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.
The Association meets for the first time to-day in these regions and in
this ancient and interesting city. The poet, in his works of fiction,
has to choose, and anxiously to weigh, where to lay his scene, knowing
that, like the painter, he is thus laying in the background of his
picture, which will give tone and colour to the whole. The stern and dry
reality of life is governed by the same laws, and we are here living,
feeling, and thinking under the influence of the local impressions of
this northern seaport. The choice appears to me a good one. The
travelling philosophers have had to come far; but in approaching the
Highlands of Scotland they meet nature in its wild and primitive form,
and nature is the object of their studies. The geologist will not find
many novelties in yonder mountains, because he will stand there on the
bare backbone of the globe; but the primary rocks, which stand out in
their nakedness, exhibit the grandeur and beauty of their peculiar form,
and in the splendid quarries of this neighbourhood are seen to peculiar
advantage the closeness and hardness of their mass, and their
inexhaustible supply for the use of man, made available by the
application of new mechanical powers. On this primitive soil the
botanist and zoologist will be attracted only by a limited range of
plants and animals; but they are the very species which the extension of
agriculture and increase of population are gradually driving out of many
parts of the country. On those blue hills the red deer, in vast herds,
holds undisturbed dominion over the wide heathery forest, until the
sportsman, fatigued and unstrung by the busy life of the bustling town,
invades the moor, to regain health and vigour by measuring his strength
with that of the antlered monarch of the hill. But, notwithstanding all
his efforts to overcome an antagonist possessed of such superiority of
power, swiftness, caution, and keenness of all the senses, the sportsman
would find himself baffled, had not science supplied him the telescope
and those terrible weapons which seem daily to progress in the precision
with which they carry the deadly bullet, mocking distance, to the mark.
In return for the help which Science has afforded him, the sportsman can
supply the naturalist with many facts which he alone has opportunity of
observing, and which may assist the solution of some interesting
problems suggested by the life of the deer. Man also, the highest object
of our study, is found in vigorous, healthy development, presenting a
happy mixture of the Celt, Goth, Saxon, and Dane, acquiring his strength
on the hills and the sea. The Aberdeen whaler braves the icy regions of
the Polar Sea, to seek and to battle with the great monster of the deep:
he has materially assisted in opening these icebound regions to the
researches of Science; he fearlessly aided in the search after Sir John
Franklin and his gallant companions, whom their country sent forth on
this mission, but to whom Providence, alas! has denied the reward of
their labours, the return to their homes, to the affectionate embrace of
their families and friends, and the acknowledgments of a grateful
nation. The city of Aberdeen itself is rich in interest for the
philosopher. Its two lately united Universities make it a seat of
learning and science. The collection of antiquities, formed for the
present occasion, enables him to dive into olden times, and, by contact
with the remains of the handiworks of the ancient inhabitants of
Scotland, to enter into the spirit of that peculiar and interesting
people, which has always attracted the attention and touched the hearts
of men accessible to the influence of heroic poetry. The Spalding Club,
founded in this city for the preservation of the historical and literary
remains of the northeastern counties of Scotland, is honourably known by
its important publications.
Gentlemen!—This is the twenty-ninth anniversary of the foundation of
this Association; and well may we look back with satisfaction to its
operation and achievements throughout the time of its existence. When,
on the 27th of September, 1831, the meeting of the Yorkshire
Philosophical Society took place at York, in the theatre of the
Yorkshire Museum, under the presidency of the late Earl Fitzwilliam,
then Viscount Milton, and the Rev. W. Vernon Harcourt eloquently set
forth the plan for the formation of a British Association for the
Promotion of Science, which he showed to have become a want for his
country, the most ardent supporter of this resolution could not have
anticipated that it would start into life full-grown as it were, enter
at once upon its career of usefulness, and pursue it without deviation
from the original design, triumphing over the oppositions which it had
to encounter in common with everything that is new and claims to be
useful. Gentlemen, this proved that the want was a real, and not an
imaginary one, and that the mode in which it was intended to supply that
want was based upon a just appreciation of unalterable truths. Mr.
Vernon Harcourt summed up the desiderata in graphic words, which have
almost identically been retained as the exposition of the objects of the
Society, printed at the head of the annually-appearing volume of its
Transactions:—“to give a stronger impulse and more systematic direction
to scientific inquiry—to promote the intercourse of those who cultivate
Science in different parts of the empire, with one another and with
foreign philosophers—and to obtain a more general attention to the
objects of Science, and a removal of any disadvantages of a public kind
which impede its progress.”