The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-24 00:00:00

TO SAMUEL HOLME, ESQ.

DEAR MR. MAYOR,—No one will be surprised that I
should address you on the subject of commexcial educa-
tion. My business in life is the practical work of educa-
tion in the second commercial town in the world. You
are the chief magistrate in that town, and you have always
been known for your lively interest in all branches of
industry, and your sympathy in every effort to improve
and elevate the condition of your fellow-townsmen.
It is quite evident that this country is in a critical posi-
tion as regards industrial instruction. The Exhibition of
-1851 showed us very clearly that there is some danger of
our being outstripped in the race of competition. The
value of our local advantages has been in a great measure
neutralised by increased facilities of locomotion ; and it is
generally agreed that the success of our efforts to main-
tain our pre-eminence in the practical arts will hereafter
depend mare on intellectual than physical causes.
.Under the influence of these convictions, the Govern-
ment Department of practical Art and Science has been
organized in connection with the Board of Trade, and,
as it seems to me, very wisely organized, on the principle
of giving aid to local institutions without interfering with
local self-government. In these circumstances, the large
towns of England are practically asked what response
they are disposed to give to the well-known sentence in
the Queen's Speech on the 11th of November, and haw
far they are prepared to avail themselves of the facilities
which may be placed at their disposal by the Government.
Liverpool, among other places, will presently be called
upon to answer this question.
One answer which will probably be given by Liverpool,
in common with other towns, will be the more general
introduction into schools of some courses of instruction
which have a direct bearing on the utilities of life, and the
gradual adoption of such apparatus as the government may
be able to place on cheap terms within their reach. All
this is evidently within the power of managers of schools ;
and their judgment will be shown by maintaining the due
balance among different studies, and by holding a right
course between too ready a compliance with a prevailing
movement, end too strict an adherence to of-der prece-
dents. Any attempt to turn schools into workshops will
lead to disappointment ; and, if the highest purposes of
education are sacrificed to mere utility, nothing but harm
will be the result.

When, however, I look beyond the walls of our schools,
and think of industrial instruction in its widest bearing
on our whole population, I cannot but feel that this re-
sponse would be inadequate and unworthy of Liverpool.
Among the results of the Great Exhibition, it seems to
be now understood that we are to look for the formation
of a great Central Museum of Art and Manufactures,
which of course will be situate in the metropolis. The
usefulness of such an institution will hardly be disputed ;
but in order that its benefits may be fully diffused over
the conntry similar museums must be called into ex-
istence in all our great centres of industry. And it ap-
pears tome that such collections ought net to be mere
copies on a small scale of the collection in London., not
miniature repetitions of every portion of the metropolitan
institution, but rather full and detailed representations of
whatever department of the Central Museum has special
reference to the prevailing industry of the place where
the Provincial Museum is situated. It would be easy,
for instance, to define the nature of the collections which
would be appropriate to Manchester, to Birmingham,
and the Potteries. The great business of Liverpool is
Commerce : and, without entering into details which
would only encumber this letter, I will just say that it
would be worthy of- he enterprise end public spirit of this
place, if it were resolved that the Trade Museum of
„Liverpool should be grander and more complete than the
Trade Department of the Central Museum at Kensington
Gore.
Yet even a museum of this kind, •useful and impressive
as it would be, would be comparatively valueless, if no
active courses of instruction were connected with it and
based upon it. And this leads me to mention another
subject, which, in my judgment, is well worthy of the at-
tention of the merchants of Liverpool. Nothing is more
painful to a schoolmaster, who wishes to do his duty, than
the early age at which boys are taken from school and sent
to business. They are frequently removed at the very
time when their improvement is just beginning ; and,
from the nature of the occupations into which they are
thrown, their education is too often practically arrested in
early boyhood. I am very well aware of the difficulties
with which this subject is beset ; and I do not doubt that
many parents would be glad to see a higher education
combined with the experience which must be required in
an office. Is it not possible that these difficulties might in
some measure be overcome, and these wishes partly accom-
plished, if higher courses of instruction could be organised,
which mightsucceedtbe rez,ular school-training,and have a
direct reference to the requirements of Liverpool ? Might
not many parents thns be induced to continue the educe.
tion of their sons to a later point of that critical period
which extends from fourteen to twenty years of age ? I
am suggesting what, in fact, would be a Commercial Col-
lege, or a section of some great Industrial University. It
would not be difficult to define the proper courses of in-
struction, which, as in the case of the Museum, should
have a strictly local reference. Physical geography,
natural history, chemistry, the history of commerce, mer-
cantile statistics, international law, are among the topics
which immediately occur to the mind.
I could easily write at much greater length ; but my
simple object has been, by the aid of your name, to in-
vite general attention to this subject. If this letter should
meet with favourable attention, I shall be glad hereafter to
lay before the public some suggestions in more minute
detail.

I have the honour to be. dear Mr. Mayor, your very
faithful servant, J. S. HOWSON, M.A.,
Principal of the Collegiate Institution.
Collegiate Institution, May 23, 1853.

THE business of the Liverpool Borough Quarter
Sessions was brought to a close on Saturday afternoon
shortly after four o'clock. The recorder, in discharging
the jury, thanked them for their attendance.
THE NEW FORT AT THE NORTH SHORE.—The Board
of Ordnance has issued a notice calling for tenders for the
erection of the new fort on the north shore, the tenders
to be delivered by the Ist of June. It will thus be seen
that the fort will be commenced forthwith, and its erec-
tion will more than double the existing defences of the
UtrieY in efficiency.

MURDEROUS ASSAULT WITH HE KNIFE
IN LIVERPOOL.--COMMITTAL OF THE
PRISONER.

At the police office, yesterday, (Monday,) a black sea-
man, of most repulsive aspect, was placed in the dock, on
a charge of a very heinous character, and which of late has
been of frequent occurrence at this port. The name of the
prisoner was John Dowden, and the circumstances of the
case, as brought out on examination, were briefly these.
On the 11th of April last, Dowden entered the boarding-
house kept•by Mrs. Thompson, at No. 19, Queen-street,
and demanded some supper. Thomas Lloyd, a man of
colour, who was cook at the house in question, (which is
chiefly frequented by coloured seamen,) told Dowden that
he could not have any supper there, and demanded of
him why he came there so often for the purpose of raising
a row. Dowden replied insultingly, that it was not to
him (the cook) that he had addressed himself, but to the
girl, Mary Kilhooley, who was close by at the time. He
added, with evident anger, that he (Lloyd) appeared to be
possessed of the notion that he was master of the house,
and then sprang upon the poor fellow, who was lying upon
a bench in the kitchen. Before the unfortunate cook
knew what the wretched Dowden was doing, he felt the
warm blood flowing from his side. The girl distinctly
saw D evden take an immense clasp knife from his pocket,
deliberately open it, and then plunge it in the side of the
cook. A copious stream of blood and air rushed from the
wound, and it was afterwards discovered, that in addi-
ton to other severe injuries, one of the poor fallow's ribs
had been cut in two. Lloyd was soon conveyed to the
Northern Hospital, where he lay till yesterday, down to
which time he was unable to appear; and, so far was he re-
moved from a state of safety, it appeared that he was at the
close of the investigation conveyed again to the hospital.
The medical evidence was to the effect that the wounds
are of such a nature as may even yet cause death ; and
it is not likely, if Lloyd survives, that he will ever enjoy
his former state of health. It further came out in the
evidence against the prisoner, that when police-officer
640 was called into Thompson's hoarding-house at the
time of the assault, he found Dowden brandishing his
huge knife, which he held in his left hand, and threaten-
ing to plunge it into any one who offered to interfere with
him. When called upon to make his statement, the
prisoner said he had nothing to say in pallation of the
offence save this, that at the time he committed it he was
in a state of intoxication. The magistrates committed
the prisoner to take his trial at the next ensuing assizes,
when he will probably be brought up charged with intent
to commit the capital offence.