The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-09-18 00:00:00

I have likewise

great pleasure in moving this resolution, for havinE
my residence in Chester, an opportunity of watching the pr
gress of the institution. I can appreciate the delight of my
reverend friend, Mr. Powys, in seeing the blessing vouch.

had, by

safed to his neighbours,' and the result that seems at last to
be opening to his view. And beyond any pleasure that I
might derive from this source, there is likewise another feel-
ing pressing on my mind : I mean, a deep sense of gratitude
to God, that atuitist all the difficulties we have had to en-
counter, and that must attend any great measure like the
present, we are able to see a foundation laid for an institu-
tion, which will prove, -I trust, the source of light, ond
warmth, and peace, and happiness to succeeding generations,
—(cheers,)—an. institution which shall conciliate the affec-
tions of the rising generation to the Established Church, and,

by strengthening their attachment to that-church, shall give
the surest pledge to the government for continued peace and
uninterrupted prosperity to the kingdom. (Rear, and cheers.)
Nor let me be suspected of falling in at qll with the insin,ua-

tions that have been thrown out, from time to time

against the

National Society

to' which allusion ha

been made by the chairman -and in the report

Let it

not be thought that I wish to cast any imputation on

__ . <:, , •
the past proceedings of that society, or to argue that that
society had in any degree been falling sort of its duties, or
acting in any manner inconsistent with the pledge which it
had given to the _ public. On the contrary, I feel that the

very circumstances in which we stand, the very institution

we have to bring forward, serve to strengthen the claims the

national society already 'possesses on the gratitude of the
community at large. What is all we have to mention now

1
or to anticipate hereafter but au enlargement, an expansion
of the plan originally sketched out, by the founders of the
National Society. (Hear, and cheers.) There are some cir-
cumstances to which 1 should really wish to call your atten-
tion, and which I think it is right to mention, in order to

vindicate the claims of the National Society to the gratitude

of the country at large. And though I trust I never should
be ashamed, if found guilty of hanging back in that which is
my proper duty, •of receiving the suggestions of another,
whether friend or foe, and quicken my pace to meet his ex-
pectation of what, ought to be my rate of motion, there are
circumstances belonging to the National Society, which may
well plead her justification if she did not alter that slow and
steady progress which marks all the great works of nature,
and which gives, perhaps, the surest pledge of the permanence
of the results to which it is conducting. The individulals
who are so ready to accuse the National Society of back-
wardness in the great work of diffusing education through
the land, are perhaps not aware that they themselves gave
special occasion to that very accusation which they are so
ready to bring against us. (Hear, hear.) And if the National
Society did not at once grasp at the proposal of enlarging her
plan of education and of embracing all objects within the
scope of her operations, there were good reasons why she
should have been jealous of the proposal, and not given it
that immediate and cordial reception to which they may think
it was entitled. The acceptance of every gift, it will be ad-
mitted by all, depends in some degree on the known charac-
ter of the persons from whom the gift proceeds, and the sup-
posed purpose for which it is uttered. The purest, tho ho-
liest, the best things, if coming from an exceptionable source,
or from a questionable quarter, derive danger and suspicion
from the very circumstance of proceeding fronf such a quar-
ter. I doubt not that many of the individuals before me will
remember, that when the Spaniards, soon after the discovery
of America, had taken possession of dig island of Hispaniola,
and had nearly extirminated the native population, began to
amuse themselves, when the first thirst of slaughter was
abated, by an endeavour to convert the miserable remnant
of the inhabitants, the friars employed in the work of mercy
complained with astonishment of 64 reluctance the natives
showed in accepting the gospel. (Hear.) Surely they ought
to have felt, that even the Gospel of Christ, if brought by
hands still stained with the blood of their relatives, was not
likely to be viewed in any other than an unfriendly light by
those to whom it was offered. I confes, that if any scruples or
doubts as to the truth of revelation had ever occurred to my
mind, I should much . fear that a Dominican friar, just
emerging from the cells of the inquisition, would be very
likely to convince me of the reality of that truth. (Hear.)
Thus those gentlemen who object to the National Society
that she was cold, and backward, and suspicious, and wished
to perpetuate public blindness, and to hinder the march of
intellect, as they are pleased to call it. They should remem-
ber that she had opportunities of knowing that the whole
system was based on imposture, and that, to offer an educa-
tion such as they proposed would have been to perpetuate a
bondage which they professed themselves desirous to remove.
(Loud cheers.) Let inc ask what is education? Is it simply
the enlargement of one feature or quality of the human
mind ? Is it merely to expand the reasoning powers ? Is it
merely the enlargement of the faculties of calculating, or
some other single, isolated talent ? Unquestionably, real
education, like the growth of the human body, is a simulta-
neous expansion of every power of the human mind, until the
whole body of intellect, " knit and compacted together by
that which every joint supplieth, may grow up into a whole
man, to the edifying itself in love.' (Hear.) But to ex-
pand one portion, and to leave the others in a state of
stunted deformity, is at best to inflict on the intellect one of
the greatest curses to which it can be subject. To consider
man merely as a creature of intellect, and to forget what his
moral constitution is—to hold up purely intellectual educa-
tion as the object to be desired and pursued, and to lose
sight of the moral responsibilities of man, the duties he owes
to his Maker and to his fellow-creatures, is a perversion
of things. deserving the execration instead of the approbation
of all wise and good men. (Loud cheers.) I remember to
have heard, a long time ago, an anecdote of the late Lord
Stanhope,—a man whose extraordinary talents, as combined
with his extraordinary eccentricities—a man who might have
been one of the luminaries of his age, yet who came to be
one of the butts against which the flippant wits of the news-
papers is levelled—who has left his example as a beacon to
be avoided, rather than'as a direction to others in.the way of
peace and happiness. This exquisitely ingenious man con-

etructed an ge capable of reasoning. (Hear and a laugh.)
Literally a reasoning image. You were introduced into a
room, and saw, the figure of a man. A certain number of
propositions were written on boards, and you took any one
you chose, lifted up the ear, and introduced the proposition
into the mind. Certain screws were turned, certain strings
were pulled, a sort of mysterious noises were heard in the
interior of the image—the process of digestion was evidently
difficult—(a laugh)—and at last the lips opened, and out of
the mouth was ejected an answer to the proposition put in
at the car. (A laugh.) It was a reasoning figure. But
would you have been content to have taken that as an exhi-
bition of a man? Would you not have said at once, " He
may reason, but he cannot feel : there is no warmth, no spi-
rit, no life : after all, it is but an idol, and, like other idols,
I doubt not it has long since been cast to the moles and to
the bats." But I contend that such as that image was, such
a representation of human nature as it gave—would be
the creature man formed by education, if education is to be
directed solely to the cultivation of the intellectual powers,
to the neglect of the moral qualities and the responsibilities
of man. Real education consists not merely in the cultiva-
tion of the intellectual qualities, but most of all in establish-
ing the supremacy of conscience over all, in regulating the
motives of man, by well-ordered and well-grounded princi-
ples; and this formation of principle, this regulation of heart,
can come from nothing but religion. (Hear, hear.) if you
attempt education distinct from religion, you will but form
an intellectual monster, and send him out into the world to
astonish it for a period, and then to involve himself and those
around him in the ruin and desolation befitting the end of
such monstrous productions. (Cheers.) But I must con-
tend that the National Society was not only justified in with-
holding her confidence from -friends who came forward with
this sort of suspicious recommendation of their systems of
education, but that, in her simple course, she has adopted
that which ever will be found to be the truest, the soundest
way to happiness and peace, and all the blessings that belong
to a well-regulated education. We must be aware that there
are certain features in education—certain results which edu-
cation proposes to produce, for which, to use the common
expression, there is a demand in the market of the world.
The market of the world will alWays have a demand for the
skill of the artisan, for the correctness of the accountant, and
for all those other qualities which feed the aspirations of core-
.inercial_enterprise, or. .contribute to the welfare or the enjoy-
ment of inan. Therefore, you maysafely rely that the worldwill
always provide for its own wants, an that there will be always
such a demand for these objects as will effectually secure a sup-
ply commenserate with the demand. The world will never allow
itself to suffer from the want of the things that minister to
its own purposes. But beyond this, there are certain other
features in. education for which the world has no demand, or
one so cold, so lack, that it never will produce, never will
create a supply. It will require the skill of the engineer, the
taste of the designer, the activity of the account, and will
take care, by high rewards, to bring forward talent of theie
peculiar qualities, to answer its own peculiar purposes : but
all that is within the man, all that which shall regulate his
temper, decide his course towards the God that made and
the God that redeemed him, that shall make him valuable in
domestic life, all that shall make life a blessing to the man
himself, for this the world has no value, and for this there
is no demand in the market of the world. (Hear.) There-
fore, unless a society can be found to anticipate that demand,
or rather to create that supply for which there is no demand
in the world, the supply will fall short ; and while the world
is ready to give a high premium for the production of certain
qualities which contribute to its own comfort, it would inevi-
tably leave to perish, for want of a demand, those qualities
which lies at the foundation of all human prosperity, and
without whith all other qualities-are like the varnish that
covers the rottenness beneath. (Loud cheers.) These
qualities, I need hardly mention, are the peculiar produc-
tion of the gospel, brought home to the heart of man
in infancy, and rendered almost instinctive, by close, par-
ticular, individual application. And unless the National
Society had pursued its silent but most honoured course—
more honoured because silent--most honoured because it did
not court the plaudits of the world, but contented itself with
the applause of its own conscience, and in the anticipation of
the blessing that God would pronounce on it from above.
(Hear.) Unless it had thus gone .on, laying a foundation of
national advancement in national religion—unless it had sent
forth into the world a supply of Christian feeling and Chris-
tian principle, depend upoff it, all that might be accounted
right, active, distinguished in the world, would have been but
like a deceitful vision, placed before the eyes for a time, and
then fading away and leaving us, as it were, in outer dark-
ness. (Cheers.) Thus I do contend that the National So-
ciety is specially entitled to our best regards, because, instead
of meeting the popular appeals by hastily sending out into
the world some crude productions of secular education, a set
of petty philosophers, of infant engineers, of pseudo mimics
of all that is to be practised in the world, they have been
contented to send out a body of'young Christians, taught to
know God from the commencement of their lives—to fear
him, and him alone, and to lay the foundation of future use-
fulness in the early reception of Christian principles and 'no-
morals. (Hear and cheers.) Here let me enliven that which
may to many seem a dry andiebstract discussion, by men-
tioning a conversation at which I was present, and the result
of which seems to bear immediately on the subject. I was
once in company with some men high in rank in the navy,
distinguished by all that can distinguish British seamen—
men to whom the country once looked for her defence, and
to whom she may again look in .perilous times. They were
discussing the character of the men under their command,
particularly those who areicommonly called " youngsters"—
the midshipmen. The question was, whether it was desira-
ble, on the whole, to admit men, who had derived a certain
practical knowledge of seamanship from having served in other
capacities, or to take such as commonly offered—lads who
possess that indescribable mixture of elevation of mind, cor-
rectness of taste, self-control, and decision of character,
usually supposed to constitute the gentleman. Some said
they would like the seaman : others took the opposite
view. At last a friend of mine, a man whose name, if I chose
to mention it, would give the greatest possible weight to his
opinion, summed up all, and put an end to the discussion, in
these remarkabie words : " Give me a gentleman : if I have
a gentleman, I will undertake to make him a seaman ; but
if I have only a seaman, I do not know whether I could make
him a gentleman or not." (Cheers,) Make your rising
population Christian ; and then having the Christians, make
thenvenginsers, or what you like, : Only.make this the foun-
dation. Depend upon it this is the only foundation on which

you can hteve an engineer to be depended upon, a clerk to be
trusted, an individual in any station of life who shall be really
a blessing to those connected with him. (Cheers.) With
regard to any backwardness as to the pursuit of learning in
connexion with the church at large, the insinuation is too
vague, too false, too empty, to deserve a moment's consider-
ation. My friends who are around me will doubtless bear
their testimony to what they know of their own ahua mater,
Oxford. Let me be pertnitted to speak of Cambridge. I
may fearlessly demand whether there was ever such a mass
of intellectual attainment ever congregated in any one place
as is to be found within the walls of that university at pre-
sent. How large a portion belongs to the church, and is de-
rived from the church, it is hardly necessary for me to men-
tion. The very individuals now assembled in Glasgow, the
individuals whose presence we so much miss, are, I doubt
not, now listening, from the mouths of clerical speakers, to
the development of those great and mighty truths to which
their ahua mater conducted their inquiries. Their powers
are not a whit the less extensive because applied originally to
the study of the word of God, but rather they are what they
are, because they drew from that source of everlasting life
the same elevation of mind, the same expansion of thought,
which once made Newton the wonder of the world,
and which, I trust, will long continue to make England the
centre of christianised literature. (Loud cheers.) I ant un-
willing to trespass longer on the time of the meeting. I
will sum up all in one single sentence, one single illustration.
You have heard much of knowledge, and knowledge separate
from religion : permit me to show you what knowledge sepa-
rate from religion is, by an illustration so trite, so manifest,
that it might come home to the comprehension of a child.
We are familiar in the world with two species of light, the
light of the sun and the light of the moon. In the light of
the sun you know that warmth and light are inevitably and
essentially connected, and every ray proceeding from the
great source cf light cheers with its warmth and gladness.
Every ray from the sun, while it spreads over the surface of
the globe, and is reflected from every surface it touches with
that beautiful variety of colour which the eye is enraptured
to behold, that same ray carries to every surface it visits the
warmth that brings out and matures the fruit, that expands
the animal,frame, and spreads the blessings of plenty and en-
joyment over every creature that moves on the surface of the
earth. From the blessed influence of that ray the vine takes
its colour, the grape assumes its sweetness ; thence comes
that wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and the oil that
was designed to make him of a cheerful countenance ; thence
the wheat derives its nourishment, and all animal life its ex-
tension and existence. Such is knowledge when combined
with religious truth ; and wherever it thus comes, combined
with religion, and sanctified by the combination, it quickens
those whom it visits, and gives life as surely as it conveys
light. (Hear and cheers.) But there is another species of
light, the light of the moon ; picturesque, we may admit, in
point of effect, but pale, cold, and spectral : a light which
falls with as healthy influencer on the body of many, but is
supposed by some to have a mysterious power to carry blight
and sickness where it falls—which sends not man forth tnthe
cheerful exercise of his labour, but by which the assassin
plies his midnight work, and things not to be told among
men are perpetrated—which does. not give colour to the
flower nor sweetness to the fruit, but gives expression
to the noisome fungus that hangs upon the wall—not the .
light that calls animal life to that cheerful playfulness of
manifestation when we see myriads of tiny insects dancing
in the sunbeams, but a light under which things that creep
and crawl, that hiss and mutter, the toad and the serpent,
things hateful and dangerous, come forth to do their deadly
work. Such, my friends, is knowledge when separate from
religion. (Applause.) Such is knowledge, however recom-
mended by circumstances, however represented to- the
imagination, by the temporal advantages it promises, such is
knowledge, and such will it ever be found, when separte
and distinct from religion. And because this is my convic-
tion, therefore it is that I rejoice in the resolution which 1
have the honour of proposing—because I rejoice to see the
foundation laid of an institution where knowledge shall have
an expansion to which no limit can be placed—where every
ray of knowledge shall come accompanied with the warmth
of truth, and God shall bless the work in which we are en-
gaged. (Cheers.)
The Hon. BOOTLE WILBRAHAM said,—Had I consulted
my inclination, Mr. Chairman, I should much rather bee
remained silent. But having come here as a matter of duty,
in order, as far as my presence could conduce to that end, to
afford all the countenance in my power to the object for the
promotion of which we are convened, and having been unex-
pectedly called upon to take a part in the proceedings, I feel
that I could not refuse to undertake that part, and to offer
few observations on the report to which my resolution refer..
I shall first call upon you to remember that the operations
of the hoard of education with which we are connected hate
been but a very few months in progress. But,
think, from the report which has been read by 01/
reverend friend Mr. Powys, you will be of opinion with or
that so far as we have gone we have every reason to be sate"
fled. I would also remark; that it must depend upon our
own exertions, and the support we give to those gentlenr°
who have so strenuously exerted themselves in the formation
of this board,—it depends, I say, upon the assistance We are
disposed to render in this good cause to mature the see"'
which have been sown, to ensure that the fruit shall not die'
appoint expectation,—to provide, in short, that the admirable
and Christian plan which has been set on foot shall be pro'
ductive of the greatest possible amount of public usefulnee.'e
(Cheers.) And in further saying, that I do trust that ,
shall still go on from day to day increasing the number
our subscribers, and that throughout every part of this el,
tensive diocese the views which we profess to hold out 1057,
pe more thoroughly understood, I beg also to call to your 0.
Lice the conduct of our respected honorary secretary. Olt,
plause.) To him a tribute is due for the unwearied zeal, of
extreme personal interest he has taken in the whole
this business ; and with you I may congratulate him 7,
the success with which his efforts have been already °"-
tended. (Hear, hear.) I have known him for yew
sad I can confidently say, that no man has his heart and soa
more entirely engaged in the subject of the education of °"
classes, on a scriptural and truly Christian founclatnn
(Cheers.) It is the object of his peculiar care in his 0"-r
sphere, and I do sincerely thank him, and those who litho%
with him, for the pains they have taken to spread tsb'i
knowledge throughout the whole of this diocese. (Hear.) I
shall not further trespass upon your time than to say th°tbe
am glad we are receiving, and likely to receive, aid from
national board, and also that the grants from parliament If;
likely to be a benefit to us, by the removal of the diticum,
which in the first instance might have been supposed to!ig
ist in the way of our acceptance of that grant. (Hear.) o'l4
I would repeat, it is mainly to our own exertions that we f!
to look for the carrying out of this noble design, a d."lge
- • _44, .incneakable benefits to the pent and tutor

lenerations

The Rev. R:

3onnicom rose to move the next re'„her
tion. The business, he said, that had brought them toke",a.
was one of no common moment and importance to t"'irt,
selves individually, to the class of which they formed a P of
and to the community in general. It was the busineqoo
education—the education of the country. That edocatto
,
had occupied and was occupying, the minds of all men 't,e,
greater or less degree as a subject of prominent imports srl
It had been well called, in the present state of it—the reini,
was exceedingly applicable, and it would be still more aPPtie,
cable if it continued to advance—an appeal to the multito,ol
to the ostracium of the people. If the people, then, as 'of
been well said when they spoke good spoke with the voie_ia
God, the voice of God would be in this question, and it Ird",
go on well ; but if they did not speakin holiness and rigo„,
ousness, it would be the sound and signal of all kinds of c°:o
fusion—it would be the cry of letting slip the dogs of
to
and of hell. The education to be given to them was odtto
be confined either to that part of it which had reference t°
objects of sense—to those things that ingenuity might nflot
bine, which the artisan might pride himself upon, or to 'do
intellectual portion which might enable men to discharge ,r
functions and relations of social life ; but it was to be ~'og
tended to, and to have an infusion of that highest and lonJ
of principles which could alone enable it to be useful to 1,1
a blessing upon the country. It was to be an educathi%o
conformity with that very first and dearest of all obliati, is
which God had laid upon man when man was baptisolo
the Christian church, and made a partaker of Chrisaty,
privileges. Therefore no man was to be educated for bin' of
for the interests of time, or for the passing circninstandi3,,tic
this life, no man was to rest satisfied with what anti'ol vr
might compute, or merely with what, geometry might oliepi
sure, but he was to extend himself into all the relations re,
which he had entered into with God, and fie
member he was not his own, but bought with a price.‘ bit
should, therefore, glorify God with his body and withai
spirit, which were God's. Any education which came Tor
of this could not, by possibility, answer the great ow op
which man had been sent into the world. If he wei!dejt
dressing a company of unbelievers, of philosophical infi it);
or of mere latitudinarians, he should of course feel WIT,
unable to carry on this argument with any thing like B,,Pbrit•
pect of success; but addressing himself to his fellow 'Jive
tians, to those who had taken upon themselves those obi
.0,
tious, and who remembered also that they were not their 0;1
he felt it was his duty, as a Christian and as a min
the church of Christ, to take the matter up upon the big!'"
ground, and to impress it upon his own mind, and the I°TP
of others, as far as he was able, upon that ground.
Chancellor had mentioned a very amusing anecdote or, If
late Lord Stanhope, a man of remarkable talents and 01,014
markable eccentricity, and he had stated one of the resteoo)
that talent and of that eccentricity. He (Mr. Budd":
might perhaps be allowed to relate another anecdote
same noble lord. He (Mr. Buddicom) believed there ny
the musical scale a certain measure of discord, called
wolf," which it had been deemed well and wise to oleo!'
over the whole scale, so that there should be as small $ rod
tion of it as possible upon each particular note. It wastld
of the objects of Lord Stanhope to change the whole ° 00'
plan, and to place this amount of discord in as small a ebor
pass as he possibly could, when it would be entire an 4 140,
lute harmony. Well, there were certain tones that nog sfer,
,
played with great beauty and entire harmony, but there spo
others in which the discord was absolutely intolerable,- the
they were a large portion of the whole. So it was wit'',ol°
plans of the libsral educationalists, with those the
would leave the Bible and the will of God out °AI tore
question, who would forget that man was a C,retiwei
born not merely to confine himself in the limits of
Some of these tones-- in, the way ::of education "iiv
be played perhaps, as far as regarded the things of tinle,,le',
very little discord ; but play them upon the other key re'
religion enter into the matter, let man be regarded wit's 0
ference to his duties to God, and the obligations arisinty
him out of the claims which redeeming love had made ti
his soul and conscience, and the whole would then be IvheO
to discord. We had better, then, have some defect, `:,l
the whole of the scheme was to be carried on with rega„'d'
a future world, than to have some portion of harnionY,'d 0,
great deal of discord and division. The resolution he ',,;;JA
his hand was to the effect that the education of the,wites;
and labouring classes ought to engage the undivided .I'o P„
tion of the established church. Sure he was there ‘'lutio'i
heart in that meeting that did not respond to the resotiois
with a deep, and he trusted a holy, sense of that obligtioiiict
a sense which should not lose itself in generalities, but 0 tbd
should be brought to a practical issue, and bear t1P51,001
education of the poor. Great need was there that we t,c""
so educate them. We had educated them in the a' ,trs;
arian system, and with some measure of scriptural
tion, but we had done very little comparatively, ei,thinet;
way or the other, in the learning and study of that JO e
ledge which maketh wise unto salvation through 0100
Christ. It was his full persuasion that they had 00
anything, because they had not given the poor an ed°B 0
so decidedly scriptural as they ought ; for in the sa,ni'boo.,
they mingled the most intellectual of I°, Suds,
—the word of the living God—with the
tion we communicated concerning matters of presen,7oo#
ing, perishing utility, in that proportion should sce
090,
'
nicate knowledge and understanding to the people, w.O 4
could do upon no other ground. Indeed, if we were
fine ourselves to such au education as was proposed 13);beip
who set all creeds and catechisms at naught, we, fr°oo
entirely fail in our object of arousing the P°o'l
that moral level to that religious and spiritual lece Dec jd
which we desired to place Ilium We must dr "01
city mingle the two together, and it was only thus ;fret!
meet the occasion of the day, and neutralise the e 0011 A,
that charter which it has been well said is treason t ch
man, and that socialism which was treason again: brags
It was only by these means we could stand iu tir
against that wide and overspreading torrent, 1;P),
the people to that healthy state in which we W 195
them, and in which, as Christians, we would ha,:,
We might indeed do what we pleased with such,3"psOiti,
tion for time, but suppose the little period should ueorae '
suppose we had enabled man to save himself froto tporeocl
hours of labour in the day, and to obtain something ,eas of
ease and comfort for himself—suppose we had on'i,ersie
nestled some of those petty and minute philosoPpooof
whom such eloquent mention had been made, So It
made them altogether things of time, but those er ; t;d
time, and time itself, would soon be no 190 g ye
what would they have ? "Ye have taken away

and studies-