The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3637, 19 October 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1874.

| ’ iVE schools, erected by the Sheffield :00l Board, were opened yesterday { ugust 18), in the presence of the j £-ht Hon. W. E. Forster, M.F., J -■ Archbishop of York, Mr Roe j (••!, M.P., Mr Mundella, Sir Johx ; iOWN (chairman of the Board), the ' bole of the members of the Board, nd a large number of spectators.” - tiis is the introduction in the ‘Mail’ of wie 19 th August, to an account of the .a-oceediugs connected with the opening ; the chief interest of which consists in the speeches of the influential men named. It can hardly be expected that they would utter mere commonplaces,—nor did they. There is much in what each said that was original, and much that may be called repetition. The Archbishop, although not fully satisfied with the arrangements for religious education, considered more had been done than might have been anticipated, and looked to Sunday schools for the rest. The gist of his speech had reference to the social advantages of popular education. There is a road in Sheffield known as “ Freedom road.” The word had caught his Grace’s eye, and he used it as a text for his address. Referring to the successful struggles of the past for political freedom, he pointed out that to limit the meaning of the word to thar, was to narrow the definition of a term of very wide application. When man was freed “ from control from without ” he needed “ to be delivered from the control of certain things that were within, which was a more serious and more difficult matter.” Viewed in this light, he considered the intemperate man “ the worst slave going.” The man who had no resource within himself and was obliged at night to go to a publichouse, to drown a care which perhaps he never felt, and lay up in store for cares that were to come, and that would not admit of drowning, was the worst kind of slave, because his own hand had forged his own fetters.” Nor did he call the ignorant man free. He did not know what was good for himself; he knew nothing of political economy, and was “ the prey of anybody who chose to put a little notion into his ear < hat pleased it, and tickled it for the moment.” He felt persuaded that were not the people educated, they would remain slaves. We do not know that there is anything new in either of the theses laid down. The chief novelty lies in the evidence that a complete involution has taken place in the minds of the higher grades of clergy during the last half-century. Prior to that pf i-iod, the prevailing theory was that what used to be termed the lower classes would become discontented with their lot were they educated, and \vould become ungovernable—that, in .fact, Cl lurch and State would be in danger, it is by no means improbable that the general diffusion of education will lead t > changes that cannot yet be foretold. To these the Archbishop did not refer; 1 hey were left to be foreshadowed by t he keener apprehension and wider ex- ] silence of the veteran politician, Mr Roebuck. His words may be Conti iered prophetic and remarkable. They press no forebodings of evil, no fear c ’ convulsions in society, or of violent i 1 solutions ; they tell of the natural resequences of sound education, and c the unity of pui-pose and equalisat ' >n of classes that must necessarily retr It. With so clear a perception of consequences, in none other than Eng-lish-speaking communities could so bold en experiment be ventured upon. The ch inges that will take place will necessarily tend to equalisation of social position: the Church will most certrnly be severed from the State; at some future day, probably, aristocratic privileges will be abolished, and it even Royalty mny change its forn/TVnt in the fulness|of knowledge,

all will be done by moral, not by physical force. The rich will be.secured in the possession of wealth, the penniless will be free to win their way to opulence. Possibly society may form and fashion itself somewhat after the development now going on in these Colonies ; for in many important respects we are in advance of those at Home. Such speculations should lead us to value and to perfect our institutions, for a time must come when competition in mental and material things will place all civilised nations on a level in the struggle for existence. Years, . perhaps centuries, may pass before that takes place, but sooner or later it must come. Mr Roebuck’s views are therefore interesting to us, for the leaven that will lead to the change is working. He said : .

The present state of things in England is a remarkable one. Up almost to the present hour England has' been ruled by what are called the educated or upper. classes of society : and the England that we see here about us is Ike pro-duct--I will say it boldly, the product- as far as political matters are concerned, of the educated and higher classes of society. But it has pleased the Government of the country to deliver this England now, as she stands, out of the political keeping—the monopoly—of the other classes, and she has called into political being the great body of the working men. — (Applause.) You must bear in mind that from this time forward the destinies ©f this great country will depend upon the conduct of the working classes.—(Hear, and applause.) That is a thing that we must all face. We cannot shrink from the result. The great mass of the community of England will rule England, and in so far as the great mass are in themselves instructed and capable of weighing the things submitted to their judgments—of distinguishing the right path from the wrong, the wise from the foolish, each man for himself—in so far as they are capable of doing so we may look forward without fear to the future. But if the masses of this country are to be plunged in dark ignorance ; if they are to bo blown about by the breath of any man who, however innocent, will talk loudly; if they are to be the slaves, the more tools of any man who chooses to -mislead them, then, I say, we have a direful future, and the means by which we are to prevent that result are the simple forms that you see around you here—educational buildings. We hope bj this means to instil into the minds of the working men of England mental self-independenco and self-dependence; that they shall be mentally free as they are politically free; that they shall be mentally -capable, not only of governing themselves, but of choosing themselves who are to govern us in wisdom and caution and prudence—(hear, hear)—that they shall not be misled—going about and doing things that we have seen done around aud about us for the l#st few years ; alas ! wretched things, I may say. But that they shall elevate themselves above what they have hitherto been ;• that they shall be in the truest sense of the ‘ word, and, as my Lord’ Archbishop has said, “ free men” —free not merely in body, but free in their action— politically, socially, civilly, and free in the far higher and important consi-deration-free mentally,—(Hear, hear.) The man now who is ignorant and who holds in hi£ hands the destinies of England, may be swayed to anything and anybody by a mere word, by the mere voice—and I will use a word I have used before, and I fear given some offence by so doing, but I will repeat it—and that is, by the mere word of the unworthy demagogue. I want the people of my country—l want our countrymen to judge for themselves and to see not what another man sees; not to swear by another man’s words, but by his own thoughts, and by his own careful, prudent consideration ; consideration brought as an instrument of thought by the education that he receives; aud to govern not merely himself, but the destinies of England. Now, this’l g*y is a reason why we should consider this day so very important; and it is important in that consideration more than in any other point of view I can place before you. From this time forward England is to he governed, not as she has hitherto been governed, by the gallant and the glorious, I will say, body of men who have hitherto ruled her destinies; but they, with a large body of working men behind them, will by their united efforts govern England in the future.