The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-02 00:00:00

SECULAR EDUCATION.
On Thursday evening a meeting of the friends of
the National Public- School Association wea held in
the Corn-Exchange; Manches!er—admission by ticket.
The building was filled. Most. of the delegates who
rttended the conference were on, the platform. Mr.
E. Hickson, of Wrothatn, Kent, took the chair.
The CHAIRMAN observed that the meeting was
assembled in a cause connected with the highest in-
terests of humanity—the cause of mind struggling to
emancipate itself from the bondage of ignorance, trice,
and defective institutions—the cause of mental and
moral progress. It was gratifying to him to know
that it was to the men of Lancashire they were in-
debted for the opportunity of uniting in another com-
bined effort for the common good of their common
country. When he reflected on what had been
achieved by this great manufacturing district in be-
half of commercial freedom and the diminution of
pauperism, which was now beginning to be sensibly
felt in the agricultural districts, a summons to join
them in.another great national movement, of which
the men of Lancashire had put themselves at the head,
sounded as a signal, not only of battle, hut of victory.
The signal had been heard in the most distant parts of
the kingdom, and it had brought the present meeting
together. True they had not the great and noble of the
land with them now, but when victory should crown
their efforts the presence of the aristocracy would not be
wanting to complete the triumph. The men of Lance-
shire bad taught the democracy a lesson, not he
trusted to be soon forgotten—namely, that where an
up-hill battle was to be fought the people must trust
to their own exertions only. Be did not despair of
seeing a Cabinet Minister, or even the Premier, taking
the chair at some such meeting as the present, for the
promotion of secular education on the broadest basis,
and prepared to declare that he would no longer fol-
low a timid policy, or attempt the amalgamation of
irreconcilable interests, but would make the question
of national education a Cabinet question, and stake
the existence of his Administration on it. The prin-
ciple on which the supporters of this movement took
their stand was the right of private judgment in
matters of religion—the principle on which the Pro-
testant Church in this country was founded. Whyr
should any Protestant divine of the nineteenth cen-
tury hesitate to proclaim the truth which was preached
in the sixteenth century—that, of all the influences
that could be brought to bear on the minds of the
young, the most fatal to religious progress, the most
disastrous to civil liberty, was the doctrine of the in-
falibility of one man or set of men claiming to be in-
terpreters of God's will or of God's word ? If he
were asked on what ground they meant to build their
system of national education, his reply would be—
on the foundation of the old Protestant right of pri-
vate judgment in matters of religion, and on the old
Saxon right of responsible local self-government.
The speaker then proceeded to review the educational
question during the last half-century, in the course
of which he was occasionally interrupted by ex-
pressions of impatience which finally induced him to

;it down.
Mr. M'Kiauow said it must be distinctly under•
stood that this was a meeting of the friends of secu-
lar education only, and therefore it would be unfair
and unmanly in any person opposed to that kind of
education to interrupt their proceedings. The
question could not of course be settled without dis-
cussion, but the present was net the occasion for it.
He then stated that subscriptions in support of the
society had been received as follow :—From Mr. Mark
Phillips, 1001.; from Mr. Henry, 1001.; from
Mr. Richard Gardner, of Malvern, 501.; and from
Mr. W. Brown, M.P., 501.
The Rev. J. A. BAINEs (Independent) moved the
first resolution :
" That the existing educational provision in this coun-
try is very defective, both in amount and quality, and
demands the serious attention of every friend of moral
proe,ress."
The resolution was seconded by the Itev. J.
BATTEY. of Huddersfield.
Mr. J. AIKEN, of Liverpool, in supporting the
resolution, contended that the education provided for
children in England was both insufficient in quantity
and thfective in quality. That secular education was
not antagonistic to religion was denaonstre.ted by the
fact that the people in New England, in the United
States, where the education was the same as that
which the National Public School Society proposed
to give, were remarkable for the favour of their reli-
gious feelings. •
The resolution was then put and carrie3.
The Rev. Dr. DAVIDSON (Independent) moved the
next resolution :
" That any system of public schools, to be generally
acceptable to the people of this country, must be confined
to secular instruction."
He declared his approbation of that rule of the society
which provided that only extracts from, and not the
whole, of the Scriptures should be read in their schools.
If the whole Scriptures were to be introduced. into the
schools the Roman Catholics would be excluded from
them. Did those:who wished the whole of the Scrip-
tures to be introduced into the schools mean that the
children should read the whole of them, or only parts ?
If the latter, it was, after all, the plan of the National
Public School Society. If, however, it were meant
that children should read the Scriptures through, he
begged to ask whether the scholars would understand
the Revelation, or interpret some of the prophecies of
the Old Testament ? That was what few school-
masters, and be feared he might add some of the
clergy, could not do. He called upon the people to sup-
port the scheme now proposed for their advantage, an
to disregard the ecclesiastical thunders which would
be directed against it.
The Rev. W. F. WALKER of Oldham (Church of
England), in seconding the resolution, suggested that
much opposition would be obviated by using the phrase
secular " instruction," instead of secular " education,"
because, correctly speaking, education included re-
ligious instruction, and in that sense an influential
Member of the House of Commons (Lord J. Russell)
was right in stating, last session, that secular educa-
tion was opposed to the genius and habits of the people
of England.
Mr. COBDEN, M.P., on rising to address the meet-
ing was received with prolonged acclamation. He
said, Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, the very
first occasion on which I had the honour of address-
ing a Manchester audience, was upon a question con-
nected with this. It was at the foundation of the Man-.
chaster Athenaeum. That was in the year 1835, and
for more than two years after that I think the only
question on which *I appeared before a Manchester
audience, was in connexion with national education.
I well remember as long as 15 years ago, meeting Mr.
'Walker at the York lintel, in the effort, at that time
not very successful, to form a society for the
promotion of general education. Now, I men-
tion these facts, not with the view of showing my
own inconsistency in being here now ; that's of very
little consequence; but I wish to draw your attention
to the fact, that at the time I am speaking of I had
the pleasure of uniting with many gentlemen who en-
tertained similar political sentiments with myself,
who are not now in the ranks of national education-
aliststi o u toh ebme s erlavoeks
e, ud
ntmaor Ig
oaumr afraid,op p ouo
no
tns i(snqoua
re s.
)-
th Now,esoriginale Igweolapaniluet
imot one
n. cTal(litoThueera r
,ggorhoeedaut
rf.r)ci friends
op back to their
How is
of
ft tcivilhat
and religious liberty, are not now the ad-
vocates of an institution for the preservation
of those principles which they have so much at
heart ? How is it that they are not joining with
us to advocate the enlightenment of the people
upon which alone the civil and religions liberties of
the people can rest?—(Hear, hear.) We had a long
period, from 1838 down to 1846, in which our edu-
cational efforts were suspended, and we were battling
far a question nearer even and dearer to humanity

than mental aliment—l mean the necessity for obtain-
ing our daily bread. During that time, for seven
years the question of
,national education was almost
forgotten, suspended, in Manchester; but during
that time circumstances occurred which tended
greatly to alienate the dissenting body (for to them I
allude) from this question.—(Cheers.) First came
the notorious and consequently mere prominent fact
that a large amount, by far the largest amount, of
money voted annually by Parliament for the purposes
of education flowed, not to the dissenting body, but to
the Church establishment alone, which ultimately led
to the effect that tended-to alienate the dissenting body
from a system of national education.—(Chs ors.) Then
came the proposal of Sir James Gotham':: plan of
education, which raised the antagonism of the whole
dissenting body throughout the country. And I
think in an evil moment, in a moment that must be
recollected by the dissenting body as a moment' of ex-
citement and of frenzy, which of themselves
are sufficient to • aceoont for and to atone
for the error they cc:nmitted, in a moment of
excitement founded upon the causes to which
I have alluded, the dissenting body at large—a
large and most influential portion of them—declared
their hostility to the very principle of an organised
system of:'public education.—(Cheers.) But their
declaration, arising out of -discontent with Sir James
Graham's Bill, or with the tendency of the present
votes of Parliament, of applying the grants almost
exclusively to the Established Church, was nothing
whatever to do with the proposal we now .submit to
the country. Here is a plan, on a principle emana-
ting from the society of which we form a part here
to-night, intended for the very purpose of relieving
the Dissenters from the dilemma, and removing from
them the injustice under which they. suffer; ans.!. we
have the fullest conviction, and entertain no doubt
whatever, that when our friends have the opportunity
coolly and alispassionateiy to consider the question
now submitted to thorn, 'they will as a body unitedly,
join our ranks in the advocacy of this system of edu-
cation.—(Bear, hear.) For what is it we propose to
do ? We do not propose to interfere with their religi-
ous teachings, the fundamental principle of Dissent
being to repudiate State aid for religious teaching.
We do not propose to introduce religious teaching
into our schools. As religious communions, there-
fore, they cannot appear as our opponents ; as indivi-
duals they may, as other individual may ; but I will
say, that as religious bodies, neither Baptists, nor In-
dependents, nor Wesleyans, nor any other sect of
the religious world, have any right to come before us
attempt tee
object, on religious ground, that we are doing that
which is inimical to their principles.—(Rear, hear.)
r
right
I wish to draw a distinction between the rights of
t e Dissentersgroundto opp.s
of common
ens a .eu atlo s , and
array themselves as a religious body, against the pre-
sent plan of this association. But some of them common
forward and ray, we are violating principles of poli-
tical economy, by allowing a public rate to be raised
for education at all. But again I say, it is perfectly
competent far an individual member of the Baptists
or Independents, or any other communion, to object
to our plan of public provision for education on poli-
tico-economical grounds; but what right, as a body,
has any religionist connexion to come before you
and raise a politico-economical argument? I will
reason with them, if they like, from Adam Smith, I
will take from them any argument as philosophers,
but what right have they to come with the Bible in
their hands to oppose me on pelico-economical
grounds ?—(Cheers.) But, sir, one word only on the
plan upon which we propose to pr
so proceed. The
much moral
gen-
tleman who, as he rightly says, with
courage, has just now been addressing us, on my
right, has made a remark in which I think we cannot
altogether concur, when he states that the plan is
one which excludes the Bible from the schools.—
(Cheers.) Now, what I understand by the plan of this
association is this, that it ia one which does not compel
the scholars to read the Bible, if contrary to their con-
scientious convictions, or that of their parents, but I
am not a party to the exclusion of the whole Bible
from any school where the local beard can unite in
introducing it. For instance, one-half of our parishes
in the United Kingdom, and a great deal more, are
small rural parishes containing a few hundreds of in-
habitants—in many cases with only a parish church,
where there is not a single Dissenter. I don't under-
stand this to be a plan which will prevent a commu-
nity like this, where all are agreed, from having the
whole Bible introduced introduced into their schools.
What we do say is this : we will not compel the
reading of the Bible, when that shall have the effect
probably of deterring Roman Catholics and others
from sending their children to the schools. Well, the
objection that is raised to this plan is, that is an irre-
ligious plan, because we do not undertake to give re-
ligious training. This is the great obstacle which you
have to contend with, a cry raised on very flimsy
grounds and pretences, that you are aiming to estab-
lish an irreligious system of education ; and I have no
hesitation in saying that our opponents are wise in
taking that ground, for such is the tendency in the
mind of this people, that no change has been accom-
plished in this country of which it could be
alleged that it was opposed to religion ; and
few great reforms have been accomplished in this
country, in which religious principles have not been
very largely called into operation to effect them. But
what do we propose to do ? Are we going to open
boarding-schools to take children away from their 1,
parents ? I thought in this country we recognised
the right of parents to train up their children. Do
we propose to put them in boarding-schools? Why
all this furious outbreak? Why this accusation
against us of being irreligious ? They appear to as-
sume that we propose. a plan under which we intend
to take away from parents their children at a tender
age, to remove them from their influence, and counsel,
and example. 'We talk not even of Sunday schools.
We talk of a plan by which we propose, for six or
eight hours for five days in the week—for I dare say
you have a half holiday on the Saturday—a plan
by whichyou intend to give to the children of this
country, for five days in each week, five or six, or
eight hours of instruction in secular affairs, leaving
them on the Sunday to the pastor of their communion
—leaving them the whole evening, night, and morn-
ingtheir
wisely
parents.
made,fAo-rn
ty
jest
the h the
onlyat-
tempt
chance which our opponents have of obstructing our
in
is the
made, hands
andof
movement—(Loud cheers)—the attempt is made to
show that the tendency of this system must be to give
an irreligious education. But I have said it before,
and I say it now—for you must repeat your argu-
ments till you find them coming back to you from
your very enemies-4 have said it before, the first
time I had the honour of addressing the association
in this town, we pay eight millions a year at least to
the teachers of religion—twice as much, 1 will ven-
ture to say, as is paid in any Christian country on the
face of the earth; and we don't propose to take away
one shilling from these teachers of Christianity ; we
tell there, though they have not taught the people to
read, write, or spell, or know even the geography of
their neighbouring parish—(Hear, hear)--We. tell
them they are ignorant of grammar, they are igno-
rant of the commonest duties of social life ; we
propose to give them some instruction in those n.e-
cessary matters; and yet these parties, the parties
to the system in which eight millions per annum are
expended for religious training, these parties have
the effrontery to come forward and tell us we are
going to give the people an irreligious education.—
(Cheers.) Fling that in their teeth wherever you '
meet the opposite side.—(Cheers and laughter.). Tell
them about it in the logical way that. my friend D. r.
Bacon did, as you will hear by and b an.d I wish
but I. know it would
.I was permitted to say more,
the circumstances of
not be agreeable to him—but
*e sties and the
his departure from his owh nOng
high esteem in which he is held
wi be enough to
convince you of the truth of. what he says; but Dr.
Bacon yesterday'put it in this fornt,. and flung it at
the head of these dishonest, or else these ignorant
people.—(Laughter.) " But (he said) I never under-
stood that this munificent endowment was to be
viewed in the light of a school fund ;
.if at be, then it
and I would
seems to me to be very much misapp
advise you to look to it.e—(C. beers and. laughter.)
Now, we do not propose to interfere with the relie
gious instruction of the penlalreor to take, one farthing
from the stipends of the religious teacoers ; but we
tell them, if it be their duty to. educate the people,
they have grossly neglected their duty. And eve, if
they assume that duty, we d. o not evens propose to
punish them in the waY we miett, think, very logi-
cally have a right to do, by taking some of their sti-
pends from them to do that which they profess them-
selves bound to do, but which they do not do, but to
raise by a local rate, upon the property of. this country,
do
extra money in order to that which they
—( Tear hear.) I
them-
selves have failed to do. I ,glad
am
we have got to support us here a oentleman from
the
United States. I have often thought that the best
way of reasoning this ant landr would be to identif
ourselves with the New ,a
g syatem of education ,
and to say, " That is what we want; we want that.
for Old England, which for centuries has been a bles-
-(Cheers. ) I say, if you are
sing to New England.
afraid of the consequences, let us see the effect upon
the New England states. Why, the schools in the
New England States have given the people there an
education which, compared with ours--I mean secu-
lar instruction—might well make us blush. Our
opponents, however, will not deny that our system of
education might give more secular lebtruction ; but

they say it will produce infidelity and irreligion. But
what has been the effect in New England ? Where
will you find, among all the Protestant countries in the
world, a country which is par excellence, a religious
community, compared with the New England states?
What are your tests ? Do you reply, " The number
of places of worship ?" Why, they have far more
chapels and churches, in proportion to the population,
than we have. Is it the observation of the Sabbath ?
Why, I have been there, and I have seen chains put
across the streets on a Sunday to prevent the traffic
interfering with the celebrations of religious worship.
Is it the respect paid to the ministers of religion ? Why,
I can vouch for it, that there is no country
in Europe where the ministers of religion are treated
with such solid deference as in the New England
s‘tateb.—(Haar, hear.) Is it that forms of religion are
omitted there, whilst we observe them ? Why, if
this meeting bad been in the New England states, I
appeal to Dr. Bac an whether you would not have
begun your proceedings to-night with prayer. Their
courts of law never begin their trials without first
offering up a prayer. The sheriff calls for prayer
before the judge begins to administer the laws.
Everything in the New England states betokens the
diffusion of and the respect paid to religion and the
extension of knou ltelge. Take the number of mis-
sions supported for the conversion of the heathen—
take any test you please, and I afliam that the people
of the New England states, where this system of aecu-
ler education is adopted, are a more religious body
than the English people, or any Protestant commu-
nity that you can mention. I say, then, that I want
such a system of education here as they have in the
New England states. What I want is a system of
education which, whilst it will leave the people fully as
religious as they are now, will also give them that aecu-
lar knowledge which the Americus are now taught.
Our friend Dr. Bacon comesfrom small town 0f20,000
inhabitants, which sustains three daily newspapers.
There is activity and intellect. Our objectors here
would argue that because the people are intelligent,
and take an active, keen, and prompt interest in
everything that relates to contemporary history, they
must be irreligious.—(Hear.) I would point to these
facts to show ehat you may have activity of mind and
great intelligence, without impairing the religious
feeling of the country. I want to know, then, why
we should not have as good a system of education vs
New England?--(Bear, hear.) Why should net Old
England be as well educated as New England ? I
ask the question, because I think, not merely upon
economical, but upon every high moral as well as re-
ligious ground, we ought to cultivate the mind and the
principles of our people the same as in the United
States. We are not a democracy, like the United
States; but questions of equal importance, end of
19.4 C.;:liplcxitv, are submitted to the ordeal of
public opinion in this country, as in the United
States of America. In the ultimate appeal, public
opinion rules this country as much as it does in that
pure democracy across the Atlantic. When we have
questions submitted to us as politicians, which, sixty
years ago, were evolved from the studies of the most
profound thinkers of that age, but which have now
become the every-day topics of political warfare—
and we live in a state of society calling upon
men to exercise their faculties of judgment
upon questions of this complexity—it is necessary
for the safety of society to educate the people up to
the condition in which they ere to be found in any
country upon the face of the earth. But I want to see
better safeguards for morality in this country.—
(Hear, hear.) Are we so moral that we can dispense
with the aid of the school-master ? Why, what have
been the late exhibitions in this country ? Have there
been no great crimes, no prominent catastrophes that
have warned us of the state of the substratum of the
population ? I want public schools in this country
to purify the moral atmosphere of the state, and to
elevate the mental condition of our population. I
want them, in fact, for the very reasons which the
great American statesman, Mr. Daniel Webster, has
described as some of his reasons for supporting common
schools in his native state of Massachusetts. He says :
" We regard our free schools as a wise and liberal
system of police, by which property, and life, and the
peace of society are secured. We seek to prevent, in
some measure, the extension of the penal code, by in-
spiring a salutary and conservative principle of virtue
and of knowledge in an early age. We hope to ex-
cite a feeling of respectability, and a sense of charac-
ter, by enlarging the capacity and measuring the
sphere of intellectual enjoyment. By general instruc-
tion we seek, as far as possible, to purify the whole
moral atmosphere, to keep good sentiments upper-
most, and to turn the strong current of feeling and
opinion, as well as the censures of the law and the
denunciations of religion against immorality and
crime. We hope for a security beyond the law, and
above the law, in the prevalence of enlightened and
well-principled moral sentiment. We hope to con-
tinue and prolong the time when, in the villages and
farm-houses of New England, there may be undis-
turbed sleep within unbarred doors."---(Cheers.) For
every one of these reasons, I want a system of public
instruction equal to that which is to be found in the
United States.—(Applause.) But besides there com-
plex political questions which are submitted to us—
besides the promotion of morality such as is effected
there—l say, that even in questions of religion I want
the intelligence of the people to be extended, to enable
them to form a correct judgment. Now, what is the
great religious outcry at this moment ? Some highly-
respectable old gentleman has been sent over with red
stockings and a red hat; we are told, to take posses-
sion of this empire and map it out in perellelograms,
by which it is said that we must all be frightened
from our propriety.—(Laughter.) Now I was
asking my friend Dr. Bacon, before we came to
this meeting, what they would do in such a case in
America? "Why (he said) they would laugh at
it."—(Hear, and laughter.) What I want, then,
is, that you should have an intelligent public opi-
nion in this country to which you can refer these
controversies upon religion.—(Applause.) I do not
wish to speak disrespectfully of the Roman Catholic
body, for I have a great respect for the members of
that large body, which constitute the majority of
Christians—but speaking as a Protestant, I say that
no man can be competent to take his position as a
Protestant unless he is able to read the Bible and to
judge the contents of that book for himself. One-
half of the people of this country cannot read with
any comfort and satisfaction ; but when they have
read two or three lines, and they come to a long word
—a word of three or four syllables—down goes the
hook in despair.—(Laughter.) I tell you to ask
those of your opponents who oppose you on religious
grounds, and profess to have so much more religion
than the rest of us—ask them how a man can be a
Protestant unless he can read the Scriptures ? Why,
is not Protestantism itself founded on the very as-
sumption that every man exercises his private judg-
ment on them ?—(Cheers.) Well then, a sincere Pro-
testant, a religious man, who opposes us for wishing
toteach people to read, is standing in the way, I con-
sider, of the progress of those very religious doctrines
which they are bound by their own conscientious con-
victions, if possible, to advance. While I allow to Ro-
man Catholics the freest indulgence of their opinions,
and while I will never vote in the House of Commons
to prevent them from having the freest scope and ex-
ercise of their religion in this country—(Cheers)—
yet I say as a Protestant, and I say to the Protestants
who are opposing us, if you want such a religious
people here as they have in the New England states,
help us to give the people the power of reading the
Scriptures in their own native tongue.—(Hear, hear.)
Now, sir, this question having been promulgated in
its present form, having been brought before the
country as emanating from Manchester, it will be ex-
pected that this controversy will be followed up in the
same spirit which has hitherto characterised Man-
chester in this agitation.--(Hear, hear.) You have
not many of the difficulties we had before, in another
agitation, but you have some greater obstacles than
we had then to encounter. It was proposed at our
meeting yesterday to change the Lancashire Public
Schools Association into the National Public Schools
Association. Now, I think that was very necessary
and very wise, and for this reason—it is of very little
use your educating Lancashire unless you educate
those parts from which Lancashire is supplied
with its population. We are apt to think, and our
enemies are disposed to keep up the delusion, by
charging us with the facts, that the great sources of
ignorance and vice and misery are in our large towns.
There never was a greater mistake. Take this great
city of Manchester, and I will venture to say that
not one-half iof the population were born in Man-
chester. They are immigrants. And where from?
Why from those fountains, the overflow of which
furnish these great towns with population, the rural
merely utterly futile,to
the
educations o
g a s
of
the
u people direct
youron
villar,res, the agricultural districts of this country, and
progress of therefore any attempt to stop the igno-
rance and its consequences, vice and misery, in large
w
of Manchester and of the other great towns of Lan-
cashire. You must secure a law which, as in the
case of the New England states, as in the case of
Massachusetts, for instance, compels every locality,
t
every parish, to furnish a school and the means of
education to the whole population ; to furnish not
merely a building such as our orders in Council
towns,
wili
attention be
are now aiming at doing, furnishing bricks and mor-
tar of which we have more already than are used;
but to furnish a master and the means of giving in-
struction to the great body of the people in all part*

of the country.—(Cheers.) Now, to obtain such a
law as that, you must agitate, and you must bring
public opinion to bear upon Parliament. You will
have to make this a hustings question.—(Hear, hear,
and cheers.) We are told that the voluntary system
will do all that is necessary. I mentioned a fact yes-
terday, to illustrate how impossible it was for the vo-
luntary system to effect our object in the agricultural
parishes.. I mentioned this fact (which has not been
sufficiently thought of), that in all our agricultural
parishes, absenteeism on the part of the landlord pro-
prietors is the rule and not the exception. It is of
no use to say that the proprietors will educate the
people. The property is there, and I contend that
you should tax it for the instruction of those whose
labour gives value to that property.—(Cheers.)
Then, although the tenant may pay it for the mo
ment—although it may be probably paid by a man
who is poor in himself—an occupying tenant, pro-
bably, not himself in prosperous circumstances, yet,
in the long run, i& you tax property, the proprietor
will hear the taxes.—(Lout cheers.) And Ido not
think you can lay a tax that, in its result, would be
more profitable to the community, and to individuals,
than a tax which should give the people education,
and especially in the agricultural districts. For what
i 3 the great obstacle to the reduction of pauperism,
and the diminution of the poor's rate in the agricul-
tural districts ? It is that the people are so ignorant
that, in the first place, they have no spirit of enter-
prise which induces them to look out for a scene more
fitting for their industry and more remunerative for
their labour.—(Cheers.) But they are so ignorant
that when you are seeking for servants or labourers,
you would rather not have those people who are
brought up in the way which the great bulk of the
agricultural labourers are. I have hal an opportunity
lately of testing and proving that the great difficulty
in dealing with agricultural iabourers is that of being
able to do anything for them because they are not
sufficiently educated to serve themselves out of the
immediate sphere of their daily occupations, and I
would say, therefore, as a matter of self-interest,
if you wish to give the people an ambition to go
beyond the beunds of their little parishes, where they
are often rooting upon the miserable allowance of
some two or three little loaves of bread a week—if
you wish to make them despise that state of exist-
ence in which they now live, teach them reading,
writing, arithmetic, and geography—let them know
something of what is going on in the colonies of
America; let them feel the ambition which the middle
class people entertain to remove from the scene of
their birds, in order to advance themselves in life,
and with the prospect of returning enriched and be-
nefited to their former home. Ido not put it on
principles of self-interest : I say it is cur duty, if we
wish to see a community worthy of the name of
Englishmen, we must educate them better than they
are now. Oh what a fund, oh, what a mine of riches,
lies neglected in the mass of the population of this
country. Think what a race it is—that noble race
which produced a Burns, a Shakspere, or a Milton I
And then think how many hundreds, nay thousands
of this race have pined in stolid ignorance, like the
very ox they drive, because they had not the elements,
the mere tools of science placed in their hands,because
they had not been taught, to read or write ; and
therefore they have been del:), rived of the opportunity
of adding to the glory of the country and the fame
of the people with whom they were surrounded.—
(Great cheering.) You quarrel with their vices—
you say they are drunken ; would not you he drunken
—I speak to the people of a more elevated class, to
those in easy circumstances—would not you be
drunken, as your forefathers were not a century ago,
if you had not had some stimulus applied to your
intellect, and some other resources besides the dram
to produce that excitement which, mental or physical,
is necessary for the healthful existence of the people ?
—(Loud cheers.) Take the people of a superior
rank, to whom I refer ; go back only forty or fifty
years. At that time when there was not found upon
their drawing-room tables, as there now is, this
multitude of cheap literature in its most attrac-
tive forms to invite them to constant study ; when
books were scarcely ever turned over by the class
to which I refer—what was their constant habit ?
Drunkenness! And how were their evenings•spent ?
Why—for want of even intellect or activity of
mind enough to sustain a conversation among them-
selves behind pieces •of painted pasteboard,
playing at cards; there 'was.' not an evening party
without a card tabl imply because they had not in-
telligence and acts ugh to furnish each other
evening's sinus without such resources.—
(Hear, hear.) Well,
iiii
you find the people—l speak
of those in easy circumstances—complaining that the
days and evenings are too short for them. Such are
their increased resources, and such are the occupa-
tions for their minds, such is the difference in educa-
tion, that the evenings are spent not in such frivolity,
as drinking and card-playing, but in intelligent com-
munion ; and the evenings and the days are too short
for the enjoyment of these intellectual qualifications.
—(Cheers.) But would not the working classes, if 1
they were taught to read and write, and if they were
taught not merely reading and writing, but some-
thing of their own nature, and of the laws of the
nature which surrounds them, would not they find
other solace, and other resources for gratification than
in the gin-shop, or the dog-fight, or the pitch. and-
toss of the public-house ? Yes—already they show
symptoms of improved taste. See how they flock to
our musical entertainments, and how they resort to
the cheap trains to make themselves better acquainted
with nature. Have they not shown that, even without
the advantages of education, they possess an honourable
aspiration to throw off the old skin—to find comfort
in better and more Christianlike enjoyments ! Then,
on all these grounds, whether it is on the very humble
plan of improving the taste for national amusements—
whether this, or to give to men the power of judging
what they will be called upon to judge, of the political
destinies of this country—or whether it be to judge
of the highest of all questions, that of their religious
faith—or whatever the motive may be—give the
people instruction, elevate their minds, improve their
faculties, stimulate the reason, and I will be bound
that in every phase in which you can view mankind,
they will come out better and happier for the process
to which we have submitted them.—(Cheers.)
The Rev. Dr. BACON (Independent), of Connecti-
cut, spoke in favour of the resolution, which was put
and carried.
The CHAIRMAN then stated that the resolution
having been agreed to, he was authorised to make an
announcement which he was not at liberty to do
before. It was this:—He had received from Mr.
Edward Lambe, a gentleman living in Norfolk, the
sum of 5001. to be applied in furthering the object of
the society.—(Loud cheers.)
The meeting was addressed by several other
speakers, and the following resolutions were agreed

to :
" That the schools ought to be supported by local
rates, and managed by local authorities specially elected
by the ratepayers for that purpose."
"That this system is eminently practicable, and, steer-
ing clear of all conscientious scruples, would be easy of
adoption and beneficial in results-
The proceedings did not terminate till a late hour.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.
RETIREMENT OF TITS SENIOR CAPTAINS.—The
following captains on the active list, being 55 years of
age, and of 20 years' standing on the list, have ac-
cepted the retirement of 1846, on 18s. per diem :
Philip Parker King (seniority), Feb., 1839 ; Courte-
nay B. W. Boyle, May, 1830; Rowland Mainwar-
ing, July, 1830; John Wyatt Watling, July, 1830 ;
Richard Pridham, July, 1830 ; John Lyons, July,
1830 ; Philip Westphal, July, 1830 ; Edward Spar-
shot, July 1830; William Blight, July, 'lB3O. These
retirements bring Captains (of 1837) R. Gordon, J.
Brasier, R. C. M'Crea, M. Quin, R. Owen, J. B.
Maxwell, J. R. Cann; Sir T. Maitland, C. 8., and
Thomas Dilke, with the first 170 senior captains, and
reducing the number on the active list to 497, the
promotions of three commanders to the rank of cap-
tain will be necessary to make the list of captains the
established number of 500. We trust these promo-

tions will at once be made to complete the list, and
that deserving officers may obtain that which they
have so long earned.
PRESERVED PROVISIONS IN THE NAVY.—We copy
the following from the United Service Gazette, but
we may add to it that by the new regulations to come
into force on the Ist of January the Admiralty have
remedied their complaint of short weight by directing
that all deficiencies shall be made up from the stores,
and it is to be hoped the contractors will have to
bear the loss :—" One of the greatest sources of dis-
content among the seamen of the Royal Navy at
present, is the shameful manner in which they are
cheated out of their weight of provisions when they
have served out to them preserved meats.' It happens
very frequently that instead of the men getting 14th.,
to which weight they are entitled by the regulation
scale of allowance, they only get 101 b., and that of an
inferior character. It is not the fault of the officers
nor the men, but of the Admiralty Victualling De•
partment, Somerset House. We look to the Admiralty
to render an appeal to the House unnecessary in this
matter."
Cambrian, 40, Commander Plumridge, was mus-
tered, inspected, and exercised at Devonport on
Thursday morning by Admiral Sir William G Age,
after which she was towed into harbour by the Con-
game steam-41g, to be Skid off.