and love strive
for the mastery."

The Yorkshire School for the blind was founded
in 1833 as a memorial to Mr. Wilberforce, but the
subscriptions having recently fallen off it has been
found necessary to defray the current expenses
from the capital fund. The present meeting was
convened by his Grace the Archbishop with the
object of providing for past deficiencies and of se-
curing the future prosperity of the institution.
The Archbishop of YORK, in opening the proceed.
ings, expressed his deep regret •at the absence of
Lord Brougham. He believed, however, that the
disappointment the noble and learned lord felt was
at least as great as the disappointment they felt at
his absence, for the lapse of time had not diminished
the veneration and affection the noble lord felt for
the name of Wilberforce, and had not lessened his
desire to do honour to the memory of one with whom
he had been associated for many years in carrying
on that noble enterprise of giving freedom to the
African race. (Cheers.) He would not dwell at any
length on the object of the meeting, which was to
place the Yorkshire School for the Blind, founded
in honour of the late Mr. Wilberforce, on a more
advantageous footing, to increase its finances and
general usefulness. He thought that to a consider-
able extent it was a reflection upon Yorkshire that
while in the whole of the county they simply con-
tributed £250 a year towards their institution for
the blind, in the single town of Liverpool alone
£650 should be raised. With regard to the future
usefulness of the institution, he might state that it
was proposed to set up workshops, and to provide
the necessary appliances for giving employment to
the adults who left the institution, so as to enable
them to gain an honest livelihood hereafter.

The Earl of CARLISLE then moved the first reso-
lution :—" That subscriptions be entered into and
promoted throughout the county for the purposes
of opening the doors of the Wilberforce School to
the many blind persons needing instruction who
are as yet excluded from it, and for facilitating the
efforts of the blind and skilled adults to obtain a
livelihood." The noble earl said—ln bringing this
resolution under your notice, I may premise that I
am not quite sure that I should be willing to exa-
mine closely whether a mixed feeling has not
brought me here to-day--the claims of positive ab-
stract duty on the one hand, and the claims
of memory and association on the other. I
hope, however, in the short time during which I
shall presume to occupy the attention of this meet-
ing, to show that on both these accounts there were
very good grounds for coming. I will begin with
the claims of memory. The meeting at which I last
assisted on this subject and in this place,
.which
was the meeting also which originated the Wilber-
force School for the Blind, and which took place now
28 years ago, is still at this moment most present
to my eyes. In the chair sat one whom it was my
good fortune to call my kinsman—the Archbishop
of the day—Archbishop Harcourt, whom your Grace
so worthily replaces, and in whom there was very
much which your Grace's own character vividly
recalls. On the right hand of the chair, in the
place I now occupy, stood the then Lord Chancellor
of England, Henry Lord Brougham, who, after a
life of unequalled energy, was then in the highest
position which he as a British subject could attain,
and who, if it had not been for what I trust is a
mere passing indisposition, would have been here
to-day to re-awaken the echoes with his eloquence,
and to rekindle the glow of that ardent philan-
thropy which glows as warmly at the age of 80 as
it did in the hundred fights of the Forum and the
Senate. (Cheers.) On that day there was announced
to us tb,o munificent liberality of Lords Fitzwilliam