The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-22 00:00:00

had been content to labour silently. At Leeds,
however, they might congratulate themselves that 1
their educational progress had been something I
more than a name. When he learned, as he
did from reliable authority, that in the year 1853,
only eight years ago, the schools for the chil-
dren of the labouring classes, excluding all others,
numbered 6,500 pupils, while in 1860 it exceeded
10,000, showing that while in 1853, of the entire
population, there was one in 26 ; while in 1860,
there was more than one in 19 under instruction, it
was no idle compliment to tell them that they had
shown that their hearts were in the work. But it
was precisely because they had shown such a spirit,
because elementary teaching has improved in
amount, and he hoped in quality, that the need
was increased for institutions such as this. A care-
ful local inquiry had established the fact that boys
left school at ten years of age ; and with that fact
it was also stated that youths could earn from ss. to
6s. per week. They were apt to blame parents for
taking their children too early from school ; but it
was only just to recollect the sacrifice of the earn-
ings of the children, which was great in comparison
with the upper and middle classes of society. And
when to that consideration they added the natural
wish for independence on the part of youths them-
selves, their desire to help their parents, or to begin life
on their own account—a desire stronger, he be-
lieved, in this country than in any other, excepting,
perhaps, America—when they considered these
things, they had a right to expect that the time was
passed when a reaction would take place. Still
there was much truth in such statements as that of
Mr. Watkins, that you could no more cram in-
struction, which ought to occupy five or six years,
any more than you can eat in a few meals food that
is to last for a month. Various opinions had been
expressed and would be expressed, about the new
educational code, which was now exciting so much
sensation. It was not his business to discuss it in
that place; but in so far as it tended to confine
school teaching to simply elementary matters,
in so far without entering into the question
of pledges given, or to any personal considerations,
it appeared to him a wise and national measure.
There was one great defect in school discipline
which he should like to see remedied, and that was
the excessive length of school hours. The three
wants of their educational system were a more re-
gular attendance, a limitation of the hours of in-
struction to a moderate amount, and a restriction
of teaching to such subjects as were thoroughly un-
derstood. It had been proved that all parents, ex-
cepting the pauper and criminal population, were
desirous of educating their children. No scheme
for the extension of teaching was likely to succeed
which aimed at superseding in any considerable
degree the exertions of those already in
the field. What we wanted was not so much
to extend the number as to utilise the schools
we had. It was only by giving the
means of carrying on education in later years
that we should create a wish for it. A father who
had left school at 10 years of age would, in 99 cases
out of 100, be very indifferent as to the kind of
teaching his child got. To supply this difficulty it
was that Mechanics' Institutes were established 35
y ears ago. A few of them had succeeded, but the
majority of them had unhappily failed—why, it was
not difficult to see. They mostly began by attempt-
ing to confine themselves to the teaching of pure
science, in which they never could succeed. Then
they relied too much upon lectures. They had to
contend with political and social prejudices, which
did not now exist ; and they arose in days when
working men were less well off than at present,
and had but little leisure for reading, except so
far as concerned their material interests. The
public mind was unprepared for them, and some
of their advocates enforced exaggerated ideas as
to the results that might be expected. Still, he
thought these Mechanics' Institutions did good.
They kept the question of education before the
public ; they helped the first feeble efforts to spread
knowledge ; and they materially assisted the earlier
promoters of cheap literature. In Leeds they had
no occasion to complain. In this 18th year of the
existence of their Institution, they could say that
by its operations nearly 5,000 persons were directly
benefited ; that of those there were 800 in the re-
ceipt of weekly wages ; and that in the department
of art alone, nearly 3,000 were under instruction.
These things had been achieved despite the draw-
backs connected with ,an inconvenient building,
quite inadquate to accommodate the 1,500 mem-
bers. He found, that in connection with the
Oxford Local Examination, the highest place in
the country was occupied by a pupil from Leeds.
This success was not an isolated instance ; for, of
68 candidates, 56 passed, or 82 per cent. of the
whole; while, taking twelve other places, the
average who passed did not exceed 62 per cent.
(Applause.) Leeds contributed the second prize-
man in the competition of those under 18 years
old and the first prizeman under 15 years, and it
was impossible not to feel that the Mechanics' In-
stitution must have had some share in producing
this result. Assuming the means of teaching to be
as stated, and that they were well applied, the
question was, what was to come of it all. As to
the advantage ofelementary teaching nobody raised
a question or dispute ; but it was by some ques-
tioned whether anything beyond this was useful
to those in the class of life from which mechanics
were generally taken. No man doubted the im-
portance of bodily health to the poor man—
' it was capital, it was bread, it was the means
and personal independence. There was no more
real or tangible benefit that could be conferred
upon society than by lessening the rate
of mortality or reducing the causes of disease.
It was estimated that in the United Kingdom
people ought not to die at the rate of more than 17
. in 1,000 yearly; but they did actually die at the
rate of 22 or 23. Thus, in our population of (speak-
ing. roundly) 30 millions,we had 100,000 lives yearly
thrown away. What was the cause ? Not over-
work, not famine, but ignorance on their own part,
or that of society, of the physical laws of our being.
There were unhealthy and dangerous occupations
—trades that could by no means be made other-
wise than unhealthy ; but the number of lives
shortened by actual want was very few, and every
doctor would admit that a very great saving of life
might be effected, if only three or four things were
estimated at their proper, value—pure air,pure water,
good ventilation, and sufficient drainage. These
were things with which it might be said that land-
lords and local authorities had more to do than the
people generally; but if the people understood the
value of such things, there was no danger of land-
lords and local authorities not doing their duty.
Then, the habits of those whose occupations were
sedentary. Few of us were aware how rapidly in-
door work extinguished health and strength, and
in time life itself. Every great city was fed by the
influx of strangers ; few if any of them kept up their
own numbers ; and, startling as the statement was,
it was true. Men might live in masses without
poisoning one another; but to do so they must have
clear ideas as to their bodily frame and its require-
ments ; and that was a kind of knowledge which,
whether for rich or poor, could assuredly never be
out of place. Work would be done the better,
when the workers had taught themselves some-
thing of the theory of what they did. Life
many
ro
apbyri, o lets.
bH in these manufacturing districts was not uni-
form; it was a lottery in which there were
men's ignorance
nce
thatof politicalclass
li
m
r, had a great deal more to do with the rela-
tions n'between capital and labour thant mere ignor-
ance..
He
was
pra
mostti gladve
institutions,to see
by
which movement
i n
favour of comen
were to become their own employers, to share in the
profits of the employing class, and to make them-
selves
hich practically acquainted with the risks w
that class had to run. He rejoiced to see that
movement extending. (Hear.) He did not speak of
encouraging it, because he believed that encourage•
meat was needless, as discouragement would be
aseless: It would make its own way. It ap-
pealed to two of men's strongest feelings—class
independence and the love of speculation ; and
at the present moment, when the coming wintbr
must no doubt bring suffering to many, its
importance could not be over estimated.
He believed that it would restore to these

districts n healthier tone on the labour question
than had prevailed of late years. If this principle
of association was to be acted upon, could we say
that those who aspired to be not merely living tools
with which other men worked, but the managers of
their own concerns, ought not to have as much
knowledge of what the world was thinking and
doing as their means and circumstances would
allow. He said then, that for sanitary improve-
ment, for inventive improvement, for the keeping
up of that manufacturing pre-eminence which we
had won by hard struggles, and which we must
struggle hard not to lose—for the successful work-
ing out of the great social problem with which the
working class was striving to deal—we wanted in-
stitutions such as this. We wanted them because
they supplied a gap in our educational system
which could not otherwise be filled up; we
wanted them because he believed that with-
out their help a great part of the two
millions a year which the State and the
people jointly were spending on the education of
the young would be comparatively thrown away.
We did not suppose that they would effect marvels.
We did not suppose that they would put down
drunkenness or crime ; but we thought it would be
a help to many, a pleasure to more, and a check to
some moral and physical evils, a hindrance out of
the way of self-taught men aspiring to rise in life;
and so thinking, we could proeeed with pleasure to
the principal object of their meeting that night,
that of paying honour in the presence of a vast
concourse, to those who had won distinction in
that institution, and who had thereby become
pledged to a career of honourable exertion, and of
no less honourable ambition. (Loud cheering.)
Speeches were subsequently delivered by Mr. E.
Baines, M.P., Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., and Mr. F.
Crossley, M.P., and others, and the proceedings did
, not close until 11 o'clock.