The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-08 00:00:00

FLEETWOOD COLLEGES

A meeting of the provisional committee of the Fleetwood
College Association, and of gentlemen interested in the pro-
jected educational establishments on the principle of life
assurance, was held, in the large Assembly Room of the
North Euston Hotel, Fleetwood-on-Wyre, on Friday, the
Ist instant. The attendance was exceedingly numerous and
respectable.

The Rev. St. Vincent Beechey, A.M., (incumbent of
Fleetwood, and chaplain to Lord Grantley,)was called to the
chair, when he called upon Mr. Vantini, who delivered the
following address explanatory of the proposed system :
I feel certain of your indulgence, particularly when I am
about to propose a thing which conscientiously I believe will
one day be a great boon to humanity, namely, a means of
enabling every one to obtain the best possible education at
the least possible cost. Permit me, gentlemen, briefly to
relate the manner in which the idea first originated in my
mind, and how time and experience have made me to hope
that I have not greatly erred in my calculations. In 1835 it
struck me that the system of life insurance would be an ex-
cellent thing, if it could be adapted to education. From that
moment to this my mind has always been more or less occu-
pied on the subject; and, by speaking with talented men, I
have found them generally of my opinion, particularly such
as had had something to do with dispensing education.
It has been clearly ascertained that in a large school where
no profit is sought beyond the payment of tuition, a child
may be boarded and educated in a first-rate manner for £3O
per annum, that is to say £l5 for board, washing, medical
attendance, and stationery (but no books), £8 for masters,
and £7 for interest on original outlay and risk. Even this
sum, however, which can only answer in very large schools
where very small profits are expected, often falls too heavily
on parents who have many children. But let us suppose an
establishment to exist in which the education of children is
paid on the principle of life insurance. Now this principle
is two-fold. First, it diffuses the expenses of a certain cost
over the space of a much greater number of years, thereby
diminishing the immediate pressure on any one year, and
also the actual weight, because it accumulates at compound
interest. Secondly, it applies to the living the benefit of
those who die, before they become entitled to any annuity,
and consequently before they require it. In order to apply
this principle to education, I have had recourse to the calcu-
lations of the most eminent practical men, all of whom have
approved of the principle; and when I mention the
names of M. de Morgan, professor of mathematics at the
university college in London, and Mr. Coates, the secre-
tary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,
as the authors of that calculation, I hope I am not far out,
when I say that by the payment of £4 per annum from the
birth of any child intended to be sent to these establishments,
or by a proportionate payment at any subsequent age until
seven years ; then from the age of seven to that of eighteen,
such child may, on a further annual payment of £2O
between those years inclusive, have the benefit of a first-rate
education, including every accomplishment necessary for the
scholar and the gentleman, conducted under the superin-
tendence of the most eminent masters in the kingdom. The
details I will not now enter into, being anxious to reserve
them for future deliberation, more especially as some modi-
fication of this plan must be made in the case of a new es-
tablishment, in which many of the first pupils shall be al-
ready of age to enter. The principle of the plan I have looked
into most anxiously. Chance having brought me to Fleet-
wood, I saw all at once that it would be the best spot in
England to put in execution my grand object, as many of
the difficulties which I thought very great, appeared. re-
moved • therefore, with delight I embraced the opportunity
that offered itself to me ; and in all my arrangements here,
having had this object in view, I prepared the ground work
for the model colleges, the trial of which I had in my mind
to offer to an enlightened public. We shall find ourselves
all at once receiving the maximum of our expenses, allowing
£25,000 for the entire establishment as before calculated,
£5,000 for the payment of the interest of the building, and
£3,000 surplus. These sums may be depended upon at the
opening of the establishment, together with the certainty of
their being immediately and considerably increased by the
births and deaths of children. The greatest effort to insure
our success in the first instance, you clearly see will be to
obtain the registration of 1,000 parents or heads of families,
and, as such registration binds them to nothing, if we do not
succeed to build our colleges, we hope to obtain, with facility,
such registration. As soon as we shall have registered the
first 300, we shall regularly organise ourselves; and we have
full confidence that when once our organization shall be es-
tablished, we have a right to expect that by the clear advan-
tages we are offering to the public, we shall accomplish our
object. Considering the many interests already attached to
our new place, the populous country that surrounds us, and
the object we have in hand, such circumstances give me con-
fidence in my appeal to a public that was always eminent
in supporting what they thought would be useful to their
country. I think it will be well to explain, that though in
every college there will be 500 scholars, arrangements are
so made that there will be only 25 or 30 scholars together;
because every college is divided into four divisions of 125
scholars each, every division being quite distinct and com-
pletely separated in every respect, and each division being
subdivided into classes of 25 or 30. Such arrangements
as those mentioned will materially conduce to the parents'
satisfaction, regarding their daughters, in a country where
the females' education, well conferred, is very costly, and
a good school at a moderate price can scarcely be ob-
tained. Religion and education will be entrusted, the first
to the clergy of the Established Church, the second to the
most eminent men that can be procured ; it being one grand
object of this system to let the advantages be as perfect and
complete as possible. Once well organised and established,
we shall contrive to extend our establishments; and on that
being the case, we shall reduce the rate of payment, as now
proposed. I have now explicitly and frankly explained to
you my views, and hope you will unite with us, and contrive,
by advising directly your friends, to induce them to register
their children as soon as possible ; and, as 1 have already
said, so soon as our register musters 300 signatures, we shall
unite ourselves here to choose amongst them the director,
directresses, trustees, &c. lam quite confident, as I can
promise you, that when our society shall be formed and
organised, several of the most talented and eminent men of
the country will join and assist us. With the extensiveness
of the proposed colleges, the well organised comfort of them,
with the minimum payment which at this present moment is
given for a very inferior education, when the parents shall
know that they are obtaining a degree of education and com-
fort that in any other establishment could not be obtained
under a £lOO or £l5O a-year, we shall be certain to see
springing from this place the most useful system of education
that ever could be brought into society. We shall see also
established round us a great number of clergymen and tutors,
with a view of giving to their pupils the advantage of instruc-
tion hours in the colleges, and superintending their morals
and religion at home. What, then, I shall propose to you,
is to form a temporary committee, by the advice of which we
shall proceed to obtain persons who may wish to register
their children, at the same time we shall be happy to receive
any suggestion by which our object may be advanced.
The resolutions, which will be found in our advertising
columns, were then put in several very able addresses, and
carried.

MURDER AND ROBBERY OF ARMS.—The Dublin Gazette
states that on the 3d instant, about a quarter to twelve
o'clock, noon, a party of four men entered the house of Mr.
William Hardy, of the townland of Dolla, and county of Tip-
perary, and robbed it of a blunderbuss, a sword, two guns,
and a pistol, and that one of the party struck Mr. Samuel
Hardy on the head with a stone, which fractured his skull,
and of which he died soon after. The Gazette further con-
tains the offer of a reward of £lOO for the discovery of the
parties who actually committed the outrage.
THE TARIFF.—The new tariff has found as much favour
in the upper as it did in the lower house ; for, on Lord
Stanhope dividing their lordships against the second reading
of the bill, the minority who voted against government was
only four, while the majority for ministers was 59. The
majorities by which this measure has hitherto passed through
either house of parliament will surely convince the wildest
free-trade spouter that to moderately and temperately con-
ceived schemes of commercial reform there is no consider-
able party in the country opposed.
SINGULAR AND PERILOUS POSITION OF A CLERGYMAN.
—The long succession of drought experienced in Teesdale for
about seven weeks past, has been succeeded by heavy rains,
which caused a sudden swelling of the river in the mountainous
district of Teesdale on Saturday last, at which time it ap-
pears that a rev. gentleman, residing about six miles " down-
east " of the "metropolis of the Tees," was upon an island
in the bed of that river, and was accompanied by a boy and
two men, all engaged, as old Isaac Walton has it, in " the
gentle art," when they were suddenly surrounded by deep
water, which cut off all retreat. No boat being at hand, the
friends of the parties, on being apprised of their situation,
brought ropes, and fixed the ends of one set to the top of a
scar opposite, throwing the other ends to the unlucky
islanders, in order that they might fix them to the trees on
the island, and so form an inclined plane, up which they were
to climb their weary way, but the scheme not succeeding, they
were supplied with additional clothing, spirits, matches, &c.,
" via" the inclined plane. Some sticks being gathered, they
lighted a fire, and, Crusoe-like, passed a night the reverse of
comfortable, and during the following Sabbath scores of per-
sons were to be seen passing their jokes at their luckless
plight. On the evening of that day, however, the waters
having subsided, one of the party fastened himself to a rope,
and was dragged ashore. Emboldened by his success, the
rest of the party followed his example, and ultimately they
were all rescued from their very uncomfortable position.

MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT—THREE LIVES LOST.—Short
ly after the arrival of the Pacific of Aberdeen, Captain Morri-
son, at Quebec' a most distressing accident occurred, by
which three of the lives of those on; board were sacrificed.
A young man of the name of George Grott, and a young
woman, Margaret Swanson, had formed an attachment
during the passsage out. n arriving at the above port,
they had gone on shore for some purpose, leaving the rest of
the passengers on board. The vessel not having been along-
side the quay, they had to be taken on shore in a boat. On
their return, and while going up the. ladder which hung over
the side of the vessel into the boat, they both lost their bold,
and were precipitated into the water, and the current at the
time running eight miles an hour, they were swept along
with it. On observing their perilous position, Mr. William
Morrison, son of Captain Morrison, jumped overboard to
their rescue. He reached the unfortunate sufferers, but
only, alas ! to share the doom to which they had been
devoted.

THE LIGHT COINAGE.—For the last ten days the work-
men and welters at the mint have been actively employed in
striking an immense quantity of new sovereigns, half-sove-
reigns, half-crowns, shillings, and sixpences, for the Bank of
England, so as to meet the run upon them this week, as the
80 will
whenhe removed the changing
to a
quarterly dividends become due, and will be in course of
inpayamena fromtaft Wednesday,£er2o
to
of the establishment, instead of the Rotunda. The quan-
tity
of light gold presented at the bank since the procla-
mation of the 3rd of June, exceeds £1,500,000 sterling,
and that principally confined to the metropolis, so that the
employes have had enough to do, although the payments in
notes and silver, instead of full weight gold, have been gene-
rally the demand of the public. The number of light sove-
reigns in 1842 exceeds that of 1841 in proportion as five to
one. Up to the 31st of December, 1841, the amount of gold
coin tendered at the Bank of England was as follows :—Lon-
don, £12.230,975 ; rejected,X3,263,B2o; branches,X7,463,7B9;
rejected, £1,007,245; total, £19,694,764; light, £4,271,065.
As the bank directors have not yet sanctioned their branch
banks in the country to take light gold, and that in small
sums, the greatest difficulty exists in the manufacturing and
agricultural districts to obtain silver, although a considerable
quantity has been sent from time to time to Liverpool, Bir-
mingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Doncaster, Norwich,
Nottingham, Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Bedfordshire,
Hertfordshire, Kent, Essex, and other Populous counties.
shopkeers and Jews in the large towns are reaping
isii,lvuenrd.erTtl:,eispre
aT_lgioelpdeetntyharvest at thdeedeuxepteiangselosftothies
6hdarpdewrosrokvienrgeiagnadan,
in-
dustrious classes by
be obviated did but the branch banks
ne-
farious system would
some
are instancesli
gt , i perti
.exheaill half-sovereign, efroeri g
in sums as low as £3 or £5 at the same price
£1 notes, the run upon the local
circulating medium being
9t
pre-
tence
taketc °e
light tlhsaitnt
goldhey
such that the Poor Law Guardians
backs for silver has been
as the Bank of England. many parts of the country, the
orders to the amount,
which the tradespeople have been obliged to take, or run the
in several districts have not been able to pay their regular
out-door relief in specie, but have given
coinage is received at
and lose their custom. As the light
establish-
ment,
of the
the Bank, it is put apart in another branch .
risk of incurring the displeasure of these. humane bashaws
and half-sovereigns of the reign of her
than
and sent to the mint to be
graciousrecoinmeodsitnto sovereigns
Ma-
jesty Queen Victoria, the Mint not taking less sums
£lO,OOO. By this means government expects to
be ablesoon to call in all the old gold coinage of George the
Third and George the Fourth, from 1817 to 1820. The
same with the silver, which is greatly deficient in weight.

THEATRE-ROYAL

MR. T. RUSSELL'S BENEFIT.

THIS EVENING, (FRIDAY,) the Bth instant, will he
performed the Drama of
DOMINIQUE! THE DESERTER.
Dominique.. Mr. J. Russell.
After which,
AN HOUR OF TABLE TALK;
In which he will sing the Songs.
" Persevere"—" Pasticcio"—" The Old Brititii Oak"--and
the " Angel's Whisper."
To conclude with the Drama- of
RORY O'MORE.
Rory O'More.. Mr. J. Russell,
In which he will introduce the " WIDDY MALoNE," which
was honoured with an enthusiastic encore on Wednesday
Evening.