Part 9

We have met to-day in the sacred cause of Education—of National Education. This word, which means no less than the moral and intellectual development of the rising generation, and, therefore, the national welfare, is well calculated to engross our minds, and opens a question worthy of a nation’s deepest interest and most anxious consideration. Gentlemen, the nation is alive to its importance, and our presence here to-day gives further evidence (if such evidence were needed) of its anxiety to give it that consideration. Looking to former times, we find that our forefathers, with their wonted piety and paternal care, had established a system of national education, based upon the parish organization, and forming part of parish life, which met the wants of their day, and had in it a certain unity and completeness which we may well envy at the present moment. But in the progress of time our wants have outstripped that system, and the condition of the country has so completely changed, even within these last fifty years, that the old parochial division is no longer adequate for the present population. This has increased during that period in England and Wales from, in round numbers, 9,000,000 to 18,000,000, and, where there formerly existed comparatively small towns and villages, we now see mighty cities, like Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Leeds, Birmingham, and others, with their hundreds of thousands, springing up almost, as it were, by enchantment; London having increased to nearly two and a half million of souls, and the factory district of Lancashire alone having aggregated a population of nearly 3,000,000 within a radius of thirty miles. This change could not escape the watchful eye of a patriotic public; but how to provide the means of satisfying the new wants could not be a matter of easy solution. While zeal for the public good, a fervent religious spirit, and true philanthropy are qualities eminently distinguishing our countrymen, the love of liberty, and an aversion from being controlled by the power of the State in matters nearest to their hearts, are feelings which will always most powerfully influence them in action. Thus the common object has been contemplated from the most different points of view, and pursued often upon antagonistic principles. Some have sought the aid of Government, others that of the Church to which they belong; some have declared it to be the duty of the State to provide elementary instruction for the people at large, others have seen in the State interference a check to the spontaneous exertions of the people themselves, and an interference with self-government; some, again, have advocated a plan of compulsory education based upon local self-government, and others the voluntary system in its widest development. While these have been some of the political subjects of difference, those in the religious field have not been less marked and potent. We find, on the one hand, the wish to see secular and religious instruction separated, and the former recognized as an innate and inherent right, to which each member of society has a claim, and which ought not to be denied to him if he refuses to take along with it the inculcation of a particular dogma to which he objects as unsound; while we see, on the other hand, the doctrine asserted, that no education can be sound which does not rest on religious instruction, and that religious truth is too sacred to be modified and tampered with, even in its minutest deductions, for the sake of procuring a general agreement.

Gentlemen, if these differences were to have been discussed here to-day, I should not have been able to respond to your invitation to take the chair, as I should have thought it inconsistent with the position which I occupy, and with the duty which I owe to the Queen and the country at large. I see those here before me who have taken a leading part in these important discussions, and I am happy to meet them upon a neutral ground; happy to find that there _is_ a neutral ground upon which their varied talents and abilities can be brought to bear in communion upon the common object; and proud and grateful to them that they should have allowed me to preside over them for the purpose of working together in the common vineyard. I feel certain that the greatest benefit must arise to the cause we have all so much at heart by the mere free exchange of your thoughts and various experience. You may well be proud, gentlemen, of the results hitherto achieved by your rival efforts, and may point to the fact that, since the beginning of the century, while the population has doubled itself, the number of schools, both public and private, has been multiplied fourteen times. In 1801 there were in England and Wales, of public schools, 2876; of private schools, 487—total, 3363. In 1851 (the year of the census) there were in England and Wales, of public schools, 15,518; of private schools, 30,524—total, 46,042; giving instruction in all to 2,144,378 scholars; of whom 1,422,982 belong to public schools, and 721,396 to the private schools. The rate of progress is further illustrated by statistics which show that in 1818 the proportion of day-scholars to the population was 1 in 17; in 1833, 1 in 11; and in 1851, 1 in 8. These are great results, although I hope they may only be received as instalments of what has yet to be done. But what must be your feelings when you reflect upon the fact, the inquiry into which has brought us together, that this great boon thus obtained for the mass of the people, and which is freely offered to them, should have been only partially accepted, and, upon the whole, so insufficiently applied as to render its use almost valueless! We are told that, the total population in England and Wales of children between the ages of 3 and 15 being estimated at 4,908,696, only 2,046,848 attend school at all, while 2,861,848 receive no instruction whatever. At the same time an analysis of the scholars with reference to the length of time allowed for their school tuition, shows that 42 per cent. of them have been at school for less than one year, 22 per cent. during one year, 15 per cent. during two years, 9 per cent. during three years, 5 per cent. during four years, and 4 per cent. during five years. Therefore, out of the two millions of scholars alluded to, more than one million and a half remain only two years at school. I leave it to you to judge what the results of such an education can be. I find further that of these two millions of children attending school only about 600,000 are above the age of nine.

Gentlemen, these are startling facts, which render it evident that no extension of the means of education will be of any avail unless this evil, which lies at the root of the whole question, be removed, and that it is high time that the country should become thoroughly awake to its existence, and prepared to meet it energetically. To impress this upon the public mind is the object of our conference. Public opinion is the powerful lever which in these days moves a people for good and for evil, and to public opinion we must therefore appeal if we would achieve any lasting and beneficial results. You, gentlemen, will richly add to the services which you have already rendered to the noble cause if you will prepare public opinion by your inquiry into this state of things, and by discussing in your sections the causes of it as well as the remedies which may lie within our reach. This will be no easy matter; but even if your labours should not result in the adoption of any immediate practical steps, you will have done great good in preparing for them. It will probably happen that, in this instance as in most others, the cause which produces the evil will be more easily detected than its remedy, and yet a just appreciation of the former must ever be the first and essential condition for the discovery of the latter. You will probably trace the cause of our social condition to a state of ignorance and lethargic indifference on the subject among parents generally; but the root of the evil will, I suspect, be found to extend into that field on which the political economist exercises his activity—I mean the labour market—demand and supply. To dissipate that ignorance and rouse from that lethargy may be difficult; but with the united and earnest efforts of all who are the friends of the working classes it ought, after all, to be only a question of time. What measures can be brought to bear upon the other root of the evil is a more delicate question, and will require the nicest care in handling, for there you cut into the very quick of the working man’s condition. His children are not only his offspring, to be reared for a future independent position, but they constitute part of his productive power, and work with him for the staff of life; the daughters especially are the handmaids of the house, the assistants of the mother, the nurses of the younger children, the aged, and the sick. To deprive the labouring family of their help would be almost to paralyse its domestic existence. On the other hand, carefully collected statistics reveal to us the fact, that, while about 600,000 children between the ages of 3 and 15 are absent from school, but known to be employed, no less than 2,200,000 are not at schools, whose absence cannot be traced to any ascertained employment or other legitimate cause. You will have to work, then, upon the minds and hearts of the parents, to place before them the irreparable mischief which they inflict upon those who are intrusted to their care by keeping them from the light of knowledge, to bring home to their conviction that it is their duty to exert themselves for their children’s education, bearing in mind at the same time that it is not only their most sacred duty, but also their highest privilege. Unless they work with you, your work, our work, will be vain; but you will not fail, I feel sure, in obtaining their co-operation if you remind them of their duty to their God and Creator. Our Heavenly Father, in His boundless goodness, has made His creatures that they should be happy, and in His wisdom has fitted His means to His ends, giving to all of them different qualities and faculties, in using and developing which they fulfil their destiny, and, running their uniform course according to His prescription, they find that happiness which He has intended for them. Man alone is born into this world with faculties far nobler than the other creatures, reflecting the image of Him who has willed that there should be beings on earth to know and worship Him, but endowed with the power of self-determination, having reason given him for his guide. He can develop his faculties, place himself in harmony with his Divine prototype, and attain that happiness which is offered to him on earth, to be completed hereafter in entire union with Him through the mercy of Christ. But he can also leave these faculties unimproved, and miss his mission on earth. He will then sink to the level of the lower animals, forfeit happiness, and separate from his God, whom he did know how to find. Gentlemen, I say man has no right to do this—he has no right to throw off the task which is laid upon him for his happiness; it is his duty to fulfil his mission to the utmost of his power; but it is our duty, the duty of those whom Providence has removed from this awful struggle and placed beyond this fearful danger, manfully, unceasingly, and untiringly to aid by advice, assistance, and example the great bulk of the people, who, without such aid, must almost inevitably succumb to the difficulty of their task. They will not cast from them the aiding hand, and the Almighty will bless the labours of those who work in His cause.

OPENING ADDRESS

AT THE

MEETING IN THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

FOR THE

INAUGURATION OF JENNER’S STATUE.

[MAY 17TH, 1858.]

1.

GENTLEMEN,—

You have invited me to take the chair at this meeting, convened on the anniversary of Jenner’s birth for the purpose of doing honour to his memory; and I have not hesitated to comply with your request, in order to mark, in common with you, my sense of the inestimable boon which this great philosopher and philanthropist has bestowed upon the human race.

His discovery was not the result of accident, like many others, however important, but that of long and thoughtful observation and reflection, and of continuous induction from numerous facts and carefully conducted experiments, to which a whole life had been directed. He has thus been enabled to save by his discovery more human lives than has fallen to the lot of any other man, and England has just reason to be proud to number him amongst her sons. Whilst his contemporaries testify their feeling of gratitude to him by several important public acts, it has been reserved to us to prove that we do not less highly appreciate his services, by raising a statue to his memory. May it be long preserved to exhibit the features of this benefactor of mankind to succeeding generations!

2.

I return you my best thanks for the kind words which you have spoken, and assure you that I shall feel most happy if the result of this day’s meeting should be to rouse afresh public attention to the means of safety which science has placed at man’s command, and the neglect of which still costs this country alone no less than annually 5000 victims.

AT THE TRINITY HOUSE.

[JULY 3RD, 1858.]

1.

“THE QUEEN.”

May she long continue in the possession of that great blessing, “The love of her people!”

2.

I have to propose to you the Health of “The Prince of Wales,” and the rest of the “Royal Family.”

Since I last met you here, it has pleased the Almighty to take the last of the children of King George the Third from amongst us, in the beloved and revered Duchess of Gloucester; another daughter has been vouchsafed to the Queen; and our eldest child has, united to a husband of her choice—and, I may say, worthy of her choice—passed to a distant country, where I was happy to find her the other day in the possession of every domestic blessing. The interest and sympathy evinced by the people of this country in this marriage could not but be most gratifying to the feelings of her parents.

3.

The toast which I now propose to you is the “Army and Navy.”

If this toast must at all times be received by Englishmen with feelings of pride and satisfaction, who could approach it at the present moment without being also penetrated by those of admiration and deep thankfulness for the heroic deeds and sacrifices with which our gallant troops are now struggling, not only for the honour and interests of our country, but I trust for the cause of civilization and the future happiness of millions of people now unfortunately in part our enemies! May the Almighty continue to watch over our brave countrymen in the East, and grant them uninterrupted victory! His hand becomes most apparent when we consider how small are the means with which so much has been achieved. The deepest responsibility, however, attaches to us, not to rest satisfied with the enjoyment of the advantages and successes obtained by such self-sacrificing devotion, but to take care that, by maintaining these noble services in sufficient numbers, the tasks which for our benefit may be from time to time imposed upon them, should not carry with them the almost certain immolation of those who are expected to perform them.

6.

I propose to you “the Health of Her Majesty’s Ministers and the Earl of Derby.”

They are called upon to administer and advise the Sovereign upon the multifarious and complicated affairs of this vast empire. In these days, moreover, when the progress of education and civilization renders the influence of public opinion upon the conduct of the Government more and more powerful, the latter has this difficult problem to solve: it has to maintain a judicious and beneficial harmony between its own conscientious convictions, and the impulsive and varying character of that public opinion.

If I might in this room be allowed to make use of a nautical metaphor, I should compare the governing body with a vessel, of which public opinion is the rudder. Should their nautical action not be most nicely adjusted, one of two results must follow—either the vessel would refuse to answer her helm, and to take the desired course; or she would answer it too quickly, which I believe you call wild steering, the effects of which may be seen in the zigzag line of the wake.

Nothing, however, can tend more to facilitate the difficult task of the Government, than that their motives and intentions should be understood and appreciated by their fellow-countrymen; and it is on occasions like the present that these can testify those feelings. With this view I now ask you to drink to the “Health of Her Majesty’s Ministers.”

* * * * *

N.B.—Nos. 4 and 5 were answers to “My Health,” and “Prosperity to the Trinity House.” I read extracts of Reports on all business connected with the Corporation.

SPEECH DELIVERED AT CHERBOURG

AFTER THE

BANQUET ON BOARD “LA BRETAGNE.”

[AUGUST 5TH, 1858.]

La Reine désire que j’exprime à Votre Majesté combien elle est sensible à la nouvelle preuve d’amitié que vous venez de lui donner, en lui portant un toast, et en prononçant des paroles qui lui resteront chères à jamais.

Votre Majesté connait les sentiments d’amitié qu’elle vous porte, à vous, Sire, et à l’Impératrice, et je n’ai pas besoin de vous les rappeler. Vous savez également que la bonne entente entre nos deux pays est l’objet constant de ses désirs, comme il l’est des vôtres. La Reine est donc doublement heureuse d’avoir l’occasion, par sa présence ici en ce moment, de s’allier à vous, Sire, en tâchant de reserrer, autant que possible, les liens d’amitié entre les deux peuples. Cette amitié est la base de leur prospérité mutuelle, et la bénédiction du Ciel ne lui manquera pas!

La Reine porte la santé de l’Empereur et de l’Impératrice!

ON PRESENTING NEW COLOURS

TO THE

2ND BATTALION OF THE 13TH (“PRINCE ALBERT’S OWN”) LIGHT INFANTRY,

AT HARFORD RIDGE, NEAR ALDERSHOT.

[FEBRUARY 21ST, 1859.]

The act which has just been performed, simple as it is, has the highest significance for the soldier! You have received in these colours the emblems of your country and your Sovereign, and of your regiment as a part of the British Army. It is your country’s, your Sovereign’s, and that army’s honour which is bound up in them, and which you will henceforth have to guard and to defend; not by your valour alone in action, and your endurance under the hardships of campaigns, but also during the monotonous duties of peace and under the temptations of inaction—placed in different societies, under different climes, and in different parts of the world.

The British soldier has to follow these colours to every part of the globe, and everywhere he is the representative of his country’s power, freedom, loyalty, and civilization. The 13th has a fair name in the world, won chiefly in distant lands—the West Indies, America, Africa, and Asia; and its defence of Jellalabad has proved that it is capable of evincing the highest qualities of the soldier. You may point with just pride to the fact that those qualities, displayed so conspicuously under Sir Robert Sale, were but now exhibited to the admiration of mankind by Sir Henry Havelock, an officer trained in its ranks!

You are a new, a young battalion, sprung with surprising rapidity together with others from a patriotic people, for the rescue of the country’s mightiest interests threatened in the East. During the short time you have been together you have worked hard to assume the honourable position intrusted to you, and I may now congratulate you on your success. That the military authorities should think you fit and worthy to take your place in the Army of the Cape, shows that your exertions are appreciated and that entire confidence is reposed in you.

I feel proud that you should bear my name to that promising country.

May God’s best blessing attend you, shield you from danger, support you under difficulties, cheer you under privations, grant you moderation in success, contentment under discipline, humility and gratitude towards Him in prosperity!

AT THE MEETING OF

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.

[HELD AT ABERDEEN, SEPTEMBER 14TH, 1859.]

GENTLEMEN OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION,—

Your kind invitation to me to undertake the office of your President for the ensuing year could not but startle me on its first announcement. The high position which Science occupies, the vast number of distinguished men who labour in her sacred cause, and whose achievements, while spreading innumerable benefits, justly attract the admiration of mankind, contrasted strongly in my mind with the consciousness of my own insignificance in this respect. I, a simple admirer, and would-be student of Science, to take the place of the chief and spokesman of the scientific men of the day, assembled in furtherance of their important objects!—the thing appeared to me impossible. Yet, on reflection, I came to the conclusion that, if not as a contributor to, or director of your labours, I might still be useful to you, useful to science, by accepting your offer. Remembering that this Association is a popular Association, not a secret confraternity of men jealously guarding the mysteries of their profession, but inviting the uninitiated, the public at large, to join them, having as one of its objects to break down those imaginary and hurtful barriers which exist between men of science and so-called men of practice—I felt that I could, from the peculiar position in which Providence has placed me in this country, appear as the representative of that large public, which profits by and admires your exertions, but is unable actively to join in them; that my election was an act of humility on your part, which to reject would have looked like false humility, that is like pride, on mine. But I reflected further, and saw in my acceptance the means, of which necessarily so few are offered to Her Majesty, of testifying to you, through the instrumentality of her husband, that your labours are not unappreciated by your Sovereign, and that she wishes her people to know this as well as yourselves. Guided by these reflections, my choice was speedily made, for the path of duty lay straight before me.

If these, however, are the motives which have induced me to accept your flattering offer of the Presidency, a request on my part is hardly necessary that you will receive my efforts to fulfil its duties with kind indulgence.

If it were possible for anything to make me still more aware how much I stand in need of this indulgence, it is the recollection of the person whom I have to succeed as your President—a man of whom this country is justly proud, and whose name stands among the foremost of the naturalists in Europe for his patience in investigation, conscientiousness in observation, boldness of imagination, and acuteness in reasoning. You have no doubt listened with pleasure to his parting address, and I beg to thank him for the flattering manner in which he has alluded to me in it.