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

r

,„„ •
,
- ..:
• '
'`...ic:t, .•
. ..)-41!,- •,
7'4
A 5•••,,,,
VW * 4 `,...
.• - ,
~, (WI •A, ~ , ~,,,,,..„.. ,
f &
i vlS' ,,. i ..L.• . ' • *
--,,. ~..,
-_-_--,,
; .„,
..',..;'''' \ -.".•_-• -5.-44y,-, ..:-, ;.:1 1114 .44441 ..e'"'''' 1r • :riiiti."",..
lA,
.441 sz, 4., sol'.w•k- ''.,•.„. „,., . ~.. ''''.. ~. -
_____ ----,. •
; .
,1,.. .ill• I. ","
. 1 ,E-s- A', ..,. ..._,,, ____ Oii. IV_ 4,' 1411111111. %.,*.e.4%71.411111b` ' •' - vtl, a„,,,,,_ .• 4,7,-,
#11„.---,,/ ,///,7, lk,1
-7--, eitEiVo; •S 1. \ ) ..-"-
0-1
..,`"f"'``.4iii '''') ,' •• 0/ 'IC • 16-° • t 6,0 112017 ' 40 ;4 - ---:-.*
N.----tft:-"b LI. _ . l', , •, , ,/ ,\...zit,.
.... • '' -4111 .
.*. • i; ..
''''''\:er
-'4,;,.`"' ' . ' 4'
/
.... .. . ~.

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 31, 1861.

LORD :111ALMESBURP AND ADMIRAL
WALCOTT AT CHRISTCHURCH.

weight—that oppressive and fatiguing weight—.
which falls upon members of the House of Com-
mons, and, perhaps, sometimes weakens their
energies and their talents. They have the ad-
, vantage, besides all this, of hearing subjects dis-
, cussed not for the first time—of receiving subjects
from the other House ;after they have been well
battered, as it were, and sifted in the other House
of Parliament. They are, therefore, never taken
by surprise—they have ample means of considering
a subject when its shadow has been thrown before
their doors, and they must be men of little ability if
they do not receive those subjects and consider them
with clearness and a judicial spirit. (Hear, hear.)
These are advantages, and I am bound to say,
although I have the honour to be a member of that
body,lthat I believe they have made the best use of
those advantages, and that every subject that does
come before the House of Lords is discussed in the
calmest and best possible spirit, with all the good
humour and good language and all the good breed-
ing, as Mr. Tice has said, which so ornaments a
discussion in a legislative assembly. I should be
sorry indeed if the "roughness" of which he speaks
should be worn off in the other House of Parlia-
ment. (Hear.) It is good for this country that the
voice of the people, rough and rude as it may be,
should have an exponent and be heard in its proper
place; and if disagreeable truths, and disagreeable
assertions untrue, were not allowed to be uttered in
the House of Commons, we should hear much more
of them in the streets than we do now. (Loud
cheers.) It is, therefore, most desirable that in the
House of Commons the nature of the people should
be expounded. The House of Lords, an hereditary
body, is an assembly of a different kind,—an
assembly, it has been unjustly said, of men wishing
to control the liberties of the subject ; but we should
be ungrateful to our ancestors if we did not recol-
lect that it was in the House of Lords that the first
liberty of England dawned, and that it was from
the barons of England they received the charter of
their liberties. (Cheers.) It is not agreeable to
boast of those honours which are but an accident of
birth, but it is impossible not to feel justly proud
of belonging to a body and an order of men who
have formed a part of the greatness of England's
career for so many centuries. The noblest spirits
have been proud to be in that House; the noblest
spirits have aspired to gain that honour ; and who
shall forget the chivalrous heart of Nelson, when,
boarding the Spanish ship, he shouted, "A peerage
or Westminster Abbey !" (Cheers.) You have been
good enough to drink my health. I thank you
again and again for the kindness with which you
always receive me at this table, I consider that
although I am a member of the House of Lords,
although I am not legally responsible to any consti-
tuency in this country, I am responsible to God, to
my conscience, and to the whole nation for the votes
which I give in that assembly. It is a duty of great
importance and responsibility which I have received
with my birth ; I have tried to carry it out as well
as human nature will enable me to do ; and depend
upon it that no vote of mine given in that House
for or against any measure proposed in it is given
unless I am perfectly convinced that at the moment
I am acting rightly to my fellow-countrymen. (The
noble earl resumed his seat amid loud cheers.)

two difficulties which I see before me, both of
which, I think, may act prejudicially. The first is a
natural disposition among men who have joined this
force, after attending a certain number of drills,
and undergoing a certain quantity of labour, to con-
sider that their occupations, after all, are such—
their private occupations—that they can hardly
carry on both with credit to themselves. They natu-
rally say to themselves, and justly, " We, are not a
truly military nation; we are engaged in trade, in
manufactures, in agriculture, in commerce, in the
duties of civil life, or as civil officers, and we have
not that time in the 24 hours,---which no magic can
lengthen—to do justice to ourselves and attend long
enough and sufficiently to make us as perfect as
regular troops, or as we should like to see ourselves
and others." This is a very natural feeling of vanity,
but it is an entirely mistaken one. After the first
year or year and a half of drill—and that is over—
they should know sufficient to form the nucleus of
a body of men who, when the occasion arrives—
which God forbid !—in a mos!!th or six weeks would
make effective soldiers. Let them consider that it is
not necessary to have all thehearing and smartness
of troops of the line ; that they look equally well,
and are equally respected, without any ornamental
thing of that sort ; and thatas soon as they know
the A B C of their company drill they are per-
fectly able then, and woul' be sure to be able
to act within a month%;:=fir.. six weeks of a
given time—and then natily: all their time would
be given to it, and to leaA/tinuch as it is possible
to know. Therefore they should not be discouraged,
and those who are not perfect need not wish to with-
draw from the corps because they do not think they
could give time to it. If they only learn one-half
the exercises—if they understand them in their
heads—when the time comes they will be able to
proceed rapidly with the remainder. I do not wish
them to put themselves to personal inconvenience
to attend the drill; they should do so only when
their business permits them. This is one danger.
The other is an opinion, which is not general, but
which I have heard advocated by some men, that
the institution of the Volunteer force will enable us
to reduce our regular army. Depend upon it, that is
a very great mistake. It would be unfair to this
country and terribly unfair to the Volunteers them-
selves. (Hear, hear.) Take, for example, the habits
of discipline, of life, of the class of men who form
the Volunteers, and compare them with those habits
and customs of discipline and of order which regu-
late the Royal army. It is impossible—perfectly
impossible—that you should change human nature
so completely. If you could transform them into
regular troops, and subject them to some such dis-
cipline as regular troops are subjected to, yet if
they were not always under those regulations they
would not be so effective as a regular army. They
would be effective in their own way ; they would
be effective as a supplementary army, relieving
the troops, in case of war or invasion, in various
toils to which they would otherwise be exposed ;
and they would be effective, doubling and trebling
the amount of the efficiency of the regular troops
by enabling them to act together instead of
employing them in duties which the Volunteers
are able to perform ; but to trust the safety of
the country to a body of men whose habits do not
accustom them to the stern discipline of the Line
would be a most dangerous and fatal thing to the
country itself, and to the Volunteers themselves.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) We have seen what has
taken place in America. Those men who fell at
the battle of Manassas and at Bull's run were
doubtless as brave as ourselves, or any others de-
scended from our race ; but from the inferior qua-
lity of the officers—volunteer officers who had not
been in military command opposed to those who
had—and the experience of the troops themselves,
when brought to face dangers to which they were
unaccustomed, and led by persons not accustomed
to lead regular troops, they sustained a disastrous
defeats We, as Volunteers, must, therefore, consi-
der ourselves as supplementary to the regular army.
(Hear, hear.) Year after year we should improve
and be a nucleus, increased in size, and vigour, and
strength whenever required; but it would be the
greatest mistake, either from economical principles
or believing that volunteer forces are equivalent to
regular troops, to take upon ourselves to reduce the
army even in a small degree in consequence of the
Volunteer movement; in fact, we should be destroy-
ing what we have done. (Cheers.) We consider
ourselves an independent portion of the army.
When we enlisted our idea was, not that we should
enlist as soldiers, and that so many soldiers should
be dismissed in consequence ; but we enlisted to
assist those soldiers, and to be a reserve to de-
fend the country if attacked. (Hear, hear.) Re-
collect what this country is. Its safety depends
upon its navy, because, although an island is the
strongest of all countries so long as its navy main-
tains its supremacy at sea, if it has no navy it is the
weakest of all countries. Take Austria. Sur-
rounded by neutral territories she may have friendly
neighbours. But in England, an island, if you have
no navy, a powerful military monarchy that pos-
sesses a navy—l will at once say France—(hear)—
could land soldiers at different points; and, as we
have no neutral territory around us, and our
" friendly neighbour" would have ceased to exist,
we cannot number too many men to defend the in-
terior of this country. Our army could not pos-
sibly do it. One hundred thousand regular men
could not defend the coast if the French had the
superiority at sea ; but if we had a volunteer force
of 150,000 or 200,000 men to assist that army, added
to all the strength and vigour and advantage with
which all soldiers fight upon their own ground, if
the navy were overpowered we should still be able
to defend our land. (Cheers.) What I have said is
no conceit of my own, and no dream. England,
800 years ago, was conquered, and by men who
came from France. But what was the cause? In
those days it had no navy ; it had a brave king and
a very brave army, but that army, four days before
the battle of Hastings, fought a desperate battle
against the Danes on the eastern coast. King
Harold conquered the Danish army, and slew the
Danish king and his valiant brother. But in conse-
quence of that battle it was that with a broken army
he had to meet the Norman William on the coast of
Sussex; and that proves that without a navy this
island may be attacked, at one and the same time, at
more than one point, and that it requires more than
one army to defend our shores, even if we did not
lose our supremacy at sea. (Cheers.) Let nothing,
then, discourage our keeping up the volun-
teer force, our keeping up their drill; above all,
do not, if you ever entertained it, foster the delusion
that, brave as you are, patriotic as you are, you can
act alone and without the assistance of the regular
force; but consider yourselves supplementary to
that regular force, and be ever ready to double its
exertions and its usefulness. (Immense applause.)
Capt. TANNER responded, and, after some others,
Mr, W. TICE proposed "The House of Peers—
the highest Assembly of Englishmen and of the
Assemblies of the World." This toast was enthu-
siastically received.
The Earl of MALmEsnußY—Gentlemen, I think
that you will be tired of seeing me so often on my
legs. It is not my fault this time ; it is that of my
old friend Mr. Tice, who has most kindly proposed
my health in connexion with that of the most
ancient and great institution—the greatest, perhaps,
that there is in this country. He has described its
nature and its character in very simple, but very
eloquent language, and to that language I can add
nothing that would give it force. He has said with
very great truth that the persons who compose that
body of men—the greatest legislative assembly, I
believe, in the world—have advantages which others
do not possess. They have, or they ought to have,
an impartial, a liberal, and a distinguished educa-
tion ; they have, generally, much time upon their
hands to attend to their parliamentary duties, those
duties not falling upon them ifith that continual

The South Avon Agricultural Society celebrated
its anniversary on Tuesday at Christchurch, Hamp-
shire, In the afternoon premiums were distributed
in the Town-hall for proficiency and good conduct
in the various branches of agricultural labour as
well as to general servants, and also to agricultu-
rists for skill in cultivation. In the evening the
annual dinner took place at the King's Arms Hotel
(Mr. N. S. Newlyn's), where there was a large
assembly. The Earl of Malmesbury, G.C.8., patron
of the society, occupied the chair. The noble earl
was supported by Admiral Walcott, M.P. fer the
borough, Sir G. E. M. Tapps-Gervis, Sir G. E.
Pocock, Mr. W. W. Farr, Mr. W. Tice, &c.
On the cloth being drawn, and after the loyal
toasts had been honoured,
The Earl of MALMESBURY, in proposing "The
Health of the Army and Navy," said—lt is a toast
which has been received with peculiar favour for the
last eight or ten years. Before that time a long
peace had naturally accustomed us to look, not, I
will say, with indifference, but with something less
of attention to those important services of which
we know the great value. Since that time we have
been almost in a continual state of warfare in some
part or other of the globe ; and we have seen with
an universal conviction that it is impossible that
this country, an ancient monarchy, with a consti-
tutional Government, should enjoy its liberty un-
less prepared -to dbfend that liberty, that eonsti:
tution, and that monarchy against ,"any attacks
from foreign Powers. It is a just observation to
make if I say that for the last eight or ten
years we have fully appreciated the national im-
portance
.of these two great services. With this
feeling, therefore, whenever a meeting of English-
men has taken place this toast has always been re-
ceived with the most heartfelt and grateful senti-
ments, knowing as we do that we are not paying an
empty compliment to men who are only employed
for show, but are paying a tribute of gratitude to
those who have supported the honour of our flag
and have made our name respected abroad and at
home.

Admiral WALCOTT, M.P., in his reply on behalf
of the navy, said—At no time, I believe, was the
popular feeling stronger in respect to the navy than
at this moment. It is undergoing a change in its
architecture, in its equipment, in its armament. The
navy is well aware of its responsibilities. It will
never underrate the courage or the capabilities of
the enemy to which it may be opposed ; it will not
despair in any difficulty which courage or enter-
prise may overcome. The days of Benbow, of
Hawke, of Nelson, and other heroic naval chiefs
have passed away, when the wooden walls of old
England were placed alongside the enemy and took
the chance of what might happen. Now the screw
propeller, the iron ships, the iron plates, the Minie
rifles, and last, but not least, Armstrong guns, have
completely altered the tactics of warfare on the sea,
when the shots from these guns will reach to many
miles. We are now engaged in endeavouring to
get ships which will not only be invulnerable, but
will carry their armaments well, and at the same
time maintain a great rate of speed in case any
emergency should arise at sea. In this I trust we
shall be successful. We are sometimes taunted that
we are not a military nation. The true strength of
a nation lies in its internal means of defence, not in
its external power of annexation and aggrandise-
ment ; it lies in that spirit which can raise and sup-
port a militia; it lies in that army of volunteers,
every one of whom is a free man. God forbid that
we should shortly have the pest of war again, with
its waste of human life and drain of treasure ! It
would be much more satisfactory to report an im-
provement in the prosperity of the kingdom ; but,
if the time should arise, be persuaded with the con-
viction that animates myself, that the future will
draw such a page as was never equalled in the past
history of England as regards both our land and
sea forces. (Loud cheers.)
Capt. TANNER replied for the Army. _ _

The toast of " Success to the South Avon Agri-
cultural Society" was proposed by the Earl of
MALMESBURY, who testified to his experience of the
improvements effected by it and similar associations
in the cultivation of the land during the past 30
years. The agriculturists, he said, have not only
done good to themselves, but they have given an
innate strength to the land in which they were
born. They are adding positive strength to the
national constitution and to its power of asserting
its position on the face of the earth. Agriculture is
the backbone of a country ; and if it be said that
agriculture will not prosper without manufactures
flourish, it is equally true that manufactures cannot
progress without agriculture. Bread is the staff of
life; it is the first strength of a country; an increase
in the produce of corn is so much gain to a country
—and the country that can produce £1,000,000
worth of food in one year, and next year £2,000,000,
must, as a truism, have doubled its strength, for
good or evil, in that time. (Cheers.) Agriculturists,
then, are following out a great duty and national
work ; and, looking at it in this way, I hope they
will not flag, but continue to use those efforts they
have hitherto done, and I am certain that they will
be crowned with increased success. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. W. TICE, of Topley-park, in returning thanks,
said his lordship's view was one of the soundest
that could be taken of agriculture.
Sir G. GERYIS proposed. " The Health of our
noble patron, the Earl of Malmesbury ;" and
His LORDSHIP briefly acknowledged the compli-
ment.

Mr. W. W, FARR gave " The Health of the gal-
lant Admiral the member for Christchurch," and it
was drank amid loud cheers.

Admiral WALCOTT, M.P., in his reply, said he
had always determined, whenever he was able and
wherever he might be, to keep in the open sea, as
he did not wish to run his head against sandbanks,
shoals, or breakers. He could say a few words on
two or three points without incurring these dan-
gers. The first was on the thanksgiving that would
naturally occur to them for the bounteous and
abundant harvest. In the se,cond place they would
all agree in their regret at the unnatural war
now raging in America, an d the serious apprehen-
sions that it will cause great sufferings to our manu-
facturing districts in the: course of the coming
winter. He sincerely hoped that the contest would
soon terminate, and, that 'we might see a Southern
Republic with perfect independence and security.
All would agree in heartfelt wishes for the Neapo-
litan kingdom, and in tl ae hope that Italy would
soon be embraced in one c onstitutional government,
and that it would give ciN iland religious liberty to
every class within its boundaries. (Cheers.) As
a naval officer he had served his country for a long
period. As e% member of Parliament, he thanked
the constituency of Christchurch for placing him in
that position for nearly the last ten years. He had
endeavoured to carry out the tt maxim of the poet—
" Love thyself last ; cherish tho, se hearts that hate thee ;
Corruption wins not more than t honesty.
Still in thy right hand carry g entle peace,
To silence envious tongues. 'Be just, and fear not.
Let all the ends thou aimest t be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's." (C heers.)
The Earl of MALMESB CUM proposed " The Christ-
church Volunteers," and exile ained that, as he had
only just returned from the Continent, he did not,
as captain, take part in the la to Hampshire review,
but left the honour to these, officers who had in-
structed the men in his absence. The noble earl
then proceeded :—I think that
us,
tahnedre
onalrye
ttwwoo.
no danger of any caprice in this
There
eers apparentlyis
country, of the .
noble
movement which has
taken place failing its vigour or its
usefulness. It is quite evident, after two years have
and e
fil
•
'
elapsed—and the great rams of Volunteers in this
country have increased rather 'than diminished—
-1 a c
diminished—
that the characteristic spirit of constancy, so well
exhibited in gpglislinien, Int there are

' and Feversham, and on that day, too, we hailed the
first earlypromise of a dawn too soon withdrawnfrom
us in the first public essay of the young Lord Milton.
And I, at least, cannot forgot that here, too, sat my
own honoured father. These several distinguished
persons were brought here by a wish certainly to
provide for the necessities of the blind poor, but
also by an especial desire to connect that work of
mercy with the memory of one just taken away
from that scene he had so long conspicuously occu-
pied—whom Yorkshire had long regarded as her
foremost ornament, England as her purest patriot,
and, not unduly to limit the range of his influence
and his fame—the world as its best benefactor—of
William Wilberforce, whose son is here to-day to
represent him in the tones of his melodious voice
and in the fervour of his benevolent heart. (Loud
cheers.) So much for the claims of memory and asso-
ciation in connexion with this institution. In respect
to the claims of present positive duty, I thankfully
feel that very little need be said by me, both because
the matter is so obvious in itself, and because it turns
so much upon figures and statistics which have al-
ready been placed very amply before us. Into that
dominion, therefore, I do not propose to enter, but I
will put it to you all whether this is a matter in
which Yorkshiremen ought to be content to be so far
behind. (Hear, hear.) His Grace has very forcibly
remindeci you that in this respect, in connection
with your blind poor, the whole county of York-
shire does infinitely less than the one Lancashire
town of,Liverpool. (Hear, hear.) Well may our
pale rose blush at the comparison. (Hear, hear.)
With respect to the adult poor, I believe the county
does absolutely nothing, and I need not tell you
how much as a class they are entitled to considera-

tion and compassion. Taught just enough by edu-
cation and training to be aware of the duty and
the dignity of exertion—able in a great measure to
become profitable to themselves and to the commu-
nity at large, yet unable, by the obvious circum-
stances of the case, to meet the wholly sound and
seeing part of the community on an equal footing,
this only can be accomplished by special appliances,
by associated labour, by such machinery of work-
rooms and workshops as it is now proposed to est&
Nish. (Hear.) We have the best reasons for thinking
that, with these appliances, the labour of the skilled
adult might be made wholly self-supporting. I will
here only say, in passing, that however large—as
large I hope they will be—the additions may be, in
consequence of the division of the pecuniary re-
sources of the institution, I trust that enlargement
will not induce any who are concerned in its man-
agement to dispense with the utmost available eco-
nomy. (Cheers.) I have asked you whether in
this matter Yorkshire ought to lag behind, for you
surely cannot doubt that the blind poor are proper
objects/to call forth your best and tenderest sympa-
thies. Why are they among us You have heard
of the frightful number of those who are afflicted
with this great calamity. You know from the
highest of all sources that it is not to be attri-
buted to their sin or to their parents', and,
while we may reverently hope that the same
Almighty being who has visited them with
this immense privation has also in his unstinted
abundance immense resources also of compensa-
tion for them, and that, although they may not
gaze upon the variegated face of nature, some-
times, perhaps, their ear may be tuned to a
more exquisite sense of melody, and the fresh
breeze of Heaven may play upon their cheeks
with a purer and more thrilling touch ; though they
cannot distinguish the gorgeous hues of sunrise and
sunset, yet sometimes to them may be given a more
unclouded sunshine of the soul. (Loud cheers.)
Though, saddest of all, they may not watch the
lineaments of the human countenance, yet they may
have a fuller consciousness of a deeper and richer
emphasis in the accents of friendship and of love.
(Cheers.) While we hope, I say, that there may be
much of this compensatory process vouchsafed to
them, yet in their presence among us, to limit the
case to ourselves, there can be no mistake. They are
here as the most prominent and expressive objects to
call forth our sympathy, our tenderness, our active
and Christian aid—(hear, hear)—and though like the
Divine Master we profess to serve, we cannot by a
word of power, or by a gesture of command, call the
light of day to visit their sightless orbs, yet we
shall most really imitate and adopt His example if
we do our utmost to surround these orphans of the
senses with all the alleviations, the comforts, and the
compensations which their case admits of, and thus
endeavour in some degree to make our bounty keep
pace with their bereavement. (Loud cheers.)

Mr. R, MONCKTON MILNES, M.P., in seconding

4-_TUz---~ _
~.~- / _

grants which Parliament had already acceded to.
..t',-hoar.) Schools for the blind had only been
excluded from the Parliamentary grants in conse-
quence-of the mere accident of legislation. He said
this in the presence of eeveral respected' legislators,
and he thought that not one of them could' contra-
ult
ipe cd(c,
_t
adea:r:t. s)--
diet him when he said that our legislation was fall
of such a
that, in point of fact, it abounded
in them.l
billsE
to v
e
ry
asmeessnd session
nbisls saw
wwtehree of these
eactdmenotns
m
oinctcruordruencecde
ayebairllaiftatetor yt
heaer
H. (olar
ulseec. He himself
t)
Lordsto had
amend
one of these accidents. At one time there was no
such thing as granting land for certain training
.which whatever
schools. There was no power
enabled unprivileged persons to make these (-rants
for schools because they had not happened
to .be inserted in the schedule of the Bills which
legalized grants for such purposes. It was his good •
fortune to carry a Bill which did include them, and
all he wanted now was for Government to admit
that it could be only by a mistake that those who
most needed public assistance were not allowed
their just share of it. (Cheers.) At the same time
it was for the county of York to show that they
were not going to attempt solely to be charitable
through the taxes and beneficent through that -
which was extorted from others. They ought to
show their own appreciation of the work they advo-
cated by raising at once the sum they wanted to
enable them to go to Government in order to claim
that share of help which other schools received.
And, surely, there was no claim to Christian
charity which was stronger or more immediate
than this. Tho special difficulty they ought
all to feel in administering charity was the
danger of creating a greater evil even than
the present distress—the greater evil of teach
ing the relieved man to depend upon another,
instead of upon his own (efforts. They might re-
lieve the present necessity, but if in relieving it they
pauperized the receiver they did him a deeper detri-
ment than any from which they relieved him by
their passing dole. (Hear, hear.) But in teaching
the blind child how to use for the cultivation of his
own moral and intellectual faculties the gifts which
had been given him by God, they were taking from
one tempted :naturally to depend upon others the
sting of his temptation, and enabling him to share
in his own person in that greatest perhaps of all
daily blessings which God's mercy had given to us
—the punishment of labour turned into the bless-
ing of exertion. (Cheers.) It was impossible to
exaggerate the loss which the providence of God
had inflicted on the blind. Let every man think
how to himself through the eye had come the sense
of beauty ; how through the eye had been awoke
up in him feelings of sympathy. In his experi-
ence he would find that through the eye had
come continually that which had kindled
noble thoughts within him, and had sent him
forth to do the work of God more abundantly.
Let him think what it was never once to
have looked upon the innocent brightness of an in-
fant's countenance, what it was never once to have
seen the radiance and glory which mantled around
the features of the Holy Saints, what it was never
to have seen the sun rise ;or the sun set. (Hear,
hear, and cheers.) Again, what a loss it was never
to have watched the leaves as they whispered in the
wind and changed lustrously their ever-varying
colour, or to have walked in the harvest time and
seen the wind sweep in its path over the bending
field of corn, and that purple sheen given back from
the daylight, as every breath stirred it hither and
thither in its unceasing movement. These and a
thousand other beauties gladdened and softened the
instincts of those who were blessed with sight, and
yet were all withheld from their blind brethren. He
asked them if they could look upon this beautiful
world and not feel ashamed if they did nothing for
those who were wanting in sight. (Cheers.)
Mr. CHILDERS seconded the resolution, which
was unanimously agreed to.
On the motion of the LORD MAYOR of York,
seconded by Sir J. B. JOHNSTONE, M.P., a vote of
thanks was passed to the Archbishop for his kind-
ness in presiding, and the proceedings terminated.

the resolution, called upon the meeting to subscribe
liberally to the funds of the institution, in the name
of the great man in whose honour it had been
founded. They should remember that it was that
man who, perhaps, more than all living men did
most to raise the veil of that greatest of moral
blindnesses which ever fell upon civil society—the
curse of slavery: The removal of that curse frcm
this country at the present moment we ought to feel
most deeply when we saw that in the hands of a
jealous God the miseries of it were perpetuated from
generation to generation. The blood now being shed
in torrents on the other side of the Atlantic was a
monument of the evils of slavery and those misfor-
tunes from which the benevolence of Mr. Wilber-
force had freed the future of his native land. (Loud
cheers.)
The resolution was unanimously adopted.
The Bishop of OXFORD moved the next resolution
—" That a memorial be drawn up which shall urge
upon the Government the justice and expediency of
extending to the blind the same public privileges
and benefactions in regard to instruction, moral and
industrial, which are enjoyed by that part of the
population which less requires such assistance, and
that a committee be requested to present the me-
morial to the proper authorities." He thought a
very short argument would suffice to convince the
meeting of the expediency of adopting that memo-
rial—for this reason, that before they could gain
their object they would have to convince one far
more difficult to convince upon this subject than
that meeting—namely, the Chancellor of her Ma-

jesty's Exchequer. They all knew enough of Chan-
cellors of the Exchequer, and their grip upon what
they had, and their very great reluctance to add to
the drains upon it, to move them to feel that they
must act together, as one man, as Yorkshire was wont
to do when it meant to carry its will, in order to ob-
tain from the Government the recognition of their
claims to right and justice. In his opinion, they
had a claim capable of being stated so simply that
the mere stating of it would carry a conviction
of its own righeousness. The principle upon which
this country helped through its Executive Govern-
ment the education of any of its members ho took to
be this—that there were persons who could
not be educated—educated as the common weal as
well as the private weal of the individual required
they should be educated—unless some help was
given to the local, particular, or private means by
which that education was provided. There was no
such thing intended in the Government grant as an
eleemosynary education, but it was something given
to those who were doing the most in order to aid
them in doing more. In this way it was believed
that no money laid out by this country could be
laid out to a greater advantage than when it was
laid out in giving that sound, religious, moral, and
industrial education to the working classes which
would enable them to maintain themselves, and,
instead of being a drain upon the resources of the
country, become 'new ministers of the increasing
wealth of the country. (Cheers.) This, they would
perceive, was but a cold view of the case ; but it
was the true view they must take. They must not,
in addressing the Government upon the subject,
suffer themselves to be carried away by any sym-
pathy for the unfortunate ; but they must show
i
that the claim they put forward came distinctly
under the head and under the principle of those

f