MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 50, 26 November 1857, Page 4

MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE.

I<ecture by the Rev. Mr. Bruce : — On the State System of Education, as affected by the Partition of Poland. In the last ‘ Examiner’ it was announced that we would defer hazarding any observations upon this Lecture until our reverend Lecturer delivered a Second Lecture in elucidation of the same vast and important subject. Upon reflection, however, it occurred to us that a notice, though brief and imperfect, of the Lecture already delivered might in some measure help to get a larger audience to hear the Second Lecture than was present to hear the First. We are most anxious that the Mechanics’ Institute Lecture Department should be carried on with spirit and success. Audiences attract audiences as money breeds money. Moreover, it is manifest taat gentlemen who take the pains to prepare Lectures for public benefit, are disheartened when their efforts fail to attract, and consequently to improve, the many. In another column an attempt is made to account for public apathy with regard to Lectures lately delivered at the Mechanics’ Institute. But with that subject we have here nothing to do, and, for reasons given, will now “ turn our back upon ourselves” so far as not to wait till Mr. Bruce 1 delivers his Second Lecture before noticing the First. We went to hear Mr. Bruce under an impression that he had something to say worth listening to Nor were we disappointed. The subject was skilfully handled ; and large consideration given by Mr. Bruce as well to the rationale as to the historicum of his case. Let us say, in less comprehensive but, to readers in general, plainer words, that the Lecturer not only gave the history of transactions connected with, or leading directly up to, the infamous though inevitable Partition of Poland, but accounted for those transactions on principles of pure reason. To follow him through a Discourse which occupied near an hour in the delivery we are forbidden by considerations well known to ‘ Examiner’ printers and the “ devils” in waiting upon them. Nor would ‘ Examiner ’ readers thank us if we dare do so; for with the utile or useful they insist upon having a good deal of that agreeable seasoning called dulce. Our Lecturer went back far into the night of time for material on which to rest important historical truths. He pictured forth the grand ambitiousness of Charlemagne with the skill of a practised artist in words; and showed that the “ balance of power” idea was not conceived by Charlemagne, or if conceived — rejected. The cherished object of that wonderful man was European unity. He would fain have united politically what in an age still more dark than the twelfth, or any succeeding age, had been united spiritually. Universal dominion not only in Europe but out of it. Such was his object. Long after his time Emperors were seen to stand bareheaded at the Ecclesiastical gate, and at the nod of a Monk all Europe trembled. Inexorable was the stuff composing Charlemagne, who had not only the genius to conceive vast schemes of policy but the boldness to carry them out. For political harmony in liberty his age was not ripe; and with him political unity meant the unity of all European nations under one supreme political head. Long tracts of time may be swiftly traversed. With strides much larger than a certain Giant’s when “going ahead” in his seven league loots Mr. Bruce passed from age to age—from Charlemagne to Charles the Fifth—from Charles The Fifth to Protestant Gustavus Adolphus, well named “Lion of the North,” who terminated a career of scarcely precedented glory on the terrible field of Lutzen. Our Lecturer dwelt long upon the Treaty of Westphalia. It is in that famous Treaty that the “ balance of power” principle appears to have first received written recognition by the leading powers of Europe. Mr. Bruce showed how, since that Treaty was .signed (1648, or more than two centuries ago) new actors appeared upon <he political scene ; how in ages past race with race contended for supreme political authority; how, after the Treaty of Westphalia, Prussia became, as if by magic a recognized European power ; how it happened that after the splendid victories of Prussian Frederick, justly distinguished as Frederick the Great, the statesmen of Prussia, Austria, and Russia conspired to destroy the nationality of Poland. Mr. Bruce did not commit himself to any opinion with regard either to the political desirability or political justice of the course pursued by Austria, Prussia and Russia. Poland has three times been partitioned. Our Lecturer referred only to the /irst Partition, and, as already observed, without pronouncing any opinion either as to its expediency or its justice. He confined himself to the consideration of those great historical avents which made the “ balance of power” principle take deep root in_ the soil of modern Europe. Perhaps the most interesting, as well as profitable, part of his Lecture Was that in which he compared the Sclavonic with the German race, and showed that to check the growth of even then oaergrown Sdavonianism was one of the objects aimed at by the more cunning of those who by partitioning Poland opened a way for its political annihilation.