The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-10 00:00:00

. -
LORD PROUGHAM AT MANCHESTER.

On Tuesday evening the Bight Hon. Lord
Brougham attended the annual meeting of the In-
stitutional Association of Lancashire and Cheshire,
at the Mechanics' Institution, Manchester, on the
invitation of the committee of management, for the
purpose of presenting the prizes awarded to pupils
at the late annual examination. His Lordship was
accompanied by Sir B. Heywood, Bart., Mr.
Cheetham, M.P., Mr. W. Brown, M.P.,. and Mr.
Crook, M. P., and was received on entering with
loud cheers.

His Lordship having taken the chair,
Mr. D. MORRIS read the annual report of the in-
stitution, which stated that 100 literary, mechanics'
and mutual improvement societies were in the as-
n, containing an aggregate of 19,880 male
and 2,150 female, exclusive of day scholars. The
libraries contain 160,800 volumes, and the evening
classes were attended by 8,050 males and 500 fe-
males. Answers to questions to each institute, as
to what were the most attractive features, reported
that in 30 it was the reading-room, in 28 the classes,
iu 11 the library, in two the lectures, in two the
s7nging, and in one (the Patricroft) the coffee—only
75 having answered the question.
There had been 60 members passed at the annual
examination, to whom Lord Brougham now, with
the assistance of Dr. Hudson, presented prizes'and
certificates. Among them were four young women,
one of whom, at Pendleton, had learnt to write in
six months, that she might correspond with her
husband, a soldier.

Lord BROUGHAM, who rose amid great cheering,
then said—l am sure that all who are here pre-
sent will approve what I have just done, though
be attempt has been unsuccessful—namely to call
upon the excellent member for this county, Mr. W.
Brown to express himself what I know he feels, but
rather delegates to me the expression of—his great
satisfaction at what he has seen and heard this
evening. When I name Mr. Brown I name one
who has been a most steady and most effective and
I will add, a most munificent patron of public edu -
cation—(cheers)—not only by the priZes which ho
has given—part of those which have just been dis-
tributed being his gift—but also by that great act
of his in the—l won't call it the neighbouring, still
less the rival, but the friendly town of Liverpool—
(cheers)—a greater act of munificence than which I
never have either seen or heard. (Cheers.) Now,
when last I had the pleasure of addressing you, not
in this building, but in the former residence of the
Mechanics' Institution, 22 years ago, I took leave
to state that there were some things less palatable,
but more wholesome, than mere vague commenda-
tion and. congratulation—somethings which resem-
ble certain drugs that are bitter to the taste, but
may yet—they do'not always, Heaven knows, pro-
duct) a good effect ; and one of those things was to
find fault where fault ought to be found, at the
same time that commendation was given where
praise was due. Upon that occasion I certainly
had great reason—l won't say to blame, but to ex-
press my regret at the very small progress among
our brethren of the working classes which mechan-
ics' institutes, apprentice libraries, and establish-
ments of that most useful, and I. will even add most
necessary description, had. then made, and I said
that many years before that, and it is now upwards
of 35 years since, we who had the first band in es-
tablishing mechanics' institutions in this country
had foundvery great reason to lament the indiffer-
ence with which at first the working-classes of our
fellow subjects received the boon that was held out
to them, and the slowness with which, even after
years and years had elapsed, they profited by these
institutions. 1 am most happy to find that since
that year 1835 there has been very great progress
made in this country, as well as elsewhere, in ex-
tending the benefits of such institutions among
those classes for whom they were more especially
intended. At the time to which I referred, in 1824 1
or 1825, when I took the liberty of issuing an ad-
dress to tho working classes and their employers, I
stated that it was absolutely necessary, in order to
induce the former to take kindly to such institu-
tions, that the management of them should more
or less be left in their hands—(hear)—andit was
proposed that the rule should be that something
like two-thirds or three-fourths, of the committee I
of management should consist of the working men
themselves. (Hear.) To a certain degree this suc-
ceeded, but I afterwards found that my friends in
Carlisle and in other parts of Cumberlanclbut par-
ticularly in Carlisle, for there it had its origin, had
carried it further. My friend Dr. Elliott, who was,
I think, afterwards mayor of the city, and was long
an eminent practitioner there, and a warm friend
of such institutions—he and his friends there had
established as the absolute and peremptory rule
that the whole managing committee, without any
exception whatever, unless it were sometimes a
chairman or vice-chairman, should consist of men
living by weekly wages. Not that those men in
their committee would anyhow disdain the aid that
might be offered them, either by advice or by—l
won't say more substantial aid, for good advice may
be the most valuable of assistance, but by presents
of books, or machinery, or money ; on the contrary,
they would most thankfully and respectfully receive
such presents, as also any hints and suggestions
that might accompany them; but the rule was as
I have said, and I should speak of it as the Cum-
berland rule, because it has been extended to other
institutions than those of Carlisle, and with the
most perfect success. I have made inquiries as to
the present state of that question to which I am
now referring, the question of these institu-
tions being found to benefit not merely. the
middle classes and the upper classes of society,
as in too many places they have been found to
do. Not that I complain of their giving that bene-
fit ; quite the contrary, for the more instruction
and education are promoted among those classes,
so much the better; but my complaint was, and our
complaint at that time generally was, that the be-
nefit was confined to those classes, and did. not
reach our humbler follow-citizens. I have made in-
quiries as to the present state of the casein Carlisle.
I find that the mechanics' institution founded iu
1837, 20 years ago, before this rule was established,
has an excellent library, and excellent room, and
500 members, of whom only 25 are working men.
Then comes 1848, when this rule was first intro-
ducer], and another institution was established,
which has 250 members, of whom 224 aro men sup-
porting themselves by weekly wages, only 6 of the
whole number being other than working men. They
haalivberay
arlibrary of 1,200 volumes. In 1849 another
institutiou was established, with a reading-room and
of 1,000 volumes. Here there are 150
members, all of whom receive weekly wages. And
there are oilier institutions—one of '7O members,
another. of 90, another of 36, another of 30, and an-
other of 12, making altogether, with the 25 in the
original mechanics' institution of 1837, about 640
working
men in the city of Carlisle. A similar re-
suit has taken place in my own immediate neigh-
bourhood of Penrith, and other places in that part
of the Fouotry, and it has extended very much into
the neighbouring counties of Northumberland and
Durham. But in the instance of Carlisle alone 640
working men attending almost every evening in the
week a reading room, and benefiting by the excel-
lent libraries—that number, in a population of
30,000 gives a proportion which, if it were equalled
in the town where I have now the happiness of ad-
dressing you, would be answered by 8,000 or 9,000
working men. But lam sorry to say this is by no
means tne proportion in Manchester, for I believe
the number is not much above 2,000 in this town.
In the other towns in your district, such as Stock-
port and Bolton, and others which are connected
with the association whose
i prizes we have this
evening presented to the pupils, there is, in propor-
tion to the number of inhabitants, a considerably
greater number of working men titan there are
in Manchester itself ; but that is always the
case with very large towns. But that very great
progress is making in all branches of education
there cannot be the least doubt, and one circum-
stance which I have heard with the greatest satis-
faction proves it more than any other. It is that
within the last 10 or 12 years those admirable in-
stitutions the Sunday schools are no longer re•
stricted to more instruction on the Lord's day,
but instruct their pupils on the week days also, so
that hundreds, and I hope very soon wo shall sty