The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-11-27 00:00:00

before elm/berated; if there be only a lecturer, " the study
of bookq is superfluous." We entreat our readers to sa-
tisfy theinselvcs that we do not misquote.
In kindness to Mr. Hope, we could have wished to cha-
ritably veil this unhappy essay.

"One science only (lath one genius fit." •
and considering the various pursuits -and occupations
which have, at different periods, engaged Mr. Hope, he
might 'Welt be'• excused having a familiar acquaint-
ance with subjects whiilh, if he ever knew, he has
now evidently forgotten. We pass over the sheer non-
sense 'which is here so ostentatiously displayed: Who
ever heard—who ever dreamt—of a man ignorant of the
alphabet attaining all the benefits of science,—for in-
stance, algebra ? At this very time there is being deli-
vered, at the Mechanics' Institution, .a course of lectures
on history. These-cati be useful only as reviving the re-
collection of what has been previously acquired from
books • for to suppose that a boy or a man can know his-
tory simply by means of lectures, is too ridiculous to need
refutation. Every body knows, that the benefits result-
ing froth scientific studies, consist less in the value of the
truths acquired than in the mental training,—the habits of
thought and reflection which the acquisition of these,
truths affords. It is only as a knowledge of science is.
elementary, and the result of-a process of induction, that
its advantages can be experienced, The dark and intri-
cate labyrinths into which Mr. Hope would lead the
young and the adult members of the Mechanics' Institu-
tion—the unintelligible crudities with which he would
perplex them, reminds us forcibly of the description
which Milton gives of a reasoning conclave of fallen
angels :

" In thoughts more elevated, they reason'd high
Of Providence, foreknowledge, will and fate,
Fix'd,fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost."

From beginning to end there is not a syllable in this
address as to the great end and object of all education,—
not one. word to induce to virtue and religion. All his-
tory attests the fact', that education withoitt religion is
edUcation against religion. Mr. Hope is known as a
prominent, at least a professed friend to mission, and
has taken a conspicuous part in many other pious under-
takings. Might it not have occurred to him, that reading,
or what he terms " the dull, tedious, and unprofitable
poring over a book," although not necessary for a man
who attends lectures, such as he recommends, may, not-
withstanding, be very useful for other and far higher pur-
poses. The "working classes" might thereby be enabled
to benefit and enjoy their little domestic circle.s,—to
call around them their families, and, at the close of their
daily toil, to open the volume of inspiration, and unfold
the treasures of religion. • Yet these are objects neces:
sarily excluded from a system of instruction which would
withdraw the humble mechanic from the bosom of his fa-
mily, and which makes reading, or even a knowledge of
the alphabet, " superfluous." What is it which has ele-
vated the national character of Scotland ? Is it not edu-
cation,—education the Very' opposite bio that which Mr.
Hope would teach ?" At the Scottish parochial schools
little, indeed, of geology, hydraulics, or algebra is taught,
and yet, by a system of instruction limited to the merest
elements of education, but from first to last united with
the soundest moral and Christian principles—we mark
integrity, intelligence, industry, and religion pervading
and characterizing a whole population. -
We have been wrong in attributing to Mr. Hope the
origin of the baneful system which we feel it our duty
thus to defiounee. The experiment has been tried in a
neighbouring country, and with results too memorable to
be soon forgotten. The horrors of the French revolution
were preceded and perpetrated by means of education de-
void of religion. Throughout France the wildest and
most revolting theOries were actively and insidiously
propagated, and what the " Address" before us calls " a
spirit of philosophical investigation" was the very name
under which doctrines were taught which led to atroci-
ties and blasphemies unequalled in the records of human
depravity. Unfortunately there is too close a parallel
between the period we refer to and the times in which
we write. Most unreservedly do we believe Mr. Hope to
be ignorant of the er4 ent and consequences of the prin-
Ciples which he puts forward. We even acquit him of
having meant his "Address" in aidance of Mr. Thorne-
ly's project of a system of national education. We are
friends to education. ,• We desire, of all things, to see the
great body of the people intellectual and enlightened;
but let it be a religious—a Christian education.

Our readers are probably aware that a public meeting
was held at Leeds, on the 21st instant, to consider the
expediency of addressing His Majesty upon the subject
of the war against the Dutch, and that at this meeting a
certain:junto, well known in that town, attended with a
set of counter-resolutions, and, after succeeding by cla-
mour and intiMidation, iu driving the mapr, who pre-
sided, and the respectable friends who supported him out
of the Court-house, they adjourned to the Cloth-hall,
chose a chairman of their own, and passed their own re-
solutions. The following letter, addressed to the editor
of the London Standclid, gives a detailed account of this
disgraceful proceeding, and proves, in a very strikinp;
manner, how just are the pretensions of our modern re-
formers to be the frieuds of fair,, and free discussion..
Comment upon such conduct would be quite superflu-
ous

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON STANDARD.

LEEDS, November 22.

SIR,—In my last I promised to let you know the result of the
meeting held here yesterday, to consider the expediency of ad-
dressing his Majesty on the question of our infamous interfer-
ence in the quarrel between Holland and Belgium. 'the meet-
ing was held in the Court-house; and I am sorry to say a more
perfect portrait of a bear-garden was never before exhibited in
Leeds. Messrs. Baines, Bower, and Co., had prevailed upon
the owners of several of the mills,—thick and thin suppoi tees of
what I shall call " The imbecile admiuistration,"—to allow
their mills to stop in time for the men to arrive at the meeting
before twelve o'clock. Amongst the rest, the Messrs. Ben-
yous and Co., Messrs. Marshall and Co., the Messrs. Willans,
Messrs. Bruce and Co., with some others, sent their men, who
were placed by the party before alluded to in the body of the
Court-horse, which they completely occupied.
Shortly after the mayor had read the requisition, and was
about to express his opinion, the most deafening shouts of
" Adjourn, adjourn to the Cloth-hall-yard," were raised by the
mill-men in the body of the Court-house, and the ruffians paid
by the Holbec,k Political Union—one party urged on by Messrs.
Baines, Clapham, and Co., and the other by Messrs. Smithson
and Lees, that not one word that the mayor said could be heard,
except by those persons immediately near him ; in fact the cla-
mour was so 'great, the mayor literally was not allowed to speak.
After waiting with great patience and good humour for half an
hour, in the hope that the fury of the mill men would have
cooled down, he again attempted to conclude his address to the
meeting; but not one word would these mill fellows and Bow-
er's Union men hear. The mayor was determined that unless a
fair and full discussion was allowed to all parties, he would not
adjourn the meeting, and being now perfectly satisfied that
season would not_ prevail, he very properly dissolved the
meeting.
The requisitors, with many gentlemen of all parties, favour-
able to peace, immediately assembled in the grand jury room,
and there passed the resolutions and address intended to have
been submitted to the general meeting. Messrs. Baines, Bower,
and Co., with their mill-men, and pain ragamuffins, repaired to
the Cloth Hall, chose a very young man for their chairman,
and they also passed resolutions, and voted, not unanimously, a
very warlike address to the King. he proceedings of ), et,,ter-
day would have astounded me, it any one can be surprised at
what the Whigs will do and say. Men who for a quarter of a
century condemned a war, into which the late Mr. 1 i t was
forced by the almost unanimous voice of the people, new n uu-
rage the present Administration to begin a war with one of our
oldest allies and best customers, to enforce that with which we
have no right to interfere; and this, too, in the face of their re-
peated declared resolutions of nuns-interference! How such