The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-25 00:00:00

incurred in losing its relative position, and I am sure that
experience must arouse us and compel us to say that at this
moment in many parts of the country—and I would venture
to speak more particularly of some of the manufacturing
and commercial districts—the lower middle classes, and
even something above the lower middle classes, are in dan-
ger of being supplanted and outstripped in this race of lousi-
ness and of life, owing to the great advantages that have
been made by the great masses of the population, especially
the rising generation, and the want of corresponding advan-
tages by the lower middle classes. Ido not believe that
any danger will ever arise to any community from excess,
or I would rather say from an abundance of education in
quantity, provided only the quality be good, and the distri-
bution just. Of late years I think we may say that the
higher classes have received no inconsiderable stimulus. A
great change in our political constitution some thirty
years ago has brought the higher classes throughout the
country, and especially in the sphere of public life, into
close and immediate connection and fair competition with
the middle classes of the community. What has been the
result of that competition. I think 1 may ven-
ture to speak as a witness, and I state, and state con •
fidently, that the result of it has been to stimulate the ex-
ertions of that higher class in the fulfilment of public and
social duty. But in so stimulating the exertions and calling
for its powers, which were necessarily called forth in that
competition, it strengthened—not weakened—strengthened
and confirmed the position of that higher class in the esteem
of their countrymen, and in the exercise of their great so-
cial power and influence. There is a class, however, which,
lying between the wealthy portion of the community and
the poorer, has not yet received its fair share of attention.
It is right, if we move forward, that we should move for-
ward all together—(cheers)—and we owe it to those friends
whose efforts we have met to-day to encourage, that they
have aimed, and I believe aimed with success, in directing
public attention to a flaw and a defect in our proceeding
which has not as yet met with a full and adequate remedy,
viz., this, that while the political movements which have
taken place have put the upper classes of England upon their
mettle, and while the liberality of the legislature has been the
means of greatly bringing forward the lower classes of the
population—the literality of the legislature, I must not say
alone, but aided in the main by the self-devotion and self-sa-
crifice of the clergy—whilst this has taken place in theitft**
great portions of society, up to the present time there have
been no corresponding efforts, and no corresponding advan-
tages have been achieved among those who are too high in
the social scale to take advantage of the benefits conferred
by the national schools, and too low in the scale to take ad-
vantages either of the grammar schools or the universities
of the country. (Hear.) We may say with truth that it is
but fair that we should recollect that that class for which
we are now pleading is the only needy class. The wealthy
or the comparatively wealthy portion of the community de-
rive immense advantages from the foundations which are
furnished by our universities, our public schools, and our
grammar schools, while the power portion of the community
derive immense pecuniary aid both from the indulgent libe-
rality of others and from the direct action of the public ex-
chequer. But there is a class which up to this moment
may with truth be called the only unaided class of the com-
munity, and which on that ground has the strongest pos-
sible claims on our exertions ; and were it for no other pur-
pose than to place them on a footing of relative equality
to the rest of their fellow-countrymen, I think that
alone justifies the attempt. (Cheers.) What are the
schools then to be, for which we are called on
to give our aid as well as our hearty and cordial verdict of
approval. I must say I cannot but a imire the thoroughly
English spirit in which Mr. Woodard has addressed him-
self to his work. (Cheers.) He desires that these schools
shall be cheap, and at the same time self-supporting. While
he has justly limited his demand to the necessities of the
case, he does not ask you to become the permanent almoners
of these schools. When they are in full action they will be
self-supporting schools, but he asks the University to give
them the powerful aid which its recognition will convey.
(Cheers.) Above all, he seeks to give this portion of the
community the immense advantage over and above all
other considerations of what we call and thoroughly know
by the name of public schools. (Cheers.) There is nothing,
I believe, which to foreign ears has a greater sound of pa-
radox than the lanuage of an Englishmyn when he speaks
of the benefit of public education. It certainly does seem
that if there is not an exclusive, yet that there is almost an
exclusive, adaptation of this peculiar institution to the soil
—I may say the moral soil—the moral and social climate of
England. It is not necessary for us to ask whether they_are
institutions well suited for the world "at large. Our own
particular sphere is large enough, God knows for ourselves,
and for our humble and feeble efforts ; but we do know that
for centuries past these institutions have taken such root
in England that although they owe their existence only to
the action of private motives and private liberality, yet
there is no law on the statute book, no law or portion of
the legislative government of the country which is more
distinctly and more pertinaciously asserted in this nation
than the necessity :of that institution which we call our
public schools. (Cheers.) While we desire that knowledge
should be communicated, we desire also that it should be
imparted in an atmosphere of freedom ; while we desire that
discipllne should be receiv _d by the young, we desire also
that that discipline should not deviate or diverge into a ser-
vile, mechanical obedience. (Cheers.) We desire that edu-
cation should grow up in conjunction with fre.iclom, because,
in point of fact, freedom is an essential constituent of human
virtue—(cheers)—and it is following the constitution which
the Almighty has given to the human race when we say that
we will, even in the training of the young, combine the im-
parting of knowledge with the allowance of every opportu-
nity for the exercise of self-control, with the exercise of
thought and reflection, even within those limited spheres of
public opinion which tend to repress the waywardness and
the selfishness of individuals by the well-considered convic-
tions of others. (Cheers.) Certainly it was with no small and
no disagreeable surprise that I learnt the results of Mr.
Woodard's efforts in what I should conceive one of the most
difficult parts of his undertaking—namely, the establish-
ment of public schools at so cheap a rate. His figures, I
confess, are startling, and almost alarming; and I think
that his experience in past years is the best proof of what
he will do in future. Whether he will succeed in establishing
schools such as he speaks of,with 1,000 boys, I do not know ;
but if he succeeds in establishing schools that will bear the
same relative position to other schools which the Great
Eastern bears to other ships, I am convinced that they will
enjoy a much more favourable breeze of public opinion, and
many less misfortunes than unhappily the Great Eastern
has had to sustain. (Hear.) There is another point upon
which, as it seems to relate more particularly to my own
occupations at this moment, I may make a remark. I can-
not help stating that I feel a profound admiration for Mr.
Woodard's talents as a financier. (Cheers.) lam not ac-
quainted in any degree with the nature of his establish.
ments, and therefore I must take his budget as he himself
presents it. But lam bound to say that it is a marvellous
thing ; and if it had not been to some degree tested by ex-
perience I should have thought it almost impossible that
for so small a sum as that which is mentioned he should
be able to give such food, such lodging, and such educa-
tion to the young as it is established by undoubted testi-
mony that they receive in these establishments. And that
reminds me of another point. Mr. Woodard may be a good
political economist and an enlightened philanthropist ; but
this I will say, he has sought a deeper source of strength,
because he has taken his ground upon Christian prin-
ciple, Christian love, and Christian self-denial ; and
that very cheapness which he has achieved could not
have been obtained without appealing to higher motives in
order to induce teachers of high attainments and cultivated
minds to give themselves to a work that some would have
found irksome and repulsive. True Christian philanthropy
must have its source in the deepest principles of our religion ;
and those schools which are to be public schools would not
have been worthy of y our support, and would not have de-
served and attained the popularity they enjoy, had they not
also been Christian schools, or had they presented to the eye
the phantom of an undefined and shadowy Christianity. Mr.
Woodard has sought for the source of his strength in the
principles of Christian action, he has based the constitution
of these schools on the Christian laws and institutions of
the country, not on any individual or theoretical estimate
of his own, but on that which we know and understand on
the rule and usage which are agreeable to the ideas and the
history of this university, and the religion and constitution
of the people of England. (Cheers.) I think it a wise
rule that if we are to carry down the principle of public
schools to the lowest parts of society to which they can be
made applicable, so, likewise, we should carry downwards
the application of that important principle that it is desir-
able to keep the education, not only of the higher, but of all
olasses of the community, in the hands and under the
direction of the clergy. (Cheers.) It is not that a lay-
man may not be an able and intelligent teacher, but it
is not reasonable to ask from men in the lower middle
classes that they should themselves institute minute inquiries
into the standard of religious instruction conveyed in every
particular school throughout the country, for it would be
asking what is incompatible with their condition, occu-
pation, and means of judgment. It is our business
to offer them institutions which bear on their very front
and forehead the assurance that within their pre•
cincts is t i be given a religious education, as understood
in the sense in whicn it has ever been understood by the
people of England ; and for that religious education the
communication of instruction in a large part by the clergy
is, in my opinion, an absolute and indispensable security.
(Cheers.) It is from them that wo have a right to expect
conformity to the laws and standards under which they are
to teach, and permit me to say that it is not alone for the
sake of the clergy I desire to see them still discharging in
the main those great functions, but because it is one of the
closest, ono of the most effective, and perhaps one of the
most affectionate bonds of union between the clergy and the
laity; and the reacting influence of the laity through the
machinery of education on the clergy themselves is one of
the main securiti es for that harmony of the great portions
of the Christian community which is indispensable to the
real prosecution of the work of the Church. (Cheers.) It is
not merely that when these schools are opened they should
be placed under the supervision of some one who is called
reverend, but we have a right to expect from the founder of
public schools for the middle classes some security for the
placing them in harmony, not only with what he believes to
be the general sense of the Church, but also with its local
1 institutions distributed throughout the country. (Hear.) I
think therefore that it is as elemehtguy and indispensabl9